Brazil. Is was therefore very possible for them to sail from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, but not to set out from the Mediterranean to return by the Red Sea. Thus, without making this grand circuit, after which they could hardly ever hope to return, it was most natural (for the ancients) to trade to the east of Africa by the Red Sea, and to the western coast (of Africa,) by Hercules' Pillars."

On these grounds, then, it certainly appears, that the ancients were not ignorant of the passage from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and, consequently, to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope; but there still appears a difficulty, why Solomon and Jehoshaphat should prefer the circuitous route by the Cape, to the direct line from Tyre to the straits of Gibraltar. This, therefore, hath led the advocates of the second opinion to suggest that there might be another Tarshish and Ophir, even nearer than the Cape, somewhere on the coast of Arabia, on the East, or on the coast of Africa on the west, and, most probably, on the latter:-for the astonishment which filled the whole of Europe, Egypt, and the East, at the discovery of the Indian sea by Alexander the Great, is to them a sufficient proof that the fleets of Solomon did not trade to India; and Africa is preferred to Arabia from this consideration, that, in trading to the countries east of the Red Sea, bullion has always been carried thither as the exchange for commodities, and never brought back as an article of trade; whereas the Jewish fleets brought gold and silver as a part of their cargo from Ophir; a circumstance which corresponds with the trade with Africa, where these metals abound, but not with Arabia and India, where they are deficient. The espousers, therefore, of this opinion think that they are led by a kind of neces

sity to look for Tarshish and Ophir somewhere between the mouth of the Red Sea and the Cape of Good Hope.

a

I know none who hath defended this opinion equal to Mr. Bruce in his history of Abyssinia, and shall therefore state it nearly in his own words. He places Ophir in the kingdom of Sofala, in Africa, opposite to Madagascar, near the head of the river Zambese, where were gold and silver mines, and evident marks of ancient excavations; and Tarshish he places in the small harbour of Mocha, near Melinda. His reasoning is as follows: In the Red Sea a monsoon blows from April to October north-west, and from November till April south-east. Between the bottom of the Red Sea and Cape Gardefan the winds are south-west, or variable. The next monsoon is between Cape Gardefan and Tarshish, which blows from October till April north-east, and from May to October south-west. The third monsoon is between Tarshish and Sofala, where it blows from May till October north-east, and south-west from October till May. Now let us see how these monsoons make the voyage from Ezion-geber to Sofala, and the return from thence, just three years. Suppose the vessels trading to Ophir or Sofala sailed from Ezion-geber in June, with the monsoon at north, which carried them to Mocha, near the straits of Babelmandeb: there the monsoon failed them, by the change of the direction of the gulf. The south-west winds, which blow between Cape Gardefan in the Indian ocean, forced themselves round the Cape, so as to be felt in the road of Mocha, and make it uneasy riding there. But these soon change, the weather becomes moderate, and Mr. Bruce supposes that the vessels in August would be safe at anchor under Cape Gardefan.-Here, however, they would be obliged

a Vol. i. p. 427, &c. 4to edit.

to stay till November, because, in all these summer months, the wind, south of the Cape, was a south-west one, directly in the teeth of the voyage to Sofala: but this time would not be lost. Part of the goods to be ready at their return, where ivory, frankincense, and myrrh, and the ships were then at the principal mart for these. Mr. Bruce supposes that in November the vessels sailed with the wind at north-east, with which they would soon have made their voyage, had they not, off the coast of Melinda, in the beginning of December, met with an anomalous monsoon at south-east, which cut off their voyage to Sofala, and obliged them to put into the small harbour of Mocha, near Melinda, or the very place which Mr. Bruce takes for Tarshish. Thus, in the voyage from Ezion-geber, there were two Mochas; the one within the straits of Babelmandeb, the other near Melinda. At this last, the ships were obliged to stay till the month of April, in the second year; but the time spent at Mocha, near Melinda, or the Tarshish of Mr. Bruce, was not lost, for part of their cargo was to be brought from that port, and it was probably bespoke to be ready at their return from Sofala. In May the wind set in at north-east, and probably carried them that same month to Sofala: but from this May in the second year, till the end of the monsoon in October, the vessels could not stir, the wind being north-east. There was, however, no delay; for the whole of that time would be necessary for getting their cargo and making ready for their return. The ships then sailed for home, in the month of November, the second year, with the monsoon south-west, which, in a very few weeks, would have brought them to the Red Sea; but, off Mocha, or Tarshish, near Melinda, they met with the north-east monsoon, and were obliged to go into that port till the end of it. After which, a south-west wind came to their

relief, in May, of the third year, with which they reached Mocha, within the straits of Babelmandeb; and there they were again confined, by the summer monsoon blowing up the Red Sea from Suez, till October or November, when it changed from north-west to south-east, and brought them in safety to Ezion-geber, whence they had set out, in the middle or end of December, the third year. They had no need of more time to complete their voyage, and it was not possible they could do it in less. In short, they felt the change of the monsoons six times, which is thirty-six months; and Mr. Bruce remarks, that there is not another combination of monsoons over the globe, as far as is known, that can effect the same.

We have been thus long on the voyage of Solomon's ships to Tarshish and Ophir, as being the only one which the Jews seem to have made; for, although Elath and Ezion-geber are sometimes mentioned, it does not appear that the commerce carried on at these ports tended to enrich the Jewish nation. Indeed, Josephus says, in his Book against Appian, that his nation, being entirely employed in agriculture, knew little of navigation. The Jews, therefore, traded only occasionally in the Red Sea. They took from the Idumeans Eloth and Ezion-geber, from whom they received this commerce : they lost these cities, and with them lost their taste for navigation and foreign trade."

2 Kings xvi. 6. See some sensible observations on the Jewish trade by the Red Sea, in Prideaux, Connection, vol. i. p. 5-10.

SECT. XII.

The Jewish Mode of Warfare.

Causes of the Jewish wars; number of their armies ; degree of efficiency; arms a helmet, breastplate, habergeon, girdle, greaves, sword, shield, battle-ax, sling, bow, quiver, poisoned arrows. The Jewish cavalry: their accoutrements; chariots of war; camels of the kings of Midian; qualifications of an ancient warrior; time of going to war; methods taken to distress an invading enemy; order of encampment among the Jews; camps on hills; religious ceremony before fighting; method of fighting; their cruelty afterwards. The transplanting of nations; making of treaties; return of the victor with triumphal songs; armies disbanded after their return; public armour lodged in public repositories; war destructive to the male population; connexion of the sword with famine and pestilence. The improvement which christianity has made in war.

THE causes of war among the Jews resembled those of other nations, with the exceptions which arose from the peculiarity of their situation: for in their first wars they were enjoined by the Supreme Being, as king of Israel, the punisher of vice, and the disposer of kingdoms, to exterminate the Canaanites, and plant themselves in their room; and, in their subsequent expeditions, they either fought with the surrounding nations for the redress of particular grievances, or with each other, after the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. As for the times posterior to those of the Old Testament, and prior to those of the New, the Jews were always so reduced as to be forced to yield to their more powerful neighbours; yet, so far favoured by them, as to enjoy both their religion and their laws: till, in the days of our Saviour, they became a Roman province, and afterwards ceased to exist as a nation.

But leaving the causes which influenced the Jews in their several wars, let us attend to the state of the Jewish army. And on this subject we may notice, that the numbers which they brought into the field were very