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lized nations of antiquity. These must have sought for 
them in their native countries; because we never hear of 
Hindoos travelling, either for information or for commerce, 
beyond the precincts of their own territory. There was 
little indeed to tempt them beyond, having every thing 
within their own limits; whether food, raiment, or the 
means of cultivating the different arts ; with a fruitful soil 
and favourable climate, for the development of the physical 
and mental resources of a resident people. 
The earliest known products of India have been so 
frequently mentioned, that we need not again recur to 
those which were known to the Greeks ; except to repeat 
that their nature indicates the southern latitudes from 
which they were brought. That these were the shores of 
the Indian Peninsula, we may infer from their being the 
nearest tropical country where such products could be 
grown ; Africa being then, as now, equally inaccessible 
both by land and by sea. India, therefore, independent 
of all other evidence, was, most probably, the ultimate 
object of the long journeys and voyages of antiquity. The 
occurrence of these we might indeed consider proved, by 
finding the products of the east and south, well known to 
and esteemed in the west, even though we were unable to 
trace the routes by which they reached their destination. 
The fertility of the Indian soil, and the variety of its 
products, afforded not only ease and abundance to its inha- 
bitants, but also leisure for other pursuits than that of 
procuring food. The north-western provinces, or those along 
the banks of the Ganges, were early seats of the highest 
civilization, and they enjoy particular advantages of climate. 
From October to March they are able to cultivate wheat 
and barley, with the pulses of Europe; and with equal 
success, in the rainy season, or from the middle of June to 
the end of September, rice, sorghum, and other tropical 
