THE PREFACE. T HE following treatifes have been compiled from observations made in the course of my reading many years ago; which I thought might be of fome service, if they were brought under proper arrangement, and illuftrated with farther evidence. This, I imagined, would not be attended with any great trouble, as the general outlines were already plan'd in my mind; and the principal materials were prepared. But I did not confider, how very different it PREFACE. is, to be one's felf thoroughly perfuaded of a truth, and to be able to exhibit the fame in fuch a light, as to obtain the like conviction in others. I was not aware of the many learned men of the highest repute with whom I was to engage: nor the unexpected objections, and variety of opinions (many of them rendered almost facred by antiquity) with which I was to be oppofed. The labour, that has arisen from hence, has been far greater than can be well conceived; and the stating and canvassing these different notions has rendered the work very dry, and unentertaining, and will abridge me of many a reader. I had often obferved, that the main caufe of failure in those learned writers, was their engaging in fchemes too extensive and univerfal, where each took in hand fingly, what required the joint labour of numbers, and which should have been the work of an age. I have therefore confined myself within narrow limits, that I might not be bewildered in too wide a field: yet have not so closely restrained myself as to refuse the pleasure of sometimes expatiating, when a fair opportunity has invited me. The first tract is concerning the Wind mentioned by St. Luke under the name of Euroclydon; wherein I endeavour to fhew, that the common and accepted reading in the original Greek is the true one. The PREFACE. The second is a differtation on the two iflands, Melite Illyrica, and Melite Africana; in which I take upon me to prove, in oppofition both to Bochart and to Cluver, and to all the traditions of the Church of Rome, that the former was the island, on which the apostle St. Paul was shipwrecked. The last, and far largest treatise, contains a partial history of Egypt in its earliest state; in which an account is given of the fhepherd kings, and of the precife district, which they originally occupied in that country, and to which after their expulfion the children of Ifrael fucceeded. In this detail the fituation of the land of Goshen, as well as of Zoan, is stated; and a particular description exhibited of Onium and Heliopolis, and of the three provinces, which lay towards the upper point of Delta. In the determining the situation of these places, the chief of my geographical labour is expended.. Many respectable writers have favoured the world with their opinions upon thefe fubjects; of whom there are some, that I have not had the good fortune to meet with. Among these are the works of Jablonski; and whatever P. Sicard may have exhibited to this purpose. M. D'Anville's learned treatise did at laft reach me; but not till my work had been fome months in the prefs; and the far greater PREFACE. part was printed. I have the mortification to find, that I differ from him in many articles. His book however would have been of great use to me in several particulars, which had escaped my notice, and his maps of confiderable fervice. For, however I may be obliged to dissent from him, yet there must neceffarily be found matter of great edification in a writer fo curious, and fo knowing, who takes in a far greater compass than that, which I engage in. Much about the fame time I was favoured with a fight of Muller's tracts, intitled * Satura Obfervationum Philologicarum; wherein are contained many things to my purpose. It is my misfortune likewife to differ from this fingularly learned man; but in a point of the greatest confequence we are nearly of the fame opinion, I mean, the fituation of the Ifraelites in Egypt. In refpect to M. D'Anville, I am obliged to diffent from him particularly about the fituation of one place, which I have made great use of in the following investigation, and upon which a great deal depends. He places * Muller Satyra Obfervationum Philologicarum. Lugduni Bat. 1753. Phacufa Phacufa towards the bottom of Delta to the eaft of the Nile, in contradiction to the fituation which I find was attributed to this place by P. Sicard, and which I have likewife given it; Je fuis étonné de voir dans la carte du P. Sicard, une pofition bien étrange de Phacufa en la remontant jufq' au-deffus de la divifion du Nil, au fommet du Delta, peu au-deffus de la Babilone d' Egypte +. But with due deference to his learning and experience, this was the true fituation, In reality there were two places of this name; the one a village, taken notice of by Strabo, and fituated at the commencement of the great canal under the hill of Arabia, and confequently over against the point of Delta. The other was a city, the metropolis of a province (if the reading in Ptolemy be quite genuine) in fituation opposite to the former, standing at the extreme point of Lower Egypt, where the Nile was first divided, This was in Delta, the other to the east without; yet both in the vicinity of Babylon. Of each I shall give an ample description. Many have thought + Mémoires fur l'Egypte Ancienne et Moderne, par M. D'Anville de l'Academie Royale a Paris, 1766. p. 107. that |