i6o 



A. D. 73. 



Iron, to make fpears for hunting, 

 and for war ; 



Swords, edge-tools, and other iron- 

 mongery ; 



Large round cups or bowls of brafs; 



Wine of Laodicea and Italy in 

 fmall quantities ; 



Oil, alfo in fmall quantities ; and 



Roman coins (denarii) for the ufe 



of the foreigners, whom com- 

 merce brought together in the 

 port: 



and alfo, as a tribute to the king, 



Veflels of gold and filver made af- 

 ter the fafliion of the country .; 



Abollas ; and 



A few plain coverlets. 



There were likeways imported from Arabia 



Safhes ; 



Coverlets ; and 

 Lack for colouring *. 



Indian iron and fteel ; 

 Indian calicoes, and other cotton 

 goods, of a variety of kinds ; 



From this port the only exports noted are 



Ivory ; | The horns of the rhinoceros. 



On the fouth fliore of the Straits of Babelmandeb (or Babelmandel) 

 was the fmall port of Avalites, into which they went with rafts and boats. 

 To this place the Greeks imported 



Corn ; 



Wine ; and 



Tin in fmall quantities. 



Veflels of glafs and ftone, afl"orted ; 

 Unripe grapes from Diofpolis ; 

 Cloths, milled and finifhed for this 

 particular market, aflbrted ; 



The natives, a rude and favage race, traded with their rafts to Okelis 

 and Muza on the coafl of Arabia, to which they carried aromatics, a 



Rome, that two of them were bought by a confiil 

 and an emperor at the price of 3C0 fellcrtium 

 (^2,42 1 : I 7 : 6 lleth'ng) fur each. [ /'//'«. /,. xxxvii, 

 r. 2, with ArbuthnoC s Tables of ancient coim, (b'c.'} 

 The nature of them is much contefted, fome avert- 

 ing that they were the porcelain of China, and 

 others maintaining that they were made of a foflile 

 fubftance; and llic later opinion fecras fuppoited 

 by Pliny. [£. ^y.xw, frotem ; L. xxxv, c. 12 ; L. 

 sxxvii, c. 2.] It is certain from the Pcriplus, 

 that they were made at Diofpolis in Egypt : and 

 there is no un((uc(lionabIe authority for the real 

 porcelain of China being heard of in Europe till 

 many centuries after this time. — C^i. What might 

 be the nature of the three muiline, or perhaps ra- 

 ther murrine, cups belonging to Roger archbifliop 

 of York in tlie twelfth century ? \_M. Paris, p. 

 140, ed. 164c.] 



• AH thefe articles, imported from Arabia, are 

 Indian manufaclures : and they furnilh an addition- 

 al proof of the extent of the Indian commerce in the 

 hands of the Southern Arabians, who Hill retained 



their trade with their old cuftomers, who were in- 

 dependent of tlie Roman empire. 



The ilecl was probably what Pliny [Z. xxxiv, 

 c. 14] calls iron from the country of the Stres of a 

 quality much fuperior to all othtr kinds (he has 

 not throughout liis whole work any word equiva- 

 lent to the Englilli word fteel) ; and he add;^, that 

 the Parthian (probably that called here Indian) 

 iron was next to it. The country at the mouth of 

 the Indus was now fubjed to Parthia : and there 

 probably both the Scric and Parthian metals were 

 fliipped for iVrabia, from which, or from Aduli, by 

 the agency of the merchants of Alexandria, they 

 found their way to Rome, as appears by Pliny's 

 knowlegc of them : and they mull have been ex- 

 cellent indeed to bear the expenfe of fucli a fuccef- 

 fion of land and water carriages. It is worthy of 

 remark, that Marco Polo, many centuries after our 

 author and Pliny, mentions oitiliinicwn, a molt ex- 

 cellent kind of Heel, the produce of a country in 

 the call part of Afia. See ForJler''s Voyages and dij- 

 coviries, pp. 135, 242, Etiglijh tranjl. 



