OPHIR. 
cious ftones, and things of = eu value”? Ancient 
oe Hiftory, vol. iv. 
ner the ” efiatic 
iflands, and proved how little foundation there is for any of 
them, even on the fuppofition that Ophir and Tharfhifh were 
ead on the fame voyage ; that Tharfhifh was not the Thar- 
fhifh of Cilicia, but a much more diftant and lefs known 
voyage to Ophir and Tharfhifh; we fhall now 
ftate, and confider that clafs of ee which look for 
rica and Europe. 
furno omm 
Notices MSS 
ae 
This opmion is ftrongly a area fuppor ted by D’An- 
i in his mee oe es Pays pe hir, publifhed in 
e Memoires de Literature, tom . p. 83, ut 
it has received ie mott pay and eee elucidation seh 
Bruce, in the fe me book of his Travels, c. 4, who 
aa Robertfon, (Hiftorical Dilquifi ion 
t will, therefore, be proper 
cones this hypotheli, as ea and elucidated - 
Bruce, at fome length 
ommences his 5 inveltigations and reafonings on this 
fubjedt, by laying down three pofitions; 1ft. That the trade 
to Ophir was carried on = the Elanitic gulf, Gemcn the 
Indian ocean; 2dly. ’ i 
gdly. That the time occupied in this voyage in going to 
Ophir, and returning from it, was precifely three eae: 
out how the mon 
Tete; from this place, he eee 
arly 200 miles into the interior of the country, where he 
law gold miacs working at a place called Afura 3 full far- 
country, he underftood that the five: mines of 
Chicoua were fituated: at both places vid were appear- 
anees of the mines having been wrought for a long feries of 
years, and large remains of mafly but He 
r. Bruce fuppofes, that the fleet of Solomon left Ezion- 
geber in the month of June; at this feafon of the year the 
iged is ‘aeclor 
bie near it, ech was afterwards 
tium ere it was detained 
till the month of November, bit during this ftay, Mr. Bruce 
{uppofes, that Bea frankincenfe, and myrrh were 
chafed, as part of t 
this was seat favourable. to the fleet, the 
courle of ‘which w 
quently, direétly in the teeth of the thips. This change in 
the wind compelled the feamen to put into port ; and at this 
place, near Melinda, a city or diftri@ is aed, called 
Tarfhifh; this Mr. Bruce confiders 9 a a itron corrobora- 
ple by a me was given it by that 
an. ye the ne whence they ree their origin. At 
this place, which Mr. Bruce fuppofes to have been Tar- 
fhifh, the fleet were obliged to ftay till the month of April 
of the fecond year; at the end of that month, or towards the 
beginning of May, the wind comes round to the north-eatt, 
rob 
ae it left T'arfhifh. As the north-eaft monfoon continues 
from May till October, the fleet would be detained all this 
time at Sofala; in the beginning of November, the fouth- 
welt monfoon fets in, and with this it fails on its return to 
the Red fea. This monfoon, Mr. Bruce fuppofes, would . 
carry it as far as Melinda or Tarfhifh, when the north-eaft 
meet it, and would 
gives way to a fouth- would carry it up 
into the emits gulf towards the end of December of the 
third yv 
Seine afide all objections io this ingenions mode of ex. 
plaining and defending his hypothefis, founded on the 
on 
opinion, which we have a ready repeatedly ftated, that there 
is no evidence that T'arfnifh was vifited during t the voyage to 
Ophir, or that the voyage occupied three years, it is too 
obvious, 
