APPENDIX. 157 



some relations with India, but trade with those 

 countries had never taken other course than by way 

 of the Red Sea, and this was closed from the seventh 

 century by the Arabian invasion of Egypt, which 

 soon followed the invasion of Arabia by the bar- 

 barians of the west (Ethiopians). 



The commerce of these rich lands must then 

 have taken a much longer and more dangerous 

 route. The traders were obliged, after going down 

 the Indus, to reascend that stream, and by the 

 Bactrea (Bolkh) to reach the Oxus, and finally, 

 by the last pass into the Caspian Sea, from whence 

 they went into the Black Sea by the river Don. 

 But this long and dangerous voyage was never un- 

 dertaken by the traders of Constantinople ; they 

 would not have been able to traverse with safety 

 such an extent of country, partly a desert, and in 

 part inhabited by wandering tribes, most of them 

 nations with whom they were nearly always at war, 

 who were destined in the end to swallow the Greek 

 Empire. 



They therefore limited themselves to receiving 

 upon the borders of the Caspian Sea the mer- 

 chandise of India, brought to them by intermediate 

 people. One can scarcely realize that in such a 

 state of affairs the orange tree could pass into 

 Europe, for this beautiful part of the world had 

 never been in so general disorder or had so little 

 intercourse with India. Her luxury and commerce 

 were nearly annihilated, and the Arabians, whom 



