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JOSEPHUS'S ACCOUNT OF THE

quently obliged to fly from the fury of Pharaoh to Midian, on the coast of the Red Sea; of his there marrying Jethro's daughter, and becoming the father of two children: on Pharaoh's death, of his returning to Egypt, after having visited Mount Sinai while he tended his father-in-law's flocks, and of his leading forth the children of Israel (in his eightieth year, by God's command), who had been employed in making bricks and building pyramids; of the Egyptians pursuing them with an army of two hundred and fifty thousand men, and six hundred chariots; of the passage of the Jews across the sea in one night, while the Egyptians were putting on their armour; and, when they followed, of their destruction by the sea flowing “in a torrent raised by storms of wind."

Such are the exact particulars of the account given by Josephus, and he finishes his description of the passage of the Israelites with these words: "As for myself I have delivered every part of this history as I found it in the sacred books; nor let any one wonder at the strangeness of the narration, if a way were opened to those men of old time, who were free from the wickedness of modern

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ages, whether it happened by the will of God or by its own accord, while, for the sake of those who accompanied Alexander, King of Macedonia, who yet lived comparatively but a little while ago, the Pamphylian Sea retired, and afforded them a passage through itself when they had no other way to go; I mean, when it was the will of God to destroy the monarchy of the Persians. this is confessed to be true by all that have written about the actions of Alexander; but as to these events, let every one determine as he pleases."

And

At the extremity of the Gulf of Suez, five or six miles from the town, I observed the remains of the ancient canal which joined the Nile: the bank, on the eastern side, is from eight to ten feet high, and the breadth of the canal appears to have been thirty feet; it runs north north west, and, on the route from Salehie, its course may be traced for half a day in that direction. The saline marshes which extend fifteen or eighteen miles from Suez, in the direction of Salehie, mark its bed. Hamilton thought he saw the termination of this canal in the Nile, near Belbeis, and Burckhardt has laid down its course in the direction of Belbeis,

but I believe it terminated in the Pelusiac branch of the Nile near Salehie; for here, on the left of our route, towards Suez, I found the bed of an ancient canal, much wider than any of the modern ones; and, as I could trace its course in a southerly direction for about fifty yards, I thought it very probable that it was the continuation of the canal from Suez. Consequently its course, in Burckhardt's map, is too much to the west; instead of turning off towards Belbeis, it should be traced north north west, in the direction of Salehie. Strabo speaks of this canal falling into the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and of its being anterior to the siege of Troy; other authors ascribe its construction to Necho, and its perfection to one of the Ptolemies.

From Suez I returned to Damietta: we fell in with a horde of Bedouin robbers near Adjeronde, but they used us like "thieves of mercy:" my guides passed me off for a Turkish Hadgi, and my long black beard, I believe, saved my baggage. They protested, while they were overhauling my luggage, which was that of a pauper, that they did not want to rob me of a paras, God

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forbid!" Min Allah!" but they merely wished to borrow a little tobacco and a little coffee, and they took all I had of both: I put the best face on the robbery, and we parted in good humour. I arrived in Damietta in five days, and here I now am, waiting the departure of the first ship for Syria.

My dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

R. R. M.

LETTER XXXV.

TO JOHN ELMSLIE, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

Tyre, August 20, 1827.

THERE being, at present, no " highway out of Assyria into Egypt," the traveller has to embark at Alexandria or Damietta for Beirout or Sour, the ancient Tyre. The journey by land over the Desert is wearisome and perilous: a packsaddle on the back of a camel is a miserable substitute for a mail coach, and "a howling wilderness" is an awful route for one who has been accustomed to Macadamized roads. I crossed the bogaz of Damietta in an open boat, to get on board a vessel bound for Syria, which lay about seven miles from the shore. The sea, on the bar of the bogaz, was terrific at all times the passage is dangerous; but when it blows hard, the vessels in the roads are frequently wrecked on the bar.