NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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arithmetic, it is evident, that if one thoufand fevenhundred of the male children born on the fame day withSefoftris were alive when his great expedition commenced,the number of children bom in Egypt on each day of theyear mult have been at leail ten thoufand, and the po-pulation of the kingdom mult have exceeded fixty millions;Goguet, Origine des Loix, des Arts, &c. tom. ii. p. 12,&c. A number far beyond the bounds of credibility, ina kingdom which, from the accurate calculations of M.D’Anville, Alemoire fur l’Egypte Anc. et Moderne, p 2?,&c. docs not contain more than two thoufand one hun-dred fquare leagues of habitable country. Another marvel-lous particular is the defcription of a (hip of cedar, fourhundred and ninety feet in length, covered on the outfidewith gold, and on the infide with filver, which Sefoftrisconfecrated to the deity who was the chief object of wor-fhip at Thebes . Lib. i. p. 67. Such too is the accounthe gives of the Egyptian army, in which, befide fixhundred thoufand infantry, and twenty-four thoufand ca-valry, there were twenty-feven thoufand armed chariots.Ibid. p. 64.—4. Thefe and other particulars appeared fofar to exceed the bounds of probability , that the foundunderftanding of Strabo the geographer rejected, withouthelitation, the accounts of the Indian expedition of Sefo-ftris; and he not only alferts , in the molt explicit terms,that this monarch never entered India , lib. xv. p. 1007.C. edit. Cafaub. Amft. 1707; but he ranks what has beenrelated concerning his operations in that country, with thefabulous exploits of Bacchus and Hercules, p. tool. D.1009. B. The philofophical Hiftorian of Alexander the Great feems to have entertained the fame fentiments with refpedlto the exploits of Sefoftris in India . Hilt. Ind. c. ?. Arrian ,Exped. Alex. edit. Gronov. L. Bat. 1704. — What Benderinformation concerning India , or its inhabitants, Herodotus had received, feems to have been derived, not from theEgyptians, but from the Perfians, lib. iii. c. 109, whichrenders it probable, that in his time there was littl^intercourfe between Egypt and India.

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