468 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



lution that happened in Egypt itfelf, feemed to have fuper- 

 feded the communication with the coaft of Africa ; for, in> 

 Strabo's time, few of the ports of the Indian Ocean, even 

 thofe neareft the Red Sea, were known. I mould, indeed, 

 fuppofe, that the trade to India by Egypt decreafed from the 

 very time of the conqueft by Csefar. The mines the Romans 

 hadat|the fource of the river Betis*, in Spain, did not produce 

 them above L. 15,000 a-year; this was not a fufficient capital 

 for carrying on the trade to India, and therefore the immenfe 

 riches of the Romans feem to have been derived from the 

 greatnefs of the prices, not from the extent of the trade, 

 In fact f, we are told that 100 per cent, was a profit in com- 

 mon trade upon the Indian commodities. Egypt now, and 

 all its neighbourhood, began to wear a face of war, to 

 which it had been a ftranger for fo many ages. The north- 

 of Africa was in conftant troubles, after the firft ruin of 

 Carthage ; fo that we may imagine the trade to India began 

 again, on that fide, to be carried on pretty much in the 

 fame manner it had been before the days of Alexander, 

 But it had enlarged itfelf very much on the Perfian fide, 

 and found an eafy, fhort inlet, into the north of Europe, 

 which then furnifhed them a market and confumption of 

 fpices. 



I must confefs, notwithflanding, if it is true what 

 Strabofays he heard himfelf in Egypt, that the Romans em- 

 ployed one hundred and twenty veffels in the Indian trade J, 

 it muft at that time have loll very little of its vigour. Wo 

 muft, however, imagine, that great part of this was for the 



account. 



* Strabo, lib. 3. 7 Plin. i!b. \i. cop, 23.. ± Strabo, lib. r*. p. 81. 



