196 



ON THE ANCIENT 



From Ceylon large ships went to Chryse, the modern 

 peninsula Malacca, where lay the Indian colony Kokkonagra ; 

 thence to Sindhu in Siam, to Aganagara in Kamboja and to 

 China, where the names of Bramma, the modern Seminfu, 

 and of Ambastes, the river Ngan-nan-kiang near Kanton 

 indicate Hindu origin. The islands of Java and of Bali 

 were colonized by Indian settlers, and the Greek traveller, 

 Iambulos, whose observations were used by Diodorus 

 Siculus, corroborates this fact. 



The ships employed on these voyages were large, had two 

 prows and could hold 3000 amphoras. They were built of 

 papyrus, like the ships on the Nile, the ropes were manu- 

 factured from the coco palm and the sails from the hemp, 

 which grew in Ceylon. This vigorous display of the Indian 

 trade is no doubt closely connected with the spread of 

 Buddhism which instilled for a time fresh energy into the 

 population. 



Having thus far commented on the commerce carried on 

 by the Hindus, our attention will now be directed towards 

 those nations who traded with India. As India through its 

 climatic position and its natural condition, i.e., by the peculiar 

 distribution of fertile level, plateau and mountainous land, 

 produces much, which cannot be produced in other countries, 

 and is moreover not dependent upon others, it became rather 

 a commercial centre, a sort of entrepot, than a real trading 

 country. Its intercourse with the neighbouring nations, 

 depended on its own natural frontiers. These were the sea 

 for the southern peninsula, the Dekkan ; Burmah on the East, 

 the Himalaya mountains on the North, and Beluchistan and 

 Afghanistan on the West. Burmah and the south of China 

 are very rich countries, but their inhabitants have never 

 shown great signs of civilization or proved themselves able 

 to use the immense treasures so prodigally bestowed on them. 

 The mountain passes along the Burmo-Chinese frontier are 



