The Tyrians were early renowned for their fisheries,--and the produce from that toil became their chief object of export. This, and all discoveries by voyages, they guarded with a monopolizing and constant vigilance;--and their peculiar characteristics may be traced to the coastwise and early maritime expeditions,--for they were acknowledged by all nations to be the pilots and mariners of the ancient world. They had for many ages no rivals upon the waters of the Mediterranean;--but when by degrees other Nations were established upon the opposite shores, or Islands of the great Inland Sea, and availing themselves of the same means as the Tyrians to increase their power or wealth,--then Tyrus, ever jealous of her original strength,--instantly made war, or piratical crusades, against those infant navies, and crushed them even in their cradled security. Thus early in her history did the "Daughter of Sidon" put forth her hand and power, against every encroachment upon her supposed prerogative, until she was acknowledged as "Queen of the Sea;" and when Neptune had placed the naval crown upon her brow, still so jealous was this Ocean-Juno of her high station, that she would allow of no courtiers or flatterers upon that element where she had resolved to reign supreme:--nor could she fear any decision against her, for no Shepherd of Ida existed to give, at that time, a marine preference to Athens or Cyprus;--the Tyrian-Juno admitted of no argument, or comparison with her beauty, intellect, or authority: she, therefore, cast the golden apple beneath her imperious foot,--it withered upon her shores;--but the seeds of discord were scattered by envious winds to distant lands, and, in after ages, she found that her rivals in fame were firmly planted, and thence enthroned at Carthage and Alexandria. The only city permitted by the Tyrians to practise Navigation was Sidon,--and that permission was founded upon the remembrance of their Mother-land, and not for the purpose of promoting or encouraging the Science. The same courtesy, founded upon blood-relationship, was extended at a later period to Carthage,--(a colony from Tyrus). From these family considerations were created the ever-existing friendship between the Sidonians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians.