remarkable events of Biblical history, will be obvious; I mean the Exodus of the Israelites and their passage through the Red Sea. I propose to bring together in this place all I have to say on this subject: premising such information as we were able to obtain relative to the Land of Goshen, and the probable route of the Israelites on leaving Egypt.

We were quite satisfied from our own observation, that they could not have passed to the Red Sea from any point near Heliopolis or Cairo in three days, the longest interval which the language of the narrative allows. Both the distance and the want of water on all the routes, are fatal to such an hypothesis. We read, that there were six hundred thousand men of the Israelites above twenty years of age, who left Egypt on foot.* There must of course have been as many women above twenty years old; and at least an equal number both of males and females under the same age; besides the "mixed multitude" spoken of, and very much cattle. The whole number therefore probably amounted to two and a half millions; and certainly to not less than two millions. Now the usual day's march of the best appointed armies, both in ancient and modern times, is not estimated higher than fourteen English, or twelve geographical miles; and it cannot be supposed that the Israelites, encumbered with women and children and flocks, would be able to accomplish more. But the distance on all these routes being not less than sixty geographical miles, they could not well have travelled it in any case in less than five days.

The difficulty as to water might indeed have been obviated so far as the Israelites were concerned, by taking with them a supply from the Nile, like the caravans of modern days. But Pharaoh appears to have followed them upon the same track, with all his horses and chariots and horsemen ; and this could not have taken place upon any of the routes be

* Ex. xii. 37, 38. Comp. Num., i. 2, 3, 45, 46, where a year later the number is given at 603,550.

+ Rennell's Compar. Geogr. of Western Asia, I. p. 54. I am informed by Prussian officers of rank, that the usual march of their armies is three German miles a day, equal to twelve geographical miles, of sixty to the degree. Forced marches are reckoned at five German miles a day. In either case the whole army rests every fourth day.

tween Cairo and the Red Sea. Horses are indeed often taken across at the present day; but then a supply of water must be provided for them; usually about two water-skins for each horse. Six of these water-skins are a load for a camel; so that for every three horses, there must be a camelload of water. Still they not unfrequently die; and we saw the carcasses of several which had perished during the recent passage of the Haj. Flocks of sheep and goats might pass across; but for neat cattle this would be impossible, without a like supply of water.

LAND OF GOSHEN.

The preceding considerations go far to support the usual view of scholars at the present day, that the Land of Goshen lay along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, on the east of the Delta, and was the part of Egypt nearest Palestine.* This tract is now comprehended in the modern province eshShrukîyeh, which extends from the neighborhood of Abu Za'bel to the sea, and from the desert to the former Tanaitic branch of the Nile; thus including also the valley of the ancient canal. If the Pelusiac arm, as is commonly assumed, were navigable for fleets in ancient times, the Israelites were probably confined to its eastern bank; but if we are at liberty to suppose that this stream was never much larger than at present, then they may have spread themselves out upon the Delta beyond it, until restrained by larger branches of the Nile. That the Land of Goshen lay upon the waters of the Nile, is apparent from the circumstance, that the Israelites practised irrigation; that it was a land of seed, figs, vines, and pomegranates; that the people ate of fish freely; while the enumeration of the articles for which they longed in the desert, corresponds remarkably with the list given by Mr. Lane as the food of the modern Fellahs.† All this goes to

The usual arguments from Scripture and the early writers, on which this opinion rests, may be found in Rosenmueller's Bibl. Geogr. III. p. 246, sq. Gesenius' Thesaur. Ling. Heb. p. 307. Bibl. Repos. Oct. 1832, p. 744. A view of the various earlier theories respecting the position of Goshen is given in Bellermann's Handb. der Bibl. Literatur IV. p. 191. Gesenius

1. c.

+ Deut. xi. 10, Num. xx. 5, Num. xi. 5, "We remember the

show, that the Israelites, when in Egypt, lived much as the Egyptians do now; and that Goshen probably extended further west and more into the Delta than has usually been supposed. They would seem to have lived interspersed among the Egyptians of that district, perhaps in separate villages, much as the Copts of the present day are mingled with the Mohammedans. This appears from the circumstance of their borrowing "jewels of gold and silver" from their Egyptian neighbors; and also from the fact, that their houses were to be marked with blood in order that they might be spared in the last dread plague of the Egyptians."

The immediate descendants of Jacob were doubtless nomadic shepherds like their forefathers, dwelling in tents; and probably drove their flocks for pasture far up in the Wadys of the desert, like the present inhabitants of the same region. But in process of time they became also tillers of the soil, and exchanged their tents for more fixed habitations. Even now there is a colony of the Tamarah Arabs, about fifty families, living near Abu Za'bel, who cultivate the soil and yet dwell in tents. They came thither from Mt. Sinai about four years before the French invasion. This drove them back for a time to the mountains of the Terâbîn E. of Suez; but they had acquired such a taste for the good things of Egypt, that like the Israelites they could not live in the desert, and soon returned after the French were gone. Now, said our Arabs, though we acknowledge them as cousins, they have no right to dwell among us: nor could they live in our barren mountains after enjoying so long the luxuries of Egypt.

The Land of Goshen was "the best of the land;"+ and such too the province of the Shŭrkîyeh has ever been, down to the present time. In the remarkable Arabic document

fish we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, I. p. 242. "Their food consists of bread made of millet or of maize, milk, new cheese, eggs, small salted fish, cucumbers and melons, gourds of a great variety of kinds, onions and leeks, beans, chickpeas, lupins," etc. etc.

*Ex. xi. 2, xii. 12, 13, 22, 23, etc. f Gen. xlvii. 6.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. III. NO. II.

6

translated by De Sacy,* containing a valuation of all the provinces and villages of Egypt in the year 1376, the province of the Shurkiyeh comprises 383 towns and villages, and is estimated at 1,411,875 dinars-a larger sum than is put upon any other province, with one exception. During my stay in Cairo, I made many inquiries respecting this district; to which the uniform reply was, that it was considered as the best province in Egypt. Wishing to obtain more definite information, I ventured to request of Lord Prudhoe, with whom the Pasha was understood to be on a very friendly footing, to obtain for me, if possible, a statement of the valuation of the provinces of Egypt. This, as he afterwards informed me, could not well be done; but he had ascertained that the province of the Shurkîyeh bears the highest valuation and yields the largest revenue. He had himself just returned from an excursion to the lower parts of this province, and confirmed from his own observation the reports of its fertility. This arises from the fact that it is intersected by canals; while the surface of the land is less elevated above the level of the Nile, than in other parts of Egypt; so that it is more easily irrigated. There are here more flocks and herds than any where else in Egypt; and also more fishermen. The population is half migratory, composed partly of Fellahs and partly of Arabs from the adjacent deserts and even from Syria; who retain in part their nomadic habits, and frequently remove from one village to another. Yet there are very many villages wholly deserted, where some fifty thousand people might at once find a habitation. Even now another million at least might be sustained in the district; and the soil is capable of higher tillage to an indefinite extent. So too the adjacent desert, so far as water could be applied for irrigation, might be rendered fertile; for wherever water is, there is fertility.

ROUTE OF THE ISRAELITES TO THE RED SEA.

From the land of Goshen, as thus defined, to the Red Sea, the direct and only route was along the valley of the ancient canal. The Israelites broke up from their rendezvous at Rameses" on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the mor

* Abdallatif's Relation de l'Egypte, par De Sacy, p. 583, sq.

row after the passover;* and proceeded by Succoth and Etham to the sea. Without stopping to inquire as to the identity of Rameses with Heröopolis, or the position of the latter place, it is enough for our purpose, that the former town (as is generally admitted) lay probably on the valley of the canal in the middle part, not far from the western extremity of the basin of the Bitter Lakes. Nor is it necessary to discuss the point, whether this basin anciently formed a prolongation of this arm of the Red Sea, as is supposed by some; or, as is more probable, was covered with brackish water, separated from the Red Sea, as now, by a tract of higher ground. Nothing more is needed for our present purpose, even admitting that a communication existed from this basin to the sea, than to suppose that the inlet, if any, was already so small, as to present no important obstacle to the advance of the Israelites.

From Rameses to the head of the Gulf, according to the preceding data, would be a distance of some thirty or thirtyfive miles, which might easily have been passed over by the Israelites in three days. A large portion of the people were apparently already collected at Rameses, waiting for permission to depart, when the last great plague took place. From the time when Pharaoh dismissed Moses and Aaron in the night of the fourteenth day of the month (according to the Jewish reckoning) until the morning of the fifteenth day, when the people set off, there was an interval of some thirty hours, during which these leaders could easily reach Rameses from the court of Pharaoh, whether this were at Memphis, or as is more probable, at Zoan or Tanis.†

The first day's march brought them to Succoth, a name signifying "booths," which might be applied to any temporary station or encampment. Whether there was water here is not mentioned; and the position of the place cannot be determined. On the second day they reached Etham, "in the edge of the wilderness." What wilderness? The Israelites after passing the Red Sea are said in Exodus to have gone three days' march into the desert of Shur; but in Numbers

*Ex. xii. 37; Num. xxxiii. 3.

†The Psalmist places the scene of the miracles of Moses in the region of Zoan; Ps. lxxviii. 12, 43.

Ex. xiii. 20; Num. xxxiii. 6.