and that, in particular, through the country of the Deliæ, ran a stream, in whose sands were intermixed pieces of gold of considerable magnitude, while the sand at its mouth appeared as one shining solid mass entirely composed of it, and that the furniture and utensils of their houses, their cups and vessels, were made of it. On this account, as well as its producing such quantites of myrrh, cassia, frankincense, and all the finest drugs and perfumes, that part of Arabia obtained the name of Felix.

Although a considerable portion of this relation may have truth for its basis, yet the greater part is probably exaggerated; for the immemorial trade of the Arabians to the coast of Africa was, doubtless, one source of their thus abounding in those precious metals, which are the chief object of traffic. Of their early engagement in commercial concerns, no stronger testimony need be brought than that which Scripture itself affords; for it was to a caravan of Ishmaelitish (that is, Arabian) merchants, going down to Egypt with spices and balm, that the patriarch Joseph was sold. To Africa, therefore, and particularly to the Ethiopians, we must next direct our course, as a principal and unfailing source of the riches of the ancient world; for, in truth, every province of that vast empire abounded in mines: gold was borne down by torrents from

the mountains, and flowed in the streams of the valley; the Ethiopians anciently had such plenty of it that, to shew their contempt for what excited the envy and admiration of the whole world beside, they are said to have manacled their prisoners taken in war with golden fetters.

There is a curious account given in Diodorus Siculus of the mode after which the Eyptians worked and refined the metal obtained from the mines in the Thebais; for the Lower Egypt, as we before observed, was entirely destitute of mines. They commenced the operation by pounding the ore, and reducing it to grains of the size of millet. It was then reduced to powder under millstones of great weight. The gold-dust, thus finely ground, was spread, as in the process used in respect to the tin ore, detailed above, over a floor of boards, somewhat inclined, and well washed with water, which ran off from the sloping declivity, bearing with it the grosser terrestrial particles that had adhered to it. This washing was several times repeated; and the ore, after having been well rubbed between the hands of the workmen, and thoroughly cleaned by sponges from all remaining filth, was consigned over to those whose business it was to smelt it. These artists deposited the gold dust in earthen vases, mixing

with it, in certain proportions, LEAD, salt, TIN and barley-meal; and these, being closely covered and luted, were placed for five days and nights in a strong refining-furnace. When that period was elapsed, and the metal cooled, they opened the vessels; and examining the gold, found it perfectly pure, and very little diminished in quantity.* This process, of separating and refining the ore of gold, the ancients inform us, was immemorially practised in Egypt, and, in reality, it does not materially differ from that used at the present day; lead, tin, and the labour of repeated fusion, being substituted by the ancients in the room of the more rapid and easy process of the moderns, by means of mercury. In those early periods, however, when as yet both the necessities and the luxuries of life were fewer, gold was frequently found in a state that needed no refining. Without descending into the dark bosom of the mine, virgin gold was frequently to be met with near the surface, as it was discovered in Peru, and is now found in Achem.

Of the immense quantity of gold possessed by the Egyptians, as well as their elegant manufacture of it, in the very early ages to which we allude, abundant testimony may be brought

* See Diod. Sic. p.184; and Agatharchides apud Photium in loco citato.

from writers, both sacred and profane, and to their combined evidence we shall constantly appeal, when possible, for the truth of our. assertions throughout this Dissertation. Diodorous, describing the grand mausoleum of Osy mandyas, informs us, that the exact sum of the gold and silver dug from the mines of the Thebais, as inscribed on the walls of that temple, amounted to 3,000,000,000 of minæ, or ninety-six millions of our money; and mentions, in farther proof of the magnificence of that monarch, the stupendous circle of wrought gold, 365 cubits in circumference, the number of the days of the reformed year of Egypt, which surrounded his tomb.* From a still more authentic record, the Pentateuch of Moses, may be adduced, in evidence, the golden chain which Pharoah placed around the neck of Joseph, when he raised him to the dignity of cup-bearer; the exceeding riches in gold and silver carried by Abraham out of Egypt; the multitude of gold and silver vases, and other valuable trinkets, which the Israelites, though in a state of abject servitude, at their exodus, obtained of their wealthy neighbours; and the bracelets, the earrings, and the clasps of gold, which they afterwards voluntarily offered to Moses for the fabrication of those sumptuous works for the golden * Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 44.

crown, the table of shew-bread, and the rich chandelier of beaten gold, devoted to the holiest rites of their religion. The greatest mart, however, for this metal on the African coast, was the golden Sofala, which Mr. Bruce has incontestably proved to be the Ophir of Scriptures; and it was probably from those mines that David and Solomon obtained those immense treasures, which animated the former to project, and enabled the latter to complete, the stately Temple of Jerusalem, with all the various golden ornaments used in its public worship. In one voyage only, the ships of Solomon are reported by Josephus to have brought home four hundred and fifty talents of gold; by which the writer meant the talent used at Tyre, most probably current at Jerusalem, and thought by Arbuthnot to be of the same value as that of Attica, amounting to between three and four millions sterling.* If these voyages to Ophir were frequently repeated, there can be but little of hyperbole in that expression which occurs in Scripture, of his making silver to be at Jerusalem as the stones of the street; because silver at that time bore a far inferior value to gold than it bears in these days; it being then in the proportion of sixteen to one; whereas, it is now

*Vide Josephi Antiquit. lib vii. and Arbuthnot on Aneient Coins, P-420