1 WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 



liuxine fea, and appears to me a communication of great 

 pradlicability. 



Batn^. I MAY alfo mention Batna^ a large commercial city, built, 



(according to Ammianus^ lib. xiv. c. 3.) not remote from the 

 ^ Euphrates in Mefopotajnia, by the Macedonians. It was filled 

 with rich merchants ; an annual fair was held there in the 

 beginning of September,, and it was then the refort of mul- 

 titudes of people, for the fake of the commodities brought 

 from India, and even Seres or China, and various other places, 

 both by land and water ; the laft, by the channel of the Perjian 

 gulph, and fo up the Euphrates. 



The Seres. Th£ Seres reminds me of the laft communication I fliall 

 mention, which was to the north, leading to the diftant country 

 of China. The Chinefe merchants defcended from their country, 

 and leaving the head of the defeit of Gobi to the weft, reached 

 little Bucharia, and got the conveniency of the river Ilak for 

 part of their journey. 



Comedo. The ancient Comeda, the fame with Cajhgar, feated in 



Lat. 40° N. in the Cafia Regio of Ptolemy, lay at the foot of 

 mount hnaiis. The Indian and Chinefe trade carried on through 

 this city, is ftill confiderable. The river Sir, the old laxartes, is 

 not far to the weft of Cajbgar, and might, by its falling into lake 

 Aral, be an ancient channel of communication with the Cafpian 

 fea. This city was the rendezvous, even in early times, of the 

 merchants trading with the country to the north and to the 

 fouth. This, I dare fuppofe, was the " receptaculum eorum 

 " qui ad Seras negotii caufa profifciuntur penes huauni mon- 

 <** tjsm" of Ptolemy; and neai" it, to the eaft, was the Lithinon 



Purgon^ 



