APPENDIX. 19 



The Iihmaelites, or Arabian carriers, loaded their camels 

 at the mouth of the Red Sea with pepper and myrrh. For 

 reafons not now known to us, they went and completed their 

 cargo with balfam at Gilead, fo that, contrary to the authori- 

 ty of Jofephus, nothing is more certain, than 1730 years be- 

 fore Chrift, and 1000 years before the queen of Saba cam© 

 to Jerufalem, the balfam- tree had been tranfplanted from 

 Abyffinia into Judea, and become an article of commerce 

 there, and the place from which it originally was brought, 

 through length of time, combined with other reafons, came 

 to be forgotten. 



* 



THEOPHRASTUs,Diofcorides, Pliny, Solinus,and Serapion 

 all fay that this balfam came only from judea. The words 

 of Pliny are, " But to all other odours whatever, the balfam 

 " is preferred, produced in no other part but the land of 

 " Judea, and even there in two gardens only ; both of 

 " them belonging to the king, one no more than twen- 

 ty acres, the other ftill fmaller*." 



a 



At this time T fuppofe it got its name of Balfamum Ju- 

 •daicum, or, Balm of Gilead, and thence became an article 

 in merchandife and fifcal revenue, which probably occa- 

 sioned the difcouragement of bringing it any more from 

 Arabia, whence it very probably was prohibited as contra* 

 band. We fhall fuppofe thirty acres planted with this tree 

 would have produced more than all the trees in Arabia do 

 at this day. Nor does the plantation of Beder Hunein 

 Vol. V. E amount 



* PKn. Nat. Hift. lib. xii. cap. 25. 



