zS APPENDIX. 



O fc \ •;»■. ;, ' j. u , ^^ 



BALESSAN, BALM, or BALSAM. 



THE great value fet upon this drag in the eaft re- 

 mounts to very early ages ; it is coeval with the India 

 trade for pepper, and the beginning of it confequently 

 loft in the darknefs j of the firft ages. We know from 

 fcripture, the oldeft, hiflory extant, as well as moft infallible, 

 that the Ifhmaelitesj or Arabian carriers and merchants, traf- 

 ficking with the India commodities into Egypt, brought with 

 them balm as part of the cargo with pepper ; but the price 

 that they paid for Jofeph was filver, and not a barter with 

 any of their articles of merchandife. 



Strabo alone, of all the ancients, hath given us the true 

 account of the place of its origin, "Near tothis, that hiftorian 

 " fays, is the moft happy land of the Sabeans, and they are 

 " a very great people. Among thefe, frankincenfe, myrrh, 

 and cinnamon grow, and in the coaft that is about Saba 

 " the bal(am alfo." Among the myrrh-trees behind Azab 

 4 all 



« 







