OPHIR

OPHIR, a country mentioned in Scripture, from which Solomon had great quantities of gold brought home in ships which he sent out for that purpose; but where to fix its situation is the great difficulty, authors running into various opinions on that head. Some have gone to the West, others to the East Indies, and the eastern coast of Africa, in search of it.—Mr Bruce the celebrated Abyssinian traveller, has displayed much learning and ingenuity in settling this question of Biblical history. To the satisfaction of most of his readers, he has determined Ophir to be Sofala, a kingdom of Africa, on the coast of Mosambique, near Zanguebar (see SOFALA). His reasons for this determination are so generally known, that it would be improper to repeat them here at length; because such as are not already acquainted with them may consult his book, which has been long in the hands of the public. He justly observes, that in order to come to a certainty where this Ophir was, it will be necessary to examine what Scripture says of it, and to keep precisely to every thing like description which we can find there, without indulging our fancy farther. 1st, Then, the trade to Ophir, was carried on from the Elanitic gulf through the Indian ocean. 2dly, The returns were gold, silver, and ivory, but especially silver. 3dly, The time of the going and coming of the fleet was precisely three years, at no period more or less. Now, if Solomon's fleet sailed from the Elanitic gulf to the Indian ocean, this voyage of necessity must have been made by monsoons, for no other winds reign in that ocean. And what certainly shows this was the case, is the precise term of three years in which the fleet went and came between Ophir and Ezion-gaber. These mines of Ophir were probably what furnished the East with gold in the earliest times: great traces of excavation must therefore have appeared. But John dos Santos says, that he landed at Sofala in the year 1586; that he sailed up the great river Cuama as far as Tete, where, always desirous to be in the neighbourhood of gold, his order had placed their convent. Thence he penetrated for about two hundred leagues into the country, and saw the gold mines then working at a mountain called Asura. At a considerable distance from these are the silver mines of Chicoua; at both places there is a great appearance of ancient excavations; and at both places the houses of the kings are built with mud and straw, whilst there are large remains of massy buildings of stone and lime. Every thing then conspires to fix the Ophir of Solomon in the kingdom of Sofala, provided it would necessarily require neither more nor less than three years to make a voyage from Ezion-gaber to that place and Tarshish and return. To establish this important fact, our author observes, that the fleet or ship for Sofala, parting in June from Ezion-gaber (see EZION-GABER), would run down before the northern monsoon to Mocha (see MOCHA). Here, not the monsoon, but the direction of the gulf, changes; and the violence of the south-westers, which then reign in the Indian ocean, make themselves at times felt even in Mocha roads. The vessel therefore comes to an anchor in the harbour of Mocha; and here she waits for moderate weather and a fair wind, which carries her out of the straits of Babelmandel, through the few leagues where the wind is variable. Her course from this is nearly south-west, and she meets at Cape Guardafui, a strong south-wester that blows directly in her teeth. Being obliged to return into the gulf, she mistakes this for a trade-wind; because she is not able to make her voyage to Mocha but by the summer monsoon, which carries her no farther than the straits of Babelmandel, and then leaves her in the face of a contrary wind, a strong current to the northward, and violent swell. The attempting this voyage with sails, in these circumstances, was absolutely impossible, as their vessels went only before the wind: if it was performed at all, it must have been by oars; and great havock and loss of men must have been the consequence of the several trials. At last, philosophy and observation, together with the unwearied perseverance of man bent upon his own views and interests, removed these difficulties, and showed the mariners of the Arabian gulf, that these periodical winds,