About 200 miles to the east of Aden was the port of Kane. The country in its vicinity is represented as producing a great quantity of excellent frankincense, which was conveyed to Kane by land in caravans, and by sea in vessels, or in rafts which were floated by means of inflated skins. This was a port of considerable trade; the merchants trading to Baragyza, Scindi, Oman, and Persis, as well as to the ports in Africa, beyond the straits. The goods imported were principally from Egypt, and consisted of a small quantity of wheat, wine, cloaths for the Arabian market, common, plain, and mixed; brass, tin, Mediterranean coral, which was in great repute in India, so that the great demand for it prevented the Gauls in the south of France, according to Pliny, from adorning their swords, &c. with it, as they were wont to do; storax, plate, money, horses, statues or images, and cloth. The exports were confined to the produce of the country, especially frankincense and aloes. At Syagros, which is described as a promontory fronting the east, and the largest in the world, there was a garrison for the protection of the place, which was the repository of all the incense collected in these parts.

The island of Dioscorides (Socotra) is next described. It was inhabited on its northern side, (the only part of it that was then inhabited,) by a few Arabians, Indians, and Greeks, who seem to have fixed a permanent or temporary abode here, for the purpose of obtaining tortoise-shell: this was much prized, being of a yellow colour, very hard and durable, and used to make cases, boxes, and writing tables; this and dragon's blood were its chief productions. In exchange for them, there were imported rice, corn, Indian cotton goods, and women slaves.

The first mart beyond Cape Syagros is Moscha, which is represented as much resorted to on account of the sacchalitic incense which is imported there. This was so extremely abundant that it lay in heaps, with no other protection than that which was derived from the gods, for whose sacrifices it was intended. It is added that it was not possible for any person to procure a cargo of it without the permission of the king; and that the vessels were observed and searched so thoroughly, that not a single grain of it could be clandestinely exported. The intercourse between this port and Kane was regular; and besides this, it was frequented by such ships as arrived from India too late in the season: here they continued during the unfavourable monsoon, exchanging muslins, corn, and oil, for frankincense. A small island, which is supposed to be the modern Mazeira, was visited by vessels from Kane to collect or purchase tortoise-shell: the priests in the island are represented in the Periplus as wearing aprons made of the fibres of the cocoa tree: this is the earliest mention of this tree.

Mocandon, the extreme point south of the Gulf of Persia, was the land from which the Arabians, (to use a maritime phrase) took their departure, with various superstitious observances, imploring a blessing on their intended voyage, and setting adrift a small toy, rigged like a ship, which, if dashed to pieces, was supposed to be accepted by the god of the ocean, instead of their ship.

It is impossible to determine from the Periplus, whether the author was personally acquainted with the navigation, ports, and trade of the Gulf of Persia: the probability is that he was not, as he mentions only two particulars connected with it; the pearl fishery, and the town of Apologus, a celebrated mart at the mouth of the Euphrates; the pearl fishery he describes as extending from Mocandon to Bahrain. Apologus is the present Oboleh, on the canal that leads from the Euphrates to Basra.

If the author of the Periplus did not enter the Gulf of Persia, he certainly stretched over, with the monsoon, either to Karmania, or directly to Scindi, or to the Gulf of Cambay; for at these places the minuteness of information which distinguishes the journal again appears.

Omana in Persia is the first mart described; it lay in the province of Gadrosia, but as it is not mentioned by Nearchus, who found Arabs in most other parts of the province, we may conclude that it was founded after his time. The trade between this place and Baragaza in India, was regular and direct, and the goods brought from the latter to the former, seems afterwards to have been sent to Oboleh at the head of the Gulf; the imports were brass, sandal-wood; timber, of what kind is not specified; horn, ebony; this is the first port the trade of which included ebony and sandal-wood: frankincense was imported from Kane. The exports to Arabia and Baragaza were purple cloth for the natives; wine, a large quantity of dates, gold, slaves, and pearls of an inferior quality.

The first place in India to which the merchants of Egypt, while they followed the ancient course of navigation by coasting, were accustomed to trade, was Patala on the Indus; for we have admitted that single vessels occasionally ventured beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb, before the discovery of the monsoon, though the trade from Egypt to India, previously to that discovery, was by no means frequent or regular. The goods imported into Patala were woollen cloth of a slight fabric, linen, woven in checquer work, some precious stones, and some kind of aromatics unknown in India, probably the produce of Africa or Arabia; coral, storax, glass vessels of various descriptions, some plate, money, and wine. From Patala, the Egyptian merchants brought spices, gems of different kinds, particularly sapphires, silk stuffs, silk thread, cotton cloths, and pepper. As Patala is not mentioned in the Periplus, it is probable it was abandoned for Baragaza, a far more considerable mart on the same coast, and most probably Baroche on the Nerbuddah.

Before describing Baragaza, however, the author of the Periplus mentions two places on the Indus, which were frequented for the purposes of commerce: the first near the mouth of the river, called Barbarike; and the other higher up, called Minagara: the latter was the capital of a kingdom which extended as far as Barogaza. As the king of this country was possessed of a place of such consequence to the merchants as Baragaza, and as from his provinces, or through them, the most valuable cargoes were obtained, it was of the utmost moment that his good will and protection should be obtained and preserved. For this purpose there were imported, as presents for him, the following articles, all expensive, and the very best of their kind: plate of very great value; musical instruments; handsome virgins for the haram; wine of the very best quality; plain cloth, but of the finest sort; and perfumes. Besides these presents, there were likewise imported a great quantity of plain garments, and some mixed or inferior cloth; topazes, coral, storax, frankincense, glass vessels, plate, specie, and wine. The exports were costus, a kind of spice; bdellium, a gum; a yellow dye, spikenard, emeralds, sapphires, cottons, silk thread, indigo, or perhaps the indicum of Pliny, which was probably Indian ink: skins are likewise enumerated, with the epithet serica prefixed to them, but of what kind they were cannot be determined: wine is specified as an article of import into this and other places; three kinds of it are particularized: wine from Laodicea in Syria, which is still celebrated for its wine; Italian wine, and Arabian wine. Some suppose that the last was palm or toddy wine, which seems to have been a great article of trade.

We come now to Baragaza: the author first mentions the produce of the district; it consisted of corn, rice, oil of Sesamum, ghee or butter, and cotton: he then, in a most minute and accurate manner, describes the approach to the harbour; the extraordinarily high tides, the rapidity with which they roll in and again recede, especially at the new moon, the difficult pilotage of the river, are all noticed. On account of these dangers and difficulties, he adds, that pilots were appointed by the government, with large boats, well manned, who put to sea to wait the approach of ships. These pilots, as soon as they come on board, bring the ship's head round, and keep her clear of the shoals at the mouth of the river; if necessary, they tow the ship from station to station, where there is good anchorage; these stations were called Basons, and seem to have been pools retaining the water, after the tide had receded from other parts. The navigation of the river was performed only as long as the tide was favorable; as soon as it turned, the ships anchored in these stations.

The sovereign to whom Baragaza belonged is represented as so very anxious to render it the only mart, that he would not permit ships to enter any of his other harbours; if they attempted it, they were boarded and conducted to Baragaza; at this place were collected all the produce and manufactures of this part of India: some of which were brought down the river Nerbuddah; others were conveyed across the mountains by caravans. The merchandize of Bengal, and even of the Seres, was collected here, besides the produce of Africa, and of the countries further to the south in India. The whole arrangement of this place was correspondent to this extensive commerce, for the author informs us, that such was the despatch in transacting business, that a cargo could be entirely landed and sold, and a new cargo obtained and put on board in the space of three days.

From Ozeni to the east of Baragaza, formerly the capital of the country, there was brought to the latter place for exportation, chiefly the following articles: onyx stones, porcelaine, fine muslins, muslins dyed of the colour of the melon, and common cotton in great quantities: from the Panjab there were brought for exportation, spikenard of different kinds, costus, bdellium, ivory, murrhine cups, myrrh, pepper, &c. The imports were wine, of all the three sorts already mentioned, brass, tin, lead, coral, topazes, cloth of different kinds, sashes, storax, sweet lotus, white glass, stibium, cinnabar, and a small quantity of perfumes: a considerable quantity of corn was also imported; the denarius, both gold and silver, exchanging with profit against the coin of the country, on account of its greater purity.

From Baragaza the author proceeds to a description of the coast of the Decan, which, as we have already mentioned, is remarkable for its accuracy, as well as for its first mentioning the appellation Decan. At the distance of twenty days' journey to the south lies Plithana, and ten days' journey to the east of this is Tagara, both marts of great consequence, and the latter the capital of the country. From these are brought down, through difficult roads, several articles to Baragaza, particularly onyx stones from Plithana, and cottons and muslin from Tagara "If we should now describe, (observed Dr. Vincent) the arc of a circle from Minnagar, on the Indus, through Ougein to Dowlatabad on the Godavery, of which Baroche should be the centre, we might comprehend the extent of the intelligence acquired by the merchant of the Periplus. But allowing that this was the knowledge of the age, and not of the individual only, where is this knowledge preserved, except in this brief narrative? which, with all the corruption of its text, is still an inestimable treasure to all those who wish to compare the first dawning of our knowledge in the east with the meridian light which we now enjoy by the intercourse and conquests of the Europeans. An arc of this sort comprehends near three degrees of a great circle: and if upon such a space, and at such a distance from the coast, we find nothing but what is confirmed by the actual appearance of the country, at the present moment, great allowance is to be made for those parts of the work which are less conspicuous, for the author did certainly not visit every place which he mentions; and there are manifest omissions in the text, as well as errors and corruptions."

The province of Canara, called by the author of the Periplus Limurike, follows in his description the pirate coast; after Limurike, he describes Pandion, corresponding with what is at present called Malabar Proper; this is succeeded by Paralia and Comari, and the description of the west coast of India is terminated by the pearl fishery and Ceylon. There were several small ports in Limurike frequented by the country ships; but the only mart frequented by vessels from Egypt was Musiris: it was likewise a great resort of native vessels from Ariake or Concan. The articles imported were nearly the same as those at Baragaza, but the exports from it were more numerous and valuable: this seems to have arisen from its lying nearer to the eastern and richer parts of India. The principal exports were, pearls in great abundance and extraordinary beauty; a variety of silk stuffs; rich perfumes; tortoise-shell; different kinds of transparent gems, especially diamonds; and pepper in large quantites, and of the best quality.

The port of Nelkundah, which, as we have already remarked, was the limit of our author's personal knowledge, was a place of very great trade; it was much frequented, principally on account of the betel and pepper, which were procured there on very reasonable terms: the pepper is distinguished, in the list of its imports, as the pepper of Cottonara. Besides this article and betel, the only exports were, pearls, ivory, silks, spikenard, precious stones, and tortoise-shell; the imports were chiefly specie, topazes, cloth, stibium, coral, glass, brass, tin, lead, wine, corn, &c.

The ports to the south of Nelkundah are described in a cursory manner in the Periplus; they were frequented principally by the country ships, which carried on a lucrative trade between them and the ports in the north of India. The exports of the island of Trapobane, or Ceylon, are particularized as consisting chiefly of pearls, gems, tortoise-shells, and muslins: cinnamon is not named; an almost decisive proof, if other proof were wanting, that the author of the Periplus had never visited this island. That trading voyages were carried on by the natives from the southern ports of India, not only to the northern ports of the western side of that country, but also to the eastern ports in the Bay of Bengal, and to the farther peninsula itself, we are expressly informed, as our author mentions vessels of great bulk adapted to the voyages made to the Ganges and the Golden Chersonese, in contradistinction to other and smaller vessels employed in the voyages to Limurike.

Of the remainder of the Periplus little notice is requisite, the account of the countries beyond Cape Comorin being entirely drawn from report, and consequently erroneous, both in respect to geography and commerce. In some particulars regarding the latter, however, it is surprisingly accurate: the Gangetic muslins are praised as the finest manufacture of the sort, and Gangetic spikenard is also noticed; the other articles of traffic in the ports on the Ganges were betel and pearls. Thina is also mentioned as a city, in the interior of a country immediately under the north, at a certain point where the sea terminates; from this city both the raw material and manufactured silks are brought by land through Bactria to Baragaza, or else down the Ganges, and thence by sea to Limurike: the routes we have already described. The means of approach to Thina are represented as very difficult; some merchants, however, came from it to a great mart which is annually held near it. The Sesatoe, who from the description of them are evidently Tartars, frequent this mart with their wives and children. "They are squat and thick-set, with their face broad and their nose greatly depressed. The articles they bring for trade are of great bulk, and inveloped in mats made of rushes, which, in their outward appearance, resemble the early leaves of the vine. Their place of assembly is between their own borders and those of China; and here spreading out their mats, they hold a fair for several days, and at the conclusion of it, return to their own country in the interior. Upon their retreat the Thinae, who have continued on the watch, repair to the spot and collect the mats which the strangers left behind at their departure; from these they pick out the haulm, and drawing out the fibres, spread the leaves double, and make them into balls, and then pass the fibres through them. Of these balls there are three sorts, in this form they take the name of Malabathrum."

On this account Dr. Vincent very justly remarks, that we have here, upon the whole, a description of that mode of traffic, which has always been adopted by the Chinese, and by which they to this hour trade with Russia, Thibet, and Ava.

Many of the particulars which we have given on the subject of the Roman trade are supplied by Pliny, who wrote his natural history when Rome was in its most flourishing state under the reign of Vespasian. His works consist of thirty-seven books, the first six comprise the system of the world and the geography as it was then known. After examining the accounts of Polybius, Agrippa, and Artemidorus, he assigns the following comparative magnitudes to the three great divisions of the earth. Europe rather more than a third, Asia about a fourth, and Africa about a fifth of the whole. With few exceptions, his geographical knowledge of the east and of the north, the parts of the world of which the ancients were the most ignorant, was very inaccurate: he supposes the Ganges to be the north-eastern limit of Asia, and that from it the coast turned to the north, where it was washed by the sea of Serica, between which and a strait, which he imagined formed a communication from the Caspian to the Scythian ocean, he admits but a very small space. According to the system of Pliny, therefore, the ocean occupied the whole county of Siberia, Mogul Tartary, China, &c. He derived his information respecting India from the journals of Nearchus, and the other officers of Alexander; and yet such is his ignorance, or the corrupt state of the text, or the vitiated medium through which he received his information, that it is not easy to reconcile his account with that of Nearchus. Salmasius, indeed, charges him with confounding the east and west in his description of India. His geography, in the most important particular of the relative distances of places, is rendered of very little utility or authority, from the circumstance pointed out and proved by D'Anville, that he indiscriminately reckons eight stadia to the mile, without reference to the difference between the Greek and Roman stadium. He has, however, added two articles of information to the geographical and commercial knowledge of the east possessed before his time; the one is the account of the new course of navigation from Arabia to the coast of Malabar, which has been already described; the other is a description of Trapobane, or Ceylon, which, though inaccurate and obscure in many points, must be regarded as a real and important addition to the geographical knowledge of the Romans.

Pliny's geography of the north is the most full and curious of all antiquity. After describing the Hellespont, Moeotis, Dacia, Sarmatia, ancient Scythia, and the isles in the Euxine Sea, and proceeding last from Spain, he passes north to the Scythic Ocean, and returns west towards Spain. The coast of part of the Baltic seems to have been partly known to him; he particularly mentions an island called Baltia, where amber was found; but he supposes that the Baltic Sea itself was connected with the Caspian and Indian Oceans. Pliny is the first author who names Scandinavia, which he represents as an island, the extent of which was not then known; but by Scandinavia there is reason to believe the present Scandia is meant. Denmark may probably be rcognised in the Dumnor of this author, and Norway in Noligen. The mountain Soevo, which he describes as forming a vast bay called Codanus, extending to the promontory of the Cimbri, is supposed by some to be the mountains that run along the Vistula on the eastern extremity of Germany, and by others to be that chain of mountains which commence at Gottenburgh. The whole of his information respecting the north seems to have been drawn from the expeditions of Drusus, Varus, and Germanicus, to the Elbe and the Weser, and from the accounts of the merchants who traded thither for amber.

Tacitus, who died about twenty years after Pliny, seems to have acquired a knowledge of the north more accurate in some respects than the latter possessed. In his admirable description of Germany, he mentions the Suiones, and from the name, as well as other circumstances, there can be little doubt that they inhabited the southern part of modern Sweden.

The northern promontory of Scotland was known to Diodorus Siculus under the name of Orcas; but the insularity of Britain was certainly not ascertained till the fleet sent out by Agricola sailed round it, about eighty-four years after Christ. Tacitus, who mentions this circumstance, also informs us, that Ireland, which was known by name to the Greeks, was much frequented in his time by merchants, from whose information he adds, that its harbours were better known than those of Britain: this statement, however, there is much reason to question, as in the time of Caesar, all that the Romans knew of Ireland was its relative position to Britain, and that it was about half its size.

The emperor Trajan, who reigned between A.D. 98 and A.D. 117, was not only a great conqueror, carrying the Roman armies beyond the Danube into Dacia, and into Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, and thus extending and rendering more accurate the geographical knowledge of his subjects; but he was also attentive to the improvement and commercial prosperity of the empire. He made good roads from one end of the empire to the other; he constructed a convenient and safe harbour at Centum Cellae (Civita Vecchia), and another at Ancona on the Adriatic: he dug a new and navigable canal, which conveyed the waters of the Nahar-Malcha, or royal canal of Nebuchadnezzar, into the river Tigris; and he is supposed to have repaired or renewed the Egyptian canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. He also gave directions and authority to Pliny, who was appointed governor of Pontus and Bithynia, to examine minutely into the commerce of those provinces, and into the revenues derived from it, and other sources.

The emperor Adrian passed nearly the whole of his reign in visiting the different parts of his dominions: he began his journey in Gaul, and thence into Germany; he afterwards passed into Britain. On his return to Gaul, he visited Spain; on his next journey he went to Athens, and thence into the east; and on his second return to Rome, he visited Sicily; his third journey comprised the African provinces; his fourth was employed in again visiting the east; from Syria he went into Arabia, and thence into Egypt, where he repaired and adorned the city of Alexandria, restoring to the inhabitants their former privileges, and encouraging their commerce. On his journey back to Rome, he visited Syria, Thrace, Macedonia, and Athens. By his orders, an artificial port was constructed at Trebizond on a coast destitute by nature of secure harbours, from which this city derived great wealth and splendour.

The only writer in the time of Adrian, from whom we can derive any additional information respecting the geography and trade of the Romans, is Arrian. He was a native of Nicodemia, and esteemed one of the most learned men of his age; to him we are indebted for the journal of Nearchus's voyage, an abstract of which has been given. His accuracy as a geographer, is sufficiently established in that work, and indeed, in almost all the particulars respecting India, which he has detailed in his history of the expedition of Alexander the Great; and in his Indica, which may be regarded as an appendix to that history. He lived at Rome, under the emperors Adrian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius, and was preferred to the highest posts of honour, and even to the consulship. In the year A.D. 170, he was appointed governor of Pontus, by Adrian, for the special purpose of opposing the Alani, who were invading that part of the empire. His situation and opportunities as governor, enabled him to derive the most accurate and particular information respecting the Euxine Sea, which he addressed in a letter to Adrian; this Periplus, as it is called, "contains whatever the governor of Pontus had seen, from Trebizond to Dioscurias; whatever he had heard from Dioscurias to the Danube and whatever he knew from the Danube to Trebizond."

The letter begins with the arrival of Arrian at Trebizond, at which place, the artificial port already noticed was then forming. At Trebizond he embarked, and surveyed the eastern coast of the Euxine Sea, visiting every where the Roman garrisons. His course led him past the mouth of the Phasis, the waters of which, he remarks, floated a long time on those of the sea, by reason of their superior lightness. A strong garrison was stationed at the mouth of this river, to protect this part of the country against the Barbarians; he adds, however, in his letter, that the new suburbs which had been built by the merchants and veterans, required some additional defence, and that he had, accordingly, for the greater security of the place, strengthened it with a new ditch: he ended his voyage at Sebastapolis, the most distant city garrisoned by the Romans. The description of the coasts of Asia, from Byzantium to Trebizond, and another of the interior, from Sebastapolis to the Bosphorus Cimmerius, and thence to Byzantium, is added to his voyage. The great object of this minute and accurate survey was to enable the emperor to take what measures he might deem proper, in case he designed to interfere in the affairs of the Bosphorus, as well as to point out the means of defence against the Alani, and other enemies of the Roman power.

We have contented ourselves with this short abstract of the Periplus of the Euxine, because we have already given all the important information it contains on the subject of the commerce of this sea. It is very inferior in merit to the Periplus of the Euxine, which has also been attributed to this Arrian, though Dr. Vincent, we think, has proved that it is the work of an earlier writer, and of a merchant.

As the Roman conquests extended, their geographical knowledge of course increased. In the reign of Antoninus Pius, their armies had forced a passage much further north in Britain than they had ever ventured before. One of the results of this success was a maritime survey, or rather two partial surveys of the north part of Britain, from which the geography of that part of the island was compiled by Ptolemy.

The maritime laws of the Rhodians, or those which passed under their name, seem to have been the basis and authority of the Roman maritime laws at this period; for we are told, that when a merchant complained to the emperor that he had been plundered by the imperial officers at the Cyclades, where he had been shipwrecked, the latter replied, that he indeed was lord of the earth, but that the sea was governed by the Rhodian laws, and that from them he would obtain redress. This part of the Rhodian law, however, had been but lately adopted by the Romans; for Antoninus is expressly mentioned as having enacted, among other laws, that shipwrecked merchandize should be the entire property of the lawful owners, without any interference or participation of the officers of the exchequer, and that those who were guilty of plundering wrecks should be severely punished.

One of the most important and complete surveys of the Roman empire (the idea of which, as has been already stated, was first formed by Julius Caesar) was begun and finished in the reign of Antoninus, and is well known under the appellation of his Itinerary. It has, indeed, been objected to this date of the Itinerary, that it contains places which were not known in the time of Antonine, and names of places which they did not bear till after his reign; thus mention is made of the province of Arcadia in Egypt, and of Honorius in Pontus, so styled in honor of the sons of the emperor Theodosius. But the fact seems to be that alterations and additions were made to the Itinerary, and that occasionally, or perhaps under each subsequent emperor, new editions of it were published. From the maritime part of this Itinerary of Antoninus we derive a clear idea of the timidity or want of skill and enterprise of the Mediterranean seamen in their commercial voyages. All the ports which it was prudent or necessary, for the safety of the voyage, to touch at, in sailing from Achaia to Africa are enumerated; and of these there are no fewer than twenty, some of them at the heads of bays on the coasts of Greece, Epirus, and Italy, and within the Straits of Sicily as far as Messina. Their course was then to be directed along the east and south coasts of Sicily to the west point of it; from an island off this point they took their departure for the coast of Africa, a distance of about ninety miles.

These Itineraries undoubtedly were drawn up in as accurate a manner as possible; but till the time of Ptolemy they were of little service to geography or commerce, as, for a private individual to have one in his possession was deemed a crime little short of high treason. Geography as a science, therefore, had hitherto made little advances; indeed the discovery and example of Hipparchus, of reducing it to astronomical basis, seems to have been forgotten or neglected till the middle of the second century. The first after him, who attempted to fix geography on the base of science was Marinus, of Tyre, who lived a short time before Ptolemy; of his work we have only extracts given by this geographer. He divided the terms latitude and longitude, which, as we have already stated, were introduced by Artemidorus (A.C. 104) into degrees, and these degrees into their parts, though this improvement was not reduced generally to practice before Ptolemy, for we are informed by him, that Marinus had the latitude of some places and the longitude of others, but scarcely one position where he could ascertain both.

With regard to the extent of Marinus' geographical knowledge, or the accuracy of his details, we cannot form a fair judgment from the fragments of his works which remain. According to Ptolemy, he had examined the history of preceding ages, and all the information that had been collected in his own time, comparing and rectifying them as he proceeded in his own account.

It will be recollected that the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea did not trace the African coast lower down than Rhapta; but Marinus mentions Prasum, which, according to that hypothesis, which fixes it in the lowest southern latitude, must have been seven degrees to the south of Rhapta. So far, therefore, the knowlege of the ancients, in the time of Marinus, respecting the east coast of Africa extended; but, as neither he nor Ptolemy mentions a single place between Rhapta and Prasum, it is probable that the latter was not frequently or regularly visited for the purposes of trade, but that commercial voyages were still confined to the limit of Rhapta. We have just stated that Prasum, according to the most moderate hypothesis, must be fixed seven degrees to the south of Rhapta. Marinus, however, fixes it either in thirty-five degrees south, or under the tropic of Capricorn. He was led into this and similar errors by assigning too great a number of stadia to the degree. Ptolemy endeavours to correct him, and places Prasum in latitude 15, 30 south; it is remarkable that the Prasum of Ptolemy is precisely at Mosambique, the last of the Arabian settlements in the following ages, and the Prasum of Marinus, if under the tropic of Capricorn, is the limit of the knowledge of the Arabians on this coast of Africa.

Marinus, as quoted by Ptolemy, affirms that he was in possession of the journals of two expeditions under the command of Septimus Flaccus and Julius Maternus: the former of these officers set off from Cyrene, and the latter from Leptis; and, according to Marinus, they penetrated through the interior of Africa to the southward of the Equator, as far as a nation they styled Agesymba. The error of Marinus with respect to the valuation of the stadium, has led him to fix this nation in twenty-four degrees south latitude; if allowance, however, be made for his error, the Agesymba will still be placed under the Equator,—a great distance for a land expedition to have readied in the interior of Africa. Flaccus reported that the Ethiopians of Agesymba, were three months journeying to the south of the Garamantes, and the latter were 5400 of the stadia of Marinus, distant from Cyrene. According to the journal of Maternus, when the king of the Garamantes set off to attack the people of Agesymba, he marched four months to the south.

There are also some notices in Marinus of voyages performed along the coast of Africa, between India and Africa, and along part of the coast of India; he particularly mentions one Theophilus who frequented the coast of Azania, and who was carried by a south-west wind from Rhapta to Aromata in twenty days; and Diogenes, one of the traders to India, who on his return after he had come in sight of Aromata, was caught by the north-east monsoon, and carried down the coast during twenty-five days, till he reached the lakes from which the Nile issues. Marinus also mentions a Diogenes Samius, who describes the course held by vessels from the Indus to the coast of Cambay, and from Arabia to the coast of Africa. According to him, in the former voyage they sailed with the Bull in the middle of the heavens, and the Pleiades in the middle of the main yard; in the latter voyage, they sailed to the south, and by the star Canobus.

We now arrive at the name of Ptolemy, certainly the most celebrated geographer of antiquity. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished in the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus. In the application of astronomy to geography, he followed Hipparchus principally, and he seems from his residence at Alexandria to have derived much information through the merchants and navigators of that city, as well as from its magnificent and valuable library. His great work, as it has reached us, consists almost entirely of an elementary picture of the earth, (if it may be so called,) in which its figure and size, and the position of places are determined. There is only a short notice of the division of countries, and it is very seldom that any historical notice is added. To this outline, it is supposed that Ptolemy had added a detailed account of the countries then known, which is lost.

His geography, such as we have described it, consists of eight books, and is certainly much more scientific than any which had been previously written on this science. In it there appears, for the first time, an application of geometrical principles to the construction of maps: the different projections of the sphere, and a distribution of the several places on the earth, according to their latitude and longitude. Geography was thus established on its proper principles, and intimately connected with astronomical observations and mathematical science. The utility and merit of Ptolemy's work seems to have been understood and acknowledged soon after it appeared. Agathemidorus, who lived not long after him, praises him for having reduced geography to a regular system; and adds, that he treats of every thing relating to it, not carelessly, or merely according to the ideas of his own, but to what had been delivered by more ancient authors, adopting from them whatever he found consonant to truth. Agathodaemon, an artist of Alexandria, observing the request in which his work was held, prepared a set of maps to illustrate it, in which all the places mentioned in it were laid down, with the latitudes and longitudes he assigned them. The reputation of his geography remained unshaken and undiminished during the middle ages, both in Arabia and Europe; and even now, the scientific language which he first employed, is constantly used, and the position of places ascertained by specifying their latitude and longitude.

It was not to be expected, however, that Ptolemy could accurately fix the longitude and latitude of places in the remoter parts of the then known world; his latitudes and longitudes are accordingly frequently erroneous, but especially the latter. This arose partly from his taking five hundred stadia for a degree of a great circle, and partly from the vague method of calculating distances, by the estimate of travellers and merchants, and the number of days employed in their journies by land, and voyages by sea. As he took seven hundred stadia for a degree of latitude, his errors in latitude are not so important; and though the latitude he assigns to particular places is incorrect, yet the length of the globe, according to him, or the distance from the extreme points north and south, then known, is not far from the truth. Thus the latitude of Thule, according to Ptolemy, is 64 degrees north, and the parallel through the cinnamon country 16 deg. 24' south, that is, 80 deg. 24' on the whole, a difference from the truth of not more than six or seven degrees. It is remarked by D'Anville, and Dr. Vincent coincides in the justice of the remark, that the grandest mistake in the geography of Ptolemy has led to the greatest discovery of modern times. Strabo had affirmed, that nothing obstructed the passage from Spain to India by a westerly course, but the immensity of the Atlantic ocean; but, according to Ptolemy's errors in longitude, this ocean was lessened by sixty degrees; and as all the Portuguese navigators were acquainted with his work, as soon as it was resolved to attempt a passage to India, the difficulty was, in their idea, lessened by sixty degrees; and when Columbus sailed from Spain, he calculated on sixty degrees less than the real distance from that country to India. Thus, to repeat the observation of D'Anville, the greatest of his errors proved eventually the efficient cause of the greatest discovery of the moderns.

Beside the peculiar merit of Ptolemy, which was perceived and acknowledged as soon as his work appeared, he possesses another excellence, which, as far as we know, was first pointed out and dwelt upon by Dr. Vincent. According to him, Ptolemy, in his description of India, serves as the point of connection between the Macedonian orthography and the Sanscrit, dispersing light on both sides, and showing himself like a luminary in the centre. He seems indeed to have obtained the native appellations of the places in India, in a wonderful manner; and thus, by recording names which cannot be mistaken, he affords the means of ascertaining the country, even though he gives no particulars regarding it. We have applied this remark to India exclusively, but it might be extended to almost all the names of places that occur in Ptolemy, though, as respects India, his obtaining the native appellations is more striking and useful.

Having offered these general remarks on the excellencies and errors of Ptolemy, we shall next proceed to give a short and rapid sketch of his geographical knowledge respecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. On the north-east of Europe he gives an accurate description of the course of the Wolga; and further to the south, he lays down the course of the Tanais, much nearer what it really is than the course assigned it by Strabo. He seems to have been acquainted with the southern shores of the Baltic from the western Dwina, or the Vistula, to the Cimbric Chersonesus: he also describes part of the present Livonia. The Chersonesus, however, he stretches two degrees too far to the north, and also gives it too great a bend to the east. He applies the name of Thule to a country situated to the north-east of Britain; if his usual error in longitude is rectified, the position he assigns Thule would correspond with that of Norway. Such seem to have been the limits of his Europe, unless, perhaps, he had some vague idea of the south of Sweden.

He begins his geographical tables with the British isles; and here is one of his greatest errors. According to him, the north part of Britain stretches to the east, instead of to the north: the Mull of Galloway is the most northern promontory, and the land from it bends due east. The Western Islands run east and west, along the north shore of Ireland, the west being the true north point in them. He is, however, on the whole, pretty accurate in his location of the tribes which at that period inhabited Scotland. Strabo had placed Ireland to the north of Britain, but in its true latitude. Ptolemy's map, which is the first geographical document of that island, represents it to the west of Britain, but five degrees further to the north than it actually is. He delineates its general shape, rivers, and promontories with tolerable accuracy, and some of his towns may be traced in their present appellations, as Dublin in Eblana. It has already been noticed that he was probably acquainted with the south of Sweden, and his four Scandinavian islands are evidently Zealand, Funen, Laland, and Falster. It is remarkable that his geography is more accurate almost in proportion as it recedes from the Mediterranean. The form which he assigns to Italy is much farther removed from the truth than the form of most of the other European countries which he describes. His fundamental error in longitude led him to give to the Mediterranean Sea a much greater extent than it actually possesses. According to him, it occupies nearly sixty-five degrees; and it is a singular circumstance, as well as a decisive proof of the influence of his authority, as well of the slow progress of accurate and experimental geography, that his mensuration of this sea was reputed as exact till the reign of Louis XIV., when it was curtailed of nearly twenty-five degrees by observation.

The principal points in the geography of Asia, as given by Ptolemy, respect the coasts of India, the route to the Seres, and the Caspian sea. His delineation of India is equally erroneous with his delineation of the British Isles: according to him, it stretches in a right line from west to east, a little to the south of a line drawn between the Ganges and the Indus. He possessed, however, information respecting places in the farther peninsula of India, the locality of several of which, by comparing his names with the Sanscrit, may be traced with considerable certainty. He assigns to the island of Ceylon a very erroneous locality, arising from his error respecting the form of India, and likewise an extent far exceeding the truth. He is the first author, however, who mentions the seven mouths of the Ganges. The route to the Seres, which he describes, has been already noticed: it is remarkable that the latitude which he assigns to his Sera metropolis, is within little more than a degree of the latitude of Pekin, which, in the opinion of Dr. Vincent, is one of the most illustrious approximations to truth that ancient geography affords. His description of Arabia is, on the whole, accurate; he has, however, greatly diminished the extent of the Arabian Gulf, and by at the same time increasing the size of the Persian, he has necessarily given an erroneous form to this part of Asia. The ancient opinion of Herodotus, that the Caspian was a sea by itself, unconnected with any other, which was overlooked or disbelieved by Strabo, Arrian, &c. was adopted by Ptolemy, but he erroneously describes it as if its greatest length was from east to west. The peninsula to which he gives the name of the Golden Chersonesus, and which is probably Malacca, he describes as stretching from north to south: to the east of it he places a great bay, and in the most distant part of it the station of Catigara. Beyond this, he asserts that the earth is utterly unknown, and that the land bends from this to the west, till it joins the promontory of Prasum in Africa, at which place this quarter of the world terminated to the south. Hence it appears that he did not admit a communication between the Indian and Atlantic oceans, and that he believed the Erythrean sea to be a vast basin, entirely enclosed by the land.

Strabo and Pliny believed that Africa terminated under the torrid zone, and that the Atlantic and Indian oceans joined. Ptolemy, as we have just seen, rejected this idea, and following the opinion of Hipparchus, that the earth was not surrounded by the ocean, but that the ocean was divided into large basins, separated from each other by intervening land, maintained, that while the eastern coast of Africa at Cape Prasum united with the coast of Asia at the bay of the Golden Chersonesus, the western coast of Africa, after forming a great gulf, which he named Hespericus, extended between the east and south till it joined India. The promontory of Prasum was undoubtedly the limit of Ptolemy's knowledge of the east coast of Africa: the limit of his knowledge of the west coast is not so easily fixed: some suppose that it did not reach beyond the river Nun; while others, with more reason, extend it to the Gulf of St. Cyprian, because the Fortunate Islands, which he assumed as his first meridian, will carry his knowledge beyond the Nun; and because, at the Gulf of St. Cyprian, the coast turns suddenly and abruptly to the east, in such a manner as may be supposed to have led Ptolemy to believe that it stretched towards and joined the coast of India.

Of some of the interior parts of Africa Ptolemy possessed clear and accurate information; regarding others, he presents us with a mass of confused notions. He clearly points out the Niger, though he fixes its source in a wrong latitude. In the cities of Tucabath and Tagana, which he places on its banks, may perhaps be recognized Tombuctoo and Gana. The most striking defect in his geography of the interior of Africa is, that he does not allow sufficient extent to the great desert of Sahara, while the southern parts are too much expanded. He places the sources of the Nile, and the Mountains of the Moon in south latitude thirteen, instead of north latitude six or seven; but the error of latitude is not so remarkable and unaccountable as the very erroneous latitude which he assigns to Cape Aromata, on a coast which was visited every year by merchants he must have seen at Alexandria. The most difficult point to explain in Ptolemy's central Africa is the river Gir, which he describes as equal in length to the Niger, and running in the same direction, till it loses itself in the same lake. What this river is, geographers have not agreed. It is mentioned by Claudian, as resembling the Nile in the abundance of its waters. Agethimedorus, a geographer of the third century, regards it and the Niger as the same river.

What then was the amount of the knowledge of the ancients, as it existed among the Romans, in the height of their power, respecting the form, extent, and surface of the globe? If we view a map drawn up according to their ideas, we are immediately struck with the form they assigned the world, and perceive with what propriety they called the extent of the world from east to west longitude or length, and the extent from north to south latitude, or breadth. In some maps, especially that drawn up from the celebrated Peutingerian Tables, which contain an itinerary of the whole Roman empire, thirty-five degrees of longitude occupy twenty-eight feet eight inches, whereas thirteen degrees of latitude are compressed within the space of one foot. It is easy to conceive how it happened that too much space is assigned between places situated east and west of each other, as the latitude of a place is much more easily determined than its longitude. At the same time, as the routes of the Roman armies generally were from east to west, the countries lying in that direction were better known than those lying to the north and south, though the longitudes, and general space assigned the world, in the former deviation, were erroneous. It was the opinion of most of the ancient geographers, that there was a southern continent or hemisphere, to correspond to and balance the northern; and this they formed by cutting off the great triangle to the south. The ancients also, while they curtailed those parts of the world with which they were unacquainted, extended the known parts.

The limit of the Roman geography of Europe to the north was the Baltic, beyond which they had some very imperfect and obscure notion of the south of Sweden, and perhaps of Norway. They were acquainted with the countries on the eastern boundary of Europe lying on the Danube and the Vistula, and the rivers Wolga and Tanais seem also to have been tolerably well known to them. Of the whole of the west of Europe they were well informed, with the exception of the general figure, and some part of the British isles.

With respect to Africa, the Romans seem to have been acquainted with one-third of it. The promontory of Prasum was the limit of their knowledge on the east coast: its limits on the western coast it is not so easy to fix. The western horn was the limit of the voyage of Hanno, which, according to some, is Cape Nun; and, according to others, Cape Three Points, in Guinea; and we have observed already, that the Gulf of St. Cyprian was probably the limit of Ptolemy's knowledge. The coasts of Africa on the Mediterranean, and on the Red Sea, were of course well known to the Romans; and some points of their information respecting the interior were clear and accurate, but, as for these, they trusted almost entirely to the reports of merchants, they were as frequently erroneous.

The northern, north-western, north-eastern, and east parts of Asia were almost utterly unknown to the Romans; but they possessed tolerably accurate information regarding the whole hither peninsula of India, from the Indus to the Ganges, and some partial and unconnected notices of the farther peninsula and of China.

[5] The most probable opinion is, that they were made of fluat of lime, or Derbyshire spar.



CHAPTER IV.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE, FROM THE TIME OF PTOLEMY TILL THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Although the period, which the present chapter embraces, extends to thirteen centuries, yet, as it is by no means rich or fruitful either in discovery or commercial enterprise, it will not detain us long. The luxuries and wealth of the east, which, in all ages of the world and to all nations have been so fascinating, had, as we have already seen, drawn to them the interest and the enterprise of the Romans, in the height of their conquests; and towards the east, with few exceptions, discovery and commerce pointed, during the whole of the period which this chapter embraces. Yet, notwithstanding this powerful attraction, geography made comparatively little progress: the love of luxury did not benefit it nearly so much as the love of science. The geography of Ptolemy, and the description of Greece by Pausanias, are, as Malte Brun justly remarks, the last works in which the light of antiquity shines on geography. We may further observe, that as circumstances directed the route to the east, during the middle ages, principally through the central parts of Asia, the countries thus explored, or visited, were among the least interesting in this quarter of the globe, and those of which we possess, even at the present day, very obscure and imperfect information.

The nations to whom geography and commerce were most indebted, during the period which this chapter embraces, were the Arabians,—the Scandinavians, —under that appellation comprehending the nations on the Baltic and in the north of Germany,—and the Italian states. Before, however, we proceed to notice and record their contributions to geography, discovery, and commerce, it will be proper briefly to attend to a few circumstances connected with those subjects, which occurred between the age of Ptolemy and the utter decline of the Roman empire.

We have already alluded to the intercourse which was begun between Rome and China, during the reign of Marcus Antoninus, for the purpose of obtaining silk. Of the embassy which preceded and occasioned this commercial intercourse, we derive all our information from the Chinese historians. A second embassy seems to have been sent in the year A.D. 284, during the reign of Probus: that the object of this also was commercial there can be no doubt; but the particulars or the precise object in view, and the result which flowed from it, are not noticed by the Chinese historians. There can be no doubt, however, that these embassies contributed to extend the geography and commerce of the Romans towards the eastern districts of Asia.

Of the attention which some of the Roman emperors, during the decline of the empire, paid to commerce, we possess a few notices which deserve to be recorded. The emperor Pertinax, whose father was a manufacturer and seller of charcoal, and who, himself, for some time pursued the same occupation, at that period an extensive and profitable one, preserved and exercised, during his reign, that sense of the value of commerce which he had thus acquired. He abolished all the taxes laid by Commodus on the ports, harbours, and public roads, and gave up his privileges as emperor, especially in all those points where they were prejudicial to the freedom and extension of commerce. It may indeed be remarked, that the very few good or tolerable princes who, at this period, filled the government of Rome, displayed their wisdom as well as their goodness by encouraging trade. Alexander Severus granted peculiar privileges and immunities to foreign merchants who settled in Rome: he lowered the duties on merchandises; and divided all who followed trade, either on a large or small scale, into different companies, each of which seems to have preserved the liberty of choosing their own governor, and over each of whom persons were appointed, conversant in each particular branch of trade, whose duty it was to settle all disputes that might arise.

Soon after this period the commerce of Rome in one particular direction, and that a most important one, received a severe blow. The Goths, who had emigrated from the north of Germany to the banks of the Euxine, were allured to the "soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which produced all that could attract, and nothing that could resist a barbarian conqueror." It is on the occasion of this enterprise, that we first became acquainted with the maritime usages and practices of the Goths; a branch of whom, under the name of Scandinavians, we shall afterwards find contributed so much to the extension of geography and commerce. In order to transport their armies across the Euxine, they employed "slight flat-bottomed barks, framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving roof on the appearance of a tempest." Their first object of importance was the reduction of Pityus, which was provided with a commodious harbour, and was situated at the utmost limits of the Roman provinces. After the reduction of this place, they sailed round the eastern extremity of the Euxine, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, to the important commercial city of Trebizond. This they also reduced; and in it they found an immense booty, with which they filled a great fleet of ships, that were lying in the port at the time of the capture. Their success encouraged and stimulated them to further enterprises against such of the commercial cities or rich coasts of the Roman empire, as lay within their grasp. In their second expedition, having increased their fleet by the capture of a number of fishing vessels, near the mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the Danube, they plundered the cities of Bithynia. And in a third expedition, in which their force consisted of five hundred sail of ships, each of which might contain from twenty-five to thirty men, they passed the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and ravaged Greece, and threatened Italy itself.

The extent to which some branches of trade were carried by the Romans about this time, may be deduced from what is related of Firmus, whose ruin was occasioned by endeavouring to exchange the security of a prosperous merchant for the imminent dangers of a Roman emperor. The commerce of Firmus seems principally to have been directed to the east; and for carrying on this commerce, he settled himself at Alexandria in Egypt. Boasting that he could maintain an army with the produce of paper and glue, both of which articles he manufactured very extensively, he persuaded the people of Egypt that he was able to deliver them from the Roman yoke, and actually had influence sufficient to prevent the usual supplies of corn from being shipped from Alexandria to Rome. His destruction was the consequence. As an instance of his wealth and luxury, Vopiscus relates that he had squares of glass fixed with bitumen in his house. The Roman commerce suffered considerably during the reign of Dioclesian by the revolt of Britain, under Carausius, who, by his skill and superiority, especially in naval affairs, which enabled him to defeat a powerful Roman fleet fitted out against him, obtained and secured his independence. Carausius was murdered by Alectus: against the latter the emperor Constantine sailed with a powerful fleet, and having effected a landing in Britain, Alectus was defeated and slain. This fleet requires to be particularly noticed from two considerations. In the first place, it sailed with a side wind, and when the weather was rather rough,—circumstances so unusual, if not unprecedented, that they were deemed worthy of an express and peculiar panegyric: and, secondly, this fleet was not equipped and ready for sea till after four years' preparation, whereas, in the first Punic war, "within sixty days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet of 160 galleys proudly rode at anchor in the sea."

Soon after this event, we are furnished with materials, from which we may judge of the comparative opulence, commerce, and shipping of the several countries which bordered on the Mediterranean. Constantine and Licinius were contending for the Roman empire; and as the contest mainly depended on superiority at sea, each exerted himself to the utmost to fit out a formidable and numerous fleet. Licinius was emperor of the east: his fleet consisted of 380 gallies, of three ranks of oars; eighty were furnished by Egypt, eighty by Phoenicia, sixty by Ionia and Doria, thirty by Cyprus, twenty by Caria, thirty by Bithynia, and fifty by Africa. At this period there seems to have been no vessels larger than triremes. The naval preparations of Constantine were in every respect inferior to those of his rival: he seems to have got no ships from Italy: indeed, the fleets which Augustus had ordered to be permanently kept up at Misenum and Ravenna, were no longer in existence. Greece supplied the most if not all Constantine's vessels: the maritime cities of this country sent their respective quotas to the Piraeus; and their united forces only amounted to 200 small vessels. This was a feeble armament compared with the numerous and powerful fleets that Athens equipped and maintained during the Peloponnesian war. While this republic was mistress of the sea, her fleet consisted of 300, and afterwards of 400 gallies, of three ranks of oars, all ready, in every respect, for immediate service. The scene of the naval battle between Licinius and Constantine was in the vicinity of Byzantium: as this city was in possession of the former, Constantine gave positive orders to force the passage of the Hellespont: the battle lasted two days, and terminated in the complete defeat of Licinius. Shortly after this decisive victory, the Roman world was again united under one emperor, and the imperial residence and seat of government was fixed by Constantine at Byzantium, which thenceforth obtained the name of Constantinople.

In the middle of the fourth century Ammianus Marcellinus gives us some important and curious information respecting the Roman commerce with the East. According to him it was customary to hold an annual fair at Batnae, a town to the east of Antioch, not far from the banks of the Euphrates. Merchandize from the East was brought hither overland by caravans, as well as up the Euphrates; and its value at this fair was so great, that the Persians made an attempt to plunder it. To the same author we are indebted for some notices respecting the countries which lay beyond the eastern limits of the Roman empire, and also for the first clear and undoubted notice of rhubarb, as an extensive article of commerce for medicinal purposes.

Towards the end of the fourth century, the naval expeditions of the Saxons attracted the notice and excited the fears of the Britons and the Gauls: their vessels apparently were unfit for a long voyage, or for encountering either the dangers of the sea or of battle; they were flat-bottomed and slightly constructed of timber, wicker-work, and hides; but such vessels possessed advantages, which to the Saxons more than compensated for their defects: they drew so little water that they could proceed 100 miles up the great rivers; and they could easily and conveniently be carried on waggons from one river to another.

We have already noticed the itineraries of the Roman empire: of these there were two kinds, the annotota and the picta; the first containing merely the names of places; the other, besides the names, the extent of the different provinces, the number of their inhabitants, the names of the mountains, rivers, seas, &c.; of the first kind, the itinerary of Antoninus is the most celebrated: to it we have already alluded: to the second kind belong the Peutingarian tables, which are supposed to have been drawn up in the reign of Theodosius, about the beginning of the fifth century, though according to other conjectures, they were constructed at different periods.

The beginning of the tables is lost, comprising Portugal, Spain, and the west part of Africa; only the south-east coast of England is inserted. Towards the east, the Seres, the mouth of the Ganges, and the island of Ceylon appear, and routes are traced through the heart of India. Dr. Vincent remarks, that it is a very singular circumstance that these tables should have the same names in the coast of India as the Periplus, but reversed. Mention is also made in them of a temple of Augustus or the Roman emperor: these circumstances, Dr. Vincent justly observes, tend to prove the continuance of the commerce by sea with India, from the time of Claudius to Theodosius; a period of above 300 years. In these tables very few of the countries are set down according to their real position, their respective limits, or their actual size.

The law of the emperor Theodosius, by which he prohibited his subjects, under pain of death, from teaching the art of ship-building to the barbarians, was ineffectual in the attainment of the object which he had in view; nor did any real service to the empire result from a fleet of 1100 large ships that he fitted out, to act in conjunction with the forces of the western empire for the protection of Rome against Genseric, king of the Vandals. This fleet arrived in Sicily, but performed nothing; and Genseric, notwithstanding the law of Theodosius, obtained the means and the skill of fitting out a formidable fleet. The Vandal empire in Africa was peculiarly adapted to maritime enterprise, as it stretched along the coast of the Mediterranean above ninety days' journey from Tangier to Tripoli: the woods of mount Atlas supplied an inexhaustible quantity of ship timber; the African nations whom he had subdued, especially the Carthaginians, were skilled in ship-building and in maritime affairs; and they eagerly obeyed the call of their new sovereign, when he held out to them the plunder of Rome. Thus, as Gibbon observes, after an interval of six centuries, the fleets that issued from the port of Carthage again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. A feeble and ineffectual resistance was opposed to the Vandal sovereign, who succeeded in his grand enterprise, plundered Rome, and landed safely in Carthage with his rich spoils. The emperor Leo, alarmed at this success, fitted out a fleet of 1113 ships, at the expense, it is calculated, of nearly five millions sterling. This fleet, with an immense army on board, sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, but it effected nothing. Genseric, taking advantage of a favourable wind, manned his largest ships with his bravest and most skilful sailors; and they towed after them vessels filled with combustible materials. During the night they advanced against the imperial fleet, which was taken by surprise; confusion ensued, many of the imperial ships were destroyed, and the remainder saved themselves by flight. Genseric thus became master of the Mediterranean; and the coasts of Asia, Greece, and Italy, were exposed to his depredations.

Towards the end of the fifth century, the Romans under Theodoric exhibited some slight and temporary symptoms of reviving commerce. His first object was to fit out a fleet of 1000 small vessels, to protect the coast of Italy from the incursions of the African Vandals and the inhabitants of the Eastern empire. And as Rome could no longer draw her supplies of corn from Egypt, he reclaimed and brought into cultivation the Pomptine marshes and other neglected parts of Italy. The rich productions of Lucania, and the adjacent provinces, were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a populous fair, annually dedicated to trade: the gradual descent of the hills was covered with a triple plantation of divers vines and chestnut trees. The iron mines of Dalmatia, and a gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored and wrought. The abundance of the necessaries of life was so very great, that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shillings and sixpence. Towards a country thus wisely governed, and rich and fertile, commerce was naturally attracted; and it was encouraged and protected by Theodoric: he established a free intercourse among all the provinces by sea and land: the city gates were never shut; and it was a common saying, "that a purse of gold might safely be left in the field." About this period, many rich Jews fixed their residence in the principal cities of Italy, for the purposes of trade and commerce.

The most particular information we possess respecting the geographical knowledge, and the Indian commerce of the ancients at the beginning of the sixth century, is derived from a work of Cosmas, surnamed Indico Pleustes, or the Indian navigator. He was originally a merchant, and afterwards became a monk; and Gibbon justly observes, that his work displays the knowledge of a merchant, with the prejudices of a monk. It is entitled Christian Topography, and was composed at Alexandria, in the middle of the fifth century, about twenty years after he had performed his voyage. The chief object of his work was to confute the opinions that the earth was a globe, and that there was a temperate zone on the south of the torrid zone. According to Cosmas, the earth is a vast plane surrounded by a wall: its extent 400 days' journey from east to west, and half as much from north to south. On the wall which bounded the earth, the firmament was supported. The succession of day and night is occasioned by an immense mountain on the north of the earth, intercepting the light of the sun. In order to account for the course of the rivers, he supposed that the plane of the earth declined from north to south: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, &c. running to the south, were rapid streams; whereas the Nile, running in a contrary direction, was slow and sluggish. The prejudices of a monk, are sufficiently evident in these opinions; but, in justice to Cosmas, it must be remarked, that he labours hard, and not unsuccessfully, to prove that his notions were all the same as those of the most ancient Greek philosophers; and, indeed, his system differs from that of Homer, principally in his assigning a square instead of a round figure to the plane surface, which they both supposed to belong to the earth. The cosmography of Homer, thus adopted by Cosmas and most Christian writers, modified in some respects by the cosmography they drew from the Scriptures, is a strong proof, as Malte Brun observes, of the powerful influence which the poetical geography of Homer possessed over the opinions even of very distant ages.

Having thus briefly detailed those parts of Cosmas's work, which are merely curious as letting us into the prevalent cosmography of his time, we shall now proceed to those parts which, as Gibbon remarks, display the knowledge of a merchant.

We have already noticed the inscription at Aduli for which we are indebted to this author, and the light which it throws on the commercial enterprise of the Egyptian sovereigns. According to Cosmas, the oriental commerce of the Red Sea, in his time, had entirely left the Roman dominions, and settled at Aduli: this place was regularly visited by merchants from Alexandria and Aela, an Arabian port, at the head of the eastern branch of the Red Sea. From Aduli, vessels regularly sailed to the East: here were collected the aromatics, spices, ivory, emeralds, &c. of Ethiopia, and shipped by the merchants of the place in their own vessels to India, Persia, South Arabia, and through Egypt and the north of Arabia, for Rome.

Cosmas was evidently personally acquainted with the west coast of the Indian peninsula. He enumerates the principal ports, especially those from which pepper was shipped. This article he describes as a source of great traffic and wealth. The great island of Sielidiba, or Ceylon, was the mart of the commerce of the Indian ocean. Its ports were visited by vessels from Persia, India, Ethiopia, South Arabia, and Tzinitza. If the last country is China, of which there can be little doubt, as he mentions that the Tzinitzae brought to Ceylon silk, aloes, cloves, and sandal-wood, and expressly adds that their country produced silk,—Cosmas is the first author who fully asserts the intercourse by sea between India and China. Besides the foreign vessels which frequented the ports of Ceylon, the native merchants carried on an extensive trade in their own vessels, and on their own account. In addition to pepper from Mali on the coast of Malabar, and the articles already enumerated from China, &c., copper, a wood resembling ebony, and a variety of stuffs, were imported from Calliena, a port shut to the Egyptian Greeks at the time of the Periplus; and from Sindu they imported musk, castoreum, and spikenard. Ceylon was a depot for all these articles, which were exported, together with spiceries, and the precious stones for which this island was famous.

Cosmas expressly states that he was not in Ceylon himself, but that he derived his information respecting it and its trade from Sopatrus, a Greek, who died about the beginning of the sixth century. This, as Dr. Vincent observes, is a date of some importance: for it proves that the trade opened by the Romans from Egypt to India direct, continued upon the same footing from the reign of Claudius and the discovery of Hippalus, down to A.D. 500; by which means we came within 350 years of the Arabian voyage published by Renaudot, and have but a small interval between the limit of ancient geography and that of the moderns.

From this author we first learn that the Persians having overcome the aversion of their ancestors to maritime enterprise, had established a flourishing and lucrative commerce with India. All its principal ports were visited by Persian merchants; and in most of the cities there were churches in which the service was performed by priests, ordained by a Persian archbishop.

We shall conclude our notice of Ceylon, as described by Cosmas, from the account of Sopatrus, with mentioning a few miscellaneous particulars, illustrative of the produce and commerce of the island. The sovereignty was held by two kings; one called the king of the Hyacinth, or the district above the Ghants, where the precious stones were found; the other possessed the maritime districts. In Ceylon, elephants are sold by their height; and he adds, that in India they are trained for war, whereas, in Africa, they are taken only for their ivory. Various particulars respecting the natural history of Ceylon and India, &c. are given, which are very accurate and complete: the cocoa-nut with its properties is described: the pepper plant, the buffalo, the camelopard, the musk animal, &c.: the rhinoceros, he says, he saw only at a distance; he procured some teeth of the hippopotamus, but never saw the animal itself. In the palace of the king of Abyssinia, the unicorn was represented in brass, but he never saw it. It is extraordinary that he makes no mention of cinnamon, as a production of Ceylon.

The most important points respecting the state of Eastern commerce in the age of Cosmas, as established by his information, are the following: that Ceylon was the central mart between the commerce of Europe, Africa, and the west of India, and the east of India and China; that none of the foreign merchants who visited Ceylon were accustomed to proceed to the eastern regions of Asia, but received their silks, spices, &c. as they were imported into Ceylon; and that, as cloves are particularly specified as having been imported into Ceylon from China, the Chinese at this period must have traded with the Moluccas on the one hand, and with Ceylon on the other.

Cosmas notices the great abundance of silk in Persia, which he attributes to the short land carriage between it and China.

In our account of the very early trade of Carthage, a branch of it was described from Herodotus, which the Carthaginians carried on, without the use or intervention of words, with a remote African tribe. Of a trade conducted in a similar manner, Cosmas gives us some information; according to him, the king of the Axumites, on the east coast of Africa, exchanged iron, salt, and cattle, for pieces of gold with an inland nation, whom he describes as inhabiting Ethiopia. It may be remarked in confirmation of the accuracy, both of Herodotus and of Cosmas, in what they relate on this subject, and as an illustration and proof of the permanency and power of custom among barbarous nations, that Dr. Shaw and Cadamosto (in Purchas's Pilgrimage) describe the same mode of traffic as carried on in their times by the Moors on the west coast of Africa, with the inhabitants of the banks of the Niger.

In the middle of the sixth century, an immense and expensive fleet, fitted out by the Emperor Justinian for the purpose of invading the Vandals of Africa, gives us, in the detail of its preparation and exploits, considerable insight into the maritime state of the empire at this period. Justinian assembled at Constantinople 500 transports of various sizes, which it is not easy exactly to calculate; the presumption derived from the accounts we have is, that the smallest were 30 tons, and the largest 500 tons; and that the aggregate tonnage of the whole amounted to about 100,000 tons: an immense fleet, even compared with the fleets of modern times. On board of this fleet there were 35,000 seamen and soldiers, and 5000 horses, besides arms, engines, stores, and an adequate supply of water and provisions, for a period, probably, of two or three months. Such were the transports: they were accompanied and protected by 92 light brigantines, for gallies were no longer used in the Mediterranean; on board of these vessels were 2000 rowers. The celebrated Belisarius was the commander-in-chief, both of the land and sea forces. The course of this numerous and formidable fleet was directed by the master-galley in which he sailed; this was conspicuous by the redness of its sails during the day, and by torches fixed on its mast head during night. A circumstance occurred during the first part of the voyage, which instructs us respecting the mode of manufacturing the bread used on long voyages. When the sacks which contained it were opened, it was found to be soft and unfit for use; and on enquiring into the cause, the blame was clearly traced to the person by whose orders it had been prepared. In order to save the expense of fuel, he had ordered it to be baked by the same fire which warmed the baths of Constantinople, instead of baking it twice in an oven, as was the usual and proper practice. In the latter mode, a loss of one-fourth was calculated on and allowed; and the saving occasioned by the mode adopted was probably another motive with the person under whose superintendence the bread was prepared.

During the voyage from Methone, where fresh bread was taken on board to the southern coast of Sicily, from which, according to modern language, they were to take their departure for Africa, they were becalmed, and 161 days were spent in this navigation. An incident is mentioned relating to this part of the voyage, which points out the method used by the ancients to preserve their water when at sea. As the general himself was exposed to the intolerable hardship of thirst, or the necessity of drinking bad water, that which was meant for his use was put into glass bottles, which were buried deep in the sand, in a part of the ship to which the rays of the sun could not reach. Three months after the departure of the fleet from Constantinople, the troops were landed near Carthage; Belisarius being anxious to effect this as soon as possible, as his men did not hesitate to express their belief, that they were not able to contend at once with the winds, the waves, and the barbarians. The result of this expedition was the conquest of the African provinces, Sardinia, and Corsica.

The absurd and injudicious regulations of Justinian, respecting the corn trade of the empire have been already noticed; nor did his other measures indicate, either a better acquaintance with the principles of commerce, or more regard to its interests. The masters of vessels who traded to Constantinople were often obliged to carry cargoes for him to Africa or Italy, without any remuneration; or, if they escaped this hardship, enormous duties were levied on the merchandize they imported. A monopoly in the sale of silk was granted to the imperial treasurer; and, indeed, no species of trade seems to have been open and free, except that in cloth. His addition of one-seventh to the ordinary price of copper, so that his money-changers gave only 180 ounces of that metal, instead of 210, for one-sixth of an ounce of gold, seems rather to have been the result of ignorance than of fraud and avarice; since he did not alter the gold coin, in which alone all public and private payments were made. At this time, the geographical knowledge of the Romans, respecting what had formerly constituted a portion of their empire, must have declined in a striking manner, if we may judge from the absurd and fabulous account which Procopius gives of Britain. And the commercial relations of the Britons themselves had entirely disappeared, even with their nearest neighbours; since, in the history of Gregory of Tours, there is not a single allusion to any trade between Britain and France.

At the beginning of the seventh century we glean our last notice of any event connected with the commerce and maritime enterprise of the Romans; and the same period introduces us to the rising power and commerce of the Arabians.

Alexandria, though its importance and wealth as a commercial city had long been on the wane, principally by the removal of most of the oriental trade to Persia, was still the commercial capital of the Mediterranean, and was of the utmost importance to Constantinople, which continued to draw from it an annual supply of about 250,000 quarters of corn; but in the beginning of this century it was conquered by the Persians, and the emperor was obliged to enter into a treaty with the conquerors, by which he agreed to pay a heavy and disgraceful tribute for the corn which was absolutely necessary for the support of his capital. But a sudden and most extraordinary change took place in the character of Heraclius: he roused himself from his sloth, indolence and despair; he fitted out a large fleet; exerted his skill, and displayed his courage and coolness in a storm which it encountered; carried his armies into Persia itself, and succeeded in recovering Egypt and the other provinces which the Persians had wrested from the empire.

The very early commerce of the Arabians, by means of caravans, with India, and their settlements on the Red Sea and the coasts of Africa and India at a later period, for the purposes of commerce, have been already noticed. Soon after they became the disciples of Mahomet, their commercial and enterprizing spirit revived, if indeed it had ever languished; and it certainly displayed itself with augmented zeal, vigour, and success, under the influence of their new religion, and the genius and ambition of their caliphs. Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, were successively conquered by them; and one of their first and most favourite objects, after they had conquered a country, was the amelioration or extension of its commerce. When they conquered Persia, the trade between that country and India was extensive and flourishing: the Persian merchants brought from India its most precious commodities. The luxury of the kings of Persia consumed a large quantity of camphire, mixed with wax, to illuminate their palaces; and this must have been brought, indirectly, through India, from Japan, Sumatra, or Borneo, the only places where the camphire-tree grows: a curious and striking proof of the remote and extensive influence of the commerce and luxury of Persia, at the time it was conquered by the Arabians. The conquerors, aware of the importance of the Indian commerce, and of the advantages which the Tigris and Euphrates afforded for this purpose, very soon after their conquest, founded the city of Bassora: a place, which, from its situation midway between the junction and the mouth of these rivers, commands the trade and navigation of Persia. It soon rose to be a great commercial city; and its inhabitants, directing their principal attention and most vigorous enterprize to the East, soon pushed their voyages beyond Ceylon, and brought, directly from the place of their growth or manufacture, many of those articles which hitherto they had been obliged or content to purchase in that island. Soon after the conquest of Persia was completed, the Caliph Omar directed that a full and accurate survey and description, of the kingdom should be made, which comprehended the inhabitants, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth.

The conquest of Syria added comparatively little to the commerce of the Arabians; but in the account which is given of this enterprize, we are informed of a large fair, which was annually held at Abyla, between Damascus and Heliopolis, where the produce and manufactures of the country were collected and sold. In the account given of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Arabians, we have also an account of another fair held at Jerusalem, at which it is probable the goods brought from India by Bassora, the Euphrates, and the caravans, were sold. As soon as the conquest of the western part of Syria was completed, the Arabians took advantage of the timber of Libanus, and of the maritime skill of the Phoenicians, which even yet survived: they fitted out a fleet of 1,700 barks, which soon rode triumphant in the Mediterranean. Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were subdued, and Constantinople itself was attacked, but without effect.

The conquest of Egypt, however, was of the most importance to the Arabian commerce, and therefore more especially demands our notice.—"In their annals of conquest," as Gibbon remarks, "the siege of Alexandria is perhaps the most arduous and important enterprize. The first trading city in the world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence and defence." But the Saracens were bold and skilful; the Greeks timid and unwarlike; and Alexandria fell into the possession of the disciples of Mahomet. As soon as the conquest of Egypt was completed, its administration was settled, and conducted on the most wise and liberal principles. In the management of the revenue, taxes were raised, not by the simple but oppressive mode of capitation, but on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A third part of these taxes was set apart, with the most religious exactness, to the annual repairs of the dykes and canals. At first, the corn which used to supply Constantinople was sent to Medina from Memphis by camels; but Omrou, the conqueror of Egypt, soon renewed the maritime communication "which had been attempted or achieved by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Caesars; and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inland navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon, however, discontinued, as useless and dangerous;" and about the year 775, A.D., it was stopped up at the end next the Red Sea.

The conquest of Africa, though not nearly so advantageous to the commerce of the Arabians, was yet of some importance to them in this point of view: it gradually extended from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean. Tripoly was the first maritime and commercial city which their arms reduced: Bugia and Tangier were next reduced. Cairoan was formed as a station for a caravan; a city, which, in its present decay, still holds the second rank in the kingdom of Tunis. Carthage was next attacked and reduced; but an attempt was made by forces sent from Constantinople, joined by the ships and soldiers of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths from Spain, to retake it. The Arabian conquerors had drawn a strong chain across the harbour; this the confederate fleet broke: the Arabians for a time were compelled to retreat; but they soon returned, defeated their enemies, burnt Carthage, and soon afterwards completed the conquest of this part of Africa.

The beginning of the eighth century is remarkable for their invasion of Spain, and for their second fruitless attack on Constantinople; during the latter, their fleet, which is said to have consisted of 1800 vessels, was totally destroyed by the Greek fire. With regard to their conquest of Spain, it was so rapid, that in a few months the whole of that great peninsula, which for two centuries withstood the power of the Roman republic at its greatest height, was reduced, except the mountainous districts of Asturia and Biscay, Here also the Arabians displayed the same attention to science by which they were distinguished in Asia: ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was made, exhibiting the seas, rivers, harbours, and cities, accompanied with a description of them, and of the inhabitants, the climate, soil, and mineral productions. "In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improved by the agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people." The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain, levied on the Christians of that country, 10,000 ounces of gold, 10,000 pounds of silver, 10,000 houses, &c. "The most powerful of his successors derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of about six millions sterling. His royal seat of Cordova contained 600 mosques, 900 baths, and 200,000 houses: he gave laws to 80 cities of the first order, and to 300 of the second and third: and 12,000 villages and hamlets were situated on the banks of the Guadalquivir."