22 The Nile is the Nahal MitXraim, 



in that Situation, was known, 'till many Ages after the Time 

 of Jo/hua. Neither do we learn from Siraho, Mela, Ttoleinj, 

 TUny, or any other of the old Geographers, who have defcribed 

 thefe Parts, that any River or Torrent, after Rhinocorura was 

 built, did empty itfelf there into the Sea. Erato fihenes in- 

 deed, as he is quoted by Straho,fuppofes the Lakes of Arabia, 

 {made hy the o'verflowing of the Euphrates,) to empty them- 

 Jehes, hyfomefuiterraneousTaJfages, into the Rhers of Rhu 

 tioZ^noti^ocorura and Mount CaJJius. But Straho himfelf doubts " of 

 ]TJl^'"'"" the Veracity and Probability of this whole Account. For when 

 he comes to Ipeak exprefsly of the Geography of thefe Parts \ 

 and to enumerate the feveral remarkable Places, both upon 

 the Egyptian, and the Syrian Side of Rhinocorura, he does 

 not take the leaft Notice of a River ; a Circumftance too ma- 

 terial to have been omitted by fo accurate a Geographer as 

 Straho. 

 No River Sevcral Pilgrims like wife and Travellers, in their Way from 



taken Notice O 'J 



veiiJ7s ^'^' Egypt to the Holy Land, have travelled along thisCoaft ; fome 

 of whofe Journals and Memoirs have been made publick ; par- 

 ticularly thofe of Mr. Sandys. Yet both thefe and others, as 

 far as I can inform myfelf, are all filent in this Particular ; 

 which is fo far to be regarded in our Favour, that, provided 

 there had been any River in this dry and barren Situation, it 

 may well be prefumed, that the thirfty Traveller would have 

 recorded it with as much Exadnefs, as he would have tailed 

 of it with Pleafure. 

 Rhinocorura ]s[ay fo far was the whole Neighbourhood of Rhinocorura, 



fert, without at the Time of it's Foundation, (and we can fcarce admit of 

 any Alteration fince,) from affording the leaft Appearance of 

 a running Stream , or even of an occafional Torrent ; that 

 Diodorus Siculus, who of all the ancient Hiftorians, has left 

 us the beft and moft circumftantial Account of it, tells us, that 

 it was fituated in a barren Country, depri'ved of all the Ne- 

 ceffaries of Life : that, without the Walls, there were feveral 

 Salt Tits ; and that within, the Wells yielded only a hitter cor- 

 rupted Water ^ Herodotus * confirms this Account, by telling 



1 oJ» oTc/k y « wSrtrSj ^pitMi'. 1. id. p. yio. Ed. Cufaub. . 



2 Idem. p. J 22. 



3 Dkd. Bibl. p. f y. 



4 Herod. Thalia, p. 184, Ed. Steph. 



US, 



