99 
they were manufactured (Journ. Royal As. Soc. No. VII.), 
and which would not be seen were they made with any other 
kind of steel. This proves that a trade must have existed 
between Damascus and Cutch ; of which, indeed, there is" 
other testimony. The best steel, in Pliny's time, came 
from China, that is, most probably from India. Steel was 
used in Egypt long before the Trojan war, when the 
Greeks, like the Peruvians at the time of the discovery of 
America, hardened their copper with an alloy of tin. A 
native sulphate of iron is found in the hills of Behar. 
Copper being abundant in India, enabled the Hindoos to 
become acquainted with its ores, and make use of its pre- 
parations, both internally and externally. Lead is procurable 
in the form of galena in different parts of India, and has 
been obtained from Ava in the state of a natural litharge. 
The Molybdcena of the ancients is supposed by Dr. Thomson 
to be litharge, as it is described to have been in scales. Tin 
is one of the metals earliest known ; it was employed by 
the Egyptians before the time of Moses, and is mentioned 
by the name Bedel, as procured, with iron and lead, from 
Tarshish. (Ezekiel, xxvii. 12). The Greeks and Romans 
obtained tin (kassiteros) from the Insula? Cassiterides, or tin 
islands, lying off the north coast of Spain ; hence it has 
been inferred that the Scilly Isles are intended, and that tin 
must always have been obtained from Spain or Cornwall. 
Rut the Hindoos, like the Egyptians, have employed tin 
for various purposes from- very ancient times; and though 
there is no proof of its being found in the jjresent day in 
tlie Peninsula of India, yet it is abundant on the opposite 
coast of the Bay of Bengal, as in Burma, Tenasserim, 
Junkseylon, and Malacca. There must in very ancient 
times have been a trade between India and these places. 
It is also found in the islands of Madagascar, of Banca, 
and Sumatra. Antimony, in the form of its sulphuret, 
