I was hospitably entertained by the British consul, or agent, as he
is there styled.
He is the employe of the East India Company, and
not of the Home Government. Napoleon during his stay of five days
at Suez had been the guest of the consul's father, and I was told
that the divan in my apartment had been the bed of the great
commander.
There are two opinions as to the point at which the Israelites
passed the Red Sea. One is, that they traversed only the very
small creek at the northern extremity of the inlet, and that they
entered the bed of the water at the spot on which Suez now stands;
the other, that they crossed the sea from a point eighteen miles
down the coast. The Oxford theologians, who, with Milman their
professor, {38} believe that Jehovah conducted His chosen people
without disturbing the order of nature, adopt the first view, and
suppose that the Israelites passed during an ebb-tide, aided by a
violent wind. One among many objections to this supposition is,
that the time of a single ebb would not have been sufficient for
the passage of that vast multitude of men and beasts, or even for a
small fraction of it. Moreover, the creek to the north of this
point can be compassed in an hour, and in two hours you can make
the circuit of the salt marsh over which the sea may have extended
in former times.
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