490 A. D. 132 1. 



lately arreted by them, were really Scottifli, and driven upon their coaft 

 by flrefs of weather, and if fo, to releafe them inftantly. A vefTel be- 

 longing to Dieppe in France, returning from Scotland, was alfo obliged 

 to take flicker in the fome port, where fhe was arrefted by the zealous 

 magiflrates, becaufe fhe had been trading to Scotland. At the requefl 

 of the king of France, Edward reflored the veflel and cargo, for this 

 time, to the owners, though he had a right to punifh them as adherents 

 to his enemies. But at the fame time he begged the king of France to 

 prohibit his fubjeds from having any intercourfe v/ith Scotland. [Fcedera, 

 V. in, pp. 879, 880.] 



After the total expulfion of the Chriflians from Syria, Egypt again 

 became the entrepot of the greatefl part of the trade between the eaftern 

 and weflern regions of the world : and the fovereign of that country 

 took the advantage of what was almofl a monopoly in favour of his 

 fubje6ts to charge very heavy duties upon the tranfit of merchandize 

 through his dominions. Marino Sanuto, a noble Venetian, moved by 

 the hardfhips thereby brought upon the European traders, and burning 

 with catholic zeal, addrefled to the pope a work, entitled The fecrets of 

 the faithful^, v/herein lie propofed to fupprefs the Egyptian trade by an 

 armed force ; and to that work we are indebted for an ample accomit 

 of the Indian trade, as it was then conducted. 



He fays, that formerly Indian goods were brought by the Perfian gulf 

 to Baldac (or Bagdad), and thence, by inland navigation and land car- 

 riage, to Antioch and Licia on the Mediterranean fea. In his own 

 time the fpiceries and other merchandize of India were moftly colleded 

 in two ports, which he calls Mahabar and Cambeth f, and thence tranf- 

 ported to Hormus (or Ormuz), to a fmall ifland called Kis, and to a port 

 (Baflbra) on the Euphrates, all which were fubjedt to the Tatar fove- 

 xeigns of Perfia. But the great bulk of the trade was conduded by the 

 agency of the merchants of the fouth part of Arabia (who had now re- 

 covered the trade of their remote anceflors) at the port of Ahaden, or 

 Aden, believed to be the antient city of Arabia Felix. From Aden the 

 goods were conveyed to Chus on the Nile, near the antient Coptos, and 

 thence forwarded by river crafc to Babylon ; and from it they were 

 floated down the river, and along an artificial canal to Alexandria. By 

 this route all bulky goods of inferior value, among which, however, are 

 reckoned not only pepper and ginger, but alio frankincenfe, and cinna- 

 mon, were conveyed. The duty charged by the fultan on fpiceries was 

 equal to one third of their value: and, as he permitted no Chriflians to 



* The work of Sanuto forms the fecond vo- f He probably means by Mahabar the ccqjl oi 

 lumc of the colleftioii, edited by Bongarlius un- Malabar, the civoif port of wliich was CalicJC ; and 

 •der the title of GrJJa Del per Francos; and \vc are by Cambeth, the country of Cambay. 

 informed in the preface, tliat it was begun in the 

 vear 1306, and prefented to the pope in 132 1. 



