that the God of their fathers would give them the land of Canaan for an heritage, if they would only go up and possess it-he, God, would clear the way before them, and he, Moses, caused the people to believe the fabrication The text, above, shows the fact, and proves the fraud. Instead of making his way from Succoth, or from Etham, away to the northeast, towards the promised inheritance, he ordered them to march in a southeasterly course-a direction taking them away from any part of the land of promise.

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SEC. 6. The sacred record says that they were not led through the way of the Philistines, although that was near," but by the way of the wildnerness of the Red Sea, although that was near." From Succoth to the River of Egypt-the southwestern boundary of the promised land, and the country of the Philistines, there was not the distance of ten days' travel; and, over this route Abraham and his descendants had passed, repeatedly. The remaining part of the text tells the story, and it reveals the why it was that Moses played the fraud npon the people of turning their marching into the wilderness, and away from, instead of turning it toward, the proffered inheritance. That movement was a "military strategy," on the part of Moses. The text says: "Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt." Here outslips the evidence of the pious fraud of "meek" Moses. Up to this time he had not so much as intimated to the people that they had got to "see war," in order to inherit the countries which he had promised them. From the first, Moses knew that, in this particular, as well as in the other particulars which before I have designated, he was deceiving the mass of the people.

SEC. 7. Before following on in the trail of the army of Moses, as he gave it to the world in his diary, I will allude to the Maps of Geographers who have attempted to enlighten the world as to the path of the Israelites, and as to the whereabouts of their encampings in their travels from

Egypt to Canaan. These Geographers do no more agree one with the other, about the route, and the locality of the encampings, than do sectarian theologians about the attributes of their common God, and what he requires of man. Their maps are as dissonant as were the languages of the fabled Babel-builders. To illustrate this fact: One of these delineators of, so called, sacred history, locates Mount Shapher, the twenty-fourth encamping of the Israelites, on their journey, near the waters of the Mediterranean, some fifty miles west of the River of Egypt; another orthodox standard writer locates the same place of sacred history some one hundred and fifty miles from the Mediterranean, and only some fifty miles from the most northerly waters of the northeastern arm of the Red Sea.

SEC. 8. Again, one of these sacred maps, a standard of orthodoxy, has Rissah, the place of the twenty-second encamping, located near the mouth of the River of Egypt; another of these sacred maps, of equal authority with the one first alluded to, locates Rissah some eighty miles south, and east, of the first named locality, and in the wilderness of Paran, or Kadesh. Then, again, one locates Ritmah, the locality of the thirty-eighth encamping near Kadesh Barnea -a little south and east of it; the other locates it some one hundred and fifty miles to the south, and nearly one hundred miles west, and within forty miles distance of the northwestern arm of the Red Sea.

SEC. 9. Then, Kadesh Barnea, itself—this place being the locality of the nineteenth encampment, and from whence the "spies" were sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan, and to which place they returned to camp, and reported the result of their search; also, the place where Moses ordered a retreat "into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea"-one locates it (Kadesh Barnea) in latitude about thirty degrees and thirty minutes north, and thirtyfour degrees and thirty-five minutes east longitude; and the other locates this notable and important station of the march in latitude about thirty-one degrees and twelve minutes

north, and in longitude thirty-five degrees and ten minutes east-the points being some fifty, or sixty, miles apart. Thus much, to begin with, as to the reliability of the speculations and statements of "sacred" geographers, and their sacred maps. What of these are not like the advertising maps of our railroad companies, each being drawn to favor, by false representations, the road principally advertised, and by falsifying competing lines, is mostly conjectural-the whole thing is well nigh, if it is not wholly, a fabulous narration-they are, at least, cousin-germane to other Mythological records-abounding in exaggerations, deceptive glosses, and untruthful additions.

CHAPTER XI.

MOSES-THE ISRAELITES-THEIR TRAVELS FROM ETHAM TO PI-HAHIROTH.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea."

[EX. XIV: 1, 2. "And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pi-hahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon; and they pitched before Migdol."

[Num. XXXIII: 7.

SECTION. 1. In Chapter tenth, I stated that, up to their encamping at Etham, there was but little disagreement between biblical commentators as to the route traveled by the Israelites; there is a pretty general opinion that they went over, or near, the route commonly taken by travelers when passing from the Nile to Suez, and to Arabia Petræa. It is from their encampment in the edge of the wilderness of Etham, and onward, where the disagreement is where all is conjecture and uncertainty, with commentators, as to the route which Moses traveled. Before I enter into any argument on the subject I will define my position, somewhat. First, I deny that, with a just and rational construction of the record, there is any testimony substantiating the commonly received notion that Moses led the children of Israel through the midst of the Red Sea, or that the Israelites were hemmed in between two impassable mountains with the army of Pharaoh behind, there being no way for them to escape destruction, or being captured, except it was by crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, between "walls" of water, miraculously piled up on each side-this is the substance of the record and the common interpretation of it.

SEC. 2. By the language of the text it is evident that Moses had the choice of two routes from Etham by which to reach Suez, at the head of the Gulf of Arabia. One route lay through the wilderness, or more properly the desert, of Etham-this being the most direct of the two routes. The other lay to the south of this, and along the border, south, of the wilderness to the Red Sea a few miles south of Suez; thence, northerly along the beach and shore of the sea to Suez, at the head of the Gulf, the point where the two routes converged. The former route was over a barren and broken country, some of the way; the other was down a valley which extended from the sea, in a northwesternly direction, along the southern border of the wilderness, and south of the high rough lands, which, near the sea, are called the mountains of Attackah, and further inland, the mountains of Mocattee. This valley was traversed between Etham and Succoth, a part of the way, by the road leading direct from Cairo to Suez-this valley, dividing the Mocattee, according to Dr. Shaw, about midway, and there terminating that part of the Mocattee ridge called Attackah. Moses, very wisely, chose this latter route-he chose to move his men and cattle, whether they were few or many, down a valley, to that of conducting them over a barren country traversed with high ranges, notwithstanding the valley route was some miles the longest.

SEC. 3. The questions which now most obtrude themselves before the mind are these: does a just and rational interpretation of the record corroborate my averment concerning the route traveled by Moses? does the geography of that country confirm, or admit, of my construction? According to the quotations, above, the third encampment of the Israelites was before Pi-hahiroth, before Migdol, before Baal-zephon, and by the sea. When the matter is made clear what and where, all these named things, or places, were, then a very essential part of the question under consideration will have been solved. On these, biblical