14 Before Chrift, about 1300. 



wards marched northward with his land forces, and conquered, or ra- 

 ther overran, the various nations in his way, tiU he crofled over into 

 Europe, and terminated his expedition in Thrace, the hardy natives of 

 which he was not able to bring under his yoke. In his return he fettl- 

 ed a colony of his Egyptians at Colchis, the country which was after- 

 wards rendered famous in poetry by the expedition of the Argonauts. 

 This colony retained the fwarthy complexion and crifped hair of the 

 Egyptians, and alfo the language and cuftoms, the arts and manufadures, 

 of Egypt, in the days of Herodotus, who particularly notices their art- 

 ful reprefentation of the figures of animals upon their clothes, the co- 

 lours of which remained as long as the fluff lafted ; and linen, a manu- 

 facture almoft peculiar to the Egyptians, retained its charader among 

 the Colchians even in the time of the emperor Tiberius. [Herod. L. i, 

 c. 203 ; ii, 103, 104 — Diod. Sic. L. i — Strabo, L. \\, p. 762.] 



In every country which Sefoflris fubdued, he ereded monuments, 

 with infcriptions engraved upon them, relating his vidories, fome of 

 which, remaining in Syria, were feen by Herodotus. He alio fet up 

 other columns, which particularly deferve attention in the prefent 

 work, becaufe on them his artifts, improving upon the geometrical 

 knowlege introduced by Myris, engraved maps of the countries conquer- 

 ed by him. That which was at ^a, the capital of Colchis, is faid to 

 have exhibited not only the form of the land and the fea, but even the 

 very roads *. [Appolon. Rhod. Jrgonaitt. L. vi, v. 272.] 



[/,. ii, cc. 96, 175] and from every pafTiige where- names ; whence this great king, who makes fo 



in he has occafioii to fpeak of their managers of confpicuous a figure in hillory, does not appear at 



veffels, it is fufficicntly evident, that they were not all in the catalogue of Egyptian kings made up by 



fcafaring men, but mere frcih-water failors, or Eratolliicnes, which is with good reafon eileemed 



boatmen, employed in working the numerous river- the moft corred with refpett to the chronology of 



craft \ipon the Nile. As to the fuppofcd com- Egypt. 



merce of the Hebrews, Jofephus, himfelf a Hebrew, After carefully confidering all that I could find 



plainly atTcrts, that the autient Hebrews, being upon the fubjed, and collediug materials almoll 



remole from the Jca, were content with the produce fufficient for an antieiit hillory of Egypt, that 1 



of their own fertile foil, and did not go from home might come as near the truth as poffibk in the 



in qucft of riches or conquerts. He adds, (in per- dale of the firft effays \\\ geography, (a fcience in 



fcdt agreement with the very firll chapter of He- which I have taken pleafure almoll from my in- 



rodotus) that in the early ages merchandize was fancy) I tefolvcd to abide by the tellimony of 



carried to and from Egypt by the Phosnicians, Herodotus, who fays, [Z. ii, cc. 113 — 1 16] that 



who ploughed the vaft fcas in their tnding voy- a king, whofe name in Greek was Proteus, who 



ages, and that it was by their means that the reigned when Alexander (or Paris) carried off 



Egyptians, and other nations, became known to Helen from Spaila, ajid alio when Meiielaus ar- 



ihe Greeks. S^Jriftph. contra /ip'ion. L. i.] — Thefe rived in Egypt after the dcllruilion of Troy, was 



unqutllionable antient authorities are furely fuffi- the immediate fuccedor of Phcron, (called by Stra- 



cient to prove, tiiat the Egyptians were not navi- bo Pfammitichus) who was the fon and immediate 



gator«, and (lill lefs the Hebrews, whofc naval en- fucceffor of Scfollris. Therefor Sefollris could 



terprifcs never went beyond fifliing with a boat not be much above a century before the fall of 



upon a lake, and who fcarcely ever poflefied a bit Troy, which is dated 1,184 yf^'"^ before Cliriil. 



of fcacoaft. According to Apollonius Rhodius, the expedition 



• Ciironologcrs differ many centuries in the of Scfollns was prior of that of the Argonauts, 



zra of this renowned conqueror. 'I'lic difficulty the rnoft. probable a:ra of whieii is about 1,266. 



is incrcafcd by the prodigious liberty takcji by Sefollris was pollcrior to Myris, or Mocris, whofc 



anticut writers in tranllating and perverting death was not quite 9CO years before the journey 



