374 Ehe Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book I. 
prevailed? and S emir amis was totally overthrown, and foon 
obliged to fly, with a very fmall Retinue, efcaping with 
great Difficulty back into her own Dominions. Authors 
have varied in their Accounts of this Tranfablion, which 
is largely related by Diodorus , who had it probably from 
Ctejias , who drew his Accounts from the Oriental Writers 
themfelves. There is not certainly any great Weight to be 
laid upon a Fa£t, the Credit of which can hardly be afc at- 
tained, and fome Circuraftances of which have vilibly the 
Air of Fable d . 
The citing, however, this Pafiage, to prove that the In- 
dians were a civilized and ' powerful Nation, is, perhaps, 
going no further than the Laws of Reafon and Probability 
will allow : There is, indeed, great Difficulty in at- 
tempting to fettle the Time when this Tranfaftion hap- 
pened ; but, according to the Chronology of Capelins , who 
leans to have ftudied the Point very carefully, it muft 
havefiallen out about the Year of the World 1970 e . 
4. The next Invafion of India is reported to have been 
by Sefcojis , or Sefofiris King of Egypt, who was one of the 
greateft Princes that ever ruled in that Kingdom : He is 
reported to have made life of a Fleet of 400 Sail, which 
he drew together in the Red-Sea *, and is like wife faid to 
have invented long Ships, or Ships of War, probably, 
when he firft laid the Scheme of this Invafion, which he 
executed with equal Succefs and Deliberation, leaving be- 
hind him, as the Egyptians fay, Monuments of his Conquefts, 
where-ever he came. He is laid to have penetrated through 
India to the Sea which feparates China from Japan: Not 
that the Antients were acquainted with that Sea, but they 
report that he went much further than Alexander did ; paft 
the Ganges , fubdued all Afita, even to the Ocean r And, 
if fo, his Conquefls muft have extended to the Sea before- 
mentioned f . He fpent nine Years in this Expedition, be- 
having very kindly towards the Nations he conquered, and 
exafting from them no other Tokens of Obedience, than 
fending annually certain Prefents into Egypt. The fame 
Chronoioger we have before mentioned, places the Reign 
of this King, or rather his Expedition into India , in the 
Year of the World 3023 s . The Ethiopians alfo are faid 
to have invaded India ; but the Circumftances of that In- 
vafion are fo obfcure, that we fhall not trouble the Reader 
with an Account of it. 
5. As to what fome of the Antients report concerning 
Hercules , and his being in the Indies , it is more than pro- 
bable that it is derived from a Tradition of the Indians them- 
felves, who had an Hercules , as well as Bacchus , of their 
own, concerning whom they affirmed, that he excelled all 
other Men in Strength and Courage ; that he cleared both 
the Sea and Land of Monfters, and wild Beafts ; and that, 
having many Wives, he left behind him a numerous Oft- 
fpring, all of them Sons, among whom, when they were 
grown up, he divided India into equal Parts, making each 
of them King or Sovereign of the Country which he af- 
figned him. They like wife afiert, that he founded many 
Cities, the rnoft famous of which was called. Palibothra , in 
which he built a ftately Palace, ftrongly fortified, and fur- 
rounded with deep Trenches, into which he let an adjacent 
River, and thereby rendered the Place, in a manner, im- 
pregnable. After his Death, this Hercules of India was 
honoured as a God : Flis Pofterity reigned for many Ages 
after him, and performed many glorious Actions •, but it 
is remarkable, that the Indian Traditions agree, that this 
Hercules , and his Pofterity, never engaged in any foreign 
Expeditions, or fent forth Colonies into diftant Countries, 
but contented themfelves with the Poffeftion of their own 
Dominions, and that plentiful Region of which they were 
Natives h . 
As dark and obfcure as the Times which fall under this 
Period were, it is moft evident that all the old Accounts 
reprefent the Country very truly, as abounding with all 
the Neceflaries of Life •, watered by many Rivers, Yeveral 
of which had the fame Property with the Nile , viz. 
Overflowing the adjacent Countries at a certain Seafon of 
the Year, and thereby rendering them wonderfully fruit- 
ful. . Thefe ancient Accounts alfo, among many Fables, 
report fome Fads truly, with refped to the Commodities 
of India , which they reprefent as confifting chiefly in Gold 
precious Stones, and Spices ; neither are they much in the 
wrong with regard to Fruits, which they affirm to be 
larger, and more nouriffiing, than in other Parts of the 
World. 
What they report of the People alfo, is, in many refpeds 
not credible only, but highly probable •, for they obferve, 
that tho 5 India was divided into a Multitude of little Prin- 
cipalities, and thofe inhabited by different Nations, yet 
they were all Natives of India , and not at all intermixed 
with Strangers, it being a conftant Maxim of their Policy 
neither to fend out nor receive Colonies, but to live quietly 
under their own Laws, and according to their own Cuftornsj 
fhewing thereby a great Dread and Diflike of Strangers, 
which, as the Reader will obferve, has been, in ail Ag«§„ 
the great Charaderiftic of the Indian Genius. They fur- 
ther allege, as a Reafon why India was never expofed to 
Famine, as Egypt and other rich Countries were, that there 
was a Law inviolably obfervcd by all the Indian Nations, 
that, even in time of War, the Perfons and Properties of 
Hufibandmen were facrecl ; fo that, in all the warlike Expe- 
ditions they made, they never did any Hurt to their Ene- 
mies Country, either by burning the Corn, or cutting 
down the Trees. 
6. It muft be owned, that it is very difficult to diftinguifft 
the antient Accounts -of India from thofe of later Times, 
becaule all the original Authors are long ago peri {bed 
yet, I think, there is good Ground to believe, that the An- 
tient Egyptians might have received from the Indians fome 
Account of what had formerly pafs’d in their Country, 
firice it is a Point out of Difpute, that the Egyptians were 
the firft People that had any Commerce with India, as the 
learned Biihop Huet has very juftly obferved : But whereas 
he, and other learned Men, have inclined to an Opinion 
that the Indians were, in a great meafure, defcended from 
the Egyptians -, and that Ofiris not only conquered that 
Country, but left feveral Colonies 1 there ^ I cannot help 
differing from them intirely, becauie this is very incon- 
fiftent with that Principle of the Indian Policy, of neither 
admitting Strangers to fettle amongft them, nor fending 
out Colonies themfelves : And, as we may eafily avoid this 
Contradiction, by fuppofing that the Egyptians, according 
to their common Cuftom, tranfiated what they had heard of 
the Indian Bacchus, to their Ojiris, I look upon this as the 
more rational Sentiment, leaving the Reader, however, to 
decide as he pleafes. 
As to the Conformity of Manners between thefe two 
Nations, on which that learned Prelate infifts fo much, it 
appears, to me, to prove nothing : For, either the Con- 
queft of Ofiris was general, or particular: The former the 
Egyptians themfelves never pretended ^ and from the Si- 
tuation of Nyfia, granting the Story to have any Truth, it 
is plain, that his Conqueft did not extend far. If, then, he 
penetrated only into the Frontiers of India, and there efta- 
blifhed his Colonies, how can we imagine, that the Man- 
ners of the Egyptians fhould extend themfelves over all 
the Indian Nations, fince it is a thing out of Difpute, that 
the Indians , in general, lived in Obedience to the fame 
Laws, as appears from their Cuftom of fparing Hufband- 
men ? Indeed, I think it would be no difficult Matter to 
prove, that tho’, in fome refpedts, the Manners of the an- 
tient Egyptians and Indians might agree, yet, in others, 
they differed widely ^ and, even as to the Agreement of 
their Manners, I can fee no Reafon why this fhould not 
rather be attributed to the Likenefs of their Countries, 
than to thefe Colonies of Egyptians, of the Exiftence of 
which it is impoffible to afford any fatisfaftory Proof. 
7. I am- very fenfible, that it may be objected again ft 
my Notion, that the Indians were a pure and unmixed 
People : That they themfelves confeffed the contrary, when 
Alexander the Great invaded their Country : For Arrian 
tells us, that when this Conqueror advanced towards Nyfia-, 
Acuphis, at the Plead of thirty Deputies, came from that 
City, on an Embaffy to Alexander, into whofe Prefence 
being admitted, he made the following Speech : 4 The 
4 Inhabitants of Nyfia intreat, O King, that in Reverence 
4 to Bacchus, you would leave the City free, and the In- 
DiodorisSicuI.lib.il. Strabo. e Hijloria Sacra & Exotica , p. 48. f Liodor. Sjcul. 
'upr.a, p. 146. 11 Diodor. Sicul. lib. ii. 1 Uifinre du C ommerce dts Ancient. 
Strabo.. 
PI in. 
2 J. CapeL uti 
6 habitants 
