GOLDEN OPHIR FOUND.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 29 June 1927, Page 16

GOLDEN OPHIR FOUND.

COMMANDER CRAUFURD'S JOURNEY. IN UNKNOWN ARABIA. RETURNS IX SEARCH OF VAST RICHES. I ■ - ! illy TIO WARP WHITE. Special Correspondi ciit t<> tlio "Auckland Star." and North I American Newspaper Alliance.) LONDON, May 30. How he rediscovered, as he believes. j the long-lost land of Opkir, source of the i fabulous wealth of Solomon, Sheba, and ITiran, after a search that lasted 20 i years, has been related to me by Comniandor C. Craufurd, a retired British : naval officer. [ He is so certain he has identified Ophir I with a ruined city and a temple about ', 4no mi* , * ca.--t of Aden, in Arabia, that he has returned for further exploration. I as he believes the district still contains ! great mineral wealth. It was by following the course of thu ships sent out by Solomon and Hiram 3000 years ago that Commander Craufurd eventually came to the laud he believes to be Ophir. With the Old Testament for a guide he made a fifteen I months' cruise in a twenty ton native boat to te>t his theory of the source of all the incense, spices, gold, jewels, ivory, apes, pearls and peacocks that found their way to Jerusalem when Solomon ransacked the known world for riches. Commander Craufurd. a son of Sir; j Charles Craufurd, told the strange story I of his long search for Ophir on the *>>.<.- jof his return to the East. He is a bronzed and bearded explorer with line | features and the keen eyes of one who has gazed long at far horizons. The "Place of Pleasantness." "When the monsoon set in steadily in October." he said. '"I set sail down the coast of the Hedjaz. hugging the laud inside the reefs where the water is calmer. We passed many a port almost unknown to modern navigators. At night we anchored. Finally we got to Assir and at last to Eden. Now we call it Aden. This was the 'place of pleasantness' where the fleet anchored, and where the Queen of Sheba stopped on her way to visit Solomon; "But shortly after we got to Aden the wind changed, as it always changes there, and blew the dhow down toward the coast of Africa. Wβ yawed and rolled along at a good speed—perhaps eight or ten knots—until we reached modern Somaliland. Here was the incense and spices obtained by the old traders, the first item on their cargo. "Sailing on down the coast —it was the only way we could sail—we finally came to the Sheba Lands, made famous by Sir Rider Haggard. Here, no doubt, the ancient traders obtained both jewels and gold, though not the gold of Ophir. "At this sout". -srn terminus of the route we refitted the d' jw and waited for the south monsoon. Then, in May, with this wind behind us, we set sail for Ceylon and Malabar. At Ceylon the third part of the cargo of Hiram's ships was obtained, the apes and peacocks. "After Ceylon the wind carried us along the coast of India to Karachi, whence the ivory, j#wels, and precious woods came. Then on up the Persian Gulf we went, passing Bahrein, where we could obtain pearls as Hiram did. "After this we turned south along the coast of Arabia again. We found our j landmarks and went close in to shore, i We knew we were near Ophir, but a booming surf showed us that our boat could never land. A surf boat came off to us. j "We landed, and in reply to my ques- I tion, 'Wlhere is the town of Ophir!' the Sheik answered, 'This is the country of Ophir." I then said I wanted the town of Ophir, not V.-.c country, and he replied, 'Ho Al Bilad. Hunna, T'shoof,' which meant, 'The town, over there. Look.' "Looking in the direction in which he pointed we saw the ruins of the Temple near a city which was once ideally located, it has a harbour to the north, and it uas a river which gave wharfage to the seaport. x...t a thin ribbon of coral sand is drawn across the harbour mouth. It was i-uis strip of sand, I believe, which strangled the life of Ophir. "Once it was the central trading point where wealth came from all these other lands, Ceylon, India, and Africa. I think the goods were then transhipped from Ophir to other points. All the goods classed as coming fr- Oph<ir did not originate there, but were brought in by the coasting traders. "There is great wealth in Ophir still. I am certain ther- are <»ol< mines and precious stones. The local sheik insists there is much gold, but the surface has been worked out. The ancient miners did not know how to extract the metal at a greater depth. I am certain that this is an undeveloped Transvaal. "We found some coins near the ruins that may help to prove their identity, and my wife is wearing a ring carved with the head of Solomon, which was obtaned in this district. There is only one other ring like it in existence. "The sheik told me that the name of this spot was D'hofar, which, I think, neans 'of Ophir. , I expect to spend another year working there, and find more evidence that will prove my theory. The Arabs near Ophir have the tradition that they are the oldest Arabs. I hope to learn much from them." While in London, Comm ide: Craufurd lectured on his discovery before the Central Asia Society. His views were not accepted by all who heard them. Some authorities said that in spite of Commander Craufurd's evidence, they still believed Ophir was in India, but" other students of the subject thought that he had made at least a reasonable case for his theory.