186 GEXEEAL SIE CHAELES TYAEEtX, G.C.M.G., F.E.S., OX 



Philistines, leading northward from Goshen to the sea shore, 

 and thence along the coast hy Al Arish and Gaza ; and (2) the way 

 of Shiir, leading due east from Goshen and thence into the south 

 country towards Beer Sheba. In either of these cases, as the 

 crow llies, the distance across the desert was not more than 

 sixty miles, and with depots for food and water in time of peace 

 the multitude coukl have accomplished the journey, at the 

 vernal equinox, when there is water and herbage, in six days' 

 journey of ten miles each. But with a hostile force in front in 

 Palestine, and a hostile force behind in Egypt, they would have 

 to leave their women, children, and old men and herds on the 

 confines of Egypt, under guard of one army, whilst another 

 army crossed the desert to attack the giant Sons of Anak of 

 Southern Palestine, with the certainty that they must either 

 conquer them or suffer a very disastrous defeat. Such a pro- 

 ceeding could only be attempted with any chance of success by 

 an experienced army of trained soldiers, and was an absolute 

 impossibility for the IsraeHtes of that period, without organ- 

 ization, weapons, and skill iii fighting, without warlike spirit, 

 enthusiasm, and powers of endurance, without a single trait in 

 their character which goes to make a fi^htinsr man. and 

 apparently with a desire at the bottom of their hearts to avoid 

 the perils of the desert and to return to their life of slavery in 

 Egypt. Por people in such a phght there was only one possible 

 solution of the difficulty, namely, the destruction of Pharaoh's 

 host and a sojourn in the Sinai peninsula till they were 

 organized, armed, and skilled in tightiDg : and there was also to 

 be induced in them a martial ardour sufficient to carry tliem 

 over the discomforts and perils of active mihtary operations. 



The term wilderness in the Bible does not mean a desert where 

 there is no vegetation or food for man or beast, and the "Wilder- 

 ness of the Wanderings about Sinai at the present time supports 

 a large population of Bedouin with their fiocks, and bears 

 e^idence on its surface of having, at a remote period, been far 

 more fertile than it is at present ; but it is certam that at no 

 time in its history could it have supported the vast influx of 

 Israelites and their followers, numbering at least 3,000.000 

 human beings, with herds and flocks. 



We do not read in the Bible of the people subsisting on any 

 other food but manna and occasionally quails, any more than 

 we read of what the cattle and sheep sub.sisted on, but we may 

 take it that all the food growing in the wilderness for man and 

 beast was duly consumed, and that the milk of the flocks was 

 not wasted. The song of Moses implies this. Xo doubt they 



