3

west to east) it was all a barren flat, plana et sterilis. Pliny speaks to the same purpose: Arabia-sterilis, præterquam ubi Syrie confinia attingit.-Agrippa a Pelusio Arsinoen Rubri maris oppidum per deserta CXXV. M. passuum tradit. Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the same part of the country to the east of lower Egypt, says, that it was from north to south a wild, from Pelusium quite up to Heliopolis ; * απο Πηλασια μέχρις Ηλιοπο λεως δια της ερημα. Strabo is more full and to the purpose. 5 Η δε μεταξυ τε Νειλε και το Αραβία κόλπα ΑραΓια μεν εςι και επι γε των άκρων αυτής ίδρυται το Πηλεσίον" αλλ' έρημος άπασα εστί, και αβατος σρατοπεδῳ.

Arabia, we find, commenced from the very Nile. Pelusium stood upon the extremity of it; from

P. Mela. lib. 1. cap. 10.

3 Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 11. Edit. Harduin.

The words of Diodorus relate to the great work of Sesostris ; who is said to have carried on a fortification from Pelusium as high up as Heliopolis, by way of defence to the anterior parts of Egypt. It was 1500 stadia in length, and went the whole. way through the desert: απο Πηλασια μέχρις Ηλιοπολεως δια της g. lib. 1. p. 36. Edit. Stephan. He in another place mentions Egypt as very difficult of access, on account of this desert; Juœæpositu Warriλns song. lib. 15. p. 478. See Jos. de Bell. Jud. lib. 4. cap. 11. of Titus's march; and Polyb. lib. 5. of the march of Ptolemy to Gaza.

• Strabo, vol. 2. p. 1155. Edit. Amst. 1707. ducesCodes εσιν ή Αίγυπτος εκ των έωθινων τοπων. ibid.

whence extended a vast desert, not fit for the march or encampment of an army. And he farther adds, that besides its being without water, its sands were full of reptiles, undoubtedly of a poisonous nature. Προς δε τῷ ανυδρος είναι και αμμώδης έρπετων πληθος έχει των αμμοδύλων. And in another place, And in another place, mentioning the same part of Arabia from the Nile to the Red Sea, he represents it as a sandy waste, that could scarcely be passed, except on camels: dispnua de nas αμμώδων χωριών αι υπερβάσεις επι καμήλων. Plutarch assures us, that when Antonius marched his army from Syria towards Egypt, he and his soldiers had such apprehensions from this desert, and this particular part of the desert, that they esteemed it the worst enemy they had to encounter: 7E E TO πολέμε μάλλον εφοβόντο την επι το Πηλάσιον όδον, άτε δη δια ψαμμα βαθειας και ανυδρο, περι το εκρηγμα και τα της Σερ Φωνίδος έλη γινομένης αυτοις της πορείας. Even the few towns upon the sea coast from Palestine to Egypt seem to have been very bare of the necessaries of life. One of them was Ostracine; where water was so scarce, that to desire drink of an inhabitant became a proverbial expression for asking alms of a beggar; * Αρίες μεν εκ ήθησαμεν παρα σε, ότι

८

• Concolor exustis atque indiscretus arenis

Ammodytes. Lucan, lib. 9. v. 715. See Deut. 8. v. 15. 7 In Vit. Antonii.

Greg. Nazianz. Epist. 46.

μηδε ύδωρ παρα την Οερακινην οικενίων. Mount Casius was itself θινώδης τις λοφος ακρωτηριάζων, ανυδρος : “ a "sharp sandy hillock, without water." The next place beyond Ostracine was Rhinocolura; and as badly circumstanced as the former. It was surrounded with a morass of sea water; so that all their wells were tainted; and bad as their water seems to have been, there was even of this great scarcity.

10

Περιέχει μεν γαρ αυτην χώρα πλήρης άλμυρίδος εντος δε τα τείχες ολίγον εσιν ύδωρ εν φρέασι, και τετο διεφθαρμενον, και παντελως τη γεύσει πικρον. This desert, which began at Pelusium and the Nile, reached in the way to Palestine as far as Gaza, which was situated on the edge of it άυτη εςιν έρημος, says the Apostle. And Arrian " observes of the same place; εσχατη δε ῴκειτο, ὡς επ' Αιγυπτε εκ Φοινικης ιοντι, επί τη αρχη της εξημα.

11

But Lakemacher is not contented with cursorily speaking of this part of the world. He goes so far as to describe it; telling us what it was, and what it was not; as if he had been witness of its good

• Josephus of the march of Titus says ; Προς το το Κασια Διο ἱερῳ σρατοπεδεύεται· τη δὲ ὑπεραια κατα την Οτρακίνην. ὗτος ὁ σαθμος κι ανδρός. De Bell. Jud. lib. 4. cap. 11. Mela seems to think mere favourably of this hall: but, I believe, without any reason. lib. 1. cap. 9.

19 Diodorus Siculus. lib. 1. pag. 38. "Acts. S. v. 26.

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33 Exped. Alex. lib. 2.

33 Ille

ness, and had traversed it at his leisure. tractus-ab ipsâ naturâ ad pecora alenda videbatur factus. Neque enim tot rivis, uti Delta, incisus erat abruptusque; sed campis continuis lateque patentibus liberè evagandi palandique gregibus faciebat copiam. Quocirca illo potissimum delectatos fuisse pastores non est magnopere mirandum. It was a rich open country; in short, a perfect Arcadia. To this minute and whimsical description of a region that the author was totally unacquainted with, let me subjoin an account of the true nature of these parts; and, as far as I can judge, of the very spot that has been above treated of, with some occurrences that happened there; as they are described by a modern traveller. "Baumgarten, a German nobleman, set out with a Caravan from Cairo to go to Syria, December the 6th, in the year 1507. He travelled five days; when he came towards the part of Arabia that lay between Damiata and Syria. "On the twelfth day about

66

sun-rising we came to a desolate and decayed cottage; where we stopped about two hours; "and then went on in our sandy journey towards

the sea. Not far from this cottage we saw above "ten thousand carcases of sheep, goats, asses, and "other creatures lying on the ground, rotten and

" Vol. 2. p. 320.

4 Churchill's Collection of Travels. vol. 1. p. 457.

"half consumed: the noisom smell of which was

so unsufferable, that we were obliged to make "all the haste we could to get out of the reach of "it. The occasion of their lying there was thus. Admirald, one of the Sultan's chief ministers, having been sent into Judaa to raise a poll-tax, "and finding it hard to get in the money, had "driven away the poor people's cattle, with a de"sign to carry them to Cairo, and present them 86 to the Sultan. But as he was travelling through "that desert, where there was neither water nor pasture, he lost them all.-After we had got Cl out of the reach of that stink, we came to a "certain bay." 15 Sandys, the father of English

15 Baumgarten was at Cairo in the time of Tongobardin, the last of the Mamaluke kings, A. D. 1507. He was admitted to that prince's presence; and saw him with his thirty-five wives, in the midst of the highest luxury and gratification, maintaining that no life could be compared with his for true substantial happiness. A few years afterwards he was defeated by Selim the Turk, and hanged before his palace. The same person traversed this desert another way, in his journey to Mount Sinai; and shews that it was of the same nature every where. "Alcanica"two miles from Cairo; and stands in a sandy desert.-On the "eighth we entered the deserts.-On the ninth we marched through a dreadful sandy desert, where nothing that was green "appeared; not so much as briars or thorns." We have the like account in Monconysii Iter ad montem Sine. 13. April. Ad hospitium vel diversorium. 14. Per desertum statim a diversorio incipiens. In like manner Neitscheizt, Iter ad Montem Sina.