vo ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
tally obtains in that country, that 
thefe works belonged to the queen 
ef Saba, and were built at the time, 
and for the purpofe of the trade on 
the Red Sea: this tradition is 
common to all the Cafrs in that 
country. Eupolemus, an ancient 
author quoted by Eufebius *, fpeal- 
ing of David, fays, that he built 
fhips at Eloth, 2 city in Arabia, 
and thence fent miners, or, as he 
ealls them, ¢ metal-men,’ to Orphi, 
or Ophir, an ifland in the Red Sea. 
Now, by the Red Sea, he under- 
flands the Indian ocean +; and by 
Orphi, he probably meant the ifland 
ef Madagafear; or Orphi, (or 
Ophir) might have been the name 
of the continent, inftead of Sofala, 
that is, Sofala where the mines are 
might have been the mainland of. 
Orphi. § 
« The kings of the ifles are often 
mentioned in this voyage ; Socotra, 
Madagalcar, the Commorras, and 
many other {mall iflands thereabout, 
are probably thofe the {cripture 
ealls the Jes. All, then, at lat 
reduces itfelf to the finding a place, 
either Sofala, or any other place 
adjoining to it, which avowedly can 
farnifh gold, filver, and ivory in 
quantity, has large tokens of an- 
cient excavations, and is at the fame 
time under fuch reftrictions from 
monfoons, that three years are ab- 
folutely neceflary to perform the 
voyage, that it needs no more, and 
cannot be done in lefs, and this is 
Ophir.” 
Mr. Bruce then endeavours to 
demonftrate, by tracing the {uppofed 
traci: of the fhips from Ebion-gaber 
to Sofala, and calculating the effects 
of the monfoons, that this voyage 
* Apud. Evfeb. Preep. Evang. lib- 9. 
+ Dionyfii Periegefis, ver. 33. and Comment. Euftathii in eundem,: 
Agathemer Geographiay Jib. 2. cap. 136 
fib. 16. p. 765. 
a 
thither and back again could net 
be performed in more or lefs time 
than three years exactly, and con- 
fequently that the mines cf Dos 
Santos were thofe which furnifhed 
Paleftine with gold and filver. This™ 
argument he has further confirmed 
by another drawn from the fignifica- 
tion of the names of feveral places 
which lie in the courfe of the voy- 
age. 
The feeond volume takes up the 
Abyflinian hiftory at the reftoration 
of the line of Solomon. This hif-. 
tory, Mr. Bruce inform us, is com- 
piled from their own. annals, now 
firft tianflated from the Ethiopic; 
the original of which has been 
lodged in the Britith Muferm, to 
fatisfy the curiofity of the public. 
In the hiftorical parts of this 
work, which occupies a confidera- 
ble portion of the firft and the whole 
cf the fecond volume, we apprehend 
the reader will not meet either with 
weful inflrugtion or entertamment 
proportionate to his labour. Indeed, 
when we confider that the materials 
from which it is compiled muft have 
been furnifhed by a people of the 
mott grofs ignorance and difgufting 
barbarity, a great deal wiil not be 
expected. Of the religion, cuftoms, 
and manners of the Abyfinians, and 
of the charaéters of feveral of the- 
principal perfons who were living at 
the time our author refided in the 
country, a very accurate, and, we 
fuppofe, faithful account is given. ~ 
The following relation of their 
meals, taken from the third volume, 
we conceive qur readers will think 
fufiicient upon the fubject of Abyf- 
finian manners. g 
« When a man-can fay that he is 
Strabo, 
fate 
i 
