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)