CHAP. I.] 



COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES. 



565 



ing from the west coast of India, bringing thence the 

 productions of China, shipped at the emporiums of 

 Malabar. After the discovery of the monsoons, and 

 the accomplishment of bolder voyages, the great en- 

 trepot of commerce was removed further south; first, 

 from Muziris, the modern Mangalore, to Nelkynda, now 

 Neliseram, and afterwards to Calicut and Coulam, or 

 Quilon. In like manner the Chinese, who, whilst the 

 navigation of the Arabs and Persians was in its infancy, 

 had extended their voyages not only to Malabar but 

 to the Persian Gulf, gradually contracted them as their 

 correspondents ventured further south. HAMZA says, 

 that in the fifth century the Euphrates was navigable 

 as high as Hira, within a few miles of Babylon * ; and 

 MASSOUDI, in his Meadows of Gold, states that at that 

 time the Chinese ships ascended the river and anchored 

 in front of the houses there. 2 At a later period, their 

 utmost limit was Syraf, in Farsistan 3 ; they after- 

 wards halted first at Muziris, next at Calicut 4 , then at 

 Coulam, now Quilon 5 ; and eventually, in the fourth and 

 fifth centuries, the Chinese vessels appear rarely to have 

 sailed further west than Ceylon. Thither they came 

 with their silks and other commodities, those destined 

 for Europe being chiefly paid for in silver 6 , and those 

 intended for barter in India were trans-shipped into 

 smaller craft, adapted to the Indian seas, by which they 

 were distributed at the various ports east and west of 

 Cape Comorin. 7 



COSMAS was a merchant of Egypt in the reign of Jus- 

 tinian, who, from the extent of his travels, acquired the 

 title of ." Indico-pleustes." Eetiring to the cloister, he 

 devoted the remnant of his life to the preparation of a 



1 HAMZA ISPAHANENSIS, p. 102 ; 

 REiNArD, Relation, $c., vol. i. p. 35. 



2 MASSOFDI, Meadmvs of Gold, 

 Transl. of SPREXGER, vol. i. p. 246. 



3 ABOU-ZEYD, vol. i. p. 14 ; REI- 

 NAUD, Discours, pp. 44, 78. 



4 DTTLAURIER, Journ. Asiat., vol. 

 xlix. p. 141 : VIXCEUT. vol. ii. pp. 

 464, 507. 



5 ABOTT-ZEYD, p. 15 ; REES T ATJD. 

 Mem. sur Vlndc, p. 201. 



6 PLIXT, lib. vi. ch. xxvi. ; Peri- 

 plus Mar. Erythr. 



7 ROBERTSON, Am. Ind., sec. ii. The 

 Periplus of the Erythrean Sea de- 

 scribes these Ceylon crafts as rigged 

 vessels, tawirHrvqpfaMC vtivai. 



