xxvii., v. 12-25), being the place whence the Tyrians
procured various metals, and among the rest, the English metal tin. It
appears that the primitive Greeks had a clearer knowledge of these
shores than those in after years; and although Homer, in his shield of
Achilles, describes the earth surrounded by water, yet Herodotus,
notwithstanding his learning and research, candidly states his ignorance
in the following words:--"Neither am I better acquainted with the
islands called Capiterides, from whence _we are said_ to have our tin."
The knowledge of these shores existed in periods so remote, that it
faded. We dwindled away into a visionary land--we lived almost in fable.
The Phoenician left us, and the link of our history was severed. Hyde de
Religione Vet. Persarum, c. iv. p. 121, supposes Solomon to have traded
with the Peruvians; and the analogies between the Pyramids in Mexico and
Egypt confirm the opinion, and sanction the belief that the ancients had
a more extended knowledge of, and a greater traffic over, the earth than
history records.
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