24 Before Chrift 1012-— 975. 



The great intercourfe of trade and friendfiiip, which Solomon had 

 with the firrt commercial people in the vveftern world, infpired him 

 with a ftrong delire to participate in the advantages of trade. His fa- 

 ther's conquefts had extended his territories to the Red fea, and given 

 him the poITeffion of a good harbour, from which fhips might be dif- 

 patched to the rich countries of the South and the Eafl. But his own 

 fubjeds being totally ignorant of the arts of building and navigating 

 veflels *, he again had recourfe for advice and afliftance to his friend 

 Hiram. The king of Tyre, who wifted for an opening to the oriental 

 commerce, the articles of which his fubjects were obliged to receive at 

 fecond hand from the Arabians, as much as Solomon wanted nautical 

 afliftance, appears to have readily entered into his views, and to hav€ 

 propofed a trading adventure on a large fcale to be carried on by the 

 two kings in partnerfliip, or at leaft in concert. Accordingly Tyrian 

 carpenters were fent to build veflels for both kings at Eziongeber, So- 

 lomon's port on the Red fea, whither Solomon himfelf alfo went to ani- 

 mate the workmen by his prefence. 



Solomon's fliips, conducted by Tyrian navigators, failed in company 

 with thofe of Hiram to fome rich countries called Ophir and Tarfliifli, 

 upon the pofition of which the learned have multiplied conjectures to 

 very little purpofe f . The voyage required three years to accomplifti 

 it ; yet, notwithftanding the length of the time employed in it, the re- 

 turns in this new-found trade were prodigioufly great and profitable, 

 confifting of gold, filver, precious ftones, valuable woods, ivory, and 

 fome exotic animals, as apes and peacocks. We have no information 

 concernir,g the articles exported in this trade : but it cannot be doubt- 

 ed that the manufactures of the Tyrians, and probably the goods im- 

 ported by them from other countries, were aflbrted with the corn, wine, 

 balm, and oil, of Solomon's own dominions, in making up the outward 



* See the note in />/). 13,1.}. gold, and returned home by the Mcih'tcrraiieaii. 



-f Ophir has been fearehcd for in almoft every But, as the fliips appear to have been deftined to 



part of Alia and Africa, and fome have let their continue in tlie fame y ade, like the modern Eaft- 



fancy run fo wild as even to wander to Peru in India fliips, thofe authuis feem not to have well 



South America, in the name of which they find a conlidered how tliey were to get them into the 



rtfenr.blance ot Ophir ! They might have found Red fea again, after fniifiiing tlieir voyage at the 



a much clofer refcmblance in that of Orphir in the tall end of the Mediterranean, in order to begin 



Orkney iflands. The word was probab'y not the their next voyage. Bruce more rationally fup- 



proper name of any country, but an appellative pofes Tarfliifli to have been on the cad coait: of 



I'lgnitying gold mines ; and In th.at iignlfication it Africa, where he fays the name llil! remains ; 



i» nov/ uftd ill Sumatra and Malacca, as we are which, though true, is no proof of its being the 



told by the jihilofophi'c traveler Lc Poivrc. Many place vifitcil by thofe navigators. I fay nothing 



arc quite certain, that the fouth part of Spain, of the improbability of the Tyrians, whatever 



then abounding in gold, was Tarlhifli ; and they friendfliip their king might have for Solomon, per- 



find their proof in the name of TartefTiis or Tar- initting him to get any footing in, or even know- 



fi9, which properly belonged to the idand formed letfc of, their fettleineiits in Spain. See Purchas's 



by the two mouti.a of the Bxtis, and was imprc- J'i/^riiiifs, Part /, BaoL i, c. I, § 8 — 12. — Bochart, 



pcrly given by Grecian and Roman writers to C/juii. co/. 606. — Alan, ke /il/er. T. i:\x, p. ()0. — 



Carteia and Ga.lir. There, fay they, Solomon's Biiicc''s Travels, V, i, p. 433. 



(hips, having failed round all Africa, took in their 4 



