76 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan. 



geopraphers : Vide D'Anville) between the ancient Tyndis and Muziris on the 

 western coast of India, is supposed by one learned author (Lucas Holsterius ad 

 Ortel, p. 137 9 quoted by Cellarius) to have been the Ophir of Scripture. The 

 Sahara occupied a country corresponding in situation with Sumbulpore, the ri- 

 ver Adamas (so named from its containing diamonds) which flowed through it, 

 being the Mahanudce. Sabar, in the vicinity of Dacca, is regarded as a place of 

 great antiquity by the natives ; it is situated in that part of the district which 

 w r as the original seat of the fine muslin manufactures, and was in all probabi- 

 lity an emporium for these fabrics and for the lign aloes, cassia, spikenard, 

 and musk of Sylhet, Assam, and Bootan. Sahara, from which the Sabaricus 

 Sinus took its name, is referred by D'Anville to Pegu, where the Irawaddee 

 enters the sea. Saba or Sabana Emporium was situated at the southern ex- 

 tremity of the Golden Chersonesus, and apparently in Malacca. The Sabadibce 

 (or islands of Saba) are perhaps Sumatra and Java. All these places, it may 

 be remarked, are celebrated for their products ; and they were, in all probabi- 

 lity, the sites of emporia from which the Sabacans derived the precious stones, 

 the gold, the fine garments, the perfumes, and the spices, with which they 

 supplied Egypt, Judsea, and the countries of the West. 



Note II. 

 Dr. Buchanan supposes that the Hindoo Princes of Bengal continued to 

 govern at Sonargong, long after they had lost possession of the western por- 

 tion of their kingdom, and that this part of the province was not annexed to 

 the dominions of Mahomedan conquerors of the country until the time of 

 Ferid-Addeen Soor Shere Shah. It is well known, however, that there were 

 Mahomedan governors of the eastern division of Bengal prior to the reign of 

 Shere Shah, and that Sonargong was in subjection to them, as early as the year 

 1279. It is probable, indeed, that there were Mahomedans in this part of 

 Bengal, at a period long anterior to the conquest of the country by Bukhtyar 

 Khulijy in 1203. We are told that the Arabian merchants of Bussora carried 

 on an extensive maritime commerce with India and China, as early as the 8th 

 century, and that many of them settled in the countries which they visited. 

 Dr. Robertson, in speaking of Mahomedan traders in the east at this time, 

 states : " They were so numerous in the city of Canton, that the emperor 

 (as Arabian authors relate) permitted them to have a Cadi or Judge of their 

 own sect, who decided controversies among his countrymen by their own laws 

 and presided in all the functions of religion. In other places, proselytes were 

 gained to the Mahomedan faith and the Arabian language was understood and 

 spoken in almost every sea port of any note." (Robertson's Ancient India, p. 

 102.) There is reason to believe from this circumstance, that Bengal was the 

 seat of a colony of Mahomedan merchants at this early period. This may be 



