Such was the scanty knowledge regarding India communicated to Europe by those who had followed the footsteps of conquest into that remote region; and although eighteen centuries elapsed from the death of Alexander the Great before another European power sought to establish its dominion in the East, a new passion had been early implanted, the cultivation of which was in the highest degree favourable to the acquisition and diffusion of geographical knowledge. In an age before the birth of history[1], the adventurous Phoenicians, issuing from the Red Sea, in their ships, had reached the shores of India, and centuries afterwards their experienced seamen piloted the fleets of Solomon in search of the luxuries of the East.[2]

[Footnote 1: A compendious account of the early trade between India and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean will be found in PARDESSUS's Collection des Lois Maritimes anterieures au XVIII^e siecle, tom. i. p. 9.]

[Footnote 2: It has been conjectured, and not without reason, that it may possibly have been from Ceylon and certainly from Southern India that the fleets of Solomon were returning when "once in every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks."—I Kings, x. 22, II Chron., xx. 21. An exposition of the reasons for believing that the site of Tarshish may be recognised in the modern Point de Galle will be found in a subsequent chapter descriptive of that ancient emporium. See also Note A at the end of this chapter.]

Egypt, under the Ptolemies, became the seat of that opulent trade which it had been the aim of Alexander the Great to divert to it from Syria. Berenice was built on the Red Sea, as an emporium for the ships engaged in Indian voyages, and Alexandria excelled Tyre in the magnitude and success of her mercantile operations.

The conquest of Egypt by Augustus, so far from checking, served to communicate a fresh impulse to the intercourse with India, whence all that was costly and rare was collected in wanton profusion, to minister to the luxury of Rome. A bold discovery of the same period imparted an entirely new character to the navigation of the Indian Ocean. The previous impediment to trade had been the necessity of carrying it on in small vessels, that crept cautiously along the windings of the shore, the crews being too ignorant and too timid to face the dangers of the open sea. But the courage of an individual at length solved the difficulty, and dissipated the alarm. Hippalus, a seaman in the reign of Claudius, observing the steady prevalence of the monsoons[1], which blew over the Indian Ocean alternately from east to west, dared to trust himself to their influence, and departing from the coast of Arabia, he stretched fearlessly across the unknown deep, and was carried by the winds to Muziris, a port on the coast of Malabar, the modern Mangalore.

[Footnote 1: Arabic "maussam." I believe the root belongs to a dialect of India, and signifies "seasons." VINCENT fixes the discovery of the monsoons by Hippalus about the year A.D. 47, although it admits of no doubt that the periodical prevalence of the winds must have been known long before, if not partially taken advantage of by the seamen of Arabia and India. Periplus, &c., vol. ii, pp. 24—57.]

An exploit so adventurous and so triumphant, rendered Hippalus the Columbus of his age, and his countrymen, to perpetuate his renown, called the winds which he had mastered by his name.[1] His discovery gave a new direction to navigation, it altered the dimensions and build of the ships frequenting those seas [2], and imparted so great an impulse to trade, that within a very brief period it became a subject of apprehension at Rome, lest the empire should be drained of its specie to maintain the commerce with India. Silver to the value of nearly a million and a half sterling, being annually required to pay for the spices, gems, pearls, and silks, imported through Egypt.[3] An extensive acquaintance was now acquired with the sea-coast of India, and the great work of Pliny, compiled less than fifty years after the discovery of Hippalus, serves to attest the additional knowledge regarding Ceylon which had been collected during the interval.

[Footnote 1: Periplus, &c., HUDSON, p. 32; PLINY, lib. vi, ch. 26. A learned disquisition on the discovery of the monsoons will be found in VINCENT's Commerce of the Ancients, vol. i. pp. 47, 253; vol. ii. pp. 49; 467; ROBERTSON's India, sec. ii.]

[Footnote 2: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 24.]

[Footnote 3: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. 26. The nature of this rich trade is fully described by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, who was himself a merchant engaged in it.]

Pliny, writing in the first century, puts aside the fabulous tales previously circulated concerning the island[1]; he gives due credit to the truer accounts of Onesicritus and Megasthenes, and refers to the later works of ERATOSTHENES and ARTEMIDORUS[2] the geographers, as to its position, its dimensions, its cities, its natural productions, and as to the ignorance of navigation exhibited by its inhabitants. All this, he says, was recorded by former writers, but it had fallen to his lot to collect information from natives of Ceylon who had visited Rome during his own time under singular circumstances. A ship had been despatched to the coast of Arabia to collect the Red Sea revenues, but having been caught by the monsoon it was carried to Hippuros, the modern Kudra-mali, in the north-west of Ceylon, near the pearl banks of Manaar. Here the officer in command was courteously received by the king, who, struck with admiration of the Romans and eager to form an alliance with them, despatched an embassy to Italy, consisting of a Raja and suite of three persons.[3]

[Footnote 1: I have not thought it necessary to advert to the romance of JAMBULUS, the scene of which has been conjectured, but without any justifiable grounds, to be laid in Ceylon; and which is strangely incorporated with the authentic work of DIODORUS SICULUS, written in the age of Augustus. DIODORUS professes to give it as an account of the recent discovery of an island to which it refers; a fact sufficiently demonstrative of its inapplicability to Ceylon, the existence of which had been known to the Greeks three hundred years before. It is the story of a merchant made captive by pirates and carried to AEthiopia, where, in compliance with a solemn rite, he and a companion were exposed in a boat, which, after a voyage of four months, was wafted to one of the Fortunate Islands, in the Southern Sea, where he resided seven years, whence having been expelled, he made his way to Palibothra, on the Ganges, and thence returned to Greece. In the pretended account of this island given by JAMBULUS I cannot discover a single attribute sufficient to identify it with Ceylon. On the contrary, the traits which he narrates of the country and its inhabitants, when they are not manifest inventions, are obviously borrowed from the descriptions of the continent of India, given by CTESIAS and MEGASTHENES. PRINSEP, in his learned analysis of the Sanchi Inscription, shows that what JAMBULUS says of the alphabet of his island agrees minutely with the character and symbols on the ancient Buddhist lats of Central India. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Ben., vol. vi. p. 476. WILFORD, in his Essay on the Sacred Isles of the West, Asiat. Res. x. 150, enumerates the statements of JAMBULUS which might possibly apply to Sumatra, but certainly not to Ceylon, an opinion in which he had been anticipated by RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 176. LASSEN, in his Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. iii. p. 270, assigns his reasons for believing that Bali, to the east of Java, must be the island in which JAMBULUS laid the scene of his adventures. DIODORUS SICULUS, lib. ii. ch. lv., &c. An attempt has also been made to establish an identity between Ceylon and the island of Panchoea, which Diodoras describes in the Indian Sea, between Arabia and Gedrosia (lib. v. 41, &c.); but the efforts of an otherwise ingenious writer have been unsuccessful. See GROVER's Voice from Stonehenge, P. i. p. 95.]

[Footnote 2: PLINY, lib. xxii. ch. liii. iv. ch. xxiv. vii. ch. ii.]

[Footnote 3: "Legatos quatuor misit principe eoram Rachia."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24. This passage is generally understood to indicate four ambassadors, of whom the principal was one named Rachias. CASIE CHITTY, in a learned paper on the early History of Jaffna, offers another conjecture that "Rachia" may mean Arachia, a Singhalese designation of rank which exists to the present day; and in support of his hypothesis he instances the coincidence that "at a later period a similar functionary was despatched by the King Bhuwaneka-Bahu VIII. as ambassador to the court of Lisbon."—Journal Ceylon Asiat. Soc., p. 74, 1848. The event to which he refers is recorded in the Rajavali: it is stated that the king of Cotta, about the year 1540, "caused a figure of the prince his grandson to be made of gold, and sent the same under the care of Sallappoo Arachy, to be delivered to the King of Portugal. The Arachy having arrived and delivered the presents to the King of Portugal, obtained the promise of great assistance," &c.—Rajavali, p. 286. See also VALENTYN, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. vi.; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 49; RIBEYRO'S History, trans, by Lee, ch. v. But as the embassy sent to the Emperor Claudius would necessarily have been deputed by one of the kings of the Wijayan dynasty, it is more than probable that the rank of the envoy was Indian rather than Singhalese, and that "Rachia" means raja rather than arachy.

It may, however, be observed that Rackha is a name of some renown in Singhalese annals. Rackha was the general whom Prakrama Bahu sent to reduce the south of Ceylon when in arms in the 12th century (Mahawanso, ch. lxxiii.); and it is also the name of one of the heroes of the Paramas. WILFORD, As. Res., vol. ix. p. 41.]

The Singhalese king of whom this is recorded was probably Chanda-Mukha-Siwa, who ascended the throne A.D. 44, and was deposed and assassinated by his brother A.D. 52. He signalised his reign by the construction of one of those gigantic tanks which still form the wonders of the island.[1] From his envoys Pliny learned that Ceylon then contained five hundred towns (or more properly villages), of which the chief was Palaesimunda, the residence of the sovereign, with a population of two hundred thousand souls.

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 218; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 21; AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS mentions another embassy which arrived from Ceylon in the reign of the Emperor Julian, l. xx. c. 7, and which consequently must have been despatched by the king Upa-tissa II. I have elsewhere remarked, that it was in this century that the Singhalese appear to have first commenced the practice of sending frequent embassies to distant countries, and especially to China. (See chapter on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Chinese.)]

They spoke of a lake called Megisba, of vast magnitude, and giving rise to two rivers, one flowing by the capital and the other northwards, towards the continent of India, which was most likely an exaggerated account of some of the great tanks, possibly that of Tissaweva, in the vicinity of Anarajapoora. They described the coral which abounds in the Gulf of Manaar; and spoke of marble, with colours like the shell of the tortoise; of pearls and precious stones; of the luxuriance of the soil, the profusion of all fruits except that of the vine, the natural wealth of the inhabitants, the mildness of the government, the absence of vexatious laws, the happiness of the people, and the duration of life, which was prolonged to more than one hundred years. They spoke of a commerce with China, but it was evidently overland, by way of India and Tartary, the country of the Seres being visible, they said, beyond the Himalaya mountains.[1] The ambassadors described the mode of trading among their own countrymen precisely as it is practised by the Veddahs in Ceylon at the present day[2]; the parties to the barter being concealed from each other, the one depositing the articles to be exchanged in a given place, and the other, if they agree to the terms, removing them unseen, and leaving behind what they give in return.

It is impossible to read this narrative of Pliny without being struck with its fidelity to truth in many particulars; and even one passage, to which exception has been taken as an imposture of the Singhalese envoys, when they manifested surprise at the quarters in which the sun rose and set in Italy, has been referred[3] to the peculiar system of the Hindus, in whose maps north and south are left and right; but it may be explained by the fact of the sun passing overhead in Ceylon, in his transit to the northern solstice; instead of hanging about the south, as in Italy, after acquiring some elevation above the horizon.

[Footnote 1: "Ultra montes Emodos Seras quoque ab ipsis aspici notos etiam commercio."—PLINY, lib. vi. c. 24.]

[Footnote 2: See the chapter on the Veddahs, Vol. II. Part II. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 3: See WILFORD'S Sacred Islands of the West, Asiat. Res., vol. x. p. 41.]

The rapid progress of navigation and discovery in the Indian seas, within the interval of sixty or seventy years which elapsed between the death of Pliny and the compilation of the great work of Ptolemy is in no instance more strikingly exhibited than on comparing the information concerning Taprobane, which is given by the latter in his "System of Geography,"[1] with the meagre knowledge of the island possessed by all his predecessors. From his position at Alexandria and his opportunites of intercourse with mariners returning from their distant voyages, he enjoyed unusual facilities for ascertaining facts and distances, and in proof of his singular diligence he was enabled to lay down in his map of Ceylon the position of eight promontories upon its coast, the mouths of five principal rivers, four bays, and harbours; and in the interior he had ascertained that there were thirteen provincial divisions, and nineteen towns, besides two emporiums on the coast; five great estuaries which he terms lakes[2], two bays, and two chains of mountains, one of them surrounding Adam's Peak, which he designates as Maloea—the name by which the hills that environ it are known in the Mahawanso. He mentions the recent change of the name to Salike (which Lassen conjectures to be a seaman's corruption of the real name Sihala[3]); and he notices, in passing, the fact that the natives wore their hair then as they do at the present day, in such length and profusion as to give them an appearance of effeminacy, "[Greek: mallois gynaikeiois eis hapan anadedemenos]."[4]

[Footnote 1: PTOLEMY, Geog. lib. vii. c. 4, tab. xii, Asiae. In one important particular a recent author has done justice to the genius and perseverance of Ptolemy, by demonstrating that although mistaken in adopting some of the fallacious statements of his predecessors, he has availed himself of better data by which to fix the position of Ceylon; so that the western coast in the Ptolemaic map coincides with the modern Ceylon in the vicinity of Colombo. Mr. COOLEY, in his learned work on Claudius Ptolemy and the Nile, Lond. 1854, has successfully shown that whilst forced to accept those popular statements which he had no authentic data to check, Ptolemy conscientiously availed himself of the best materials at his command, and endeavoured to fix his distances by means of the reports of the Greek seamen who frequented the coasts which he described, constructing his maps by means of their itineraries and the journals of trading voyages. But a fundamental error pervades all his calculations, inasmuch as he assumed that there were but 500 stadia (about fifty geographical miles) instead of sixty miles to a degree of a great circle of the earth; thus curtailing the globe of one sixth of its circumference. Once apprised of this mistake, and reckoning Ptolemy's longitudes and latitudes from Alexandria, and reducing them to degrees of 600 stadia, his positions may be laid down on a more correct graduation; otherwise "his Taprobane, magnified far beyond its true dimensions, appears to extend two degrees below the equator, and to the seventy-first meridian east of Alexandria (nearly twenty degrees too far east), whereas the prescribed reduction brings it westward and northward till it covers the modern Ceylon, the western coasts of both coinciding at the very part near Colombo likely to have been visited by shipping."—Pp. 47, 53, See also SCHOELL, Hist, de la Lit. Grecque, l. v. c. lxx.

]

[Footnote 2: It is observable that Ptolemy in his list distinguishes those indentations in the coast which he described as bays, [Greek: kolpos], from the estuaries, to which he gives the epithet of "lakes," [Greek: limen]. Of the former he particularises two, the position of which would nearly correspond with the Bay of Trincomalie and the harbour of Colombo. Of the latter he enumerates five, and from their position they seem to represent the peculiar estuaries formed by the conjoint influence of the rivers and the current, and known by the Arabs by the term of "gobbs." A description of them will be found at Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 43.]

[Footnote 3: May it not have an Egyptian origin "Siela-Keh," the land of Siela?]

[Footnote 4: The description of Taprobane given by Ptolemy proves that the island had been thoroughly circumnavigated and examined by the mariners who were his informants. Not having penetrated the interior to any extent, their reports relative to it are confined to the names of the principal tribes inhabiting the several divisions and provinces, and the position of the metropolis and seat of government. But respecting the coast, their notes were evidently minute and generally accurate, and from them Ptolemy was enabled to enumerate in succession the bays, rivers, and harbours, together with the headlands and cities on the seaborde in consecutive order; beginning at the northern extremity, proceeding southward down the western coast, and returning along the east to Point Pedro. Although the majority of the names which he supplies are no longer susceptible of identification on the modern map, some of them can be traced without difficulty—thus his Ganges is still the Mahawelli-ganga; his Maagrammum would appear, on a first glance, to be Mahagam, but as he calls it the "metropolis," and places it beside the great river, it is evidently Bintenne, whose ancient name was "Maha-yangana" or "Ma-ha-welli-gam." His Anurogrammum, which he calls [Greek: Basileion], "the royal residence," is obviously Anarajapoora, the city founded by Anuradha five hundred years before Ptolemy was born (Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 50, x. 65, &c.). It may have borne in his time the secondary rank of a village or a town (gam or gramma), and afterwards acquired the higher epithet of Anuradha-porra, the "city" of Anuradha, after it had grown to the dimensions of a capital. The province of the Modutti in Ptolemy's list has a close resemblance in name, though not in position, to Mantotte; the people of Rayagam Corle still occupy the country assigned by him to the Rhogandani—his Naga dibii are identical with the Nagadiva of the Mahawanso; and the islet to which he has given the name of Bassa, occupies nearly the position of the Basses, which it has been the custom to believe were so called by the Portuguese—"Baxos" or "Baixos," sunken rocks. It is curious that the position in which he has placed the elephant plains or feeding grounds, [Greek: elephanton nomoi], to the south-east of Adam's Peak, is the portion of the island about Matura, where, down to a very recent period, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English successively held their annual battues, not only for the supply of the government studs, but for export to India. Making due allowance for the false dimensions of the island assumed by Ptolemy, but taking his account of the relative positions of the headlands, rivers, harbours, and cities, the accompanying map affords a proximate idea of his views of Taprobane and its localities as propounded in his Geography.

* * * * *

Post-scriptum. Since the above was written, and the map it refers to was returned to me from the engraver, I have discovered that a similar attempt to identify the ancient names of Ptolemy with those now attached to the supposed localities, was made by Gosselin; and a chart so constructed will be found (No. xiv.) appended to his Recherches sur la Geographie des Anciens, t. iii. p. 303. I have been gratified to find that in the more important points we agree; but in many of the minor ones, the want of personal knowledge of the island involved Gosselin in errors which the map I have prepared will, I hope, serve to rectify.—J.E.T.]



The extent and accuracy of Ptolemy's information is so surprising, that it has given rise to surmises as to the sources whence it could possibly have been derived.[1] But the conjecture that he was indebted to ancient Phoenician or Tyrian authorities whom he has failed to acknowledge, is sufficiently met by the consideration that these were equally accessible to his predecessors. The abundance of his materials, especially those relating to the sea-borde of India and Ceylon, is sufficient to show that he was mainly indebted for his facts to the adventurous merchants of Egypt and Arabia, and to works which, like the Periplus of the Erythroean Sea (erroneously ascribed to ARRIAN the historian, but written by a merchant probably of the same name), were drawn up by practical navigators to serve as sailing directions for seamen resorting to the Indian Ocean.[2]

[Footnote 1: HEEREN, Hist. Researches, vol. ii. Appendix xii.]

[Footnote 2: LASSEN, De Taprob. Ins. p. 4. From the error of Ptolemy in making the coast of Malabar extend from west to east, whilst its true position is laid down in the Periplus, VINCENT concludes that he was not acquainted with the Periplus, as, anterior to the invention of printing, cotemporaries might readily be ignorant of the productions of each other (VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 55). Vincent assigns the composition of the Periplus to the reign of Claudius or Nero, and Dodwell to that of M. Aurelius, but Letronne more judiciously ascribes it to the period of Severus and Caracalla, A.D. 198,210, fifty years later than Ptolemy. The author, a Greek of Alexandria and a merchant, never visited Ceylon, though he had been as far south as Nelkynda (the modern Neliseram), and the account which he gives from report of the island is meagre, and in some respects erroneous. ARRIANI Periplus Maris Eryth.; HUDSON, vol. i. p. 35; VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 493.]

So ample was the description of Ceylon afforded by Ptolemy, that for a very long period his successors, AGATHEMERUS, MARCIANUS of Heraclea, and other geographers, were severally contented to use the facts originally collected by him.[1] And it was not till the reign of Justinian, in the sixth century, that COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES, by publishing the narrative of Sopater, added very considerably to the previous knowledge of the island.

[Footnote 1: AGATHEMERUS, Hudson Geog., l. ii. c. 7,8.; MARCIANUS HERACLEOTA, Periplus, Hudson, p. 26. STEPHANUS BYZANTINUS, in verbo "Taprobane." Instead of the expression of PTOLEMY that Taprobane [Greek: ekaleito palai Simoundon], which MARCIANUS had rendered [Greek: Palaisimioundou], STEPHANUS transposes the words as if to guard against error, [Greek: palai men ekaleito Simoundou], &c. The prior authority of PTOLEMY, however, serves to prolong the mystery, as he calls the capital Palaesimundum.]

As Cosmos is the last Greek writer who treats of Taprobane[1], it may be interesting, before passing to his account of the island, to advert to what has been recorded by the Singhalese chroniclers themselves, as to its actual condition at the period when Cosmas described it, and thus to verify his narrative by the test of historical evidence. It has been shown in another chapter that between the first and the sixth centuries, Ceylon had undergone all the miseries of frequent invasions: that in the vicissitudes of time the great dynasty of Wijayo had expired, and the throne had fallen into the hands of an effeminate and powerless race, utterly unable to contend with the energetic Malabars, who acquired an established footing in the northern parts of the island. The south, too wild and uncultivated to attract these restless plunderers, and too rugged and inaccessible to be overrun by them, was divided into a number of petty principalities, whose kings did homage to the paramount sovereign north of the Mahawelli-ganga. Buddhism was the national religion, but toleration was shown to all others,—to the worship of the Brahmans as well as to the barbarous superstition of the aboriginal tribes. At the same time, the productive wealth of the island had been developed to an extraordinary extent by the care of successive kings, and by innumerable works for irrigation and agriculture provided by their policy. Anarajapoora, the capital, had expanded into extraordinary dimensions, it was adorned with buildings and monuments, surpassing in magnitude those of any city in India, and had already attracted pilgrims and travellers from China and the uttermost countries of the East.

[Footnote 1: There is another curious work which, notwithstanding certain doubts as to its authorship, contains internal evidence entitling it, in point of time, to take precedence of COSMAS. This is the tract "De Moribus Brachmanorum", ascribed to St. Ambrose, and which under the title [Greek: "Peri ton tez Indiaz kai ton Brachmanon"] has been also attributed to Palladius, but in all probability it was actually the composition of neither. Early in the fifth century Palladius was Bishop of Helenopolis, in Bithynia, and died about A.D. 410. He spent a part of his life in Coptic monasteries, and it is possible that during his sojourn in Egypt, meeting travellers and merchants returning from India, he may have caused this narrative to be taken down from the dictation of one of them. Cave hesitates to believe that it was written by PALLADIUS, "haud facile credem," &c. (Script. Eccles. Hist. Lit.); and the learned Benedictine editors of AMBROSE have excluded it from the works of the latter. They could scarcely have done otherwise when the first chapter of the Latin version opens with the declaration that it was drawn up by its author at the request of "PALLADIUS." "Desiderium mentis tuae Palladi opus efficere nos compellit," &c. Neither of the two versions can be accepted as a translation of the other, but the discrepancies are not inconsistent, and would countenance the conjecture that the book is the production of one and the same person. Much of the material is borrowed from PTOLEMY and PLINY but the facts which are new could only have been collected by persons who had visited the scenes they describe. The compiler says he had learned from a certain scholar of Thebes that the inhabitants of Ceylon were called Macrobii, because, owing to the salubrity of the climate, the average duration of life was 150 years. The petty kings of the country acknowledged one paramount sovereign to whom they were subject as satraps; this the Theban was told by others, as he himself not allowed to visit the interior. A thousand other islands lie adjacent to Ceylon, and in a group of these which he calls Maniolae (probably the Attols of the Maldives,) is found the loadstone, which attracts iron, so that a vessel coming within its influence, is seized and forcibly detained, and for this reason the ships which navigate these seas are fastened with pegs of wood instead of bolts of iron.

Ceylon, according to this traveller, has five large and navigable rivers, it rejoices in one perennial harvest, and the flowers and the ripe fruit hang together on the same branch. There are palm trees; both those that bear the great Indian nut, and the smaller aromatic one (the areka). The natives subsist on milk, rice, and fruit. The sheep produce no wool, but have long and silky hair, and linen being unknown, the inhabitants clothe themselves in skins, which are far from inelegantly worked.

Finding some Indian merchants there who had come in a small vessel to trade, the Theban attempted to go into the interior, and succeeded in getting sight of a tribe whom he calls Besadae or Vesadae, his description of whom is in singular conformity with the actual condition of the Veddahs in Ceylon at the present day. "They are," he says, "a feeble and diminutive race, dwelling in caves under the rocks, and early accustomed to ascend precipices, with which their country abounds, in order to gather pepper from the climbing plants. They are of low stature, with large heads and shaggy uncut hair."

The Theban proceeds to relate that being arrested by one of the chiefs, on the charge of having entered his territory without permission, he was forcibly detained there for six years, subsisting on a measure of food, issued to him daily by the royal authority. This again presents a curious coincidence with the detention and treatment of Knox and other captives by the kings of Kandy in modern times. He was at last released owing to the breaking out of hostilities between the chief who held him prisoner and another prince, who accused the former before the supreme sovereign of having unlawfully detained a Roman citizen, after which he was set at liberty, out of respect to the Roman name and authority.

This curious tract was first published by CAMERABIUS, but in 1665 Sir EDWARD BISSE, Baronet, and Clarenceux King-at-Arms, reproduced the Greek original, supposing it to be an unpublished manuscript, with a Latin translation. It is incorporated in one of the MSS. of the Pseudo-Callisthenes recently edited by MUELLER, lib. iii. ch. vii. viii.; DIDOT. Script Groec. Bib., vol. xxvi. Paris, 1846.]

With the increasing commercial intercourse between the West and the East, Ceylon, from its central position, half way between Arabia and China, had during the same period risen into signal importance as a great emporium for foreign trade. The transfer of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople served to revive the over-land traffic with India; and the Persians for the first time[1] vied with the Arabs and the merchants of Egypt, and sought to divert the Oriental trade from the Red Sea and Alexandria to the Euphrates and the Tigris.

[Footnote 1: GIBBON, ch. xl.; ROBERTSON'S India, b.i.]

Already, between the first and fifth centuries, the course of that trade had undergone a considerable change. In its infancy, and so long as the navigation was confined to coasting adventures, the fleets of the Ptolemies sailed no further than to the ports of Arabia Felx[1], where they were met by Arabian vessels returning from the west coast of India, bringing thence the productions of China, shipped at the emporiums of Malabar. After the discovery of the monsoons, and the accomplishment of bolder voyages, the great entrepot of commerce was removed farther south; first, from Muziris, the modern Mangalore, to Nelkynda, now Neliseram, and afterwards to Calicut and Coulam, or Quilon. In like manner the Chinese, who, whilst the navigation of the Arabs and Persians was in its infancy, had extended their voyages not only to Malabar but to the Persian Gulf, gradually contracted them as their correspondents ventured further south. HAMZA says, that in the fifth century the Euphrates was navigable as high as Hira, within a few miles of Babylon[2]; and MASSOUDI, in his Meadows of Gold, states that at that time the Chinese ships ascended the river and anchored in front of the houses there.[3] At a later period, their utmost limit was Syraf, in Farsistan[4]; they afterwards halted first at Muziris, next at Calicut[5], then at Coulam, now Quilon[6]; and eventually, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Chinese vessels appear rarely to have sailed further west than Ceylon. Thither they came with their silks and other commodities, those destined for Europe being chiefly paid for in silver[7], and those intended for barter in India were trans-shipped into smaller craft, adapted to the Indian seas, by which they were distributed at the various ports east and west of Cape Comorin.[8]

[Footnote 1: Aden was a Roman emporium; [Greek: Rhomaikon emporion Adanen].—PHILOSTORGIUS, p. 28.]

[Footnote 2: HAZMA ISPAHANENSIS, p. 102; REINAUD, Relation, &c., vol. i. p. 35.]

[Footnote 3: MASSOUDI, Meadows of Gold, Transl. of SPRENGER, vol. i. p. 246.]

[Footnote 4: ABOU-ZEYD, vol. i. p, 14; REINAUD Discours, pp. 44, 78.]

[Footnote 5: DULAURIER, Journ. Asiat., vol. xiix, p. 141; VINCENT, vol. ii, pp. 464,507.]

[Footnote 6: ABOU-ZEYD, p. 15; REINAUD, Mem. sur l'Inde, p. 201.]

[Footnote 7: PLINY, lib. vi. ch. xxvi.; Periplus Mar. Erythr.]

[Footnote 8: ROBERTSON, Au Ind., sec. ii. Periplus of the Erythrean Sea describes these Ceylon crafts as rigged vessels, [Greek: histiopepoiemenois neusi].]

COSMAS was a merchant of Egypt in the reign of Justinian, who, from the extent of his travels, acquired the title of "Indico-pleustes." Retiring to the cloister, he devoted the remnant of his life to the preparation of a work in defence of the cosmography of the Pentateuch from the errors of the Ptolemaic astronomy.[1] He died in the year 550, before his task was completed, and one of the last portions on which he was employed was an account of Taprobane, taken down from the reports of Sopater, a Greek trader whom he had met at Adule in Ethiopia, when on his return from Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: Christianike Topographia], sive Christianorum Opinio de Mundo. This curious book has been printed entire by Montfaucon from a MS. in the Vatican Coll. Patr., vol. ii. p. 333. Paris, 1706 A.D. There is only one other MS. known, which was in Florence; and from it THEVENOT had previously extracted and published the portion relating to India in his Relation des Dic. Voy., vol. i. Paris, 1576 A.D.]

Sopater, in the course of business as a merchant, sailed from Adule in the same ship with a Persian bound for Ceylon, and on his arrival he and his fellow-traveller were presented by the officers of the port to the king, who was probably Kumara Das, the friend and patron of the poet Kalidas.[1] The king received them with courtesy, and Cosmas recounts how in the course of the interview Sopater succeeded in convincing the Singhalese monarch of the greater power of Rome as compared with that of Persia, by exhibiting the large and highly finished gold coin of the Roman Emperor in contrast with the small and inelegant silver money of the Shah. This story would, however, appear to be traditional, as Pliny relates a somewhat similar anecdote of the ambassadors from Ceylon in the reign of Claudius, and of the profound respect excited in their minds by the sight of the Roman denarii.

[Footnote 1: Cosmas wrote between A.D. 545 and 550; and the voyage of Sopater to Ceylon had been made thirty years before. Kumaara Das reigned from A.D. 515 to A.D. 524. Vincent has noted the fact that in his interview with the Greek he addressed him by the epithet of Roomi, "[Greek: su Romeu]," which is the term that has been applied from time immemorial in India to the powers who have been successively in possession of Constantinople, whether Roman, Christian, or Mahommedan. Vol. ii. p. 511, &c.]

As Sopater was the first traveller who described Ceylon from personal knowledge, I shall give his account of the island in the words of Cosmas, which have not before been presented in an English translation. "It is," he says, "a great island of the ocean lying in the Indian Sea, called Sielendib by the Indians, but Taprobane by the Greeks. The stone, the hyacinth, is found in it; it lies beyond the pepper country.[1] Around it there are a multitude of exceedingly small islets[2], all containing fresh water and coco-nut palms[3]; these (islands) lie as close as possible together. The great island itself, according to the accounts of its inhabitants, is 300 gaudia[4], or 900 miles long, and as many in breadth. There are two kings ruling at opposite ends of the island[5], one of whom possesses the hyacinth[6], and the other the district, in which are the port and emporium[7], for the emporium in that place is the greatest in those parts."

[Footnote 1: Malabar or Narghyl Arabia.]

[Footnote 2: The Maldive Islands.]

[Footnote 3: [Greek: Argellia] pro [Greek: nargellia], from narikela, the Sanskrit, and narghyl, Arab, for the "coco-nut palm." GILDEMESTER, Script. Arab. p. 36.]

[Footnote 4: "[Greek: Gaudia."] It is very remarkable that this singular word gaou, in which Cosmas gives the dimensions of the island, is in use to the present day in Ceylon, and means the distance which a man can walk in an hour. VINCENT, in his Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, has noticed this passage (vol. ii, p. 506), and sayt, somewhat loosely, that the Singhalese gaou, which he spells "ghadia" is the same as the naligiae of the Tamils, and equal to three-eighths of a French league, or nearly one mile and a quarter English. This is incorrect; a gaou in Ceylon expresses a somewhat indeterminate length, according to the nature of the ground to be traversed, a gaou across a mountainous country being less than one measured on level ground, and a gaou for a loaded cooley is also permitted to be shorter than for one unburthened, but on the whole the average may be taken under four miles. This is worth remarking, because it brings the statement made to Sopater by the Singhalese in the sixth century into consistency with the representations of the ambassadors to the Emperor Claudius in the first, although both prove to be erroneous. It is curious that FA HIAN, the Chinese traveller, whose zeal for Buddhism led him to visit India and Ceylon a century and a half before Cosmas, gives an area to the island which approaches very nearly to correctness; although he reverses the direction in which its length exceeds its breadth. Foĕ-kouĕ-ki, c. xxxvii. p. 328.]

[Footnote 5: [Greek: "Enantioiallelon"]. This may also mean "at war with one another."]

[Footnote 6: This has been translated so as to mean the portion of the island producing hyacinth stones ("la partie de l'isle ou se trouvent les jacinthes." THEVENOT). But besides that I know of no Greek form of expression that admits of such expansion; this construction, if accepted, would be inconsistent with fact—for the king alluded to held the north of the island, whereas the region producing gems is the south, and in it were also the "emporium," and the harbour frequented by shipping and merchants. I am disposed therefore to accept the term in its simple sense, and to believe that it refers to one particular jewel, for the possession of which the king of Ceylon enjoyed an enviable renown. Cosmas, in the succeeding sentence, describes this wonderful gem as being deposited in a temple near the capital; and Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, says that in the seventh century, a ruby was elevated on a spire surmounting a temple at Anarajapoora "dont l'eclat magnifique illumine tout le ciel."—Vie de Hiouen Thsang, lib. iv. p. 199; Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes, lib. xi. v. ii. p. 141. MARCO POLO, in the thirteenth, century, says the "king of Ceylon is reputed to have the grandest ruby that was ever seen, a span in length, the thickness of a man's arm; brilliant beyond description, and without a single flaw. It has the appearance of a glowing fire, and its worth cannot be estimated in money. The Grand Khan Kublai sent ambassadors to this monarch to offer for it the value of a city, but he would not part with it for all the treasures of the world, as it was a jewel handed down by his ancestors on the throne."—Trans. MARSDEN, 4to. 1818. It is most probable that the stone described by Marco Polo was not a ruby, but an amethyst, which is found in large crystals in Ceylon, and which modern mineralogists believe to be the "hyacinth" of the ancients. (DANA'S Mineralogy, vol. ii. p. 196.) CORSALI says it was a carbuncle (Ramusio, vol. i. p. 180); and JORDAN DE SEVERAC, about the year 1323, repeats the story of its being a ruby so large that it could not be grasped in the closed hand. (Recueil de Voy., Soc. Geog. Paris. vol. iv. p. 50.) If this resplendent object really exhibited the dimensions assigned to it, the probability is that it was not a gem at all, but one of those counterfeits of glass, in producing which STRABO relates that the artists of Alexandria attained the highest possible perfection (1. xvi. c. 2. sec. 25). Its luminosity by night is of course a fiction, unless, indeed, like the emerald pillar in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, which HERODOTUS describes as "shining brightly by night," it was a hollow cylinder into which a lamp could be introduced. Herod, ii. 44.

Of the ultimate history of this renowned jewel we have no authentic narrative; but it is stated in the Chinese accounts of Ceylon that early in the fourteenth century an officer was sent by the emperor to purchase a "carbuncle" of unusual lustre. "This served as the ball on the emperor's cap, and was transmitted to succeeding emperors on their accession as a precious heirloom, and worn on the birthday and at the grand courts held on the first day of the year. It was upwards of an ounce in weight, and cost 100,000 strings of cash. Every time a grand levee was held during the darkness of the night, the red lustre filled the palace, and it was for this reason designated 'The Red Palace-Illuminator.'"—Tsih-ke, or Miscellaneous Record, quoted in the Kih che-king-yuen, Mirror of Science, b. xxxiii. p. 1, 2.]

[Footnote 7: The port and harbour of Point de Galle.]

"The island has also a community of Christians[1], chiefly resident Persians, with a presbyter ordained in Persia, a deacon, and a complete ecclesiastical ritual.[2]

[Footnote 1: Nestorians, whose "Catholicos" resided first at Ctesiphon, and afterwards at Mosul. VINCENT, Periplus, &c., vol. ii, p. 507. For an examination of the hypotheses based on this statement of Cosmas, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT'S History of Christianity in Ceylon, ch. i.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek: "Leitourgiat,"] literally liturgy; which meant originally the pomp and ceremonial of worship as well as the form of prayer.]

"The natives and their kings are of different races.[1] The temples are numerous, and in one in particular, situated on an eminence[2], is the great hyacinth, as large as a pine-cone, the colour of fire, and flashing from a distance, especially when catching the beams of the sun—a matchless sight.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: Allophuloi].]

[Footnote 2: Probably that at Mihintala, the sacred hill near Anarajapoora.]

"As its position is central, the island is the resort of ships from all parts of India, Persia, and Ethiopia, and, in like manner, many are despatched from it. From the inner[1] countries; I mean China, and other emporiums, it receives silk[2], aloes, cloves, clove-wood, chandana[3], and whatever else they produce. These it again transmits to the outer ports[4],—I mean to Male[5], whence the pepper comes; to Calliana[6], where there is brass and sesamine-wood, and materials for dress (for it is also a place of great trade), and to Sindon[7], where they get musk, castor, and androstachum[8], to Persia, the Homeritic coasts[9], and Adule. Receiving in return the exports of those emporiums, Taprobane exchanges them in the inner ports (to the east of Cape Comorin) sending her own produce along with them to each.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: "ton endoteron,"] the countries inside (that is to the east) of Cape Comorin, as distinguished from the outer ports ([Greek: ta exotera]) mentioned below, which lie west of it.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek: "metaxin."] Of this foreign word, applied by the mediaeval Greeks to silk in general, as well as to raw silk, PROCOPIUS says:—[Greek: "Ahute de estin he metaxa, ex hes eiothasi ten estheta ergazesthai, hen palai men Hellenes mediken, tanun de seriken onomazousi."]—PROCOP. Persic. I. Metaxa, or anciently mataxa, "thread," "yarn," seems to be Latine rather than Greek. The metaxarius was a "yarn-broker;" and the word having got possession of the market, was extended to the woven stuff. The modern Greeks call silk [Greek: metaxa.]]

[Footnote 3: [Greek: "tzandana,"] probably "sandalwood;" sometimes called agallochum.]

[Footnote 4: [Greek: "ta exotera,"] those lying west of Cape Comorin.]

[Footnote 5: Malabar.]

[Footnote 6: Bombay.]

[Footnote 7: Scinde.]

[Footnote 8: [Greek: "androsthachon."]]

[Footnote 9: Southern Arabia, chiefly Hadramaut.]

"Sielediba, or Taprobane, lies seaward about five days' sail from the mainland.[1] Then further on the continent is Marallo, which furnishes cochlea[2]; then comes Kaber, which exports 'alabandanum;'[3] and next is the clove country, then China, which exports silk; beyond which there is no other land, for the ocean encircles it on the east. Sielediba being thus placed in the middle as it were of India, and possessing the hyacinth, receives goods from all nations, and again distributes them, thus becoming a great emporium."

[Footnote 1: Cosmas probably means "the more distant ports on" the mainland of India.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek: "kochlious,"] probably chankshells, turbinella rapa. See ABOUZEYD, vol. i. p. 6.]

[Footnote 3: [Greek: "alabandanon."]]

This description of the Indian trade by Cosmas is singularly corroborative of the account that had previously been given by the author of the Periplus; and as the Singhalese have at all times been remarkable for their aversion to the sea, the country-craft[1], thus mentioned by both authorities as engaged in voyages between Ceylon and the countries east and west of Cape Cornorin, must have been manned in part by Malabars, but chiefly by the Arabs and Persians, who, previous to the time of Cosmas, had been induced to settle in large numbers in Ceylon[2], attracted by the activity of its commerce, and the extensive employment for shipping afforded by its transit trade.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: "topika ploia."]—Periplus.]

[Footnote 2: REINAUD, Mem. sur l'Inde, p. 124. and Introd. ABOULFEDA.]

Amongst the objects, the introduction of which was eagerly encouraged in Ceylon, Cosmas particularises horses from Persia; the traders in which were exempted from the payment of customs. The most remarkable exports were elephants, which from their size and sagacity were found to be superior to those of India for purposes of war. Hence the renown accorded to Ceylon, as pre-eminently the birthplace of the Asiatic race of elephants.

[Greek:

"Metera Taprobanen Asiegeneon elephanton."]

DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES, v. 593.

Cosmas observes upon the smallness of their tusks compared with those of Africa, and mentions the strange fact, that ivory was then exported from Ethiopia to India, as well as to Persia and the countries of Europe. He makes other allusions to Ceylon, but the passages extracted above, present the bulk of his information concerning the island.[1]

[Footnote 1: The above translation has been made from THEVENOT's version of Cosmas, which may differ slightly from that of MONTFAUCON, Collect. Nov. Patrum. Paris, 1706, vol. ii. p.]



NOTE (A).

Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Phoenicians.

In the previous chapter, p. 526, &c., allusion has been made to the possible resort of the Phoenicians to Ceylon in the course of their voyages to India, but I have not thought it expedient to embody in the text any notice of the description of the island which is given in the Phoenician History of SANCHONIATHON, published by Wagenfeld, at Bremen, in 1837, under the title of "Sanchuniathonis Historiarum Phoeniciae Libri Novem Groece Versos a Philone Byblio, edidit Latinaque Versione donavit F. WAGENFELD."

Sanchoniathon is alleged to have lived before the Trojan war; and in Asiatic chronology he is said to have been a contemporary of Semiramis. The Phoenician original perished; but its contents were preserved in the Greek translation of Philo, a native of Byblus, a frontier town of Phoenicia, who wrote in the first century after Christ, and till the alleged discovery of the MS. from which Wagenfeld professed to publish, the only portion of Philo's version known to exist consisted of fragments preserved by Eusebius and Porphyry. Wagenfeld's statement was, that the MS. in his possession had been obtained from the Portuguese monastery of St. Maria de Merinhao (the existence of which there is reason to doubt), and the portion which he first ventured to print appeared with a preface by Grotefend. Its genuineness was instantly impugned; a learned and protracted controversy arose; and though Wagenfeld eventually published the whole of the Greek MS., with a Latin version by himself, he was never prevailed upon to exhibit the original parchments, alleging that he had been compelled to restore them to the convent. The assailants of Wagenfeld accuse him of wilful deception; but the probability is that the document which he translated is one of those inventions of the Middle Ages, in which history and geography were strangely confounded with imagination and romance; and that it is an attempt to restore the lost books of Philo Byblius, as Philo himself is more than suspected to have invented the history which he professed to have translated from Sanchoniathon. (See ERSCH and GRUEBER'S Encyclopaedia, 1847; MOEVER'S Phoenician History, vol. i. p. 117.)

[336. In point of time, the notice of Ceylon given by the Armenian Archbishop Moses of Chorene in his Historia Armeniaca et Epitome Geographiae, is entitled to precede that of Cosmos Indico-pleustes, inasmuch as Moses has translated into Armenian the Greek text of Pappus of Alexandria, who wrote about the end of the fourth century. Of Taprobane he says—it is one of the largest islands in the world, being 1100 miles in length by 1500 broad, and reckons 1370 adjacent islands amongst its dependencies. He alludes to its mountains and rivers, the variety of races which inhabit it, and its production of gold, silver, gems, spices, elephants, and tigers; and dwells on the fact, previously noticed by Agathemerus, that the men of this country dress their hair after the fashion of women, by braiding it in tresses on the top of their heads, "viri regionis istius capillis muliebribus sua capita redimiunt."—MOSES CHORENENSIS, &c., edit. Whiston, 1736, p. 367. The most remarkable circumstance is that he alludes thus early to the footprint on Adam's Peak, which is probably the meaning of his expression, "ibidem Satanae lapsum narrant," t. iv.]

In books vii. and viii, Sanchoniathon gives an account of an island in the Indian seas explored by Tyrian navigators, the description of which is evidently copied from the early Greek writers who had visited Taprobane, and the name which is assigned to it, "the Island of Rachius", is borrowed from Pliny. The period of their visit is fixed by Sanchoniathon shortly after the conquest of Cittium, in Cyprus, by the Phoenicians; an event which occurred when Hiram reigned at Tyre, and Solomon at Jerusalem. The narrative is given as follows (book vii. ch. v. p. 150): "So Bartophas died the next day, having exercised imperial authority for six years." (Ch. v.) "And on his death they chose Joramus, the son of Bartophas, king, whom the Tyrians styled Hierbas, and who reigned fifty-seven years. He having collected seventy-nine long ships, sent an expedition against Cittium." ... (Ch. vi.) "At this time, Obdalius, king of the island of Mylite, sent all his forces to assist the Tyrians at Cittium; and when it came to the knowledge of the barbarians who inhabited Tenga, that the island was denuded of men and ships, they invaded it under the command of Plusiacon, the son-in-law of Obdalius, and having slain him and many of his people, they plundered the country, and gave the city to the flames." (Ch. vii.) "And Joramus directed all the eparchs in the cities and islands to make out and send to Tyre descriptions of the inhabitants, their ships, their arms, their horses, their scythe-bearing chariots, and their property of all kinds; and he ordered them to send to distant countries persons competent to draw up narratives of the same kind, and to record them all in a book. In this manner he obtained accurate geographical descriptions of all the regions to the east and the west, both islands and inland parts. But the AEthiopians[1] represented to the king that to the south there were great and renowned countries, densely populated, and rich in precious things, gold and silver, pearls, gems, ebony, pepper, elephants, monkeys, parrots, peacocks, and innumerable other things; and that there was a peninsula so far to the east that the inhabitants could see the sun rising out of the sea." (Ch. viii.) "Joramus then sent messengers to Natambalus, the king of the Babylonians, who were to say to him, 'I have heard that the countries of the AEthiopians are numerous, and abounding in inhabitants; they are easy of access from Babylon, but very difficult from Tyre. If, therefore, I should determine to explore them, and you will let my subjects have suitable ships, you shall have in return a hundred purple cloaks.' Natambalus was willing to do so; but the AEthiopian merchants, who resorted to Babylon, vowed that they would take their departure if he should assist Joramus to sail to AEthiopia." (Chap. ix.) "Subsequently Joramus addressed himself to Irenius of Judea, and undertook that if he would let the Tyrians have a harbour on the sea towards AEthiopia, he would assist him in the building of a palace, in which he was then engaged; and bind himself to supply him with materials of cedar and fir, and squared stones. Irenius assenting, made over to Joramus the city and harbour of Ilotha. There were a great many date trees there, but as their timber was not suitable for constructing vessels, Joramus despatched eight thousand camels to Ilotha, loaded with materials for ship-building, and ordered the shipwrights to build ten ships, and he appointed Cedarus and Jaminus and Cotilus, commanders.... They sailed from Ilotha; but furious tempests prevented them from passing the straits.[2] And while they were wind-bound, they remained five months in a certain island, and having sowed wheat on the low ground, they reaped an abundant crop. After this they sailed towards the rising sun, and leaving the land of the Arabians they fell in with Babylonian ships returning from AEthiopia.[3] And on the following day they arrived at the country of the AEthiopians, which they perceived sandy and devoid of water on the coast, but mountainous inland. They then sailed eastward along the shore for ten days. There an immense region extends to the south, and the AEthiopians dwell in numerous populous and well-circumstanced cities, and navigate the sea. Their ships are not suited for war, and have no sails. And having sailed thirty-six days to the southward, the Tyrians arrived at the island of Rachius ([Greek: Rhachiou neson])."

[Footnote 1: The AEthiopians alluded to were a company of Indian jugglers and snake-charmers, whose arrival from Babylon is mentioned lib. vii. ch. i.]

[Footnote 2: Of Bab-el-mandeb.]

[Footnote 3: India.]

(Ch. 9.) "The roadstead was in front of a level strand, bordered with lofty trees, and coming on to blow at night, they were in the utmost danger till sunrise: but running then to the south, they came in sight of a safe harbour[1]; and saw many populous towns inland. On landing, they were surrounded by the villagers, and the governor of the place entertained them hospitably for seven days; pending the return of a messenger whom he had despatched to the principal king, to ask his instructions relative to the Tyrians who had anchored in the harbour. The messenger having returned on the seventh day, the governor sent for the Tyrians the following morning, and informed them that they must go with him to the king, who was then residing at Rochapatta, a large and prosperous city in the centre of the island. In front marched several spearmen, sent by the king as a guard of honour to the strangers; who with the clash of their spears scared away the elephants which were numerous and dangerous because it was their rutting time. The Tyrians marched in the centre, and Cedarus, Cotilus, and Jaminus were carried in palanquins. The villagers as they passed along offered them presents, and the governor brought up the rear, where he rode on an elephant, surrounded by his body guard. In this order of march, they on the third day came to a ford; in the passage over which, one of the travellers was devoured by crocodiles which swarm in the rivers. Having proceeded thus for several days, they at length descried the city of Rochapatta, environed by lofty mountains. And when it was known that they had arrived (for the rumour of their approach had preceded them) the inhabitants rushed from the city in a body to see the Tyrians; some riding on elephants, some on asses, some in palanquins, but the greater part on foot. And the commander having conducted them into a spacious and splendid palace, caused the gates to be closed, that the crowd might not make their way in; and led the Tyrians to the King Rachius, who was seated on a beautiful couch. Presents were then interchanged.

"To the Tyrians, who brought horses and purple robes, and seats of cedar, the King gave in return, pearls, gold, 2000 elephants' teeth, and much unequalled cinnamon ([Greek: kinnamo pollo te kai diapheronti]); and he entertained them as guests for thirty days." (Ch. xi.) "Some of the Tyrians perished in the island, one indeed by sickness, but the others smitten by the gods. One man, picking up some pellets of sheep's dung, drew lines on the sand, and challenged another who happened to be looking on, to play a game with them. The challenger held the sheep's dung, but the other, who could not find any dung of camels (for there are no camels in that island), took cow-dung, of which there was a great quantity, and rolling up little balls of it, placed them on the lines. But a priest who was present warned them to desist, because cow-dung is sacred among them, but they only laughed. So the priest passed on, and they continued their game, but shortly after, both fell down and expired, to the consternation of the bystanders. One of those who died was a native of Jerusalem." (Ch. xii.) "The sea encircles this great island of Rachius on every side, except that to the north and west there is an isthmus which affords a passage to the opposite coast. Baaut constructed this place by heaping up mud, and her footprint is still to be seen in the mountain ([Greek: es kai ichnos estin en tois orois]).

[Footnote 1: Galle?]

"And the great king traced his descent from her race. The island is six days' journey in breadth, and twelve days' journey in length. It is populous and delightful. Its natural productions are magnificent, and the sea furnishes fish of the finest flavour, and in the greatest abundance, to the inhabitants of the coast. Wild beasts are numerous in the mountains, of which elephants are the largest of all. There is also the most fragrant of cassia ([Greek: kasia de he aromatikotate]).

"They find stones containing gold in the rivers, and pearls on the sea-shore. Four kings govern the island, all subordinate to the paramount sovereign, to whom they pay as tribute, cassia, ivory, gems, and pearls; for the king has gold in the greatest abundance. The first of these kings reigns in the south, where there are herds of elephants, of which great numbers are captured of surprising size. In this region the shore is inhospitable, and destitute of inhabitants, but the city, in which the governor resides, lies inland, and is said to be large and flourishing. The second king governs the western regions which produce cinnamon ([Greek: ton pros esperan tetrammenon ton kinnamomophoron]); and it was there the Tyrian ships cast anchor. The third rules the region towards the north, which produces pearls. He has made a great rampart on the isthmus to control the passage of the barbarians from the opposite coast; for they used to make incursions in great numbers, and destroyed all the houses, temples, and plantations they could reach, and slew such men as were near, or could not flee to the mountains. The fourth king governs the region to the east, producing the richest gems in surprising profusion; the ruby, the sapphire, and diamond. All these, being the brothers of the great king in Rochapatta, are appointed to rule over these places, and he who is the eldest of the brothers has the supreme power, and is called the chief and mighty ruler. He has a thousand black elephants, and five light-coloured ones. The black are abundant, but the fair-coloured are rare, and found nowhere except in this island, and the black ones do homage to them. Having captured such a one, they bring him to the king in Rochapatta, whose peculiar prerogative it is to ride on a white elephant, this being unlawful for his subjects. There are many fierce crocodiles in the rivers, and they are killed by crowds of men who rush with shouts into the water, armed with sharp stakes. And ten days after they arrived in Rochapatta, many Tyrians joined Rachius in hunting crocodiles." (Ch. xii.) "When the ships returned to Tyre, Joramus gave orders to erect a pillar at the temple of Melicarthus, and to engrave on it an account of all that had taken place. This pillar was thrown down in the earthquake of last year, but it was not broken, so that the narrative can even now be seen."



BOOK VIII.

(Ch. i) "This is the voyage which Joramus, the king of the Tyrians ordered Joramus, the priest of Melicarthus, to recount and to engrave on a pillar in the temple of Melicarthus, and Sydyk, the scribe, having four copies, was directed to send them to the Sidonians, the Byblians, the Aradians, and the Berythians. The other copies can nowhere be found, and the pillar lies shattered in the ruins of the temple, but the copy of the Byblians is still left in the Temple of Baaltis, and its words are to this effect."

(Ch. ii.) "Hierbas, the son of Bartophas, and king of the Tyrians, thus addressed Joramus, the priest of Madynus, at the time when figs were first ripe: 'Taking a book and pen, describe all the cities and islands and colonies and the countries of the barbarians, and the forces of them all, and their ships of war and of burthen, and their scythe-armed chariots. For when our ships of war, sailing to the island of Rachius, reached the remotest parts eastward that we knew, the extremities of all lands, and the nations that inhabited them, we discovered things unknown to our ancestors. For our ancestors, sailing only to the islands and the region extending to the west, knew nothing of the countries which we have explored to the east: you will therefore write all these things for the information of posterity.' When having prostrated myself before the king, on his saying these things, and having returned to my own house I wrote as follows:—

* * * * *

(Ch. xvi) ... "To the eastward dwell the Babylonians and Medians and AEthiopians. The city of the Babylonians is flourishing and populous; Media produces white horses; AEthiopia is barren and arid near the sea, and mountainous in the interior. And further to the east is the peninsula of Rachius, whither the ships of Hierbas sailed."

* * * * *

On this narrative of Sanchoniathon it is only necessary to remark that the allusion in ch. ix. to the assistance rendered by the Tyrians to Irenius of Judea, when building his palace, in supplying him with timber and squared stones, is almost literally copied from the passage In the Old Testament (1 Kings, ix. 11), where Hiram is stated to have furnished to Solomon "cedar trees and fir trees," for the building of the Temple.

The cession by Irenius of the city and harbour of Ilotha refers to the resort of the Tyrians to Ezion Greber, or Eloth, in the AElanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, Ib. v. 26, whence they piloted the ships of Solomon, which once in every three years returned with cargoes of gold from Ophir. (Ib. v. 28.)

As to the incidents and observations recorded by the Phoenician travellers during their journey to the interior of Ceylon,—the kings by which it was governed, the natural productions of the various regions, the footprint on Adam's Peak, the incursions of the Malabars, the ascendency of their religion, the absence of camels, the abundance of elephants, and the cultivation of cinnamon,—all these are so palpably imitated from the accounts of Cosmas Indico-pleustes, and the voyages of Arabian mariners, that it is almost unnecessary to point to the parallel passages from which they are taken.



CHAP. II

INDIAN, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN AUTHORITIES.

On closing the volume of Cosmas, we part with the last of the Greek writers whose pages guide us through the mist that obscures the early history of Ceylon. The religion of the Hindus is based on a system of physical error, so incompatible with the extension of scientific truth, that in their language the term "geography" is unknown.[1] But still it is remarkable as an illustration of the uninquiring character of the people, that the allusions of Indian authors to Ceylon, an island of such magnitude, and so close to their own country, are pre-eminent for absurdity and ignorance. Their "Lanka" and its inhabitants are but the distortion of a reality into a myth. ALBYROUNI, the Arabian geographer, writing in the eleventh century, says that the Hindus at that day thought the island haunted; their ships sailing past it, kept at a distance from its shores; and even within the present century, it was the popular belief on the continent of India that the interior of Ceylon was peopled by demons and monkeys.[2]

[Footnote 1: The Arabians began the study so late, that they, too, had to borrow a word from the Greeks, whence their term "djagrafiya."]

[Footnote 2: MOOR'S Hindu Pantheon, p. 318. MOOR speaks of an educated Indian gentleman who was attached as Munshi to the staff of Mr. North, Governor of Ceylon, in 1804, and who, on his return to the continent, wrote a history of the island, in which he repeats the belief current among his countryment, that "the interior was not inhabited by human beings of the ordinary shapes."—P. 320.]

But the century in which Cosmos wrote witnessed the rise of a power whose ascendant energy diffused a new character over the policy and literature of the East. Scarcely twenty years elapsed between his death and the birth, of Mahomet—and during the two centuries that ensued, so electric was the influence of Islam, that its supremacy was established with a rapidity beyond parallel, from the sierras of Spain to the borders of China. The dominions of the Khalifs exceeded in extent the utmost empire of the Romans; and so undisputed was the sway of the new religion, that a follower of the Prophet could travel amidst believers of his own faith, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and from the chain of the Atlas to the mountains of Tartary.

Syria and Egypt were amongst its earliest conquests; and the power thus interposed between the Greeks and their former channels of trade, effectually excluded them from the commerce of India. The Persians and the Arabs became its undisputed masters, and Alexandria and Seleucia declined in importance as Bassora and Bagdad rose to the rank of Oriental emporiums.[1]

[Footnote 1: ROBERTSON was of opinion, that such was the aversion of the Persions to the sea, that "no commercial intercourse took place between Persia and India."—India, s. i. p. 9. But this is at variance with the testimony of COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES, as well as of HAMZA of Ispahan and others.]

Early in the sixth century, the Persians under Chosroes Nouschirvan held a distinguished position in the East, their ships frequented the harbours of India, and their fleet was successful in an expedition against Ceylon to redress the wrongs done to some of their fellow-countrymen who had settled there for purposes of trade.[1]

[Footnote 1: HAMZA ISPAHANENSIS, Annal. vol. ii. c. 2. p. 43. Petropol, 1848, 8vo. REINAUD, Memoire sur l' Inde, p. 124.]

The Arabs, who had been familiar with India before it was known to the Greeks,[1] and who had probably availed themselves of the monsoons long before Hippalus ventured to trust to them, began in the fourth and fifth centuries to establish themselves as merchants at Cambay and Surat, at Mangalore, Calicut, Coulam, and other Malabar ports[2], whence they migrated to Ceylon, the government of which was remarkable for its toleration of all religious sects[3], and its hospitable reception of fugitives.

[Footnote 1: There is an obscure sentence in PLINY which would seem to imply that the Arabs had settled in Ceylon before the first century of our Christian era:—"Regi cultum Liberi patris, coeteris Arabum."—Lib. vi. c. 22.]

[Footnote 2: GILDEMEISTER; Scriptores Arabi de Rebus Indicis, p. 40.]

[Footnote 3: EDRISI, tom. i p. 72.]

It is a curious circumstance, related by BELADORY, who lived at the court of the Khalif of Bagdad in the ninth century, that an outrage committed by Indian pirates upon some Mahometan ladies, the daughters of traders who had died in Ceylon, and whose families the King Daloopiatissa II., A.D. 700, was sending to their homes in the valley of the Tigris, served as the plea under which Hadjadj, the fanatical governor of Irak, directed the first Mahometan expedition for subjugating the valley of the Indus.[1]

[Footnote 1: The chief of the Indus was the Buddhist Prince Daher, whose capital was at Daybal, near the modern Karachee. The story, as it appears in the MS. of Beladory in the library of Leyden, has been extracted by REINAUD in his Fragmens Arabes et Persans relatifs a l'Inde, No. v. p. 161, with the following translation:—

"Sous le gouvernement de Mohammed, le roi de l'ile du Rubis (Djezyret-Alyacout) offrit a Hadjadj des femmes musulmanes qui avaient recu le jour dans ses etats, et dont les peres, livres a la profession du commerce, etaient morts. Le prince esperuit par la gagner l'amitie de Hadjadj; mais le navire ou l'on avait embarque ces femmes fut attaque par une peuplade de race Meyd, des environs de Daybal, qui etait montoe sur des burques. Les Meyds enleverent le navire avec ce qu'il renfermait. Dans cette extremite, une de ces femmes de la tribu de Yarboua, s'ecria: 'Que n'es-tu la, oh Hadjadj!' Cette nouvelle etant parvenue a Hadjadj, il repondit: 'Me voila.' Aussitot il envoya un depute a Daher pour l'inviter a faire mettre ces femmes en liberte. Mais Daher repondit: 'Ce sont des pirates qui ont enleve ces femmes, et je n'ai aucune autorite sur les ravisseurs.' Alors Hadjadj engagea Obeyd Allah, fils de Nabhan, a faire une expedition contre Daybal."—P. 190.

The "Island of Rubies" was the Persian name for Ceylon, and in this particular instance FERISHTA confirms the identical application of these two names, vol. ii. p. 402. See Journal Asiat. vol. xlvi. p. 131, 163; REINAUD, Mem. sur l'Inde, p. 180; Relation des Voyages, Disc. p. xli ABOULFEDA, Introd. vol. i. p. ccclxxxv.; ELPHINSTONE'S India, b. v. ch. i, p. 260.]

From the eighth till the eleventh century the Persians and Arabs continued to exercise the same influence over the opulent commerce of Ceylon which was afterwards enjoyed by the Portuguese and Dutch in succession between A.D. 1505, and the expulsion of the latter by the British in A.D. 1796. During this early period, therefore, we must look for the continuation of accounts regarding Ceylon to the literature of the Arabs and the Persians, and more especially to the former, by whom geography was first cultivated as a science in the eighth and ninth centuries under the auspices of the Khalifs Almansour and Almamoun. On turning to the Arabian treatises on geography, it will be found that the Mahometan writers on these subjects were for the most part grave and earnest men who, though liable equally with the imaginative Greeks to be imposed on by their informants, exercised somewhat more caution, and were more disposed to confine their writings to statements of facts derived from safe authorities, or to matters which they had themselves seen.

In their hands scientific geography combined theoretic precision, which had been introduced by their predecessors, with the extended observation incident to the victories and enlarged dominion of the Khalifs. Accurate knowledge was essential for the civil government of their conquests[1]; and the pilgrimage to Mekka, indispensable once at least in the life of every Mahometan[2], rendered the followers of the new faith acquainted with many countries in addition to their own.[3]

[Footnote 1: "La science geographique, comme les autres sciences en general, notammement l'astronomie, commenca a se former chez les Arabes, dans la derniere moitie du viii^{e} siecle, et se fixa dans la premiere moitie du ix^{e}. On fit usage des itineraires traces par les chefs des armees conquerantes et des tableaux dresses par les gouveneurs de provinces; en meme temps on mit a la contribution les methodes propagees par les Indians, les Persans, et surtout les Grees; qui avaient apporte le plus de precision dans leurs operations."—REINAUD, Introd. Aboulfeda, &c., p. xl.]

[Footnote 2: REINAUD, Introd. Aboulfeda, p. cxxii.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., vol. i. p. xl.]

Hence the records of their voyages, though presenting numerous exaggerations and assertions altogether incredible, exhibit a superiority over the productions of the Greeks and Romans. To avoid the fault of dulness, both the latter were accustomed to enliven their topographical itineraries, not so much by "moving accidents," and "hair-breadth 'scapes," as by mingling fanciful descriptions of monsters and natural phenomena, with romantic accounts of the gems and splendours of the East. Hence from CTESIAS to Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE, every early traveller in India had his "hint to speak," and each strove to embellish his story by incorporating with the facts he had witnessed, improbable reports collected from the representations of others. Such were their excesses in this direction, that the Greeks formed a class of "paradoxical" literature, by collecting into separate volumes the marvels and wonders gravely related by their voyagers and historians.[1]

[Footnote 1: Such are the Mirabiles Auscultationes of ARISTOTLE, the Incredibilia of PALEPHATES, the Historiarum Mirabilium Collectio of ANTIGONUS CARYSTIUS, the Historiae Mirabiles of APOLLONIUS THE MEAGRE, and the Collections of PHILEGON of Tralles, MICHAEL BELLUS, and many other Greeks of the Lower Empire. For a succinct account of these compilers, see WESTERMAN'S Hapre [Greek: doxographoi], Scriptores Rerum Mirabilium Graeci Brunswick, 1830.]

The Arabs, on the contrary, with sounder discretion, generally kept their "travellers' histories" distinct from their sober narratives, and whilst the marvellous incidents related by adventurous seamen were received as materials for the story-tellers and romancers, the staple of their geographical works consisted of truthful descriptions of the countries visited, their forms of government, their institutions, their productions, and their trade.

In illustration of this matter-of-fact character of the Arab topographers, the most familiar example is that known by the popular title of the Voyages of the two Mahometans[1], who travelled in India and China in the beginning of the ninth century. The book professes to give an account of the countries lying between Bassora and Canton; and in its unpretending style, and useful notices of commerce in those seas, it resembles the record, which the merchant ARRIAN has left us in the Periplus, of the same trade as it existed seven centuries previously, in the hands of the Greeks. The early portion of the book, which was written A.D. 851, was taken down, from the recital of Soleyman, a merchant who had frequently made the voyages he describes, at the epoch when the commerce of Bagdad, under the Khalifs, was at the height of its prosperity. The second part was added sixty years later, by Abou-zeyd Hassan, an amateur geographer, of Bassora (contemporary with Massoudi), from the reports of mariners returning from China, and is, to a great extent, an amplification of the notices supplied by Soleyman.

[Footnote 1: It was first published by RENAUDOT in 1718, and from the unique MS., now in the Bibliotheque imperiale of Paris, and again by REINAUD in 1845, with a valuable discourse prefixed on the nature and extent of the Indian trade prior to the tenth century.—Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde et Chine dans le IX'e Siecle, &c. 2 vols. 18mo. Paris, 1845.]

SOLEYMAN describes the sea of Herkend, as it lay between the Laccadives and Maldives[1], on the west, and swept round eastward by Cape Comorin and Adam's Bridge to Ceylon, thus enclosing the precious fishery for pearls. In Serendib, his earliest attention was devoutly directed to the sacred footstep on Adam's Peak; in his name for which, "Al-rohoun," we trace the Buddhist name for the district, Rohuna, so often occurring in the Mahawanso.[2] This is the earliest notice of the Mussulman tradition, which associates the story of Adam with Ceylon, though it was current amongst the Copts in the fourth and fifth centuries.[3] On all sides of the mountain, he adds, are the mines of rubies, hyacinths, and other gems; the interior produces aloes; and the sea the highly valued chank shells, which served the Indians for trumpets.[4] The island was subject to two kings; and on the death of the chief one his body was placed on a low carriage, with the head declining till the hair swept the ground, and, as it was drawn slowly along, a female, with a bunch of leaves, swept dust upon the features, crying: "Men, behold your king, whose will, but yesterday, was law! To-day, he bids farewell to the world, and the Angel of Death has seized his spirit. Cease, any longer, to be deluded by the shadowy pleasures of life." At the conclusion of this ceremony, which lasted for three days, the corpse was consumed on a pyre of sandal, camphor, and aromatic woods, and the ashes scattered to the winds.[5] The widow of the king was sometimes burnt along with his remains, but compliance with the custom was not held to be compulsory.

[Footnote 1: The "Divi" of Ammianus Marcellinus, who along with the Singhalese "Selendivi" sent ambassadors to the Emperor Julian, l xxii. c. 7.]

[Footnote 2: A portion of the district near Tangalle is known to the present day as "Rouna."—Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57; ch. xxii. p. 130, &c.]

[Footnote 3: See the account of Adam's Peak, Vol. II. Pt. VII. ch. ii.]

[Footnote 4: ABOU-ZEYD, Relation, &c., vol. i. p. 5.]

[Footnote 5: lb., p. 50. The practice of burning the remains of the kings and of persons of exalted rank, continued as long as the native dynasty held the throne of Kandy.—See KNOX's Historical Relation of Ceylon, A.D. 1681, Part iii. c. ii.]

Such is the account of SOLEYMAN, but, in the second part of the manuscript, ABOU-ZEYD, on the authority of another informant, IBN WAHAB, who had sailed to the same countries, speaks of the pearls of Ceylon, and adds, regarding its precious stones, that they were obtained in part from the soil, but chiefly from those points of the beach at which the rivers flowed into the sea and to which the gems are carried down by the torrents from the hills.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., vol. i. p. 127.]

ABOU-ZEYD describes the frequent conventions of the heads of the national religion, and the attendance of scribes to write down from their dictation the doctrines of Buddhism, the legends of its prophets, and the precepts of its law. This statement has an obvious reference to the important events recorded in the Mahawanso[1] of the reduction of the tenets, orally delivered by Buddha, to their written form, as they appear in the Pittakatayan; to the translation of the Atthakatha, from Singhalese into Pali, in the reign of Mahanamo, A.D. 410-432; and to the singular care displayed, at all times, by the kings and the priesthood, to preserve authentic records of every event connected with the national religion and its history.

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 207; ch. xxxvii. p. 252.]

ABOU-ZEYD adverts to the richness of the temples of the Singhalese, and to the colossal dimensions of their statues, and dwells with particularity on their toleration of all religious sects as attested by the existence there, in the ninth century, of a sect of Manichaeans, and a community of Jews.[1]

[Footnote 1: It was to Ceylon that the terrified worshippers of Siva betook themselves in their flight, when Mahmoud of Ghuznee smote the idol and overthrew the temple of Somnaut, A.D. 1025. (FERISHTA, transl. by Briggs, vol. i. p. 71; REINAUD, Introd. to ABOULFEDA, vol. i. p. cccxlix. Memoires sur l'Inde, p. 270.) Twenty years previously, when the same orthodox invader routed the schismatic Carmathians at Moultan, the fugitive chief of the Sheahs found an asylum in Ceylon. (REINAUD, Journ. Asiat., vol. xlv. p. 283; vol. xlvi. p. 129.) The latter circumstance serves to show that the Mahometans in Ceylon have not been uniformly Sonnees, and it may probably throw light on a fact of much local interest connected with Colombo. There formerly stood there, in the Mahometan Cemetery, a stone with an ancient inscription in Cufic characters, which no one could decipher, but which was said to record the virtues of a man of singular virtue, who had arrived in the island in the tenth century. About the year 1787 A.D., one of the Dutch officials removed the stone to the spot where he was building, "and placed it where it now stands, at one of the steps to his door." This is the account given by Sir Alexander Johnston, who, in 1827, sent a copy of the inscription to the Royal Asiatic Society of London. GILDEMEISTER pronounces it to be written in Carmathic characters, and to commemorate an Arab who died A.D. 848. "Karmathacis quae dicuntur literis exarata viro cuidam Arabo Mortuo, 948 A.D. posita," Script. Arabi de Rebus Indicis, p. 59. A translation of the inscription by Lee was published in Trans, Roy. Asiat. Soc., vol. i. p. 545, from which it appears that the deceased, Khalid Ibn Abou Bakaya, distinguished himself by obtaining "security for religion, with other advantages, in the year 317 of the Hejira." LEE was disposed to think that this might be the tomb of the Imaum Abu Abd Allah; who first taught the Mahometans the route by which pilgrims might proceed from India to the sacred footstep on Adam's Peak. But besides the discrepancy of the names, the Imaum died in the year A.D. 953, and interred at Shiraz, where Ibn Batata made a visit to his tomb. (Travels, transl. DEFREMERY, &c., tom. ii. p. 79.)