Chap. I.] 



rOIXT DE GALLE. 



101 



A careful perusal of the Scripture narrative suggests 

 the conclusion, that there were two places at least to 

 which the Phoenicians traded, each of which bore the 

 name of Tarshish : one to the north-west, whence they 

 brought tin, iron, and lead ; and another to the east, 

 which supplied them with ivory and gold. Bochart was 

 not the first who rejected the idea of the latter being 

 situated at the mouth of tlie Guadalquiver ; and intimated 

 that it must be sought for in the direction of India ; but 

 he was the first who conjectured tliat Opliir was Koudra- 

 malie, on the north-west of Ceylon, and that the Eastern 

 Tarshish must have been somewhere in the vicinity of 

 Cape Comorin.^ His general inference was correct and 

 irresistible from the tenor of tlie sacred writings ; but 

 from want of topographical knowledge, Bochart was in 

 error as to tlie actual locahties. Gold is not to be found 

 at Koucbamalie ^ ; and Comorin being neither an island 

 nor a place of trade, does not correspond to the require- 

 ments of Tarshish. Subsequent investigation has served 

 to estabhsh the claim of Malacca to be the golden land of 

 Solomon^, and Tarshish, which lay in the track between 

 the Arabian Gulf and Ophir, is recognisable in the great 

 emporium of Ceylon. 



The ships intended for the voyage were built by 

 Solomon at " Ezion-geber on the shores of the Eed Sea,"^ 

 the rowers ^ coasted along the shores of Arabia and the 

 Persian Gulf", headed by an east wind.'' Tarshish, the 



' BociTAiiT, Geogr. Sao: Phaleg. 

 lib. ii. cL. 27, "forte ad promonto- 

 riuni Cor)'." Ibid., Canaan, lib. i. ch. 

 xlvi. 



2 No inference bearing on this in- 

 qniry is to be drawn from the cir- 

 cumstance that tlie Tamil names for 

 Cejdon are " Ham " which signifies 

 fiohl, and '' Ila-nadu " the island of 

 Ham, which the Portuguese cor- 

 rupted into " Ilanare." (De Couto, 

 dec. V. ch. V. tom. i. pt. li. p. 40.) 

 It was called Ham in conformitv 

 ■with a legend, which says that the 

 island was formed by tliree peaks, 

 from the mythical mountain of the 

 golden Meru, whirli were flung into 



the sea in a conflict between Sesha, 

 the great sei-pent which encompasses 

 the earth, and ^'asu Deva, the god 

 of the A\ands. See Casie Chiity's 

 Gazetteer, vol. i. p. 59. 



^ Malacca is the Aurea Chersone- 

 sus of the later Greek Geogi'aphers, 

 and "ophir^' in the language of the 

 Malays, is the generic term for any 

 "gold mine." — 1 Kings x. 11, and 

 2 Chron. ix. 21. 



* 1 Kings ix. 20. 



^ Ezekiel xxvii. 20, 



° By Sheba in Arabia Felix and 

 Dedan at tlie entrance of the Persian 

 Gulf. — Ezekiel xxxviii. l.'>. 



■^ Ezekiel xxvii. 20 : Psl. xlviii. 7. 



11 3 



