CANAANITES, People descended from Canaan, and the eleven Sons of this Patriarch. Their first habitation was in the Land of Canaan, where they multiplied extremely. Trade and War were their principal Occupations: These gave rise to their great Riches, and the several Colonies scattered by them over almost all the Islands, and maritime Provinces of the Mediterranean. The measure of their Idolatries and Abominations was compleated, when God delivered their Country into the hands of the Israelites, who made a Conquest of it under Joshua. As God had commanded this People, long before cursed by him, to be treated with the utmost rigour, Joshua extirpated great numbers of them, and obliged the rest to fly, some into Africk, others into Greece. Nay, there are some Writers, who seem persuaded, that many of them came into Germany and Sclavonia, and that others retired into America.
But their Opinion seems to be the best founded, who affirm that they withdrew into Africk. The Rabbins assure us, that the Girgasites took this resolution: But they do not inform us to what part of Africk they retired. Procopius1 says, that they first retreated into Egypt; but not thinking themselves to be secure there, they advanced farther into Africk, where they built many cities, and spread themselves over all those vast Regions, which reach as far as Hercules’s Pillars, preserving their old Language, with some little alteration. This Author adds, that in the Province called Tingitana, and in the very antient city of Tingis, which was founded by them, there were two great Pillars to be seen of white Stone, erected near a large Fountain, with an Inscription in Phœnician characters, to this purpose, We are People preserved by flight from that Rover Jesus the Son of Nave, who pursued us. In S. Athanasius’s time the Africans still said, they were descended from the Canaanites; and when they were asked, what was their Original, they answered, Canani2. It is agreed, that the Punic tongue was almost intirely the same as the Canaanitish and Hebrew Language.
The Colonies which Cadmus carried to Thebes in Bœotia, and his Brother Cilix into Cilicia, came from the Stock of Canaan. The Isles of Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Cyprus, Corfu, Majorca, and Minorca, Gades and Ebusus, are thought to have been peopled by the Canaanites. Bochart, in his large Work, intitled Canaan, has set all this matter in a good light. We too have taken some pains in enquiring particularly to what Country the Canaanites retired, after their expulsion from their own by Joshua, and we have examined the several Arguments produced by those who affirm, that they settled in Armenia. See our Dissertation prefixed to the Comment upon Joshua.
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