THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 442 



lineated by Dr Halley, he was daggered upon confidcring 

 that the whole diftance, which employed a veffel in Solo- 

 mon's time for three years, was a thoufand leagues, fcarce- 

 ly more than the work of a month. He, therefore, fuppofes, 

 that the reafon of delay was owing to the imperfection of 

 the veflels, and goes into very ingenious calculations, rea- 

 fonings, and conclufions thereupon. He conjectures, there- 

 fore, that the mips employed by Solomon were what he 

 calls junks* of the Red Sea, made of papyrus, and covered 

 with hides or leather. 



Pliny f had faid, that one of thefe junks of the Red Sea 

 was twenty days on a voyage, which a Greek or Roman 

 veffel would have performed in feven ; and Strabo % had 

 faid the fame thing before him. 



This relative ilownefs, or fwiftnefs, will not folve the dif- 

 ficulty. For, if thefe junks || were the veffels employed to 

 Ophir, the long voyage, much more they would have been 

 employed on the fhort one, to and from India j now they 

 performed this within a year, which was all a Roman or 

 Greek veflel could do, therefore this was not the caufc. 

 Thofe employed by Solomon were Tyrian and Idumean vef- 

 fels, the beft mips and failers of their age. Whoever has 

 feen the prodigious fwell, the violent currents, and flrong 

 fouth-weftcrs beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb, will not 

 need any argument to permade him, that no veflel made of 

 papyrus, or leather, could live an hour upon that fea. The 



Vol. I. 3 K junks,, 



: ' Vide L'Efprit des Loix, liv. xxi. cap. 6. p. 476. + Plin. lib. vi. cap. 22. % Strabo, lib. xv 

 j[I ksow there are contrary opinions, and the junks might have been yanous. \ ide Salm.. 



