5°° ‘the Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book L 
' In his Time, fuch as Uranus , Jupiter , Apollo , and the proportionable Number ofHorfe and Foot •, which fuffi- 
reft, were, in Fad, no other than Men famous in their ciently ftiews, that, in his Opinion, die Conqueft of this 
Life-times, and, by the Flattery of Pofterity, magnified as Country was not to be attempted. 
Gods after their Deceafe. This -Opinion was certainly He likewife fets another Bound to the Defire of difco- 
well founded and agreeable to Truth *, but if that Author vering, by affirming, that a great Part of this Country 
had delivered it fimply and plainly as his own, he had pro- lies under the Line, for fo he muft be underftoofi, and 
bably died a Martyr for fpeaking Truth improperly and not under the Tropick of Capricorn , as feme of his In- 
againft the Laws j and therefore he invented this Hiftory terpreters would have it ; for, he adds immediately after 
of Panchaa, to infmuate that the Priefts there had a Re- that in many remote Parts of India , the Sun cafts no 
cord of this Matter written in golden Characters. By Shadow, neither is the North Pole, or any of the Con- 
this Means he, without Danger to himfelf, intimated ftellations near it feen there in the Night, which was fuffi- 
to his intelligent Reader, that whatever the Vulgar might cient to deter the Travellers of thofe Times from all 
believe of thefe Deities, yet, in Fad, they were no other Hopes, and even from all Willies of penetrating into 
than Men ; and the Stories related of them the bare In- thefe Regions *. 
ventions of Priefts. . Strabo likewife gives us a large and magnificent Ac- 
_ I mull eonfefs, that it is my own Opinion, Plutarch count of the Plenty and Riches of India , and aiTures us 
did not unveil this Myftery with a Defign of expoftng its that it abounds with all kinds of Wealth, more efpecially 
Author, as he feems to do, for an impious Man, and an Pearls, Carbuncles, Diamonds, and other precious Stones j 
Atheift, but with an Intention to deliver this Matter more he mentions likewife Aromaticks and Spices, as Part of the 
clearly, and by giving the Key of Euemerus's Story more Commodities brought from the Indies, but he does not 
effectually to divulge the Truth : For, whoever confiders tell us in what particular Parts of India r thefe valuable 
the Drift and Defign of his Difiertation concerning Ifis Commodities are found *, and indeed all the Writers of 
and O fir is, will eafily difcern that he wrote it with much Antiquity are alike faulty in this Point, 
the fame View that Euemerus invented his Fable of Pan- Pliny, who had read almoft every Author extant on this 
chaa ; and as for the hard W ords he beftows on that Subject z , is very clear in the general, as to the Plenty of 
W riter, they ferved only to cover , ahd fereen himfelf ; all things neceflary for the Service of Mankind in this Coun- 
fince, undoubtedly, had he not ftiled thefe Notions im- try, and gives us very copious Accounts of the rich Metals 
pious and atheiftical, he had pafifed (with the Vulgar at and various kinds of precious Stones that were brought from 
ieaft) for as impious and atheiftical a Writer as Euemerus , thence, fome of which he tells us were found in Rivers, 
whofe Fiction he unveils others in the Clefts of Rocks, and not a few in the Mines 
A great Happinefs it is, that the Chriftian Difpenfation of Gold and Silver ; but with refpect to the Places where 
Fas freed Mankind entirely from this tyrannical Yoke of thefe Mines lay, or how they were to be reached, he is 
Superftition, and opened a free Paflage to Men’s Thoughts, filent ; and we may fay the fame thing of Arrian, and all 
without Danger or Diftruft. But it has, notwithftanding, the ancient Writers cited by Athenaus ; for though they are 
fo fallen out, that, even under the Light of the Gofpel, profufe in their Commendations of India , and in their Pa- 
Superftition has fometimes prevailed to fuch a Degree, that negyricks on its Wealth and Riches, yet they never diftin- 
Jearned Men have found themfeives under a kind of Ne- guiffi where we are to look for this precious Commodity, 
ceffity of making ufe of the fame Artifice, as appears by Sir or where that, is to be found ; but content themfeives with 
I’homas More’s Utopia , and other Works of the like Nature, alluring us, that all are to be met with in the Indies. 
which, however, are penned in fuch a Manner as very fel- This was owing, beyond all Queftion, to the Conduct 
dom to miflead the Reader, or impofeupon him Fictions fer of the Indians in their Commerce with the Ancients j for 
Truth. Thus, we have at length finifhed both the real they always pretended that things were brought to them, 
and feigned Accounts of the Indies , as delivered to us by from diftant Countries with infinite Hazard and Danger ; 
the Ancients, and are now at Liberty to take Notice of and thefe Pretences ferved at once to heighten the Value of 
their Obfervations and Reflections upon thefe Accounts, their Goods, and to deter Strangers from going in Search, 
which are of fo much greater Importance, as they certainly of them, as it likewife hindered them from making fuch 
kept up the Fame of thefe Countries, and in a great Enquiries as might have acquainted them with the Truth, 
meafure excited that Spirit which lead to the more perfect which was, that many of the valuable Commodities of the 
Difcovery of them. Indies were actually the Produce of thofe Countries they 
io. As flight as the Knowledge was which the Ancients vifited. 
had of the Inland Parts of India, yet they took great It may not be amifs to obferve here, that in the De- 
Pains to propagate a very high Opinion of its Fertility and feription of the Erythraean Sea aferibed to Arrian, and in 
Riches. Diodorus Siculus gives a very pompous Defcrip- all the other Works of the fame Nature that are ftill extant, 
cion of the Advantages poflfeffed by India beyond any the Indians are every-\yhere reprefented as much given to, 
other Country. He aliens, that the Air is remarkably and extreamly well verfed in, all the Arts of Commerce. It 
fettled and ferene, the Seafons equally regular and plea- appears from thofe Accounts, that there was a very confi- 
fant, the Mountains covered with Fruit-trees of the moft derable Trade carried on in all their Sea-ports, and that 
exquifite Kinds j the flat Country fo rich as to yield two where-ever the Situation of their Rivers afforded , them an 
Crops every Year, one of Wheat, and the other of Millet- Opportunity of conveying their Merchandize in fmall Vef- 
Rice, or fome fuch Grain ; the Waters fo delicate and fels within Land, they had great Cities upon their Banks 
pure as greatly to contribute to Health and long Life, and full of Artificers and Manufacturers, where every thing 
moft of the Rivers overflowing annually like the Nile, and was carried on with the utmoft Regularity, fo that the Fame 
thereby leflening the Labour of the Inhabitants in the of their Induftry was equal to that of their Riches. I make 
Cultivation of their Grounds. therefore no Scruple of afferting, that thefe were the flou- 
After this Reprefentation of the golden Age, as ftill rifning Times of that Country, and that the Indians have 
remaining in India, we are further affured, that the Trea- been fince on the Decline, which will appear the more 
ftires which the Earth contains in her Bofom, are much credible, if we confider, that the prodigious Trade of 
fuperior to thofe bom upon her Surface, and that Gold, Sil- China , which is the great Source of the Wealth and Hap- 
ver, Brafs, Iron, and Tin, are more common there than in pinefs of its People, is, properly fpeaking, a domeftick 
any other Country. Yet, after this magnificent Detail of Commerce ; that is to fay, the beft Part of it is carried on 
the Plenty, and Riches of the Indies, he plainly puts the amongft themfeives, and from one Province of that Em- 
River Ganges, as the Boundary of all the Indian Regions, pire to another. 
With which he was acquainted 5 for, into that, he fays, the It is not therefore at all wonderful, that People thus 
reft of the Rivers of India fall j and in the Neighbour- practifed in Trade fliould be able, by ftudied Relations, to 
hood of this River he places the Gandarides, a Nation fo impofe upon Strangers, who finding them all in the fame 
powerful that Alexander was glad to leave them untouched. Story, took this for an inconteftable Argument of Truth ; 
as haying four thoufand Elephants trained to War, and a and hence it is that we are told of rich Mines of Gold in 
The Court of Areopagus at Athens punilhed feverely fuch as broached new Opinions in Religion, or derided the old. x Biodar . Sicul. 
0. ii. y Geograph . lib . xr. * * See the Lifl of Anthers cited by Pliny in his Natural Hiftory in Father Uardouiti % Edition. 
1 . “ - the 
