Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/93

 making a direct voyage from Sofala to the Red Sea. I shall not attempt at any length to discuss the question, whether Sofala corresponds to the Ophir of the Hebrews, as I am of opinion that the Old Testament does not supply sufficient data to enable any one to decide upon the matter, and I shall therefore content myself with merely pointing out the extreme inaccuracy of the statements on which a late celebrated author, Mr. Bruce, has founded his theory on the subject. The principal argument on which he seems to rely depends on "the time of the going and coming of the fleet," which, as he expresses it, "was precisely three years, at no period more nor less," and that from this circumstance, it could not have been done "with variable winds, but must have been accomplished by monsoons." The expression in the Scriptures, however, is not so positive; "once in three years," and "every three years once," are very indefinite phrases, and might allow of any reasonable variation as to the period of time occupied in the voyage. Supposing, however, that he were correct as to this statement, I shall proceed to prove the fallacy of the grounds on which his arguments depend. His first position relative to the winds prevailing in the Red Sea is strikingly incorrect, as the 'monsoon' there (if it may be so termed) does by no means continue for six months steadily in the same point, either one way or the other, but, as nearly as can be ascertained, blows the northern part nine months down, and in the southern nine months up, while in the centre of the sea the winds are often extremely variable. It happens during the height of the south-west monsoon in the Indian Seas, in the months of June, July and August, that the Etesian winds from the north-west prevailing in the Mediterranean appear to find their way down the whole extent of the Red Sea, and it is in the height of the north-east monsoon in the Indian Seas, during the months of November, December and January, that the south-east wind (which is a part of the same current of air, I conceive, as the north-east monsoon, only changed into a