ed to augment the revenues of
the crown, for the purpose of improving the irrigation, and augmenting
the produce and population of Egypt. We know that it made the race of
Egyptians a race of warriors and conquerors, until it exhausted their
resources; and then, by placing the property of the people at the mercy
of the government, is prepared the way for the extermination of the
native Egyptian or Coptic population.

[1] Genesis, xlvii. 18-26.

The Nomads, or Hyksos, were driven from the throne of Egypt by the kings
of Thebes, a native race; and under their government the prosperity and
population of the country rapidly increased. The demand for land capable
of cultivation became immense. Moeris constructed the wonderful
artificial lake, for the purpose of regulating the inundation, and
augmenting the productive powers of Egypt, which was always regarded as
one of the most extraordinary undertakings of man. Monsieur Linant has
lately discovered the traces of this lake, and has shown that it was
formed by making embankments round a high level, from which the waters
could be drawn off for irrigation. The absurd opinion of many travellers
and geographers, that the _Birket-el-Karaun_, a salt lake in a deep
natural basin, was the lake of Moeris, is therefore completely exploded;
that lake could never have been any thing but a cess-pool for the
superabundant waters of the lake Moeris, and a sink for the waste waters
of the Nile.

When land became of so great value in Egypt as to cause such vast
undertakings to be made for improving its fertility as the formation of
the lake Moeris, it is not to be supposed that the Egyptians would
overlook the capabilities of the land of Goshen. The Israelites were
regarded with no favourable eye. They had been the friends of the
foreign rulers of the land; and, consequently, both the people and the
native princes declared against them, and resolved to drive them from
the territory they occupied.[1] This was effected in the reign of
Amenoph II., after they had remained in Egypt 430 years.[2]

[1] Exodus, i. 8, 9.

[2] Exodus, xii. 40.

At the time of the exodus, therefore, it is evident that no canal could
have existed in the valley of Goshen. The population of Israelites and
Nomads, however, which dwelt on the confines of the irrigable land, must
have been very great; as the Hebrews alone exceeded 600,000 souls, and
they were accompanied by "a mixed multitude," which is the phrase used