A, D, 517—522. 225 



517 — ^The Danes made their firfl appearance under that name in hif- 

 tory, when an army of them landed in Gaul, and ravaged the country 

 between the Macfe and the Rhine. In their retreat they were attacked 

 by the Franks, who recovered all the plunder from them. [Greyer. 

 'Turofi. L. iii, c. 3.] 



522 — The Oriental commerce of the Red fea appears to have made 

 a regular progrefs down the well coafl of it. The earlieft port I find 

 mentioned is Heroopolis, at the very head of the weft branch, or on a 

 canal drawn from the Nile to it *. Myos-hormos and Berenice, after- 

 wards became the feats of the trade. And we find, from the w^orks 

 of Cofmas Indicopleuftes f , that it had now quite deferted the Roman 

 dominions, probably in confequence of the calamities brought upon 

 Egypt by Caracalla and Diocletian, and fettled at Aduli, a port of Ethi- 

 opia, (or Abyflinia) near the mouth of the Red fea, and far beyond the 

 utmoft limits of the empire. That port was now frequented by the 

 merchants of Alexandria, by Cofmas, and his neighbours (who refided 

 in fome other part of Egypt), and by the merchants of Aela, an Arabian 

 port belonging to the Roman at the head of the eaftern branch, where, 

 in an earlier age, Solomon had his harbour of Eziongeber ; and from it 

 fuch of the Egyptian Greeks, as defired to adventure upon the Ocean, 

 embarked, apparently as charterers or freighters, onboard the veflels of 

 the port. The aromatics, incence, and fpiceries, the ivory, and the 

 emeralds, of Ethiopia, were coUeded in the'port of Aduli, and fhipped 

 by the merchants of the place onboard their own veflels, which they 

 fent to India, Perfia, South Arabia, and the Roman empire, the only 

 parts of which, acceflible by their veflTels, were Egypt and the north 

 part of Arabia. 



The great illand of Siele-div (or Ceylon), again called Taprobane by 

 the Greeks ij;, was now the chief feat of the commerce of the Indian 

 ocean. Its ports were frequented by vefl!els from India, Perfia, Ethio- 

 pia, South Arabia, Tzinitza § (or China), and other eaftern countries; 

 and the merchants of Siele-div carried on a great adive trade in their 



* The pofition of it cannot be precifcly afcer- —This defcription makes it clear, that the dolphin 



tained. of the antients is very different from the modern 



f Indicopleuftes fignifies navi-^alor of India, dolphin : and it anfwers very well to the porpus, 



He was a merchant ; and he founds his narrative, the form of which alfo comes near to the antient 



he tells us, upon his own kuowlcge, aflilled by in- reprefentations of the dolphin. But his compari- 



quiries made in every place to which he traded, fon of turtle to mutton mull be allowed to be in- 



In his old age he became a monk, as did alfo an- accurate ; and the connoifeurs in eating will think 



other Greek merchant of his acquaintance. ' Egypt, meanly of his taile, in putting the dolphin (or por- 



« the fruitful parent of fuperltition, afforded the pus) on a level with the turtle. 



• firft example of the monalh'c life,' in the early J See above, p. 132, note for the revolutions of 



part of the fourth century. names of this ifland. 



A paffagc of Cofmas may through fome light § Whether the Sinae, mentioned at the end of 



on the quellion tefpefting the dolphin of the an- the Periplus of the Eiythrxaii fea, (fee above, p. 



tienta. He fays, ' the flefh of tiie turtle is liko 133), were the Cliincfe or not, there can be little 



' mutton : that of the dophin is like pork, tender, doubt that the Tzinitza of Cofmas is the empire 



' and nearly as agreeable to the tafte as the turtle.' of China. 



Vol. I. F f 



