in the Red Sea. Not far from it, according to Thevenot, are many wells of bitter water. It seems odd, that he should suppose this place to be the Elim of the Scripture, but the fact I suppose we may depend upon, that there are several wells of bitter water in that place. He says, they are all hot, and are returned again to their bitterness, for he tasted of one of them, where people bathe themselves, which, by the Arabs, is called Hamam Mousa, that is to say, the bath of Moses.

If we should suppose this last place rather too far off, I would remark, that Dr. Shaw tells us, that at Adjeroute, which is nearer the land of the Philistines than any of the places I have been mentioning, and is one of the first stations of the Mohammedan pilgrims from Egypt, the water is bitter."

Such being the nature of this part of the country-remarkable for many places of bitter water, it may well be understood to have been called by the Prophet Maroth. And as the Midianitish wife of Moses, is called an Ethiopian woman, who came from the neighbourhood, we may easily perceive who were the Ethiopians, that, according to the 20th of Isaiah, were to be led away captive with the Egyptians, by the Assyrians, about the time that Ashdod was taken by them.

Nor is there any difficulty here of making out the connexion, between the occasional

& P. 477.

name of description the Prophet gives this country, and what is said to have happened to it: The inhabitant of Maroth (the country of bitter waters) waited carefully for good, but (the bitterness of) evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem, and threatened their speedy ruin.

I will only add one remark more, if it should be objected, that this explanation supposes, that some towns or countries are called by their common names, and that others have invented names of description given them, which seems very strange, I would beg leave to refer such readers to the xxvth of Jeremiah, where, after many princes are named by their proper titles, at least, the king of Babylon appears to be spoken of, under the cabalistical denomination of the king of Sheshach. This is generally, I think, understood to be the meaning of the Prophet, and the 12th verse of that chapter seems to prove it. In like manner we find a country pointed out by à poetic description, and another in the same verse mentioned by its direct and common name, in the 18th of Isaiah: Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

The last is incontestible: why then may we not suppose Micah mingled things together in the same manner, in the paragraph I have been considering?

e Ver. 1.

OBSERVATION LXXII.

Of the Time of the Year, in which they usually began their Campaigns in the East.

THE sacred text in 2 Sam. xi. 1. seems to suppose, there was one particular time of the year to which the operations of war were limited. This however was not observed in that country in the time of the Croisades, as we may assuredly collect from the writers of those times, and as may be learnt from the following Table for there being no index to the Gesta Dei per Francos, I have taken the pains to mark down the times when such and such military exploits were performed, that William of Tyre and the other Croisade writers have particularly mentioned, so far as I have observed them; by which it appears, that the princes of the East and the West in those wars confined themselves to no particular time.

We meet however with traces of these limitations elsewhere: so Sir John Chardin, speaking of the Pasha of Basra, who endeavoured in his time to erect himself into an independent sovereign, tells us, that "perceiving in

f In his MS. which I have frequently cited, he supposes April was the time kings were wont to go out to war. His words (in a note on 2Sam. xi. 1,) are "Roys et armées ne sortent que quand il y a de l'herbe á la campagne pour les bestes, et qu'on peut camper, c'est à dire en Avril." That is, kings and armies do not march but when there is grass, and when they can encamp, which

the spring, that the Turkish armies were prepared to thunder upon him the next September or October, (for the heat of those climates will not permit them to take the field sooner) he sent beforehand to offer his territory to the king of Persia.” The contrary however obtained in the Croisade wars, of which the proofs follow.

THE TABLE.

JANUARY.

ALL the forces of the kingdom of Jerusalem assembled together in this month, and a long and severe fight ensued between Baldwin II. and the king of Damascus, near the last mentioned city, on the 28th day of it. Gesta Dei, p. 843,

844.

Assembled again, and began the siege of Ascalon, p. 923.

All the forces of this kingdom of Jerusalem, as well horse as foot, assembled again in the time of king Amalric, and set out on the 30th for Egypt, p. 963.

FEBRUARY.

Baldwin I. having assembled all his troops, began the siege of Berytus in this month, and time is April.-Different countries may find different sea. sons most convenient for marching; but it seems religious animosity made them do what national complaints would & Chron. of Solyman IH. p. 146.

not.

continued it to the twenty-seventh of April, when he took it, p. 803, 804.

Siege of Tyre began by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, February the fifteenth, p. 830, which held til July, when Tyre was surrendered, p. 439.

MARCH.

Turks set out for the country about Jordan in March, which they harrassed for three months, p. 372.

Rapfanea besieged eighteen days together, by the Count of Tripoli and Baldwin II. of Jerusalem, and taken the last day of this month, p. 845.

APRIL.

The united forces of the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Damascus came before Paneas the first of May, having been assembled to oppose the Turkish prince of Aleppo, who entering the kingdom of Damascus, came as far as a place called Rasaline, and continued some time with his army there, till, finding the forces of these two kingdoms were united together against him, he drew off; after which, they sat down before Paneas: the movements consequently that preceded the siege of Paneas must have been in April, p. 876, 877.

MAY.

Fight between Baldwin I. and a great Egyptian army, not far from Ascalon, in the mid