180 Remarks on the Voyage and Periplus of Scylac. 
Aristotle affirms that Scylax published a work on India, and 
that it was extant in his time. But it seems inexplicable to me, 
how Alexander, the pupil of Aristotle, could be so ignorant, as we 
are told, of the source and course of ‘the Indus, when his master 
was possessed of, or at least could have procured the work for the 
perusal and information of his curious and conquering pupil. What 
mariners were employed in this voyage we are not told, which is 
somewhat surprising, as it was a circumstance of great importance. 
We are sure that they were not Persians, as maritime navigation 
was interdicted by the system of Zoroaster. It is probable that 
they would be Asiatic Greeks and Pheenicians, with perhaps Cy- 
priots. But the most surprising thing in the whole story is, that 
he should have sailed directly across the Erythrean Sea, from the 
mouth of the Indus to Cape Ras-al-Had, a circumstance wholly 
without precedent or parallel in the existing state of nautical sci- 
ence. The method of sailing directly across the Erythrean Sea 
by means of the monsoon, instead of slowly creeping along the 
coast, was not known till the time of Hippalus, several centuries 
posterior to this voyage. It is equally surprising that no knowledge 
of these monsoons was communicated by Scylax, and that there is 
a total silence respecting the very high tides at the mouth of the 
Indus, which struch such terror into the minds of the mariners 
under the command of Nearchus. Not a word is communicated 
respecting what rivers fell into the-Indus. Not a word of the Co- 
phenes nor of the Punjnud, the mouths of which Scylax must have 
passed in his voyage down the river, nor of the Delta towards the 
mouth of the stream, nor of its various branches and mouths, as 
given by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander, in his voyage aan 
the Delta of the same river. It may be said that all the know- 
ledge which Herodotus derived respecting India, was from this 
reported voyage. ‘To use the words of Dr. Vincent respecting it, 
I may say, I cannot believe, from the state of navigation in that 
age, that Scylax could perform a voyage round India, from which 
the bravest of Alexander’s followers ‘shrunk, or that men who had 
explored the distant coast of Gedrosia, should be less daring than 
an experienced native of Caryanda. They returned with amaze- 
ment from the sight of Mussendom and Ras-al-Had, while Scylax 
succeeded without difficulty of any kind on record. 
The same Scylax is also said to be the author of a Periplus bear- 
ing that name, containing an account of the circumnavigation of 
the interior coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This work is mu- 
tilated in some places, and imperfect in others, and has been pro- 
nounced by the learned Dr. Bentley, a very competent judge, to 
be one of the most corrupted books in the world. In his Periplus 
Scylax takes his departure from Gades, (Cadiz,) and proceeds 
eastward along the coasts of Spain, Gaul, Ttaly, Illyricum, Greece, 
Macedonia, Thrace, Scythia, the Enuxine Sea, and the Palus Me- 
otis ; thence returning, he surveys the coasts ‘of Asia Minor or Sy- 
ria, Pheenicia, Egypt, Africa, and then finishes his course at Mount 
