AN 9 Ag HISTORICAL DISQUISITION CONCERNING 68676 THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE ANCIENTS HAD OF INDIA; AND THE PROGRESS OF TRADE WITH THAT COUNTRY PRIOR THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. WITH AN APPENDIX, Containing Observations on the Civil Policy-the Laws aud Judicial BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D. F. R. S. ED. PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY, AND HISTORIOGRAPHER TO FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH LONDON EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY JOHN BIOREN & THO. L. PLOWMAN. A. Fagan, Printer. Rech, Jan 16 2.8 OF THE perusal of major Rennell's Memoir for illustrating his Map of Indostan, one of the most valuable geographical treatises that has appeared in. any age or country gave rise to the following work. It suggested to me the idea of examining more fully than I had done in the Introductory Book to my History of America, into the knowledge which the ancients had of India, and of considering what is certain, what is obscure, and what is fabulous, in the accounts of that country which they have handed down to us. In undertaking this inquiry, I had originally no other object than my own amusement and instruction: but in carrying it on, and consulting with diligence the authors of antiquity, some facts, hitherto unobserved, and many which had not been examined with proper attention, occurred; |