Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/208

Damiata.our sea toward the East, about the citie of Damiata. They determined also to make three causeys or hygh wayes by land, which shoulde passe from the sayd branch to the citie of Arsinoe : but they founde this too difficult to bryng to passe. In fine, king Ptolomeus, surnamed Philadelphus, Nilus.ordeyned another way, as to sayle vppon Nilus, agaynst the Copto. course of the river, vnto the citie of Copto, and from thence to passe by a desart countrey, vntyl they come aboue the red Berenice.sea, to a citie named Berenice, or Miosormo, where they imbarked al their merchandise and wares for India, Ethiope, and Arabie, as appeareth by the wrytyng first of Strabo (who wryteth that he was in Egypt) and then by Plinie, who was in the tyme of Domitian. Strabo also, speaking of the saide A nauigable trenche made from Egypt to the red sea.fosse or trenche whiche was made towarde the redde sca, wryteth thus: There is a trenche that goeth towarde the red Sea, & the gulfe of Arabie, and to the citie of Arsinoe, whiche some call Cleopatrida, and passeth by the lakes named

Lncus Amari (that is) bytter, because in deede they were fyrste

amari.

bytter : but after that this trenche was made, and the ryuer entred in, they became swecte, and are at this present ful of foules of the water, by reason of their pleasantnesse. This King Se trenche was fyrste begunne by king Sesostre, before the battaile of Troy. Some say that it was begunne by king nine Psammiticus, while he was a childe, and that by reason of his death it was left imperfect ; also, that afterwarde, King Darius succeeded in the same enterprise, who woulde have finished it, but yet brought it not to the ende, because he was enfourmed that the redde sea was higher then Egypt,

and that if this lande (dimiding both the seas) were opened,

hee” all Egypt shoulde be drowned thereby. King Ptolomeus woulde indeede haue finished it, but yet left it shut at the head, that he myght, when he woulde, sayle to the other sea, and returne without peryll. Here is the citie of Arsinoe, ecité and neare vnto that, the citie called Heroum, in the vtter-