The great value set upon this drug in the east remounts to very early ages; it is coeval with the India trade for pepper, and the beginning of it consequently lost in the darkness of the first ages. We know from scripture, the oldest history extant, as well as most infallible, that the Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers and merchants, trafficking with the India commodities into Egypt, brought with them balm as part of the cargo with pepper; but the price that they paid for Joseph was silver, and not a barter with any of their articles of merchandise. Strabo alone, of all the ancients, hath given us the true account of the place of its origin, “Near to this, that historian says, is the most happy land of the Sabeans, and they are a very great people. Among these, frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon grow, and in the coast that is about Saba the balsam also.” Among the myrrh-trees behind Azab all along the coast to the Straits of Babelmandeb is its native country. It grows to a tree above fourteen feet high, spontaneously and without culture, like the myrrh, the coffee, and frankincense tree; they are all equally the wood of the country, and are occasionally cut down and used for fuel. We need not doubt but that it was early transplanted into Arabia, that is, into the south part of Arabia Felix, immediately fronting Azab, the place of its nativity. The high country of Arabia was too cold to receive it, being all mountainous; water freezes there. [Illustration: _Balessan_ _London Publish’d Dec^r. 1.^{st} 1789 by G. Robinson & Co._] [Illustration: _Balessan._] There is an anecdote relating to Sir William Middleton, who was surprised and taken prisoner by the Turks in the first attempt to open the trade of the Red Sea, that when about to set[24] out for Sanaa, corruptly called Zenan, the residence of the Imam, or prince of Arabia Felix, he was by the people desired[25] to take his fur cloak along with him to keep him from the cold; he thought they were ridiculing him upon what he had to suffer from the approaching heat, which he was convinced in the middle of Arabia must be excessive. The first plantation that succeeded seems to have been at Petra, the ancient metropolis of Arabia, now called Beder, or Beder Hunein, whence I got one of the specimens from which the present drawing is made. Josephus[26], in the history of the antiquities of his country, says, that a tree of this balsam was brought to Jerusalem by the queen of Saba, and given, among other presents, to Solomon, who, as we know from scripture, was very studious of all sort of plants, and skilful in the description and distinction of them. Here it seems to have been cultivated and to have thriven, so that the place of its origin came to be forgotten.