The reader will observe, then, that, a vessel sailing from Suez or the

Elanitic Gulf, in any of the summer months, will find a steady wind at

north-west, which will carry it in the direction of the Gulf to Mocha.

At Mocha, the coast is east and west to the Straits of Babelmandeb, so

that the vessel from Mocha will have variable winds for a short space,

but mostly westerly, and these will carry her on to the Straits. She

is then done with the monsoon in the Gulf, which was from the north,

and, being in the Indian Ocean, is taken up by the monsoon which blows

in the summer months there, and is directly contrary to what obtains

in the Gulf. This is a south-wester, which carries the vessel with a

flowing sail to any part in India, without delay or impediment.

The same happens upon her return home. She sails in the winter months

by the monsoon proper to that sea, that is, with a north-east, which

carries her through the Straits of Babelmandeb. She finds, within the

Gulf, a wind at south-east, directly contrary to what was in the ocean;

but then her course is contrary likewise, so that a south-easter,

answering to the direction of the Gulf, carries her directly to Suez,

or the Elanitic Gulf, to whichever way she proposes going. Hitherto all

is plain, simple, and easy to be understood; and this was the reason

why, in the earliest ages, the India trade was carried on without

difficulty.

Many doubts, however, have arisen about a port called _Ophir_, whence

the immense quantities of gold and silver came, which were necessary

at this time, when provision was making for building the Temple of

Jerusalem. In what part of the world this Ophir was has not been yet

agreed. Connected with this voyage, too, was one to Tarshish, which

suffers the same difficulties; one and the same fleet performed them

both in the same season.

In order to come to a certainty where this Ophir was, it will be

necessary to examine what scripture says of it, and to keep precisely

to every thing like description which we can find there, without

indulging our fancy farther. _First_, then, the trade to Ophir was

carried on from the Elanitic Gulf through the Indian Ocean. _Secondly_,

The returns were gold, silver, and ivory, but especially silver[276].

_Thirdly_, The time of the going and coming of the fleet was precisely

three years[277], at no period more nor less.

Now, if Solomon’s fleet sailed from the Elanitic Gulf to the Indian

Ocean, this voyage of necessity must have been made by monsoons, for no

other winds reign in that ocean. And, what certainly shews this was the

case, is the precise term of three years, in which the fleet went and

came between Ophir and Ezion-gaber. For it is plain, so as to supersede

the necessity of proof or argument, that, had this voyage been made

with variable winds, no limited term of years ever could have been

observed in its going and returning. The fleet might have returned from

Ophir in two years, in three, four, or five years; but, with variable

winds, the return precisely in three years was not possible, whatever

part of the globe Ophir might be situated in.

Neither Spain nor Peru could be Ophir; part of these voyages must have

been made by variable winds, and the return consequently uncertain. The

island of Ceylon, in the East Indies, could not be Ophir; the voyage

thither is indeed made by monsoons, but we have shewed that a year is

all that can be spent in a voyage to the East Indies; besides, Ceylon

has neither gold nor silver, though it has ivory. St. Domingo has

neither gold, nor silver, nor ivory. When the Tyrians discovered Spain,

they found a profusion of silver in huge masses, but this they brought

to Tyre by the Mediterranean, and then sent it to the Red Sea over land

to answer the returns from India. Tarshish, too, is not found to be a

port in any of these voyages, so that part of the description fails,

nor were there ever elephants bred in Spain.

These mines of Ophir were probably what furnished the East with gold

in the earliest times; great traces of excavation must, therefore,

have appeared; yet in none of the places just mentioned are there

great remains of any mines that have been wrought. The ancient traces

of silver-mines in Spain are not to be found, and there never were

any of gold. John Dos Santos[278], a Dominican friar, says, that on

the coast of Africa, in the kingdom of Sofala, the main-land opposite

to Madagascar, there are mines of gold and silver, than which none

can be more abundant, especially in silver. They bear the traces of

having been wrought from the earliest ages. They were actually open and

working when the Portuguese conquered that part of the peninsula, and

were probably given up since the discovery of the new world, rather

from political than any other reasons.

John Dos Santos says, that he landed at Sofala in the year 1586; that

he sailed up the great river Cuama as far as Tetè, where, always

desirous to be in the neighbourhood of gold, his Order had placed

their convent. Thence he penetrated for above two hundred leagues

into the country, and saw the gold mines then working, at a mountain

called Afura[279]. At a considerable distance from these are the silver

mines of Chicoua; at both places there is great appearance of ancient

excavations; and at both places the houses of the kings are built with

mud and straw, whilst there are large remains of massy buildings of

stone and lime.

It is a tradition which generally obtains in that country, that these

works belonged to the Queen of Saba, and were built at the time, and

for the purpose of the trade on the Red Sea: this tradition is common

to all the Cafrs in that country. Eupolemus, an ancient author quoted

by Eusebius[280], speaking of David, says, that he built ships at

calls them, _metal-men_, to Orphi, or Ophir, an island in the Red Sea.

Now, by the Red Sea, he understands the Indian Ocean[281]; and by

Orphi, he probably meant the island of Madagascar; or Orphi (or Ophir)

might have been the name of the Continent, instead of Sofala, that is,

Sofala where the mines are might have been the main-land of Orphi.

The kings of the isles are often mentioned in this voyage; Socotra,

Madagascar, the Commorras, and many other small islands thereabout,

are probably those the scripture calls the _Isles_. All, then, at last

reduces itself to the finding a place, either Sofala, or any other

place adjoining to it, which avowedly can furnish gold, silver, and

ivory in quantity, has large tokens of ancient excavations, and is at

the same time under such restrictions from monsoons, that three years

are absolutely necessary to perform the voyage, that it needs no more,

and cannot be done in less, and this is Ophir.

Let us now try these mines of Dos Santos by the laws of the monsoons,

which we have already laid down in describing the voyage to India.

The fleet, or ship, for Sofala, parting in June from Ezion-gaber,

would run down before the northern monsoon to Mocha. Here, not the

monsoon, but the direction of the Gulf changes, and the violence of the

south-westers, which then reign in the Indian Ocean, make themselves

at times felt even in Mocha Roads. The vessel therefore comes to an

anchor in the harbour of Mocha, and here she waits for moderate weather

and a fair wind, which carries her out of the Straits of Babelmandeb,

through the few leagues where the wind is variable. If her course was

now to the East Indies, that is east-north-east, or north-east and by

north, she would find a strong south-west wind that would carry her to

any part of India, as soon as she cleared Cape Gardefan, to which she

was bound.

But matters are widely different if she is bound for Sofala; her

course is nearly south-west, and she meets at Cape Gardefan a strong

south-wester that blows directly in her teeth. Being obliged to return

into the gulf, she mistakes this for a trade-wind, because she is not

able to make her voyage to Mocha but by the summer monsoon, which

carries her no farther than the Straits of Babelmandeb, and then leaves

her in the face of a contrary wind, a strong current to the northward,

and violent swell.

The attempting this voyage with sails, in these circumstances, was

absolutely impossible, as their vessels went only before the wind: if

it was performed at all, it must have been by oars[282], and great

havock and loss of men must have been the consequence of the several

trials. This is not conjecture only; the prophet Ezekiel describes the

very fact. Speaking of the Tyrian voyages probably of this very one he

says, “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters (the ocean): the

east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas[283].” In short,

the east, that is the north-east wind, was the very monsoon that was

to carry them to Sofala, yet having no sails, being upon a lee-shore,

a very bold coast, and great swell, it was absolutely impossible with

oars to save themselves from destruction.

At last philosophy and observation, together with the unwearied

perseverance of man bent upon his own views and interest, removed

these difficulties, and shewed the mariners of the Arabian Gulf, that

these periodical winds, which, in the beginning, they looked upon as

invincible barriers to the trading to Sofala, when once understood,

were the very means of performing this voyage safely and expeditiously.

The vessel trading to Sofala sailed, as I have said, from the bottom

of the Arabian Gulf in summer, with the monsoon at north, which

carried her to Mocha. There the monsoon failed her by the change of

the direction of the Gulf. The south-west winds, which blow without

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 changed, the weather became moderate, and the

vessel, I suppose in the month of August, was safe at anchor under Cape

Gardefan, where was the port which, many years afterwards, was called

Promontorium Aromatum. Here the ship was obliged to stay all November,

because all these summer months the wind south of the Cape was a strong

south-wester, as hath been before said, directly in the teeth of the

voyage to Sofala. But this time was not lost; part of the goods bought

to be ready for the return was ivory, frankincense, and myrrh; and the

ship was then at the principal mart for these.

I suppose in November the vessel sailed with the wind at north-east,

with which she would soon have made her voyage: But off the coast

of Melinda, in the beginning of December, she there met an anomalous

monsoon at south-west, in our days first observed by Dr Halley, which

cut off her voyage to Sofala, and obliged her to put in to the small

harbour of _Mocha_, near Melinda, but nearer still to Tarshish, which

we find here by accident, and which we think a strong corroboration

that we are right as to the rest of the voyage. In the Annals of

Abyssinia, we see that Amda Sion, making war upon that coast in the

14th century, in a list of the rebellious Moorish vassals, mentions the

Chief of Tarshish as one of them, in the very situation where we have

now placed him.

Solomon’s vessel, then, was obliged to stay at Tarshish till the month

of April of the second year. In May, the wind set in at north-east,

and probably carried her that same month to Sofala. All the time she

spent at Tarshish was not lost, for part of her cargo was to be brought

from that place, and she probably bought, bespoke, or left it there.

From May of the second year, to the end of that monsoon in October, the

vessel could not stir; the wind was north-east. But this time, far from

being lost, was necessary to the traders for getting in their cargo,

which we shall suppose was ready for them.

The ship sails, on her return, in the month of November of the second

year, with the monsoon south-west, which in a very few weeks would have

carried her into the Arabian Gulf. But off Mocha, near Melinda and

Tarshish, she met the north-east monsoon, and was obliged to go into

that port and stay there till the end of that monsoon; after which a

south-wester came to her relief in May of the third year. With the May

monsoon she ran to Mocha within the Straits, and was there confined by

the summer monsoon blowing up the Arabian Gulf from Suez, and meeting

her. Here she lay till that monsoon, which in summer blows northerly

from Suez, changed to a south-east one in October or November, and that

very easily brought her up into the Elanitic Gulf, the middle or end of

December of the third year. She had no need of more time to complete

her voyage, and it was not possible she could do it in less. In short,

she changed the monsoon six times, which is thirty-six months, or three

years exactly; and there is not another combination of monsoons over

the globe, as far as I know, capable to effect the same. The reader

will please to consult the map, and keep it before him, which will

remove any difficulties he may have. It is for his instruction this map

has been made, not for that of the learned prelate[284] to whom it is

inscribed, much more capable of giving additional lights, than in need

of receiving any information I can give, even on this subject.

The celebrated Montesquieu conjectures, that Ophir was really on the

coast of Africa; and the conjecture of that great man merits more

attention than the assertions of ordinary people. He is too sagacious,

and too enlightened, either to doubt of the reality of the voyage

itself, or to seek for Ophir and Tarshish in China. Uninformed,

however, of the particular direction of the monsoons upon the coast,

first very slightly spoken of by Eudoxus, and lately observed and

delineated by Dr Halley, he was staggered upon considering that the

whole distance, which employed a vessel in Solomon’s time for three

years, was a thousand leagues, scarcely more than the work of a month.

He, therefore, supposes, that the reason of delay was owing to the

imperfection of the vessels, and goes into very ingenious calculations,

reasonings, and conclusions thereupon. He conjectures, therefore, that

the ships employed by Solomon were what he calls _junks_[285] of the

Red Sea, made of papyrus, and covered with hides or leather.

Pliny[286] had said, that one of these junks of the Red Sea was twenty

days on a voyage, which a Greek or Roman vessel would have performed in

seven; and Strabo[287] had said the same thing before him.

This relative slowness, or swiftness, will not solve the difficulty.

For, if these junks[288] were the vessels employed to Ophir, the long

voyage, much more they would have been employed on the short one, to

and from India; now they performed this within a year, which was all

a Roman or Greek vessel could do, therefore this was not the cause.

Those employed by Solomon were Tyrian and Idumean vessels, the best

ships and sailers of their age. Whoever has seen the prodigious swell,

the violent currents, and strong south-westers beyond the Straits

of Babelmandeb, will not need any argument to persuade him, that no

vessel made of papyrus, or leather, could live an hour upon that sea.

The junks, indeed, were light and convenient boats, made to cross

the narrow gulf between the Sabeans and Homerites, or Cushites, at

Azab upon the Red Sea, and carry provisions from Arabia Felix to the

more desert coast of Azab. I have hinted, that the names of places

sufficiently demonstrate the great loss of men that happened to the

traders to Sofala before the knowledge of the monsoons, and the

introduction of the use of sails.

I shall now consider how far the thing is confirmed by the names of

places in the language of the country, such as they have retained among

them to the present day.

There are three Mochas mentioned in this voyage, situated in countries

very dissimilar to, and distant from, each other. The first is in

Arabia Deserta, in lat. 30° nearly, not far from the bottom of the Gulf

of Suez. The second is in lat. 13°, a small distance from the Straits

of Babelmandeb. The third Mocha is in lat. 3° south, near Tarshish, on

the coast of Melinda. Now, the meaning of Mocha, in the Ethiopic, is

_prison_; and is particularly given to these three places, because, in

any of them, a ship is forced to stay or be detained for months, till

the changing of the monsoon sets her at liberty to pursue her voyage.

At Mocha, near the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, a vessel, wanting to

proceed southward to Babelmandeb, is kept here in prison all winter,

till the summer monsoon sets her at liberty. At Mocha, in Arabia Felix,

the same happens to any vessel wanting to proceed to Suez in the summer

months; she may come up from the Straits of Babelmandeb to Mocha Road

by the accidental direction of the head of the Gulf; but, in the

month of May, the north-west wind obliges her to put into Mocha, and

there to stay till the south-easter relieves her in November. After

you double Gardefan, the summer monsoon, at north-east, is carrying

your vessel full sail to Sofala, when the anomalous monsoon takes her

off the coast of Melinda, and forces her into Tarshish, where she is

imprisoned for six months in the Mocha there. So that this word is

very emphatically applied to those places where ships are necessarily

detained by the change of monsoons, and proves the truth of what I have

said.

The last Cape on the Abyssinian shore, before you run into the Straits,

is Cape Defan, called by the Portuguese, _Cape Dafui_. This has no

meaning in any language; the Abyssinians, on whose side it is, call

it _Cape Defan_, the Cape of Burial. It was probably there where the

east wind drove ashore the bodies of such as had been shipwrecked in

the voyage. The point of the same coast, which, stretches out into the

Gulf, before you arrive at Babelmandeb, was, by the Romans, called

_Promontorium Aromatum_, and since, by the Portuguese, _Cape Gardesui_.

But the name given it by the Abyssinians and sailors on the Gulf is,

_Cape Gardesan_, the Straits of Burial.

Still nearer the Straits is a small port in the kingdom of Adel,

called _Mete_, _i. e._ Death, or, he or they are dead. And more to the

westward, in the same kingdom, is Mount Felix, corruptly so called

by the Portuguese. The Latins call it Elephas Mons, the Mountain

of the Elephant; and the natives, Jibbel Feel, which has the same

signification. The Portuguese, who did not know that Jibbel Feel was

Elephas Mons, being misled by the sound, have called it _Jibbel Felix_,

the Happy Mountain, a name to which it has no sort of title.

The Straits by which we enter the Arabian Gulf are by the Portuguese

called Babelmandeb, which is nonsense. The name by which it goes among

the natives is Babelmandeb, the Gate or Port of Affliction. And near

it Ptolemy[289] places a town he calls, in the Greek, Mandaeth, which

appears to me to be only a corruption of Mandeb. The Promontory that

makes the south side of the Straits, and the city thereupon, is _Diræ_,

which means the Hades, or Hell, by Ptolemy[290] called Δηρη. This, too,

is a translation of the ancient name, because Δηρη (or Diræ) has no

signification in the Greek. A cluster of islands you meet in the canal,

after passing Mocha, is called Jibbel Zekir, or, the Islands of Prayer

for the remembrance of the dead. And still, in the same course up the

Gulf, others are called Sebaat Gzier, Praise or Glory be to God, as we

may suppose, for the return from this dangerous navigation.

All the coast to the eastward, to where Gardefan stretches out into the

ocean, is the territory of Saba, which immemorially has been the mart

of frankincense, myrrh, and balsam. Behind Saba, upon the Indian Ocean,

is the _Regio Cinnamonifera_, where a considerable quantity of that

wild cinnamon grows, which the Italian druggists call _canella_.

Inland near to Azab, as I have before observed, are large ruins, some

of them of small stones and lime adhering strongly together. There

is especially an aqueduct, which brought formerly a large quantity

of water from a fountain in the mountains, which must have greatly

contributed to the beauty, health, and pleasure of Saba. This is

built with large massy blocks of marble, brought from the neighbouring

mountains, placed upon one another without lime or cement, but joined

with thick cramps, or bars of brass. There are likewise a number of

wells, not six feet wide, composed of pieces of marble hewn to parts

of a circle, and joined with the same bars of brass also. This is

exceedingly surprising, for Agatharcides[291] tells us, that the

Alileans and Cassandrins, in the southern parts of Arabia, (just

opposite to Azab), had among them gold in such plenty, that they would

give double the weight of gold for iron, triple its weight for brass,

and ten times its weight for silver; that, in digging the earth, they

found pieces of gold as big as olive-stones, but others much larger.

This seems to me extraordinary, if brass was at such a price in Arabia,

that it could be here employed in the meanest and most common uses.

However this be, the inhabitants of the Continent, and of the peninsula

of Arabia opposite to it, of all denominations agree, that this was the

royal seat of the Queen of Saba, famous in ecclesiastical history for

her journey to Jerusalem; that these works belonged to her, and were

erected at the place of her residence; that all the gold, silver, and

perfumes came from her kingdom of Sofala, which was Ophir, and which

reached from thence to Azab, upon the borders of the Red Sea, along the

coast of the Indian Ocean.

It will very possibly be thought, that this is the place in which I

should mention the journey that the Queen of Saba made into Palestine;

but as the dignity of the expedition itself, and the place it holds

in Jewish antiquities, merits that it should be treated in a place

by itself, so the connection that it is supposed to have with the

foundation of the monarchy of Abyssinia, the country whose history

I am going to write, makes this particularly proper for the sake of

connection; and I shall, therefore, continue the history of the trade

of the Arabian Gulf to a period in which I can resume the narrative of

this expedition without occasioning any interruption to either.

CHAP. V.

_Fluctuating State of the India Trade--Hurt by Military

Expeditions of the Persians--Revives under the Ptolemies--Falls

to Decay under the Romans._

The prosperous days of the commerce with the Elanitic Gulf seemed to

be at this time nearly past; yet, after the revolt of the ten tribes,

Edom remaining to the house of David, they still carried on a sort of

trade from the Elanitic Gulf, though attended with many difficulties.

This continued till the reign of Jehosaphat[292]; but, on Jehoram’s

succeeding that prince, the Edomites[293] revolted and chose a king of

their own, and were never after subject to the kings of Judah till the

reign of Uzziah[294], who conquered Eloth, fortified it, and having

peopled it with a colony of his own, revived the old traffic. This

subsisted till the reign of Ahaz, when Rezin king of Damascus took

Eloth[295], and expelled the Jews, planting in their stead a colony

of Syrians. But he did not long enjoy this good fortune, for the

year after, Rezin[296] was conquered by Tilgath-pileser; and one of

the fruits of this victory was the taking of Eloth, which never after

returned to the Jews, or was of any profit to Jerusalem.

The repeated wars and conquest to which the cities on the Elanitic Gulf

had been subject, the extirpation of the Edomites, all the great events

that immediately followed one another, of course disturbed the usual

channel of trade by the Red Sea, whose ports were now consequently

become unsafe by being in possession of strangers, robbers, and

soldiers; it changed, therefore, to a place nearer the center of

police and good government, than fortified and frontier towns could be

supposed to be. The Indian and African merchants, by convention, met in

Assyria, as they had done in Semiramis’s time; the one by the Persian

Gulf and Euphrates, the other through Arabia. Assyria, therefore,

became the mart of the India trade in the East.

The conquests of Nabopollaser, and his son Nebuchadnezzar, had brought

a prodigious quantity of bullion, both silver and gold, to Babylon

his capital. For he had plundered Tyre[297], and robbed Solomon’s

Temple[298] of all the gold that had been brought from Ophir; and

he had, besides, conquered Egypt and laid it waste, and cut off the

communication of trade in all these places, by almost extirpating the

people. Immense riches flowed to him, therefore, on all sides, and

it was a circumstance particularly favourable to merchants in that

country, that it was governed by written laws that screened their

properties from any remarkable violence or injustice.

I suppose the phrase in scripture, “The law of the Medes and Persians,

which altereth not[299],” must mean only written laws, by which those

countries were governed, without being left to the discretion of the

judge, as all the East was, and as it actually now is.

In this situation the country was at the birth of Cyrus, who, having

taken Babylon[300] and slain Belshazzer[301], became master of the

whole trade and riches of the East. Whatever character writers give

of this great Prince, his conduct, with regard to the commerce of the

country, shews him to have been a weak one: For, not content with

the prodigious prosperity to which his dominions had arrived, by the

misfortune of other nations, and perhaps by the good faith kept by his

subjects to merchants, enforced by those written laws, he undertook the

most absurd and disastrous project of molesting the traders themselves,

and invading India, that all at once he might render himself master of

their riches. He executed this scheme just as absurdly as he formed

it; for, knowing that large caravans of merchants came into Persia and

Assyria from India, through the Ariana, (the desert coast that runs all

along the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, almost entirely destitute

of water, and very nearly as much so of provisions, both which caravans

always carry with them), he attempted to enter India by the very same

road with a large army, the very same way his predecessor Semiramis

had projected 1300 years before; and as her army had perished, so did

his to a man, without having ever had it in his power to take one

pepper-corn by force from any part of India.

The same fortune attended his son and successor Cambyses, who,

observing the quantity of gold brought from Ethiopia into Egypt,

resolved to march to the source, and at once make himself master of

those treasures by rapine, which he thought came too slowly through the

medium of commerce.

Cambyses’s expedition into Africa is too well known for me to dwell

upon it in this place. It hath obtained a celebrity by the absurdity

of the project, by the enormous cruelty and havock that attended the

course of it, and by the great and very just punishment that closed it

in the end. It was one of those many monstrous extravagancies which

made up the life of the greatest madman that ever disgraced the annals

of antiquity. The basest mind is perhaps the most capable of avarice;

and when this passion has taken possession of the human heart, it is

strong enough to excite us to undertakings as great as any of those

dictated by the noblest of our virtues.

Cambyses, amidst the commission of the most horrid excesses during the

conquest of Egypt, was informed that, from the south of that country,

there was constantly brought a quantity of pure gold, independent of

what came from the top of the Arabic Gulf, which was now carried into

Assyria, and circulated in the trade of his country. This supply of

gold belonged properly and exclusively to Egypt; and a very lucrative,

though not very extensive commerce, was, by its means, carried on

with India. He found out that the people, possessing these treasures,

were called _Macrobii_, which signifies _long livers_; and that they

possessed a country divided from him by lakes, mountains, and deserts.

But what still affected him most was, that in his way were a multitude

of warlike Shepherds, with whom the reader is already sufficiently

acquainted.

Cambyses, to flatter, and make peace with them, fell furiously upon all

the gods and temples in Egypt; he murdered the sacred ox, the apis,

destroyed Memphis, and all the public buildings wherever he went. This

was a gratification to the Shepherds, being equally enemies to those

that worshipped beasts, or lived in cities. After this introduction, he

concluded peace with them in the most solemn manner, each nation vowing

eternal amity with the other. Notwithstanding which, no sooner was he

arrived at Thebes (in Egypt) than he detached a large army to plunder

the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, the greatest object of the worship of

these _shepherds_; which army utterly perished without a man remaining,

covered, as I suppose, by the moving sands. He then began his march

against the _Macrobii_, keeping close to the Nile. The country there

being too high to receive any benefit from the inundation of the river,

produced no corn, so that part of his army died for want of provision.

Another detachment of his army proceeded to the country of the

Shepherds, who, indeed, furnished him with food; but, exasperated

at the sacrilege he had committed against their god, they conduced

his troops through places where they could procure no water. After

suffering all this loss, he was not yet arrived beyond 24°, the

parallel of Syené. From hence he dispatched ambassadors, or spies,

to discover the country before him, finding he could no longer rely

upon the Shepherds. These found it full of black warlike people, of

great size, and prodigious strength of body; active, and continually

exercised in hunting the lion, the elephant, and other monstrous beasts

which live in these forests.

The inhabitants so abounded with gold, that the most common utensils

and instruments were made of that metal; whilst, at the same time,

they were utter strangers to bread of any kind whatever; and, not only

so, but their country was, by its nature, incapable of producing any

sort of grain from which bread could be made. They subsisted upon raw

flesh alone, dried in the sun, especially that of the rhinoceros, the

elephant, and giraffa, which they had slain in hunting. On such food

they have ever since lived, and live to this day, and on such food I

myself have lived with them; yet still it appears strange, that people

confined to this diet, without variety or change, should have it for

their characteristic that they were long livers.

They were not at all alarmed at the arrival of Cambyses’s ambassadors.

On the contrary, they treated them as an inferior species of men. Upon

asking them about their diet, and hearing it was upon bread, they

called it _dung_, I suppose as having the appearance of that bread

which I have seen the miserable Agows, their neighbours, make from

seeds of bastard rye, which they collect in their fields under the

burning rays of the sun. They laughed at Cambyses’s requisition of

submitting to him, and did not conceal their contempt of his idea of

bringing an army thither.

They treated ironically his hopes of conquest, even supporting all

difficulties of the desert overcome, and his army ready to enter their

country, and counseled him to return while he was well, at least for a

time, till he should produce a man of his army that could bend the bow

that they then sent him; in which case, he might continue to advance,

and have hope of conquest.--The reason of their reference to the bow

will be seen afterwards. I mention these circumstances of the quantity

of gold, the hunting of elephants, their living upon the raw flesh,

and, above all, the circumstances of the bow, as things which I myself

can testify to have met with among this very people. It is, indeed,

highly satisfactory in travelling, to be able to explain truths which,

from a want of knowledge of the country alone, have been treated as

falsehoods, and placed to the discredit of historians.

The Persians were all famous archers. The mortification, therefore,

they experienced, by receiving the bow they could not bend, was a

very sensible one, though the narrative of the quantity of gold the

messengers had seen made a much greater impression upon Cambyses.

To procure this treasure was, however, impracticable, as he had

no provision, nor was there any in the way of his march. His army,

therefore, wasted daily by death and dispersion; and he had the

mortification to be obliged to retreat into Egypt, after part of his

troops had been reduced to the necessity of eating each other[302].

Darius, king of Persia, attempted to open this trade in a much more

worthy and liberal manner, as he sent ships down the river Indus into

the ocean, whence they entered the Red Sea. It is probable, in this

voyage, he acquired all the knowledge necessary for establishing this

trade in Persia; for he must have passed through the Persian Gulf, and

along the whole eastern coast of Arabia; he must have seen the marts

of perfumes and spices that were at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the

manner of bartering for gold and silver, as he was necessarily in those

trading places which were upon the very same coast from which the

bullion was brought. I do not know, then, why M. de Montesquieu[303]

has treated this expedition of Darius so contemptuously, as it appears

to have been executed without great trouble or expence, and terminated

without loss or hardship; the strongest proof that it was at first

wisely planed. The prince himself was famous for his love of learning,

which we find by his anxiety to be admitted among the Magi, and the

sense he had of that honour, in causing it to be engraved upon his

tomb.

The expedition of Alexander into India was, of all events, that which

most threatened the destruction of the commerce of the Continent, or

the dispersing it into different channels throughout the East: First,

by the destruction of Tyre, which must have, for a time, annihilated

the trade by the Arabian Gulf; then by his march through Egypt into

the country of the Shepherds, and his intended further progress into

Ethiopia to the head of the Nile. If we may judge of what we hear of

him in that part of his expedition, we should be apt not to believe, as

others are fond of doing, that he had schemes of commerce mingled with

those of conquests. His anxiety about his own birth at the Temple of

Jupiter Ammon, this first question that he asked of the priest, “Where

the Nile had its source,” seemed to denote a mind busied about other

objects; for else he was then in the very place for information, being

in the temple of that horned god[304], the deity of the Shepherds, the

African carriers of the Indian produce; a temple which, though in the

midst of sand, and destitute of gold or silver, possessed more and

better information concerning the trade of India and Africa, than could

be found in any other place on the Continent. Yet we do not hear of one

question being made, or one arrangement taken, relative to opening the

India trade with Thebes, or with Alexandria, which he built afterwards.

After having viewed the main ocean to the south, he ordered Nearchus

with his fleet to coast along the Persian Gulf, accompanied by part of

the army on land for their mutual assistance, as there were a great

many hardships which followed the march of the army by land, and much

difficulty and danger attended the shipping as they were sailing in

unknown seas against the monsoons. Nearchus himself informed the king

at Babylon of his successful voyage, who gave him orders to continue it

into the Red Sea, which he happily accomplished to the bottom of the

Arabian Gulf.

We are told it was his intention to carry on the India trade by the

Gulf of Persia, for which reason he broke down all the cataracts

and dams which the Persians had built over the rivers communicating

with the Euphrates. No use, however, seems to have been made of

his knowledge of Arabia and Ethiopia, which makes me imagine this

expedition of Alexander’s fleet was not an idea of his own. It is,

indeed, said, that when Alexander came into India, the southern or

Indian Ocean was perfectly unknown; but I am rather inclined to believe

from this circumstance, that this voyage was made from some memorials

remaining concerning the voyage of Darius. The fact and circumstances

of Darius’s voyage are come down to us, and, by these very same means,

it must be probable they reached Alexander, who I do not believe ever

intended to carry on the India trade at Babylon.

To render it impossible, indeed, he could not have done three things

more effectual than he did, when he destroyed Tyre, and dispersed its

inhabitants, persecuted the Orites, or land-carriers, in the Ariana,

and built Alexandria upon the Mediterranean; which last step fixed the

Indian trade in that city, and would have kept it there eternally, had

the Cape of Good Hope never been discovered.

The Ptolemies, the wisest princes that ever sat upon the throne

of Egypt, applied with the utmost care and attention to cultivate

the trade of India, to keep up perfect and friendly understanding

with every country that supplied any branch of it, and, instead

of disturbing it either in Asia, Arabia, or Ethiopia, as their

predecessors had done, they used their utmost efforts to encourage it

in all quarters.

Ptolemy I. was then reigning in Alexandria, the foundation of whose

greatness he not only laid, but lived to see it arrive at the greatest

perfection. It was his constant saying, that the true glory of a

king was not in being rich himself, but making his subjects so.

He, therefore, opened his ports to all trading nations, encouraged

strangers of every language, protected caravans, and a free navigation

by sea, by which, in a few years, he made Alexandria the great

store-house of merchandize, from India, Arabia, and Ethiopia. He did

still further to insure the duration of his kingdom, at the same time

that he shewed the utmost disinterestedness for the future happiness of

his people. He educated his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, with the utmost

care, and the happy genius of that prince had answered his father’s

utmost expectations; and, when he arrived at the age of governing, the

father, worn out by the fatigue of long wars, surrendered the kingdom

to his son.

Ptolemy had been a soldier from his infancy, and consequently kept up

a proper military force, that made him every where respected in these

warlike and unsettled times. He had a fleet of two hundred ships of war

constantly ready in the port of Alexandria, the only part for which

he had apprehensions. All behind him was wisely governed, whilst it

enjoyed a most flourishing trade, to the prosperity of which peace

is necessary. He died in peace and old age, after having merited the

glorious name of _Soter_, or _Saviour of the kingdom_, which he himself

had founded, the greatest part of which differed from him in language,

colour, habit, and religion.

It is with astonishment we see how thoroughly he had established

the trade of India, Ethiopia, and Arabia, and what progress he had

already made towards uniting it with that of Europe, by a passage in

Athenæus[305], who mentions a festival and entertainment given by

his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, to the people of Alexandria at his

accession, while his father was alive, but had just given up his crown.

There was in this procession a great number of Indian women, besides

of other countries; and by Indians we may understand, not only the

Asiatic Indians, but the Abyssinians, and the inhabitants of the higher

part of Africa, as all these countries were comprehended under the

common appellation of _India_. These were in the habit of slaves, and

each led, or was followed by, a camel loaded with incense of Sheher,

and cinnamon, besides other aromatics. After these came a number of

Ethiopian blacks carrying the teeth of 600 elephants. Another troop

had a prodigious quantity of ebony; and again others loaded with that

finest gold, which is not dug from the mine, but washed from the

mountains by the tropical rains in small pieces, or pellets, which

the natives and traders at this day call _Tibbar_. Next came a pack of

24,000 Indian dogs, all Asiatics, from the peninsula of India, followed

by a prodigious number of foreign animals, both beasts and birds,

paroquets, and other birds of Ethiopia, carried in cages; 130 Ethiopian

sheep, 300 Arabian, and 20 from the Isle Nubia[306]; 26 Indian

buffaloes, white as snow, and eight from Ethiopia; three brown bears,

and a white one, which last must have been from the north of Europe; 14

leopards, 16 panthers, four lynxes, one giraffa, and a rhinoceros of

Ethiopia.

When we reflect upon this prodigious mixture of animals, all so easily

procured at one time, without preparation, we may imagine, that the

quantity of merchandises, for common demand, which accompanied them,

must have been in the proper proportion.

The current of trade ran towards Alexandria with the greatest

impetuosity, all the articles of luxury of the East were to be found

there. Gold and silver, which were sent formerly to Tyre, came now

down to the Isthmus (for Tyre was no more) by a much shorter carriage,

thence to Memphis, whence it was sent down the Nile to Alexandria. The

gold from the west and south parts of the Continent reached the same

port with much less time and risk, as there was now no Red Sea to pass;

and here was found the merchandise of Arabia and India in the greatest

profusion.

To facilitate the communication with Arabia, Ptolemy built a town on

the coast of the Red Sea, in the country of the Shepherds, and called

it _Berenice_[307], after his mother. This was intended as a place

of necessary refreshment for all the traders up and down the Gulf,

whether of India or Ethiopia; hence the cargoes of merchants, who

were afraid of losing the monsoons, or had lost them, were carried by

the inhabitants of the country, in three days, to the Nile, and there

embarked for Alexandria. To make the communication between the Nile and

the Red Sea still more commodious, this prince tried an attempt (which

had twice before miscarried with very great loss) to bring a canal[308]

from the Red Sea to the Nile, which he actually accomplished, joining

it to the Pelusiac, or Eastern branch of the Nile. Locks and sluices

moreover are mentioned as having been employed even in those early days

by Ptolemy, but very trifling ones could be needed, for the difference

of level is there but very small.

This noble canal, one hundred yards broad, was not of that use to trade

which was expected; merchants were weary of the length of time consumed

in going to the very bottom of the Gulf, and afterwards with this

inland navigation of the canal, and that of the Nile, to Alexandria. It

was therefore much more expeditious to unload at Berenice, and, after

three days journey, send their merchandise directly down to Alexandria.

Thus the canal was disused, the goods passed from Berenice to the Nile

by land, and that road continues open for the same purpose to this day.

It should appear, that Ptolemy had employed the vessels of India and

the Red Sea, to carry on his commerce with the peninsula, and that the

manner of trading directly to India with his own ships, was either not

known or forgotten. He therefore sent two ambassadors, or messengers,

Megasthenes and Denis, to observe and report what was the state of

India since the death of Alexander. These two performed their voyage

safely and speedily. The account they gave of India, if it was strictly

a true one, was, in all respects, perfectly calculated to animate

people to the further prosecution of that trade. In the mean time, in

order to procure more convenience for vessels trading on the Red Sea,

he resolved to attempt the penetrating into that part of Ethiopia which

lies on that sea, and, as historians imagine, with an intention to

plunder the inhabitants of their riches.

It must not, however, be supposed, that Ptolemy was not enough

acquainted with the productions of a country so near to Egypt, as to

know this part of it had neither gold nor silver, whilst it was full of

forests likewise; for it was that part of Ethiopia called Barbaria, at

this day Barabra, inhabited by shepherds wandering with their cattle

about the neighbouring mountains according as the rains fall. Another

more probable conjecture was, that he wanted, by bringing about a

change of manners in these people, to make them useful to him in a

matter that was of the highest importance.

Ptolemy, like his father, had a very powerful fleet and army, he but

was inferior to many of the princes, his rivals, in elephants, of which

great use was then made in war. These Ethiopians were hunters, and

killed them for their subsistence. Ptolemy, however, wished to have

them taken alive, being numerous, and hoped both to furnish himself,

and dispose of them as an article of trade, to his neighbours.

There is something indeed ridiculous in the manner in which he executed

this expedition. Aware of the difficulty of subsisting in that country,

he chose only a hundred Greek horsemen, whom he covered with coats

of monstrous appearance and size, which left nothing visible but the

eyes of the rider. Their horses too were disguised by huge trappings,

which took from them all proportion and shape. In this manner they

entered this part of Ethiopia, spreading terror every where by

their appearance, to which their strength and courage bore a strict

proportion whenever they came to action. But neither force nor intreaty

could gain any thing upon these Shepherds, or ever make them change

or forsake the food they had been so long accustomed to; and all the

fruit Ptolemy reaped from this expedition, was to build a city, by the

sea-side, in the south-east corner of this country, which he called

Ptolemais Theron, or Ptolemais in the country of wild beasts.

I have already observed, but shall again repeat it, that the reason why

ships, in going up and down the Red Sea, kept always upon the Ethiopian

shore, and why the greatest number of cities were always built upon

that side is, that water is much more abundant on the Ethiopian side

than the Arabian, and it was therefore of the greatest consequence to

trade to have that coast fully discovered and civilized. Indeed it is

more than probable, that nothing further was intended by the expedition

of the hundred Greeks, just now mentioned, than to gain sufficient

intelligence how this might be done most perfectly.

Ptolemy Evergetes, son and successor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, availed

himself of this discovery. Having provided himself amply with

necessaries for his army, and ordered a fleet to coast along beside

him, up the Red Sea, he penetrated quite through the country of the

Shepherds into that of the Ethiopian Troglodytes, who are black and

woolly-headed, and inhabit the low country quite to the mountains of

Abyssinia. Nay[309], he even ascended those mountains, forced the

inhabitants to submission, built a large temple at Axum, the capital of

Sirè, and raised a great many obelisks, several of which are standing

to this day. Afterwards proceeding to the south-east, he descended

into the cinnamon and myrrh country, behind Cape Gardefan, (the Cape

that terminates the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean) from this crossed

over to Arabia, to the Homerites, being the same people with the

Abyssinians, only on the Arabian shore. He then conquered several of

the Arabian princes, who first resisted him, and had it in his power to

have put an end to the trade of India there, had he not been as great a

politician as he was a warrior. He used his victory, therefore, in no

other manner, than to exhort and oblige these princes to protect trade,

encourage strangers, and, by every means, provide for the surety of

neutral intercourse, by making rigorous examples of robbers by sea and

land.

The reigns of the latter Ptolemies were calculated to bring this

commerce to a decline, had it not been for two great events, the

fall of Carthage, destroyed by Scipio, and that of Corinth, by the

consul Mummius. The importance of these events to Alexandria seems

to have sustained the prosperity of Egypt, even against the ravages

committed in the war between Ptolemy the VI. and VII. Alexandria was

then besieged, and not only deprived of its riches, but reduced to the

utmost want of necessaries, and the horrid behaviour of Ptolemy VII.

(had it continued) would have soon rendered that city desolate. The

consequence of such a conduct, however, made a strong impression on the

prince himself, who, at once recalling his unjust edicts, by which he

had banished all foreign merchants from Alexandria, became on a sudden

wholly addicted to commerce, the encourager of arts and sciences, and

the protector of strangers.

The impolitic conduct in the beginning of his reign, however, had

affected trade even in India. For the story preserved by Posidonius,

and very improperly criticised by Strabo, seems to import little less.

One day, the troops posted on the Arabian Gulf found a ship abandoned

to the waves, on board of which was one Indian only, half dead with

hunger and thirst, whom they brought to the king. This Indian declared

he sailed from his own country, and, having lost his course and spent

all his provisions, he was carried to the place where he was found,

without knowing where he was, and after having survived the rest of his

companions: he concluded an imperfect narrative, by offering to be a

guide to any person his majesty would send to India. His proposals were

accordingly accepted, and Eudoxus was named by the king to accompany

him. Strabo[310] indeed laughs at this story. However, we must say, he

has not seized the most ridiculous parts of it.

We are told that the king ordered the Indian to be taught Greek, and

waited with patience till he had learned that language. Surely, before

any person could thus instruct him, the master must have had some

language in common with his scholar, or he had better have taught

Eudoxus the Indian language, as it would have been as easy, and of much

more use in the voyage he was to undertake. Besides, is it possible

to believe, after the many years the Egyptians traded backwards and

forwards to India, that there was not a man in Alexandria who could

interpret for him to the king, when such a number of Egyptians went

every year to India to trade, and stayed there for months each time?

Could Ptolemy Philadelphus, at his father’s festival, find 600 Indian

female slaves, all at once, in Alexandria; and, after the trade had

lasted so much longer, were the people from India decreased, or would

their language be less understood? The king’s wisdom, moreover, did

not shew itself greatly, when he was going to trust a ship with his

subjects to so skilful a pilot as this Indian, who, in the first

voyage, had lost himself and all his companions.

India, however, and the Indian seas, were as well known in Egypt as

they are now; and the magnificence and shew which attended Eudoxus’s

embassy seems to prove, that whatever truth there is in the Indian

being found, Eudoxus’ errand must have been to remove the bad effects

that the king’s extortions and robberies, committed upon all strangers

in the beginning of his reign, had made upon the trading nations.

Eudoxus returned, but after the death of Ptolemy. The necessity,

however, of this voyage appeared still great enough to make Cleopatra

his widow project a second to the same place, and greater preparations

were made than for the former one.

But Eudoxus, trying experiments probably about the courses of the

trade-winds, lost his passage, and was thrown upon the coast of

Ethiopia; where, having landed, and made himself agreeable to the

natives, he brought home to Egypt a particular description of that

country and its produce, which furnished all the discovery necessary

to instruct the Ptolemies in every thing that related to the ancient

trade of Arabia. In the course of the voyage, Eudoxus discovered the

part of the prow of a vessel which had been broken off by a storm. The

figure of a horse made it an object of inquiry; and some of the sailors

on board, who had been employed in European voyages, immediately knew

this wreck to be part of one of those vessels used to trade on the

western ocean. Eudoxus[311] instantly perceived all the importance of

the discovery, which amounted to nothing less, than that there was a

passage round Africa from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean. Full of

this thought, he returned to Egypt, and, having shewn the prow of his

vessel to European shipmasters, they all declared that this had been

part of a vessel which had belonged to Cadiz, in Spain.

This discovery, great as it was, was to none of more importance than to

Eudoxus; for, some time after, falling under the displeasure of Ptolemy

Lathyrus, VIIIth of that name, and being in danger of his life, he

fled and embarked on the Red Sea, sailed round the peninsula of Africa,

crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and came safely to Cadiz.

The spirit of inquiry, and desire of travelling, spread itself

instantly through Egypt, upon this voyage of Eudoxus; and different

travellers pushed their discoveries into the heart of the country,

where some of the nations are reported to have been so ignorant as not

to know the use of fire: ignorance almost incredible, had we not an

instance of it in our own times. It was in the reign of Ptolemy IX.

that Agatharcides[312] drew up his description of the Red Sea.

The reigns of the other Ptolemies ending in the XIIIth of that name,

though full of great events, have nothing material to our present

subject. Their constant expence and profusion must have occasioned

a great consumption of trading articles, and very little else was

wanting; or, if there had, it must have arrived at its height in the

reign of the celebrated Cleopatra; whose magnificence, beauty, and

great talents, made her a wonder, greater than any in her capital.

In her time, all nations flocked, as well for curiosity as trade, to

Alexandria; Arabs, Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Jews, and Medes; and all

were received and protected by this princess, who spoke to each of them

in his own language[313].

The discovery of Spain, and the possession of the mines of Attica

from which they drew their silver, and the revolution that happened

in Egypt itself, seemed to have superseded the communication with the

coast of Africa; for, in Strabo’s time, few of the ports of the Indian

Ocean, even those nearest the Red Sea, were known. I should, indeed,

suppose, that the trade to India by Egypt decreased from the very time

of the conquest by Cæsar. The mines the Romans had at the source of

the river Betis[314], in Spain, did not produce them above L.15,000

a-year; this was not a sufficient capital for carrying on the trade

to India, and therefore the immense riches of the Romans seem to have

been derived from the greatness of the prices, not from the extent

of the trade. In fact[315], we are told that 100 _per cent_. was a

profit in common trade upon the Indian commodities. Egypt now, and

all its neighbourhood, began to wear a face of war, to which it had

been a stranger for so many ages. The north of Africa was in constant

troubles, after the first ruin of Carthage; so that we may imagine the

trade to India began again, on that side, to be carried on pretty much

in the same manner it had been before the days of Alexander. But it had

enlarged itself very much on the Persian side, and found an easy, short

inlet, into the north of Europe, which then furnished them a market and

consumption of spices.

I must confess, notwithstanding, if it is true what Strabo says he

heard himself in Egypt, that the Romans employed one hundred and twenty

vessels in the Indian trade[316], it must at that time have lost very

little of its vigour. We must, however, imagine, that great part of

this was for the account, and with the funds of foreign merchants. The

Jews in Alexandria, until the reign of Ptolemy Phiscon, had carried on

a very extensive part of the India trade. All Syria was mercantile; and

lead, iron, and copper, supplied, in some manner, the deficiency of

gold and silver, which never again was in such abundance till after the

discovery of America.

But the ancient trade to India, by the Arabian Gulf and Africa, carried

on by the medium of these two metals, remained at home undiminished

with the Ethiopians, defended by large extensive deserts, and happy

with the enjoyment of riches and security, till a fresh discovery again

introduced to them both partners and masters in their trade.

One of the reasons that makes me imagine the Indian trade was not

flourishing, or in great esteem, immediately upon the Roman conquest of

Egypt, is, that Augustus, very soon after, attempted to conquer Arabia.

He sent Elius Gallus, with an army from Egypt into Arabia, who found

there a number of effeminate, timid people, scarcely to be driven to

self-defence by violence, and ignorant of every thing that related to

war. Elius, however, found that they overmatched him in cunning, and

the perfect knowledge of the country, which their constant employment

as carriers had taught them. His guides led him round from hardship to

hardship, till his army almost perished with hunger and thirst, without

seeing any of those riches his master had sent him to take possession

of.

Thus was the Arabian expedition of Augustus conceived with the same

views as those of Semiramis, Cyrus, and Cambyses, deservedly as unhappy

in its issue as these first had been.

That the African trade, moreover, was lost, appears from Strabo[317],

and his reasoning upon the voyage of Eudoxus, which he treats as a

fable. But his reasoning proves just the contrary, and this voyage was

one foundation for opening this trade again, and making this coast more

perfectly known. This likewise appears clear from Ptolemy[318], who,

speaking of a promontory or cape opposite to Madagascar, on the coast

of Africa, says it was inhabited by anthropophagi, or man-eaters, and

that all beyond 8° south was unknown, and that this cape extended to

and joined the continent of India[319].

CHAP. VI.

_Queen of Saba visits Jerusalem--Abyssinian Tradition

concerning Her--Supposed Founder of that Monarchy--Abyssinia

embraces the Jewish Religion--Jewish Hierarchy still retained

by the Falasha--Some Conjectures concerning their Copy of the

Old Testament._

It is now that I am to fulfil my promise to the reader, of giving

him some account of the visit made by the Queen of Sheba[320], as

we erroneously call her, and the consequences of that visit; the

foundation of an Ethiopian monarchy, and the continuation of the

sceptre in the tribe of Judah, down to this day. If I am obliged to go

back in point of time, it is, that I may preserve both the account of

the trade of the Arabian Gulf, and of this Jewish kingdom, distinct and

unbroken.

We are not to wonder, if the prodigious hurry and flow of business,

and the immensely valuable transactions they had with each other, had

greatly familiarized the Tyrians and Jews, with their correspondents

the Cushites and Shepherds on the coast of Africa. This had gone so

far, as very naturally to have created a desire in the queen of Azab,

the sovereign of that country, to go herself and see the application

of such immense treasures that had been exported from her country

for a series of years, and the prince who so magnificently employed

them. There can be no doubt of this expedition, as Pagan, Arab, Moor,

Abyssinian, and all the countries round, vouch it pretty much in the

terms of scripture.

Many[321] have thought this queen was an Arab. But Saba was a separate

state, and the Sabeans a distinct people from the Ethiopians and the

Arabs, and have continued so till very lately. We know, from history,

that it was a custom among these Sabeans, to have women for their

sovereigns in preference to men, a custom which still subsists among

their descendents.

---- _Medis levibusque Sabæis,

Imperat hie sexus Reginarumque sub armis,

Barbariæ[322], pars magna jacet._

CLAUDIAN.

Her name, the Arabs say, was _Belkis_; the Abyssìnians, _Maqueda_. Our

Saviour calls her _Queen of the South_, without mentioning any other

name, but gives his sanction to the truth of the voyage. “The Queen

of the South (or Saba, or Azab) shall rise up in the judgment with

this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost

parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a

greater than Solomon is here[323].” No other particulars, however, are

mentioned about her in scripture; and it is not probable our Saviour

would say she came from the uttermost parts of the earth, if she had

been an Arab, and had near 50° of the Continent behind her. The gold,

the myrrh, cassia, and frankincense, were all the produce of her

own country; and the many reasons Pineda[324] gives to shew she was

an Arab, more than convince me that she was an Ethiopian or Cushite

shepherd.

A strong objection to her being an Arab, is, that the Sabean Arabs, or

Homerites, the people that lived opposite to Azab on the Arabian shore,

had kings instead of queens, which latter the Shepherds had, and still

have. Moreover, the kings of the Homerites were never seen abroad, and

were stoned to death if they appeared in public; subjects of this stamp

would not very readily suffer their queen to go to Jerusalem, even

supposing they had a queen, which they had not.

Whether she was a Jewess or a Pagan is uncertain; Sabaism was

the religion of all the East. It was the constant attendant and

stumbling-block of the Jews; but considering the multitude of that

people then trading from Jerusalem, and the long time it continued, it

is not improbable she was a Jewess. “And when the queen of Sheba heard

of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to

prove him with hard questions[325].” Our Saviour, moreover, speaks of

her with praise, pointing her out as an example to the Jews[326]. And,

in her thanksgiving before Solomon, she alludes to _God’s blessing_ on

the _seed_ of Israel for ever[327], which is by no means the language

of a Pagan, but of a person skilled in the ancient history of the Jews.

She likewise appears to have been a person of learning, and that

sort of learning which was then almost peculiar to Palestine, not to

Ethiopia. For we see that one of the reasons of her coming, was to

examine whether Solomon was really the learned man he was said to be.

She came to try him in allegories, or parables, in which Nathan had

instructed Solomon.

The learning of the East, and of the neighbouring kings that

corresponded with each other, especially in Palestine and Syria,

consisted chiefly in these: “And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah

king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the

Cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife:

and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down

the thistle.”--“Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites, and

thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home, why shouldest

thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and

Judah with thee[328]?”

The annals of Abyssinia, being very full upon this point, have taken

a middle opinion, and by no means an improbable one. They say she was

a Pagan when she left Azab, but being full of admiration at the sight

of Solomon’s works, she was converted to Judaism in Jerusalem, and

bore him a son, whom she called Menilek, and who was their first king.

However strongly they assert this, and however dangerous it would be to

doubt it in Abyssinia, I will not here aver it for truth, nor much less

still will I positively contradict it, as scripture has said nothing

about it. I suppose, whether true or not, in the circumstances she

was, whilst Solomon also, so far from being very nice in his choice,

was particularly addicted to Idumeans[329], and other strange women,

he could not more naturally engage himself in any amour than in one

with the queen of Saba, with whom he had so long entertained the most

lucrative connections, and most perfect friendship, and who, on her

part, by so long a journey, had surely made sufficient advances.

The Abyssinians, both Jews and Christians, believe the xlvth psalm

to be a prophecy of this queen’s voyage to Jerusalem; that she was

attended by a daughter of Hiram’s from Tyre to Jerusalem, and that the

last part contains a declaration of her having a son by Solomon, who

was to be king over a nation of Gentiles.

To Saba, or Azab, then, she returned with her son Menilek, whom, after

keeping him some years, she sent back to his father to be instructed.

Solomon did not neglect his charge, and he was anointed and crowned

king of Ethiopia, in the temple of Jerusalem, and at his inauguration

took the name of David. After this he returned to Azab, and brought

with him a colony of Jews, among whom were many doctors of the law of

Moses, particularly one of each tribe, to make judges in his kingdom,

from whom the present Umbares (or Supreme Judges, three of whom always

attend the king) are said and believed to be descended. With these

came also Azarias, the son of Zadok the priest, and brought with him a

Hebrew transcript of the law, which was delivered into his custody, as

he bore the title of Nebrit, or High Priest; and this charge, though

the book itself was burnt with the church of Axum in the Moorish war

of Adel, is still continued, as it is said, in the lineage of Azarias,

who are Nebrits, or keepers of the church of Axum, at this day. All

Abyssinia was thereupon converted, and the government of the church and

state modelled according to what was then in use at Jerusalem.

By the last act of the queen of Saba’s reign, she settled the mode of

succession in her country for the future. First, she enacted, that the

crown should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever. Secondly,

that, after her, no woman should be capable of wearing that crown or

being queen, but that it should descend to the heir male, however

distant, in exclusion of all heirs female whatever, however near; and

that these two articles should be considered as the fundamental laws

of the kingdom, never to be altered or abolished. And, lastly, That

the heirs male of the royal house, should always be sent prisoners to

a high mountain, where they were to continue till their death, or till

the succession should open to them.

What was the reason of this last regulation is not known, it being

peculiar to Abyssinia, but the custom of having women for sovereigns,

which was a very old one, prevailed among the neighbouring shepherds

in the last century, as we shall see in the course of this history,

and, for what we know, prevails to this day. It obtained in Nubia till

Augustus’s time, when Petreius, his lieutenant in Egypt, subdued her

country, and took the queen Candace prisoner. It endured also after

Tiberius, as we learn from St Philip’s baptising the eunuch[330]

servant of queen Candace, who must have been successor to the former;

for she, when taken prisoner by Petreius, is represented as an infirm

woman, having but one eye[331]. Candace indeed was the name of all the

sovereigns, in the same manner Cæsar was of the Roman emperors. As for

the last severe part, the punishment of the princes, it was probably

intended to prevent some disorders among the princes of her house, that

she had observed frequently to happen in the house of David[332] at

Jerusalem.

The queen of Saba having made these laws irrevocable to all her

posterity, died, after a long reign of forty years, in 986 before

Christ, placing her son Menilek upon the throne, whose posterity, the

annals of Abyssinia would teach us to believe, have ever since reigned.

So far we must indeed bear witness to them, that this is no new

doctrine, but has been stedfastly and uniformly maintained from their

earliest account of time; first, when Jews, then in later days after

they had embraced christianity. We may further add, that the testimony

of all the neighbouring nations is with them upon this subject, whether

they be friends or enemies. They only differ in name of the queen, or

in giving her two names.

This difference, at such a distance of time, should not break scores,

especially as we shall see that the queens in the present day have

sometimes three or four names, and all the kings three, whence has

arisen a very great confusion in their history. And as for her

being an Arab, the objection is still easier got over. For all the

inhabitants of Arabia Felix, especially those of the coast opposite

to Saba, were reputed Abyssins, and their country part of Abyssinia,

from the earliest ages, to the Mahometan conquest and after. They were

her subjects; first, Sabean Pagans like herself, then converted (as

the tradition says) to Judaism, during the time of the building of

the temple, and continuing Jews from that time to the year 622 after

Christ, when they became Mahometans.

I shall therefore now give a list of their kings of the race of

Solomon, descended from the queen of Saba, whose device is a lion

passant, proper upon a field gules, and their motto, “_Mo Anbasa am

Nizilet Solomon am Negadè Jude_;” which signifies, ‘the lion of the

race of Solomon and tribe of Judah hath overcome.’ The Portuguese

missionaries, in place of a lion passant, which is really the king’s

bearing, have given him, in some of their publications, a lion rampant,

purposely, as is supposed, to put a cross into the paw of this Jewish

lion; but he is now returned to the lion passant, that he was in the

time of Solomon, without any symbol either of religion or peace in his

paws.

LIST OF THE KINGS OF ABYSSINIA,

FROM

MAQUEDA, QUEEN OF SABA, TO THE NATIVITY.

Years.

Menilek, or David I. reigned 4

Hendedya, or Zagdur, 1

Awida, 11

Ausyi, 3

Sawé, 31

Gesaya, 15

Katar, 15

Mouta, 20

Bahas, 9

Kawida, 2

Kanaza, 10

Katzina, 9

Wazeha, 1

Hazer, 2

Kalas, 6

Solaya, 16

Falaya, 26

Aglebu, 3

Asisena, 1

Brus, 29

Mohesa, 1

Bazen, 16

Menilek succeeded to the throne in the 986th year before Christ;

and this number of years must be exhausted in the reign of these

twenty-two kings, when each reign, in that case, will amount to more

than forty-four years, which is impossible. The reign of the twenty-one

kings of Israel, at a medium, is a little more than twenty-two years

at an average, and that is thought abundantly high. And, even upon

that footing of comparison, there will be wanting a great deal more

than half the number of years between Menilek and Bazen, so that this

account is apparently false. But I have another very material objection

to it, as well as the preceding one, which is, that there is not one

name in the whole list that has an Ethiopic root or derivation.

The reader will give what credit he pleases to this very ancient

list. For my part, I content myself with disproving nothing but what

is impossible, or contrary to the authority of scripture, or my own

private knowledge. There are other lists still, which I have seen,

all of no better authority than this. I shall only observe, upon this

last, that there is a king in it, about nine years before our Saviour’s

nativity, that did me the honour of using my name two thousand

years before it came into Britain, spelled in the same manner that

name anciently was, before folly, and the love of novelty, wantonly

corrupted it.

The Greeks, to divert the king, had told him this circumstance, and he

was exceedingly entertained at it. Sometimes, when he had seen either

Michael, or Fasil[333], or any of the great ones do me any favour, or

speak handsomely of me, he would say gravely, that he was to summon the

council to inquire into my pedigree, whether I was descended of the

heirs-male of that Brus who was king nine years before the nativity;

that I was likely to be a dangerous person, and it was time I should

be sent to Wechné, unless I chose to lose my leg or arm, if I was

found, by the judges, related to him by the heirs-male. To which I

answered, that however he made a jest of this, one of my predecessors

was certainly a king, though not of Abyssinia, not nine years before,

but 1200 after our redemption; that the arms of my family were a

lion like his; but, however creditable his majesty’s apprehensions as

to Abyssinia might be to me, I could venture to assure him, the only

connections I had the honour ever to have had _with him_, were by the

_heirs-female_.

At other times, when I was exceedingly low-spirited, and despairing of

ever again seeing Britain, he, who well knew the cause, used to say to

the Serach Massery, “Prepare the Sendick and Nagareet; let the judges

be called, and the household troops appear under arms, for Brus is to

be buried: he is an Ozoro of the line of Solomon, and, for any thing

I know, may be heir to the crown. Bring likewise plenty of brandy,

for they all get drunk at burials in his country.” These were days

of sun-shine, when such jests passed; there were cloudy ones enough

that followed, which much more than compensated the very transitory

enjoyment of these.

Although the years laid down in the book of Axum do not precisely agree

with our account, yet they are so near, that we cannot doubt that the

revolt of the ten tribes, and destruction of Rehoboam’s fleet which

followed, occasioned the removal of Menilek’s capital to Tigré[334].

But, whatever was the cause, Menilek did remove his court from Azab to

a place near Axum, at this day called _Adega Daid_, the House of David;

and, at no great distance, is another called _Azabo_, from his ancient

metropolis, where there are old remains of building of stone and lime,

a certain proof that Axum was then fallen, else he would have naturally

gone thither immediately upon forsaking his mother’s capital of Azab.

That country, round by Cape Gardefan, and south towards Sofala, along

the Indian Ocean, was long governed by an officer called _Baharnagash_,

the meaning of which is, King of the Sea, or Sea Coast. Another officer

of the same title was governor of Yemen, or Arabia Felix, which, from

the earliest times, belonged to Abyssinia, down to the Mahometan

conquest. The king himself was called _Nagash_, or Najashi, so were the

governors of several provinces, especially Gojam; and great confusion

has risen from the multitude of these kings. We find, for example,

sometimes three upon the throne at one time, which is exceedingly

improbable in any country. We are, therefore, to suppose, that one of

these only is king, and two of them are the Najashi, or Nagash, we have

just described; for, as the regulation of the queen of Saba banished

the heirs-male to the mountain, we cannot conceive how three brothers

could be upon the throne at the same time, as this law subsists to the

present day. This, although it is one, is not the only reason of the

confusion, as I shall mention another in the sequel.

As we are about to take our leave of the Jewish religion and government

in the line of Solomon, it is here the proper place that I should

add what we have to say of the Falasha, of whom we have already had

occasion to speak, when we gave a specimen of their language, among

those of the stranger nations, whom we imagine to have come originally

from Palestine. I did not spare my utmost pains in inquiring into the

history of this curious people, and lived in friendship with several

esteemed the most knowing and learned among them, and I am persuaded,

as far as they knew, they told me the truth.

The account they give of themselves, which is supported only by

tradition among them, is, that they came with Menilek from Jerusalem,

so that they agree perfectly with the Abyssinians in the story of the

queen of Saba, who, they say,· was a Jewess, and her nation Jews before

the time of Solomon; that she lived at Saba, or Azaba, the myrrh and

frankincense country upon the Arabian Gulf. They say further, that

she went to Jerusalem, under protection of Hiram king of Tyre, whose

daughter is said in the xlvth Psalm to have attended her thither; that

she went not in ships, nor through Arabia, for fear or the Ishmaelites,

but from Azab round by Masuah and Suakem, and was escorted by the

Shepherds, her own subjects, to Jerusalem, and back again, making use

of her own country vehicle, the camel, and that hers was a white one,

of prodigious size and exquisite beauty.

They agree also, in every particular, with the Abyssinians, about the

remaining part of the story, the birth and inauguration of Menilek, who

was their first king; also the coming of Azarias, and twelve elders

from the twelve tribes, and other doctors of the law, whose posterity

they deny to have ever apostatised to Christianity, as the Abyssinians

pretend they did at the conversion. They say, that, when the trade of

the Red Sea fell into the hands of strangers, and all communication

was shut up between them and Jerusalem, the cities were abandoned, and

the inhabitants relinquished the coast; that they were the inhabitants

of these cities, by trade mostly brick and tile-makers, potters,

thatchers of houses, and such like mechanics, employed in them; and

finding the low country of Dembea afforded materials for exercising

these trades, they carried the article of pottery in that province to a

degree of perfection scarcely to be imagined.

Being very industrious, these people multiplied exceedingly, and were

very powerful at the time of the conversion to Christianity, or, as

they term it, the Apostacy under Abreha and Atzbeha. At this time they

declared a prince of the tribe of Judah, and of the race of Solomon and

Menilek, to be their sovereign. The name of this prince was Phineas,

who refused to abandon the religion of his forefathers, and from him

their sovereigns are lineally descended; so they have still a prince

of the house of Judah, although the Abyssinians, by way of reproach,

have called this family Bet Israel, intimating that they were rebels,

and revolted from the family of Solomon and tribe of Judah, and there

is little doubt, but that some of the successors of Azarias adhered

to their ancient faith also. Although there was no bloodshed upon

difference of religion, yet, each having a distinct king with the same

pretensions, many battles were fought from motives of ambition, and

rivalship of sovereign power.

About the year 960, an attempt was made by this family to mount the

throne of Abyssinia, as we shall see hereafter; when the princes of the

house of Solomon were nearly extirpated upon the rock Damo. This, it

is probable, produced more animosity and bloodshed. At last the power

of the Falasha was so much weakened, that they were obliged to leave

the flat country of Dembea, having no cavalry to maintain themselves

there, and to take possession of the rugged, and almost inaccessible

rocks, in that high ridge called the Mountains of Samen. One of these,

which nature seems to have formed for a fortress, they chose for their

metropolis, and it was ever after called the Jews Rock.

A great overthrow, which they received in the year 1600, brought them

to the very brink of ruin. In that battle Gideon and Judith, their

king and queen, were slain. They have since adopted a more peaceable

and dutiful behaviour, pay taxes, and are suffered to enjoy their own

government. Their king and queen’s name was again Gideon and Judith,

when I was in Abyssinia, and these names seem to be preferred for those

of the Royal family. At that time they were supposed to amount to

100,000 effective men. Something like this, the sober and most knowing

Abyssinians are obliged to allow to be truth; but the circumstances of

the conversion from Judaism are probably not all before us.

The only copy of the Old Testament, which they have, is in Geez,

the same made use of by the Abyssinian Christians, who are the only

scribes, and sell these copies to the Jews; and, it is very singular

that no controversy, or dispute about the text, has ever yet arisen

between the professors of the two religions. They have no keriketib,

or various readings; they never heard of talmud, targum, or cabala:

Neither have they any _fringes[335] or ribband_ upon their _garments_,

nor is there, as far as I could learn, one scribe among them.

I asked them, being from Judea, whence they got that language which

they spoke, whether it was one of the languages of the nations which

they had learned on the coast of the Red Sea. They apprehended, but

it was mere conjecture, that the language which they spoke was that

of those nations they had found on the Red Sea, after their leaving

Judea and settling there; and the reason they gave was certainly a

pertinent one; that they came into Abyssinia, speaking Hebrew, with the

advantage of having books in that language; but they had now forgot

their Hebrew[336], and it was therefore not probable they should retain

any other language in which they had no books, and which they never had

learned to express by letters.

I asked them, since they came from Jerusalem, how it happened they had

not Hebrew, or Samaritan copies of the law, at least the Pentateuch

or Octateuch. They said they were in possession of both when they

came from Jerusalem; but their fleet being destroyed, in the reign of

Rehoboam, and communication becoming very uncertain by the Syrian wars,

they were, from necessity, obliged to have the scriptures translated,

or make use of the copies in the hands of the Shepherds, who, according

to them, before Solomon’s time, were all Jews.

I asked them where the Shepherds got their copy, because,

notwithstanding the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, who was the

foreign obstacle the longest in their way, the Ishmaelite Arabs had

access through Arabia to Jerusalem and Syria, and carried on a great

trade thither by land. They professed very candidly they could not give

a satisfactory answer to that, as the time was very distant, and war

had destroyed all the memorials of these transactions. I asked if they

really ever had any memorials of their own country, or history of any

other. They answered, with some hesitation, they had no reason to say

they ever had any; if they had, they were all destroyed in the war with

Gragné. This is all that I could ever learn from this people, and it

required great patience and prudence in making the interrogations, and

separating truth from falsehood; for many of them, (as is invariably

the case with barbarians) if they once divine the reason of your

inquiry, will say whatever they think will please you.

They deny the sceptre has ever departed from Judah, as they have a

prince of that house reigning, and understand the prophecy of the

gathering of the Gentiles at the coming of Shiloh, is to be fulfilled

on the appearance of the Messiah, who is not yet come, when all the

inhabitants of the world are to be Jews. But I must confess they did

not give an explanation of this either clearly or readily, or seem to

have ever considered it before. They were not at all heated by the

subject, nor interested, as far as I could discern, in the difference

between us, nor fond of talking upon their religion at all, though very

ready at all quotations, when a person was present who spoke Amharic,

with the barbarous accent that they do; and this makes me conceive that

their ancestors were not in Palestine, or present in those disputes or

transactions that attended the death of our Saviour, and have subsisted

ever after. They pretend that the book of Enoch was the first book of

scripture they ever received. They knew nothing of that of Seth, but

place Job immediately after Enoch, so that they have no idea of the

time in which Job lived, but said they believed it to be soon after

the flood; and they look upon the book bearing his name to be the

performance of that prophet.

Many difficulties occur from this account of the Falasha; for, though

they say they came from Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, and from

different tribes, yet there is but one language amongst them all,

and that is not Hebrew or Samaritan, neither of which they read or

understand; nor is their answer to this objection satisfactory, for

very obvious reasons.

Ludolf, the most learned man that has writ upon the subject, says, that

it is apparent the Ethiopic Old Testament, at least the Pentateuch, was

copied from the Septuagint, because of the many Grecisms to be found in

it; and the names of birds and precious stones, and some other passages

that appear literally to be translated from the Greek. He imagines

also, that the present Abyssinian version is the work of Frumentius

their first bishop, when Abyssinia was converted to Christianity under

Abreha and Atzbeha, about the year 333 after Christ, or a few years

later.

Although I brought with me all the Abyssinian books of the Old

Testament, (if it is a translation) I have not yet had time to make

the comparison here alluded to, but have left them, for the curiosity

of the public, deposited in the British Museum, hoping that some man

of learning or curiosity would do this for me. In the mean time I must

observe, that it is much more natural to suppose that the Greeks,

comparing the copies together, expunged the words or passages they

found differing from the Septuagint, and replaced them from thence,

as this would not offend the Jews, who very well knew that those who

translated the Septuagint version were all Jews themselves.

Now, as the Abyssinian copy of the Holy Scriptures, in Mr Ludolf’s

opinion, was translated by Frumentius above 330 after Christ, and the

Septuagint version, in the days of Philadelphus, or Ptolemy II. above

160 years before Christ, it will follow, that, if the present Jews use

the copy translated by Frumentius, and, if that was taken from the

Septuagint, the Jews must have been above 400 years without any books

whatsoever at the time of the conversion by Frumentius: So they must

have had all the Jewish law, which is in perfect vigour and force among

them, all their Levitical observances, their purifications, atonements,

abstinences, and sacrifices, all depending upon their memory, without

writing, at least for that long space of 400 years.

This, though not absolutely impossible, is surely very nearly so. We

know, that, at Jerusalem itself, the seat of Jewish law and learning,

idolatry happening to prevail, during the short reigns of only four

kings, the law, in that interval, became so perfectly forgotten and

unknown, that a copy of it being accidentally found and read by Josiah,

that prince, upon his first learning its contents, was so astonished at

the deviations from it, that he apprehended the immediate destruction

of the whole city and people. To this I shall only add, that whoever

considers the stiff-neckedness, stubbornness, and obstinacy, which

were ever the characters of this Jewish nation, they will not easily

believe that they did ever _willingly_ “receive the _Old_ Testament

from a people who were the avowed champions of the _New_.”

They have, indeed, no knowledge of the New Testament but from

conversation; and do not curse it, but treat it as a folly where it

supposes the Messiah come, who, they seem to think, is to be a temporal

prince, prophet, priest, and conqueror.

Still, it is not probable that a Jew would receive the law and the

prophets from a Christian, without absolute necessity, though they

might very well receive such a copy from a brother Jew, which all the

Abyssinians were, when this translation was made. Nor would this, as

I say, hinder them from following a copy really made by Jews from the

text itself, such as the Septuagint actually was. But, I confess,

great difficulties occur on every side, and I despair of having them

solved, unless by an able, deliberate analysis of the specimen of the

Falasha language which I have preserved, in which I earnestly request

the concurrence of the learned. A book of the length of the Canticles

contains words enough to judge upon the question, Whence the Falasha

came, and what is the probable cause they had not a translation in

their own tongue, since a version became necessary?

I have less doubt that Frumentius translated the New Testament, as he

must have had assistance from those of his own communion in Egypt;

and this is a further reason why I believe that, at his coming, he

found the Old Testament already translated into the Ethiopic language

and character, because Bagla, or Geez, was an unknown letter, and

the language unknown, not only to him, but likewise to every province

in Abyssinia, except Tigré; so that it would have cost him no more

pains to teach the nation the Greek character and Greek language, than

to have translated the New Testament into Ethiopic, using the Geez

character, which was equally unknown, unless in Tigré. The saving of

time and labour would have been very material to him; he would have

used the whole scriptures, as received in his own church, and the Greek

letter and language would have been just as easily attained in Amhara

as the Geez; and those people, even of the province of Tigré, that had

not yet learned to read, would have written the Greek character as

easily as their own. I do not know that so early there was any Arabic

translation of the Old Testament; if there was, the same reasons would

have militated for his preferring this; and still he had but the New

Testament to undertake. But having found the books of the Old Testament

already translated into Geez, this altered the case; and he, very

properly, continued the gospel in that language and letter also, that

it might be a testimony for the Christians, and against the Jews, as it

was intended.

CHAP. VII.

_Books in Use in Abyssinia--Enoch--Abyssinia not converted

by the Apostles--Conversion from Judaism to Christianity by

Frumentius._

The Abyssinians have the whole scriptures entire as we have, and count

the same number of books; but they divide them in another manner, at

least in private hands, few of them, from extreme poverty, being able

to purchase the whole, either of the historical or prophetical books

of the Old Testament. The same may be said of the New, for copies

containing the whole of it are very scarce. Indeed no where, unless

in churches, do you see more than the Gospels, or the Acts of the

Apostles, in one person’s possession, and it must not be an ordinary

man that possesses even these.

Many books of the Old Testament are forgot, so that it is the same

trouble to procure them, even in churches, for the purpose of copying,

as to consult old records long covered with dust and rubbish. The

Revelation of St John is a piece of favourite reading among them. Its

title is, _the Vision of John Abou Kalamsis_, which seems to me to be a

corruption of _Apocalypsis_. At the same time, we can hardly imagine

that Frumentius, a Greek and a man of letters, should make so strange a

mistake. There is no such thing as distinctions between canonical and

apocryphal books. Bell and the Dragon, and the Acts of the Apostles,

are read with equal devotion, and, for the most part, I am afraid,

with equal edification; and it is in the spirit of truth, and not of

ridicule, that I say St George and his Dragon, from idle legends only,

are objects of veneration, nearly as great as any of the heroes in the

Old Testament, or saints in the New. The Song of Solomon is a favourite

piece of reading among the old priests, but forbidden to the young

ones, to the deacons, laymen, and women. The Abyssinians believe, that

this song was made by Solomon in praise of Pharaoh’s daughter; and do

not think, as some of our divines are disposed to do, that there is in

it any mystery or allegory respecting Christ and the church. It may be

asked, Why did I choose to have this book translated, seeing that it

was to be attended with this particular difficulty? To this I answer,

The choice was not mine, nor did I at once know all the difficulty. The

first I pitched upon was the book of Ruth, as being the shortest; but

the subject did not please the scribes and priests who were to copy for

me, and I found it would not do. They then chose the Song of Solomon,

and engaged to go through with it; and I recommended it to two or three

young scribes, who completed the copy by themselves and their friends.

I was obliged to procure licence for these scribes whom I employed in

translating it into the different languages; but it was a permission of

course, and met with no real, though some pretended difficulty.

A nephew of Abba Salama[337], the Acab Saat, a young man of no common

genius, asked leave from his uncle before he began the translation; to

which Salama answered, alluding to an old law, That, if he attempted

such a thing, he should be killed as they do sheep; but, if I would

give _him_ the money, he would permit it. I should not have taken

any notice of this; but some of the young men having told it to Ras

Michael[338], who perfectly guessed the matter, he called upon the

scribe, and asked what his uncle had said to him, who told him very

plainly, that, if he began the translation, his throat should be cut

like that of a sheep. One day Michael asked Abba Salama, whether that

was true; he answered in the affirmative, and seemed disposed to be

talkative. “Then,” said the Ras to the young man, “your uncle declares,

if you write the book for Yagoube, he shall cut your throat like a

sheep; and I say to you, I swear by St Michael, I will put you to death

like an ass if you don’t write it; consider with yourself which of the

risks you’ll run, and come to me in eight days, and make your choice.”

But, before the eighth day, he brought me the book, very well pleased

at having an excuse for receiving the price of the copy. Abba Salama

complained of this at another time when I was present, and the name of

_frank_ was invidiously mentioned; but he only got a stern look and

word from the Ras: “Hold your tongue, Sir, you don’t know what you say;

you don’t know that you are a fool, Sir, but I do; if you talk much you

will publish it to all the world.”

After the New Testament they place the constitutions of the Apostles,

which they call _Synnodos_, which, as far as the cases or doctrines

apply, we may say is the written law of the country. These were

translated out of the Arabic. They have next a general liturgy, or book

of common prayer, besides several others peculiar to certain festivals,

under whose names they go. The next is a very large voluminous book,

called _Haimanout Abou_, chiefly a collection from the works of

different Greek fathers, treating of, or explaining several heresies,

or disputed points of faith, in the ancient Greek Church. Translations

of the works of St Athanasius, St Bazil, St John Chrysostome, and St

Cyril, are likewise current among them. The two last I never saw; and

only fragments of St Athanasius; but they are certainly extant.

The next is the Synaxar, or the Flos Sanctorum, in which the miracles

and lives, or lies of their saints, are at large recorded, in four

monstrous volumes in folio, stuffed full of fables of the most

incredible kind. They have a saint that wrestled with the devil in

shape of a serpent nine miles long, threw him from a mountain, and

killed him. Another saint who converted the devil, who turned monk, and

lived in great holiness for forty years after his conversion, doing

penance for having tempted our Saviour upon the mountain: what became

of him after they do not say. Again, another saint, that never ate nor

drank from his mother’s womb, went to Jerusalem, and said mass every

day at the holy sepulchre, and came home at night in the shape of a

stork. The last I shall mention was a saint, who, being very sick, and

his stomach in disorder, took a longing for partridges; he called upon

a brace of them to come to him, and immediately two roasted partridges

came _flying_, and rested upon his plate, to be devoured. These stories

are circumstantially told and vouched by unexceptionable people, and

were a grievous stumbling-block to the Jesuits, who could not pretend

their own miracles were either better established, or more worthy of

belief.

There are other books of less size and consequence, particularly the

Organon Denghel, or the Virgin Mary’s Musical Instrument, composed

by Abba George about the year 1440, much valued for the purity of

its language, though he himself was an Armenian. The last of this

Ethiopic library is the book of Enoch[339]. Upon hearing this book

first mentioned, many literati in Europe had a wonderful desire to see

it, thinking that, no doubt, many secrets and unknown histories might

be drawn from it. Upon this some impostor, getting an Ethiopic book

into his hands, wrote for the title, _The Prophecies of Enoch_, upon

the front page of it. M. Pierisc[340] no sooner heard of it than he

purchased it of the impostor for a considerable sum of money: being

placed afterwards in Cardinal Mazarine’s library, where Mr Ludolf had

access to it, he found it was a Gnostic book upon mysteries in heaven

and earth, but which mentioned not a word of Enoch, or his prophecy,

from beginning to end; and, from this disappointment, he takes upon him

to deny the existence of any such book any where else. This, however,

is a mistake; for, as a public return for the many obligations I had

received from every rank of that most humane, polite, and scientific

nation, and more especially from the sovereign Louis XV. I gave to his

cabinet a part of every thing curious I had collected abroad; which

was received with that degree of consideration and attention that

cannot fail to determine every traveller of a liberal mind to follow my

example.

Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris, was a very

beautiful and magnificent copy of the prophecies of Enoch, in large

quarto; another is amongst the books of scripture which I brought

home, standing immediately before the book of Job, which is its proper

place in the Abyssinian canon; and a third copy I have presented to

the Bodleian library at Oxford, by the hands of Dr Douglas the Bishop

of Carlisle. The more ancient history of that book is well known. The

church at first looked upon it as apocryphal; and as it was quoted in

the book of Jude, the same suspicion fell upon that book also. For this

reason, the council of Nice threw the epistle of Jude out of the canon,

but the council of Trent arguing better, replaced the apostle in the

canon as before.

Here we may observe by the way, that Jude’s appealing to the apocryphal

books did by no means import, that either he believed or warranted the

truth of them. But it was an argument, _a fortiori_, which our Saviour

himself often makes use of, and amounts to no more than this, You,

says he to the Jews, deny certain facts, which must be from prejudice,

because you have them allowed in your own books, and believe them

there. And a very strong and fair way of arguing it is, but this is by

no means any allowance that they are true. In the same manner, You,

says Jude, do not believe the coming of Christ and a latter judgment;

yet your ancient Enoch, whom you suppose was the seventh from Adam,

tells you this plainly, and in so many words, long ago. And indeed the

quotation is, word for word the same, in the second chapter of the book.

All that is material to say further concerning the book of Enoch is,

that it is a Gnostic book, containing the age of the Emims, Anakims,

and Egregores, supposed descendents of the sons of God, when they fell

in love with the daughters of men, and had sons who were giants. These

giants do not seem to have been so charitable to the sons and daughters

of men, as their fathers had been. For, first, they began to eat all

the beasts of the earth, they then fell upon the birds and fishes, and

ate them also; their hunger being not yet satisfied, they ate all the

corn, all men’s labour, all the trees and bushes, and, not content

yet, they fell to eating the men themselves. The men (like our modern

sailors with the savages) were not afraid of dying, but very much so of

being eaten after death. At length they cry to God against the wrongs

the giants had done them, and God sends a flood which drowns both them

and the giants.

Such is the reparation which this ingenious author has thought

proper to attribute to Providence, in answer to the first, and the

best-founded complaints that were made to him by man. I think this

exhausts about four or five of the first chapters. It is not the fourth

part of the book; but my curiosity led me no further. The catastrophe

of the giants, and the justice of the catastrophe, had fully satisfied

me.

I cannot but recollect, that when it was known in England that I had

presented this book to the library of the King of France, without

staying a few days, to give me time to reach London, when our learned

countrymen might have had an opportunity of perusing at leisure another

copy of this book, Doctor Woide set out for Paris, with letters from

the Secretary of State to Lord Stormont, Ambassador at that court,

desiring him to assist the doctor in procuring access to my present,

by permission from his Most Christian Majesty. This he accordingly

obtained, and a translation of the work was brought over; but, I know

not why, it has no where appeared. I fancy Dr Woide was not much more

pleased with the conduct of the giants than I was.

I shall conclude with one particular, which is a curious one: The

Synaxar (what the Catholics call their Flos Sanctorum, or the lives

and miracles of their saints), giving the history of the Abyssinian

conversion to Christianity in the year 333, says, that when Frumentius

and Œdesius were introduced to the king, who was a minor, they found

him reading the Psalms of David.

This book, or that of Enoch, does by no means prove that they were at

that time Jews. For these two were in as great authority among the

Pagans, who professed Sabaism, the first religion of the East, and

especially of the _Shepherds_, as among the Jews. These being continued

also in the same letter and character among the Abyssinians from the

beginning, convinces me that there has not been any other writing in

this country, or the south of Arabia, since that which rose from the

Hieroglyphics.

The Abyssinian history begins now to rid itself of part of that

confusion which is almost a constant attendant upon the very few

annals yet preserved of barbarous nations in very ancient times. It is

certain, from their history, that Bazen was contemporary with Augustus,

that he reigned sixteen years, and that the birth of our Saviour fell

on the 8th year of that prince, so that the 8th year of Bazen was the

first of Christ.

Amha Yasous, prince of Shoa, a province to which the small remains of

the line of Solomon fled upon a catastrophe, I shall have occasion to

mention, gave me the following list of the kings of Abyssinia since

the time of which we are now speaking. From him I procured all the

books, of the Annals of Abyssinia, which have served me to compose

this history, excepting two, one given me by the King, the other the

Chronicle of Axum, by Ras Michael Governor of Tigré.