The Abundance Of Aromatic Articles, Which The Greeks
Procured On This Part Of The Coast, Induced Them To Give The Name Of
Aromatic To The Whole Country, And Particularly To The Town And Promontory
At The Eastern Extremity Of It.
Cape Aromata, the Gardefan of the moderns,
is not only the extreme point east of the continent of Africa, but also
forms the southern point of entrance on the approach to the Red Sea, and is
the boundary of the monsoon.
At the marts between Mosullon and this Cape,
no articles of commerce are specified, except frankincense, in great
abundance and of the best quality, at Alkannai. At the Cape itself, there
was a mart, with an exposed roadsted; and to the south of it, was another
mart; from both these, the principal exports consisted of various kinds of
aromatics.
At Aromata, the Barbaria of the ancients, or the Adel of the moderns,
terminates; and the coast of Azania, or Agan, begins. The first mart on
this coast is Opone, from which there were exported, besides the usual
aromatics and other articles, slaves of a superior description, chiefly for
the Egyptian market, and tortoise-shell, also of a superior sort, and in
great abundance. There was nothing peculiar in the imports. In this part of
his work, the author of the Periplus, mentions and describes the annual
voyage between the coast of Africa and India: after enumerating the
articles imported from the latter country, which consisted chiefly of corn,
rice, butter; oil of Sesanum; cotton, raw and manufactured sashes; and
honey from the cane, called sugar; he adds, that "many vessels are employed
in this commerce, expressly for the importation of these articles, and
others, which have a more distant destination, sell part of their cargoes
on this coast, and take in the produce in return." This seems to be the
first historical evidence of a commercial intercourse between India and
Africa, independent of the voyages of the Arabians; and as the parts from
which the ships sailed to India, lay within the limits of the monsoon, it
most probably was accomplished by means of it, and directly from land to
land, without coasting round by the Gulf of Persia.
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