5*4 SThe Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book I. 
not therefore in Virtue of their great naval Force, that 
they became Matters of thefe Countries, but it was their 
Delire of becoming Matters of them, that put them upon 
raffing one. capable of atchieving it. 
It is very remarkable, that the firft Place in the Indies 
at which they arrived, was Malabar , a Country which, 
as we have fhewn, was known to the Ancients, and that 
too for a long Traft of Time, but fo imperfedlly that 
they were not fo much as able to give us a tolerable De- 
fcription of it. Whereas in the Space of fifty Years, or 
lefs, the Portuguefie were Lords not only of that, but of all 
the adjacent Countries, raifed and depofed Princes as they 
thought fit, and difpofed of Kingdoms at their Pleafure. 
The great Ifland of Ceylon , which, as we have proved, 
was the T aprobana of the Ancients, of which, after fo 
many Voyages to the Indies , they have given us fuch lame 
Accounts, was not only perfectly difcovered within the 
Space of Time before mentioned, but in the Hands of 
the Portuguefe , who impofed a Tribute upon the Inhabi- 
tants, though all the Force they had then in the Indies , 
was not equal to a thoufandth Part of their Number. 
Thefe Refle&ions will lead the intelligent Reader into 
many more upon this Subject, and enable him to com- 
prehend perfedtly the Difference between the Attempts 
made by the Ancients, and the Exploits of the Moderns 
in this Part of the World, which, at prefent, is all our 
Bufinefs *, and having thus travelled through the darkeft 
and moft perplexed Part of our Subject on which we were 
obliged to enlarge ourfelves, in order to be perfectly un- 
derttood, and to fatisfy the Reader, that though every 
Thing within this Period of Time, was confufed and em- 
barraffed enough j yet it was far from being fo utterly 
uninteiligible, f as it has been hitherto reprefented ; we may 
have Leave to be more concife for the future, in refpedl to 
thofe Things that are better known, and with regard to 
which therefore long Digreffions are unneceffary. 
In order to conned the ancient and modern Hiftory of 
the Commerce between Europe and the Eaji-Indies , it is 
requifite that we fhould give a fhort Account of the Inter- 
courfe between the Subjects of the Greek Empire and 
the People of the Indies ; for the Reader mutt naturally 
apprehend that after the imperial Seat was transferred 
from Rome to Confiantinople , Egypt remaining ftili a Pro- 
vince no lefs ufeful to the latter than the former, this Com- 
merce which had hitherto been in a manner annexed to 
the Pofleffion of Egypt , mutt have been not only pre- 
fer ved, but encouraged and extended. 
He will likewife, no doubt, be glad to fee the Changes 
that happened in it, the new Routs that were opened to 
and from the Indies, by which the Commodities of thofe 
Countries came by fo many different Chanels into Europe , 
and which by the Riches they derived to the feveral Na- 
tions that intermeddled with this Commerce, excited that 
Spirit of Difcovery which has fince laid open that Trade 
dire&ly to all the modern maritime Powers, and made 
their Eftablifhments in the Indies , the moft folid Proofs 
of their having a juft Right to that Title. Thefe, 
God willing, we fhall difpatch within the Compafs of two 
fhort Sections, and then we fhall enter on the Travels 
to the Indies , which firft acquainted the northern and 
weftern Parts of the World, with the Interior of thofe 
Countries, the Nature of their Inhabitants, the Conftitution 
of their Governments, and the Hiftory of the moft re- 
markable Events which had fallen out in them. 
A Sort of Travels that, as they appeared ftrange and 
furprifing in the Times in which they were firft pubiifhed, 
fo when exhibited fimply and plainly as their Authors 
wrote them, and without the whimfical Additions by 
which they were disfigured in our old Tranfiations, they 
cannot fail of being thought equally curious and inftruc- 
tive even at this Day, the rather becaufe we love to trace 
Things to their Beginnings, and to fee what ftrange Im- 
preffions the Sight of Countries, People, and Manners fo 
different from their own, made t upon the Minds of thofe 
who firft vifited thofe remote Regions, and that too int 
an Age not altogether fo free from Superftition and Pre- 
judice as this in which we live. 
SECTION XVI. 
A concife Hifiory of the Rife , Progrefs , and Decline of the Conftantinopolitan Empire , 
together with the Commerce of its SubjeBs in the Eafl: ; as alfo a brief Detail of the 
Rife of the Arabian Empire , the Recovery of the Indian Commerce in Egypt 3 and 
the reviving the "Trade of Alexandria. 
i. A Defcription of the City of Confiantinople, and a fhort View of the many Advantages derived to it 
from its commodious Situation. 2. The great Care taken by the Succefors of Conftantine for the Sup- 
port of maritime Roiwer. 3 . The great naval Strength of that Empire , and the Difpoftion of its 
Fleets . 4. The Ruin of the Silk-Tirade under the Emperor Juftinian. 5. Silk-worms firft brought to 
Europe, and a compendious Hiftory of that Manufacture to the prefent Times. 6 . A large Account of 
the feveral Indian Commodities that were brought to Confiantinople. 7. A concife View of the State of that 
Empire , from the Reign of Juftinian to that of Heraclius. 8. The Victories of Heraclius over the 
Perfians, and the Embafftes fent him from the Indies. 9. The Rife and Progrefs of the Arabian Empire , 
to the Time of the Conquef of Egypt. 10. The Foundation of Grand Cairo, and the Revival of the Indian 
Trade in Egypt. 1 1 . The Hiftory of the Arabian Commerce continued , with the Revival of that of Alex- 
andria. 12. The State of Confiantinople, to the Time of its being taken by the Turks. 13. Obfervations 
and Remarks upon the foregoing Hifory. 
i.rpHE beft Writers of Antiquity differ very 
i much as to the Reafons which induced Con- 
jSL ftantine the Great, to remove the Seat of Em- 
pire from Rome to the new City, which he called by his 
own Name. Some ajcribe it to his Care of the Eaftern 
Provinces, and others to his being fenfible that the Romans 
hated him. Whatever his Reafons were, moft certainly 
the Majefty of old Rome could not have been tranfiated 
to a City better feated for Empire than this, which the 
Em peror Conftdntine ftiled new R.ome . It’s old Name 
was Byzantium ; and it had run through a great Variety 
of Accidents before Conftantine , who firft thought of re- 
. 3 ' 
building Troy , caft his Eyes upon it, and immediately 
difcerned that no Place was fo fit to become the Metro- 
polis of the Roman Empire, and Miftrefs of the World. 
It ftands on a Point of Land on the ancient Bofphorus of 
Thrace , where there is a narrow Straight which ferves to 1 
divide Europe and Afia , and, at the fame time, forms 
a Communication between the White and the Black- 
Sea. 
The City ftretches itfelf out in the Manner of an Am- 
phitheatre, having on its Right-hand the Archipelago , and 
all the Mediterranean ; and on the Left, the Black-Sea 
up to the Pains Meo tides ; fo that it has • all Afia in 
' * Front, 
