Damafcus being a diftinct and quite feparate ftate from Ægypt, when Saladine first set up for himself, and becoming again quite diftinct from it upon his death, one of his family fucceeding him at Damafcus, and another branch ' of it in Ægypt', and a defert of feveral days journey over intervening, and another state too, while that part of Arabia was held by the princes of the Croisades.

But these princes did not limit themselves to that part of this country which they called the second Arabia, and of which Crak, anciently called Petra, was the capital; they went on ftill more to the Southward, paffing through the second into the third Arabia, where they built a very strong fortrefs in a very healthful, pleasant, and fertile place, producing plenty of corn, wine, and oil, by means of which for trefs they expected to hold the adjoining country in fubjection'. They erected alfo another caftle in that country, to which caftle they gave the name of the Valley of Mofes".

Unfortunately Bongarfius (the editor of William of Tyre, and the other hiftorians of thofe times) has not given us a good map of thofe countries; nor are the accounts of the Archbishop of Tyre fo clear as could be wifhed, but it fhould feem that this third Arabia laid near, or perhaps about, the Eaftern

'D'Herbelot, art. Salaheddin.

2 Called alfo in those times Syria Sobal.

Gefta Dei, p. 812.

• P. 893.

gulf of the Red-Sea, in which case it must have included Aila or Elath, for that town (called the Valley of Mofes) the Archbishop tells us, was fuppofed to be near the Waters of Strife, which Mofes brought forth out of the rock, and "the congregation drank, and "their beafts alfo'." This circumftance is mentioned Numb. xx. 1-13, and was when they were in Kadesh, in the border of Edom, and but a little before their entering into Canaan.

This third Arabia, or Syria Sobal, certainly laid confiderably to the Eaft of the Western gulf of the Red-Sea, and the country between them was a wild uninhabited defert, for we are told that after King Baldwin had built his chief fortress in this third Arabia, which was called Mount-Royal, he being defirous to acquire a more perfect knowledge of those provinces, took proper guides, and a fuitable train of attendants, and paffing over Jordan and through Syria Sobal, he went through that vast desert to the Red-Sea, (the historian evidently means the Western gulf of that sea,) and entering into Helim, a moft ancient city, where the Ifraelites found twelve wells and feventy palm-trees, the inhabitants of the place were fo terrified by the coming of Baldwin, that they immediately betook themselves to the veffels they had in the adjoining fea. The king having made his obfervations, returned

• Gefta Dei, p. 893.

the

the way he came thither, going to MountRoyal, which he had built a little before, and from thence to Jerusalem '.

Though no mention is made of views to commerce in the making these settlements in the third Arabia, and though those princes were much more of a martial turn, than attentive to trade, yet they highly valued the productions of India and of Arabia Felix, when they happened on them among the fpoils of the Egyptian camps, with which people we find they often fought, and therefore could not but be well pleafed, with the facilitating the conveyance of those commodities into their kingdom, from the Elanitic gulf of the RedSea, whofe navigation was much easier than on the Western, up to Suez; and faved the croffing the defert from the port of Aideb to the Nile, and from Alexandria cross the defert between Ægypt and Gaza, if they difembarked those precious commodities on the coast of Upper Egypt, and sent them from Alexandria by land.

Accordingly the author of the History of the Revolt of Ali Bey has lately taken notice, of the much greater facility of conveying things by the Eastern gulf than by Suez, recommending to our Eaft-India company to fend their dispatches by way of Cyprus to Gaza, from whence they might be fent in eight days by a camel, and in four by a drome

dary, to Raithu, which lies on that Eaftern gulf, according to his map, from whence their letters could be forwarded to Mocha much fooner than they can from Suez'.

OBSERVATION CLXVI.

The Bishop of Waterford has observed, in his notes on Hab. i. 8, that an ingenious author, whom he cites, fupposes that the clause," their horfemen shall Spread them

66

felves," is a faulty addition to the words of the prophet, as the Syriac tranflation omits the word fpread themselves; and the Septuagint, he fays, knew not what to make of it. But nothing is more eafy to be conceived, if we confider the Chaldæan army as rather engaged in pillaging and deftroying a country, after the manner of the modern Tartars, than deciding their dispute with Judæa by fet and regular battles.

Habakkuk fays, "Their horfes also are "fwifter than the leopards, and are more "fierce than the evening wolves and their "horsemen fhall Spread themfelves, and their "horsemen shall come from far; they shall "fly as the eagle that hafteth to eat.

With this account, particularly the spreading themselves, I would compare the Baron de Tott's defcription of the manner in which an

Rev. of Ali Bey, p. 203, 204.

2 Mr. Green,

army

army of modern Tartars, in which he was prefent, conducted themselves; which may be seen in the following extracts.

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"Thefe particulars informed the cham " and the generals what their real pofition was; and it was decided, that a third of the army, compofed of volunteers, commanded by a fultan and feveral mirzas, should pafs "the river, at midnight, divide into feveral columns, fubdivide fucceffively, and, thus, "overspread New Servia, burn the villages, "corn and fodder, and carry off the inhabi"tants and cattle, &c.

The rest of" the army, in order to follow "the plan concerted, marched 'till it came to "the beaten track, in the fnow, made by the "detachment. This we followed 'till we "arrived at the place where it divided into feven branches, to the left of which we con

ftantly kept, obferving never to mingle, or "confufe ourselves, with any of the fubdivifions, which we fucceffively found, and "fome of which were only small paths, "traced by one or two horsemen, &c3.

66

"Flocks were found, frozen to death, on "the plain; and twenty columns of fmoke, already rifing in the horizon, completed the "horrors of the fcene, and announced the fires which laid wafte New Servia, &c*.

The prince to whom the Tartars of the Crimea are fubject.

Memoirs of de Tott, part 2, p. 170, 171.

3 P. 174.

+ P. 175, 176.

Q4

"The