University of Virginia Library

2. LETTER II
REMESES OF DAMASCUS, TO HIS FATHER, KING SESOSTRIS OF
PHŒNICIA.

Having an opportunity, my dearest father, to send
this letter the day after to-morrow, I will herewith make
known to you, how I obtained the intelligence, that your
ancient friend Remeses is still in the kingdom of Midian,
whither he fled from King Mœris.

In obedience to your last instructions, I have diligently
made all inquiries that were likely to obtain the
information which your lively friendship prompts you to
seek. There is something, dear father, very beautiful in
this undying attachment, which has survived a period of
forty years, and which still looks forward to behold the
beloved face of thy cherished friend once more!

Learning yesterday that a caravan had arrived from
Ezion-geber (by the Edomites called Ekkaba), which
lies near the head of the orient arm of the Red or
Arabian Sea, and not far from which are the borders of
peninsular Midian, I crossed the Nile to the suburbs of
the City of the Sun, where the caravan had found quarters
in the quadrangle of the Serail.

Having found the governor of the company of merchants,
I made myself known to him as a foreign prince,

travelling for knowledge, and sight of men and scenes.
He courteously received me, and I asked him many
questions about his country, his journey, and the articles
he brought, until he was at his ease with me, when I
inquired if he had ever been in Midian. He answered
that he himself was a Midianite, and that twenty days
before he had left Midian to join the caravan, part
of which belonged to Jethro, prince and priest of that
country. Upon hearing this name, dear father, I was
struck by its similarity to that mentioned in the last
letter of Aaron the Hebrew, as being that of the king
of the country who had invited Moses, while prince, to
visit him.

“Dost thou know this Prince Jethro?” I asked.

“I have sat at his feet—his hand has often rested
upon my head when I was a lad,” he answered.

“You call him a priest,” I said; “what is his religion?”

“That of our sprung from Abram,” I replied.

“Yes, by Sara, his first wife. The Midianites are the
sons of Midian, a son of Abram by Keturah, the wife
he took after Sara died. The cities of Epher, Ephah, and
Hanoch, in Midian, were founded by princes who were
this same Abram's grandsons, and sons of Midian.”

“Do you worship the God of Abram—or Abraham,
as the Hebrews call their ancestor?” I asked.

“Hast thou ever heard, O prince,” he said, with
feeling, “that we were idolaters, or fire-worshippers, or
that we pray to bulls, and beasts, and creeping things,
as these Egyptians do? We worship one God—the
Lord of Heaven—the Almighty Creator, who revealed
Himself to our father Abram.”

When I told him that I also worshipped the same
God, he took my hand, kissed it reverently, and said
solemnly—

“There is but one God!”

“What is your form of worship, that your king is
also your priest?” I inquired.

“By sacrifices. Morning and evening, the priests
offer up to God incense, and oblations, and sacrifices of
lambs. Hence we have large flocks and herds. On
great days, the king himself officiates, lays his hand
upon the head of the victim, and asks the Almighty to
take the life of the sacrifice instead of that of the people,
and to visit upon its head the wrath which the kingdom
had incurred.”

“Did Abram thus sacrifice?”

“Not only Abram, but Noah, the first father, and all
the fathers of the old world. Our worship, therefore, O
prince, consists in offering the life of a victim, to preserve
our own!”

“Yes, if the great Lord of Heaven will so receive it!
For who can weigh the life of a man with that of his
lamb?” I said.

“None but God, who, in His goodness and glory,
wills it so to be!” answered the Midianite.

“Hast thou ever heard, in Midian, of a Hebrew called
Moses?”

“Dost thou mean Moses the Egyptian?” he asked,
quickly.

“He was educated an Egyptian, and was supposed to
be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but was only adopted
by her; and being discovered to be a Hebrew, he left
Egypt.”

“This same Moses, once Prince Remeses, is now in
Midian, where he hath been these forty years,” answered
the venerable chief-captain of the caravan. “He is son-in-law
to our prince, who has made him ruler over all
the companies of shepherds in the region that lieth between
the city of Keturah and the sea, and even to the
back of the desert, where, on the sides of Horeb and
the valleys thereof, he feeds his flocks. Moreover, there
also he meditates, and writes in a cave—for he is a man
of vast learning, and greatly revered in Midian as a
wise sage. He is married to the daughter of the Prince
Ru-el Jethro, and by her hath had many sons, but two
only—mere lads—remain, the rest having died early.
Surely, what man in Midian knoweth not Moses, the
wise shepherd of Horeb?”

Upon hearing this good news, dear father, I rejoiced,
in anticipation, at the pleasure you would receive, when
you should read my letter containing the pleasing
tidings. I now asked the good Midianite when he
would return. He said that in seven days he should
depart, and that it would take him eleven days to reach
that part of the country where Moses dwelt. Upon
this, my dear father, after making sundry other inquiries
about the route, I determined to accompany him; for I
knew you would value one letter from me, saying I had
seen and spoken with your friend face to face, more
highly than many from the hundred-gated Thebes. I
shall be gone but one month, and shall be well repaid,
not only by seeing Moses, whose noble countenance I
can just recollect as a pleasant remembrance of my
childhood, but by conferring upon him the unexpected
pleasure of hearing from you by your son, his namesake.

Thus, for your sake, as well as for his, and also
my own gratification in seeing a new and rarely visited
country, I take my departure with the caravan. After
I reach Midian, and have seen your old friend in the
land of his long exile, I will write to you fully of all
that may interest you.

May the God of Abraham and of Moses have you
always in His sacred keeping.