OPHIR. 
obvious, that Mr. Bruce has accommodated the circum- 
e n of this fu Epos voyage to his pre- 
d after d 
os of the dire€tion and period o 
Mr. Bruce, when the 
found to accurately ag 
The latt hypothelis which we fhall notice, a oa that 
the fleet of Solomon, in its voyage to Ophir Tarfhifh, 
aCtually failed round the Cape of cea Hope, and 
came to Joppa, by the Mediterranean. This hypothefis is 
Huet: he thinks that Ophir was a general 
pal 
that coaft in the neighbourhood of ved mout 
Guadalquivir, : ered pe in raines of filver ; he alfo 
maintains that ape of ope was known, often 
frequented, ae doubled j in Solomon’ s time, and for many 
hele ee eile of Commerce and Navigation, 
Pt 
groland he fuppofes to have been the places vifited by Solo- 
mon’s fleet. In fupport of this aan - pete however, 
but weak and fantaftical arguments. them is, that 
the Hebrew words, which fignify du/ aoe oe make up the 
etymon of Ophir; and as gold duit it principally is found in 
uinea, and Eliphaz in his exhortation to Job, tells him he 
fhall lay up gold as duft, and the gold of Ophir as the ftones 
of the brooks, he infers that Ophir is to be fought for in 
a: another of hie proofs is drawn from the circumftance 
that epee caee is ufed among the negroes of the Gold 
1 may have been introduced here by the 
Hebrew 
a Dr. 
mar fchool at Stirling, and the autho: aE the 
letters, odreffed to lord Kames, on the 
great plenty; but that the Ophir of Solomon was not, as 
r. Bruce maintains, fituated on the fouth-eaft coaft of 
‘Africa, becaufe the fleet, inthe very fame ee touched 
at Tarfhifh, which lay in a very different quarte 
In order, therefore, to afcertain the {cite of Ophir, Dr 
Dr. Doig c 
olomon. This lace, according to him, 
was fituated in oe in that part of it in which Huet places 
it; vid. in Spani cetica, near the ae ie the idee 
-quivir, Ita rs from Ifaiah and Eze that the mer- 
chants of Tarlhith cua in the markets oF Tyre with ‘filver, 
iron, lead, and tin; and Jeremiah exprefily fays, ‘ filver {pread 
into plates is 
aes 
is neigh- 
bourhood were a lake and city of the fame name. Dr. og 
next proceeds to prove that Tarteffus and Tarfhifh are the 
very fame name; the Phoenicians changing the /chin into thau, 
made the latter word Tartifh. 
Having thus fixed the fituation of Tarfhifh, Dr. Doi 
next proceeds to afcertain the pofition of Ophir. 
concludes to have been on the coatt 
to 
Africa, merely for the a of trading at Tarfhifh, but 
as they did not find gold on this coaft they were obliged to 
double the Cape, and then it was more eafy to proceed home 
by Tarfhith, than ae the route according to which they came. 
After having completed their cargo at this latter place, Dr. 
oig fuppofes a fies failed for Joppa; and that the next 
voyage was reverfed, i. e. they firit vifited Tarfhith in Spain, 
then Guinea, and is doubled the Cape, and returned along 
the eaftern coaft of Africa, and up the Red fea, to Ezion- 
geber. 
Both Dr. Doig, and the writer in the Gentleman’s Ma- 
gazine, endeavour to fupport their opinion, that the fleet of 
Solomon circumnavigated Africa, by the account which He- 
rodotus gives of the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope, 
which was performed during the reign of Necho, king of 
Egypt. According to this hiftorian, the fleet fent 
that monarch was navigated by Pheenician Aiete ; it failed 
from a port in the Red fea ; ned the ftrai 
iftant erie in thofe times, and yet fo certainly true, 
that it alone proves that Africa had been circumnavigated, 
or at leaft that the voyage had been profecuted beyond the 
line. we imagine, a little refleGion on this voyage 
which is mentioned by Herodotus, will convince us that it 
rather makes againft, than for the truth of the opinion, that 
the Cape was doubled in Solomon’ 8 me As the Pheeni- 
e they were employed b 
perenne: round Africa in es rei 
dotus mentions, took 
Solomo 
ave partic 
feat Thadows falling on their right ; nor would 
rodotus 
from this voya 
cumftance of 
