Commences with an ardent wish, that as our forefather viewed the world
clearly displayed before him in a vision, so we of these late days might
be able, through the clouds of time, to look back upon the early ages of
the globe; we might then see, in their splendour, Thebes, Edom, _et
cet._; but the early history of mankind is obscure, the only certain
light is from the sacred writings. By these we are informed of the
_dispersion_ of earth's first inhabitants, after the flood. The
descendants of HAM, after this dispersion, according to Bruce, having
first gained the summits of the Ethiopian mountains, there form
subterraneous abodes. In process of time they descend, people Egypt,
build Thebes; obscure tradition of the Ark; first make voyages.
Ophir is not long afterwards discovered. This Bruce places, on most
respectable authority, at Sofala; I have ventured to place it
otherwhere, but still admitting one general idea, that when the way to
it overland was attended with difficulties, an easier course was at last
opened by sea. As to Ammon's exploits, I must shelter myself under the
authority of Sir Isaac Newton. After a sacrifice by the Egyptians, the
monsoon sets in. The ships follow its direction, as the mariners imagine
a god leads them. Hence the discovery of so much of the world by _sea_.
Reflection on commerce. The voyage of Solomon. A description of the
glory of TYRE, the most commercial mart of the early world. Tyrian
discoveries in the Mediterranean; voyages to the coast of Italy and
Spain, to the Straits, and from thence to Britain.
Tyre is destroyed, and the thought naturally arises, that Britain,
which, at the time of the splendour of the _maritime Tyrians_, was an
obscure island, is now at the summit of maritime renown; while TYRE is a
place where only "the fisherman dries his net." This leads to an
EULOGIUM ON ENGLAND; and the book concludes with the triumphs of her
fleets and armies on that very shore, on which science, and art, and
commerce, and MARITIME RENOWN, first arose.
This digression, introducing the siege of Acre, appeared to the author
not only natural, but in some measure necessary to break the uniformity
of the subject.