=123.= Arabian traditions say that the inhabitants of the northern coasts of Africa were descendants of the Canaanites whom the Children of Israel drove out of Palestine. As late as the fourth century after Christ, two pillars of white marble near Tangier still bore the inscription in Phœnician characters: “We are they that fled from before the face of the robber Joshua, the son of Nun.” Whether or not this legend expressed a historical fact, it expressed the wide-spread belief of the people; and it is well known by other evidence that the African coasts of the Mediterranean were very early dotted with PHŒNICIAN settlements, such as the two Hip´pos, U´tica, Tu´nes, Hadrume´tum, Lep´tis, and greatest of all, though among the latest, Carthage. =124.= The LIBYANS occupied a greater portion of Northern Africa than any other nation, extending from the borders of Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the Great Desert, with the exception of the foreign settlements on the coast, to the Mediterranean Sea. They had, however, comparatively little power, consisting chiefly as they did of wandering tribes, destitute of settled government or fixed habitations. In the western and more fertile portion, certain tribes of Libyans cultivated the soil and became more nearly civilized; but these were soon subjected to the growing power of the Phœnician colonies. =125.= The GREEKS possessed a colony on that point of Northern Africa which approached most nearly to their own peninsula. They founded Cyre´ne about B. C. 630, and Barca about seventy years later. They had also a colony at Naucra´tis in Egypt, and probably upon the greater oasis. The history of these Grecian settlements will be found in Book III. HISTORY OF EGYPT. PERIODS. I. The Old Empire, from earliest times to B. C. 1900. II. Middle Empire, or that of the Shepherd Kings, ” 1900-1525. III. The New Empire, ” 1525-525. =126.= From the island of Elephantine to the sea, a distance of 526 miles the Nile Valley was occupied by EGYPT, a monarchy the most ancient, with a history among the most wonderful in the world. While other nations may be watched in their progress from ignorance and rudeness to whatever art they have possessed, Egypt appears in the earliest morning light of history “already skillful, erudite, and strong.” Some of her buildings are older than the Migration of Abraham, but the oldest of them show a skill in the quarrying, transporting, carving, and joining of stone which modern architects admire but can not surpass.