travellers, went the same rout, and gives a similar account of it. 16" On the east it [Egypt] is con

"fined with the Arabian deserts-We were to be

gin the worst of the journey. On the 10th of "March we entered the main deserts :—a barren " and desolate country, bearing neither grass nor "trees; save only here and there a few palms :

no water that is sweet; all being a mere wilder"ness of sand." This is the spot that Lakemacher terms terra pascuosa, pecoribusque alendis cum primis idonea: here he supposes a numerous people to have resided two centuries, where a Caravan could not subsist for a day. Sure this is overlooking the plainest evidence, and running counter to the most approved authorities. Yet the learned professor Joh. Math. Hasius subscribes this opinion; and, proceeding upon the same grounds, adds to the extravagancies largely. "He gives it as a

25 Junii. Cahiro mane iter inceptum-inde ad Suez merum sabubum. In short, the whole space from lower Egypt to Palestine and to the Red Sea was at all times a desert, taken in every direction. "Toute l'Egypt est environnée de deserts et sablons." Davity, p. 275. Leo Africanus speaks to the same effect and all antient writers agree that Arabia and the desert of Arabia commenced from the river of Pelusium, the extreme branch of the Nile eastward.

7 Johan. Math. Hasii Mathem. Profess. Wittemberg. Regni Davidici et Solomonis descriptio. Norimberg, 1739. In cap. 12.

reason for placing the Israelites in this particular situation, because they were in the vicinity of those very places about mount Casius, which are represented by Plutarch and other writers as uninhabitable. I have been pretty diffuse in my confutation of Lakemacher's notions; as at the same time I obviate the opinion of all those who are of the same way of thinking; there being many of that class. Even the learned bishop Cumberland was of this opinion. "It is probable that the country "which Moses calls Goshen began hereabouts, "[near Pelusium] and ran southward between "the Nile on its west side and the Red Sea on part of its east:-the fittest place to maintain "their cattle."

18

Mr. Sale has exhibited in his writings much oriental reading; and the world is certainly indebted to him on that head. Yet he has been too much led by fancy: and he very often determines a point peremptorily, that he has not sufficiently considered. He has a note upon this subject, which I will transcribe at large. "It is a wonder how the Septuagint came to place the land of Goshen in Arabia,

part 2. p. 175. among other reasons given, these are principal : Conditio regionis; fertilis enim est ob viciniam Nili, inque introitu Egypti. In vicinia sunt Migdol, Baalzephon, Lacus Sirbonis. Alia etiam non sine fructu videri possunt apud Lakemacherum, non sine laude citandum, in observationibus suis philologicis.

18 In Sanchoniath. p. 363 & 365.

"at least, some copies have it Goshen in Arabia, "since that was farther off from Egypt than the "land of Canaan. St. Jerom thinks that it was "the same as Thebaïs in Ethiopia or bordering to "it but that was too long a journey for Jacob, "neither would Joseph have been near enough to "have seen and supplied his wants: whereas he gives it as a reason to his brethren, in the former chapter, for his choosing this land, that they might be near him. But this Goshen was situate "between the Red Sea and the Nile, upon the "borders of Canaan, not far from On or Hiera

19

polis, where his chief habitation was. It was a "fruitful spot of ground, and fit for cattle; and "therefore Josephus tells us that Pharaoh kept "his own there. It was separate from Egypt, "and therefore fittest for Jacob and his family; "which would be out of all danger of interfering "with the Egyptians." "9 What an inconsistent jumble is here! This writer wonders that the Seventy should place Goshen in Arabia; and therefore, to mend the matter, he places it in the confines of Canaan: whereby he shews, that he neither knew the true situation of Egypt, nor the extent of Arabia, nor the limits of the land he speaks of. He did not know that all to the east of

19 Universal History, vol. 1. p. 457. note A.

the Nile was called Arabia. 30 Ἡ δε μεταξύ το Νειλε και το Αραβια κολπα Αραβία μεν ε5.. "Ultra Pelusiacum Arabia est, ad Rubrum mare pertinens: and Αραβία συνάπτεσα προς μεν την δισιν Αιγυπτῳ. He

22

did not know that the city Heliopolis, which he alludes to and calls Hierapolis, was in Arabia: which city he places not far from the borders of Canaan ; between which places, however, there was a mighty interval. For Canaan, as it was bounded at the time we are speaking of, had between it and Egypt part of Philistim or Palæstina propria. Next in order to the Philistines were the "Amalekites; who stretched across almost from one sea to the other, and were a very powerful nation. Between them and the city Heliopolis was the desert abovementioned; from the commencement of which to 44 Heliopolis could not be less than 150 miles. This

20 Strab. vol. 2. pag. 1155.

24 Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 11.

22 Steph. Byzant.

23 According to Josephus the Amalekites reached from Pelusium to the Red Sea. Antiq. Jud. lib. 6. cap. 8.

24 There were two cities named Heliopolis; of which I shall have a great deal to say hereafter. One was in lower Egypt; and very antient, being the On of Moses and the Prophets: the other of later date, and called properly Onium. It was situated at some distance from the former, and in Arabia. This is a circumstance, that has escaped the notice not only of all the moderns, but of most of the antients.

space is by the writer overlooked, and the country annihilated: so that the confines of Canaan are brought within the verge of upper Egypt. After having determined the situation of this Goshen between the Red Sea and the Nile upon the borders of Canaan, not far from Hierapolis, where it seems Joseph lived, he concludes; "it was a fruitful spot, "and separate from Egypt; and therefore fittest "for Jacob." In this wide

field it is difficult to

But in respect to the

know the part he alludes to. spot, wherever it was, being fruitful, it is a groundless supposition. I have shewn from many authorities, that it was a barren wild: and as to the land of Goshen being separate from Egypt, it is quite contradictory to the Mosaic account. The sacred historian assures us that it was part of the land of Egypt. The Israelites were to eat by Pharaoh's appointment the fat of the land: the good of all the land of Egypt was theirs. 26❝ The land of Egypt " is before thee;" said the prince of the country; "in the best of the land make thy father and bre"thren to dwell.-And Joseph placed his father " and his brethren, and gave them a possession in "the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the "land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded."And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the