ADEN. 
101 
winds, weather and seasons, all of which are known to be some- 
what variable in every part of the globe. 
The next points to which Mr. Bruce leads his readers are the 
mines of silver at Sofala mentioned by Dos Santos, and the 
existence of certain ancient towers* in the neighbourhood, built 
of stone and lime, but the slight account given of the former 
proves nothing, and the latter rests entirely on a story received 
from the Moors ; being by no means a tradition common to 
all the Kaffers in that country/' 
The extract that follows from Eupolemus, and the use made of 
it, is such 2i master-piece in the art of reasoning, that I cannot 
forbear quoting it. Eupolemus, an ancient author, speaking 
of David, says, that he built ships at Eloth, a city in Arabia, and 
thence sent miners, or as he calls them, metal-men, to Orphi, or 
Ophir, an island in the Red Sea. Now, by the Red Sea, he 
understands the Indian Ocean, and by Orphi, he probably 
•meant the Island of Madagascar ; or Orphi, f or Ophir ) might 
have been the name of the continent, instead of Sofala ; that 
is, Sofala, where the mines are, might have been the main land 
of Orphi,'' (Vide Mr. Bruce's Travels, Vol. II. p. 352.) or, by 
the same chain of reasoning, it might have been any other place 
that the caprice of human imagination should choose to suggest. 
With respect to the winds in the Indian Seas, Mr. Bruce*s asser- 
* These towers are said to exist in the interior of the kingdom of Butua, one hundred 
and sixty leagues west of Sofala, on the front of one of which is engraved an inscription 
in unknown characters. Tliis account was received from the Moors, vide Joh. de Barros 
in Ramusio, Vol. I. p. 393 ; but tlie supposition of the inscription being placed there by 
the Kings of Axum, or of its having any relation to the Ophir of the Hebrews, as 
asserted by Marmol and other writers, appears to be entirely devoid of foundation. 
