4 3 4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



ved in friendfhip with feveral cfteemed the mofl knowing- 

 and learned among them, and I am perfuaded, as far as they 

 knew, they told me the truth. 



The account they give of themfelves, which is fupported 

 only by tradition among them, is, that they came with Me^ 

 nilek from Jerufalem, fo that they agree perfectly with the 

 Abyffinians in the ftory of the queen of Saba, who, they fay,- 

 was a Jewefs, and her nation Jews before the time of Solo-^ 

 mon ; that fhe lived at Saba, or Azaba, the myrrh and frank- 

 incenfe country upon the Arabian Gulf. They fay further, 

 that fhe went to Jerufalem, under protection of Hiram king 

 of Tyre, whofe daughter is laid in the xlvth Pfalm to 

 have attended her thither; that fhe went not in fhips, nor 

 through Arabia, for fear of the Ilhmaelites, but from Azab 

 round by Mafuah and Suakem, and was efcorted by the 

 Shepherds, her own fubjects, to Jerufalem, and back again* . 

 making ufe of her own country vehicle, the camel, and that 

 her's was a white one, of prodigious frze andexquifite beau-*- 



They agree alfo, in every particular, with the Abyffinians^ 

 about the remaining part of the ftory, the birth and inaugura- 

 tion of Menilek, who was their firft king; alfo the coming, 

 of Azarias, and twelve elders from the twelve tribes, and o- 

 ther doctors of the law, whofe pofterity they deny to have erer 

 apoftatifed to Chriftianity, as the Abyffinians pretend they 

 did at the conversion. They fay, that, when the trade of 

 the Red Sea fell into the hands of-ftrangers^and all com- 

 munication was fhut up between ther ( Jerufalem, the 

 cities were abandoned, and the inhabitants relinquifhed the 

 cbaft; that they weie the inhabitants- of thefe cities, 1 



trade 



