in luxury differed in many refpects from that of modern times, and of courfe their demands from India differed confiderably from ours. In order to convey an idea of their demands as complete as poffible, I fhall in the first place make fome obfervations on the three great articles of general importation from India. 1. Spices and aromatics. 2. Precious ftones and pearls. 3. Silk. And then I thall give fome account (as far as I can venture to do it from authentic information) of the affortment of cargoes, both outward and homeward bound, for the veffels fitted out at Berenice for different ports of India. 1. Spices and aromatics. From the mode of religious worship in the heathen world; from the incredible number of their deities, and of the temples confecrated to them; the confecration of frankincenfe and other aromatics which were ufed in every facred function, muft have been very great. But the vanity of men occafioned a greater confumption of thefe fragrant fubftances than their piety. It was the cuftom of the Romans to burn the bodies of their dead, and they deemed it a difplay of magnificence, to cover, not only the body but the funeral pile on which it was laid, with the most coftly fpices. At the - funeral of Sylla, two hundred and ten burthens of spices were ftrewed upon the pile. Nero is reported to have burnt a quantity of cinnamon and caffia at the funeral of Poppœa, great er than the countries from which it was imported produced in one year. We confume in heaps thefe precious fubftances with the carcafes of the dead (tays Fliny): We offer them to the gods only in grains. It was not froni India, I am aware, but from A. rabia, that aromatics were firft imported into Europe; and fome of them, particularly frankincenfe, were productions of that country. But the Arabians were accuftomed, together with fpices of native growth, to fur nith foreign merchants with others of higher value, which they brought from India, and the regions beyond it. The commercial intercourfe of the Arabians with the eastern parts of Afia, was not only eatly (as has been already obferved) but confiderable. By means of their trading caravans, they conveyed into their own country all the valuable productions of the Eaft, a-mong which spices held a chief place. In every ancient account of Indian commodities, fpices and aromatics of various kinds form a principal article. Some authors affert that the greater part of those purchased in Arabia were not the growth of that country, but brought from India. That this af fertion was well founded appears from what has been obferved in modern times. The frankincenfe of Arabia, though reckoned the peculiar and moft precious production of the country, is much inferior in quality to that imported into it from the eaft; and it is chiefly with the latter, that the Arabians at prefent fupply the extenfive demands of various provinces of Afia for this commodity. It is upon good authority, then, that I have mentioned the importation of fpices as one of the most confiderable branches of ancient commerce with India. II. Precious stones, together with which pearls may be claffed, seem to be the article next in value imported by the Romans from the eaft. As ' thefe have no pretenfion to be of any real ufe, their value arifes entirely from their beauty and their rarity, and even when ettimated most moderately is always high. But among nations far advanced in luxury, when they are deemed not only ornaments but marks of diftinction, the vain and the opulent vie fo eagerly with one another for the poffeffion of them, that they rife in price to an exorbitant and almoft incredible height. Diamonds, though the art of cutting them was imperfectly known to the ancients, held as high place in eftimation a mong mong them as well as among us. The comparative value of other precious ftones varied according to the diverfity of taftes and the caprice of fashion. The immenfe number of them mentioned by Pliny, and the laborious care with which he defcribes and arranges them, will aftonish, I should fuppofe, the most skilful lapidary or jeweller of modern times, and thews the high request in which they were held by the Romans. But among all the articles of luxury, the Romans feem to have given the preference to pearls. Perfons of every rank purchased them with eagernefs; they were worn on every part of drefs; and there is fuch a difference, both in fize and in value, among pearls, that while fuch as were large and of fuperior luftre, adorned the wealthy and the great, fmaller ones, and of inferior quality, gratified the vanity of perfons in more humble itations of life. Julius Cæfar prefented Servilia, the mother of Brutus, with a parl, for which he paid forty-eight thousand four hundred and fifty-feven pounds. The famous pearl ear-rings of Cleopatra were in valge one hundred and fixty-one thoufand four hundred and fifty-eight pounds. Precious ftones, it is true, as well as pearls, were found not only in India, but in many different countries, and all were ranfacked in order to gratify the pride of Rome. India, however, furnished the chief part, and its productions were allowed to be moft abundant, diverfified, and valuable. III. Another production of India in great demand at Rome was filk; and when we recollect the variety of elegant fabrics into which it may be formed, and how much thefe have added to the splendour of drefs and furni ure, we cannot wonder at its being held in fuch eftimation by a luxurious people. The price it bore was exorbitant; but it was deemed a drefs too expensive and too delicate for men, and as appropriated wholly to women of E VOL. XIV. No. 79. eminent rank and opulence. This, however, did not render the demand for it lefs eager, efpecially after the example of the diffolute Elagabalus introduced the ufe of it among the other fex, and accustomed men to the difgrace (as the feverity of ancient ideas accounted it) of wearing this effeminate garb. Two circumftances concerning the traffic of flk among the Romans merit cbfervation. Contrary to what ufually takes place in the operations of trade, the more general ufe of that commodity feems not to have inci cafed the quantity imported, in fach proportion as to anfwer the growing demand for it, and the price of filk was not reduced during the courfe of two hundred and fifty years from the time of its being first known in Rome. In the reign of Aurelian, it till continued to be valued at its weight in gold. This, it is probable, was owing to the mode in which that commodity was procured by the nierchants of Alexandria. They had no direct intercourfe with China, the only country in which the filk-worm was then reared, and its labour rendered an article of commerce. All the file which they purchafed in the different ports of India which they frequented, was brought thither in fhips of the country; and either from fome defeét of skill in managing the filk-worm, the produce of its ingenious induftry among the Chinefe was feanty, or the intermediate dealers found greater advantage in furnishing the market of Alexandria with a fmall quantity at an high price, than to lower its value by increafing the quantity. The other circumftance which I had in view is more extraordinary, and affords a ftriking proof of the imperfect communication of the ancients with remote nations, and of the fender knowledge which they had of their natural productions or arts. Much as the manufactures of filk were admired, and often as filk is mentioned by the Greek and Roman authors, they had not for feveral in feveral centuries, after the ufe of it becamc common, any certain knowledge, either of the countries to which they were indebted for this favourite aticle of elegance, or of the manner which it was produced. By fume, filk was fuppofed to be a fine down, adhering to the leaves of certain trees or flowers; others imagined it to be a delicate fpecies of woul er cotton; and even those who had learned that it was the work of an infe&t, thew. by their deferiptions, that they had no diftin&t idea of the manner in which it was formed. It was in confequence of an event that happened in the fixth century of the Chriftian æra, of which I fhall hereafter take notice, that the real nature of filk became known in Europe. The other commodities ufually imported from India, will be mentioned in the account which I now proceed to give, of the carg es fent out and brought home in the fhips employed in that trade. For this we are indebted to the circumnavigation of the Erythran fea, afcribed to Arrian, a curious though hert treatife, lefs known than it deferves to be, and which enters into fome details concerning commerce, to which there is nothing fimilar in any ancient writer. The first place in India, in which the fhips from Egypt, while they followed the ancient courfe of navigation, were accustomed to trade, was Patala in the river Indus. They imported into it woollen cloth of a flight fabric, linen in chequer work, fome precious ftones, and iome aromatics unknown in India, coral, ftorax, glfs veffels of different kinds, fome wrought filver, money, and wine, In return for thefe, they received spices of various kinds, fapphires, and other gems, filk ftus, filk thread, cotton cloths, and black pepper. But a far more confiderable emporium on the fame coaft was Barygaza, and on that account the author, whom I follow. here, defcribes its fucation, and the mode of approaching it, with great minutenefs and accuracy. Its fituation correfponds entirely with that of Baroach, on the great river Nerbud. dah, down the stream of which, or by land-carriage, from the great city of Tagara acrofs high mountains, all the productions of the interior country were conveyed to it. The articles of importation and exportation in this great mart were extenfive and various. Befides thefe already mentioned,' our author cnumerates, among the former, Italian, Greek, and Arabian wines, brafs, tin, lead, girdles, or fathes of curious texture, melilot, white glafs, red arfenic, black lead, gold and fil yer coin. Among the exports he mentions the onyx, and cther gems, ivory, myrrh, various fabrics of cotton, both plain and ornamented with flowers, and long pepper. At Mutiris, the next emporium of note on that coast, the articles imported were much the fame as at Barygaza; but as it lay nearer to the eastern parts of India, and feems to have had much communicat on with them, the commodities exported from it were more numerous and more valuable. He fpecifics particularly pearls in great abundance and of extraordinary beauty, a variety of filk stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoifehell, different kinds of tranfparent gems, especially diamonds, and pepper in large quantities, and of the best quality. The juftnefs of the account given by this author of the articles imported from India, is confirmed by a Roman law in which the Indian commodities fubject to the payment of duties are enumerated. By comparing these two accounts, we may form an idea, tolerably exact, of the nature and extent cftle trade with India in ancient times. As the flate of fociety and manners among the natives of India, in the carlieft period in which they are known, nearly refembled what we elferve among their defcendants in the fent age, their wants and demands were were of courfe much the fame. The ingenuity of their own artists was fo able to fupply thefe, that they ftood little in need of foreign manufactures or productions, except fome of the ufeful metals, which their own country did not furnish in fufficient quantity; and then, as now, it was moftly with gold and filver that the luxuries of the Eaft were purchased. In two particulars, however, our importations from India differ greatly from those of the ancients. The drefs, both of the Greeks and Romans, was almot entirely woollen, which, by their frequent ufe of the warm bath, was rendered abundantly comfortable. Their consumption of linen and cotton cloths was much inferior to that of modern times, when these are worn by perfons in every rank of life. Accordingly, a great branch of modern importation from that part of India with which the ancients were acquainted, is in piece gods; comprehending, under that mercantile term, the immenfe variety of fabrics, which Indian ingenuity has formed of cotton. But, as far as I have obferved, we have no authority that will justify us in flating the ancient importation of these to be in any degree confiderable. In modern times, though it continues ftill to be chiefly a commerce of luxury that is carried on with India, yet, together with the articles that minifter to it, we import, to a confiderable extent, various commodities, which are to be confidered merely as the materials of our domeftic manufactures. Such are the cotton-wool of Indoftan, the filk of China, and the falt-petre of Bengal. But in the accounts of ancient importations from India, raw filk and filk-thread excepted, 1 find nothing mentioned that could ferve as the materials of any home-manufacture. The navigation of the ancients never having extended to China, the quantity of unwrought filk with which they were fupplied, by means of the Indian traders, ap. pears to have been fo fcanty, that the manufacture of it could not make an addition of any monient to their domeftic industry. Remarks on the Mode in which the Ancients conducted their Difcoveries, and the Confidence their Accounts of them are entitled to. THE HE art of delineating maps, exhibiting either the figure of the whole earth, as far as it had been explored, or that of particular countries, was known to the ancients; and without the use of them to affift the imagination, it was impoffible to have formed a distinct idea either of the one or of the other. Some of thefe maps are mentioned by Herodotus, and other early Greek writers. But no maps prior to thofe which were formed, in order to illuftrate the geography of Ptolemy, have reached our Limes, in confequence of which it is very difficult to conceive what was the relative fituation of the different places mentioned by the ancient geographers, unless when it is precifely afcertained by measurement. As foon, however, as the mode of marking the fituation of each place, by fpecifying its longitude and latitude, was introduced, and came to be generally adopted, every pofition could be defcribed in compendious and fcientific terms. But ftil the accuracy of this new method, and the improvement which geography derived from it, depeads upon the mode in which the anE 2 + From the fame, ciepts cients eftimated the latitude and longitude of places. Though the ancients proceeded in determining the latitude and longitude of places upon the fame principles with the moderns, yet it was by means of inftruments very inferior in their construction to thofe now ufed, and without the fame minute attention to évery circumstance that may affect the accuracy of an obfervation, an attenyon of which long experience only cin denionitrate the neceffity. In order to afcertain the latitude of any place, the ancients oblerved the meridian altitude of the fun, either by means of the fhadow of a perpendicu far gnomon, or by means of an attro Jabe, from which it was cafy to compute how many degrees and minutes the place of obfervation was dillant from the Equator. When neither of thefe methods could be employed, they inferred the latitude of any place from the belt accounts which they could procure of the length of its longeit day. With respect to determining the longitude of any place, they were much more at a lofs, as there was only one fet of celeftial phenomena to which they could have recourfe. Thefe were the eclipfes of the moon (for thofe of the fun were not for welt understood as to be fubfervient to the purposes of geography:) the difference between the time at which an cchipfe was obferved to begin or to end at two different places, gave imme. diately the difference between the meidians of those places. But the dificulty of making thofe obfervations with accuracy, and the impoflibility of repeating them often, rendered them of fo little ufe in geography, that the ancients in determining longitudes were obliged, for the most part, to have recourse to actual furveys, or to te vague infomation which was to be obtained from the reckonings of fail. drs, or the itineraries of travellers. But tough the ancients, by means of the operations which I have mentioned, could determine the position of places with a confiderable degree of accuracy at land, it is very uncertain whether or not they had any proper mode of determining this at fea. The navigators of antiquity feem rarely to have had recourfe to aftronomical obfervation. They had no inftruments fuited to a moveable and unfteady obfervatory; and though, by their practice of landing frequen ly, they might, in fome meafure, have fupplied that deft, yet no ancient author, as far as I know, has given an account of any aftronomical obfervation made by them during the courfe of their voyages. It feems to be evident from Ptolemy, who employs fome chapters in thewing how geography may be improved, and its errors may be rectified, from the reports of navigators, that all their calculations were founded folely upon reckoning, and were not the refult of obfervation. Even after all the improvements which the moderns have made in the fcience of navigation, this mode of computing by reckoning is known to be fo loofe and uncertain, that, from it alone, no conclufion can be deduced with any great degree of precifion. Among the ancients, this inaccuracy must have been greatly augmented, as they were accustomed in their voyages, instead of steering a direct, courfe which might have been more easily measured, to a circuitous navigation along the coaft; and were unacquainted with the compafs, or any other inftrument by which is bearings might have been afcortained. We find accordingly the position of many places which we may fuppofe to have been determined at fea, fixed with little exactnefs. When, in confequence of an active trade, the ports of any country were much frequented, the reckonings of different navigators may have ferved in fome measure to correct each other, and may have enabled geographers to form their con clufions with a neater approximation to |