enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The fpectator beholds, on every fide, flocks and herds difperf ed over all the plains, with infinite numbers of hufbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of bloffoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees; and is fo pure, that a wholefomer or more agreeable is not found in the world; so that nature, being then dead as it were, in all other climates, seems to be alive only for fo delightful an abode. 9. The canal formed by the Nile, by which a communication is made between the two feas. i The canal, by which a communication was made between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, ought to have a place here, as it was not one of the least advantages which the Nile procured Egypt. Sefoftris, or according to others, Pfammetichus, firft projected the defign, and begun this work. Nechio, fucceffor to the laft prince, laid out immenfe fums upon it, and employed a prodigious number of men. It is faid, that above fix fcore thousand Egyptians perifhed in the undertaking. He gave it over, terrified by an oracle, which told him that he would thereby open a door for Barbarians (for by this name they called all foreigners) to enter Egypt. The work was continued by Darius, the first of that name; but he also defifted from it, upon his being told, that as the Red Sea lay higher than Egypt, it would drown the whole country. But it was at last finished under the Ptolemies, who, by the help of fluices, opened or fhut the canal as there was occafion. It began not far from the Delta, near the town of Bubafte. It was an hundred cubits, that is, twenty-five fathoms broad, fo that two veffels might pafs with ease; it had depth enough to carry the largest fhips; and was above a thousand ftadia, that is, above fifty leagues long. This canal was of great fervice to the trade of Egypt. But it is now almoft filled up, and there are scarce any remains of it to be seen. Herod 1. i, c. 158. Strab. I. xvii. p. 804. Plin. l. xvii. c. 29. CHAP. I CHAP. III. Lower Egypt. AM now to speak of Lower Egypt. Its fhape, which resembles a triangle, or A, gave occafion to its bearing the latter name, which is that of one of the Greek letters. Lower Egypt forms a kind of island; it begins at the place where the Nile is divided into two large canals, through which it empties itself into the Mediterranean: the mouth on the right hand is called the Pelufian, and the other the Canopic, from two cities in their neighbourhood, Pelufium and Canopus, now called Damietta and Rofetta. Between these two large branches, there are five others of lefs note. This island is the best cultivated, the most fruitful, and the richest in Egypt. Its chief cities (very anciently) were Heliopolis, Heracleopolis, Naucratis, Sais, Tanis, Canopus, Pelufium; and, in latter times, Alexandria, Nicopolis, &c. It was in the country of Tanis that the Ifraelites dwelt. *There was at Sais, a temple dedicated to Minerva, who is fuppofed to be the fame as Ifis, with the following infcription: "I am whatever hath been, and is, and fhall be; and no mortal hath yet pierced through the veil that fhrouds me." Heliopolis, that is, the city of the fun, was fo called from a magnificent temple there dedicated to that planet. Herodotus, and other authors after him, relate fome particulars concerning the Phoenix and this temple, which, if true, would indeed be very wonderful. Of this kind of birds, if we may believe the ancients, there is never but one at a time in the world. He is brought forth in Arabia, lives five or fix hundred years, and is of the size of an eagle. His head is adorned with a fhining and moft beautiful creft; the feathers of his neck are of a gold colour, and the rest of a purStrab. 1. xvii. p. 855. Herod. 1. ii. ple, k Plutar. in Ifid. p. 354. c. 73. Plin. x. c. 2. Tacit. Ann. 1. vi. c. 28. pie, his tail is white, intermixed with red, and his eyes fparkling like ftars. When he is old, and finds his end approaching, he builds a neft with wood and aromatic fpices, and then dies. Of his bones and marrow, a worm is produced, out of which another Phoenix is formed. His firft care is to folemnize his parent's obfequies, for which purpose he makes up a ball in the fhape of an egg, with abundance of perfumes of myrrh as heavy as he can carry, which he often effays beforehand; then he makes a hole in it, where he depofites his parent's body, and clofes it carefully with myrrh and other perfumes. After this he takes up the precious load on his fhoulders, and flying to the altar of the fun, in the city of Heliopolis, he there burns it. Herodotus and Tacitus difpute the truth of some of the circumstances of this account, but feem to suppose it true in general. Pliny, on the contrary, in the very beginning of his account of it, infinuates plainly enough, that he looks upon the whole as fabulous; and this is the opinion of all modern authors. This ancient tradition, though grounded on an evident falfehood, hath yet introduced into almost all languages, the custom of giving the name of phoenix to whatever is fingular and uncommon in its kind: Rara avis in terris, fays Juvenal, speaking of the difficulty of finding an accomplished woman in all respects. And Seneca obferves the fame of a good man*. m What is reported of the swans, viz. that they never fing but in their expiring moments, and that then they warble very melodiously, is likewise grounded merely on a vulgar error: and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but also by the orators, and even philofophers, O mutis quoque pifcibus donatura cycni, fi libeat, fonum," fays Horace to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent discourse which Craffus made in the fenate, a few days before his death, to the melodious. finging of a dying fwan. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit di Vir bonus tam cito nec fieri poteft, nec intelligi tanquam Phænix, femel anno quingentefimo nafcitur. Ep. 42. vini vini hominis vox et oratio. De Orat. 1. iii. n. 6. And Socrates used to say, that good men ought to imitate fwans, who perceiving by a fecret inftinct, and a divination, what advantage there is in death, die finging and with joy. Providentes quid in morte boni fit, cum cantu et voluptate moriuntur. Tufc. Qu. 1. i. n. 73. I thought this thort digreffion might be of fervice to youth, and return now to my fubject. It was in Heliopolis, that an ox, under the name of Mnevis, was worshipped as a god. Cambyfes, king of Perfia, exercifed his facrilegious rage on this city; burning the temples, demolishing the palaces, and deftroying the moft precious monuments of antiquity in it. There are ftill to be feen fome obelisks which efcaped his fury; and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which city they are an ornament even at this day. Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, from whom it had its name, vied almost in magnificence with the ancient cities of Egypt. It ftands four days journey from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the eastern trade. The merchandifes were unloaded at Portus Muris*, a town on the western coaft of the Red. Sea; from whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copht, and conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants reforted from all parts. It is well known, that the Eaft India trade hath at all times enriched those who carried it on. This was the chief fountain of the vast treasures that Solomon amaffed, and which enabled him to build the magnificent temple of Jerufalem. David by his conquering Idumæa, became master of Elath and Efiongeber, two towns fituated on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. From thefe two ports, Solomon fent fleets to Ophir and Tarfhish, which always brought back immense richest. •Strab. 1. xvii. p. 805 92 Sam. viii. 14. Strab 1. xvi. p. 781. * Or Myos Hormos. He got in one voyage 450 talents of gold, 2 Chron. viii. 18. which amount to three millions, two hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling. Prid. Connect. Vol. I. ad ann. 740. not. This traffic, after having been enjoyed fome time by the Syrians, who regained Idumæa, fhifted from them to the Tyrians. Thele got all their merchandise conveyed, by the way of Rhinocolura, (a fea-port town lying between the confines of Egypt and Palestine) to Tyre, from whence they diftributed them all over the western world. Hereby the Tyrians enriched themselves exceedingly, under the Perfian empire, by the favour and protection of whose monarchs they had the full possesfion of this trade. But when the Ptolemies had made themselves masters of Egypt, they foon drew all this trade into their kingdom, by building Berenice and other ports on the western fide of the Red Sea, belonging to Egypt; and fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, which thereby rofe to be the city of the greatest trade in the world. There it continued for a great many centuries after; and all the traffic, which the western parts of the world from that time had with Perfia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coafts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red Sea and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered, a little above two hundred years fince, of failing to thofe parts,by the cape of Good Hope. After this, the Portuguese for some time managed this trade; but now it is in a manner engroffed wholly by the English and Dutch. This fhort account of the Eaft India trade, from Solomon's time, to the present age, is extracted from Dr. Prideaux '.' For the conveniency of trade, there was built near Alexandria, in an ifland called Pharos, a tower which bore the fame name. At the top of this tower was kept a fire, to light fuch fhips as failed by night near those dangerous coafts, which were full of fands and shelves; from whence all other towers, defigned for the fame ufe, have been called, as Pharo di Meffina, &c. The famous architect Softratus built it by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who expended eight hundred talents upon it*. It was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the Part. I. i. p. 9. Strab. 1. xvi. p. 481. world. |