A. D. Ti^. 



'59 



geography of the fouth part of Africa, though feverals of them have fa- 

 bulous ftories of wonderful adventures on fome of its coafls. He alone, 

 of all the writers of antiquity, truely defcribes the coaft of India as 

 trending from north to fouth as far as Colchos ("Travancore), where, he 

 fays, the fhore bends to the eaft, and afterwards to the north, and then 

 more eafterly to the Ganges, the greateft river of India, which increafes 

 and decreafes like the Nile. He is alfo, if I miftake not, the only ex- 

 tant antient writer, who knew the true name of the great fouthern divi- 

 fion of India, which he calls Dachinabades, becaufe ' the South is there 

 called Bachan-Qs^ a word differing only by the adjundt Greek termina- 

 tion from Deccan, ftill the general name of all the country fouth from 

 Baroach, the very limit ftated by our accurate author. 



He defcribes Myos Hormos as the firfl: port of Egypt on the Red fea *; 

 and from it and Berenice the Grecian traders failed down for their va- 

 rious deftinations. Thofe who were only bound to the ports within the 

 Red fea failed any time from January to September, though moil 

 feafonably in September : but July was the time for commencing voy- 

 ages to all parts beyond the Straits, whether to the eaft coaft of Africa, 

 the fouth coaft of Arabia, or the weft coaft of India. 



The firft confiderable trading port on the weft fide of the Red fea was 

 Aduli in the country now called Abyflinia, fubjed: to Zofcales, a prince 

 diftinguiftied as fuperior to his neighbours in probity and liberality, and 

 alfo acquainted with the Greek language, a circumftance feemingly in- 

 ferring a confiderable refort of the Grecian traders to his dominions. 

 This was an eftabliftied port, to which were brought from the inland 

 markets of Coloe and Axomite (or Axuma) all the ivory coUeded in 

 the interior country on both fides of the Nile, and the turtle-fhell from 

 a neighbouring nation, called by the Greeks Ichthyophagi (eaters of 

 fifh). 



Into this port the Greeks imported 



Coarfe cloths unmilled, manufadur- 

 ed in Egypt for this market ; 



Robes, made at Arfinoe ; 



Abollas f (cloaks) of counterfeit or 

 baftard colour ^ 



Linens ; 



Fringed mantles ; 



Glafs, and murrhi;ie :j: vefTels of all 

 forts, made at Diofpolis ; 



Orichalcum, a kind of metal, of 

 which the natives of the country 

 made ornamental trinkets, and 

 alio coined money ; 



Brafs veflels for cooking, which the 

 women of the place fometimes 

 broke into fmall pieces to make 

 bracelets, and ornaments for their 

 legs; 



Heroopolis, at the veiy head of the gulf, was him his life, the tyrant Caligula, perhaps, thinkinr 



-now apparently deferted. it an affeftation of foverL-ignty. IMartial. L. viii, 



t The bed abollas were dyed with the Tyrian ep. 46. — Suet. Ca/ig. c. ii,f\ 



purple. The rich colour of one worn by Ptolemy, ^l The murrhine vtlTcls were In fuch eftcem in 



the fon of the learned African prince Juba, coll 4 Rome 



