A. D. 73. 



167 



And all the articles carried to Muza: 



They alfo carried for the king 

 Silver veffels engraved or chafed ; 

 Money ; 



The exports were 



Frankincenfe 7 native commodi- 

 Aloes \ ties ; 



Statues ; 

 Horfes ; 

 Magnificent and plain drefles. 



The merchandize imported into 

 Muza from other ports. 



Between Arabia and Africa, biu nearer to the former, and fubjed to 

 the fame king Eleazus, was Diofcorides, a large, defert, marfhy illand, 

 with many rivers, and abounding with crocodiles, vipers, and very large 

 lizards, the flelh of which was good to eat, and the fat for making 

 oil *. It alfo produced turtle of the genuine, the land fpecies, the white, 

 and the mountain, kind. They were remarkable for the largenefs of 

 their (hell, but efpecially the mountain kind, the ihell of which was of 

 prodigious lize and thicknefs. Of thefe fhells were made chefts, cafk- 

 ets, writing tables, and other ornamental articles f. The land produced 

 neither corn nor wine, and nothing of value, except cinnabar of the 

 Indian fpecies, a gum dropping from trees. A few Arabians and Ind- 

 ians, and fome Greek merchants, fettled there for the fake of trade, 

 who lived on the north fhore facing the continent. The merchants of 

 Muza had fonie dealings with it, and veffels in the India trade fome- 

 times called at it, and fupplied the inhabitants with rice, corn, Indian 

 linen, and fometimes female flaves, in exchange for turtle -fliell, (or 

 turtle) of which they got enough to load their velfels iji. 



Beyond the vaft promontory of Syagros (apparently Ras al Gat §) was 

 the port of Mofcha {Majk.d), a great emporium for the frankincenfe 

 produced in the adjacent Sachalitic country. Velfels from Cane traded 

 to this port : and thole from Limyrica and Barygaza in India, when 



ftitly deftined by the Arabian merchants for In- 

 dia, where, Pliny fays, the men were as fond of 

 the berries ot coral as the women of Rome were 

 of the Indian pearls ; and thence the demand for 

 India made them to fcarce in the place of their 

 growth, that the Gauls could not now, as former- 

 ly, indulge in the luxury of adorning their fwords, • 

 fliields, and helmets, with them. [f/in. L. xxxii, 



* This appears to be the animal called the guana 

 m the Weft-Indies. 



■{• The Romans were exceedingly fond of turtle- 

 Hitll. Btfidcs the ufcs of it mentioned in the Pe- 

 fiplus, they Tidorned their bedftends, and vaneered 

 wood, with It. \_Plln. L. Ix, f . 1 1 ; L. xvi, c. 43.] 



:f It is generally agreed that Socotora is the 

 Diofcorides cf the antients. As our author's de- 

 fcription of it by no means anfwers to Socotora, 

 which is rocky and dry, I have bi-en fomewhat 

 fuller in extrafting it, that thofe who ar* better 

 informed of the nature of the ifland may ascertain 



whether Socotor.i, or fome of the iflands nearer 

 the Arabian ihore, has been the antient Diofcori- 

 des. Neither our author, nor Pliny in his account 

 of Diofcorides, mentions aloes as the produce of 

 it, which are now the ftaple of Socotora : and as 

 they wete an eftablifhed article in the commerce of 

 the Egyptian Greeks, our author's filence may be 

 admitted as a full proof that none grew on the 

 ifland of Diofcorides in his time. Diofcorides 

 [L. iii, c. 23] fays the Indian aloe is the befl, but 

 has not a word of any coming fronx the idand of • 

 his own name. 



J Syagros is faid by Harris \_Collcilion of voyages, 

 y. \, p. 431, eJ- 1744] to be beyond controverfy 

 Cape Farcack ; but that does not correfpond with 

 our author's geography, nor with Pliny's. I ob- 

 ferve, that even in Ptolemy's time it was dlfputed 

 which headland was Syagros. Our author's de- 

 fcription of it, ' the grcateft promontory in the ■ 

 « world,' may help to decide the qucftisn. 



