So The Difcovery, Settlement, a$d Commerce Book I. 
fhe Saracens, Turks , and Tartars, in the Eaft:, having 
\vafted and deftroyed a great Part of the Gold and Silver 
with which the World before abounded ; this induced that 
great Scarcity of both, which afterwards enfued, and which 
the Mines of Mexicl , Peru, and Brafil , have not as yet 
been able fully to repair. 
I might add to all this a new Series of FaCls, in relation 
to the immenfe Wealth, and prodigious Revenues, of the 
Eaftem,Monarchs, even at this Day, and particularly the 
amazing Plunder of the Mogul? s T reafury by Thamas 
Kouli Kan % but a very few Years ago which, as they 
would demonftrate, that there are ffcill as great Funds of 
feal Wealth in thofe Countries, would certainly be a ra- 
tional Argument, that there might be formerly thofe excef- 
five Profits drawn from the Commerce of Arabia and India 
which the Authors cited in this SeClion report. But it is 
now time to relume the Thread of our Narration,- and to 
drew, how a great Part of this Trade came to be diverted 
into a new Chanel by the Rife of the Perfian Empire, 
which is to be the Bilfinefs of the next Seftion : And, by 
the Profecution of this Method, we lliall acquire new 
Lights, and greater Certainty, with regard to the Matters 
of Fad laid down in this •, for, as the Perfians were nearer 
Neighbours to the Indians , and, in the Progrefs of their 
Conquefts, became Mailers of a Part of their Country, fo 
they drew from thence, in Proportion, much greater Ad- 
vantages than their Predeceffors had done. 
3 See Frazer s accurate Account of that Expedition. 
SECTION IV. 
Of the Indian Commerce under the Perfian 'Empire . 
i. The Rife of the Perfians, from a Jhiall Province, to the Empire of the Eaft. 2. On the Deflruciion of' 
Babylon, all the Money and Gold Plate recoined by Darius. 3. The Conquefl of Egypt by Cambyfes, 
which ruins their Indian Traffick. 4. Darius Hyftafpes fends Scylax, a Greek, down the River Indus, 
into the Ocean, y. Undertakes and completes the Conquefl of the Indian Provinces adjoining to Perfia* 
6 . Xerxes, the lafl of the Perfian Monarchs that minded Maritime Affairs. 7. This Conduct conjidered 
and accounted for. 8. The Indian Hiflory c/Ctefias, what it was , and what Degree of Credit it de- 
ferved. 9. Other Accounts of the Indies within this Period. 10. The fiigular Voyage ey Iambulus from 
Ethiopia to /A? Indies. ix. A great Mixture of Truth with thefe extravagant Reports. 
i. HE great Conquefts of Nebuchadnezzar , in- 
fe ftead of eftablifhing his Empire, proved the 
jH Ruin of it *, for his Son behaved fo ill, and 
treated his Neighbours fo haughtily, that he firft railed that 
Spirit which produced the Ruin of the AJfyrian Monarchy. 
This proceeded from the clofe Conjunction of the Medes 
and Perfians, Nations that lay immediately behind his Do- 
minions, and were at that time very little known in the 
World, and for whofe antient Hi (lory we are ftill much at 
a Lofs. W e know, however, that Perfia, in thefe early 
Ages of the World, was but a very fmall Part of that 
Country which now paffes under that Name. It was, pro- 
perly fpeaking, no more than what is now contained in the 
Province of Pars, bounded on the North by the Kingdom 
of Media , of which Parthia was then a Province ; on the 
Eaft, by Carmanta •, on the South, by the Perflan Gulph ; 
and, on the Weft, by Sufiana \ and, even within thefe nar- 
row Bounds, there were many different Nations, fo that the 
exaft Seat of the original Perfians can hardly be aftigned. 
But their Monarch Cyrus , who deftroyed the AJfyrian 
Empire, extended not only his own Authority, and the 
Power of the Perfians, over all his Neighbours ; but like- 
wife the very Name of Perfia , which has comprehended, 
ever fince, a very large Trad of Country, of which 
Proper Perfia, as before defcribed, makes only a fmall 
Province : For the Perfia of the Antients, after the Reign 
of Cyrus, was bounded on the North by the Cafpian Sea, 
and Part of Scythia : On the Eaft, by the Indian Nations: 
On the South, by the Indian Ocean, and Perfian Gulph : 
On the Weft, by the Rivers Euphrates and Tygris , an 
liis'h Ridge of Mountains, and the River Araxis, which 
falls' into the Cafpian Sea. The antient Perfians were cer- 
tainly a very brave and warlike People, for which they 
were extremely well fitted, by their hardy and laborious 
Coutfe of Life. There is fcarce any Inftance in Hiftory, of 
an Empire fo quickly railed, as this of the Perfians , which 
ivas originally defigned, and abfolutely perfected, by one 
Man. 
Cyrus was the Son of Cambyfes, according to Xenophon, 
King of Perfia, but, according to other Writers, a Noble- 
man 0 only of that Country, by Mandana, Daughter of 
Aftyages,, King of the Medes , to whom the Perfians were 
then 'Tributaries. He was of a martial Spirit, and had 
withal fo great Wifdom, that, being employed by the 
King, of Media, his Uncle,, as General of his Army, he,. 
in the Space of twenty Years, iiltirely conquered Lejfief- 
Afia, Upper- Afia, and all the Dominions of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, whofe Grandfon Nabonadius , was killed at the taking 
of Babylon, hr the Year of the World 3460, or there- 
abouts ; and thereby eftablifhed the Perfian Empire : For 
he foon after fucceeded his Father, and his Uncle, in both 
their Kingdoms ; and thereby attained to the largeft So- 
vereignty that hitherto had been ereCted in the Eaft a . 
2. It was abfolutely neceftary to ftate the Beginning of 
this Empire clearly ; for, having fo much to fay of the 
Succeflbrs of Cyrus, who firft brought the Indians to the 
Sight and Acquaintance of the Europeans , it was requifite, 
that the Nature and Extent of their original Dominions 
fhould be known. Cyrus delivered up the Babylonifh Em- 
pire to his Uncle Darius, King of the Medes , who did 
not long furvive it ; but, during the time he did live, Cy- 
rus made an Expedition into Syria and Egypt , both which 
Countries became tributary to him •, by which he gained, 
at once, a great naval Force : For the Phoenicians find- 
ing that he had required nothing from them detrimental 
to their Intereft, or Commerce, but, on the contrary, was 
willing to regard them as his Allies, willingly accepted this 
Condition, and aftifted him and his Succeffors with their 
Fleets, as long as the Perfian Empire lafted. 
Amofis , King of Egypt, fubmitted, on the fame Prin- 
ciple of yielding a titular Homage to the Perfian Mo- 
narch, and referving to himfelf the Obedience of his Sub- 
jects, and the full Pofteflion of the Kingdom •, which was, 
at that Time, accepted by Cyrus , who fought to fettle the 
Empire as foon as pofiible *, and therefore required no hard 
Conditions from any. While Cyrus was thus employed 
abroad, Darius the Mede , who refided at Babylon, caufed 
all the immenfe Treafures of the AJfyrian' Kings to bs> 
coined into Money, which, from him, received their 
Name ; and the Pieces of Gold were called Darics, and 
• Half-darics, which were not much unlike our Guineas ; for 
the Daric weighed but two Grains more, but in Value be- 
came nearer the Jacobus, becaufe the Gold had fcarce any 
Alloy : And this continued to be the current Money of 
the Eaft for many Ages b . 
Some of the greateft Writers of Antiquity afifert, that 
the lafl Expedition of Cyrus was againft the Maffagetes, a 
Scythian Nation, governed by a W oman ; and that in this 
Expedition he was killed c : But Xenophon afferts, that he 
died peaceably in his Bed, furrounded by his Friends. And 
a Xemphm Cyropadie, lib. b Suidm in wc. Zcrymk, e Heredatut. Phdorus Siculus, JuJUn. 
3r 
wh- 
