194 -A* ^' ^^^• 



village, and a mere watering place for fhipping, in tlie time of the au- 

 thor of the Periplus of the Erythrsean fea, it had already fo far recover^ 

 ed from the ruin brought upon it by the Romans, as to be again a trad- 

 ing emporium ; and it is defcribed under that chara6ter by Ptolemy. 



The natives of India now extended their voyages beyond their for- 

 mer limits, and took an aftive fliare in the trade with Egypt. As it ap- 

 pears probable from Agatharchidcs, and certain from the Periplus, that 

 they traded to Arabia, probably from the moil remote ages ; fo we 

 know from Ptolemy [L. i, c. 17] that they no\v failed up the Red fea 

 as far as Egypt, where he converfed with ibme of them, who were from 

 Timula, an emporium on the weft fide of India, called Symylla by the 

 Greeks *. " 



1 66 — The Parthians , in confequence of an embafly to Chang-ti, emperor 

 of China (who died a". 88) had carried on a commercial intercourfe with- 

 that empire, of which (according to the Chinefe writers) they were fo 

 jealous, that they would never permit any foreigners to pafs through 

 their territories to China. The Roman emperor, Marcus Antoninus ^ 

 confidering the demand for filk, which was. produced in no other part 

 of the world than China, and the exorbitant price of it in Rome, deter- 

 mined to fend ambaffadors to negotiate a more direcl: commercial in- 

 tercourfe with that country than the fubjeds of Rome had yet been abk 

 to accomplifh. His ambaffadors proceeded by the way of Egypt and 

 India, arrived in China, and prefented lome ivory, rhinoceros's horns, and 

 pretious ftones, to the emperor Ouon-ti, who, being, perhaps, informed 

 of the general charader of the Roiiians, received them very coolly. 

 After this firfl known communication of any European government 

 with that of China, the Romans began, according ta the Chinefe hiftor- 

 ians, to have a more dired intercourfe with that empire f^ But, if their 

 intercourfe was by fea, there is not the fmalleft hint of it in any Greek 

 or Roman author now extant. It is more probable, that it was effeded 

 by caravans, who traverfed the continent of Afia beyond the northern 

 boundary of the Parthian empire ; and perhaps the flation in 43° north 

 latitude, noted by Ptolemy [^Jla, tab. vii] as a refting place for the mer- 

 chants who traveled to the Seres (as thofe merchants may be prefumed 

 to have been fubjeds of Rome) was eftablifhed on that occalion : " and 

 caravans may alio have traveled to China from the weft coaft of India. 



• It waf probably the port called Semylk 1f\ toun, the king of the people of the Wcftcni ocean.. 



'.lie Periplus, and noted as having only a coailiii^ The reception of the Roman anibafladors at the 



trade. It now fent vefTclr. to Egypt, and received Chinefe court obliges us to fuppofc, either that 



JIgyptian velTtls. the Scrcf, who are faiJ to liavt lent cnibanics to 



f We a^c indebted to the Chinefe hiilorian, folicit the favour of Auguftus, and other Roman 



Vcn-hien-tong Kao, and to the Oriental literature emperors, and even of this fame empeiur Aiitoniii- 



.iiid rcfcarch of Mr. dc Guigncs, \^Reflcxions fur us, were a people totally diifereiit from the Chi- 



./■/ liaifons dis Romains uvt: Ics Tarlares tt let Chi- nefe, or that the Roman writcis fomclimes fpokc 



noil, in Memuita dt litttraturc, V. xxxii, />. 355^ at random of the diftant countries from which they 



for thefe fa^ls refprifting the embady frym An- received embaffie?. 



