A. D. 852. 257 



852 — Some fuppoie coals to have been ufed as fuel in England at 

 this time, twelve cart-loads of them, with fixty loads of wood, and fix 

 loads of turf (or peat) being enumerated among the articles conftitut- 

 ing the rent of Sempringham, an eftate belonging to the abbay of Me- 

 delhamftede (Peterburgh), in the -Saxon Chronicle, as tranflated by 

 Dodor Gibfon *. 



877 — Baichu, a rebel, made himfelf mafter of moft of the empire of 

 China. When Can-fu (Canton), the port for all the Arabian merchants, 

 fell into his hands, he maflacred all the inhabitants, among whom there 

 are faid to have been one hundred and twenty thoufand foreign mer- 

 chants, confining of Mohamedans, Jews, Chriftians, and Perfees. This 

 favage cut down all the mulberry trees, which fed the filk-worms, and 

 confequently abolifhed the filk trade during his reign. To complete 

 the ruin of the country, he pradlifed fuch extortions upon foreign mer- 

 chants, that they "gave up trading to China f. 



The weft fide of the Red fea appears to have been now deprived of 

 all foreign trade : the vefl^els from Siraf in the Perfian gulf (and we 

 hear of none from India) delivered their cargoes at Judda, or Jidda, an 

 Arabian port, feemingly not ufed when the Periplus of the Erythrsean 

 fea was written ; and thence the goods deftined for Egypt, Europe, and 

 Africa, were forwarded in vefi^els conduded by people acquainted with 

 the navigation of the Red fea, the many dangers of which deterred the 

 foreign navigators from proceeding any farther in it. We are told that 

 the Red-fea coafters carried the goods to Cairo, which had now fuper- 

 feded Coptos as the general depofit of merchandize upon the Nile ; and 

 if that is fl;ridly true, the vefi^els muft have proceeded through the 

 canal, which was reftored by Amrou the Arabian conqueror of Egypt %. 

 And thus we find the trade of the Red fea nearly fallen back to the 

 ftate in which it was under the firft Ptolemies, and alfo, if we except 



deck, but a clepfydia, or water time-meafurer : other fubftance dug out of the ground as wd] as 



\_AmQn. Gejl. Franc. L.iv, c. 95] and that, which coal ; and indeed it may as well be turf, which is 



his father Pepin received froni Pope Paul I, was alfo dug out of the ground, though not fo deep, 



probably on the fame principle, though I have not unlefs it appeared that Sempringham produced 



iTiet with any particular account of it. For the coal, which, I believe, it does not. It may be ob- 



antient murrhine vefllls, fuppofed by fome to have jccled, that gearda muft be turf; and if tlic fofGle 



bceu the porcelain of China, fee above, p. fubftance (grasfan) were coal, that interpretation 



* The words in the original Anglo-Saxon are would be apparently right. Its various meanings 



' fixtiga fothva wuda, and twaelf fotliur grsefan, are earth, th; ivorU, a yard or inchfure. The 



'' and fex futhur gearda.' — As it is not ufual tranfaiSion is entirely omitted in Wheloc's edition 



with me to depend on the infallibility of any of the Saxou chronicle. 



.perfon, I cannoc help having fome ■ doubt as to f Baichu feems the fame, who is called the rob- 



the propriety cf Doftor Gibfon's trauilation ; ber Hiam-ciao in the Hifloria Sinka in The'vemt, 



and I lubmit it to thofe, who imderftand the K. n, p. 52. 



Anglo-Saxon belter than myfclf, whether grsefau % Thele two articles of Oriental information are 



can, without any better warrant, be tranflated conveyed to us by Abu Zeid al Haftan, a mer- 



coal (' carbonum foffilium') feeing that grab- chant of Siraf, whofe work, in a great meafure, a 



an, graf-a, graf-an, fignify in Moefo Gothic, Ice- comment upon that of Soliman, was publillieH 



landic, and Anglo-Saxon, to dig, ccrvi, grave along with it by Mr. Renaudot. 

 or engrc-uc, and confequently may apply to any 



Voi. T. K k 



