480 Essay on the Ancient Geography of India. [No. 6. 



this is probably the true etymology of the name of the second island, 

 called Palla, Polla, both by Ptolemy, and Marcian ; and which pro- 

 bably never existed. Fictitious islands are sometimes introduced, such 

 as Brasil, near the coast of Ireland, the inaccessible one near the 

 Canaries, which seemed to fly off pala, before you, and then suddenly 

 disappeared. Pliny, on the authority of king Juba, mentions such an 

 island in the Red Sea, called Topazion ; and which often eluded the 

 pursuits of navigators. 



Pliny takes notice of the island of Nosala, without, however, men- 

 tioning its name. Being fond of quaint expressions, he calls it the 

 reddish bed of the Nymphs ; and probably, there was in the Greek 

 original Erythra y or Erythras ; and this passage should be read thus. 

 This island is the night resting place of the nymph Erythrd, in which 

 men and living beings disappear. This is really conformable to the 

 Hindi notions ; and the name of this nymph, or goddess, is Haridra, 

 synonymous with Tdmrdj Hinguld, and Pingald; and from it the 

 Greeks made Erythraios, or of a purple colour, the shades, and tinges 

 of which were as various among them, as with the Hindus. Pliny 

 has preserved to us some curious fragments, relating to this country ; 

 the names are often strangely disfigured, and there are occasionally 

 some transpositions. 



He mentions a river called Manais ; then a tribe called Augutturi y 

 who probably lived about Guttar Bay : then comes the river Borru, 

 with a tribe called TJrbi ; the river Pona?nus, near the confines of the 

 Pandoe ; the Caberon, with a harbour at its mouth in the country of 

 the Sorce. I suspect here a transposition ; and I shall attempt to 

 correct the whole in the following manner. 



The river Manais answers to Tal-Mena : Augutturi is Guttur : the 

 river Balomus, near the confines of the Obandos ; the river Arubd, 

 with the Arubi tribe, near Cape Arubah : the river Tuberus or Tome- 

 rus, in the country of the Oritce, or of Ora. 



The Geography of this country is so little known, that we cannot 

 proceed, but with the utmost diffidence. The old maps of the Portu- 

 guese disagree; and transpositions are constantly to be met with. 

 This seems to be a fatality, attending all surveys of that coast, not 

 even excepting the most recent ones, from the Gulf of Cutch toward 

 the west. The best map, in my opinion, is that of Jao Texeira, 



