ANCIENT VOYAGES TO OPHIR. 55 



ships sent out by King Solomon must have been equipped 

 with it, because it is no more than reasonable to assume 

 that Solomon's wisdom included such valuable knowledge. 

 On the other hand, remarks the old chronicler, 1 relaxing 

 his gravity for the sake of the pun, u Solomon had all 

 the knowledge necessary to Morall, Politike and' saving 

 wisdom, and to the end for which God gave him so large 

 a heart. But the sea hath bounds, and so had Solomon's 

 wisdom. Somewhat was left for John Baptist to be 

 greater than he, or any borne of women. Neither was the 

 knowledge of the compass necessary to Solomon, who, 

 without it, could and did compass the gold of Ophir." 



The fact that Phoenician vessels went to this Ophir was 

 also deemed another good reason for believing the needle 

 to have been on them; this, mainly, because no one could 

 say definitely where Ophir was, and hence nothing was 

 easier than to insist that its situation lay at the very ends 

 of the earth, whither ships could not possibly find their 

 way unaided. Thus, some writers place Ophir in Peru, 

 others at the extremities of India, from which last place 

 the traveler Bruce removed it. 2 The geographer D'An- 

 ville 3 subsequently found a suitable situation for it in "the 

 Kingdom of Sofaula," in Africa. 



Finally, however, the chroniclers concluded it to be safer 

 to rest upon the tradition that it took Solomon's ships 

 three years to go to Ophir (wherever it was) and return; 

 hence, on the chronological argument only, they insisted 

 that the distance must have been vast. But Huet, 4 Bishop 

 of Avranches, disposed of this inference by explaining that 

 the first year was used for the outward voyage and the 

 second for the return, and the third for laying up and re- 

 pairing the ships; and then he adds with much wisdom, 



1 Purchas, his Pilgrims, i, \ 8. 



2 Bruce : Travels in India. Book II., Chap. IV. 



3 Venanson : De 1'Invention de la Boussole Nautiqtie, Naples, 1808. 



4 Huet : Des Navigations de Solomon, c. 8, 3. 



