INTRODUCTORY. [CHAP.

provided a place of refuge in bad weather. The conformation
of its northern shore is especially noticeable in this respect; and,
in addition to this, the relative position of the peninsulas of
Greece, Italy and Spain, which project into it on this side from
the continent of Europe, tended still more to facilitate the inter-
course between them. Thus the same causes which promoted
the civilisation of the inhabitants of this region of the globe
by enlarging their minds and enabling them to communicate to
one another the arts of life, laid at the same time the foundations
of a progressive and comprehensive study of geography. The
case was widely different with countries like India and China,
which from their remote situation and strongly marked boundaries
were cut off from any but the most limited contact with others;
and the same thing is almost equally true of Egypt, which land,
though it communicated with the Mediterranean, was developed
on lines of its own owing to its dependence on the Nile, and
was traditionally exclusive in its ideas and policy. Whatever
knowledge of geography was possessed by the nations which
occupied these countries, was too much restricted in its horizon
to be of service for general study.
The people who were the first depositaries of geographical
knowledge in the Mediterranean were the Phoe-
nicians. Long before the dawn of Greek history
mentsofthe t^at W0nderful race had established their trading
Phoenicians . °
stations at various points on the shore of that sea,
and even on the confines of the ocean. The names of their two
principal cities—Tyre, originally Sur, "the rock," with reference
to its site on a barren island, and Sidon, " the fishers' town "—
sufficiently indicate their early aptitude for maritime pursuits;
and the narrow strip of coast which formed their country, cut off
as it was from the rest of Syria by the rocky wall of Libanus,
denied them any other outlet for their boundless vigour than
that offered by the sea. We can trace their advance along the
three basins into which the Mediterranean is naturally divided—
from the Syrian coast to the Cyrenaica, which here advances
towards the southernmost parts of Greece; from thence to the
still more strongly marked limit which is formed by Sicily and the
Carthaginian territory; and at last to the Pillars of Hercules at