1 84 7. J Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, fyc. 7 



by Barthema and Vertomannus,* who visited India between the years 

 1490 and 1502, as the port whence they sailed direct to Bengal. This 

 locality, indeed, appears from the earliest times to have been the point 

 on the Coromandel coast from which most of the vessels destined for 

 distant ports, took their departure ; and it may therefore be regarded, 

 as identical with the emporium situated in Mcesolia, and mentioned by 

 Ptolemy as the place unde solvunt qui in Chrysam navigant, or with 

 the Masalia of the Sequel, whence vessels sailed to Desarene. The 

 bay, across which the course is mentioned as extending eastward, 

 can be no other, with reference to the position assigned to it, than the 

 upper or northern part of the Bay of Bengal, stretching from Masuli- 

 patam to Balasore. No account is given of the ships in which the 

 navigation of this part of the bay was made, but doubtless they were 

 similar to the vessels that frequented the ports of Kamara, Padooka, 

 and Sopatma on the Coromandel coast, where, according to Arrian, were 

 found " the native vessels, which make coasting voyages to Limurike, 

 the Monoxyla of the largest size called Sangara, and others styled 

 Colandiophonta, which are vessels of great bulk and adapted to voyages 

 made to the Ganges and the golden Chersonese." The Sangara vessels, 

 (Sayyapa) named Monoxyla by the Greeks, are met with in various 

 parts of India, and are used both in coasting and inland navigation.f 

 In some of the eastern districts of Bengal as Dacca, Sylhet, and 

 Mymensing, this kind of boat is called Saranga ; it consists, as the 

 Greek term ixovo^v\oy implies, of one tree or timber, J which is scooped 

 out to form the hull of the vessel, § two or more tiers of planks being 

 generally placed on each side to enlarge its dimensions. Large canoes 

 of this kind are common in Assam. The Bulam boats of Chittagong, 



of the Kistna at some distance inland from Masulipatam. In NieuhofF s Travels,, 

 (in A. D. 1662) it is placed on the south side of the river Nagunda, in the site, 

 apparently, of Temerycotta. 



* Vertomannus's Voyages, R. Eden. London, A. D. 1576. 



f Pliny mentions that the Monoxyla of the Malabar coast were used for trans- 

 porting pepper from the interior. 



X From novo* one, and £v\ov wood. 



§ Dr. Clarke mentions boats of this kind on the Don. (Vide Clarke's Travels in 

 Russia, Tartary and Turkey.) In the South Seas, two of these canoes are joined 

 together by transverse planks forming a kind of deck. The Jangar (Sangara ?) of 

 the Malabar coast is a double platform canoe of this description. 



