The great mass of the commerce between India and Europe was carried on in the same route of the Red Sea, till the seventh century, when the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens transferred it by the Black Sea to Constanti nople. As soon, however, as the Mainelukes became masters of Egypt, they permitted. the Venetians to follow the ancient route; and when De Gama displayed the Por tuguese flag in the Indian seas, Alexandria was the sole cntrepot of Indian commerce.
having thus traced the various routes of communica tion that existed before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, we shall subjoin an enumeration of the principal articles which the ancients brought from India.
1. Spices and aromatics. These were in great demand, not only as articles of high and expensive luxury, but al so for religious purposes ; of course, the ancients required a regular and immense supply of them but there is rea son to believe that they were brought principally, if not en tirely, from Arabia ; though it is probable that the Ara bians obtained them from the western parts of India ; as at present the extensive demands of various provinces of Asia for these articles, especially for frankincense, are supplied by the Arabians from India.
2. Precious stones and pearls. Of these India furnish ed the chief part to the luxury and extravagance of the Roman emperors ; and its productions of this kind were allowed to be most abundant, diversified and valuable.
3. Silk. As the ancients had no direct communication with China, all the silk which they obtained was pur chased in India, whither it was brought in ships of the country.
Arrian, in his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, has given us some minute and curious particulars respecting the homeward and outward cargoes of the ships employed, in his time, in the Indian trade ; they imported into Patala, on the Indus, woollen cloth of a slight fabric, linen in•che quer work, some precious stones, and some aromatics un known in India, coral, storax, glass vessels of different kinds, some wrought silver, money, and wine. In return for these, they obtained spices of various kinds, sapphires and other gems, silk stuffs, and silk thread, cotton cloths, and black pepper. Patala, however, was not the only or the principal port, which the ancients frequented in India; the chief emporium of trade was Baragyza, which seems to have been situated on the river Nerbuddah. The articles of exportation and importation here were very va rious and numerous ; besides those already mentioned, there were imported brass, tin, lead, girdles or sashes, mertilot, white glass, arsenic, black lead, gold and silver coin. Among the exports there were the onyx and other gems, ivory, myrrh, various kinds of cotton goods, both plain and ornamented, and long pepper. The exports from Musiris, which lay nearer the eastern parts of India, were still more rare and valuable. Arrian.specifies particularly
pearls in great abundance, and of extraordinary beauty, a variety of silk stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoise shell, differ ent kinds of transparent gems, especially diamonds, and pepper in large quantities, and of the best quality.
As the demand for these, and other articles the produce or manufacture of India, increased along with the increasing ci vilization and wealth of Europe, the commerce of India was always an object of great importance with all those states of Europe which applied themselves to trade. Hence the rivalship of Venice and Genoa respecting it ; and hence the attempts which were made to reach the East Indies by , sea. At length the Cape of Good Hope was discovered and doubled ; and the Portuguese opened this easy com munication with India.
After a tedious course of voyages, continued for nearly half a century, Vasco de Gama, an active and enterprising Portuguese admiral, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and coasting along the eastern shore of the continent of Africa, sailed from thence across the Indian Ocean, and landed at Calicut on the coast of Malabar, on the 22d of May 1498. At the period of the arrival of the Portugese in India, the west coast of Hindostan was divided between two great sovereigns, the kings of Cambay, and the Zamorin, each of whom had under him numerous petty princes ; at the same period the maritime region on the gulf of Bengal was divided into three sovereignties ; 1st, That of Aracan, or Rokhang, from the Ganges to Cape Negrais ; 2d, Pegu or Bagoo, from the Cape to Martaban ; and 3d, Siam, from the latter to Tanasserim, near which the Malay peninsula commences. The dominions of the Zamorin included the whole coast from Bombay to Cape Comorin ; Calicut was the capital, and one of the most commercial cities in India. De Gama, having received information of the riches of this city, immediately proceeded thither, and was on the point of concluding a commercial treaty with the Zamorin, when his object was defeated by the jealousy of some Ma homedan merchants ; soon after this he returned to Lis bon. Cabral was next sent out by the Portuguese court to Calicut ; but the Moors were as little favourable to him as they had been to De Gama, so that he judged it prudent to proceed to Cochin and Cananore. As the kings of these places were under the yoke of the Zamorin, which they were desirous of throwing off, they received him very fa vourably, and entered into alliance with him. The Portu guese thus in a short time acquired so great an influence, as to give law to the whole coast, fixing their own prices on the productions of the country, and building forts in the principal towns.