354 
SUEZ. 
hundred and forty miles, and would probably lead to a transfer 
of the trade from Berenice to that place. The road is indeed not 
very good for ships, but it is protected from the N. W. which is tlie 
most prevailing wind, and, when it begins to blow from the east, a 
vessel might run to any of the numerous harbours which were 
entered by Don Juan de Castro. These have not since been ex- 
amined ; but if one of them should be the Myos Hormos of the 
Peripliis, it must have a means of communication with the plain of 
Egypt, and be by far preferable to Cosseir. Had I had the voyage 
of Don Juan de Castro with me, I would have visited Shakara and 
Shawn a, in defiance of the deficiencies under which the Panther 
laboured. 
Every traveller who has visited the upper part of the Red Sea, 
must naturally have turned his thoughts to the miraculous passage 
of the Children of Israel through it, and the destruction of the host 
of Pharaoh. Pococke, Niebuhr, Pere Sicard, and Bruce, have all 
given to the public their opinions as to the spot, where this event 
actually took place. I perfectly agree with the last named gentle- 
man, that to seek for natural causes to explain a miracle, is per- 
fectly absurd ; and that it was as easy for the Almighty to carry his 
people through the widest and deepest part of the sea, as through the 
narrowest and most shoaly. But as the division of the water is the 
only thing that is represented by Moses as being miraculous, we 
must look to the position of the mountains on its western side, to 
discover in what spot it was possible for the children of Israel to 
approach the Red Sea. 
A chain of hills extends from the high land of Zeyle nearly to 
Abou Daraja, between which and Attake is the first valley, by 
