Ophir Of The Bible

Cfje Pitjppn %x$m HT. Josiah 'ü!'.T, in N i w Yoifc 11 ■ Has the identieal port to which Solo raou sent. liis ships (oi fT' '11, ivory, nnc peaoooks, beun at last discovorud 'i Per napa it hu., perhapa not. As great a mystery vci'is this qi ■ that of Dr 1jÍtk . ata RU'l the past six years. A few faota favoring an allirmativo reyiy may not uuiuti rtlitillg, It 6 wcll known that tho Arabs, nt a veryoarly period extended their voyages m ooftflt 0 - i'ar as the Zambezi ri' - m Vasco de Gamo - tho brave Portuguese navigator - who disi overed Vort Natal flve years after Colambus set foot on America., and thon . amo in sight of Zambezi, lio found three hirg ■ uannec by Arabs wbo undentood tho use of tho coinpass, and woro familiar with the route to India. Tho earlieet I'ortugueso records mako mention of eo:ne oxtonsivo ruin3 to tho BOUth of tho river, popularly ■upposed ti) have boen the city pa] the Queen of Bheba. -Aprontablo trado in gold was carried on thrro for many ■ by merchante from Lisbon. One hnndred and"thirty pounds weight issaid to havo been expurted in one year. Tho traden woro in tho habit of takinj ties of slaven into the country, and paying a füo to tho nativo chiefs for tho pri' - iliLC'j r.i digging. Thn trade in .laves becouiing tho most lucrativa, that in gold dculined. AH attempts of exploren to enter tho gold district for the past fifty yean have proved uhavailing. The Mata ble nation, iiating in Zula-land, and sweeping northward until thoy bccame conqueron in all the high-land bctweeu the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, have prohibited, on penulty of death, all foreignera from eiamining thoir auri.'erous coiu try On the duath of I mzihkazi, whiuh took pluoo about three yean ugo, Mr. Hartley, an elophant hm a permitted to pass through this diatriot, mil t'ii1 bjJi i'.i'.i'us ot' gold-bearing quartz ho carried homo greatly eurprised ind dolightcd hia friends. The reduit of thia disoov. ijn of tu'o oompanies - one in England, "Tho London and Limpopo;" another, "The South African ■ Exploration." Up to tho present timo thesó three fncts hnve been brought to light : First, thero are reall;. -tho one more than eïghty milea in lciitrth by two or three broi , the other twenty-two miles broad and of a length not yet ascertained. Secon lly, old mines aro abundant in quarto om whioh metal has bi-c.n èxtrai ted by people unknown. Tliirdly, ;iü that is required to make golddiíjfíiiig 'f that región payable is powort'ul maohinery to crash the quartz. ÏS'ow for tho question, Wus the ancient opfair in this loeality? Tho late Sir Roderick Murchison thought it h'üs. In his opinión, Hofala, the nearest port to tho gold flelds, answen the required conditions of Scripture bctter thun India, in which ■ t geogrnphor, Oarl liittor, placed it; or Arabia, wlioruit waglocatod by the learned author of tho artiole on "Ojihir," in Bmith'8 DiotionnTy of tho Bible. Addressing tho Royal Geographicil Society before his death, he observud : " I venture to say that of all the eites hitherto suggosted, tho región which feeds the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers was, aooording to our present knowledge, in all probability, Hia sourr;e which supplicd the ancient Ophir. This región, besides gold, ia rich in ivory and ustrich feathers, and if Hebrew scholars sro no objection tho supposition that tho Biblioal writers might not clearly distinguish between the feathers of the peacook and those of . anothsr diffloulty in choosing tiiis South African site vanishes. I vould add that parts of thÍ3 región ure spscially rich in ebony - so rich iudeod, thataccordiog to Livingstone, proíit muy be obtained by bringiug home cargóos of the valuublo troes from tho river liovuma. Now, may not thesu have been the famous alumg trees of which Soloinon mudo pillars fcr the housoiof tho Lord, and tha King's housp, as well us harps and psalteries for the singers? A lato discovery tonds to strengthen this hypothesis. Mr. Cari Jlanoh, a öerman geologist and explorer of considerable note, havi. tho reports of mÍ88Íonarics and I'ortuguse traders as to tho ruins of an in this part üf África, at great risk of life, reade a hurried visit to them. He sent the result of his to the distinguished goographer, Herr Petcrmann, who publiahed to tho world that tho Ophir of the Biblo has at last been identifled. A desoription of tho ruins muy bu found in tho M Tho ■wulls - somo of which still havo a height of thirty fcet - are built of cut granite stonee. In ir.uny places monolith pilasters, tight or ten feetin length, ornaniented in diamond-shaped linos stand out of tho edifico. Those are inches wide and three inohes thick, cut out of a hard and close stono of a gi i color, and ha ving :i uiu!a!lic ring. "We regret that Mauch did not find a cluo a3 to the age of these strange buildings.