( ) 
Arabians lay may be true, that they had them 
from the Indians , and not the Indians from them, 
as Ifaac Vojfius conje&ured ; yet it may be equally 
true, that the Indians had them firft from the 
Greeks , and thofe Arabian Writers ( who are not 
very antient) not have known it ; nor are there 
any Indian Monuments of fufficient Antiquity to 
render this Opinion queftionable. 
But which foever of thefe Sentiments may be 
efteemed the moft credible, with refpedt to the 
Origin of thefe Figures 5 Jofeph Scaliger thought 
they were not received by the Europeans , as they 
came of later Ages from the Arabians , long before 
the Year 1300*. 
But John Gerard VoJJius was of the Opinion 
they began to ufe them about the Middle of the 
thirteenth Century, or the Year 1250 b . 
Father Mabillon , in his Treatife Zte Re 'Diplo- 
matica> was neceffarily led to attend to the Ule of 
thefe Figures, particularly in Dates. And he informs 
us, that they were rarely ufed before the fourteenth 
Century, except in fome few Books of Geometry 
and Arithmetic. And prefently after he fais, it 
was not much to his purpofe to treat of them, fince 
he did not deftgn to carry his Work lower than 
the thirteenth Century c . By which he feems to in- 
timate, that he had met with very few, if any, In- 
ftances of Arabian Figures, in fuch Inftruments at 
leaft, before the Year 1300. 
But no one appears to have examined this Sub- 
ject more carefully than Dr. Wallis ; who has of* 
8 Lib. III. Ep. 223. b De N;vtiir. Art. Lib. III. cap. 8, $ 7. 
® Lib, II, c. 28. 10. 
fered 
