6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. respect to the former of these people, the infor-l. mation which history affords is slender, and of

doubtful authority. The fertile foil and mild climateof Egypt produced the necessaries and comforts oflife in such profusion, as to render its inhabitantsso independent of other countries, that it becameearly an established maxim in their policy, to re-nounce all intercourse with foreigners. In conse-quence of this, they held all sea-faring persons indetestation, as impious and profane; and fortifyingtheir harbours , they denied strangers admissioninto them ‘.

The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, disdainingthe restraints imposed upon it by these .contractedideas of his subjects, prompted him to render theEgyptians a commercial people ; and in the courseof his reign, he so completely accomplished this,that (if we may give credit to some historians) hewas able to fit out a fleet of four hundred ships in theArabian Gulf, which conquered all the countriesstretching along the F.rythrean sea to India. At thesame time, his army, led by himself, marched throughAsia, and subjected to his dominion every partof it as far as the banks of the Ganges; and cros-sing that river, advanced to the Eastern Ocean”.But these efforts produced no permanent effect,and appear to have been so contrary to the geniusand habits of the Egyptians, that, on the death

1 Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Weffelingi. Amst. 1746.Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1143. A. edit Casaub. Amst. 1707.

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