172 COSMOS. 



of Africa by Cyrene and the Oases ; to the conquest in Ethi- 

 opia and Arabia Felix under Ptolemy Euergetes : to the mar- 

 itime trade with the whole of the western peninsula of India, 

 from the Gulf of Barygaza (Guzerat and Cambay), along the 

 shores of Canara and Malabar (Malayavara, a territory of 

 Malaya), to the Brahminical sanctuaries of the promontory 

 of Comorin (Kurnari),* and to the large island of Ceylon 

 (Lanka in the Ramayana, and known to the cotemporaries 

 of Alexander as Taprobane, a corruption of the native name).t 

 Nearchus had already materially contributed to the advance 

 of nautical knowledge by his laborious five months' voyage 

 along the coasts of Gedrosia and Caramania (between Patta- 

 la, at the mouths of the Indus, and the Euphrates). 



Alexander's companions were not ignorant of the existence 

 of the monsoons, by which navigation was so greatly favored 

 between the eastern coasts of Africa and the northern and 

 western parts of India. After having spent ten months in 

 navigating the Indus, between Nicaea on the Hydaspes and 

 Pattala, with a view of opening the river to a universal traf- 

 fic, Nearchus hastened, at the beginning of October (Ol. 113, 

 3), to sail from Stura, at the mouth of the Indus, since he 

 knew that his passage would be favored by the northeast and 

 east monsoons to the Persian Gulf along the coasts running 

 in the same parallel of latitude. The knowledge of this re- 

 markable local law of the direction of the winds subsequently 

 imboldened navigators to attempt to sail from Ocelis, on the 

 Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, across the open sea to Muzeris 

 (south of Mangolar), the great Malabar emporium of trade, 

 to which products from the eastern shores of the Indian pen- 

 insula, and even gold from the distant Chryse (Borneo ?), 

 were brought by inland trade. The honor of having first ap- 

 plied the new system of Indian navigation is ascribed to an 

 otherwise unknown seaman named Hippalus, but considerable 

 doubt is attached to the age in which he lived.J 



* See Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, bd. i., s. 107, 153-158. 



t A corruption of Tdmbapanni. This Pali form sounds in Sanscrit 

 Tdmraparni. The Greek form Taprobane gives half the Sanscrit 

 (Tambra, Tabro} and half the Pali. (Lassen, op. cit., s. 201. Com- 

 pare Lassen, Diss. de Taprobane Insula, p. 19.) The Laccadives (lakke 

 for lakscha, and dive for dwipa, one hundred thousand islands), as well 

 as the Maldives (Malayadiba, islands of Malabar), were known to Al- 

 exaudria*n mariners. 



t Hippalus is not generally supposed to have lived earlier than the 

 time of Claudius ; but this view is improbable, even though under the 

 first Lagides, a great portion of the Indian products were only pro- 

 cured in Arabian markets. The southwest monsoon was, moreover 



