Chap. II.] IXDIAN, AEABIAX, TERSIAX AUTHORITIES. 5S9 



importation of tlie produce of the opposite coast of 

 India. ^ It is not only probable, but almost certain 

 that during the middle ages, and especially prior to the 

 eleventh century, when the trade with Persia and 

 Ai^abia was at its height, Mantotte afforded the facilities 

 indicated by Bertolacci to the smaller craft that availed 

 themselves of the Paumbam passage ; but we have still 

 to ascertain the particular harbour which was the 

 centre of the more important commerce between China 

 and the West. That harbour I beheve to have been 

 Point de Galle. 



Abou-zeyd describes the rendezvous of the ships arriv- 

 ing from Oman, where they met those bound for the 

 Persian Gulf, as lying half-way between Arabia and 

 China. " It Avas the centre," he says, " of the trade in 

 aloes and camphor, in sandal-wood, ivory and lead." ^ 

 This emporium he denominates " Kalah," and when we 

 remember that he is speaking of a voyage which he had 

 not liimself made, and of countries then very imperfectly 

 known to the people of the West, we shaU not be sur- 

 prised that he caUs it an island, or rather a peninsula. 



According to him, it was at that period subject to the 

 Maharaja of Zabedj, the sovereign of a singular kingdom 

 of which httle is known, but which appears to have 

 been formed about the commencement of the Christian 

 era ; and which, in the eighth and ninth centuries, ex 

 tended over the groups of islands south and west of Malacca, 

 incluchng Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, which had become 

 the resort of a vast population of Indians, Chinese, 

 and Malays.^ The sovereign of this opulent empire had 



1 Mahawanso, cli.Tii. p. 51 ; cli. xxv. 

 p. 155 ; ch. XXXV. p. 217. 



* Aboit-zetd, Relation, Sfc, vol. i. 

 p. 93 ; Reinattd, Disc. p. Ixxiv. 



^ Journ. Asiat. vol. xlix. p. 206 ; 

 Elphinstone's India, b. iii. t-li. x. p. 

 168 ; Reixafd, 3Iemoires sar rinde, 

 p. 89 ; Introd. ABorLFEDA, p. cccxc. 

 Baron Walckenaer has iiscertained, | xx^ni 



Q Q 3 



fi"om tlie puranas and otiier Hindu 

 sources, that the Great D^niasty of tlie 

 Maharaja continued till A. D. (i'lS, 

 after which the islands were sub- 

 divided into numerous sovereipiities. 

 See Major's Infrodacfion to the In- 

 dian J'oi/a(/es in the Fifteenth Cen- 

 tary, in the Ilukluyt Sue. Fubl. p. 



