224 



GANGETIG HINDOOSTAN. 



tients. Mr. i?^w^^/ fixes it here, or very near to this city. Pliny 

 fpeaks highly of its great extent and wealth, and the high re- 

 putation and power of the Prafii, the furrounding people ; but 

 fuch was the fame of this their capital, that their name was 

 often loft in that of the Palibothri) derived from the city. Me- 

 ga/lbenes, in Arrian, i. p. 529, fays, that the length of Palibotbra 

 was ten miles, its breadth near two ; that it was furrounded with 

 a fofs, and with wooden walls thirty cubits high, and that it had 

 DLXX towers, and LXIV gates. Pliny could never have been 

 ignorant of a city of fuch importance, had it been on the con- 

 flux of the Ganges and the Jtunna ; it muft therefore have 

 been on that of feme other river. Mr. Rennel therefore very 

 juftly places it near Patna, and fuppofes, not without reafon, 

 that the Soa7^e had once flowed near its walls, and that Pali- 

 botbra was feated on the forks of both rivers. The change of 

 the courfe of rivers in the level countries of India is not un- 

 common, even to diftances greater than that the prefent object 

 of illuftration. But to give feme degree of certainty to the 

 fuppofed fite of Palibotbra^ the remains of a very large city has 

 been difcovered very near to Patna, called Patel-pootber^ or 

 Pataliputra. The Soane^ which once joined the Ganges near 

 the walls of this antient city, now falls into that river at Mo- 

 neab, twenty-two miles above Patna. I can fee no reafon to 

 contradidl this account. The refpetft I pay to the judgment 

 and accuracy of Mr. Rennely takes from me every doubt of the 

 real fituation of this once magnificent city. 

 Megasthenes Mega/ibenes, the embaflador from Seleucus Nicator, made 



LONG RESIDENT r, i-i I ^ • f y 



THERE. Palibotbra his relidence durmg his long abode in India. He 



kept a regular journal, which proved the fource from which 



Straboy 



