PORT OF MARSEILLES.

ENTRANCE TO THE PORT OF MARSEILLES.

As the Phocæans oft for freedom bled,

At length, with imprecated curses, fled,

And left to boars and wolves the sacred fane,
And all their household gods, adored in vain ;
So let us fly, so far as earth extends,

Or where the vagrant wind our voyage bends.

HORACE.

9

ABOUT five hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Phocæans, a people of Ionia, in Asia Minor, being pressed to the last extremity by the army of Cyrus, under Harpagus's command, had recourse to stratagem to escape destruction. Surrender appearing inevitable, both to the besiegers and besieged, the latter asked but one day's truce to deliberate upon the terms proposed to them, but begged that the hostile army might, during the deliberation, be withdrawn from their walls. Harpagus having consented to their request, they employed the interval of peace in carrying all their treasures, their wives, their children, on board the ships that lay in the harbour, and then, throwing a mass of glowing iron into the sea, bound themselves by a solemn oath never to return to their native land until the metal should rise and float upon the waters. When the enemy desired to renew hostilities, the Phocæans were on the deep, and, steering for the shores of Gaul, obtained permission to land on its southern coast, and found there the city of Massilia.* It is conjectured, that as the emigrants entered the little land-locked basin, some of them exclaimed Marraι Záλo, meaning that they were now in the country of the Salyens, and the time had come when their sails might be furled. In the resolution which they had formed, the seeds of future prosperity were contained; for, devoting all their energies to the improvement of their adopted country, the commerce of the chief cities of the Mediterranean soon flowed into the port of these Asiatic settlers. But the extension of commerce did not preclude the advancement of learning amongst the Phocæans; and such was the esteem in which they were held by the Romans, during the Commonwealth, that their alliance was eagerly sought, and their friendship cultivated with diligence by that ambitious people. During the civil wars in support of the pretensions of Cæsar and of Pompey, the Massilians attempted to maintain neutrality; but, being pressed to a decision, embraced the fortunes of the latter. This unlucky preference drew down upon them the signal chastisement of the conqueror, who declared "that he spared the city rather for its name and antiquity, than its true deserts." But Cæsar was too sincere a patron of literature to meditate, for an hour, the destruction of a city, which Cicero called "The Athens of Gaul," and declared that this Athenopolis Massilium could alone be placed in comparison with the Grecian capital in • Vide Herodotus, Strabo, Horace, Justin, Athenæus, Isocrates, Cæsar, Lucan.

C

arts and learning;" an opinion confirmed by Tacitus, who styles her "The Mistress of Letters."

Under the domination of the Romans, this flourishing port continued to be the rival of Alexandria and Constantinople. On the dismemberment of the empire she assumed a republican form of government, electing her own magistrates, enacting her own laws, amongst which is the famous commercial code, "Le Consulat de la Mer," forming new alliances with foreign powers, and, acting in all respects as an independent community. The period of the Crusades was the palmy days of her commercial prosperity, for she then furnished galleys sufficient for the transport of St. Louis' army to the Holy Land.

But this political independence becoming an object of envy, Marseilles was besieged and conquered in the year 1251, by Charles d'Anjou, count of Provence, and her commercial pre-eminence declining with the loss of her freedom, the greatness of Venice, Genoa, and Leghorn rapidly rose over her decay. Having no interest in the political struggles of Gaul, in the year 1482, she tamely submitted to be annexed to the crown of France, and has ever since continued to be a valuable gem in that rich diadem. It is true that their ancient spirit of independence was manifested in the resistance of the citizens both to Henri Quatre and to Louis XIV., the two most splendid kings in that long line that sleep at St. Denis, but their efforts only ended in disgrace and punishment.

Marseilles, however, acted a conspicuous part in the first or great Revolution; there terror had its sanguinary reign; and there, too, the uncertainty of popular sentiment was glaringly exhibited in the oscillation of the citizens, who, from being at first distinguished by their zeal for the new doctrines of 1793, were aftewards found to be amongst the Girondists. Their change of mind had nearly been visited by a great public infliction, for it was actually proposed, in the same assembly that ordered the substitution of "La commune de Sans Nom " for the ancient name "Marseilles," that the harbour or port should be filled up, and commerce for ever excluded from the city.

This calamity was providentially avoided, and new avenues of commerce have recently been opened from this secure and sheltered port to Algiers, in Africa, which has been colonized by France; and to Alexandria in Egypt, since the Anglo-Indian mails have been transmitted by the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. These recent additions to her trade and intercourse are calculated to revive the recollection of those bright days in Massilian history, when the citizens could boast of reducing Carthage to submissionof lending succour to Rome-of teaching Italy the refinements of art and literature -of being the first city in Gaul that had embraced Christianity.

The Port of Marseilles, the Halcydon of Mela, is not only a panorama of the most surpassing beauty-a lake whose banks are adorned with buildings reflected in its own tranquil bosom, and embraced by an amphitheatre or crescent of hills, whose horns touch the sea-but it is one of the most safe, sheltered, and accessible asylums in the Mediterranean. The city on the north, the Bourbon hills on the south, protect its surface from the rude visitations of the tempest, and strong fortresses on either side of its contracted entrance, guard it from the sudden depredations of an enemy. The