073 ] 
and Marcianus Heracleota had fuch an opinion of his 
great merit, as to call him by the name “ of the 
<£ mod divine and mod wife Ptolemy ; m yscoTgp- 
tc (plO£$ TCU SsiOTciJoU KUt aroQuTujov IT TO?\ZfJLcLlOV,” 
By a retrofpedt on fuch authors as have been quo- 
ted, and forne others who wrote nearly- at the fame 
time, according to the order in which they lived, this 
fubjedt will dill appear in a clearer light. 
In the days of Strabo, who lived before the Chri- 
dian tera, and is fuppofed 1 to have furvived it 28 
years, few people had failed fo far as the Ganges, 
“ (nrcLvioi \jliv xa>i '&i 7 rXsuKcc<n pextt T0V T'ayFov m and 
being intimately acquainted with Gallus, who was 
the third governor of iEgypt, he had undoubtedly 
the mod favourable opportunities of the mod authen- 
tic intelligence concerning naval affairs. 
Pompon ius Mela is fuppofed to have writ before 
Pliny", in the reign of Claudius, and 30 years after 
Strabo. In that interval, there appears to have been 
made fome farther difcoveries upon the continent 0 
to the ead of the Ganges ; but fo very imperfect, 
that they either imagined that country was an ifland, 
or had confounded their defcriptions of it with thefe 
idands, which they would neceffarily meet with in 
this voyage. For it is very certain, from Mela’s own 
words, that his knowledge of thefe places we are 
fpeaking of was extreamly obfcure, as ali he has faid 
1 Voflius. 
m Strab. 1 . 15. 
n Voffius, Bayle’s Hift. Di£f. 
a Strabo had probably the fame information ; but, as it was fo 
extremely imperfect, did not think proper to mention it in his 
geography ot this country. 
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