A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 11

Another land route is particularly described by Ptolemy: according to his detail, this immense inland communication began from the bay of Issus, in Cilicia; it then crossed Mesopotamia, from the Euphrates to the Tigris, near Hieropolis: it then pa.s.sed through part of a.s.syria and Media, to Ecbatana and the Caspian Pa.s.s; after this, through Parthia to Hecatompylos: from this place to Hyrcania; then to Antioch, in Margiana; and hence into Bactria. From Bactria, a mountainous country was to be crossed, and the country of the Sacae, to Tachkend, or the Stone Tower. Near this place was the station of those merchants who traded directly with the Seres. The defile of Conghez was next pa.s.sed, and the region of Cosia or Cashgar through the country of the Itaguri, to the capital of China. Seven months were employed on this journey, and the distance in a right line amounted to 2800 miles. That the whole of this journey was sometimes performed by individuals for the purchase of silk and other Chinese commodities, we have the express testimony of Ptolemy; for he informs us, that Maes, a Macedonian merchant, sent his agent through the entire route which we have just described. It is not surprising, therefore, that silk should have borne such an exorbitant price at Rome; but it is astonishing that any commodity, however precious, could bear the expence of such a land carriage.

The only other routes by land, by which silk was brought from China into Europe, seem to have corresponded, in the latter part of their direction, with the land routes from India, already described. Indeed, it may naturally be supposed, that the Indian merchants, as soon as they learned the high prices of silk at Rome, would purchase it, and send it along with the produce and manufactures of their own country, by the caravans to Palmyra, and by river navigation to the Euxine: and we have seen, that on the capture of Palmyra, by Aurelian, silk was one of the articles of plunder.

We are now to take notice of the laws which were pa.s.sed by the Romans for the improvement of navigation and commerce; and in this part of our subject we shall follow the same plan and arrangement which we have adopted in treating of the commerce itself; that is, we shall give a connected view of these laws, or at least the most important of them, from the period when the Romans began to interest themselves in commerce, till the decline of the empire.

These laws may be divided into three heads: first, laws relating to the protection and privileges allowed to mariners by the Roman emperors; secondly, laws relating to particular fleets; and lastly, laws relating to particular branches of trade.

1. The fifth t.i.tle of the thirteenth book of the Theodosian code of laws entirely relates to the privileges of mariners. It appears, from this, that by a law made by the Emperor Constans, and confirmed by Julian, protection was granted to them from all personal injuries; and it was expressly ordered, that they should enjoy perfect security, and be defended from all sort of violence and injustice. The emperor Justinian considered this law so indispensably necessary to secure the object which it had in view, that he not only adopted it into his famous code, but decreed that whoever should seize and apply the ships of mariners, against their wishes, to any other purpose than that for which they were designed, should be punished with death. In the same part of his code, he repeats and confirms a law of the emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, inflicting death on any one who should insult seafaring men. In another law, adopted into the same code from the statutes of former emperors, judges and magistrates are forbidden, on pain of death, to give them any manner of trouble. They were also exempted from paying tribute, though the same law which exempts them, taxes merchants. No person who had exercised any mean or dishonourable employment was allowed to become a mariner; and the emperors Constantine and Julian raised them to the dignity of knights, and, shortly afterwards, they were declared capable of being admitted into the senate.

As a counterbalance to those privileges and honours, it appears, that mariners, at least such of them as might be required for the protection of the state, were obliged to conform themselves to certain rules and conditions, otherwise the laws already quoted did not benefit them. They were obliged to possess certain lands; and, indeed, it would seem that the profession and privileges of a mariner depended on his retaining these lands. When these lands were sold, the purchaser was obliged to perform towards the state all those services which were required of a mariner, and in return he obtained all the privileges, dignities, and exemptions granted to that cla.s.s of men. This, however, was productive of great inconvenience to the state; since, if the lands were purchased by persons ignorant of maritime affairs, they could not be so effective as persons accustomed to the sea. From this consideration a law was pa.s.sed, that when such lands as were held on condition of sea-service pa.s.sed into the possession of those who were unaccustomed to the sea, they should revert to their original owners. It was also ordered, that such privileged mariners should punctually perform all services required of them by the state; that they should not object to carry any particular merchandize; that they should not take into their vessels above a certain quant.i.ty of goods, in order that they might not, by being over laden, be rendered unfit for the service of the state; and that they should not change their employment for any other, even though it were more honourable or lucrative. The whole shipping, and all the seamen, seem thus to have been entirely under the management and controul of the state; there were, however, a few exceptions. Individuals, who possessed influence sufficient, or from other causes, were permitted to possess ships of their own, but only on the express condition that the state might command them and the services of their crews, whenever it was necessary. The legal rate of interest was fixed by Justinian at six per cent.; but for the convenience and encouragement of trade, eight was allowed on money lent to merchants and manufacturers; and twelve on the risk of bottomry.

2. There are several laws in the Theodosian code which relate to the different fleets of the empire: the Eastern fleet, the princ.i.p.al port of which was Seleucia, a city of Syria, on the Orontes, by which were conveyed to Rome and Constantinople, all the oriential merchandize that came by the land route we have described to Syria, was particularly noticed, as well as some smaller fleets depending on it, as the fleet of the island of Carpathus. The privileges granted to the African fleet are expressly given to the Eastern fleet.

In another part of the code of Justinian, the trade between the Romans and Persians is regulated: the places were the fairs and markets are to be kept are fixed and named; these were near the confines of the two kingdoms; and these confines neither party was allowed to pa.s.s.

From a law of the emperor Constans, inserted in the Theodosian code, it appears that some of the ships which came from Spain to Rome were freighted for the service of the state; and these are particularly regulated and privileged in this law.

There were several laws made also respecting the fleet which the emperors employed for the purpose of collecting the tribute and revenue, and conveying it to Home and Constantinople. The law of the emperors Leo and Zeno, which is inserted in the Justinian code, mentions the fleet which was kept to guard the treasures: and by another law, taken from the Theodosian code, we learn, that the guards of the treasures, who went in this fleet, were officers under the superintendent of the imperial revenue.

3. We have already mentioned the dependence of Rome on foreign nations for corn, and the encouragement given, during the republic and in the early times of the empire, to the importation of this necessary article. In the Theodosian and Justinian code, encouragement to the importation of it seems still to have been a paramount object, especially from Egypt; for though from an edict of Justinian it would appear that the cargoes from this country, of whatever they consisted, were guarded and encouraged by law, yet we know that the princ.i.p.al freight of the ships which traded between Alexandria and Rome and Constantinople was corn, and that other merchandize was taken on board the corn fleets only on particular occasions, or, where it was necessary, to complete the cargoes. Among the other edicts of Justinian, regulating the trade of Egypt, there is one which seems to have been pa.s.sed in consequence of the abuses that had crept into the trade of corn and other commodities, which were shipped from Alexandria for Constantinople. These abuses arose from the management of this trade being in the hands of a very few persons: the emperor therefore pa.s.sed a law, dividing the management into different branches, each to be held by separate individuals. From the code of Justinian we also learn, that corn was embarked from other ports of Egypt besides Alexandria, by private merchants; but these were not permitted to export it without permission of the emperor, and even then not till after the imperial fleet was fairly at sea. The importance of the corn trade of Egypt fully justified these laws; for at this period Constantinople was annually supplied with 260,000 quarters of wheat from this country.

The resources of the Romans were princ.i.p.ally derived from the tribute levied on the conquered countries; but in part also from duties on merchandize: in the latter point of view, alone, they fall under our notice. No custom duties seem to have been imposed till the time of Augustus; but in his reign, and that of his immediate successors, duties were imposed on every kind of merchandize which was imported into Rome; the rate varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the article. The most full and minute list of articles of luxury on which custom duties were levied, is to be found in the rescript of the emperors Marcus and Commodus, relating to the goods imported into Egypt from the East. In the preamble to this rescript it is expressly declared, that no blame shall attach to the collectors of the customs, for not informing the merchant of the amount of the custom duties while the goods are in transit; but if the merchant wishes to enter them, the officer is not to lead him into error. The chief and most valuable articles on which, by this rescript, duties were to be levied, were cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and aromatics; precious stones; Parthian and Babylonian leather; cottons; silks, raw and manufactured: ebony, ivory, and eunuchs.

Till the reign of Justinian, the straits of the Bosphorus and h.e.l.lespont were open to the freedom of trade, nothing being prohibited but the exportation of arms for the service of the barbarians: but the avarice, or the profusion of that emperor, stationed at each of the gates of Constantinople a praetor, whose duty it was to levy a duty on all goods brought into the city, while, on the other hand, heavy custom duties were exacted on all vessels and merchandize that entered the harbour. This emperor also exacted in a most rigorous manner, a duty in kind: which, however, had existed long before his time: we allude to the annona, or supply of corn for use of the army and capital. This was a grievous and arbitrary exaction: rendered still more so "by the partial injustice of weights and measures, and the expence and labour of distant carriage." In a time of scarcity, Justinian ordered an extraordinary requisition of corn to be levied on Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia; for which the proprietors, (as Gibbon observes,) "after a wearisome journey, and a perilous navigation received so inadequate a compensation, that they would have chosen the alternative of delivering both the corn and price at the doors of their granaries."

Having thus given a connected and general view of the Roman commerce, we shall next proceed to investigate the progress of geographical knowledge among them. In our chronological arrangement of this progress, incidental and detached notices respecting their commerce will occur, which, though they could not well be introduced in the general view, yet will serve to render the picture of it more complete.

It is evident that the princ.i.p.al accessions to geographical knowledge among the Romans, at least till their ambition was satinted, or nearly so, by conquest, must have been derived from their military expeditions. It is only towards the time of Augustus that we find men, whose sole object in visiting foreign countries was to become acquainted with their state, manners, &c.

Polybius is one of the earliest authors who give us a glimpse of the state of geographical knowledge among the Romans, about the middle of the second century before Christ, the period when he flourished. lie was the great friend of Scipio, whom he accompanied in his expedition against Carthage.

From his enquiries while in Africa, he informed himself of the geography of the northern parts of that quarter of the world; and he actually visited the coast as far as Mount Atlas, or Cape Nun, beyond which, however, he does not seem to have proceeded. He wrote a Periplus, or account of his voyage, which is not in existence, but is referred to and quoted by Pliny.

He possessed also more accurate information of the western coasts of Europe than was had before; derived, it would appear, from the voyages of some Romans. Yet, with all this knowledge of what we may deem distant parts, Polybius was ignorant of the real shape of Italy, which he describes as stretching from east to west; a mistake which seems to have originated with him, and was copied by Strabo.

Varro, who was Pompey's lieutenant during the war against the pirates, and obtained a naval crown on that occasion, among the almost infinite variety of topics on which he wrote, was the author of a work on navigation; unfortunately, however, only the t.i.tle of it is extant: had it yet remained, it would have thrown much light on the state of navigation, geography, and commerce among the Romans in his time.

Julius Caesar's attention to science in the midst of his wars and perils is well known. He first formed the idea of a general survey of the whole empire; and for this purpose obtained a decree of the senate. The survey was finished by Augustus: the execution of it was committed to three Greek geographers. The survey of the eastern portion of the empire was committed to Zenodoxus, who completed it, in fourteen years, five months, and nine days. The northern division was finished by Theodoras in twenty years, eight months, and ten days: and the southern division was finished in twenty-five years, one month, and ten days. This survey, with the supplementary surveys of the new provinces, as they were conquered and added to the empire, formed the basis of the geography of Ptolemy. It appears from Vegetius, that every governor of a province was furnished with a description of it, in which were given the distance of places, the nature of the roads, the face of the country, the direction of the rivers, &c.: he adds, that all these were delineated on a map as well as described in writing. Of this excellent plan for the itineraries and surveys of the Roman empire, from which the ancient geographers obtained their fullest and most accurate information, Julius Caesar was the author.

Julius Caesar certainly added much to geographical knowledge by his conquests of Gaul and Britain: his information respecting the latter, however, as might be expected, is very erroneous. Yet, that even its very northern parts were known by name to the Romans soon after his death, is apparent, from this circ.u.mstance, that Diodorus Siculus, who died towards the middle of the reign of Augustus, mentions Orkas; which, he says, forms the northern extremity of the island of Britain. This is the very first mention of any place in Scotland by any writer.

One of the first objects of Augustus, after he had reduced Egypt, was to explore the interior of Africa, either for the purpose of conquest, or to obtain the precious commodities, especially frankincense and aromatics, which he had learned were the produce of those countries. aelius Gallus was selected by the emperor for this expedition, and he was accompanied by the geographer Strabo; who, however, has not given such accurate information of the route which was pursued as might have been expected. This is the more to be lamented, as Pliny informs us that the places which were visited during this expedition are not to be found in authors previous to his time.

Gallus was directed by the emperor to explore Ethiopia, the country of the Troglodytae and Arabia. The expedition against Ethiopia, which Gallus entrusted to Petronius, we shall afterwards examine, confining ourselves at present to the proceedings and progress of Gallus himself. His own force consisted of 10,000 men, to which were added 500, supplied by Herod, king of the Jews; and 1000 Nabathians from Petra; besides a fleet of eighty ships of war and 130 transports. Syllaeus, the minister of the king of the Nabathians, undertook to conduct the expedition; but as it was not for the interest either of his king or country that it should succeed, he betrayed his trust, and, according to Strabo, was executed at Rome for his treachery on this occasion. His object was to delay the expedition as much as possible: this he effected by persuading Gallus to prepare a fleet, which was unnecessary, as the army might have followed the route of the caravans, through a friendly country, from Cleopatris, where the expedition commenced, to the head of the Elanitic Gulf. The troops, however, were embarked, and, as the navigation of the Sea of Suez was intricate, the fleet was fifteen days in arriving at Leuke Kome: here, in consequence of the soldiers having become, during their voyage, afflicted with various disorders, and the year being far advanced, Gallus was obliged to remain till the spring. Another delay was contrived by Syllaeus on their leaving Leuke Kome. After this, they seem to have proceeded with more celerity, and with very little opposition from the natives, till they came to a city of some strength: this they were obliged to besiege in regular form; but, after lying before it for six days, Gallus was forced, for want of water, to raise the siege, and to terminate the expedition. He was told that at this time he was within two days' journey of the land of aromatics and frankincense, the great object which Augustus had in view. On his retreat, he no longer trusted to Syllaeus, but changed the route of the army, directing it from the interior to the coast. At Nera, in Petraea, the army embarked, and was eleven days in crossing the gulf to Myos Hormos: from this place it traversed the country of the Troglodytes to Coptus, on the Nile. Two years were spent in this unfortunate expedition. It is extremely difficult to fix on the limit of this expedition, but it is probable that the town which Gallus besieged, and beyond which he did not penetrate, was the capital of the Mineans. From the time of this expedition, the Romans always maintained a footing on the coast of the Red Sea; and either during the residence of Gallus at Leuke Kome, or soon afterwards, they placed a garrison in this place, where they collected the customs, gradually extending their conquests and their geographical knowledge down the Gulf, till they reached the ocean. This seems to have been the only beneficial consequence resulting from the expedition of Gallus.

We must now attend to the expedition of Petronius against the Ethiopians.

This was completely successful, and Candake, their queen, was obliged, as a token of her submission, to send amba.s.sadors to Augustus, who was at that time in the island of Samos. About this period the commerce of the Egyptians,--which, in fact, was the commerce of the Romans,--was extended to the Troglodytes,--with whom previously they had carried on little or no trade.

The first account of the island of Ceylon, under the name of Taprobane, was brought to Europe by the Macedonians, who had accompanied Alexander into the east. It is mentioned, and a short description given of it, by Onesicritus and Eratosthenes. Iambulus, however, who lived in the time of Augustus, is the first author who enters into any details regarding it; and though much of what he states is undoubtedly fabulous, yet there are particulars surprizingly correct, and such as confirm his own account, that he actually, visited the island. According to Diodorus Siculus, he was the son of a merchant, and a merchant himself; and while trading in Arabia for spices, he was taken prisoner and carried into Arabia, whence he was carried off by the Ethiopians, and put into a ship, which was driven by the monsoon to Ceylon. The details he mentions, that are most curious and most conformable to truth, are the stature of the natives and the flexibility of their joints; the length of their ears, bored and pendant; the perpetual verdure of the trees; the attachment of the natives to astronomy; their worship of the elements, and particularly of the sun and moon; their cotton garments; the men having one wife in common; the days and nights being equal in length; and the Calamus, or Maiz. It is extraordinary, howeve'r, that Iambulus never mentions cinnamon, which, as he was a dealer in spices, it might have been supposed would have attracted his particular attention.

One of the most celebrated geographers among the ancients, flourished during the reign of Augustus;--we allude to Strabo: his fundamental principles are, the globosity of the earth, and its centripetal force; he also lays down rules for constructing globes, but he seems ignorant of the mode of fixing the position of places by their lat.i.tude or longitude, or, at least, he neglects it. In order to render his geographical knowledge more accurate and complete, he travelled over most of the countries between Armenia on the east and Etruria on the west, and from his native country, on the borders of the Euxine sea, to the borders of Ethiopia. The portion of the globe which he describes, is bounded on the north by the Baltic, on the east by the Ganges, on the south by the mouth of the river Senegal, and on the west by Spain. In describing the countries which he himself had visited, he is generally very accurate, but his accounts of those he had not visited, are frequently erroneous or very incomplete. His information respecting Ceylon and the countries of the Ganges, seems to have been derived entirely from the statements brought to Europe by the generals of Alexander.

In the reign of Claudius, the knowledge of the Romans respecting the interior of Africa, was slightly extended by the expedition of Suetonius Paulinus; he was the first Roman who crossed Mount Atlas, and during the winter penetrated through the deserts, which are described as formed of black dust, till he reached a river called the Niger. Paulinus wrote an account of this expedition, which, however, is not extant: Pliny quotes it.

In the reign of Claudius, also, the island of Ceylon became better known, in consequence of an accident which happened to the freedman of a Roman, who farmed the customs in the Red Sea. This man, in the execution of his duty, was blown off the coast of Arabia, across the ocean to Taprobane, or Ceylon; here he was hospitably received by the king, and after a residence of six months was sent back, along with amba.s.sadors, to Claudius. They informed the emperor that their country was very extensive, populous, and opulent, abounding in gold, silver, and pearls. It seems probable that the circ.u.mstance of the freedman having been carried to Ceylon by a steady and regular wind, and this man and the amba.s.sadors having returned by a wind directly opposite, but as steady and regular, had some influence in the discovery of the monsoon. As this discovery led necessarily to a direct communication between Africa and India, and grea'ly enlarged the knowledge of the Romans respecting the latter country, as well as their commercial connections with it, it will be proper to notice it in a particular manner.

This important discovery is supposed to have been made in the seventh year of the reign of Claudius, answering to the forty-seventh of the Christian era. The following is the account given of it by the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, as translated by Dr. Vincent:

"The whole navigation, such as it has been described from Adan in Arabia Felix and Kane to the ports of India, was performed formerly in small vessels, by adhering to the sh.o.r.e and following the indention of the coast; but Hippalus was the pilot who first discovered the direct course across the ocean, by observing the position of the ports and the general appearance of the sea; for, at the season when the annual winds peculiar to our climate settle in the north, and blow for a continuance upon our coast from the Mediterranean, in the Indian ocean the wind is constantly to the south west; and this wind has in those seas obtained the name of Hippalus, from the pilot who first attempted the pa.s.sage by means of it to the east.

"From the period of that discovery to the present time, vessels bound to India take their departure either from Kane on the Arabian, or from Cape Arometa on the African side. From these points they stretch out to the open sea at once, leaving all the windings of the gulfs and bays at a distance, and make directly for their several destinations on the coast of India.

Those that are intended for Limurike waiting some time before they sail, but those that are destined for Barugaza, or Scindi, seldom more than three days."

If we may credit Pliny, the Greek merchants of Egypt for some years after the discovery of the monsoon, did not venture further out to sea than was absolutely necessary, by crossing the widest part of the entry of the Persian Gulf, to reach Patala at the mouth of the Indus; but they afterwards found shorter routes, or rather stretched more to the south, so as to reach lower down on the coast of India: they also enlarged their vessels, carried cargoes of greater value, and in order to beat off the pirates, which then as at present infested this part of the Indian coast, they put on board their vessels a band of archers. Myos Hormos, or Berenice, was the port on the Red Sea from which they sailed; in forty days they arrived at Musiris, on the west coast of India. The homeward pa.s.sage was begun in December or January, when the north east monsoon commenced; this carried them to the entrance of the Red Sea, up which to their port they were generally favored by southerly winds.

As there is no good reason to believe that the ancients made regular voyages to India, previously to the discovery of the monsoons; yet, as it is an undoubted fact that some of the exclusive productions of that country, particularly cinnamon, were obtained by them, through their voyages on the Red Sea; it becomes an important and interesting enquiry, by what means these productions were brought to those places on this sea, from which the Romans obtained them. In our opinion, the Arabians were the first who introduced Indian productions into the west from the earliest period to which history goes back, and they continued to supply the merchants who traded on the Red Sea with them, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, a direct communication was opened between that sea and India.

At least seventeen centuries before the Christian era, we have undoubted evidence of the traffic of the Arabians in the spices, &c. of India; for in the 27th chapter of Genesis we learn, that the Ishmaelites from Gilead conducted a caravan of camels laden with the spices of India, and the balsam and myrrh of Hadraumaut, in the regular course of traffic to Egypt for sale. In the 30th chapter of Exodus, cinnamon, ca.s.sia, myrrh, frankincense, &c. are mentioned, some of which are the exclusive produce of India; these were used for religious purposes, but at the same time the quant.i.ties of them specified are so great, that it is evident they must have been easily obtained. Spices are mentioned, along with balm and other productions of Canaan, in the present destined by Jacob for Joseph. These testimonies from holy writ are perfectly in unison with what we learn from Herodotus; this author enumerates oriental spices as regularly used in Egypt for embalming the dead.

It is sufficiently evident, therefore, that, at a very early period, the productions of India were imported into Egypt. That the Arabians were the merchants who imported them, is rendered highly probable from several circ.u.mstances. The Ishmaelites, mentioned in the 37th chapter of Genesis, are undoubtedly the Nabathians, whose country is represented by all the geographers, historians, and poets, as the source of all the precious commodities of the east; the ancients, erroneously supposing that cinnamon, which we know to be an exclusive production of India, was the produce of Arabia, because they were supplied with it, along with other aromatics, from that country. The proof that the Nabathians and the Ishmaelites are the same, is to be found in the evident derivation of the former name, from Nebaioth, the son of Ishmael. The traditions of the Arabians coincide with the genealogy of the Scriptures, in regarding Joktan, the fourth son of Shem, as the origin of those trihes which occupied Sabaea and Hadraumaut, or the incense country; Ishmael as the father of the families which settled in Arabia Deserta; and Edom as the ancestor of the Idumeans, who settled in Arabia Petraea.

Eight hundred years before the Christian era, the merchandize of the Sabeans is particularly noticed by the prophet Isaiah; and even long before his time, we are informed, that there were no such spices as the Queen of Sheba gave to Solomon. That Sheba is Sabaea, or Arabia Felix, we learn from Ezekiel:--"The merchants of Sheba and Ramah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold." Six hundred and fifty years after Isaiah bore his testimony to the commerce of Sabaea, we have the authority of Agatharcides, that the merchants of this country traded to India; that the great wealth and luxury of Sabaea were princ.i.p.ally derived from this trade; and that, at the time when Egypt possessed the monopoly of the Indian trade, with respect to Europe, the Sabeans enjoyed a similar advantage with regard to Egypt.

Having thus established the fact, that, from the earliest period of which we have any record, the Arabians were the merchants who brought the cinnamon, &c. of India into the west, we must, in the next place, endeavour to ascertain by what means and route this commerce was carried on; and we think we can prove that the communication between Arabia and India, at a very early period, was both by sea and land.

There were many circ.u.mstances connected with Arabia and the Arabians, which would necessarily turn their thoughts to maritime affairs, and when they had once embarked in maritime commerce, would particularly direct it to India. The sea washed three sides of the peninsula of Arabia: the Arabians were not, like the Egyptians, prejudiced, either by their habits or their religion, against the sea. The monsoons must have been perceived by them, from part of the sea-coast lying within their influence; and it can hardly be supposed that a sea-faring people would not take advantage of them, to embark in such a lucrative trade as that of India. "There is no history which treats of them which does not notice them as pirates, or merchants, by sea, as robbers, or traders, by land. We scarcely touch upon them, accidentally, in any author, without finding that they were the carriers of the Indian Ocean." From the earliest period that history begins to notice them, Sabaea, Hadraumaut, and Oman, are described as the residences of navigators; and as these places are, in the earliest historians, celebrated for their maritime commerce, it is reasonable to suppose that they were equally so before the ancient historians acquired any knowledge of them.

We cannot go farther back, with respect to the fact of the Arabians being in India, than the voyage of Nearchus; but in the journal of this navigator, we find manifest traces of Arabian navigators on the coast of Mekran, previous to his expedition: he also found proofs of their commerce on the coast of Gadrosia, and Arabic names of places--a pilot to direct him, and vessels of the country in the Gulf of Persia. Large ships from the Indus, Patala, Persis, and Karmania came to Arabia, as early as the time of Agatharcides; and it is probable that these ships were navigated by Arabians, as the inhabitants of India were not, at this time, and, indeed, never have been celebrated for their maritime enterprize and skill. The same author mentions a town, a little without the Red Sea, from whence, he says, the Sabeans sent out colonies or factories into India, and to which the large ships he describes came with their cargoes from India. This is the first historical evidence to prove the establishment of Arabian factories and merchants in the ports of India. In the time of Pliny, the Arabians were in such numbers on the coast of Malabar, and at Ceylon, that, according to that author, the inhabitants of the former had embraced their religion, and the ports of the latter were entirely in their power. Their settlements and commerce in India are repeatedly mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, and likewise their settlements down the coast of Africa to Rhaptum, before it was visited by the Greeks from Egypt. For, besides their voyages from India to their own country, they frequently brought Indian commodities direct to the coast of Africa. At Sabaea, the great mart of the Arabian commerce with India, the Greeks, as late as the reign of Philometor, purchased the spices and other productions of the east. As there was a complete monopoly of them at this place, in the hands of the Arabians, the Greek navigators and merchants were induced, in the hopes of obtaining them cheaper, to pa.s.s the Straits of Babelmandeb, and on the coast of Africa they found cinnamon and other produce of India, which had been brought hither by the Arabian traders.

The evidence of the land trade between Arabia and India, from a very early period, is equally clear and decisive: Petra, the capital of Arabia Petrea, was the centre of this trade. To it the caravans, in all ages, came from Minea, in the interior of Arabia, and from Gherra, in the Gulf of Persia,--from Hadraumaut, on the Ocean, and some even from Sabaea. From Petra, the trade again spread in every direction--to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and other places of less consequence, all lying on routes terminating in the Mediterranean.

The Gherrheans, who were a Babylonian colony settled in that part of Arabia, which extends along the south coast of the Persian Gulf, are the earliest conductors of caravans upon record. They are first mentioned by Agatharcides, who compares their wealth with that of the Sabeans, and describes them as the agents for all the precious commodities of Asia and Europe: he adds that they brought much wealth into Syria, and furnished a variety of articles, which were afterwards manufactured or resold by the Phoenicians. But the only route by which Syria and Phoenicia could have been supplied by them, was through Petra. The particular articles with which their caravans were loaded, according to Strabo, were the produce of Arabia, and the spices of India. Besides the route of their caravans, across the whole peninsula to Petra, it appears that they sometimes carried their merchandize in boats up the Euphrates to Babylon, or even 240 miles higher up, to Thapsacus, and thence dispersed it in all directions by land.

The exact site of the country of the Mineans cannot be certainly fixed; but it is probable that it was to the south of Hedjaz, to the north of Hadraumaut, and to the eastward of Sabaea. According to Strabo, their caravans pa.s.sed in seventy days from Hadraumaut to Aisla, which was within ten miles of Petra. They were laden with aloes, gold, myrrh, frankincense, and other aromatics.

We can but faintly and obscurely trace the fluctuations in the trade of Petra, in the remote periods of history. We know that Solomon was in possession of Idumea, but whether it was subdued by Nebuchadnezzar is doubtful. This sovereign, however, seems to have formed some plan of depriving the Gherrheans of the commerce of the Gulf of Persia. He raised a mound to confine the waters of the Tigris: he built a city to stop the incursions of the Arabs, and opened a communication between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. After this there is no account of Idumea till some years subsequent to the death of Alexander the Great: at this period two expeditions were sent into it against its capital, Petra, by Antigonus, both of which were unsuccessful. These expeditions were undertaken about the years 308 and 309 before Christ. The history of Idumea, from this period, is better ascertained: hara.s.sed by the powerful kingdoms of Syria and Egypt,--contiguous to both of which it lay,--it seems to have been governed by princes of its own, who were partly independent, and partly under the influence of the monarchs of Syria and Egypt. About sixty-three years before Christ, Pompey took Petra; and, from that period, the sovereigns of Idumea were tributary to the Romans. This city, however, still retained its commerce, and was in a flourishing condition, as we are informed by Strabo, on the authority of his friend Athenedorus, who visited it about thirty-six years after it. He describes it as built on a rock, distinguished, however, from all the rocks in that part of Arabia, from being supplied with an abundant spring of water. Its natural position, as well as art, rendered it a fortress of importance in the desert. He represents the people as rich, civilized, and peaceable; the government as regal, but the chief power as lodged in a minister selected by the king, who had the t.i.tle of the king's brother. Syllaeus, who betrayed Elius Gallus, appears to have been a minister of this description.

The next mention that occurs of the trade of Petra is in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, the date of which, though uncertain, there is good reason to fix in Nero's reign. According to this work, Leuke Kome, at the mouth of the Elanitic Gulf, was the point of communication with Petra, the capital of the country, the residence of Malachus, the king of the Nabathians. "Leuke Kome, itself, had the rank of a mart in respect to the small vessels which obtained their cargoes in Arabia, for which reason there was a garrison placed in it, under the command of a centurion, both for the purpose of protection, and in order to collect a duty of twenty-five in the hundred." In the reign of Trajan, Idumea was reduced into the form of a Roman province, by one of his generals; after this time it not does fall within our plan to notice it, except merely to state, that its subjection does not seem to have been complete or permanent, for during the latter empire, there were certainly sovereigns of this part of Arabia, in some degree independent, whose influence and alliance were courted by the Romans and Persians, whenever a war was about to commence between these two powers.

From this sketch of the trade of the Arabians from the earliest period, we may conclude, in the first place, that when navigation was in its infancy, it was confined, or almost entirely so, to a land trade carried on by caravans; and that Petra was the centre to which these caravans tended from the east and the south, bringing with them from the former the commodities of India, and from the latter the commodities of the more fertile part of Arabia. From Petra, all these goods were again transported by land to the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean and to Egypt. In the second place, when navigation became more commonly known and practised, (and there is good reason to believe that it was known and practised among the Arabians, especially those near the Persian Gulf, at a very early period,) a portion of the Indian commodities, which before had been carried by land to Petra were brought by sea to Sabaea. It appears that in the age of Agatharcides, the monopoly of the trade between India and Europe by this route was wholly possessed by the Sabeans; that, in order to evade the effects of this monopoly, the Greeks of Egypt found their way to Aden and Hadraumaut, in Arabia, and to Mosullon on the coast of Africa. Here they met with other Arabians, who at this time also traded to India, and sold them Indian goods at a cheaper rate. And, lastly, we have seen that these ports on the southern coast of Arabia, and on the coast of Africa, were frequented by the merchants of Egypt, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, their ships were enabled to sail directly to India. It is undoubtedly true that before this discovery, single ships occasionally reached India by adhering to the coast all the way, but the direct communication was very rare. After the nature of the monsoon was thoroughly understood, and it was ascertained that complete dependence could be placed on its steadiness and regularity, and that by its change, the ships could be brought as safely and quickly back from India, as they had reached it, the ancients, who at first only ventured to the mouth of the Indus, gradually made their way down the western coast of the Indian peninsula.

The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a work which has been frequently referred to, is rich in materials to ill.u.s.trate the geographical knowledge and the commercial enterprize of the ancients in the part of the world to which it relates. We have already a.s.signed its date to the age of Nero. Our limits will prevent us from giving a full account of this work; we shall therefore, in the first place, give a short abstract of the geographical knowledge which it displays, and in the next place, ill.u.s.trate from it, the nature of the commerce carried on, on the Red Sea, the adjacent coasts of Africa and Arabia, and the ports of India, which are noticed in it.

At the time of Strabo, the geography of the ancients did not extend, on the eastern coast of Africa, further to the south than a promontory called Noti Cornu, (the Southern Horn,) which seems to have been in about 12-1/2 degrees north lat.i.tude. Beyond this an arid coast, without ports or fresh water, arrested the progress of navigation; but it appears by the Periplus, that this promontory was now pa.s.sed, and commerce had extended to the port of Rhapta and the isle of Menutias, which are supposed to correspond with Babel Velho and the island of Magadoxa. The author of the Periplus, who seems to have been a merchant personally acquainted with most of the places he describes, had heard of, but not visited the promontory Prasum: he represents the ocean beyond Rhapta as entirely unknown, but as believed to continue its western direction, and after having washed the south coast of Ethiopia, to join the Western Ocean. The whole of the west coast of India, from the Indus to Trapobane, is minutely described in the Periplus. Some of the particulars of the manners and customs of the inhabitants coincide in a striking manner with those of the present day; this observation applies, among other points, to the pirates between Bombay and Goa.

Dr. Vincent, in his learned commentary on the Periplus, gives it as his opinion, that the author of the Periplus never went further than Nelkundah himself, that is, to the boundary between the provinces of Canara and Malabar. The east coast of the Indian peninsula is not traced so minutely nor so accurately as the west coast, though there are names and descriptions in the Periplus, from which it may fairly be inferred, that the author alludes to Cavary, Masulapatam, Calingapatam, Coromandel, and other places and districts of this part of India. The countries beyond the Ganges, the Golden Chersonese, and the countries towards China, are very obscurely noticed in the Periplus, though the information he gives respecting the trade carried on in these parts is much more minute and accurate. His description of the direction of the coast of India, is on the whole, surprisingly consonant to truth: according to him, it tends from north to south, as far as Colchos (Travancore); at this place it bends to the east, and afterwards to the north; and then again a little to the east, as far as the Ganges. He is the first author in whom can clearly be traced the name of the great southern division of India: his term is Dachanabades,--Dachan signifying south, and abad a city; and Decan is still the general name of all the country to the south of Baroche, the boundary a.s.signed by the author. The particulars he mentions of the bay of Cutch, of Cambay, of Baroche, and of the Ghauts, may also be mentioned as proofs of his accuracy with respect to those parts of India, which he visited in person.

Having thus given a sketch of the geographical knowledge contained the Periplus, we shall next attend to the commercial information which it conveys. As this work is divided into two distinct parts, the first comprising the coast of the Red Sea, and of Africa, from Myos Hormos on the former, to Rhapta in the latter: and the second part, beginning at the same place, and including the whole coast of Arabia, both that which lies on the Red Sea, and that which lies on the Ocean, and then stretching from the Gulf of Persia to Guzerat, describing the coast of Malabar, as far as Ceylon, we shall, in our abstract of the commercial intelligence it contains, enumerate the princ.i.p.al imports and exports of the most frequented marts in Africa, (including the Red Sea,) Arabia, and India.

I. The Red Sea and Africa. Myos Hormos is described as the first port of Egypt on the Red Sea; as it lies in twenty-seven degrees north lat.i.tude, and Rhapta, the boundary of the Periplus to the south, in nearly ten degrees south lat.i.tude, the distance between them will be about 2,500 miles. It is to be supposed, that every thing relating to the geography, navigation, and commerce of the Red Sea, from Myos Hormos to Aduli, on the western side, and Moosa, on the eastern side of it, was well known to the merchants of Egypt, as the author of the Periplus gives no circ.u.mstantial account of any port, till he arrives at these places. It appears, also, that till the ships arrived at these places, they kept the mid-channel of the Red Sea, and, consequently, there was no occasion, or indeed, opportunity of describing the intermediate ports. We have already mentioned, that Myos Hormos was fixed on by Ptolemy Philadelphus, in preference to Arsinoe, because the navigation of the western part of the Red Sea, on which the latter was placed, was intricate and tedious.

Berenice was afterwards selected, as being still lower down: but it is worthy of remark, that neither Berenice, nor Ptolemais Theron, another port of the Ptolemies, were harbours, but merely roadsteads, though from our author's description, there were an almost infinite number of safe harbours, creeks, bays, &c. in every part of the Red Sea.