He There Turned By The Lands Of Gedrosia,
Caramania, And Persia, To The Great City Of Babylon, Leaving The Command
Of His Fleet To Onesicratus And Nearchus, Who Sailed Through The Straits
Of The Persian Sea And Up The River Euphrates, Discovering The Whole
Coast Between The Indus And That River.
After the death of Alexander, Ptolemy became king of Egypt, who by some
was reputed to have been the bastard son of Philip, the father of
Alexander:
He, imitating the before named kings, Sesostris and Darius,
caused dig a canal from the branch of the Nile which passed by Pelusium,
now by the city of Damieta[34]. This canal of Ptolemy was an hundred feet
broad and thirty feet deep, and extended ten or twelve leagues in length,
till it came to the _bitter wells_. He meant to have continued it to the
Red Sea; but desisted on the idea that the Red Sea was three cubits
higher than the land of Egypt, and would have overflowed all the country,
to its entire ruin.
Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the year 277 before Christ, changed the
direction of the Indian traffic. The goods from Europe, by his orders,
were carried up the Nile from Alexandria to the city of Coptus, and
conveyed across the desert from thence to the sea-port of Myos-Hormos on
the Red-sea[35]. To avoid the excessive heat, the caravans travelled only
in the night, directing their course by the stars; and water being very
scarce in the desert, they had to carry a sufficient quantity with them
for the journey. Afterwards, to avoid this trouble, deep wells were dug
at certain intervals; and in other places large cisterns or reservoirs
were constructed for the reception of rain water. Still later, in
consideration of the dangers attending the port of Myos-Hormos, on
account of flats and islands, Philadelphus sent an army into Troglodytica,
where he constructed a haven called Berenice, in which the ships engaged
in the Indian commerce took shelter, as a place of greater security. From
thence the goods were transported to the city of Coptus, and afterwards
to Alexandria, which became rich and famous, through its trade with India,
beyond any other city in the world; insomuch that it is asserted that the
customs of Alexandria yielded every year to Ptolemy Auletes, the father
of Cleopatra, seven millions and a half of gold, though the traffic had
then scarcely subsisted in that direction for twenty years[36]. After the
reduction of Egypt and Alexandria under the power of the Romans, the
customs are said to have advanced to double that amount; and the trade
was so great, that 120 ships used to be sent yearly from Myos-Hormos to
India. The ships set sail every year from Myos-Hormos about the middle of
July, and returned back within the year[37]. The merchandize they carried
amounted to the value of one million two hundred thousand crowns; and the
returns were an hundred for one; and through this prodigious increase of
wealth, the matrons and noble ladies of those days in Alexandria, were
exceedingly profuse in decorating themselves with purple, pearls, and
precious stones, and in the use of musk, amber, and other rich perfumes
of various kinds; of all which the historians and other writers of that
age treat at great length[38].
Pliny[39], on the authority of Cornelius Nepos, says that one Eudoxus,
flying from Ptolemy Lathyrus, passed by sea through the gulf of Arabia,
and sailing along the eastern coast of Africa, doubled the cape of Bona
Speranca arrived by the Atlantic at Cadiz; and it would appear that this
navigation was as often used in those days as it now is. Caius Caesar,
the son of Augustus, going into Arabia, found in the Red Sea certain
pieces of the ships which had gone thither from Spain.
Long after these days it was usual to pass to India by land. This was
done by the kings of the Sogdians, the princes of Bactria, and other
famous captains and many merchants, who travelled thither and into
Scythia by land. Marcus Paulus Venetus writes largely of these countries;
and though his book at first was reckoned fabulous, yet what he and
others have reported is now found true, by the experience of travellers,
and merchants who have since been to the same parts.
It is reported that the Romans sent an army by sea to India, against the
great khan of Cathaia, 200 years before the Incarnation; which, passing
through the Straits of Gibraltar, and running to the north-west, found
ten islands opposite to Cape Finisterre; producing large quantities of
tin, which perhaps may have been those afterwards called the Cassiterides.
Being come to 50 degrees of latitude, they found a strait passing to the
west, through which they arrived in India, and gave battle to the king of
Cathaia, after which they returned to Rome. Whether this story may appear
possible or not, true or false, I can only say that I give it as I found
it written in the histories of these times.
In the year 100 after the incarnation of Christ, the emperor Trajan
fitted out a fleet on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, whence he sailed
to the islands of Zyzara; and passing the straits of Persia, entered
into the ocean, by which he sailed along the coast to India, till he came
to the place where Alexander had been. He there took some ships which
came from Bengal, and learned the state of the country from the mariners.
But being in years, and weary of the sea, and because he found it
difficult to procure necessaries for his army, he returned back to
Assyria[40].
After the Romans had subdued most part of the world, many notable
discoveries were made. But then came the Goths, Moors, and other
barbarous nations, who destroyed all A.D. 412, the Goths took the city
of Rome.
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