“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. “The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. “Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. “These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. “The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.”――Ezek. xxvii. 3–26. It would be beside my subject to enter into an investigation, on this occasion, of all the places mentioned in this portion of Scripture. I will therefore confine myself to the meaning of _Tarshish_, which bears close connexion with the object I have in view. After a rigorous and critical examination of different works written on it, I am led to adopt the view of the profoundly learned Bochart――viz., that the Tarshish of the Scriptures was the Tartessus of Spain, with a district around including Cadiz.¹ Let us view for a moment the state of Spain in ancient times. Its treasures of gold and silver were immensely vast. We read in Strabo a description of the natives by Posidonius, who, he says, used mangers and barrels of gold and silver. Such a country could not fail being very attractive to the Phœnicians. Indeed, it is a well authenticated fact that the Phœnicians did trade to Carthage and Spain. ¹ See Appendix B. But we also read of Israel’s monarch (1 Kings, x. 21, 22)――“And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. “For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, &c.” Now if Tharshish be Spain, the conclusion is inevitable, the Israelites must have visited the western countries in the days of Solomon. The conclusion resulting from the examination of the meaning of Tarshish, is confirmed by two very ancient sepulchral monuments found in Spain. As these monuments attracted the attention of the learned Christian antiquarians about two hundred years ago, it may not be uninteresting to give a short sketch of their history, and especially since they form an important link in the chain of evidence of the very early wanderings of the Jews.