different direction by the shape of the coasts) forces its way up as far as Suez. Even this general character of the prevailing winds must be taken with some allowance, as nothing tends so much to mislead as the too general assertions by which some authors are accustomed to tie down the winds, weather and seasons, all of which are known to be somewhat variable in every part of the globe.
The next points to which Mr. Bruce leads his readers are the mines of silver at Sofala mentioned by Dos Santos, and the existence of certain ancient towers[1] in the neighbourhood, built of stone and lime, but the slight account given of the former proves nothing, and the latter rests entirely on a story received from the Moors; being by no means "a tradition common to all the Kaffers in that country."
The extract that follows from Eupolemus, and the use made of it, is such a master-piece in the art of reasoning, that I cannot forbear quoting it. "Eupolemus, an ancient author, speaking of David, says, that he built ships at Eloth, a city in Arabia, and thence sent miners, or as he calls them, metal-men, to Orphi, or Ophir, an island in the Red Sea. Now, by the Red Sea, he understands the Indian Ocean, and by Orphi, he probably meant the Island of Madagascar; or Orphi, (or Ophir) might have been the name of the continent, instead of Sofala; that is, Sofala, where the mines are, might have been the main land of Orphi," (Vide Mr. Bruce's Travels, Vol. II. p. 352.) or, by the same chain of reasoning, it might have been any other place that the caprice of human imagination should choose to suggest. With respect to the winds in the Indian Seas, Mr. Bruce's assertions are still more contradicted by facts. Supposing that a vessel sailed down the Red Sea early in August, she might have had three months of favourable winds
- ↑ These towers are said to exist in the interior of the kingdom of Butua, one hundred and sixty leagues west of Sofala, on the front of one of which is engraved an inscription in unknown characters. This account was received from the Moors, vide Joh. de Barros in Ramusio, Vol. I. p. 393; but the supposition of the inscription being placed there by the Kings of Axum, or of its having any relation to the Ophir of the Hebrews, as asserted by Marmol and other writers, appears to be entirely devoid of foundation.
