of Ptolemy, called now Bedea. Niebuhr says, that this opening (which is the Phi-Hiroth of the Scriptures) was directly opposite to the part of the region called Etti; of which name he mentions both a plain and a mountain. This place, there is great reason to think, was the Etham of Moses; upon the border of which the children of Israel had encamped, and where they again arrived after their passage through the Red-sea. But our author still thinks that they did not pass over here. For though I must own, he says, that the bay is here somewhat more contracted than in other places, Je la crois neanmoins et trop large, et trop profonde, pour que Moyse l'ait fait passer aux Israelites dans cet endroit la. He cannot bring himself to consider that Moses was not the chief agent, and that these operations were not carried on at his pleasure, but at the direction of the Almighty. He does not seem to know that one act of Divine power is equivalent to another, and that the separating of Jordan, which was not probably an hundred yards over, was as much a miracle as dividing the sea, of whatever breadth.

2

1 Where Pliny places the Arabes Autæi, l. 6. p. 341. * Voyage, T. 1. p. 184.

They were both to the Deity equally easy. ---The author has fortunately given us the breadth of the sinus about twenty miles below Suez, as he took it upon the eastern coast. This must have been nearly the spot where the Israelites first came upon land in the desert of Etham. Dans le dessein de mesurer la largeur du Golfe Arabique, je m' eloignai le 24° Septemb. de la caravane, environ à une distance de cinq milles au sud de Suès, et dans la plaine d' Etti, ou Tuérik, comme disoit l'un des nos Arabes. D'après mes observations, et mon calcul, je la trouvai etre a peu près de trois milles d'Allemagne : mais cette fois ci encore je ne pu former une base assez longue pour donner à mon mesurage toute l'exactitude requise.

I should be sorry to detract from the honours due to this excellent Danish traveller, by whose diligence and sagacity the world has profited greatly. It is only in this one article that I presume to differ from him; and this I have done with more confidence, and as he sometimes seems himself not to be perfectly

I

Voyage, T. 1. p. 202.

* About twelve English miles.

3 Je n' ose pas rejetter entierement une opinion adoptée par tant de savans. Arabie, p. 351.

determined. I have at the same time paid little regard to the opinions of the modern Arabs, and to the names which they assign to places, unless they have the sanction of antiquity. For we are told by Mr Neibuhr,

-Si l' en falloit croir les relations des Arabes qui habitent a l'est du golfé, les enfans d' Israel auroient passeé la Mer Rouge toujours a l'endroit precis, ou on leur fait la question.

3 Ainsi les traditions et les rapportes contradictoires des Arabes du commun ne sont ici d' aucune valoir. However, where there are names of long standing, and accounts incidentally introduced by authors who knew not the original history, and consequently could have no system to maintain, their evidence must necessarily have weight, and demand our attention. Such is the evidence of + Diodorus Siculus, who mentions the tradi

I

Upon this account I take no notice of the fountains near Suez, though they are stiled by the Arabs the fountains of Moses; for there is no reason to think that they were ever visited by that person; the place where the Israelites passed over being far below. Les mêmes Arabes, qui nous avoient dit auparavant, que les enfans d' Israel avoient passé la Mer Rouge pres d' Aijun Musa, nous dirent alors, que c'etoit dans le voisinage de Girondel. Niebuhr, Voy. T. 1. p. 184. 3 Ibid. p. 349.

Arabie, p. 348.

4 Diodorus, 1. 3. p. 174.

tions which prevailed among the people upon the coast, that the Red-sea upon a time retired in a wonderful manner, and left the channel dry. The region also will often bear witness for itself. For when travellers arrive at that part of the bay where the Israelites are supposed after their transit to have been engaged, they find names of places, and other memorials which greatly illustrate and confirm the sacred history. It is said, that they came into the region of Etham, which is still called 'Etti, the inhabitants of which were the Autæi of Pliny. Here also at this day is the wilderness of Sdur and Sin, and the region of Paran. Beyond Corondel is a hill called Gibel Al Marah, and the coast downward seems to have the same name as it had of old, from the bitter waters with which it still abounds; the inhabitants of which were probably the Maranai of Pliny. The names of Elath and Midian also remain, and are mentioned by 3 Abulfeda. Below this region are

I Niebuhr, above.

2

* Pocock, p. 156. Shaw, 349. Not far from hence the desert still called Sin, p. 350.

3

' Geog. Gr. Minores, v. 3. p. 73. He also alludes to the people of Teman, p. 43.

And

the palm-trees and the twelve wells of water in Elim-So Moses brought Israel from the Redsea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah; for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.Here the Lord shewed to Moses a tree, which he cast into the waters, and they were made sweet. they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees: and they encamped there by the waters. Exod. xv. 22, 23, 27. This encampment was towards the lower part of the bay; and after the Israelies had been journeying from their place of passage several days. For they were three days without water, and upon the fourth they came to Marah, and sometime afterward arrived at Elim. Diodorus Siculus gives an account of this palm grove, as it was described by Ariston, who was sent by Ptolemy to descry the coast of Arabia upon the Red-sea. He calls it the Phonicon, and says that it lay upon the western side of the desert, at some distance from an island denominated Phocarum

I

Exodus xv. 27.

2

2 Diodorus 1. 3. p. 175.