6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT, refpect to the former of thefe people, the infor-l. mation which hiftory affords is flender, and of

doubtful authority. The fertile foil and mild climateof Egypt produced the neceffaries and comforts oflife in fuch profufion, as to render its inhabitantsfo independent of other countries, that it becameearly an eftablifhed maxim in their policy, to re-nounce all intercourfe with foreigners. In confe-quence of this, they held all fea-faring perfons indeteftation, as impious and profane; and fortifyingtheir harbours , they denied ftrangers admiffioninto them 5 .

The enterprifing ambition of Sefoftris, difdainingthe reftraints impofed upon it by thefe contractedideas of his fubjeCts, prompted him to render theEgyptians a commercial people; and in the courfeof his reign, he fo completely accomplifhed this,that (if we may give credit to fome hiftorians) hewas able to fit out a fleet of four hundred fhips in theArabian Gulf , which conquered all the countriesftretching along the Erythrean fea to India . At thefame time, his army, led by himfelf, marched throughAfia, and fubje&ed to his dominion every partof it as far as the banks of the Ganges; and crof-flng that river, advanced to the^Eaftern Ocean*.But thefe efforts produced no permanent effeCt,and appear to have been fo contrary to the geniusand habits of the Egyptians, that, on the death

1 Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Weffelingi. Amft. 1746.Strab. Geog . lib. xvii. p. 1142. A. edit. Cafaub. Amft. 1707.

* Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 64.