Java Enum Question

Hi Everyone,
I'm trying to utilize an enum to dynamically generate error messages based an error code which is recieved.  Here is an example of what I trying to do:

enum errorMsgs{
                 error_code1(1),
                 error_code(2);
                private long errorCode
                errorMsgs(long errorCode)
               {
                     this.errorCode = errorCode;
                }

              pulic String getErrorMsg(long errorCode)
             {
                        switch(this)
                        case error_code1: return "Message for error code 1";
                        case error_code2: return "Message for error code 2";
                        default: return "default error";

              }
}

enum variable defined in class
errorMsgs _errors;

Elsewhere in the class:

long errorcode = connect.getErrorCode();
// Here is the question, how can I instantiate the enum class to dynamically select the errorcode such
// that the following is dynamic:
_error.error_code1;

// This method always returns the error code set above, which in this example is basically hard
// coded to error_code1, I need it to retrieve the message retrieved from connect.getErrorCode();
String errorMessage = _error.getErrorMessages(errorcode);


Doesa anyone have any ideas how I can do this with enums?  I would use the switch statement on a long but this is the JDK 1.5 and it doesn't allow switch statemenst on longs only on enums.  I thought it would be good to explore the enum path as I've never used them before.  Let me know if I need to clarify anything.  Thanks.