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THE 
 
 WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D. 
 
 4 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND PRINCIPAL 
 OF THE UNIVERSITY, OF EDINBURGH, 
 
 HISTORIOGRAPHER TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND, 
 
 AND 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY 
 
 AT MADRID. 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS, 
 BY DUGALD STEWART, F.R.S. ED1N. 
 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 IN TWELVE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. XIL 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIES ; F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; G. WILKIE; 
 J. NUNN ; J. CUTHELL ; CLARKE AND SONS ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, 
 ORME, AND BROWN ; E. JEFFERY ; J. BOOKER ; J. AND A. ARCH ; S.BAGSTER; 
 BLACK, PARBURY, AND ALLEN; J. AND T. GRAY; JOHN RICHARDSON; 
 J. M. RICHARDSON ; CARPENTER AND SON ; R. H. EVANS ; J. MURRAY ; 
 W. PHILLIPS; W. STEWART; J. MAWMAN ; BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY; 
 OGLE AND CO.; GALE AND FENNER; R. S. KIRBY; W. REID ; AND W. GINGER. 
 
 1817. 
 
 •-.-v- 
 
D 
 7 
 
 ft? 
 
 mi 
 
 ) 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL 
 DISQUISITION 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE ANCIENTS HAD OF 
 
 INDIA; 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PROGRESS of TRADE with that COUNTRY 
 
 PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE TO IT BY 
 
 THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
 With an APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIVIL POLITY -THE LAWS AND JUDICIAL 
 
 PROCEEDINGS— THE ARTS AND SCIENCES— AND RELIGIOUS 
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF THE INDIANS. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE DISQUISITION CONCERNING 
 ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 THE perusal of Major Rennell's Memoir for 
 illustrating his Map of Indostan, one of the 
 most valuable geographical treatises that has ap- 
 peared in any age or country, gave rise to the 
 following work. It suggested to me the idea of 
 examining more fully than I had done in the 
 Introductory Book to my History of America, 
 into the knowledge which the Ancients had of 
 India, and of considering what is certain, what 
 is obscure, and what is fabulous, in the accounts 
 of that country which they have handed down 
 to us. In undertaking this enquiry, I had ori- 
 ginally no other object than my own amusement 
 and instruction : But in carrying it on, and con- 
 sulting with diligence the authors of antiquity, 
 some facts, hitherto unobserved, and many which 
 had not been examined with proper attention, 
 occurred ; new views opened -> my ideas gra- 
 dually extended and became more interesting ; 
 until, at length, I imagined that the result of 
 my researches might prove amusing and instruc- 
 tive to others, by exhibiting such a view of the 
 various modes in which intercourse with India 
 had been carried on from the earliest times, as 
 
VI 11 
 
 PREFACE TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 might shew how much that great br anch^of com- 
 merce has contributed, in every age, to increase 
 the wealth and power of the nations which pos- 
 sessed it. 
 
 Thus the Historical Disquisition which I now 
 lay before the Reader was begun and completed. 
 What degree of merit it possesses, the Public must 
 determine. My grateful recollection of the fa- 
 vourable manner in which my other works have 
 been received, naturally increases the solicitude 
 with which I wait for its decision concerning this 
 which I now publish. 
 
 When I first turned my thoughts to this sub- 
 ject, I was so fully aware of the disadvantage 
 under which I laboured in undertaking to describe 
 countries of which I had not any local knowledge, 
 that I have been at the utmost pains to guard 
 against any errors which this might occasion. I 
 have consulted, with persevering industry, the 
 works of all the authors I could procure, who 
 have given any account of India ; I have never 
 formed any decided opinion, which was not sup- 
 ported by respectable authority ; and as I have 
 the good fortune to reckon among the number of 
 my friends some Gentlemen who have filled im- 
 portant stations, civil and military, in India, and 
 who have visited many different parts of it, I had 
 recourse frequently to them, and from their con- 
 versation learned things which I could not have 
 found in books. Were it proper to mention their 
 
 7 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 names, the Public would allow that, by their 
 discernment and abilities, they are fully entitled 
 to the confidence which I have placed in them. 
 
 In the progress of the work, I became sen- 
 sible of my own deficiency with respect to an- 
 other point. In order to give an accurate idea 
 of the imperfection both of the theory and 
 practice of navigation among the Ancients, and 
 to explain, with scientific precision, the manner 
 in which they ascertained the position of places, 
 and calculated their longitude and latitude, a 
 greater portion of mathematical knowledge was 
 requisite, than my attention to other studies had 
 permitted me to acquire. What I wanted, the 
 friendship of my ingenious and respectable Col- 
 league, Mr. Playfair, Professor of Mathematics, 
 has supplied ; and I have been enabled by him 
 to elucidate all the points I have mentioned, in 
 a manner which, I am confident, will afford my 
 readers complete satisfaction. To him, likewise, 
 I am indebted for the construction of two maps 
 necessary for illustrating this Disquisition, which 
 without his assistance I could not have under- 
 taken. 
 
 I have adhered, in this work, to an arrange- 
 ment I followed in my former compositions, and 
 to which the public has been long accustomed. 
 I have kept historical narrative as much separate 
 as possible from scientific and critical discussions, 
 by reserving the latter for Notes and Illustrations. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I flatter myself that I may claim, without pre- 
 sumption, the merit of having examined with 
 diligence what I submit to public inspection, 
 and of having referred, with scrupulous accuracy, 
 to the authors from whom I have derived in- 
 formation. 
 
 College of Edinburgh, 
 May loth, 1791. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 i 
 
 OF 
 
 THE TWELFTH VOLUME. 
 
 DISQUISITION CONCERNING 
 ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Intercourse with India, from the earliest Times 
 until the Conquest of Egypt by the Romans 1 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Intercourse with India, from the Establishment of 
 the Roman Dominion in Egypt, to the Conquest 
 of that Kingdom by the Mahomedans - 46 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Intercourse with India, from the Conquest of Egypt 
 by the Mahomedans, to the Discovery of the Pas- 
 sage by the Cape of Good Hope, and the Esta- 
 blishment of the Portuguese Dominion in the 
 East 98 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 General Observations - - - - -'. - - - -163 
 
 APPENDIX ----.------ 195 
 
 Notes and Illustrations --289 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 ANCIENT INDIA 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Intercourse with India, from the earliest Times 
 until the Conquest of Egypt by the Romans. 
 
 WHOEVER attempts to trace the operations sect. 
 of men in remote times, and to mark the L 
 various steps of their progress in any line of ex- 
 ertion, will soon have the mortification to find, 
 that the period of authentic history is extremely 
 limited. It is little more than three thousand 
 years since the Books of Moses, the most ancient 
 and only genuine record of what passed in the 
 early ages of the world, were composed. Hero- 
 dotus, the most ancient Heathen historian whose 
 works have reached us, flourished a thousand 
 years later. If we push our inquiries concerning 
 any point beyond the aera where written history 
 commences, we enter upon the region of con- 
 jecture, of fable, and of uncertainty. Upon that 
 ground I will neither venture myself, nor endear 
 
 VOL. XII. b 
 
2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, vour to conduct my readers. In my researches 
 L concerning the intercourse between the Eastern 
 and Western regions of the earth, and concern- 
 ing the progress of that great branch of trade, 
 which, in every age, has contributed so conspi- 
 cuously towards raising the people who carried it 
 on to wealth and power, I shall confine myself 
 within the precincts I have marked out. Where- 
 ever the inspired writers, intent upon higher ob- 
 jects, mention occasionally any circumstance that 
 tends to illustrate the subject of my inquiries, I 
 shall attend to it with reverence. Whatever 
 other writers relate, I shall examine with free- 
 dom, and endeavour to ascertain the degree of 
 credit to which they are entitled. 
 
 The original station allotted to man by his 
 Creator, was in the mild and fertile regions of 
 the East. There the human race began its ca- 
 reer of improvement ; and from the remains of 
 sciences which were anciently cultivated, as well 
 as of arts which were anciently exercised in India, 
 we may conclude it to be one of the first coun- 
 tries in which men made any considerable pro- 
 « gress in that career. The wisdom of the East was 
 early celebrated a , and its productions were early 
 in request among distant nations. 5 The inter- 
 course, however, between different countries was 
 carried on at first entirely by land. As the people 
 of the East appear soon to have acquired com- 
 plete dominion over the useful animals , they 
 
 a 1 Kings, iv. 30. b G en , xxxvii, 25. 
 
 c Gen.xii. 16. xxiv. 10, 11. 
 
 5 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 3 
 
 could early undertake the long and toilsome sect. 
 
 journies which it was necessary to make, in order L f 
 
 to maintain this intercourse ; and by the provi- 
 dent bounty of Heaven, they were furnished 
 with a beast of burden, without whose aid it 
 would have been impossible to accomplish them. 
 The camel, by its persevering strength, by its 
 moderation in the use of food, and the singula- 
 rity of its internal structure, which enables it to 
 lay in a stock of water sufficient for several days, 
 put it in their power to convey bulky commodi- 
 ties through those deserts, which must be tra- 
 versed by all who travel from any of the countries 
 west of the Euphrates towards India. Trade 
 was carried on in this manner, particularly by 
 the nations near to the Arabian Gulf, from the 
 earliest period to which historical information 
 reaches. Distant journies, however, would be 
 undertaken at first only occasionally, and by a 
 few adventurers. But by degrees, from atten- 
 tion to their mutual safety and comfort, nume- 
 rous bodies of merchants assembled at stated 
 times, and forming a temporary association, 
 (known afterwards by the name of a Caravan,) 
 governed by officers of their own choice, and* 
 subject to regulations of which experience had 
 taught them the utility, they performed journies 
 of such extent and duration, as appear astonish- 
 ing to nations not accustomed to this mode of 
 carrying on commerce. 
 
 But, notwithstanding every improvement that 
 could be made in the manner of conveying the 
 
 b 2 .. 
 
4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, productions of one country to another by land, 
 L the inconveniences which attended it were ob- 
 vious and unavoidable. It was often dangerous ; 
 always expensive, and tedious, and fatiguing. 
 A method of communication more easy and ex- 
 peditious was sought, and the ingenuity of man 
 gradually discovered, that the rivers, the arms of 
 the sea, and even the ocean itself, were destined 
 to open and facilitate intercourse with the vari- 
 ous regions of the earth, between which they ap- 
 pear, at first view, to be placed as insuperable 
 barriers. Navigation, however, and ship-build- 
 ing, (as I have observed in another work d ,) are 
 arts so nice and complicated, that they require 
 the talents as well as experience of many suc- 
 cessive ages, to bring them to any degree of 
 perfection. From the raft or canoe, which first 
 served to carry a savage over the river that ob- 
 structed him in the chase, to the construction of 
 a vessel capable of conveying a numerous crew, 
 or a considerable cargo of goods, to a distant 
 coast, the progress of improvement is immense. 
 Many efforts would be made, many experiments 
 would be tried, and much labour as well as in- 
 genuity would be employed, before this arduous 
 and important undertaking could be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Even after some improvement was made in 
 ship-building, the intercourse of nations with 
 each other by sea was far from being extensive. 
 From the accounts of the earliest historians, we 
 
 d Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 2. 
 
_> 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 5 
 
 learn, that navigation made its first efforts in the sect, 
 Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, and in L 
 
 Sony 
 
 them the first active operations of commerce 
 were carried on. From an attentive inspection 
 of the position and form of these two great inland 
 seas, these accounts appear to be highly proba- 
 ble. These seas lay open the continents of Eu- 
 rope, Asia, and Africa, and spreading to a great 
 extent along the coasts of the most fertile and 
 most early civilised countries in each, seem to 
 have been destined by nature to facilitate their 
 communication with one another. We find, ac- 
 cordingly, that the first voyages of the Egyptians 
 and Phenicians, the most ancient navigators 
 mentioned in history, were made in the Medi- 
 terranean. Their trade, however, was not long 
 confined to the countries bordering upon it. By 
 acquiring early possession of ports on the Arabian 
 Gulf, they extended the sphere of their com- 
 merce, and are represented as the first people of 
 the West who opened a communication by sea. 
 with India. 
 
 In that account of the progress of navigation 
 and discovery which I prefixed to the History of 
 America, I considered with attention the mari- 
 time operations of the Egyptians and Pheni- 
 cians - y a brief review of them here, as far as they 
 relate to their connection with India, is all that 
 is requisite for illustrating the subject of my pre- 
 sent inquiries. With respect to the former of 
 these people, the information which history af- 
 fords is slender, and of doubtful authority. The 
 
 b 3 
 
6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 fertile soil and mild climate of Egypt produced 
 the necessaries and comforts of life in such pro- 
 fusion as to render its inhabitants so indepen- 
 dent of other countries, that it became early an 
 established maxim in their policy, to renounce 
 all intercourse with foreigners. In consequence 
 of this, they held all sea-faring persons in detes- 
 tation, as impious and profane ; and fortifying 
 their harbours, they denied strangers admission 
 into them. e 
 
 The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, dis- 
 daining the restraints imposed upon it by these 
 contracted ideas of his subjects, prompted him 
 to render the Egyptians a commercial people ; 
 and in the course of his reign he so completely 
 accomplished this, that (if we may give credit to 
 some historians) he was able to fit out a fleet of 
 four hundred ships in the Arabian Gulf, which 
 conquered all the countries stretching along the 
 Erythrean sea to India. At the same time his 
 army, led by himself, marched through Asia, 
 and subjected to his dominion every part of 
 it as far as to the banks of the Ganges ; and 
 crossing that river, advanced to the Eastern 
 Ocean. f But these efforts produced no perma- 
 nent effect, and appear to have been so contrary 
 to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that, 
 on the death of Sesostris, they resumed their an- 
 cient maxims, and many ages elapsed before the 
 
 e Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Wesselingi. Amst. 1746. 
 Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1142. A. edit. Casaub. Amst. 1707* 
 f Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 64. 
 
CONCERNING AJSTCIENT INDIA. 7 
 
 commercial connection of Egypt with India came sect. 
 to be of such importance as to merit any notice L 
 in this disquisition^ 
 
 The history of the early maritime operations 
 of Phenicia is not involved in the same obscurity 
 with those of Egypt. Every circumstance in 
 the character and situation of the Phenicians was 
 favourable to the commercial spirit. The terri- 
 tory which they possessed was neither large nor 
 fertile. It was from commerce only that they 
 could derive either opulence or power. Accord- 
 ingly, the trade carried on by the Phenicians 
 of Sidon and Tyre was extensive and adven- 
 turous ; and, both in their manners and policy, 
 they resemble the great commercial states of 
 modern times, more than any people in the an- 
 cient world. Among the various branches of 
 their commerce, that with India may be regarded 
 as one of the most considerable and most lucra- 
 tive. As by their situation on the Mediter- 
 ranean, and the imperfect state of navigation, 
 they could not attempt to open a direct commu- 
 nication with India by sea ; the enterprising 
 spirit of commerce prompted them to wrest from 
 the Idumaeans some commodious harbours to- 
 wards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf. From 
 these they held a regular intercourse with India 
 on the one hand, and with the eastern and south- 
 ern coasts of Africa on the other. The distance, 
 however, from the Arabian Gulf to Tyre, was 
 
 g See NOTE I. at the end of the Volume. 
 
 B 4 * 
 
g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, considerable, and rendered the conveyance of 
 goods to it by land-carriage so tedious and ex- 
 pensive, that it became necessary for them to 
 take possession of Rhinocolura, the nearest port 
 in the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gidf. 
 Thither all the commodities brought from India 
 were conveyed over land by a route much 
 shorter, and more practicable, than that by 
 which the productions of the East were carried 
 at a subsequent period from the opposite -shore of 
 the Arabian Gulf to the Nile. h At Rhinocolura 
 they were re-shipped, and transported by an easy 
 navigation to Tyre, and distributed through the 
 world. This, as it is the earliest route of com- 
 munication with India, of which we have any 
 authentic description, had so many advantages 
 over any ever known before the modern disco- 
 very of a new course of navigation to the East, 
 that the Phenicians could supply other nations 
 with the productions of India in greater abun- 
 dance, and at a cheaper rate, than any people of 
 antiquity* To this circumstance, which, for a 
 considerable time, secured to them a monopoly 
 of that trade, was owing, not only the extraordi- 
 nary wealth of individuals, which rendered the 
 " merchants of Tyre, Princes, and her traffickers 
 " the Honourable of the Earth 1 ;" but the ex- 
 tensive power of the state itself, which first taught 
 mankind to conceive what vast resources a com- 
 mercial people possess, and what great exertions 
 they are capable of making. k 
 
 h Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 70. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1 128. A. 
 1 Isaiah, xxiii. 8, fe See NOTE II. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. g 
 
 The Jews, by their vicinity to Tyre, had such sect. 
 an opportunity of observing the wealth which L 
 flowed into that city from the lucrative commerce 
 carried on by the Phenicians from their settle- 
 ments on the Arabian Gulf, as incited them to 
 aim at obtaining some share of it. This they 
 effected under the prosperous reigns of David 
 and Solomon, partly by the conquests which they 
 made of a small district in the land of Edom, 
 that gave them possession of the harbours of 
 Elath and Esiongeber on the Red Sea, and partly 
 by the friendship of Hiram, King of Tyre ; who 
 enabled Solomon to fit out fleets, which, under 
 the direction of Phenician pilots, sailed to Tar- 
 shish and Ophir. 1 In what region of the earth 
 we should search for these famous ports which 
 furnished the navy of Solomon with the various 
 commodities enumerated by the sacred histo- 
 rians, is an inquiry that has long exercised the 
 industry of learned men. They were early sup- 
 posed to be situated in some part of India, and 
 the Jews were held to be one of' 1 the nations 
 which traded with that country. But the opinion 
 more generally adopted is, that Solomon's fleets, 
 after passing the straits of Babelmandeb, held 
 their course along the south-west coast of Africa, 
 as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a country cele- 
 brated for its rich mines of gold and silver, (from 
 which it has been denominated the golden So- 
 fala, by oriental writers" 1 ,) and abounding in all 
 
 1 Kings, ix. 26. x. 22. 
 
 m Notices des MSS. du Eoi, torn. ii. p. 40. 
 
10 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, the other articles which composed the cargoes of 
 I. the Jewish ships. This opinion, which the accu- 
 ' rate researches of M. D'Anville rendered highly 
 probable 11 , seems now to be established with the 
 utmost certainty by a late learned traveller ; who 
 by his knowledge of the monsoons in the Arabian 
 Gulf, and his attention to the ancient mode of 
 navigation, both in that sea and along the Afri- 
 can coast, has not only accounted for the extra- 
 ordinary length of time which the fleets of Solo- 
 mon took in going and returning, but has shewn, 
 from circumstances mentioned concerning the 
 voyage, that it was not made to any place in In- 
 dia. The Jews, then, we may conclude, have 
 no title to be reckoned among the nations which 
 carried on intercourse with India by sea ; and if, 
 from deference to the sentiments of some respect- 
 able authors, their claim were to be admitted, we 
 know with certainty, that the commercial effort 
 which they made in the reign of Solomon was 
 merely a transient one, and that they quickly 
 returned to their former state of unsocial seclu- 
 sion from the rest of mankind. 
 
 FRom collecting the scanty information which 
 history affords, concerning the most early at- 
 tempts to open a commercial intercouse with In- 
 dia, I now proceed with more certainty and 
 greater confidence, to trace the progress of com- 
 
 n Dissert, sur le Pays d'Ophir, Mem. de Literat. torn. xxx. 
 p. 83, &c. 
 
 Bruce's Travels, book ii. ch.4. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 11 
 
 mimication with that country, under the guid- sect. 
 ance of authors who recorded events nearer to . L 
 their own times, and with respect to which they 
 had received more full and accurate intelligence. 
 
 The first establishment of any foreign power 
 in India which can be ascertained by evidence 
 meriting any degree of credit, is that of the Per- 
 sians y and even of this we have only a very ge- 
 neral and doubtful account. Darius, the son of 
 Hystaspes, though raised to the throne of Persia 
 by chance or by artifice, possessed such active 
 and enterprising talents, as rendered him worthy 
 of that high station. Pie examined the different 
 provinces of his kingdom more diligently than 
 any of his predecessors, and explored regions of 
 Asia formerly little known. p Having subjected 
 to his dominion many of the countries which 
 stretched south-east from the Caspian sea to- 
 wards the river Oxus, his curiosity was excited 
 to acquire a more extensive and accurate know- 
 ledge of India, on which they bordered. With this 
 view he appointed Scylax of Caryandra to take 
 the command of a squadron fitted out at Caspa^ 
 tyrus, in the country of Pactya, [the modern 
 Pehkely,] towards the upper part of the naviga- 
 ble course of the river Indus, and to fall down 
 its stream until he should reach the ocean. This 
 Scylax performed, though it should seem with 
 much difficulty, and notwithstanding many ob- 
 stacles - } for he spent no less than two years and 
 
 p Herodot. lib. iv. c.44. 
 
12 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, six months in conducting his squadron from the 
 i- place where he embarked, to the Arabian Gulf. q 
 The account which he gave of the populousness, 
 fertility, and high cultivation of that region of 
 India through which his course lay, rendered 
 Darius impatient to become master of a country 
 so valuable. This he soon accomplished j and 
 though his conquests in India seem not to have 
 extended beyond the district watered by the 
 Indus, we are led to form an high idea of its 
 opulence, as well as of the number of its inha- 
 bitants, in ancient times, when we learn that the 
 tribute which he levied from it was near a third 
 part of the whole revenue of the Persian mo- 
 narchy/ But neither this voyage of Scylax, nor 
 the conquests of Darius, to which it gave rise, 
 diffused any general knowledge of India. The 
 Greeks, who were the only enlightened race of 
 men at that time in Europe, paid but little atten- 
 tion to the transactions of the people whom they 
 considered as Barbarians, especially in countries 
 far remote from their own ; and Scylax had 
 embellished the narrative of his voyage with so 
 many circumstances manifestly fabulous 8 , that 
 he seems to have met with the just punishment 
 to which persons who have a notorious propen- 
 sity to what is marvellous are often subjected, of 
 being listened to with distrust, even when they 
 relate what is exactly true. 
 
 q Herodot. lib. iv. c. 4-2. 44. 
 r Id. lib. iii. c. 90—96. See NOTE III. 
 s Philostr. Vita Apoll. lib. iii. c. 47., and Note 3d of Olea- 
 rius Tzetzet. Chiliad, vii. vers. 630- 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 About an hundred and sixty years after the 
 reign of Darius Hystaspes, Alexander the Great 
 undertook his expedition into India. The wild 
 sallies of passion, the indecent excesses of intem- 
 perance, and the ostentatious displays of vanity 
 too frequent in the conduct of this extraordinary 
 man, have so degraded his character, that the 
 pre-eminence of his merit, either as a conqueror, 
 a politician, or a legislator, has seldom been 
 justly estimated. The subject of my present in- 
 quiry leads me to consider his operations only 
 in one light, but it will enable me to exhibit a 
 striking view of the grandeur and extent of his 
 plans. He seems, soon after his first successes in 
 Asia, to have formed the idea of establishing an 
 universal monarchy, and aspired to the dominion 
 of the sea, as well as of the land. From the won- 
 derful efforts of the Tyrians in their own defence, 
 when left without any ally or protector, he con- 
 ceived an high opinion of the resources of mari- 
 time power, and of the wealth to be derived from 
 commerce, especially that with India, which he 
 found engrossed by the citizens of Tyre. With 
 a view to secure this commerce, and to establish 
 a station for it, preferable in many respects to that 
 of Tyre, as soon as he completed the conquest of 
 Egypt, he founded a city near one of the mouths 
 of the Nile, which he honoured with his own 
 name ; and with such admirable discernment was 
 the situation of it chosen, that Alexandria soon 
 became the greatest trading city in the ancient 
 world; and, notwithstanding many successive re- 
 volutions in empire, continued during eighteen 
 
 13 
 
14 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, centuries, to be the chief seat of commerce with 
 I- India. f Amidst the military operations to which 
 Alexander was soon obliged to turn his attention, 
 the desire of acquiring the lucrative commerce 
 which the Tyrians had carried on with India, was 
 not relinquished. Events soon occurred, that not 
 only confirmed and added strength to this desire, 
 but opened to him a prospect of obtaining the so- 
 vereignty of those regions which supplied the rest 
 of mankind with so many precious commodities. 
 
 After his final victory over the Persians, he 
 was led in pursuit of the last Darius, and of Bes- 
 sus, the murderer of that unfortunate monarch, 
 to traverse that part of Asia which stretches from 
 the Caspian sea beyond the river Oxus. He ad- 
 vanced towards the east as far as Maracanda", 
 then a city of some note, and destined in a fu- 
 ture period, under the modern name of Samar- 
 cand, to be the capital of an empire not inferior 
 to his own either in extent or in power. In a 
 progress of several months through provinces 
 hitherto unknown to the Greeks, in a line of 
 march often approaching near to India, and 
 among people accustomed to much intercourse 
 with it, he learned many things concerning the 
 state of a country x that had been long the object 
 of his thoughts and wishes y , which increased his 
 desire of invading it. Decisive and prompt in all 
 his resolutions, he set out from Bactria, and crossed 
 
 1 Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 20. u Arrian, iii. c. 30. 
 
 x Strabo, xv. p. 1021. A, y Arrian, iv. c.15. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 15 
 
 that ridge of mountains which, under various SECT, 
 denominations, forms the Stony Girdle (if I may *• 
 use an expression of the Oriental geographers) 
 which encircles Asia, and constitutes the north- 
 ern barrier of India. 
 
 The most practicable avenue to every country, 
 it is obvious, must be formed by circumstances 
 in its natural situation, such as the defiles which 
 lead through mountains, the course of rivers, 
 and the places where they may be passed with 
 the greatest ease and safety. In no p]ace of the 
 earth is this line of approach marked and de- 
 fined more conspicuously, than on the northern 
 frontier of India \ insomuch that the three great 
 invaders of this country, Alexander, Tamerlane, 
 and Nadir Shah, in three distant ages, and with* 
 views and talents extremely different, advanced 
 by the same route, with very little deviation. 
 Alexander had the merit of having first disco- 
 vered the way. After passing the mountains, he 
 encamped at Alexandria Paropamisana, not far 
 from the mountains denominated the Indian 
 Caucasus by his historians, now known by the 
 name of Hindoo Kho z ; and having subdued or 
 conciliated the nations seated on the north-west 
 bank of the Indus, he crossed the river at Taxila, 
 now Attock, where its stream is so tranquil that 
 a bridge can be thrown over it with greater ease 
 than at any other place. a 
 
 z In the second edition of his Memoir, Major Rennell gives 
 the modern names of the Hydaspes, with some variation in 
 their orthography, Behut and Ihylam. 
 
 a Rennell, Mem. p. 92. See NOTE IV. 
 
jg AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 After passing the Indus, Alexander marched 
 forward in the road which leads directly to the 
 Ganges, and the opulent provinces to the south- 
 east, now comprehended under the general name 
 of Indostan. But, on the banks of the Hydaspes, 
 known in modern times by the name of the Betah 
 or Chelum, he was opposed by Porus, a powerful , 
 monarch of the country, at the head of a nu- 
 merous army. The war with Porus and the 
 hostilities in which he was successively engaged 
 with other Indian Princes, led him to deviate 
 from his original route, and to turn more to- 
 wards the south-west. In carrying on these oper- 
 ations, Alexander marched through one of the 
 richest and best peopled countries of India, now 
 called the Panjab, from the five great rivers by 
 which it is watered ; and as we know that this 
 march was performed in the rainy season, when 
 even Indian armies cannot keep the field, it gives 
 an high idea both of Alexander's persevering 
 spirit, and of the extraordinary vigour and har- 
 diness of constitution, which soldiers, in ancient 
 times, derived from the united effects of gym- 
 nastic exercise and military discipline. In every 
 step of his progress, objects no less striking than 
 new presented themselves to Alexander. The 
 magnitude of the Indus, even after he had seen 
 the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tigris, must have 
 filled him with surprise. 5 No country he had 
 hitherto visited was so populous and well culti- 
 vated, or abounded in so many valuable produc- 
 tions of nature and of art, as that part of India 
 
 b Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1027. C. & note 5. Casaub. 
 
 14 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 through which he had led his army. But when 
 he was informed in every place, and probably 
 with exaggerated description, how much the In- 
 dus was inferior to the Ganges, and how far all 
 that he had hitherto beheld was surpassed in the 
 happy regions through which that great river 
 flows, it is not wonderful that his eagerness to 
 view and to take possession of them should have 
 prompted him to assemble his soldiers, and to 
 propose that they should resume their march to- 
 wards that quarter, where wealth, dominion, and 
 fame awaited them. But they had already done 
 so much, and had suffered so greatly, especially 
 from incessant rains and extensive inundations, 
 that their patience as well as strength were ex- 
 hausted , and with one voice they refused to ad- 
 vance farther. In this resolution they persisted 
 with such sullen obstinacy, that Alexander, 
 though possessed in the highest degree of every 
 quality that gains an ascendant over the minds 
 of military men, was obliged to yield, and to 
 issue orders for marching back to Persia/ 
 
 The scene of this memorable transaction was 
 on the banks of the Hyphasis, the modern Beyah 5 
 which was the utmost limit of Alexander's pro- 
 gress in India. From this it is manifest, that he 
 did not traverse the whole extent of the Panjak 
 Its south-west boundary is formed by a river an- 
 ciently known by the name of Hysudrus, and 
 now by that of the Setlege, to which Alexander 
 never approached nearer than the southern bank 
 
 c See NOTE V, d Arrian, v. c. 24, 25. 
 
 VOL. XII. C 
 
18 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 of the Hyphasis, where he erected twelve stir* 
 pendous altars, which he intended as a monu- 
 ment of his exploits, and which (if we may be- 
 lieve the biographer of Apollonius Tyanaeus) 
 were still remaining, with legible inscriptions, 
 when that fantastic sophist visited India, three 
 hundred and seventy-three years after Alexan- 
 der's expedition. 6 The breadth of the Panjab, 
 from Ludhana on the Setlege to Attock on the 
 Indus, is computed to be two hundred and fifty- 
 nine geographical miles, in a straight line ; and 
 Alexander's march, computed in the same man- 
 ner, did not extend above two hundred miles. 
 But, both as he advanced and returned, his troops 
 were so spread over the country, and often acted 
 in so many separate divisions, and all his move- 
 ments were so exactly measured and delineated 
 by men of science, whom he kept in pay for the 
 purpose, that he acquired a very extensive and 
 accurate knowledge of that part of India/ 
 
 When, upon his return, he reached the banks 
 of the Hydaspes, he found that the officers to 
 whom he had given it in charge to build and col- 
 lect as many vessels as possible, had executed his 
 orders with such activity and success, that they 
 had assembled a numerous fleet. As amidst the 
 hurry of war, and the rage of conquest, he never 
 lost sight of his pacific and commercial schemes, 
 the destination of his fleet was to sail down the 
 
 e Philostr. Vita Apollon. lib. ii. c. 4-3. edit. Olear. Lips. 
 1709. 
 f Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. ]0 , 
 
 Indus to the ocean, and from its mouth to sect. 
 proceed to the Persian Gulf, that a eommuni- I- 
 cation by sea might be opened with India and 
 the centre of his dominions. 
 
 The conduct of this expedition was committed 
 to Nearchus, an officer equal to that important 
 trust. But as Alexander was ambitious to ac- 
 quire fame of every kind, and fond of engaging 
 in new and splendid undertakings, he himself 
 accompanied Nearchus in his navigation down 
 the river. The armament was indeed so great 
 and magnificent, as deserved to be commanded 
 by the conqueror of Asia. It was composed of 
 an army of a hundred and twenty thousand 
 men, and two hundred elephants, and of a fleet 
 of near two thousand vessels, various in burden 
 and form g ; on board of which one-third of the 
 troops embarked, while the remainder marching 
 in two divisions, one oil the right, and the other 
 on the left, of the river, accompanied them in 
 their progress. As they advanced, the nations 
 on each side were either compelled or persuaded 
 to submit. Retarded by the various operations 
 in which this engaged him, as well as by the 
 slow navigation of such a fleet as he conducted, 
 Alexander was above nine months before he 
 reached the ocean. 11 
 
 Alexander's progress in India, in this line of 
 direction, was far more considerable than that 
 which he made by the route we formerly traced; 
 
 * See NOTE VI. h Strabo, lib. xv. p, 1014. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, and when we attend to the various movements 
 L of his troops, the number of cities which they 
 took, and the different states which they subdued, 
 he may be said not only to have viewed, but to 
 have explored, the countries through which he 
 passed. This part of India has been so little fre- 
 quented by Europeans in later times, that neither 
 the. position of places, nor their distances, can 
 be ascertained with the same accuracy as in the 
 interior provinces, or even in the Panjab. But 
 from the researches of Major Rennell, carried on 
 with no less discernment than industry, the dis- 
 tance of that place on the Hydaspes, where 
 Alexander fitted out his fleet from the ocean, 
 cannot be less than a thousand British miles. Of 
 this extensive region a considerable portion, par- 
 ticularly the upper Delta, stretching from the 
 capital of the ancient Malli, now Moultan, to 
 Patala, the modern Tatta, is distinguished for 
 its fertility and population. 1 
 
 Soon after he reached the ocean, Alexander, 
 satisfied with having accomplished this arduous 
 undertaking, led his army by land back to Per- 
 sia. The command of the fleet, with a consider- 
 able body of troops on board of it, he left to 
 Nearchus, who, after a coasting voyage of seven 
 months, conducted it safely up the Persian Gulf 
 into the Euphrates. 1 " 
 
 In this manner did Alexander first open the 
 knowledge of India to the people of Europe, 
 
 1 Rennell Mem. 68, &c. 
 
 k Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 23. See NOTE VII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 21 
 
 and an extensive district of it was surveyed with sect. 
 greater accuracy than could have been expected 
 from the short time he remained in that country. 
 Fortunately an exact account, not only of his 
 military operations, but of every thing worthy of 
 notice in the countries where they were carried 
 on, was recorded in the Memoirs or Journals of 
 three of his principal officers, Ptolemy, the son 
 of Lagus, Aristobulus, and Nearchus. The 
 two former have not, indeed, reached our times; 
 but it is probable that the most important facts 
 which they contained are preserved, as Arrian 
 professes to have followed them as his guides in 
 his History of the Expedition of Alexander l ; 
 a work which, though composed long after 
 Greece had lost its liberty, and in an age when 
 genius and taste were on the decline, is not un- 
 worthy the purest times of Attic literature. 
 
 With respect to the general state of India, 
 we learn from these writers, that, in the age of 
 Alexander, though there was not established in 
 it any powerful empire, resembling that which, 
 in modern times, stretched its dominion from the 
 Indus almost to Cape Comorin, it was, even then, 
 formed into monarchies of considerable extent. 
 The King of the Prasij was prepared, on the 
 banks of the Ganges, to oppose the Macedo- 
 nians, with an army of twenty thousand cavalry, 
 two hundred thousand infantry, two thousand 
 armed chariots, and a great number of elephants*** 
 
 1 Arrian, lib. i. in proemio. 
 m Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii. p. 232. 
 c 3 
 
AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 The territory of which Alexander constituted 
 Poms the sovereign, is said to have contained 
 seven distinct nations, and no fewer than two 
 thousand towns." Even in the most restricted 
 sense that can be given to the vague indefinite 
 appellations of nations and towns, an idea is con- 
 veyed of a very great degree of population. As 
 the fleet sailed down the river, the country on 
 each side w T as found to be in no respect inferior 
 to that of which the government was committed 
 to Porus. 
 
 It was likewise from the Memoirs of the same 
 officers that Europe derived its first authentic 
 information concerning the climate, the soil, the 
 productions, and the inhabitants of India - 7 and* 
 in a country where the manners, the customs, 
 and even the dress of the people, are almost as 
 permanent and invariable as the face of nature 
 itself, it is wonderful how exactly the descrip- 
 tions given by Alexander's officers delineate what 
 we now behold in India, at the distance of two 
 thousand years. The stated change of seasons, 
 now known by the name of Monsoons ; the pe- 
 riodical rains ; the swelling of the rivers ; the 
 inundations which these occasion ; the appear- 
 ance of the country during their continuance, 
 are particularly mentioned and described. No 
 less accurate are the accounts which they have 
 given of the inhabitants, their delicate and slen- 
 der form, their dark complexion, their black un- 
 curled hair, their garments of cotton, their living 
 
 n Arrian, lib. vi. c.2. 
 
J. 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 33 
 
 entirely upon vegetable food, their division into sect. 
 separate tribes or casts, the members of which 
 never intermarry, the custom of wives burning 
 themselves with their deceased husbands, and 
 many other particulars, in all which they per- 
 fectly resemble the modern Hindoos. To enter 
 into any detail with respect to these in this place 
 would be premature ; but as the subject, though 
 curious and interesting, will lead unavoidably 
 into discussions not well suited to the nature of 
 an historical work, I shall reserve my ideas con- 
 cerning it for an Appendix, to be annexed to 
 this Disquisition ; and hope they may contribute 
 to throw some additional light upon the origin 
 and nature of the commerce with India. 
 
 Much as the Western world was indebted for 
 its knowledge of India to the expedition of 
 Alexander, it was only a small portion of that 
 vast continent which he explored. His oper- 
 ations did not extend beyond the modern pro- 
 vince of Lahore, and the countries on the banks 
 of the Indus from Moultan to the sea. These, 
 however, were surveyed with that degree of ac- 
 curacy which I have already described ; and it is 
 a circumstance not unworthy of notice, that this 
 district of India which Europeans first entered, 
 and with which they were best acquainted in 
 ancient times, is now less known than almost 
 any part of that continent , neither commerce 
 nor war, to which, in every age, geography is 
 chiefly indebted for its improvement, having led 
 any nation of Europe to frequent or explore it,, 
 
 Rennell Mem. 114. 
 
 c 4 
 
^4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 If an untimely death had not put a period to 
 the reign of the Macedonian hero, India, we 
 have reason to think, would have been more 
 fully explored by the ancients, and the European 
 dominion would have been established there two 
 thousand years sooner. When Alexander in- 
 vaded India, he had something more in view 
 than a transient incursion. It was his object to 
 annex that extensive and opulent country to his 
 empire ; and though the refractory spirit of his 
 army obliged him, at that time, to suspend the 
 prosecution of his plan, he was far from relin- 
 quishing it. To exhibit a general view of the 
 measures which he adopted for this purpose, 
 and to point out their propriety and probable 
 success, is not foreign from the subject of this 
 Disquisition, and will convey a more just idea 
 than is usually entertained, of the original genius 
 and extent of political wisdom which distin- 
 guished this illustrious man. 
 
 When Alexander became master of the Per- 
 sian empire, he early perceived, that with all the 
 power of his hereditary dominions, reinforced by 
 the troops which the ascendant he had acquired 
 over the various states of Greece might enable 
 him to raise there, he could not hope to retain in 
 subjection territories so extensive and populous ; 
 that, to render his authority secure and perma- 
 nent, it must be established in the affection of the 
 nations which he had subdued, and maintained 
 by their arms ; and that, in order to acquire this 
 advantage, all distinctions between the victors 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. |£ 
 
 and vanquished must be abolished, and his Eu- sect 
 ropean and Asiatic subjects must be incorporated 
 and become one people, by obeying the same 
 laws, and by adopting the same manners, insti- 
 tutions, and discipline. 
 
 Liberal as this plan of policy was, and well 
 adapted to accomplish what he had in view, no- 
 thing could be more repugnant to the ideas and 
 prejudices of his countrymen. The Greeks had 
 such an high opinion of the pre-eminence to 
 which they were raised by civilisation and 
 science, that they seem hardly to have acknow- 
 ledged the rest of mankind to be of the same 
 species with themselves. To every other people 
 they gave the degrading appellation of Bar» 
 barians, and, in consequence of their own boasted 
 superiority, they asserted a right of dominion 
 over them, in the same manner (to use their own 
 expression) as the soul has over the body, and 
 men have over irrational animals. Extravagant 
 as this pretension may now appear, it found ad- 
 mission, to the disgrace of ancient philosophy, 
 into all the schools. Aristotle, full of this opi- 
 nion, in support of which he employs arguments 
 more subtle than solid p , advised Alexander to 
 govern the Greeks like subjects, and the Bar- 
 barians as slaves ; to consider the former as com- 
 panions, the latter as creatures of an inferior 
 nature. q But the sentiments of the pupil were 
 
 P Aristot. Polit. i. c. 3—7. 
 
 q Plut. de For tuna Alex. Orat. i. p. 302. vol. vii. edit, 
 Reiske. Strabo, lib. i. p. 116. A. 
 
26 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, more enlarged than those of his master, and his 
 experience in governing men taught the monarch 
 what the speculative science of the philosopher 
 did not discover. Soon after the victory, at Ar- 
 bela, Alexander himself, and, by his persuasion, 
 many of his officers, assumed the Persian dress, 
 and conformed to several of their customs. At 
 the same time he encouraged the Persian nobles 
 to imitate the manners of the Macedonians, to 
 learn the Greek language, and to acquire a relish 
 for the beauties of the elegant writers in that 
 tongue, which were then universally studied and 
 admired. In order to render the union more 
 complete, he resolved to marry one of the daugh- 
 ters of Darius, and chose wives for a hundred of 
 his principal officers in the most illustrious Per- 
 sian families. Their nuptials were celebrated 
 with great pomp and festivity, and with high 
 exultation of the conquered people. In imita- 
 tion of them, above ten thousand Macedonians, 
 of inferior rank, married Persian women, to each 
 of whom Alexander gave nuptial presents, as a 
 testimony of his approbation of their conduct. r 
 
 But assiduously as Alexander laboured to 
 unite his European and Asiatic subjects by the 
 most indissoluble ties, he did not trust entirely 
 to the success of that measure for the security of 
 his new conquests. In every province which he 
 subdued, he made choice of proper stations, 
 
 r Arrian, lib. vii. c. 4. Plut. de Fort. Alex. p. 304?* 
 See NOTE VIII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 37 
 
 Where he built and fortified cities, in which he s e c T. 
 placed garrisons composed partly of such of the L 
 natives as conformed to the Grecian manners and 
 discipline, and partly of such of his European 
 subjects as were worn out with the fatigues of 
 service, and wished for repose and a permanent 
 establishment. These cities were numerous, and 
 served not only as a chain of posts to keep open 
 the communication between the different pro- 
 vinces of his dominions, but as places of strength 
 to overawe and curb the conquered people. 
 Thirty thousand of his new subjects, who had 
 been disciplined in these cities, and armed after 
 the European fashion, appeared before Alexan- 
 der in Susa, and were formed by him into that 
 compact solid body of infantry, known by the 
 name of the Phalanx, which constituted the 
 strength of a Macedonian army. But in order 
 to secure entire authority over this new corps, as 
 well as to render it more effective, he appointed 
 that every officer in it intrusted with command, 
 either superior or subaltern, should be European. 
 As the ingenuity of mankind naturally has re- 
 course in similar situations to the same expedients^ 
 the European powers, who now in their Indian 
 territories employ numerous bodies of the natives 
 in their service, have, informing the establishment 
 of these troops, adopted the same maxims ; and, 
 probably without knowing it, have modelled their 
 battalions of Seapoys upon the same principles as 
 Alexander did his phalanx of Persians. 
 
 The farther Alexander pushed his conquests 
 from the banks of the Euphrates, which may be 
 
QS AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, considered as the centre of his dominions, he 
 found it necessary to build and to fortify a greater 
 number of cities. Several of these to the east and 
 south of the Caspian sea, are mentioned by an- 
 cient authors ; and in India itself he founded two 
 cities on the banks of the Hydaspes, and a third 
 on the Acesines, both navigable rivers, which, 
 after uniting their streams, fall into the Indus. s 
 From the choice of such situations, it is obvious 
 that he intended, by means of these cities, to 
 keep open a communication with India, not only 
 by land, but by sea. It was chiefly with a view 
 to the latter of these objects, (as I have already 
 observed,) that he examined the navigation of 
 the Indus with so much attention. With the 
 same view, on his return to Susa, he, in person, 
 surveyed the course of the Euphrates and Tigris, 
 and gave directions to remove the cataracts or 
 dams, with which the ancient monarchs of Per- 
 sia, induced by a peculiar precept of their reli- 
 gion, which enjoined them to guard with the 
 utmost care against defiling any of the elements, 
 had constructed near the mouths of these rivers, 
 in order to shut out their subjects from any ac- 
 cess to the ocean. l By opening the navigation 
 in this manner, he proposed, that the valuable 
 commodities of India should be conveyed from 
 the Persian Gulf into the interior parts of his 
 Asiatic dominions, while by the Arabian Gulf 
 they should be carried to Alexandria, and distri- 
 buted to the rest of the world. 
 
 s See NOTE IX. 
 
 1 Arrian, lib. vl. c. 7. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1074, &c. See 
 NOTE X. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. C 2Q 
 
 Grand and extensive as these schemes were, sect. 
 the precautions employed, and the arrangements 
 made for carrying them into execution, were so 
 various and so proper, that Alexander had good 
 reason to entertain sanguine hopes of their prov- 
 ing successful. At the time when the mutinous 
 spirit of his soldiers obliged him to relinquish his 
 operations in India, he was not thirty years of 
 age complete. At this enterprising period of 
 life, a Prince, of a spirit so active, persevering, 
 and indefatigable, must have soon found means 
 to resume a favourite measure on which he had 
 been long intent. If he had invaded India a 
 second time^ he would not, as formerly, have 
 been obliged to force his way through hostile 
 and unexplored regions, opposed at every step 
 by nations and tribes of Barbarians whose names 
 had never reached Greece. All Asia, from the 
 shores of the Ionian sea to the banks of the Hy- 
 phasis, would then have been subject to his do- 
 minion ; and through that immense stretch of 
 country he had established such a chain of cities, 
 or fortified stations u , that his armies might have 
 continued their march with safety, and have 
 found a regular succession of magazines provided 
 for their subsistence. Nor would it have been 
 difficult for him to bring into the field forces 
 sufficient to have achieved the conquest of a 
 country so populous and extensive as India. 
 Having armed and disciplined his subjects in 
 the East like Europeans, they would have been 
 ambitious to imitate, and to equal their instruc- 
 
 u See NOTE XI. 
 
30 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, tors, and Alexander might have drawn recruits, 
 L not from his scanty domains in Macedonia and 
 Greece, but from the vast regions of Asia, which, 
 in every age, has covered the earth, and asto- 
 nished mankind with its numerous armies. When 
 at the head of such a formidable power he had 
 reached the confines of India, he might have 
 entered it under circumstances very different 
 from those in his first expedition. He had se- 
 cured a firm footing there, partly by means of 
 the garrisons that he left in the three cities 
 which he had built and fortified, and partly by 
 his alliance with Taxiles and Poms. These two 
 Indian Princes, won by Alexander's humanity 
 and beneficence, which, as they were virtues 
 seldom displayed in the ancient mode of carry- 
 ing on war, excited of course an higher degree 
 of admiration and gratitude, had continued 
 steady in their attachment to the Macedonians. 
 Reinforced by their troops, and guided by their 
 information as well as by the experience which 
 he had acquired in his former campaigns, Alex- 
 ander must have made rapid progress in a coun- 
 try, where every invader, from his time to the 
 present age, has proved successful. 
 
 But this and all his, other splendid schemes 
 were terminated at once by his untimely death. 
 In consequence of that, however, events took 
 place, which illustrate and confirm the justness 
 of the preceding speculations and conjectures 
 by evidence the most striking and satisfactory. 
 When that great empire, which the superior 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 31 
 
 genius of Alexander had kept united and in sec t. 
 subjection, no longer felt his superintending L 
 control, it broke into pieces, and its various 
 provinces were seized by his principal officers, 
 and parcelled out among them. From ambition, 
 emulation, and personal animosity, they soon 
 turned their arms against one another ; and as 
 several of the leaders were equally eminent for 
 political abilities and for military skill, the con- 
 test was maintained long, and carried on with 
 frequent vicissitudes of fortune. Amidst the va* 
 rious convulsions and revolutions which these 
 occasioned, it was found that the measures of 
 Alexander for the preservation of his conquests 
 had been concerted with such sagacity, that* 
 upon the final restoration of tranquillity, the 
 Macedonian dominion continued to be esta- 
 blished in every part of Asia, and not one pro- 
 vince had shaken off the yoke. Even India, the 
 most remote of Alexander's conquests, quietly 
 submitted to Pytho the son of Agenor, and after- 
 wards to Seleucus, who successively obtained 
 dominion over that part of Asia. Porus and 
 Taxiles, notwithstanding the death of their be- 
 nefactor, neither declined submission to the au- 
 thority of the Macedonians, nor made any at- 
 tempt to recover independence. 
 
 During the contests for power and superiority 
 among the successors of Alexander, Seleucus, 
 who, in every effort of enterprising ambition, was 
 inferior to none of them, having rendered him- 
 self master of all the provinces of the Persian em- 
 pire comprehended under the name of Upper 
 
32 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect. Asia, considered those countries of India which 
 x * had been subdued by Alexander, as belonging to 
 that portion of the Macedonian empire of which 
 he was now the sovereign. Seleucus, like all 
 the officers formed under Alexander, entertained 
 such high ideas of the advantages which might 
 be derived from a commercial intercourse with 
 India, as induced him to march into that coun- 
 try, partly with a view of establishing _ his own 
 authority there, and partly in order to curb San- 
 dracottus,. who having lately acquired the sove- 
 reignty of the Prasij, a powerful nation on the 
 banks of the Ganges, threatened to attack the 
 Macedonians, whose Indian territories bordered 
 on his dominions. Unfortunately no account of 
 this expedition, which seems to have been splen- 
 did and successful, has reached our times. All 
 we know of it is, that he advanced considerably 
 beyond the utmost boundary of Alexander's pro- 
 gress in India x , and would probably have pro- 
 ceeded much farther, if he had not been con- 
 strained to stop short in his career, in order to 
 oppose Antigonus, who was preparing to invade 
 his dominions at the head of a formidable army. 
 Before he began his march towards the Eu- 
 phrates, he concluded a treaty with Sandracot- 
 tus ; in consequence of which, that monarch 
 quietly retained the kingdom he had acquired. 
 But the powers and possessions of the Macedo- 
 nians seem to have remained unimpaired during 
 the reign of Seleucus, which terminated forty- 
 two years after the death of Alexander. 
 
 * See NOTE XII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 33 
 
 With a view of cultivating a friendly inter- sect. 
 course with Sandracottus, Seleucus made choice L 
 of Megasthenes, an officer, who, from his hav- 
 ing accompanied Alexander in his expedition 
 into India, had some knowledge of the state of the 
 country, and the manners of its inhabitants, and 
 sent him as his ambassador to Palibothra. u In 
 this famous capital of the Prasij, situated on the 
 banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes resided several 
 years, and was probably the first European who 
 ever beheld that mighty river, far superior to any 
 of the ancient continent in magnitude*, and no 
 less distinguished by the fertility of the countries 
 through which it flows. This journey of Megas- 
 thenes to Palibothra made Europeans acquainted 
 with a large extent of country, of which they had 
 not hitherto any knowledge ; for Alexander did 
 not advance farther towards the south-east than 
 that part of the river Hydraotes or Rauvee, where 
 the modern city of Lahore is situated, and Pali- 
 bothra, the site of which, as it is a capital posi- 
 tion in the geography of ancient India, I have 
 investigated with the utmost attention, appears 
 to me the same with that of the modern city of 
 Allahabad, at the confluence of the two great 
 rivers, Jumna and Ganges. y As the road from 
 Lahore to Allahabad runs through some of the 
 most cultivated and opulent provinces of India, 
 the more the country was explored, the idea of its 
 value rose higher. Accordingly, what Megas- 
 
 u Strabo, lib. ii. p. 121, &c. Arrian. Hist. Ind. passim. 
 * See NOTE XIII. * See NOTE XIV. 
 
 VOL. XII. D 
 
34 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, thenes observed during his progress toPalibothra, 
 t and his residence there, made such an impression 
 upon his own mind, as induced him to publish an 
 ample account of India, in order to make his 
 countrymen more thoroughly acquainted with its 
 importance. From his writings the ancients seem 
 to have derived almost all their knowledge of the 
 interior state of India, and from comparing the 
 three most ample accounts of it, by Diodorus Si- 
 cuius, Strabo, and Arrian, they appear mani- 
 festly, from their near resemblance, to be a tran- 
 script of his words. But, unfortunately, Megas- 
 thenes was so fond of the marvellous, that he 
 mingled with the truths which he related, many 
 extravagant fictions ; and to him may be traced 
 up the fabulous tales of men with ears so large 
 that they could wrap themselves up in them, of 
 others with a single eye, without mouths, without 
 nosesj with long feet; and toes turned backwards, 
 of people only three spans in height, of wild men 
 with heads in the shape of a wedge, of ants as 
 jlarge as foxes that dug up gold, and many other 
 things no less wonderful. 2 The extracts from his 
 narrative which have been transmitted to us by 
 Strabo, Arrian, and other writers, seem not to be 
 entitled to credit, unless when they are supported 
 by internal evidence, and confirmed by the testi- 
 mony of other ancient authors, or when they co- 
 incide with the experience of modern times. 
 His account, however, of the dimensions and 
 geography of India, is curious and accurate. 
 
 z Strabo, lib. xx. 1032. A. 1037. C. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. $5 
 
 His description of the power and opulence of s E c T 
 the Prasij perfectly resembles that which might '• 
 have been given of some of the greater states in 
 the modern Indostan, before the establishment 
 of the Mohomedan or European power in India, 
 and is consonant to the accounts which Alex- 
 ander had received concerning that people. He 
 was informed, as has been already mentioned, 
 that they were prepared to oppose him on the 
 banks of the Ganges, with an army consisting of 
 twenty thousand cavalry, two hundred thousand 
 infantry, and two thousand armed chariots 3 ; and 
 Megasthenes relates, that he had an audience of 
 Sandracottus in a place where he was encamped 
 with an army of four hundred thousand men. b 
 The enormous dimensions which he assigns to 
 Palibothra, of no less than ten miles in length, and 
 two in breadth, and surrounded by walls in which 
 there were five hundred and seventy towers, and 
 sixty-four gates, would probably have been 
 ranked by Europeans among the wonders which 
 he delighted to relate, if they were not now well 
 acquainted with the rambling manner in which 
 the cities of India were built, and did not know 
 with certainty that, both in former and in the 
 present times, it might boast of cities still more 
 extensive. c 
 
 This embassy of Megasthenes to Sandracottus, 
 and another of Diamachus to his son and succes- 
 
 a Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii. p. 232. Q. Curt. lib. ix. c. 2. 
 b Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1035. C. c Rennel] Mem, 49, 50, 
 
 D 2 
 
gg AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, sor Allitrochidas, are the last transactions of the 
 L Syrian monarchs with India, of which we have 
 any account. d Nor can we either fix with accu- 
 racy the time, or describe the manner in which 
 their possessions in India were wrested from them. 
 It is probable that they were obliged to abandon 
 that country soon after the death of Seleucus. e 
 
 But though the great monarchs of Syria lost, 
 about this period, those provinces in India, which 
 had been subject to their dominions, the Greeks 
 in a smaller kingdom, composed of some frag- 
 ments of Alexander's empire, still maintained an 
 intercourse with India, and even made some con- 
 siderable acquisition of territory there. This was 
 the kingdom of Bactria, originally subject to Se- 
 leucus, but wrested from his son or grandson, and 
 rendered an independent state, about sixty-nine 
 years after the death of Alexander. Concerning 
 the transactions of this kingdom, we must rest 
 satisfied with gleaning a few imperfect hints in 
 ancient authors. From them we learn that its 
 commerce with India was great ; that the con- 
 quests of the Bactrian kings in that country, 
 were more extensive than those of Alexander 
 himself, and particularly that they recovered 
 possession of the district near the mouth of the 
 Indus, which he had subdued. f Each of the six 
 princes who reigned in Bactria, carried on mili- 
 
 d See NOTE XV. e Justin, lib. xv. c. 4. 
 
 f Strabo, lib. xi. 785. D. lib. xv. 1006. B. Justin, lib. xli. 
 c. 4. Bayer Hist. Regni Grsecor. Bactriani, passim. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 37 
 
 tary operations in India with such success, that sect 
 they penetrated far into the interior part of the L 
 country, and proud of the conquests which they 
 had made, as well as of the extensive dominions 
 over which they reigned, some of them assumed 
 the lofty title of Great King, which distinguished 
 the Persian monarchs in the days of their high- 
 est splendour. But we should not have known 
 how long this kingdom of Bactria subsisted, or 
 in what manner it terminated, if M. de Guignes 
 had not called in the historians of China to sup- 
 ply the defects of the Greek and Roman writers. 
 By them we are informed, that about one hun- 
 dred and twenty-six years before the Christian 
 asra, a powerful horde of Tartars, pushed from 
 their native seats on the confines of China, and 
 obliged to move towards the west by the pressure 
 of a more numerous body that rolled on behind 
 them, passed the Jaxartes, and pouring in upon 
 Bactria, like an irresistible torrent, overwhelmed 
 that kingdom, and put an end to the dominion 
 of the Greeks g there, after it had been estab- 
 lished near one hundred and thirty years. h 
 
 From this time until the close of the fifteenth 
 century, when the Portuguese, by doubling the 
 Cape of Good Hope, opened a new communica- 
 tion with the East, and carried their victorious 
 arms into every part of India, no European power 
 acquired territory, or established its dominion 
 there. During this long period, of more than 
 
 g Mem. de Literat. torn. xxv. p. 17, &c. 
 h See NOTE XVI. 
 
38 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, sixteen hundred years, all schemes of conquest 
 
 *;_ in India seem to have been totally relinquished, 
 
 and nothing more was aimed at by any nation, 
 than to secure an intercourse of trade with that 
 opulent country. 
 
 It was in Egypt that the seat of this inter- 
 course was established; and it is not without sur- 
 prise that we observe how soon and how regularly 
 the commerce with the East came to be carried 
 on by that channel, in which the sagacity of 
 Alexander destined it to flow. Ptolemy, the son 
 of Lagus, as soon as he took possession of Egypt, 
 established the seat of government in Alexandria. 
 By some exertions of authority, and many acts 
 of liberality, but chiefly by the fame of his mild 
 and equal administration, he drew such a num- 
 ber of inhabitants to this favourite residence, 
 that it soon became a populous and wealthy city. 
 As Ptolemy deserved and had possessed the con- 
 fidence of Alexander more perfectly than any of 
 his officers, he knew well that his chief object 
 in founding Alexandria was to secure the advan- 
 tages arising from the trade with India. A long 
 and prosperous reign was favourable to the pro- 
 secution of that object, and though ancient au- 
 thors have not enabled us to trace the steps which 
 the first Ptolemy took for this purpose, we have 
 a striking evidence of his extraordinary attention 
 to naval affairs, in his erecting a light-house on 
 the island of Pharos, at the mouth of the harbour 
 of Alexandria \ a work of such magnificence as 
 
 1 Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1140. C. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 39 
 
 to be reckoned one of the seven wonders of the SECT, 
 world. With respect to the commercial arrange- *• 
 ments of his son Ptolemy Philadelphia, we have 
 more perfect information. In order to bring the 
 trade with India, (which began to revive at 
 Tyre, its ancient station k ,) to centre in Alexan- 
 dria, he set about forming a canal, an hundred 
 cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits in depth, 
 between Arsinoe on the Red Sea, not far from 
 the situation of the modern Suez, and the Peleu- 
 siac or eastern branch of the Nile, by means of 
 which the productions of India might have been 
 conveyed to that capital wholly by water. But 
 either on account of some danger apprehended 
 from completing it, that work was never finished ; 
 or from the slow and dangerous navigation to- 
 wards the northern extremity of the Red Sea, 
 this canal was found to be of so little use, that in 
 order to facilitate the communication with India, 
 he built a city on the west coast of that sea, al- 
 most under the Tropic, to which he gave the 
 name of Berenice. l This new city soon became 
 the staple of the trade with India. 171 From Bere- 
 nice the goods were transported by land to Cop- 
 tos, a city three miles distant from the Nile, but 
 which had a communication with that river by a 
 navigable canal, of which there are still some re- 
 mains a , and thence carried down the stream to 
 Alexandria. The distance between Berenice 
 
 k Strabo, lib. xvi. 1089. A. 
 
 1 Strabo, lib. xvii. 1156. D. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 29. 
 »' See NOTE XVII. 
 n D'Anville Mem. de TEgypte, p. 21. 
 
 D 4 
 
aq AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, and Coptos was, according to Pliny, two hun- 
 I- dred and fifty-eight Roman miles, and the road 
 lay through the desart of Thebais, almost en- 
 tirely destitute of water. But the attention of a 
 powerful monarch made provision for supplying 
 this want, by searching for springs, and where- 
 ever these were found he built inns, or more 
 probably in the eastern style caravanseras, for 
 the accommodation of merchants. ° In this chan- 
 nel the intercourse between the East and West 
 continued to be carried on during two hundred 
 and fifty years, as long as Egypt remained an 
 independent kingdom. 
 
 The ships destined for India took their de- 
 parture from Berenice, and sailing, according 
 to the ancient mode of navigation, along the 
 Arabian shore, to the promontory Syagras, (now 
 Cape Rasalgate,) held their course along the 
 coast of Persia, either directly to Pattala, (now 
 Tatta,) at the head of the lower Delta of the 
 Indus, or to some other emporium on the west 
 coast of India. To this part of India which 
 Alexander had visited and subdued, the com- 
 merce under the protection of the Egyptian 
 monarchs seems to have been confined for a 
 considerable time. Afterwards a more conve- 
 nient course was followed, and from Cape Rasal- 
 gate vessels sailed in a direct course to Zizerus. 
 This, according to M. de Montesquieu p , was the 
 
 ° Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1157. D. 1169. 
 p L'Esprit des Loix, lib. xxi. c. 7. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 41 
 
 kingdom of Sigertis, on the sea-coast adjacent to sect. 
 the mouth of the Indus, conquered by the Greek h 
 monarchs of Bactria ; according to Major Ren- 
 nell q , it was a port on the northern part of the 
 Malabar coast. Ancient authors have not con- 
 veyed such information as will enable us to pro- 
 nounce with certainty, which of these two op- 
 posite opinions is best founded. Nor can we 
 point out with accuracy, what were the other 
 ports in India which the merchants from Bere- 
 nice frequented, when that trade was first 
 opened. As they sailed in vessels of small bur- 
 den, which crept timidly along the coast, it is 
 probable that their voyages were circumscribed 
 within very narrow limits, and that under the 
 Ptolemies, no considerable progress was made 
 in the discovery of India. r 
 
 From this monopoly of the commerce by sea 
 between the East and West, which Egypt long 
 enjoyed, it derived that extraordinary degree of 
 opulence and power for which it was conspi- 
 cuous. In modern times, acquainted with the 
 vigilant and enterprising activity of commercial 
 rivalship, there is hardly any circumstance in an- 
 cient story which appears more surprising, than 
 that the Sovereigns of Egypt should have been 
 permitted to engross this lucrative trade without 
 competition, or any attempt to wrest it out of 
 their hands ; especially as the powerful Mo- 
 narchs of Syria might, from the Persian Gulf, 
 have carried on an intercourse with the same 
 
 Introduct. p. xxxvih r See NOTE XVIII, 
 
4i AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, parts of India, by a shorter and safer course of 
 navigation. Different considerations seem to 
 have induced them so tamely to relinquish all the 
 obvious advantages of this commerce. The 
 Kings of Egypt, by their attention to maritime 
 affairs, had formed a powerful fleet, which gave 
 them such decided command of the sea, that 
 they could have crushed with ease any rival in 
 trade. No commercial intercourse seems ever to 
 have been carried on by sea between Persia and 
 India. The Persians had such an insuperable 
 aversion to that element, or were so much afraid 
 of foreign invasion, that their monarchs (as I 
 have already observed) obstructed the naviga- 
 tion of the great rivers, which gave access to 
 the interior parts of the country, by artificial 
 works. As their subjects, however, were no less 
 desirous than the people around them to possess 
 the valuable productions and elegant manu- 
 factures of India, these were conveyed to all 
 the parts of their extensive dominions by land- 
 carriage. The commodities destined for the 
 supply of the northern provinces, were trans- 
 ported on camels from the banks of the Indus 
 to those of the Oxus, down the stream of which 
 they were carried to the Caspian sea, and 
 distributed, partly by land-carriage, and partly 
 by navigable rivers, through the different coun- 
 tries, bounded on one hand by the Caspian, 
 and on the other by the Euxine sea. s The 
 commodities of India intended for the southern 
 
 s Strabo, lib. xii. 776. D. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. e. 17. 
 
 10 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 43 
 
 and interior provinces, proceeded by land from 
 the Caspian gates to some of the great rivers, 
 by which they were circulated through every 
 part of the country. This was the ancient 
 mode of intercourse with India, while the Per- 
 sian empire was governed by its native Princes ; 
 and it has been observed in every age, that 
 when any branch of commerce has got into a 
 certain channel, although it may be neither the 
 most proper nor the most commodious one, it 
 requires long time, and considerable efforts, to 
 give it a different direction. ' 
 
 To all these reasons for suffering the Monarchs 
 of Egypt to continue in the undisturbed posses- 
 sion of the trade with India by sea, another may 
 be added. Many of the ancients, by an error 
 in geography extremely unaccountable, and in 
 which they persisted, notwithstanding repeated 
 opportunities of obtaining more accurate infor- 
 mation, believed the Caspian sea to be a branch 
 of the great Northern ocean, and the Kings of 
 Syria might hope by that means to open a com- 
 munication with Europe, and to circulate 
 through it the valuable productions of the East, 
 without intruding into those seas, the navigation 
 of which the Egyptian Monarchs seemed to con- 
 sider as their exclusive right. This idea had been 
 early formed by the Greeks, when they became 
 masters of Asia. Seleucus Nicator, the first 
 and most sagacious of the Syrian Kings, at the 
 
 € See Note XIX. 
 
44 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, time when lie was assassinated, entertained 
 , *' , thoughts of forming a junction between the Cas- 
 pian and Euxine seas by a canal u , and if this 
 could have been effected, his subjects, besides the 
 extension of their trade in Europe, might have 
 supplied all the countries in the North of Asia, 
 on the coast of the Euxine sea as well as many 
 of those which stretch eastward from the Cas- 
 pian, with the productions of India. As those 
 countries, though now thinly inhabited by a 
 miserable race of men, destitute of industry 
 and of wealth, were in ancient times extremely 
 populous, and filled with great and opulent 
 cities, this must have been considered as a 
 branch of commerce of such magnitude and 
 value, as to render the securing of it an ob- 
 ject worthy the attention of the most powerful 
 monarch. 
 
 But while the Monarchs of Egypt and Syria 
 laboured with emulation and ardour to secure to 
 their subjects all the advantages of the Indian 
 trade, a power arose in the West which proved 
 fatal to both. The Romans, by the vigour of 
 their military institutions, and the wisdom of 
 their political conduct, having rendered them- 
 selves masters of all Italy and Sicily, soon over- 
 A. C. 55. turned the rival republic of Carthage, subjected 
 Macedonia and Greece, extended their dominion 
 over Syria, and at last turned their victorious arms 
 against Egypt, the only kingdom remaining of 
 
 u Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 11. 
 la 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 45 
 
 those established by the successors of Alexander sect. 
 the Great. After a series of events which be- L 
 long not to the subject of this Disquisition, 
 Egypt was annexed to the Roman empire, and 
 reduced into the form of a Roman province by 
 Augustus. Aware of its great importance, he, A. c. 30. 
 with that provident sagacity which distinguishes 
 his character, not only reserved it as one of the 
 provinces subject immediately to imperial autho- 
 rity, but by various precautions, well known to 
 every scholar, provided for its security. This 
 extraordinary solicitude seems to have proceeded * 
 not only from considering Egypt as one of the 
 chief granaries on which the capital depended 
 for subsistence, but as the seat of that lucrative 
 commerce which had enabled its ancient mo- 
 narchs to amass such enormous wealth, as ex- 
 cited the admiration and envy of other Princes, 
 and produced, when brought into the treasury 
 of the empire, a considerable alteration both in 
 the value of property, and the state of manners^ 
 in Rome itself. 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Intercourse "with India, from the Establishment of 
 the Roman Dominion in Egypt, to the Conquest 
 of that Kingdom by the Mahomedans. 
 
 E C T. T TPON the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, 
 i^_j . and the reduction of that kingdom to a pro- 
 vince of their empire, the trade with India con- 
 tinued to be carried on in the same mode under 
 their powerful protection : Rome enriched with 
 the spoils and the tribute of almost all the known 
 world, had acquired a taste for luxuries of every 
 kind. Among people of this description, the 
 productions of India have always been held in 
 the highest estimation. The capital of the greatest 
 empire ever established in Europe, filled with 
 citizens, who had now no occupation but to enjoy 
 
AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION, &c. 47 
 
 and dissipate the wealth accumulated by their sect. 
 ancestors, demanded every thing elegant, rare, u - 
 or costly, which that remote region could fur- 
 nish, in order to support its pomp, or heighten 
 its pleasures. To supply this demand, new and 
 extraordinary efforts became requisite, and the 
 commerce with India increased to a degree, 
 which (as I have observed in another place 3 ) 
 will appear astonishing even to the present age, 
 in which that branch of trade has been extended 
 far beyond the practice or conception of any 
 former period, 
 
 Besides the Indian commodities imported into 
 the capital of the empire from Egypt, the Ro- 
 mans received an additional supply of them by 
 another mode of conveyance. From the earliest 
 times, there seems to have been some communi- 
 cation between Mesopotamia, and other pro- 
 vinces on the banks of the Euphrates, and those 
 parts of Syria and Palestine, which lay near the 
 Mediterranean. The migration of Abram from 
 Ur, of the Chaldees from Sichem in the land of 
 Canaan, is an instance of this. b The journey 
 through the desert, which separated these coun- 
 tries, was much facilitated by its affording one 
 station abounding with water, and capable of cul- 
 tivation. As the intercourse increased, the pos- 
 session of this station became an object of so much 
 importance, that Solomon, when he turned his 
 attention towards the extension of commerce 
 
 a Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 25. b Genes, xi. xii. 
 
48 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, among his subjects, built a fenced city there. c 
 IL Its Syrian name of Tadmor in the wilderness, 
 and its Greek one of Palmyra, are both descrip^ 
 tive of its situation in a spot adorned with palm- 
 trees. This is not only plentifully supplied witli 
 water, but surrounded by a portion of fertile land, 
 which (though of no great extent) renders it a 
 delightful habitation in the midst of barren sands 
 and an inhospitable desert. Its happy position, 
 at the distance of eighty-five miles from the river 
 Euphrates, and about one hundred and seventeen 
 miles from the nearest coast of the Mediterra- 
 nean" 1 , induced its inhabitants to enter with ar- 
 dour into the trade of conveying commodities from 
 one of these to the other. As the most valuable 
 productions of India, brought up the Euphrates 
 from the Persian Gulf, are of such small bulk as to 
 bear the expense of a long land-carriage, this 
 trade soon became so considerable that the opu- 
 lence and power of Palmyra increased rapidly. 
 Its government was of the form which is best 
 suited to the genius of a commercial city, repub- 
 lican ; and from the peculiar advantages of its 
 situation, as well as the spirit of its inhabitants, it 
 long maintained its independence, though sur- 
 rounded by powerful and ambitious neighbours. 
 
 c 1 Kings, ix. 18. 2 Chron. viii. 4*. 
 
 d In a former edition, I stated the distance of Palmyra 
 from the Euphrates at sixty miles, and from the Mediter- 
 ranean at two hundred and three miles. Into these errors I 
 was led by M. D'Anville, who, in his Memoire sur l'Eu- 
 phrate et le Tigris, a work published in old age, did not 
 retain his wonted accuracy. From information communi- 
 cated by Major Rennell, I have substituted the true distances. 
 
s* 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 49 
 
 Under the Syrian monarchs descended from Se- sect. 
 leueus it attained to its highest degree of splen- 
 dour and wealth, one great source of which seems 
 to have been the supplying their subjects with 
 Indian commodities. When Syria submitted to 
 the irresistible arms of Rome, Palmyra continued 
 upwards of two centuries a free state, and its 
 friendship was courted with emulation and soli- 
 citude by the Romans, and their rivals for em- 
 pire, the Parthians. That it traded with both, 
 and particularly that from it Rome as well as 
 others parts of the empire received the produc- 
 tions of India, we learn from Appian, an author 
 of good credit. 6 But in tracing the progress of 
 the commerce of the ancients with the East, I 
 should not have ventured, upon his single testi- 
 mony, to mention this among the channels of 
 note in which it was carried on, if a singular dis- 
 covery, for which we are indebted to the liberal 
 curiosity and enterprising spirit of our own coun- 
 trymen, did not confirm and illustrate what he 
 relates. Towards the close of the last century, 
 some gentlemen of the English factory at Aleppo, 
 incited by what they heard in the East concern- 
 ing the wonderful ruins of Palmyra, ventured, 
 notwithstanding the fatigue and danger of a 
 journey through the desert, to visit them. To 
 their astonishment they beheld a fertile spot of 
 some miles in extent arising like an island out of 
 a vast plain of sand, covered with the remains of 
 temples, porticoes, aqueducts, and other public 
 
 e Appian. de Bello Civil, lib. v. p. 1076. edit. Tollii 
 VOL. XII. E 
 
50 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 g i c T. works, which, in magnificence and splendour, 
 IL and some of them in elegance, were not unwor- 
 thy of Athens or of Rome in their most pros- 
 perous state. Allured by their description of 
 them, about sixty years thereafter, a party of 
 more enlightened travellers, having reviewed 
 the ruins of Palmyra with greater attention and 
 more scientific skill, declared that what they 
 beheld there exceeded the most exalted ideas 
 which they had formed concerning it. f 
 
 From both these accounts, as well as from re- 
 collecting the extraordinary degree of power to 
 which Palmyra had attained, when Egypt, 
 Syria, Mesopotamia, and a considerable part 
 of Asia Minor were conquered by its arms ; 
 when Odenatus, its chief magistrate, was deco- 
 rated with the Imperial purple, and Zenobia 
 contended for the dominion of the East with 
 Rome under one of its most warlike Emperors, 
 it is evident that a state which could derive little 
 importance from its original territory, must have 
 owed its aggrandisement to the opulence ac- 
 quired by extensive commerce. Of this the 
 Indian trade was undoubtedly the most consi- 
 derable, and most lucrative branch. But it is a 
 cruel mortification, in searching for what is in- 
 structive in the history of past times, to find that 
 the exploits of conquerors who have desolated 
 the earth, and the freaks of tyrants who have ren- 
 dered nations unhappy, are recorded with minute 
 
 f Wood's Ruins of Palmyra, p. 37. 
 13 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 51 
 
 and often disgusting accuracy, while the disco- sect. 
 very of useful arts, and the progress of the most lL 
 beneficial branches of commerce, are passed over 
 in silence, and suffered to sink into oblivion. 
 
 After the conquest of Palmyra by Aurelian, 
 trade never revived there. At present a few 
 miserable huts of beggarly Arabs are scattered 
 in the courts of its stately temples, or deform 
 its elegant porticoes ; and exhibit an humiliat- 
 ing contrast to its ancient magnificence. 
 
 But while the merchants of Egypt and Syria 
 exerted their activity in order to supply the in- 
 creasing demands of Rome for Indian commodi- 
 ties, and vied with each other in their efforts, the 
 eagerness of gain (as Pliny observes) brought 
 India itself nearer to the rest of the world. In 
 the course of their voyages to that country, the 
 Greek and Egyptian pilots could not fail to ob- 
 serve the regular shifting of the periodical winds 
 or monsoons, and how steadily they continued 
 to blow during one part of the year from the 
 east, and during the other from the west. En- _ 
 couraged by attending to this circumstance, 
 Hippalus, the commander of a ship engaged in 
 the Indian trade, ventured, about fourscore 
 years after Egypt was annexed to the Roman 
 empire, to relinquish the slow and circuitous 
 course which I have described, and stretching 
 boldly from the mouth of the Arabian Gulf 
 across the ocean, was carried by the western 
 monsoon to Musiris, a harbour in that part of 
 
 E % 
 
5 2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect. India now known by the name of the Malabar 
 coast. 
 
 This route to India was held to be a discovery 
 of such importance, that in order to perpetuate 
 the memory of the inventor, the name of Hippa- 
 lus was given to the wind which enabled him to 
 perform the voyage. 5 As this was one of the 
 greatest efforts of navigation in the ancient 
 world, and opened the best communication by 
 sea between the East and West that was known 
 for fourteen hundred years, it merits a particular 
 description. Fortunately Pliny has enabled us 
 to give it with a degree of accuracy, which can 
 seldom be attained in tracing the naval or com- 
 mercial operations of the ancients. From Alex- 
 andria (he observes) to Juliopolis is two miles ; 
 there the cargo destined for India is embarked 
 on the Nile, and is carried to Coptos, which is 
 distant three hundred and three miles, and the 
 voyage is usually accomplished in twelve days. 
 From Coptos goods are conveyed by land-car- 
 riage to Berenice on the Arabian Gulf, halting 
 at different stations regulated according to the 
 conveniency of watering. The distance between 
 these cities is two hundred and fifty-eight miles. 
 On account of the heat the caravan travels only 
 during the night, and the journey is finished on 
 the twelfth day. From Berenice, ships take their 
 departure about midsummer, and in thirty days 
 reach Ocelis (Gella) at the mouth of the Arabian 
 
 s Perip. Mar. Erythr. p. 32. 
 J 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 53 
 
 Gulf, or Cane (Cape Fartaque) on the coast of S E c r. 
 Arabia Felix. Thence they sail, in forty clays, IL 
 to Musiris, the first emporium in India. They 
 begin their voyage homewards early in the 
 Egyptian month Thibi, which answers to our 
 December \ they sail with a north-east wind, 
 and, when they enter the Arabian Gulf, meet 
 with a south or south-west wind, and thus com- 
 plete the voyage in less than a year. h 
 
 The account which Pliny gives of Musiris, 
 and of Barace, another harbour not far distant, 
 which was likewise frequented by the ships from 
 Berenice, as being both so incommodious for 
 trade on account of the shallowness of the ports, 
 that it became necessary to discharge and take 
 in the cargoes in small boats, does not enable 
 us to fix their position with perfect accuracy. 
 This description applies to many ports on the 
 Malabar coast; but, from two circumstances 
 mentioned by him ; one, that they are not far 
 distant from Cottonara, the country which pro- 
 duces pepper in great abundance ; and the other, 
 that, in sailing towards them, the course lay near 
 Nitrias, the station of the pirates ; I adopt the 
 opinion of Major Rennell, that they were situ- 
 ated somewhere between Goa and Tellicherry, 
 and that probably the modern Meerzaw or Mer- 
 jee is the Musiris of the ancients, and Barcelore 
 their Barace. 1 
 
 h Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 23. See NOTE XX. 
 5 Introd. p. xxxvii. 
 
 E 3 
 
54 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 As in these two ports was the principal staple 
 of the trade between Egypt and India, when in 
 its most flourishing state, this seems to be the 
 proper place, for inquiring into the nature of the 
 commerce with the ancients, particularly the 
 Romans, carried on with that country, and for 
 enumerating the commodities most in request, 
 which they imported from it. But as the oper- 
 ations of commerce and the mode of regulating 
 it, were little attended to in those states of an- 
 tiquity, of whose transactions we have any ac- 
 curate knowledge ; their historians hardly enter 
 into any detail concerning a subject of such 
 subordinate importance in their political system ; 
 and it is mostly from brief hints, detached facts, 
 and incidental observations, that we can gather 
 information concerning it. k 
 
 In every age, it has been a commerce of 
 luxury, rather than of necessity, which has 
 been carried on between Europe and India. 
 Its elegant manufactures, spices, and precious 
 stones, are neither objects of desire to nations 
 of simple manners, nor are such nations pos- 
 sessed of wealth sufficient to purchase them. 
 But at the time the Romans became masters of 
 the Indian trade, they were not only (as has 
 already been observed) in that stage of society 
 when men are eager to obtain every thing that 
 can render the enjoyment of life more exquisite, 
 or add to its splendour, but they had acquired 
 all the fantastic tastes formed by the caprice 
 
 k See NOTE XXI. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. r^, 
 
 and extravagance of wealth. They were, of s e C T. 
 consequence, highly delighted with those new IT - 
 objects of gratification with which India sup- 
 plied them in such abundance. The produc- 
 tions of that country, natural as well as artificial, 
 seem to have been much the same in that age 
 as in the present. But the taste of the Romans 
 in luxury differed, in many respects, from that 
 of modern times ; and, of course, their demands 
 from India differed considerably from ours. 
 
 In order to convey an idea of their demands 
 as complete as possible, I shall, in the first place, 
 make some observations on the three great arti- 
 cles of general importation from India. 1. Spices 
 and aromatics. 2. Precious stones and pearls. 
 3. Silk. And then I shall give some account 
 (as far as I can venture to do it from authentic 
 information) of the assortment of cargoes, both 
 outward and homeward bound, for the vessels 
 fitted out at Berenice to different ports of India. 
 
 I. Spices and aromatics. From the mode of 
 religious worship in the heathen world -, from 
 the incredible number of their deities, and of 
 the temples consecrated to them, the consump- 
 tion of frankincense and other aromatics, which 
 were used in every sacred function, must have 
 been very great. But the vanity of men occa- 
 sioned a greater consumption of these fragrant 
 substances, than their piety. It was the custom 
 of the Romans to burn the bodies of their dead ; 
 and they deemed it a display of magnificence, 
 
 e 4 
 
56 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s E c T. to cover not only the body, but the funeral pile 
 IL on which it was laid, with the most costly spices. 
 At the funeral of Sylla, two hundred and ten 
 burdens of spices were strewed upon the pile. 
 Nero is reported to have burnt a quantity of 
 cinnamon and cassia at the funeral of Pappcea, 
 greater than the countries from which it was im- 
 ported produced in one year. We consume in 
 heaps these precious substances with the carcases 
 of the dead (says Pliny) : We offer them to the 
 Gods only in grains.™ It was not from India, I 
 am aware, but from Arabia, that aromatics were 
 first imported into Europe ; and some of them, 
 particularly frankincense, were productions of that 
 country. But the Arabians were accustomed, 
 together with spices of native growth, to furnish 
 foreign merchants with others of higher value, 
 which they brought from India, and the regions 
 beyond it. The commercial intercourse of the 
 Arabians with the eastern parts of Asia, was not 
 only early, but considerable. By means of their 
 trading caravans, they conveyed into their own 
 country all the valuable productions of the East, 
 among which spices held a chief place. In every 
 ancient account of Indian commodities, spices 
 and aromatics of various kinds form a principal 
 article. 11 Some authors assert that the greater 
 part of those purchased in Arabia were not the 
 growth of that country, but brought from India. 
 
 m Nat. Hist, lib.xii. c. 18. 
 
 n Peripl. Mar. Eryth. p. 22. 28. Strabo, lib. ii. p. 156. A. 
 lib. xv. p. 1018. A. 
 
 Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1129. C 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 57 
 
 That this assertion was well founded, appears s E c J. 
 from what has been observed in modern times. n 
 The frankincense of Arabia, though reckoned 
 the peculiar and most precious production of the 
 country, is much inferior in quality to that im- 
 ported into it from the East ; and it is chiefly 
 with the latter that the Arabians at present sup- 
 ply the extensive demands of various provinces 
 of Asia for this commodity. 15 It is upon good 
 authority, then, that I have mentioned the im- 
 portation of spices as one of the most consider- 
 able branches of ancient commerce with India. 
 In the Augustan age, an entire street in Rome 
 seems to have been occupied by those who sold 
 frankincense, pepper, and other aromatics. q 
 
 II. Precious stones, together with which 
 pearls may be classed, seem to be the article 
 next in value imported by the Romans from the 
 East. As these have no pretension to be of any 
 real use, their value arises entirely from their 
 beauty and their rarity, and even when estimated 
 most moderately is always high. But among 
 nations far advanced in luxury, when they are 
 deemed not only ornaments, but marks of dis- 
 tinction, the vain and the opulent vie so eagerly 
 with one another for the possession of them, that 
 they rise in price to an exorbitant and almost in- 
 credible height. Diamonds, though the art of 
 cutting them was imperfectly known to the an- 
 cients, held an high place in estimation among 
 
 p Neibuhr. Descript. de l'Arabie, torn. i. p. 126. 
 ** Hor. lib. ii. epist. 1. 
 
58 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, them, as well as among us. The comparative 
 IL value of other precious stones varied according 
 to the diversity of tastes and the caprice of 
 fashion. The immense number of them men- 
 tioned by Pliny, and the laborious care with 
 which he describes and arranges them r , will asto- 
 nish, I should suppose, the most skilful lapidary 
 or jeweller of modern times, and shews the high 
 request in which they were held by the Romans. 
 
 But among all the articles of luxury, the Ro- 
 mans seem to have given the preference to 
 pearls. 8 Persons of every rank purchased them 
 with eagerness ; they were worn on every part 
 of dress ; and there is such a difference, both 
 in size and in value, among pearls, that while 
 such as were large and of superior lustre adorned 
 the wealthy and the great, smaller ones and of 
 inferior quality gratified the vanity of persons 
 in more humble stations of life. Julius Caesar 
 presented Servilia, the mother of Brutus, with 
 a pearl, for which he paid forty-eight thousand 
 four hundred and fifty-seven pounds. The 
 famous pearl ear-rings of Cleopatra were in 
 value one hundred and sixty-one thousand 
 four hundred and fifty-eight pounds. 1 Pre- 
 cious stones, it is true, as well as pearls, were 
 found not only in India, but in many differ- 
 ent countries, and all were ransacked in order 
 to gratify the pride of Rome. India, however* 
 
 r Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvii. 
 
 s See NOTE XXII. 
 
 c Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ix. c. 35. See NOTE XXIII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 5$ 
 
 furnished the chief part, and - its productions sect. 
 were allowed to be most abundant, diversified, IL 
 and valuable. 
 
 III. Another production of India in great 
 demand at Rome, was silk ; and when we recol- 
 lect the variety of elegant fabrics into which it 
 may be formed, and how much these have added 
 to the splendour of dress and furniture, we can- 
 not wonder at its being held in such estimation 
 by luxurious people. The price it bore was ex- 
 orbitant ; but it was deemed a dress too expen- 
 sive and too delicate for men u , and was appro- 
 priated wholly to women of eminent rank and 
 opulence. This, however, did not render the 
 demand for it less eager, especially after the ex- 
 ample of the dissolute Elagabalus introduced the 
 use of it among the other sex, and accustomed 
 men to the disgrace (as the severity of ancient 
 ideas accounted it) of wearing this effeminate 
 garb. Two circumstances concerning the traf- 
 fic of silk among the Romans merit observation. 
 Contrary to what usually takes place in the ope- 
 rations of trade, the more general use of that 
 commodity seems not to have increased the quan- 
 tity imported, in such proportion as to answer 
 the growing demand for it, and the price of silk 
 was not reduced during the course of two hun- 
 dred and fifty years from the time of its being 
 first known in Rome. In the reign of Aurelian, 
 it still continued to be valued at its weight in gold. 
 This, it is probable, was owing to the mode in 
 
 u Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. 33. 
 
g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 T. which that commodity was procured by the mer- 
 chants of Alexandria. They had no direct inter- 
 course with China, the only country in which the 
 silk-worm was then reared, and its labour ren- 
 dered an article of commerce. All the silk which 
 they purchased in the different ports of India 
 that they frequented, was brought thither in ships 
 of the country ; and either from some defect of 
 skill in managing the silk -worm, the produce of 
 its ingenious industry among the Chinese was 
 scanty, or the intermediate dealers found greater 
 advantage in furnishing the market of Alexandria 
 with a small quantity at an high price, than to 
 lower its value by increasing the quantity. The 
 other circumstance which I had in view is more 
 extraordinary, and affords a striking proof of the 
 imperfect communication of the ancients with 
 remote nations, and of the slender knowledge 
 which they had of their natural productions or 
 arts. Much as the manufactures of silk were 
 admired, and often as silk is mentioned by the 
 Greek and Roman authors, they had not, for 
 severa] centuries, after the use of it became com- 
 mon, any certain knowledge either of the coun- 
 tries to which they were indebted for this fa- 
 vourite article of elegance, or of the manner in 
 which it was produced. By some, silk was sup- 
 posed to be a fine down adhering to the leaves 
 of certain trees or flowers ; others imagined it 
 to be a delicate species of wool or cotton ; and 
 even those who had learned that it was the work 
 of* an insect, show, by their descriptions, that 
 they had no distinct idea of the manner in which 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 61 
 
 it was formed/ It was in consequence of an s E c T. 
 event that happened in the sixth century of the 
 Christian sera, of which I shall hereafter take 
 notice, that the real nature of silk became 
 known in Europe. 
 
 The other commodities usually imported from 
 India will be mentioned in the account, which 
 I now proceed to give, of the cargoes sent out 
 and brought home in the ships employed in the 
 trade with that country. For this we are in- 
 debted to the Circumnavigation of the Ery- 
 thraean Sea, ascribed to Arrian, a curious though 
 short treatise, less known than it deserves to be, 
 and which enters into some details concerning 
 commerce, to which there is nothing similar in 
 any ancient writer. The first place in India, in 
 which the ships from Egypt, while they followed 
 the ancient course of navigation, were accus- 
 tomed to trade, was Patala in the river Indus. 
 They imported into it woollen cloth of a slight 
 fabric, linen in chequer-work, some precious 
 stones, and some aromatics unknown in India, 
 coral, storax, glass vessels of different kinds, 
 some wrought silver, money, and wine. In re- 
 turn for these, they received spices of various 
 kinds, sapphires, and other gems, silk stuffs, silk 
 thread, cotton cloths 7 , and black pepper. But 
 a far more considerable emporium on the same 
 const was Barygaza, and on that account the 
 author, whom I follow here, describes its situa- 
 
 * See NOTE XXIV. » See NOTE XXV. 
 
6<2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, tion and the mode of approaching it, with great 
 n - minuteness and accuracy. Its situation corre- 
 sponds entirely with that of Baroach, on the 
 great river Nerbuddah, down the stream of 
 which, or by land-carriage, from the great city 
 ofTagara across high mountains 2 , all the pro- 
 ductions of the interior country were conveyed 
 to it. The articles of importation and expor- 
 tation in this great mart were extensive and 
 various. Besides these already mentioned, our 
 author enumerates among the former, Italian, 
 Greek, and Arabian wines, brass, tin, lead, gir- 
 dles or sashes of curious texture, melilot, white 
 glass, red arsenic, black lead, gold and silver 
 coin. Among the exports he mentions the 
 onyx, and other gems, ivory, myrrh, various fa- 
 brics of cotton, both plain and ornamented with 
 flowers, and long pepper. a At Musiris, the next 
 emporium of note on that coast, the articles 
 imported were much the same as at Barygaza ; 
 but as it lay nearer to the eastern parts of India, 
 and seems to have had much communication 
 with them, the commodities exported from it 
 were more numerous and more valuable. He 
 specifies particularly pearls in great abundance 
 and of extraordinary beauty, a variety of silk 
 stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoise-shell, different 
 kinds of transparent gems, especially diamonds, 
 and pepper in large quantities, and of the best 
 quality." 
 
 2 See NOTE XXVI. 
 
 3 Peripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 28. b Ibid. 31, 32. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. Qg 
 
 The justness of the account given by this sect. 
 author of the articles imported from India, is n. 
 confirmed by a Roman law, in which the Indian 
 commodities subject to the payment of duties 
 are enumerated. By comparing these two ac- 
 counts, we may form an idea tolerably exact of 
 the nature and extent of the trade with India in 
 ancient times. 
 
 As the state of society and manners among 
 the natives of India, in the earliest period in 
 which they are known, nearly resembled what 
 we observe among their descendants in the pre- 
 sent age ; their wants and demands were, ' of 
 course, much the same. The ingenuity of their 
 own artists was so able to supply these, that they 
 stood little in need of foreign manufactures or 
 productions, except some of the useful metals 
 which their own country did not furnish in suf- 
 ficient quantity ; and then, as now, it was mostly 
 with gold and silver that the luxuries of the East 
 were purchased. In two particulars, however, 
 our importations from India differ greatly from 
 those of the ancients. The dress, both of the 
 Greeks and Romans, was almost entirely woollen, 
 which, by their frequent use of the warm bath, 
 was rendered abundantly comfortable. Their 
 consumption of linen and cotton cloths was 
 much inferior to that of modern times, when 
 these are worn by persons in every rank of life. 
 Accordingly, a great branch of modern impor- 
 
 c Digest, lib. xxxix. tit. iv, § 16. De publieanis et 
 vectigalibus. 
 
a«fc^ 
 
 64? AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, tation from that part of India with which the 
 IL ancients were acquainted, is in piece-goods; 
 comprehending, under that mercantile term, the 
 immense variety of fabrics which Indian inge- 
 nuity has formed of cotton. But as far as I have 
 observed, we have no authority that will justify 
 us in stating the ancient importation of these to 
 be in any degree considerable. 
 
 In modern times, though it continues still to 
 be chiefly a commerce of luxury that is carried 
 on with India, yet, together with the articles 
 that minister to it, we import, to a considerable 
 extent, various commodities which are to be 
 considered merely as the materials of our do- 
 mestic manufactures. Such are the cotton-wool 
 of Indostan, the silk of China, and the saltpetre 
 of Bengal. But in the accounts of ancient 
 importations from India, raw silk and silk -thread 
 excepted, I find nothing mentioned that could 
 serve as the materials of any home-manufacture. 
 The navigation of the ancients never having 
 extended to China, the quantity of un wrought 
 silk with which they were supplied, by means 
 Of the Indian traders, appears to have been so 
 scanty, that the manufacture of it could not 
 make an addition of any moment to their do- 
 mestic industry. 
 
 After this succinct account of the commerce 
 carried on by the ancients in India, I proceed to 
 inquire what knowledge they had of the countries 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. Q5 
 
 beyond the ports of Musiris and Barace, the ut- s E c T. 
 most boundary towards the east to which I have n - 
 hitherto traced their progress. The author of 
 the Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea, 
 whose accuracy of description justifies the confi- 
 dence with which I have followed him for some 
 time, seems to have been little acquainted with 
 that part of the coast which stretches from Ba- 
 race towards the south. He mentions, indeed, 
 cursorily, two or three different ports, but gives 
 no intimation that any of them were staples of 
 the commerce with Egypt. He hastens to Co- 
 rn ar, or Cape Comorin, the southernmost point 
 of the Indian peninsula; and his description of 
 it is so accurate, and so conformable to its real 
 state, as shews his information concerning it to 
 have been p erfectly auth entic. d Near to this he 
 places the pearl fishery of Colchos, the modern 
 Kilkare, undoubtedly the same with that now 
 carried on by the Dutch in the strait which 
 separates the island of Ceylon from the conti- 
 nent; as adjacent to this he mentions three dif- 
 ferent ports, which appear to have been situated 
 on the east side of the peninsula, now known by 
 the name of the Coromandel coast. He describes 
 these as emporza, or stations of trade 6 ; but from 
 an attentive consideration of some circumstances 
 in his account of them, I think it probable that 
 the ships from Berenice did not sail to any of 
 these ports, though they were supplied, as he in- 
 
 d Peripl. p. 33. D'Anville Ant. de l'lnde, 118, &c, 
 e Peripl. p. 34. 
 VOL. XII. F 
 
6( 3 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 forms us, with the commodities brought from 
 Egypt, as well as with the productions of the 
 opposite coast of the peninsula ; but these seem 
 to have been imported in country ships. f It was 
 likewise in vessels of their own, varying in form 
 and burden, and distinguished by different names, 
 some of which he mentions, that they traded with 
 the Golden Chersonesus, or kingdom of Malacca, 
 and the countries near the Ganges. Not far from 
 the mouth of that river he places an island, which 
 he describes as situated under the rising sun, and 
 as the last region in the East that was inhabited. s 
 Of all these parts of India, the author of the 
 Circumnavigation appears to have had very slen- 
 der knowledge, as is manifest, not only from what 
 he mentions concerning this imaginary island, 
 and from his not attempting to describe them, 
 but from his relating, with the credulity and 
 love of the marvellous, which always accompany 
 and characterise ignorance, that these remote re- 
 gions were peopled with cannibals, and men of 
 uncouth and monstrous forms. h 
 
 I have been induced to bestow this attention 
 in tracing the course delineated in the Circum- 
 navigation of the Erythraean Sea because the au- 
 thor of it is the first ancient writer to whom we are 
 indebted for any knowledge of the eastern coast 
 of the great peninsula of India, or of the coun- 
 tries which lie beyond it. To Strabo, who 
 
 f roiny.cc nXoioc. g Peripl. p. 36. 
 
 h Peripl. p. 35. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. Qj 
 
 composed his great work on geography in the sect 
 reign of Augustus, India, particularly the most , n - 
 eastern parts of it, was little known. He be- 
 gins his description of it with requesting the in- 
 dulgence of his readers, on account of the scanty 
 information he could obtain with respect to a 
 country so remote, which Europeans had seldom 
 visited, and many of them transiently only, in 
 the functions of military service. He observes, 
 that even commerce had contributed little to- 
 wards an accurate investigation of the country, 
 as few of the merchants from Egypt, and the 
 Arabian Gulf, had ever sailed as far as the 
 Ganges ; and from men so illiterate, intelligence 
 that merited a full degree of confidence could 
 scarcely be expected. His descriptions of India, 
 particularly its interior provinces, are borrowed 
 almost entirely from the memoirs of Alexander's 
 officers, with some slender additions from more 
 recent accounts, and these so few in number, 
 and sometimes so inaccurate, as to furnish a 
 striking proof of the small progress which the 
 ancients had made from the time of Alexander, 
 in exploring that country. When an author, 
 possessed of such discernment and industry as 
 Strabo, who visited in person several distant re- 
 gions, that he might be able to describe them 
 with greater accuracy, relates, that the Ganges 
 enters the ocean by one mouth 1 , we are war- 
 ranted in concluding, that in his time there was 
 either no direct navigation carried on to that 
 great river, by the traders from the Arabian 
 
 1 Strabo, lib. xv. 101 1 C, 
 
68 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect. Gulf, or that this voyage was undertaken so sel- 
 * L dom ? that science had not then derived much 
 information from it. 
 
 The next author, in order of time, from whom 
 we receive any account of India, is the elder 
 Pliny, who flourished about fifty years later than 
 Strabo. As in the short description of India, 
 given in his Natural History, he follows the same 
 guides with Strabo, and seems to have had no 
 knowledge of the interior country, but what he 
 derived from the memoirs of the officers who 
 served under Alexander and his immediate suc- 
 cessors, it is unnecessary to examine his descrip- 
 tion minutely. He has added, however, two 
 valuable articles, for which he was indebted to 
 more recent discoveries. The one is the ac- 
 count of the new course of navigation from the 
 Arabian Gulf to the coast of Malabar, the nature 
 , and importance of which I have already ex- 
 plained. The other is a description of the island 
 of Taprobana, which I shall consider particularly, 
 after inquiring into what Ptolemy has contri- 
 buted towards our knowledge of the ancient state 
 of the Indian continent. 
 
 Though Ptolemy, who published his works 
 about fourscore years after Pliny, seems to have 
 been distinguished for his persevering industry, 
 and talent for arrangement, rather than for an 
 inventive genius y geography has been more in- 
 debted to him for its improvement, than to any 
 
 other philosopher. Fortunately for that science, 
 
 14 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 69 
 
 in forming his general system of geography, he s E c t. 
 adopted the ideas, and imitated the practice of IL 
 Hipparchus, who lived near four hundred years 
 before his time. That great philosopher was the 
 first who attempted to make a catalogue of the 
 stars. In order to ascertain their position in the 
 heavens with accuracy, he measured their dis- 
 tance from certain circles of the spheres, com- 
 puting it by degrees, either from east to west, 
 or from north to south* The former was deno- 
 minated the longitude of the star, the latter its 
 latitude. This mode he found to be of such uti- 
 lity in his astronomical researches, that he ap- 
 plied it with no less happy effect to geography 5 
 and it is a circumstance worthy of notice, that it 
 was by observing and describing the heavens, 
 men were first taught to measure and delineate 
 the earth with exactness. This method of fixing 
 the position of places, invented by Hipparchus, 
 though known to the geographers between his 
 time and that of Ptolemy, and mentioned both 
 by Strabo k and by Pliny l , was not employed by 
 any of them. Of this neglect the most probable 
 account seems to be, that as none of them were 
 astronomers, they did not fully comprehend all 
 the advantages geography might derive from this 
 invention." 1 These Ptolemy, who had devoted a 
 long life to the improvement of astronomy, 
 theoretical as well as practical, perfectly dis- 
 cerned, and, as in both Hipparchus was his 
 guide, he, in his famous treatise on geography, 
 
 k Lib. ii. l Nat. Hist. lib. ii. c. 12. 26. 70* 
 
 a See NOTE XXVII. 
 
 F 3 
 
7 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, described the different parts of the earth accord- 
 IL ing to their longitude and latitude. Geography 
 was thus established upon its proper principles, 
 and intimately connected with astronomical ob- 
 servations and mathematical science. This work 
 of Ptolemy soon rose high in estimation among 
 the ancients. n During the middle ages, both 
 in Arabia and in Europe, the decisions of Pto- 
 lemy, in every thing relating to geography, were 
 submitted to with an assent as implicit as was 
 yielded to those of Aristotle in all other depart- 
 ments of science. On the revival of a more 
 liberal spirit of inquiry in the sixteenth century, 
 the merit of Ptolemy's improvements in geo- 
 graphy was examined and recognised ; that scien- 
 tific language which he first rendered general, 
 continues to be used, and the position of places 
 is still ascertained in the same distinct and com- 
 pendious manner, by specifying their longitude 
 and latitude. 
 
 Not satisfied with adopting the general prin- 
 ciples of Hipparchus, Ptolemy emulated him in 
 the application of them; and, as that philosopher 
 had arranged all the constellations, he ventured 
 upon what was no less arduous, to survey all the 
 regions of the earth which were then known, 
 and with minute and bold decision he fixed the 
 longitude and latitude of the most remarkable 
 places in each of them. All his determinations, 
 however, are not to be considered as the result 
 
 n See NOTE XXVIII. 
 
 10 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 71 
 
 of actual observation, nor did Ptolemy publish sect. 
 them as auch. Astronomical science was con- 
 fined, at that time, to a few countries. A con- 
 siderable part of the globe was little visited, and 
 imperfectly described. The position of a small 
 number of places only had been fixed with any 
 degree of accuracy. Ptolemy was therefore 
 obliged to consult the itineraries and surveys 
 of the Roman empire, which the political wisdom 
 of that great state had completed with immense 
 labour and expense. Beyond the precincts of 
 the empire, he had nothing on which he could 
 rely, but the journals and reports of travellers. 
 Upon these all his conclusions were founded ; 
 and as he resided in Alexandria at a time when 
 the trade from that city to India was carried on 
 to its utmost extent, this situation might have 
 been expected to afford him the means of pro- 
 curing ample information concerning it. But 
 either from the imperfect manner in which that 
 country was explored in his time, or from his 
 placing too much confidence in the reports of 
 persons who had visited it with little attention 
 or discernment 15 , his general delineation of the 
 form of the Indian continent is the most erro- 
 neous that has been transmitted to us from an- 
 tiquity. By an astonishing mistake, he has made 
 the peninsula of India stretch from the Sinus 
 Barygazenus, or Gulf of Cambay, from west to 
 east, instead of extending, according to its real 
 direction, from north to south. q This error will 
 
 See NOTE XXIX. ? Geogr. lib. i. c. 17. 
 
 * See NOTE XXX. 
 
 F 4 
 
7£ AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect appear the more unaccountable, when we re- 
 11 collect that Megasthenes had published a mea- 
 surement of the Indian peninsula, which ap- 
 proaches near to its true dimensions ; and that 
 this had been adopted, with some variations, 'by- 
 Eratosthenes, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and 
 Pliny, who wrote prior to the age of Ptolemy/ 
 
 Although Ptolemy was led to form such an 
 erroneous- opinion concerning the general di- 
 mensions of the Indian continent, his infor- 
 mation with respect to the country in detail, 
 and the situation of particular places, was more 
 accurate ; and he is the first author possessed of 
 such knowledge as enabled him to trace the 
 sea-coast, to mention the most noted places situ- 
 ated upon it, and to specify the longitude and 
 latitude of each from Cape Comorin eastward, 
 to the utmost boundary of ancient navigation. 
 With regard to some districts, particularly 
 along the east side of the peninsula as far as 
 the mouth of the Ganges, the accounts which 
 he had received seem to have been so far 
 exact, as to correspond more nearly perhaps 
 with the actual state of the country, than the 
 descriptions which he gives of any other part 
 of India. M. D' Anville, with his usual industry 
 and discernment, has considered the principal 
 stations as they are fixed by him, and finds that 
 
 r Strabo, lib. xv. 1010. B. Arrian, Hist. Indie, c. 3, 4. 
 Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. 148, Plin. Nat, Hist. lib. vi. c, 21. See 
 NOTE XXXI. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 73 
 
 they correspond to Kilkare, Negapatam, the s E c T. 
 mouth of the river Cauveri, Masuiipatam, Point IL 
 Gordeware, &c. It is foreign to the object of 
 this Disquisition to enter into such a minute de- 
 tail ; but in several instances we may observe, 
 that not only the conformity of position, but the 
 similarity of ancient and modern names, is very 
 striking. The great river Cauveri is by Ptolemy 
 named Chaberis ; Arcot, in the interior country, 
 is Arcati Regia ; and probably the whole coast 
 has received its present name of Coromandel 
 from Sor Mandidam, or the kingdom of Sorae. 
 which is situated upon it. s 
 
 In the course of one hundred and thirty-six 
 years, which elapsed from the death of Strabo to 
 that of Ptolemy, the commercial intercourse with 
 India was greatly extended; the latter geo- 
 grapher had acquired such an accession of new 
 information concerning the Ganges, that he 
 mentions the names of six different mouths of 
 that river, and describes their positions. His de- 
 lineation however, of that part of India which 
 lies beyond the Ganges, is not less erroneous in 
 its general form, than that which he gave of the 
 peninstda, and bears as little resemblance to the 
 actual position of those countries. He ventures, 
 nevertheless, upon a survey of them, similar to 
 that which he had made of the other great di- 
 vision of India, which I have already examined. 
 
 s Ptolm. Geogr. lib. vii. c. i. D'Anville, Antiq. de l'lnde, 
 127, &c. 
 
7- 
 
 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 He mentions the places of note along the coast, 
 some of which he distinguishes as emporia ; but 
 whether that name was given to them on account 
 of their being staples of trade to the natives, in 
 their traffic carried on from one district of India 
 to another, or whether they were ports, to which 
 vessels from the Arabian Gulf resorted directly, 
 is not specified. The latter I should think to be 
 the idea which Ptolemy means to convey ; but 
 those regions of India were so remote, and, from 
 the timid and slow course of ancient navigation, 
 were probably so little frequented, that his in- 
 formation concerning them is extremely defec- 
 tive, and his descriptions more obscure, more 
 inaccurate, and less conformable to the real state 
 of the country, than in any part of his geography. 
 That peninsula to which he gives the name of 
 the Golden Chersonesus, he delineates as if it 
 stretched directly from north to south, and fixes 
 the latitude of Sabana Emporium, its southern 
 extremity, three degrees beyond the line. To 
 the east of this peninsula he places what he calls 
 the Great Bay, and in the most remote part of it 
 the station of Catigara, the utmost boundary of 
 navigation in ancient times, to which he assigns 
 no less than eight degrees and a half of southern 
 latitude. Beyond this he declares the earth to 
 be altogether unknown, and asserts that the land 
 turns thence to the westward, and stretches in 
 that direction until it joins the promontory of 
 Prassum in Ethiopia, which, according to his 
 idea, terminated the continent of Africa to the 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 75 
 
 south/ In consequence of this error, no less sect. 
 unaccountable than enormous, he must have be- , n * 
 
 V y ■ ■ ' 
 
 lieved the Erythraean Sea, in its whole extent 
 from the coast of Africa to that of Cambodia, to 
 be a vast bason, without any communication with 
 the ocean. u 
 
 Out of the confusion of those wild ideas, in 
 which the accounts of ignorant or fabulous tra- 
 vellers have involved the geography of Ptolemy, 
 M. D' Anville has attempted to bring order ; and, 
 with much ingenuity, he has formed opinions 
 with respect to some capital positions, which 
 have the appearance of being well founded. The 
 peninsula of Malacca is, according to him, the 
 Golden Chersonesus of Ptolemy ; but instead of 
 the direction which he has given it, we know 
 that it bends some degrees towards the east, and 
 that Cape de Romania, its southern extremity, 
 is more than a degree to the north of the line. 
 The Gulf of Siam lie considers as the Great Bay 
 of Ptolemy, but the position on the east side of 
 that bay, corresponding to Catigara, is actually 
 as many degrees to the north of the equator, as 
 he supposed it to be south of it. Beyond this he 
 mentions an inland city, to which he gives the 
 name of Thinae or Singe Metropolis. The lon- 
 gitude which he assigns to it, is one hundred and 
 eighty degrees from his first meridian in the For- 
 
 * Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vii. c. 3. 5. D'Anville, Ante de 
 ITnde, 187. 
 
 u See NOTE XXXII. 
 
7 5 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, tunate Island, and is the utmost point towards 
 H- the east to which the ancients had advanced by 
 sea. Its latitude he calculates to be three de- 
 grees south of the line. If, with M. D'Anville, 
 we conclude the situation of Sin-hoa, in the 
 western part of the kingdom of Cochin-China, 
 to be the same with Sinae Metropolis, Ptolemy 
 has erred in fixing its position no less than fifty 
 degrees of longitude, and twenty degrees of 
 latitude. x 
 
 These errors of Ptolemy concerning the re- 
 mote parts of Asia, have been rendered more 
 conspicuous by a mistaken opinion of modern 
 times engrafted upon them. Sinse, the most dis- 
 tant station mentioned m his geography, has 
 such a near resemblance in sound to China, the 
 name by which the greatest and most civilised 
 empire in the east is kno^wn to Europeans, that, 
 upon their first acquaintance with it, they hastily 
 concluded them to be the same ; and of conse- 
 quence it was supposed that China was known 
 to the ancients, though no point seems to be 
 more ascertained, than that they never advanced 
 by sea beyond that boundary which I have al- 
 lotted to their navigation. 
 
 Having thus traced the discoveries of India 
 which the ancients made by sea, I shall next ex- 
 
 x Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vii. c. 3. D'Anville, Limites du 
 Monde conu des Anciens au-dela du Gange. Mem. de Literal 
 xxxii. 604;, &c. Ant. de ITnde, Supplem. i. 161, &c. See 
 NOTE XXXIII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 77 
 
 amine what additional knowledge of that coun- sect. 
 try they acquired from their progress by land. It n - 
 appears (as I have formerly related) that there 
 was a trade carried on early with India through 
 the provinces that stretch along its northern 
 frontier. Its various productions and manufac- 
 tures were transported by land-carriage into the 
 interior parts of the Persian dominions, or were 
 conveyed, by means of the navigable rivers which 
 flow through the Upper Asia, to the Caspian 
 sea, and from that to the Euxine. While the 
 successors of Seleucus retained the dominion 
 of the East, this continued to be the mode of 
 supplying their subjects with the commodities of 
 India. When the Romans had extended their 
 conquests so far that the Euphrates was the 
 eastern limit of their empire, they found this 
 trade still established, and as it opened to them 
 a new communication with the East, by means 
 of which they received an additional supply of 
 luxuries for which they had acquired the highest 
 relish, it became an object of their policy to pro- 
 tect and encourage it. As the progress of the 
 caravans or companies of merchants, which tra- 
 velled towards the countries whence they re- 
 ceived the most valuable manufactures, particu- 
 larly those of silk, was often interrupted, and 
 rendered dangerous by the Parthians, who had 
 acquired possession of all the provinces which 
 extended from the Caspian sea to that part of 
 Scythia or Tartary which borders on China, the 
 Romans endeavoured to render this intercourse 
 more secure by a negotiation with one of the 
 
78 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, monarchs of that great empire. Of this singular 
 IL transaction there is, indeed, no vestige in the 
 Greek or Roman writers; our knowledge of it 
 is derived entirely from the Chinese historians, 
 by whom we are informed that Antoun, (the 
 the Emperor Marcus Antonius,) the King of 
 the people of the Western Ocean, sent an em- 
 bassy with this view to Oun-ti, who reigned over 
 China in the hundred and sixty-sixth year of the 
 Christian aera. y What was the success of this at- 
 tempt is not known, nor can we say whether it 
 facilitated such an intercourse between these two 
 remote nations as contributed towards the sup- 
 ply of their mutual wants. The design certainly 
 was not unworthy of the enlightened Emperor 
 of Rome to whom it is ascribed. 
 
 It is evident, however, that in prosecuting 
 this trade with China, a considerable part of the 
 extensive countries to the east of the Caspian 
 sea must have been traversed ; and though the 
 chief inducement to undertake those distant 
 journies was gain, yet in the course of ages, 
 there must have mingled among the adven- 
 turers persons of curiosity and abilities, who 
 could turn their attention from commercial ob- 
 jects to those of more general concern. From 
 them such information was procured, and sub- 
 jected to scientific discussion, as enabled Ptolemy 
 to give a description of those inland and remote 
 
 y Memoire sur les Liaisons et le Commerce des Romains, 
 avec les Tartares et les Chinois, par M. de Guignes, Mem, 
 de Literat. xxxii. 355, &c. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA, 79 
 
 regions of Asia 2 , fully as accurate as that of se- sec t. 
 veral countries, of which, from their vicinity, If 
 he may have been supposed to have received 
 more distinct accounts. The farthest point to- 
 wards the east, to which his knowledge of this 
 part of Asia extended, is Sera Metropolis, which 
 from various circumstances appears to have been 
 in the same situation with Kant-cheou, a city of 
 some note in Chen-si, the most westerly province 
 of the Chinese empire. This he places in the 
 Jongitude of one hundred and seventy-seven de- 
 grees fifteen minutes, near three degrees to the 
 west of Singe Metropolis, which he had described 
 as the utmost limit of Asia discovered by sea. 
 Nor was Ptolemy's knowledge of this district of 
 Asia confined only to that part of it through 
 which the caravans may be supposed to have 
 proceeded directly in their route eastward ; he 
 had received likewise some general information 
 concerning various nations towards the north, 
 which, according to the position that he gives 
 them, occupied parts of the great plain of Tartary, 
 extending considerably beyond Lassa, the capital 
 of Thibet, and the residence of the Dalai Lama. 
 
 The latitudes of several places in this part of 
 Asia are fixed by Ptolemy with such uncommon 
 precision, that we can hardly doubt of their 
 having been ascertained by actual observation. 
 Out of many instances of this, I shall select 
 three of places situated in very different parts 
 
 2 Lib,vi, c, H— 18, 
 
W— .,— . ^ 
 
 SO AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, of the country under review. The latitude of 
 u - Nagara, on the river Cophenes, (the modern 
 Attock,) is, according to: Ptolemy, thirty-two 
 degrees and thirty minutes; which coincides pre- 
 cisely with the observation of an eastern geogra- 
 pher quoted by M. D'Anville. a The latitude of 
 Maracanda, or Samarcand, as fixed by him, is 
 thirty-nine degrees fifteen minutes. According 
 to the Astronomical Tables of Ulug Beg, the 
 grandson of Timur, whose royal residence was in 
 that city, it is thirty-nine degrees thirty-seven 
 minutes. 5 The latitude of Sera Metropolis, in 
 Ptolemy, is thirty-eight degrees fifteen minutes; 
 that of Kant-cheou, as determined hj the Jesuit 
 missionaries, is thirty-nine degrees. I have enu- 
 merated these striking examples of the coinci- 
 dence of his calculations with those established 
 by modern observations, for two reasons : One, 
 because they clearly prove that these remote 
 parts of Asia had been examined with some con- 
 siderable degree of attention; the other because I 
 feel great satisfaction, after having been obliged 
 to mention several errors and defects in Ptole- 
 my's geography, in rendering justice to a philo- 
 sopher, who has contributed so much towards the 
 improvement of that science. The facts which I 
 have produced afford the strongest evidence of 
 the extent of his information, as well as the just- 
 ness of his conclusions concerning countries with 
 which, from their remote situation, we might 
 have supposed him to be least acquainted. 
 
 a Eclaircissements, &c. English Translation, p. 10. 
 b lab. Geogr. ap. Hudson, Geogr. Minores, iii. 145. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. gj 
 
 Hitherto I have confined my researches con- sect. 
 cerning the knowledge which the ancients had 
 of India, to the continent ; I return now to 
 consider the discoveries which they had made, 
 of the islands situated in various parts of the 
 ocean with which it is surrounded, and begin, 
 as I proposed, with Taprobane, the greatest and 
 most valuable of them. This island lay so di- 
 rectly in the course of navigators who ventured 
 beyond Cape Comorin, especially when, accord- 
 ing to the ancient mode of sailing, they seldom 
 ventured far from the coast, that its position, 
 one should have thought, must have been deter- 
 mined with the utmost precision. There is, how- 
 ever, hardly any point in the geography of the 
 ancients more undecided and uncertain. Prior 
 to the age of Alexander the Great, the name of 
 Taprobane was unknown in Europe. In conse- 
 quence of the active curiosity with which he ex- 
 plored every country that he subdued or visited, 
 some information concerning it seems to have 
 been obtained. From his time almost every 
 writer on geography has mentioned it, but their 
 accounts of it are so various, and often so con- 
 tradictory, that we can scarcely believe them to 
 be describing the same island. Strabo, the ear- 
 liest writer now extant, from whom we have any 
 particular account of it, affirms that it was as 
 large as Britain, and situated at the distance of 
 seven days, according to some reports, and ac- 
 cording to other, of twenty days' sailing from 
 the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula ; 
 from which, contrary to what is known to be its 
 
 VOL. XH. G 
 
gg AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s E c Tr real position, he describes it as stretching towards 
 IT * the west above five hundred stadia. Pompo- 
 nius Mela, the author next in order of time, is 
 uncertain whether he should consider Taprobane 
 as an island, or as the beginning of another 
 world ; but as no person* he says, had ever sailed 
 round it, he seems to incline towards the latter 
 opinion. d Pliny gives a more ample description 
 of Taprobane, which, instead of bringing any 
 accession of light, involves every thing relating 
 to it in additional obscurity. After enumerating 
 the various and discordant opinions of the Greek 
 writers, he informs us, that ambassadors were 
 sent by a King of that island to the Emperor 
 Claudius, from whom the Romans learned seve- 
 ral things concerning it which w r ere formerly 
 unknown, particularly that there were five hun* 
 dred towns in the island, and that in the centre 
 of it there was a lake three hundred and seventy- 
 five miles in circumference. These ambassadors 
 were astonished at the sight of the Great Bear and 
 the Pleiades, being constellations which did not 
 appear in their sky ; and were still more amazed 
 when they beheld their shadows point towards 
 the north, and the sun rise on their left hand, 
 and set on their right. They affirmed, too, that 
 in their country the moon was never seen until 
 the eighth day after the change, and continued 
 to be visible only to the sixteenth. 6 It is sur- 
 prising to find an author so intelligent as Pliny 
 
 c Strabo, lib. ii. 124. B. 180. B. 192. A. lib. xv. 1012. B. 
 d De Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 7. 
 e Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c,22. 
 
 ii 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 83 
 
 delating all these circumstances without animad- sect. 
 version, and particularly that he does not take IL 
 notice, that what the ambassadors reported con- 
 cerning the appearance of the moon, could not 
 take place in any region of the earth. 
 
 Ptolemy, though so near to the age of Pliny, 
 seems to have been altogether unacquainted 
 with his description of Taprobane, or with the 
 embassy to the Emperor Claudius. He places 
 that island opposite to Cape Comorin, at no 
 great distance from the continent, and delineates 
 it as stretching from north to south no less than 
 fifteen degrees, two of which he supposes to be 
 south of the equator ; and, if his representation 
 of its dimensions had been just, it was well en- 
 titled, from its magnitude, to be compared with 
 Britain/ Agathemerus, who wrote after Pto- 
 lemy, and was well acquainted with his geography, 
 considers Taprobane as the largest of all islands, 
 and assigns to Britain only the second place. s 
 
 From this diversity of the descriptions given 
 by ancient writers, it is not surprising that the 
 moderns should have entertained very different 
 sentiments with respect to the island in the In- 
 dian Ocean, which was to be considered as the 
 same with the Taprobane of the Greeks and 
 Romans. As both Pliny and Ptolemy describe 
 it as lying in part to the south of the equator, 
 some learned men maintain Sumatra to be the 
 
 * Ptol. lib. vii. c. 4. D'Anville, Ant. de lTnde, p. 142. 
 s Lib. ii. c. 8. apud Hudson. Geogr. Minor, vol. ii. 
 
 G 2 
 
§4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, island which corresponds to this description* 
 IL But the great distance of Sumatra from the 
 peninsula of India does not accord with any 
 account which the Greek or Roman writers 
 have given of the situation of Taprobane, and 
 we have no evidence that the navigation of the 
 ancients ever extended so far as Sumatra. The 
 opinion more generally received is, that the Ta- 
 probane of the ancients is the island of Ceylon ; 
 and not only its vicinity to the continent of 
 India, but the general form of the island, as de- 
 lineated by Ptolemy, as well as the position of 
 several places in it, mentioned by him, establish 
 this opinion (notwithstanding some extraordi- 
 nary mistakes, of which I shall afterwards take 
 notice) with a great degree of certainty. 
 
 The other islands, to the east of Taprobane, 
 mentioned by Ptolemy, might be shewn (if such 
 a detail were necessary) to be the Andaman and 
 Nicobar islands in the Gulf of Bengal. 
 
 l 
 
 After this long, and, I am afraid, tedious 
 nvestigation of the progress made by the an- 
 cients, in exploring the different parts of India, 
 and, after tracing them as far as they advanced 
 towards the east either by sea or land, I shall 
 offer some general remarks concerning the mode 
 in which their discoveries were conducted, and 
 the degree of confidence with which we may 
 rely on the accounts of them, which could not 
 have been offered with the same advantage until 
 this investigation was finished. 
 
 13 
 
■^^ 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. S5 
 
 The art of delineating maps, exhibiting either sect. 
 the figure of the whole earth, as far as it had 
 been explored, or that of particular countries, 
 was known to the ancients ; and without the 
 use of them to assist the imagination, it was im- 
 possible to have formed a distinct idea either of 
 the one or of the other. Some of these maps 
 are mentioned by Herodotus and other early 
 Greek writers. But no maps prior to those 
 which were formed in order to illustrate the 
 geography of Ptolemy, have reached our times, 
 in consequence of which it is very difficult to 
 conceive what was the relative situation of the 
 different places mentioned by the ancient geo- 
 graphers, unless when it is precisely ascertamed 
 by measurement. 11 As soon, however, as the 
 mode of marking the situation of each place, 
 by specifying its longitude and latitude, was 
 introduced, and came to be generally adopted, 
 every position could be described in compen- 
 dious and scientific terms. But still the accu- 
 racy of this new method, and the improvement 
 which geography derived from it, depends upon 
 the mode in which the ancients estimated the 
 latitude and longitude of places. 
 
 Though the ancients proceeded in deter- 
 mining the latitude and longitude of places 
 upon the same principles with the moderns, yet 
 it was \w mean^of instruments very inferior in 
 their construction to those now used, and with- 
 
 * See NOTE XXXIV. 
 G 3 
 
36 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, out the same minute attention to every circum- 
 IL stance that may affect the accuracy of an ob- 
 * servation, an attention of which long experience 
 only can demonstrate the necessity. In order 
 to ascertain the latitude of any place, the an- 
 cients observed the meridian altitude of the sun, 
 either by means of the shadow of a perpendi- 
 cular gnomon, or by means of an astrolabe, 
 from which it was easy to compute how many 
 degrees and minutes the place of observation 
 was distant from the equator. When neither 
 of these methods could be employed, they in- 
 ferred the latitude of any place from the best 
 accounts which they could procure of the length 
 of its longest day. 
 
 With respect to determining the longitude of 
 any place, they were much more at a loss, as 
 there was only one set of celestial phenomena 
 to which they could have recourse. These 
 were the eclipses of the moon (for those of the 
 sun were not then so well understood as to be 
 subservient to the purposes of geography) : the 
 difference between the time at which an eclipse 
 was observed to begin or to end at two diffe- 
 rent places, gave immediately the difference be- 
 tween the meridians of those places. But the 
 difficulty of making those observations with ac- 
 curacy, and the impossibility of repeating them 
 often, rendered them of so little use in geogra- 
 phy, that the ancients in determining longitudes 
 were obliged, for the most part, to have recourse 
 to actual surveys, or to the vague information 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 which was to be obtained from the reckonings s 
 of sailors, or the itineraries of travellers. 
 
 But though the ancients, by means of 
 operations which I have mentioned, could del 
 mine the position of places with a considerable 
 degree of accuracy at land, it is very uncertain 
 whether or not they had any proper mode of 
 determining this at sea. The navigators of anti- 
 quity seem rarely to have had recourse to astro- 
 nomical observation. They had no instruments 
 suited to a movable and unsteady observatory ; 
 and though, by their practice of lax; ding fre- 
 quently, they might, in some measure, have 
 supplied that defect, yet no ancient author, as 
 far as I know, has given an account of any 
 astronomical observation made by them during 
 the course of their voyages. It seems to be 
 evident fom Ptolemy, who employs some chap- 
 ters in shewing how geography may be improved, 
 and its errors may be rectified, from the reports 
 of navigators *, that all their calculation 5 were 
 founded solely upon reckoning, and were not 
 the result of observation. Even after all the 
 improvements which the moderns have made in 
 the science of navigation, this mode of com- 
 puting by reckoning is known to be so loose and 
 uncertain, that, from it alone, no conclusion can 
 be deduced with any great degree of precision. 
 Among the ancients, this inaccuracy must have 
 been greatly augmented, as they were accus- 
 tomed in their voyages, instead of steering a 
 
 1 Lib. i. c. 7 — 14. 
 
 g 4 
 
88 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 direct course, which might have been more easily 
 measured, to a circuitous navigation along the 
 coast ; and were unacquainted with the compass, 
 or any other instrument by which its bearings 
 might have been ascertained. We find, accord- 
 ingly, the position of many places which we may 
 opose to have been determined at sea, fixed 
 with little exactness. When, in consequence of 
 an active trade, the ports of any country were 
 much frequented, the reckonings of different 
 navigators may have served, in some measure, 
 to correct each other, and mav have enabled 
 geographers to form their conclusions with a 
 nearer approximation to truth. But in remote 
 countries, which have neither been the seat of 
 military operations, nor explored by caravans tra- 
 velling frequently through them, every thing is 
 more vague and undefined, and the resemblance 
 between the ancient descriptions of them, and 
 their actual figure, is often so faint that it can 
 hardly be traced. The latitude of places, too, as 
 might be expected, was in genera], much more 
 accurately known by the ancients than their lon- 
 gitude. The observations by which the former 
 was determined are simple, made with ease, and 
 are not liable to much error. The other cannot 
 be ascertained precisely, without more complex 
 operations, and the use of instruments much 
 more perfect than any that the ancients seem 
 to have possessed. k Among the vast number of 
 places, the position of which is fixed by Ptolemy, 
 I know not if he approaches as near to truth in 
 
 k See NOTE XXXV. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. g# 
 
 the longitude of any one, as he has done in fix- sect. 
 ing the latitude of the three cities which I II. 
 formerly mentioned as a striking, though not 
 singular instance of his exactness. 
 
 These observations induce me to adhere to an 
 opinion which I proposed in another place 1 , that 
 the Greeks and Romans, in their commercial in- 
 tercourse with India, were seldom led, either by 
 curiosity, or the love of gain, to visit the more 
 eastern parts of it* A variety of particulars 
 occur to confirm this opinion. Though Ptolemy 
 bestows the appellation of Emporia on several 
 places situated on the coast, which stretches from 
 the eastern mouth of the Ganges to the extre- 
 mity of the Golden Chersonesus, it is uncertain, 
 whether from his having given them this name, 
 we are to consider them as harbours frequented 
 by ships from Egypt, or merely by vessels of the 
 country. Beyond the Golden Chersonesus, it 
 is remarkable that he mentions one Emporium 
 only" 1 , which plainly indicates the intercourse 
 with this region of India to have been very in- 
 considerable. Had voyages from the Arabian 
 Gulf to those countries of India been as frequent 
 as to have entitled Ptolemy to specify so minutely 
 the longitude and latitude of the great number 
 of places which he mentions, he must, in conse- 
 quence of this, have acquired such information 
 as would have prevented several great errors 
 into which he has fallen. Had it been usual to 
 
 1 Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 80. 315. 
 m Lib.vii. c. 2. 
 
g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 S" E C T. double Cape Comorin, and to sail up the Bay of 
 IL Bengal to the mouth of the Ganges, some of the 
 ancient geographers would not have been so 
 uncertain, and others so widely mistaken, with 
 respect to the situation and magnitude of the 
 island of Ceylon. If the merchants of Alex- 
 andria had often visited the ports of the Golden 
 Chersonesus, and of the Great Bay, Ptolemy's 
 descriptions of them must have been rendered 
 more correspondent to their real form, nor could 
 he have believed several places to lie beyond the 
 line, which are in truth some degrees on this 
 side of it. 
 
 But though the navigation of the ancients 
 may not have extended to the farther India, we 
 are certain that various commodities of that 
 country were imported into Egypt, and thence 
 were conveyed to Rome, and to other parts of 
 the empire. From circumstances which I have 
 already enumerated, we are warranted in con- 
 cluding, that these were brought in vessels of 
 the country to Musiris, and to the other ports 
 on the Malabar coast, which were, at that period, 
 the staples of trade with Egypt. In a country 
 of such extent as India, where the natural pro- 
 ductions are various, and greatly diversified by 
 art and industry, an active domestic commerce, 
 both by sea and by land, must have early taken 
 place among its different provinces. Of this we 
 have some hints in ancient authors ; and where 
 the sources of information are so few and so 
 scanty, we must rest satisfied with hints. Among 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 the different classes or casts, into which the 
 people of India were divided, merchants are 
 mentioned as one 11 , from which we may con- 
 clude trade to have been one of the established 
 occupations of men in that country. From the 
 author of the Circumnavigation of the Ery- 
 thraean Sea, we learn that the inhabitants of the 
 Coromandel coast traded in vessels of their own 
 with those of Malabar; that the interior trade 
 of Barygaza was considerable ; and that there 
 was, at all seasons, a number of country ships to 
 be found in the harbour of Musiris. ° By Strabo 
 we are informed, that the most valuable pro- 
 ductions of Taprobane were carried to different 
 Emporia of India. p In this way the traders 
 from Egypt might be supplied with them, and 
 thus could finish their voyages within the year, 
 which must have been protracted much longer 
 if they had extended as far towards the east as 
 is generally supposed. 
 
 From all this it appears to be probable, that 
 Ptolemy derived the information concerning the 
 eastern parts of India, upon which he founds his 
 calculations, not so much from any direct and 
 regular intercourse between Egypt and these 
 countries, as from the reports of a few adven- 
 turers, whom an enterprising spirit, or the love 
 of gain, prompted to proceed beyond the usual 
 limits of navigation. 
 
 n Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 22. 
 Perip. Mar. Erythr. 34. 30. 
 PLib.ii. 124. B. 
 
 91 
 
m 
 
 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 Though, from the age of Ptolemy, the trade 
 with India continued to be carried on in its for- 
 mer channel, and both Rome, the ancient capital 
 of the empire, and Constantinople, the new seat 
 of government, were supplied with the precious 
 commodities of that country by the merchants 
 of Alexandria, yet, until the reign of the Em- 
 peror Justinian, we have no new information con- 
 cerning the intercourse with the East by sea, or 
 the progress which was made in the discovery of 
 its remote regions. Under Justinian, Cosmas, an 
 Egyptian merchant, in the course of his traffic, 
 made some voyages to India, whence he acquired 
 the sirname of Indicopleustes ; but afterwards, by 
 a transition not uncommon in that superstitious 
 age, he renounced all the concerns of this life, 
 and assumed the monastic character. In the soli- 
 tude and leisure of a cell, he composed several 
 works, one of which, dignified by him with the 
 name of Christian Topography ', has reached us. 
 The main design of it is to combat the opinion of 
 those philosophers, who assert the earth to be of 
 a spherical figure, and to prove that it is an ob- 
 long plane, of twelve thousand miles in length 
 from east to west, and of six thousand miles in 
 breadth from north to south, surrounded by high 
 walls, covered by the firmament as with a ca- 
 nopy or vault ; that the vicissitude of day and 
 night was occasioned by a mountain of prodi- 
 gious height, situated in the extremities of the 
 north, round which the sun moved ; that when 
 it appeared on one side of this mountain, the 
 earth was illuminated, when concealed on the 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 93 
 
 other side, the earth was left involved in dark- sect. 
 ness. q But amidst those wild reveries, more n » 
 suited to the credulity of his new profession, than 
 to the sound sense characteristic of that in which 
 he was formerly engaged, Cosmas seems to re- 
 late what he himself had observed in his travels, 
 or what he had learned from others, with great 
 simplicity and regard for truth. 
 
 He appears to have been well acquainted with 
 the west coast of the Indian peninsula, and names 
 ^several places situated upon it ; he describes it as 
 the chief seat of the pepper-trade, and mentions 
 Male, in particular, as one of the most frequented 
 ports on that account. r From Male, it is pro- 
 bable that this side of the continent has derived 
 its modern name of Malabar j and the cluster of 
 islands contiguous to it, that of the Maldives. 
 From him too we learn, that the island of Tapro- 
 bane, which he supposes to lie at an equal dis- 
 tance from the Persian Gulf on the west, and the 
 country of the Sinae on the east, had become, 
 in consequence of this commodious situation, a 
 great staple of trade ; that into it were imported 
 the silk of the Sinae, and the precious spices of 
 the eastern countries, which were conveyed 
 thence to all parts of India, to Persia, and to the 
 Arabian Gulf. To this island he gives the name 
 of Sielediba 8 , nearly the same with that of Se- 
 
 q Cosmas ap. Montfaucon Collect. Patrum, ii. 113, &c. 
 138. 
 r Cosm. lib. ii. p. 138. lib. xi. 337. s Lib. xi. 336. 
 
94 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sec T. lendib, or Serendib, by which it is still known 
 II# all over the East. 
 
 v— 
 
 To Cosmas we are also indebted for the first 
 information of a new rival to the Romans in tra^de 
 having appeared in the Indian seas. The Per- 
 sians, after having overturned the empire of the 
 Parthians, and re-established the line of their 
 ancient monarchs, seem to have surmounted en- 
 tirely the aversion of their ancestors to maritime 
 exertion, and made early and vigorous efforts in 
 order to acquire a share in the lucrative com- 
 merce with India. All its considerable ports 
 were frequented by traders from Persia, who, in 
 return for some productions of their own country 
 in request among the Indians, received the pre- 
 cious commodities, which they conveyed up the 
 Persian Gulf, and by means of the great rivers 
 Euphrates and Tigris, distributed them through 
 every province of their empire. As the voyage 
 from Persia to India was much shorter than that 
 from Egypt, and attended with less expense and 
 danger, the intercourse between the two countries 
 increased rapidly. A circumstance is mentioned 
 by Cosmas which is a striking proof of this. In 
 most of the cities of any note in India he found 
 Christian churches established, in which the 
 functions of religion were performed by priests 
 ordained by the Archbishop of Seleucia, the ca- 
 pital of the Persian empire, and who continued 
 subject to his jurisdiction. r India appears to have 
 been more thoroughly exploded at this period, 
 1 Cosm, lib. iii. 178. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. g 5 
 
 than it was in the age of Ptolemy, and a greater sect. 
 number of strangers seem to have been settled IL 
 there. It is remarkable, however, that, according 
 to the account of Gosmas, none of these stran- 
 gers were accustomed to visit the eastern regions 
 of Asia, but rested satisfied with receiving their 
 silk, their spices, and other valuable productions, 
 as they were imported into Ceylon, and con- 
 veyed thence to the various marts of India." 
 
 The frequency of open hostilities between the 
 emperors of Constantinople and the monarchs of 
 Persia, together with the increasing rivalship of 
 their subjects in the trade with India, gave rise 
 to an event which produced a considerable 
 change in the nature of that commerce. As the 
 use of silk, both in dress and furniture, became 
 gradually more general in the court of the Greek 
 emperors, who imitated and surpassed the sove- 
 reigns of Asia in splendour and magnificence $ 
 and as China, in which, according to the concur- 
 ring testimony of Oriental writers, the culture of 
 silk was originally known x , still continued to be 
 the only country which produced that valuable 
 commodity ; the Persians, improving the ad- 
 vantages which their situation gave them over 
 the merchants from the Arabian Gulf, sup- 
 planted them in all the marts of India to which 
 silk was brought by sea from the East. Having 
 it likewise in their power to molest or to cut off 
 the caravans, which, in order to procure a sup- 
 
 u Lib. xi. 337. x Herbelot Biblioth. Orient, art. Harh\ 
 
g6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, ply for the Greek empire, travelled by land to 
 n. China, through the northern provinces of their 
 
 '* — ' kingdom, they entirely engrossed that branch of 
 
 commerce. Constantinople was obliged to de- 
 pend on the rival power for an article which lux- 
 ury viewed and desired as essential to elegance. 
 The Persians, with the usual rapacity of monopo- 
 lists, raised the price of silk to such an exorbitant 
 height 7 , that Justinian, eager not only to obtain a 
 full and certain supply of a commodity which was 
 become of indispensable use, but solicitous to de- 
 liver the commerce of his subjects from the ex- 
 actions of his enemies, endeavoured, by means 
 of his ally, the Christian monarch of Abyssinia, to 
 wrest some portion of the silk-trade from the Per- 
 sians. In this attempt he failed ; but when he 
 A D 55 least expected it, he, by an unforeseen event, 
 attained, in some measure, the object which he 
 had in view. Two Persian monks having been 
 employed as missionaries in some of the Christian 
 churches, which were established (as we are in- 
 formed by Cosmas) in different parts of India, 
 had penetrated into the country of the Seres or 
 China. There they observed the labours of the 
 silk-worm, and became acquainted with all the 
 arts of man in working up its productions into 
 such a variety of elegant fabrics. The prospect 
 of gain, or perhaps an indignant zeal, excited by 
 seeing this lucrative branch of commerce en- 
 grossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them 
 to repair to Constantinople. There they ex- 
 
 v Procop. Hist. Arcan, c. 25. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 97 
 
 plained to the Emperor the origin of silk, as well s ect, 
 
 as the various modes of preparing and manufac- v [*• 
 
 turing it, mysteries hitherto unknown, or very im- 
 perfectly understood in Europe, and encouraged 
 by his liberal promises, they undertook to bring 
 to the capital a sufficient number of those won- 
 derful insects, to whose labours man is so much 
 indebted. This they accomplished by convey- 
 ing the eggs of the silk- worm in a hollow cane. 
 They were hatched by the heat of a dunghill, 
 fed with the leaves of a wild mulberry-tree, and 
 they multiplied and worked in the same manner 
 as in those climates where they first became ob- 
 jects of human attention and care. z Vast num- 
 bers of these insects were soon reared in different 
 parts of Greece, particularly in the Pelopon- 
 nesus. Sicily afterwards undertook to breed silk- 
 worms with equal success, and was imitated from 
 time to time in several towns of Italy. In all 
 these places extensive manufactures were esta- 
 blished and carried on with silk of domestic pro- 
 duction. The demand for silk from the east di- 
 minished of course, the subjects of the Greek 
 Emperors were no longer obliged to have re- 
 course to the Persians for a supply of it, and a 
 considerable change took place in the nature of 
 the commercial intercourse between Europe and 
 India. a 
 
 z Procop. de Bello Gothic, lib. iv, c. 1 7. 
 * See NOTE XXXVI. 
 
 vol* xn. H 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 ANCIENT INDIA 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Intercourse with India, from the Conquest of 
 
 Egypt by the Mahomedans, to the Discovery 
 
 of the Passage by the Cape of Good Hope, 
 
 and theEstablishment of the Portuguese Do- 
 minion in the East 
 
 e c t. A BOUT fourscore years after the death of 
 l lh , -la- Justinian, an event happened, which occa- 
 sioned a revolution still more considerable in the 
 intercourse of Europe with the East. Mahomet, 
 by publishing a new religion, seems to have ani- 
 mated his countrymen with a new spirit, and to 
 have called forth latent passions and talents into 
 exertion. The greatest part of the Arabians, 
 satisfied from the earliest times with national in- 
 dependence and personal liberty, tended their 
 camels, or reared their palm-trees within the 
 
AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION, &c. 99 
 
 precincts of their own peninsula, and had little in- sect. 
 tercourse with the rest of mankind, unless when IIL 
 they sallied out to plunder a caravan, or to. rob 
 a traveller. In some districts, however, they had 
 begun to add the labours of agriculture, and the 
 business of commerce, to the occupations of pas- 
 toral life. a These different orders of men, when 
 prompted by the enthusiastic ardour with which 
 the exhortations and example of Mahomet in- 
 spired them, displayed, at once, all the zeal of 
 missionaries, and the ambition of conquerors. 
 They spread the doctrine of their prophet, and 
 extended the dominion of his successors, from the 
 shores of the Atlantic to the frontier of China, 
 with a rapidity of success to which there is 
 nothing similar in the history of mankind. Egypt A.c. i64o» 
 was one of their earliest conquests ; and as they 
 settled in that inviting country, and kept posses- 
 sion of it, the Greeks were excluded from all 
 intercourse with Alexandria, to which they had 
 long resorted as the chief mart of Indian goods. 
 Nor was this the only effect which the progress 
 of the Mahornedan arms had upon the commerce 
 of Europe with India. Prior to their invasion 
 of Egypt, the Arabians had subdued the great 
 kingdom of Persia, and added to it the empire 
 of their Caliphs. They found their new sub- 
 jects engaged in prosecuting that extensive trade 
 with India, and the country to the east of it ? 
 the commencement and progress of which in 
 
 a Sale's Koran. Prelim. Dis. p. 32, 33. 
 
10 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 ♦sect. Persia I have already mentioned ; and they were 
 IIL so sensible of the great advantages derived from 
 it, that they became desirous to partake of them. 
 As the active powers of the human mind, when 
 roused to vigorous exertions in one line, are most 
 capable of operating with force in other direc- 
 tions ; the Arabians, from impetuous warriors, 
 soon became enterprising merchants. They con- 
 tinued to carry on the trade with India in its for- 
 mer channel from the Persian Gulf, but it was 
 with that ardour which characterises all the 
 early efforts of Mahomet's followers. In a short 
 time they advanced far beyond the boundaries of 
 ancient navigation, and brought many of the: 
 most precious commodities of the East directly 
 from the countries which produced them. In 
 order to engross all the profit arising from the 
 sale of them, the Caliph Omar b , a few years 
 after the conquest of Persia, founded the city 
 of Bassora, on the western banks of the great 
 stream formed by the junction of the Euphrates 
 and Tigris, with a view of securing the com- 
 mand of these two rivers, by which goods im- 
 ported from India were conveyed into all parts 
 of Asia. With such discernment was the situa- 
 tion chosen, that Bassora soon became a place of 
 trade hardly inferior to Alexandria. 
 
 This general information with respect to the 
 trade of the Arabians with India, which is all 
 
 b HerbeL Biblioth. Orient, artic. Basrah. Abul. Pharas. 
 Hist. Dynast, p. 113. 
 
 6 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 101 
 
 that can be derived from the historians of that SECT, 
 period, is confirmed and illustrated by the Re- IIL 
 lation of a Voyage from the Persian Gulf to- 
 wards the east, written by an Arabian merchant 
 in the year of the Christian aera eight hundred 
 and fifty-one, about two centuries after Persia 
 was subjected to the Caliphs, and explained by 
 the Commentary of another Arabian, who had 
 likewise visited the eastern parts of Asia. c This 
 curious Relation, which enables us to fill up a 
 chasm in the history of mercantile communica- 
 tion with India, furnishes materials for describing 
 more in detail the extent of the Arabian dis- 
 coveries in the East, and the maimer in which 
 they made them. 
 
 Though some have imagined that the won- 
 derful property of the magnet, by which it com- 
 municates such virtue to a needle or slender 
 rod of iron, as to make it point towards the 
 poles of the earth, was known in the East long 
 before it was observed in Europe, it is manifest 
 both from the Relation of the Mahomedan mer- 
 chant, and from much concurring evidence, that 
 not only the Arabians, but the Chinese, were 
 destitute of this faithful guide, and that their 
 mode of navigation was not more adventurous 
 than that of the Greeks and Romans. d They 
 steered servilely along the coast, seldom stretch- 
 ing out to sea so far as to lose sight of land, and 
 
 c See NOTE XXXVII. d Relation, p. 2. 8, &c. 
 
 H 3 
 
102 
 
 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s e c T. as they shaped their course in this timid manner, 
 IIL their mode of reckoning was defective, and 
 liable to the same errors which I observed in 
 that of the Greeks and Romans. 6 
 
 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the 
 progress of the Arabians towards the east ex- 
 tended far beyond the Gulf of Siam, the boun- 
 dary of European navigation. They became ac- 
 quainted with Sumatra, and the other islands of 
 the great Indian Archipelago, and advanced as 
 far as the city of Canton in China. Nor are these 
 discoveries to be considered as the effect of the 
 enterprising curiosity of individuals; they were 
 owing to a regular commerce carried on from 
 the Persian Gulf with China, and all the inter- 
 mediate countries. Many Mahomedans, imitat- 
 ing the example of the Persians described by 
 Cosmas Indicopleustes, settled in India and the 
 countries beyond it. They were so numerous 
 in the city of Canton, that the Emperor (as the 
 Arabian authors relate) permitted them to have 
 a Cadi or judge of their own sect, who decided 
 controversies among his countrymen by their 
 own laws, and presided in all the functions of 
 religion. f In other places proselytes were gained 
 to the Mahomedan faith, and the Arabian lan- 
 guage was understood and spoken in almost every 
 
 e Renaudot. Inquiry into the Time when the Mahomedans 
 first entered China, p. 143. 
 
 f Relation, 7. Remarks, p. 19. Inquiry, p. 171 > &c 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 103 
 
 sea-port of any note. Ships from China and dif- sect. 
 ferent places of India traded in the Persian m - 
 Gulf g , and by the frequency of mutual inter- 
 course, all the nations of the East became better 
 acquainted with each other. h 
 
 A striking proof of this is the new informa- 
 tion concerning China and India we receive 
 from the two authors I have mentioned. They 
 point out the situation of Canton, now so well 
 known to Europeans, with a considerable degree 
 of exactness. They take notice of the general 
 use of silk among the Chinese. They are the 
 first who mention their celebrated manufacture 
 of porcelain, which, on account of its delicacy 
 and transparency, they compare to glass. 1 They 
 describe the tea-tree, and the mode of using its 
 leaves; and from the great revenue which was 
 levied (as they inform us) from the consumption 
 of it, tea seems to have been as universally the 
 favourite beverage of the Chinese in the ninth 
 century, as it is at present. k 
 
 Even with respect to those parts of India 
 which the Greeks and Romans were accustomed 
 to visit, the Arabians had acquired more per- 
 fect information. They mention a great empire 
 established on the Malabar coast, governed by 
 monarchs whose authority was paramount to that 
 
 « See NOTE XXXVIII. h Relation, p. 8. 
 
 1 See NOTE XXXIX. * Relation, p. 21 . 25. 
 
 h 4 
 
104 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s e e T. of every power in India. These monarchs were 
 "!l distinguished by the appellation of Balchara, a 
 name yet known in India 1 , and it is probable 
 that the Samorin, or Emperor of Calicut, so 
 frequently mentioned in the accounts of the first 
 voyages of the Portuguese to India, possessed 
 some portion of their dominions. They cele- 
 brate the extraordinary progress which the In- 
 dians had made in astronomical knowledge, a 
 circumstance which seems to have been little 
 known to the Greeks and Romans, and assert 
 that in this branch of science they were far su- 
 perior to the most enlightened nations of the 
 East, on which account their sovereign was de- 
 nominated the King of Wisdom. m Other pecu- 
 liarities in the political institutions, the mode of 
 judicial proceedings, the pastimes and the su- 
 perstitions of the Indians, particularly the 
 excruciating mortifications and penances of the 
 faquirs, might be produced as proofs of the 
 superior knowledge which the Arabians had 
 acquired of the manners of that people. 
 
 The same commercial spirit or religious 
 zeal, which prompted the Mahomedans of 
 Persia to visit the remotest regions of the 
 East, animated the Christians of that king- 
 dom. The Nestorian churches planted in 
 Persia, under the protection first of its native 
 sovereigns, and afterwards of its conquerors 
 
 1 Herbelot. artic. Hend. & Belhar. 
 m Relation, J>. 37. 58. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 105 
 
 the Caliphs, were numerous, and governed by S E c T. 
 respectable ecclesiastics. They had early sent IIL 
 missionaries into India, and established churches 
 in different parts of it, particularly, as I have 
 formerly related, in the Island of Ceylon. When 
 the Arabians extended their navigation as far as 
 China, a more ample field, both for their com- 
 merce and their zeal, opened to their view. If 
 we may rely on the concurring evidence of 
 Christian authors, in the East as well as in the 
 West, confirmed by the testimony of the two 
 Mahomedan travellers, their pious labours were 
 attended with such success, that in the ninth and 
 tenth centuries the number of Christians in In- 
 dia and China was very considerable." As the 
 churches in both these countries received all 
 their ecclesiastics from Persia, where they were 
 ordained by the Cathokcos, or Nestorian Primate, 
 whose supremacy they acknowledged, this be- 
 came a regular channel of intercourse and intel- 
 ligence ; and to the combined effect of all these 
 circumstances, we are indebted for the informa- 
 tion we receive from the two Arabian writers , 
 concerning those regions of Asia which the 
 Greeks and Romans never visited. 
 
 But while both the Mahomedan and Christian 
 subjects of the Caliphs continued to extend their 
 knowledge of the East, the people of Europe 
 found themselves excluded almost entirely from 
 any intercourse with it. To them the great port 
 
 ■ See NOTE XL. ° Relation, p. 39. 
 
10 6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s E c T. of Alexandria was now shut, and the new lords 
 m - of the Persian Gulf, satisfied with supplying the 
 demand for Indian commodities in their own ex- 
 tensive dominions, neglected to convey them, 
 by any of the usual channels, to the trading 
 towns on the Mediterranean. The opulent in- 
 habitants of Constantinople, aud other great 
 cities of Europe, bore this deprivation of luxu- 
 ries, to which they had been long accustomed, 
 with such impatience, that all the activity of 
 commerce was exerted, in order to rind a re- 
 medy for an evil which they deemed intolerable. 
 The difficulties which were to be surmounted in 
 order to accomplish this, afford the most striking 
 proof of the high estimation in which the com- 
 modities of the East were held at that time. The 
 silk of China was purchased in Chensi, the west- 
 ernmost province of that empire, and conveyed 
 thence by a caravan, in a march of eighty or a 
 hundred days, to the banks of the Oxus, where 
 it was embarked, and carried down the stream 
 of that river to the Caspian. After a dangerous 
 voyage across that sea, and ascending the river 
 Cyrus as far as it is navigable, it was conducted 
 by a short land-carriage of five days to the river 
 Phasis p , which falls into the Euxine or Black 
 Sea. Thence, by an easy and well known- 
 course, it was transported to Constantinople. 
 The conveyance of commodities from that re- 
 gion of the East, now known by the name of 
 Indostan, was somewhat less tedious and operose. 
 
 p Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17. 
 16 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. f 107 
 
 They were carried from the banks of the Indus sect. 
 by a route early frequented, and which I have IIL 
 already described, either to the river Oxus, or 
 directly to the Caspian, from which they held 
 the same course to Constantinople. 
 
 It is obvious, that only commodities of small 
 bulk, and of considerable value, could bear the 
 expense of such a mode of conveyance ; and in 
 regulating the price of those commodities, not 
 only the expense, but the risk and danger of 
 conveying them, were to be taken into account. 
 In their journey across the vast plain extending 
 from Samarcande to the frontier of China, cara- 
 vans were exposed to the assaults and depreda- 
 tions of the Tartars, the Huns, the Turks, and 
 other roving tribes which infest the north-east 
 of Asia, and which have always considered the 
 merchant and traveller as their lawful prey ; nor 
 were they exempt from insult and pillage in their 
 journey from the Cyrus to the Phasis, through 
 the kingdom of Colchis, a country noted, both 
 in ancient and in modern times, for the thievish 
 disposition of its inhabitants. Even under all 
 these disadvantages, the trade with the East was 
 carried on with ardour. Constantinople became 
 a considerable mart of Indian and Chinese com- 
 modities, and the wealth which flowed into it in 
 consequence of this, not only added to the 
 splendour of that great city, but seems to have 
 retarded, for some time, the decline of the' em- 
 pire of which it was the capital. 
 
108 AN^HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT. As far as we may venture to conjecture, from 
 IIL the imperfect information of contemporary his- 
 torians, it was chiefly by the mode of convey- 
 ance which I have described, perilous and ope- 
 rose as it was, that Europe was supplied with 
 the commodities of the East, during more than 
 two centuries. Throughout that period the 
 Christians and Mahomedans were engaged in 
 almost uninterrupted hostilities ; prosecuted with 
 all the animosity which rivalship for power, 
 heightened by religious zeal, naturally excites. 
 Under circumstances which occasioned such ali- 
 enation, commercial intercourse could hardly 
 subsist, and the merchants of Christendom either 
 did not resort at all to Alexandria, and the 
 ports of Syria, the ancient staples for the com- 
 modities of the East, after they were in posses- 
 sion of the Mahomedans, or if the love of gain, 
 surmounting their abhorrence of the Infidels, 
 prompted them to visit the marts which they 
 had long frequented, it was with much caution 
 and distrust. 
 
 While the difficulties of procuring the pro- 
 ductions of the East were thus augmented, the 
 people of Europe became more desirous of ob- 
 taining them. About this time some cities of 
 Italy, particularly Amalphi and Venice, having 
 acquired a greater degree of security or inde- 
 pendence than they formerly possessed, began to 
 cultivate the arts of domestic industry, with an 
 ardour and ingenuity uncommon in the middle 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 109 
 
 ages. The effect of these exertions was such an 8 E c T. 
 increase of wealth, as created new wants and de- [ IIL 
 sires, and formed a taste for elegance and luxury, 
 which induced them to visit foreign countries in 
 order to gratify it. Among men in this stage of 
 their advancement, the productions of India 
 have always been held in high estimation, and 
 from this period they were imported into Italy 
 in larger quantities, and came into more general 
 use. Several circumstances which indicate this 
 revival of a commercial spirit, are collected by 
 the industrious Muratori, and from the close of 
 the seventh century, an attentive observer may 
 discern faint traces of its progress. q 
 
 Even in enlightened ages, when the transac- 
 tions of nations are observed and recorded with 
 the greatest care, and the store of historical ma- 
 terials seems to be abundantly ample, so little 
 attention has been paid to the operations of com- 
 merce, that every attempt towards a regular de- 
 duction of them, has been found an undertaking 
 of the utmost difficulty. The aera, however, to 
 which I have conducted this Disquisition, is one 
 of the periods in the annals of mankind concern- 
 ing which history furnishes most scanty informa- 
 tion. As it was chiefly in the Greek empire, and 
 in some cities of Italy, that any efforts were made 
 to procure the commodities of India, and the 
 other regions of the East, it is only from the 
 
 * Antiquit. Ital. medij.^vi. ii. 400. 408. 410. 883. 885. 894. 
 Rer. Ital. Script, ii. 487. Histoire du Commerce de la Russie 
 par M. Scherer. tom.i. p. 11, &c. 
 
110 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, historians of those countries we can expect to find 
 I IL any account of that trade. But from the age of 
 Mahomet, until the time when the Comneni as- \ 
 cended the throne of Constantinople, a period of 
 more than four centuries and a half, the Byzan- 
 tine history is contained in meagre chronicles,- 
 the compilers of which seldom extended their 
 views beyond the intrigues in the palace, the 
 factions in the theatre, or the disputes of theo- 
 logians. To them the monkish annalists of the 
 different states and cities of Italy, during the 
 same period, are (if possible) far inferior in 
 merit ; and in the early accounts of those cities 
 which have been most celebrated for their com- 
 mercial spirit, we search with little success for 
 the origin or nature of that trade by which they 
 first rose to eminence/ It is manifest, however, 
 from the slightest attention to the events which 
 happened in the seventh and eighth centuries, 
 that the Italian states, while their coasts were 
 continually infested by the Mahomedans, who 
 had made some settlements there, and had sub- 
 jected Sicily almost entirely to their dominion, 
 could not trade with much confidence and secu- 
 rity in Egypt and Syria. With what implacable 
 hatred Christians viewed Mahomedans, as the 
 disciples of an impostor, is well known ; and as 
 all the nations which professed the Christian faith, 
 both in the East and West, had mingled the wor- 
 ship of angels and saints with that of the Supreme 
 Being, and had adorned their churches with pic- 
 
 r See Note T+Xh 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. m 
 
 tures and statues ; the true Moslems considered sect. 
 themselves as the only assertors of the unity of m - 
 God, and beheld Christians of every denomina- 
 tion with abhorrence, as idolators. Much time 
 was requisite to soften this mutual animosity, so 
 far as to render intercourse in any degree cordial. 
 
 Meanwhile a taste for the luxuries of the East 
 continued not only to spread in Italy, but, from 
 imitation of the Italians, or from some improve- 
 ment in their own situation, the people of Mar- 
 seilles and other towns of France on the Medi- 
 terranean, became equally fond of them. But 
 the profits exacted by the merchants of Amalphi 
 or Venice, from whom they received those pre- 
 cious commodities, were so exorbitant as prompt- 
 ed them to make some effort to supply their own 
 demands. With this view, they not only opened 
 a trade with Constantinople, but ventured at 
 times to visit the ports of Egypt and Syria. s This 
 eagerness of the Europeans, on the one hand, 
 to obtain the productions of India, and on the 
 other hand, considerable advantages which both 
 the Caliphs and their subjects derived from the 
 sale of them, induced both so far to conceal their 
 reciprocal antipathy, as to carry on a traffic ma- 
 nifestly for their common benefit. How far this 
 traffic extended, and in what mode it ;was con- 
 ducted by these new adventurers, the scanty in- 
 formation which can be gathered from contempo* 
 
 £ Mem. de Literat. torn, xxxvii. p. 467, >&c. 483* 
 
H% AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, rary writers, does not enable me to trace with ae- 
 Hi- curacy. It is probable, however, that this commu- 
 nication would have produced insensibly its usual 
 effect, of familiarising and reconciling men of 1 
 hostile principles and discordant manners to one 
 another, and a regular commerce might have' 
 been established gradually between Christians 
 and Mahomedans, upon such equal terms, that 
 the nations of Europe might have received all 
 the luxuries of the East by the same channels in 
 which they were formerly conveyed to them, first 
 by the Tyrians, then by the Greeks of Alexan- 
 dria, next by the Romans, and at last by the sub- 
 jects of the Constantinopolitan empire. 
 
 But whatever might have been the influence 
 of this growing correspondence, it was prevented 
 from operating with full effect by the Crusades, 
 or expeditions for the recovery of the Holy 
 Land, which, during two centuries, occupied 
 the professors of the two rival religions, and con- 
 tributed to alienate them more than ever from 
 each other. I have, in another work*, contem- 
 plated mankind while under the dominion of 
 this phrensy, the most singular perhaps, and the 
 longest continued, of any that occurs in the his- 
 tory of our species ; and I pointed out such 
 effects of it upon government, upon property, 
 upon manners and taste, as were suited to what 
 were then the objects of my inquiry. At present 
 my attention is confined to observe the commer- 
 
 c Hist, of Charles V. vol. i. p. 26. edit>l787. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. H3 
 
 cial consequences of the Crusades, and how far sect. 
 they contributed to retard or to promote the IIL 
 conveyance of Indian commodities into Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 To fix an idea of peculiar sanctity to that 
 country, which the Author of our Religion 
 selected as the place of his residence while on 
 earth, and in which he accomplished the re- 
 demption of mankind, is a sentiment so natural 
 to the human mind, that, from the first esta- 
 blishment of Christianity, the visiting of the 
 holy places in Judea was considered as an exer- 
 cise of piety, tending powerfully to awaken and 
 to cherish a spirit of devotion. Through suc- 
 ceeding ages, the practice continued and in- 
 creased in every part of Christendom. When 
 Jerusalem was subjected to the Mahomedan 
 empire, and danger was added to the fatigue 
 and expense of a distant pilgrimage, the un- 
 dertaking was viewed as still more meritorious. 
 It. was sometimes enjoined as a penance to be 
 performed by heinous transgressors. It was 
 more frequently a duty undertaken with volun- 
 tary zeal, and in both cases it was deemed an 
 expiation for all past offences. From various 
 causes, which I have elsewhere enumerated \ 
 these pious visits to the Holy Land multiplied 
 amazingly during the tenth and eleventh cen- 
 turies. Not only individuals in the lower and 
 middle ranks of life, but persons of superior 
 
 c Hist, of Charles V. vol. i. p. 27. 9S§. 
 VOL, XII. I 
 
H4, AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, condition, attended by large retinues, and nu- 
 IIL merous caravans of opulent pilgrims resorted to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 In all their operations, however, men have a 
 wonderful dexterity in mingling some attention 
 to interest with those functions which seem to 
 be most purely spiritual. The Mahomedan ca- 
 ravans, which, in obedience to the injunctions of 
 their religion, visit the holy temple of Mecca, 
 are not composed, as I shall hereafter explain 
 more fully, of devout pilgrims only, but of mer- 
 chaiits,. who, both in going and returning, are 
 provided with such an assortment of goods, that 
 they carry on a considerable traffic. 11 Even the 
 Faquirs of India, whose wild enthusiasm seems 
 to elevate them above all solicitude about the 
 concerns of this world, have rendered their fre- 
 quent pilgrimages subservient to their interest, 
 by trading in every country through which they 
 travel/ In like manner, it was not by devotion 
 alone that such numerous bands of Christian 
 pilgrims were induced to visit Jerusalem. To 
 many of them commerce was the chief motive 
 of undertaking that distant voyage ; and, by 
 exchanging the productions of Europe for the 
 more valuable commodities of Asia, particularly 
 those of India, which at that time were diffused 
 through every part of the Caliph's dominions, 
 they enriched themselves, and furnished their 
 countrymen with such an additional supply of 
 
 u Viagi di Ramusio, vol. i. p. 151, 152. 
 x See NOTE XLII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. u$ 
 
 Eastern luxuries, as augmented their relish for s E c T. 
 them. y in. 
 
 _~ 
 
 But how faint soever the lines may be, which, 
 prior to the Crusades, mark the influence of the 
 frequent pilgrimages to the East upon commerce, 
 they became so conspicuous after the commence- 
 ment of these expeditions, as to meet the eye 
 of every observer. Various circumstances con- 
 curred towards this, from an enumeration of 
 which it will appear, that, by attending to the 
 progress and effects of the Crusades, consider- 
 able light is thrown upon the subject of my in- 
 quiries. Great armies, conducted by the most 
 illustrious princes and nobles of Europe, and 
 composed of men of the most enterprising spirit 
 in all the kingdoms of it, marched towards Pa- 
 lestine, through countries far advanced beyond 
 those which they left, in every species of im- 
 provement. They beheld the dawn of prospe- 
 rity in the republics of Italy, which had begun 
 to vie with each other in the arts of industry, 
 and in their efforts to engross the lucrative com- 
 merce with the East. They next admired the 
 more advanced state of opulence and splendour 
 in Constantinople, raised to a pre-eminence 
 above all the cities then known, by its extensive 
 trade, particularly that which it carried on with 
 India and the countries beyond it. They after- 
 wards served in those provinces of Asia through 
 which the commodities of the East were usually 
 
 y Gul. Tyr. lib. xvii. c. 4. p. 933. ap, Gesta Dei per 
 
 Francos. 
 
 I 2 
 
1X 5 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, conveyed, and became masters of several cities 
 IIL which had been staples of that trade. They 
 
 ' * established the kingdom of Jerusalem, which 
 subsisted near two hundred years. They took 
 possession of the throne of the Greek empire, 
 and governed it above half a century. Amidst 
 such a variety of events and operations, the 
 ideas of the fierce warriors of Europe gradually 
 opened and improved ; they Became acquainted 
 with the policy and arts of the people whom 
 they subdued; they observed the sources of 
 their wealth, and availed themselves of all this 
 knowledge. Antioch and Tyre, when con- 
 quered by the Crusaders, were flourishing cities, 
 inhabited by opulent merchants, who supplied 
 all the nations trading in the Mediterranean 
 with the productions of the East z , and as far as 
 can be gathered from incidental* occurrences, 
 mentioned by the Historians of the Holy "War, 
 who, being mostly priests and monks, had their 
 attention directed to objects very different from 
 those relating to commerce, there is reason to 
 believe that, both in Constantinople, while sub- 
 ject to the Franks, and in the ports of Syria, 
 acquired by the Christians, the long-established 
 trade with the East continued to be protected 
 and encouraged. 
 
 But though commerce may have been only 
 a secondary object with the martial leaders of 
 
 z Gul. Tyr. lib. xiii. c. 5. Alb. Aquens. Hist. Hieros. 
 ap. Gesta Dei, vol. i. p. 247« 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA'. liy 
 
 the Crusades, engaged in perpetual hostilities sect. 
 with the Turks on one hand, and with the Sold- IIL 
 ans of Egypt on the other, it was the primary 
 object with the associates, in conjunction with 
 whom they carried on their operations. Nu- 
 merous as the armies were which assumed the 
 cross, and enterprising as the fanatical zeal was 
 with which they were animated, they could not 
 have accomplished their purpose, or even have 
 reached the seat of their warfare, without secur- 
 ing the assistance of the Italian states. None 
 of the other European powers could either fur- 
 nish a sufficient number of transports to convey 
 the armies of the Crusaders to the coast of Dal- 
 matia, whence they marched to Constantinople, 
 the place of general rendezvous ; or were able 
 to supply them with military stores and provi- 
 sions in such abundance as to enable them to 
 invade a distant country. In all the successive 
 expeditions, the fleets of the Genoese, of the 
 Pis ans, or of the Venetians, kept on the coast as 
 the armies advanced by land, and supplying 
 them from time to time with whatever was want- 
 ing, engrossed all the profits of a branch of 
 commerce, which, in every age, has been ex- 
 tremely lucrative. It was with all the interested 
 attention of merchants, that the Italians afforded 
 their aid. On the reduction of any place in 
 which they found it for their interest to settle, 
 they obtained from the Crusaders valuable im- 
 munities of different kinds ; freedom of trade ; 
 an abatement of the usual duties paid for what 
 
 I o 
 
n g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, was imported and exported, or a total exemption 
 IIL from them ; the property of entire suburbs in 
 some cities, and of extensive streets in others ; 
 and a privilege granted to every person who re- 
 sided within their precincts, or who traded under 
 their protection, of being tried by their own 
 laws, and by judges of their own appointment. a 
 In consequence of so many advantages, we can 
 trace, during the progress of the Crusades, a ra- 
 pid increase of wealth and of power in all the 
 commercial states of Italy. Every port open to 
 trade was frequented by their merchants, who, 
 having now engrossed entirely the commerce of 
 the East, strove with such active emulation to 
 find new markets for the commodities which it 
 furnished, that they extended a taste for them 
 to many parts of Europe, in which they had 
 hitherto been little known. 
 
 Two events happened, prior to the termina- 
 tion of the Holy War, which, by acquiring to the 
 Venetians and Genoese the possession of several 
 provinces in the Greek empire, enabled them to 
 supply Europe more abundantly with all the pro- 
 ductions of the East. The first was the con- 
 quest of Constantinople in the year one thousand 
 two hundred and four, by the 'Venetians, and 
 the leaders of the fourth Crusade. An account 
 of the political interests and intrigues which 
 formed this alliance, and turned the hallowed 
 arms destined to deliver the holy City from the 
 
 a Hist, of Charles V, vol. i. j>. 34. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. lig 
 
 dominion of infidels, against a Christian monarch, 
 is -foreign from the design of this Disquisition. 
 Constantinople was taken by storm, and plan- . 
 dered by the confederates. An Earl of Flanders 
 was placed on the imperial throne. The domi- 
 nions which still remained subject to the succes- 
 sors of Constantine were divided into four parts, 
 one of which being allotted to the new emperor, 
 for supporting the dignity and expense of go-* 
 vernment, an equal partition of the other three 
 was made between the Venetians, and the chiefs 
 of the Crusade. The former, who, both in con- 
 certing and in conducting this enterprise, kept 
 their eyes steadily fixed on what might be most 
 for the emolument of their commerce, secured 
 the territories of greatest value to a trading 
 people. They obtained some part of the Pelo- 
 ponnesus, at that time the seat of flourishing 
 manufactures, particularly of silk. They became 
 masters of several of the largest and best culti- 
 vated islands in the Archipelago, and established 
 a chain of settlements, partly military and partly 
 commercial, extending from the Adriatic to the 
 3osphorus. b Many Venetians settled in Con- 
 stantinople, and without obstruction from their 
 warlike associates, little' attentive to the arts of 
 industry, they engrossed the various branches 
 of trade which had so long enriched that capital. 
 Two of these particularly attracted their atten- 
 tion ; the silk trade, and that with India. From 
 
 b Danduli Chronic, ap. Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xii. 
 p. 328. Mar. Sanuto Vite de Duchi di Venez. Murat. vol. 
 xxii. p. 532. 
 
 i '4 
 
lg0 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 the reign of Justinian, it was mostly in Greece, 
 and some of the adjacent islands, that silk- 
 worms, which he first introduced into Europe, 
 were reared. The product of their labours was 
 manufactured into stuffs of various kinds, in 
 many cities of the empire. But it was in Con- 
 stantinople, the seat of opulence and luxury, 
 that the demand for a commodity of such high 
 price was greatest, and there, of consequence, 
 the commerce of silk naturally centred. In 
 assorting cargoes for the several ports in which 
 they traded, the Venetians had for some time 
 found silk to be an essential article, as it con- 
 tinued to grow more and more into request 
 in every part of Europe. By the residence of 
 so many of their citizens in Constantinople, and 
 by the immunities granted to them, they not 
 only procured silk in such abundance, and on 
 such terms, as enabled them to carry on trade 
 more extensively, and with greater profit than 
 formerly, biat they became so thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with every branch of the silk manu- 
 facture, as induced them to attempt the esta- 
 blishment of it in their own dominions. The 
 measures taken for this purpose by individuals, 
 as well as the regulations framed by the state, 
 were concerted with so much prudence, and 
 executed with such success, that in a short time 
 the silk fabrics of Venice vied with those of 
 Greece and Sicily, and contributed both to en- 
 rich the republic, and to enlarge the* sphere of 
 its commerce. At the same time the Venetians 
 availed themselves of the influence which they 
 
 IO 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 had acquired in Constantinople, in order to im- 
 prove their Indian trade. The capital of the 
 Greek empire, besides the means of being sup- 
 plied with the productions of the East, which it 
 enjoyed in common with the other commercial 
 cities of Europe, received a considerable portion 
 of them by a channel peculiar to itself. Some 
 of the most valuable commodities of India and 
 China were conveyed over land, by routes which 
 I have described, to the Black Sea, and thence 
 by a short navigation to Constantinople. To 
 this market, the best stored of any except Alex- 
 andria, the Venetians had now easy access, and 
 the goods which they purchased there, made an 
 addition of great consequence to what they 
 were accustomed to acquire in the ports of 
 Egypt and Syria. Thus while the Latin empire 
 in Constantinople subsisted, the Venetians pos- 
 sessed such advantages over all their rivals, that 
 their commerce extended greatly, and it was 
 chiefly from them every part of Europe received 
 the commodities of the East. 
 
 The other event which I had in view, was the 
 subversion of the dominion of the Latins in Con- 
 stantinople, and the re-establishment of the Im- 
 perial family on the throne. This was effected 
 after a period of fifty-seven years, partly by a 
 transient effort of vigour, with which indignation 
 at a foreign yoke animated the Greeks, and partly 
 by the powerful assistance which they received 
 from the republic of Genoa. The Genoese were 
 
 121 
 
l%2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, so sensible of the advantages which the Vene- 
 IIL tians, their rivals in trade, derived from their 
 union with the Latin emperors of Constantinople, 
 that, in order to deprive them of these, they sur- 
 mounted the most deep-rooted prejudices of their 
 age, and combined with the schismatic Greeks 
 to dethrone a monarch protected by the papal 
 power, setting at defiance the thunders of the 
 Vatican, which at that time made the greatest 
 princes tremble. This undertaking, bold and 
 impious as it was then deemed, proved successful. 
 In recompense for their signal services, the gra- 
 titude or weakness of the Greek emperor, among 
 other donations, bestowed upon the Genoese 
 Pera, the chief suburb of Constantinople, to be 
 held as a fief of the empire, together with such 
 exemption from the accustomed duties on goods 
 imported and exported, as gave them a decided 
 superiority over every competitor in trade. With 
 the vigilant attention of merchants, the Genoese 
 availed themselves of this favourable situation. 
 They surrounded their new settlement in Pera 
 with fortifications. They rendered their fac- 
 tories on the adjacent coast places of strength. 
 They were masters of the harbour of Constan- 
 tinople more than the Greeks themselves. The 
 whole trade of the Black Sea came into their 
 hands; and not satisfied with this, they took pos- 
 session of part of the Chersonesus Taurica, the mo- 
 dern Crimea, and rendered CafFa, its principal 
 
 r Niceph. Gregor. lib. xi. c. 1. § 6. lib. xvii. c. 1. § % 
 
 8 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. ^3 
 
 town, the chief seat of their trade with the East, sec t. 
 and the port in which all its productions, con- nI - 
 veyed to the Black Sea by the different routes 
 I have formerly described, were landed/ 
 
 In consequence of this revolution, Genoa be- 
 came the greatest commercial power in Europe ; 
 and if the enterprising industry and intrepid 
 courage of its citizens had been under the direc- 
 tion of wise domestic policy, it might have long 
 held that rank. But never was there a contrast 
 more striking, than between the internal adminis- 
 tration of the two rival republics of Venice 
 and Genoa, In the former, government was 
 conducted w T ith steady systematic prudence ; in 
 the latter, it was consistent in nothing but a fond- 
 ness for novelty, and a propensity to change. 
 The one enjoyed a perpetual calm, the other was 
 agitated with all the storms and vicissitudes of 
 faction. The increase of wealth, which flowed 
 into Genoa from the exertions of its merchants, 
 did not counterbalance the defects in its political 
 constitution; and even in its most prosperous 
 state we may discern the appearance of symptoms 
 which foreboded a diminution of its opulence 
 and power. 
 
 As long, however, as the Genoese retained the 
 ascendant which they had acquired in the Greek 
 
 d Folieta Hist. Genuens. ap. Graev. Thes. Antiq. Ital. u 
 387. De Marinis de Genuens. Dignit. ib. I486. Niceph, 
 Greg. lib. xiii. c. 12. Murat, Annal. d'ltal. lib. vii. e. S5L 
 See NOTE XLIII. 
 
1^4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, empire, the Venetians felt their commercial 
 IIL transactions with it to be carried on upon such 
 unequal terms, that their merchants visited Con- 
 stantinople seldom, and with reluctance ; and in 
 order to procure the commodities of the East in 
 such quantities as were demanded in the various 
 parts of Europe which they were accustomed to 
 supply, they were obliged to resort to the ancient 
 staples of that trade. Of these Alexandria was 
 the chief, and the most abundantly supplied, as 
 the conveyance of Indian goods by land through 
 Asia, to any of the ports of the Mediterranean, 
 was often rendered impracticable by the incur- 
 sions of Turks, Tartars, and other hordes, which 
 successively desolated that fertile country, or 
 contended for the dominion of it. But under 
 the military and vigorous government of the Sol- 
 dans of the Mameluks, security and order were 
 steadily maintained in Egypt, and trade, though 
 loaded with heavy duties, was open to all. In 
 proportion to the progress of the Genoese in en- 
 grossing the commerce of Constantinople and the 
 Black Sea e , the Venetians found it more and 
 more necessary to enlarge their transactions 
 with Alexandria. 
 
 But such an avowed intercourse with, infidels 
 being considered, in that age, as unbecoming 
 the character of Christians, the senate of Venice, 
 in order to silence its own scruples, or those of 
 its subjects, had recourse to the infallible autho- 
 
 c See NOTE XLIV. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. ^ 
 
 rity of the Pope, who was supposed to be pos- s E C T, 
 sessed of power to dispense with the rigorous ob- IIL 
 servation of the most sacred laws, and obtained 
 permission from him to fit out annually a specified 
 number of ships for the ports of Egypt and of 
 Syria/ Under this sanction the republic con- 
 cluded a treaty of commerce with the Soldans 
 of Egypt, on equitable terms ; in consequence 
 of which the senate appointed one consul to re- 
 side in Alexandria, and another in Damascus, in 
 a public character, and to exercise a mercantile 
 jurisdiction, authorised by the Soldans. Under 
 their protection, Venetian merchants and arti- 
 sans settled in each of these cities. Ancient 
 prejudices and antipathies were forgotten, and 
 their mutual interests established, for the first 
 time, a fair and open trade between Christians 
 and Mahomedans. 5 
 
 While the Venetians and Genoese were al- 
 ternately making those extraordinary efforts, in 
 order to engross all the advantages of supplying 
 Europe with the productions of the East, the re- 
 public of Florence, originally a commercial de- 
 mocracy, applied with such persevering vigour to 
 trade, and the genius of the people, as well as 
 the nature of their institutions, were so favourable 
 to its progress, that the state advanced rapidly 
 in power and the people in opulence. But as 
 the Florentines did not possess any commodious 
 
 f See NOTE XLV. 
 
 g Sandi Storia Civile Veneziana, lib, v. c. 15. p. 248 ; &c. 
 
III. 
 
 Ig6 A'Sf HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, sea-port, their active exertions were directed 
 chiefly towards the improvement of their manu- 
 factures, and domestic industry. About the be- 
 ginning of the fourteenth century, the Florentine 
 manufactures of various kinds, particularly those 
 of silk and woollen cloth, appear from the enu- 
 meration of a well-informed Historian, to have 
 been very considerable. 11 The connection which 
 they formed in different parts of Europe, by fur- 
 nishing them with the productions of their own 
 industry, led them to engage in another branch 
 of trade, that of banking. In this they soon be- 
 came so eminent, that the money-transactions of 
 almost every kingdom in Europe passed through 
 their hands, and in many of them they were in- 
 trusted with the collection and administration of 
 the public revenues. In consequence of the ac- 
 tivity and success with which they conducted 
 their manufactures and money-transactions, the 
 former always attended with certain though mo- 
 derate profit, the latter lucrative in an high de- 
 gree, at a period when neither the interest of 
 money, nor the premium on bills of exchange, 
 were settled vith accuracy, Florence became 
 one of the first cities in Christendom, and many 
 of its citizens extremely opulent. Cosmo di 
 Medici, the head of a family which rose from 
 obscurity by its success in trade, Was reckon- 
 ed the most wealthy merchant ever known in 
 
 h Giov. Villani Hist. Fiorent. ap. Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. 
 vol. xiii. p. 823. Dell' Istorie Florentine, di Scip. Ammirato, 
 Jib. iv. p. 151. lib. viii. p. 299. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. |gy 
 
 Europe 1 ; and in acts of public munificence, as s e c t, 
 well as of private generosity, in the patronage HI. 
 of learning, and in the encouragement of useful 
 and elegant arts, no monarch of the age could 
 vie with him. Whether the Medici, in their first 
 mercantile transactions, carried on any com- 
 merce with the East, I have not been able to 
 discover." It is more probable, I should think, 
 that their trade was confined to the same articles 
 with that of their countrymen. But as soon as A.c 1405. 
 the common- wealth, by the conquest of Pisa, 
 had acquired a communication with the ocean, 
 Cosmo di Medici, who had the chief direction 
 of its affairs, endeavoured to procure for his 
 country a share in that lucrative commerce 
 which had raised Venice and Genoa so far above 
 all the other Italian states. With this view am- a.c. 1425, 
 bassadors were sent to Alexandria, in order to 
 prevail with the Soldan to open that and the 
 other ports of his dominions, to the subjects of 
 the republic, and to admit them to a participa- 
 tion in all the commercial privileges which were 
 enjoyed by the Venetians. The negotiation 
 terminated with such success, that the Floren- 
 tines seem to have obtained some share in the 
 Indian trade 1 ; and soon after this period, we 
 find spices enumerated among the commodities 
 imported by the Florentines into England. 111 
 
 1 Fr. Mich. Brutus Hist. Flor. p. 37. 62. Chron. Eugu- 
 binum ap. Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol xiv. p. 1007. Be- 
 niria Revol. d'ltalie, torn. vi. p. 263, &c. 
 
 k See NOTE XL VI. » See NOTE XLVII. 
 
 m Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 193. 
 
128 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 In some parts of this Disquisition, concerning 
 the nature and course of trade with the East, I 
 have been obliged to grope my way, and often 
 under the guidance of very feeble lights. But 
 as we are now approaching to the period when 
 the modern ideas, with respect to the importance 
 of commerce, began to unfold, and attention to 
 its progress and effects became a more consider- 
 able object of policy, we may hope to carry on 
 what researches yet remain to be made, with 
 greater certainty and precision. To this grow- 
 ing attention we are indebted for the account 
 which Marino Sanudo, a Venetian nobleman, 
 gives of the Indian trade, as carried on by his 
 countrymen, about the beginning of the four- 
 teenth century. They were supplied, as he in- 
 forms us, with the productions of the East in two 
 different ways, Those of small bulk and high va- 
 lue, such as cloves, nutmegs, mace, gems, pearls, 
 &c. were conveyed from the Persian Gulf up the 
 Tigris to Bassora, and thence to Bagdat, from 
 which they were carried to some port on the 
 Mediterranean. All more bulky goods, such as 
 pepper, ginger, cinnamon, &c. together with some 
 portion of the more valuable articles, were con- 
 veyed by the ancient route to the Red Sea, and 
 thence across the desert, and down the Nile, to 
 Alexandria. The goods received by the former 
 route were, as Sanudo observes, of superior quality, 
 but from the tediousness and expense of a distant 
 land-carriage, the supply was often scanty, nor can 
 he conceal (though contrary to a favourite project 
 which he had in view when he wrote the treatise to 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 129 
 
 which I refer) that, from the state of the coun- sect. 
 
 tries through which the caravans passed, this , ^ 
 
 mode of conveyance was frequently precarious 
 and attended with danger." 
 
 It was in Alexandria only that the Venetians 
 found always a certain and full supply of Indian 
 goods ; and as these were conveyed thither 
 chiefly by water-carriage, they might have pur- 
 chased them at a moderate price, if the Soldans 
 had not imposed upon them duties which 
 amounted to a third part of their full value. 
 Under this and every other disadvantage, how- 
 ever, it was necessary to procure them, as from 
 many concurring circumstances, particularly a 
 more extensive intercourse established among 
 the different nations of Europe, the demand for 
 them continued to increase greatly during the 
 fourteenth century. By the irruptions of the 
 various hostile tribes of Barbarians, who took 
 possession of the greater part of Europe, that 
 powerful bond by which the Romans had united 
 together all the people of their vast empire was 
 entirely dissolved, and such discouragement was 
 given to the communication of one nation with 
 another, as would appear altogether incredible, 
 if the evidence of it rested wholly upon the tes- 
 timony of historians, and were not confirmed by 
 what is still more authentic, the express enact- 
 ment of laws. Several statutes of this kind, 
 which disgrace the jurisprudence of almost 
 
 n Mar. Sanuti Secreta Fidelium Grucis, p. 22, &c. ap. 
 Bongarsiura. 
 
 VOL. XII. K 
 
130 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SEC T. every European nation, I have enumerated and 
 IIL explained in another work. But when the wants 
 and desires of men multiplied, and they found 
 that other countries could furnish the means of 
 supplying and gratifying them, the hostile sen- 
 timents which kept nations at a distance from 
 each other abated, and mutual correspondence 
 gradually took place. From the time of the 
 Crusades, which first brought people hardly 
 known to one another, to associate, and to act 
 in concert during two centuries, in pursuit of 
 one common end, several circumstances had 
 co-operated towards accelerating this general 
 intercourse. The people around the Baltic, 
 hitherto dreaded and abhorred by the rest of 
 Europe as pirates and invaders, assumed more 
 pacific manners, and began now to visit their 
 neighbours as merchants. Occurrences foreign 
 from the subject of the present inquiry, united 
 them together in the powerful commercial con- 
 federacy so famous in the middle ages, under 
 the name of the Hanseatic League, and led 
 them to establish the staple of their trade with 
 the southern parts of Europe in Bruges. Thither 
 the merchants of Italy, particularly those of 
 Venice, resorted ; and in return for the produc- 
 tions of the East, and the manufactures of their 
 own country, they received not only the naval 
 stores and other commodities of the north, but 
 a considerable supply of gold and silver from 
 the mines in various provinces of Germany, the 
 
 Hist, of Chailes V. vol.i. p. 92. 291, &c. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 131 
 
 most valuable and productive of any known at SEC T. 
 that time in Europe. p Bruges continued to be IIL 
 the great mart or store-house of European trade 
 during the period to which my inquiries extend. 
 A regular communication, formerly unknown, 
 was kept up there among all the kingdoms into 
 which our continent is divided, and we are en- 
 abled to account for the rapid progress of the 
 Italian states in wealth and power, by observing 
 how much their trade, the source from which 
 both were derived, must have augmented upon 
 the vast increase in the consumption of Asiatic 
 goods, when all the extensive countries towards 
 the north-east of Europe were opened for their 
 reception. 
 
 During this prosperous and improving state 
 of Indian commerce, Venice received from one 
 of its citizens such new information concerning 
 the countries which produced the precious com- 
 modities that formed the most valuable article 
 of its trade, as gave an idea of their opulence, 
 their population, and their extent, which rose 
 far above all the former conceptions of Euro- 
 peans. From the time that the Mahomedans 
 became masters of Egypt, as no Christian was 
 permitted to pass through their dominions to the 
 east q , the direct intercourse of Europeans with 
 India ceased entirely. The account of India 
 by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the sixth century, 
 is, as far as I know, the last which the nations 
 
 p Zimmerman's Polxt. Survey of Europe, p. 102. 
 i Sanuto, p,23. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s E c T. of the West received from any person who had 
 
 in - t visited that country. But about the middle of 
 
 the thirteenth century, the spirit of commerce, 
 now become more enterprising, and more eager 
 to discover new routes which led to wealth, in- 
 duced Marco Polo, a Venetian of a noble family* 
 after trading for some time in many of the opu- 
 lent cities of the Lesser Asia, to penetrate into 
 the more eastern parts of that continent, as far 
 as to the court of the Great Khan on the fron- 
 tier of China. During the course of twenty-six 
 years, partly employed in mercantile transactions, 
 and partly in conducting negotiations with which 
 the Great Khan intrusted him, he explored many 
 regions of the east which no European had ever 
 visited. 
 
 He describes the great kingdom of Cathay, 
 the name by which China is still known in many 
 parts of the east r , and travelled through it from 
 Chambalu, or Peking, on its northern frontier, 
 to some of its most southern provinces. He 
 visited different parts of Indostan, and is the first 
 who mentions Bengal and Guzzerat, by their 
 present names, as great and opulent kingdoms. 
 Besides what he discovered on his journies by 
 land, he made more than one voyage in the 
 Indian ocean, and acquired some information 
 concerning an island which he calls Zipangri 
 or Cipango, probably Japan. He visited in 
 
 r Herbelot Bib. Orient, artic. Khathai, Stewart, Account 
 of Thibet, Phil. Trans. Ixvii. 474. Voyage of A. Jinkinson, 
 Hakluyt. i. 333. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 133 
 
 person Java, Sumatra, and several islands con- sect. 
 tiguous to them, the island of Ceylon, and the m * 
 coast of Malabar, as far as the Gulf of Cambay, 
 to all which he gives the names that they now 
 bear, This was the most extensive survey hitherto 
 made of the East, and the most complete descrip* 
 tion of it ever given by any European ; and, in 
 an age which had hardly any knowledge of those 
 regions but what was derived from the geography 
 of Ptolemy, not only the Venetians, but all the 
 people of Europe, were astonished at the disco- 
 very of immense countries open to their view 
 beyond what had hitherto been reputed the ut- 
 most boundary of the earth in that quarter/ 
 
 But while men of leisure and speculation oc- 
 cupied themselves with examining the discove- 
 ries of Marco Polo, which gave rise to conjec- 
 tures and theories, productive of most important 
 consequences ; an event happened, that drew 
 the attention of all Europe, and had a most 
 conspicuous effect upon the course of that 
 trade, the progress of which I am endeavouring 
 to trace. 
 
 The event to which I allude, is the final con- 
 quest of the Greek empire by Mahomet II. and A.D.1453, 
 the establishing the seat of the Turkish govern- 
 ment in Constantinople. The immediate effect 
 of this great revolution was, that the Genoese 
 residing in Pera, involved in the general cala- 
 
 * See NOTE XL VIII. 
 
134 , AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, mity, were obliged not only to abandon that 
 
 m. settlement, but all those which they had made 
 
 *"* on the adjacent sea-coast, after they had been 
 
 , in their possession near two centuries. Not long 
 
 A.D.1474. after, the victorious arms of the Sultan expelled 
 them from Caffa, and every other place which 
 they held in the Crimea. ■ Constantinople was 
 no longer a mart open to the nations of the West 
 for Indian commodities, and no supply of them 
 could now be obtained but in Egypt and the 
 ports of Syria, subject to the Soldans of the 
 Mameluks. The Venetians, in consequence of 
 the protection and privileges which they had 
 secured by their commercial treaty with those 
 powerful Princes, carried on trade in every part 
 of their dominions with such advantage, as gave 
 them a superiority over every competitor. Ge- 
 noa, which had long been their most formidable 
 rival, humbled by the loss of its possessions in 
 the East, and weakened by domestic dissensions, 
 declined so fast, that it was obliged to court 
 foreign protection, and submitted alternately to 
 the dominion of the Dukes of Milan and the 
 Kings of France. In consequence of this dimi- 
 nution of their political power, the commercial 
 exertions of the Genoese became less vigorous. 
 A feeble attempt which they made to recover 
 -*that share of the Indian trade which they had 
 formerly enjoyed, by offering to enter into 
 treaty with the Soldans of Egypt upon terms 
 
 c Folieta Hist. Genu. 602. 626. Murat. Annali d'ltal. ix, 
 451. 
 
■v— 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA, 15, 
 
 similar to those which had been granted to the sect. 
 Venetians, proved unsuccessful ; and during the t m * 
 remainder of the fifteenth century, Venice sup- 
 plied the greater part of Europe with the pro- 
 ductions of the East, and carried on trade to an 
 extent far beyond what had been known in those 
 times. 
 
 The state of the other European nations was 
 extremely favourable to the commercial progress 
 of the Venetians. England, desolated by the 
 civil wars which the unhappy contest between 
 the houses of York and Lancaster excited, had 
 hardly begun to turn its attention towards those 
 objects and pursuits to which it is indebted for 
 its present opulence and power. In France, the 
 fatal effects of the English arms and conquests 
 were still felt, and the King had neither ac- 
 quired power, nor the people inclination, to di- 
 rect the national genius and activity to the arts 
 of peace. The union of the different kingdoms 
 of Spain was not yet completed ; some of its 
 most fertile provinces were still under the domi- 
 nion of the Moors, with whom the Spanish mo- 
 narchs waged perpetual war ; and, except by the 
 Catalans, little attention was paid to foreign trade. 
 Portugal, though it had already entered upon 
 that career of discovery which terminated with 
 most splendid success, had not yet made such 
 progress in it as to be entitled to any high rank 
 among the commercial states of Europe. Thus 
 the Venetians, almost without rival or competitor, 
 exce_pt from some of the inferior Italian states, 
 
 K 4) 
 
136 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, were left at liberty to concert and to execute 
 ^ l _ their mercantile plans ; and their trade with the 
 cities of the Hanseatic League, which united the 
 north and south of Europe, and which hitherto 
 had been common to all the Italians, was now 
 engrossed, in a great measure, by them alone. 
 
 While the increasing demand for the produc- 
 tions of Asia induced all the people of Europe to 
 court intercourse with the Venetians so eagerly, 
 as to allure them, by various immunities, to fre- 
 quent their sea-ports, we may observe a peculi- 
 arity in their mode of carrying on trade with the 
 East, which distinguishes it from what has taken 
 place in other countries in any period of history* 
 In the ancient world, the Tyrians, the Greeks 
 who were masters of Egypt, and the Romans, 
 sailed to India in quest of those commodities with 
 which they supplied the people of the West. In 
 modern times, the same has been the practice of 
 the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English, and, 
 after their example, of other European nations. 
 In both periods loud complaints have been made, 
 that in carrying on this trade every state must 
 be drained of the precious metals, which, in the 
 course of it, flow incessantly from the west to the 
 east never to return. From whatever loss might 
 have been occasioned by this gradual but una- 
 voidable diminution of their gold and silver, 
 (whether a real or only an imaginary loss, it is not 
 incumbent upon me in this place to inquire or to 
 determine, ) the Venetians were, in a great measure, 
 exempted. They had no direct intercourse with 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. I37 
 
 India. They found in Egypt, or in Syria, ware- sect. 
 houses filled with all the commodities of the East, m - 
 imported by the Mahomedans ; and from the best 
 accounts we have, with respect to the nature of 
 their trade, they purchased them more frequently 
 by barter, than with ready money. Egypt, the 
 chief mart for Indian goods, though a most fertile 
 country, is destitute of many things requisite in 
 an improved state of society, either for accom- 
 modation or for ornament. Too limited in ex- 
 tent, and too highly cultivated to afford space for 
 forests; too level to have mines of the useful 
 metals ; it must be supplied with timber for 
 building, with iron, lead, tin, and brass by jm 
 portation from other countries. The Egyptians, 
 while under the dominion of the Mameluks, 
 seem not themselves to have traded in the ports 
 of any Christian state, and it was principally from 
 the Venetians, that they received all the articles 
 which I have enumerated. Besides these, the in- 
 genuity of the Venetian artists furnished a vari- 
 ety of manufactures of woollen cloths, silk stuffs 
 of various fabric, camblets, mirrors, arms, orna- 
 ments of gold and silver, glass, and many other 
 articles, for all which they found a ready market 
 in Egypt and Syria. In return they received 
 from the merchants of Alexandria, spices of every 
 kind, drugs, gems, pearls, ivory, cotton and silk, 
 unwrought as well as manufactured, in many dif- 
 ferent forms, and other productions of the East, 
 together with several valuable articles of Egyp- 
 tian growth or fabric. In Aleppo, Baruth, and 
 other cities, besides the proper commodities of 
 
138 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT. India brought thither by land, they added to their 
 IIL cargoes the carpets of Persia, the rich wrought 
 silks of Damascus, still known by the name taken 
 from that city, and various productions of art 
 and nature peculiar to Syria, Palestine, and Ara- 
 bia, If, at any time, their demand for the pro- 
 ductions of the East went beyond what they 
 could procure in exchange for their own manu- 
 factures, that trade with the cities of the Hanse- 
 atic League, which I have mentioned, furnished 
 them from the mines of Germany, with a regu- 
 lar supply of gold and silver, which they could 
 carry with advantage to the markets of Egypt 
 and Syria. 
 
 From a propensity, remarkable in all commer- 
 cial states, to subject the operations of trade to 
 political regulation and restraint, the authority 
 of the Venetian government seems to have been 
 interposed, both in directing the importation of 
 Asiatic goods, and in the mode of circulating 
 them among the different nations of Europe. 
 To every considerable staple in the Mediterra- 
 nean a certain number of large vessels, known 
 by the name of Galeons or Caracks, was fitted 
 out on the public account, and returned loaded 
 with the richest merchandise a , the profit arising 
 from the sale of which must have been no slender 
 addition to the revenue of the republic. Citizens, 
 however, of every class, particularly persons of 
 noble families, were encouraged to engage in fo- 
 
 u Sabellicus, Hist. Rer. Venet. Dec. iv. lib. iii. p. 868- 
 Denina Revol. d'ltalie, torn. vi. 340. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 1S g 
 
 reign trade, and whoever employed a vessel of a sect. 
 certain burden for this purpose, received a con- Hi. 
 siderable bounty from the state. x It was in the 
 same manner, partly in ships belonging to the 
 public, and partly in those of private traders, 
 that the Venetians circulated through Europe 
 the goods imported from the East, as well as the 
 produce of their own dominions and manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 There are two different ways by which we may 
 come at some knowledge of the magnitude of 
 those branches of commerce carried on by the 
 Venetians. The one, by attending to the great 
 variety and high value of the commodities which 
 they imported into Bruges, the store-house from 
 which the more northern nations of Europe were 
 supplied. A full enumeration of these is given 
 by a well-informed author, in which is contained 
 almost every article deemed in that age essential 
 to accommodation or to elegance. y The other, 
 by considering the effects of the Venetian trade 
 upon the cities admitted to a participation of its 
 advantages. Never did wealth appear more con- 
 spicuously in the train of commerce. The citizens 
 of Bruges, enriched by it, displayed in their 
 dress, their buildings, and mode of living, such 
 magnificence as even to mortify the pride and 
 excite the envy of royalty. 2 Antwerp, when the 
 staple was removed thither, soon rivalled Bruges 
 
 x Sandi Stor. Ciu. Venez. lib. viii. 891. 
 
 y Lud. Guicciardini Descript. de Paesi Bassi, p. 173. 
 
 z See NOTE XLIX. 
 
140 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT in opulence and splendour. In some cities of 
 ni- Germany, particularly in Augsburg, the great 
 mart for Indian commodities in the interior parts 
 of that extensive country, we meet with early ex- 
 amples of such large fortunes accumulated by mer- 
 cantile industry, as raised the proprietors of them 
 to high rank and consideration in the empire. 
 
 From observing this remarkable increase of opu- 
 lence in all the places where the Venetians had an 
 established trade, we are led to conclude, that the 
 profit accruing to themselves from the different 
 branches of it, especially that with the East, must 
 have been still more considerable. It is impossible* 
 however, without information much more minute 
 than that to which we have access, to form an 
 estimate of this with accuracy ; but various cir- 
 cumstances may be produced to establish, in ge- 
 neral, the justness of this conclusion. From the 
 first revival of a commercial spirit in Europe, the 
 Venetians possessed a large share of the trade 
 with the East. It continued gradually to in- 
 crease, and during a great part of the fifteenth 
 century they had nearly a monopoly of it. This 
 was productive of consequences attending all 
 monopolies. Wherever there is no competition, 
 and the merchant has it in his power to regulate 
 the market, and to fix the price of the commodi- 
 ties which he vends, his gains will be exorbitant. 
 Some idea of their magnitude, during several 
 centuries, may be formed by attending to the 
 rate of the premium or interest then paid for the 
 use of money. This is undoubtedly the most 
 
 14 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 141 
 
 exact standard by which to measure the profit sect. 
 arising from the capital stock employed in com- IIL 
 merce ; for, according as the interest of money 
 is high or low, the gain acquired by the use of 
 it must vary, and become excessive or moderate. 
 From the close of the eleventh century to the 
 commencement of the sixteenth, the period 
 during which the Italians made their chief 
 commercial exertions, the rate of interest was 
 extremely high. It was usually twenty per cent, 
 sometimes above that ; and so late as the year 
 one thousand five hundred, it had not sunk below 
 ten or twelve per cent, in any part of Europe. * 
 If the profits of a trade so extensive as that of 
 the Venetians corresponded to this high value of 
 money, it could not fail of proving a source of 
 great wealth, both public and private. 5 The 
 condition of Venice, accordingly, during the pe- 
 riod under review, is described by writers of that 
 age, in terms which are not applicable to that of 
 any other country in Europe. The revenues of 
 the republic, as well as the wealth amassed by 
 individuals, exceeded whatever was elsewhere 
 known. In the magnificence of their houses, in 
 richness of furniture, in profusion of plate, and 
 in every thing which contributed either towards 
 elegance or parade in their mode of living, the 
 nobles of Venice surpassed the state of the great- 
 est monarchs beyond the Alps. Nor was all this 
 display the effect of an ostentatious and incon- 
 siderate dissipation, it was the natural conse- 
 
 a Hist, of Charles V. vol. i. p. 401, &c. 
 b See NOTE L. 
 
i42 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, quence of successful industry, which, having 'ac- 
 IIL cumulated wealth with ease, is entitled to enjoy 
 it in splendour. c 
 
 Never did the Venetians believe the power of 
 their country to be more firmly established, or 
 rely with greater confidence on the continuance 
 and increase of its opulence, than towards the 
 close of the fifteenth century, when two events 
 (which they could neither foresee nor prevent) 
 happened, that proved fatal to both. The one 
 was the discovery of America. The other was 
 the opening a direct course of navigation to the 
 East-Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. Of all 
 occurrences in the history of the human race, 
 these are undoubtedly among the most interest- 
 ing ; and as they occasioned a remarkable change 
 of intercourse among the different quarters of the 
 globe, and finally established those commercial 
 ideas and arrangements which constitute the chief 
 distinction between the manners and policy of 
 ancient and of modern times, an account of them 
 is intimately connected with the subject of this 
 Disquisition, and will bring it to that period which 
 I have fixed upon for its boundary. But as I 
 have related the rise and progress of these disco- 
 veries at great length in another work d , a rapid 
 view of them is all that is requisite in this place. 
 
 The admiration or envy with which the other 
 nations of Europe beheld the power and wealth 
 
 c See NOTE LI. 
 
 d Hist, of America, Books I. and II. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 143 
 
 of Venice, led them naturally to inquire into the SECT. 
 
 causes of this pre-eminence ; and among these, [^ , 
 
 its lucrative commerce with the East appeared 
 to be by far the most considerable. Mortified 
 with being excluded from a source of opulence, 
 which to the Venetians had proved so abundant, 
 different countries had attempted to acquire a 
 share of the Indian trade. Some of the Italian 
 states endeavoured to obtain admission into the 
 ports of Egypt and Syria, upon the same terms 
 with the Venetians ; but either by the superior 
 interest of the Venetians in the court of the Sol- 
 dans, their negotiations for that purpose were 
 rendered unsuccessful ; or from the manifold ad- 
 vantages which merchants, long in possession of 
 any branch of trade, have in a competition with 
 new adventurers, all their exertions did not pro- 
 duce effects of any consequence. 6 In other coun- 
 tries, various schemes were formed with the same 
 view. As early as the year one thousand four 
 hundred and eighty, the inventive and enterprise 
 ing genius of Columbus conceived the idea of 
 opening a shorter and more certain communica- 
 tion with India, by holding a direct westerly 
 course towards those regions, which, according 
 to Marco Polo and other travellers, extended 
 eastward far beyond the utmost limits of Asia 
 known to the Greeks or Romans. This scheme, 
 supported by arguments deduced from a scientific 
 acquaintance with cosmography, from his own 
 practical knowledge of navigation, from the re- 
 ports of skilful pilots, and from the theories and 
 
 e See NOTE LIE 
 
144 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 conjectures of the ancients, he proposed first to 
 the Genoese his countrymen, and next to the 
 King of Portugal, into whose service he had en- 
 tered, It was rejected by the 'former from igno- 
 rance, and by the latter with circumstances most 
 humiliating to a generous mind. By persever- 
 ance, however, and address, he at length induced 
 the most wary and least adventurous court in 
 Europe, to undertake the execution of his plan ; 
 and Spain, as the reward of this deviation from 
 its usual cautious maxims, had the glory of dis- 
 covering a new world, hardly inferior in mag- 
 nitude to a third part of the habitable globe. 
 Astonishing as the success of Columbus was, it 
 did not fully accomplish his own wishes, or con- 
 duct him to those regions of the East, the expect- 
 ation of reaching which was the original object of 
 his voyage. The effects, however, of his -disco- 
 veries were great and extensive. By giving Spain 
 the possession of immense territories, abounding 
 in rich mines, and many valuable productions 
 of nature, several of which had hitherto been 
 deemed peculiar to India, wealth began to flow 
 so copiously into that kingdom, and thence was 
 so diffused over Europe, as gradually awakened 
 a general spirit of industry, and called forth 
 exertions, which alone must have soon turned 
 the course of commerce into new channels. 
 
 But this was accomplished more speedily, as 
 well as more completely, by the other great event 
 which I mentioned, the discovery of a new route of 
 navigation to the East by the Cape of Good IJope. 
 

 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 145 
 
 When the Portuguese, to whom mankind are in- sec t. 
 debted for opening this communication between m - 
 the most remote parts of the habitable globe, un- 
 dertook their first voyage of discovery, it is pro- 
 bable that they had nothing farther in view than 
 to explore those parts of the coast of Africa 
 which lay nearest to their own country. But a 
 spirit of enterprise, when roused and put in mo- 
 tion, is always progressive ; and that of the Por- 
 tuguese, though slow and timid in its first oper- 
 ations, gradually acquired vigour, and prompted 
 them to advance along the western shore of the 
 African continent, far beyond the utmost boun- 
 dary of ancient navigation in that direction. 
 Encouraged by success, this spirit became more 
 adventurous, despised dangers which formerly 
 appalled it, and surmounted difficulties which 
 it once deemed insuperable. When the Portu- 
 guese found in the torrid zone, which the an- 
 cients had pronounced to be uninhabitable, fer- 
 tile countries, occupied by numerous nations, 
 and perceived that the continent of Africa, in- 
 stead of extending in breadth towards the west, 
 according to the opinion of Ptolemy, appeared 
 to contract itself and to bend eastwards, more 
 extensive prospects opened to their view, and in- 
 spired them with hopes of reaching India, by 
 continuing to hold the same course which they 
 had so long pursued. 
 
 After several unsuccessful attempts to ac- 
 complish what they had in view, a small squadron 
 sailed from the Tagus, under the command of 
 Vasco de Gama, an officer of rank, whose abili» 
 
 VOL. XII. l 
 
146 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, ties and courage fitted him to conduct the most 
 IIL difficult and arduous enterprises. From unac- 
 quaintance, however, with the proper season and 
 route of navigation in that vast ocean through 
 which he had to steer his course, his voyage was 
 long and dangerous. At length he doubled that 
 promontory, which for several years had been 
 . the object of terror and of hope to his country- 
 men. From that, after a prosperous navigation 
 along the south-east of Africa, he arrived at the 
 city of Melinda, and had the satisfaction of dis- 
 covering there, as well as at other places where 
 he touched, people of a race very different from 
 the rude inhabitants of the western shore of 
 that continent, which alone the Portuguese had 
 hitherto visited. These he found to be so far 
 advanced in civilisation, and acquaintance with 
 the various arts of life, that they carried on an 
 active commerce, not only with the nations on 
 their own coast, but with remote countries of 
 Asia. Conducted by their pilots (who held a 
 course with which experience had rendered them 
 well acquainted) he sailed across the Indian 
 ocean, and landed at Calecut, on the coast of 
 Malabar, on the twenty-second of May, one 
 thousand four hundred and ninety-eight, ten 
 months and two days after his departure from 
 the port of Lisbon. 
 
 .The Samorin, or monarch of the country, 
 astonished at this unexpected visit of an un- 
 known people, whose aspect, and arms, and 
 manners, bore no resemblance to any of the na- 
 tions accustomed to frequent his harbours, and 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. I47 
 
 who arrived in his dominions by a route hitherto sec T. 
 deemed impracticable, received them, at first, IIL 
 with that fond admiration which is often excited 
 by novelty. But in a short time, as if he had 
 been inspired with foresight of all the calamities 
 now approaching India by this fatal communi- 
 cation opened with the inhabitants of Europe, 
 he formed various schemes to cut off Garna and 
 his followers. But from every danger to which 
 he was exposed, either by the open attacks or 
 secret machinations of the Indians, the Portu- 
 guese admiral extricated himself with singular 
 prudence and intrepidity, and at last sailed from 
 Calecut with his ships loaded, not only with 
 the commodities peculiar to that coast, but with 
 many of the rich productions of the eastern parts 
 of India. 
 
 On his return to Lisbon, Tie was received with 
 the admiration and gratitude due to a man, who, 
 by his superior abilities and resolution, had con- 
 ducted to such an happy issue an undertaking of 
 the greatest importance, which had long occu- 
 pied the thoughts of his sovereign, and excited 
 the hopes of his fellow-subjects/ Nor did this 
 event interest the Portuguese alone. No nation 
 in Europe beheld it with unconcern. For al- 
 though the discovery of a new world, whether 
 we view it as a display of genius in the person 
 who first conceived an idea of that undertaking 
 
 f Asia de Jc-ao de Barros, dec. i. lib. iv. c. 11. Castag- 
 neda, Hist, de l'lnde trad, en Francois, liv.i. c. 2— 28, 
 
 L c 2 
 
148 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, which led mankind to the knowledge of it, 
 
 ™ t whether we contemplate its influence upon 
 
 science by giving a more complete knowledge of 
 the globe which we inhabit, or whether we con- 
 sider its effects upon the commercial intercourse 
 of mankind, be an event far more splendid than 
 the voyage of Gama, yet the latter seems origi- 
 nally to have excited more general attention. 
 The former, indeed, filled the minds of men 
 with astonishment; it was some time, however, 
 before they attained such a sufficient knowledge 
 of that portion of the earth now laid open to 
 their view, as to form any just idea, or even pro- 
 bable conjecture, with respect to what might 
 be the consequences of communication with it. 
 But the immense value of the Indian trade, 
 which both in ancient and in modern times had 
 enriched every nation by which it was carried 
 on, was a subject familiar to the thoughts of all 
 intelligent men, and they at once perceived that 
 the discovery of this new route of navigation to 
 the East, must occasion great revolutions, not 
 only in the course of commerce, but in the po- 
 litical state of Europe. 
 
 What these revolutions were most likely to 
 be, and how they would operate, were points 
 examined with particular attention in the cities 
 of Lisbon and of Venice, but with feelings very 
 different. The Portuguese, founding upon the 
 rights to which, in that age, priority of discovery, 
 confirmed by a papal grant, were supposed to 
 confer, deemed themselves entitled to an ex- 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 149 
 
 elusive commerce with the countries which they sec T. 
 had first visited, began to enjoy, by anticipation, ni - 
 all the benefits of it, and to fancy that their ca- 
 pital would soon be what Venice then was, the 
 great store-house of eastern commodities to all 
 Europe, and the seat of opulence and power. On 
 the first intelligence of Gama's successful voyage, 
 the Venetians, with the quick-sighted discern- 
 ment of merchants, foresaw the immediate con- 
 sequence of it to be the ruin of that lucrative 
 branch of commerce which had contributed so 
 greatly to enrich and aggrandise their country; 
 and they observed this with more poignant con- 
 cern, as they were apprehensive that they did 
 not possess any effectual means of preventing, or 
 even retarding, its operation. 
 
 The hopes and fears of both were well 
 founded. The Portuguese entered upon the 
 new career opened to them with activity and ar- 
 dour, and made exertions, both commercial and 
 military, far beyond what could have been ex- 
 pected from a kingdom of such inconsiderable 
 extent. All these were directed by an intelli- 
 gent monarch, capable of forming plans of the 
 greatest magnitude with calm systematic wisdom, 
 and of prosecuting them with unremitting per- 
 severance. The prudence and vigour of his 
 measures, however, would have availed little 
 without proper instruments to carry them into 
 execution. Happily for Portugal, v the discern- 
 ing eye of Emanuel selected a succession of of- 
 ficers to take the supreme command in India, 
 
 l 3 
 
150 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 who, by their enterprising valour, military skill, 
 and political sagacity, accompanied with disin- 
 terested integrity, public spirit, and love of their 
 country, have a title to be ranked with the per- 
 sons most eminent for virtue and abilities in any 
 age or nation. Greater things perhaps were at- 
 chieved by them than were ever accomplished in 
 so short a time. Before the close of Emanuel's 
 reign, twenty-four years only after the voyage of 
 Gama, the Portuguese had rendered themselves 
 masters of the city of Malacca, in which the 
 great staple of trade carried on among the inhabit- 
 ants of all those regions in Asia, which Europeans 
 have distinguished by the general name of the 
 East Indies, was then established. To this port, 
 situated nearly at an equal distance from the 
 eastern and western extremities of these coun- 
 tries, and possessing the command of that strait 
 by which they keep communication with each 
 other, the merchants of China, of Japan, of 
 every kingdom on the continent, of the Moluc- 
 cas, and all the islands in the Archipelago, re- 
 sorted from the East ; and those of Malabar, of 
 Ceylon, of Coromandel, and of Bengal, from the 
 West. g This conquest secured to the Portuguese 
 great influence over the interior commerce of In- 
 dia, while, at the same time, by their settlements 
 at Goa and Diu, they were enabled to engross 
 the trade of the Malabar coast, and to obstruct 
 greatly the long-established intercourse of Egypt 
 
 s Decad. de Carros, dec. i. liv. viii. c. 1. Osor. de reb. 
 Eman. lib. vii.213, &c. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 151 
 
 with India by the Red Sea. Their ships I've- sect. 
 quented every port in the East where valuable m - 
 commodities were to be found, from the Cape of 
 Good Hope to the river of Canton ; and along 
 this immense stretch of coast, extending upwards 
 of four thousand leagues 11 , they had established 
 for the conveniency or protection of trade, a 
 chain of forts or factories. They had likewise 
 taken possession of stations most favourable to 
 commerce along the southern coast of Africa, 
 and in many of the islands which lie between 
 Madagascar and the Moluccas. In every jpart of 
 the East they were received with respect, in 
 many they had acquired the absolute command. 
 They carried on trade there without rival or 
 control , they prescribed to the natives the 
 terms of their mutual intercourse; they often 
 set what price they pleased on goods which they 
 purchased; and w T ere thus enabled to import 
 from Indostan and the regions beyond it, what- 
 ever is useful, rare, or agreeable, in greater 
 abundance, and of more various lands, than had 
 been known formerly in Europe. 
 
 Not satisfied with this ascendant which they 
 had acquired in India, the Portuguese early 
 formed a scheme, no less bold than interested, of 
 excluding all other nations from participating of 
 the advantages of commerce with the East. In 
 order to effect this, it was necessary to obtain 
 
 h Hist. Gener. des Voyages, torn. i. p. 140. 
 L 4 
 
152 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, possession of such stations in the Arabian and 
 in. Persian Gulfs, as might render them masters of 
 the navigation of these two inland seas, and en- 
 able them both to obstruct the ancient commer- 
 cial intercourse between Egypt and India, and to 
 command the entrance of the great rivers, which 
 facilitated the conveyance of Indian goods, not 
 only through the interior provinces of Asia, but 
 as far as Constantinople. The conduct of the 
 measures for this purpose was committed to Al- 
 phonso Albuquerque, the most eminent of all 
 the Portuguese generals who distinguished them- 
 selves in India. After the utmost efforts of 
 genius and valour, lie was able to accomplish 
 one-half only of what the ambition of his coun- 
 trymen had planned. By wresting the island of 
 Orinuz, which commanded the mouth of the 
 Persian Gulf, from the petty princes, who, as tri- 
 butaries to the monarchs of Persia, had estab- 
 lished their dominion there, he secured to Portu- 
 gal that extensive trade with the East which the 
 Persians had carried on for several centuries. In 
 the hands of the Portuguese, Ormuz soon be- 
 came the great mart from which the Persian em- 
 pire, and all the provinces of Asia to the west 
 of it, were supplied with the* productions of 
 India; and a city which they built on that bar- 
 ren island, destitute of water, was rendered one 
 of the chief seats of opulence, splendour, and 
 luxury in the Eastern World. l 
 
 1 Osorius de reb. gcstisEman. lib x. p. 274, &c. Travernier's 
 ravels, book v. c. 23. Kcempfer Amcenit. Exot. p. 756, &c. 
 
 10 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 1.58 
 
 The operations of Albuquerque in the Red sec t. 
 Sea were far from being attended with equal ni. 
 success. Partly by the vigorous resistance of the 
 Arabian Princes, whose ports he attacked, and 
 partly by the damage his fleet sustained in a sea 
 of which the navigation is remarkably difficult 
 and dangerous, he was constrained to retire, 
 without effecting any settlement of importance. k 
 The ancient channel of intercourse with India 
 by the Red Sea still continued open to the Egyp- 
 tians ; but their commercial transactions in that 
 country were greatly circumscribed and ob- 
 structed, by the influence which the Portuguese 
 had acquired in every port to which they were 
 accustomed to resort. 
 
 In consequence of this, the Venetians soon be- 
 gan, to feel that decrease of their own Indian 
 trade which they had foreseen and dreaded. In 
 order to prevent the farther progress of this evil, 
 they persuaded the Soldan of the Mameluks, 
 equally alarmed with themselves at the rapid 
 success of the Portuguese in the East, and no less 
 interested to hinder them from engrossing that 
 commerce, which had so long been the chief 
 source of opulence both to the monarchs and to 
 the people of Egypt, to enter into a negotiation 
 with the Pope and the King of Portugal. The 
 tone which the Soldan assumed in this negotia- 
 tion was such as became the fierce chief of a mi- 
 litary government. After stating his exclusive 
 
 k Osorius, lib. ix. p. 248 ? &c. 
 
154 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, right to the trade with India, he forewarned Ju- 
 IIL lius II. and Emanuel, that if the Portuguese did 
 not relinquish that new course of navigation by 
 which they had penetrated into the Indian ocean, 
 and cease from encroaching on that commerce, 
 which from time immemorial had been carried on 
 between the east of Asia and his dominions, he 
 w r ould put to death all the Christians in Egypt, 
 Syria, and Palestine, burn their churches, and 
 demolish the holy sepulchre itself. 1 This for- 
 midable threat, which, during several centuries, 
 would have made all Christendom tremble, seems 
 to nave made so little impression, that the Vene- 
 tians, as the last expedient, had recourse to a 
 measure which, in that age, was deemed not 
 only reprehensible but impious. They incited the 
 Soldan to fit out a fleet in the Red Sea, and to 
 attack those unexpected invaders of a gainful mo- 
 nopoly, of which he and his predecessors had long 
 enjoyed undisturbed possession. As Egypt did not 
 produce timber proper for building ships of force, 
 the Venetians permitted the Soldan to cut it in 
 their forests of Dalmatia, whence it was con- 
 veyed to Alexandria, and then carried partly by 
 water and partly by land to Suez. There twelve 
 ships of war were built, on board of which a body 
 of Mameluks was ordered to serve, under the 
 command of an officer of merit. These new 
 enemies, far more formidable than the natives 
 of India with whom the Portuguese had hitherto 
 
 1 Osorius de rebus Eman. lib. iv. p. 110. edit. 1580. 
 Asia de Barros, decad. i. lib. viii. c. 2. 
 
 8 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 155 
 
 contended, they encountered with undaunted sect. 
 courage, and after some conflicts, they entirely t m ; 
 ruined the squadron, and remained masters of 
 the Indian ocean. m 
 
 Soon after this disaster, the dominion of the 
 Mameluks was overturned, and Egypt, Syria, 
 and Palestine were subjected to the Turkish em- 
 pire by the victorious arms of Selim I. Their 
 mutual interest quickly induced the Turks and 
 Venetians to forget ancient animosities, and to 
 co-operate towards the ruin of the Portuguese 
 trade in India. With this view Selim confirmed 
 to the Venetians the extensive commercial pri- 
 vileges which they had enjoyed under the go- 
 vernment of the Mameluks, and published an 
 edict permitting the free entry of all the pro- 
 ductions of the East, imported directly from 
 Alexandria, into every part of his dominions, 
 and imposing heavy duties upon such as were 
 brought from Lisbon. 11 
 
 But all these were unavailing efforts against 
 the superior advantages which the Portuguese 
 possessed in supplying Europe with the com- 
 modities of the East, in consequence of having 
 opened a new mode of communication with it. 
 At the same time, the Venetians, brought to the 
 brink of ruin by the fatal league of Cambray, 
 which broke the power and humbled the pride 
 
 m Asia de Barros, dec. ii. lib. ii. c. 6. Lafitau, Hist, de 
 Decouvertes de* Portugais, i. 292, &c. Osor. lib.iv. p. 120. 
 n Sandi Stor. Civ. Venez. part ii. 901. part iii. 432. 
 
15 6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 of the republic, were incapable of such efforts 
 for the preservation of their commerce, as they 
 might have made in the more vigorous age of 
 their government, and were reduced to the 
 feeble expedients of a declining state. Of this 
 there is a remarkable instance in an offer made 
 by them to the King of Portugal, in the year 
 one thousand five hundred and twenty-one, to 
 purchase at a stipulated price all the spices im- 
 ported into Lisbon, over and above what might 
 be requisite for the consumption of his own sub- 
 jects. If Emanuel had been so inconsiderate as 
 to close with this proposal, Venice would have 
 recovered all the benefit of the gainful mono- 
 poly which she had lost. But the offer met with 
 the reception that it merited, and was rejected 
 without hesitation. 
 
 The Portuguese, almost without obstruction, 
 continued their progress in the East, until they 
 established there a commercial empire ; to which, 
 whether we consider its extent, its opulence, the 
 slender power by which it was formed, or the 
 splendour with which the government of it was 
 conducted, there had hitherto been nothing com- 
 parable in the history of nations. Emanuel, who 
 laid the foundation of this stupendous fabric, had 
 the satisfaction to see it almost completed. Every 
 part of Europe was supplied by the Portuguese 
 with the productions of the East ; and if we ex- 
 cept some inconsiderable quantity of them, which 
 
 Osor c de Iteb. Eman. lib.xii. 265. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 157 
 
 the Venetians still continued to receive by the s E c T. 
 ancient channels of conveyance, our quarter of Hi. 
 the globe had no longer any commercial inter- 
 course with India, and the regions of Asia be- 
 yond it, but by the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 Though from this period the people of Eu- 
 rope have continued to carry on their trade with 
 India by sea, yet a considerable portion of the 
 valuable productions of the East is still conveyed 
 to other regions of the earth by land-carriage. 
 In tracing the progress of trade with India, this 
 branch of it is an object of considerable magni- 
 tude, which has not been examined with suffi- 
 cient attention. That the ancients should have 
 had recourse frequently to the tedious and ex- 
 pensive mode of transporting goods by land, will 
 not appear surprising, when we recollect the im- 
 perfect state of navigation among them : The 
 reason of this mode of conveyance being not 
 only continued, but increased, in modern times, 
 demands some explanation. 
 
 If we inspect a map of Asia, we cannot fail to 
 observe that the communication throughout all 
 the countries of that great continent to the west 
 of Indostan and China, though opened in some 
 degree towards the south by the navigable rivers, 
 Euphrates and Tigris, and towards the north by 
 two inland seas, the Euxine and Caspian, must 
 be carried on in many extensive provinces wholly 
 by land. This, as I have observed, was the first 
 mode of intercourse between different countries, 
 
158 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, and during the infancy of navigation it was the 
 m - only one. Even after that art had attained 
 some degree of improvement, the conveyance 
 of goods by the two rivers formerly mentioned, 
 extended so little way into the interior country, 
 and the trade of the Euxine and Caspian seas 
 were so often obstructed by the barbarous na- 
 tions scattered along their shores, that partly on 
 that account, and partly from the adherence of 
 mankind to ancient habits, the commerce of the 
 various provinces of Asia, particularly that with 
 India and the regions beyond it r , continued to be 
 conducted by land. 
 
 The same circumstances which induced the 
 inhabitants of Asia to carry on such a consider- 
 able part of their commerce with each other in 
 this manner, operated with still more powerful 
 effect in Africa. That vast continent, which lit- 
 tle resembles the other divisions of the earth, is 
 not penetrated with inland seas, like Europe and 
 Asia, or by a chain of lakes like North America, 
 or opened by rivers (the Nile alone excepted) 
 of extended navigation. It forms one uniform, 
 Continuous surface, between the various parts of 
 which there could be no intercourse from the 
 earliest times, but by land. Rude as all the 
 people of Africa are, and slender as the progress 
 is which they have made in the arts of life, such 
 a communication appears to have been early 
 opened and always kept up. How far it ex- 
 tended in the more early periods to which my 
 researches have been directed, and by what differ- 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. I.59 
 
 ent routes it was carried on, I have not sufficient sect. 
 information to determine with accuracy. It is m - 
 highly probable that from time immemorial, the 
 gold, the ivory, tlie perfumes, both of the south- 
 ern parts of Africa, and of its more northern 
 districts, were conveyed either to the Arabian 
 Gulf or to Egypt, and exchanged for the spices 
 and other productions of the East. 
 
 The Mahomedan religion, which spread with 
 amazing rapidity over all Asia, and a consider- 
 able part of Africa, contributed greatly towards 
 the increase of commercial intercourse by land 
 in both these quarters of the globe, and has given 
 it additional vigour, by mingling with it a new 
 principle of activity, and by directing it to a com- 
 mon centre. Mahomet enjoined all his followers 
 to visit once in their life-time the Caaba, or 
 square building in the temple of Mecca, the im- 
 memorial object of veneration among his coun- 
 trymen, not only on account of its having been 
 chosen (according to their tradition) to be the 
 residence of man at his creation p , but because 
 it was the first spot on this earth which was con- 
 secrated to the worship of God q ; in order to 
 preserve continually upon their minds a sense of 
 obligation to perform this duty, he directed that 
 in all the multiplied acts of devotion which his 
 
 p Abul-Ghazi Bayadur* Khan, Hist. General, des Tatars, 
 p. 15. 
 
 q Ohsson Tableau General de 1'Empire Othoman, torn. $. 
 $. 150, &c. 289. edit. Svo. 
 
160 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, religion prescribes, true believers should always 
 HI 1 turrr their faces towards that holy place. r In 
 obedience to a precept solemnly enjoined and 
 sedulously inculcated, large caravans of pilgrims 
 assemble annually in every country where the 
 Mahomedan faith is established. From the shores 
 of the Atlantic on one hand, and from the 
 most remote regions of the East on the other, 
 the votaries of the Prophet advance to Mecca. 
 Commercial ideas and objects mingle with those 
 of devotion, the numerous camels s of each ca- 
 ravan are loaded with those commodities of 
 every country which are of easiest carriage and 
 most ready sale. The holy city is crowded, not 
 only with zealous devotees, but with opulent 
 merchants. During the few days they remain 
 there, the fair of Mecca is the greatest, per- 
 haps, on the face of the earth. Mercantile 
 transactions are carried on in it to an immense 
 value, of which the dispatch, the silence, the 
 mutual confidence and good faith in conducting 
 them, are the most unequivocal proof. The 
 productions and manufactures of India form a 
 capital article in this great traffic, and the 
 caravans on their return disseminate them 
 through every part of Asia and Africa. Some 
 of these are deemed necessary, not only to the 
 comfort, but to the preservation of life, and 
 others contribute to its elegance and pleasure, 
 
 r Herbelot Biblioth. Orient, artic. Caaba Sf Keblalu 
 15 See NOTE LIII. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. Kft 
 
 They are so various as to suit the taste of man- sect 
 kind in every climate, and in different stages of m - 
 improvement ; and are in high request among the 
 rude natives of Africa, as well as the more luxu- 
 rious inhabitants of Asia. In order to supply 
 their several demands, the caravans return 
 loaded with the muslins and chintzes of Bengal 
 and the Deccan, the shawls of Cachemire, the 
 pepper of Malabar, the diamonds of Golconda, 
 the pearls of Kilcare, the cinnamon of Ceylon, 
 the nutmeg, cloves, and mace of the Moluccas, 
 and an immense number of other Indian com- 
 modities. 
 
 Besides these great caravans, formed partly by 
 respect for a religious precept, and partly with 
 a view to extend a lucrative branch of commerce, 
 there are other caravans, and these not incon- 
 siderable, composed entirely of merchants, who 
 have no object but trade. These, at stated sea- 
 sons, set out from different parts of the Turkish 
 and Persian dominions, and proceeding to In- 
 dostan, and even to China, by routes which were 
 anciently known, they convey by land-carriage 
 the most valuable commodities of these countries 
 to the remote provinces of both empires. It is 
 only by considering the distance to which large 
 quantities of these commodities are carried, and 
 frequently across extensive deserts, which, with- 
 out the aid of camels, would have been impass- 
 able, that we can form any idea of the magni- 
 tude of the trade with India by land, and are 
 
 VOL. XII. M 
 
lfi% AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION, &e. 
 
 SECT, led to perceive, that in- a Disquisition concern- 
 IIL ing the various modes of conducting this com~ 
 l_ T ~ ' merce, it is well entitled to the attention which 
 I have bestowed in endeavouring to trace it* 1 
 
 fc See NOTE LIV. 
 
AN 
 
 HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 ANCIENT INDIA 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 General Observations. 
 
 THUS I have endeavoured to describe the sect, 
 progress of trade with India, both by sea IV - 
 and by land, from the earliest times in which 
 history affords any authentic information con- 
 cerning it, until an entire revolution was made 
 in its nature, and the mode of carrying it on, by 
 that great discovery which I originally fixed as 
 the utmost boundary of my inquiries. Here, then, 
 this Disquisition might have been terminated. 
 But as I have conducted my readers to that 
 period when a new order of ideas, and new ar- 
 rangements of policy began to be introduced 
 into Europe, in consequence of the value and 
 importance of commerce being so thoroughly 
 understood, that in almost every country the 
 
 m 2 
 
!64 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 encouragement of it became a chief object of 
 public attention ; as we have now reached that 
 point whence a line may be drawn which marks 
 the chief distinction between the manners and 
 political institutions of ancient and modern times, 
 it will render the work more instructive and use- 
 ful, to conclude it with some general observ- 
 ations, which naturally arise from a survey of 
 both, and a comparison of the one with the 
 other. These observations, I trust, will be 
 found not only to have an intimate connection 
 with the subject of my researches, and to throw- 
 additional light upon it ; but will serve to 
 illustrate many particulars in the general history 
 of commerce, and to point out effects or con- 
 sequences of various events, which have not 
 been generally observed, or considered with 
 that attention which they merited. 
 
 I. After viewing the great and extensive ef- 
 fects of finding a new course of navigation to 
 India by the Cape of Good Hope, it may appear 
 surprising to a modern observer, that a discovery 
 of such importance was not made, or even at- 
 tempted, by any of the commercial states of the 
 ancient world. But in judging with respect to the 
 conduct of nations in remote times, we never err 
 more widely, than when we decide with regard 
 to it, not according to the ideas and views of their 
 age, but of our own. This is not, perhaps, more 
 conspicuous in any instance, than in that under 
 consideration. It was by the Tyrians, and by the 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 165 
 
 Greeks, who were masters of Egypt, that the sect 
 different people of Europe were first supplied IV - 
 with the productions of the East. From the 
 account that has been given of the manner in 
 which they procured these, it is manifest that 
 they had neither the same inducements with 
 modern nations, to wish for any new communi- 
 cation with India, nor the same means of ac- 
 complishing it. All the commercial transactions 
 of the ancients with the East were confined to 
 the ports on the Malabar coast, or extended, at 
 farthest, to the island of Ceylon. To these sta- 
 ples the natives of all the different regions in 
 the eastern parts of Asia brought the commo- 
 dities which were the growth of their several 
 countries, or the product of their ingenuity, in 
 their own vessels, and with them the ships from 
 Tyre and from Egypt completed their invest- 
 ments. While the operations of their Indian 
 trade were carried on within a sphere so cir- 
 cumscribed, the conveyance of a cargo by tjie 
 Arabian Gulf, notwithstanding the expense of 
 land-carriage, either from Elath to Rhinocolura, 
 or across the desert to the Nile, was so safe and 
 commodious, that the merchants of Tyre and 
 Alexandria had little reason to be solicitous for 
 the discovery of any other. The situation of 
 both these cities, as well as that of the other 
 considerable commercial states of antiquity, was 
 very different from that of the countries to 
 which, in later times, mankind have been in- 
 debted for keeping up intercourse with the 
 remote parts of the globe. Portugal, Spain, 
 
 m 3 
 
166 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT. England, Holland, which have been most active 
 L _, ^y_l , an ^ successful in this line of enterprise, all lie 
 on the Atlantic ocean (in which every European 
 voyage of discovery must commence), or have 
 immediate access to it. But Tyre was situated 
 at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, 
 Alexandria not far from it; Rhodes, Athens, 
 Corinth, which came afterwards to be ranked 
 among the most active trading cities of anti- 
 quity, lay considerably advanced towards the 
 same quarter in that sea, The commerce of all 
 these states was long confined within the pre- 
 cincts of the Mediterranean ; and in some of 
 them, never extended beyond it. The pillars 
 of Hercules, or the straits of Gibraltar, were 
 long considered as the utmost boundary of na- 
 vigation. To reach this was deemed a signal 
 proof of naval skill ; and before any of these 
 states could give a beginning to an attempt to- 
 wards exploring the vast unknown ocean which 
 lay beyond it, they had to accomplish a voyage 
 (according to rSieir ideas) of great extent and 
 much danger. This was sufficient to deter them 
 from engaging in an arduous undertaking, from 
 which, even if attended with success, their situ- 
 ation prevented their entertaining hopes of de- 
 riving great advantage/ 
 
 But could we suppose the discovery of a 
 new passage to India to have become an object 
 of desire or pursuit to any of these states, their 
 science as well as practice of navigation was so 
 
 a See NOTE LV, 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA* I67 
 
 defective, that it would have been hardly pos- sec 
 sible for them to attain it. The vessels which IV - 
 the ancients employed in trade were so small as 
 not to afford stowage for provisions sufficient 
 to subsist a crew during a long voyage. Their 
 construction was such, that they could seldom 
 venture to depart far from land, and their mode 
 of steering along the coast (which I have been 
 obliged to mention often) so circuitous and 
 slow, that from these, as well as from other cir- 
 cumstances which I might have specified b , we 
 may pronounce a voyage from the Mediterra- 
 nean to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, to 
 have been an undertaking beyond their power 
 to accomplish, in such a manner as to render it, 
 in any degree, subservient to commerce. To 
 this decision, the account preserved by Hero- 
 dotus, of a voyage performed by some Phenician 
 ships employed by a king of Egypt, which, 
 taking their departure from the Arabian Gulf, 
 doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and 
 arrived at the end of three years, by the straits 
 of Gades, or Gibraltar, at the mouth of the 
 Nile c , can hardly be considered as repugnant j 
 for several writers of the greatest eminence 
 among the ancients, and most distinguished for 
 their proficiency in the knowledge of geogra- 
 phy, regarded this account rather as an amusing 
 tale, than the history of a real transaction ; and 
 either entertained doubts concerning the possi- 
 
 - b Goguet Orig. des Loix des Artes, &c. ii. 303. 329. 
 £ Lib. iv. c. 42. 
 
 M 4 
 
jgg AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 SECT, bility of sailing round Africa, or absolutely de 
 IV - nied it. d But if what Herodotus relates con- 
 
 w " v ' cerning the course held by these Phenician ships 
 had ever been received by the ancients with ge- 
 neral assent, we can hardly suppose that any 
 states could have been so wildly adventurous 
 as to imagine that a voyage, which it required 
 three years to complete, could be undertaken 
 with a prospect of commercial benefit. 
 
 II. The rapid progress of the moderns in ex- 
 ploring India, as well as the extensive power and 
 valuable settlements which they early acquired 
 there, mark such a distinction between their 
 mode of conducting naval operations, and that 
 of the ancients, as merits to be considered and 
 explained with attention. From the reign of 
 the first Ptolemy, to the conquest of Egypt by 
 the Mahomedans, Europe had been supplied 
 with the productions of the East by the Greeks 
 of Alexandria, by the Romans while they were 
 masters of Egypt, and by the subjects of the 
 Emperors of Constantinople, when that king- 
 dom became a province of their dominions. 
 During this long period, extending almost to a 
 thousand years, none of those people, the most 
 enlightened, undoubtedly, in the ancient world, 
 ever advanced by sea, farther towards the east 
 than the Gulf of Siam, and had no regular 
 established trade but with the ports on the coast 
 
 d Polyb. lib. iii. p. 193. edit. Casaub. Plin. Nat. Hist, 
 lib. ii. c. 6. Ptol. Geogr. lib. iv. c. 9. See NOTE L VI. 
 
 15 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. igg 
 
 of Malabar, or those in the island of Ceylon, sect. 
 They attempted no conquests in any part of In- IV - 
 dia, they made no settlements, they erected no 
 forts. Satisfied with an intercourse merely com- 
 mercial, they did not aim at acquiring any de- 
 gree of power or dominion in the countries where 
 they traded, though it seems to be probable that 
 they might have established it without much 
 opposition from the natives, a gentle effeminate 
 people, with whom, at that time, no foreign and 
 more warlike race was mingled. But the enter- 
 prising activity of the Portuguese was not long 
 confined within the same limits ; a few years 
 after their arrival at Calecut, they advanced to- 
 wards the east, into regions unknown to the 
 ancients. The kingdoms of Cambodia, Cochin- 
 China, Tonquin, the vast empire of China, and 
 all the fertile islands in the great Indian Archi- 
 pelago, from Sumatra to the Philippines, were 
 discovered, and the Portuguese, though opposed 
 in every quarter by the Mahomedans of Tartar 
 or Arabian origin settled in many parts of India, 
 enemies much more formidable than the natives, 
 established there that extensive influence and 
 dominion which I have formerly described. 
 
 Of this remarkable difference between the 
 progress and operations of the ancients and mo- 
 derns in India, the imperfect knowledge of the 
 former, with respect both to the theory and prac- 
 tice of navigation, seems to have been the prin- 
 cipal cause. From the coast of Malabar to the 
 Philippines, was a voyage of an extent far be- 
 yond any that the ancients were accustomed to 
 
170 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, undertake, and, according to their manner of 
 IV - sailing, must have required a great length of 
 time to perform it. The nature of their trade 
 with India was such, that they had not (as has 
 been formerly observed) the same inducements 
 with the moderns, to prosecute discovery with 
 ardour ; and, according to the description given 
 of the vessels in which the merchants of Alex- 
 andria carried on their trade from the Arabian 
 Gulf, they appear to have been very unfit for 
 that purpose. On all these accounts the an- 
 cients remained satisfied with a slender know- 
 ledge of India ; and influenced by reasons 
 proceeding from the same cause, they attempted 
 neither conquest nor settlement there. In order 
 to accomplish either of these, they must have 
 transported a considerable number of men into 
 India. But, from the defective structure of their 
 ships, as well as from the imperfection of their 
 art in navigating them, the ancients seldom ven- 
 tured to convey a body of troops to any distance 
 by sea. From Berenice to Musiris was to them, 
 even after Hipp&lus had discovered the method 
 of steering a direct course, and when their naval 
 skill had attained to its highest state of improve- 
 ment, a voyage of no less than seventy days. By 
 the ancient route along the coast of Persia, a 
 voyage from the Arabian Gulf to any part of 
 India must have been of greater length, and ac- 
 complished more slowly. As no hostile attack 
 was ever made upon India by sea, either by the 
 Greek monarchs of Egypt, though the two first 
 of them were able and ambitious Princes, or by 
 the most enterprising of the Roman Emperors, 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 171 
 
 it is evident that they must have deemed it an sec t. 
 attempt beyond their power to execute. Alex- IV. 
 ander the Great, and, in imitation of him, his 
 successors, the monarchs of Syria, were the only 
 persons in the ancient world who formed an idea 
 of establishing their dominion in any part of In- 
 dia ; but it was with armies led thither by land 
 that they hoped to achieve this. 
 
 III. The sudden effect of opening a direct 
 communication with the East, in lowering the 
 price of Indian commodities, is a circumstance 
 that merits observation. How compendious so- 
 ever the ancient intercourse with India may 
 appear to have been, it was attended with consi- 
 derable expense. The productions of the remote 
 parts of Asia, brought t6 Ceylon, or to the ports 
 on the Malabar coast, by the natives, were put 
 on board the ships which arrived from the Ara- 
 bian Gulf. At Berenice they were landed, afrd 
 carried by camels two hundred and fifty-eight 
 miles to the banks of the Nile. There they were 
 again embarked, and conveyed down the river 
 to Alexandria, whence they were dispatched to 
 different markets. The addition to the price of 
 goods by such a multiplicity of operations must 
 have been considerable, especially when the rate 
 chargeable on each operation was fixed by mo- 
 nopolists, subject to no control. But, after the 
 passage to India by the Gape of Good Hope was 
 discovered, its various commodities were pur- 
 chased at Arst hand in the countries of which 
 they were the growth or manufacture. In all 
 these, particularly in Indostan and in China, the 
 
17 2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 subsistence of man is more abundant than in any 
 other part of the earth. The people live chiefly 
 upon rice, the most prolific of all grains ; popu- 
 lation, of consequence, is so great, and labour 
 so extremely cheap, that every production of 
 nature or of art is sold at a very low price. ^Vlien 
 these were shipped in different parts of India, 
 they were conveyed directly to Lisbon, by a na- 
 vigation, long indeed, but uninterrupted and 
 safe, and thence circulated through Europe. The 
 carriage of mercantile goods by water is so much 
 less expensive than by any other mode of con- 
 veyance, that as soon as the Portuguese could 
 import the productions of India in sufficient 
 quantities to supply the demands of Europe, 
 they were able to afford them at such a reduced 
 price, that the competition of the Venetians 
 ceased almost entirely, and the full stream of 
 commerce flowed in its natural direction towards 
 the cheapest market. In what proportion the 
 Portuguese lowered the price of Indian commo- 
 dities. I cannot ascertain with precision, as I 
 have not found in contemporary writers suffi- 
 cient information with respect to that point. 
 Some idea, however, of this, approaching per- 
 haps near to accuracy, may be formed, from the 
 Computations of Mr. I^funn, an intelligent Eng- 
 lish merchant. He has published a table of the 
 prices paid for various articles of goods in India, 
 compared with the prices for which they were 
 sold in Aleppo, from which the difference ap- 
 pears to be nearly as three to one ; and he cal- 
 culates, that, after a reasonable allowance for 
 the expense of the voyage from India, the same 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA, I73 
 
 goods may be sold in England at half the price sect 
 which they bear in Aleppo. The expense of IV - 
 conveying the productions of India up the Per- 
 sian Gulf to Bassora, and thence either through 
 the Great or Little Desert to Aleppo, could not, 
 I should imagine, differ considerably from that 
 by the Red Sea to Alexandria. We may there- 
 fore suppose, that the Venetians might purchase 
 them from the merchants of that city, at nearly 
 the same rate for which they were sold in Aleppo ; 
 and when we add to this, what they must have 
 charged as their own profit in all the markets 
 which they frequented, it is evident that the 
 Portuguese might afford to reduce the commo- 
 dities of the East at a price below that which has 
 been mentioned, and might supply every part of 
 Europe with them more than one-half cheaper 
 than formerly. The enterprising schemes of the 
 Portuguese monarchs were accomplished sooner, 
 as well as more completely, than in the hour of 
 most sanguine hope they could have presumed to 
 expect ; and, early in the sixteenth century, their 
 subjects became possessed of a monopoly of the 
 trade with India, founded upon the only equitable 
 title, that of furnishing its productions in greater 
 abundance, and at a more moderate price. 
 
 IV. We may observe, that, in consequence of 
 a more plentiful supply of Indian goods, and at 
 a cheaper rate, the demand for them increased 
 rapidly in every part of Europe. To trace the 
 progress of this in detail, would lead me far be- 
 yond the period which I have fixed as the limit 
 
17 4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 s e c T, of this Disquisition, but some general remarks 
 Iv - concerning it will be found intimately connected 
 with the subject of my inquiries. The chief 
 articles of importation from India, while the 
 Romans had the direction of the trade with that 
 country, have been formerly specified. But upon 
 the subversion of their empire, and the settle- 
 ment of the fierce warriors of Scythia and Ger- 
 many in the various countries of Europe, the 
 state of society, as well as the condition of indi- 
 viduals, became so extremely different, that the 
 wants and desires of men were no longer the 
 same. Barbarians, many of them not far ad- 
 vanced in their progress beyond the rudest state 
 of social life, had little relish for those accommo- 
 dations, and that elegance, which are so alluring 
 to polished nations. The curious manufactures 
 of silk, the precious stones and pearls of the East, 
 which had been the ornament and pride of the 
 wealthy and luxurious citizens of Rome, were 
 not objects of desire to men, who, for a consi- 
 derable time after they took possession of their 
 new conquests, retained the original simplicity 
 of their pastoral manners. They advanced, how- 
 ever, from rudeness to refinement in the usual 
 course of progression which nations are destined 
 to hold, and an increase of wants and desires re- 
 quiring new objects to gratify them, they began 
 to acquire a relish for some of the luxuries of 
 India. Among these they had a singular predi- 
 lection for the spiceries and aromatics which that 
 country yields in such variety and abundance. 
 Whence their peculiar fondness for these arose, 
 
 ii 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. jjg 
 
 it is not of importance to inquire. Whoever sect 
 consults the writers of the middle ages, will find JV - 
 many particulars which confirm this observation. 
 In every enumeration of Indian commodities 
 which they give f spices are always mentioned as 
 the most considerable and precious article. e In 
 their cookery, all dishes were highly seasoned 
 witfi them. In every entertainment of parade, 
 a profusion of them was deemed essential to 
 magnificence. In every medical prescription 
 they were principal ingredients/ But consider- 
 able as the demand for spices had become, the 
 mode in which the nations of Europe had hi- 
 therto been supplied with them was extremely 
 disadvantageous. The ships employed by the 
 merchants of Alexandria never ventured to visit 
 those remote regions which produce the most 
 valuable spices, and before they could be circu- 
 lated through Europe, they were loaded with 
 the accumulated profits received by four or five 
 different hands through which they had passed. 
 But the Portuguese, with a bolder spirit of navi- 
 gation, having penetrated into every part of Asia, 
 took in their cargo of spices in the places where 
 they grew, and could afford to dispose of them 
 at such a price, that, from being an expensive 
 luxury, they became an article of such general 
 use, as greatly augmented the demand for them. 
 An effect similar to this may be observed with 
 
 e Jac. de Vitriac. Hist. Hieros. ap. Bongars. i. p. 1099. 
 Wilh. Tyr. lib.xii. c.23. 
 
 f Du Cange Glossar. Verb. Aromata, Species, Henry's 
 Hist, of G. Brit. vol. iv. p. 597, 598, 
 
176 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 respect to the demand for other commodities 
 imported from India, upon the reduction of their 
 price by the Portuguese. From that period a 
 growing taste for Asiatic luxuries may be traced 
 in every country of Europe, and the number of 
 ships fitted out for that trade at Lisbon conti- 
 nued to increase every year. g 
 
 V. Lucrative as the trade with India was, 
 and had long been deemed, it is remarkable that 
 the Portuguese were suffered to remain in the 
 undisturbed and exclusive possession of it, during 
 the course of almost a century* In the ancient 
 world, though Alexandria, from the peculiar 
 felicity of its situation, could carry on an inter- 
 course with the East by sea, and circulate its 
 productions through Europe with such advan- 
 tage, as gave it a decided superiority over every 
 rival ; yet various attempts (which have been 
 described in their proper places) were made, from 
 time to time, to obtain some share in a commerce 
 so apparently beneficial. From the growing ac- 
 tivity of the commercial spirit in the sixteenth 
 century, as w ell as from the example of the eager 
 solicitude with which the Venetians and Genoese 
 exerted themselves alternately to shut out each 
 other from any share in the Indian trade, it might 
 have been expected that some competitor would 
 have arisen to call in question the claim of the 
 Portuguese to an exclusive right of traffic with 
 the East, and to wrest from them some portion of 
 it. There were, however, at that time, some pecu- 
 
 e See NOTE LVII. 
 
; . CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. X77 
 
 liar circumstances in the political state of all s E c T. 
 those nations in Europe, whose intrusion, as IV - 
 rivals, the Portuguese had any reason to dread, 
 which secured to them the quiet enjoyment of 
 their monopoly of Indian commerce, during such 
 a long period. From the accession of Charles V. 
 to the throne, Spain was either so much occupied 
 in a multiplicity of operations in which it was en- 
 gaged by the ambition of that monarch, and of 
 his son Philip II., or so intent on prosecuting its 
 own discoveries and conquests in the New World, A.D.1 &i. 
 that although, by the successful enterprise of 
 Magellan, its fleets were unexpectedly conduct- 
 ed by a new course to that remote region of Asia 
 which was the seat of the most gainful and allur- 
 ing branch of trade carried on by the Portuguese, 
 it could make no considerable effort to avail itself 
 of the commercial advantages which it might 
 have derived from that event. By the acquistion 
 of the crown of Portugal, in the year one thou- 
 sand five hundred and eighty, the Kings of Spain, 
 instead of the rivals, became the protectors of 
 the Portuguese trade, and the guardians of all 
 its exclusive rights. Throughout the sixteenth 
 century, the strength and resources of France 
 were so much wasted by the fruitless expedition* 
 of their monarchs into Italy, by their unequal 
 contest with the power and policy of Charles V., 
 and by the calamities of the civil wars which de- 
 solated the kingdom upwards of forty years, that 
 it could neither bestow much attention upon ob- 
 jects of commerce, nor engage in any scheme of 
 distant enterprise. The Venetians, how sensibly 
 vol. xn, n 
 
178 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, soever they flight feel the mortifying reverse 
 TV - of being excluded, almost entirely, from the In- 
 dian trade, of which their capital had been for- 
 merly the chief seat, were so debilitated and hum- 
 bled by the league of Cambray, that they were 
 no longer capable of engaging in any undertak- 
 ing of magnitude. England, weakened (as was 
 formerly observed) by the long contest between 
 the houses of York and Lancaster, and just begin- 
 ning to recover its proper vigour, was restrained 
 from active exertion, during one part of the six- 
 teenth century, by the cautious maxims of 
 Henry VII., and wasted its strength, during an- 
 other part of it, by engaging inconsiderately in 
 the wars between the princes on the continent. 
 The nation, though destined to acquire terri- 
 tories in India more extensive and valuable than 
 were ever possessed by any European power, had 
 no such presentiment of its future eminence 
 there, as to take an early part in the commerce 
 or transactions of that country, and a great part 
 of the century elapsed before it began to turn its 
 attention towards the East. 
 
 While the most considerable nations in Eu- 
 rope found it necessary, from the circumstances 
 which I have mentioned, to remain inactive spec- 
 tators of what passed in the East, the Seven 
 United Provinces of the Low-Countries, recently 
 formed into a small state, still struggling for po- 
 litical existence, and yet in the infancy of its 
 power, ventured to appear in the Indian ocean 
 as the rivals of the Portuguese ; and, despising 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. I79 
 
 their pretensions to an exclusive right of com- sect. 
 merce with the extensive countries to the east- 
 ward of the Cape of Good Hope, invaded that 
 monopoly which they had hitherto guarded with 
 such jealous attention. The English soon fol- 
 lowed the example of the Dutch, and both na- 
 tions, at first by the enterprising industry of pri- 
 vate adventurers, and afterwards by the more 
 powerful efforts of trading companies, under the 
 protection of public authority, advanced with 
 astonishing ardour and success in this new career 
 opened to them. The vast fabric of power which 
 the Portuguese had erected in the East (a super- 
 structure much too large for the basis on which it 
 had to rest) was almost entirely overturned, in as 
 short time, and with as much facility, as it had 
 been raised. England and Holland, by driving 
 them from their most valuable settlements, and 
 seizing the most lucrative branches of their trade, 
 have attained to that pre-eminence in naval 
 power and commercial opulence, by which they 
 are distinguished among the nations of Europe. 
 
 VI. The coincidence, in point of time, of the 
 discoveries made by Columbus in the west, and 
 those of Gama in the east, is a singular circum- 
 stance, which merits observation, on account of 
 the remarkable influence of those events in form- 
 ing or strengthening the commercial connection 
 % of the different quarters of the globe with each 
 other. In all ages, gold and silver, particularly 
 the latter, have been the commodities exported 
 with the greatest profit to India. In no part of 
 
 N 2 
 
180 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, the earth do the natives depend so little upon 
 IV - foreign countries, either for the necessaries or 
 luxuries of life. The blessings of a favourable 
 climate and fertile soil, augmented by their own 
 ingenuity, afford them whatever they desire. In 
 consequence of this, trade with them has always 
 been carried on in one uniform manner, and the 
 precious metals have been given in exchange for 
 their peculiar productions, whether of nature or 
 art. But when the communication with India was 
 rendered so much more easy, that the demand for 
 its commodities began to increase far beyond what 
 had been formerly known, if Europe had not been 
 supplied with the gold and silver which it was ne- 
 cessary to carry to the markets of the East from 
 sources richer and more abundant than her own 
 barren and impoverished mines, she must either 
 have abandoned the trade with India altogether, 
 or have continued it with manifest disadvantage. 
 By such a continual drain of gold and silver, as 
 well as by the unavoidable waste of both in circu- 
 lation and in manufactures, the quantity of those 
 metals must have gone on diminishing, and their 
 value would have been so much enhanced, that 
 they could not have continued long to be of the 
 same utility in the commercial transactions be- 
 tween the two countries. But before the effects of 
 this diminution could be very sensibly felt, Ame- 
 rica opened her mines, and poured in treasures 
 upon Europe in the most copious stream to which 
 mankind ever had access. This treasure, in spite 
 of innumerable anxious precautions to prevent 
 it, flowed to the markets where the commodities 
 
u 
 
 CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 181 
 
 necessary for supplying the wants, or gratify- sect, 
 ing the luxury of the Spaniards, were to be 
 found ; and from that time to the present, the 
 English and Dutch have purchased the produc- 
 tions of China and Indostan, with silver brought 
 from the mines of Mexico and Peru. The im- 
 mense exportation of silver to the East, during 
 the course of two centuries, has not only been 
 replaced by the continual influx from America, 
 but the quantity of It has been considerably aug- 
 mented, and at the same time the proportional 
 rate of its value in Europe and in India has 
 varied so little, that it is chiefly with silver that 
 many of the capital articles imported from the 
 East are still purchased. 
 
 While America contributed in this manner to 
 facilitate and extend the intercourse of Europe 
 with Asia, it gave rise to a traffic with Africa, 
 which, from slender beginnings, has become so 
 considerable, as to form the chief bond of com- 
 mercial connection with that continent. Soon 
 after the Portuguese had extended their disco- 
 veries on the coast of Africa beyond the river 
 Senegal, they endeavoured to derive some be- 
 nefit from their new settlements there, by the 
 sale of slaves. Various circumstances combined 
 in favouring the revival of this odious traffic. 
 In every part of America, of which the Spani- 
 ards took possession, they found that the natives, 
 from the feebleness of their frame, from their 
 indolence, or from the injudicious manner of 
 treating them, were incapable of the exertions 
 
 n 3 
 
18 2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 *s E c T. requisite either for working mines, or for culti- 
 TV - vating the earth. Eager to find hands more 
 industrious and efficient, the Spaniards had re- 
 course to their neighbours the Portuguese, and 
 purchased from them negroe slaves. Experience 
 soon discovered that they were men of a more 
 hardy race, and so much better fitted for en- 
 during fatigue, that the labour of one negroe 
 was computed to be equal to that of four Ameri- 
 cans 11 ; and from that time the number employed 
 in the New World has gone on increasing with 
 rapid progress. In this practice, no less repug- 
 nant to the feelings of humanity than to the prin- 
 ciples of religion, the Spaniards have unhappily 
 been imitated by all the nations of Europe, who 
 have acquired territories in the warmer climates 
 of the New World. At present the number of 
 negroe slaves in the settlements of Great Britain 
 and France in the West-Indies, exceeds a million ; 
 and as the establishment of servitude has been 
 found, both in ancient and in modern times, ex- 
 tremely unfavourable to population, it requires 
 an annual importation from Africa of at least 
 fifty-eight thousand to keep up the stock. 1 If it 
 were possible to ascertain, with equal exactness^ 
 the number of slaves in the Spanish dominions, 
 and in North America, the total number of negroe 
 slaves might be well reckoned at as many more. 
 
 Thus the commercial genius of Europe, which 
 has given it a visible ascendant over the three 
 
 h Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 320. 
 
 1 Report of Lords of the Privy Council, A.D. 1788. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 183 
 
 other divisions of the earth, by discerning their SECT. 
 respective wants and resources, and by render- 
 ing them reciprocally subservient to one another^ 
 has established an union among them, from which 
 it has derived an immense increase of opulence, 
 of power, and of enjoyments, 
 
 VII. Though the discovery of a New World 
 in the west, and the opening of a more easy and 
 direct communication with the remote regions 
 of the east, co-operated towards extending the 
 commerce, and adding to the enjoyments, of 
 Europe, a remarkable difference may be ob- 
 served, with respect both to the time and the 
 manner in which they produced these effects. 
 When the Portuguese first visited the different 
 countries of Asia, stretching from the coast of 
 Malabar to China, they found them possessed 
 by nations highly civilised, which had made con- 
 siderable progress in elegant as well as useful 
 arts, which were accustomed to intercourse with 
 strangers, and well acquainted with all the ad* 
 vantages of commerce. But when the Spaniards 
 began to explore the New World which they dis- 
 covered, the aspect which it presented to them 
 was very different. The islands were inhabited 
 by naked savages, so unacquainted with the 
 simplest and most necessary arts of life, that they 
 subsisted chiefly on the spontaneous productions 
 of a fertile soil and genial climate. The conti- 
 nent appeared to be a forest of immense extent, 
 along the coast of which were scattered some 
 feeble tribes, not greatly superior to the islanders 
 
 n 4 
 
134, AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 in industry or improvement. Even its two large 
 monarchies, which have been dignified with the 
 appellation of civilised states, had not advanced 
 so far beyond their countrymen, as to be entitled 
 to that name. The inhabitants both of Mexico 
 and Peru, unacquainted with the useful metals, 
 and destitute of the address requisite for acquir- 
 ing such command of the interior animals as to 
 derive any considerable aid from their labour, 
 had made so little progress in agriculture, the 
 first of all arts, that one of the greatest difficulties 
 with which the small number of Spaniards, who 
 overturned those highly extolled empires, had to 
 struggle, was how to procure in them what was 
 sufficient for their subsistence. 
 
 It was of consequence, with a very different 
 spirit, that the intercourse with two countries, 
 resembling each other so little in their degree of 
 improvement, was begun and carried on. The 
 Portuguese, certain of finding in the East, not 
 only the productions with which the bountiful 
 hand of nature has enriched that part of the 
 globe, but various manufactures which had long 
 been known and admired in Europe, engaged 
 in this alluring trade with the greatest eagerness 
 The encouragement of it their monarchs consi- 
 dered as a chief object of government, towards 
 which they directed all the power of the king- 
 dom, and rouzed their subjects to such vigorous 
 exertions in the prosecution of it, as occasioned 
 that astonishing rapidity of progress which I have 
 described. The sanguine hopes with which the 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 185 
 
 Spaniards entered upon their career of discovery, sect. 
 met not with the same speedy gratification. From IV - 
 the industry of the rude inhabitants of the New 
 World, they did not receive a single article of 
 commerce. Even the natural productions of the 
 soil and climate, when not cherished and multi- 
 plied by the fostering and active hand of man, 
 were of little account. Hope, rather than suc- 
 cess, incited them to persist in extending their 
 researches and conquests ; and as government 
 derived little immediate benefit from these, it 
 left the prpsecution of them chiefly to private . 
 adventurers, by whose enterprising activity, more 
 than by any effort of the state, the most valuable 
 possessions of Spain in America were acquired. 
 Instead of the instantaneous and great advan- 
 tages which the Portuguese derived from their 
 discoveries, above half a century elapsed before 
 the Spaniards reaped any benefit of consequence 
 from their conquests, except the small quantities 
 of gold which the islanders were compelled to 
 collect, and the plunder' of the gold and silver 
 employed by the Mexicans and Peruvians, as 
 ornaments of their persons and temples, or as 
 utensils of sacred, or domestic use. It was not 
 until the discovery of the mines of Potosi in 
 Peru, in the year one thousand five hundred 
 and forty-five, and of those of Sacotecas in 
 Mexico, soon after, that the Spanish territories 
 in the New World brought a permanent and 
 valuable addition of wealth and revenue to the 
 mother-country. 
 
i8 g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect. Nor did the trade with India differ more from 
 iv. that with America, in respect of the particular 
 circumstances which I have explained, than in 
 respect to the manner of carrying it on, after it 
 grew to be a considerable object of political at- 
 tention. Trade with the East was a simple mer- 
 cantile transaction, confined to the purchase 
 either of the natural productions of the country, 
 such as spices, precious stones, pearls, &c. or of 
 the manufactures which abounded among an in- 
 dustrious race of men, such as silk and cotton 
 stuffs, porcelain, &c. Nothing more was requi- 
 site in conducting this trade, than to settle a few 
 skilful agents in proper places, to prepare a pro- 
 per assortment of goods for completing the car- 
 goes of ships as soon as they arrived from Europe, 
 or at the utmost to acquire the command of a 
 few fortified stations, which might secure them 
 admission into ports where they might careen in 
 safety, and find protection from the insults of 
 any hostile power. There was no necessity of 
 making any attempt to establish colonies, either 
 for the cultivation of the soil, or the conduct of 
 manufactures. Both these remained, as formerly, 
 in the hands of the natives. 
 
 But as soon as that wild spirit of enterprise, 
 which animated the Spaniards who first explored 
 and subdued the New World, began to subside, 
 and when, instead of roving as adventurers from 
 province to province in quest of gold and silver, 
 they seriously turned their thoughts towards ren- 
 dering their conquests beneficial by cultivation^ 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. I87 
 
 and industry, they found it necessary to establish sect. 
 colonies in every country which they wished to ^ 
 improve. Other nations imitated their example 
 in the settlements which they afterwards made 
 in some of the islands, and on the continent of 
 North America. Europe, after having desolated 
 the New World, began to repeople it, and under 
 a system of colonisation (the spirit and regula- 
 tions of which it is not the object of this Disqui- 
 sition to explain) the European race has multi- 
 plied there amazingly. Every article of com- 
 merce imported from the New World, if we ex- 
 cept the furs and skins purchased from the inde- 
 pendent tribes of hunters in North America, and 
 from a few tribes in a similar state on the south- 
 ern continent, is the produce of the industry of 
 Europeans settled there. To their exertions, or 
 to those of hands which they have taught or 
 compelled to labour, we are indebted for sugar, 
 rum, cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, and even 
 the gold and silver extracted from the bowels of 
 the earth. Intent on those lucrative branches 
 of industry, the inhabitants of the New World 
 j>ay little attention to those kinds of labour 
 which occupy a considerable part of the mem- 
 bers of other societies, and depend, in some 
 measure, for their subsistence, and entirely for 
 every article of elegance and luxury, upon the 
 ancient continent. Thus the Europeans have 
 become manufacturers for America, and their 
 industry has been greatly augmented by the 
 vast demands for supplying the wants of exten- 
 sive countries, the population of which is coriti- 
 
18 g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 nually increasing. Nor is the influence of this 
 demand confined solely to the nations which 
 have a more immediate connection with the 
 American colonies; it is felt in every part of 
 Europe that furnishes any article exported to 
 them, and gives activity and vigour to the hand 
 of the artisan in the inland provinces of Germany, 
 as well as to those in Great Britain and other 
 countries, which carry on a direct trade with 
 the New World. 
 
 But while the discovery and conquest of 
 America is allowed to be one principal cause of 
 that rapid increase of industry and wealth, which 
 is conspicuous in Europe during the two last 
 centuries, some timid theorists have maintained, 
 that throughout the same period Europe has 
 been gradually impoverished, by being drained 
 of its treasure in order to carry on its trade with 
 India. But this apprehension has arisen from 
 inattention to the nature and use of the precious 
 metals. They are to be considered in two dif- 
 ferent lights ; either as the signs which all civil- 
 ised nations have agreed to employ, in order 
 to estimate or represent the value both of la- 
 bour and of all commodities, and thus to facili- 
 tate the purchase of the former and the con- 
 veyance of the latter from one proprietor to 
 another •, or gold and silver may be viewed as 
 being themselves commodities, or articles of com- 
 merce, for which some equivalent must be given 
 by such as wish to acquire them. In this light 
 the exportation of the precious metals to the East 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA, 189 
 
 should be regarded ; for, as the nation by which SECT, 
 they are exported must purchase them with the 
 produce of its own labour and ingenuity, this 
 trade must contribute, though not in the same 
 obvious and direct manner as that with America, 
 towards augmenting the general industry and 
 opulence of Europe. If England, as the price 
 of Mexican and Peruvian dollars which are ne- 
 cessary for carrying on its trade with India, must 
 give a certain quantity of its woollen or cotton 
 cloth or hard-ware, then the hands of an addi- 
 tional number of manufacturers are rendered 
 active, and work to a certain amount must be 
 executed, for which, without this trade, there 
 would not have been any demand. The nation 
 reaps all the benefit arising from a new creation 
 of industry. With the gold and silver which 
 her manufactures have purchased in the West, 
 she is enabled to trade in the markets of the 
 East, and the exportation of treasure to India, 
 which has been so much dreaded, instead of im- 
 poverishing enriches the kingdom. 
 
 VIII. It is to the discovery of the passage to 
 India by the Cape of Good Hope, and to the 
 vigour and success with which the Portuguese 
 prosecuted their conquests and established their 
 dominion there, that Europe has been indebted 
 for its preservation from the most illiberal and 
 humiliating servitude that ever oppressed po- 
 lished nations. For this observation I am in- 
 debted to an author, whose ingenuity has 
 illustrated, and whose eloquence has adorned 
 
190 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, the History of the Settlements and Commerce 
 IV - of Modern Nations in the East and West In- 
 dies 1 ; and it appears to me so well founded as 
 to merit more ample investigation. A few years 
 after the first appearance of the Portuguese in 
 India, the dominion of the Mameluks was over- 
 turned by the irresistible power of the Turkish 
 arms, and Egypt and Syria were annexed as pro- 
 vinces to the Ottoman empire. If after this 
 event the commercial intercourse with India had 
 continued to be carried on in its ancient chan- 
 nels, the Turkish Sultans, by being masters of 
 Egypt and Syria, must have possessed the ab- 
 solute command of it, whether the productions 
 of the East were conveyed by the Red Sea to 
 Alexandria, or were transported by land-carriage 
 from the Persian Gulf to Constantinople, and 
 the ports of the Mediterranean. The monarchs 
 who were then at the head of this great empire, 
 were neither destitute of abilities to perceive the 
 pre-eminence to which this would have elevated 
 them, nor of ambition to aspire to it. Selim, the 
 conqueror of the Mameluks, by confirming the 
 ancient privileges of the Venetians in Egypt and 
 Syria, and by his regulations concerning the du- 
 ties on Indian goods, which I have already men- 
 tioned, early discovered his solicitude to secure 
 all the advantages of commerce with the East to 
 his own dominions. The attention of Solyman 
 the Magnificent, his successor, seems to have 
 been equally directed towards the same object* 
 
 1 M. L'Abb£ Raynal. 
 16 ' 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. igi 
 
 More enlightened than any monarch of the Ot- sect. 
 
 toman race, he attended to all the transactions v * v * 
 
 of the European states, and had observed the 
 power as well as Opulence to which the republic 
 of Venice had attained by engrossing the com- 
 merce with the East. He now beheld Portugal 
 rising towards the same elevation by the same 
 means. Eager to imitate and to supplant them, 
 he formed a scheme suitable to his character for 
 political wisdom and the appellation of Institutes 
 of Rules, by which the Turkish historians have 
 distinguished him, and established, early in his 
 reign, a system of commercial laws in his domi- 
 nions, by which he hoped to render Constan- 
 tinople the great staple of Indian trade, as it 
 had been in the prosperous ages of the Greek 
 empire. k For accomplishing this scheme, how- 
 ever, he did not rely on the operations of laws 
 alone - 9 he fitted out about the same time a for- 
 midable fleet in the Red Sea, under the conduct 
 of a confidential officer, with such a body of ja- 
 nizaries on board of it, as he deemed sufficient a,d. isss, 
 not only to drive the Portuguese out of all their 
 new settlements in India, but to take possession 
 of some commodious station in that country, and 
 to erect his standard there. The Portuguese, 
 by efforts of valour and constancy, entitled to 
 the splendid success with which they were 
 crowned, repulsed this powerful armament in 
 every enterprise it undertook, and compelled 
 the shattered remains of the Turkish fleet and 
 
 k Paruta Hist. Venet. lib. vii. p, 589. Sandi Stor. Civil. 
 Venez. part ii. p, 901, 
 
192 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION 
 
 sect, army to return with ignominy to the harbours 
 _^_ from which they had taken their departure, 
 with the most sanguine hopes of terminating the 
 expedition in a very different manner. 1 Soly- 
 man, though he never relinquished the design 
 of expelling the Portuguese from India, and of 
 acquiring some establishment there, was so oc~ 
 cupied, during the remainder of his reign, by the 
 multiplicity of arduous operations in which an 
 insatiable ambition involved him, that he never 
 had leisure to resume the prosecution of it with 
 vigour. 
 
 Ie either the measures of Selim had produced 
 the effect which he expected, or if the more ad- 
 venturous and extensive plan of Solyman had 
 been carried into execution, the command of 
 the wealth of India, together with such a marine 
 as the monopoly of trade with that country has, 
 in every age, enabled the power which possessed 
 it to create and maintain, must have brought 
 an accession of force to an empire already for- 
 midable to mankind, that would have rendered 
 it altogether irresistible. Europe, at that period, 
 was not in a condition to have defended itself 
 against the combined exertions of such naval and 
 military poweiv supported by commercial wealth, 
 and under the direction of a monarch whose com- 
 prehensive genius was able to derive from each 
 its peculiar advantages, and to employ all with the 
 greatest effect. Happily for the human race, the 
 
 1 Asia de Barros, dec. iv. lib. x. c. 1, &c. 
 H 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 293 
 
 despotic system of Turkish government, founded sect. 
 on such illiberal fanaticism as has extinguished IV - 
 science in Egypt, in Assyria, and in Greece, its 
 three favourite mansions in ancient times, was 
 prevented from extending its dominion over 
 Europe, and from suppressing liberty, learning, 
 and taste, when beginning to make successful 
 efforts to revive there, and again to bless, to 
 enlighten, and to polish mankind. 
 
 VOL. XII. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 1 SHALL now endeavour to fulfil an engage- 
 ment which I came under a , to make some 
 observations upon the genius, the manners, and 
 institutions of the people of India, as far as they 
 can be traced from the earliest ages to which 
 our knowledge of them extends. Were I to 
 enter upon this wide field with an intention of 
 surveying its whole extent 5 were I to view each 
 object which it presents to a philosophical in- 
 quirer, under all its different aspects, it would 
 lead me into researches and speculations, not 
 only of immense length, but altogether foreign 
 from the subject of this disquisition. My in- 
 quiries and reflections shall therefore be con- 
 fined to what is intimately connected with the 
 |Lesign of this work. I shall collect the facts 
 which the ancients have transmitted to us con- 
 cerning the institutions peculiar to the natives 
 of India, and by comparing them with what 
 we now know of that country, endeavour to 
 
 a See page 23 
 O 2 
 
19 g APPENDIX. 
 
 deduce such conclusions as tend to point out 
 the circumstances which have induced the rest 
 of mankind, in every age, to carry on com- 
 mercial intercourse to so great an extent with 
 that country. 
 
 Of this intercourse there are conspicuous proofs 
 in the earliest periods concerning which history 
 affords information. Not only the people con- 
 tiguous to India, but remote nations, seem to 
 have been acquainted, from time immemorial, 
 with its commodities, and to have valued them 
 so highly, that in order to procure them they un- 
 dertook fatiguing, expensive, and dangerous 
 journeys. Whenever men give a decided pre- 
 ference to the commodities of any particular 
 country, this must be owing either to its possess- 
 ing some valuable natural productions peculiar 
 to its soil and climate, or to some superior pro- 
 gress which its inhabitants have made in industry, 
 art, and elegance. It is not to any peculiar 
 excellence in the natural productions of India, 
 that we must ascribe entirely the predilection 
 of ancient nations for its commodities ; for, 
 pepper excepted, an article, it must be allowed, 
 of great importance, they are little different 
 from those of other tropical countries ; ano^ 
 Ethiopia or Arabia might have fully supplied the 
 Phenicians, and other trading people of anti- 
 quity, with the spices, the perfumes, the precious 
 stones, the gold and silver, which formed the 
 principal articles of their commerce. 
 
APPENDIX. igy 
 
 Whoever then wishes to trace the commerce 
 with India to its source, must search for it, not 
 so much in any peculiarity of the natural produc- 
 tions of that country, as in the superior improve- 
 ment of its inhabitants. Many facts have been 
 transmitted to us, which, if they are examined 
 with proper attention, clearly demonstrate, that 
 the natives of India were not only more early 
 civilised, but had made greater progress in civi- 
 lisation than any other people. These I shall 
 endeavour to enumerate, and to place them in 
 such a point of view as may serve both to throw 
 light upon the institutions, manners, and arts of 
 the Indians, and to account for the eagerness of 
 all nations to obtain the productions of their in- 
 genious industry. 
 
 By the ancient Heathen writers, the Indians 
 were reckoned among those races of men which 
 they denominated Autochthones or Aborigines, 
 whom* they considered as natives of the soil, 
 w r hose origin could not be traced. b By the 
 inspired writers, the wisdom of the East (an 
 expression which is to be understood as a de- 
 scription of their extraordinary progress in 
 science and arts) was early celebrated. In 
 order to illustrate and confirm these explicit 
 testimonies concerning the ancient and high 
 civilisation of the inhabitants of India, I shall 
 take a view of their rank and condition as in- 
 dividuals ; of their civil policy ; of their laws 
 
 b Diod. Sic. lib.ii. p. 151. c 1 Kings, iv. 31. 
 
 o S 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 and judicial proceedings ; of their useful and 
 elegant arts ; of their sciences ; and of their re- 
 ligious institutions ; as far as information can 
 be gathered from the accounts of the Greek 
 and Roman writers, compared with what still 
 remains of their ancient acquirements and in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 I. From the most ancient accounts of India 
 we learn, that the distinction of ranks and sepa- 
 ration of professions were completely established 
 there. This is one of the most undoubted proofs 
 of a society considerably advanced in its progress. 
 Arts in the early stages of social life are so few, 
 and so simple, that each man is sufficiently master 
 of them all, to gratify every demand of his own 
 limited desires. A savage can form his bow, 
 point his arrows, rear his hut, and hollow his 
 canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand 
 more skilful than his own. d But when time has 
 augmented the wants of men, the productions of 
 art become so complicated in their structure, or 
 so curious in their fabric, that a particular course 
 of education is requisite towards forming the 
 artist to ingenuity in contrivance and expert- 
 ness in execution. In proportion as refinement 
 spreads, the distinction of professions increases, 
 and they branch out into more numerous and 
 minute subdivisions. Prior to the records of 
 authentic history, and even before the most re- 
 mote aera to which their own traditions pretend 
 
 d Hist, of Amer. voLiii. 165. 
 
APPENDIX, 199 
 
 to reach, this separation of professions had not 
 only taken place among the natives of India, but 
 the perpetuity of it was secured by an institution, 
 which must be considered as the fundamental 
 article in the system of their policy. The whole 
 body of the people was divided into four orders 
 or casts. The members of the first, deemed the 
 most sacred, had it for their province to study 
 the principles of religion ; to perform its func- 
 tions ; and to cultivate the sciences. They were 
 the priests, the instructors, and philosophers of 
 the nation. The members of the second order 
 were intrusted with the government and defence 
 of the. state. In peace they were its rulers and 
 magistrates ; in war they were the generals who 
 commanded its armies and the soldiers who 
 fought its battles. The third was composed of 
 husbandmen and merchants ; and the fourth of 
 artisans, labourers, and servants. None of these 
 can ever quit his own cast, or be admitted into 
 another. 6 The station of every individual is un- 
 alterably fixed ; his destiny is irrevocable ; and 
 the walk of life is marked out, from which he must 
 never deviate. This line of separation is not only 
 established by civil authority, but confirmed and 
 sanctioned by religion, and each order or cast 
 is said to have proceeded from the Divinity in 
 such a different manner, that to mingle and con- 
 found them would be deemed an act of most 
 
 e Ayeen Akbery, iii. 81, &c. Sketches relating to the 
 History, &c. of the Hindoos, p. 107, &c. 
 
 o 4 
 
20$ APPENDIX 
 
 daring impiety/ Nor is it between the four 
 different tribes alone that such insuperable bar- 
 riers are fixed ; the members of each cast adhere 
 invariably to the professions of their forefathers. 
 From generation to generation, the same families 
 have followed, and will always continue to fol- 
 low, one uniform line of life. 
 
 Such arbitrary arrangements of the various 
 members which compose a community, seem, at 
 first view, to be adverse to improvement either 
 in science or in arts ; and by forming around the 
 different orders of men artificial barriers, which 
 it would be impious to pass, tend to circumscribe 
 the operations of the human mind within a nar- 
 rower sphere than nature has allotted to them. 
 When every man is at full liberty to direct his 
 efforts towards those objects and that end w r hich 
 the impulse of his own mind prompts him to pre- 
 fer, he may be expected to attain that high degree 
 of eminence to which the uncontrolled exertions 
 of genius and industry naturally conduct. The 
 regulations of Indian policy, with respect to the 
 different orders of men, must necessarily, at some 
 times, check genius in its career, and confine to 
 the functions of an inferior cast, talents fitted to 
 shine in an higher sphere. But the arrange- 
 ments of civil government are made, not for 
 what is extraordinary, but for what is common ; 
 not for the few, but for the many. The object 
 
 f See Note LVIII. 
 
APPENDIX. gpj 
 
 vE the first Indian legislators was to employ the 
 most effectual means of providing for the sub- 
 sistence, the security, and happiness of all the 
 members of the community over which they 
 presided. With this view they set apart certain 
 races of men for each of the various professions 
 and arts necessary in a well-ordered society, and 
 appointed the exercise of them to be transmitted 
 from father to son in succession. This system, 
 though extremely repugnant to the ideas which 
 we, by being placed in a very different state of 
 society, have formed, will be found, upon at- 
 tentive inspection, better adapted to attain the 
 end in view, than a careless observer, at first 
 sight, is apt to imagine. The human mind 
 bends to the law of necessity, and is accustomed 
 not only to accommodate itself to the restraints 
 which the condition of its nature, or the insti- 
 tutions of its country, impose, but to acquiesce in 
 them. From his entrance into life, an Indian 
 knows the station allotted to him, and the func- 
 tions to which he is destined by his birth. The 
 objects which relate to these, are the first that 
 present themselves to his view. They occupy 
 his thoughts, or employ his hands ; and, from 
 his earliest years, he is trained to the habit of 
 doing with ease and pleasure that which he 
 must continue through life to do. To this may 
 be ascribed that high degree of perfection con- 
 spicuous in many of the Indian manufactures; 
 and though veneration for the practices of their 
 ancestors may check the spirit of invention 
 
QQq APPENDIX. 
 
 yet, by adhering to these, they acquire such an 
 expertness and delicacy of hand, that Europeans, 
 with all the advantages of superior science, and 
 the aid of more complete instruments, have 
 never been able to equal the exquisite execution 
 of their workmanship. While this high im- 
 provement of their more curious manufactures 
 excited the admiration, and attracted the com- 
 merce of other nations, the separation of pro- 
 fessions in India, and the early distribution of 
 the people into classes, attached to particular 
 kinds of labour, secured such abundance of the 
 more common and useful commodities, as not 
 only supplied their own wants, but ministered 
 to those of the countries around them. 
 
 To this early division of the people into casts, 
 we must likewise ascribe a striking peculiarity in 
 the state of India ; the permanence of its insti- 
 tutions, and the immutability in the manners of 
 its inhabitants. What now is in India always 
 was there, and is likely still to continue : neither 
 the ferocious violence and illiberal fanaticism of 
 its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its 
 European masters, have effected any considerable 
 alteration. 2 The same distinctions of condition 
 take place, the same arrangements in civil and 
 domestic society remain, the same maxims of 
 religion are held in veneration, and the same 
 sciences and arts are cultivated. Hence, in all 
 ages, the trade with India has been the same - 9 
 
 « See NOTE LIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 1 203 
 
 gold and silver have uniformly been carried 
 thither in order to purchase the same commo- 
 dities, with which it now supplies all nations ; 
 and from the age of Pliny to the present times, 
 it has been always considered and execrated as 
 a gulf which swallows up the wealth of every 
 other country, that flows incessantly towards it, 
 and from which it never returns. 11 According 
 to the accounts which I have given of the car- 
 goes anciently imported from India, they ap- 
 pear to have consisted of nearly the same articles 
 with those of the investments in our own times ; 
 and whatever difference we may observe in them 
 seems to have arisen, not so much from any 
 diversity in the nature of the commodities which 
 the Indians prepared for sale, as from a variety 
 in the tastes, or in the wants of the nations 
 which demanded them. 
 
 II. Another proof of the early and high 
 civilisation of the people of India, may be de- 
 duced from considering their political constitu- 
 tion and form of government. The Indians 
 trace back the history of their own country 
 through an immense succession of ages, and 
 assert, that all Asia, from the mouth of the In- 
 dus on the west, to the confines of China on the 
 east, and from the mountains of Thibet on the 
 north, to Cape Comorin on the south, formed 
 a vast empire, subject to one mighty sovereign, 
 under whom ruled several hereditary Princes 
 
 h See NOTE LX 
 
204 APPENDIX. 
 
 and Rajahs. But their chronology, which mea- 
 sures the life of man in ancient times by thou- 
 sands of years, and computes, the length of the 
 several periods, during which it supposes the 
 world to have existed, by millions, is so wildly 
 extravagant, as not to merit any serious dis- 
 cussion. We must rest satisfied, then, until some 
 more certain information is obtained with re- 
 spect to the ancient history of India, with 
 taking the first accounts of that country, which 
 can be deemed authentic, from the Greeks 
 who served under Alexander the Great. They 
 found kingdoms of considerable magnitude esta- 
 blished in that country. The territories of Po- 
 rus and of Taxiles comprehended a great part of 
 the Panjab, one of the most fertile and best cul- 
 tivated countries in India. The kingdom of 
 the Prasij, or Gandaridse, stretched to a great 
 extent on both sides of the Ganges. All the 
 three, as appears from the ancient Greek writers, 
 were powerful and populous. 
 
 This description of the partition of India into 
 states of such magnitude, is alone a convincing 
 proof of its having advanced far in civilisation. 
 In whatever region of the earth there has been 
 an opportunity of observing the progress of men 
 in social life, they appear at first in small inde- 
 pendent tribes or communities. Their common 
 wants prompt them to unite ; and their mutual 
 jealousies, as well as the necessity of securing sub- 
 sistence, compel them to drive to a distance every 
 rival who might encroach on those domains 
 
APPENDIX. 205 
 
 which they consider as their own. Many ages 
 elapse before they coalesce, or acquire sufficient 
 foresight to provide for the wants, or sufficient 
 wisdom to conduct the affairs of a numerous so- 
 ciety, even under the genial climate, and in the 
 rich soil of India, more favourable perhaps to 
 the union and increase of the human species than 
 any other part of the globe ; the formation of 
 such extensive states, as were established in that 
 country when first visited by Europeans, must , 
 have been a work of long time ; and the mem- 
 bers of them must have been long accustomed 
 to exertions of useful industry. 
 
 Though monarchical government was esta- 
 blished in all the countries of India to which the 
 knowledge of the ancients extended, the sove- 
 reigns were far from possessing uncontrolled or 
 despotic power. No trace, indeed, is discovered 
 there, of any assembly, or public body, the mem- 
 bers of which, either in their own right, or as 
 representatives of their fellow-citizens, could 
 interpose in enacting laws, or in superintending 
 the execution of them. Institutions destined to 
 assert and guard the rights belonging to men in 
 social state, how familiar soever the idea may be 
 to the people of Europe, never formed a part of 
 the political constitution in any great Asiatic 
 kingdom. It was to different principles that the 
 natives of India were indebted for restrictions 
 which limited the exercise of regal power. The 
 rank of individuals was unalterably fixed, and 
 
206 APPENDIX. 
 
 the privileges of the different casts were deemed 
 inviolable. The rnonarchs of India, who were 
 all taken from the second of the four classes 
 formerly described, which is intrusted with the 
 functions of government and exercise of war, 
 behold among their subjects an order of men far 
 superior to themselves in dignity, and so con- 
 scious of their own pre-eminence, both in rank 
 and in sanctity, that they would deem it de- 
 gradation and pollution, if they were to eat of 
 the same food with their sovereign/ Their 
 persons are sacred, and even for the most heinous 
 crimes, they cannot be capitally punished ; their 
 blood must never be shed. l To men in this ex- 
 alted station rnonarchs must look up with respect, 
 and reverence them as the ministers of religion, 
 and the teachers of wisdom. On important oc- 
 casions, it is the duty of sovereigns to consult 
 them, and to be directed by their advice. Their 
 admonitions, and even their censures, must be 
 received with submissive respect. This right of 
 the Brahmins to offer their opinion with respect 
 to the administration of public affairs was not 
 unknown to the ancients" 1 ; and in some accounts 
 preserved in India of the events which happened 
 in their own country, princes are mentioned, who, 
 having violated the privileges of the casts, and 
 disregarded the remonstrances of the Brahmins, 
 
 k Orme's Dissert, vol. i. p. 4. Sketches, &c. p. 113. 
 1 Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xxi. § 10. p. 275. 283, &c. . 
 » Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1029. C. 
 *5 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 were deposed by their authority, and put to 
 death. 11 
 
 While the sacred rights of the Brahmins op- 
 posed a barrier against the encroachments of re- 
 gal power on the one hand, it was circumscribed 
 on the other by the ideas which those who occu- 
 pied the highest stations in society entertained 
 of their own dignity and privileges. As none 
 but the members of the cast next in rank to that 
 which religion has rendered sacred, could be 
 employed in any function of the state, the sove- 
 reigns of the extensive kingdoms anciently esta- 
 blished in India, found it necessary to intrust 
 them with the superintendence of the cities and 
 provinces too remote to be under their own im- 
 mediate inspection. In these stations they often 
 acquired such wealth and influence, that offices 
 conferred during pleasure, continued hereditarily 
 in their families, and they came gradually to 
 form an intermediate order between the sove- 
 reign and his subjects \ and, by the vigilant jea- 
 lousy with which they maintained their own dig- 
 nity and privileges, they constrained their rulers 
 to respect them, and to govern with moderation 
 and equity. 
 
 Nor were the benefits of these restraints upon 
 the power of the sovereign confined wholly to 
 the two superior orders in the state ; they ex- 
 
 n Account of the Qualities requisite in a Magistrate, 
 prefixed by the Pundits to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. ciL 
 and cxvi. 
 
 207 
 
208 APPENDIX. 
 
 tended, in some degree, to the third class em- 
 ployed in agriculture. The labours of that 
 numerous and useful body of men are so essen- 
 tial to the preservation and happiness of society, 
 that the greatest attention was paid to render 
 their condition secure and comfortable. Ac- 
 cording to the ideas which prevailed among the 
 natives of India (as we are informed by the first 
 Europeans who visited their country), the sove- 
 reign is considered as the sole universal pro- 
 prietor of all the land in his dominions, and 
 from him is derived every species of tenure by 
 which his subjects can hold it. These lands 
 were let out to the farmers who cultivated them, 
 at a stipulated rent, amounting usually to a 
 fourth part of their annual produce paid in kind. 
 In a country where the price of work is ex- 
 tremely low, and where the labour of cultivation 
 is very inconsiderable, the earth yielding its pro- 
 ductions almost spontaneously, where subsist- 
 ence is amazingly cheap, where few clothes are 
 needed, and houses are built and furnished at 
 little expense, this rate cannot be deemed ex- 
 orbitant or oppressive. As long as the husband- 
 man continued to pay the established rent, he 
 retained possession of the farm, which descended, 
 like property, from father to son. 
 
 These accounts given by ancient authors of 
 the condition and tenure of the renters of land 
 in India, agree so perfectly with what now takes 
 place, that it may be considered almost as a de*- 
 
 Strab. lib. xv. p. 1030. A. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 53. 
 
APPENDIX. ?09 
 
 scription of the present state of its cultivation. 
 In every part of India where the native Hindoo 
 Princes retain dominion, the Ryots, the modern 
 name by which the renters of land are distin- 
 guished, hold their possessions by a lease, which 
 may be considered as perpetual, and at a rate 
 fixed by ancient surveys and valuations. This 
 arrangement has been so long established, and 
 accords so well with the ideas of the natives, 
 concerning the distinctions of casts, and the 
 i functions allotted to each, that it has been invio- 
 lably maintained in all the provinces subject 
 either to Mahomedans or Europeans ; and, to 
 both, it serves as the basis on which their whole 
 system of finance is founded. p In a more re- 
 mote period, before the original institutions of 
 India were subverted by foreign invaders, the 
 industry of the husbandmen, on which every 
 member of the community depended for subsist- 
 ence, was as secure as the tenure by which he 
 held his lands was equitable. Even war did not 
 interrupt his labours or endanger his property. 
 It was not uncommon, we are informed, that 
 while two hostile armies were fighting a battle 
 in one field, the peasants were ploughing or reap- 
 ing in the next field in perfect tranquillity. q 
 These maxims and regulations of the ancient 
 legislators of India have a near resemblance to 
 the system of those ingenious speculators on po- 
 litical economy in modern times, who repre- 
 sent the produce of land as the sole source of 
 wealth in every country 5 and who consider the 
 
 p See NOTE LXI. q Strabo, lib. xv. p. 10S0:/. 
 
 VOL. XII. P 
 
£10 APPENDIX. 
 
 discovery of this principle, according to which 
 they contend that the government of nations 
 should be conducted, as one of the greatest ef- 
 forts of human wisdom. Under a form of go- 
 vernment, which paid such attention to all the 
 different orders of which the society is com- 
 posed, particularly the cultivators of the earth, 
 it is not wonderful that the ancients should de- 
 scribe the Indians as a most happy race of men ; 
 and that the most intelligent modern observers 
 should celebrate the equity, the humanity, and a 
 mildness of Indian policy. A Hindoo Rajah, as 
 I have been informed by persons well acquainted 
 with the state of India, resembles more a father 
 presiding in a numerous family of his own child- 
 ren, than a sovereign ruling over inferiors, sub- 
 ject to his dominion. He endeavours to secure 
 their happiness with vigilant solicitude ; they are 
 attached to him with the most tender affection 
 / and inviolable fidelity. We can hardly conceive 
 men to be placed in any state more favourable 
 to their acquiring all the advantages derived 
 from social union. It is only when the mind is 
 perfectly at ease, and neither feels nor dreads 
 oppression, that it employs its active powers in 
 forming numerous arrangements of police, for 
 securing its enjoyments and increasing them. 
 Many arrangements of this nature the Greeks, 
 though accustomed to their own institutions, the 
 most perfect at that time in Europe, observed, 
 and admired among the Indians, and mention 
 them as instances of high civilisation and im- 
 provement. There were established among the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Indians three distinct classes of officers, one of 
 which had it in charge to inspect agriculture, 
 and every kind of country work. They measured 
 the portions of land allotted to each renter. 
 They had the custody of the Tanks, or public 
 reservoirs of water, without a regular distribu- 
 tion of which, the fields in a torrid climate can- 
 not be rendered fertile. They marked out the 
 course of the highways, along which, at certain 
 distances, they erected stones, to measure the 
 road and direct travellers. r To officers of a se- 
 cond class was committed the inspection of the 
 police in cities ; their functions, of course, were 
 many and various ; some of which only I shall 
 specify. They appropriated houses for the re- 
 ception of strangers ; they protected them from 
 injury, provided for their subsistence, and, when 
 seized with any disease, they appointed physi- 
 cians to attend them ; and, on the event of their 
 death, they not only buried them with decency, 
 but took charge of their effects, and restored 
 them to their relations. They kept exact regis- 
 ters of births and of deaths. They visited the 
 public markets, and examined weights and 
 measures. The third class of officers superin- 
 tended the military department; but, as the 
 objects to which their attention was directed 
 are foreign from the subject of my inquiries, it 
 is unnecessary to enter into any detail with re- 
 spect to them. s 
 
 f See NOTE LXIL 
 
 * Strabo, lib.xv.p. 1034. A. &c. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 154. 
 
 p 2 
 
 211 
 
21g APPENDIX. 
 
 As manners and customs in India descend al- 
 most without variation from age to age, many of 
 the peculiar institutions which I have enume- 
 rated still subsist there. There is still the same 
 attention to the construction and preservation of 
 tanks, and the distribution of their waters. The 
 direction of roads, and placing stones along 
 them, is still an object of police. Choultries, or 
 houses built for the accommodation of travellers, 
 are frequent in every part of the country, and 
 are useful as well as noble monuments of Indian 
 munificence and humanity. It is only among 
 men in the most improved state of society, and 
 under the best forms of government, that we 
 discover institutions similar to those which I have 
 described ; and many nations have advanced far 
 in their progress, without establishing arrange- 
 ments of police equally perfect. 
 
 III. In estimating the progress which any 
 nation has made in civilisation, the object that 
 merits the greatest degree of attention, next to 
 its political constitution, is the spirit of the laws 
 and nature of the forms by which its judicial 
 proceedings are regulated. In the early and rude 
 ages of society, the few disputes with respect to 
 property which arise, are terminated by the in- 
 terposition of the old men, or by the authority of 
 the chiefs in every small tribe or community ; 
 their decisions are dictated by their own discre- 
 tion, or founded on plain and obvious maxims of 
 equity. But as the controversies multiply, cases 
 similar to such as have been formerly determined 
 must recur, and the awards upon these grow 
 
APPENDIX, 213 
 
 gradually into precedents, which serve to regu- 
 late future judgments. Thus, long before the 
 nature of property is defined by positive statutes, 
 or any rules prescribed concerning the mode of 
 acquiring or conveying it, there is gradually 
 formed, in every state, a body of customary or 
 common law, by which judicial proceedings are 
 directed, and every decision conformable to it is 
 submitted to with reverence, as the result of the 
 accumulated wisdom and experience of ages. 
 
 In this state the administration of justice seems 
 to have been in India when first visited by Euro- 
 peans. Though the Indians, according to their 
 account, had no written laws, but determined 
 every controverted point, by recollecting what 
 had been formerly decided t ; they assert that 
 justice was dispensed among them with great ac- 
 curacy, and that crimes were most severely pu- 
 nished. u But in this general observation is con- 
 tained all the intelligence which the ancients 
 furnish concerning the nature and forms of judi- 
 cial proceedings in India. From the time of 
 Megasthenes, no Greek or Roman of any note 
 appears to have resided long enough in the coun- 
 try, or to have been so much acquainted with 
 the customs of the natives, as to be capable of 
 entering into any detail with respect to a point 
 of so great importance in their policy. For- 
 tunately, the defects of their information have 
 been amply supplied by the more accurate and 
 
 ? Strabo, lib.xv. 1035. D. 
 u Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 154. 
 p 3 
 
214 APPENDIX. 
 
 extensive researches of the moderns. During 
 the course of almost three centuries, the number 
 of persons who have resorted from Europe to In- 
 dia has been great. Many of them who have 
 remained long in the country, and were persons 
 of liberal education and enlarged minds, have 
 lived in such familiar intercourse with the na- 
 tives, and acquired so competent a knowledge 
 of their languages, as enabled them to observe 
 their institutions with attention, and to describe 
 them with fidelity. Respectable as their autho- 
 rity may be, I shall not, in what I offer for illus- 
 trating the judicial proceedings of the Hindoos^ 
 rest upon it alone, but shall derive my inform- 
 ation from sources higher and more pure. 
 
 Towards the middle of the sixteenth century 
 Akber the Sixth, in descent from Tamerlane, 
 f mounted the throne of Indostan. He is one of 
 the few sovereigns entitled to the appellation 
 both of Great and Good, and the only one of 
 Mahomedan race, whose mind appears to have 
 arisen so far above all the illiberal prejudices of 
 that fanatical religion in which he was educated, 
 as to be capable of forming a plan worthy of a 
 monarch who loved his people, and was solicitous 
 to render them happy. As, in every province 
 of his extensive dominions, the Hindoos formed 
 the great body of his subjects, he laboured to 
 acquire a perfect knowledge of their religion, 
 their sciences, their laws, and institutions ; in 
 order that he might conduct every part of his 
 government, particularly the administration of 
 
APPENDIX. 215 
 
 justice, in a manner as much accommodated as 
 possible to their own ideas. x In this generous 
 undertaking he was seconded with zeal by his 
 vizier Abul Fazel, a minister whose understand- 
 ing was not less enlightened than that of his mas- 
 ter. By their assiduous researches, a*id consulta- 
 tion of learned men y , such information was ob- 
 tained as enabled Abul Fazel to publish a brief 
 compendium of Hindoo jurisprudence in the 
 Ayeen Akberry z , which may be considered as the 
 first genuine communication of its principles to 
 persons of a different religion. About two cen- A.D.177.?. 
 turies afterwards, the illustrious example of Ak- 
 ber was imitated and surpassed by Mr. Hastings, 
 the Governor-General of the British Settlements 
 in India. By his authority, and under his inspec- 
 tion, the most eminent Pundits, or Brahmins 
 learned in the laws, of the provinces over which 
 he presided, were assembled at Calcutta; and, in 
 the course of two years, compiled, from their 
 most ancient and approved authors, sentence by 
 sentence, without addition or diminution, a full 
 code of Hindoo laws a ; which is, undoubtedly, 
 the most valuable and authentic elucidation of 
 Indian policy and manners that has been hitherto 
 communicated to Europe. 
 
 According to the Pundits, some of the writers 
 upon whose authority they found the decrees 
 which they have inserted in the Code, lived se- 
 
 x See NOTE LXIII. 
 * Ayeen Akberry, A. vol. iii. p. 95. 
 2 Vol. iii. p. 197, &c. a Preface to the Code, p* - 
 
 P 4 
 
216 APPENDIX, 
 
 veral millions of years before their time b ;> and 
 they boast of having a succession of expounders 
 of their laws from that period to the present. 
 Without entering into any examination of what 
 is so extravagant, we may conclude, that the 
 Hindoos have in their possession treatises concern- 
 ing the laws and jurisprudence of their country, 
 of more remote antiquity than are to be found in 
 any other nation. The truth of this depends not 
 upon their own testimony alone, but it is put be- 
 yond doubt by one circumstance, that all these 
 treatises are written in the Sanskreet language^ 
 which has not been spoken for many ages in any 
 part of Indostan, and is now understood by none 
 but the most learned Brahmins. That the Hin- 
 doos were a people highly civilised, at the time 
 when their laws were composed, is most clearly 
 established by internal evidence contained in 
 the Code itself. Among nations beginning to 
 emerge from barbarism, the regulations of law 
 are extremely simple, and applicable only to a few 
 obvious cases of daily occurrence. Men must 
 have been long united in a social state, their 
 transactions must have been numerous and com- 
 plex, and judges must have determined an im- 
 mense variety of controversies to which these give 
 rise, before the system of law becomes so volumi- 
 nous and comprehensive as to direct the judicial 
 proceedings of a nation far advanced in improve- 
 ment. In that early age of the Roman republic, 
 when the laws of the Twelve Tables were pronlul- 
 
 b Preface to the Code, p. xxxviii. 
 
APPENDIX. 217 
 
 gated, nothing more was required than the laconic 
 injunctions which they contain for regulating the 
 decisions of courts of justice; but, in a later pe- 
 riod, the body of civil law, ample as its contents 
 are, was found hardly sufficient for that purpose. 
 To the jejune brevity of the Twelve^Tables, the 
 Hindoo Code has no resemblance, but with re- 
 spect to the number and variety of points it con- 
 siders, it will bear a comparison with the cele- 
 brated Digest of Justinian ; or with the systems 
 of jurisprudence in nations most highly civilised. 
 The articles of which the Hindoo Code is com- 
 posed, are arranged in natural and luminous or- 
 der. They are numerous and comprehensive, and 
 investigated with that minute attention and dis- 
 cernment which are natural to a people distin- 
 guished for acuteness and subtilty of understand- 
 ing, who have been long accustomed to the ac- 
 curacy of judicial proceedings, and acquainted 
 with all the refinements of legal practice. The 
 decisions concerning every point (with a few ex- 
 ceptions occasioned by local prejudices and pe- 
 culiar customs) are founded upon the great and 
 immutable principles of justice which the human 
 mind acknowledges and respects, in every age, 
 and in all parts of the earth. Whoever examines 
 the whole work, cannot entertain a doubt of its 
 containing the jurisprudence of an enlightened 
 and commercial people. Whoever looks into any 
 particular title, will be surprised with a minute- 
 ness of detail and nicety of distinction, which, in 
 many instances, seem to go beyond the attention 
 of European legislation ; and it is remarkable that 
 some of the regulations which indicate the 
 
ois APPENDIX. 
 
 greatest degree of refinement, were established in 
 periods of the most remote antiquity. " In the 
 " first of the sacred law tracts, (as is observed by 
 " a person to whom Oriental literature, in all its 
 " branches, has been greatly indebted,) which 
 " the Hindoos suppose to have been revealed by 
 " Menu, some millions of years ago, there is a 
 " curious passage on the legal interest of money, 
 u and the limited rate of it in different cases, with 
 ~" an exception in regard to adventures at sea; 
 " an exception which the sense of mankind ap~ 
 " proves, and which commerce absolutely re- 
 " quires, though it was not before the reign of 
 " Charles I. that our English jurisprudence fully 
 " admitted it in respect of maritime contracts."' 
 It is likewise worthy of notice, that though the 
 natives of India have been distinguished in every 
 age for the humanity and mildness of their dispo- 
 sition, yet such is the solicitude of their lawgivers 
 ,to preserve the order and tranquillity of society, 
 that the punishments which they inflict on crimi- 
 nals are (agreeably tp an observation of the an- 
 cients already mentioned) extremely rigorous. 
 " Punishment (according to a striking personifi- 
 " cation in the Hindoo Code) is the magistrate; 
 " punishment is the inspirer of terror; punish- 
 " ment is the nourisher of the subjects; punish- 
 " ment is the defender from calamity; punish- 
 " ment is the guardian of those that sleep ; 
 " punishment^ with a black aspect and a red eye, 
 « terrifies the guilty. 3 ' d 
 
 c Sir Wm. Jones's Third Discourse, Asiat. Research, p. 428* 
 d Code, ch. xxi. § 8. 
 
APPENDIX. gjg 
 
 IV. As the condition of the ancient inhabi- 
 tants of India, whether we consider them as in- 
 dividuals or as members of society, appears from 
 the preceding investigation, to have been ex- 
 tremely favourable to the cultivation of useful 
 and elegant arts ; we are naturally led to in- 
 quire whether the progress which they actually 
 made in them was such as might have been ex- 
 pected from a people in that situation. In at- 
 tempting to trace this progress we have not the 
 benefit of guidance equal to that which conduct- 
 ed our researches concerning the former articles 
 of enquiry. The ancients, from their slender 
 acquaintance with the interior state of India, 
 have been able to communicate little information 
 with respect to the arts cultivated there ; and 
 though the moderns, during their continued inter- 
 course with India for three centuries, have had ac- 
 cess to observe them with great attention, it is of 
 late only, that by studying the languages now and 
 formerly spoken in India, and by consulting and 
 translating their most eminent authors, they have 
 begun to enter into that path of inquiry which 
 leads with certainty to a thorough knowledge of 
 the state of arts cultivated in that country. 
 
 One of the first arts which human ingenuity 
 aimed at improving, beyond what mere necessity 
 requires, was that of building. In the brief re- 
 marks which the subject of my inquiries leads me 
 to make on the progress of this art in India, I 
 shall confine my attention wholly to those of 
 highest antiquity. The most durable monuments 
 
220 APPENDIX. 
 
 of 'human industry are public buildings. The 
 productions of art, formed for the common pur- 
 poses of life, waste and perish in using them ; but 
 works destined for the benefit of posterity subsist 
 through ages, and it is according to the manner 
 in which these are executed, that we form a judg- 
 ment with respect to the degree of power, skill, 
 and improvement to which the people by whom 
 they were erected had attained. In every part of 
 India monuments of high antiquity are found. 
 These are of two kinds, such as were consecrated 
 to the offices of religion, or fortresses built for the 
 security of the country. In the former of these, 
 to which Europeans, whatever their structure 
 may be, give the general name of Pagodas, we 
 may observe a diversity of style, which both marks 
 the gradual progress of architecture, and throws 
 light on the general state of arts and manners in 
 j different periods. The most early Pagodas ap- 
 pear to have been nothing more than exca- 
 vations in mountainous parts of the country, 
 formed probably in imitation of the natural ca- 
 verns to which the first inhabitants of the earth 
 retired for safety during the night, and where 
 they found shelter from the inclemency of the 
 seasons. The most celebrated, and, as there is 
 reason to believe, the most ancient of all these, is 
 the Pagoda in the island Elephanta, at no great 
 distance from Bombay. It has been hewn by the 
 hands of man out of a solid rock, about half 
 way up a high mountain, and formed into a spa- 
 cious area, nearly 120 feet square. In order to 
 support the roof, and the weight of the moun- 
 
 14 
 
APPENDIX. 221 
 
 tain that lies above it, a number of massy pillars, 
 and of a form not inelegant, have been cut out 
 of the same roek, at such regular distances, as 
 on the first entrance presents to the eye of the 
 spectator an appearance both of beauty and of 
 strength. Great part of the inside is covered 
 with human figures in high relief, of gigantic 
 size as well as singular forms, and distinguished 
 by a variety of symbols, representing, it is pro- 
 bable, the attributes of the deities whom they 
 worshipped, or the actions of the heroes whom 
 they admired. In the isle of Salsette, still nearer 
 to Bombay, are excavations in a similar style, 
 hardly inferior in magnificence, and destined for 
 the same religious purposes. 
 
 These stupendous works are of such high an- 
 tiquity, that as the natives cannot, either from 
 history or tradition, give any information con- 
 cerning the time in which they were executed, 
 they universally ascribe the formation of them 
 to the power of superior beings. From the extent 
 and grandeur of these subterraneous mansions, 
 which intelligent travellers compare to the most 
 celebrated monuments of human power and art 
 in any part of the earth, it is manifest that they 
 could not have been formed in that stage of so- 
 cial life where men continue divided into small 
 tribes, unaccustomed to the efforts of persevering 
 industry. It is only in states of considerable ex- 
 tent, and among people long habituated to sub- 
 ordination, and to act with concert, that the 
 idea of such magnificent works is conceived, 
 
gP2 APPENDIX. 
 
 or the power of accomplishing them can be 
 found. 
 
 That some such powerful state was established 
 in India at the time when the excavations in the 
 islands of Elephanta and Salsette were formed, 
 is not the only conclusion to be drawn from a 
 survey of them ; and the style in which the sculp- 
 tures with which they are adorned is executed, 
 indicates a considerable improvement in art at 
 that early period. Sculpture is the imitative art 
 in which man seems to have made the first trial 
 of his own talents. But even in those countries 
 where it has attained to the highest degree of 
 perfection, its progress has been extremely slow. 
 Whoever has attended to the history of this art 
 in Greece, knows how far removed the first rude 
 essay to represent the human form, was from any 
 complete delineation of it. e But the different 
 ' groupes of figures which still remain entire in 
 the Pagoda of Elephanta, however low they must 
 rank if they be compared with the more elegant 
 works of Grecian or even Etruscan artists, are 
 finished in a style considerably superior to the 
 hard inexpressive manner of the Egyptians, or to 
 the figures in the celebrated palace of Persepolis. 
 In this light they have appeared to persons 
 abundantly qualified to appreciate their merit, 
 and from different drawings, particularly those 
 of Niebuhr, a traveller equally accurate in ob- 
 serving, and faithful in describing, we must form 
 
 e Winkelman s Hist, de l'Art. chez les Aneiens, torn. i. 
 p. 32, &c. 
 
APPENDIX. QQS 
 
 a favourable opinion of the state of arts in India 
 at that period. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that although several 
 of the figures in the caverns at Elephanta be so 
 different from those now exhibited in the Pago- 
 das as objects of veneration, that some learned 
 Europeans have imagined they represent the 
 rites of a religion more ancient than that now 
 established in Indostan, yet by the Hindoos 
 themselves the caverns are considered as hal- 
 lowed places of their own worship, and they still 
 resort thither to perform their devotions, and 
 honour the figures there, in the same manner 
 with those in their own Pagodas. In confirm- 
 ation of this, I have been informed by an intelli- 
 gent observer, who visited this subterraneous 
 sanctuary, ih the year 1782, that he was accom- 
 panied by a sagacious Brahmin, a native of 
 Benares, who, though he had never been in it 
 before that time, recognised, at once, all the 
 figures ; was well acquainted with the parentage, 
 education, and life of every deity or human per- 
 sonage there represented, and explained with 
 fluency the meaning of the various symbols by 
 which the images were distinguished. This may 
 be considered as a clear proof that the system of 
 mythology now prevalent in Benares, is not dif- 
 ferent from that delineated in the caverns of 
 Elephanta. Mr. Hunter, who visited Elephanta 
 in the year 1784, seems to consider the figures 
 there as representing deities who are still objects 
 
2^4 APPENDIX. 
 
 of worship among the Hindoos. f One circum- 
 stance serves to confirm the justness of this 
 opinion. Several of the most conspicuous per- 
 sonages in the groupes at Elephanta are deco- 
 rated with the Zennar, the sacred string or cord 
 peculiar to the order of Brahmins, an authentic 
 evidence of the distinction of casts having been 
 established in India at the time when these 
 works were finished. 
 
 2. Instead of caverns, the original places of 
 worship, which could be formed only in parti- 
 cular situations, the devotion of the people soon 
 began to raise temples in honour of their deities 
 in other parts of India. The structure of these 
 was at first extremely simple. They were pyra- 
 mids of large dimension, and had no light with- 
 in but what came from a small door. After 
 having been long accustomed to perform all the 
 rites of religion in the gloom of caverns, the 
 Indians were naturally led to consider the solemn 
 darkness of such a mansion as sacred. Some 
 Pagodas in this first style of building still remain 
 in Indostan. Drawings of two of these at 
 Deogur, and of a third near Tanjore in the 
 Carnatic, all fabrics of great antiquity, have 
 been published by Mr. Hodges g , and though 
 they are rude structures, they are of such mag- 
 nitude as must have required the power of some 
 considerable state to rear them. 
 
 f Archaeologia, vol. vii. p. 286, &c. * N° VI. 
 
APPENDIX. QQr* 
 
 S. In proportion to the progress of the different 
 countries of India in opulence and refinement, 
 the structure of their temples gradually improved. 
 From plain buildings they became highly orna- 
 mented fabrics, and, both by their extent and 
 magnificence, are monuments of the power and 
 taste of the people by whom they were erected. 
 In this highly finished style there are Pagodas of 
 great antiquity in different parts of Indostan, par- 
 ticularly in the southern provinces, which were 
 • not exposed to the destructive violence of Ma- 
 homedan zeal. h In order to assist my readers in 
 forming such an idea of these buildings as may 
 enable them to judge with respect to the early 
 state of arts in India, I shall briefly describe 
 two, of which we have the most accurate ac- 
 counts. The entry to the Pagoda of Chillam- 
 brum near Porto Novo on the Coromandel 
 coast, held in high veneration on account of 
 its antiquity, is by a stately gate under a pyra- 
 mid an hundred and twenty-two feet in height, 
 built with large stones above forty feet long, 
 and more than five feet square, and all covered 
 with plates of copper, adorned with an immense 
 variety of figures neatly executed. The whole 
 structure extends one thousand three hundred 
 and thirty-two feet in one direction, and nine 
 hundred and thirty-six in another. Some 
 of the ornamental parts are finished with 
 an elegance entitled to the admiration of the 
 
 h See NOTE LXIV. x 
 
 VOL, XII. Q 
 
^26 APPENDIX. 
 
 most ingenious artists. 1 The Pagoda of Sering- 
 ham, superior in sanctity to that of Chillambrum, 
 surpasses it as much in grandeur; and fortunately 
 I can convey a more perfect idea of it by adopt- 
 ing the words of an elegant and accurate histo- 
 rian. This Pagoda is situated about a mile from 
 the western extremity of the island of Seringham, 
 formed by the division of the great river Caveri 
 into two channels. " It is- composed of seven 
 6 square inclosures, one within the other, the 
 ' walls of which are twenty-five feet high, and* 
 * four thick. These inclosures are three hundred 
 « and fifty feet distant from one another, and 
 6 each has four large gates, with a high tower; 
 'which are placed, one in the middle of each side 
 6 of the inclosure, and opposite to the four car- 
 ' dinal points. The outward wall is near four 
 6 miles in circumference, and its gateway to the 
 \ south is ornamented with pillars, several of 
 y which are single stones thirty-three feet long, 
 ( and nearly iive in diameter; and those which 
 « form the roof are still larger ; in the inmost in- 
 6 closures are the chapels. About half a mile to 
 1 the east of Seringham, and nearer to the Caveri 
 ' than the Coleroon, is another large Pagoda, 
 6 called Jembikisma; but this has only one inclo- 
 6 sure. The extreme veneration in which Se- 
 ' ringham is held, arises from a belief that it con- 
 4 tains that identical image of the god Wistchnu, 
 \ which is used to be worshipped by the god 
 
 3 Mem. de Literat. torn, xxxii. p. 44, &c. Voy. de M. So- 
 merat, torn. i. p. 217. 
 
APPENDIX w 
 
 u Brahma. Pilgrims from all parts of the peioin* 
 %t sula come here to obtain absolution, and none 
 " come without an offering of money; and a 
 *' large part of the revenue of the island is allot- 
 " ted for the maintenance of the Brahmins who 
 " inhabit the Pagoda; and these, with their fa- 
 " milies, formerly composed a multitude not less 
 " than forty thousand souls, maintained, with- 
 " out labour, by the liberality of superstition. 
 " Here, as in all the other great Pagodas of I»- 
 " dia, the Brahmins live in a subordination which 
 " knows no resistance, and slumber in a volup- 
 " tuousness which knows no wants." k 
 
 The other species of public buildings which I 
 mentioned, were those erected for the defence of 
 the country. From the immense plains of Indos- 
 tan, there arise, in different parts, eminences and 
 rocks formed by nature to be places of strength. 
 Of these the natives early took possession, and, 
 fortifying them with works of various kinds, ren- 
 dered them almost impregnable stations. There 
 seems to have been, in some distant age, a period 
 of general turbulence and danger in India, when 
 such retreats were deemed essentially necessary 
 to public safety; for among the duties of magi- 
 strates prescribed by the Pundits, one is, " that 
 " he shall erect a strong fort in the place where 
 " he chooses to reside ; and shall build a wall on 
 " all the four sides of it, with towers and battle- 
 
 k Orme's Hist, of Milit. Transact, of Indostan 
 p, 178. 
 
 q 2 
 
228 APPENDIX. 
 
 " ments, and shall make a full ditch around it." 1 
 * Of these fortresses several remain, which, both 
 from the appearance of the buildings, and from 
 the tradition of the natives, must have been con- 
 structed in very remote times. Mr. Hodges has 
 published views of three of these, one of Chunar 
 Gur, situated upon the river Ganges, about six- 
 teen miles above the city of Benares" 1 ; the se- 
 cond, of Gwallior, about eighty miles to the 
 south of Agra 11 ; the third of Bidjegur, in the 
 territory of Benares. ° They are all, particularly 
 Gwallior, works of considerable magnitude and 
 strength. The fortresses in Bengal, however, are 
 not to be compared with several in the Deccan* 
 Asseergur, Burhampour, and Dowlatabad, are 
 deemed by the natives to be impregnable p ; and 
 I am assured by a good judge, that Asseergur is 
 indeed a most stupendous work, and so advan- 
 / tageously situated, that it would be extremely 
 difficult to reduce it by force. Adoni, of which 
 Tippoo Sultaun lately rendered himself master, is 
 not inferior to any of them, either in strength or 
 importance. Q 
 
 Nor is it only from surveying their public 
 works that we are justified in asserting the early 
 proficiency of the Indians in elegant and useful 
 
 1 Introd. to Code of Gentoo Laws, p. cxi. 
 ,.°No.I. n No.II. ° No. III. 
 
 p Rennell, Mem. p. 133. 139. 
 * Historical and Political View of the Deccan, g. 13. 
 
APPENDIX. 209 
 
 arts : we are led to form the same conclusion by 
 a view of those productions of their ingenuity, 
 which were the chief articles of their trade with 
 foreign nations. Of these the labours of the In- 
 dian loom and needle have, in every age, been 
 the most celebrated; and fine linen is conjee- ' 
 lured, with some probability, to have been called 
 by the ancients Sindon, from the name of the 
 river Indus or Sindus, near which it was wrought 
 in the highest perfection. r The cotton manu- 
 factures of India seem anciently to have been as 
 much admired as they are at present, not only 
 for their delicate texture, but for the elegance 
 with which some of them are embroidered, and 
 the beautiful colour of the flowers with which 
 others are adorned. From the earliest period of 
 European intercourse with India, that country 
 has been distinguished for the number and ex- 
 cellence of the substances for dying various co- 
 lours, with which it abounded. 3 The dye of 
 the deep blue colour in highest estimation among 
 the Romans, bore the name of Indicum. - From 
 India, too, the substance used in dying a bright 
 red colour, seems to have been imported 11 ; and 
 it is well known that both in the cotton and silk 
 stuffs which we now receive from India, the blue 
 
 r Sir William Jones's Third Discourse, p. 428. 
 
 s Strab. lib. xv.p. 1018. A. 1024. B. 
 
 * Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxv. c 6. § 27* 
 
 u Salmasius Exercit. Pliniaoae in Solin, 18, &c, 810. 
 Salmasius de Homionymis Hyles Jatrica, c, 107. See 
 NOTE LXV. 
 
 Q3 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 and the red are the colours of most conspicuous 
 lustre and beauty. But however much the an- 
 cients may have admired these productions of 
 Indian art, some circumstances, which I have 
 already mentioned, rendered their demand for 
 the cotton manufactures of India far inferior to 
 that of modern times ; and this has occasioned 
 the information concerning them which we re- 
 ceive from the Greek and Roman writers to be 
 very imperfect. We may conclude, however, 
 from the wonderful resemblance of the ancient 
 state of India to the modern, that, in every pe- 
 riod, the productions of their looms were as va- 
 rious as beautiful. The ingenuity of the Indians 
 in other kinds of workmanship, particularly in 
 metals and in ivory, is mentioned with praise by 
 ancient authors, but without any particular de- 
 scription of their nature. x Of these early pro- 
 ductions of Indian artists, there are now some 
 specimens in Europe, from which it appears that 
 they were acquainted with the method of en- 
 graving upon the hardest stones and gems ; and, 
 both in the elegance of their designs and in 
 neatness of execution, had arrived at a consider- 
 able degree of excellence. An ingenious writer 
 maintains, that the art of engraving on gems was 
 probably an Indian invention, and certainly was 
 early improved there, and he supports this opi- 
 nion by several plausible arguments. y The In- 
 
 x Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1044. B. Dionys. Perieges, vers. 1016: 
 y Raspe's Introd. to Tassie's Descript. Catal. of engraved 
 gems, &c. p. xii. &c. 
 
APPENDIX. 231 
 
 dian engraved gems of which he has published 
 descriptions, appear to be the workmanship of a 
 very remote period, as the legends on them are 
 in the Sanskreet language. 2 
 
 But it is not alone from the improved state 
 of mechanic arts in India, that we conclude its 
 inhabitants to have been highly civilised ; a 
 proof of this, still more convincing, may be de- 
 duced from the early and extraordinary produc- 
 tions of their genius in the fine arts. This evi- 
 dence is rendered more interesting, by being 
 derived from a source of knowledge which the 
 laudable curiosity of our countrymen has opened 
 to the people of Europe within these few years. 
 That all the science and literature possessed by 
 the Brahmins, were contained in books written 
 in a language understood by a few only of the 
 most learned among them, is a fact which has 
 long been known ; and all the Europeans settled 
 in India during three centuries, have complained 
 that the Brahmins obstinately refused to instruct 
 any person in this language. But at length, by 
 address, mild treatment, and a persuasion that 
 the earnestness with which instruction was soli- 
 cited, proceeded not from any intention of turn- 
 ing their religion into derision, but from a desire 
 of acquiring a perfect knowledge of their sci- 
 ences and literature, the scruples of the Brahmins 
 have been overcome. Several British gentlemen 
 
 z Raspe's Introd. to Tassie's Descript. Catal. of engraved 
 gems, vol. i. p. 74-. vol. ii. plate xiii. 
 
 Q 4 
 
282 APPENDIX. 
 
 are now completely masters of the Sanskreet 
 language. The mysterious veil, formerly deemed 
 impenetrable, is removed ; and in the course of 
 five years, the curiosity of the public has been 
 gratified by two publications as singular as they 
 were unexpected. The one is a translation by 
 JVJr. Wilkins, of an Episode from the Mahabarat, 
 an epic poem in high estimation among the 
 Hindoos, composed according to their account 
 by Kreeshna Dwypayen Veias, the most eminent 
 of all their Brahmins, above three thousand 
 years before the Christian aera. The other is 
 Sacontala, a dramatic poem, written about a cen- 
 tury before the birth of Christ, translated by 
 Sir W. Jones. I shall endeavour to give my 
 readers such a view of the subject and composi- 
 tion of each of these, as may enable them to 
 estimate, in some measure, the degree of merit 
 1 which they possess. 
 
 The Mahabarat is a voluminous poem, con- 
 sisting of upwards of four hundred thousand 
 lines. Mr. Wilkins has translated more than a 
 third of it ; but only a short episode, entitled 
 Baghvat-Geeta, is hitherto published, and from 
 this specimen we must form an opinion with re- 
 spect to the whole. The subject of the poem is 
 a famous civil war between two branches of the 
 royal house of Bhaurat. When the forces on each 
 side were formed in the field, and ready to decide 
 the contest by the sword, Arjoon, the favourite 
 and pupil of the god Kreeshna, who accompanied 
 
APPENDIX. oss 
 
 him in this hour of danger, requested of him to 
 cause his chariot to advance between the two 
 hostile armies. He looked at both armies, and 
 beheld on either side, none but grandsires, 
 uncles, cousins, tutors, sons, and brothers, near 
 relations or bosom friends ; and when he had 
 gazed for a while, and saw these prepared for the 
 fight, he was seized with extreme pity and com- 
 punction, and uttered his sorrow in the following 
 words : — " Having beheld, O Kreeshna ! my 
 " kindred thus waiting anxious for the fight, my 
 ts members fail me, my countenance withereth, 
 " the hair standeth an end upon my body, and 
 " all my frame trembleth with horror ; even 
 " Gandeev, my bow escapeth from my hand, and 
 " my skin is parched and dried up.— When I 
 " have destroyed my kindred, shall I longer 
 " look for happiness ? 1 wish not for victory, 
 " JCreeshna ; I want not dominion ; I want not 
 " pleasure ; for what is dominion and the en- 
 " joyments of life, or even life itself, when those 
 " for whom dominion, pleasure, and enjoyment 
 " were to be coveted, have abandoned life and 
 " fortune, and stand here in the field ready for 
 " the battle. Tutors, sons, and fathers, grand- 
 " sires, and grandsons, uncles, nephews, cousins, 
 " kindred, and friends ! Although they would 
 " kill me, I wish not to fight them; no not 
 " even for the dominion of the three regions of 
 " the universe, much less for this little earth."* 
 
 z Baghvat-Geeta, p. 30, 3L 
 
234 APPENDIX, 
 
 In order to remove his scruples* Kreeshna in* 
 forms him what was the duty of a prince of the 
 Chehteree or military cast, when called to act in 
 such a situation, and incites him to perform it 
 by a variety of moral and philosophical argu- 
 ments, the nature of which I shall have occasion 
 to consider particularly in another part of this 
 Dissertation. In this dialogue between Kreeshna 
 and his pupil, there are several passages which 
 give an high idea of the genius of the poet. The 
 speech of Arjoon I have quoted, in which he 
 expresses the anguish of his soul, must have struck 
 every reader as beautiful and pathetic ; and I 
 shall afterwards produce a description of the Su- 
 preme Being, and of the reverence wherewith 
 he should be worshipped, which is sublime. But 
 while these excite our admiration, and confirm 
 us in the belief of a high degree of civilisation 
 i in that country where such a work was produced, 
 we are surprised at the defect of taste and of art 
 in the manner of introducing this Episode. Two 
 powerful armies are drawn up in battle-array, 
 eager for the fight ; a young hero and his in- 
 structor are described as standing in a chariot of 
 war between them ; that surely was not the mo- 
 ment for teaching him the principles of philoso- 
 phy, and delivering eighteen lectures of meta- 
 physics and theology. 
 
 With regard, however, both to the dramatic 
 and epic poetry of the Hindoos, we labour under 
 the disadvantage of being obliged to form an 
 opinion from a single specimen of each, and that 
 
 16 
 
APPENDIX. Q35 
 
 of the latter, too, (as it is only a part of a large 
 work,) an imperfect one. But if, from such scanty 
 materials, we may venture upon any decision, it 
 must be, that of the two, the drama seems to 
 have been conducted with the most correct taste. 
 This will appear from the observations which I 
 now proceed to make upon Sacontala. 
 
 It is only to nations considerably advanced in 
 refinement, that the drama is a favourite enter- 
 tainment. The Greeks had been for a good time 
 a polished people ; Alcaeus and Sappho had com- 
 posed their Odes, and Thales and Anaximander 
 had opened their schools, before tragedy made 
 its first rude essay in the cart of Thespis ; and a 
 good time elapsed before it attained to any con- 
 siderable degree of excellence. From the drama 
 of Sacontala, then, we must form an advantageous 
 idea of the state of improvement in that society 
 to whose taste it was suited. In estimating its 
 merit, however we must not apply to it rules of 
 criticism drawn from the literature and taste of 
 nations with which its author was altogether un- 
 acquainted ; we must not expect the unities of 
 the Greek theatre ; we must not measure it by 
 our own standard of propriety. Allowance must 
 be made for local customs, and singular manners, 
 arising from a state of domestic society, an order 
 of civil policy, and a system of religious opinions, 
 very different from those established in Europe. 
 Sacontala is not a regular drama, but, like some 
 of the plays early exhibited on the Spanish and 
 
986 APPENDIX, 
 
 English theatres, is an history and dialogue, un- 
 folding events which happened in different places, 
 and during a series of years. When viewed in 
 this light, the fable is in general well arranged, 
 many of the incidents are happily chosen, and 
 the vicissitudes in the situation of the principal 
 personages are sudden and unexpected. The un- 
 ravelling of the piece, however, though some of 
 the circumstances preparatory to it be introduced 
 with skill, is at last brought about by the inter- 
 vention of superior beings, which has always a 
 bad effect, and discovers some want of art. But 
 as Sacontala was descended of a celestial nymph, 
 and under the protection of a holy hermit, this 
 heavenly interposition may appear less marvel- 
 lous, and is extremely agreeable to the Oriental 
 taste. In many places of this drama it is simple 
 and tender, in some pathetic ; in others there is 
 j a mixture of comic with what is more serious. 
 Of each examples might be given. I shall select 
 a few of the first, both because simplicity and 
 tenderness are the characteristic beauties of the 
 piece, and because they so little resemble the ex- 
 travagant imagery and turgid style conspicuous 
 in almost all the specimens of Oriental poetry 
 which have hitherto been published. 
 
 Sacontala, the heroine of the drama, a prin- 
 cess of high birth, had been educated by an holy 
 hermit in a hallowed grove, and had passed the 
 early part of her life in rural occupations and 
 pastoral innocence. When she was about to quit 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 this beloved retreat, and repair to the court of 
 a great monarch, to whom she had been married, 
 Cana, her foster-father, and her youthful com- 
 panions, thus bewailed their own loss, and ex- 
 press their wishes for her happiness, in a strain 
 of sentiment and language perfectly suited to 
 their pastoral character. 
 
 " Hear, O ye trees, of this hallowed forest, 
 " hear and proclaim that Sacontala is going to 
 " the palace of her wedded Lord ; she who drank 
 " not, though thirsty, before you were watered ; 
 " she who cropped not, through affection for 
 " you, one of your fresh leaves, though she 
 " would have been pleased with such an orna- 
 " ment for her locks ; she, whose chief delight 
 " was in the season when your branches are 
 " spangled with flowers ! 
 
 Chorus of Wood Nymphs. — " May her way be 
 ** attended with prosperity ! May propitious 
 « breezes sprinkle, for her delight, the odorifer- 
 " ous dust of rich blossoms ! May pools of clear 
 "water, green with the leaves of the lotos, re- 
 " fresh her as she walks! and may shady 
 " branches be her defence from the scorching 
 " sun-beams !" 
 
 Sacontala, just as she was departing from 
 the grove, turns to Cana : " Suffer me, venerable 
 "father, to address this Madhavi-creeper, whose 
 €i red blossoms inflame the grove." — Cana, ** My 
 " child, I know thy affection for it,"— - Sacont 
 
 23? 
 
238 APPENDIX. 
 
 " O most radiant of shining plants, receive my 
 " embraces, and return them with thy flexible 
 " arms ! from this day, though removed at a 
 " fatal distance, I shall for ever be thine. — O be- 
 « loved father, consider this creeper as myself 1" 
 As she advances, she again addresses Cana y 
 66 Father ! when yon female antelope, who now 
 " moves slowly from the weight of the young 
 " ones with which slie is pregnant, shall be deli- 
 " vered of them, send me, I beg, a kind message 
 " with tidings of her safety. — Do not forget." 
 
 Cana. " My beloved ! I will not forget it." 
 
 . Sacontala {stopping"]. " Ah ! what is it that 
 
 " clings to the skirts of my robe and detains me !" 
 ■ ■ Cana. " It is thy adopted child, the little 
 " fawn, whose mouth, when the sharp points of 
 " Cusa grass had wounded it, has been so often 
 " smeared by thee with the healing oil of In- 
 " gudi ; who has been so often fed by thee with 
 ''"a handful of Synmaka grains, and now will 
 
 " not leave the footsteps of his protectress." 
 
 Sacont. " Why dost thou weep, tender fawn, 
 " for me who must leave our common dwelling- 
 " place ? — As thou wast reared by me when thou 
 " hadst lost thy mother, who died soon after thy 
 " birth, so will my foster-father attend thee, 
 " when we are separated, with anxious care*— 
 
 " Return, poor thing, return we must part." 
 
 [She burst into tears.] Cana. " Thy tears, 
 
 " my child, ill suit the occasion ; we shall all 
 " meet again ; be firm \ see the direct road be- 
 " fore thee, and follow it;. When the big tear 
 " lurks beneath thy beautiful eye-lashes, let thy 
 
APPENDIX. 039 
 
 u resolution check its first efforts to disengage 
 " itself. — In thy passage over this earth, where 
 " the paths are now high, now low, and the true 
 " path seldom distinguished, the traces of thy 
 " feet must needs be unequal ; but virtue will 
 " press thee right onward." b 
 
 From this specimen of the Indian drama, every 
 reader of good taste, I should imagine, will be 
 satisfied, that it is only among a people of polished 
 manners and delicate sentiments that a composi- 
 tion so simple and correct could be produced or 
 relished. I observe one instance in this drama of 
 that wild extravagance so frequent in Oriental 
 poetry. The monarch, in replacing a bracelet 
 which had dropped from the arm of Sacontala, 
 thus addresses her : " Look, my darling, this is 
 " the new moon which left the firmament in ho- 
 " nour of superior beauty, and having descended 
 " on your enchanting wrist, hath joined both its 
 ". horns round it in the shape of a bracelet." 
 But this is the speech of an enraptured young man 
 to his mistress, and in every age and nation exag- 
 gerated praise is expected from the mouth of 
 lovers. Dramatic exhibitions seem to have been 
 a favourite amusement of the Hindoos as well as 
 of other civilised nations. " The tragedies, co- 
 " medies, farces, and musical pieces of the In- 
 " dian theatre, would fill as many volumes as 
 *< that of any nation in ancient or modern Eu- 
 
 b Act IT. p. 47 ? &c, c Act III. p. 36. 
 
24,0 APPENDIX. 
 
 a rope. They are all in verse where the dialogue 
 €S is elevated, and in prose where it is familiar ; 
 6i the men of rank and learning are represented 
 «< speaking pure Sanskreet, and the women Pra- 
 f* crit, which is little more than the language of 
 " the Brahmins, melted down by a delicate ar- 
 ss ticulation to the softness of Italian ; while the 
 " low persons of the drama speak the vulgar 
 " dialects of the several provinces which they are 
 4 < supposed to inhabit." d 
 
 V. The attainments of the Indians in science, 
 furnish an additional proof of their early civilisa- 
 tion. By every person who has visited India in 
 ancient or modern times, its inhabitants either 
 in transactions of private business, or in the con- 
 duct of political affairs, have been deemed not in- 
 ferior to the people of any nation in sagacity or in 
 acuteness of understanding. From the application 
 i of sueh talents to the cultivation of science, an 
 extraordinary degree of proficiency might have . 
 been expected. The Indians were, accordingly, 
 early celebrated on that account, and some of 
 the most eminent of the Greek philosophers, tra- 
 velled into India, that, by conversing with the 
 sages of that country, they might acquire some 
 portion of the knowledge for which they were 
 distinguished. 6 The accounts, however, which 
 
 - • 
 d Preface to Sacont. by Sir William Jones, p. ix. See 
 
 NOTE LXVI. 
 
 c Brukeri Hist. PJiilosoph. vol. i. p. 190. 
 
 iz 
 
APPENDIX. 24! 
 
 we receive from the Greeks and Romans, of the 
 Sciences which attracted the attention of the 
 Indian philosophers, or of the discoveries which 
 they had made in them, are very imperfect. To 
 the researches of a few intelligent persons, who 
 have visited India during the course of the three 
 last centuries, we are indebted for more ample 
 and authentic information. But from the re- 
 luctance with which the Brahmins communicate 
 their sciences to strangers, and the inability of 
 Europeans to acquire much knowledge of them, 
 while, like the mysteries of their religion, they 
 were concealed from vulgar eyes in an unknown 
 tongue, this information was acquired slowly, 
 and with great difficulty. The same observ- 
 ation, however, which I made concerning our 
 knowledge of the state of the fine arts among 
 the people of India, is applicable to that of 
 their progress in science, and the present age is 
 the first furnished with sufficient evidence upon 
 which to found a decisive judgment with respect 
 to either. 
 
 Science, when viewed as disjoined from re- 
 ligion, the consideration of which I reserve for 
 another head, is employed in contemplating 
 either the operations of the understanding, the 
 exercise of our moral powers, or the nature and 
 qualities of external objects. The first is deno- 
 minated logic ; the second ethics ; the third 
 physics, or the knowledge of nature- With re- 
 spect to the early progress in cultivating each of 
 
 VOL. XII. R 
 
242 APPENDIX. 
 
 these sciences in India, we are in possession of 
 facts which merit attention. 
 
 But, prior to the consideration of them, it is 
 proper to examine the ideas of the Brahmins 
 with respect to mind itself, for if these were not 
 just, all their theories concerning its operations 
 must have been erroneous and fanciful. The 
 distinction between matter and spirit appears to 
 have been early known by the philosophers of 
 India, and to the latter they ascribed many 
 powers of which they deemed the former to be 
 incapable ; and when we recollect how inadequate 
 our conceptions are of every object that does not 
 fall under the cognizance of the senses, we may 
 affirm (if allowance be made for a peculiar notion 
 of the Hindoos which shall be afterwards ex- 
 plained) that no description of the human soul is 
 more suited to the dignity of its nature than that 
 ' given by the author of the Mahabarat. " Some," 
 says he, " regard the soul as a wonder, others 
 " hear of it with astonishment, but no one know- 
 " eth it. The weapon divideth it not ; the fire 
 " burneth it not ; the water corrupteth it not ; 
 " the wind drieth it not away ; for it is indivi- 
 " sible, inconsumable, incorruptible ; it is eternal, 
 " universal, permanent, immovable, it is invi- 
 " sible, inconceivable, and unalterable." f After 
 this view of the sentiments of the Brahmins 
 concerning mind itself, we may proceed to con- 
 sider their ideas with respect to each of the 
 
 f Baghvat-Geeta, p. 37. 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 sciences, in that tripartite arrangement which 
 I mentioned. 
 
 1st, Logic and Metaphysics. On no subject 
 has the human understanding been more exer- 
 cised than in analysing its own operations. The 
 various powers of the mind have been examined 
 and defined. The origin and progress of our 
 ideas have been traced ; and proper rules have 
 been prescribed, of proceeding from the observ- 
 ation of facts to the establishment of principles, 
 or from the knowledge of principles to form ar- 
 rangements of science. The philosophers of 
 ancient Greece were highly celebrated for their 
 proficiency in these abstruse speculations ; and in 
 their discussions and arrangements, discovered 
 such depth of thought and acuteness of discern- 
 ment, that their systems of Logic, particularly 
 that of the Peripatetic School, have been deemed 
 most distinguished efforts of human reason. 
 
 But since we became acquainted, in some de* 
 gree, with the literature and science of the Hin- 
 doos, we find that as soon as men arrive at that 
 stage in social life, when they can turn their at- 
 tention to speculative enquiries, the human mind 
 will, in every region of the earth, display nearly 
 the same powers, and proceed in its investiga- 
 tions and discoveries by nearly similar steps. 
 From Abul Fazel's compendium of the philo- 
 sophy 5 of the Hindoos, the knowledge of which 
 he acquired, as he informs us, by associating in- 
 
 2 Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 95, &c. 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 timately with the. most learned men of the na« 
 tion } from the specimen of their logical discus- 
 sions contained in that portion of the Shastra 
 published by Colonel Dow h , and from many pas- 
 sages in the Baghvat-Geeta, it appears that the 
 same .speculations which occupied the philoso- 
 phers of Greece had engaged the attention of 
 the Indian Brahmins ; and the theories of the 
 former, either concerning the qualities of ex- 
 ternal objects, or the nature of our own ideas, 
 were not more ingenious than those of the latter. 
 To define with accuracy, to distinguish with acute- 
 ness, and to reason with subtlety, are character- 
 istics of both ; and in both the same excess of 
 refinement, in attempting to analyse those oper- 
 ations of mind which the faculties of man were 
 not formed to comprehend, led sometimes to the 
 most false and dangerous conclusions. That 
 ' sceptical philosophy, which denies the existence 
 of the material world, and asserts nothing to be 
 real but our own ideas, seems to have been 
 known in India as well as in Europe 1 ; and the 
 sages of the East, as they were indebted to phi- 
 losophy for the knowledge of many important 
 truths, were not more exempt than those of the 
 West from its delusions and errors. 
 
 2d, Ethics. This science, which has for its 
 object to ascertain what distinguishes virtue from 
 vice, to investigate what motives should prompt 
 men to act, and to prescribe rules for the con- 
 duct of life, as it is of all others the most inter 
 
 h Dissertation, p. xxxix, &c. 
 
 1 Dow's Dissertation, p. Ivii. Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 128, 
 
APPENDIX. g45 
 
 nesting, seems to have deeply engaged the atten- 
 tion of the Brahmins. Their sentiments with 
 respect to these points were various, and, like 
 the philosophers of Greece, the Brahmins were 
 divided into sects, distinguished by maxims and 
 tenets often diametrically opposite. That sect 
 with whose opinions we are, fortunately, best ac- 
 quainted, had established a system of morals, 
 founded on principles the most generous and 
 dignified which unassisted reason is capable of 
 discovering. Man, they taught, was formed not 
 for speculation or indolence, but for action. 
 He is born, not for himself alone, but for his 
 fellow men. The happiness of the society of 
 which he is a member, the good of mankind are 
 his ultimate and highest objects. In choosing 
 what to prefer or to reject, the justness and pro- 
 priety of his own choice are the only consider- 
 ations to which he should attend. The events 
 which may follow his actions are not in his own 
 power, and whether they be prosperous or ad- 
 verse, as long as he is satisfied with the purity of 
 the motives which induced him to act, he can 
 enjoy that approbation of his own mind, which 
 constitutes genuine happiness, independent of 
 the power of fortune or the opinions of other 
 men. " Man (says the author of the Mahaba- 
 " rat) enjoyeth not freedom from action. Every 
 " man is involuntarily urged to act by those 
 " principles which are inherent in his nature. 
 " He who restraineth his active faculties, and 
 " sitteth down with his mind attentive to the 
 " objects of his senses, may be called one of an 
 
 n 3 
 
426 APPENDIX. 
 
 u astrayed soul. The man is praised, who having 
 " subdued all his passions, performeth with -his 
 " active faculties all the functions of life, uncon- 
 " cerned about the event. k Let the motive be 
 " in the deed, and not in the event. Be not one 
 " whose motive for action is the hope of reward. 
 " Let not thy life be spent in inaction. Depend 
 " upon application, perform thy duty, abandon 
 " all thought of the consequence, and make the 
 " event equal, whether it terminate in good or 
 " in evil; for such an equality is called Yog 
 " \j. e. attention to what is spiritual]. Seek an 
 " asylum then in wisdom alone; for the miser- 
 fi< able and unhappy are so on account of the 
 h event of things. Men who are endued with 
 " true wisdom are unmindful of good or evil in 
 66 this world. Study then to obtain this applica- 
 " tion of thy understanding, for such application 
 ■" in business is a precious art. Wise men who 
 " have abandoned all thought of the fruit which 
 " is produced from their actions, are freed from 
 64 the chains of birth, and go to the regions of 
 *f eternal happiness. 3 
 
 >>i 
 
 From these and other passages which I might 
 have quoted, we learn that the distinguishing 
 doctrines of the Stoical school were taught in 
 India many ages before the birth of Zeno, and 
 inculcated with a persuasive earnestness nearly 
 resembling that of Epictetus ; and it is not with- 
 out astonishment that we find the tenets of this 
 manly active philosophy, which seem to be formed 
 
 k Baghvat-Geeta, p. 44*. l Baglivat-Geeta, p. 40, 
 
APPENDIX. '247 
 
 only for men of the most vigorous spirit, pre- 
 scribed as the rule of conduct to a race of 
 people more eminent (as is generally supposed) 
 for the gentleness of their disposition than for 
 the elevation of their minds. 
 
 3d, Physics. In all the sciences which con- 
 tribute towards extending our knowledge of na- 
 ture, in mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy, 
 Arithmetic is of elementary use. In whatever 
 country then we find that such attention has been 
 paid to the improvement of arithmetic as to ren- 
 der its operations most easy and correct, we may 
 presume that the sciences depending upon it 
 have attained a superior degree of perfection. 
 Such improvement of this science we find in In- 
 dia. While, among the Greeks and Romans, the 
 only method used for the notation of numbers 
 was by the letters of the alphabet, which ne- 
 cessarily rendered arithmetical calculation ex- 
 tremely tedious and operose, the Indians had, 
 from time immemorial, employed for the same 
 purpose the ten cyphers, or figures, now univer- 
 sally known, and by means of them performed 
 every operation in arithmetic with the greatest 
 facility and expedition. By the happy invention 
 of giving a different value to each figure accord- 
 ing to its change of place, no more than ten 
 figures are needed in calculations the most com- 
 plex, and of any given extent ; and arithmetic 
 is the most perfect of all the sciences. The Ara- 
 bians, not long after their settlement in Spain, 
 introduced this mode of notation into Europe, 
 and were candid enough to acknowledge that 
 
a m APPENDIX. 
 
 they had derived the knowledge of it from the 
 Indians. Though the advantages of this mode 
 of notation are obvious and great, yet so slowly 
 do mankind adopt new inventions, that the use 
 of it was for some time confined to science ; by 
 degrees, however, men of business relinquished 
 the former cumbersome method of computation 
 by letters, and the Indian arithmetic came into 
 general use throughout Europe. m It is now so 
 familiar and simple, that the ingenuity of the 
 people, to whom we are indebted for the inven- 
 tion, is less observed and less celebrated than it 
 merits. 
 
 The astronomy of the Indians is a proof still 
 more conspicuous of their extraordinary progress 
 in science. The attention and success. with which 
 they studied the motions of the heavenly bodies 
 i were so little known to the Greeks and Romans, 
 that it is hardly mentioned by them but in the 
 most cursory manner. 11 But as soon as the Ma- 
 homedans established an intercourse with the na- 
 tives of India, they observed and celebrated the 
 superiority of their astronomical knowledge. 
 Of the Europeans who visited India after the 
 communication with it by the Cape of Good 
 Hope was discovered, M. Bernier, an inquisitive 
 and philosophical traveller, was one of the first 
 who learned that the Indians had long applied 
 to the study of astronomy, and had made con- 
 siderable progress in that science. His inform- 
 
 m Montucla Hist, des Mathemat. torn. i. p. 360, &c. 
 n Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1047. A. Dion. Perieg. v. 1173. 
 ° Voyages, torn. ii. p. 145, &c. 
 
APPENDIX. g^g 
 
 ation, however, seems to have been very gene- 
 ral and imperfect. We are indebted for the first 
 scientific proof of the great proficiency of the 
 Indians in astronomical knowledge, to M. de la 
 Loubere, who, on his return from his embassy to 
 Siam, brought with him an extract from a Si- A.D.i687» 
 amese manuscript, which contained tables and 
 rules for calculating the places of the sun and 
 moon. The manner in which these tables were 
 constructed rendered the principles on which 
 they w T ere founded extremely obscure, and it 
 required a commentator as conversant in astro- 
 nomical calculation as the celebrated Cassini, to 
 explain the meaning of this curious fragment. 
 The epoch of the Siamese tables corresponds to 
 the 21st of March, A. D. 638. Another set of 
 tables was transmitted from Chrisnabouram, in 
 the Carnatic, the epoch of which answers to the 
 10th of March, A. D. 1491. A third set of ta- 
 bles came from Narsapour, and the epoch of 
 them goes no farther back than A. D. 1569 - 
 The fourth and most curious set of tables was 
 published by M. le Gentil, to whom they were 
 communicated by a learned Brahmin of Tirva- 
 lore, a small town on the Coromandel coast, 
 about twelve miles west of Negapatam. The 
 epoch of these tables is of high antiquity, and 
 coincides with the beginning of the celebrated 
 aera of the Calyougham or Collee Jogue, which 
 commenced, according to the Indian account, 
 three thousand one hundred and two years be- 
 fore the birth of Christ. p 
 
 p See NOTE LXVIL 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 These four sets of tables have been examined 
 and compared by M. Bailly, who with singular 
 felicity of genius has conjoined an uncommon de- 
 gree of eloquence with the patient researches of 
 an astronomer, and the profound investigations 
 of a geometrician. His calculations have been 
 verified, and his reasonings have been illustrated 
 and extended by Mr. Playfair, in a very masterly 
 Dissertation, published in the Transactions of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. q 
 
 Instead of attempting to follow them in rea- 
 sonings and calculations, which from their nature 
 are often abstruse and intricate, I shall satisfy 
 myself with giving such a general view of them 
 as is suited to a popular work. This, I hope, 
 may convey a proper idea of what has been 
 published concerning the astronomy of India, a 
 subject too curious and important to be omitted 
 in any account of the state of science in that 
 country; and, without interposing any judg- 
 ment of my own, I shall leave each of my 
 readers to form his own opinion. 
 
 It may be considered as the general result of 
 all the enquiries, reasonings, and calculations, 
 with respect to Indian astronomy, which have 
 hitherto been made public, " That the motion of 
 " the heavenly bodies, and more particularly 
 " their situation at the commencement of the 
 
 different epochs to which the four sets of tables 
 
 i Vol.ii. p. 135. 
 
 a 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 refer, are ascertained with great accuracy ; and 
 that many of the elements of their calculations, 
 especially for very remote ages, are verified by 
 an astonishing coincidence with the tables of 
 " the modern astronomy of Europe, when im- 
 " proved by the latest and most nice deductions 
 " from the theory of gravitation." These con- 
 clusions are rendered peculiarly interesting, by 
 the evidence which they afford of an advance- 
 ment in science unexampled in the history of rude 
 nations. The Indian Brahmins, who annually 
 circulate a kind of almanac, containing astrono- 
 mical predictions of some of the more remarkable 
 phenomena in the heavens, such as the new and 
 full moons, the eclipses of the sun and moon, are 
 in possession of certain methods of calculation, 
 whicK, upon examination, are found to involve 
 in them a very extensive system of astronomical 
 knowledge. M. le Gentil, a French astronomer, 
 had an opportunity, while in India, of observing 
 two eclipses of the moon which had been calcu- 
 lated by a Brahmin, and he found the error in 
 either to be very inconsiderable. 
 
 The accuracy of these results is less surprising 
 than the justness and scientific nature of the prin- 
 ciples on which the tables, by which they calcu- 
 late, are constructed. For the method of predict- 
 ing eclipses, which is followed by the Brahmins, 
 is of a kind altogether different from any that has 
 been found in the possession of rude nations in the 
 infancy of astronomy. In Cbaldaea, and even in 
 Greece, in the early ages, the method of calcu- 
 
q 5 % APPENDIX. 
 
 lating eclipses was founded on the observation of 
 a certain period or cycle, after which the eclipses 
 of the sun and moon return nearly in the same 
 order ; but there was no attempt to analyse the 
 different circumstances on which the eclipse 
 depends, or to deduce its phenomena from a 
 precise knowledge of the motions of the sun 
 and moon. This last was reserved for a more 
 advanced period, when geometry, as well as 
 arithmetic, were called in to the assistance of 
 astronomy, and, if it was attempted at all, seems 
 not to have been attempted with success before 
 the age of Hipparchus. It is a method of this 
 superior kind, founded on principles and on an 
 analysis of the motions of the sun and moon, 
 which guides the calculations of the Brahmins, 
 and they never employ any of the grosser esti- 
 mations, which were the pride of the first astro- 
 nomers in Egypt and Chaldaea. 
 
 The Brahmins of the present times are guided 
 in their calculations by these principles, though 
 they do not now understand them ; they know 
 only the use of the tables which are in their 
 possession, but are unacquainted with the me- 
 thod of their construction. The Brahmin who 
 visited M. le Gentil at Pondicherry, and in- 
 structed him in the use of the Indian tables, 
 had no knowledge of the principles of his art, 
 and discovered no curiosity concerning the na- 
 ture of M. le GentiPs observations, or about 
 the instruments which he employed. He was 
 equally ignorant with respect fb the authors of 
 
APPENDIX. 263 
 
 these tables : and whatever is to be learned con- 
 cerning the time or place of their construction, 
 must be deduced from the tables themselves. 
 One set of these tables (as was formerly observed) 
 profess to be as old as the beginning of the Ca- 
 lyougham, or to go back to the year 3102 before 
 the Christian sera; but as nothing (it may be sup- 
 posed) is easier than for an astronomer to give 
 to his tables what date he pleases, and by calcu- 
 lating backwards, to establish an epoch of any 
 assigned antiquity, the pretensions of the Indian 
 astronomy to so remote an origin are not to be 
 admitted without examination. 
 
 That examination has accordingly been insti- 
 tuted by M. Bailly, and the result of his enquiries 
 is asserted to be, that the astronomy of India is 
 founded on observations which cannot be of a 
 much later date than the period above mention- 
 ed. For the Indian tables represent the state 
 of the heavens at that period with astonishing 
 exactness ; and there is between them and the 
 calculations of our modern astronomy such a 
 conformity with respect to those ages, as could 
 result from nothing, but from the authors of the 
 former having accurately copied from nature, and 
 having delineated truly the face of the heavens, 
 in the age wherein they lived. In order to give 
 some idea of the high degree of accuracy in the 
 Indian tables, I shall select a few instances of it, 
 out of many that might be produced. The place 
 of the sun for the astronomical epoch at the 
 beginning of the Calyougham, as stated in the 
 
254 APPENDIX. 
 
 tables of Tirvalore, is only forty-seven minutes 
 greater than by the tables of M. de la Caille, 
 when corrected by the calculations of M. de la 
 Grange. The place of the moon, in the same 
 tables, for the same epoch, is only thirty-seven 
 minutes different from the tables of Mayer. The 
 tables of Ptolemy, for that epoch, are erroneous 
 no less than ten degrees with respect to the place 
 of the sun, and eleven degrees with respect to 
 that of the moon. The acceleration of the moon's 
 motion, reckoning from the beginning of the 
 Calyougham to the present time, agrees, in the 
 Indian tables, with those of Mayer to a single 
 minute. The inequality of the sun's motion, and 
 the obliquity of the ecliptic, which were both 
 greater in former ages than they are now, as re- 
 presented in the tables of Tirvalore, are almost 
 of the precise quantity that the theory of gra- 
 ' vitation assigns to them three thousand years 
 before the Christian aera. It is accordingly for 
 those very remote ages (about 5000 years distant 
 from the present) that their astronomy is most 
 accurate, and the nearer we come down to our 
 own times, the conformity of its results with ours 
 diminishes. It seems reasonable to suppose, that 
 the time when its rules are most accurate, is the 
 time when the observations were made on which 
 these rules are founded. 
 
 In support of this conclusion, M. Bailly main- 
 tains that none of all the astronomical systems 
 of Greece or Persia, or of Tartary, from some 
 of which it might be suspected that the Indian 
 
APPENDIX. g&gf 
 
 tables were copied, can be made to agree with 
 them, especially when we calculate for very re- 
 mote ages. The superior perfection of the Indian 
 tables becomes always more conspicuous as we 
 go farther back into antiquity. This shows, like- 
 wise, how difficult it is to construct any astrono- 
 mical table which will agree with the state of the 
 heavens for a period so remote from the time 
 when the tables were constructed, as four or five 
 thousand years. It is only from astronomy in 
 its most advanced state, such as it has attained 
 in modern Europe, that such accuracy is to be 
 expected. 
 
 When an estimate is endeavoured to be made 
 of the geometrical skill necessary for the con- 
 struction of the Indian tables and rules, it is 
 found to be very considerable ; and, beside the 
 knowledge of elementary geometry, it must 
 have required plain and spherical trigonometry, 
 or something equivalent to them, together with 
 certain methods of approximating to the values 
 of geometrical magnitudes, which seem to rise 
 very far above the elements of any of those 
 sciences. Some of these last mark also very 
 clearly (although this has not been observed by 
 M. Bailly) that the places to which these tables 
 are adapted, must be situated between the Tro- 
 pics, because they are altogether inapplicable at 
 a greater distance from the Equator. 
 
 From this long induction, the conclusion which 
 seems obviously to result is, that the Indian astro- 
 
£56 APPENDIX. 
 
 nomy is founded upon observations which were 
 made at a very early period ; and when we con- 
 sider the exact agreement of the places which 
 they assign to the sun and moon, and other hea- 
 venly bodies, at that epoch, with those deduced 
 from the tables of De la Caille and Mayer, it 
 strongly confirms the truth of the position which 
 I have been endeavouring to establish concerning 
 the early and high state of civilisation in India. 
 
 Before I quit this subject, there is one cir- 
 cumstance which merits particular attention. All 
 the knowledge w T hich we have hitherto acquired 
 of the principles and conclusions of Indian astro- 
 nomy is derived from the southern part of the 
 Carnatic, and the tables are adapted to places 
 situated between the meridian of Cape Comorin 
 and that which passes through the eastern part 
 . of Ceylon. r The Brahmins in the Carnatic ac- 
 knowledge that their science of astronomy was 
 derived from the north, and that their method of 
 calculation is denominated Fakiam, or New, to 
 distinguish it from the Siddantam, or ancient me- 
 thod established at Benares, which they allow to 
 be much more perfect ; and we learn from Abul 
 Fazel, that all the astronomers of Indostan rely 
 entirely upon the precepts contained in a book 
 called Soorej Sudhant, composed in a very remote 
 period. 5 It is manifestly from this book that 
 the method to which the Brahmins of the south 
 gave the name of Siddantam is taken. Benares 
 has been from time immemorial the Athens of 
 
 r Bailly, Dis. Prelim, p. xvii. b Ayeen Akbery, iii. p. 8. 
 *3 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 India, the residence of the most learned Brah- 
 mins, and the seat both of science and literature. 
 There, it is highly probable, whatever remains 
 of the ancient astronomical knowledge and dis- 
 coveries of the Brahmins is still preserved. l In 
 an enlightened age and nation, and during a 
 reign distinguished by a succession of the most 
 splendid and successful undertakings to extend 
 the knowledge of nature, it is an object worthy 
 of public attention, to take measures for obtain- 
 ing possession of all that time has spared of the 
 philosophy and inventions of the most early and 
 most highly civilised people of the East. It is 
 with peculiar advantages Great Britain may 
 engage in this laudable undertaking. Benares 
 is subject to its dominion ; the confidence of the 
 Brahmins has been so far gained as to render 
 them communicative ; some of our countrymen 
 are acquainted with that sacred language in 
 which the mysteries both of religion and of 
 science are recorded ; movement and activity 
 has been given to a spirit of inquiry throughout 
 all the British establishments in India ; persons 
 who visited that country with other views, though 
 engaged in occupations of a very different kind, 
 are now carrying on scientific and literary re- 
 searches with ardour and success. Nothing 
 seems now to be wanting but that those in- 
 trusted with the administration of the British 
 
 1 M. Bernier, in the year 1668, saw a large hall in Benares 
 filled with the works of the Indian philosophers, physicians, 
 and poets. Voy. ii. p. 148. 
 
 VOL. XII. S 
 
 257 
 
-258 APPENDIX. 
 
 empire in India, should enable some person ca- 
 pable, by his talents and liberality of sentiment, 
 of investigating and explaining the more abstruse 
 parts of Indian philosophy, to devote his whole 
 time to that important object. Thus Great 
 Britain may have the glory of exploring fully 
 that extensive field of unknown science, which 
 the Academicians of France had the merit of 
 first opening to the people of Europe." 
 
 VI. The last evidence which I shall mention 
 of the early and high civilisation of the ancient 
 Indians, is deduced from the consideration of 
 their religious tenets and practices. The institu- 
 tions of religion, publicly established in all the 
 extensive countries stretching from the banks of 
 the Indus to Cape Comorin, present to view an 
 aspect nearly similar. They form a regular and 
 I complete system of superstition, strengthened 
 and upheld by every thing which can excite the 
 reverence and secure the attachment of the 
 people. The temples consecrated to their dei- 
 ties are magnificent, and adorned not only with 
 rich offerings, but with the most exquisite works 
 in painting and sculpture, which the artists* 
 highest in estimation among them, were capable 
 of executing. The rites and ceremonies of their 
 worship are pompous and splendid, and the per- 
 formance of them not only mingles in all the 
 more momentous transactions of common life, 
 but constitutes an essential part of them. The 
 
 u See NOTE LXVIIJ. 
 
APPENDIX, 250 
 
 Brahmins, who, as ministers of religion, preside 
 in all its functions, are elevated above every 
 other order of men, by an origin deemed not 
 only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred. 
 They have established among themselves a re- 
 gular hierarchy and gradation of ranks, which, 
 by securing subordination in their own order, 
 adds weight to their authority, and gives them a 
 more absolute dominion over the minds of the 
 people. This dominion they support by the com- 
 mand of the immense revenues with which the 
 liberality of princes, and the zeal of pilgrims 
 and devotees, have enriched their Pagodas. x 
 
 It is far from my intention to enter into any 
 minute detail with respect to this vast and com- 
 plicated system of superstition. An attempt to 
 enumerate the multitude of deities which are 
 the objects of adoration in India; to describe 
 the splendour of worship in their Pagodas, and 
 the immense variety of their rites and ceremo- 
 nies ; to recount the various attributes and func- 
 tions which the craft of priests, or the credulity 
 of the people, have ascribed to their divinities ; 
 especially if I were to accompany all this with 
 the review of the numerous and often fanciful 
 speculations and theories of learned men on this 
 subject, would require a work of great magni- 
 tude. I shall, therefore, on this, as on some of 
 the former heads, confine myself to the precise 
 
 * Roger Porte Ouverte, p. 39, 209, &c, 
 s % 
 
260 APPENDIX. 
 
 point which I have kept uniformly in view, and 
 by considering the state of religion in India, I 
 shall endeavour not only to throw additional 
 light on the state of civilisation in that country, 
 but I flatter myself that, at the same time, I 
 shall be able to give what may be considered as 
 a sketch and outline of the history and progress 
 of superstition and false religion in every region 
 of the earth* 
 
 I. We may observe, that, in every country, the 
 received mythology, or system of superstitious 
 belief, with all the rites and ceremonies which it 
 prescribes, is formed in the infancy of society, in 
 rude and barbarous times. True religion is as 
 different from superstition in its origin, as in its 
 nature. The former is the offspring of reason 
 cherished by science, and attains to its highest 
 i perfection in ages of light and improvement. 
 Ignorance and fear give birth to the latter, and 
 it is always in the darkest periods that it acquires 
 the greatest vigour. That numerous part of the 
 human species whose lot is labour, w r hose prin- 
 cipal and almost sole occupation is to secure 
 subsistence, has neither leisure nor capacity for 
 entering into that path of intricate and refined 
 speculation, which conducts to the knowledge 
 of the principles of rational religion. When 
 the intellectual powers are just beginning to 
 unfold, and their first feeble exertions are di- 
 rected towards a few objects of primary neces- 
 sity and use ; when the faculties of the mind are 
 so limited as not to have formed general and 
 
APPENDIX. QQl 
 
 abstract ideas ; when language is so barren as to 
 be destitute of names to distinguish anything not 
 perceivable by some of the senses ; it is pre- 
 posterous to expect that men should be capa- 
 ble of tracing the relation between effects and 
 their causes ; or to suppose that they should rise 
 from the contemplation of the former to the dis- 
 covery of the latter, and form just conceptions 
 of one Supreme Being, as the Creator and Go- 
 vernor of the universe. The idea of creation is 
 so familiar, wherever the mind is enlarged by 
 science, and illuminated by revelation, that we 
 seldom reflect how profound and abstruse the 
 idea is, or consider what progress man must have 
 made in observation and research, before he 
 could arrive at any distinct knowledge of this 
 elementary principle in religion. But even in 
 its rude state, the human mind, formed for reli- 
 gion, opens to the reception of ideas, which are 
 destined, when corrected and refined, to be the 
 great source of consolation amidst the cala- 
 mities of life. These apprehensions, however, 
 are originally indistinct and perplexed, and 
 seem to be suggested rather by the dread of im- 
 pending evils, than to flow from gratitude for 
 blessings received. While nature holds on her 
 course with uniform and undisturbed regularity, 
 men enjoy the benefits resulting from it, without 
 much inquiry concerning its cause. But every 
 deviation from this regular course rouses and 
 astonishes them. When they behold events to 
 which they are not accustomed, they search for 
 the causes of them with eager curiosity. Their 
 
 s 3 
 
26g APPENDIX. 
 
 Understanding is often unable to discover these y 
 but imagination, a more forward and ardent 
 faculty of the mind, decides without hesitation^ 
 It ascribes the extraordinary occurrences in na- 
 ture to the influence of invisible beings, and 
 supposes the thunder, the hurricane, and the 
 earthquake, to be the immediate effect of their 
 agency. Alarmed by these natural evils, and 
 exposed, at the same time, to many dangers 
 and disasters, which are unavoidable in the early 
 and uncivilised state of society, men have re- 
 course for protection to power superior to what 
 is human, and the first rites or practices which 
 bear any resemblance to acts of religion, have it 
 for their object to avert evils which they suffer 
 or dread. 7 
 
 II. As superstition and false religion take their 
 rise in every country, from nearly the same 
 sentiments and apprehensions, the invisible be- 
 ings, who are the first objects of veneration, 
 have every where a near resemblance. To con- 
 ceive an idea of one superintending mind, ca- 
 pable of arranging and directing all the various 
 operations of nature, seems to be an attainment 
 far beyond the powers of man in the more 
 early stages of his progress. His theories, more 
 suited to the limited sphere of his own observa- 
 
 y In the second volume of the History of America, p. 18So 
 of fifth edition, I gave nearly a similar account of the origin 
 of false religion. Instead of labouring to convey the same 
 ideas in different language, I have inserted here some para- 
 graphs in the same words I then used. 
 
APPENDIX: %Q 
 
 tion, are not so refined. He supposes that there 
 is a distinct cause of every remarkable effect, and 
 ascribes to a separate power every event which 
 attracts his attention, or excites his terror. He 
 fancies that it is the province of one deity to 
 point the lightning, and, with an awful sound, 
 to hurl the irresistible thunderbolt at the head of 
 the guilty ; that another rides in the whirlwind, 
 and, at his pleasure, raises or stills the tempest j 
 that a third rules over the ocean ; that a fourth 
 is the god of battles ; that while malevolent 
 powers scatter the seeds of animosity and dis- 
 cord, and kindle in the breast thdse angry pas- 
 sions which give rise to war, and terminate in 
 destruction, others of a nature more benign, by 
 inspiring the hearts of men with kindness and 
 love, strengthen the bond of social union, aug- 
 ment the happiness, and increase the number of 
 the human race. 
 
 Without descending farther into detail, or at- 
 tempting to enumerate that infinite multitude of 
 deities to which the fancy or the fears of men 
 have allotted the direction of the several depart- 
 ments in nature, we may recognise a striking uni- 
 formity of features in the systems of superstition 
 established throughout every part of the earth. 
 The less men have advanced beyond the state of 
 savage life, and the more slender their acquaint- 
 ance with the operations of nature, the fewer 
 were their deities in number, and the more com- 
 pendious was their theological creed; but as 
 their mind gradually opened, and their know- 
 
 s 4f 
 
264 APPENDIX. 
 
 ledge continued to extend, the objects of their 
 veneration multiplied, and the articles of their 
 faith became more numerous. This took 
 place remarkably among the Greeks in Europe, 
 and the Indians in Asia, the two people in those 
 great divisions of the earth, who were most 
 early civilised, and to whom, for that reason, 
 I shall confine all my observations. They be- 
 lieved, that over every movement in the natural 
 world, and over every function in civil or do- 
 mestic life, even the most common and trivial, 
 a particular deity presided. The manner in 
 which they arranged the stations of these super- 
 intending powers, and the offices which they al- 
 lotted to each, were in many respects the same. 
 What is supposed to be performed by the 
 power of Jupiter, of Neptune, of iEolus, of 
 Mars, of Venus, according to the mythology 
 i of the West, is ascribed in the East to the 
 agency of Agnee, the god of fire ; Varoon, 
 the god of oceans ; Vayoo, the god of wind 2 ; 
 Cama, the god of love ; and a variety of other 
 divinities. 
 
 The ignorance and credulity of men having 
 thus peopled the heavens with imaginary beings, 
 they ascribed to them such qualities and actions 
 as they deemed suitable to their character and 
 functions. It is one of the benefits derived from 
 true religion, that by setting before men a stand- 
 ard of perfect excellence, which they should have 
 
 2 Baghvat-Geeta, p. 94. 
 
APPENDIX. o(J5 
 
 always in their eye, and endeavour to resemble, 
 it may be said to bring down virtue from heaven 
 to earth, and to form the human mind after a 
 divine model. In fabricating systems of false 
 religion, the procedure is directly the reverse. 
 Men ascribe to the beings whom they have dei- 
 fied, such actions as they themselves admire and 
 celebrate. The qualities of the gods who are 
 the objects of adoration, are copied from those 
 of the worshippers who bow down before them ; 
 and thus many of the imperfections peculiar to 
 men, have found admittance into heaven. By 
 knowing the adventures and attributes of any 
 false deity, we, can pronounce, with some de- 
 gree of certainty, what must have been the state 
 of society and manners when he was elevated 
 to that dignity. The mythology of Greece 
 plainly indicates the character of the age in 
 which it was formed. It must have been in 
 times of the greatest licentiousness, anarchy, 
 and violence, that divinities of the highest rank 
 could be supposed capable of perpetrating ac- 
 tions, or of being influenced by passions, which, 
 in more enlightened periods, would be deemed 
 a disgrace to human nature ; it must have been 
 when the earth was still infested with destruc- 
 tive monsters, and mankind, under forms of go- 
 vernment too feeble to afford them protection, 
 were exposed to the depredations of lawless 
 robbers, or the cruelty of savage oppressors, 
 that the well-known labours of Hercules, by 
 which he was raised from earth to heaven, could 
 have been necessary, or would have been deemed 
 
266 APPENDIX. 
 
 so highly meritorious. The same observation^ 
 is applicable to the ancient mythology of India. 
 Many of the adventures and exploits of the 
 Indian deities are suited to the rudest ages of 
 turbulence and rapine. It was to check dis- 
 order, to redress wrongs, and to clear the earth 
 of powerful oppressors, that Vishnou, a divinity 
 of the highest order, is said to have become 
 successively incarnate, and to have appeared on 
 earth in various forms. a 
 
 III. The character and functions of those 
 deities which superstition created to itself as 
 objects of its veneration, having everywhere a 
 near resemblance, the rites of their worship 
 were everywhere extremely similar. Accord- 
 ingly, as deities were distinguished, either by 
 ferocity of character or licentiousness of con- 
 i duct, it is obvious what services must have been 
 deemed most acceptable to them. In order to 
 conciliate the favour, or to appease the wrath of 
 the former, fasts, mortifications, and penances, 
 all rigid, and many of them excruciating to an 
 extreme degree, were the means employed. 
 Their altars were always bathed in blood ; the 
 most costly victims were offered ; whole heca- 
 tombs were slaughtered ; even human sacrifices 
 were not unknown, and were held to be the 
 most powerful expiations. In order to gain 
 the good will of trie deities of the latter de- 
 scription, recourse was had to institutions of a 
 
 » a Voyage de Sonnerat, torn. i. p. 158, &c. 
 
APPENDIX. 267 
 
 very different kind, to splendid ceremonies, gay 
 festivals, heightened by all the pleasures of poe- 
 try, music, and dancing, but often terminating 
 in scenes of indulgence too indecent to be de- 
 scribed. Of both these, instances occur in the , 
 rites of Greek and Roman worship, which I 
 need not mention to my learned readers. b In 
 the East the ceremonial of superstition is nearly 
 the same. The manners of the Indians, though 
 distinguished from the time when they became 
 known to the people of the West, for mildness, 
 seem, in a more remote period, to have been in 
 a greater degree similar to those of other nations. 
 Several of their deities were fierce and awful 
 in their nature, and were represented in their 
 temples under the most terrific forms. If we 
 did not know the dominion of superstition over 
 the human mind, we should hardly believe, that 
 a ritual of worship suited to the character of 
 such deities could have been established among 
 a gentle people. Every act of religion, per- 
 formed in honour of some of their gods, seems 
 to have been prescribed by fear. Mortifications 
 and penances so rigorous, so painful, and so 
 long continued, that we read the accounts of 
 them with astonishment and horror, were mul- 
 tiplied. Repugnant as it is to the feelings of 
 an Hindoo to shed the blood of any creature 
 that has life, many different animals, even the 
 most useful, the horse and the cow, were offered 
 op as victims upon the altars of some of their 
 
 b Strabo, lib. viii. p. 581. A. Lib.xii. p. 837.' C= 
 
2g 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 gods c ; and what is still more strange, the Pa- 
 godas of the East were polluted with human 
 sacrifices as well as the temples of the West. d 
 But religious institutions, and ceremonies of a 
 less severe kind, were more adapted to the ge- 
 nius of a people, formed, by the extreme sensi- 
 bility both of their mental and corporeal frame, 
 to an immoderate love of pleasure. In no part 
 of the earth was a connection between the gra- 
 tification of sensual desire and the rites of public 
 religion, displayed with more avowed indecency 
 than in India. In every Pagoda there was a 
 band of women set apart for the service of the 
 idol honoured there, and devoted from their 
 early years to a life of pleasure ; for which the 
 Brahmins prepared them by an education which 
 added so many elegant accomplishments to their 
 natural charms, that what they gained by their 
 . profligacy, often brought no inconsiderable ac- 
 cession to the revenue of the temple. In every 
 function performed in the Pagodas, as well as in 
 every public procession, it is the office of these 
 women to dance before the idol, and to sing 
 hymns in his praise ; and it is difficult to say, 
 whether they trespass most against decency by 
 the gestures they exhibit, or by the verses 
 which they recite. The walls of the Pagoda 
 are covered with paintings, in a style no less 
 
 c Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 241. Roger Porte Ouverte, 
 p. 251. 
 
 d Heeto-pades, p. 185 — 322. Asiat. Researches, vol. i. 
 p. 265. Voyage de Sonnerat, vol. i. p. 207. Roger, p. 251. 
 
 10 
 
APPENDIX. 269 
 
 indelicate e ; and in the innermost recess of the 
 temple, for it would be profane to call it the 
 sanctuary, is placed the Lingam, an emblem of 
 productive power too gross to be explained.* 
 
 IV. How absurd soever the articles of faith 
 may be which superstition has adopted, or how 
 unhallowed the rites which it prescribes, the 
 former are received in every age and country 
 with unhesitating assent, by the great body of 
 the people, and the latter observed with scrupu- 
 lous exactness. In our reasonings concerning 
 religious opinions and practices which differ 
 widely from our own, we are extremely apt to 
 err. Having been instructed ourselves in the 
 principles of a religion, worthy in every respect 
 of that divine wisdom by which they were dic- 
 tated, w r e frequently express wonder at the cre- 
 dulity of nations in embracing systems of belief 
 which appear to us so directly repugnant to 
 right reason, and sometimes suspect that tenets 
 so wild and extravagant do not really gain 
 credit with them. But experience may satisfy 
 us, that neither our wonder nor suspicions are 
 well founded. No article of the public religion 
 was called in question by those people of an- 
 cient Europe, with whose history we are best 
 acquainted, and no practice which it enjoined 
 
 e Voyage de Gentil. vol. i. p. 244. 260. Preface to Code 
 of Gentoo Laws, p. lvii. 
 
 f Roger Porte Ouverte, p. 157. Voyage de Sonnerat ? 
 vol. i. p. 41. 175. Sketches, vol. i. p. 203. Hamilton's 
 Trav, vol. L p. 379. 
 
270 APPENDIX. 
 
 appeared improper to them. On the other hand, 
 every opinion that tended to diminish the reve- 
 rence of men for the gods of their country, or 
 to alienate them from their worship, excited 
 among the Greeks and Romans that indignant 
 zeal which is natural to every people attached 
 to their religion by a firm persuasion of its 
 truth. The attachment of the Indians, both 
 in ancient and modern times, to the tenets and 
 rites of their ancestors, has been, if possible, 
 still greater. In no country, of which we have 
 any account, were precautions taken with so 
 much solicitude to place the great body of the 
 people beyond the reach of any temptation to 
 doubt or disbelief. They not only were pre- 
 vented, (as I have already observed the great 
 bulk of mankind must always be, in every 
 country,) from entering upon any speculative 
 inquiry, by the various occupations of active 
 and laborious life, but any attempt to extend 
 • the sphere of their knowledge was expressly 
 prohibited. If one of the Sooder cast, by far 
 the most numerous of the four, into which the 
 whole nation was divided, presumed to read 
 any portion of the sacred books, in which all 
 the science known in India is contained, he was 
 severely punished ; if he ventured to get it by 
 heart, he was put to death. 2 To aspire after 
 any higher degree of knowledge than the Brah- 
 mins have been pleased to teach, would be 
 deemed not only presumption but impiety. 
 
 g Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xxi. J 7. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Even the higher casts depended entirely for in- 
 struction on the Brahmins, and could acquire 
 no portion of science but what they deigned 
 to communicate. By means of this, a devout 
 reverence was universally maintained for those 
 institutions which were considered as sacred - 7 
 and though the faith of the Hindoos has been 
 often tried by severe persecutions, excited by 
 the bigotry of their Mahomedan conquerors, no 
 people ever adhered with greater fidelity to the 
 tenets and rites of their ancestors. 11 
 
 V. We may observe, that when science and 
 philosophy are diffused through any country, 
 the system of superstition is subjected to a scru- 
 tiny from which it was formerly exempt, and 
 opinions spread which imperceptibly diminish 
 its influence over the minds of men. A 
 free and full examination is always favourable 
 to truth, but fatal to error. What is received 
 with implicit faith in ages of darkness, will ex- 1 
 cite contempt or indignation in an enlightened 
 period. The history of religion in Greece and 
 Italy, the only countries of Europe which, 
 in ancient times, were distinguished for their 
 attainments in science, confirms the truth of 
 this observation. As soon as science made such 
 progress in Greece as rendered men capable of 
 discerning the wisdom, the foresight, and the 
 goodness displayed in creating, preserving, and 
 governing the world, they must have perceived, 
 that the characters of the divinities which were 
 
 * Orme's Fragment, p. 102. Sonnerat, vol. i, p. 194m 
 
 271 
 
$££ APPENDIX. 
 
 proposed as the objects of adoration in their 
 temples, could not entitle them to be considered 
 as the presiding powers in nature. A poet 
 might address Jupiter as the father of gods and 
 men, who governed both by eternal laws ; but 
 to a philosopher, the son of Saturn, the story 
 of whose life is a series of violent and licentious 
 deeds, which would render any man odious or 
 despicable, must have appeared altogether un- 
 worthy of that station. The nature of the re- 
 ligious service celebrated in their temples must 
 have been no less offensive to an enlightened 
 mind, than the character of the deities in ho- 
 nour of whom it was performed. Instead of 
 institutions, tending to reclaim men from vice, 
 to form or to strengthen habits of virtue, or to 
 elevate the mind to a sense of its proper dig- 
 nity, superstition either occupied its votaries in 
 
 . frivolous unmeaning ceremonies, or prescribed 
 rites, which operated, with fatal influence, in 
 
 * inflaming the passions and corrupting the heart. 
 
 It is with timidity, however, and caution, that 
 men venture to attack the established religion of 
 their country, or to impugn opinions which have 
 been long held sacred. At first, some philoso- 
 phers endeavoured, by allegorical interpretations 
 and refined comments, to explain the popular 
 mythology, as if it had been a description of the 
 powers of nature, and of the various events and 
 revolutions which take place in the system of 
 the material world, and endeavoured by this ex- 
 pedient to palliate many of its absurdities. By 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 273 
 
 degrees, bolder theories concerning religion 
 were admitted into the schools of science. Phi- 
 losophers of enlarged views, sensible of the im- 
 piety of the popular superstition, formed ideas 
 concerning the perfections of one Supreme 
 Being, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, as 
 just and rational as have ever been attained by 
 the unassisted powers of the human mind. 
 
 If from Europe we now turn to Asia, we shall 
 rind, that the observation which I have made . 
 upon the history of false religion holds equally 
 true there. In India as well as in Greece, it was 
 by cultivating science that men were first led to 
 examine and to entertain doubts with respect to 
 the established systems of superstition; and when 
 we consider the great difference between the ec- 
 clesiastical constitution (if I may use that ex- 
 pression) of the two countries, we are apt to 
 imagine that the established system lay more 
 open to examination in. the latter than in the f 
 former. In Greece there was not any distinct 
 race or order of men set apart for performing 
 the functions of religion, or to serve as heredi- 
 tary and interested guardians of its tenets and 
 institutions. But in India the Brahmins were 
 born the ministers of religion, and they had an 
 exclusive right of presiding in all the numerous 
 rites of worship which superstition prescribed as 
 fiecessary to avert the wrath of Heaven, or to 
 render it propitious. These distinctions and 
 privileges secured to them a wonderful ascendant 
 over their countrymen ; and every consideration 
 
 VOL. xi 1, T 
 
^74 APPENDIX. 
 
 that can influence the human mind, the honour, 
 the interest, the power of their order, called upon 
 them to support the tenets, and to maintain the 
 institutions and rites, with which the preservation 
 of this ascendant was so intimately connected. 
 
 But as the most eminent persons of the Cast 
 devoted their lives to the cultivation of science, 
 the progress which they made in all the branches 
 of it (of which I have given some account) was 
 great, and enabled them to form such a just idea 
 of the system of nature, and of the power, wis- 
 dom, and goodness displayed in the formation 
 and government of it, as elevated their minds 
 above the popular superstition, and led them to 
 acknowledge and reverence one Supreme Being, 
 " the Creator of all things (to use their own. ex- 
 *$ pressions), and from whom all things proceed." fe 
 
 1 
 
 This is the idea which Abul Fazel, who ex- 
 amined the opinions of the Brahmins with the 
 greatest attention and candour, gives of their 
 theology. "They all," says he, " believe in the 
 M unity of the Godhead, and although they hold 
 " images in high veneration, it is only because 
 " they represent celestial beings, and prevent the 
 " thoughts of those who worship them from wan- 
 " dering." l The sentiments of the most intelli- 
 gent Europeans who have visited India, coincide 
 perfectly with his, in respect to this point. The 
 accounts which Mr. Bernier received from the 
 
 h Baghvat-Geeta, p. 84. ' Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 3.. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Pundits of Benares, both of their external wor- 
 ship, and of one Sovereign Lord being the sole 
 object of their devotion, is precisely the same 
 with that given by Abul Fazel. k Mr. Wilkins, 
 better qualified perhaps than any European ever 
 was to judge with respect to this subject, repre- 
 sents the learned Brahmins of the present times 
 as Theists, believers in the unity of God. ! Of 
 the same opinion is M. Sonnerat, who resided 
 in India seven years, in order to inquire into the 
 manners, sciences, and religion of the Hin- 
 doos." 1 The Pundits, who translated the Code 
 of Gentoo Laws, declare, " that it was the Su- 
 preme Being, who, by his power, formed all 
 creatures of the animal, vegetable, and ma- 
 terial world, from the four elements of fire, 
 water, air, and earth, to be an ornament to 
 the magazine of creation \ and whose compre- 
 hensive benevolence selected man, the centre 
 of knowledge, to have dominion and autho- 
 rity over the rest ; and, having bestowed upon 
 this favourite object judgment and under- 
 " standing, gave him supremacy over the cor- 
 " ners of the world."" 
 
 Nor are these to be regarded as refined senti- 
 ments of later times. The Brahmins being consi- 
 dered by the Mahomedan conquerors of India 
 as the guardians of the national religion, have 
 
 k Voyage, torn. ii. p. 159. 
 
 1 Preface to Baghvat-Geeta, p. 24-. 
 
 m Voyage, torn. i. p. 198. n Prelim. Discourse, p. Jxxiii. 
 
 T 2 
 
 r/5 
 
276 APPENDIX. 
 
 been so studiously depressed by their fanatical 
 zeal, that the modern members of that order are 
 as far inferior to their ancestors in science as in 
 power. It is from the writings of their ancient 
 Pundits that they derive the most liberal senti- 
 ments which they entertain at present, and the 
 wisdom for which they are now celebrated has 
 been transmitted to them from ages very remote. 
 
 That this assertion is well founded we are ena- 
 bled to pronounce with certainty, as the most 
 profound mysteries of Hindoo theology, con- 
 cealed with the greatest care from the body of 
 the people, have been unveiled by the transla- 
 tions from the Sanskreet language lately published. 
 The principle design of the Baghvat-Geeta, an 
 episode in the Mahabarat, a poem of the highest 
 antiquity, and of the greatest authority in India, 
 'seems to have been to establish the doctrine of 
 the unity of the Godhead, and from a just view 
 of the divine nature to deduce an idea of what 
 worship will be most acceptable to a perfect Being. 
 In it, amidst much obscure metaphysical discus- 
 sion, some ornaments of fancy unsuited to our 
 taste, and some thoughts elevated to a tract of 
 sublimity into which, from our habits of reason- 
 ing and judging, we will find it difficult to follow 
 them , we find descriptions- of the Supreme 
 Being entitled to equal praise with those of the 
 Greek philosophers which I have celebrated. Of 
 
 ° Mr. Hastings's Letter, prefixed to the Baghvat-Geeta. 
 p.7. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 these I shall now produce one to which I formerly 
 alluded, and refer my readers for others to the 
 work itself: "O mighty Being," says Arjoon, 
 " who art the prime Creator, eternal God of 
 " Gods, the World's Mansion ! Thou art the 
 " incorruptible Being, distinct from all things 
 " transient. Thou art before all Gods, the an- 
 cient Pooroosh [i. e. vital soul], and the Su- 
 preme Supporter of the universe. Thou 
 knowest all things, and art worthy to be 
 " known ; thou art the Supreme Mansion, and 
 " by thee, O infinite Form, the universe was 
 #, spread abroad! reverence be unto thee be- 
 " fore and behind ; reverence be unto thee on 
 " all sides ; O thou who art all in all ! Infinite 
 " is thy power and thy glory. — Thou art th« 
 " father of all things, animate and inanimate. 
 " Thou art the wise instructor of the whole, 
 " worthy to be adored. There is none like unto 
 " thee; where, then, in the three worlds, is 
 " there one above thee ? Wherefore I bow 
 " down; and, with my body prostrate upon the 
 " ground, crave thy mercy, Lord ! worthy to be 
 46 adored ; for thou shouldest bear with me, even 
 " as a father with his son, a friend with his 
 u friend, a lover with his beloved." 13 A de- 
 scription of the Supreme Being is given in one 
 of the sacred books of the Hindoos, from which 
 it is evident what were the general sentiments of 
 the learned Brahmins concerning the divine na- 
 ture and perfections : " As God is immaterial, 
 " he is above all conception ; as he is invisible, 
 
 p Baghvat-Geeta, p. 94, 95. 
 T 3 
 
278 APPENDIX. 
 
 "he can have no form ; but from what we be- 
 hold of his w r orks, we may conclude, that he 
 is eternal, omnipotent, knowing all things, 
 and present every where." q 
 
 it 
 it 
 it 
 
 To men capable of forming such ideas of the 
 Deity, the public service in the Pagodas must have 
 appeared to be an idolatrous worship of images, 
 by a superstitious multiplication of frivolous or 
 immoral rites ; and they must have seen that it was 
 only by sanctity of heart, and purity of manners, 
 men could hope to gain the approbation of a Be- 
 ing perfect in goodness. This truth Veias labours 
 to inculcate in the Mahabarat, but with the pru- 
 dent reserve and artful precautions natural to a 
 Brahmin, studious neither to offend his country- 
 men, nor to diminish the influence of his own order. 
 His ideas concerning the mode of worshipping 
 f;he Deity, are explained in many striking passages 
 of the poem ; but unwilling to multiply quota- 
 tions, I satisfy myself with referring to them. r 
 
 When we recollect how slowly the mind of man 
 opens to abstract ideas, and how difficult (accord- 
 ing to an observation in the Mahabarat) an invi- 
 sible path is to corporeal beings, it is evident that 
 the Hindoos must have attained an high degree 
 of improvement before their sentiments rose so far 
 superior to the popular superstition of their coun- 
 try. The different states of Greece had subsisted 
 long, and had made considerable progress in re- 
 
 q Dow's Dissert, p. xl. 
 
 r Baghvat-Geeta, p. 55. 67. 75. 97. 119. 
 
 12 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 finement, before the errors of false religion be- 
 gan to be detected. It was not until the age of 
 Socrates, and in the schools of philosophy esta- 
 blished by his disciples, that principles adverse 
 to the tenets of the popular superstition were 
 much propagated. 
 
 A longer period of time elapsed before the 
 Romans, a nation of warriors and statesmen, 
 were enlightened by science, or ventured upon 
 any free disquisition concerning the objects or 
 the rights of worship, authorised by their ances- 
 tors. But in India the happy effects of pro- 
 gress in science were much more early conspicu- 
 ous. Without adopting the wild computations of 
 Indian chronology, according to which, the Ma- 
 habarat was composed above four thousand 
 years ago, we must allow, that it is a work of very 
 great antiquity, and the author of it discovers an 
 acquaintance with the principles of theology, of 
 morals, and of metaphysics, more just and ra- 
 tional than seems to have been attained, at that 
 period, by any nation whose history is known. 
 
 But so unable are the limited powers of the 
 human mind to form an adequate idea of the per- 
 fections and operations of the Supreme Being, 
 that in all the theories concerning them, of the 
 most eminent philosophers in the most enlight- 
 ened nations, we find a lamentable mixture of 
 ignorance and error. From these the Brahmins 
 were not more exempt than the sages of other 
 countries. As they held that the system of nature 
 was not only originally arranged by the power 
 
 t 4 
 
&g0 APPENDIX!. 
 
 * 
 
 md wisdom of God, but that every event which 
 happened was brought about by his immediate 
 interposition, and as they could not comprehend 
 how a being could act in any place unless where 
 it was present, they supposed the Deity to be a 
 vivifying principle diffused through the whole 
 creation, an universal soul that animated each 
 part of it. s Every intelligent nature, particularly 
 the souls of men, they conceived to be portions 
 separated from this great spirit 1 , to which, 
 after fulfilling their destiny on earth, and attain- 
 ing a proper degree of purity, they would be 
 again re-united. In order to efface the stains 
 with which a soul, during its residence on earth* 
 has been defiled, by the indulgence of sensual 
 and corrupt appetites, they taught that it 
 must pass, in a long succession of transmigra- 
 tions, through the bodies of different animals, 
 Until, by what it suffers and what it learns in 
 the various forms of its existence, it shall be 
 so thoroughly refined from all pollution as to 
 be rendered meet for being absorbed into the 
 divine essence, and returns like a drop into that 
 unbounded ocean from which it originally 
 issued. u These doctrines of the Brahmins, con- 
 cerning the Deity, as the soul which pervades all 
 nature, giving activity and vigour to every part 
 of it, as well as the final re-union of all intelli- 
 gent creatures to their primaeval source, coincide 
 
 5 Baghvat-Geeta, p. 65. 78. 85. Bernier, torn. ii. p. 163. 
 ' !Dow's Dissert, p. xliii. 
 
 u Voy. de Sonnerat, vol. i. p. -J 92. 200.. Baghvat-Geeta* 
 p. 39. 115. Dow's Dissert* p. xliiL 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 perfectly with the tenets of the Stoical SchooL 
 It is remarkable, that after having observed a 
 near resemblance in the most sublime sentiments 
 of their moral doctrine, we should likewise dis- 
 cover such a similarity in the errors of their 
 theological speculations, x 
 
 The human mind, however, when destitute of 
 superior guidance, is apt to fall into a practical 
 error with respect to religion, of a tendency still 
 more dangerous. When philosophers, by their 
 attainments in science, began to acquire such 
 just ideas of the nature and perfections of the 
 Supreme Being, as convinced them that the po- 
 pular system of superstition was not only absurd 
 but impious, they were fully aware of all the 
 danger which might arise from communicating 
 what they had discovered to the people, incapa- 
 ble of comprehending the force .of those reasons 
 which had swayed with them, and so zealously 
 attached to established opinions, as to revolt 
 against any attempt to detect their falsehood. 
 Instead, therefore, of allowing any ray of that 
 knowledge which illuminated their own minds 
 to reach them, they formed a theory to justify 
 their own conduct, and to prevent the darkness 
 of that cloud which hung over the minds of their 
 fellow-men from being ever dispelled. The 
 vulgar and unlearned, they contended, had no 
 right to truth. Doomed by their condition to 
 remain in ignorance, they were to be kept in 
 
 x Lipfij Physiol. Stoicor. lib. i, dissert, viii. xxi. Seneca, 
 Antoninus, Epic tet ns, passim. 
 
 281 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 order by delusion, and allured to do what is 
 right, or deterred from venturing upon what is 
 wrong, by the hope of those imaginary rewards 
 which superstition promises, and the dread of 
 those punishments which it threatens. In con- 
 firmation of this, I might quote the doctrine of 
 most of the philosophic sects, and produce the 
 words of almost every eminent Greek and Ro- 
 man writer. It will be sufficient, however, to 
 lay before my readers a remarkable passage in 
 Strabo, to whom I have been so often indebted 
 in the course of my researches, and who was no 
 less qualified to judge with respect to the poli- 
 tical opinions of his contemporaries, than to 
 describe the countries which they inhabited. 
 " What is marvellous in fable, is employed," 
 says he, " sometimes to please, and sometimes 
 " to inspire terror, and both these are of use, 
 ■"■ not only with children, but with persons of 
 " mature age. To children we propose delight- 
 " ful fictions, in order to encourage them to act 
 " well, and such as are terrible, in order to re- 
 " strain them from evil. Thus when men are 
 " united in society, they are incited to what is 
 " laudable, by hearing the poets celebrate the 
 " splendid actions of fabulous story, such as the 
 " labours of Hercules and Theseus, in reward 
 " for which they are now honoured as divinities, 
 " or by beholding their illustrious deeds exhi- 
 " bited to public view in painting and sculpture. 
 " On the other hand, they are deterred from 
 " vice, when the punishments inflicted by the 
 " gods upon evil doers are related, and threats 
 
APPENDIX. 283 
 
 " are denounced against them in awful words, 
 " or represented by frightful figures, and when 
 " men believe that these threats have been really 
 " executed upon the guilty. For it is impossible 
 " to conduct women and the gross multitude, 
 " and to render them holy, pious, and upright, 
 " by the precepts of reason and philosophy ; 
 " superstition, or the fear of the gods, must be 
 " called in aid, the influence of which is founded 
 " on fictions and prodigies. For the thunder of 
 " Jupiter, the aegis of Minerva, the trident of 
 " Neptune, the torches and snakes of the furies, 
 " the spears of the gods, adorned with ivy, and 
 " the whole ancient theology, are all fables, 
 " which the legislators who formed the political 
 " constitution of states employ as bugbears to 
 " overawe the credulous and simple." y 
 
 These ideas of the philosophers of Europe 
 were precisely the same which the Brahmins had 
 adopted in India, and according to which they 
 regulated their conduct with respect to the great 
 body of the people. As their order had an ex- 
 clusive right to read the sacred books, to cultivate 
 and to teach science* they could more effectually 
 prevent all who were not members of it from 
 acquiring any portion of information beyond 
 what they were pleased to impart. When the free 
 circulation of knowledge is not circumscribed by 
 such restrictions, the whole community derives 
 benefit from every new acquisition in science, 
 the influence of which, both upon sentiment and 
 
 y Strabo, lib. i. p. 36. B. 
 
 « 
 
284 APPENDIX. 
 
 conduct, extends insensibly from the few to the 
 many, from the learned to the ignorant. But 
 wherever the dominion of false religion is com- 
 pletely established, the body of the people gain 
 nothing by the greatest improvements in know- 
 ledge. Their philosophers conceal from them, 
 with the utmost solicitude, the truths which 
 they have discovered, and labour to support that 
 fabric of superstition which it was their duty to 
 have overturned. They not only enjoin others 
 to respect the religious rites prescribed by the 
 laws of their country, but conform to them in 
 their own practice, and with every 'external ap- 
 pearance of reverence and devotion, bow down 
 before the altars of deities, who must inwardly 
 be the objects of their contempt. " Instead of 
 resembling the teachers of true religion in the 
 benevolent ardour with which they have always 
 communicated to their fellow-men the know- 
 ledge of those important truths with which 
 their own minds were enlightened and rendered 
 happy, the sages of Greece, and the Brahmins 
 of India, carried on, with studied artifice, a 
 scheme of deceit, and, according to an emphatic 
 expression of an inspired writer, they detained 
 the truth in unrighteousness. 2 They knew and 
 approved what was true, but among the rest of 
 mankind they laboured to support and to per- 
 petuate what is false. 
 
 Thus I have gone through all the particulars 
 which I originally proposed to examine, and have 
 
 z Rom. i. 18. 
 
APPENDIX. q$5 
 
 endeavoured to discover the state of the inhabi- 
 tants of India with respect to each of them. If 
 I had aimed at nothing else than to describe the 
 civil policy, the arts, the sciences, the religious 
 institutions of one of the most ancient and most 
 numerous race of men, that alone would have 
 led me into inquiries and discussions both curi- 
 ous and instructive. I own, however, that I have 
 all along kept in view an object more interesting, 
 as well as of greater importance, and entertain 
 hopes, that if the account which I have given of 
 the early and high civilisation of India, and of 
 the wonderful progress of its inhabitants in ele- 
 gant arts and useful science, shall be received as 
 just and well established, it may have some in- 
 fluence upon the behaviour of Europeans to- 
 wards that people. Unfortunately for the human 
 species, in whatever quarter of the globe the 
 people of Europe have acquired dominion, they 
 have found the inhabitants not only in a state of 
 society and improvement far inferior to their 
 own, but different in their complexion, and in 
 all their habits of life. Men in every state of 
 their career are so satisfied with the progress 
 made by the community of which they are mem- 
 bers, that it becomes to them a standard of per- 
 fection, and they are apt to regard people whose 
 condition is not similar, with contempt, and even 
 aversion. In Africa and America, the dissimili- 
 tude is so conspicuous, that, in the pride of their 
 superiority, Europeans thought themselves en- 
 titled to reduce the natives of the former to 
 slavery, and to exterminate those of the latter. 
 
28ti APPENDIX. 
 
 Even in India, though far advanced beyond the 
 two other quarters of the globe in improvement, 
 the colour, of the inhabitants, their effeminate 
 appearance, their unwarlike spirit, the wild 
 extravagance of their religious tenets and cere- 
 monies, and many other circumstances, confirm- 
 ed Europeans in such an opinion of their own 
 pre-eminence, that they have always viewed and 
 treated them as an inferior race of men. Happy 
 would it be if any of the four European nations, 
 who have successively acquired extensive territo- 
 ries and power in India, could altogether vindi- 
 cate itself from having acted in this mannftv 
 Nothing, however, can have a more direct and 
 powerful tendency to inspire Europeans, proud 
 of their own superior attainments in policy, 
 science, and arts, with proper sentiments con- 
 cerning the people of India, and to teach them 
 a due regard for their natural rights as men, than 
 their being accustomed, not only to consider the 
 Hindoos of the present times as a knowing and 
 ingenious race of men, but to view them as de- 
 scended from ancestors who had attained to a 
 very high degree of improvement, many ages 
 before the least step towards civilisation had been 
 taken in any part of Europe, It was by an im- 
 partial and candid inquiry into their manners, 
 that the Emperor Akber was led to consider the 
 Hindoos as no less entitled to protection and fa- 
 vour than his other subjects, and to govern them 
 with such equity and mildness, as to merit from 
 a grateful people the honourable appellation of 
 " The Guardian of Mankind." It was from a 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 thorough knowledge of their character and ac- 
 quirements, that his Vizier Abul Fazel, with a 
 liberality of mind unexampled among Mahome- 
 dans, pronounces an high encomium on the vir- 
 tues of the Hindoos, both as individuals and as 
 members of society, and celebrates their attain- 
 ments in arts and sciences of every kind. a If I 
 might presume to hope that the description which 
 I have given of the manners and institutions of 
 the people of India could contribute in the 
 smallest degree, and with the remote influence, 
 to render their character more respectable, and 
 their condition more happy, I shall close my 
 literary labours, with the satisfaction of thinking 
 that I have not lived or written in vain. 
 
 a Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 2, 81. 95. 
 
 287 
 
NOTES 
 
 AND 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS- 
 
 NOTE I. Sect. I. p. 7, 
 
 J~1REDULITY and scepticism are two opposite ex~ 
 ^-^ tremes into which men are apt to run, in examining 
 the events which are said to have happened in the early 
 ages of antiquity. Without incurring any suspicion of 
 a propensity to the latter of these, I may be allowed to 
 entertain doubts concerning the expedition of Sesostris 
 into India, and his conquest of that country. 1 . Few- 
 facts in ancient history seem to be better established, than 
 that of the early aversion of the Egyptians to a sea-faring 
 life. Even the power of despotism cannot at once change 
 the ideas and manners of a nation, especially when they 
 have been confirmed by long habit, and rendered sacred 
 by the sanction of religion. That Sesostris, in the course 
 of a few years, should have so entirely overcome the pre- 
 judices of a superstitious people, as to be able to fit out 
 four hundred ships of force, in the Arabian Gulf, besides 
 another fleet which he had in the Mediterranean, appears 
 to be extremely improbable. Armaments of such mag- 
 nitude would require the utmost efforts of a great and 
 
 VOL. XII. u 
 
290 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 long established maritime power. — — 2. It is remarkable 
 that Herodotus, who inquired with the most persevering 
 diligence into the ancient history of Egypt, and who re- 
 ceived all the information concerning it which the priests 
 of Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes could communicate, 
 Herodot. Edit. Wesselingij, lib. ii. c. 3., although he re- 
 lates the history of Sesostris at some length, does not 
 mention his conquest of India, lib. ii. c. 102., &c. That 
 tale, it is probable, was invented in the period between 
 the age of Herodotus and that of Diodorus Siculus, from 
 whom we receive a particular detail of the Indian expe- 
 dition of Sesostris. His account rests entirely upon the 
 authority of the Egyptian priests ; and Diodorus himself 
 not only gives it as his general opinion, " that many 
 " things which they related, flowed rather from a desire 
 6i to promote the honour of their country, than from at- 
 " tention to truth," lib. i. p. 34. edit. Wesselingij, Amst. 
 1746; but takes particular notice that the Egyptian 
 priests, as well as the Greek writers, differ widely from 
 one another in the accounts which they give of the actions 
 jof Sesostris, lib. i. p. 62. 3. Though Diodorus as- 
 serts that in relating the history of Sesostris he had stu- 
 died to select what appeared to him most probable, and 
 most agreeable to the monuments of that monarch still 
 remaining in Egypt, he has admitted into his narrative 
 many marvellous circumstances, which render the whole 
 extremely suspicious. The father of Sesostris, as he re- 
 lates, collected all the male children who were born in 
 Egypt on the same day with his son, in order that they 
 might be educated together with him conformable to a 
 mode which he prescribed with a view of preparing them 
 as proper instruments to cany into execution the great 
 undertakings for which he destined Sesostris. Accord- 
 ingly, when Sesostris set out upon his Indian expedition, 
 which, from circumstances mentioned by Diodorus, must 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 291 
 
 have been about the fortieth year of his age, one thousand 
 seven hundred of his youthful associates are said to have 
 been still alive, and were entrusted with high command 
 in his army. But if we apply to the examination of this 
 story the certain principles of political arithmetic, it is 
 evident, that if one thousand seven hundred of the male 
 children born on the same day with Sesostris were alive 
 when his great expedition commenced, the number of 
 children born in Egypt on each day of the year must 
 have been at least ten thousand, and the population of 
 the kingdom must have exceeded sixty millions ; Goguet 
 FOrigine des Loix, des Arts, &c* torn. ii. p. 12., &c, a 
 number far beyond the bounds of credibility, in a king- 
 dom which, from the accurate calculations of M. D'An- 
 ville, Memoire sur 1' Egypt Anc. et Moderne, p. 23., &c, 
 does not contain more than two thousand one hundred 
 square leagues of habitable country. Decline and Fall of 
 the Rom. Emp. vol. v. p. 348. Another marvellous par- 
 ticular is the description of a ship of cedar, four hundred 
 and ninety feet in length, covered on the outside with 
 gold, and on the inside with silver, which Sesostris con- 
 secrated to the Deity who was the chief object of worship 
 at Thebes. Lib. i. p. 67. Such too is the account he 
 gives of the Egyptian army, in which, beside six hundred 
 thousand infantry and twenty-four thousand cavalry, 
 there were twenty-seven thousand armed chariots. Ibid. 
 
 p. 64. 4. These and other particulars appeared so 
 
 far to exceed the bounds of probability, that the sound 
 understanding of Strabo the geographer rejected, without 
 hesitation, the accounts of the Indian expedition of Se- 
 sostris; and he not only asserts, in the most explicit 
 terms, that this monarch never entered India, lib. xv. 
 p. 1007. C. edit. Casaub. Amst. 1 707 ; but he ranks what 
 has been related concerning his operations in that country 
 with the fabulous exploits of Bacchus and Hercules, 
 p. 1007. D. 1009. B. The philosophical historian of 
 
 u 2 
 
KDTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Alexander tke Great seems to have entertained the same 
 sentiments with respect to the exploits of Sesostris in 
 India. Hist. Ind. c. 5. Arrian Eped. Alex. edit. Gronov. 
 L. Bat. 1704. — What slender information concerning 
 India or its inhabitants, Herodotus had received, seems 
 to have been derived, not from the Egyptians, but from 
 the Persians, lib. iii. c. 105. ; which renders it probable, 
 that in his time there was little intercourse between 
 Egypt and India. If Reland be well founded in his opi- 
 nion, that many of the words mentioned by ancient 
 authors as Indian are really Persian, we may conclude 
 that there was an early intercourse between Persia and 
 India, of which hardly any trace remains in history. 
 Reland. Dissert, de Veteri Lingua Indie, ap. Dissert. 
 Miscel. vol. i. p. 209. 
 
 NOTE II. Sect. I. p. 8. 
 When we consider the extent and effects of the Phe- 
 nician commerce, the scanty information concerning it 
 which we receive from ancient writers must, on a first 
 YJew, appear surprising. But when we recollect that all 
 the Greek historians, (Herodotus excepted,) who give 
 any account of the Phenicians, published their works 
 long after the destruction of Tyre by Alexander the Great, 
 we will cease to wonder at their not having entered into 
 minute details with respect to a trade which was then 
 removed to new seats, and carried on in other channels. 
 But the power and opulence of Tyre, in the prosperous 
 age of its commerce, must have atracted general attention. 
 In the prophecies of Ezekiel, who flourished two hundred 
 and sixty years before the fall of Tyre, there is the 
 most particular account of the nature and variety of its 
 commercial transactions that is to be found in any ancient 
 writer, and which conveys at the same time a magnifi- 
 cent idea of the extensive power of that state. Gh, xxvi. 
 xxvii. xxviii. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 293 
 
 NOTE III. Sect. I. p. 12. 
 
 The account given of the revenue of the Persian 
 monarchy by Herodotus is curious, and seems to have 
 been copied from some public record, which had been 
 communicated to him. According to it the Persian 
 empire was divided into twenty satrapys, or govern- 
 ments. The tribute levied from each is specified, 
 amounting in all to 14,560 Eubcean talents, which 
 Dr. Arbuthnot reckons to be equal to 2,807,437/. 
 sterling money ; a sum extremely small for the revenue 
 of the Great King, and which ill accords with many 
 facts, concerning the riches, magnificence, and luxury 
 of the East, that occur in ancient authors. 
 
 NOTE IV. Sect. I. p. 15. 
 
 Major Rennell, in the second edition of his Me- 
 moir, has traced, from very imperfect materials, the 
 routes by which Alexander, Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah 
 penetrated into India, with a degree of accuracy which 
 does honour to his discernment, and displays the supe- 
 riority of his knowledge, in the ancient and modern 
 geography of that country. His researches he has il- 
 lustrated by an additional map. To these, I must refer 
 my readers. Nor are they to consider his laborious in- 
 vestigation merely as an object of curiosity ; the geo- 
 graphy of that fertile and extensive region of India, dis- 
 tinguished by the name of Panjab^ with which we are at 
 present little acquainted, may soon become very in- 
 teresting. If, on the one hand, that firm foundation 
 on which the British empire in India seems to be 
 
 u 3 
 
J4 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 established, by the successful termination of the late 
 war, remains unshaken; — if, on the other hand, the 
 Seiks, a confederacy of several independent states, shall 
 continue to extend their dominions with the same ra- 
 pidity that they have advanced since the beginning of 
 the current century ; it is highly probable that the en- 
 terprising commercial spirit of the one people, and the 
 martial ardour of the other, who still retain the activity 
 and ardour natural to men in the earliest ages of social 
 union, may give rise to events of the greatest moment. 
 The frontiers of the two states are approaching gradu- 
 ally nearer and nearer to each other, the territories of 
 the Seiks having reached to the western bank of the ri- 
 ver Jumnah, while those of the Nabob of Oude stretch 
 along its eastern bank. This Nabob, the ally or tri- 
 butary of the East India Company, is supported by a 
 brigade of the Bengal army, constantly stationed on his 
 western frontier. Ren. Mem. Introd. p. cxvi. In a 
 position so contiguous, rivalry for power, interference 
 of interest, and innumerable other causes of jealousy and 
 discord, can hardly fail of terminating, sooner or later, 
 in open hostility. The Seiks possess the whole Soubah 
 of Lahore ? the principal part of Moultan, and the wes- 
 tern part of Delhi. The dimensions of this tract are 
 about 400 British miles from N. W. to S. E., varying in 
 breadth from 320 to 150 miles. Their capital city is 
 Lahore. Little is known concerning their government 
 and political maxims ; but they are represented as mild. 
 In their mode of making war, they are unquestionably 
 savage and cruel. Their army consists almost entirely 
 of horse; of which they can bring at least 100,000 into 
 the field. Maj. Ren. Mem. 2d edit. Introd. p. cxxi. 
 ctfxii. and p. 365. See ,jalso Mr. Craufurd's Sketches, 
 2d edit. vol. ii. p. 263, &c. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 095 
 
 NOTE V. Sect. I. p. 17. 
 
 It is surprising that Alexander did not receive, in the 
 provinces contiguous to India, such an account of the 
 periodical rains in that country, as to shew him the im- 
 propriety of carrying on military operations there while 
 these continued. His expedition into India commenced 
 towards the end of Spring, Arrian, lib. iv. c. 22., when 
 the rains were already begun in the mountains from 
 which all the rivers in the Panjab flow, and of course 
 they must have been considerably swelled before he ar- 
 rived on their banks, Rennel, p. 268. — He passed the 
 Hydaspes at Midsummer, about the height of the rainy 
 season. In a country through which so many large 
 rivers run, an army on service at this time of the year 
 must have suffered greatly. An accurate description of 
 the nature of the rains and inundations in this part of 
 India, is given by Arrian, lib. v. c. 9. ; and one still 
 fuller may be found in Strabo, lib. xv. 1013. — It was of 
 what they suffered by these that Alexander's soldiers 
 complained, Strabo, lib. xv. 1021. D. ; and not without 
 reason, as it had rained incessantly during seventy days, 
 Diod. Sicul. xvii. c. 94. — A circumstance which marks 
 the accuracy with which Alexander's officers had at- 
 tended to every thing in that part of India, deserves no- 
 tice. Aristobulus, in his Journal, which I have men- 
 tioned, observes that, though heavy rains fell in the 
 mountains, and in the country near to them, in the 
 plains below not so much as a shower fell. Strabo, 
 lib. xv. 1013. B. 1015. B. Major Rennell was informed 
 by a person of character, who had resided in this dis- 
 trict of India, which is now seldom visited by Eu- 
 ropeans, that during great part of the S. W. monsoon, 
 or at least in the months of July, August, and part of 
 September, which is the rainy season in most other 
 
 u 4 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 parts of India, the atmosphere in the Delta of the Indus 
 is generally clouded, but no rain falls except very near 
 the sea. Indeed, very few showers fall during the 
 whole season. Captain Hamilton relates, that when he 
 visited Tatta, no rain had fallen for three years before. 
 Memoirs, p. 288. — Tamerlane, who, by the vicinity of 
 the seat of his government to India, had the means of 
 being well informed concerning the nature of the coun- 
 try, avoided the error of Alexander, and made his In- 
 dian campaign during the dry season. As Nadir Shah, 
 both when he invaded India, A. D. 1738, and in his re- 
 turn next year, marched through the same countries 
 with Alexander, and nearly in the same line of direc- 
 tion, nothing can give a more striking idea of the perse- 
 vering ardour of the Macedonian conqueror, than the 
 description of the difficulties which Nadir Shah had to 
 surmount, and the hardships which his army endured. 
 Though possessed of absolute power and immense wealth, 
 and distinguished no less by great talents than long ex- 
 perience in the conduct of war, he had the mortification 
 to lose a great part of his troops in crossing the rivers of 
 the Panjab, in penetrating through the mountains to the 
 north of India, and in conflicts with the fierce natives 
 inhabiting the countries which stretch from the banks of 
 the Oxus to the frontiers of Persia. An interesting ac- 
 count of his retreat and sufferings is given in the Me- 
 moirs of Khojeh Abdulkurren, a Cashmerian of dis- 
 tinction, who served in his army. 
 
 NOTE VL Sect. L p. 19. 
 
 That a fleet so numerous should have been collected 
 in such a short time, is apt to appear, at first sight, in- 
 credible. Arrian, however, assures us, that in specifying 
 this number, he followed Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 297 
 
 whose authority he considered to be of the greatest 
 weight, lib. vi. c. 3. But as the Panjab country is full of 
 navigable rivers, on which all the intercourse among the 
 natives was carried on, it abounded with vessels ready 
 constructed to the conqueror's hands, so that he might 
 easily collect that number. If we could give credit to 
 the account of the invasion of India by Semiramis, no 
 fewer than four thousand vessels were assembled in the 
 Indus to oppose her fleet. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. c. 74. — It 
 is remarkable that when Mahmoud of Gazna invaded 
 India, a fleet was collected on the Indus to oppose him, 
 consisting of the same number of vessels. We learn from 
 the Ayeen Akbery, that the inhabitants of this part of 
 India still continue to carry on all their communication 
 with each other by water ; the inhabitants of the Circar 
 of Tatta alone have not less than forty thousand vessels 
 of various constructions. Vol. ii. p. 143. 
 
 NOTE VII. Sect. I. p. 20. , 
 
 All these particulars are taken from the Indian His- 
 tory of Arrian, a work different from that already men- 
 tioned, and one of the most curious treatises transmitted 
 to us from antiquity. The first part of it consists of ex- 
 tracts from the account given by Nearchus of the climate 
 and soil of India, and the manners of the natives. The 
 second contains that officer's journal of his voyage from 
 the mouth of the Indus to the bottom of the Persian 
 Gulf. The perusal of it gives rise to several observations. 
 ■ — 1 . It is remarkable that neither Nearchus, nor Ptolemy, 
 nor Aristobulus, nor even Arrian, once mention the voy- 
 age of Scylax. This could not proceed from their being 
 unacquainted with it, for Herodotus was a favourite au- 
 thor in the hands of every Greek who had any pretensions 
 to literature. It was probably occasioned by the reasons 
 
298 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 which they had to distrust the veracity of Scylax, of 
 which I have already taken notice. Accordingly, in a 
 speech which Arrian puts into the mouth of Alexander, 
 he asserts that, except Bacchus, he was the first who had 
 passed the Indus ; which implies that he disbelieved what 
 is related concerning Scylax, and was not acquainted with 
 what Darius Hystaspes is said to have done, in order to 
 subject that part of India to the Persian crown. Arrian, 
 vii. c. 10. This opinion is confirmed by Megasthenes, 
 who resided a considerable time in India. He asserts that, 
 except Bacchus and Hercules (to whose fabulous expedi- 
 tions Strabo is astonished that he should have given any 
 credit, lib. xv. p. 1007. D.) Alexander was the first who 
 had invaded India ; Arrian, Hist. Indie, c. 5. We are 
 informed by Arrian, that the Assacani, and other people 
 who possessed that country, which is now called the king- 
 dom of Candahar, paid tribute, first to the Assyrians, and 
 afterwards to the Medes and Persians; Hist. Indie, c. 1. 
 As all the fertile provinces on the north-west of the Indus 
 were anciently reckoned to be part of India, it is probable 
 i that what was levied from them is the sum mentioned in 
 the tribute-roll, from which Herodotus drew his account 
 of the annual revenue of the Persian empire, and that 
 none of the provinces to the south of the Indus were 
 
 ever subject to the Kings of Persia. • 2. This voyage of 
 
 Nearchus affords some striking instances of the imperfect 
 knowledge which the ancients had of any navigation dif- 
 ferent from that to which they were accustomed in the 
 Mediterranean. Though the enterprising genius and 
 enlarged views of Alexander prompted him to attempt 
 opening an intercourse by sea, between India and his 
 Persian dominions, yet both he and Nearchus knew so 
 little of the ocean which they wished to explore, as to be 
 apprehensive that it might be found impossible to navigate 
 it, on account of impervious straits, or other obstacels. 
 Hist. Indie, c. 20. Q. Curt. lib. ix. c. 9. When the 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Q(j(j 
 
 fleet arrived near the mouth of the Indus, the astonishment 
 excited by the extraordinary flow and ebb of tide in the 
 Indian ocean, a phenomenon (according to Arrian) with 
 which Alexander and his soldiers were unacquainted, lib. 
 vi. c. 19., is another proof of their ignorance in maritime 
 science. Nor is there any reason to be surprised at their 
 astonishment, as the tides are hardly perceptible in the 
 Mediterranean, beyond which the knowledge of the 
 Greeks and Macedonians did not extend, For the same 
 reason, when the Romans carried their victorious arms 
 into the countries situated on the Atlantic Ocean, or on the 
 seas that communicate with it, this new phenomenon of 
 the tides was an object of wonder and terror to them. 
 Caesar describes the amazement of his soldiers at a spring- 
 tide, which greatly damaged the fleet with which he in- 
 vaded Britain, and acknowledges that it was an appear- 
 ance with which they were unacquainted ; Bell. Gallic, 
 lib. iv. if 29. The tides on the coast near the mouth of the 
 Indus are remarkably high, and the effects of them very 
 great, especially that sudden and abrupt influx of the tide 
 into the mouths of rivers or narrow straits which is known 
 in India, by the name of The Bore, and is accurately de- 
 scribed by Major Rennell, In trod. xxiv. Mem. 278. In 
 the Periplus Maris Erythrsei, p. 26., these high tides are 
 mentioned, and the description of them nearly resembles 
 that of the Bore. A very exaggerated account of the tides 
 in the Indian ocean is given by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xiii. 
 c. 25. Major Rennell seems to think, that Alexander and 
 his followers could not be so entirely unacquainted with 
 the phenomenon of the tides, as Herodotus had informed 
 the Greeks, " that in the Red Sea there was a regular 
 " ebb and flow of the tide every day ;" lib. ii. c. 1 1. This 
 is all the explanation of that phenomenon given by 
 Herodotus. But among the ancients there occur instances 
 of inattention to facts, related by respectable authors, 
 which appear surprising' in modern times, Though Hero- 
 
300 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 dotus, as I have just now observed, gave an account of 
 the voyage performed by Scylax at considerable length, 
 neither Alexander, nor his historians, take any notice of 
 that event. I shall afterwards have occasion to mention 
 a more remarkable instance of the inattention of later 
 writers to an accurate description which Herodotus had 
 given of the Caspian sea. From these, and other similar 
 instances which might have been produced, we may 
 conclude, that the slight mention of the regular flow and 
 ebb of tide in the Red Sea, is not a sufficient reason for 
 rejecting, as incredible, Arrian's account of the surprize 
 of Alexander's soldiers when they first beheld the extra- 
 ordinary effects of the tide at the mouth of the Indus. 
 3. The course of Nearchus's voyage, the promon- 
 tories, the creeks, the rivers, the cities, the mountains, 
 which came successively in his view, are so clearly de- 
 scribed, and the distances of such as were most worthy of 
 notice are so distinctly marked, that M. D'An^lle, by 
 , comparing these with the actual position of the country, 
 according to the best accounts of it, ancient as well as 
 j modern, has been able to point out most of the places 
 which Nearchus mentions, with a degree of certainty 
 which does as much honour to the veracity of the Gre- 
 cian navigator, as to the industry, learning, and pene- 
 tration of the French geographer. Mem. de Literat. 
 torn. xxx. p. 132., &c. 
 
 In modern times, the Red Sea is a name appropriated 
 to the Arabian Gulf, but the ancients denominated the 
 ocean which stretches from that Gulf to India, the Ery- 
 thraean sea, from King Erythras, of whom nothing more 
 is known than the name, which in the Greek language 
 signifies red. From this casual meaning of the word, it 
 came to be believed that it was of a different colour from 
 other seas, and consequently of more dangerous na- 
 vigation. 16 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 301 
 
 NOTE VIII. Sect. I. p. 26. 
 
 Alexander was so intent on rendering this union of 
 his subjects complete, that after his death there was 
 found in his tablets or commentaries, (among other mag- 
 nificent schemes, which he meditated,) a resolution to 
 build several new cities, some in Asia, and some in Eu- 
 rope, and to people those in Asia with Europeans, and 
 those in Europe with Asiatics, " that, (says the His- 
 torian,) " by intermarriages, and exchange of good 
 " offices, the inhabitants of these two great continents 
 " might be gradually moulded into a similarity of sen- 
 " timents, and become attached to each other with 
 " mutual affection." Diod.*Sicul. lib. xviii. c. 4. 
 
 The Oriental Historians have mingled the little that 
 they kiaow concerning the transactions of European na- 
 tions, particularly concerning the reign of Alexander the 
 Great, and his conquest of Persia, with so many fabulous 
 and incredible circumstances, that hardly any attention 
 is due to them. Though they misrepresented every event 
 in his life, they entertained an high idea of his great 
 power, distinguishing him by the appellation of Escander 
 Dhulcarnein, i. e. the Two-horned, in allusion to the ex- 
 tent of his dominions, which, according to them, reached 
 from the western to the eastern extremity of the earth. 
 Herbelot. Bib. Orient. Article Escander. Anc. Univ. 
 Hist. vol.v. 8vo. edit. p. 433. Richardson's Dissert, pre- 
 fixed to his Dictionary of the Persian and Arabic, p. xii. 
 Whether the Historians of Indostan have given an ac- 
 count of Alexander's invasion of India with greater ac- 
 curacy, cannot be known, until some of their works s 
 written in the Sanskreet, are translated. That some tra- 
 ditional knowledge of Alexander's invasion of India is 
 
302 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 still preserved in the northern provinces of the Peninsula, 
 is manifest from several circumstances. The Rajahs of 
 Chitore, who are esteemed the most ancient establish- 
 ment of Hindoo Princes, and the noblest of the 
 Rajahpout tribes, boast of their descent from Porus, 
 famous as well in the east as in the west for his gallant 
 opposition to the Macedonian conqueror. Orme's Fragm. 
 p. 5. Major Rennell has informed me, by accounts 
 lately received from India, and confirmed by a variety of 
 testimonies, that, in the country of Kuttore, the eastern 
 extreme of the ancient Bactria, a people who claimed to 
 be the descendants of Alexander's followers, were exist- 
 ing when Tamerlane invaded that province. In Bijore, 
 a country more to the west in the same district, the 
 Bazira of Alexander, there is a tribe at this day which 
 traces its origin to certain persons left there by the con- 
 queror when he passed through that province. Both 
 Abul Fazel, and Soojah Rae, an eastern Historian 
 of good reputation, report this tradition without any 
 material variation. The latter, indeed, adds, that these 
 Europeans, if we may call them so, continued to preserve 
 * that ascendancy overtheir neighbours, which their ances- 
 tors may be supposed to have possessed when they first 
 settled here. Although we should reject this pedigree as 
 false, yet the bare claim argues the belief of the natives, 
 for which there must have been some foundation, that 
 Alexander not only conquered Bijore, but also transferred 
 that conquest to some of his own countrymen. Rennell 
 Mem. 2d edit. p. 162. The people of Bijore had like- 
 wise an high idea of Alexander's extensive authority; and 
 they, too, denominated him the Two-horned, agreeably 
 to the striking emblem of power in all the eastern lan- 
 guages. Ayeen Akbery, xi. 194. Many instances of this 
 emblem being used, will occur to every person accus- 
 tomed to read the sacred Scriptures. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 303 
 
 NOTE IX. Sect. I. p. 28. 
 
 It seems to be an opinion generally received, that Alex- 
 ander built only two cities in India, Nicsea, and Buce- 
 phalia, situated on the Hydaspes, the modern Chelum, 
 and that Craterus superintended the building of both. 
 But it is evident, from Arrian, lib. v. c. ult.^ that he 
 built a third city on the Acesines, now the Jenaub, under 
 the direction of Hephaestion ; and if it was his object to 
 retain the command of the country, a place of strength 
 on some of the rivers to the south of the Hydaspes seems 
 to have been necessary for that purpose. This part of 
 India has been so little visited in modern times, that it is 
 impossible to point out with precision the situation of 
 these cities. If P. Tieffenthaler were well founded in 
 his conjecture, that the river now called Rauvee is the 
 Acesines of Arrian, Bernouilli, vol. i. p. 39., it is probable 
 that this city was built somewhere near Lehore, one of 
 the most important stations in that part of India, and 
 reckoned m the Ayeen Akbery to be a city of very high 
 antiquity. But Major Rennell, in my opinion, gives 
 good reasons for supposing the Jenaub to be the Acesines 
 of the ancients. 
 
 NOTE X. Sect. I. p. 28. 
 
 The religious scruples which prevented the Persians 
 from making any voyage by sea, were known to the an- 
 cients. Pliny relates of one of the Magi, who was sent 
 on an embassy from Tiridates to the emperor Nero, 
 " Navigare noluerat, quoniam exspuere in Maria, aliisque 
 "mortalium necessitatibus violare naturam earn, fas non 
 " putant ;" Nat. Hist. lib. xxx. c. 2. This aversion to 
 
30i NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 the sea they carried so far, that, according to the obser- 
 vation of a well-informed Historian, there was not a city 
 of any note in their empire built upon the sea-coast ; 
 Ammian. Marcel, lib. xxiii. c. 6. We learn from 
 Dr. Hyde, how intimately these ideas were connected 
 with the doctrines of Zoroaster ; Rel. Vet. Pers. cap. vi. 
 In all the wars of the Persians with Greece, the fleets of 
 the Great King consisted entirely of ships furnished by 
 the Phenicians, Syrians, the conquered provinces of the 
 Lesser Asia, and the islands adjacent. Herodotus and 
 Diodorus Siculus mention the quota furnished by each 
 country in order to compose the fleet of twelve hundred 
 ships with which Xerxes invaded Greece, and among 
 these there is not one belonging to Persia. At the 
 same time it is proper to observe, ,that, according to 
 Herodotus, whose authority is unexceptionable with re- 
 gard to this point, Ariabigines, a son of Darius, acted as 
 admiral of the Persian fleet, and had several satraps of 
 high rank under his command, and both Persians and 
 Medes served as soldiers on board it ; Herod, lib. vii. 
 c. 96, 97. By what motives, or what authority, they 
 were induced to act in this manner, I cannot explain. 
 From some religious scruples, similar to those of the 
 Persians, many of the natives of Indostan, in our own 
 time, refuse to embark on board a ship, and to serve at 
 sea ; and yet on some occasions, the sepoys in the service 
 of the European powers have got the better of these 
 «cruples. 
 
 NOTE XI. Sect. I. p. 29. 
 
 M. Le Baron de Sainte-Croix, in his ingenious and 
 learned Critique des Historiens d' Alexandre le Grand, 
 p. 96., seems to entertain some doubt with respect to the 
 number of the cities which Alexander is said to have 
 
KOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. i 305 
 
 built. Plutarch de Fort Alex, affirms, that he founded 
 no fewer than seventy. It appears from many passages 
 in ancient authors, that the building of cities, or, what 
 maybe considered as the same, the establishment of forti- 
 fied stations, was the mode of maintaining their authority 
 in the conquered nations, adopted not only by Alexander, 
 but by his successors. Seleucus and Antiochus, to whom 
 the greater part of the Persian empire became subject, 
 were no less remarkable for founding new cities than 
 Alexander, and these cities seemed fully to have answered 
 the purposes of the founders, as they effectually prevented 
 (as I shall afterwards have occasion to observe) the revolt 
 of the conquered provinces. Though the Greeks, ani- 
 mated with the love of liberty and of their native coun- 
 try, refused to settle in the Persian empire while under 
 the dominion of its native monarchs, even when allured by 
 the prospect of great advantage, as M. de Sainte- Croix 
 remarks, the case became perfectly different, when that 
 empire was subjected to their own dominion, and they 
 settled there, not as subjects but as masters. Both Alex- 
 ander and his successors discovered much discernment in 
 choosing the situation of the cities which they built. 
 Seleucia, which Seleucus founded, is a striking instance 
 *)f this, and became hardly inferior to Alexandria in 
 number of inhabitants, in wealth, and in importance ; 
 Mr. Gibbon, vol. i. p. 250. M. D' Anville, Mem. de Li- 
 teral xxx. 
 
 NOTE XIL Sect. L p. 32. 
 
 It is from Justin we receive the slender knowledge 
 we have of the progress which Seleucus made in India^ 
 lib. xv. c. 4. But we cannot rely on his evidence, unless 
 when it is confirmed by the testimony of other authors. 
 Plutarch seems to assert, that Seleucus had penetrated 
 
 VOL. XII. x 
 
306 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 far into India ; but that respectable writer is more eminent 
 for his discernment of characters, and his happy selectibn 
 of those circumstances which mark and discriminate 
 them, than for the accuracy of his historical researches. 
 Pliny, whose authority is of greater weight, seems to con- 
 sider it as certain, that Seleucus had carried his arms into 
 districts of India which Alexander never visited ; Plin. 
 Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17. The passage in which this is 
 mentioned is somewhat obscure, but it seems to imply, 
 that Seleucus had marched from the Hyphasis to the 
 Hysudrus, from thence to Palibothra, and from that to 
 the mouth of the Ganges. The distances of the prin- 
 cipal stations in this march are marked, the whole 
 amounting to 2244 Roman miles. In this sense M. Bayer 
 understands the words of Pliny ; Histor. Regni Greeco- 
 rum Bactriani, p. 87. But to me it appears highly im- 
 probable, that the Indian expedition of Seleucus could 
 have continued so long as to allow time for operations of 
 such extent. If Seleucus had advanced as far into India 
 as the mouth of the Ganges, the ancients must have had 
 af more accurate knowledge of that part of the country 
 than they seem ever to have possessed. 
 
 NOTE XIIL Sect. I. p. S3. 
 
 Major Rennell gives a magnificent idea of this, by 
 informing us, that " the Ganges, after it has escaped 
 " from the mountainous tract in which it had wandered 
 " above eight hundred miles," Mem. p. 233. " receives 
 " in its course through the plains eleven rivers, some of 
 " them as large as the Rhine, and none smaller than the 
 " Thames, besides as many more of lesser note;" p, 257. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 307 
 
 NOTE XIV. Sect. I. p. 33. 
 
 In fixing the position of Palibothra, I have ventured 
 to differ from Major Rennell, and I venture to do so 
 with diffidence. According to Strabo, Palibothra was 
 situated at the junction of the Ganges and another river; 
 lib. xv, p. 1028. A. Arrian is still more explicit. He 
 places Palibothra at the confluence of the Ganges and 
 Erranaboas, the last of which he describes as less than 
 the Ganges or Indus, but greater than any other known 
 river ; Hist. Ind. c. 1 0. This description of its situation 
 corresponds exactly with that of Allahabad. P. Boudier, 
 to whose observations the geography of India is much 
 indebted, says,, that the Jumna, at its junction with the 
 Ganges, appeared to him not inferior in magnitude to 
 that river; D'Anville, Antiq. de l'lnde, p. 53. Allahabad 
 is the name which was given to that city by the Emperor 
 Akbar, who erected a strong fortress there ; an elegant 
 delineation of which is published by Mr. Hodges, N° IV„ 
 of his Select Views in India. Its ancient name, by which 
 it is still known among tjie Hindoos, is Praeg, or Piyag 9 
 ;and the people of the district are called Praegi, which 
 bears a near resemblance to Prasij, the ancient appella- 
 tion of the kingdom of which Palibothra was the capital ; 
 P„ Tiessen thaler, Bernouilli, torn. i. 223. D'Anville^ 
 p. 56. Allahabad is such a noted seatof Hindoo devotion, 
 that it is denominated The King of Worshipped Places $ 
 Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 35. " The territory around it, 
 " to the extent of forty miles, is deemed holy ground,, 
 " The Hindoos believe, that when a man dies in this 
 " place, whatever he wishes for he will obtain in his 
 * c next regeneration. Although they teach that suicide 
 " in general will be punished with torments hereafter 
 " yet they consider it as meritorious for a man to kill 
 
 x % 
 
SOS NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS* 
 
 K himself at Allahabad ;" Ayeen Akbery, iii. 256. P. 
 Tiessenthaler describes the various objects of veneration 
 at Allahabad, which are still visited with great devotion 
 by an immense number of pilgrims ; Bernouilli, torn. L 
 224. From all these circumstances, we may conclude it 
 to be a place of great antiquity, and in the same situation 
 with the Palibothra of antiquity. 
 
 Major Rennell has been induced to place Palibothra 
 on the same site with Patna, chiefly by two considerations. 
 — - — 1 . From having learned that on or near the site of 
 Patna stood anciently a very large city named Patdpoot- 
 her or Patalippulra, which nearly resembles the ancient 
 name of Palibothra. Although there is not now a con- 
 fluence of two rivers at Patna, he was informed that the 
 junction of the Soane with the Ganges, now twenty-two 
 miles above Patna, was formerly under the walls of that 
 city. The rivers of India sometimes change their course 
 in a singular manner, and he produces some remarkable 
 instances of it. But even should it be allowed, that the 
 afccounts which the natives give of this variation in the 
 course of the Soane were perfectly accurate, I question 
 whether Arrian's description of the magnitude of Errana- 
 boas be applicable to that river, certainly not so justly as 
 
 to the Jumna. 2. He seems to have been influenced, 
 
 in some degree, by Pliny's Itinerary, or Table of Dis- 
 tances from Taxila (the modern Attock) to the mouth 
 of the Ganges ; Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 1 7. But the dis^ 
 tances in that Itinerary are marked so inaccurately, and 
 in some instances are so palpably erroneous, that one can- 
 not found upon them with much security. According to it, 
 Palibothra is situated four hundred and twenty-five miles 
 below the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges. The ac- 
 tual distance, however, between Allahabad and Patna, 
 is not more than two hundred British miles. A disagree- 
 ment so -considerable cannot be accounted for, without 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 309 
 
 supposing some extraordinary error in the Itinerary, or that 
 the point of conflux of the Jumna with the Ganges has 
 undergone a change. For the former of these supposi- 
 tions there is no authority (as far as I know) from any 
 manuscript, or for the latter from any tradition. Major 
 Rennell has produced the reasons which led him to sup- 
 pose the site of Palibothra to be the same with that of 
 Patna ; Memoires, p. 49 — 54. Some of the objections 
 which might be made to this supposition he has foreseen, 
 and endeavoured to obviate ; and after all that I have 
 added to them, I shall not be surprised, if, in a geogra- 
 phical discussion, my readers are disposed to prefer his 
 decision to mine. 
 
 NOTE XV. Sect. I. p. 36. 
 
 I do not mention a short inroad into India by Antio- 
 chus the Great, about one hundred and ninety-seven 
 years posterior to the invasion of his ancestor Seleucus. 
 We know nothing more of this transaction, than that 
 the Syrian monarch, after finishing the war he carried 
 on against the two revolted provinces of Parthia and 
 Bactria, entered India, and concluding a peace with 
 Sophagasenus, a King of the country, received from him 
 a number of elephants, and a sum of money; Polyb.lib.x. 
 p. 597, &c. lib. xi. p. 651. edit. Casaub. Justin, lib. xv. 
 c. 4. Bayer's Hist. Regn. Graecor. Pactr. p. 69, &c 
 
 NOTE XVI. Sect. I. p, 37. 
 
 A fact cursorily related by Strabo, and which has 
 escaped the inquisitive industry of M. de Guignes, coin- 
 cides remarkably with the narrative of the Chinese 
 writers, and confirms it. The Greeks, he says, were de- 
 
 x 3 
 
glQ NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 prived of Bactria by tribes or hordes of Scythian Nomade% 
 who came from the country beyond the Jaxartes, and 
 are known by the names of Asij, Parsiani, Tachari, and 
 Sacarauli; Strab. lib. xi. p. 779. A. The Nomades of 
 the ancients were nations who, like the Tartars, subsist- 
 ed entirely, or almost entirely, as shepherds, without agri- 
 culture* 
 
 NOTE XVIL Sect. I. p. 39* 
 
 As the distance of Arsinoe, the modern Suez, from 
 the Nile, is considerably less than that between Berenice 
 and Coptos, it was by this route that all the commodities 
 imported into the Arabian Gulf, might have been con- 
 veyed with most expedition and least expense into Egypt. 
 But the navigation of the Arabian Gulf, which even in 
 the present improved state of nautical science is slow and 
 difficult, was in ancient times considered by the nations 
 around it to be so extremely perilous, that it led them to 
 gpe such names to several of its promontories, bays, and 
 harbours, as convey a striking idea of the impression 
 which the dread of this danger had made upon their 
 imagination. The entry into the Gulf they called Ba- 
 helmandeb, the gate or port of affliction. To a harbour 
 not far distant, they gave the name of Mete, i. e. Death. 
 A headland adjacent they called Gardefan, the Cape of 
 Burial. Other denominations of similar import are men- 
 tioned by the author to whom I am indebted for this in- 
 formation. Bruce's Travels, vol. i. p. 442, &c. It is- , 
 not surprising then, that the staple of Indian trade 
 should have been transferred from the northern extre- 
 mity of the Arabian Gulf to Berenice, as by this change 
 a dangerous navigation was greatly shortened. This 
 seems to have been the chief reason that induced Ptolemy 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 311 
 
 to establish the port of communication with India at 
 Berenice, as there were other harbours on the Arabian 
 Gulf which were considerably nearer than it to the Nile. 
 At a later period, after the ruin of Coptos by the Em- 
 peror Dioclesian, we are informed by Abulfeda, Descript. 
 Egypt, edit. Michaelis, p. 77., that Indian commodities 
 were conveyed from the Red Sea to the Nile, by the 
 shortest route, viz. from Cosseir, probably the Philoteras 
 Portus of Ptolemy, to Cous, the Vicus Apollinis, a jour- 
 ney of four days. The same account of the distance was 
 given by the natives to Dr. Pococke, Travels, vol. i* 
 p. 87. In consequence of this, Cous, from a small village, 
 became the city in upper Egypt next in magnitude to 
 Fostat, or Old Cairo. In process of time, from causes 
 which I cannot explain, the trade from the Red Sea by 
 Cosseir removed to Kene, farther down the river than 
 Cous, Abulf. p. 13. 77. D'Anville, Egypte, 196 — 200. 
 In modern times, all the commodities of India, imported 
 into Egypt, are either brought by sea from Gidda to 
 Suez, and thence carried on camels to Cairo, or are con- 
 veyed by land-carriage by the caravan returning from 
 the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Niebuhr Voyage, torn. L 
 p. 224. Volney, i. 188, &c. This, as far as I have been 
 able to trace it, is a complete account of all the different 
 routes by which the productions of the East have been 
 conveyed to the ISfile, from the first opening of that com- 
 munication. It is singular that P. Sicard, Mem. des 
 Missions dans le Levant, torn. ii. p. 157., and some other 
 respectable writers, should suppose Cosseir to be the 
 Berenice founded by Ptolemy, although Ptolemy has 
 laid down its latitude at 23° 50', and Strabo has described 
 it as nearly under the same parallel with that of Syene, 
 lib. ii. p. 1 95. D. In consequence of this mistake, Pliny's 
 computation of the distance between Berenice and Cop- 
 tos, at two hundred and fifty-eight miles, has been 
 
 x 4 
 
3I& NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 deemed erroneous* Pococke, p. 87. But as Pliny not- 
 only mentions the total distance, but names the different 
 stations in the journey., and specifies the number of miles 
 between each ; and as the Itinerary of Antonius coincides 
 exactly with his account, D'Anville Egypte, p. 21., there 
 is no reason to call in question the accuracy of it. 
 
 NOTE XVIIL Sect. I. p. 41. 
 
 Major Rennell is of opinion, "that under the 
 " Ptolemies, the Egyptians extended their navigation to 
 " the extreme point of the Indian continent, and even 
 " sailed up the Ganges to Palibothra," on the same site 
 (according to him) with the modern Patna. Introd. 
 pu xxxvi. But had it been usual to sail up the Ganges 
 as high as Patna, the interior parts of India must have 
 been better known to the ancients than they ever were, 
 and they would not have continued to derive their in- 
 formation concerning them from Megasthenes alone. 
 Strabo begins his description of India in a very re- 
 markable manner. He requests hjs readers to peruse 
 with indulgence the account which he gives of it, as 
 it was a country very remote, and few persons had visited 
 it; and of these, many having seen only a small part of 
 the country, related things either from hear-say, or, 
 at the best, what they had hastily remarked while they 
 passed through it in the course of military service, or on 
 a journey, btrabo, lib. xv. p. 1005. B. He takes notice 
 that few of the traders from the Arabian Gulf ever 
 reached the Ganges. ' Ibid. 1006. C. He asserts, that 
 the Ganges enters the sea by one mouth, ibid. 101 1. C. ; 
 an error into which he could not have fallen if the na- 
 vigation of that river had been common in his time. 
 He mentions indeed the sailing up the Ganges, ibid. 
 1010., but it is cursorily in a single sentence; whereas, 
 if such a considerable inland voyage of above four hun- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 313 
 
 dred miles through a populous and rich country, had 
 been customary, or even if it had ever been performed 
 by the Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian traders, it must 
 have merited a particular description, and must have 
 been mentioned by Pliny and other writers, as there 
 was nothing similar to it in the practice of navigation 
 among the ancients. It is observed by Arrian, (or 
 whoever is the author of the Periplus Maris Erythraei,) 
 that previous to the discovery of a new route to India, 
 which shall be mentioned afterwards, the commerce with 
 that country was carried on in small vessels which sailed 
 round every bay, p. 32. Ap. Huds. Geogr. Min. Ves- 
 sels of such light construction, and which followed this 
 mode of sailing, were ill fitted for a voyage so distant as 
 that round Cape Comorin, and up the Bay of Bengal, 
 to Patna. It is not improbable, that the merchants, whom 
 Strabo mentions as having reached the Ganges, may have 
 travelled thither by land, either from the countries to- 
 wards the mouth of the Indus, or from some part of the 
 Malabar coast, and that the navigation up the Ganges, 
 of which he casually takes notice, was performed by the 
 natives in vessels of the country. This opinion derives 
 some confirmation from his remarks upon the bad struc- 
 ture of the vesselswhich frequented that part of the Indian 
 ocean. From his description of them, p. 1012. C, it is 
 evident that they were vessels of the country. 
 
 NOTE XIX. Sect. I. p. 43. 
 
 The erroneous ideas of many intelligent writers of 
 antiquity with respect to the Caspian Sea, though well 
 known to every man of letters, are so remarkable, and 
 afford such a striking example of the imperfection of 
 their geographical knowledge, that a more full account 
 
 9 
 
8U . NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 of them may not only be acceptable to some of my rea- 
 ders, but in endeavouring to trace the various routes by 
 which the commodities of the East were conveyed to the 
 nations of Europe, it becomes necessary to enter into 
 some detail concerning their various sentiments with re* 
 spectto this matter. 1. According to Strabo, the Cas- 
 pian is a bay, that communicates with the great Northern 
 ocean, from which it issues at first, by a narrow strait, 
 and then expands into a sea extending in breadth five 
 hundred stadia, lib. xi. p. 773. A. With him Pomponius 
 Mela agrees, and describes the strait by which the Cas- 
 pian is connected with the ocean, as of considerable 
 length, and so narrow that it had the appearance of a 
 river, lib. iii. c. 5. edit. Pliny likewise gives a similar de- 
 scription of it, Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 13. In the age of 
 Justinian, this opinion, concerning the communication of 
 the Caspian Sea with the ocean, was still prevalent ; 
 Cosm. Indicopl. Topog. Christ, lib. ii. p. 138* C.2. Some 
 early writers, by a mistake still more singular, have sup- 
 posed the Caspian Sea to be connected with the Euxine. 
 fjuintus Curtius, whose ignorance of geography is noto- 
 rious, has adopted this error, lib. vii. c. 7. edit. 3. Arrian, 
 though a much more judicious writer, andrwho, by resid- 
 ing for some time in the Roman province of Cappadocia, 
 of which he was governor, might have obtained more 
 accurate information, declares in one place the origin of 
 the Caspian Sea to be still unknown ; and it is doubtful 
 whether it was connected with the Euxine, or with the 
 great Eastern ocean which surrounds India ; lib. vii. 
 c. 16. In another place he asserts, that there was a 
 communication between the Caspian and the Eastern 
 ocean; lib. v. c. 26. These errors appear more extraor- 
 dinary, as a just description had been given of the 
 Caspian by Herodotus, near five hundred years before 
 the age of Strabo. " The Caspian (says he) is a sea 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 315 
 
 " by itself unconnected with any other. Its length is 
 " as much as a vessel with oars can sail in fifteen days, 
 " its greatest breadth as much as it can sail in eight 
 " days;" lib. 1. c. 203. Aristotle describes it in the 
 same manner, and with his usual precision contends that 
 it ought to be called a great lake, not a sea ; Meteorology 
 lib. ii. Diodorus Siculus concurs with them in opinion^ 
 vol. ii. lib. xviii. p. 261. None of those authors determine 
 whether the greatest length of the Caspian was from 
 North to South, or from East to West. In the an- 
 cient maps which illustrate the geography of Ptolemy, 
 it is delineated, as if its greatest length extended from 
 East to West. In modern times the first information 
 concerning the true form of the Caspian which the 
 people of Europe received, was given by Anthony 
 Jenkinson an English merchant, who with a caravan 
 from Russia travelled along a considerable part of 
 its coast in the year 1558 ; Hakluyt Collect, vol. i. 
 p. 334. The accuracy of Jenkinson's description was 
 confirmed by an actual survey of that sea made by 
 order of Peter the Great, A. D. 1718 ; and it is now 
 ascertained not only that the Caspian is unconnected 
 with any other sea, but that its length from North to 
 South is considerably more than its greatest breadth from 
 East to West. The length of the Caspian from North to 
 South is about six hundred and eighty "miles, and in no 
 part more than two hundred and sixty miles in breadth 
 from East to West, Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. p. 257. The 
 proportional difference of its length and breadth accords 
 nearly with that mentioned by Herodotus. From this 
 detail, however, we learn how the ill founded ideas con- 
 cerning it, which were generally adopted, gave rise to va- 
 rious wild schemes of conveying Indian commodities to 
 Europe by means of its supposed communication with the 
 Euxine sea, or with the Northern ocean. It is an 
 
316 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 additional proof of the attention of Alexander the Great 
 to every thing conducive to the improvement of com- 
 merce, that a short time before his death he gave direc- 
 tions to fit out a squadron in the Caspian, in order to 
 survev that sea, and to discover whether it was connected 
 either with the Euxine or Indian ocean ; Arrian, lib. viL 
 c. 16. 
 
 NOTE XX. Sect. I. p. 53. 
 
 From this curious detail, we learn how imperfect 
 ancient navigation was, even in its most unproved state. 
 The voyage from Berenice to Ocelis could not have 
 taken thirty days, if any other course had been held than 
 that of servilely following the windings of the coast. 
 The voyage from Ocelis to Musiris would be (according 
 to Major Rennell) fifteen days' run for an European ship 
 in the modern stile of navigation, being about seventeen 
 ^hundred and fifty marine miles, on a straight course ; 
 Introd. p. xxxvii. It is remarkable, that though the 
 Periplus Maris Erythrsei was written after the voyage of 
 Hippalus, the chief object of the author of it is to describe 
 the ancient course along the coasts of Arabia and Persia, 
 to the mouth of the Indus, and from thence down the 
 western shore of the continent to Musiris. I can account 
 for this only by supposing, that from the unwillingness of 
 mankind to abandon old habits, the greater part of the 
 traders from Berenice still continued to follow that route 
 to which they were accustomed. To go from Alexandria 
 to Musiris, required (according to Pliny) ninety-four 
 days. In the year 1788, the Boddam, a ship belong- 
 ing to the English East India Company, of a thousand 
 tons burden, took only fourteen days more to com- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 plete her voyage from Portsmouth to Madras. Such 
 are the improvements which have been made in navi- 
 
 317 
 
 gation. 
 
 NOTE XXI. Sect. II. p. 54. 
 
 It was the opinion of Plato, that in a well regulated 
 commonwealth the citizens should not engage in com- 
 merce, nor the state aim at obtaining maritime power. 
 Commerce, he contends, would corrupt the purity of 
 their morals, and by entering into the sea-service, they 
 would be accustomed to find pretexts for justifying con- 
 duct so inconsistent with what was manly and becoming, 
 as would gradually relax the strictness of military dis- 
 ciple. It had been better for the Athenians, he asserts, 
 to have continued to send annually the sons of seven of 
 their principal citizens to be devoured by the Minotaur, 
 than to have changed their ancient manners, and to have 
 become a maritime power. In that perfect republic, of 
 which he delineates the form, he ordains that the capital 
 should be situated at least ten miles from the sea ; De 
 Legibus, lib. iv. ab initio. These ideas of Plato were 
 adopted by other philosophers. Aristotle enters into a 
 formal discussion of the question, Whether a state rightly 
 constituted should be commercial or not ? and though 
 abundantly disposed to espouse sentiments opposite to 
 those of Plato, he does not venture to decide explicitly 
 with respect to it; De Repub. lib. vii. c. 6. In ages 
 when such opinions prevail, little information concerning 
 commerce can be expected. 
 
 NOTE XXII. Sect. II. p. 58. 
 
 Pliny, lib. ix. c. 35. Principium ergo culmenque 
 omnium rerum praetij Margaritee tenent. In lib. xxxvii. 
 
318 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 o. 4., he affirms, Maximum in rebus humanis praetium, 
 non solum inter gemmas, habet Adamas. These two 
 passages stand in such direct contradiction to one an- 
 other, that it is impossible to reconcile them, or to de- 
 termine which is the most conformable to truth. I have 
 adhered to the former, because we have many instances 
 of the exorbitant price of pearls, but none, as far as I 
 know, of diamonds having been purchased at a rate so 
 high. In this opinion I am confirmed by a passage in 
 Pliny, lib. xix. c. 1.; having mentioned the exorbitant 
 price of Asbestos, he says, " aequat praetia excellentum 
 " Margaritarum ;" which implies, that he considered 
 pearls to be of higher price than any other commodity. 
 
 NOTE XXIII. Sect. II. p. 58. 
 
 Pliny has devoted two entire books of his Natural 
 History, lib. xii. and xiii., to the enumeration and de- 
 scription of the spices, aromatics, ointments, and per- 
 fumes, the use of which luxury had introduced among 
 his countrymen. As many of these were the produc- 
 tions of India, or of the countries beyond it, and as the 
 trade with the East was carried on to a great extent in 
 the age of Pliny, we may form some idea of the immense 
 demand for them, from the high price at which they 
 continued to be sold in Rome. To compare the prices 
 of the same commodities in ancient Rome, with those 
 now paid in our own country, is not a gratification of 
 curiosity merely, but affords a standard by which we may 
 estimate the different degree of success with which the 
 Indian trade has been conducted in ancient and modern 
 times. Many remarkable passages in ancient authors, 
 concerning the extravagant price of precious stones and 
 pearls among the Romans, as well as the general use of 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 them by persons of all ranks, are collected by Meursius 
 de Lux. Romanorum, cap. 5.; and by Stanislaus Ro- 
 bierzyckius, in his treatise on the same subject, lib. ii. 
 c. 1. The English reader will receive sufficient inform- 
 ation from Dr. Arbuthnot, in his valuable Tables of 
 ancient coins, weights, and measures, p. 172, &c. 
 
 NOTE XXIV. Sect. II. p. 61. 
 
 M. Mahudel, in a memoir read in the academy of 
 inscriptions and belles lettres in the year 1719, has 
 collected the various opinions of the ancients concern- 
 ing the nature and origin of silk, which tend all to 
 prove their ignorance with regard to it. Since the 
 publication of M. MahudeFs memoir, P. du Halde has 
 described a species of silk, of which I believe he com- 
 municated the first notice to the moderns. " This is 
 u produced by small insects nearly resembling snails. 
 " They do not form cocoons either round or oval like 
 " the silk-worm, but spin very long threads, which 
 " fasten themselves to trees and bushes as they are 
 " driven by the wind. These are gathered and wrought 
 " into silk stuffs, coarser than those produced by domes- 
 " tic silk-worms. The insects which produce this coarse 
 " silk are wild." Description de 1' Empire de la Chine, 
 torn. ii. folio, p. 207. This nearly resembles VirgiPs- de- 
 scription, 
 
 319 
 
 Vellcraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres. 
 
 Georg. IL 121. 
 
 An attentive reader of Virgil will find, that, besides all 
 the other qualities of a great descriptive poet, he pos- 
 MM^l an extensive knowledge of natural history. The 
 
320 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 nature and productions of the wild silk-worms are il- 
 lustrated at greater length in the large collection of 
 Memoirs concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, 
 &c. des Chinois, torn. ii. p. 575, &c. ; and by Pere de 
 Mailla, in his voluminous History of China, torn. xiii. 
 p. 434. It is a . singular circumstance in the history of 
 silk, that, on account of its being an excretion of a worm 3 
 the Mahomedans consider it as an unclean dress ; and 
 it has been decided, with the unanimous assent of all 
 the doctors, that a person wearing a garment made 
 entirely of silk, cannot lawfully offer up the daily 
 prayers enjoined by the Koran. Herbal. Bibl. Orient, 
 artic. Harm 
 
 NOTE XXV. Sect. II. p. 61. 
 
 If the use of the cotton manufactures of India had 
 been common among the Romans, the various kinds of 
 them would have been enumerated in the Law de Pub- 
 j licanis et Vectigalibus, in the same manner as the dif- 
 ferent kinds of spices and precious stones. Such a spe- 
 cification would have been equally necessary for the di- 
 rection both of the merchant and of the tax-gatherer. 
 
 NOTE XXVI. Sect. II. p. 62. 
 
 This part of Arrian's Periplus has been examined 
 with great accuracy and learning by Lieutenant Wil- 
 ford; and from his investigation it is evident, that the 
 Plithana of Arrian is the modern Pultanah, on the 
 southern banks of the river Godavery, two hundred 
 and seventeen British miles south from Baroach ; that 
 the position of Tagara is the same with that of the mo- 
 dern Dowlatabad, and the high grounds across which 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 321 
 
 the goods were conveyed to Baroach, are the Ballagant 
 mountains. The bearings and distances of these dif- 
 ferent places, as specified by Arrian, afford an additional 
 proof (were that necessary) of the exact information 
 which he had received concerning this district of India ; 
 Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 369, &c. 
 
 NOTE XXVII. Sect. II. p. 69. 
 
 Strabo acknowledges his neglect of the improve- 
 ments in geography which Hipparchus had deduced 
 from astronomical observations, and justifies it by one 
 of those logical subtleties which the antients were apt 
 to introduce into all their writings. " A geographer," 
 says he, (i. e. a describer of the earth,) " is to pay no 
 66 attention to what is out of the earth ; nor will men ? 
 " engaged in conducting the affairs of that part of the 
 <£ earth which is inhabited, deem the distinction and 
 " divisions of Hipparchus worthy of notice." Lib. ii. 
 194. C. 
 
 NOTE XXVIII. Sect. II. p. 70. 
 
 What an high opinion the antients had of Ptolemy 
 we learn from Agathemerus, who flourished not long 
 after him. " Ptolemy," says he, " who reduced geo- 
 4i graphy into a regular system, treats of every thing 
 * c relating to it, not carelessly, or merely according 
 *' to ideas of his own, but attending to what had 
 ** been delivered by more antient authors, he adopted 
 "from them whatever he found consonant to truth." 
 Epitome Geogr. lib. i. c. 6. edit. Hudson. From the 
 same admiration of his work, Agathodaemon, an artist 
 of Alexandria, prepared a series of maps for the illus- 
 
 VOL. XII. Y 
 
$22 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 tration of it, in which the position of all the places men- 
 tioned by Ptolemy, with their longitude and latitude, is 
 laid down precisely according to his ideas. Fabric, 
 Biblioth. Graec. iii. 412. 
 
 NOTE XXIX. Sect. II. p. 71. 
 
 As these public Surveys and Itineraries furnished the 
 antient geographers with the best information concern- 
 ing the position and distances of many places, it may 
 be proper to point out the manner in which they were 
 completed by the Romans. The idea of a general 
 survey of the whole empire was first" formed by Julius 
 Caesar, and having been begun by him under authority 
 of a decree of the senate, was finished by Augustus. 
 As Rome was still far inferior to Greece in science, the 
 execution of this great undertaking was committed to 
 three Greeks, men of great abilities, and skilled in 
 every part of philosophy. The survey of the eastern 
 division of the empire was finished by Zenodoxus in 
 fourteen years five months and nine days. That of the 
 northern division was finished by Theodorus in twenty 
 years eight months and ten days. The southern di- 
 vision was finished in twenty-five years one month 
 and ten days. iEthici Cosmographia apud Geogra- 
 phos, editos a Hen. Stephano, 1577. p. 107. This 
 undertaking was worthy of those illustrious persons 
 who planned it, and suited to the magnificence of a 
 great people. Besides this general survey, every new 
 war produced a new delineation and measurement of the 
 countries which were the seat of it. We may conclude 
 from Vegetius, Instit. Rei Militaris, lib. iii. c. 6. that 
 every governor of a Roman province was furnished with 
 a description of it ; in which were specified the distance 
 of places in miles, the nature of the roads, the bye-roads, 
 the short cuts, the mountains, the rivers, &c. ; all these, 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 323 
 
 says he, were not only described in words, but were de- 
 lineated in a map, that, in deliberating concerning his 
 military movements, the eyes of a general might aid the 
 decisions of his mind. 
 
 NOTE XXX Sect. II. p. 71. 
 
 The consequence of this mistake is remarkable. Pto- 
 lemy, lib. vii. c. L, computes the latitude of Barrygaza, or 
 Baroach, to be 17° 20'; and that of Cory, or Cape Co- 
 morin, to be 13° 20', which is the difference of four 
 degrees precisely ; whereas the real difference between 
 these two places is nearly fourteen degrees. 
 
 NOTE XXXI. Sect. II. p. 72. 
 
 Ramusio, the publisher of the most antient and per- 
 haps the most valuable Collection of Voyages, is the first 
 person, as far as I know, who takes notice of this 
 strange error of Ptolemy; Viaggi, vol. i. p. 181. He 
 justly observes, that the author of the circumnavigation 
 of the Erythraean Sea had been more accurate, and had 
 described the peninsula of India, as extending from north 
 to south ; Peripl. p. 24. 29. 
 
 NOTE XXXII. Sect. II. p. 75. 
 
 This error of Ptolemy justly merits the name of 
 enormous, which I have given to it ; and it will appear 
 more surprising when we recollect, that he must have 
 been acquainted, not only with what Herodotus relates 
 concerning the circumnavigation of Africa by order of 
 one of the Egyptian Kings, lib. iv. c. 4., but with the 
 opinion of Eratosthenes, who held that the great ex- 
 
 Y 2 
 
324- NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 tent of the Atlantic ocean was the only thing which pre* 
 vented a communication between Europe and India by 
 sea ; Strab. Geogr. lib. i. p. 1 1 3. A. This error, how- 
 ever, must not be imputed wholly to Ptolemy. Hippar- 
 chus, whom we may consider as his guide, had taught 
 that the earth is not surrounded by one continuous ocean, 
 but that it is separated by different isthmuses, which di- 
 vide it into several large basons; Strab. lib. i. p. 11. B. 
 Ptolemy, having adopted this opinion, was induced to 
 maintain that an unknown country extended from Catti- 
 gara to Prassumon the south-east coast of Africa ; Geogr. 
 Jib. vii. c. 3. and 5. As Ptolemy's system of geography 
 was universally received, this error spread along with it. 
 In conformity to it the Arabian geographer Edrissi, who 
 wrote in the twelfth century, taught that a continued 
 tract of land stretched eastward from Sofala on the Afri- 
 can coast, until it united with some part of the Indian 
 continent; D'Anville, Antiq. p. 187. Annexed to the 
 first volume of Gesta Dei per Francos, there is an antient 
 and very rude map of the habitable globe, delineated ac- 
 I cording to this idea of Ptolemy. M. Gossellin, in his 
 map entitled Ptolemsei Systema Geographicum, has ex- 
 hibited this imaginary tract of land which Ptolemy sup- 
 poses to have connected Africa with Asia ; Geographic 
 des Grecs analysee. 
 
 NOTE XXXIII. Sect. II. p. 76. 
 
 In this part of the Disquisition, as well as in the map 
 prepared for illustrating it, the geographical ideas of M. 
 D' Anville, to which Major Rennell has given the sanction 
 of his approbation, Introd. p. xxxix,, have been generally 
 adopted. But M. Gossellin has lately published, " The 
 " Geography of the Greeks analised ; or, the Systems 
 
 2 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS* 3%5 
 
 w of Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Ptolemy, compared with 
 " each other, and with the Knowledge whirh the Mo- 
 " derns have acquired ;" a learned and ingenious work, 
 in which he differs from his countrymen with respect to 
 many of his determinations. According to M. Gossellin, 
 the Magnum Promontorium, which M. D'Anville con- 
 cludes to be Cape Romania, at the southern extremity of 
 the peninsula of Malacca, is the point of Bragu, at the 
 mouth of the great river Ava ; near to which he places 
 Zaba, supposed by M. D'Anville, and by Barros, Decad.ii. 
 liv. vi. c. 1 ., to be situated on the strait of Sincapura or 
 Malacca. The Magnus Sinus of Ptolemy he holds to be 
 the same with the Gulf of Martaban, not the Gulf of 
 Siam, according to M. D'Anville' s decision. The posi- 
 tion of Cattigara, as he endeavours to prove, corresponds 
 to that of Mergui, a considerable port on the west coast 
 of the kingdom of Siam, and that Thinse, or Sinae Metro- 
 polis, which M. D'Anville removes as far as Sin-hoa, in 
 the kingdom of Cochin China, is situated on the same 
 river with Mergui, and now bears the name of Tana-serim. 
 The Ibadij Insula of Ptolemy, which M. D'Anville deter- 
 mines to be Sumatra, he contends is one of that cluster 
 of small isles which lie off this part of the coast of Siam ; 
 p. 137 — 148. According to M. Gosselin's system, the 
 antients never sailed through the Streights of Malacca, had 
 no knowledge of the island of Sumatra, and were altoge- 
 ther unacquainted with the Eastern ocean. If to any 
 of my readers these opinions appear to be well founded, 
 the navigation and commerce of the antients in India 
 must be circumscribed within limits still more confined 
 than those which I have allotted to them. From the Ayeen 
 Akbery, vol.iL p. 7., we learn that Cheen was an antient 
 name of the kingdom of Pegu ; as that country borders 
 upon Ava, where M. Gossellin places the Great Promon- 
 tory, this near resemblance of names may appear, perhaps, 
 to confirm his opinion that Sinae Metropolis w r as situated 
 
 y 3 
 
S£6 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 on this coast, and not so far East as M. D'Anville Imw 
 placed it. 
 
 As Ptolemy's geography of this eastern division of 
 Asia, is more erroneous, obscure, and contradictory than 
 in any other part of his work, and as all the manuscripts 
 of it, both Greek and Latin, are remarkably incorrect in 
 the two chapters which contain the description of the 
 countries beyond the Ganges, M. D'Anville, in his Me- 
 moir concerning the limits of the world known to the 
 antients beyond the Ganges, has admitted into xt a larger 
 portion of conjecture than we find in the other researches 
 of that cautious geographer. He likewise builds more 
 than usual upon the resemblances between the antient 
 and modern names of places, though at all times he dis- 
 covers a propensity, perhaps too great, to trace these ? 
 and to rest upon them. These resemblances are often, 
 indeed, very striking, and have led him to many happy 
 discoveries. But in perusing his works, it is impossible^ 
 I should think, not to perceive that some which he men- 
 ( tions are far fetched and fanciful. Whenever I follow 
 him, I have adopted only such conclusions as seem to be 
 established with his accustomed accuracy. 
 
 NOTE XXXIV. Sect. II. p. 85. 
 
 The Author of the Circumnavigation of the Erythraean 
 Sea has marked the distances of many of the places which 
 he mentions, with such accuracy as renders it a nearer 
 approach, than what is to be found in any writer of anti- 
 quity, to a complete survey of the coast from Myos-hor-« 
 mus, on the west side of the Arabian Gulf, along the 
 shores of Ethiopia, Arabia, Per sia*, and Caramania, to the 
 mouth of the Indus, and thence down the west coast of 
 the Indian Peninsula to Musiris and Barace. This adds 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 327 
 
 to the value of this short treatise, which, in every other 
 respect, possesses great merit. It may be considered as 
 a remarkable proof of the extent and accuracy of this 
 author's intelligence concerning India, that he is the 
 only antient writer who appears in any degree to have 
 been acquainted with the great division of the country, 
 which still subsists, viz. Indostan Proper, comprehending 
 the northern provinces of the Peninsula, and the Deccan, 
 comprehending the southern provinces. " From Bary- 
 " gaza (says he) the continent stretches to the south ; 
 66 hence that district is called Dachinabades, for, in the 
 " language of the country, the south is called Dachanos;" 
 Peripl. p. 29. As the Greeks and Romans, when they 
 adopt any foreign name, always gave it a termination 
 peculiar to their own language, which the grammatical 
 structure of both tongues rendered, in some degree, ne- 
 cessary, it is evident that Dachanos is the same with 
 Deccan, which word has still the same signification, and 
 is still the name of that division of the Peninsula. The 
 northern limit of the Deccan at present is the river Nar- 
 budda, where our Author likewise fixes it, Peripl, 
 ibid. 
 
 NOTE XXXV. Sect. II. p. 88. 
 
 Though, in deducing the latitudes of places from 
 observations of the sun or stars, the antient astronomers 
 neglected several corrections, which ought to have been 
 applied, their results were sometimes exact to a few mi- 
 nutes, but at other times they appear to have been erro- 
 neous to the extent of two or even three degrees, and 
 may perhaps be reckoned, one with another, to have 
 come within half a degree of the truth. This part of the 
 antient geography would therefore have been tolerably 
 accurate, if there had been a sufficient number of such 
 
 y 4 
 i • 
 
328 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 determinations. These however, were far from being 
 numerous, and appear to have been confined to some of 
 the more remarkable places in the countries which sur- 
 round the Mediterranean sea. 
 
 When, from want of more accurate observations, the 
 latitude was inferred from the length of the longest or 
 shortest day, no great degree of precision was, in any 
 case, to be expected, and least of all in the vicinity of the 
 Equator. An error of a quarter of an hour, which, with- 
 out some mode of measuring time more accurate than 
 antient observers could employ, was not easily avoided, 
 might produce, in such situations, an error of four degrees 
 in the determination of the latitude. 
 
 With respect to places in the torrid zone, there was 
 another resource for determining the latitude. This was 
 by observing the time of year when the sun w T as ver- 
 tical to anyplace, or when bodies that stood perpendicular 
 to the horizon had no shadow at noon-day; the sun's dis- 
 tance from the Equator at that time, which was known 
 from the principles of astronomy, was equal to the lati- 
 tude of the place. We have instances of the application 
 of this method in the determination of the parallels of 
 Syene and JVleroe. The accuracy which this method 
 would admit of, seems to be limited to about half a degree, 
 and this only on the supposition that the observer was 
 stationary ; for if he was travelling from one place to 
 another, and had not an opportunity of correcting the 
 observation of one day by that of the day following, he 
 was likely to deviate much more considerably from the 
 truth. 
 
 With respect to the longitude of places, as eclipses of 
 the moon are not frequent, and could seldom be of use 
 for determining it, and only when there were astronomers 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 329 
 
 to observe them with accuracy, they may be left out of 
 the account altogether when we are examining the geo- 
 graphy of remote countries. The differences of the 
 meridians of places were therefore antiently ascertained 
 entirely by the bearings and distances of one place from 
 another, and of consequence all the errors of reckonings, 
 surveys, and itineraries, fell chiefly upon the longitude, 
 in the same manner as happens at present in a ship 
 which has no method of determining its longitude, 
 but by comparing the dead-reckoning with the observa- 
 tions of the latitude; though with this difference, that 
 the errors, to which the most skilful of the antient navi- 
 gators was liable, were far greater than what the most . 
 ignorant ship-master of modern times, provided with a 
 compass, can well commit. The length of the Mediter- 
 ranean measured, in degrees of longitude, from the Pillars 
 of Hercules, to the Bay of Issus, is less than forty de- 
 grees ; but in Ptolemy's maps it is more than sixty, and, 
 in general, its longitudes, counting from the meridian of 
 Alexandria, especially toward the East, are erroneous 
 nearly in the same proportion. It appears, indeed, that in 
 remote seas, the coasts were often delineated from an im- 
 perfect account of the distances sailed, without the least 
 knowledge of the bearings or direction of the ship's 
 course. Ptolemy, it is true, used to make an allowance of 
 about one-third for the winding of a ship's course. 
 Geogr. lib. i. c. 12. ; but it is plain, that the application of 
 this general rule could seldom lead to an accurate conclu- 
 sion. Of this there is a striking instance in the form which 
 that geographer has given to the Peninsula of India. . 
 From the Barygazenum Promontorium to the place 
 marked Locus unde solvunt in Chrysen navigantes, that 
 is, from Surat on the Malabar coast, to about Narsapour 
 on the Coromandel coast, the distance measured along 
 the sea-shore is nearly the same with what it is in reality ; 
 that is, about five hundred and twenty leagues. But the 
 
330 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 mistake in the direction is astonishing, for the Malabar 
 and Coromandel coast, instead of stretching to the south, 
 and intersecting one another at Cape Comorin, in a very 
 acute angle, are extended by Ptolemy almost in the same 
 straight line from west to east, declining a little to 
 the south. This coast is, at the same time, marked with 
 several bays and promontories, nearly resembling, in their 
 position, those which actually exist on it. All these circum- 
 stances compared together, point out very clearly what 
 were the materials from which the antient map of India 
 was composed. The ships which had visited the coast of 
 that country, had kept an account of the time which they 
 took to sail from one place to another, and had marked 
 as they stood along shore, on what hand the land lay, 
 when they shaped their course across a bay or doubled a 
 promontory. This imperfect journal, with an inaccurate 
 account, perhaps of the latitude of one or two places, was 
 probably all the information concerning the coast of 
 India, which Ptolemy was able to procure. That he 
 should have been able to procure no better information 
 from merchants who sailed with no particular view of ex- 
 ploring the coast, will not appear wonderful, if we consi- 
 der that even the celebrated Periplus of Hanno would not 
 enable a geographer to lay down the coast of Africa with 
 more precision, than Ptolemy has delineated that of 
 India. 
 
 NOTE XXXVI. Sect. II. p. 97. 
 
 The introduction of the silk- worm into Europe, and 
 the effects which this produced, came under the view of 
 Mr. Gibbon, in writing the History of the Emperor Justi- 
 nian, and though it was an incident of subordinate im- 
 portance only, amidst the multiplicity of great transactions 
 which must have occupied his attention, he has examined 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 331 
 
 this event with an accuracy, and related it with a precis 
 sion, winch would have done honour to an author who 
 had no higher object of research. Vol. iv. p. 71? &c. 
 Nor is it here only that I am called upon to ascribe to 
 him this merit. The subject of my inquiries has led me 
 several times upon ground which he had gone over, 
 and I have uniformly received information from the in- 
 dustry and discernment with which he has surveyed it. 
 
 NOTE XXXVII. Sect. III. p. 101. 
 
 This voyage, together with the observations of Abu 
 Zeid al Hasan of Siraf, was published by M. Renaudot, 
 A. D. 1718, under the title of " Anciennes Relations des 
 " Indes, et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahome- 
 " tans, qui y allerent dans le Neuvieme Siecle, traduites 
 " de Arabe, avec des remarques sur les principaux en- 
 " droits de ces Relations." As M. Renaudot, in his re- 
 marks, represents the literature and police of the Chinese 
 in colours very different from those of the splendid des- 
 criptions which a blind admiration had prompted the 
 Jesuits to publish, two zealous missionaries have called in 
 question the authenticity of these relations, and have as- 
 serted that the authors of them had never been in China ; 
 P^Premare Lettr. ediflantes et curieuses, torn. xix. p. 420, 
 &c. P. Parennin, ibid. torn. xxi. p. 158, &c. Some 
 doubts concerning their authenticity were entertained 
 likewise by several learned men in England, on account 
 of M. Renaudot' s having given no notice of the manu- 
 script which he translated, but that he found it in the 
 library of M. le Comte de Seignelay. As no person had 
 seen the manuscript since that time, the doubts increased, 
 and M. Renaudot was charged with the crime of impos- 
 ing upon the public. But the Colbert Manuscripts hav- 
 
332 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 ing been deposited in the King's Library, as (fortunately 
 for literature) most private collections are in France, 
 M. de Guignes, after a long search, discovered the iden- 
 tical manuscript to which M. Renaudot refers. It ap- 
 pears to have been written in the 1 2th century ; Journal 
 des Scavans, Dec. 1764, p. 315, &c. As I had not the 
 French edition of M. Renaudot's book, my references 
 are made to the English translation. The relation of the 
 two Arabian travellers is confirmed in many points, by* 
 their countryman Massoudi, who published his treatise 
 on universal history, to which he gives the fantastical title 
 of" Meadows of Gold, and Mines of Jewels," a hundred 
 and sixty years after their time. From him, likewise, 
 we receive such an account of India in the tenth century, 
 as renders it evident that the Arabians had then acquired 
 an extensive knowledge of that country. According to 
 his description, the Peninsula of India was divided into 
 four kingdoms. The first was composed of the provinces 
 situated on the Indus, and the rivers which fall into it; 
 the capital of which was Moultan. The capital of the 
 . second kingdom was Canoge, which, from the ruins of 
 it still remaining, appears to have been a very large city ; 
 Rennell's Memoirs, p. 54. In order to give an idea of its 
 populousness, the Indian historians assert, that it contained 
 thirty thousand shops, in which betelnut was sold, and 
 sixty thousand sets of musicians and singers, who paid a 
 tax to government : Ferishta, translated by Dow, vol. i. 
 p. 32. The third kingdom was Cachemire. Massoudi, 
 as far as I know, is the first author who mentions this 
 paradise of India, of which he gives a short but just de- 
 scription. The fourth is the kingdom of Guzerate, 
 which he represents as the greatest and most powerful ; 
 and he concurs with the two Arabian travellers, in giv- 
 ing the sovereigns of it the appellation of Belhara. What 
 Massoudi relates concerning India is more worthy of 
 notice, as he himself had visited that country; Notices et 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 333 
 
 Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque du Roi, 
 torn. i.p. 9, 10. Massoudi confirms what the two Arabian 
 travellers relate, concerning the extraordinary progress 
 of the Indians in astronomical science. According to 
 his account a temple was built during the reign of Brah- 
 min, the first monarch of India, with twelve towers, 
 representing the twelve signs of the zodiac ; and in 
 which was delineated a view of all the stars as they 
 appear in the heavens. In the same reign was composed 
 the famous Sind-Hind, which seems to be the standard 
 treatise of Indian astronomy; Notices, &c. torn. i. p. 7. 
 Another Arabian author, who wrote about the middle 
 of the fourteenth century, divides India into three 
 parts. The northern, comprehending all the provinces 
 on the Indus. The middle, extending from Guzerate 
 to the Ganges. - The southern, which he denominates 
 Comar, from Cape Comorin; Notices, &c. torn. ii. 
 p. 46. 
 
 NOTE XXXVIII. Sect. III. p. 103. 
 
 The naval skill of the Chinese seems not to have 
 been superior to that of the Greeks, the Romans, or 
 Arabians. The course which they held from Canton to 
 Siraf, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is described 
 by their own authors. They kept as near as possible to 
 the shore until they reached the island of Ceylon, and 
 then doubling Cape Comorin, they sailed along the 
 west side of the Peninsula, as far as the mouth of the 
 Indus, and thence steered along the coast to the place 
 of their destination; Mem. de Literat. torn, xxxii. 
 p. 367. Some authors have contended, that both the 
 Arabians and Chinese were well acquainted with the 
 mariner's compass, and the use of it in navigation ; but 
 it is remarkable that in the Arabic, Turkish, and Per- 
 
334 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 sian languages there is no original name for the com- 
 pass. They commonly call it Bosola, the Italian name, 
 which shews that the knowledge of this useful instru- 
 ment was communicated to them by the Europeans. 
 There is not one single observation, of antient date, 
 made by the Arabians on the variation of the needle, 
 or any instruction deduced from it, for the assistance 
 of navigators. Sir John Ghardin, one of the most 
 learned and best informed travellers who has visited 
 the East, having been consulted upon this point, returns 
 for answer, " I boldly assert, that the Asiatics are be- 
 " holden to us for this wonderful instrument, which 
 " they had from Europe a long time before the Portu- 
 " guese conquests. For, first, their compasses are ex- 
 " actly like ours, and they buy them of Europeans as 
 " much as they can, scarce daring to meddle with their 
 & needles themselves. Secondly, it is certain that the 
 " old navigators only coasted it along, which I impute 
 " to their want of this instrument to guide and in- 
 " struct them in the middle of the ocean. We can- 
 " not pretend to say that they were afraid of venturing 
 66 far from home, for the Arabians, the first navigators 
 " in the world in my opinion, at least for the eastern 
 * 6 seas, have, time out of mind, sailed from the bottom 
 " of the Red Sea, all along the coast of Africa; and the 
 " Chinese have always traded with Java and Sumatra, 
 " which is a very considerable voyage. So many 
 " islands uninhabited and yet productive, so many 
 " lands unknown to the people I speak of, are a proof 
 " that the old navigators had not the art of sailing on 
 " the main sea. I have nothing but argument to offer 
 " touching this matter, having never met with any per- 
 " son in Persia or the Indies to inform me when the 
 " compass was first known among them, though I made 
 " inquiry of the most learned men in both countries. 
 " I have sailed from the Indies to Persia in Indian 
 
 6 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 335 
 
 5 ships, when no European has been on board but 
 
 6 myself. The pilots were all Indians, and they used 
 ( the fore-staff and quadrant for their observations. 
 ( These instruments they have from us, and made by 
 6 our artists, and they do not in the least vary from 
 4 ours, except that the characters are Arabic. The 
 ' Arabians are the most skilful navigators of all the 
 e Asiatics or Africans; but neither they nor the Indians 
 6 make use of charts; and they do not much want 
 1 them: some they have, but they are copied from 
 i ours, for they are altogether ignorant of perspective." 
 
 Inquiry when the Mahomedans first entered China, 
 p. 141, &c. When M. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found 
 a magnetic needle in the possession of a Mahomedan, 
 which served to point out the Kaaba, and he gave it the 
 name of El Magnatis, a clear proof of its European 
 origin. Voyage en Arabie, torn. ii. p. 169. 
 
 NOTE XXXIX. Sect. III. p. 103. 
 
 Some learned men, Cardan, Scaliger, &c. have 
 imagined that the Vasa Murrhina, particularly described 
 by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvii., and occasionally men- 
 tioned by several antient authors both Greek and Ro- 
 man, were the true porcelain of China. M. l'Abbe Le 
 Bland and M. Larcher have examined this opinio^ 
 with full as much industry and erudition as the sub- 
 ject merited, in two Dissertations published in Mem. de 
 Literat. torn, xliii. From them it is evident that the 
 Vasa Murrhina were formed of a transparent stone 
 dug out of the earth in some of the eastern provinces 
 of Asia. These were imitated in vessels of coloured 
 glass. As both were beautiful and rare, they were 
 sold at a very high price to the luxurious citizens of 
 Rome. 
 
336 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NOTE XL. Sect. III. p. 105. 
 
 The progress of Christianity, and of Mahomeda-^ 
 nism, both in China and India, is attested by such evi- 
 dence as leaves no doubt with respect to it. This evi- 
 dence is collected by Assemanus, Biblioth. Orient, 
 vol. iv. p. 437, &c. 521, &c; and by M. Renaudot, 
 in two Dissertations annexed to Anciennes Relations ; 
 and by M. de la Croze, Histoire de Christianisme des 
 Indes. In our own age, however, we know that the 
 number of proselytes to either of these religions is ex- 
 tremely small, especially in India. , A Gentoo consi- 
 ders all the distinctions and privileges of his cast, as 
 belonging to him by an exclusive and incommunicable 
 right. To convert, or to be converted, are ideas equally 
 repugnant to the principles most deeply rooted in his 
 mind ; nor can either the Catholic or Protestant mis- 
 sionaries in India boast of having overcome these pre- 
 judices, except among a few in the lowest casts, or 
 of such as have lost their cast altogether. This last 
 circumstance is a great obstacle to the progress of 
 Christianity in India. As Europeans eat the flesh of 
 that animal which the Hindoos deem sacred, and drink 
 intoxicating liquors, in which practices they are imi- 
 tated by the converts to Christianity, this sinks them to 
 a level with the Pariars, the most contemptible and 
 odious race of men. Some Catholic missionaries were 
 so sensible of this, that they affected to imitate the 
 dress and manner of living of Brahmins, and refused 
 to associate with the Pariars, or to admit them to the 
 participation of the sacraments. But this was con- 
 demned by the apostolic legate Tournon, as incon- 
 sistent with the spirit and precepts of the Christian, 
 religion; Voyage aux Indes Orientales, par M. Sonne- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 337 
 
 rat, torn. i. p. 58. note. Notwithstanding the labours 
 of missionaries for upwards of two hundred years, (says 
 a late ingenious writer,) and the establishments of dif- 
 ferent Christian nations, who support and protect them, 
 out of, perhaps, one hundred millions of Hindoos, there 
 are not twelve thousand Christians, and those almost 
 entirely Chancalas, or outcasts. Sketches relating to the 
 history, religion 9 learning, and manners of the Hindoos, 
 p. 48. The number of Mahomedans, or Moors, now 
 in Indostan is supposed to be near ten millions; but 
 they are not the original injiabitans of the country, but 
 the descendants of adventurers who have been pouring 
 in from Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, ever since the in- 
 vasion of Mahmoud of Gazna, A. D. 1002, the first 
 Mahomedan conqueror of India. Orme Hist, of Mili- 
 tary Transact, in Indostan, vol. i. p. 24. Herbelot, 
 Biblioth. Orient, artic. Gaznaviah. As the manners of 
 the Indians in ancient times seem to have been in every 
 respect, the same with those of the present age, it is pro- 
 bable that the Christians and Mehomedans, said to be so 
 numerous in India and China, were chiefly foreigners, 
 allured thither by a lucrative commerce, or their de- 
 scendants. The number of Mahomedans in China has 
 been considerably increased by a practice, common 
 among them, of buying children in years of famine* 
 whom they educate in the Mahomedan religion. Hist. 
 Gener. des Voyages, torn. vi. p. 357- 
 
 NOTE XLI. Sect. III. p, 110. 
 
 From the Chronicle of Andrew Dandulo, Doge of 
 Venice, who was elevated to that high station at a 
 time when his countrymen had established a regular 
 trade with Alexandria, and imported from it all the 
 productions of the East, it was natural to expect some 
 
 VOL. XII. z 
 
338 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 information concerning their early trade with that 
 country ; but, except an idle tale concerning some 
 Venetian ships which had sailed to Alexandria about 
 the year 828, contrary to a decree of the state, and 
 which stole thence the body of St. Mark ; Murat. Script. 
 Rer. Ital. vol. xii. lib. 8. c< 2. p. 170. ; I find no other 
 hint concerning the communication between the two 
 countries. On the contrary, circumstances occur 
 which shew that the resort of Europeans to Egypt had 
 ( ceased, almost entirely, for some time. Prior to the 
 seventh and eighth centuries, the greater part of the 
 public deeds in Italy and in other countries of Europe, 
 were written upon paper fabricated of the Egyptian 
 Papyrus ; but after that period, as Europeans seldom 
 ventured to trade in Alexandria, almost all charters 
 and other deeds are written upon parchment. Murat. 
 Antiq. Ital. Medii iEvi, vol. hi. p. 832. I have been 
 induced both in the text and in this note, to state 
 these particulars concerning the interruption of trade 
 between the Christians and Mahomedans so fully, in 
 4 order to correct an error into which several modern au- 
 thors have fallen, by supposing, that soon after the first 
 conquests of the Caliphs, the trade with India returned 
 into its ancient channels, and the merchants of Europe 
 resorted with the same freedom as formerly to the ports 
 of Egypt and Syria. 
 
 NOTE XLII. Sect. III. p. 114. 
 
 It is proper to remark (says Mr. Stewart) that the 
 Indians have an admirable method of rendering their 
 religion lucrative, it being usual for the Faquirs to 
 carry with them, in their pilgrimages from the sea- 
 coasts to the interior parts, pearls, corals, spices, and 
 other precious articles, of small bulk, which they ex- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 339 
 
 change, on their return, for gold dust, musk, and other - 
 things of a similar nature, concealing them easily in their 
 hair, and in the cloths round their middle, carrying on in 
 proportion to their numbers, no inconsiderable traffic by 
 these means. Account of the kingdom of Thibet, Philos. 
 Transact, vol. Ixvii. part ii. p. 483, 
 
 NOTE XLIII. Sect. III. p. 123. 
 
 Caffa is the most commodious station for trade in 
 the Black Sea. While in the hands of the Genoese, 
 who kept possession of it above two centuries, they ren- 
 dered it the seat of an extensive and flourishing com- 
 merce. Even under all the disadvantages of its subjec- 
 tion, at present, to the Turkish government, it continues 
 to be a place of considerable trade. Sir John Chardin, 
 who visited it A. D. 1672, relates that during his re- 
 sidence of forty days there, above four hundred ships 
 arrived at Caffa, or sailed from it. Voyages, i. 48. He 
 observed there several remains of Genoese magnificence. 
 The number of its inhabitants, according to M. Peysonel, 
 amounts still to eighty thousand. Commerce de la Mer 
 Noire 9 torn. i. p. 15, He describes its trade as very 
 great. 
 
 NOTE XLIV. Sect. III. p. 124. 
 
 The rapacity and insolence of the Genoese settled in 
 Constantinople, are painted by Nicephorus Gregoras* 
 an eye witness of their conduct, in very striking colours. 
 " They" says he, "now, i. e. about the year 1340, 
 " dreamed that they had acquired the dominion of the 
 " sea, and claimed an exclusive right to the trade of 
 " the Euxine, prohibiting the Greeks to sail to the 
 * ( Mseotis, the Chersonesus, or any part of the coast be- 
 
 z % 
 
340 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 " yond the mouth of the Danube, without a licence from 
 " them. This exclusion they extended likewise to the 
 " Venetians, and their arrogance proceeded so far as to 
 " form a scheme of imposing a toll upon every vessel 
 " passing through the Bosphorus." Lib. xviii. c» 2. § 1. 
 
 NOTE XLV. Sect. III. p. 125. 
 
 A permission from the Pope was deemed so neces- 
 sary to authorise a commercial intercourse with infidels, 
 that long after this period, in the year 1454, Nicho- 
 las V. in his famous bull in favour of Prince Henry of 
 Portugal, 'among other privileges, grants him a licence 
 to trade with Mahomedans, and refers to similar con- 
 cessions from Pope Martin V.; and Eugenius to Kings 
 of Portugal. Leibnitz Codex Jur. Gent. Diplomat. 
 Pars I. p. 489. 
 
 NOTE XL VI. Sect. III. p. 127. 
 
 Neither Jovius, the profefessed panegyrist of the Me- 
 dici, nor Jo. M. Brutus, their detractor, though both 
 mention the exorbitant wealth of the family, explain 
 the nature of the trade by which it was acquired. Even 
 Machiavel, whose genius delighted in the investiga- 
 tion of every circumstance which contributed to aggran- 
 dize or depress nations, seems not to have viewed the 
 commerce of his country as a subject that merited any 
 elucidation. Denina, who has entitled the first chapter 
 of his eighteenth book, " The Origin of the Medici and 
 " the Commencement of their Power and Grandeur," 
 furnishes little information with regard to the trade car- 
 ried on by them. This silence of so many authors is a 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 341 
 
 proof that historians had not yet begun to view commerce 
 as an object of such importance in the political state of 
 nations, as to enter into any detail concerning its nature 
 and effects. From the references of different writers to 
 Scipio Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine; to Pagnini, Delia 
 Decimated altri gravezze della Mercatura di Fiorentini, 
 and to Balducci, Practica della Mercatura, I should 
 imagine that something more satisfactory might be 
 learned concerning the trade both of the republic and 
 the family of Medici; but I could not find any of these 
 books either in Edinburgh or in London. 
 
 NOTE XL VII. Sect. III. p. 127. 
 
 Leibnitz has preserved a curious paper, containing 
 the instructions of the republic of Florence to the two 
 ambassadors sent to the Soldan of Egypt, m order to 
 negociate this treaty with him, together with the re- 
 port of these ambassadors on their return. The great 
 object of the republic was to obtain liberty of trading 
 in all parts of the Soldan's dominions, upon the same 
 terms with the Venetians. The chief privileges which 
 they solicited, were ; 1 . A perfect freedom of admis- 
 sion into every port belonging to the Soldan, protection 
 while they continued in it, and liberty of departure 
 at what time they chose. 2. Permission to have a 
 consul, with the same rights and jurisdiction as those 
 of the Venetians; and liberty to build a church, a 
 warehouse, and a bath in every place where they set- 
 tled. S. That they should not pay for goods imported 
 or exported higher duties than were paid by the Vene- 
 tians. 4. That the effects of any Florentine who died 
 in the dominions of the Soldan should be consigned to 
 the consul. 5. That the gold and silver coin of Flo- 
 
 z 3 
 
342 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 rence should be received in payments. All these pri- 
 vileges (which shew on what equal and liberal terms 
 Christians and Mahomedans now carried on trade) the 
 Florentines obtained; but from the causes mentioned in 
 the text, they seem never to have acquired any consider- 
 able share iii the commerce with India. Leibnitz, Man- 
 tissa Cod. Jur. Gent. Diplom. Pars altera, p. 1 63. 
 
 NOTE XLVIII. Sect. III. p. 133. 
 
 The Eastern parts of Asia are now so complet 
 explored, that the first imperfect accounts of them, by 
 Marco Polo, attract little of that attention which was 
 originally excited by the publication of his travels; 
 and some circumstances in his narrative have induced 
 different authors to justify this neglect, by calling in 
 question the truth of what he relates, and even to as- 
 sert that he -had never visited those countries which he 
 pretends to describe. He does not, say they, ascertain 
 .the position of any one place by specifying its longi- 
 tude or latitude. He gives names to provinces and 
 cities, particularly in his description of Cathay, which 
 have no resemblance to those which they now bear. 
 We may observe however, that as Marco Polo seems 
 to have been, in no degree, a man of science* it was 
 not to be expected that he should fix the position of 
 places with geographical accuracy. As he travelled 
 through China, either in the suite of the great Khan, 
 or in execution of his orders, it is probable that the 
 names which he gives to different provinces and cities, 
 are those by which they were known to the Tartars, 
 in whose service he was, not their original Chinese 
 names. Some inaccuracies which have been observed 
 in the relation of his travels, may be accounted for, 
 by attending to one circumstance, that it was not pub- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 343 
 
 fished from a regular journal, which, perhaps, the 
 vicissitudes in his situation, during such a long series 
 of adventures, did not permit him to keep, or to pre- 
 serve. It was composed after his return to his native 
 country, and chiefly from recollection. But notwith- 
 standing this disadvantage, his account of those regions 
 of the East, towards which my inquiries have been di- 
 rected, contains information with respect to several par- 
 ticulars altogether unknown in Europe at that time, the 
 accuracy of which is now fully confirmed. Mr. Mars- 
 den, whose accuracy and discernment are well known, 
 traces his description of the island which he calls Java 
 minor, evidently Sumatra ; from which it is apparent 
 that, as Marco Polo had resided a considerable time in 
 that island, he had examined some parts with care, and 
 had inquired with diligence concerning others. Hist, of 
 Sumat. p. 281. I shall mention some other particulars 
 with respect to India, which though they relate to mat- 
 ters of no great consequence, afford the best proof of his 
 having visited these countries, and of his having observed 
 the manners and customs of the people with attention. 
 He gives a distinct account of the nature and preparation 
 of Sago, the principal article of subsistence among all the 
 nations of Malayan race, and he brought the first spe- 
 cimen of this singular production to Venice. Ramus, 
 lib. ill. c. 16. He takes notice, likewise of the gene- 
 ral custom of chewing Betel, and his description of 
 the mode of preparing it is the same with that still 
 in use. Ramus. Viaggi, i. p. 55. D. 56. B. He even 
 descends into such detail as to mention the peculiar 
 manner of feeding horses in India, which still conti- 
 nues. Ramus, p. 53. F. What is of greater import- 
 ance, we learn from him that the trade with Alexan- 
 dria continued when he travelled through India, to 
 be carried on in the same manner as I conjectured it to 
 have been in ancient times. The commodities of the 
 
 z 4 
 
S4>& NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 East were still brought to the Malabar coast by vessels 
 of the country, and conveyed thence, together with 
 pepper and other productions peculiar to that part of 
 India, by ships which arrived from the Red Sea. 
 Lib. iii. c. 27. This, perhaps, may account for the 
 superior quality which Sanudo ascribes to the goods 
 brought to the coast of Syria from the Persian Gulf, 
 above those imported into Egypt by the Red Sea. The 
 former were chosen and purchased in the places where 
 they grew or where they were manufactured, by the 
 merchants of Persia, who still continued their voyages 
 to every part of the East ; while the Egyptian mer- 
 chants, in making up their cargoes, depended upon the 
 assortment of goods brought to the Malabar coast by 
 the natives. To some persons in his own age, what 
 Marco Polo related concerning the numerous armies 
 and immense revenues of the Eastern Princes, appeared 
 so extravagant, (though perfectly consonant to what we 
 now know concerning the population of China, and 
 the wealth of Indostan,) that they gave him the name 
 of Messer Marco Milioni. Prefat. de Ramus, p. 4. 
 But among persons better informed, the reception he 
 met with was very different. Columbus, as well as 
 the men of science with whom he corresponded, placed 
 such confidence in the veracity of his relations, that 
 upon them the speculations and theories, which led 
 to the discovery of the New World, were in a great 
 measure founded. Life of Columbus by his Son, c. 7. 
 and 8. 
 
 NOTE XLIX. Sect. III. p. 139. 
 
 In the year 1301, Joanna of Navarre, the wife of 
 Philip le Bel King of France, having been some days in 
 Bruges, was so much struck with the grandeur and wealth 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 of that city, and particularly with the splendid appear- 
 ance of the citizens' wives, that she was moved (says Guic- 
 ciardini) by female envy to exclaim with indignation, 
 " I thought that I had been the only Queen here, but I 
 " find there are many hundreds more." Descrit. de 
 Paesi Bassi, p. 408. 
 
 NOTE L. Sect. III. p. 141. 
 
 In the history of the reign of Charles V., vol.i.p. 163., 
 I observe, that, during the war excited by the famous 
 League of Cambray, while Charles VIII. of France 
 could not procure money at a less premium than forty- 
 two per cent., the Venetians raised what sums they 
 pleased at five per cent. But this, I imagine, is not to be 
 considered as the usual commercial rate of interest at that 
 period, but as a voluntary and public-spirited effort of 
 the citizens, in order to support their country at a danger- 
 ous crisis. Of such laudable exertions, there are several 
 striking instances in the history of the republic. In the 
 year 1379, when the Genoese, after obtaining a great na- 
 val victory over the Venetians, were ready to attack their 
 capital, the citizens, by a voluntary contribution, enabled 
 the senate to fit out such a powerful armament as saved 
 their country. Sabellicus, Hist. Rer. Venet. Dec. ii. lib. 
 vi. p. 385. 390. In the war with Ferrara, which began in 
 the year 1472, the senate relying upon the attachment of 
 the citizens to their country, required them to bring all 
 their gold and silver plate, and jewels, into the public 
 treasury, upon promise of paying the value of them at 
 the conclusion ofthe*var, with five per cent, of interest; 
 and this requisition was complied with cheerfully. Petr. 
 Cyrnaeus de Bello Ferrar. ap. Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. 
 vol. xxi. p. 1016. 
 
 345 
 
146 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 NOTE LI. Sect. III. p. 142. 
 
 Two facts may be mentioned as proofs of an extraor- 
 dinary extension of the Venetian trade at this period, — — 
 1. There is in Rymer's Great Collection, a series of 
 grants from the Kings of England, of various privileges 
 and immunities to Venetian merchants trading in Eng- 
 land, as well as several commercial treaties with the re- 
 public, which plainly indicate a considerable increase of 
 their transactions in that country. These are mentioned 
 in their order by Mr. Anderson, to whose patient indus- 
 try and sound understanding, every person engaged in 
 any commercial research must have felt himself greatly 
 
 indebted on many occasions. 2. The establishment 
 
 of a Bank by public authority, the credit of which was- 
 founded on that of the state. In an age and nation so 
 well acquainted with the advantages which commerce de- 
 rives from the institution of banks, it is unnecessary to 
 enumerate them. Mercantile transactions must have 
 been numerous and extensive before the utility of such an 
 institution could be fully perceived, or the principles of 
 trade could be so fully understood as to form the regula- 
 tions proper for conducting it with success. Venice may 
 boast of having given the first example to Europe, of an 
 establishment altogether unknown to the ancients, and 
 which is the pride of the modern commercial system. The 
 constitution of the Bank of Venice was originally founded 
 on such just principles, that it has served as a model in 
 the establishment of banks in other countries, and the admi- 
 nistration of its affairs has been conducted with so much 
 integrity, that its credit has never been shaken. I cannot 
 specify the precise year in which the Bank of Venice was 
 established by a law of the State. Anderson supposes it 
 to have been A. D. 1157. Chron. Deduct, vol. i. p. 84. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 347 
 
 Sandi Stor. Civil. Venes. part II. vol. ii. p. 768. part. III. 
 vol. ii. p. 892. 
 
 NOTE LIL Sect. III. p. US. 
 
 An Italian author of good credit, and a diligent in- 
 quirer into the ancient history of its different govern- 
 ments, affirms, that if the several States which traded in 
 the Mediterranean had united together, Venice alone 
 would have been superior to them all, in naval power and 
 in extent of commerce. Denina Revolutions d' Italic tra- 
 duits par PAbbe Jardin, lib. xviii. c. 6. torn. vi. p. 839. 
 About the year 1420, the Doge Mocenigo gives a view 
 of the naval force of the republic, which confirms this de- 
 cision of Denina. At that time it consisted of three 
 thousand trading vessels, of various dimensions, on board 
 which were employed seventeen thousand sailors; of 
 three hundred ships of greater force, manned by eight 
 thousand sailors ; and of forty-five large galeasses, or car- 
 racks, navigated by eleven thousand sailors. In public 
 and private arsenals sixteen thousand carpenters were 
 employed. Mar. Sanuto Vitede Duchi di Venezia, ap. 
 Mur. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xxii. p. 959. 
 
 NOTE LIII. Sect. III. p. 160. 
 
 When we take a view of the form and position of the 
 habitable parts of Asia and Africa, we will see good rea- 
 sons for considering the camel as the most useful of all 
 the animals over which the inhabitants of these great 
 continents have acquired dominion. In both, some of 
 the most fertile districts are separated from each other 
 by such extensive tracts of barren sands, the seats of de- 
 solation and drought, as seem to exclude the possibility of 
 
348 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 communication between them. But as the ocean, which 
 appears, at first view, to be placed as an insuperable bar- 
 rier between different regions of the earth, has been ren- 
 dered, by navigation, subservient to their mutual inter- 
 course, so, by means of the camel, which the Arabians 
 emphatically call The Ship of the Desert , the most dreary 
 wastes are traversed, and the nations which they disjoin 
 are enabled to trade with one another. Those painful 
 journies, impracticable by any other animal, the camel 
 performs with astonishing dispatch. Under heavy bur- 
 dens of six, seven, and eight hundred weight, they can 
 continue their march during a long period of time, with 
 little food or rest, and sometimes without tasting water 
 for eight or nine days. By the wise economy of Provi- 
 dence, the camel seems formed of purpose to be the beast 
 of burden in those regions where he is placed, and where 
 his service is most wanted. In all the districts of Asia 
 and Africa, where deserts are most frequent and extensive, 
 the camel abounds. This is his proper station, and beyond 
 this the sphere of his activity does not extend far. He 
 dreads alike the accesses of heat and of cold, and does not 
 agree even with the mild climate of our temperate zone. 
 As the first trade in Indian commodities, of which we 
 have any authentic account, was carried on by means of 
 camels, Genesis, xxxvii. 25., andas it is by employingthem 
 that the conveyance of these commodities has been so 
 widely extended over Asia and Africa, the particulars 
 which I have mentioned concerning this singular animal 
 appeared to be necessary towards illustrating this part of 
 my subject. If any of my readers desire more full inform- 
 ation, and wish to know how the ingenuity and art of man 
 have seconded the intensions of Nature, in training the 
 camel from his birth for that life of exertion and hard- 
 ship to which he is destined, he may consult HistoireNa- 
 turelle, by M. le Comte de Buffon, artic. Chameau et Dro- 
 medaire, one of the most eloquent, and, as far as I can 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 349 
 
 judge from examining the authorities which he has quoted, 
 one of the most accurate descriptions given by that cele- 
 brated writer. M. Volney, whose accuracy is well known, 
 gives a description of the manner in which the camel 
 performs its journey, which may be agreeable to some of 
 my readers. ' 6 In travelling through the desert, camels 
 " are chiefly employed because they consume little, and 
 " carry a great load. His ordinary burden is about seven 
 " hundred and fifty pounds; his food, whatever is given 
 " him, straw, thistles, the stones of dates, beans, barley, 
 " &c. With a pound of food a day, and as much water, 
 " he will travel for weeks. In the journey from Cairo to 
 " Suez, which is forty or forty-six hours, they neither 
 " eat nor drink; but these long fasts, if often repeated, 
 " wear them out. Their usual rate of travelling is very 
 " slow, hardly above two miles an hour ; it is vain to 
 " push them, they will not quicken their pace, but, if al- 
 " lowed some short rest, they will travel fifteen or eight- 
 '* teen hours a day." Voyage, torn. ii. p. 383. 
 
 NOTELIV. Sect. III. p. 162. 
 
 In order to give an adequate idea of the extensive cir- 
 culation of Indian commodities by land carriage, it would 
 be necessary to trace the route, and to estimate the num- 
 ber of the various caravans by which they are conveyed. 
 Could this be executed with accuracy, it would be a 
 curious subject of geographical research, as well as a 
 valuable addition to commercial history. Though it is in- 
 consistent with the brevity which I have uniformly studied 
 in conducting this Disquisition, to enter into a detail of so 
 great length, it may be proper here, for illustrating this 
 part of my subject, to take such a view of two caravans 
 which visit Mecca, as may enable my readers to estimate 
 more justly the magnitude of their commercial transac- 
 tions. The first is the caravan which takes its departure 
 
 11 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 from Cairo in Egypt, and the other from Damascus in 
 Syria; and I select these, both because they are the most 
 considerable, and because they are described by authors of 
 undoubted credit, who had the best opportunities of re- 
 ceiving full information concerning them. The former 
 is composed not only of pilgrims from every part of 
 Egypt, but of those which arrive from all the small Maho- 
 medan states on the African coast of the Mediterranean, 
 from the empire of Morocco, and even from the Negroe 
 kingdoms on the Atlantic. When assembled, the caravan 
 consists at least of fifty thousand persons, and the number 
 of camels employedin carrying water, provisions, and mer- 
 chandize, is still greater. The journey, which, in going 
 from Cairo, and returning thither, is not completed in 
 less than a hundred days, is performed wholly by land ; 
 and as the route lies mostly through sandy deserts, or 
 barren uninhabited wilds, which seldom afford any sub- 
 sistence, and where often no sources of water can be found, 
 the pilgrims always undergo much fatigue, and sometimes 
 must endure incredible hardships. An early and good 
 description of tins caravan is published by Hakluyt, vol.ii, 
 p. 202, &c. Maillet has entered into a minute and curious 
 detail with regard to it; Lescript. de l'Egypte, part ii. 
 p. 212, &c. Pocock has given a route, together with the 
 length of each day's "march, which he received from a 
 person who had been fourteen times at Mecca, vol. i. 
 p. 1 8 8. 26 1 , &c. — The caravan from Damascus, composed 
 of pilgrims from almost every province of the Turkish 
 empire, is little inferior to the former in number, and 
 the commerce which it carries on is hardly less valuable. 
 Voyage de Volney, torn. ii. p. 251, &c. Ohsson Tabl. 
 Gener. de l'Empire Othom, III. p. 275, &c. This pil- 
 grimage was performed in the year 1741, by Khojeh Ab- 
 dulkurreem, whom I formerly mentioned, NoteV. p. 296. 
 He gives the usual route from Damascus to Mecca, 
 computed by hours, the common mode of reckoning a 
 
 7 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 351 
 
 journey in the East, through countries little frequented. 
 According to the most moderate estimafe, the distance 
 between the two cities, by his account, must be above 
 a thousand miles ; a great part of the journey is through 
 a desert, and the pilgrims not only endure much fatigue, 
 but are often exposed to great danger from the wild 
 Arabs. Memoirs, p. 114, &c. It is a singular proof of 
 the predatory spirit of the Arabs, that although all their 
 independent tribes are zealous Mahomedans,. yet they 
 make no scruple of plundering the caravans of pilgrims, 
 while engaged in performing one of the most indispen- 
 sable duties of their religion. A remarkable instance of 
 this occurred in the year 1 757. Travels through Cyprus, 
 Syria, &c. by Abbe Mariti, vol. ii. p. 117, &c. Engl. 
 Translation. Great as these caravans are, we must not 
 suppose that all the pilgrims who visit Mecca belong to 
 them ; such considerable additions are received from the 
 extensive dominions of Persia, from every province of 
 Indostan, and the countries to the East of it, from Abys- 
 sinia, from various states on the Southern coast of Africa, 
 and from all parts of Arabia, that when the whole are 
 assembled they have been computed to amount to two 
 hundred thousand. In some years the number is farther 
 increased by small bands of pilgrims from several interior 
 provinces of Africa, the names and situations of which 
 are just beginning to be known in Europe. For this last 
 fact we are indebted to the Association for promoting the 
 Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, formed by some 
 British Gentlemen, upon principles so liberal, and with 
 views so public-spirited, as do honour to themselves and 
 to their country. Proceedings, &c. p. 1 74. 
 
 In the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council 
 on the Slave Trade, other particulars are contained ; and 
 it appears that the commerce carried on by caravans in 
 the interior parts of Africa is not only widely extended, 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 but of considerable value. Besides the great caravan 
 which proceeds to Cairo, and is joined by Mahomedan 
 pilgrims from every part of Africa, there are caravans 
 which have no object but commerce, which set out from 
 Fez, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and other states on the 
 sea coast, and penetrate far into the interior country. 
 Some of them take no less than fifty days to reach the 
 place of their destination ; and, as the medium of their 
 rate of travelling may be estimated at about eighteen 
 miles a day, the extent of their journey may be easily 
 computed. As both the time of their outset, and their 
 route, are known, they are met by the people of all the 
 countries through which they travel, who trade with 
 them. Indian goods of every kind form a considerable 
 article in this traffic, in exchange for which the chief 
 commodity they can give is slaves. Part vi. 
 
 As the journeys of the caravans, which are purely 
 commercial, do not commence at stated seasons, and 
 their routes vary according to the convenience or fancy 
 of the merchants of whom they are composed, a descrip- 
 tion cannot be given of them with the same degree of 
 accuracy as of the great caravans which visit Mecca. But 
 by attending to the accounts of some authors, and the 
 occasional hints of others, sufficient information may be 
 gathered to satisfy us, that the circulation of Eastern goods 
 by these caravans is very extensive. The same inter- 
 course which was anciently kept up by the provinces in 
 the North-east of Asia with Indostan and China, and 
 which I formerly described, still subsists. Among all the 
 numerous tribes of Tartars, even of those which retain 
 their pastoral manners in greatest purity, the demand for 
 the productions of these two countries is very considerable. 
 Voyages de Pallas, torn. i. p. 357. &c. torn. ii. p. 422. 
 In order to supply them with these, caravans set out 
 annually from Boghar, (Hackluyt, vol. i. p. 332.) Samar- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 353 
 
 cand, Thibet, and several other places, and return with 
 large cargoes of Indian and Chinese goods* But the 
 trade carried on between Russia and China in this part of 
 Asia is by far the most extensive and best known. Some 
 connection of this kind, it is probable, was kept up be- 
 tween them from the earliest period, but it increased 
 greatly after th& interior parts of Russia were rendered 
 more accessible by the conquests of Zingis Khan and Ta- 
 merlane. The commercial nations of Europe were so 
 well acquainted with the mode of carrying on this trade, 
 that soon after the Portuguese had opened the communi- 
 cation with the East by the Cape of Good Hope, an at- 
 tempt was made in order to diminish the advantages 
 which they derived from this discovery, to prevail on the 
 Russians to convey Indian and Chinese commodities 
 through the whole extent of their empire, partly by land- 
 carriage and partly by means of navigable rivers to some 
 port on the Baltic from which they might be distributed 
 through every part of Europe. Ramusio Raccolto da 
 Viaggi, vol. i. p. 374. B. Hist, du Commerce de laRussie, 
 par M. Schreder, torn. i. p. 1 3, 1 4. This scheme, too great 
 for the monarch then on the throne of Russia to carry into 
 execution, was rendered practicable by the conquests of 
 Ivan Basil owite, and the genius of Peter the Great. 
 Though the capitals of the two empires w T ere situated at 
 the immense distance of six thousand three hundred and 
 seventy-eight miles from each other, and the route lay 
 for above four hundred miles through an uninhabited 
 desert, (Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 1670 caravans travelled 
 from the one to the other. But though it had been 
 stipulated, when this intercourse was established, that the 
 number of persons in each caravan should not exceed 
 two hundred, and though they were shut up within the 
 walls of a Caravanserai during the short time they were 
 suffered to remain in Pekln, and were allowed to deal 
 tol. xri. A A 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 only with a few merchants, to whom a monopoly of the 
 trade with them had been granted ; yet, notwithstanding 
 all these restraints and precautions, the jealous vigilance 
 with which the Chinese government excludes foreigners 
 from a free intercourse with its subjects, was alarmed, 
 and the admission of the Russian caravans into the empire 
 was soon prohibited. After various negotiations, an 
 expedient was at length devised, by which the advantages 
 of mutual commerce were secured, without infringing 
 the cautious arrangements of Chinese policy. On the 
 boundary of the two empires, two small towns were 
 built almost contiguous, Kiachta inhabited by Russians, 
 and Maimatschin by Chinese. To these all the market- 
 able productions of their respective countries' are brought 
 by the subjects of each empire; and the furs, the linen and 
 woollen cloth, the leather, the glass, &c. of Russia, 
 are exchanged for the silk, the cotton, the tea, the rice, 
 the toys, &c. of China. By some well-judged conces- 
 sions of the sovereign now seated on the throne of Russia, 
 whose enlarged mind is superior to the illiberal maxims 
 of many of her predecessors, this trade is rendered so 
 nourishing, that its amount annually is not less than 
 eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, and it is the 
 only trade which China carries on almost entirely by 
 barter. Mr. Coxe, in his account of the Russian disco- 
 veries, has collected, with his usual attention and discern- 
 ment, every thing relative to this branch of trade, the 
 nature and extent of which were little known in Europe : 
 Part ii. chap. ii. iii. iv. Nor is Kiachta the only place 
 where Russia receives Chinese and Indian commodities. 
 A considerable supply of both is brought by caravans of 
 independent Tartars to Orenburg, on the river Jaik; 
 Voyage dePallas, torn. i. p.355, &c.; toTroitzkaia, on the 
 river Oui, and to other places which I might mention. 
 I have entered into this long detail concerning the mode 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 in which the productions in India and China are circu- 
 lated through Russia, as it affords the most striking in- 
 stance, I know, of the great extent to which valuable 
 commodities may be conveyed by land-carriage. 
 
 NOTE LV. Sect. IV. p. 166. 
 
 The only voyage of discovery in the Atlantic Ocean 
 towards the South, by any of the ancient commercial 
 states in the Mediterranean, is that of Hanno, undertaken 
 by order of the republic of Carthage. As the situation 
 of that city, so much nearer the Straits than Tyre, Alex- 
 andria, and the other seats of ancient trade which have 
 been mentioned, gave it more immediate access to the 
 ocean ; that circumstance, together with the various set- 
 tlements which the Carthaginians had made in different 
 provinces of Spain, naturally suggested to them this en- 
 terprise, and afforded them the prospect of considerable 
 advantages from its success. The voyage of Hanno, in- 
 stead of invalidating, seems to confirm the justness of the 
 reasons which have been given, why no similar attempt 
 was made by the other commercial states in the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 NOTE L VI. Sect. IV. p. 168. 
 
 Though the intelligent authors whom I have quoted 
 considered this voyage of the Phenicians as fabulous, Hero- 
 dotus mentions a circumstance concerning it which seems 
 to prove that it had really been performed. " The Phe- 
 " nicians," says he, " affirmed that, in sailing round 
 " Africa, they had the sun on their right hand, which 
 *' to me appears not to be credible, though it may be 
 " deemed so by others." Lib. iv. c. 42. This, it is 
 
 A A 2 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 certain, must have happened, if they really accomplished 
 such a voyage. The science of astronomy, however, was 
 in that early period so imperfect, that it was by experience 
 only that the Phenicians could come at the knowledge of 
 this fact ; they durst not, without this, have ventured to 
 assert what would have appeared to be an improbable 
 fiction. Even after what they related, Herodotus dis- 
 believed it. 
 
 NOTE LVII. Sect. IV. p. 176. 
 
 Notwithstanding this increasing demand for the 
 productions of India, it is remarkable that during the 
 sixteenth century some commodities which are now the 
 chief articles of importation from the East, were either 
 altogether unknown, or of little account. Tea, the im- 
 portation of which, at present, far exceeds that of any 
 other production of the East, has not been in general use 
 in any country of Europe a full century; and yet, during 
 that short period, from some singular caprice of taste, or 
 ptawer of fashion, the infusion of a leaf brought from the 
 farthest extremity of the earth, of which it is perhaps the 
 highest praise to say that it is innoxious, has become al- 
 most a necessary of life, in several parts of Europe, and 
 the passion for it descends from the most elevated to the 
 lowest orders in society. In 1785 it was computed that 
 the whole quantity of tea imported into Europe from 
 China was about nineteen millions of pounds, of which 
 it is conjectured that twelve millions were consumed in 
 Great Britain and the dominions depending upon it. 
 Dodsley's Annual Register for 1784 and 1785, p. 156. 
 In 1789 twenty-one millions of pounds were imported. 
 The porcelain of China, now as common in many parts 
 of Europe as if it were of domestic manufacture, was 
 not known to the ancients. Marco Polo is the first 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 35^ 
 
 among the moderns who mentions it. The Portuguese 
 began to import it not long after their first voyage to 
 China, A. D. 1517; but it was a considerable time before 
 the use of it became extensive. 
 
 NOTE LVIII. Sect. III. p. 200. 
 
 According to all the writers of antiquity, the In- 
 dians are said to be divided into seven tribes or casts. 
 Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1029. C. &c. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii e 
 p. 153, &c. Arrian. Indie, c. 10. They were led -into 
 this error, it is probable, by considering some of the sub- 
 divisions of the casts, as if they had been a distinct in- 
 dependent order. But that they were no more than 
 four original casts, we learn from the concurring tes- 
 timony of the best informed modern trrvellers. A 
 most distinct account of these we have in " La Porte 
 " Ouverte, ou la vraye Representation de la Vie, des 
 " Mceurs, de la Religion, et du Service, des Brahmines, 
 " qui demeurent sur les Costes de Choromandel," &c. 
 This was compiled before the middle of last century, 
 by Abraham Roger, chaplain of the Dutch factory at 
 Pullicate. By gaining the confidence of an intelligent 
 Brahmin, he acquired information concerning the man- 
 ners and religion of^the Indians, more authentic and 
 extensive than was known to Europeans prior to the 
 late translations from the Sanskreet language. I men- 
 tion this book, because it seems to be less known than 
 it deserves to be. There remains now no doubt with re- 
 spect either to the number or the functions of the 
 casts, as both are ascertained from the most ancient and 
 sacred books of the Hindoos, and confirmed by the ac- 
 counts of their own, institutions, given by Brahmins emi- 
 nent for their learning. According to them, the different 
 
 a a 3 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 casts proceeded from Brahma, the immediate agent of 
 the creation under the Supreme Power, in the follow- 
 ing manner, which establishes both the rank which they 
 were to hold, and the office which they were required to 
 perform. 
 
 The Brahmin, from the mouth (wisdom) : To pray, to 
 read, to instruct. 
 
 The Chehetree, from the arms (strength) : To draw the 
 bow, to fight, to govern. 
 
 The Bice, from the belly or thighs (nourishment) : To 
 provide the necessaries of life by agriculture and 
 traffic. 
 
 The Sooder, from the feet (subjection) : To labour, to 
 serve. 
 
 The prescribed occupations of all these classes are 
 essential in a well regulated state. Subordinate to 
 them is a fifth, or adventitious class, denominated Bur- 
 run SunJcur, supposedto be the offspring of an unlawful 
 union between persons of different casts. These are 
 mostly dealers in petty articles of retail trade. Preface 
 to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. xlvi. and xcix. This 
 adventitious class is not mentioned, as far as I know, by 
 any European author. The distinction was too nice 
 to be observed by them, and they seem to consider the 
 members of this cast as belonging to the Sooder. Be- 
 sides these acknowledged casts, there is a race of un- 
 happy men, denominated, on the Coromandel coast, 
 Pariars, and in other parts of India, Chandalas. These 
 are outcasts from their original order, who by their 
 misconduct have forfeited all the privileges of it. 
 Their condition is, undoubtedly, the lowest degradation 
 
 *3 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 of human nature. No person of any cast will have 
 the least communication with them. Sonnerat, torn. i. 
 p. 55, 56. If a Pariar approach a Nayr, i. e, a warrior 
 of high cast, on the Malabar coast, he may put him to 
 death with impunity. Water or milk are considered 
 as defiled even by their shadow passing over them, and 
 cannot be used until they are purified. Ayeen Akbery, 
 vol. iii. p. 243. It is almost impossible for words to 
 express the sensation of vileness that the name of Pariar 
 or Chandala conveys to the mind of a Hindoo. Every 
 Hindoo who violates the rules or institutions of his 
 cast sinks into his degraded situation. This it is- which 
 renders Hindoos so resolute in adhering to the institu- 
 tions of their tribe, because the loss of cast is, to them, 
 the loss of all human comfort and respectability ; and is 
 a punishment, beyond comparison, more severe than ex- 
 communication in the most triumphant period of papal 
 power. 
 
 The four original casts are named, and their functions 
 described in the Mahabarat, the most ancient book of the 
 Hindoos, and of higher authority than any with which 
 Europeans are hitherto acquainted. Baghvat-Geeta, 
 p. 130. The same distinction of casts was known to the 
 author of Heeto-pades, another work of considerable an- 
 tiquity, translated from the Sanskreet, p. 251. 
 
 The mention of one circumstance respecting the 
 distinction of casts has been omitted in the text. 
 Though the line of separation be so drawn, as to render 
 the ascent from an inferior to a higher cast absolutely 
 impossible, and it would be regarded as a most enormous . 
 impiety, if one in a lower order should presume to 
 perform any function belonging to those of a superior 
 cast ; yet in certain cases, the Pundits declare it to be 
 lawful for persons of a high class to exercise some of 
 
 a a 4 
 
360 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 the occupations allotted to a class below their own, 
 without losing their cast by doing so. Prefl of Pundits 
 to the code of Gentoo laws, p. 100. Accordingly 
 we find Brahmins employed in the service of their 
 Princes, not only as ministers of state, Grme's Frag- 
 ments, p. 207.5 but in subordinate stations. Most of 
 the officersof high rank in the army of Sevagi, the 
 founder of the Mahratta state, were Brahmins, and 
 some of them Pundits or learned Brahmins, Ibid, p.97* 
 Hurry Punt and Purseram Bhow, who commanded the 
 Mahratta forces, which acted in conjunction with the 
 army of Lord Cornwallis against Tippoo Saib, were 
 Brahmins* Many Seapoys in the service of the East-India 
 Company, particularly in the Bengal presidency, are of 
 the Brahmin cast* 
 
 Another fact concerning the casts deserves notice. 
 An immense number of pilgrims, amounting in some 
 years to more than 150,000, visit the Pagoda of Jag- 
 gernaut in Orissa, (one of the most ancient and most 
 revered places of Hindoo worship,) at the time of 
 the annual festival in honour of the deity to whom the 
 temple is consecrated. The members of all the four casts 
 are allowed promiscuously to approach the altar of the 
 idol, and seating themselves without distinction eat indis- 
 criminate of the same food. This seems to indicate some 
 remembrance of a state prior to the institutions of casts 
 when all men were considered as equal. I have not 
 such information as enables me to account for a practice 
 so repugnant to the first ideas and principles of the 
 Hindoos, either sacred or civil. Bernier, torn. ii. p. 102. 
 Tavernier, bookii. c. 9. Anquetil. Disc. Prelim, p. 81. 
 Sketches, p. 96. 
 
 Some of my readers must have observed, that I have 
 not mentioned the numerous orders of Indian devotees, 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. gfij 
 
 to all of whom European writers gave the appellation 
 of Faquirs ; a name by which the Mahomedans dis- 
 tinguish fanatical monks of their own religion. The 
 light in which I have viewed the religious institutions 
 of the Hindoos, did not render it necessary that I should 
 consider the Indian Faquirs particularly. Their num- 
 ber, the rigour of" their mortifications, the excruciating 
 penances which they voluntarily undergo, and the high 
 opinion which the people entertain of their sanctity, 
 have struck all travellers who had visited India, and 
 their descriptions of them are well known. The power- 
 ful influence of enthusiasm, the love of distinction, and 
 the desire of obtaining some portion of that reverence 
 and those honours which the Brahmins are born to 
 enjoy, may account for all the extraordinary things 
 which they do and suffer. One particular concerning 
 them merits notice. This order of devotees appears to 
 have been very ancient in India. The description of the 
 Germ mi, which Strabo takes from Megasthenes, applies ; 
 almost in every circumstance, to the modern Faquirs, 
 Lib, xv. p, 1040. B, 
 
 M)TE LIX. p. 202. 
 
 What I have asserted in the text is in general well- 
 founded. It is the opinion, however, of gentlemen who 
 have seen much of India, and who observed all they saw 
 with a discerning eye, that the conquests both of the 
 Mahomedans and of the Europeans have had some effect 
 aapon the manners and customs of the natives. They 
 imagine that the dress which the Hindoos now wear, 
 the turban, the jummah, and long drawers, is an imitation 
 of that worn by their Mahomedan conquerors. The 
 ancient dress of the Indians* as described by Arrian, 
 
362 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Hist. Indie, c.l 6., was a muslin-cloth thrown loosely about 
 their shoulders, a muslin-shirt reaching to the middle 
 of the leg, and their beards were dyed various colours ; 
 which is not the same with that used at present. The 
 custom of secluding women, and the strictness with 
 which they are confined, is likewise supposed to have 
 been introduced by the Mahomedans. This supposition is 
 in some measure confirmed by the drama of Sacontala, 
 translated from the Sanskreet. In that play several fe- 
 male characters are introduced, who mingle in society, 
 and converse as freely with men, as women are accus- 
 tomed to do in Europe. The author, we may presume, 
 describes the manners, and adheres to the customs of 
 his own age. But while I mention this remark, it is 
 proper, likewise, to observe, that, from a passage in Stra- 
 bo, there is reason to think, that in the age of Alexander 
 the Great, women in India were guarded with the same 
 jealous attention as at present. " When their Princes" 
 (says he, copying Megasthenes) " set out upon a public 
 *? hunt, they are accompanied by a number of their wo- 
 " men, but along the road in which they travel ropes 
 " are stretched on each side, and if any man approach 
 " near to them, he is instantly put to death." Lib. xv. 
 p. 1037. A. In some parts of India, where the original 
 manners of the people may be supposed to subsist in 
 greatest purity, particularly in the high country towards 
 the sources of the Indus, women of rank reside in private 
 apartments, secluded from society. Forster's Travels, 
 vol. i. p. 228. Women even of the Brahmin cast ap- 
 pear in the streets without a veil ; and it is only, as I 
 am informed, in the houses of persons of high rank or 
 great opulence, that a distinct quarter or haram is al- 
 lotted to the women. The influence of European man- 
 ners begins to be apparent among the Hindoos who 
 reside in the town of Calcutta. Some of them drive 
 about in English chariots, sit upon chairs, and fur- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 363 
 
 nish their houses with mirrors. Many circumstances 
 might be mentioned, were this the proper place, which, 
 it is probable, will contribute to the progress of this spirit 
 of imitation. 
 
 NOTE LX. p. 203. 
 
 It is amusing to observe how exactly the ideas of an 
 intelligent Asiatic coincide with those of the Europeans 
 on this subject. " In reflecting," says he, " upon the 
 u poverty of Turan [the countries beyond the Oxus] and 
 " Arabia, I was at first at a loss to assign a reason why 
 " these countries have never been able to retain wealth, 
 £6 whilst, on the contrary, it is daily increasing in Indos- 
 a tan. Timour carried into Turan the riches of Turkey, 
 " Persia, and Indostan, but they are all dissipated ; and, 
 " during the reigns of the four first Caliphs, Turkey, 
 " Persia, part of Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Spain, 
 " were their tributaries; but still they were not rich. 
 " It is evident, then, that this dissipation of the riches 
 " of a state, must have happened either from extraor- 
 65 dinary drains, or from some defect in the government. 
 " Indostan has been frequently plundered by foreign 
 " invaders, and not one of its Kings ever gained for 
 " it any acquisition of wealth ; neither has the country 
 " many mines of gold and silver, and yet Indostan 
 * c abounds in money and every other kind of wealth. 
 " The abundance of specie is undoubtedly owing to the 
 " large importation of gold and silver in the ships of 
 «' Europe, and other nations, many of whom bring 
 " ready money in exchange for the manufactures and 
 " natural productions of the country. If this is not 
 «* the cause of the prosperous state of Indostan, it must 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 " be owing to the peculiar blessing of God." Memoirs 
 of Kojeh Abdul-kureem, a Cashmeerian of distinctions 
 p. 42. 
 
 NOTE LXI. p. 209. 
 
 That the monarchs of India were the sole proprietors 
 of land, is asserted in most explicit terms by the ancients. 
 The people (say they) pay a land-tax to their Kings, 
 because the whole kingdom is regal property. Strabo, 
 lib. xv. p. 1030. A. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 153. This was 
 not peculiar to India. In all the great monarchies 
 of the East, the sole property of land seems to be vested 
 in the sovereign as lord paramouut. According to 
 Chardin, this is the state of property in Persia, and 
 lands were let by the monarch to the farmers who 
 cultivated them, on conditions nearly resembling those 
 granted to the Indian Ryots. Voyages, torn. iii. p. 339, 
 &c. 4to. M. Volney gives a similar account of the 
 tenure by which lands are held in one of the great 
 provinces of the Turkish empire. Voy. en Syrie, &c. 
 torn. ii. p. 369, &c. The precise mode, however, in 
 which the Ryots of Indostan held their possessions, is 
 a circumstance in its ancient political constitution, with 
 respect to which gentlemen of superior discernment, who 
 have resided long in the country, and filled some of the 
 highest stations in government, have formed very differ- 
 ent opinions. Some have imagined that grants of land 
 were made by the sovereign to villages or small com- 
 munities, the inhabitants of which, under the direc- 
 tion of their own chiefs or heads-men, laboured it in 
 common, and divided the produce of it among them in 
 certain proportions. Descript. de l'lnd. par M. Ber- 
 noulli, torn. ii. 223, &c. Others maintain, that the pro- 
 
 14 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. g65 
 
 perty of land has been transferred from the crown to 
 hereditary officers of great eminence and power, denomi- 
 nated Zemindars, who collect the rents from the Ryots, 
 and parcel out the lands among them. Others contend, 
 that the office of the Zemindars is temporary and mi- 
 nisterial, that they are merely collectors of revenue, re- 
 moveable at pleasure, and the tenure by which the Ryots 
 hold their possessions is derived immediately from the 
 sovereign. This last opinion is supported with great 
 ability by Mr. Grant, in an Inquiry into the Nature 
 of Zemindary Tenures in the landed Property of Ben- 
 gal, &c. This question still continues to be agitated 
 in Bengal, and such plausible arguments have been pro- 
 duced in support of the different opinions, that although 
 it be a point extremely interesting, as the future system 
 of British finance in India appears likely to hinge, in 
 an essential degree, upon it, persons well acquainted with 
 the state of India have not been able to form a final 
 and satisfactory opinion on this subject. Captain Kirk- 
 patrick's Introd. to the Institutes of Ghazan Khan, 
 New Asiatic Misceh N° II. p. 130. Though the senti- 
 ments of the Committee of Revenue, composed of per- 
 sons eminent for their abilities, lean to a conclusion 
 against the hereditary right of the Zemindars in the soil, 
 yet the Supreme Council, in the year 1786, declined-, for 
 good reasons, to give any decisive judgment on a sub- 
 ject of such magnitude. —This note was sent to the press 
 before I had it in my power to peruse Mr. Rouse's 
 ingenious and instructive dissertation concerning , the 
 landed property of Bengal. In it he adopts an opinion 
 contrary to that of Mr. Grant, and maintains, with that 
 candour and liberality of sentiment which are always 
 conspicuous where there is no other object in view but 
 the discovery of truth, that the Zemindars of Bengal 
 possess their landed property by hereditary right. Were I 
 possessed of such knowlege either of the state of India, or 
 
566 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 of the system of administration established there, as would 
 be requisite for comparing these different theories, and 
 determining which of them merits the preference, the 
 subject of my researches does not render it necessary to 
 enter into such a disquisition. I imagine, however, 
 that the state of landed property in India might be 
 greatly illustrated by an accurate comparison of it 
 with the nature of feudal tenures ; and I apprehend 
 that there might be traced there a succession of changes 
 taking place In much the same order as has been ob- 
 served in Europe, from which it might appear, that 
 the possession of land was granted at first during plea- 
 sure, afterwards for life, and at length became per- 
 petual and hereditary property. But even under this last 
 form, when land is acquired either by purchase or in- 
 heritance, the manner in which the right of property 
 is confirmed and rendered complete, in Europe by a 
 Charter, in Indian by a Sunnud from the sovereign, seems 
 to point out what was its original state. According to 
 each of the theories- which I have mentioned, the te- 
 nure and condition of the Ryots nearly resemble the 
 description which I have given of them. Their state, 
 we learn from the accounts of intelligent observers, is as 
 happy and independent as falls to the lot of any race 
 of men employed in the cultivation of the earth. The 
 ancient Greek and Roman writers, whose acquaintance 
 with the interior parts of India was very imperfect, re- 
 present the fourth part of the annual produce of land 
 a§ the general average of rent paid to the sovereign. 
 Upon the authority of a popular author who flourished 
 in India prior to the Christian aera, we may conclude 
 that the sixth part of the people's income was, in his time, 
 the usual portion of the sovereign. Sacontala, ActV. 
 p. 53. It is now known that what the sovereign re- 
 ceives from land varies greatly in different parts of the 
 country, and is regulated by the fertility or barrenness 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 367 
 
 of the soil, the nature of the climate, the abundance 
 or scarcity of water, and many other obvious circum- 
 stances. By the account given of i% I should imagine 
 that, in some districts, it has been raised beyond its 
 due proportion. One circumstance with respect to the 
 administration of revenue in Bengal merits notice, as it 
 redounds to the honour of the Emperor Akber, the 
 wisdom of whose government I have often had occasion 
 to celebrate. A general and regular assessment of re- 
 venue in Bengal was formed in his reign. All the 
 lands were then valued, and the rent of each inha- 
 bitant and of each village ascertained. A regular 
 gradation of accounts was established. The rents of the 
 different inhabitants who lived in one neighbourhood 
 being collected together, formed the account of a village ; 
 the rents of several villages being next collected into one 
 view, formed the accounts of a larger portion of land. 
 The aggregate of these accounts exhibited the rent of 
 a district, and the sum total of the rents of all the 
 districts in Bengal, formed the account of the revenue 
 of the whole province. From the reign of Akber to 
 the government of Jaffeer Ali Cawn, A. D. 1757> the 
 annual amount of revenue, and the modes of levying it, 
 continued with little variation. But in order to raise 
 the sum which he had stipulated to pay the English on 
 his elevation, he departed from the wise arrangements of 
 Akber ; many new modes of assessment were introduced, 
 and exactions multiplied. 
 
 NOTE LXII. p. 211. 
 
 I shall mention only one instance of their attention 
 to this useful regulation of police. Lahore, in the 
 Panjab, is distant from Agra, the ancient capital of In- 
 
368 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 dostan, five hundred miles. Along each side of the road 
 between these two great cities, there is planted a con- 
 tinued row of shadv trees, forming an avenue, to which 
 (whether we consider its extent, its beauty, or utility in 
 a hot climate) there is nothing similar in any country. 
 Rennell's Memoir, p. 69. 
 
 NOTE LXIII. p. 215. 
 
 We cannot place the equitable and mild government 
 of Akber in a point of view more advantageous, than 
 by contrasting it with the conduct of other Mahomedan 
 princes. In no country did this contrast ever appear 
 more striking than in India. In the thousandth year 
 of the Christian sera, Mahmud of Ghazna, to whose 
 dominion were subjected the same countries which 
 formed the ancient kingdom of Bactria, invaded In- 
 dostan. Every step of his progress in it was marked with 
 blood and desolation. The most celebrated Pagodas, 
 the ancient monuments of Hindoo devotion and mag- 
 nificent, were destroyed, the ministers of religion were 
 massacred, and with undistinguishing ferocity the coun- 
 try was laid waste, and the cities were plundered and 
 burnt. About four hundred years after, Mahmud, Timur, 
 or Tamerlane, a conqueror of higher fame, turned his 
 irresistible arms against Indostan ; and though born in 
 an age more improved, he not only equalled, but often 
 so far surpassed the cruel deeds of Mahmud, as to be 
 justly branded with the odious name of the " Destroy- 
 " ing Prince," which was given to him by the Hin- 
 doos, the undeserving victims of his rage. A rapid 
 but striking description of their devastation!? may be 
 found in Mr. Orme's Dissertation on the Establishments 
 made by the Mahomedan conquerors in Indostan. A 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 369 
 
 more full account of them is given by Mr. Gibbon, 
 vol. v. p. 646. vol. vi. p. 339, &c. The arrogant 
 contempt with which bigotted Mahomedans view all 
 the nations who have not embraced the religion of the 
 prophet will account for the unrelenting rigour of Mah- 
 mud and Timur towards the Hindoos, and greatly en- 
 hances the merit of the tolerant spirit and moderation 
 with which Akber governed his subjects. What iim- 
 pression the mild administration of Akber made upon 
 the Hindoos, we learn from a beautiful letter of Jess- 
 want Sing, Rajah of Joudpore, to Aurengzebe, his 
 fanatical and persecuting successor. " Your royal an- 
 " cestor, Akber, whose throne is now in heaven, con- 
 " ducted the affairs of this empire in equity and firm 
 " security for the space of fifty-two years, preserving 
 " every tribe of -men in ease and happiness; whether 
 " they were followers of Jesus or of Moses, of David, 
 "or of Mahomed ; were they Brahmins, were they of 
 " the sect of Dharians, which denies the eternity of 
 " matter, or of that which ascribes the existence of the 
 " world to chance, they all equally enjoyed his counte- 
 " nance and favour ; insomuch that his people, in gra- 
 " titude for the indiscriminate protection which he a£- 
 " forded them, distinguished him by the appellation of 
 " Juggot Grow, Guardian of Mankind. — — If Your 
 i: Majesty places any faith in those books, by distinction 
 " called divine, you will there be instructed that God 
 " is the God of all mankind, not the God of Maho- 
 " medans alone. The Pagan and the Mussulman are 
 " equally in his presence. Distinctions of colours are 
 " of his ordination. It is he who gives existence. 
 " In your temples, to his Name, the voice is raised in 
 " prayer; in a house of images, where the bell is 
 " shaken, still He is the object of adoration. To vilify 
 " the religion and customs of other men, is to set at 
 " naught the pleasure of the Almighty. When we de- 
 
 VOL. XII. B B 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS; 
 
 " face a picture, we naturally incur the resentment of 
 " the painter ; and justly has the poet said, 4 Presume 
 " not to arraign or to scrutinize the various works of 
 " Power Divine.' " For this valuable communication 
 we are indebted to Mr. Orme. Fragments, notes, p. xcvii. 
 I have been assured by a gentleman who has read this 
 letter in the original, that the translation is not only faith- 
 ful but elegant. 
 
 NOTE LXIV. p. 225. 
 
 I have not attempted a description of any subterrane- 
 ous excavations but those of Elephanta, because none of 
 them have been so often visited, or so carefully inspected. 
 In several parts of India, there are, however, stupendous 
 works of a similar nature. The extent and magnificence 
 of the excavations in the Island of Salsetta are such, that 
 the artist employed by Governor Boon to make drawings 
 of them, asserted that it would require the labour of 
 forty thousand men for forty years to finish them. Ar- 
 chseologia, vol. vii. p. 336. Loose as this mode of esti- 
 mation may be, it conveys an idea of the impression 
 which the view of them made upon his mind. The Pa- 
 godas of Ellore, eighteen miles from Aurungabad, are 
 likewise hewn out of the solid rock, and if they do not 
 equal those of Elephanta and Salsetta in magnitude, they 
 surpass them far in their extent and number. M. The- 
 venot, who first gave any description of these singular 
 mansions, asserts, that for above two leagues all around 
 the mountain nothing is to be seen but Pagodas. Voy. 
 part iii. chap. 44. Tliey were examined at greater .leisure 
 and with more attention by M. Anquetil du Perron; 
 but as his long description of them is not accompanied 
 with any plan or drawing, I cannot convey a distinct 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 idea of the whole. It is evident, however, that they are 
 the works of a powerful people, and among the innu- 
 merable figures in sculpture with which the walls are 
 covered, all the present objects of Hindoo worship may 
 be distinguished. Zend-avesta. Disc. Prelim, p. 233* 
 There are remarkable excavations in a mountain at Mava- 
 lipuram near Sadras. This mountain is well known on 
 the Coromandel coast by the name of the Seven Pagodas. 
 A good description of the works there which are magni- 
 ficent and of high antiquity is given. Asiat. Researches, 
 vol. i. p. 145, &c. Many other instances of similar works 
 might be produced if it were necessary. What I have 
 asserted, p. 225. concerning the elegance of some of the 
 ornaments in Indian buildings, is confirmed by Colonel 
 Call, chief engineer at Madras, who urges this as a proof 
 of the early and' high civilization of the Indians. " It 
 u may safely be pronounced," says he, " that no part 
 u of the world has more marks of antiquity for arts? 
 " sciences, and civilization, than the peninsula of India, 
 " from the Ganges to Cape Comorin. I think the 
 V carvings on some of the Pagodas and Choultries, as 
 well as the grandeur of the work, exceeds any thing 
 executed now-a-days, not only for the delicacy of the 
 chisel, but the expence or construction, considering, in 
 " many instances, to what distances the component parts 
 (i were carried, and to what heights raised." Philoso- 
 phical Transactions, vol. lxii. p. 354. I am happy to 
 find my idea, that the first temples erected by the Hin- 
 doos were formed upon the model of those caverns in 
 which the rites of religion were originally celebrated, 
 confirmed and more fully unfolded by Mr. Hodges. In 
 a short dissertation on the-primitive standard, or prototype 
 of the different styles of architecture, viz. the Egyptian, 
 Hindoo, Moorish, Gothic, and Chinese, he has examined 
 and illustrated that curious subject with great ingenuity. 
 Travels in India, p. 63 — 77. 
 
 bb 2- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NOTE LXV. p. 229. 
 
 India, says Strabo, produces a variety of substances 
 which dye the most admirable colours. That the Indicum, 
 which produced the beautiful blue colour, is the same 
 with the Indigo of the moderns, we may conclude not 
 only from the resemblance of the name, and the similarity 
 of the effects, but from the description given by Pliny in 
 the passage which I have quoted in the text. He knew 
 that it was a preparation of a vegetable substance, though 
 he was ill-informed both concerning the plant itself, and 
 the process by which it was fitted for use ; which will 
 not appear surprising, when we recollect the account 
 formerly given of the strange ignorance of the ancients 
 with respect to the origin and preparation of silk. From 
 the colour of Indigo, in the form in which it was im- 
 ported, it is denominated by some authors, Atramenium 
 Indicum^ and Indicum Nigrum, Salmas. Exercit. p. 180, 
 and is mentioned under the last of these names, among 
 the articles of importation from India. Peripl. Mar. 
 Erythr. p. 22. The colour of the modern Indigo, when 
 undiluted, resembles that of the ancient Indicum, being 
 so intensely coloured as to appear black. Delaval's Ex- 
 perim. Inquiry into the Cause of the Changes of Colours, 
 Pref. p. xxiii. Indigo is the principal dye-stuff used by 
 the natives of Sumatra, and is much cultivated in that 
 island ; but the mode of preparing it differs from that 
 which is common among the people of Indostan. Mars- 
 den. Hist, of Sumatra, p. 77. There has been lately 
 found in the Circar of Rajamundry a new species of In- 
 digo, denominated the Tree Indigo, which, as it grows 
 wild and in great abundance, promises to be a discovery 
 of considerable use. Oriental Repertory, No. I. p. 39, &c. 
 The Gum Lacca, used in dying a red colour, was likewise 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 373 
 
 known to the ancients, and by the same name which it 
 now bears. Salamas. Exercit. p. 810. This valuable 
 substance, of such extensive utility in painting, dying, 
 japanning, varnishing, and in the manufacture of sealing- 
 wax, is the production of a very minute insect. These 
 insects fix themselves upon the succulent extremities of 
 the branches of certain trees, and are soon glued to the 
 place on which they settle, by a thick pellucid liquid 
 which exudes from their bodies, the gradual accumula- 
 tion of which forms a complete cell for each insect, which 
 is the tomb of the parent, and the birth-place of its off- 
 spring. This glutinous substance, with which the 
 branches of trees are entirely covered, is the Gum-lacca. 
 An account of its formation, nature and use, is given in 
 the Philos. Trans, vol. Ixxi. part ii. p. 374. in a concise, 
 accurate, and satisfactory manner. Some curious obser- 
 vations upon this insect are published by Mr. Roxburgh, 
 who cultivates the study of Natural History in India with 
 great assiduity and success. Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. 
 p. 361. It is remarkable that Ctesias seems to have re- 
 ceived an account tolerably distinct of the insect by which 
 the Guma-lacca is produced, and celebrates the beauty of 
 the colour which it dyes. Excerpta ex Indie, ad calc. 
 Herodot. edit. Wesseling, p. 830. Indian Dyers was the 
 ancient name of those who dyed either the fine blue or the. 
 fine red, which points out the country whence the mate- 
 rials they used were brought. Salmas. ib. p. 810. From 
 their dying cotton stuffs with different colours, it is evi- 
 dent that the ancient Indians must have made some con- 
 siderable proficiency in chemical knowledge. Pliny, lib. 
 xxxv. c. ii. § 42. gives an account of this art as far as it 
 was known anciently. It is precisely the same with that 
 now practised in callico-printing. 
 
 b B- 3 
 
q<74 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 o 
 
 NOTE LXVI. p. 240. 
 
 As Sanskreet literature is altogether a new acquisition 
 to Europe, Baghvat-Geeta, the first translation from that 
 language having been published so late as A. D. 1 785, it 
 is intimately connected with the subject of my inquiries, 
 and may afford entertainment to some of my readers, 
 after having reviewed in the text, with a greater degree of 
 critical attention, the two Sanskreet works most worthy of 
 notice, to give here a succinct account of other composi- 
 tions in that tongue with which we have been made 
 acquainted. The extensive use of the Sanskreet language 
 is a circumstance which merits particular attention. " The 
 " grand source of Indian literature," (says Mr. Halhed, 
 the first Englishman who acquired the knowledge of San- 
 skreet,) " the parent of almost every dialect from the 
 " Persian gulf to the China seas, is the Sanskreet, a lan- 
 " guage of the most venerable and unfathomable anti- 
 " quity ; which, although at present, shut up in the 
 " libraries of Brahmins, and appropriated solely to the 
 " records of their religion, appears to have been current 
 " over most of the Oriental world ; and traces of its ori- 
 " ginal extent may still be discovered in almost every dis- 
 " trict of Asia. I have been often astonished to find the 
 " similitude of Sanskreet words with those of Persian 
 " and Arabic, and even of Latin and Greek; and 
 " those not in technical and metaphorical terms, which the 
 " mutuation of refined arts and improved manners might 
 " have occasionally introduced, but in the ground-work 
 *? of language, in monosyllables, in the names of numbers, 
 " and the appellations of such things as would be first 
 " discriminated on the immediate dawn of civilization,, 
 " The resemblance which may be observed in the charac- 
 " ters on the medals and signets of various districts of 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 375 
 
 " Asia, the light which they reciprocally reflect upon 
 " each other, and the general analogy which they all bear 
 " to the same grand prototype, afford another ample 
 " field for curiosity. The coins of Assam, Napaul, Cash- 
 " meere, and many other kingdoms, are all stamped with 
 " Sanskreet characters, and mostly contain allusions to 
 " the old Sanskreet mythology. The same conformity 
 " I have observed on the impression of seals from Bootan 
 " and Thibet. A collateral inference may likewise be 
 " deduced from the peculiar arrangement of the San- 
 " skreet alphabet, so very different from that of any 
 " other quarter of the world. This extraordinary mode 
 " of combination still exists in the greatest part of the 
 " East, from the Indus to Pegu, in dialects now appa- 
 " rently unconnected, and in characters completely dis- 
 " similar ; and -it is a forcible argument that they are 
 " all derived from the same source. Another channel 
 " of speculation presents itself in the names of persons 
 " and places, of titles and dignities, which are open to 
 " general notice, and in which, to the farthest limits of 
 " Asia, may be found manifest traces of the Sanskreet." 
 Preface to the Grammar of the Bengal Language, p. 3. 
 After this curious account of the Sanskreet tongue, I 
 proceed to enumerate the works which have been trans- 
 lated from it, besides the two mentioned in the text. — • 
 1; To Mr. Wilkins we are indebted for Heeto-pades or 
 Amicable Instruction, in a series of connected fables, inter- 
 spersed with moral, prudential, and political maxims. 
 This work is in such high esteem throughout the East, that 
 it has been translated into every language spoken there. It 
 did not escape the notice of the emperor Akber, attentive 
 to every thing that could contribute to promote useful 
 knowledge. He directed his Vizier, Abul Fazel, to put it 
 into a style suited to all capacities, and to illustrate the 
 obscure passages in it, which he accordingly did, and 
 gave it the title of, The Criterion of Wisdom. At length, 
 
 B B 4 
 
376 NOTES AttD ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 these fables made their way into Europe, and have been 
 circulated there with additions and alterations, under the 
 names of Pilpay and Esop. Many of the Sanskreet 
 applogues are ingenious and beautiful, and having been co- 
 pied or imitated by the fabulists of other nations. But in 
 some of them the characters of the animals introduced 
 are very ill sustained ; to describe a tyger as extremely 
 devout, and practising charity, and other religious duties, 
 p. 1 6. or an old mouse well read in the Neetee Sastras, i. e. 
 Systems of morality and policy, p. 24 : a cat reading re- 
 ligious books, p. 35, &c. discovers a want of traste, and 
 an inattention to propriety. Many of the moral sayings, 
 if considered as. detached maxims, are founded upon a 
 thorough knowledge of life and manners, and convey 
 instruction with elegant simplicity. But the attempt 
 of the author to form his work into a connected series of 
 fables, and his mode of interweaving with them such a 
 number of moral reflections in prose and in verse, renders 
 the structure of the whole so artificial that the perusal of 
 it becomes often unpleasant. Akber was so sensible of 
 this, that, among other instructions, he advises his Vizier 
 to abridge the long digressions in that work. By these 
 strictures it is far from my intention 1 to detract in the 
 smallest degree from the merit of Mr. Wilkins. His 
 country is much indebted to him for having opened a 
 new source of science and taste. The celebrity of the 
 Heetoo-pades, as well as its intrinsic merit, notwithstand- 
 ing the defects which I have mentioned, justify his 
 choice of it, as a work worthy of being made known to 
 Europe in its original form. From reading this and his 
 other translations, no man will refuse him the praise, to 
 which he modestly confines his pretensions " of having 
 " drawn a picture which we suppose to be a true like- 
 " ness, although we are unacquainted with the original." 
 Pref. p. xiv. — 2. In the first number of the New Asiatic 
 Miscellany, we have a translation of a celebrated composi- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 377 
 
 lion in the East, known by the title of the Five Gems, 
 It consists of stanzas by five poets who attended the 
 court of Abissura, King of Bengal. Some of these stanzas 
 are simple and elegant. — 3. An ode translated from Wulli; 
 in which that extravagance of fancy, and those far fetched 
 and unnatural conceits, which so often disgust Europeans 
 with the poetical compositions of the East, abound too 
 much. The editor has not informed us to whose know- 
 ledge of the Sanskreet we are indebted for these two 
 translations. — 4. Some original grants of land, of very 
 ancient dates, translated by Mr. Wilkins. It may seem 
 odd, that a charter or legal conveyance of property should 
 be ranked among the literary compositions of any people 
 But so widely do the manners of the Hindoos differ 
 from those of Europe, that as our lawyers multiply words 
 and clauses, in order to render a grant complete, and to 
 guard against every thing that may invalidate it, the 
 Pundits seem to dispatch the legal part of the deed with 
 brevity, but, in a long preamble and conclusion, make an 
 extraordinary display of their own learning, eloquence 5 
 and powers of composition, both in prose and verse. 
 The preamble to one of these deeds is an encomium of the 
 monarch who grants the land, in a bold strain of Eastern 
 exaggeration : " When his innumerable army marched, 
 " the heavens were so filled with the dust of their feet 
 " that the birds of the air could rest upon it." — " His 
 " elephants moved like walking mountains, and the earth 
 " oppressed by their weight mouldered into dust." It 
 concludes with denouncing vengeance against those who 
 should venture to infringe this grant : " Riches and 
 " the life of man are as transient as drops of water upon 
 * the leaf of the lotus. Learning this truth, O man ! 
 " do not attempt to deprive another of his property." 
 Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 123; &c. The other grant 
 which appears to be still more ancient, is not less re- 
 markable. Both were found engraved on plates of cop- 
 
 9 
 
378 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 per. lb. p. 357, &c. — 5. The translation of part of 
 the Shaster, published by Colonel Dow, in the year 1 76 8* 
 ought perhaps to have been first mentioned. But as this 
 translation was not made by him from the Sanskreet, but 
 taken from the mouth of a Brahmin, who explained the 
 Shaster in Persian, or in the vulgar language of Bengal, 
 it will fall more properly under notice when we come to 
 inquire into the state of science among the Hindoos, than 
 in this place, where we are endeavouring to give some 
 idea of their taste and composition. 
 
 NOTE LXVII. p. 249. 
 
 As many of my readers may be unacquainted with the 
 extravagant length of the four seras or periods of Indian 
 chronology, it may be proper to give an account of them 
 from Mr. Halhed's Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws, 
 p. xxxvi. 
 
 1 . The Suttee Jogue (or age of purity) is said to have 
 lasted three million two hundred thousand years; and 
 they hold that the life of man was extended in that age 
 to one hundred thousand years ; and that his stature 
 was twenty- one cubits. 
 
 2. The Tirtah Jogue (in which one third of mankind 
 was corrupted) they suppose to have consisted of two 
 million four hundred thousand years, and that men lived 
 to the age of ten thousand years. 
 
 3. The Dwapaar Jogue (in which half of the human 
 race became depraved) endured one million six hundred 
 thousand years; and the life of man was then reduced ta 
 a thousand years. 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 379 
 
 4. The Collee Jogue (in which all mankind are con- 
 rupted, or rather lessened, for that is the true meaning 
 of Collee) is the present sera, which they suppose or- 
 dained to subsist four hundred thousand years, of which 
 near five thousand are already past; and the life of man 
 in that period is limited to one hundred years. 
 
 If we suppose the computation of time in the Indian 
 chronology to be made by solar or even by lunar years 
 nothing can be more extravagant in itself, or more re- 
 pugnant to our mode of calculating the duration of the 
 world, founded on sacred and infallible authority. 
 Some attempts have been made by learned men, parti- 
 cularly by M. Bailly, in a very ingenious dissertation 
 on that subject, to bring the chronology of the Hindoos 
 to accord somewhat better with that of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; but as I could not explain the principles upon 
 which he founds his conclusions, without entering into 
 long and intricate discussions foreign from the subject of 
 this Dissertation, and as I cannot assent to some of his 
 opinions, I shall rest satisfied with referring to his 
 Astron. Indienne, Disc. Prelim, p. Ixxvii. and leave my 
 readers to judge for themselves. I am happy to observe 
 that a memoir on the Chronology of the Hindoos will 
 be published in the Second Volume of the Transactions 
 of the Society of Bengal, and I hope that some learned 
 member of that body will be able, from his acquaint- 
 ance with the languages and history of the country, to 
 throw light upon a subject which its connection with re- 
 ligion and science renders extremely interesting. From 
 one circumstance however, which merits attention, we 
 may conclude, that the information which we have hither- 
 to received concerning the chronology of the Hindoos 
 is very incorrect. We have, as far as I know, only 
 five original accounts of the different Jogues or aeras of 
 the Hindoos. The first is given by M. Roger, who 
 
 12 
 
380 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 received it from the Brahmins on the Coromandel coast. 
 According to it, the Suttee Jogue is a period of one 
 million seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand years ; 
 the Tirta Jogue is one million two hundred and ninety- 
 six thousand years ; the Dwapaar Jogue is eight hun- 
 dred and sixty-four thousand years. The duration of 
 the Collee Jogue he does not specify. Porte Ouverte, 
 p. 1 79. The next is that of M. Bernier, who received 
 it from the Brahmins of Benares. According to him, 
 the duration of the Suttee Jogue was two million five 
 hundred thousand years ; that of Tirta Jogue one 
 million two hundred thousand years; that of the Dwapaar 
 Jogue is eight hundred and sixty-four thousand years. 
 Concerning the period of the Collee Jogue, he, likewise 
 is silent. Voyages, torn. ii. p. 160. The third is that 
 of Colonel Dow, according to which the Suttee Jogue 
 is a period of fourteen million of years ; the Tirtah 
 Jogue one million eighty thousand ; the Dwapaar Jogue 
 seventy-two thousand ; and the Collee Jogue thirty-six 
 thousand years. Hist, of Hindost. vol. i. p. 2. The 
 fourth account is that of M. de Gentil, who received 
 it fronflhe Brahmins of the Coromandel coast, and as 
 his information w r as acquired in the same part of In- 
 dia, and derived from the same source with that of M. 
 Roger, it agrees with his in every particular. Mem. de 
 l'Acadenudes Sciences pour 2772, torn. ii. parti, p. 176. 
 The fifth is the account of Mr. Halhed, which I have 
 already given. From this discrepancy, not only of the 
 total numbers, but of many of the articles in the dif- 
 ferent accounts, it is manifest that our information con- 
 cerning Indian chronology is hitherto as uncertain as 
 the whole system of it is wild and fabulous. To me 
 it appears highly probable, That when we understand 
 more thoroughly the principles upon which the factitious 
 geras or Jogues of the Hindoos have been formed, 
 that we may be more able to reconcile their chrono- 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 381 
 
 logy to the true mode of computing time, founded on 
 the authority of the Old Testament ; and may likewise 
 find reason to conclude, that the account given by their 
 astronomers of the situation of the heavenly bodies at the 
 beginning of the Collee Jogue, is not established by actual 
 observation, but the result of a retrospective calculation. 
 Whoever undertakes to investigate farther the chronology 
 of the Hindoos, will derive great assistance from a Memoir 
 of Mr. Marsden on that subject, in which he has ex- 
 plained the nature of their year and the several aeras in 
 use among them, with much ingenuity and precision. 
 Philos. Transact, vol. lxxx. part ii. p. 560. 
 
 NOTE LXVIII. p. 258. 
 
 In the public buildings of India, we find proofs and 
 monuments of the proficiency of the Brahmins in science, 
 particularly of their attention to astronomical observa- 
 tion. Their religion enjoins, that the four sides of a 
 Pagoda should face the four cardinal points. In order 
 to execute this with accuracy, they take a method de- 
 scribed by M. le Gentil, which discovers a consider- 
 able degree of science. He carefully examined the po- 
 sition of one of their Pagodas, and found it to be per- 
 fectly exact. Voy. torn. i. p. 133. As some of their 
 Pagodas are very ancient, they must have early attained 
 such a portion of knowledge as was requisite for placing 
 them properly. On the ceilings of Choultrys, and other 
 ancient edifices, the twelve signs of the zodiac are often 
 delineated ; and from their resemblance to those which 
 are now universally used, it is highly probable that the 
 knowledge of these arbitrary symbols was derived from 
 the East. Colonel Call has published a drawing of the 
 sighs of the zodiac, which he found on the ceiling of a 
 Choultry at Verdapettah, in the Madura country. Phil. 
 
382 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Transact, vol. lxii. p. 353. I have a drawing of them in 
 my possession, differing from his in some of the figures, 
 but I cannot say in what particular place it was found. 
 Sir Robert Barker describes an observatory at Benares, 
 which he visited A. D. 1772. In it he found instru- 
 ments for astronomical observation, of very large dimen- 
 sions, and constructed with great skill and ingenuity. 
 Of all these he has published drawings. Phil. Transact, 
 vol. lxvii. p. 598. According to traditionary account, 
 this observatory was built by the Emperor Akber. The 
 view which Sir Robert took of it was an hasty one. It 
 merits a more attentive inspection, in order to deter- 
 mine whether it was constructed by Akber, or erected in 
 some more early'period. Sir Robert intimates, that 
 none but Brahmins who understood the Sanskreet, and 
 could consult the astronomical tables written in that 
 language, were capable of calculating eclipses. P. Ties- 
 senthaler describes, in a very cursory manner, two ob- 
 servatories furnished with instruments of extraordinary 
 magnitude, at Jepour and Ougein, in the country of 
 Malwa. Bernouilli, torn. L p. 316. 347. But these are 
 moderirstructureg. 
 
 Since the first edition of the Historical Disquisition 
 was published, the Souriak Seddantam, or, according to 
 a more correct orthography, the Surya Siddhanta, 
 on the principles of which I had observed that all the 
 Indian astronomy is founded, has been discovered at 
 Benares by Sir Robert Chambers. He immediately 
 communicated this valuable work to Samuel Davis, Esq. 
 who has favoured the world with a translation of several 
 considerable extracts from it. 
 
 The Surya Siddhanta is composed in the Sanskreet 
 language, and professes to be a divine revelation, (as 
 
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 338 
 
 Abul Fazel had related, Ayeen Akbery, III. p. 8.) com- 
 municated to mankind more than two millions of years 
 ago, towards the close of the Sutty or Satya Jogue, 
 the first of the four fabulous ages into which the Hin- 
 doo Mythologists divide the period during which they 
 suppose the world to have existed. But when this 
 accompaniment of fiction and extravagance is removed, 
 there is left behind a very rational and elaborate sys- 
 tem of astronomical calculation. From this Mr. Davis 
 has selected what relates to the calculation of Eclipses, 
 and has illustrated it with great ingenuity. The manner 
 in which that subject is treated has so close an affinity 
 to the methods formerly brought from India, and 
 of which I have given some account, as to confirm 
 strongly the opinion that the Surya Siddhanta is the 
 source from which all the others are derived. How 
 far the real date of this work may be ascertained from 
 the rules and tables which it contains, will be more 
 clearly established when a translation of the whole is 
 published. In the mean time it is evident, that what 
 is already known with respeot. to these rules and tables, 
 is extremely favourable to the hypothesis which as- 
 cribes a very high antiquity to the Astronomy of the 
 Brahmins. 
 
 The circumstance, perhaps, most worthy of atten- 
 tion, in the Extracts now referred to, is the system of 
 Trigonometry included in the Astronomical rules of 
 the Surya Siddhanta. Asiat. Research, ii. p. 245. 
 249. It may be shewn that this system is founded 
 on certain Geometrical Theorems, which, though, mo- 
 dern Mathematicians be well acquainted with, were 
 certainly unknown to Ptolemy and the Greek Geome- 
 tricians. 
 
 It is with pleasure, too, we observe, that Mr. Davis 
 has in his possession several other ancient books of 
 
384 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Hindoo astronomy, and that there is reason to ex- 
 pect from him a translation of the whole Surya Sid- 
 dhanta. 
 
 It must be added, that we also learn from the second 
 volume of the Asiatic Researches, that some vestiges of 
 Algebraical calculation have been discovered among the 
 Brahmins ; particularly Rules for the solution of cer- 
 tain Arithmetical questions, with which it would seem 
 that nothing but Algebra could have furnished them. 
 Asiat. Research, ii. p. 468. note, 487. 495. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Professor Playfair, has examined that 
 Extract from the Surya Siddhanta, which gives an ac- 
 count of the ancient Hindoo System of Trigonometry 5 
 and has discovered the principles on which it is founded. 
 It is with pleasure I announce, that the result of this 
 examination will be communicated soon to the Public, 
 and will afford an additional proof of the extraordinary 
 progress which the natives of India had early made in 
 the most abstruse sciences. 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO 
 
 THE DISQUISITION CONCERNING 
 ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 AB UL FAZEL, minister to Akber, sovereign of Indostan, 
 publishes the Ayeen Akbery, 215. And Heeto-Pades, 
 375. 
 
 Acesines, a city built on that river by Alexander the Great, 
 303. 
 
 JEr as of Indian chronology, explained, 378. Remarks on, 379. 
 
 Africa, general idea'of the continent of, and of its trade, 159. 
 Origin of the slave-trade, 181. 
 
 Agathemerus, his account of the island of Taprobana, 83. 
 His character of Ptolemy the geographer, 321. 
 
 Agatkod{Bmon illustrates the geography of Ptolemy, by maps, 
 321. 
 
 Akber, sovereign of Indostan, his character, 214. 369. 
 
 Albuquerque, Alphonso, the Portuguese admiral, seizes the 
 island of Ormus, 152. His operations on the Red Sea 3 
 153. 
 
 Alexander the Great, his extensive views respecting India, 13. 
 His expedition to India, 14?. His war with Porus, 16. 
 How obliged to relinquish his enterprise, 17. His mea- 
 sures for opening a maritime communication with India, 18. 
 His account of India confirmed by modern observations, 
 22. His political views in exploring that country, 24. 
 His measures to unite his European and Asiatic subjects, 26, 
 Consequences of his death, 31. The sufferings of his army 
 from the periodical rains, 295. His surprise at the tides 
 of the Indian ocean, 299. Cities built by him in India, 303. 
 305. Intended a survey of the Caspian sea, 316. 
 
 Alexandria, long the chief seat of commerce with India, 13. 
 The light-house on the Pharos erected by Ptolemy Lagus, 
 38. Mode of conducting the silk trade at that port, 60, 
 The Venetians trade there for silk, 124. And the Flo- 
 rentines, 127. Is subjected to the Turks, 155. 
 vol. xri, c c 
 
386 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Algebra, a mode of calculation not unknown to the Brahmins, 
 384. 
 
 Allahabad, the modern name of the ancient city of Palibothra, 
 33. Account of this city by Magasthenes, 35. Remarks 
 of Major Rennell on this subject, 308. 
 
 America, discovered by Christopher Columbus, 144. The 
 East-India trade a continual drain from its silver mines, 
 180. Origin of the slave trade, 181. Contrast between 
 the natives of America, and of India, when first discovered, 
 183. The trade of Europe with each compared, 186. Was 
 obliged to be colonised in order to be improved, 187. 
 Supplies Europe with its products, in return for manu- 
 factures, 187. 
 
 Aniiochus the Great, his inroad into India, 309. 
 
 .Antoninus* Marcus, Emperor, notices of an embassy sent by 
 him to the Emperor of China, 78. 
 
 Antwerp, greatly enriched by becoming the staple of the 
 Hanseatic league, 139. 
 
 Arabians, anciently great dealers in spaces from the East, 56. 
 Great alterations effected in their manners by the religion 
 of Mahomet, 99. They conquer Egypt and Persia, 100. 
 A view of their commercial navigation, 101. Are the first 
 who mention porcelane and tea, 103. Derived the know- 
 ledge of the mariner's compass from Europe, 333. Make 
 no scruple to plunder the caravans travelling to Mecca, 351 . 
 
 Aristotle, his political advice to Alexander the Great, 25. His 
 just description of the Caspian sea, 315. Doubted the 
 expediency of encouraging commerce in a well-regulated 
 state, ^17. 
 
 Aromatics, why much used by the ancients, 55. 
 
 Arrian, character of his history of the Indian expedition of 
 Alexander the Great, 21. His account of the commerce 
 of the ancients, 61. Enquiry into his geographical know- 
 ledge of India, 65. Is the first ancient writer who had any 
 knowledge of the eastern coast of the great peninsula of 
 India, 66. His account of Alexander's Indian fleet cor- 
 roborated, 297- Character of his Indian history, ib. His 
 account of the Caspian sea, 314. The places mentioned 
 in his Periplus compared with modern situations and names, 
 321.326. 
 
 Art's and Sciences, where first cultivated, 2. 
 
 Asbestos, its extravagant price among the Romans, 318. 
 
 Astronomy, testimonies of the great proficiency of the In- 
 dostans in, 248. 
 
 Augsburg, greatly enriched by becoming a mart for Indian 
 commodities, 140. - 
 
 Augustus Emperor, deduces Egypt to a Roman province, 45, 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 387 
 
 Ayeen Akbery, account of the mutual intercourse of the East 
 Indians by water, from, 297. See Sanskrcct literature. 
 
 B 
 
 Babelmandeb, derivation of the name, 310. 
 
 Bactria, rise of the kingdom of, and its acquisitions in India, 
 37. Is overwhelmed by the Tartars, 37. 310. 
 
 Baghvat Geta, the pure theology taught in that poem, 
 276. 
 
 Bailly, M., his examination into the antiquity of astronomy 
 in India, 253. 
 
 Bav.k of Venice, the first establishment of that kind formed 
 in Europe, 346. 
 
 Barygaza, a considerable emporium on the coast of ancient 
 India, its situation ascertained, 61. 
 
 Bassora, the city of, founded by the Caliph Omar, 100. 
 
 Benares, the peculiar seat of Indostan science and literature, 
 257. Account of the observatory there, 382. . 
 
 Berenice, the city of, founded to facilitate the trade between 
 Alexandria and India, 39. - 
 
 Bernier, M„ his account of the Indian chronology, 380. 
 
 Bijore, inhabited by a tribe descended from a colony left 
 there by Alexander the Great, 302. 
 
 Boddam East-India ship, remarkable speedy voyage of, from 
 Portsmouth to Madras, 316. 
 
 Brahmins, in India, their sacred rites and high privileges, 
 207- Enquirv into the state of scientific knowledge among 
 them, 241. Their religious hierarchy and worship, 258. 
 Their great learning taught them a theology superior to 
 the popular superstition, 274. Their doctrines coincide 
 with the tenets of the Stoical school, 280. Studiously 
 concealed religious truths from the people, 284. 
 
 Bruce, the information his travels afford concerning the ma- 
 ritime expeditions of King Solomon, 9. 
 
 Bruges, made the staple of the trade of the Hanseatic league, 
 130. Is greatly enriched, 139. 
 
 Burrun Sunker, a class among the Hindoos, described, 358, 
 
 Byzantine historians, a character of, 105. 
 
 Cqffa, the great trade carried on there, 339/ 
 Cairo, account of the caravan that travels from thence *c 
 Mecca, 349. 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Calicut, reception of Vasco de Gam&m that country, 145. 
 
 Call, Colonel, his general opinion of the antiquity of arts and 
 sciences in India, 371. 
 
 Camel, the valuable properties of that animal, 3. Is pecu- 
 liarly formed for traversing sandy deserts, 347. 
 
 Candahar, under what name known to Alexander the Great. 
 16. 
 
 Canton, in China, a factory settled there by the early Arabs, 
 102. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, circumstances that led to the discovery 
 of a passage to India that way, 145. Is said by Herodotus 
 to have been passed by some Phenician ships, 168. Im- 
 portance of the discovery of this passage by the Portu- 
 guese, 189. 
 
 Caravans* the origin of, 3. Were protected and encouraged 
 
 under the Roman dominion, 77. Great commercial use 
 
 *of, in the East, 161. Account of the caravans which visit 
 
 Mecca, 350. A considerable slave-trade carried on by the 
 
 African caravans, 351. 
 
 Caspian sea, erroneous opinion of the ancient geographers 
 concerning, 43. 314. By whom first described in modern 
 times, 315. Its dimensions, ib. 
 
 Casts, or orders of society among the native Gentoos de- 
 scribed, 199. Remarks on the policy and tendency of 
 this arrangement, 200. Their peculiar names, ranks, and 
 offices described, 358. 
 
 Cathay, the ancient name of China, 132. 
 
 Ceylon, supposed to be the island described by ancient 
 geograffhers under the name of Taprobana, 84. Christian 
 churches planted there by Persian missionaries, 105. Is 
 visited by Marco Polo, the Venetian, 133. 
 
 Chardin, Sir John, hi& testimony that the Orientals derived 
 the use of the mariner's compass from the Europeans, 334. 
 His account of the trade of Caffa, 339. 
 
 Chillambrum, description of the Pagoda there, 225. 
 
 China, the only country whence the Romans obtained silk. 
 60. Through what medium they received it, 64. How the 
 silk-worm was conveyed from thence to Europe, 96. Is 
 traded to by the Arabians, 103. First mention of porce- 
 lane and tea, ib. The Christian religion propagated there 
 by Persion missionaries, 105. How the silk of, was conveyed 
 to Constantinople, after the Greeks were excluded from 
 the port of Alexandria, 106. Estimate of the Chinese 
 practice of navigation, 333. How the number of Maho- 
 metans increase in China, 337. A commercial intercourse? 
 by land, opened between that country and Russia, 353. 
 Amazing exportation of tea from, to Europe, 356. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. '389 
 
 Chitore, the high descent claimed by the Rajahs of, 302. 
 
 Chronology, Indian, the four aeras of, 378. Remarks on, 379. 
 
 Cleopatra, value of her famous pearl ear-rings, 58. 
 
 Culchos, the ancient pearl fishery there, still carried on by the 
 Dutch, 65. 
 
 Colour Si Indian, for dyeing, account of, 372. 
 
 Columbus, his views in that voyage by which he discovered 
 America, 144. His reliance on the authority of Marco 
 Polo, the Venetian traveller, 344. See Gama. 
 
 Commerce, the extension of, abated the hostile sentiments 
 which actuated one nation against another, 130. Unfa- 
 vourable opinion of Plato concerning, 317. 
 
 Common law, the origin of, traced, 212. 
 
 Comorin, Cape, is accurately described by Arrian, 65. 
 
 Compass, mariner's, was unknown by the ancient Chinese and 
 Arabs, 333. 
 
 Constantinople, taken and plundered by the crusaders, 1 1*9. 
 Subversion of the Latin empire there, 121. Is conquered 
 by the Turks, and made the seat of their government, 134. 
 
 Conveyancing, specimen of the ancient Indian style of, 377. 
 
 Coromandel coast, the inhabitants of, always great traders, 91. 
 
 Cosmas, Indicopleustes, some account of, and of his Christian 
 topography, 92. His account of the island of Taprobana, 
 93. 
 
 Cotton manufactures, evidence of their not being common 
 among the Romans, 321. 
 
 Crusades to the Holy Land, the origin of, traced, and their 
 commercial effects, 113. The crusaders acquired the po- 
 licy and arts of the people whom they subdued, 115. 
 Brought different nations acquainted with each other, 130. 
 
 D 
 
 Damascus, account of the caravan that travels from thence to 
 Mecca, 350. 
 
 Damask, the name of that species of silk manufacture, whence 
 derived, 138. 
 
 Dandulo, Andrew, the character of his Venetian Chronicle, 
 337. 
 
 D'AnviUe, M., his opinion as to the course pursued in the 
 trading voyages of King Solomon's ships, 10. His cor- 
 rections of Ptolemy's geography of India, 72. Corrobo- 
 rates Nearchus's account of India, 300. His geography 
 of India controverted by M. Gosselin, 324. 
 
 Darius, the son of Hystaspes, King of Persia, his researches 
 into and conquests in India, 13. 
 
 c c 3 
 
390 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Deccan, the ancient Dachanos of Arrian,, 327. 
 
 Delta of the Indus, the general state of the weather there* 
 
 296. 
 Diamonds, not so highly esteemed by the Romans as pearls, 
 
 318. 
 JQiodorus Siculus, his history of the Indian expedition of Se- 
 
 sostris examined* 290. 
 Dow, Colonel, account of his translation of the Shaster, 244. 
 
 377. Hi account of the Indian chronology, 380. 
 Dovolatabad, the same with the ancient Tagara, 321. 
 Du Halde, his description of a peculiar species of silk, 318. 
 Dutch States, became the first rivals of the Portuguese in 
 
 the trade to India, 179. 
 Dyes, Indian, the excellence of, 372. 
 
 E 
 
 East, the regions of, where arts and sciences were first cul- 
 tivated, 2. The intercourse between different countries 
 how first carried on, ib The first maritime communication 
 with, from the West, 5. See India. 
 
 Eclipses, how calculated by the Brahmins of India, 251. 
 
 Egypt, ancient prejudice of the inhabitants against any in- 
 tercourse with foreigners, 5. How the Egyptians became 
 a commercial people, 6. The city of Alexandria built, 13. 
 The seat of government fixed there by Ptolemy Lagus, 38. 
 Intercourse between the city of Berenice and India, 39. 
 Its opulence derived from its commerce with the Last, 42. 
 Is reduced to a Roman province. 45. Manner of con- 
 ducting the silk trade at the port of Alexandria, 60* 
 Conquest of, by the Arabs, 99. The Venetians resort to 
 Alexandria for silk, 124. And the Florentines, 127. Com- 
 mercial view of the countries, 137. Is subdued by the 
 Turks, 155. How the Indian trade has been conducted 
 through that country at different times, 310. 
 
 Elagabidus, the first Roman Emperor who wore silk, 59. 
 
 Elephanta, island, account of the ancient pagoda there, 220. 
 
 Ellore, general account of the pagodas there, 370. 
 
 JEsop's Fables, the origin of, traced, 576. 
 
 Ethics, state of, in India, 244. 
 
 Europe, a review of the state of, at the time of the subversion 
 of the Greek empire, 134. Extensive operation of the 
 commercial genius of, 183. The Europeans receive the 
 products of America, and supply it with manufactures, 
 187. The exportation of silver to India, how beneficial to 
 Europe, 189. Importance of the discovery of the passage 
 to India round the Cape of Good Hope, ib. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 391 
 
 Faquirs of India, unite trade with devotion in their pil- 
 grimages, 114. 338. Brief account of, 361. 
 
 Figures, arithmetical, originally derived from India, 247. 
 
 Five Gems, an ancient Sanskreet poem, account of, 377. 
 
 Florence, rise of the state of, by manufactures and the bank- 
 ing business, 126. A commercial treaty concluded with 
 Egypt, 127. Summary of the instructions to their ambas- 
 sadors to the Soldan, 341. 
 
 G 
 
 Gama, Vasco de, his voyage from Lisbon to India, 145. 
 
 Ganges, account of that river by Major Rennell, 307. 
 
 Genoa, motives that stimulated the Genoese to assist in sub- 
 verting the Latin empire at Constantinople, 1 22. The great 
 advantages they derived from this measure, 123. Cha- 
 racter of the Genoese government, 124. The Genoese ex- 
 pelled from all • their Grecian settlements by the Turks, 
 133. Character of, by Nicephorus Gregoras, 339. 
 
 Gentil, M. le, his account of the Indian Chronology, 380. 
 
 Gentoos, see Brahmins and Hindoos, 
 
 Gibbon, Mr., the Roman historian, testimony in favour of. his 
 accuracy, 330. 
 
 Gosselin, M., character of his geography of the Greeks 
 analized, 324. 
 
 Greeks, their national pride at the time of Alexander the 
 Great, 25. How they attained the breeding of silk-worms 
 under the Emperor Justinian, 97. Are shut out from the 
 port of Alexandria by the Mahomedan Arabs, 99. The 
 Greek empire conquered by Mahomet II., 133. How they 
 were deprived of Bactria, 309. Origin of the ancient my- 
 thology of, 265. 
 
 Gum Lacca, natural history of, and its uses in manufacture, 
 372. 
 
 H 
 
 Halhead, Mr., his account of the Sanskreet literature, 374. 
 Hanno, commanded the only voyage for discovery undertaken 
 by any of the ancient states in the Mediterranean, 355. 
 
 c c 4 
 
392 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Hanseatic league, formed, and the staple fixed at Bruges, 130. 
 
 Hastings, Mr., Governor-general of Bengal, his attention to 
 forming a code of Hindoo laws, 215. 
 
 Heeto-Pades, or amicable instruction, an ancient Sanskreet 
 composition, account, and character of, 375. 
 
 Herodotus affirms the Cape of Good Hope to have been 
 passed by some Phenician vessels, 167. His history of 
 Sesostris examined, 290. His unsatisfactory account of 
 the tides in the Red Sea, 299. His just description of the 
 Caspian sea, SI 4*. 
 
 Hindoos, that people exactly described in the account of the 
 Indian expedition of Alexander the Great, 23. Their in- 
 flexible adherence to their religion, and casts, 336. Their 
 four orders, or casts, described, 199. Remarks on the 
 policy and tendency of this popular arrangement, 200. 
 Their high antiquity, and nature of their institutions, 217. 
 Character of their judicial code, ib. State of sciences 
 among them, 242. Their religious tenets and practices, 
 259. Their names, ranks, and offices of their several casts 
 described, 358. Their temples, 371. 
 
 Hiram, King of Tyre, assists King Solomon in his naval 
 undertakings, 9- 
 
 Hippalus, captain of an Egyptian vessel, avails himself of the 
 monsoons, in sailing from the Arabian gulf to the Malabar 
 coast, 51. 
 
 Hipparchus, the first who attempted to make a catalogue of 
 the stars, 69. 
 
 History, authentic, the period of extremely limited, 1. Is 
 minute in the records of blood, but silent as to the pro- 
 gress of useful arts, 51. 
 
 Hydaspes, river, a numerous fleet assembled there by Alex- 
 ander the Great, 18. 
 
 Hyphasis, river, the utmost limit of Alexander the Great's 
 progress in India, 17. 
 
 I& J 
 
 Java Minor, of Marco Polo, ascertained, 34-3. 
 
 Jenaub, a city built on that river by Alexander the Great, 
 303. 
 
 Jenkinson, Anthony, the first modern traveller who give6 a 
 just description of the Caspian sea, 315. 
 
 Jeswont Sing, his letter -to Aurengzebe, containing a cha- 
 racter of Sultan Akber, 369. 
 
 Jewels, their great use and high estimation among the an- 
 cients, 57. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 893 
 
 Jews, when they effected a commercial intercourse with India, 
 9. Enquiry into the maritime commerce of King Solo- 
 mon, 10. Their commercial effort terminated in his 
 reign, ib, 
 
 India, the first naval communication with, from the West, 
 5, The trade of the Phenicians with, how conducted, 7. 
 Naval expedition of the Persians to, 11. Conquests of 
 Darius Hystaspes in, 12. Alexandria, for many centuries 
 the chief seat of trade with, 13. Expedition of Alexander 
 the Great to, 15. Flourishing state of the country at that 
 time, 16. Alexander's voyage down the Indus, 19. Poli- 
 tical state of the country at that time, 21. Alexander's 
 views in this expedition, 24-. Expedition of Seleucus, one 
 of the successors of Alexander, 32. Embassy of Megas- 
 thenes to, 33. Conquests of the Bactrian Princes in, 37. 
 Remains afterward undisturbed by Europeans, until the 
 Cape of Good Hope was doubled by the Portuguese, 37. 
 A commercial intercourse established with Egypt, 38. 
 How Rome was supplied with eastern commodities, 47. 
 Advantage taken of the monsoons, in sailing from the 
 Gulf of Arabia to the Malabar coast, 51. Its commodi- 
 ties, articles of luxury, 54. Spices and aromatics, 55, 
 Precious stones, 57. Silk, 59. General view of its ex- 
 ports and imports, 62. Comparison between the ancient 
 and modern trade with India, 64. D'Anville's corrections 
 of Ptolemy's geography of, 72. The trade by caravans 
 protected and encouraged by the Romans, 77. The in- 
 habitants of the Coromandel coast always great traders, 
 91. The account given of India by Costnas Indico- 
 pleustes, 94. The Romans rivalled in the Indian trade by 
 the Persians, ib. The Italian states engaged in the In- 
 dian trade, 109. Account of the Indian trade by Marino 
 Sanudo, 128. Comparative view of the Indian trade, as 
 carried on by different nations at different times, 136. A 
 direct voyage to India effected by the Portuguese, 146. 
 The staple of the Portuguese trade established at the city 
 of Malacca, 150. A commercial empire established in 
 the East by the Portuguese, 156. How it came to pass 
 that the discovery of a direct navigation to India was re- 
 served for modern times, 164. The conduct of ancient 
 and modern navigators to the East, compared, 168. The 
 prices of Indian commodities greatly reduced by the open- 
 ing a direct communication with India, 171. The India 
 trade a continual drain of American silver from Europe, 
 180. Contrast between the state of the natives of India 
 and America, when first cliscovered, 183. The trade of 
 Europe with each, compared,. 186. The silver exported 
 
394 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 to India contributes to enrich instead of impoverishing 
 Europe, 188. Importance of the discovery of the passage 
 to India round the Cape of Good Hope to Europe, 189. 
 Examination of the improbabilities attending the supposed 
 expedition of Sesostris to India, 289. Remarks on the 
 weather there, 295. Remarks of the naval expedition of 
 Nearchus, 298. Peculiarities in the Indian tides, 299. 
 Aversion of the natives of the East to the sea, 303. Major 
 Rennell's account of the river Ganges, 306. Endeavours 
 to ascertain the situation of the ancient city of Pali- 
 bothra, 307. How the Indian trade has been carried on 
 through Egypt at different times, 310. Erroneous de- 
 scriptions of the Caspian sea by ancient writers, 314. 
 Deccan, the ancient Dachanos of Arrian, 327. The use 
 of the mariner's compass learned by the Easterns from the 
 Europeans, 333. The Gentoos inflexible in their religion, 
 336. Computed number of Mahomedans in India, ib. 
 Extensive circulation of eastern goods by the caravans, 
 352. The natives of India the earliest known people who 
 were civilised, 197. Their division into casts, 199. The 
 perfection of Indian manufactures accounted for, 201. 
 The general tenure of land there, 208. Character of the 
 Hindoo code of laws, 217. General account of the Pa- 
 godas, 220. Fortresses, 227* Mechanic arts, 228. Liter- 
 ature, 231. Their sciences, 240. Their religious tenets, 
 258. Origin of superstition, 263. The pure theology of 
 the Brahmins, 274. General reflections formed on the 
 preceding review of the eastern nations, 284. The man- 
 ners^nd customs of the natives influenced by the Maho- 
 medan and European intruders, 362. Account of the 
 Sanskreet literature, 374. The Heeto-Pades, 375. The 
 Five Gems, 377. Ode from Wulli, ib. Specimen of In- 
 dian conveyancing, ib. The four aeras of Indian chrono- 
 logy, explained, 378. 
 Indicum, of the ancients, the same with modern indigo, 372. 
 Indigo, the several kinds of, mentioned by authors, and its 
 
 uses, 372. 
 Indus, river, passed by Alexander the Great, 16. His 
 
 voyage down that river, 19. 
 Institutions of India, the permanency of, accounted for, 202. 
 Interest of money, the most exact standard of commercial 
 
 profits, 140. Chronological view of, 141. 
 Joanna of Navarre, her exclamation at the wealth of the 
 
 city of Bruges, 344. 
 Italy, rise of the commercial states of, 108. They import 
 the productions of India, 109. The profits they reaped 
 from the Crusades, 117. See Venice, Genoa, kc. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 
 
 Itineraries of the Roman empire, how formed, 322. 
 
 Julius Ccesar, his magnificent present to Servilla, the mother 
 
 of Brutus, 58. His ignorance of the British tides, 299. 
 
 A general survey of the whole Roman empire undertaken 
 
 by him, 322. 
 Justin, observations on his account of the progress made by 
 
 Seleucus in India, 305. 
 Justinian, Emperor, how he introduced the silk-worm into 
 
 the Greek empire, 86. 
 
 Land, the general tenures of, in India, 209. 363. Speci- 
 men from an ancient grant of, 377. 
 
 Latitudes, how ascertained by the ancient geographers, 86. 
 Were more readily determined by them than longitudes, 
 88. 327. 
 
 Lawyers, European, the style of, compared with that of the 
 Eastern Pundits, 377. 
 
 Leibnitz, his account of the instructions given to the Floren- 
 tine ambassadors to the Soldan of Egypt, 341. 
 
 Logic and metaphysics, state of, in India, 243. 
 
 Longitudes of places, how determined by ancient geogra- 
 phers, 86. 328. 
 
 • M 
 
 Magellan effects a passage for the East Indies westward from 
 America, 177. 
 
 Mahabarat, an ancient Indian epic poem, account of, 232. 
 Extracts from, 242. 245. 277. 
 
 Mahmoud of Gaznah, the vast fleet that opposed his inva- 
 sion of India, 297. 
 
 Mahomet, rapid spread of his religion, and the great effects 
 produced by it, 98. Contributed greatly to extend the 
 commerce of Asia and Africa, 159. 
 
 Mahomet II., Emperor of the Turks, subdues the Grecian 
 empire, 133. 
 
 Mahudel, M., his proofs of the ignorance of the ancients as 
 to the nature of silk, 318. 
 
 Malabar coast, probable derivation of its name, 93. How 
 mentioned by the Arabian writers, 103. 
 
 Malacca, the city of, rendered the staple of the trade car- 
 ried on in the East by the Portuguese, 150. 
 
 Maldive islands, probable derivation of their name, 93. 
 
596 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Man, a review of his progress in social life, 204. 
 
 Manufactures, Indian, the perfection of, accounted for, 
 201. 
 
 MapSy none prior to those formed to illustrate Ptolemy's 
 geography have reached modern times, 85. 
 
 Marco Polo, the Venetian, account of his travels, 132. Ob- 
 jections to his relations, and vindication of them, 342. 
 
 Marseilles opens a trade with Constantinople for Indian 
 commodities, 111. 
 
 Massoudi, the Arabian, his account of India, 333. 
 
 Mecca, the temple there visited as well by commercial as 
 by devout pilgrims, 114. The pilgrimages to, contributed 
 greatly to facilitate trade, 159. Account of the caravans 
 which visit the temple there, 349. 
 
 Medici, Cosmo di, a Florentine merchant, negotiates a com- 
 mercial treaty with Egypt in favour of his countrymen, 
 127. 
 
 Mediterranean sea, the chief seat of ancient commerce, 166. 
 
 Megkastenes, his embassy from Seleucus King of Syria, to 
 India, 33* His account of India, 34. 
 
 Mocenigo, Doge of Venice in the fifteenth century, his ac- 
 count of the naval strength of that republic, 347- 
 
 Monkish annalists, a character of, 110. 
 
 Monsoons, the first application of them in voyages to India, 
 51. 
 
 Moses, the books of, the most ancient and genuine record 
 of the \y ages of the world, 1. 
 
 Musiris a port on the coast of Malabar, frequented by 
 ancient navigators in the Indian trade, 52. 
 
 Mythology of the Greeks, the natural origin of, 265. 
 
 N 
 
 Nadir Shah, general review of his Indian expedition, 
 296. 
 
 Nagara of Ptolemy, its latitude according to D'Anville, 
 80. 
 
 Navigation, origin of, traced, 4. Where first cultivated, 5. 
 How introduced among the Egyptians, 6. 
 
 Ncarchus, commands the naval expedition of Alexander the 
 Great down the Indus, 19. Remarks on, 298. 
 
 Nicephorus Gregoras, his character of the Genoese at Con- 
 stantinople, 339. 
 
 Niehbuhr, his evidence in favour of the European origin of 
 the mariner's compass, 335. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 397 
 
 O 
 
 Omar, Caliph, founds the city of Bassora, 100. 
 
 Ormus, the island of, seized by the Portuguese, 152. De- 
 scription of, ib. 
 
 Oude, Nabob of, the great probability of disputes between, 
 him and the Seiks, 294?. 
 
 Pagodas of India, general account of, 220. 370. Are placed 
 
 with astronomical precision, 381. 
 Palibothra, endeavours to ascertain the situation of that 
 
 city, S07. 
 Palmyra, by whom, and on what occasion built, 4-7. Its 
 
 stupendous ruins, 50. Its present state, 51. 
 Panjab, progress of Alexander the Great through that 
 
 country, 16. 
 Papyrus, occasion of its being disused for writing on, 338. 
 Parchment, when first used for the record of charters and 
 
 deeds, 335. 
 Pariars, the most contemptible race of men in India, 336. 
 
 359. 
 Patna, evidences of its not being the ancient city of Pali- 
 
 bothra, 308. 
 Pearls, their high estimation among the Romans, 57. Were 
 
 dearer than diamonds, 318. 
 Pera, the chief suburb of Constantinople, granted to the 
 
 Genoese on the subversion of the Latin empire there, 122. 
 
 The Genoese expelled by the Turks, 133. 
 Persia, how the commerce between that country and India 
 
 was conducted, 43. Vigorous cultivation of the India 
 
 trade, 94. The silk trade engrossed by the Persians, 96. 
 
 Their extortions introduce the silk-worm to Europe, 96. 
 
 Is conquered by the Arabs, 99. Nestorian churches 
 
 planted there, 104. Amount of the revenue of the Per- 
 sian monarchs from Herodotus, 293. Instances of their 
 
 ancient aversion to the sea, 304. 
 Phalanx, Macedonian, how formed by Alexander the Great, 
 
 27. 
 Phenicians, how they opened a commercial intercourse with 
 
 India, 7. Are said by Herodotus to have passed the 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, 167. 
 Philosophy, the cure for superstition, 272. 
 
398 INDEX TO. THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, undertaken as well from 
 commercial as from pious motives, 115. Account of the 
 pilgrimages to Mecca, 349. 
 
 Pilpays fables, the origin of, traced, 376. 
 
 Plato, his political objections to commerce in a well-regu- 
 lated commonwealth, 317. 
 
 Pliny the elder, his slender knowledge of India, 68. His 
 account of the island of Taprobane, 83. Observations on 
 his account of the progress of Saleucus in India, 305. 
 
 Pompo?iius Mela, his account of the island of Taprobane^ 
 82 And of the Caspian sea, 314. 
 
 Porcelane, the first mention of, by Arabian travellers, 103* 
 
 Portugal, circumstances that led the Portuguese to the dis- 
 covery of the Cape of Good Hope, 145. Vigorous exer- 
 tions of the Portuguese to cultivate the eastern trade, 
 149. They aim at a monopoly of the trade to the East, 
 151. Establish a commercial empire in the East, 156. 
 Their activity in exploring the eastern countries, 169. 
 The)' drive the Venetians out of the European markets, 
 by reducing the prices of India goods, 172. How they 
 remained so long in the exclusive possession of the Indian 
 trade, 176. Are rivalled at length in the Indian ocean by 
 the Dutch, 178. And by the English, ib. Repulse the 
 efforts of Solyman the Magnificent to drive them from In- 
 dia, 192. Their intercourse with infidels licensed by a 
 Papal bull, 340. 
 
 Poms opposes the progress~~©f Alexander the Great in In- 
 dia, 16. Remains steady to the Macedonian interest, 31. 
 
 Potosi, the discovery of the silver mines of, the first perma- 
 nent source of wealth derived by Spain from America, 
 185. 
 
 Ptolemy, the geographer, estimate of his scientifical know- 
 ledge, 68. Established geography upon its proper princi- 
 ples, 69. His accounts of the continent of India examined, 
 71. His geography of India adjusted by that of modern 
 times by M. D'Anville, 73. Instances of his exactness in 
 some positions, 80. His account of the island of Tapro- 
 bane, 83. His character, by Agathemerus, 321. His 
 geographical errors, 323. From what materials he com- 
 posed his geography of India, 330. 
 
 Ptolemy I agus, establishes the seat of the Egyptian govern- 
 ment at Alexandria, and erects the light-house on the 
 Pharos, 38. 
 
 Ptolemy Philadelphia, projects a grand canal to facilitate 
 the intercourse between Egypt and India, 39. Founds 
 the city of Berenice, ib. 
 
 Pidtanah, the ancient Plithania of Arrian, 321. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 399 
 
 R 
 
 Ramusio detects the geographical errors of Ptolemy, 323. 
 
 Raynal, Abbe, character of his history of the East and 
 West-Indies, 189. 
 
 Red Sea, derivation of the name, and the different applica- 
 tions of it by the ancients and the moderns,, 300. 
 
 Religion and superstition discriminated, 260. 
 
 Renaudot, M., his translation of the eastern voyage of two 
 Mahomedans, from the Arabic, vindicated from the 
 charge of imposition, 331. 
 
 Rennell, Major, his illustrations of the Indian expedition of 
 Alexander the Great, 20. 293. 302. His account of the 
 river Ganges, 306. Remarks on his account of the situ- 
 ation of the city of Palibothra, 307. His opinion of the 
 Egyptian navigation examined, 312. 
 
 Rkinocolura, the ancient port of communication between 
 Phenicia and India, 8. 
 
 Roger, M., his account of the Indian chronology, 379. 
 
 Rome, rise of the power of, 45. How supplied with Indian 
 commodities, .47. Its imports from thence, articles of 
 luxury, 54. Spices, 55. Precious stones, 57. Silk, 59. 
 Remained ignorant of the nature or production of silk, 
 60. How the breeding silk-worms was introduced into 
 the eastern empire, 95. Consequences of the Roman 
 empire being dissolved by the Barbarians, 129. How the 
 itineraries of the empire were formed, 322. 
 
 Russia, a commercial intercourse by land opened between 
 that country and China, 353. 
 
 Ryots of Indostan, enquiry into the tenure by which they 
 hold their possessions, 365. 
 
 Sacontala^ an ancient Indian dramatic poem, account of, 
 235. 
 
 Sacotecas, the mines of, in Mexico, importance of the dis- 
 covery of, to Spain, 185. 
 
 Saint Croix, Baron de, observations on his Critique des His- 
 toriens d' Alexander le Grand, 304. 
 
 Samarcand, by what name known to Alexander the Great 
 14. Its latitude, as ascertained by D'Anville, 80. 
 
 Sandracqttus, an Indian prince, his revolt against, and 
 treaty with Seleucus, King of Syria, 32. 
 
400 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Sansh'eet literature, a new acquisition, 374. Mr. Halhed ? & 
 account of, 375. 
 
 Sanudo, Marino, his account of the Venetian trade with 
 India in the fourteenth century, 128. 
 
 Sciences and Arts, where first cultivated, 2. A view of the 
 state of, in India, 24<2. 
 
 Scylax, of Caryandra, his naval expedition to India, 11. 
 Gives fabulous accounts of the country, 12. Why his 
 voyage is not mentioned by Arrian, 297. 
 
 Seapoys, modern, established upon the same principle with 
 the phalanx of Persians formed by Alexander the Great, 
 27. 
 
 Seiks of India, probability of disputes between them and the 
 British, 294. Their situation and character, 295. 
 
 Seleucus, the successor of Alexander, his expedition to 
 India, 32. Observations on, 305. 
 
 Selim, Sultan, the conqueror of the Mamelukes, his atten- 
 tion to the advantages of the Indian commerce, 190. 
 
 Semiramis, the vast fleet that opposed her invasion 'of India, 
 297. 
 
 Sera Metropolis, of Ptolemy, its latitude according to 
 D'Anville, 80. 
 
 Seringham, description of the pagoda there, 226L 
 
 Sesostris, King of Egypt, the first who rendered the Egyp- 
 tians a commercial people, 6. Improbabilities attending 
 his supposed expedition to and conquest of India, 289. 
 
 Shaster, some account of, 244. 377. 
 
 Sielediha, account given of this island by Cosmas Indico- 
 pleustes, 93. 
 
 Silk 9 its high estimation among the Romans, 59. The 
 trade for, engrossed by the Persians, 95. Silk-worms 
 obtained and cultivated by the Greeks, 96. Account of 
 the Venetian and Florentine trade for silk, 124. Igno- 
 rance of the ancients, as to its production, 318. Why 
 disliked by the Turks, 321. 
 
 Silver is continually drained from Europe to carry on the 
 East-India trade, 180. Europe how enriched by this ex- 
 portation, 188. 
 
 Since Metropolis, of Ptolemy, endeavours of M. D'Anville 
 to ascertain its situation, 75. 
 
 Slave trade, modern, the origin of, 181. Is largely carried 
 on by the African caravans, 351. 
 
 Solomon, King of Judea, enquiry into his maritime com- 
 merce, 9. Builds Tadmor, in the desert, 47. 
 
 Solyman, the Magnificent, his efforts to drive the Portu- 
 guese from India, 190. 
 ii 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 401 
 
 Soul, description of, from the Mahabarat, 242. 
 
 Spain, how that country happened to have the advantage 
 and honour of discovering America, 144. Gold and 
 silver the only profitable articles they found in America, 
 185. Are obliged to colonise in order to improve their 
 discoveries, 187. 
 
 Spices, and aromatics, why much used by the ancients, 55* 
 Vast modern consumption of them, 175. 
 
 Strabo, his obscure knowledge of India, 66. His account 
 of the island of Taprobane, 81. Denies that Sesostris 
 ever entered India, 291. Evidence of his slender know- 
 ledge of India, 312. His account of the Caspian sea, 
 314. How he justifies his neglect of Hipparchus, 321. 
 His free exposition of ancient theology, 282. His ac- 
 count of the jealous caution with which the Indian women 
 were guarded, 362. His account of the ancient dyes, 
 372. 
 
 Sumatra, the island of, visited by the early Arabians, 102. 
 Was the Java Minor of Marco Polo, 343. 
 
 Superstition and religion discriminated, 260. Origin of 
 superstition, 262. Progress of, 266. Picture of Ori- 
 ental superstition, 267. Philosophy fatal to, 271. 
 
 Surya Siddhanta, the scientifical merit of that ancient Ori- 
 ental composition, 382. 
 
 Sylla, vast quantities of spices consumed in his funeral pile, 
 '56. 
 
 Tadmor, in the desart, by whom built, and for what pur- 
 pose, 47. Its stupendous ruins, 49. Its present state, 51. 
 
 Tamerlane, his judicious choice of the season for his Indian 
 campaign, 296. 
 
 Taprobane, Strabo's account of that island, 81. Pliny's ac- 
 count of it, 82. Ptolemy's account of it, 83. Appears 
 to be the island of Ceylon, 84. Account given of this 
 island by Cosmas Indicopleustes, 93. 
 
 Tatta, great drought there, 296. Vast numbers of vessels 
 for water-carriage there, 296. 
 
 Tea has within a century become a necessary of life in many 
 parts of Europe, 356. Amazing annual importation of, ib, 
 
 Tea-Tree, first mention of, by Arabian travellers, 103. 
 
 Tides, of the Indian ocean, peculiarities in, 299. 
 
 Trade, how at first conducted between different countries, 
 3. Between Egypt and India, 38. Exports and imports 
 of India, 54. 
 
 VOL. XII. D D 
 
402 INDEX TO THE DISQUISITION 
 
 Transmigration of souls, the Eastern doctrine of, explained, 
 
 280. 
 Turks, their scruples concerning the wearing of silk, 321. 
 Tyre, the best account of the commercial transactions of 
 
 that city to be found in the prophet Ezekiel, 292. 
 
 Vasa Murrkina, of Pliny, enquiry into the nature and com- 
 position of, 335. 
 
 Venice, first rise of, as a commercial state, 108, Constanti- 
 nople taken, in conjunction with the crusaders, 119. The 
 Venetians engage largely in the trade and manufacture 
 of silk, 120. The Latin empire in the East subverted r 
 121. The Venetians supplanted in the trade with Con- 
 stantinople by the Genoese, 124. They settle a trade 
 with Alexandria, 125. Account of the Venetian trade 
 with India in the fourteenth century, 128, Travels of 
 Marco Polo, 132. Their trade extended Dy the Turks 
 subduing the Greek empire, 134. Remarks on their trade 
 for Indian goods, 136. Evidences of the great wealth 
 they acquired by this trade, 140. Alarm taken at the 
 direct voyage to East-India, by Vasco de Gama, 149. 
 Measures prosecuted by the Venetians to check the pro- 
 gress of the Portuguese in the East, 153. The Portuguese 
 supplant them in the European market, by reducing the 
 prices of Indian goods, 172. The great extent of their 
 trade, 346. The Bank of Venice the first formed of any 
 in Europe, ib. Amount of the Venetian naval strength in 
 the fifteenth century, 347. 
 
 Ulug Beg, his astronomical tables, 80. 
 
 Virgil, a good natural historian, as well as a descriptive poet, 
 318. 
 
 Volney, M., his account of the camel, 349. And of the 
 caravan from Damascus to Mecca, 350. 
 
 W 
 
 Wilford, Lieutenant, his examination of Arrian's Periplus bj 
 
 modern names and situations, 321. 
 Wilkins, Mr., account of his translation of the Heeto-pades 
 
 375. 
 
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 403 
 
 Women, the jealous seclusion of, in India, whence derived, 
 
 361. 
 Wutti, character of an ode translated from, 377. 
 
 Z 
 
 ZeminderSi their office in the government of Indostan, 365. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by A. Strahafcj 
 Printers-Street, London, 
 

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