C 409 ] 
of the Troglodytria; not to be confounded with another 
nation of Troglodytes, very different in all refpedts, liv- 
ing in the forefts between Abyffinia and Nubia. The 
myrrh of the Troglodytes was always preferred to that 
of Arabia; and it has maintained this preference to 
our days. That part of Abyffinia being half over-run 
and fettled, half wafted and abandoned, by a barbarous 
nation from the Southward, very little correfpoiidence 
or commerce has been fiiice carried on between the Ara- 
bians and that coaft; unlefs by fome defperate adven- 
tures of Mahometan merchants, made under favourable 
and accidental circumftances, which have fometimes fuc- 
ceeded, and very often like wife have mifcarried. The 
moft frequent w'ay by which this Troglodyte myrrh is 
exported, is from Maftbwa, a fmall Abyffinian ifland, on 
the coaft of the Red-fea. But notwithftanding this, the 
quantity of Abyffinian myrrh is fo very fmall, in com- 
parifon of that of Arabia fent to Grand Cairo, that we 
may fafely attribute to this only the reafon, why our 
myrrh is not fo good in quality as the myrrh of the aii4 
cients, wffiich was Abyffinian. Although thofe bar- 
barians make ufe of the gum, leaves, and bark, of this 
tree, in difeafes to which they are fubjexft; yet, ’as very 
little is wanted for fuch purpofes, and the tree is the 
common timber of the country, this does not hinder them 
from cutting it down every day, to burn for the common 
ufes of life ; and as they never plant, or replace the treesi 
deftroyed, it is probable, that in fome years the true 
Troglodyte myrrh will not exift; and the erroneous de- 
I i 2 fcriptions 
