RED SEA. 



way for Alexander's army, when God through him had de- 

 creed to overturn the Pcrfian empire." (Antiq. 1. ii. c. i6. 

 n. c. ) For this he appeals to all Alexander's hillorians ; 

 and, indeed, both Appian and Arrian, who relate the 

 event, feemed to have confidered it as a fort of divine inter- 

 pofition ; but honed Strabo tells us, tiiat Alexander only 

 took the advantage of low water ; and, trufting to liis good 

 fortune, paffed through the llreight with his army ; but not 

 on dry land ; for the water came up to the navel. (Strab. 

 1. xiv.) The fame was the cafe with Scipio's foldiers, who 

 furprifed New Carthage by taking the advantage of an ebb ; 

 .ilthough they waded fometimes up to the knee, at otlier 

 times up to the navel, in water. (Liv. 1. xxvi.) Here, 

 fays Geddes, the fame two natural caufes, the tide and a 

 Ilrong wind, concurred to make a pad'age through the water, 

 as concurred at the pad'age of the Red fea ; and in both 

 cafes they were converted into a miracle. Jofephus con- 

 eludes his narrative with thefe words. " Of fuch things, 

 let every one think as he plcafcs ;" and the author now cited 

 adopts his language. It has been faid, and thus the prieils 

 of Memphis explained the hiilory (fee Eufeb. Prsep. 1. iv. 

 c. 17.), that Mofes taking advantage of the time of the ebb, 

 led the Hebrews over in fafety ; but tiie Egyptians, not 

 knowing the nature of the fea, and eafily entering it juft be- 

 fore the return of the tide, were all fwallowed up and 

 drowned. 



In oppofition to all conjeftures for explaining this hif- 

 tory, without having recourfe to miracle, we lliali content 

 ourfelves with appealing to the hiftory itfelf, Exod. xiv. 

 16, 17, &c. from which it appears that the Hebrews tra- 

 verfed the fea from fhore to fhore, on a large fpace of dry 

 ground, which was left by the retiring waters ; and that 

 they were driven back to overwhelm the purfuing holt of 

 Pharaoh. See alfo Ifaiah, Ixiii. 1 1, &c. Habbakuk, iii. 15. 

 Wifdom of Sol. xix. 7, 8. x. 17, 18. 



It is thought, fays Calmet, after Eufebius, that the' place 

 where the Hebrews palled the Red fea, is two or three 

 leagues below its northern point, at the place called Kolfum, 

 or Clyfma. Niebuhr informs us that, every where on the 

 coall of Arabia, we meet with indications, that the waters 

 are withdrawn ; e. gr. Mufa, which ancient authors mention 

 as a port of Arabia, is now at many leagues diftance from 

 the fea ; near Loheia, and Gidda, we fee great hills filled 

 with the fame kind of fhells and corals, as are now found 

 living in the fea ; near Suez, are petrifications of all thefe 

 things. From thefe and fimilar circumftances he infers, that 

 fome thoufand years ago this Arabian gulf was much larger, 

 and extended much farther north, efpecially that arm of it 

 near Suez, for the (hore of this extremity of the gulf is very 

 low. The breadth of the arm of the fea at Suez, he adds, is 

 about 3450 or 3500 feet (in its prefent flate). Although 

 it would much fhorten the diftance of their way, no caravan 

 now crofles this arm, nor could the Ifraehtes have crofled it, 

 without a miracle. The attempt muft have been much more 

 difficult to the Ifraelites, fome thoufand years ago, the gulf 

 being then probably larger, deeper, and longer toward the 

 north, at the lowell time of the tide. Niebuhr croffed, 

 when returning from mount Sinai, that arm of the fea, over 

 to Kolfoum, upon his camel ; and the Arabs, who accom- 

 panied him, were only immerfed to their thighs in water. 

 The banks of the Red fea are pure fand from Suez to Gi- 

 rondel ; but lower to the fouth are banks of coral. If the 

 Ifraelites had crofted the fea upon fuch banks, they muft have 

 been greatly incommoded by them. 



The Red fea, notwithrtanding the difficulty and danger, 

 and alfo the tedioufnefs of its navigation, was, for many ages 

 before the difcovery of the paftage by the Cape of Good 



Hope, the channel of communication between Egypt and 

 other countries, bordering on the Mediterranean, and India. 

 Accordingly, Dr. Robertfon obfervcs, in his " Hiftorical 

 Difquifition concerning Ancient India," that navigation 

 made its firit efforts in the Mediterranean and the Arabian 

 gulf, and that in them the firft adlive operations of com- 

 merce were carried on. Nor are the accounts of the earlieO. 

 hiftorians in this rcfpeft at all improbable, if we confider 

 the pofition and form of thefe two great inland feas. They 

 lay open the continents of Europe, Afia, and Africa, and 

 fpreading to a great extent along the coafts of the moll fer- 

 tile and moft early civilized countries in each, feem to have 

 been deilined by nature to facilitate their communication 

 with one another. We find, accordingly, tliat the firft 

 voyages of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, the moft ancient 

 navigators mentioned in hiftory, were made in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and, moreover, by acquiring early polfeinon of 

 ports on the Arabian gulf, they extended the fphere of their 

 commerce, and are reprefented as the firit people of the 

 weft who opened a communication by fea with India. Se- 

 foftris, in the courfe of his reign (if we may give credit to 

 fome hiftorians), was able to fit out a fleet of 400 (hips in 

 the Arabian gulf, which conquered all the countries ftretch- 

 ing along the Erythrean fea to India. The Phoenicians, 

 who, by their lituatioii on the Mediterranean, and the im- 

 perfeft ftate of navigation, could not attempt to open a 

 dircft communication with India by fea, were prompted by 

 the enterprifing fpirit of commerce to wreft from the Idu- 

 means fome commodious harbours towards the bottom of 

 the Arabian gulf. From thefe they held a regular inter- 

 courfe with India on the one hand, and with the eaftern 

 and fouthern coafts of Africa on the other. The diftance, 

 liowever, from the Arabian gulf to Tyre was fo confider- 

 able, that it became neceflary for them to take poffeffion of 

 Rhinocolura, the nearcft port in the Mediterranean to the 

 Arabian gulf. Thither all the commodities brought from 

 India were conveyed over land by a route much ftiorter, and 

 more practicable, than that by which the produdlions of the 

 Eaft were carried at a fubfequent period from the oppofite 

 (hore of the Arabian gulf to the Nile. At Rhinocolura 

 they were reftiipped and tranfported by an eafy navigation to 

 Tyre, and diftributcd through the world. For an account 

 of the trade which the Jews carried on by the Red fea, we 

 refer to the articles Ophir and Tyre. For the manner in 

 which the Egyptians carried 011 their trade with India by 

 means of this gulf, fee Alexandria and Berenice. 



All the commercial tranfadlions of the ancients with the 

 Eaft were confined to the ports on the Malabar coaft, or at 

 the fartheft extended to the ifland of Ceylon. To thefe 

 ftaples, the natives of all the different regions in the eaftern 

 parts of Afia brought the commodities which were the 

 growth of their feveral countries, or the produft of their 

 ingenuity, in their own ved'els, and with them the fhips from 

 Tyre and from Egypt completed their inveftments. While 

 the operations of their Indian trade were carried on within 

 a fphere lo circumfcribed, the conveyance of a cargo by 

 the Arabian gulf, notwithftanding the expence of land-car- 

 riage, either from Elath to Rhinocolura, or acrofs the de- 

 fart to the Nile, was fo fafe and commodious, that the 

 merchants of Tyre and Alexandria had little reafon to be 

 folicitous for the difcovery of any .other. During the 

 period in which this mode of carrying on commerce fub- 

 iifted, the price of goods imported from India into Europe 

 was very much enhanced by the various operations to which 

 the conveyance of them was fubjedt. In Ceylon, or the 

 ports on the Malabar coail to which they were brought 

 from the various countries of Alia by the natives, they were 



put 



