206 J. HORNELL ON INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 



(/) The Chinese entered the Indian trade at a very early date, probably not later 

 than the fifth century A.D. The rise of their overseas connection with India seems 

 to have synchronized with the collapse of Grseco-Roman sea-trade and somewhat 

 antedated the rise of modern Arab sea-power. From the fifth century onwards till 

 the fifteenth they worked in co-operation with Arab and Indian traders, meeting 

 and exchanging wares at Kayal, Quilon, Calicut, Deli, Broach, Diu, and even Karachi 

 (Debal) on the south and west coasts of India, also westwards to the Euphrates and 

 for some time even to Aden. Their ships were better designed, better equipped, larger 

 and more seaworthy than those of the Arabs and Indians. Even before the coming 

 of the Portuguese this trade appears to have been suddenly arrested. In the earlier 

 centuries of this intercourse, the Chinese fleet went further east than in the later 

 period, a consequence perhaps of the inferiority of Indian and Arab ships in early 

 days. With the growth of the maritime power of the Arabs, the Chinese trade fleet 

 ceased to go beyond the Malabar ports. 



(g) Of Mala}^ sea-trade with India we know extremely little. There is, however, 

 some direct and much indirect evidence that intercommunication with Sumatra and 

 Java was considerable from very early times but this appears to have been carried 

 on in Indian craft, until the Arabs began to be ambitious of sea-power in distant 

 waters. This will be further treated of in the next section. 



