On the discrepancy above pointed out—where there is evidently a mistake—is grounded, however, the hypothesis, that in early ages two cities or countries bore the name of Tarshish; for such a supposition is not at all borne out by the accounts previously given in the same Books of Kings and Chronicles of the fleets built by Solomon; it being particularly specified in both[246] that that king made (or more properly, perhaps, launched) a navy of ships at Ezion Geber, on the Red Sea, which, piloted by Tyrian sailors, proceeded to Ophir for gold. The mention which is afterwards made[247] of Tarshish, seems merely to have been introduced to account for the vast riches of Solomon; shewing that he had other sources whence he procured gold and other valuables, besides Ophir.
A slight discrepancy of a similar kind to that already noticed occurs, however, in the two accounts, in speaking of the voyage of Solomon’s fleet to Tarshish; the Book of Kings stating, that he “had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram,”—the Book of Chronicles, that the King’s ships “went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram.”
The difference in this case is immaterial. The probability seems to be, that Solomon built a fleet on the Red Sea to go to Ophir, because he could not otherwise procure one: but that he hired vessels to trade in the Mediterranean; which vessels, placed under the charge of Tyrian pilots, proceeded with his own servants (or supercargoes) to Tarshish, or Tarsus, on the coast of Cilicia, whither, once in three years, returned the fleet of that port,[248] bearing the produce of the more distant countries—Spain, Barbary, the Cassiterides, and England.
And Tarsus, we may suppose, was chosen as the entrepôt for the produce of those countries, in preference to Tyre—firstly, on account of its being a more commodious port; and, secondly, as being better situated for the inland trade of Asia Minor.
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON:
F. SHOBERL, JUN. 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET.
[1] Hallam.—Europe during the Middle Ages.
[2] The causeway that connects the city of Cadiz with the Isla de Leon is said to be a fragment of a work undertaken by Hercules; the castle of Santi Petri (built on a rocky island about five miles to the east of the city) to be constructed from the ruins of a temple built by that celebrated hero, and in which his bones were deposited.—Traces of this temple may be seen at low water, near the mouth of the San Pedro river.
[3] That of Cadiz is literally a ruin.
[4] The Torre del Oro, in which the precious metals brought from Mexico were formerly deposited.