What is reported of swans, _viz._ that they never sing but in their expiring moments, and that then they warble very melodiously, is likewise grounded merely on a vulgar error; and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but also by the orators, and even the philosophers. _O mutis quoque piscibus donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum_,(306) says Horace to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent discourse which Crassus made in the Senate, a few days before his death, to the melodious singing of a dying swan: _Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis vox et oratio._ _De Orat._ l. iii. n. 6. And Socrates used to say, that good men ought to imitate swans, who, perceiving by a secret instinct, and a sort of divination, what advantage there is in death, die singing and with joy: _Providentes quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriuntur._ _Tusc. Qu._ l. i. n. 73. I thought this short digression might be of service to youth; and return now to my subject.
It was in Heliopolis, that an ox, under the name of Mnevis, was worshipped as a god.(307) Cambyses, king of Persia, exercised his sacrilegious rage on this city; burning the temples, demolishing the palaces, and destroying the most precious monuments of antiquity in it. There are still to be seen some obelisks which escaped his fury; and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which city they are an ornament even at this day.
Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, from whom it had its name, vied almost in magnificence with the ancient cities in Egypt. It stands four days' journey from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the trade of the East. The merchandises were unloaded at Portus Murius,(308) a town on the western coast of the Red-Sea;(309) from whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copht, and afterwards conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants resorted from all parts.
It is well known that the trade of the East hath, at all times, enriched those who carried it on. This was the chief source of the vast treasures that Solomon amassed, and which enabled him to build the magnificent temple of Jerusalem. David, by conquering Idumæa, became master of Elath and Esiongeber, two towns situated on the eastern shore of the Red-Sea.(310) From these two ports,(311) Solomon sent fleets to Ophir and Tarshish, which always brought back immense riches.(312) This traffic, after having been enjoyed some time by the Syrians, who regained Idumæa, passed from them into the hands of the Tyrians. These got all their merchandise conveyed, by the way of Rhinocolura (a sea-port town lying between the confines of Egypt and Palestine) to Tyre, from whence they distributed them all over the western world.(313) Hereby the Tyrians enriched themselves exceedingly, under the Persian empire, by the favour and protection of whose monarchs they had the full possession of this trade. But when the Ptolemies had made themselves masters of Egypt, they soon drew all this trade into their kingdom, by building Berenice and other ports on the western side of the Red-Sea, belonging to Egypt; and fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, which thereby rose to be the city of the greatest trade in the world. There it continued for a great many centuries after; and all the traffic which the western parts of the world from that time had with Persia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coasts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red-Sea and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered, a little above two hundred years since, of sailing to those parts by the Cape of Good Hope. After this, the Portuguese for some time were masters of this trade; but now it is in a manner engrossed wholly by the English and Dutch. This short account of the East-India trade, from Solomon's time, to the present age, is extracted from Dr. Prideaux.(314)