238 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



While at Zanzibar, I asked one of the best-informed Arabs, whether 

 he knew of any place bearing a name similar to Ophir: he at once 

 mentioned " Thofar or Dhofar," a well-known town on the southern 

 coast of Arabia. He found no resemblance in the word to ' Zofal' or 

 Sofala; a country of which he had often heard, and which an Arab 

 then in town, had visited. On reflection, it has appeared to me, that 

 Dhofar may very well have been tlie limit of the voyages of Solo- 

 mon's ships ; taking into account the monsoons, and especially the 

 length of time subsequently occupied by Darius's Expedition from 

 the Indus to the head of the Red Sea.* 



ARMENIANS. 



Of all Orientals, the Armenians, next to the Jews, are most fre- 

 quently to be met with in the society of Europeans. They do not 

 occupy much space in history; but it seems a remarkable circum- 

 stance, that without any decided distinctive traits, they should have 

 preserved their nationality from remote antiquity. 



My acquaintance with Armenians, commenced at Singapore; and 

 from their European costume, their florid complexion, their manners 

 and familiar use of the language, I did not at first suspect them to be 

 other than English. They were engaged in commerce, and some of 

 them had acquired great wealth. The Armenian church gave evi- 

 dence of a taste for architecture, that seemed hardly to have been 

 acquired through modern Europe ; and unexpectedly in the East 

 Indies, brought to mind Balbec and Palmyra. 



Indeed Rome was often spoken of, by the Orientals at Singapore; 

 a circumstance that, with the various antiquated expressions and trains 

 of thought, at length reminds one, that the 'Eastern Empire' is really 

 extant, in the rule of Constantinople. A Muslim at Singapore, once 

 invited me into his shop, and questioned me respecting American in- 

 stitutions, for the evident purpose of satisfying his mind, whether my 

 countrymen were really without a king. 



The range of Armenian emigration, is chiefly a northern one; ex- 

 tending from the Mediterranean, by the way of Constantinople, to 

 Northern Hindoostan, and to Calcutta. I heard nothing of Arme- 

 nians in the Arab countries, nor in Southwestern Hindoostan, except 



* See Herodotus ; Melpomene, 44. 



