538 COSMOS. 



a Roman province, Egypt continued to be the seat of immense 

 wealth, for the increased luxury of Rome, under the Caesars, 

 reached to the territory of the Nile, and turned to the uni versa! 

 commerce of Alexandria for the chief means of its satisfaction. 



The important extension of the sphere of knowledge regard- 

 ing external nature and different countries under the Ptolemies 

 was mainly owing to the caravan trade in the interior of 

 Africa by Gyrene and the Oases ; to the conquest in Ethiopia 

 and Arabia Felix under Ptolemy Evergetes ; to the maritime 

 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 

 (Kumari),* 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).f 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 Pattala, 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 favoured 

 between the eastern coasts of Africa and the northern and 

 western parts of India. After having spent ten months in 

 navigating the Indus, between Nicrea on the Hydaspes and 

 Pattala, \vith a view of opening the river to a universal traffic, 

 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 favoured by the north-east and 

 east monsoons to the Persian Gulf along the coasts running in 

 the same parallel of latitude. The knowledge of this remark- 

 able local law of the direction of the winds subsequently 

 emboldened navigators to attempt to sail from Ocelis, on the 



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



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

 Tdmraparni. The Greek form Taprobane, gives half the Sanscrit (Tdm- 

 bra, Tabro), and half the Pali. (Lassen, op. cit., s. 201; compare Las- 

 sen, 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 Alexan- 

 drian mariners. 



