st date of
_involuntary_ servitude. This commerce then, as appears by the
present instance, existed in the earliest practices of barter, and had
descended to the AEgyptians, through as long a period of time, as was
sufficient to have made it, in the times alluded to, an established
custom. Thus was AEgypt, in those days, the place of the greatest resort;
the grand emporium of trade, to which people were driving their
merchandize, as to a centre; and thus did it afford, among other
opportunities of traffick, the _first market_ that is recorded, for
the sale of the human species.

This market, which was thus supplied by the constant concourse of
merchants, who resorted to it from various parts, could not fail, by
these means, to have been considerable. It received, afterwards, an
additional supply from those piracies, which we mentioned to have
existed in the uncivilized ages of the world, and which, in fact, it
greatly promoted and encouraged; and it became, from these united
circumstances, so famous, as to have been known, within a few centuries
from the time of Pharaoh, both to the Grecian colonies in Asia, and the
Grecian islands. Homer mentions Cyprus and AEgypt as the common markets
for slaves, about the times of the Trojan war. Thus Antinous, offended
with Ulysses, threatens to send him to one of these places, if he does
not instantly depart from his table.[025] The same poet also, in his
hymn to Bacchus[026], mentions them again, but in a more unequivocal
manner, as the common markets for slaves. He takes occasion, in that
hymn, to describe the pirates method of scouring the coast, from the
circumstance of their having kidnapped Bacchus, as a noble youth, for
whom they expected an immense ransom. The captain of the vessel, having
dragged him on board, is represented as addressing himself thus, to the
steersman:


"Haul in the tackle, hoist aloft the sail,
Then take your helm, and watch the doubtful gale!
To mind the captive prey, be our's the care,
While you to _AEgypt_ or to _Cyprus_ steer;
There shall he 