I

/

r°S NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

later period, after the ruin of Coptos by the EmperorDiocletian, we are informed by Abulfeda, Defcript. Egypt,edit. Michaelis, p. 77, that Indian commodities were con-veyed from the Red Sea to the Nile , by the shortest route,viz. from Cofseir, probably the Philoteras Portus of Ptolemy,to Lous, the Vicus Apollinis, a journey of four days.The fame account of the distance was given by the na-tives to Dr. Pococke , Travels, vol. i. p. 87. In conse-quence of this, Lous, from a small village, became thecity in upper Egypt next in magnitude to Fostat, or OldCairo. In process of time, from causes which I cannotexplain , the trade from the Red Sea by Cofleir removedto Rene, farther down the river than Lous, Abulf. p. i77. D’Anville Egypte, 196 — 200. In modern times, allthe commodities of India imported in Egypt, are eitherbrought by sea from Gidda to Suez, and thence carriedon camels to Cairo, or are conveyed by land carriage bythe caravan, returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca*Niebuhr Voyage, tom. i. p. 224. Volney, i. 188 , &c.This, as far as I have been able to trace it, is a com-plete account of all the different routes by which the pro-ductions of the East have been conveyed to the Nile,From the first opening of that communication. It is singularthat P. Sicard, Mem. des Missions dans le Levant, tom. ii.p. 197, and some other respectable writers, should supposeCoffeir to be the Berenice founded by Ptolemy, althoughPtolemy has laid down its latitude at'2?' so / , and Strabohas described it as -nearly under the fame parallel with thatof Syene, lib. ii. p, .1 c> q, D. In consequence of this mis-take , Pliny’s computation of the distance between Bereniceand Coptos , at two hundred and fifty-eight miles, hasbeen deemed erroneous. Pococke, p. 87. But as Plinynot only mentions the total distance, but names the differ-ent stations in the journey, and specifies the number ofmiles between each; and as the Itinerary of Antoninuscoincides exactly with his account, D’Anville Egypte, p.21, there is 110 reason to call in question the accuracy

of it.

NOTE