52,2, Fhe Dilcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book I. 
who translated and made them publick, and Shall next 
give a fuccin£t Account from the Materials he has afforded 
us of the Authors themfelves, the Nature of their Works, 
the Circumftances which peculiarly recommend them, the 
Reafons which induce us to believe they are genuine, and 
tllb Credit which on that account is due to them. 
It Was Eufebius Renaudot who delivered thefe venerable 
Remains of Antiquity from the Obfcurity in which they 
had been buried for Ages, and fent them abroad in the 
French Language, with fome very valuable Notes and 
DiSTertations of his own. He was a Perfon whofe Family 
had been distinguished for their Learning through feveral 
Defcents. His Grandfather Fheophraftus Renaudot , esta- 
blished the French Gazette in the Year 1631, under the 
Patronage of Cardinal Richlieu. His Father was firft 
Phyfician to the Dauphin, Son to Lewis XIV. This 
Gentleman addidted himfelf chiefly to the Study of Divi- 
nity and the Oriental Languages, which might have raifed 
him to fome eminent Station in the Church, if, from his 
great ModeSty and unaffedted Love of Privacy, he had 
not Studioufly declined it. He was very early taken no- 
tice of at Court, where the Politenefs of his Manners re- 
commended him as Strongly to the principal Ministers, as 
the Severity of his Studies endeared him to molt of the 
learned Men of his Time. 
In the Year 1689, he was chofen a Member of the 
French Academy, and in 1691 became a Member of that 
of Infcriptions, and of the Belles Lettres. He accompanied 
Cardinal Noailles to Rome in 1 700, and was with him in 
the Conclave in which Clement XI. was raifed to the Papal 
Throne, by whom the Abbe Renaudot was fo much 
eSteemed, that he kept him at Rome feven or eight Months 
after the Cardinal’s Departure, and forced upon him a 
Benefice, which he had the ModeSty to refufe, though 
his Circumstances were not fuch as made it unneceffary to 
him. 
In his Return to France , the Grand Duke of Tufcany 
kept him a whole Month at Florence , where he had an 
Appartment in the Palace ; and during his Stay there, was 
received into the famous Academy of la Crufca ; after 
which the Grand Duke loaded him with Prefents, and 
fent him to Marseilles in his own VeSTels. 
He published, after his Return to France , many learned 
Works, and particularly in the Year 1713, Fhe Hiftory of 
the Patriarchs t/ Alexandria, from St. Mark to the Clofe of 
the thirteenth Century , with an Appendix, containing the 
Hiftory of the Mohammedans in Egypt , from their own 
Writers ; which gained him great Reputation. In 1716 
he published, in two Volumes in Quarto, The Uifiory of 
the Oriental Liturgies , which was alfo much efteemed. 
And in the Year 1718, he fent abroad thefe Voyages and 
Travels, which were likewife received with univerfal Ap- 
plaufe. Befides thefe, he published many other learned 
Treatifes ; and having for many Years weakened his Con- 
stitution by an aftiduous Application to his Studies, he 
died on the ift of September 1720, of a fevere Fit of the 
Cholick, in the 74th Year of his Age, with the Reputa- 
tion of being one of the moft learned Men, and one of 
the exadteft Criticks of his Time a . 
2. As to the firft of thefe Voyages, we know not by whom 
it was written, theBeginningof it being imperfedt ; but it ap- 
pears clearly that it was written in the Year of the Hegira 237, 
A.D. 851. The latter, which is no more than a Commen- 
tary or Difcourfe upon the former, appears to have been the 
Work of Abu Zeid al Hafan of Siraf, who penned it about 
the Year of the Hegira 303, A.D. 915. It appears therefore, 
that both of them are, at leaft, two Centuries older than any 
Accounts than had been published before. They were tranf- 
lated from an original Manufcript in the Library of the 
Count de Seignelay , the Age of which was afcertained by 
the Charadter in which it is written. But there is ftill a 
plainer Proof of its being penn’d in the Year of the He- 
gira 619, A.D. 1173, becaufe there are at the End of it, 
fome Obfervations in the fame Hand, relating to the Ex- 
tent of the Walls and Fortifications of the City of Damaf 
eus , under the Reign of the famous Sultan Noureddin , and 
of other Cities under his Dominion ; in which the Writer 
fpeaks of him as ftill living : and therefore, as that Mo- 
narch died the fame Year, this Manufcript is clearly be- 
tween five and fix hundred Years old b . 
It is alfo very apparent, that there is nothing in either 
of thefe Works, that can create the leaft Sufpicion, that 
they are later than thefe Dates fpeak them 5 but, on the 
contrary, all the Fadts mentioned in them, which are ca- 
pable of being examined and compared with other Histo- 
ries, afford the cleared: Testimonies of their being genuine 
and authentick. The great Value of thefe Relations arifes 
from their giving us a large Account of China , above four 
hundred Years earlier than the Travels of Marco Polo 
who, till thefe Accounts were published, was always 
efteemed the firft Author we had on that Subjedt. 
There are Abundance of very curious and remarkable 
Palfages in both thefe Writers, that inform us of Cuftoms 
and Events not mentioned any where elfe ; and, though it 
be true, that fome of thefe appear to be fabulous ; yet it 
is no lefs true, that the greateft Part of them are confirmed 
and juftified by thebeft Writers in fucceeding Ages. But 
without fpending Time to little Purpofe, in remarking on 
what will be obvious to the Reader himfelf in the Perufai 
of thefe Pieces, we Shall proceed to the Relations them- 
felves. Obferving only, that the firft of them begins ab- 
ruptly on Account of there being a Page or two wanting 
in the Original Manufcript; which very probably con- 
tained the Name and Country of its Author, and the Oc- 
cafion of his Voyage ; the Lofs of which there is great 
Reafon to regret. 
3. The third of the Seas we have to mention, is that 
of Herkend d . Between this Sea and that of Delarewi , are 
many Iflands, to the Number, as they fay, of nineteen 
Hundred ; which divide thofe two Seas from each other % 
and are governed by a Queen r . Among thefe Iflands 
they find Ambergreece in Lumps of extraordinary Bignefs, 
as alfo in leffer Pieces, which refemble Plants torn up. This 
Amber is produced at the bottom of the Sea, as Plants 
upon Earth ; and when the Sea is tempeftuous, the Vio- 
lence of the Waves tears it up from the bottom, and 
waShes it to the Shore in the Form of a MuShroom or 
Truffle. Thefe Iflands are full of that kind of Palm- 
tree which bears the Cocoa-nut, and are from one to four 
Leagues diftant from each other, all inhabited. The 
Wealth of the Inhabitants confifts in Shells, of which even 
the Queen’s Treafury is full. They fay there are no 
Workmen more expert than thefe Iflanders, and that of 
the Fibres of the Cocoa-nut, they make Shirts all of a 
piece, as alfo Vefts or Tunics. Of the fame Tree they 
build Ships and Houfes, and they are fkilful in all other 
Workmanfhip. Their Shells they have from the Sea at 
fuch times when they rife up to the Surface, when the In- 
a Hiftoire de l' Academie des Infcriptions , Tom. V 
returned from his Voyage, A. D. 1295 
P- 3 S 4 * 
b See M. Renaudot ' s Preface to thefe Relations. 
c Marco Puh 
Eaftern Geographers, di- 
a Bv the Sea of Herkend, in all probability, our Author means the Sea about the Maldives ; which, according to the . - _ 
rides that Part of the Indian Ocean from the Sea of Delarowi, which is the Gulph called by the Ancients Sinus Magus. The Eaftern Writers fre- 
1 uently fpeak of the feven Seas, which feems to be rather a proverbial Phrafe, than a geographical Definition. Thefe Seas, without comprehend- 
L the Ocean which they call Rah-Mahit, are the Sea of China, the Sea of India, the Sea of Perfia, the Sea o £ Kolzuma or the Red-Sea, fo called 
from a Town which is thought to be the Clyfma of the Ancients ; the Sea of Rum, or of Greece, which is the Mediterranean ; the Sea called AP 
Chozar or the Cafpian ; and the Sea of Pont, or the Pontus Euxinus ; but thefe are not all the Names they give them, for the Sea of India is veiy 
: .ften called the Green-Sea ; that of Perfia, the Sea of Bajfora ; and other Names they have for particular Parts of thefe Seas. 
e It is no wonder that the Arabs had but a very imperfect Knowledge of thefe Iflands, frnce we are not very we!l informed about them to this 
Day The Reader may probably think that our Author has multiplied them, from the Number he fpeaks of; but the Truth is that He ra 
Ker diminishes them ; for the moft accurate Writers we have, afliire us that there are twelve thoufand of them ; and this is faid to be the &gnifica- 
■ion of their Name in the Malabar Tongue, viz.. Male Dive, i. e. a thoufand Iflands ; that round Number being put for the true Number of M 
et it be what it will. We fhall hereafter give the Reader a full Account of thefe Iflands, and therefore fhall mfift no longer on them here. 
f The fubfequent Accounts we have had of the Maldives , do not juftify this Particular, if the Intent of the Author was to inform us that thefe 
lands were always governed by a Woman. It might perhaps be fo in his Time, where, by Accident, one Woman might have fucceeded another, as 
^ueen Elizabeth did Queen Mary here. - - habitants 
