Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/342
234 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
were then fuppofed to flee without a view of returning, be- caufe they had left the way of the defert ; and therefore Pharaoh, that he might induce the Egyptians to follow them, tells them that the Ifraelites were now entangled a- mong the mountains, and the wildernefs behind them, which was really the cafe, when they encamped at Pihahi- roth, before, or fouth of Baal-Zephon, between Migdol and the fea. Here, then, before Migdol, the fea was divided, and they paffed over dry fhod to the wildernefs of Shur, which was immediately oppofite to them; a fpace fome- thing lefs than four leagues, and fo eaiily accomplifhed in one night, without any miraculous interpofition.
Three days they were without water, which would bring them to Korondel, where is a fpring of brackifh, or bitter water, to this day, which probably were the waters ofMarah *.
The natives ftill call this part of the fea Bahar Kolzum, or the Sea of Deftru&ion ; and juft oppofite to Pihahiroth is a bay, where the North Cape is called Ras Mufa, or the Cape ofMofes, even now. Thefe arc the reafons why I believe the paffage of the Ifraelites to have been in this direction. There is about fourteen fathom of water in the channel, and about nine in the fides, and good anchorage every where ; the fartheft fide is a low fandy coaft, and a very eafy landing-place. The draught of the bottom of the Gulf given by Doctor Pococke is very erroneous, in every part of it.
It was propofed to Mr Niebuhr, when in Egypt, to in- quire, upon the fpot, Whether there were not fome ridges
of
- Such is the tradition among the Natives.
