434 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



voyage been made with variable winds, no limited term of 

 years ever could have been obferved in its going and re- 

 turning. The fleet might have returned from Ophir in 

 two years, in three, four, pi five years ; but, with variable 

 winds, the return precifely in three years was not poffible, 

 wnatever part of the globe Ophir might be lituated in. 



Neither Spain nor Peru could be Ophir ; part of thefe- 

 voyages mud have been made by variable winds, and the 

 return confequently uncertain. The ifland of Ceylon, in the 

 Eaft Indies, could not be Ophir ; the voyage thither is indeed 

 made by monfoons, but we have mewed that a year is all 

 that can be fpent in a voyage to the Eaft Indies ; befides,. 

 Ceylon has neither gold nor lilver, though it has ivory. St. 

 Domingo has neither gold, nor filvcr, nor ivory. When the 

 Tyrians difcovered Spain, they found a profuiion of filver 

 in huge mailes, but this they brought to Tyre by the Me- 

 diterranean, and then fent it to the Red Sea over land to an- 

 fwer the returns from India. Tarfhifh, too, is not found 

 to be a port in any of thefe voyages, fo that part of the ■ 

 dcfcription fails, nor were there ever elephants^ bred in. 

 Spain. 



These mines- of Ophir were probably what furniilied die 

 Eaft with gold in the carlieil times ; great traces of exca- 

 vation muft, therefore, have appeared; yet in none of the 

 places juft mentioned are there great remains of any mines 

 that have been wrought. The ancient traces of filver-mines 

 in Spain are not to be found, and there never were any of 

 gold. John Dos Santos*, a Dominican friar, fays, that on 



the 



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* Vld. Voyage of Dos Santos, publifhcd by Le Grande* 



