This great inlet of the Indian Ocean, which divides Arabia from the opposite coast of Africa, extends in a north-west direction about 1400 miles from the Straits of Babelmandel, where it is not above thirty miles across to Suez, and only sixty miles distant from the Mediterranean, so that the maritime communication by this route between India and Europe is only divided by this narrow isthmus, which also forms the connecting link between the continents of Asia and Africa. This sea lies between the twelfth and thirtieth degrees of north latitude, and is nowhere broader than 200 miles, and scarcely ever of that width. The navigation of the Red Sea is difficult and dangerous, owing to the reefs and coral rocks both above and under the water; and also, for nine months of the year, in consequence of the violent winds which blow regularly from the north, and impede the passage from the Straits to Suez. There are few harbours to which vessels in distress can repair for shelter. On the eastern coast there is not a single harbour from Suez to Yambo, the port of Medina, nor thence to Jidda. Compodah is the next harbour, about 150 miles south of Jidda. But, in entering Yemen, there are the harbours of Mocha, Loheia, and Hodeida. The navigation to Suez, at the head of the gulf, is extremely difficult through the upper part of the Red Sea, the channel through which vessels have to pass being narrow, with rocks sunk beneath the surface. The only other ports on the western shore are Cosseir, the port and road of which are formed by reefs, which defend it from the north-east winds, and by a headland, which secures it against those blowing from the south-south-east, and which has only a depth of water of two fathoms and a half. Here the goods destined for Egypt are landed, conveyed by land to Keneh on the Nile, thence down the river to Alexandria. Snakim, about 500 miles south-east of Cosseir, is extremely difficult of entrance, not Red Sea, only on account of its narrowness at the mouth, which requires an extremely favourable wind, but from the rocks and shoals which lie off it in every direction. By this port hosts of pilgrims and slaves come from the interior of Africa for the purpose of crossing to Jidda and Mecca. Massaua is about 250 miles south-east of Sunkim, and is the port of Abyssinia, by which its whole commerce is carried on. The Red Sea penetrating on the one side so deep into the land between the continents of Asia and Africa, and the great inlet of the Mediterranean on the other between Europe and Africa, appear to be admirably adapted for facilitating the commerce and maritime intercourse of the world; and though the intervention of the Isthmus of Suez detracts from their utility, yet, in ancient times, the great trade of Europe and India was carried on through this channel. By the Red Sea also the fleets of Solomon maintained an intercourse with the celebrated countries of Ophir and Tarshish; the situation of which is variously conjectured to be either on the coast of Africa beyond the straits, or on the western shores of Hindustan. The trade of the ancient world with India was carried on entirely by this route; and Alexandria became the great emporium of eastern produce, from which it was distributed by means of the Mediterranean all over Europe. This trade flourished greatly under the reign of the Ptolemies, who succeeded in establishing a regular communication both with Africa and with Hindustan. It was long a source of great commercial wealth, and was vigorously prosecuted during the whole period that the Roman empire subsisted. But it was long suspended by the overthrow of the Roman power, and during the irruptions of the barbarian hordes, who carried their devastations over the greater part of the civilized world. With literature and refinement commerce revived; and the Venetians established factories at Alexandria, by which they carried on the trade to India through the channel of the Red Sea. Since this period the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope has entirely superseded the route by the Red Sea, and changed the course of the trade to India. But in modern times the introduction of steam-navigation will probably revive the long-abandoned route to India by the Red Sea. The baffling winds which, for nine months in the year, impeded the passage up this sea, will now be overcome by the superior power of steam, nor will the calms which sometimes prevail oppose any further obstacle to its navigation; whilst the route being so much shorter than by the long circuit round the Cape of Good Hope, may be accomplished in a much shorter time, and is by every account to be preferred.

The passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea has furnished matter for much curious research and ingenious speculation. Bruce, in his Travels, states, that "at the place where he supposes the passage to have been made the sea is not quite four leagues in breadth, so that it might easily have been crossed in one night without any miracle. There are about fourteen fathoms' water in the channel, and nine at the sides, with good anchorage everywhere; the farthest side is a low sandy coast, and a very easy landing place." The draught of the bottom of the gulf," says he, "given by Dr Pococke, is very erroneous in every part of it. It was proposed to Mr Niebuhr, when in Egypt, to inquire, upon the spot, whether there were not some ridges of rocks where the water was shallow, so that an army at particular times might pass over; secondly, whether the Etesian winds, which blow strongly all summer from the north-west, could not blow so violently against the sea as to keep it back on a heap, so that the Israelites might have passed without a miracle. And a copy of these queries was left for me to join my inquiries likewise. But I must confess, however learned the gentlemen were who proposed these doubts, I did not think they merited any attention to solve them. If the Etesian winds, blow-

ing from the north-west in summer, could keep the sea as a wall on the right or to the south, of fifty feet high, still the difficulty would remain of building the wall on the left-hand, or to the north. Besides, water standing in that position for a day must have lost the nature of a fluid. Whence came that cohesion of particles that hindered that wall to escape at the sides? This is as great a miracle as that of Moses. If the Etesian winds had done this once, they must have repeated it many a time before and since from the same causes. Yet Diodorus Siculus says, the Traglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, have a tradition from father to son, from their very earliest and remotest ages, that once this division of the sea did happen there; and that, after leaving the bottom some time dry, the sea again came back and covered it with great fury. The words of this author are of the most remarkable kind. We cannot think this heathen is writing in favour of revelation. He knew not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh and his host; but records the miracle of the division of the sea in words nearly as strong as those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiased undesigning pagans."