CHAP. II. 



EGYPT AND NUBIA. 55 



the gallery is an apartment in which is repre- 

 sented the king himself, curiously carved and 

 painted in glorious colours, offering to the gods 

 gold and silver as much as he received yearly 

 out of the gold and silver mines. The sum was 

 inscribed there, and amounted to thirty-two mil- 

 lions of minas, according to the rate of silver." 

 If the mina here stated means a weight of the 

 same value as the Attic mina, viz., 3. 2*. 6d., 

 the annual product of the mines must have 

 amounted to the enormous sum of nearly six 

 millions sterling. 



Whether this exaggeration is to be ascribed 

 to the vanity of the Egyptian monarch who 

 caused the inscription to be made, or to the 

 credulity which is too obvious to mislead in 

 many parts of the works of Diodorus, who visited 

 Egypt fifty years before Christ, there can be no 

 doubt but the produce of the mines of that 

 country, and of the others whose gold and silver 

 were deposited there, far exceeded the quantity 

 which was drawn from all the mines of the then 

 known world in subsequent ages, down to the 

 discovery of America. 



This view of the great produce of the African 

 mines is strengthened by other considerations* 

 such as the numbers and the treatment of the 

 persons who were employed in the mines of 

 those countries. Diodorus informs his readers 



