informed, that the Midianites and
Ismaelites traded thither as early as the time of Jacob.

Sesostris, who is generally supposed to have lived about 1650 years before
Christ, is by most writers described as the king who first overcame the
dislike of the Egyptians to the sea. That this monarch engaged in many
enterprises both by sea and land, not only for conquest, but also for
purposes of trade and colonization, there can be no doubt; though it is
impossible either to trace his various routes, or to estimate the extent of
his conquests or discoveries. The concurrent testimony of Diodorus and
Herodotus assign to him a large fleet in the Red Sea; and according to
other historians, he had also a fleet in the Mediterranean. In order the
more effectually to banish the prejudices of the Egyptians against the sea,
he is said to have instituted a marine class among his subjects. By these
measures he seems to have acquired the sovereignty and the commerce of the
greater part of the shores of the Red Sea; along which his ships continued
their route, till, according to Herodotus, they were prevented from
advancing by shoals and places difficult to navigate; a description which
aptly applies to the navigation of this sea.

His expeditions and conquests in other parts of the globe do not fall
within our object: one however must be noticed; we allude to the settlement
of the Egyptians at Colchos. Herodotus is doubtful whether this was a
colony planted by Sesostris, or whether part of his army remained behind on
the banks of the Phasis, when he invaded this part of Asia. We allude to
this colony, because with it were found, at the time of the Argonautic
expedition, proofs of the attention which Sesostris had paid to geography,
and of the benefits which that science derived from him. "Tradition,"
Gibbon observes, "has affirmed, with some colour of reason, that Egypt
planted on the Phasis a learned and polite colony, which manufactured
linen, built navies, and invented geographical maps." All the information
we possess respecting these maps is derived from Apollonius Rhodius, and
his scholiast: the substance of it is as follows: according to this
poet,--Phineas, king of Colchos, predicted to the Argonauts the events
which would accompany their return. Argus, one of the Argonauts, explained
that prediction to his companions, and told them, that the route which they
must keep was described on tables, or rather on columns, which an Egyptia