A. D. 73. 173 



and even wanders into the marvelous, which has in all ages vitiated and 

 charaderized the defcriptions of unknown parts of the world, he has 

 obtained a pretty accurate account of the nature of the flxmous River 

 Ganges, as already oblerved : and fo well was he informed of the trade 

 and manutaftures of that diftant region, that he remarks the fuperior 

 excellence of the Bengal muflins *, which took their name, at leafl 

 among the Grecian traders, from the river, or a town of the fame name 

 on its banks. From that port were alfo (hipped malabathrum, Gangetic 

 fpikenard, and pearls. Near the mouth of the Ganges he places an 

 ifland called Chryfe, the eaftern extremity of the world, and producing 

 the befl turtle-fhell in all the Indian ocean. And farther north, where 

 the fea terminates in the country of the Sina; f , he has a very great in- 

 land city called Thina, from which wool, (perhaps the remarkably-fine 

 wool of Thibet) thread (which muft be filk in a raw or fpun ftate) and 

 filk fluffs J, were carried over land through Badria as far as Barygaza. 

 But in his attempt to defcribe the fituation of Thina, the route of the 

 trade from it, the inhabitants, and their manner of obtaining three 

 kinds of malabathrum from offall leaves left behind them by a neigh- 

 bouring favage nation, he is confuted and embar railed, at which we 

 need not wonder, confidering how very far it was beyond the utmoft 

 limits of Grecian voyages or travels. 



I have now finiflied my extracts from the very valuable Periplus of 

 the Erythrcean fea, which has never yet received the fame due to its lin- 

 gular merit : a negled: perhaps owing in fome degree to the fmall fize 

 of the book, but probably more to the abfence of battles and llaughters 

 init§. 



It is worthy of remark, that the fubjeds of Rome, in all their eager- 

 nefs for purchafing fpices and other luxuries, appear to have known no- 

 thing as yet of nutmegs and cloves ||, and fcarcely any thing of mace ^ ; 

 and that cinnamon and fugar were hitherto imported by the Greek 



* ' avSoKEs a/ ^i»(p<i^iiraTxi, ou ruyyirtx.xi MycyA' tleman poffefTing, along with claflical learning, a 



v«ii' at once a noble telUmony of the long-tlla- competent knowlege ot the languages, topogra- 



bhnicd charafter of the Bengal muilins, and of the phy, navigati.in, and trade, of the countries be- 



vcracity of the Periplus. tween the Red lea and Ceylon, affilhd by a good 



f Quere, if the Chinele ? — or Siam : — or Pegu, manufcript to correct iome errors of tranlcribers 



antiently called Cheeu, as we learn from the Ayecn in numbers, points of the com.pafs, anJ. omiffioas, 



Akhtry, V. i, p. 7. The editions of Blancard and it would be a very great aequilitiou to literature in 



Stuckius, and the Italian tranflation of Ramutlo, general. The edition of the Periplus by Stuckius, 



vary in the names of this nation or city ; and uu- with a multitude of pedantic and trifling notes, is 



fortunately we know of no manufcript to appeal no exception to what I have faid in the text : nei- 



to. ther does Dodwell's profulion of erudition throw 



J ' Oiiiiit TO c-^uiat.' — O()o«o» is properly linen much light even upon the itra ot it, the principal 



cloth, but I liave tranflated it calico, when applied objecl of his diflertation. 



to Indian manufactures ; and with the addition of || Pliny [Z/. xii, c. 73 has an Indian fruit called 



mjixa* (fliken) we can fcarcely conceive it to be gariophyllon, like a pepper-coin, but larger und 



any other than ulken Huff. more brittle, which was imported for the lake of 



J If an edition of the Periplus, with proper il- the fcent. This deiciiptiou is very unlike cloves, 

 luftrative accompaniments, were executed by a gen- «j[ Sec aboxe, p. 161, note J.. 4 



