142 An Attempt to prove that Ava 



found to be blunders * ; and he has confined the cargoes to 

 gold, silver, and ivory : omitting peacocks, monkeys, precious 

 stones, spices, almug-trees, and ebony. 



BufTon f insists positively that peacocks were not wild in 

 Africa till they were introduced by the Portuguese, and that 

 therefore Ophir could not be in Africa. Alexander the Great, 

 when he entered India, is said to have been much struck with 

 the beauty of the peacocks, never before having seen one J. As 

 to the first five places mentioned above, there are obvious 

 insuperable objections to them all. The three last have, 

 neither of them, ever been known to possess such abundant 

 riches and ivory as were imported by David and Solomon, 

 Four hundred and fifty talents of gold have been brought by 

 one fleet §. Thrones, beds, and benches were constructed 

 with ivory. *' All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes ||, and 

 cassia; out of the hory palaces^. ^^ *' The houses of ivory 

 shall perish **." "Whatever may be meant by palaces and 

 houses, there can be no doubt that a considerable quantity of 

 ivory was consumed. 



Thus it does not appear that any one of the above 

 places is free from objection, as not being known to have 

 produced either all the objects imported by the Jews ; nor, 

 several of them, the great quantity of some of the articles 

 enumerated. 



The writer will now endeavour to prove that Ophir, or Afer, 

 was no other than Ava ; and if that country has always borne 

 the name, which it now does, of Ava ft, and if it has formerly 

 contained, or does still contain, all the articles described as 

 forming the cargoes imported, is it not quite astonishing that 

 that consideration and the name have never led one of the 

 host of critics to the discovery of the undisputed truth ? 



Another remarkable circumstance attending that rich mart 



♦ Rennell's Herodotus, p. ^7(j. t Sonnini's Edit. vol. xlii. 



% ^lian. § 2 Chronicles viii. 18. 



II This means the perfume ; it is produced in Ava, ** the aloexylum 

 veruniy much valued for the grateful odour of its smoke." — Rees's Cyc, 

 " Birraan." 



1 Psalm xlv. 8. ** Amos iii. 15. 



•M' This word may be otherwise pronounced in that country j as it is 

 spelt also Aun^wan-r-^QQ Rees's Cyc, " Ava." 



