RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN ESTABLISHMENTS IN INDIA.
As the Europeans were induced to form their establish ments in India, in order to be nearer the source, and have a more ready and complete command of those luxuries which, for many centuries before the formation of these establishments, had become in such high and general re quest in the western world, it may be proper to introduce this part of our subject by a rapid glance of the commerce of the ancients with India, and of the means and route by which these luxuries were introduced into Europe before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.
Of all the nations of antiquity, the I'henicians were the most enterprising and extensive in their commerce. Hav ing obtained possession of Eziongeber, and other parts at the head of the Arabian Gulf, they were enabled to keep up a regular intercourse with India and the east coast of Africa. .At first they were obliged to convey their merchandize from the ports of ldumea to Tyre ; but having acquired Rhinocorera, the present El Arisch, the nearest port of the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf, they brought the produce and manufactures of India to this port, and thence conveyed them by sea to Tyre. This was one of the most ancient routes of communication between the western parts of Asia and India. Another route, which seems also to have existed from the earliest times, was by the Persian Gulf through Mesopotamia, the coast of Syria and Palestine. Besides these two routes, two others were pursued by the ancients, by the Caspian and Black Seas. The first route, according to Strabo, was as follows : The productions of India having been collected at Pattala, the present Tatta, near the mouth of the Indus, were carried up this river as far as it was navigable ; and thence they were conveyed by caravans to the Oxus, Gihon, where they were again sent by water, and descended this river as far as the point where it most nearly approaches the Ochus, Tedjen. To this latter river they were conveyed by caravans. The Ochus brought them to the Caspian Sca, across which they were embarked to the mouth of the Cyrus, Kur : up this river they were carried to its nearest approach to the Phasis, Rioni, where caravans were again employed to con vey them to Sarapana, Schoroban, a town on this river.
The communication between this place and the Black Sea, by the Phasis, was easy and short. In some instances, it appears that the merchandise of India was carried down the Oxus till it arrived at Lake Aral, into which that river falls ; and, being transported across this lake, was sent in caravans to the Caspian. The \Volga was next ascended, to the point where it approaches nearest to the Tanais or Don; to which latter, crossing by land, the merchandise was carried down it to the sea of Azoph. The fourth route, ac cording to Strabo, was across the Caucasus, from the Cas pian to the Black Sea.
Such were the routes by which the merchandise of India arrived in Eurnpe, prior to the time of Alexander's inva. sion of that country ; but he determined, as soon as he be came master of Egypt, to found a city which should no only eclipse Tyre, but early on a more direct and easy in tercourse with India than had been formerly done. The Romans had not been very long established in Egypt, be fore, having acquired a knowledge of the monsoons, they perceived that, by taking advantage of them, a more direct communication with India might take place. Their mcr• chants, accordingly, ascended the Nile from Juliapolis. about two miles from Alexandria, to Coptos. Hence they transported their goods in caravans to Berenice. Here they arrived in the middle of summer ; and immediately embarking, reached the coast of Osellis, Gaella, on the east coast of Arabia Felix : thence they coasted to Mu siris, Merjee, on the west of India. It is probable that some of their navigators even doubled Trapobane, Ceylon, and ascended the Ganges to Palibrotha, at that time the most commercial city in India. They returned from -India with the north-east monsoon, performing the shorter voy age within the year. .