He Expressly States, That
Beyond The Straits That Separate Arabia From The Opposite Coast, There Are
An Immense Number Of Islands, Scattered, Very Small, And Scarcely Raised
Above The Surface Of The Ocean.
If we may advert to the situation assigned
to these islands, on the supposition that the straits which separate
Arabia
from the opposite coast, mean the entrance to the Gulph of Persia, we shall
not be able to ascertain what these islands are; but if in addition to the
circumstances of their being scattered, very small, and very low, we add
what Agatharcides also notices, that the natives have no other means of
supporting life but by the turtles which are found near them in immense
numbers, and of a very large size, we shall be disposed, with Dr. Vincent,
to consider these as the Maldive Islands. It may be objected to this
supposition, that the Maldives are situated at a very great distance from
the straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast; but a cursory
acquaintance with the geographical descriptions of the ancients will
convince us, that their information respecting the situation of countries
was frequently vague and erroneous, (as indeed it must have been,
considering the imperfect means they possessed of measuring or even judging
of distances, especially by sea) while, at the same time, their information
respecting the nature of the country, the productions of its soil, and the
manners, &c. of its inhabitants, was surprisingly full and accurate. In
identifying places mentioned by the ancients, we should therefore be guided
more by the descriptions they give, than by the locality they assign to
them. Agatharcides, it is true, adds that these islands extend along the
sea, which washes Gadrosia and India; but he probably had very confused
notions of the extent and form of India; and, at any rate, giving the
widest latitude to the term, the same sea may be said to wash Gadrosia and
the Maldive Islands. If these are the islands actually meant by
Agatharcides, it is the earliest notice of them extant.
Our concern with Agatharcides relates only to the geographical knowledge
which his writings display; and even of that we can only select such parts
as are most important, and at the same time point out and prove the
advances of geographical knowledge, and of commercial enterprize; before,
however, we leave him, we may add one fact, not immediately relating to our
peculiar subject, which he records: after stating that the soil of Arabia
was, as it were, impregnated with gold, and that lumps of pure gold were
found there from the size of an olive to that of a nut, he adds, that iron
was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold. If he is accurate in
the proportionate values which he respectively assigns to these metals, it
proves the very great abundance of gold; since, in most of the nations of
antiquity, the values of gold and silver were the reverse of what they were
in Arabia, gold being ten times the value of silver. The comparative high
value of iron to gold is still more extraordinary, and seems to indicate
not only a great abundance of the latter metal, but also a great scarcity
of the former, or a very great demand for it in consequence of the extended
and improved state of those arts and manufactures in which iron is an
essential requisite, and which indicate an advanced degree of knowledge and
civilization. We are not aware of a similar fact, with respect to the
proportionate value of iron and silver, being recorded of any other nation
of antiquity. It is not to be supposed, however, that the cheapness of
gold, measured by iron and silver, could long continue in Arabia, unless we
believe that their intercourse with other nations was very limited; because
a regular and extensive intercourse would soon assimilate, in a great
degree at least, the value of gold measured by iron and silver, as it
existed in Arabia, to its value, as measured by the same metals in those
countries with which Arabia traded.
But to return from this slight digression; - Artemidorus has been already
mentioned as a geographer subsequent to Agatharcides, who copied
Agatharcides, and from whom Diodorus Siculus and Strabo in their turns
copied. There were two ancient writers of this name born at Ephesus; the
one to whom we have alluded, is supposed to have lived in the reign of
Ptolemy Lathyrus, A.C. 169; by others he is brought down to A.C. 104.
Little is known respecting him; nor does he seem to have added much to
geographical science or knowledge: he is said by Pliny to have first
applied the terms of length and breadth, or latitude and longitude. By
comparing those parts of Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, which they avowedly
copy from him, with the track of Agatharcides: in the Red Sea, we are
enabled to discover only a few additions of importance to the geographical
knowledge supplied by the former: Agatharcides, it will be remembered,
brings his account of the African side of the Red Sea no lower down than
Ptolemais: he does not even mention the expedition of Ptolemy Euergetes to
Aduli; nor the passage of the straits, though Eratosthenes, as cited by
Strabo, proves that it was open in his time. In the time of Artemidorus,
however, the trade of Egypt on the coast of Africa had reached as low down
as the Southern Horn; that this trade was still in its infancy, is apparent
from a circumstance mentioned by Strabo, on the authority of Artemidorus;
that at the straits the cargo was transferred from ships to boats; bastard
cinnamon, perhaps casia lignea or hard cinnamon, is specified as one of the
principal articles which the Egyptians obtained from the coast of Africa,
when they passed the straits of Babelmandeb.
The next person belonging to the Alexandrian school, to whom the sciences
on which geography rest, as well as geography itself, is greatly indebted,
was Hipparchus.
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