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2 EARLY COMPETITION FOR INDIAN COMMERCE
in developing the prosperity of Egypt, spared no pains
to monopolize the commercial navigation of the Bed
Sea. They sent more than one naval expedition against
the southwest coast of Arabia with the object of seiz-
ing Aden (then, as now, a most important station) and
ADEN FROM THE ARAB CEMETERY.
of wresting the Indian trade from the hands of the
Arabs. In fact, they attempted, though unsuccessfully,
to acquire very much the same position in those waters
as that which the English have at last succeeded in
establishing after an interval of sixteen centuries. Al-
though the Roman navy was not strong enough to dis-
lodge the Arabs, yet the direct European maritime traf-
