Sea. This prodigy is placed at a period, when the ignorance of the Egyptians in navigation was extreme, because their averfion to the fea was invincible. Ship timber befides was so very scarce in Egypt, that a fufficient quantity could with difficulty be found for completing the veffels employed on the Nile, and the different canals. It was, furely, after many unsuccessful attempts, that boats were conftructed of baked earth, an invention hitherto never imitated by any nation. The method of burning these veffels, of giving them a certain degree of strength by exactness of proportions, of varnishing and covering them with rufhes, is now unknown. When the Ptolomeys endeavoured to establish a trade with India by the Red Sea, the want of wood forced them to use wretched barks, ftitched with reeds and papyrus. It appears likewife, that they were always conducted by Greek pilots; for the Egyptians understood nothing of working them *.

ISAIAH, who prophefied two full centuries after Rehoboam, thus defcribes the state of navigation in Egypt, while he denounces execrations on the Ethiopians; "Wo to the land, fhadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that fendeth embaffadors by the fea, even in veffels of bulrushes upon the waters t.” Too bold, in a ferious hiftory of arts and wars, is the paradox of powerful fleets, conveyed from the Nile to the Eastern Ocean, in veffels of earth, burnt like

* Paw's Differtations on the Egyptians and Chinese, vol. i. P. 28. † Ifa. xviii, z. 8

tricks

bricks in a kiln, and covered with bulrufhes for wings or fails. Now if the Egyptians in Rehoboam's time were so very inexpert in naval architecture and the art of steering, much lefs will it appear credible that Sefoftris conftructed a fleet of 600 long veffels in an age fo remote, as the Exodus.

It remains to be noted, that the authority of Herodotus and Jofephus, alleged by Sir I. Newton for the identity of Sefoftris and Shifhac, is, as deficient and foreign to the purpose, inconclufive. Jofephus relates almost in the words of the facred records the tranfactions afcribed to Shifhac; without the leaft mention of Sefoftris; and adds, "That Herodotus of Halicarnaffus describes the fame expedition, with the fole mistake of that king's name, who, without a battle, reduced Syria of Palestine, and made the men prifoners of war." The only paffage in Herodotus, to which Jofephus could poffibly refer, seems to be Book II, or Euterpe, Chap. CI-CX. where the ftory of Sefoftris is related; but the name of Shifhac, or Sefac, does not once occur. Neither is it there affirmed that Şefoftris reduced Syria of Palestine. The author indeed acknowledges that he had seen some monuments of conquests, gained by Sefoftris, in that country. But this intelligence feems to merit no more credit than what is in the fame paffage afferted, that the Phenicians and Syrians of Palestine borrowed the custom of cir cumcifion from Egypt.

See Jof. Ant. viii. 10. 3. and Kings, xiv. 25. 2 Chron. xii. 19.

3. Co-exiflence

1

3. Co-existence of Sefoftris and Danaus.

BEFORE Chrift 964 Danaus, with his daughters, fleeing from his brother Egyptus, i. e. from Sefac, comes into Greece. The return of the one brother is affigned as the reason of the other's flight. "On the return of Sesoftris into Egypt, his brother Danaus not only attempted his life, but also commanded his daughters, who were 50 in number, and had married the fons of Sefoftris, to flay their hufbands; and then fled with his daughters from Egypt, in a long ship of 50 oars. This flight was in the 14th year of Rehoboam. Danaus came firft to Lindus in Rhodes, and there built a temple, and erected a statue to Minerva. Thence he failed to Argos, where he arrived in the 15th or 16th of Rehoboam t." Here the poftulate is affumed — that Sefoftris was the brother of Danaus. Manetho, and he alone ‡, affirms, that Danaus and Egyptus were brothers. Perizonius affigns a very fatisfactory reason for the improbability of this notion, as incompatible with genealogy, chronology, and history §. But were this hypothefis admitted, the identity of Sefoftris, Egyptus, and Sefac, is ftill doubtful. Except Sir J. Marfham, and Sir I. Newton, none of all the chronologers brings

* Short Chron. p. 22.

+ Chron. c. xi. 136.

Others, befides Manetho, report the fame thing; but on his fole authority has the co-exiflence of these perfons, with the relation of brotherhood, obtained credit. If the fac were either uncertain or falfe, the frequent repetition of it by fubfequent writers, could not give it confirmation.

Egypt. Orig. c. xvi. p. 334.

any

any of the three into co-existence with Solomon and Rehoboam. Jofephus teftifies, that the Ifraelites left Egypt 393 years before the arrival of Danaus at Argos *. This date may be inaccurate. But it is much less exceptionable than Sir I. Newton's hypothefis. Danaus had 50 daughters, all married before his flight from Egypt, 136 years prior to the 15th of Rehoboam.

He could not therefore be the brother of Sefac in the Sacred History and Jofephus, or of Sefoftris in Herodotus.

WHETHER the dynasties be reckoned co-exiftent or fucceffive, whether computation proceed in the retrograde or progreffive feries, by lunar, folar, or federeal years, certainty is unattainable from the want of fixed periods, and regulating measures, applicable to collateral history, in the ages prior to Rehoboam and Shishac. Of many kings the names, with the length of their reigns, are unknown; and wide is the difference of opinions, in what order the links of the chain ought to be disposed. In fhort, to adjust history, by fuch registers, is a task scarcely more practicable than the decyphering of the hieroglyphics :

Who ftrives to fix them, by fome certain rule,
May, by right rule and reason, play the fool.

HOR.

3. Co-existence of Zerubabel and Feshua, with Ezra and Nehemiah.

"THE hiftory of the Jews fet down in the Books of EZRA and NEHEMIAH, having fuffered by time, wants

fome illuftration. I fhall therefore, state their history under Zerubabel, in the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyfes, and Darius Hystaspis.”

"IT is contained partly in the first three chapters of the Book of Ezra, and the first five verses of the fourth and partly in the Book of NEHEMIAH, from the 5th verfe of the viith chapter, to the 9th verse of the xiith for Nehemiah copied all this out of the Chronicles of the Jews, written before his days; as may appear by reading the place, and confidering that the Priests and Levites, who fealed the covenant, on the 24th of the viith month, Neh. x. were the very fame with thofe who returned from the captivity, in the first year of Cyrus, Neh. xii.; and that all those who returned did feal it. This will be perceived by comparison of the names," &c. *

IT is admitted, that the contents of Ezra's Book, from the beginning of the 1ft to the end of the vith chapter relate wholly to the Hiftory of the Jews, under Zerubabel, in the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyfes, and Darius Hyftafpis: a few notations only excepted, which Sir Ifaac refers, with exquifite difcrimination, to fubfequent reigns t.

*Chron. ch. vi. p. 358.

For inftance, the Ahasuerus, ch. iv. 6. was no other than Xerxes, the fon and fucceffor of Dar. Hyftafpis; and the Artaxerxes mentioned ch. iv. 7. 11. 23. and ch. vi. 14. was no other than Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son and fucceffor of the fame Xerxes; whofe names are inferted in the hiftory by anticipation,

BUT