376 



JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. III. 



of the article itself in Ceylon, viz., to a deceit practised by 

 the Chinese, who seem to have had before that period a 

 monopoly of trade in the Indian Seas. It is also important 

 to investigate with clearness, whether by "the Eastern Coast 

 of Africa," a part of Asia* was not meant : or whether the 

 former was at this time a port at which the Chinese vessels 

 touched, and from whence the spice itself was exported to 

 other ports in exchange for European and Egyptian mer- 

 chandize. The great value too, which was set on this 

 article may seem to have influenced the Chinese, like the 

 Arabs who traded in the Red Sea, to withhold the name 

 of the country from whence they obtained itf and, it may 

 not be improbable, on the other hand, (if the Chinese did not 

 conceal the fact,) that the Greek writers took for granted 

 without much inquiry, that the spice, which they procured 

 from the East Coast of Africa, was a product of those 

 regions.; 



The inaccuracies into which the ancient writers seem to 

 have fallen with regard to the Geography of the Eastern 

 Coast of Africa, and the opposite regions in Asia, may also 

 intimate to us such a want of information in the Greek 

 writers, as to render a mistake on their part possible, and 

 indeed too probable ; for, amongst a great many errors 



must also recollect, that at this early period, gardens appropriated to 

 the cultivation of cinnamon were not yet in existence."— Heeren's 

 Historical Researches, ii. p. 425. 



* It would also seem that the ancients "confounded Egypt with 

 Abyssinia.'' -See Sir William Jones's Works, vol. i. p. 274. Also 

 Wilf Orel's Essay on Egypt, in Supplement to vol. ii. of the same 

 work, p. 544. 



f "The Coast of Ethiopia, from the straits to the eastern headland of 

 Aromata, was much better known after the time of Ptolemy Philadelphia 

 than it is now to us Europeans.*** There is no doubt that the Arabian 

 possessions must have extended still farther south, perhaps to Mada- 

 gascar, but they concealed their knowledge from the Greeks." — Laurent's 

 Ancient Geography, pp. 349-51. 



X " The Venetians are thought to have carried on their trade to India 

 with greater advantage than any other nation ever did. They had 

 no direct intercourse with that country, but purchased the commodities of 

 the East, imported by the Mohammedans into Egypt and Syria.*** Neither 

 the ({reeks nor Romans seem to have visited the more Eastern parts 

 of it (India). They procured the productions of those countries only 

 at second hand."-~Dr, Adam's Ancient Geography and History, pp. 512-3. 



