﻿2 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE : 



for the purpose of these discourses I discovered In- 

 dia on its largest sole, describing it as lying between 

 Perfia and China, Tartary and Java; and, for the same 

 purpose, I now apply the name of Arabia, as the 

 Arabia?: geographers often apply it, to that exten- 

 iive peninsula which the Red Sea divides from 

 Africa, the great Assyrian river from Iran, and of 

 which the Erythrean Sea washes the base ; without ex- 

 cluding any part of its western side, which would be 

 completely maritime, if no isthmus intervened be- 

 tween the Mediterranean and the Sea of Kolzom : 

 that country in short I call Arabia, in which the 

 Arabic language and letters, or such as have a near 

 affinity to them, have been immemorially current. 



Arabia, thus divided from India by a vast ocean, 

 or at least by a broad bay, could hardly have been 

 connected in any degree with this country, until na- 

 vigation and commerce had been considerably im- 

 proved; yet, as the Hindus and the people of Yemen 

 were both commercial nations in a very early age, 

 they were probably the first instruments of conveying 

 to the western world the gold, ivory, and perfumes 

 of India, as well as the fragrant wood, called Alluwwa 

 in Arabic, and Aguru in Sanscrit, which grows in the 

 greatest perfection in Anam, or Cockinchina. It is 

 possible too that a part of the Arabian idolatry 

 might have been derived from the same source with 

 that of the Hindus ; but such an intercourse may be 

 considered as partial and accidental only; nor am I 

 more convinced than 1 was fifteen years ago, when I 

 took the liberty to animadvert on a passage in the His- 

 tory, of Prince Kantemir, that the Turks have any just 

 reason for holding the coast of Yemen to be a part of 

 India, and calling its inhabitants Yellow Indians. 



The Arabs have never been entirely subdued, nor 

 has any impression been made on them, except oa 



