AN

HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

CONCERNING

ANCIENT INDIA.

SECTION I.

INTERCOURSE WITH INDIA, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES UNTIL THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT BY THE ROMANS.

any

WHOEVER attempts to trace the operations of men in remote times, and to mark the various - steps of their progress in line of exertion, will soon have the mortification to find, that the period of authentic history is extremely limited. It is little more than three thousand years since the Books of Moses, the most ancient and only genuine record of what passed in the early ages of the world, were composed. Herodotus, the most ancient Heathen historian whose works have reached us, flourished a thousand years later. If we push our inquiries concerning any point beyond the era where written history commences, we enter upon the region of conjecture, of fable, and of uncertainty.

B

Upon that ground I will neither venture myself, nor endeavour to conduct my readers. In my researches concerning the intercourse between the Eastern and Western regions of the earth, and concerning the progress of that great branch of trade, which in every age, has contributed so conspicuously towards raising the people who carried it on, to wealth and power, I shall confine myself within the precincts I have marked out. Wherever the inspired writers, intent upon higher objects, mention occasionally any circumstance that tends to illustrate the subject of my inquiries, I shall attend to it with reverence. Whatever other writers relate, I shall examine with freedom, and endeavour to ascertain the degree of credit to which they are entitled.

The original station allotted to man by his Creator, was in the mild and fertile regions of the East. There the human race began its career of improvement; and from the remains of sciences which were anciently cultivated, as well as of arts which were anciently exercised in India, we may conclude it to be one of the first countries in which men made any considerable progress in that career. The wisdom of the East was early celebrated,* and its productions were early in request among distant nations. The intercourse, however, between different countries was carried on at first entirely by land. As the people of the East appear soon to have acquired complete dominion over the useful

* Kings, iv. 30.

+ Gen, xxxviii. 25.

*

animals, they could early undertake the long and toilsome journies which it was necessary to make, in order to maintain this intercourse; and by the provident bounty of Heaven, they were furnished with a beast of burden, without whose aid it would have been impossible to accomplish them. The Camel, by its persevering strength, by its moderation in the use of food, and the singularity of its internal structure, which enables it to lay in a stock of water sufficient for several days, put it in their power to convey bulky commodities through those deserts, which must be traversed by all who travel from any of the countries west of the Euphrates towards India. Trade was carried on in this manner, particularly by the nations near to the Arabian Gulf, from the earliest period to which historical information reaches. Distant journies, however, would be undertaken at first only occasionally, and by a few adventurers. But by degrees, from attention to their mutual safety and comfort, numerous bodies of merchants assembled at stated times, and forming a temporary association (known afterwards by the name of a Caravan) governed by officers of their own choice, and subject to regulations of which experience had taught them the utility, they performed journies of such extent and duration, as appear astonishing to nations not accustomed to this mode of carrying on commerce.

But, notwithstanding every improvement that could be made in the manner of conveying the pro

* Gen. xii. 16. xxiv. 10, 11,

ductions of one country to another by land, the inconveniences which attended it were obvious and unavoidable. It was often dangerous; always expensive, and tedious, and fatiguing. A method of communication more easy and expeditious was sought, and the ingenuity of man gradually discovered, that the rivers, the arms of the sea, and even the ocean itself, were destined to open and facilitate intercourse with the various regions of the earth, between which they appear, at first view, to be placed as insuperable barriers. Navigation, however, and ship-building (as I have observed in another work*) are arts so nice and complicated that they require the talents as well as experience of many successive ages, to bring them to any degree of perfection. From the raft or canoe, which first served to carry a savage over the river that obstructed him in the chace, to the construction of a vessel capable of conveying a numerous crew, or a considerable cargo of goods, to a distant coast, the progress of improvement is immense. Many efforts would be made, many experiments would be tried, and much labour as well as ingenuity would be employed, before this arduous and important undertaking could be accomplished.

Even after some improvement was made in shipbuilding, the intercourse of nations with each other by sea was far from being extensive. From the ac

Hist of America, vol. i. p. 2.

counts of the earliest historians, we learn, that navigation made its first efforts in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, and in them the first active operations of commerce were carried on. From an attentive inspection of the position and form of these two great inland seas, these accounts appear to be highly probable. These seas lay open the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and spreading to a great extent along the coasts of the most fertile and most early civilized countries in each, seem to have been destined by nature to facilitate their communication with one another. We find, accordingly, that the first voyages of the Egyptians and Phenicians, the most ancient navigators mentioned in history, were made in the Mediterranean. Their trade, however, was not long confined to the countries bordering upon it. By acquiring early possession of ports on the Arabian Gulf, they extended the sphere of their commerce, and are represented as the first people of the West who opened a communication by sea with India.

In that account of the progress of navigation and discovery which I prefixed to the history of America, I considered with attention the maritime operations of the Egyptians and Phenicians; a brief review of them here, as far as they relate to their connection with India, is all that is requisite for illustrating the subject of my present inquiries. With respect to the former of these people, the information which history affords is slender, and of