blow just the contrary at the fame feafons; that is, in fummer from the fouthward, and in winter from the northward, fubject to a fmall inflection to the east and to the west. It may be neceffary here to obferve, that a vessel failing from Suez, or the Elanitic Gulf, in any of the fummer months, will find a steady wind at north-west, which will carry it in the direction of the Gulf to Mocha. At Mocha, the coaft is east and west to the Straits of Babelmandeb, so that the vessel from Mocha will have variable winds for a short space, but moftly wefterly, and these will carry her on to the Straits. She is then done with the monsoon in the Gulf, which was from the north, and, being in the Indian Ocean, is taken up by the monfoon, which blows in the fummer months there, and is directly contrary to what obtains in the Gulf. This is a fouth-wester, which carries the veffel with a flowing fail to any part in India, without delay or impediment. The fame happens upon her return home. She fails in the winter months by the monsoon proper to that sea, that is, with a north-east, which carries her through the Straits of Babelmandeb. She finds, within the Gulf, a wind at fouth-east, directly contrary to what was in the ocean; but then her courfe is contrary likewife, fo that a fouth-eaffer, answering to the direction of the Gulf, carries her directly to Suez, or the Elanitic Gulf, to whichever way the proposes going. Hitherto all is plain, fimple, and eafy to be understood; and this was the reafon why, in the earlieft ages, the India trade was carried on without difficulty. The profperous days of the commerce with the Elanític Gulf, feemed to be at this time nearly paft; yet, after the revolt of the ten tribes, Edom remaining to the houfe of David, they ftill carried on a fort of trade from the Elanitic Gulf, though attended with many difficulties. This continued till the reign of Jehofaphat; but, on Jehoram's fucceeding that prince, the Edomite's revolted, and chofe a king of their own, and were never after fubject to the kings of Judah, till the reign of Uzziah, who conquered Eloth, fortified it, and having peopled it with a colony of his own, revived the old traffic. This fubfifted till the reign of Aliaz, when Rezin, king of Damafcus, took Eloth, and expelled the Jews, plant ing But he did not long ing in their stead a colony of Syrians. enjoy this good fortune, for the year after, Rezin was conquered by Tilgath-pileser; and one of the fruits of this victory was the taking of Eloth, which never after returned to the Jews. The extirpation of the Edomites, the repeated wars and conqueft to which the cities on the Elanitic Gulf had been fubject, all the great events that immediately followed one another, of course disturbed the ufual channel of trade by the Red Sea, whose ports were now confequently become unsafe by being in poffeffion of strangers, robbers, and foldiers; it changed, therefore, to a place nearer the center of police and good government, than fortified and frontier towns could be supposed to be. The Indian and African merchants, by convention, met in Affyria, as they had done in Semiramis's time; the one by the Persian Gulf and Euphrates, the other through Arabia. Affyria, therefore, became the mart of the India trade in the East. Nabopollafer, and his fon Nebuchadnezzar, brought a prodigious quantity of bullion, both filver and gold, to Babylon his capital, having plundered Tyre, and robbed Solomon's Temple of all the gold that had been brought from Ophir ; and he had, besides, conquered Egypt and laid it waste, and cut off the communication of trade in all these places, by al moft extirpating the people. Immenfe riches flowed to him, therefore, on all fides, and it was a circumstance particularly favourable to merchants in that country, that it was governed by written laws that fcreened their properties from any remarkable violence or injustice. Such was the fituation of the country at the birth of Cyrus, who having taken Babylon and flain Belshazzar, became master of the whole trade and riches of the East. Whatever character writers give of this great prince, his conduct, with regard to the commerce of the country, fhews him to have been a weak one; for not content with the prodigious profperity to which his dominions had arrived, by the misfortune of other nations, and perhaps by the good faith kept by his fubjects to merchants, enforced by thofe written laws he undertook undertook the most abfurd and difaftrons project of molesting the traders themselves, and invading India, that all at once he might render himself mafter of their riches. He executed this fcheme juft as abfurdly as he formed it, for, knowing that large caravans of merchants came into Perfia and Affyria from India, through the Ariana, (the desert coast that runs all along the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, almost entirely deftitute of water, and very nearly as much fo of provisions, both which caravans always carry with them), he attempted to enter India by the very fame road with a large army, the fame way his predeceffor Semiramis had proje&ed 1300 years before; and as her army had perished, so did his to a man, without having ever met with the least fuccefs, His fon and fucceffor Cambyfes, was equally unfortunate; for, obferving the quantity of gold brought from Ethiopia into Egypt, he refolved to march to the fource, and at once make himself master of thofe treasures by rapine, which he thought came too flowly through the medium of commerce.' Gambyfe's expedition into Africa obtained a celebrity by the abfurdity of the project, by the enormous cruelty and havock that attended the courfe of it, and by the great and very just punishment that clofed it in the end. It was one of those many moastrous extravangancies, which made up the life of the greatest madman that ever difgraced the annals of antiquity. The bafeft mind is perhaps the most capable of. avarice; and when this paffion has taken poffeffion of the human heart, it is frong enough to excite us to unders takings as great as any of thofe dictated by the nobleft of our virtues. Cambyfes, amidst the commiffion of the moft hor. rid exceffes during the conquest of Egypt, was informed that, from the fouth of that country, there was conftantly brought a quantity of pure gold, independent of what came from the top of the Arabic Gulf, which was now carried into Affyria, and circulated in the trade of his country. This fupply of gold belonged properly and exclusively to Egypt; and a very lucrative, though not very extenfive commerce, was, by its means, carried on with India. He found out, that the people poffeffing these treasures were called Macrobii, which fignifies long livers; and that they poffeffed a country divided from him by lakes, mountains, and deferts. But what ftill affected him moft was, that in his way were a multitude of warlike Shepherds. Cambyfes in order to make peace with the Shepherds, fell furiously upon the gods and temples in Egypt; he murdered the facred ox, the apis, deftroyed Memphis, and all the public buildings wherever he went. This was a gratification to the Shepherds, being equally enemies to thofe that wor shipped beafts, or lived in cities. After this introduction, he concluded peace with them in the most folenın manner, each nation vowing eternal amity with the other. Nothwithftanding which, no fooner was he arrived at Thebes (in Egypt) than he detached a large army to plunder the temple of Jupiter Ammon, the greatest object of the worship of thefe Shepherds; which army utterly perished without a man remaining, probably covered by the moving fands. He then began his march against the Macrobii, keeping close to the Nile. The country there being too high to receive any benefit from the inundation of the river, produced no corn, fo that part of his army died for want of provifion. A detachment from another part of his army proceeded to the country of the Shepherds, who, indeed, furnished him with food; but, exasperated at the facrilege he had committed against their god, they conducted his troops through places where they could procure no water. After fuffering all this lofs, he was not yet arrived beyond 24°, the parallel of Syene. From hence he difpatched ambaffadors, or spies, to difcover the country before him, finding he could no longer rely upon the Shepherds. These found it full of black warlike people, of great fize, and prodigious ftrength of body; active, and continually exercised in hunting the lion, the elephant, and other monftrous beasts which live in these forests. They fo abound with gold, that the most common utenfils and inftruments were made of that metal, whilft, at the fame time, they were utter ftrangers to bread of any kind whatever; and, not only fo, but their country was, by its nature, incapable of producing any fort of grain from which bread could could be made. They fubfifted upon raw flesh alone, dried in the fun, especially that of the rhinoceros, the elephant, and giraffa, which they had slain in hunting. On fuch food they have ever fince lived, and live to this day, and on fuch food Mr. Bruce himself lived with them; yet ftill it appears strange, that people confined to this diet, without variety or change, fhould have it for their characteristic that that they were long livers. The Shepherds were not at all alarmed at the arrival of Cambyfes's ambaffadors. On the contrary, they treated them as an inferior species of men. Upon asking them about their diet, and hearing it was upon bread, they called it dung, probably from having the appearance of that bread which the miserable Agows, their neighbours, make from feeds of bastard rye, which they collect in their fields under the burning rays of the fun. They laughed at Cambyses's requifition of fubmitting to him, and did not conceal their contempt of his idea of bringing an army thither. They treated ironically his hopes of conqueft, even fuppofing all difficulties of the defert overcome, and his army ready to enter their country, and counselled him to return while he was well, at least for a time till he should produce a man of his army that could bend the bow that they then fent him; in which cafe, he might continue to advance, and have hope of conquest. It is well known, that the Perfians were all famous archers. The mortification, therefore, they experienced, by receiving the bow they could not bend, was a very fenfible one, though the narrative of the quantity of gold the meffengers had seen made a much greater impreffion upon Cambyfes. To procure this treasure was, however, impracticable, as he had no provifion, nor was there any in the way of his march. His army, therefore, wasted daily by death and difperfion; and he had the mortification to be obliged to retreat into Egypt, after part of his troops had been reduced to the neceffity of eating each other. Trade was now attempted to be opened by Darius king of Perfia, in a much more worthy and liberal manner, as he fent fhips down the river Indus into the ocean, whence they entered the Red Sea. It is probable, in this voyage, he acquired all |