130 DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 
ANTOINE CoLIN' merely translates the Latin epitomes of Garcia, adding an annota- 
tion which is an epitome of the statements of Thevetius, and illustrated by a copy of 
his figure of the frankincense-tree. 
In *Purchas, His Pilgrimes’ (London, 1627), NıcmoLAs DovEnTon, Captain of the 
“ Peppercorne,' writes, March 1612 :—** The eight and twentieth . . wee anchored in rough 
ground in seven fathome, a mile and a half westward from Mount Felix” (Mount Elephant 
of the ancients, Ras Fieluk of the Arabs). “The nine and twentieth in the morning... 
the countrie people brought downe to our men to sell, some store of sheep, small goats, 
with some small frailes of olibanum and gumme arabick, all which they had at reason- 
able rates." | 
And Captain Joux Saris, in his Voyages, under March 1, 1611, writes:—“In the evening 
we had ground, standing in along the land to find the bay of Feluke. . . . Here are 
gummes of several sorts, very sweet in burning, also fine mats, well requested at Aden, 
Mocha, and the Indies; for ordinarily the Indian ships touch here both inward and 
outward, to buy thereof, and of the gummes”?. 
HERBERT? writes of Arabia :—“* But in the old time these were distinguished into the 
Sabæi, whence Guilandinus says was the queen that came to hear Solomon's wisdom, 
and the three Magi who had the honour of presenting their offerings to Christ. And it 
is not without reason that this part of Arabia abutting upon the Persian Gulf from 
against the Island of Bahrein, mentioned by Eratosthenes, where the city of Calach was 
(now called Obollach), as far as Muscat, was the Sabæan land, which, from the abundance 
of gold there found, was reputed Ophyr, though, indeed, both Sabæa and Ophyr are near 
Ganges. From the plenty of frankincense and myrrh, it was called Thurifera Regio, 
most abounding near the hilly country of Merbat and Segar (Sheher), neighbouring the 
land of Hadramat or Atramit, as Pliny and Pomponius Mela (lib. iii. c. 18), thus:— 
* Sabei Arabie felicis tenent partem ostio maris Persici proximi Carmanie, ubi montes 
Asabi sunt :” albeit many contrarily suppose that Saba or Sheba (which Strabo, lib. xvi., 
calls Metroba) was in the western part of Arabia, near the Red Sea. I take leave to 
digress a little further. After the confusion of tongues, which was 120 years after the 
flood" &c. 
Of Benjamin, he writes :—“ Arabia has good, but Pegu and Siam better.” 
SALMASIUS says that the word olibanum is from the Greek 6 A:ßavoc, and sums up the 
statements of Theophrastus, Pliny, and the Arabs in favour of Arabia being the land of 
frankincense. 
BocHanr? says that frankincense is not obtained from India, or Africa, or Panchaia, 
or Mount Lebanon, but solely from Saba. Both sacred and profane writers testify to 
this. The thuriferous region lies between the Sachalitic Gulf and Syagrian promontory ; 
and Cana (Makalla) is the emporium of the trade. 
* Histoire des Drogues, Epiceries et Simples: Lyon, 1619. 
* This passage is referred to by Vincent, ‘Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients,’ Lond. 1807, vol. i. p. 90. 
* Travels: London, 1677. 
* Plinian® exercitationes et de Homonymis Hyles Iatrice : Traj. ad Rhenum, 1689. 
* Geographia sacra: Traj. ad Rhenum, 1674, and Lugd. Bat. 1692. 
