the Indus, it appeared to them a prodigy, by which the gods teftified the displeasure of Hea, ven against their enterprise t). During their whole course, they seem never to have loft fight of land, but followed the bearings of the coaft so fervively, that they could not much avail themfelves of those periodical winds, which facilitate navigation in the Indian ocean. Accordingly, they spent no less than ten months in u) performing this voyage, which, from the mouth of the Indus to that of the Perfian Gulf, does not exceed twenty degrees. It is probable, that amidst the violent convulfions, and frequent revolutions in the Eaft, occafioned by the contests among the fucceffors of Alexander, the navigation to India, by the courfe which Nearchus had opened, was difcontinued. The Indian trade carried on at Alexandria, not only fubfifted, but was fo much extended under the Grecian monarchs of Egypt, that it proved a great source of the wealth which diftinguifhed their kingdom.

Of the Romans,

The progrefs which the Romans made in navigation and difcovery, was ftill more inconfiderable than that of the Greeks. The genius of the Roman people, their militairy education, and the spirit of their laws, concurred in eftranging them from commerce and naval affairs. It was

t) See NOTE V.

u) Plin. Hift. Nat. lib. vi. e. 23.

the neceffity of oppofing a formidable rival, not the defire of extending trade, which firft prom- pted them to aim at maritime power. Though they foon perceived that, in order to acquire univerfal dominion after which they afpired, it was neceffary to render themselves mafters of the fea, they ftill confidered the naval fervice as a fubordinate station, and referved for it fuch citizens as were not of a rank to be admitted into the legions x). In the hiftory of the Roman republic, hardly one event occurs, that marks attention to navigation any farther than as it was inftrumental towards conqueft. When the Roman valour and difcipline had fubdued all the maritime ftates known in the ancient world; when Carthage, Greece, and Egypt, had submitted to their power, the Romans did not imbibe the commercial fpirit of the conquered nations. Among that people of foldiers, to have applied to trade would have been deemed a degradation of a Roman citizen. They abandoned the mechanical arts, commerce and navigation, to flaves, to freedmen, to provincials, and to citizens of the loweft clafs. Even after the fubverfion of liberty, when the feverity and haughtiness of ancient manners began to abate, commerce did not rife into high eftimation among the Romans. The trade of Greece, Egypt, and the other conquered countries, continued x) Polyb. lib. v.

to be carried on in its ufual channels, after they were reduced into the form of Roman provinces. As Rome was the capital of the world, and the feat of government, all the wealth and valuable productions of the provinces flowed naturally thither. The Romans, fatisfied with this, feem to have fuffered commerce to remain almost entirely in the hands of the natives of the respective countries. The extent, howewer, of the Roman power, which reached over the greatest part of the known world, the vigilant inspection of the Roman magiftrates, and the spirit of the Roman government, no lefs intelligent than active, gave fuch additional fecurity to commerce as animated it with new vigour. The union among nations was never fo entire, nor the intercourfe fo perfect, as within the bounds of this vaft empire. Commerce under the Roman dominion, was not obftructed by the jealoufie of rival states, interrupted by frequent hoftilities, or limited by partial reftrictions. One fnperintending power moved and regulated the induftry of mankind, and enjoyed the fruits of their joint efforts.

Navigation felt this influence, and improved under it. As foon as the Romans acquired a tafte for the luxuries of the Eaft, the trade with India through Egypt was pushed with new vigour, and carried on to greater extent. By frequenting the Indian continent, navigators became acquainted with the periodical courfe of the winds, which,

in the ocean that feparates Africa from India, blow with little variation during one half of the year from the eaft, and during the other half fix with equal fteadiness from the weft. Encouraged by obferving this, they abandonned their ancient flow and dangerous courfe along the coaft, and as foon as the western monfoon fet in, took their departure from Ocelis, at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, and stretched boldly across the ocean y). The uniform direction of the wind, fupplying the place of the compass, and rendering the guidance of the ftars lefs neceffary, conducted them to the port of Mufiris, on the western shore of the India continent. There they took on board their cargo, and returning with the eastern monfoon, finished their voyage to the Arabian Gulf within the year. This part of India, now known by the name of the Malabar coast, seems to have been the utmost limit of ancient navigation in that quarter of the globe. What imperfect knowledge the ancients had of the immense countries which stretch beyond this towards the eaft they received from a few adventurers, who had vifited them by land. Such excurfions were neither frequent nor extenfive, and it is probable, that while the Roman intercourfe with India fubfifted, no traveller ever penetrated further than to the banks of the Ganges z). The fleets from Egypt which traded

y) Plin. Hift. Nat. lib. vi. cap. 23.

z) Strab. Geogr. lib. xv. p. 1006. 1010. See NOTE VI.

at Mufiris, were loaded, it is true, with the fpices and other rich commodities of the continent and iflands of the farther India; but these were brought on that port, which became the ftable of this commerce, by the Indians themselves, in canoes hollowed out of one tree a). The Egyptian and Roman merchants, fatisfied with acquiring thofe commodities in this manner, did not think it neceffary to explore unknown seas, and venture upon a dangerous navigation, in queft of the countries which produced them. But though the difcoveries of the Romans in India were fo limited, their commerce there was fuch as will appear confiderable, even to the present age, in which the Indian trade has been extended far beyond the practice of conception of any preceding period. We are informed by one author of credit b), that the commerce with India drained the Roman empire every year of more than four hundred thousand pounds; and by an other, that one hunderd and twenty fhips failed annually from the Arabian Gulf to that country c).

Difcoveries of the ancients by land.

The difcovery of this new method of failing to India, is the most confiderable improvement in navigation made during the continuance of the Roman power. But in ancient times, the knowledge of countries a) Plin. Nat. Hift. 1b. vi. c. 26. b) Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vi. c. 26. e) Strab. Geogr. lib. ii. 179.