12 AN ACCOUNT OK THE WILD TRIBES 



198 years before his birtli, thai is in iiw 

 years 610 before the christian era, the He- 

 brews and the Tyriaiis rounded Africa by 

 order of tlit^ king of Egypt, and that they 

 doubled I he cape of Good Hope, a road 

 wiiicli was yet known to Eratosthenes, and 

 after that was entirely forgotten, during 

 near 9,000 years; since tlie maps drawn ac- 

 cording to Hipj)arclius, Strabo andPtoiemy 

 show a land embracing the Erytfirean sea , 

 or the sea of India , meeting on one side witlj 

 .ifrica at the Prasuni promontory, and on 

 tlie otiier with Eastern Asia at Catigara* It 

 was only in t^i<)7 V. D. that Vasco de 

 Gama, a Portuguese, rediscovered the road 

 from Europe to India round llie cape. 



x4ccordlng to the preceding considera^ 

 tions it may be supposed, without any pre- 

 sumption, that the Binuas are the abori- 

 gines of the land they inhabit, chiefly in the 

 Peninsula (I wUl except a small n tun her of 

 them who are living near Malacca wlnnw \ 



