No. 60. — 1908.] coiJTO : history of oeylon. 



of cinnamon (which was preserved in Rome as a precious 

 object), the which, as appeared from a lettering that it bore, 

 had been there from the time of the emperor Arcadius, son 

 of Theodosius, who succeeded to the empire in the year of our 

 Lord 397, which was one hundred and twenty-six years after 

 Claudius, who ruled in 271 , it might well be that it was brought 

 as a present by those ambassadors who came with the freedman. 



And leaving Pliny let us come to Onesicritus. The latter 

 says 1 that Tapobrana was of five thousand stadia, and that 

 Brasis on the Ganges was separated from it by a sail of twenty 

 days ; and that between India and it there were many islands , 

 but that it lay more than all others to the south. As to the 

 size, he agrees with Ptolemy. In regard to its being separated 

 from the Ganges by a space of twenty days' journey, and 

 there being between it and India many islands, this shows 

 clearly that he spoke of Ceilao, because it is the same days' 

 journey from the Ganges, and lies to the south of the whole 

 coast of India, and the many islands that he refers to are those 

 of Mamale 2 , and all the others, of which Ptolemy makes 

 mention, and Qamatra lies to the east of India very distant 

 from it. 



Arrian 3 , the Greek author, in saying that anyone setting out 

 from the coast of Comara and Poduca for the west would 

 arrive at Tapobrana, it is very evident speaks of Ceilao : 

 because Ptolemy in his tables places Comara and Poduca in 

 14| degrees on the opposite coast of India on the inner side of 

 the Promontorium Comori, which appears to be Sao Thome 

 or Negapatao : because anyone who sets out from that coast 

 to reach Ceilao has to sail to the west, and for Qamatra to the 

 east ; and it is well known that the island of Ceilao Breeds 

 the largest and best elephants of all those in India, as the 



Materia Medicinal, &c, Salamanaca, 1566, p. 23, where, in a note to 

 cap. xiii., Del Cinamomo, Laguna says that when he was in Rome he 

 was presented by his friend Master Dr. Gilberto with a fragment of the 

 reddish kind of cinnamon called montana, which had by mere chance 

 been found, together with other things, with the body of Maria, sister of 

 Arcadius and Honorius, and wife of Stilicon, who had been interred in 

 the Vatican more than 1,400 years before, her tomb having been 

 discovered during the pontificate of Paul III. (1534-49). Laguna, 

 however, says nothing about a " lettering " on the " stick " (as Couto 

 calls it) of cinnamon, nor does he say how the tomb was identified. 

 Valentyn, in taking over Couto's remarks, creates a new error by 

 turning Laguna into " Lagena." 



1 See supra, page 80, notes 6 and 7 . 



2 The Laccadives (see supra, page 21, note 2 ). 

 :i See supra, page 81, notes 1 and 2 ). 



