Before Chrift 1728 — 1491- 9 



they brought them out of Egypt, or procured them on their journey, 

 muft have been obtained from the fouthcrn Arabians, who imported 

 fome of them from India and Africa, and raifed others of them in their 

 own country. [Exodus, c. 30.] 



From detached notices, coUeded at very diftant intervals of time, it 

 appears that the fouthern Arabs were eminent traders, and enjoyed at 

 all times a very confiderable proportion, but moft generally the entire 

 monopoly, of the trade between India and the weftern world from the 

 earliefl ages, till the antient fyftem of that moft important commerce 

 was totally overturned, when the Europeans found a dire6l route to In- 

 dia by the Cape of Good Hope. 



17 1 5 — Jofeph, from being a flave and a prifoner, was advanced to 

 be the prime minifter of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Having laid up the 

 redundant corn produced in feven years of plenty in the royal granaries, 

 he afterwards fold it out to the people during feven years of famine, 

 whereby the whole money of the nation, afterwards the cattle, then the 

 lands, and at laft even the people themfelves, became the property of 

 the king. The fcarcity being general in all the neighbouring coun- 

 tries, Jofeph brought the whole of his father's family with all their nu- 

 merous retinue to fettle in Egypt. 



I 707 — About this time we find inns eftabliflied for the accommoda- 

 tion of travelers in Egypt and in the northern parts of Arabia ; and, 

 we may prefume, the more civilized fouthern part of the peninfula could 

 not be deftitute of the fame accommodation. This fuppofes a confi- 

 derable intercourfe between diftant countries : and it may be prefumed, 

 that a great proportion of the travelers were traders. The inn-keepers 

 feem to have furniflied only houfe-room, and perhaps beds ; for we 

 find, even long after this time, that travelers carried their own provi- 



fions with them, and alfo provender for their beafts. [Genefis, c. 42 



Exodus, c. 4 — yudges, c. 19.] Herodotus afcribes the firft ufe of inns 

 or taverns to the Lydians. But the Greeks, even after the age of that 

 father of their hiftory, knew very little of the affairs of any country at a 

 confiderable diftance from their own. 



1689 — Jacob (or Ifrael) in his dying benediction to his fons men- 

 tions ' an haven of JJj'ips' [Genejis^ c. 49.] The ufe of thefe words 

 in metaphorical language, and by a perlon who pafled his life at a 

 diftance from the fea, fliews, that navigation was much praclifed. 

 and familiarly known, in the eaftern parts of the Mediterranean. 

 Some Grecian poets in their inconfiftent fables have, however, af- 

 cribed the honour of the invention of navigation lo their own coun- 

 trymen. 



1 706-1491 — During the refidence of the Ifraelites in Egypt, manu- 

 fadures of almoft every kind were carried on in that comparativclv-por 



Vol. I. B ■ 



