^The Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book 'I. 
514 
We may like wife add, that in the Defcription of thefe 
feveral Routs to and from the Indies , we (hall have fre- 
quent Occafion to examine and compare the Induftry of the 
Ancients and Moderns •» from whence it will fully appear, 
that the latter owe their Superiority over the former, rather 
to their Difcoveries in Sciences, and the lucky Improvement 
of Lights derived by various Accidents, than to any Ele- 
vation of genius or extraordinary Degree of Virtue or Ap- 
plication. It is true, we might have found means to have 
inferred many, or indeed, moft of thefe Accounts in the 
foregoing Part of our Work ; but then it would have led 
us into Jong and frequent Digreflions, which would have 
obfcured the principal Subjeds of our feveral Sedions, and 
at the fame time would have rendered the Account of thefe 
Routs much more perplexed ; whereas by their following 
one another in a certain Order, .the Reader will the more 
eafily apprehend them, and by comparing of them with 
each other, will form a better Notion of their Convenient 
cies and Inconveniencies, will enter more eafily into the 
Circumftances attending th^ Rife, and bringing on the Dif- 
ufe of them ; and in a word, will, with Facility and Plea- 
fure, conquer, in a fhort Space of Time, thofe Difficulties, 
which, if they had occured to him in the Perufal of Voyages 
or Travels, would either have hindered his Progrefs, or 
have coft him much Time and Pains to have got over 
them. 
SECTION XVII. 
An Account of the feveral Pajfages to the Indies hoth by Sm and Land % that have been 
attempted , dif covered^ or praSHfed by the Ancients . 
I, Of the North-eaft and North-weft Pajfages , and the Improbability of their being at all known to the An - 
dents, notwithftanding what fome Authors have ajferted on this Subjell. 2. Of the Paffage by Land from 
Ruffia to China, and the Probability of its being anciently praclifed. 3. Of the Pout by Samarcaud and 
the Cafpian Sea, and of PompeyT Project for fecuring the Commerce of the Indies by that Pout to the 
Romans. 4. Of the old Pout by Bogar, and of the Alterations that have happened to fome of the great 
Rivers in Tartary. 5. Of the Paftage through the Country of the Arians, as defcribed by Ammianus 
Marcellinns. 6 . Of another Rout from the Indies, through the Country of the Sac® or S aces, defcribed by 
the fame Author. 7. Of the Pout by Cabul, and of the great Commerce anciently carried on that way 
between Perfia and the Indies. 8. Of the great Pout by Candahar, how far it was known to the Ancients , 
and how much it has been improved Jittce. 9. Of the Paffage to the Indies, through the Country of the Sin® 
or Thin®, and of the Miftakes of the Ancients on that Subject. 10. Of fome other Routs to the Indies, and 
particularly that by Palmyra. 1 1. Of the feveral Pajfages difcovered or pr aA fed fince the Mohammedans 
became Mafters of Egypt. 12. Of the Commerce carried on by the Genoefe at Caffe in Crim Tartary. 
13. Remarks and Obfervations tending to the farther explanation of this Subjell. 
1. H E firft Rout to the Indies which we lhall tiled, but differs from it in this, that it is beyond all que- 
ll mention is, that by the North-Eaft, through ftion practicable •, and if ever it fhould be brought into ufe, 
a. thofe that are ftiled the Streights of Waygatz. might divert a great Part of the Indian Commerce from 
A Paffage often attempted for Reafons that will be here- the fouthern and weftern Parts of Europe into thofe which 
after fhewn in their proper Place, but never hitherto per- lie moft towards the North. This Paffage then is thus 
formed ; though, doubtlefs, of all others the fhorteft Paf- laid down. Thefe Indians are fuppofed to have e in- 
page to that Country, at leaft from this Part of the World, barked on the River Oxus , and fo to have paffed through 
This Rout is fuppofed to lie through that which is gene- the Cafpian-Sea •, thence up the River Volga , and fo into 
rally called the Icy-Sea, fleering North-Eaft, along the the Dewina , which, falling into the Bailie , might well 
Coafts of Lapland, Mufcovy , and Grand Part ary, till you enough have brought them, to the^ Coaft. on which they 
enter the Indian Ocean by the Streights of Uries, and are fuppofed to have been fhipwreck d. It is however very 
id fall on the Coaft of japan and China. That the And- improbable, that fuch a Thing fliould have happened, 
ents never had any Notion of ftich a Paffage is very certain, becaufe it fuppofes thefe Indians to have been perfedly 
becaufe they were not at all acquainted with the Naviga- acquainted with the Navigation of Rivers, which it is 
tion of the northern Seas till the Time of Augujlus \ and much more likely they never heard of, and it is very 
even then, the utmoft Limits of their Difcoveries was the poflible are unacquained with fo much as their Names to 
Cimbric Chereonefe , which is the Country now called Jut- this very Day. . 
land ; and indeed, confidering their maritime Skill, this It is one Thing to deicribe a Paffage to a diftant Coun- 
was a very confiderable Difcovery. The Reafon that we try, and to recommend it to Trial, and quite another 
take Notice of this Paffage, in the firft place is, on Ac- Thing to infill that fuch a Trial has been a&ually made ; 
count of a matter of Fad which has never been difputed, if therefore any Writer fhall infill on the Poffibility of 
and which fome modern Writers confider as an infallible carrying. on a Commerce to India , by the Canal laft.men- 
Proof, that fuch a Paftage is not only poflible, but prac- tioned, it ought to be granted him, that the Thing is 
ticable. * feafible, and might turn much to the Advantage oi the 
The Fad is this j About the Year before Chrift 57, a finall Ruffian Empire, efpecally at this Jundure, when it is aU 
Veffel, having feveral Indian Merchants on board, was moft entirely in the Power of the Shah Nadir to eftairiim 
IhipreckM on the Coaft of Germany , and all the Perfons fuch a Commerce, as being poffeffed of the greateft Part 
who efcaped that Misfortune were entertained by the King of the Country between the Cafpian-Sea and the Frontiers 
of the Suevi, who prefented them to Metellus Celer , then oi India. But whoever would endeavour to peJuade us 
the Roman Proconful in Gaul\ The Writers before- that in thofe early Ages, when Geography was fo little 
mentioned, are very pofitive that thefe Indians came underftood as then in the Eaft or in the North, and Men 
from Japan , or the Land of Jedfo , through the Sreights were fo timorous in navigating even known Seas, that the 
of Way gates., and fo into the northern Ocean, from whence Inhabitants of the remoteft Indies Ihould attempt, not 
they infer, that, with due Induftry and Application, we only to fail through the Cafpian-Sea , for that is not fo im- 
might be able to difeover a Paffage the fame Way. probable *, but to enter the Volga , and pretend to leek a 
But in anfwer to this it has beenfaid, that thefe Indians Paffage that Way into the Baltick , is to bid us lay ah e 
might have fallen upon the Coaft of Germany by another common Senfe and Experience, in order to take up wit. 
Way, which, like the former, hath never yet been prac- Improbabilities and Fidions. 
* flin. Hijt. Nat . lib. ;ii. cap . 67. Re there affirms them pofitively to be Indians , ' and to have paffed frpm India thither. 
