In Exchange For Them, There Were Imported Rice, Corn,
Indian Cotton Goods, And Women Slaves.
The first mart beyond Cape Syagros is Moscha, which is represented as much
resorted to on account of the
Sacchalitic incense which is imported there.
This was so extremely abundant that it lay in heaps, with no other
protection than that which was derived from the gods, for whose sacrifices
it was intended. It is added that it was not possible for any person to
procure a cargo of it without the permission of the king; and that the
vessels were observed and searched so thoroughly, that not a single grain
of it could be clandestinely exported. The intercourse between this port
and Kane was regular; and besides this, it was frequented by such ships as
arrived from India too late in the season: here they continued during the
unfavourable monsoon, exchanging muslins, corn, and oil, for frankincense.
A small island, which is supposed to be the modern Mazeira, was visited by
vessels from Kane to collect or purchase tortoise-shell: the priests in the
island are represented in the Periplus as wearing aprons made of the fibres
of the cocoa tree: this is the earliest mention of this tree.
Mocandon, the extreme point south of the Gulf of Persia, was the land from
which the Arabians, (to use a maritime phrase) took their departure, with
various superstitious observances, imploring a blessing on their intended
voyage, and setting adrift a small toy, rigged like a ship, which, if
dashed to pieces, was supposed to be accepted by the god of the ocean,
instead of their ship.
It is impossible to determine from the Periplus, whether the author was
personally acquainted with the navigation, ports, and trade of the Gulf of
Persia: the probability is that he was not, as he mentions only two
particulars connected with it; the pearl fishery, and the town of Apologus,
a celebrated mart at the mouth of the Euphrates; the pearl fishery he
describes as extending from Mocandon to Bahrain. Apologus is the present
Oboleh, on the canal that leads from the Euphrates to Basra.
If the author of the Periplus did not enter the Gulf of Persia, he
certainly stretched over, with the monsoon, either to Karmania, or directly
to Scindi, or to the Gulf of Cambay; for at these places the minuteness of
information which distinguishes the journal again appears.
Omana in Persia is the first mart described; it lay in the province of
Gadrosia, but as it is not mentioned by Nearchus, who found Arabs in most
other parts of the province, we may conclude that it was founded after his
time. The trade between this place and Baragaza in India, was regular and
direct, and the goods brought from the latter to the former, seems
afterwards to have been sent to Oboleh at the head of the Gulf; the imports
were brass, sandal-wood; timber, of what kind is not specified; horn,
ebony; this is the first port the trade of which included ebony and
sandal-wood:
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