7 
ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
‘ecean, this voyage of neceffity muft 
have been made by monfoons, for 
no other winds reign in that ocean. 
And, what certainly fhews this was 
the cafe, is the precife term of three 
years, in which the fleet went and 
came between Ophir and Ezion- 
gaber. 
perfede the neceffity of proof or 
argument, that, had this voyage 
been made with variable winds, no 
limited term of years ever could 
have been obferved 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 pre- 
cifely in three years was not poflible, 
whatever part of the globe Ophir 
might be jituated in. 
«« Neither Spain nor Peru could 
be Ophir; part of thefe voyages 
muft have been made by variable 
' winds, and the return confequently 
uncertain. The ifland of Ceylon, 
in the Eaft Indies, could not be 
Ophir; the voyage thither is indeed 
made by monfoons, but we have 
fhewed that a year is all that can be 
{pent in a voyage to the Eaft Indies; 
befides, Ceylon has neither gold nor 
filver, though it has ivory. St. 
Domingo has neither gold, nor fil- 
ver, nor ivory. When the Tyrians 
difcovered Spain, they found a pro- 
fufion of filver in huge maffles, but 
this they brought to Tyre by the 
Mediterranean, and then fent it to 
the Red Sea over land to anfwer the 
returns from India. ‘Tarfhifh, too, 
is not found to be a port in any of 
thefe voyages, fo that part of the 
defcription fails, nor were there ever 
elephants bred in Spain. 
“ Thefe mines of Ophir were 
For it is plain, fo as to fu-‘ 
169 
probably what furnifhed the Eaft 
with gold in the earlieft times ; 
great traces of excavation muft, 
therefore, have appeared; yet in 
none of the places juft mentioned 
are there great remains of any mines 
that have been wrought. ‘The an- 
cient traces of filver mines in Spain 
are not to be found, and there ne- 
ver were any of gold. John Dos 
Santos *, a Dominican friar, fays, 
that on the coait of Africa, in the 
kingdom of ‘Sofala, the mainland 
oppofite to. Madagatcar, there are 
mines of gold and filver, than 
which none can be more abundant, 
efpecially in filver: ‘They bear the 
traces of having been wrought 
from the earlieft ages. They were 
a@ually open and working when 
the Portuguefe conquered that part 
of the peninfula, and were proba- 
bly given up fince the difcovery of 
the new world, rather from politi- 
cal than any other reafons, 
«© John Dos Santos jays, that he 
landed at Sofala in the year 15865 
that he failed up the great river 
Cuama.as far as Tete, where, al- 
ways defirous to be in the neigh- 
bourhoed of gold, his order had 
placed their convent. ‘Thence he 
penetrated for above two hundred 
leagues into the country, and faw 
the gold mines then working, at a 
mountain.called Afura+. At a 
confiderable diftance from thefe are 
the filver mines of Chicoua; at both 
places there is a great appearance 
of ancient excavations; and at both 
places the houfes of the kings are 
built with mud and ftraw, whilt 
there are large remains of mafly 
buildings of {tone and lime. 
“It is a tradition which gene- 
* Vid. Voyage of Dos Santos, publifhed by Le Grande. 
+ Sce the map of this voyage. 
rally 
