The Phœnicians claim with absolute certainty the most remote antiquity for the foundation of their "house;" for as the history of Nations requires no date antecedent to that of the Deluge,--that of Phœnicia is traceable to that event--[2349 B. C.]--and as a consequence, the first Book of MOSES is the fountain from which all the channels of certain and early knowledge are derived. From the Sacred Volume we learn that the three and only Sons of Noah "were Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of _Canaan_." _Japheth_ was the eldest, and from him is supposed to have descended the family of Europe. To Shem, the second son, is traceable the House of Israel, and to that august family was granted by THE ALMIGHTY, the Sacred Covenant, the Holy-laws, and the Nativity of the Blessed SAVIOUR. The family of the youngest Son--Ham--is traceable with the same certainty as that of his next elder brother: while that of Japheth, the firstborn, is left in comparative obscurity. The branch of our History now before the reader, contemplates the fate and family of the last Son of Noah, and to those points only will attention now be directed;--and at the conclusion the reader will not fail to observe, that Noah's malediction upon the youngest offspring of his last child, was not uttered by the insulted Patriarch in vain. The cause of that curse is familiar to every reader, but for the argument to follow, it is necessary to bring it forward in this place. 2218 B. C.] "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine and was drunken: and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, _the father of Canaan_, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, _and knew what his younger son had done unto him_: and he said, _Cursed be Canaan_; a servant of servants shall he be unto _his brethren_. And he said, Blessed be the LORD GOD of _Shem_;--and Canaan shall be _his_ servant. GOD shall _enlarge Japheth_, and _he_ shall dwell in the _tents of Shem_, and Canaan shall be _his_ servant." [Gen. ix. 20-27.] The _Prophetical_ part of the above, and its accomplishment, will be proved in the last Chapter of this Volume, and in support of the present Theory:--the _Malediction_ will here be especially noticed as belonging to this history. It is singular that Noah's curse is not cast upon the Son (Ham) who foully wronged his person, but upon that Son's _youngest male child_,--viz., Canaan. Ham had four Sons only, Shem five, and Japheth seven. "And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, _and Canaan_."