to that of the Guadiana.  This was the famous Tarshish—­the Oriental El Dorado.  Here they had founded a number of new towns, the most flourishing of which, Gadir,* rose not far from the mouths of the Betis, on a small islet separated from the mainland by a narrow arm of the sea.  In this city they constructed a temple to Melkarth, arsenals, warehouses, and shipbuilding yards:  it was the Tyre of the west, and its merchant-vessels sailed to the south and to the north to trade with the savage races of the African and European seaboard.  On the coast of Morocco they built Lixos, a town almost as large as Gadir, and beyond Lixos, thirty days’ sail southwards, a whole host of depots, reckoned later on at three hundred.

     * I do not propose to discuss here the question of the
     identity of the country of Tartessos with the Tarshish or
     Tarsis mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings x. 22).

By exploiting the materials to be obtained from these lands, such as gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper, Tyre and Sidon were soon able to make good the losses they had suffered from Greek privateersmen and marauding Philistines.  Towards the close of the reign of Saul over Israel, a certain king Abibaal had arisen in Tyre, and was succeeded by his son Hiram, at the very moment when David was engaged in bringing the whole of Israel into subjection.  Hiram, guided by instinct or by tradition, at once adopted a policy towards the rising dynasty which his ancestors had always found successful in similar cases.  He made friendly overtures to the Hebrews, and constituted himself their broker and general provider:  when David was in want of wood for the house he was building at Jerusalem, Hiram let him have the necessary quantity, and hired out to him workmen and artists at a reasonable wage, to help him in turning his materials to good account.*

     * 2 Sam. v. 11; cf. the reference to the same incident in
     1 Kings v 1-3.

The accession of Solomon was a piece of good luck for him.  The new king, born in the purple, did not share the simple and somewhat rustic tastes of his father.  He wanted palaces and gardens and a temple, which might rival, even if only in a small way, the palaces and temples of Egypt and Chaldaea, of which he had heard such glowing accounts:  Hiram undertook to procure these things for him at a moderate cost, and it was doubtless his influence which led to those voyages to the countries which produced precious metals, perfumes, rare animals, costly woods, and all those foreign knicknacks with which Eastern monarchs of all ages loved to surround themselves.  The Phoenician sailors were well acquainted with the bearings of Puanit, most of them having heard of this country when in Egypt, a few perhaps having gone thither under the direction and by the orders of Pharaoh:  and Hiram took advantage of the access which the Hebrews had gained to the shores of the Red Sea by the annexation of Edom, to establish relations with these outlying