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.
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