i84 ISLAND OF CEYLON. 



been among them. This Strabo deUvers from the account left 

 by Oneficrilus, a follower of Alexander the Great, who fent him 

 on a voyage to India, where he informed himfelf of many 

 things, among which is no fmall fl:iare of fable, or mifrepre- 

 fented accounts. 



Mela's. Mela fpeaks of this ifland as the part of another world, and 



that it never was circumnavigated. 



Pi.iny'5. Pliny, lib. vi. c. 22, gives us a large chapter on the fubjedl of 



this illand : he not only gives the authority of Megafibenes, who 

 had written a hiftory of India, and of Eratojlhenes, a famous 

 geometrician, who pretended to give the circumference of 

 Ceylon, but has drawn many lights from the four embafladors 

 actually fent from this ifland to Rome, in the time of Claudius. 

 By accident, a freed flave of a farmer of the Roman cuftoms in 

 the Red Sea, was driven to the coaft of Ceylon by a ftorm ; fuch 

 an impreflion did he make on the king of the ifland by his 

 favorable report of the Romans, that determined him to fend 

 thefe envoys. From them many particulars were learned j they 

 were not fparing of any thing which tended to exalt the glory 

 of their country : they faid that it contained five bunded cities ; 

 the chief was Palefmundum, that had two hundred thoufand 

 citizens. For other particulars I refer to the old hiftorian ; 

 more is beyond my plan. 



Ptolemy's. Ptokuiy comes next, who is particular as to the produdlions 



of this great ifland. He mentions rice, honey, ginger, beryls, 

 hyacinths ; and gold, filver, and other metals ; and he agrees 

 with Pliny about its producing elephants and tigers. He alfo 

 fays, the antient name of Ceylon was Symondij but in his days it 



was 



