A. D. 



73' 



63 



and it feeras to have commenced before they began to make any voy- 

 ages out of the Red fea, but how long before, nobody can prefume to 

 conjedlure, as the eaft coafl of Africa was totally unknown to the Greeks 

 and Romans, and mofl probably alfo to the Egyptians, till a little before 

 this time *. 



Though our author has many nautical and topographical remarks on 

 the coaft of Africa beyond Opone, he has not one trading port till he 

 comes to Rhapta, fo called by the Greeks, becaufe the natives ufed ca- 

 noes with raifed fides, which wei'e not nailed, but fewed to the bottom f . 

 The natives are faid to be very tall, but he fays not a word of their co^ 

 lour, which mud have been black. Though every diftricl had its own 

 chief, all of them had long been fubjed: to the king of Mapharitis in the 

 fouth part of Arabia. The country was alfo tributary to the merchants 

 of Muza who fent their veflels thither under the care of Arabian com- 

 manders and fupercargoes, connected with the natives by intercourfe and 

 affinity, and well acquainted with their language, and with the naviga- 

 tion of the coaft J. 



The imports at Rhapta confifted of 



Awls ; 



Giafs veflels- of all forts ; 



Laiices, or fpears, made at Muzaj 



Axes ; 



Cutlafles, or knives ; 



and alfo corn and wine, not for fale, but for treating the uncivilized na- 

 tives of fome parts of the coaft. 



The exports were 



Ivory in great abundance, but in- 

 ferior to that of Aduli ; 

 The horns of the rhinoceros ; 



* The fame trade has been kept up ever fince ; 

 and the fame kind of cargoes have been carried 

 from the neighbourhood of theZinde, or Indus, to 

 thofe parts of Africa. [See Piirchas, B. iii, p. 

 307 ; B. h,pf,. 347, 350, 351, 352.3 



f Vcfrra, to few, or join together. The Greeks 

 furely could not be ignorant of the indigenous name 

 of the place, to which they traded. But this is one 

 of the innumerable inftances of the licence they 

 took in perverting the names of places, whereby 

 they have introduced much confufion and uncer- 

 tainty in geography, Ptolemy places Rhapta be- 

 tween eight and nine degrees fouth of the line, 

 which anfvrers pretty well to the fituation of Qui- 

 loa, which the Portuguefc dil'coverers fuppofed 

 Rhapta ; and there the fame fewed boats are ftill 

 uled. 



J If the merchants were fo powerful as to exer- 

 cifc fuch an a6t of fovereignty at the ex»dlioB wf » 



Turtle-fhell, the beft of any, next to 



that of India ; 

 Nauplius §, a fmall quantity. 



tribute, they muft hare been afTociated in a great 

 body, like a modern Eaft-India company. But 

 perhaps the tribute, for which the Greeks faw them 

 fend their veflels, was the produce of plantations 

 fettled on that coaft by the merchants of Mura, as 

 many Weft-India plantations are now fettled and 

 owned by Britifli merchants. 



Agatharchides, at leaft two hundred years older 

 than our author, informs us, that the commercial 

 Arabians eftabliftied colonies in foreign countries ; 

 (fee above, p. 104) and the coaft on which Rhapta 

 was fituated is occupied to this day by Arabians, 

 who ftill retain the mercantile fpirit of the antient 

 founders of their colony. V/hen the Portuguefc 

 arrived on this coaft in their firft voyages of difcov- 

 ery, they found it frequented by veffels of various 

 nations. 



{ Nauplius, an article unknown. Pliny [_L. is, 

 c. 30^ has a defcription of a Ihell-fifh oi that name, 



which 



X 2 



