EGYPT. 



Twdw go- 



vtronients. 



Pnmmeti- 



ata. 



ed down to us in the history of Palestine, where 185,000 

 men of Sennacherib's army were found ilead by MIMIC 

 sudden disaster. The better authenticated Jewish Ins- 

 tory would lead us to .suppose, that the story is the same, 

 but misapprehended and disguised in the obscurer annuls 

 of Egypt. The Babylonish Talmud supposes, that this 

 sudden destruction was brought upon the A - \ i ians by the 

 effect of lightning; while others are of opinion, that the dis- 

 aster was occasioned by the suinicl or hot wind of the de- 

 sert, which is known to be so destructive and so sudden in 

 its effects ; and this idea seems to correspond with the lan- 

 guage of our sacred books. " Behold I will send a blast 

 upon" Sennacherib, and he " shall return to his own land." 

 But to whatever cause we ascribe the destruction of Sen- 

 nacherib's army, it was equally the work of God ; for all 

 the parts and elements of nature minister to his will. 



For some time past there hud been a feebleness in the 

 government of Egypt. At one time the country had 

 been over-run and token possession of by an Ethiopian 

 adventurer: Tirhakah, a prince and warrior from Upper 

 Egypt, fought against Sennacherib, and appears to have 

 been n principal agent in driving him from the country; 

 Sethon seized u[>on the kingdom when there was no 

 powerful claimant to oppose his pretensions; and in short 

 there seems, about this time, to have been a period of 

 misrule, when no legitimate sovereign was invested with 

 full authority. 



Upon the death of Sethon, the kingdom of Egypt was 

 divided into twelve governments ; and each of them was 

 entrusted to a separate head. Nothing can be a more 

 decisive proof than this, that there was no lineal prince 

 to demand the throne ; or that for some malversations 

 in government, the reigning family had been dismissed 

 from the sovereign power. The twelve princes, to whom 

 the government was now entrusted, appear to have en- 

 tered upon their high office, with every resolution of con- 

 cord and public spirit ; but, like all common alliances, 

 the harmonious union was soon dissolved. 



Psammeticus, one of the twelve, was soon raised to 

 the sovereign power, and his colleagues were overthrown. 

 The story runs, of an oracle having asserted, that if any 

 of the twelve governors should offer a sacred libation in 

 a brazen helmet, that person should ascend to the sove- 

 reign power. The story adds, that upon n fcstiral of 

 Vulcan, when all the twelve governors were to offer liba- 

 tions to the god, eleven vessels through mistake were 

 nly provided, upon which Psammeticus presented his 

 libation with his own helmet of brass. The prediction of 

 the oracle was remembered ; and Psammeticus claimed 

 the sovereign power. 



This elevation of Psammeticus to the throne of Egypt, 

 we presume to be contingent rather in appearance than 

 in reality ; for it was more probably a scheme, that was 

 concerted for restoring him to the kingdom of his fathers. 

 He was the son of Nechus, whom Sabacco, an Egyptian 

 mvader, first dethroned, and then put to death ; and his 

 pretensions to the throne appear to have been neglected 

 during the troublesome and unsettled period, which has 

 just been described. The claim of the ancient royal fa- 

 mily in the person of Psammeticus would naturally be 

 supported by the priests, who were the nobles and here- 

 ditary counsellors of state. If the story of the helmet be 

 not a fiction, it was probably contrived beforehand by 

 the friends of Psammeticus, to be a signal for a power- 

 ful rising and declaration in his favour, as the destined 

 sovereign of Egypt. 



But he seems to have required the aid of foreign power History, 

 to place or establish him upon his throne; and his reign **""" """" 

 was distinguished by an intercourse and fiicndship with 

 I lie soldiers of Egypt, who are said to ha\e 

 retired in disgust into Ethiopia, were probably the ad- 

 herents of the eleven governors whom Psammeticus had 

 deprived of their |H>WCI, and the remaining support! 

 the surreptitious kings, who hud reigned helu-cen them 

 and his father Ncchus. The restoration of the legiti- 

 mate family appears to have been the means of reino 

 the factious and discontented from the bounds of tin- 

 kingdom. Psammeticus, in order to be more secure lion 

 the dangers of intestine commotions, retired to a 

 dence near Bubastis, on the 1'elu.sian branch of the ' 

 and, by cultivating commerce, he enriched the nation. He- 

 was not a warlike prince, for the siege of Azotus em- 

 ployed all his force for the space of twenty-nine years ; 

 and it is not certain, that he ever obtained it. Fearing the 

 warlike Scythians, he entered into an alliance with thut 

 nation, and was rather desirous of peace than war. lit 

 was the first prince who introduced wine into Egypt, 

 and he attempted to discover the source of the Nile, 

 us it has been reported, he brought up two children from 

 their infancy, till they could distinctly articulate wiihou 1 

 having heard a human voice, in order that he n 

 discover the language which is natural to man. it this 

 be not a fiction, it was an evidence of a vain imagina- 

 tion rather than a sound judgment ; for whatever was 

 the first language of the human race, it could not be the 

 effect of any natural organic tendency to speak one lan- 

 guage rather than another. I'sammeticus commenced 

 his reign 679 years before the Christian eia. 



His son Nechus succeeded him on the throne, who Nechiu. 

 was called in scripture Pharaoh Necho. He prosecuted B. C. 617. 

 with vigour the system of navigation, which some of his 

 predecessors had begun ; and, by the assistance of Phoe- 

 nician sailors, he not only investigated the coasts of the 

 Mediterranean ; but fitting out a fleet in the Red Sea, 

 passed through the Straits of Babehnande!, doubled the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Egypt through the 

 Straits of Gibraltar. Owing to inexperience in naval af- 

 fairs, this voyage, which could now be performed in three 

 months, cost the Egyptians as many years. Notwith- 

 standing what has been said to the contrary, there is no 

 reason to doubt, the authority of Hwodotiis. who men- 

 tions this navigation ; for in those early times the Phoeni- 

 cians sailed to Britain for obtaining tin; Hanno establish- 

 ed colonies on the western coast of Africa; Syclax came 

 from the Indus to the Red Sea; Nearchus passed from the 

 Indus to the Euphrates; and the fleets of Solomon made 

 long voyages, in search of gold and precious merchandize. 

 His expectations by land were no less enterprising and 

 grand. He made war upon the Medes and Babylonians, 

 who, according to Josephus, had jointly overthrown the 

 Assyrian throne ; but we are rather authorised to assert, 

 that he carried his arms against the Assyrian king him- 

 self. Josiah, who was then king of Judah, and in friend- 

 ship with Assyria, refused to let Nechus pass through 

 his kingdom ; wherefore a battle was fought, in the val- 

 ley of Megiddo, between him and the king of Egypt, 

 when Josiah was wounded, so that he died. Pharaoh 

 Necho, marching on to the banks of the Euphrates, took 

 the great city of Carchemish; and having occupied it 

 with a garrison, and made various important arrange- 

 ments, he returned toward Egypt. Jeliuahaz had as- 

 sumed the royal dignity at Jerusalem upon the death of 



