sonesus, when even in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, 146 years after the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek sovereigns of Egypt had not yet traded directly to India.* One passage in Strabo stands as a solitary evidence that a fleet sailed from Egypt to India previous to the famous discovery of Hippalus: but, no doubt, Strabo supposed they really reached India, from their bringing home Indian commodities; when, in fact, they only sailed to Hadramount, in Arabia, or Mosyllon, on the coast of Africa, where t'ey found all that India produced. Saba, the capital of Yer en, or Arabia, imported all the commodities of the east. The monopoly, to which the Arabians owed their unrivalled opulence, was attached to an important secret in their possession, which enabled them to reach India by short and easy voyages; while the Egyptians and Greeks, from their ignorance of it, only traded with intermediate ports. This grand secret, which was no other than a knowledge of the monsoons, or periodical winds, was discovered by Hippalus about the year A. D. 47 ; and not till then was there a direct communication between Egypt and India. It is not probable that the Sabeans would impart this secret, by which they had acquired such immense wealth, to the seamen of Solomon; or suffer bis ships to accompany them in their eastern voyages: his fleet therefore, beyond a doubt, traded no further than the ports of Yemen. To be *Josephus has fixed the land of Ophir in Malacca, by saying that the ancient name of that part of India was Sophora, the land of gold; but Ophir no doubt was in the Persian gulph, where it has left some remembrance of itself in Ofor, a town in the province of Oman. It is nigh on one side to the Sabeans, spoken of by Strabo for their plenty of gold, and on the other to Aula, or Hevila, where the pearl fishery was carried on. satisfied of the vast riches of Sabea, let us refer to the testi mony of Agatharchides, who was president of the Alexandrian library, contemporary with Eratosthenes, and flourished 177 years before Christ, and we shall find Solomon had no occasion to send his ships beyond the shores' of that happy country 24 Sabea abounds with every production to make life happy in the extreme; its very air is so perfumed with odours, that the natives are obliged to mitigate the fragrance by scents that have an opposite tendency; as if nature could not support even pleasure in the extreme. Myrrb, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and cassia, are here produced from trees of extraordinary magnitude. The king, as he is on the one hand entitled to supreme honour, on the other is obliged to submit to confinement in his palace: but the people are robust, warlike, and able mariners; they sail in very large vessels to the country where the odoriferous commodities are produced, they plant colonies there, and import from thence the larimna, an odour no where else to be found, in fact, there is no nation upon earth so wealthy as the Gerrhêi and Nabêi, as being in the centre of all the commerce which passes between Asia and Europe.* These are the nations which have enriched the Syria of Ptolemy; these are the nations that furnish the most profitable agencies to the in *“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats; in these were they thy merchants. "The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold." Ezekiel xxvii. 21, 22. sonesus, when even in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, 146 years after the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek sovereigns of Egypt had not yet traded directly to India.* One passage in Strabo stands as a solitary evidence that à fleet sailed from Egypt to India previous to the famous discovery of Hippalus: but, no doubt, Strabo supposed they really reached India, from their bringing home Indian commodities; when, in fact, they only sailed to Hadramoun*, in Arabia, or Mosyllon, on the coast of Africa, where t'ey found all that India produced. Saba, the capital of Yer en, or Arabia, imported all the commodities of the east. The monopoly, to which the Arabians owed their unrivalled opulence, was attached to an important secret in their possession, which enabled them to reach India by short and easy voyages; while the Egyptians and Greeks, from their ignorance of it, only traded with intermediate ports. This grand secret, which was no other than a knowledge of the monsoons, or periodical winds, was discovered by Hippalus about the year A. D. 47; and not till then was there a direct communication between Egypt and India. It is not probable that the Sabeans would impart this secret, by which they had acquired such immense wealth, to the seamen of Solomon; or suffer bis ships to accompany 'them in their eastern voyages: his fleet therefore, beyond a doubt, traded no further than the ports of Yemen. To be *Josephus has fixed the land of Ophir in Malacca, by saying that the ancient name of that part of India was Sophora, the land of gold; but Ophir no doubt was in the Persian gulph, where it has left some remembrance of itself in Ofor, a town in the province of Oman. It is nigh on one side to the Sabeans, spoken of by Strabo for their plenty of gold, and on the other to Aula, or Hevila, where the pearl fishery was carried on. satisfied of the vast riches of Sabea, let us refer to the testi mony of Agatharchides, who was president of the Alexandrian library, contemporary with Eratosthenes, and flourished 177 years before Christ, and we shall find Solomon had no occasion to send his ships beyond the shores' of that happy country Sabea abounds with every production to make life happy in the extreme; its very air is so perfumed with odours, that the natives are obliged to mitigate the fragrance by scents that have an opposite tendency; as if nature could not support even pleasure in the extreme. Myrrh, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and cassia, are here produced from trees of extraordinary magnitude. The king, as he is on the one hand entitled to supreme honour, on the other is obliged to submit to confinement in his palace: but the people are robust, warlike, and able mariners; they sail in very large vessels to the country where the odoriferous commodities are produced, they plant colonies there, and import from thence the larimna, an odour no where else to be found, in fact, there is no nation upon earth so wealthy as the Gerrhêi and Sabêi, as being in the centre of all the commerce which passes between Asia and Europe. These are the nations which have enriched the Syria of Ptolemy; these are the nations that furnish the most profitable agencies to the in * "Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats; in these were they thy merchants. "The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold." Ezekiel xxvii. 21, 22. But from his blood-dewed couch he will not rise, [Exeunt omnes. |