O P II I R. 521 
fcendants, who fettled on the coaft of Afia Minor, colo¬ 
nized Bsetica, and carried on an uninterrupted commerce 
to that country, along with the Phoenicians, for many 
centuries after it was peopled, and that, from the circum- 
ftances above narrated, it was denominated Tarjhijh , are 
fadfs too palpable to admit of contradi&ion. 
“ Let us now fee whether this Btrtica, where I have 
endeavoured to fix the fituation of the Tarfliifh of the 
Scriptures, was actually furniflied with thofe articles of 
commerce which are faid to have been imported from that 
country. To enlarge on this topic would be altogether 
fuperfluous. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Polybius, Pliny, 
Solinus, and, in one word, all the Greek and Roman 
hiftorians who have mentioned that region, have tinani- 
moufly exhibited it as the native land of filver, iron, and 
tin ; to thefe, contrary to the opinions of the celebrated 
modern traveller, they likewife add gold in very large 
quantities.” 
Our author, having thus afcertained the lituation of 
Tarfhifh, proceeds to prove, by a mafs of evidence too 
large for our infection, that the Edomites and Tyrians 
had doubled the Cape, and almoft encompafl'ed Africa, 
long before the era of Solomon. Then, referring to i 
Kings ix. x. a Chron. viii.ix. 2 Kingsxxii.and 2 Chron. xx. 
he obferves, that from thefe authorities it appears indu¬ 
bitable, that the fleets of Solomon and Hiram failed from 
Eloth and Ezion-geber; that the voyages to Opliir and 
Tarfliifh were exactly the fame, performed at one and the 
fame time, by the very fame fleet; which mull necefi'arily 
have encompafl'ed the peninfula of Africa before it could 
arrive at the country of Tarfhifh. This being the cafe, 
the traders might eafily enough colledl the gold on the 
coaft of Guinea, or on what is now vulgarly called the 
Gold Coaft. The ivory they might readily enough pro- 
cure on the Barbary coaft, oppofite to Tarfhifh. In Afri¬ 
ca, too, they might hunt apes; and peacocks, or rather 
parrots and parroquets, they might furprife in the forefts 
which abounded on the coaft. In Spain, filver, iron, lead, 
and tin, were, one may fay, the native produce of the 
foil. Even at this early period, the Phoenician naviga¬ 
tors had difcovered the Cafliterides or Scilly-iflands, and 
Cornwall; and from that region, in company with the 
merchants, may have fupplied them with that rare com¬ 
modity. 
“ I have fuppofed-that the navy of Solomon and Hi¬ 
ram colledted their gold in the courfe of their voyage 
fomewhere on the coaft of Africa, beyond the Cape, for 
the following reafons. Had they found the golden fleece 
at Sofala, or any part of the coaft of Africa, they would 
have chofen to return and unlade at Eloth or Ezion-geber, 
rather than purfue a long and dangerous courfe, quite 
round Africa, to Tarfliifh ; to which laft country they 
might have fliaped their courfe much more commodioufly 
from Zidon, Tyre, Joppa, &c. But, being obliged to 
double the Cape in queft of fotne of thefe articles wdiich 
they were enjoined to import, they puflied onward to 
Tarfhifh, and returned by the Pillars of Hercules to Tyre, 
or perhaps to Joppa, &c. Their next voyage commenced 
from one or other of thefe ports, from which they di- 
redted their courfe to Tarfhifh ; and, having taken in part 
of their lading there, they afterwards coafted round Afri¬ 
ca, and fo arrived once more at Eloth or Ezion-geber. 
Both Dr. Doig and the writer in the Gentleman’s Ma¬ 
gazine endeavour to fupport their opinion, that the fleet 
of Solomon circumnavigated Africa, by the account 
which Herodotus gives of the voyage round the Cape of 
Good Hope, which was performed during the reign of 
Necho king of Egypt. According to this hiftorian, the 
fleet fent out by that monarch was navigated by Phoeni¬ 
cian mariners ; it failed from a port in the Red Sea; it 
returned by the Straits of Gibraltar; and it was exadtly 
three years in its voyage. The truth of this narration by 
Herodotus has been queftioned ; but, in our. opinion, 
without any folid reafon ; indeed, the circumltance, which 
he mentions with aftoniiliment and fome degree of incre- 
Vol. XVII. No. 1195. 
dulity as having occurred during this voyage, viz. that 
in one part of the courfe the fhadows fell on the right 
hand, is fo unlikely to have been an invention of the ma¬ 
riners, fo diffimilaf to all the marvellous ftories related of 
diftant countries in thofe times, and yet fo certainly true, 
that it alone proves that Africa had been circumnavi¬ 
gated, or at leaf! that the voyage had been profecuted 
beyond the line. But, we imagine, a little reflection on 
this voyage which is mentioned by Herodotus, will con¬ 
vince us that it rather makes again ft than for the truth 
of the opinion, that the Caps was doubled in Solomon’s 
time. As the Phoenicians were employed by Solomon, 
it is natural to fuppofe that they had gone this voyage 
frequently before. Indeed, both Huet and Dr. Doig 
maintain that the circumnavigation of Africa had been 
often accomplifhed by the Phoenicians, before they were 
employed by Solomon. Now the voyage performed round 
Africa in the reign of Necho, which Herodotus men¬ 
tions, took place two centuries after the time of Solomon, 
Yet Herodotus relates it as fomething very extraordi¬ 
nary ; indeed his manner would naturally lead to the 
fuppofition that fuch a voyage had never been performed 
before. If it had been performed frequently before by 
the Phoenicians, it is not probable that the mariners, on 
their return from this voyage, would have particularly 
mentioned the circumltance of their fhadows falling on 
their right; nor would Herodotus have been unwilling 
to credit it, if it had been confirmed by the teftimony of 
thofe who had performed the fame voyage before. As, 
therefore, from the account of the hiftorian, the voyage 
undertaken in the reign of Necho, two centuries after So¬ 
lomon, was evidently no common event, we are juftified 
in doubting, at lealt, whether the fleet of the Jewifh mo¬ 
narch circumnavigated Africa, and confequently whether 
Opliir was fituated on the weft coaft of that continent. 
Dr. Doig’s conclufion, however, is, that “ the original. 
Opliir, which is really Aufiror Aufr, was fituated on the 
fouth of Arabia Felix, between Sheba and Havilah, which 
laft was encompafl'ed by one of the branches of the river of 
Paradife : that the name Ophir, i. e. Aufr, was, in confe- 
quence of its refemblance, in procefs of time, transferred 
to a region on the coaft of Africa ; and that from it ftrft 
Afer, and then Africa, was denominated : that the pri¬ 
mitive Tarfhifti was Cilicia, and that the Jews applied 
this name to all the commercial ftates on the coaft of Afia 
Minor, and perhaps of Italy, there being ftrong prefump- 
tions that the Tyrrhenians werecolonifts from Tarfhifti; 
that 13 atiea, and perhaps fome other regions of Spain, 
being planted with colonies from Tarfhifh, likewife ac¬ 
quired the name of Tarfliifh ; that the Tyrians were ftridt- 
ly connected with the merchantsof Tarfliifh in their com¬ 
mercial enterprifes; that Tarfliifh was certainly fituated 
weft ward from Judea, Phoenicia, &c. that no other coun¬ 
try in the weftern quarters produced the commodities 
imported by the two kings, except Spain and the oppo¬ 
fite coafts ; that? this country, in thofe ages, produced 
not only filver, iron, tin, and lead, but likewife gold in 
great abundance; that the merchants of Chittim import¬ 
ed ivory, of which the Ajherites made benches for the 
Tyrians; which commodity they mufthave purchafed on 
the coaft of Barbary, where the Jews and Phoenicians 
would find the fame article ; that, Tarfliifh being fituated 
in Spain, it was impoflible for a fleet failing from Eloth or 
Ezion-geber to arrive at that country without encorn- 
pafling Africa ; that, of courfe, the fleet in queftion did 
actually encompafs that continent; that the Ophir of So-- 
lornon muft have been fituated fomewhere on the coaft of 
Africa, to the weft of the Cape, becaufe from it the courfe 
to Tarfliifh was more eligible than to return the fame way 
back to Ezion-geber.” 
After all, if it ftiould appear that there is no evidence 
in Scripture that Ophir and Tarfhifh were vififed during 
the fame voyage ; that the voyage to either, or both, ac¬ 
tually took up three years ; and that the Tarfliifh of Solo¬ 
mon was a different place from the Tarfhifh in Cilicia ; it 
6 R is 
