which is yellowish white, I have a specimen of red sandal wood from the Zambesi, which is very beautiful, not unlike the handsomest specimens of Bermuda cedar, but still having the scent of the common sandal wood, and a specimen of which may be seen in the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society." The list of plants collected by Captain Grant between Zanzibar and Cairo, and published in the appendix to Captain Speke's work, "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile," shows that a considerable number of valuable and fragrant timber trees used by the natives in the construction, among other things, of musical instruments, grow in Eastern Africa. 6 Gold-dust is described by Livingstone as an object of traffic with the natives on the Zambesi; it has been found all along the eastern chain of mountains, and there is no reason, therefore, why it should not be found in the country between the Zambesi and the Limpopo. "The entire eastern side of the basin of the Nile," Dr. Beke remarks, " appears to be auriferous, the gold collected in various parts of it since the earliest ages being brought down by the tributaries of that river; so that there is reason to consider the Mountains of the Moon' as a meridional metalliferous cordillera, similar in its general characters to the Ural and the corresponding great mountain ranges of America and Australia. It is from this portion of Africa, as I have explained in my work, The Sources of the Nile,' that the 'gold of Ophir' of the Hebrew Scriptures was obtained. Whenever the discovery shall be made in Eastern Africa of some of the chief deposits of that precious metal, the influx from all parts of the civilised world to the 'diggings' in the Mountains of the Moon' will be such as to occasion a more rapid and complete revolution in the social condition of these hitherto neglected regions than could be caused by commerce, by missionary labours, by colonisation, or by conquest; as we have witnessed in other quarters of the globe, where the auri sacra fames has collected together masses of the most daring and energetic of human beings. We shall then, too, doubtless see in Eastern Africa, as in California and in Australia, the formation of another new race of mankind."—(" On the Mountains forming the Eastern Side of the Basin of the Nile," p. 15.) Although Dr. Beke has not hit upon the exact site of the gold of Ophir (Manica), he has done so so approximately, that it is to be regretted he has not been equally successful in his many conjectures regarding the "Origines Biblica" and the course of the "Blue Nile." As to the long range of hilly and, in parts, mountainous country which borders Eastern Africa from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, the Lupata or Spine of the World" of the Portuguese, being Ptolemy's "Mountains of the Moon," there may be much diversity of opinion, especially since the discovery of ranges of mountains bordering the Albert Nyanza. 66 As to precious stones, they are met with in most metalliferous ranges of mountains, and abound most where there are primitive, crystalline, or igneous rocks, just as are met with in the mountains of Eastern Africa, and around its great lakes. The same country is the true home of the noblest of the elephant kind, the long-eared, powerful, tusked African species, and the herds met with by Livingstone in the Upper Shire, and by Baker in the Albert Nyanza, sufficiently attest to this having been, from time immemorial, the land of "ivory" par excellence. There is nothing, then, in the produce noticed in Holy Writ as brought by the navigators of Solomon and Hiram from Ophir, when fairly and properly considered, that militates in any way against that hitherto unknown region being in Eastern Africa; on the contrary, there are many features in the record which of themselves lead to that conviction. It is true that though gold is not now found in Arabia, that the ancients ascribe that precious metal to its inhabitants in great plenty (Judges viii. 24, 26; 2 Chron. i. 15; 1 Kings x. 1, 2; Ps. lxxii. 15). This gold, Professor Lee thought, was no other than the gold of Havilah (Gen. ii. 11), which he supposes to have been situate somewhere in Arabia, and which Forster identifies with the region between the Lower Euphrates and the Bahrein Islands. Diodorus Siculus also ascribes gold mines to Arabia; and the same writer testifies to the abundance of precious stones in Arabia, especially among the inhabitants of Saba-the principal city and nation in Yemen, or Arabia Felix, and the supposed home of the Queen of Saba or Sheba; but so it might also be said of almost every great country or region of Asia, where gold more or less abounds. Without other corroborative testimony, such a circumstance is then, in itself, of little value-the more especially as Arabia is not a country of ivory. Some have been led to suppose, from the presence of the last-mentioned produce among the objects brought from Ophir, that though situate somewhere on the coast of Arabia, it was rather an emporium, at which the Hebrews and Tyrians obtained gold, silver, ivory, &c., brought thither from India and Africa by the Arabian merchants, and even from Ethiopia, to which Herodotus (iii. 114) ascribed gold in great quantities, elephants' teeth, and trees and shrubs of all kinds, than a place where these different articles of commerce were themselves obtained. But this is at the best a mere hypothesis, by which to get over the difficulties of the question by an ingenious and plausible, but not a trustworthy, solution. On the other hand, Quatremère ("Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip." vol. xv. pt. ii., 1845) agrees with Heeren ("Researches," vol. ii. pp. 73, 74, trans.) in placing Ophir on the east coast of Africa, and explains "thūkyīm" to mean not peacocks, but parrots or guinea-fowls. Ptolemy speaks (vi. 7, § 41) of Saphara as a metropolis of Arabia. This spot has been, with every probability in its favour, identified with Sofala, which appears to have been the port of Ophir. Sofala is, indeed, described by the Arabian geographer, Edrisi (ed. Jaubert, vol. i. p. 67), as a country rich in gold; and so it was subsequently described by the Portuguese after Gama's voyage of discovery. The letters r and 7, so frequently interchanged, make the name of the African Sofala equivalent for that of Saphara or Sophara, which is used in the Septuagint with several other forms, as Oufir, Soufir, &c.-Egyptian names for Indiafor the Ophir to which Solomon's and Hiram's fleet wended their way. Humboldt remarks in his "Cosmos" (Otte's trans., vol. ii. p. 498): "In the enumeration of the elements of an extended knowledge of the universe, which were early brought to the Greeks from other parts of the Mediterranean basin, we have hitherto followed the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in their intercourse with the northern tin and amber lands, as well as in their settlements near the tropics, on the west coast of Africa. It now, therefore, only remains for us to refer to a voyage of the Phonicians to the south, when they proceeded four thousand geographical miles east of Cerne and Hanno's Western Horn, far within the tropics, to the Prasodic and Indian Seas. Whatever doubt may exist regarding the localisation of the distant gold lands (Ophir and Supara), and whether these gold lands are the western coasts of the Indian peninsula or the eastern shores of Africa, it is, at any rate, certain that this active, enterprising Semitic race, who so early employed alphabetical writing, had a direct acquaintance with the products of the most different climates, from the Cassiterides to the south of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, far within the tropics. The Tyrian flag floated simultaneously in the British and Indian Seas. The Phoenicians had commercial settlements in the northern parts of the Arabian Gulf, in the ports of Elath and Ezion-geber, as well as on the Persian Gulf at Aradus and Tylos, where, according to Strabo, temples had been erected, which in their style of architecture resembled those on the Mediterranean. The caravan trade, which was carried on by the Phoenicians in seeking spices and incense, was directed to Arabia Felix, through Palmyra, and to the Chaldean or Nabathoeic Gerrha, on the western or Arabian side of the Persian Gulf." It is to be remarked, in connexion with this old line of commerce for spices, which would of itself indicate that Solomon's fleet was not intended for Indian trade, that incense, spices, and silk, which are especially Indian produce, are not enumerated among the products of Ophir. As it was with Aradus and Tylos on the Persian Gulf, so it appears to have been with Ophir, and Ethiopians left their traces behind them in this celebrated land in temples or buildings, which, in their style of architecture, appear to resemble those still met with on the Nile, and which in remote times were probably met with on the Mediterranean, and even at the temple of Jerusalem itself, where were the two huge propylæ known as Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings vii. 21). This is what has come to us through the records of the Royal Geographical Society (Proceedings, vol. x. No. iv.), taken from the Cape and Natal News of August 2, 1865, and which has also been published in a recent number of Notes and Queries, by Mr. George Thompson, who justly opines that the ruins in question may mark the site of Ophir : "We have heard that the Rev. J. L. Dohne, near Durban, has been informed by a German missionary of the discovery of the ruins of ancient cities in the southern part of Africa, and we presume the following account from the Eastern Province Herald relates to them: "Some time ago, a party of travellers, some of whom were connected with the Berlin mission, went on a tour of exploration in the country between the Limpopo and the Zambesi; and here is what they report: The country from where we started on our tour of discovery is situated in the Leydenbur district, the free territories of the Bafedis, whose chief is Sekukune (a Basuto chief), the son of Sukwaie, and where there has been a mission station since the year 1864. We started on our expedition with ten trustworthy and well-armed Bafedis, and five carriers for our little luggage, and took our route north-east to the Limpopo River; two " Knoapnenzen" served us as conductors to take us to the ruins of Bunjaai-of which we had heard long ago from some eye-witnesses, who were willing, but only required the permission of their chief, Serabane, Sera who was on friendly terms with the natives living near the ruins. bane at first positively refused, as he said it would cost his and our lives if he should take us to the ruins, but at last he agreed to let us and his people go there, but on our own risk. One of the conductors had been born and brought up in the neighbourhood of the ruins, and only latterly went to Serabane. "On our journey we heard some very interesting particulars about them. They were continually frightened to take us any farther, but at last agreed to take us to the neighbourhood of the ruins, and then leave us to our own fate to find our own way. Why Serabane should refuse, and his own people be so frightened, I am at a loss to report; at any rate, the Bunjaai must be a sacred place, as it is forbidden by punishment of death to take any white man there, kill any game, or even damage any of the trees or shrubs there. 66 6 Respecting the ruins themselves, so much is certain, that there are two places on which Egyptian ruins are standing. The smaller place is situated south of the Limpopo, called Bembe there. There even have been water-works, the water flowing out of an animal's head cut out of stone. Many stories are connected with this holy place; but more important is the real Buǹjaai, situated on the Salis (Sabia?) River. This town must have been “several hours" in circumference. There are one or more pyramids, also sphinxes, parts of grand buildings, as well as many marble tables full of hieroglyphics, and for the history of Africa certainly very valuable. There is one underground passage, about half a mile long, full of such tablets with hieroglyphics. This passage has many saloons on each side. The entrance to the one is done very artfully: after pushing a large stone plate aside, you enter into a large saloon. For what purpose this place must have served we could not ascertain, but very likely it had been their burial-ground. Although we should have liked to see these ruins, we found it impossible for us to go any farther this timeand only two days' journey from the smaller ruins, as the natives through whom we had to pass were diseased by the small-pox and fever, and our natives would not go; so we had to return, arriving six weeks after at the mission station at Vitalatlolu. The natives living near the ruins are called Kwarri-kwarri. The country is very unhealthy through the continual fever. Cattle cannot live, as there is a fly called tsetse, which kills them. Plenty of game. A large marble hill.'” The account here given, meagre and unsatisfactory as it is, and apparently translated from the German, or penned by some one not practised in writing in English, is by no means entirely new to geographers. It is known, for example, that on the first arrival of the Portuguese discoverers on this coast, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, they found existing in the interior a large kingdom called Mocaranga, which reached to the coast, along which it extended from the northern portion of Delagoa Bay to the mouths of the River Zambesi, being bounded on the north by that river. This kingdom was fast falling into decay, and appears to have been the remains of a much greater one, which was partially destroyed or broken up at some remote period by the invasion of a warlike people known as the Lindens. At the principal places along the coast the Portuguese found Arab settlements established, which appeared to be under the dominion of a sultan at Kilwa, to whom they all looked up to as their common local head, while the Kotba, or prayer on Friday, was offered for the head of the Arab family, who at that time was Kansu el Ghauri, one of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt. The Sultan of Kilwa was reported to be immensely rich, in consequence of the vast quantity of gold which he obtained from his dependency of Sofala. In the course of a few years the Portuguese made themselves masters of these Arab settlements, and thus the Portuguese kingdom of Algarves was formed. The enterprising Portuguese of those days, having obtained a footing on the coast, soon pushed into the interior, for the purpose of discovering the gold and silver mines of the country, whilst the natives, instructed by the Arabs, did all in their power to baffle the enterprising Europeans. It was during this struggle that those settlements on the Zambesi, such as Senna and Tette, were formed, of which we have heard so much in Dr. Livingstone's last work, “The Zambesi and its Tributaries," as also other settlements, from some of which they were driven to the coast by the natives. The Portuguese priests, however, did not cease for a long time pushing into the interior-witness Zumbo, far up the Zambesi, at the junction of the Loangwa River-and they were at first successful in making proselytes to the Christian faith, but were eventually banished in consequence of their endeavouring to get the government of these semi-civilised kingdoms into their own hands. The discoverers and colonists learned that the kingdom of Mocoranga was very powerful, and the neighbouring vast territory under Monomotapa more powerful still. They also heard of people who had formerly inhabited these countries who were far advanced in civilisation. Besides the information thus obtained of the state of civilisation then and formerly in that vast continent, rumours reached them of the remains of cities built of large blocks of well-hewn stone. Some of these cities were said to remain until this day, and the ruins bore inscriptions (hieroglyphics?) which neither European nor Arab was able to decipher. When Mr. Lyons M'Leod was consul at Mozambique, he did all in his power to obtain information about the Sofala district, which he to all appearance correctly identified from the Portuguese records with the Biblical Ophir. His labours, he says ("Travels in Eastern Africa,” vol. i. p. 208), resulted in the governor-general of the province publishing an official account of the mines known to the Portuguese in that and the surrounding districts, which have been so much neglected by the Portuguese residing there. This account gives a long list of gold, silver, copper, and iron mines which have been worked, but are now entirely neglected, as the country is destitute of labour, the Portuguese having drained it to supply the slave-trade of the Brazils, Cuba, and America. These mines still have attached to them the names of the discoverers, and those of kings who reigned there when the mines were first opened. It is to be observed, in connexion with this report, that Dr. Krapf also relates (" Missionary Intelligencer," vol. iii. p. 88), that when on the coast opposite to Zanzibar he met and conversed with some natives of Moenemoezi, several of whom had travelled to the western coast of Africa, and one of them asserted that he had been in the country Sofala in quest of copper. Mr. Cooley remarks upon this ("Inner Africa Laid Open," p. 21), that "thanks are |