APPENDIX ix 
to the public, by procuring for them such information as may enable them to form a 
correct judgment upon the one or the other of the four questions to which I have 
alluded. 
It is of immediate use to the public, at a time when many persons are desirous of 
reviving, in consequence of the discovery of steam navigation, the intercourse which was 
carried on in ancient times between Europe and Asia, through the Red Sea, to have 
before them all the information which can now be procured, relative to the manner in 
which that intercourse has been carried on in different ages, by different nations, and 
relative to the commercial and the political effects which it has successively produced 
on the prosperity of those nations. 
The Committee have, therefore, with a view to the first question, directed their 
researches to the history of Palmyra, Balbec, Petra, Suez, Adulis, Cairo, Thebes, 
Cocyra, Eziongeber, and Acbana, during the period when those places were enriched 
by the trade which was carried on between Europe and India, through the Red Sea; 
they have examined all the ancient and modern maps of the river Nile and of the Red 
Sea; the present state of the steam navigation in that river, and in that sea, the degree 
of encouragement it is likely to receive from the Pasha of Egypt, and the probability of 
his discovering coals in his own or in the neighbouring countries; they have referred 
for information to the valuable works of Herren and Lasorng, and trust that 
Mr. Marspen, who has already illustrated with so much ability the travels of Marco 
Poxo, will enable them, by illustrating in a similar manner the work of InpicopiEeustEs, 
to ascertain the geographical positions of many of the ports, which that work describes 
as the great emporia of the Indian trade in former ages. 
It is of use to the public, at the time when the British Parliament are deliberating 
upon the policy of allowing Europeans to settle in the British possessions in India, to 
be fully acquainted with the history of all the descendants of foreign nations, who are 
settled in other parts of India; with the mineral and vegetable productions of the 
country, and with the various languages which are spoken by the several people who 
inhabit the neighbouring territories. The Committee have therefore, with reference to 
the second question, directed their researches to the history of the descendants of the 
Jews, who are established at Cochin; of the descendants of the Syrian Christians who 
are established in the Travancore country; and of the descendants of the Portuguese 
and the French, who are established at Goa and Pondicherry. To the botany and 
geology of India, and to the different languages which are spoken in Siam, Laos, 
Cambodia, the Burmese empire, and Thibet; the Committee have been assisted in their 
enquiries respecting the history of the Jews, by the instructions drawn up for their use 
by the Rev. Mr. Mizmay; by the fac-similes sent them by Lord Prupuok, of inscrip- 
tions found by his Lordship between Mount Sinai and the Red Sea; and by some 
ancient accounts of the Jews settled in Abyssinia. In those respecting the descendants 
of the Portuguese and the French, by the Abbé Dusois; in those respecting the botany 
of India, by Dr. Wauticu, who has prepared for their use a paper upon the subject, 
drawn up by him partly from his own information, and partly from that of the late Dr. 
c 
