the river Indus; who sailed from Caspatyrus, a town at its source, and near the territories of Pactya, eastward to the sea; thence, turning westward, he arrived at the place where the Phoenicians had formerly sailed round Africa, after which Darius subdued the Indians, and became master of that coast. His conquests, however, were not extensive, as they did not reach beyond the territory watered by the Indus; yet the acquisition was very important, as the revenue derived from the conquered territory, according to Herodotus, was near a third of that of the whole Persian empire. But very little knowledge of the country was acquired by this expedition of Darius, for the Greeks paid no regard to the transactions of barbarians; and as for Scylax, he told so many incredible stories in the account he gave of his voyage, that he was disbelieved in almost every thing, whether true or false. The Greeks acquired much more knowledge of India by Alexander's expedition, although be went no farther into the country than the Setlege (Hyphasis). See HINDOSTAN. The breadth of this district, from Ludhana on the Setlege to Attock on the Indus, is computed to be 259 geographical miles in a straight line; and Alexander's march, computed in the same manner, did not exceed 200; nevertheless by the spreading of his numerous ariny over the country, and the exact measurement and delineation of all his movements by men of science whom he employed, a very extensive knowledge of the western part of India was obtained. Of this celebrated conqueror's exploits, previous to this expedition, an account will be found under the article MACEDON.

According to major Rennel, the space of country through which Alexander sailed on the Indus was not less than 1000 miles; and as, during the whole of that navigation, he obliged the nations on both sides of the river to submit to him, we may be certain that the country on each side was explored to some distance. An exact account, not only of his military operations, but of every thing worthy of notice relating to the countries through which he passed, was preserved in the journals of his three officers, Lagus, Nearchus, and Aristobulus; and these journals Arrian followed in the composition of his history. From these authors we learn, that, in the time of Alexander, the western part of India was possessed by seven very powerful monarchs. The territory of Porus, which Alexander first conquered and then restored to him, is said to have contained no fewer than 2000 towns; and the king of the Prasii had assembled an army of 20,000 cavalry, 2000 armed chariots, and a great number of elephants, to oppose the Macedonian monarch on the banks of the Ganges. The navigable rivers with which the Panjab country abounds, afforded then, and still continue to afford, an intercourse from one part to another by water and, as these rivers probably had then many ships on them for commerce, Alexander might easily collect all the number he is said to have had, viz. 2000; since it is reported, that Semiramis was opposed by double the number on the Indus, when she invaded India.

The country on each side the Indus was

found, in the time of Alexander, to be in no degree inferior in population to the kingdom of Porus. The climate, soil, and productions of India, as well as the manners and customs of the inhabitants, are exactly described, and the descriptions found to correspond in a surprising manner with modern accounts. The stated change of seasons, now known by the name of monsoons, the periodical rains, the swellings and inundations of the rivers, with the appearance of the country during the time they continue, are particularly mentioned. The descriptions of the inhabitants are equally particular; their living entirely upon vegetables; their division into tribes or casts, with many of the particularities of the modern Hindoos. The military operations, however, extended but a very little way into India properly so called; no further indeed than the modern province of Lahore, and the countries on the banks of the Indus, from Moultan to the sea. To secure the obedience of those countries, Alexander built, it is said, a number of fortified cities; and, the farther eastward he extended his conquests, the more necessary did he find this task. Three he built in India itself; two on the banks of the Hydaspes, and a third on the Acesines, both navigable rivers, falling into the Indus, after they have united their streams. By these he intended not only to keep the adjacent countries in awe, but to promote a commercial intercourse between different parts. With this view, on his return to Susa, he surveyed the course of the Euphrates and Tigris, causing the cataracts or dams to be removed, which the Persian monarchs had built to obstruct the navigation of these rivers. After the navigation was thus opened, he proposed that the valuable commodities of India should be imported into the other parts of his dominions by the Persian Gulf, and through the Red Sea to Alexandria, and thence dispersed over Europe.

On the death of Alexander, the eastern part of his dominions devolved first on Pytho, the son of Agenor, and afterwards on Seleucus. The latter was sensible of the advantages of keeping India in subjection. With this view, he undertook an expedition into that country, partly to confirm his authority, and partly to defend the Macedonian territories against Sandracottus, king of the Prasii. The particulars of his expedition are very little known; Justin being the only author who mentions them. Plutarch tells us that Seleucus carried his arms farther into India than Alexander; and Pliny, whose authority is of considerably greater weight than either, corroborates the testimony of Plutarch in this instance, though his language is obscure. Bayer thinks it implies that Seleucus marched from the Hyphasis to the Hysudrus, thence to Palibothra, and thence to the mouth of the Ganges; the distances of the principal stations being marked, and amounting in all to 2244 Roman miles. But Dr. Robertson considers it very improbable that the expedition of Seleucus should have been continued so far, as in that case the ancients would have had a more accurate knowledge of this part of the country than they seem ever to have possessed. The career of Seleucus in the east was stopped by Antigonus, who prepared

than it. After the ruin of Coptos, by the emperor Dioclesian, the Indian commodities were conveyed from the Red Sea to the Nile from Cosseir, supposed by Dr. Robertson to be the Philoteras Portus of Ptolemy, to Cous, the Vicus Apollinis, a journey of four days. Hence Cous, from a small village, became an opulent city; but in process of time the trade from India removed to Kene, farther down the river. It was to this monopoly of Indian commerce, that Egypt owed its vast wealth and power, during the time of its Macedonian monarchs; but it appears surprising that no attempt was made by the Syrian monarchs to rival them in it, especially as the latter were in possession of the Persian gulf, from whence they might have imported the Indian commodities by a much shorter navigation than could be done by the Egyptians.

On the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, the Indian commodities continued, as usual, to be imported to Alexandria in Egypt, and from thence to Rome; but the most ancient communication betwixt the east and west parts of Asia seems never to have been entirely given up. Syria and Palestine are separated from Mesopotamia by a desert; but the passage through it was much facilitated by its affording a station which abounded in water. Hence the possession of this station became an object of such consequence, that Solomon built upon it the city called in Syria Tadmor, and in Greek Palmyra. Both these names are expressive of its situation in a spot adorned with palm trees. Though its situation for trade may to us seem very unfavorable; being sixty miles from the Euphrates, by which alone it could receive the Indian commodities, and 203 from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean; yet the value and small bulk of the goods in question rendered the conveyance of them by a long carriage over land not only practicable but lucrative and advantageous. Hence the inhabitants became opulent and powerful, and this place long maintained its independence after the Syrian empire became subject to Rome.

2. India from its intercourse with the Romans, until the erection of the Gaznian empire.-The excessive eagerness of the Romans for Asiatic luxuries of all kinds kept up an unceasing intercourse with India, during the whole time that the empire continued in its power; and, even after the destruction of the western part, it was kept up between Constantinople and those parts of India which had been visited formerly by merchants from the west. Long before this period, however, a much better method of sailing to India had been discovered by one Hippalus, the commander of an Indian ship, who lived about eighty years after Egypt had been annexed to the Roman empire. This man having observed the periodical shifting of the monsoons, and how steadily they blew from the east or west during some months, ventured to leave the coast, and sail boldly across the Indian Ocean, from the mouth of the Arabian Gulf to Musiris, a port on the Malabar coast; which discovery was reckoned a matter of such importance, that the name of Hippalus was given

to the wind by which he performed the voyage. Pliny gives a very particular account of the manner in which the Indian traffic was now carried on, mentioning the particular stages, and the distances between them: viz. From Alexandria to Juliopolis, according to this writer, was two miles; and there the cargo destined for India was shipped on the Nile, and carried to Coptos, distant 303 miles, the voyage being usually performed in twelve days. From Coptos they were conveyed by land to Berenice, distant 258 miles, and halting at different stations as occasion required. The journey was finished on the twelfth day; but on account of the heat the caravan travelled only in the night. The ships left Berenice about midsummer, and in thirty days reached Ocelis, now Gella, at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, or the modern Cape Fartaque on the coast of Arabia Felix; from whence they sailed in forty days to Musiris, already mentioned. Their homeward voyage began early in December; when setting sail with a north-east wind, and meeting with a south or south-west one when they entered the Arabian Gulf, the voyage was completed in less than a year. With regard to the situation of Musiris, as well as of Barace, another Indian port to which the ancients traded, major Rennel and Dr. Robertson agree that they stood between Goa and Tellicherry; and that probably the modern Meerzaw or Merjee is the Musiris, and Barcelore the Barace of the ancients. Ptolemy, who flourished about A. D. 200, having the advantage of so many previous discoveries, gives a more particular description of India than is to be met with in any of the ancient writers; notwithstanding which his accounts are frequently inconsistent not only with modern discoveries, but with those of more ancient geographers than himself. A capital error in his geography is, that he makes the peninsula of India stretch from the Sinus Barygazenus, or gulf of Cambay, from west to east; instead of extending, according to its real direction, from north to south; and this error appears the more extraordinary, that Megasthenes had published a measurement of this peninsula, nearly consonant to truth, which had been adopted with some variations by Eratosthenes, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny. His information concerning the situation of places, however, was much more accurate. With respect to some districts on the eastern part of the peninsula, as far as the Ganges, he comes very near the truth. M. d'Anville, has determined the modern names of many of Ptolemy's stations, as Kilkare, Negapatam, the mouth of the river Cauveri, Masulipatam, &c. The peninsula of Malacca was in all probability the boundary of the ancient discoveries by sea, but by land they had correspondence with countries still farther distant.

While the Seleucida continued to enjoy the empire of Syria, the trade with India continued to be carried on by land in the way already mentioned. The Romans, having extended their dominions as far as the Euphrates, found this method of conveyance still established, and the trade was by them encouraged and protected. But the progress of the caravans being frequently

interrupted by the Parthians, particularly when they travelled towards those countries where silk and others of the most valuable manufactures were procured, it became an object to the Romans to conciliate the friendship of the sovereigns of those distant countries. This attempt seems to have been made; for the Chinese historians tell us, that Antoun, by whom they mean the emperor Marcus Antoninus, the king of the people of the western ocean, sent an embassy to Ounti, who reigned in China A. D. 166.

With regard to the Indian islands, considering the little way they extended their navigation, the ancients could not be acquainted with many of them. Ceylon, however, they called Taprobane: the name was entirely unknown in Europe before the time of Alexander the Great; but that conqueror, though he did not visit, had heard of it; but all the accounts of ancient geographers concerning it are confused and contradictory. The other islands described by Ptolemy to the eastward of Taprobane are, according to Dr. Robertson, those called Andaman and Nicobar in the Gulf of Bengal. From the time of Ptolemy to that of the emperor Justinian we have no account of any intercourse of the Europeans wrn India, or of any progress made in the geographical knowledge of the country. Under that emperor Cosmas, an Egyptian merchant, made some voyages to India, whence he acquired the surname of Indicopleustes. Having afterwards turned monk, he published several works; one of which, named Christian Topography, has reached us. In this, though mixed with many strange reveries, he relates, with great simplicity and appearance of truth, what he had seen in his travels or had learned from others; and describes several places on the western coast of the hither peninsula, which he calls the chief seat of the pepper trade. From one of the ports on that coast, named Male, Dr. Robertson thinks that the name of Malabar may probably be derived, as well as that of Maldives, given to a cluster of islands at no great distance. Cosmas informs us also, that in his time the island of Taprobane had become a great staple of trade. He supposed it to lie about half way betwixt the Persian Gulf and the country of the Sinæ in consequence of which commodious situation it received the silk of the Sinæ, and the precious spices of the remote regions of the east, which were from thence conveyed to all parts of India, Persia, and the Arabian Gulf. He calls it not Taprobane, but Sieldibia, derived from Selendib, or Serendib, a name by which it is still known in the east. From him also we learn, that the Persians, having overthrown the empire of the Parthians, applied themselves with great diligence and success to maritime affairs; in consequence of which they became formidable rivals to the Romans in the Indian trade. The latter being thus in danger of entirely losing that lucrative branch, Justinian formed a scheme of preserving some share of it by means of his ally the emperor of Abyssinia. In this he was disappointed, though afterwards he obtained his end in a way entirely unexpected. Two monks who had been employ

ed as missionaries in different parts of the east, and had penetrated as far as the country of the Seres or China, induced by the liberal promises of Justinian, brought a quantity of the eggs of silkworms in a hollow cane. They were then hatched by the heat of a dunghill; and, being fed with the leaves of the mulberry, worked and multiplied as well as in those countries of which they are natives. Vast numbers were soon reared in Greece; from whence they were exported to Sicily, and from thence to Italy; in all which countries silk manufactures bave since been established. On the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, in 640, the India trade was of course transferred to them; and they soon began to pursue it with much more vigor than the Romans had done. The city of Bassora was built by the caliph Omar, upon the west banks of the great river formed by the union of the Fuphrates with the Tigris. Thus the command of both rivers was secured, and the new city soon became a place of almost as much consequence as Alexandria itself.

Dr. Robertson takes notice, that, from the evidence of an Arabian merchant who wrote in 852, it appears, that not only the Saracens, but the Chinese also, were destitute of the mariner's compass; contrary to a common opinion, that this instrument was known in the east long before its discovery in Europe. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, they penetrated far beyond Siam, which had set bounds to the navigation of Europeans. They became acquainted with Sumatra and other Indian islands; extending their navigation as far as Canton in China. A regular commerce was now carried on from the Persian Gulf to all the countries lying betwixt it and China, and even with China itself. Many Saracens settled in India properly so called, as well as in the countries beyond it. In the city of Canton they were so numerous, that the emperor permitted them to have a cadi or judge of their own religion; the Arabian language was understood and spoken in every place of consequence; and ships from China are even said to have visited the Persian Gulf. According to the Arabian accounts of those days, the peninsula of India was at that time divided into four kingdoms. The first was composed of the provinces situated on the Indus and its branches, the capital of which was Moultan. The second had the city of Canoge, which, from its remaining ruins, appears to have been a very large place. The Indian historians relate, that it contained 30,000 shops, in which betel nut was sold, and 60,000 sets of musicians and singers who paid a tax to government. The third kingdom was that of Cachemire, first mentioned by Massoudi, who gives a short description of it. The fourth kingdom, Guzerat, is represented by the same author as the most powerful of the whole. Another Arab writer, who flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century, divides India into three parts; the northern comprehending all the provinces on the Indus; the middle extending from Guzerat to the Ganges; and the southern, which he denominates Comar, from Cape Comorin. From the relation of the Arabian merchant above mentioned, explained by the commentary of