The Exports Of The Island Of Trapobane, Or Ceylon, Are
Particularized As Consisting Chiefly Of Pearls, Gems, Tortoise-Shells, And
Muslins:
Cinnamon is not named; an almost decisive proof, if other proof
were wanting, that the author of the Periplus had never visited this
island.
That trading voyages were carried on by the natives from the
southern ports of India, not only to the northern ports of the western side
of that country, but also to the eastern ports in the Bay of Bengal, and to
the farther peninsula itself, we are expressly informed, as our author
mentions vessels of great bulk adapted to the voyages made to the Ganges
and the Golden Chersonese, in contradistinction to other and smaller
vessels employed in the voyages to Limurike.
Of the remainder of the Periplus little notice is requisite, the account of
the countries beyond Cape Comorin being entirely drawn from report, and
consequently erroneous, both in respect to geography and commerce. In some
particulars regarding the latter, however, it is surprisingly accurate: the
Gangetic muslins are praised as the finest manufacture of the sort, and
Gangetic spikenard is also noticed; the other articles of traffic in the
ports on the Ganges were betel and pearls. Thina is also mentioned as a
city, in the interior of a country immediately under the north, at a
certain point where the sea terminates; from this city both the raw
material and manufactured silks are brought by land through Bactria to
Baragaza, or else down the Ganges, and thence by sea to Limurike: the
routes we have already described. The means of approach to Thina are
represented as very difficult; some merchants, however, came from it to a
great mart which is annually held near it. The Sesatoe, who from the
description of them are evidently Tartars, frequent this mart with their
wives and children. "They are squat and thick-set, with their face broad
and their nose greatly depressed. The articles they bring for trade are of
great bulk, and inveloped in mats made of rushes, which, in their outward
appearance, resemble the early leaves of the vine. Their place of assembly
is between their own borders and those of China; and here spreading out
their mats, they hold a fair for several days, and at the conclusion of it,
return to their own country in the interior. Upon their retreat the Thinae,
who have continued on the watch, repair to the spot and collect the mats
which the strangers left behind at their departure; from these they pick
out the haulm, and drawing out the fibres, spread the leaves double, and
make them into balls, and then pass the fibres through them. Of these balls
there are three sorts, in this form they take the name of Malabathrum."
On this account Dr. Vincent very justly remarks, that we have here, upon
the whole, a description of that mode of traffic, which has always been
adopted by the Chinese, and by which they to this hour trade with Russia,
Thibet, and Ava.
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