t4LO ' rHlLOSOPHlCAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO IJ&J. 



little acquainted with the country beyond the Ganges, as those who are supposed 

 to have been his predecessors, and only mentions it as an island remarkable for 

 the distinctness with which the sun-rising was observed. 



Ptolemy flourished under Adrian, and Antoninus; and made his last astrono- 

 mical observation on a Wednesday, the 2d of February, in the year 141. He 

 has taken notice of many places not mentioned any where else, and is the first 

 who has called Malacca a peninsula. Marinus indeed, whom he quotes as a late 

 author, knew likewise that it was so; which still more confirms the supposition, 

 that this was found out in Trajan's reign. Ptolemy's works evidently show, that 

 his knowledge was superior to that of all the other ancient geographers; and his 

 living in Egypt gave him many opportunities of a very early intelligence con- 

 cerning any discoveries made by navigation, which might be a long time before 

 they were communicated to the other learned men of that extensive empire. 

 Accordingly we see that the author of the P. Maris Erythraei, who is supposed 

 to have been his contemporary, but lived a little later to the time of Marcus and 

 Verus, was less acquainted with these late discoveries. 



Agathemerus, who had read Ptolemy's works, lived in the reign of Severus 

 and Galienus, in the beginning of the 3d century, and mentions the country of 

 the Sinse as the most oriental he was acquainted with. 



Marcianus Heracleota is the last geographical author it will be necessary to 

 mention. He is supposed to have lived some little time before the building of 

 Constantinople, and even at that time this nation appears to have been the most 

 oriental; for though he copied from such authors as wrote in the interval between 

 Ptolemy and him, yet all the improvement made during that time was only a 

 mensuration of this particular coast, which Ptolemy himself tells us was not done 

 in the days in which he lived. 



From these circumstances it is apparent, that no mention was made of this 

 country during the first century. Marinus, as we have seen, wrote before Pto- 

 lemy; Ptolemy was far advanced in years before the middle of the 2d century; 

 and further, as it may be supposed that Trajan sent these ships to India at the 

 time of his arrival in Arabia, which was in the 11 6th of the Christian aera; this 

 may very well agree, in point of chronology, not only with these authors, but 

 also with our former supposition, that this country was found out in his reign. 

 But as he scarcely survived the expedition 2 years, such persons as were em- 

 ployed in this voyage, finding on their return that he was dead, might be discou- 

 raged from pursuing any discoveries they had made; especially as the voyage was 

 attended with so much hazard and difficulty, and as the views on which they had 

 undertaken it were in all probability frustrated by the accession of a new emperor. 

 Admitting therefore, that this was their first attempt, may not the extent of 



