Paradise.

Paradise was seated; and that for this reason, because the CHAP. 1. marks, whereby Moses describes the situation of the tion of the earthly Paradise, are not to be found in any of the said earthly places. We are therefore to proceed, and enquire where the said marks are to be found; and in order thereto it must be considered, what are the marks themselves, or what in short they amount to, which is this, viz. that the Eden, wherein God planted the garden of Paradise, lay on a river or single channel, which out of Eden was parted into four heads or rivers, by name Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Perath or Euphrates. If therefore these four rivers can be found, having somewhere a single channel common to them all, then we may rest assured, that on that single channel, or river, lay the country of Eden, wherein was seated the earthly Paradise.

8. Moses's de

scription of

Pison.

We are therefore, in the first place, to find out the true situation of the four rivers here specified by Moses. I shall take them in the same order they are mentioned the river by Moses, and shall therefore begin first with Pison; the situation whereof is thus described by the said sacred historian: The name of the first (namely, river) is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx-stone.

9.

Havilah,

ses to be

Pison,

From hence it is evident, that, in order to find out the river Pison, we must first find out the land of Havilah The land of here mentioned. And in doing this, we cannot follow said by Mobetter guides than the sacred writers. We read then washed by of a country called Havilah in two other places of Scrip- the river ture, viz. Gen. xxv. 18. and I Sam. xv. 7. In the former where of these two places Moses informs us, that the Ishmaelites seated. (or posterity of Ishmael) dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, &c. In the latter we are informed, that Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is before Egypt. In both which places by this expression, from Havilah unto Shur, is probably meant the whole extent of that part of Arabia, which lies between Egypt to the west, and a certain

PART I. channel or river (which empties itself into the Persian Gulf) to the east. For that Shur was the western extremity of this part of Arabia, is evident from Exod. xv. 22. where we read, that Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. So that Shur was that part of Arabia, which came up to the bottom of the Red Sea or Arabian Gulf, and so joined on to Egypt. And as it thus clearly appears, that Shur was the western extremity of that part of Arabia we are speaking of; so it seems no less clear, that Havilah was the eastern extremity of the same; and that not only from the import of the forecited expression, but also forasmuch as, in common authors, we find here placed, a people whose name, though somewhat varied by various authors, yet in all the several variations of it retains visible footsteps of the name of their forefather Havilah, or, as it is written more agreeably to the original Hebrew word, Chavilah. Thus by Eratosthenes are placed in these parts the Chaulothæi, by Festus Anienus the Chaulosii, by Dionysius Periegetes the Chablasii, and by Pliny the Chavelæi; all retaining in their name most of the radical d letters of the word Chavilah. So that from hence may safely be concluded, that this eastern tract of Arabia, lying near and on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, was formerly and in the time of Moses known by the name of Havilah. Hereupon many learned men amongst the modern writers have acknowledged this to be the situation of Havilah, as Steuchus, Beroaldus, Grotius, Hornius, and Bochartus.

10.

land of Ha

But yet this is not enough for our purpose. Before Gold, and that good we can be assured, that this is that Havilah which was gold, in the washed by the river Pison, we must be assured also, that there is, or at least formerly was therein gold, and that good gold; as also that there is or was therein bdellium our hypo- and the onyx-stone. And of these particulars we may

vilah, as

seated ac

cording to

thesis.

d What a radical letter is, see in the Preface.

be well assured without great difficulty. For authors, CHAP. I. both sacred and profane, do very much commend the gold of Arabia. Diodorus writes, that in Arabia was found natural gold, of so lively a colour, that it was very much like the brightness of the fire; and so fixed, that it wanted neither fire nor refining to purify it. It will appear hereafter, that Ezekiel had regard to these parts, when he says to the city of Tyre: The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy fairs with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran, and Cannech, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants, &c. Ezek. xxvii. 22, 23. There was a great communication between all these nations through the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; and we must particularly observe, that the Prophet expressly names Eden among the countries or places lying in these eastern parts, and some of which lay in the neighbourhood of Havilah. So that there being both an Eden and an Havilah situated in these easterly parts, there are further grounds to conceive, that these were no other than the Eden and Havilah mentioned by Moses in the description of the situation of the earthly Paradise. Moreover, Arabia thus abounding with gold, and that very fine gold, no doubt but it very much dealt in it with the neighbouring provinces, situated along the Euphrates, which was then very populous, if not the most populous country in the world: and the province of Havilah, lying between those countries, besides the gold of its own, had, we may reasonably suppose, a great deal also from the neighbouring provinces, by the traffic and intercourse of merchants. And thus much for the gold of Havilah.

11.

The He

The sacred text informs us, that the same country was remarkable for (what is called in Hebrew) bedolach, or brew word (as it is usually rendered) bdellium; which word is very bedolach is variously translated by interpreters. But of all these va- interpreted.

e Lib. ii. cap. 14. et lib. iii. cap. 3.

variously

PART I. rious opinions, the most probable, and which most divide the learned, are, that which takes bedolach for an aromatical gum, and that which takes it for pearls. The place of the book of Numbers, (viz. Numb. xi. 7.) which is wont to be quoted in defence of this last opinion, seems to be so plain and decisive, that no good exception can be made against it. For Moses, intending to describe the manna, says, that it was like the seed of coriander, and the colour thereof as the colour of bedolach. Now it is evident from another description of the same manna, which is to be found Exod. xvi. 14. 31. that it was white, (according to the translation of the Seventy Interpreters, and followed, ver. 31. in our common translation,) which is apposite to pearls, as also is the roundness of manna, but in no wise to the bdellium gum. Hence it is, that the Talmudists, (as Mons. Bochart has learnedly observed,) mentioning this description of manna, as it is in the book of Numbers, instead of saying, that it was of the colour of bdellium, said, that it was of the colour of pearls. But we need take no part in this dispute: it will be enough for our purpose to shew, that whether the Hebrew word bedolach be taken for pearls, or for bdellium gum, both are to be found in the land of Havilah.

12.

taken for

For, as for pearls, it is most certain, that there is no Bedolach, place in the world, that produceth so fine ones, and in so pearls, to great a quantity, as the sea about Baharen, an isle in be found in the Persian Gulf, ten leagues off from Catif; that is to Havilah. say, the sea that lies next the land of Havilah. We shall

our land of

not load this treatise with a vast number of citations, to shew how great a quantity of pearls there is in the Persian Gulf, and how much they are valued both by ancient and modern authors. Nevertheless, (to borrow. Bishop Huet's expression,) that the reader may not think we desire to be trusted for want of money to pay him, we will name some few of those whose authority cannot be excepted against. Nearchus, one of Alexander's cap

f Hieroz. part ii. lib v. c. 5.

tains, that conducted his fleet from the Indies as far as CHAP. I. the Persian Gulf, speaks of an island in that Gulf, abounding in pearls of great value. Isidorus & of Charax, who lived a little after, says the same thing. Pliny h, having commended the pearls of the Indian seas, adds, that such as are fished towards Arabia in the Persian Gulf, deserve most to be praised. And in another place he takes notice of the island of Tylos, as being the place of that fishing, which many suppose to be the island of Baharen. Arrian, the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, sets a greater value upon the pearls of Arabia, than upon those of the Indies. Ælian describes exactly enough, how they were fished, and how much they were valued. Origen k affirms, that Indian pearls far exceed all others in value, and that amongst all Indian pearls, those of the Red Sea are of the greatest value by which words we may see, that he made the Persian Sea a part of that of the Indies; of which more hereafter, when we come to speak of the Red Sea. The Rabbi Benjamin, a Navarrer, who lived five hundred and fifty years ago, being at Catif, informed himself about the fishing of pearls, that is made there every year, and about the manner observed in making of it, and inserted it in the history of his travels, which he has left us. Tei-, xeira a Portuguese, another traveller, has yet more exactly described this fishing. He says, the pearls of that sea are finer and weightier than those of other places. Add hereto the testimony of the other modern travellers, Balby, Linscot, Vincent le Blanc, Tavernier, and Thevenot. Besides the fishing of Baharen, this last writer hath' also described that of Carek, another isle in the same gulf, and nearer the land of Havilah. Many other places of this sea afford pearls; as doth the whole coast of Arabia from Mascate to Catif.

Those that maintain, that bedolach is the bdellium, a