2 £4- ESSAY o^- 



communication, eitlicr natural or artificial, between 

 these two rivers; and tlie nature of the soil, with the 

 tlistancc, certainly countenances ilia possibility of 

 such a communication. The town of JVasica, placed 

 by ProLEMV on the Narniadu, I strongly suspect 

 to be out of its place, and to have been originally 

 meant for N'asica or Nassuck, near the source of the 

 Godaveri, and to the N. E. of Bo.nhay. It is also 

 iny opinion, that tlie SfrdojiyT mountains are mis- 

 placed by Ptolemy: and imleed such is the con- 

 struction of his map in tljat part, that there is no room 

 for them in their natural place; and I take them to 

 be those situated' to the east of Baroche^ between 

 the Narmadd and th.e river Main, where to this day 

 they dig for precious stones. In consequence of 

 this erroneous construction, the rivers Paddar^ 

 Sdhhra-mdli, and Mahi aie confounded, and the 

 whole peninsula of Gujarat disappears. The reason 

 I conceive to be, that the shores were not frequented, 

 on account of the vicious and untractable disposi- 

 tion of the natives. In tlie fourth century, mention 

 is made of Diu, under the denomination of Dibu or 

 Divu*: its inhabitants were called Divcei, Dibeni 

 and Divciii; and it appears that this denomination 

 extended to the whole peninsula. In the same man- 

 ner, the Musulmans gave formerly the name of 

 Soma-naika, to Gujarat', from a famous place of 

 •worship of that name. 



It seems, that the inhabitants of that country 

 had, by their piracies, greatly offended the Ro' 

 mans: for we read that they were forced t0 

 send an embassy to Constantinople, and give hos- 

 tages for their future good behaviour, and the 

 famous Theophilus was one of them. When 



* PI«ilostorgius, p. 487. Ammian. Marcellio. lib. 220. Diu is called 

 Dib in the A}in-Acberi, Vol. 2d. p. 94. 



