114 
THE ALMUG, OR ALGUM TREE OF THE ANCIENTS. 
been a Tarshish distinct from the Atlantic Tartessus, and perhaps it ought to be 
sought for, as well as Ophir, on either the African or Asiatic shores, or islands of j 
the Indian Ocean. j 
“ Without attempting to enumerate the various conjectures which have been 
formed respecting the sites of these places, if they were more than general expressions 
for rich and distant countries, we may be allowed to infer that, as a great variety 
of indubitable Indian products were known to the ancients, as Agila or Aloe-wood, 
spikenard, cinnamon, pepper, and others, there must have been a commerce with 
India at a very early period, and to it therefore we should look for the cargo of 
precious stones, ivory, apes, and peacocks, as well as the gold, silver, and Almug or 
Algum trees which they brought. 
“ The parts of India which were reached at the earliest times were Crocala, now 
Curachee (at the mouth of the Indus), and Barugaza now Baroach, in the Gulph of 
Cambay. These ports are very little distant from, and can easily communicate ^ 
with, those on the coast of Malabar, and even with Ceylon : and thus we may 
account for precious stones, cinnamon of Ceylon, and pepper forming such early 
articles of commerce. But the merchants who visited the Malabar coast for pepper, 
must have touched at the very ports in the neighbourhood where sandal-wood grows, 
and from which it must long have been exported. 
“ The Ophir and Tarshish of the above passages of Scripture must have been to 
the southward of the Red Sea, and one of them, at least, in some part of India, n 
From thence the whole of the above cargo might at any time have been easily | 
obtained, and any wood or tree which formed a part of it, and was thought worthy of ® 
record, must have possessed some remarkable properties, not common to the trees of 
the Mediterranean region. 
“ The Sandal-tree, growing with a straight trunk, though not large, being close- | 
grained, and possessed of such a remarkable and agreeable fragrance, could not fail I 
to attract the attention of merchants visiting the coasts where it grew ; and as it was 
equally well-fitted for making pillars and terraces as for musical instruments, so, | 
perhaps^ there is no other tree better entitled than this to be the Almug of the | 
ancients. ‘ The king made of the Algum trees terraces (pillars, 1 Kings, x. 12) to I 
the king’s palace, and harps and psalteries for singers ; and there were none such | 
seen before in the land of Judah,’ 2 Chronicles, ix. 11. The principal difficulty|| 
in the way of the Sandal-tree being the Almug is, that the latter name occurs also | 
in 2 Chronicles, ii. 8, when Solomon asks of Hiram, King of Tyre, to send him 
‘ Cedar-trees, Fir-trees, and Algum-trees, out of Lebanon.’ Hence it has been sup- | 
posed to be a product of that mountain. But Rosenmuller has justly remarked, that 
in the parallel passage, in 1 Kings, v. 6, 8, 10, there is no mention made of Almug- 
trees, but only of Cedars and Firs ; and he therefore infers, that the addition 
of Almug-trees in the latter passage, may have been the interpolation of a 
transcriber.” 
The writer of the interesting papers from which the above copious extracts have 
