lOS ORIGIN AND DECLIKE OF THE 



the Sueci made a present to him of some Hindus, 

 who had been shipv^iecked on the Gej^man shores. 

 They were merchants, who had ventured thus far 

 from their native country.* In the VrihatTcathd we 

 read of several Hindu merchants, who visited the 

 Sacred Isks in the west, and being shipwrecked, they 

 "Were made slaves ; and some of them were so fortu- 

 nate, as to obtain their hbert\% and to revisit their 

 native country-. It is declared there, that they went 

 a ofreat part of the way by land, and then embarked 

 at a place called Itanca r\ another harbour is men- 

 tioned also under the name of Pauta-pur, and this 

 subject I shall resume when I come to treat of the 

 Sacred Isles, Strahlexberg saw a Hindu at To-- 

 bolsk^ who went from India to that place, through 

 China. Bell saw another Hindu from Madras, on 

 the banks of the Argons ; and Mr. Duncan, Gover- 

 nor of Bombay, introduced another to my acquaint- 

 ance, who had been there also. The distance from 

 the Indus to England is one fourth less than that 

 from Madras to TobolsJi through China ;% and the 

 embassadors of Porus travelled as far as Spain 24 

 years B. C. The constant embassies, sent from India 

 to the Emperors of Rome and Coiutantinople, are well 

 known to the learned, even as late as the sixth cen- 

 tury ; but in the seventh, the growing power of the 

 IVIuhamedans became an insurmountable obstacle to 

 any further intercourse. Besides, the present state 

 of societ}', manners and politics in the west, make it 

 impossible for Hindu pilgrims to travel through Eu- 



* Cornel. Nepos apud Plin. Sueton. Cicebo in Vatin. c. 10. 

 Plctaech, 6cc. 



t Frx hat-cat' ha Lamlaca or Section the 5th called also CAfl* 

 turddrud. 



J Stbaulenbbbg p. 103. Asiat. Researches toK vL 483. 



