Cliap. 24.] 
ACCOUNT or COUl^TBIES, ETC 
51 
place, in a future portion of this work. I shall also very 
shortly have to make some further mention of the four Satrapies, 
it being at present my wish to hasten to a description of the 
island of Taprobane. 
But first there are some other islands of which we must 
make mention. Patala,^*^* as we have already stated, lies at 
the month of the Indus : it is of a triangular figure, and is two 
hundred and twenty miles in breadth. Beyond the mouth of 
the Indus are the islands of Chryse and Argyre,^^ abounding in 
metals, I believe ; but as to what some persons have stated, 
that their soil consists of gold and silver, I am not so willing 
to give a ready credence to that. After passing these islands 
we come to Crocala,^^ twenty miles in breadth, and then, at 
twelve miles' distance from it, Bibraga,^^ abounding in oysters 
and other shell-fish. At eight miles' distance from Bibraga we 
find Toralliba, and many others of no note. 
CHAP. 24. (22.) TAPEOBANE. 
Taprobane, under the name of the land of the Antich- 
thones,"^^ was long looked upon as another world : the age and 
the arms of Alexander the Great were the first to give satis- 
factory proof that it is an island. Onesicritus, the commander of 
his fleet, has informed us that the elephants of this island are 
larger, and better adapted for warfare than those of India ; and 
from Megasthenes we learn that it is divided by a river, that 
the inhabitants have the name of Palseogoni,^^ and that their 
Supposed by some to have been Lower Scinde, and the vicinity of 
Kurrachee, with its capital Potala. 
Ansart suggests that these may be the Laccadives. Their name means 
the ^' gold" and *' silver" islands. 
^8 Probably an island near the mouths of the Indus. 
8^ Probably the same as the Bibacta of Arrian. The present name of it 
is Chilney Isle. 
Although Poinsinet will not admit its identity, it is now universally 
agreed among the learned that the island of Taprobana is the modern 
Ceylon. As Gosselin observes, in the accounts said to have been given of 
Ceylon by the ambassadors to Claudius, great allowance must be made for 
the wrong interpretation which, owing to their ignorance of the language, 
the Eomans must have given to much of their narrative. 
From cti/ri, opposite," and xOwv, ''the earth." Its people being 
supposed to be the antipodes of those of Europe. 
^2 "The ancient race." As Ansart observes, the island contains a 
mountain, the name of which is " Adam's" Peak. 
E 2 
