ancient kingdom of Ethiopia.* Behold the wrecks of her metropolis, of
Thebes with her hundred palaces,** the parent of cities, and monument of
the caprice of destiny. There a people, now forgotten, discovered, while
others were yet barbarians, the elements of the arts and sciences. A
race of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and frizzled
hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and
religious systems which still govern the universe. Lower down, those
dusky points are the pyramids whose masses have astonished you. Beyond
that, the coast, hemmed in between the sea and a narrow ridge of
mountains, was the habitation of the Phoenicians. These were the famous
cities of Tyre, of Sidon, of Ascalon, of Gaza, and of Berytus. That
thread of water with no outlet, is the river Jordan; and those naked
rocks were once the theatre of events that have resounded throughout
the world. Behold that desert of Horeb, and that Mount Sinai; where,
by means beyond vulgar reach, a genius, profound and bold, established
institutions which have weighed on the whole human race. On that dry
shore which borders it, you perceive no longer any trace of splendor;
yet there was an emporium of riches. There were those famous Ports of
Idumea, whence the fleets of Phoenicia and Judea, coasting the Arabian
peninsula, went into the Persian gulf, to seek there the pearls of
Hevila, the gold of Saba and of Ophir. Yes, there on that coast of Oman
and of Barhain was the seat of that commerce of luxuries, which, by its
movements and revolutions, fixed the destinies of ancient nations.***
Thither came the spices and precious stones of Ceylon, the shawls of
Cassimere, the diamonds of Golconda, the amber of Maldivia, the musk of
Thibet, the aloes of Cochin, the apes and peacocks of the continent of
India, the incense of Hadramaut, the myrrh, the silver, the gold dust
and ivory of Africa; thence passing, sometimes by the Red Sea on the
vessels of Egypt and Syria, these luxuries nourished successively the
wealth of Thebes, of Sidon, of Memphis and of Jerusalem; sometimes,