neral agree that they went gradually fouthward, and spread themselves over part of Arabia, and a great part of Africa, through Egypt, Æthiopia, and their neighbouring countries: which they have with great ingenuity made out, from the names of countries, probably derived from those of the heads of the feveral tribes they governed, which are mentioned above. And as to the land of Canaan, where his people fettled, it is to this day fo well known, that it would be needlefs to mention any thing about it. I shall therefore, according to my plan, take a short view of those places to which Shem and his fucceffors went, and then proceed more largely on those of Japhet, for the reafons I gave before.

:

THE children of Shem, Elam, and Ashur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram, Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash; and Arphaxad begat Salah, and Salah begat Eber, and unto Eber were born two fons, the name of one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan and Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazermaveth, and Jerah, and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havillah, and Jobab; all these were the fons of Joktan. And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou gocst unto Sephar, a mount of the East. These are the fons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.

FROM Scripture, it would seem that the dwellings of the fons of Shem were to the eastward, and partly to the southward; for it is faid, their dwellings were from Mesha, to

wards Sephar, a mount of the East. Some of his grandfons fettled in Ayria, and fome in Perfia, fome about Chaldea; but it is moft probable, that the generality of them migrated gradually, according to their increase, to the south-east, and confequently inhabited the northern parts of Arabia, Elam, or Perfia, and so spread forwards in that direction, till fome of them reached China. Thefe are the most probable conjectures I can collect from the very short account given by Mofes, and the opinions of very learned hiftorians concerning the fettlements of the fons of Shem and Ham.

I SHALL now proceed to follow Japhet and his fucceffors, whofe progeny is furprizingly great, and whofe dominions were fo extenfive and transactions fo extraordinary, as that historians found fufficient matter for exercifing their talents in treating of them, through all ages; and now afford fuch authorities, as will well support all that I have to say about them. And, indeed, there is great reafon to imagine, that the authors who treated of the offspring of Gomer, Japhet's eldest son, were more genuine than those among the Jews, except Jofephus, who hitherto treated of them, or of the fons of Shem; or, indeed, than any other of the Eastern writers: because the latter could never divest themselves of fablé, or allegory, in what they produced; and as to the Jews, they confined their notions chiefly to the hiftory of their own nation, and very often mingled their accounts with the marvelous; fometimes ftraining, and fometimes even perverting, the Sacred Writings, according as either their own fancy, or fallacious traditions, influenced them; inftead of adhering

adhering strictly to that authority, by which alone they are known to be the people they pretend to be, even in our days. Jofephus, a principal historian of the affairs of that nation, had no other foundation to build upon but Holy Writ, in matters of very high antiquity; and though he followed Mofes in his account, yet we find him making some suggestions, which we can by no means affent to, as, in our opinion, not naturally falling from the Mofaic hiftory; whereas, fome of those hiftorians in the Western world, the Greeks and Romans, are more to be relied on touching the affairs of the defcendants of Gomer and fome of his brethren, where fabulous accounts, or fometimes partiality to themselves, do not too much interfere; and where they do, the impartial reader will easily discern the true history, through such imperfections in these authors.

THEY inhabited thofe parts which were the proper countries of that family in old times, in their fubdivifions; they were men of ftudy and learning, and were not so much addicted to give credit to the legends and marvelous traditions of cunning and impofing men, delivering their fentiments with a feeming openness and candor, which can hardly, in general, be faid of Oriental

writers.

BESIDES fuch authorities as the Western world affords among its authors, I fhall endeavour to elucidate what I have to say upon this fubject, with fuch anecdotes, as I hope will be received favourably, accompanied with many facts and accounts of things not fufficiently known, or attended to, or perhaps hitherto viewed in a wrong or partial light.

WE

WE come now to give the best account we can of the defcendants of Japhet, and the progrefs they made over more than half the world, fulfilling, to the greatest degree of exactness and truth, the prophetic bleffing, which Noah gave him before his death: God fhall enlarge Japhet, and he fhall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan fhall be his fervant.

THE Mofaic account runs thus: The fons of Japhet, Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Mefbech, and Tiras; and the fons of Gomer, Askenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah; and the sons of Javan, Elisha, and Tarshish, Kittin, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the gentiles divided in their lands: every one after his tongue, after their families, in their

nations.

It was hinted before, that the two brothers of Japhet, Shem and Ham, fent their descendants to the fouth, foutheast, and partly to the east; and that some of them settled in Syria, and in its neighbouring countries. The fons of Japhet are to be followed to the north-east, north, northwest, and over all the western parts of Europe.

To begin with Gomer, the eldest son, there is a general agreement among the authors of most credit, that he went out from his father's house in the plains of Armenia, where his grandfather and uncles first settled and remained after the deluge, and took his course to the northward, establishing his settlement in the northern parts of Higher Afia; and extending his offspring over Bactriana, Hircania, and Margiana: countries, according to Strabo, who pays great honor to this people, exceeding rich and

fertile

fertile in all the neceffaries of life; and, perhaps upon that account, very naturally and properly allotted to the eldest fon, to whom of course the choice was given.

ALL the ancient geographers agree in this northern settlement: PTOLOMY, on the one hand, places the Chomarians in Bactriana, near the Oxus, and mentions a city Chomara there, as if it was a capital city of the Gomerian. Now he makes two people of Gomer's iffue; one he calls Comarians, and the othe Chamarians; and places the former towards the most eastern boundary of Sogdiana, near the fources of Jaxartes. Whereas, on the other hand, Pomp. Mela fixes the Comarians towards Sogdiana and Bactriana; and the Chamarians to the north of the Cafpian Sea: but there does not seem to be any reason for this distinction; because, if we were to make a distinct people, city, or territory, for every difference we meet in history, in the fyllabication of their names, we should multiply them extremely. They were certainly the same people, who spread themselves all over Bactriana, Hircania, Margiana, Sogdiana, and other countries to the north-eaft, under the name of Gomerians, however differently fpelt by authors.

It is most certain that these people, together with the defcendants of Magog, Gomer's brother, whom we shall by and by fhew to be fettled further north-weftward, were the mighty people still remaining and governing in those northern regions, after the migration of other nations from them, both eastward and weftward of them, that are mentioned by Ezekiel, in the thirty-eighth chapter of his Prophecy, ftill retaining their own ancient names and lan

4.

guage,