551 



MEDIAEVAL HISTOEY. 



[PART V. 



had reached the shores of India, and centuries afterwards 

 their experienced seamen piloted the fleets of Solomon in 

 search of the luxuries of the East. 1 



Egypt, under the Ptolemies, became the seat of that 

 opulent trade which it had been the aim of Alexander 

 the Great to divert to it from Syria. Berenice was 

 built on the Eed Sea, as an emporium for the ships 

 engaged in Indian voyages, and Alexandria excelled 

 Tyre in the magnitude and success of her mercantile 

 operations. 



The conquest of Egypt by Augustus, so far from 

 checking, served to communicate a fresh impulse to the 

 intercourse with India, whence all that was costly and 

 rare was collected in wanton profusion, to minister to 

 the luxury of Rome. A bold discovery of the same 

 period imparted an entirely new character to the navi- 

 gation of the Indian Ocean. The previous impediment 

 to trade had been the necessity of carrying it on in 

 small vessels, that crept cautiously along the windings 

 of the shore, the crews being too ignorant and too timid 

 to face the dangers of the open sea. But the courage 

 of an individual at length solved the difficulty, and dis- 

 sipated the alarm. Hippalus, a seaman in the reign of 

 Claudius, observing the steady prevalence of the mon^ 

 soons 2 , which blew over the Indian Ocean alternately 

 from east and west, dared to trust himself to their in- 



countries bordering on the Medi- 

 terranean will be found in PARDES- 

 sus's Collection des Lois Maritimes 

 anterieures au XVIII s siecle. torn. i. 

 p. 9. 



1 It has been conjectured, and not 

 without reason, that it may possibly 

 have been from Ceylon and certainly 

 from Southern India that the fleets 

 of Solomon were returning when 

 " once in every three years came the 

 ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and 

 silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks." 

 / Kings, x. 22, II Chron. xx. 21. 

 An exposition of the reasons for 

 believing that the site of Tarshish 



may be recognised in the modem 

 Point de Galle will be found in a 

 subsequent chapter descriptive of 

 that ancient emporium. See also 

 Note A at the end of this chapter. 



2 Arabic " mcnissam." I believe the 

 root belongs to a dialect of India, and 

 signifies "seasons." VINCENT fixes 

 the discovery of the monsoons by 

 Hippalus about the' year A.D. 47, al- 

 though it admits of no doubt that the 

 periodical prevalence of the winds 

 must have been known long before, 

 if not partially taken advantage of 

 by the seamen of Arabia and India. 

 Perils, $c., vol. ii. pp. 2457. 



