This new Egyptian monarchy, under Pharaoh-Amosis, came into power again, some years after the death of Joseph, during which period the children of Israel had increased to a great people. For the space of seventy years their oppression was continued by successive kings, until, under Amenophis I. (the father of Amense, "Pharaoh's daughter"), the alarming increase of the numbers of the Hebrews, led this monarch to take harsher measures with them, "for the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."[1] Fearing for the stability of his kingdom, if they should rise upon their taskmasters, and remembering the Syrian shepherd-kings, who had so lately ruled Egypt, he issued the command for the destruction of all their male children, as soon as born! At the time of the promulgation of this sanguinary edict, Amense was a young princess, to whose feet the little ark, containing the infant Moses, God-directed, came. The theory of Egyptian chronology which we have decided to follow, represents this princess as the Queen of Egypt, at the time when we present the Prince Sesostris of Tyre to the reader Under her wise rule, Egypt had attained the culmination of its glory and power. Her father, having died, after reigning twenty-two years, she began her brilliant reign when Moses was twelve years of age--B. C. about 1560. She had been upon the throne twenty-one years, when the Prince Sesostris prepares to visit her court. We will not longer delay presenting the reader to the Letters of Prince Sesostris, trusting that this feeble attempt to illustrate one of the most interesting periods of human history, as it might have appeared to a stranger in Egypt, may lead to a study of the Old Testament by many who are unfamiliar with its pages; and also show how, in his dealings with Pharaoh, God wielded not merely an arbitrary power, but that, in all the "mighty works" He did, He was striking at Egypt's _gods_, and asserting His own Divinity, as the Only Living and True God, "besides Whom there is none else." THE AUTHOR. HOLLY SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI, _Jan. 1, 1859_. NOTE.--The Egyptian scholar, the critic, and the Biblical student are referred to the "Concluding Essay by the Author," in the Appendix, at the close of the volume. [1] Exodus ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS. LETTERS OF SESOSTRIS TO QUEEN EPIPHIA. LETTER I. On, the City of the Sun--Grandeur of Egypt--Emotions at the sight of its wonders of art and scenes of beauty--The Queen of the ancient house of Pharaoh--Her son, Prince Remeses (Moses)--Tyre, and its traffic with distant lands--Damascus--Voyage from Tyre to Pelusium--Scene at the departure of the fleet--The Nile--Its encroachments--First view of Egypt--Meeting with Egyptian war-ship--Invitation to visit the Court of Queen Amense--Description of Egyptian war-ship--Banquet on the Admiral's ship--Singular custom--Panorama of the Nile--pp. 25-38. LETTER II.