ueys, par_ M.J.M. Le Pere.

Several circumstances combine to show that the completion of the canal,
and the importance of opening a direct navigable communication between
the Nile and the Red Sea, must have occupied more particularly the
attention of Sesonchis than of the preceding kings. He was a native of
Bubastes; and the seat of his power was in the Delta. The importance of
this navigation for enriching his fellow-citizens, and placing the
whole trade of the Delta, to the eastward, under his control, was
evident; but the great wealth which might be gained from sharing in the
trade on the Red Sea, was also forced on his attention, by the immense
riches which Solomon had been able to accumulate on acquiring a share
in this trade, which had been previously in the hands of the
Phoenicians. Solomon had extended the trade he carried on in the Red
Sea, by means of the ports on the gulf of Eloth, (Ailath,) far beyond
its former bounds.[1] Now, as the grain and provisions, required for
supplying the fleets in the Red Sea, and the greater part of the
commercial population on its coasts, must have been drawn from Egypt by
the port of Suez, and as Egypt must have afforded one of the most
valuable markets for the produce of Arabia and India, it is not
surprising that Sesonchis made great endeavours to obtain a share in a
branch of commerce from which he had seen Solomon derive such wealth.
From some reason, he abandoned the project of completing the canal to
Suez; but, in order to secure a portion of Solomon's riches, he invaded
Judea, and plundered Jerusalem.[2] "So Shishak king of Egypt came up
against Jerusalem: and he took away the treasures of the house of the
Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and
he carried away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made." That
this Shishak, or Sesonchis of Bubastes, was the Sesostris alluded to by
Aristotle, Strabo, and Pliny, though it cannot perhaps be positively
proved, can nevertheless hardly admit of a doubt.

[1] I Kings, ix. 26; 2 Chronicles, viii. 17.

[2] I Kings, xiv. 27; 2 Chronicles, xii. 2.

Thus far we have only been able to draw a few inferences relating to the
canal, from historical facts connected with the subject; but from this
period we become furnished with materials for a consecutive history.
Herodotus is the earliest author who affords direct testimony of the
completion of the canal, and its employment for carrying on a naviga