among themselves, and proceeded afterwards to explain the different systems which have been formed to ascertain who were these Hyk-shos, or Shepherd kings, whose figures are so often met with either painted or engraved on many of the Egyptian monuments of high antiquity. I stated then that the fathers and the primitive Christian writers, for the sake of enhancing the antiquity of the Jewish nation, have strongly maintained the opinion, that these Shepherds were the Israelites; but I observed at the same time, that this opinion is inadmissible; for it does not only contradict the report of all historians, but also the undoubted authority of the Egyptian monuments; and I might also have added, which I lament I did not, the still more undoubted authority of the Bible. I passed then to examine the hypothesis of the learned historian of Ancient Mythology, of which I endeavoured to give you, to the best of my power, a detailed account; and pointed out both the. merits it possessed, and the strong objections to which it was liable. We must now go on with our subject; and according to what I stated then, I must now endeavour to make you acquainted with another hypothesis, invented by a no less celebrated and venerable writer, I mean Mr. Faber; and what he says of the Hyk-shos, or Shepherd kings, may be reduced to the following account:

"We are informed by Manetho," says Mr. Faber, "that while Egypt was in a state of profound tranquillity, a fierce and warlike race suddenly invaded

G g

it, under the name of the Shepherd kings. These, during the reigns of six of their princes, which jointly amounted to 260 years, remained masters of the country, and governed it with the utmost tyranny. They were then besieged by the native Mizraim, in a walled district, denominated Avaris, and at length expelled. Upon this they retired into Palestine, and built Jerusalem. Shortly after their secession, the king of Egypt granted the land of Avaris, now unoccupied, to another race of Shepherds, whom circumstantial evidence demonstrates to have been the Israelites. Here these multiplied so rapidly, that they soon found themselves in a sufficiently flourishing condition to prepare for war with their sovereign. Desirous, however, of ensuring success, they called in the aid of the expelled Shepherd kings, and invited them to return and repossess themselves of Avaris. The invitation was accepted; the whole of Egypt was conquered by the allies; and its unfortunate prince was driven into the Thebais and Ethiopia."

In confirmation of this hypothesis, Mr. Faber observes, on the authority of Manetho, that "the leprous Shepherds, who were leagued with the Shepherd kings, are plainly the Israelites; hence," he concludes, that "they left Egypt at the same time which the Shepherd kings did, who must clearly have been their taskmasters; for, during the time of their servitude, the native Egyptians were either expelled or subjected; and like the children of Israel, they were employed in burning

bricks, and in building for their tyrants. But at the expiration of 215 years, the Israelites were miraculously brought out by Moses, notwithstanding the reluctance of their oppressors; therefore, these oppressors must have been the Shepherd kings. Hence the king and the host that perished in the Red Sea must have been the king and the host of these Shepherds, not of the native Egyptians; for these latter did not recover their independence until the Shepherds were finally expelled; and the Shepherds were not finally expelled until the day of the Exodus.

"Their arm of strength being thus broken by the judgment which plunged beneath the waves their choicest warriors, the dispirited residue were attacked by the native Egyptians." But Mr. Faber supposes, that although this was the end of the 511 years mentioned by Manetho for the final expulsion of the Shepherds; yet he seems to quibble upon the meaning of this word final, and takes it as "the last in point of succession, but not the last in point of time;" for, says he," then commenced their final expulsion: but, as might naturally enough be supposed, this clearing the land of strangers was not effected in a single day," and he assigns for this total clearing of the land a period of more than ninety years.

of the Israelites;"

"The work," adds he, " began with the recess but others of the Shepherds appear to have made a considerably protracted resistance." To prove this assertion,

Mr. Faber admits the number of 260 years to have been the period of the first residence of the Shepherds in Egypt; "at the end of which period they were expelled from Avaris, as it is mentioned by Manetho." But he adds to these 260 years, 340 more, which elapsed, according to the same Manetho, from this first expulsion of the Shepherds, to the emigration of Danaus. Now these two sums put together make up a period of 600 years in round numbers. From these 600 years Mr. Faber then deducts the 511, which is the sum total of the domination of the Shepherds, and the residue is ninety years. These he supposes to have been all employed in the expulsion of the remaining part of the Shepherds, who remained behind after the first portion went off together with the Israelites. "I suppose," says he, " that the 511 years of pastoral domination expired when the strength of the Shepherds was broken in the Red Sea, and when the Israelites quitted the country; but that the work of their complete expulsion occupied an additional period of some ninety years; during the lapse of which this fragment of the Israelites,' and that fragment of the Shepherds,' were successively driven out, until the business closed with the recess of the Danai and the Cadmians."

This is Mr. Faber's hypothesis, which, as you may have already observed, may fairly be divided into two parts. The first ends at the expulsion of the Shepherds at the time of the Exodus; the second begins at the Exodus, and ends at the

departure or expulsion of Danaus. The first contains the period of 511 years; the second of ninety; and both together may be divided into the following smaller portions:

The first contains 260 years, during which the Shepherds, for the first time, held the dominion of Egypt, and were expelled by Thumosis.

The second consists only of fifteen years, which elapsed from the expulsion of these Shepherds and the arrival of Joseph.

The third embraces the period of twenty-one years, which, according to Moses, intervened between the arrival of Joseph and the descent of Israel. These two periods make up thirty-six years, and during them the land of Avaris was perfectly unoccupied, and was therefore granted to the Israelites.

From this moment begins the fourth period of 215 years, which embraces the whole sojourning of that people in Egypt, and ends at the Exodus ; so that these four periods together make up exactly the sum of 511 years mentioned by Manetho, specifying the whole time of the residence of the Shepherds.

With the fifth period of ninety years that elapsed from the Exodus to Cadmus, we have nothing to do; for our inquiry is not so much to ascertain who Cadmus was, but who the Shepherds were, and at what time they left Egypt. Mr. Faber has embraced this period in his hypothesis, because he wishes to make Cadmus and his followers ap