d superior knowledge of the Phoenicians upon the alleged
ignorance of the Aryan Brahmans, one has but to turn to "European
Universal History," meagre though its details and possible knowledge,
yet I suppose no one would contradict the historical facts given. Some
fragments of Dius, the Phoenician who wrote the history of Tyre, are
preserved in Josephus; and Tyre's activity begins 1100 B.C., in the
earlier part of the third period of Phoenician history, so called. And
in that period, as we are told, they had already reached the height of
their power; their ships covered all seas, their commerce embraced the
whole earth, and their colonies flourished far and near. Even on
Biblical testimony they are known to have come to the Indies by the Red
Sea, while trading on Solomon's account about a millennium before the
Western era. These data no man of science can deny. Leaving entirely
aside the thousand-and-one documentary proofs that could be given on the
evidence of our most ancient texts on Occult Sciences, of inscribed
tablets, &c., those historical events that are accepted by the Western
world are alone here given. Turning to the Mahabharata, the date of
which--on the sole authority of the fancy lore drawn from the inner
consciousness of German scholars, who perceive in the great epic poem
proofs of its modern fabrication in the words "Yavana" and others--has
been changed from 3300 years to the first centuries after Christ (!!),
we find: (1) ample evidence that the ancient Hindus had navigated
(before the establishment of the caste system) the open seas to the
regions of the Arctic Ocean and held communication with Europe; and (2)
that the Pandus had acquired universal dominion and taught the
sacrificial mysteries to other races (see Mahabharata, book xiv,). With
such proofs of international communication, and more than proved
relations between the Indian Aryans and the Phoenicians, Egyptians and
other literate people, it is rather startling to be told that our
forefathers of the Brahmanic period knew nothing of writing.

Admitting, for the argument only, that the Phoenician were the sole
custodians of the glorious art of writing, and that as merchants they
traded with India, what commodity, I ask, could they have offered to a
people led by the Brahmans so precious and marketable as this art of
arts, by whose help the priceless lore of the Rishis might be preserved
against the accidents of imperfect oral transmiss