A discourse of the terrestrial paradise aiming at a more probable discovery of the true situation of that happy place of our first parents habitation / by Marmaduke Carver ...

CHAP. XII.

Another Division of Tigris; and the River Hiddekel with good Evidence found out.

AND now there remains but one Di∣vision more, fully to compleat the number of the four Heads; and this we have occasionally touched upon before in producing the testimony of Pliny, who gives us a clear account of it, Hist. l. 6. c. 27. Tigris ex Armenia acceptis fluminibus cla∣ris, Partheniâ ac Nicephorione, Arabas, Aroeos Adiabenósque disterminans, &

quam diximus Mesopotamiam faciens, lu∣stratis Montibus Gordyaeorum circa Apa∣miam Mesenes oppidum, citra Seleuciam Babyloniam CXXV. M. P. divisus in alveos duos, altero Meridiem ac Seleuciam petit, Mesenen perfundens; altero ad Septentri∣onem flexus, ejusdem Gentis tergo Campos Cauchas secat. The same Division is also remembred by Stephanus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. who findes the point of it in the same place that Pliny doth, viz. about Apamia: the Nor∣thern Stream he calls by the name of Tigris minor; and the Southern Delas, which is but a contraction of Dehelath, or (as other∣while it is written) Degelath and Diglath, and Tegelath and Tiglath, and is the same no doubt with the Hebrew word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being pronounced like G, as in Gomorrha) and in Greek is as much as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Latin Aquaeductus, and accordingly is translated in 1 Kings 18. 32. Geog. Nub. calls it Dogiail, part. 6. clim. 4. where in like manner he makes mention of this Division agreeable to the former. Tacrit est ex Ur∣bibus Mausel, jacétque ab Occidente Tigris, & opponitur illi in mediterraneo Urbs Hatdher. Prope Tacrit separat se à Tigri flumen Dogiail, quod ejus terminos secans excurrit ad dominium Sora-man-rai, illúd∣que

alluit usque ad partes vicinas Baghdad. If any haply think this an inconsiderable Division, because not long after their par∣ting these Streams meet again, viz. at or before they attain Seleucia and Ctesiphon, as Pliny intimates loc. cit. where he imme∣diately subjoyns, Ubi re-meavere aquae, Pasitigris appellatur: Postea recipit ex Me∣dia Choaspem; atque (ut diximus) inter Seleuciam & Ctesiphontem vectus, in Lacus Chaldaicos se fundit: To this we answer, That it is more then probable that Pliny was deceived by the homonymy of the word Tigris, which River shedding se∣veral Streams from it, and all still carrying the name of the original Stream, he might easily mistake one for another. Truly I think he will hardly persuade any that hath attentively considered the Chorography of these parts, that the River Choaspes fell into that Stream of Tigris that runs by Seleucia and Ctesiphon; and yet it fell into Tigris too: for even this Stream we are in search of was (even now) by Stephanus called Ti∣gris minor; and with this it fell, not into the Chaldaean Lakes, (as Pliny saith, for no part of Tigris fell into them, but they were wholly made by the effusion of Euphrates) but into the Lakes of Susiana, (whose Coast

towards the Persian Gulf was very fenny, as Strabo notes) and in particular that very Lake whereinto we observed the former River to fall, as will immediately appear. But be it so, that some of the waters of this Northern Stream fell into the Southern at the same place where Pliny saith they did; yet certain it is that it was not the whole body of the Stream, but some small Chanel drawn out of it, which served not∣withstanding to make the inclosed portion of ground a perfect Island, and is therefore by Pliny himself, as well as Stephanus, called Mesene. But that the main Stream held his Course still farther on towards the North-east, we have the warant of Pliny himself to assure us, who finds a Town situate upon the Banks of it at so large a distance from Seleucia, as will forbid us to think it could in any probability run back again unto it: for thus he writes in the fore-mentioned Book and Chapter: In Sep∣tentrionali Tigris alveo Oppidum est Baby∣tace. Abest à Susis CXXXV. M. pass. Ibi mortalium soli aurum in odio contrahunt; id defodiunt, nè quo cui sit in usu. If Babytace were removed but 135 miles from Susa, it was removed at a far greater distance from Seleucia; for betwixt that and Susa himself

a little before had set no less then 450 miles, out of which if we deduct 135, there re∣mains still 315 miles; all which this River having run before it attained Babytace, it is altogether incredible that the main Stream should ever turn back again so suddenly, as to fall into Tigris about Seleucia: and indeed it did not, but held its Course still on forward even to Susa it self, having first met with the former River Gihon, and Cho∣aspes with it, and afterward the River Eu∣laeus; by which access of Waters it be∣came a mighty Stream, and flowing on still towards the Persian Gulf it carried all these Rivers along with it under its own name of Tigris, as we have learned before out of Strabo. And hence it is that Benjamin in his Itinerary calls the River that passed through Susa Tigris, upon a Bridge where∣of, that joyned the two parts of the City, he tells of a memorable Monument of Glass hung up in iron chains, made at the cost of a Mahometan Prince in honour of the Prophet Daniel, if we may believe him. Nor is the name which this River holds at this day much dissonant from its ancient appellation: for in our modern Maps the River which runs by Susa is called Tiritri, which Constantine L'Empereur in his

Notes upon the place of Benjamin suppo∣seth to have been corrupted from Tigris. And no doubt but this Tigris was it whose Chanel Eumenes filled with the slaughtered bodies of Antigonus's Souldiers attem∣pting to force a passage over it: for so it is expresly called by Diodorus Siculus, who notwithstanding had already told us of their quiet and uninterrupted passage over ano∣ther Tigris long before they attained the place of this Defeat: for that was within a daies journey of Susa, where Eumenes had his Head-quarters, having fortified the passages of this Tigris that flowed by it, while Antigonus was yet in Babylonia re∣cruiting his Army, and framing a Bridge of Boats over that other Stream of Tigris that ran by Seleucia; which accordingly he did, and passed his Army over by it into Su∣siana without any lett or hindrance, finding no opposition, till, attempting the passage of this Tigris, he received that remarkable Overthrow. An evidence so clear of this Stream of Tigris which we now speak of, that it is a wonder some good Chronologers should not hereby rather have been led on to the observation of it, then so unjustly (as they do) to charge Diodorus with a con∣tradiction of which he is no way guilty,

save only through the default of their own mistake. Now if Tigris were the same that Moses calleth Hiddekel, as Vatablus saith is agreed upon by all, we need not doubt to affirm this to be the third River of Paradise, as finding it not onely passing under that name, but holding a Course so answerable to the Description of Moses as might serve alone to exclude all doubting. Gen. 2. 14. And the name of the third River is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the East of Assyria. And such and so agreeable to the same point of the Com∣pass is the Current of this Stream as Pliny hath set it, that we cannot desire a better Commentary. For if (as we have heard him say) this Stream, after its breaking from the other at Apamia, ran upward to∣wards the North, (ad Septentrionem flexus) then it must of necessity bend its Course towards the East of the ancient Assyria: so that howsoever it watereth also the South side of that Region; yet this intimation of its inclination towards the North brings it up also to the East, with so large a bend as may well satisfie as much as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth require. And indeed that Testimony of Pliny doth represent to our minds the Cur∣rent of this River at a higher draught to∣wards

the North, then we know well how to express in a Map, keeping any tolerable correspondence with the Tables of Ptolemy. Besides, the Prophet Daniel hath abun∣dantly secured us that this River was Hid∣dekel, by the circumstances of that famous Vision which he saw upon the Banks of it, Dan. 10. where v. 4. he calls it the great River, which is Hiddekel. For if at the time when he saw that Vision he was President of Susiana, and ordinarily resident upon his charge in the Metropolis of that Province, or the place where the Royal Court used to be kept, viz. Sushan the Palace, (as may be gathered from Dan. 8. 2. and is suffici∣ently proved by Scaliger, both in his Pro∣leg. in lib. De Emend. Temp. and in his Notae ad Frag.) then there is no more doubt to be made that Hiddekel in him is the same Stream of Tigris which Secular Writers have found flowing through Susiana, then that Ulai is the same River with that which by them is usually called Eulaeus: ibid. And here also it is much to consider what mis-shapen resemblances of the true name of this River have been continued to posterity even amongst Heathen Authors. For while it runs through Susiana in its own proper Chanel, and hath not yet mingled its waters

with the River Eulaeus, it is by Pliny cal∣led Hedypnus, l. 6. c. 27. Recipit amnem Hedypnum praeter Asylum Persarum veni∣entem, & unum ex Susianis. Some have written it Hedypus, but Jo. Boccatius calls it (in like manner as Pliny doth) Hedypnus, lib. de Fluminib. Hedypnus fluvius est Su∣sianorum Persarum in Eulaeum flumen de∣currens. Strabo is observed to call this same River Hedyphon, or, as others write it, Helyphon, Geog. l. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Capta est eti∣am prope flumen Hedyphontem Seleucia magna Civitas, quae priùs Soloce vocaba∣tur. Now how easily these corrupted names of Hedypus or Hedypnus, Hedyphon or He∣lyphon, might be formed out of the true and proper name of this River Hiddekel, I think none will unwillingly grant, that hath been but lightly acquainted with the many far more unlikely changes of foreign (or, as they used to call them, barbarous) words, made usually both by Greek and Latin Writers.