" So, if conjecture has the
field, it is no great disloyalty to declare one's rebellion against the
eminent Western gentlemen who are learnedly guessing at the origin of
things. Some affirm that the Phoenicians derived their so-called
Kadmean or Phoenician writing-characters from the Pelasgians, held also
to have been the inventors, or at least the improvers, of the so-called
Kadmean characters. But, at the same time, this is not proven, they
confess, and they only know that the latter were in possession of the
art of writing "before the dawn of history." Let us see what is known of
both Phoenicians and Pelasgians.
If we inquire who were the Phoenicians, we learn as follows:--From
having been regarded as Hamites on Bible testimony, they suddenly became
Semites--on geographical and philological evidence(?). Their origin
begins, it is said, on the shores of the Erythrian Sea; and that sea
extended from the eastern shores of Egypt to the western shores of
India. The Phoenicians were the most maritime nation in the world.
That they knew perfectly the art of writing no one would deny.
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