A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18: Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and; Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth; Century, By William StevensonKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18: Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and; Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth; Century, By William Stevenson
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The fourth and last mart mentioned as lying on the African side of the
channel, which opens from the Straits of Babelmandeb, is Mosullon; this was
the most important mart on the whole coast, and that which gave a specific
name to the trade of the ancients: the imports were numerous, comprising,
besides those already mentioned, some that were peculiar to this place,
such as vessels of silver, a small quantity of iron, and flint glass: the
exports were, cinnamon, of an inferior quality; the quantity of this
article is noticed as so great, that larger vessels were employed in the
trade of this port, expressly for conveying it, than were seen in the other
ports of Africa. We are informed by Pliny, that Mosullon was a great market
for cinnamon,--and it would seem, from its being conveyed in large vessels
by sea, that it came from Arabia. The cinnamon mentioned in the Periplus,
is, indeed, particularized as of an inferior quality, which is directly at
variance with the authority of Dioscorides, who expressly states that the
Mosulletic species is one of prime quality; if this were the case, it must
have been Indian. The other exports were gums, drugs, tortoise-shell,
incense, frankincense, brought from distant places; ivory, and a small
quantity of myrrh. The abundance of aromatic articles, which the Greeks
procured on this part of the coast, induced them to give the name of
Aromatic to the whole country, and particularly to the town and promontory
at the eastern extremity of it. Cape Aromata, the Gardefan of the moderns,
is not only the extreme point east of the continent of Africa, but also
forms the southern point of entrance on the approach to the Red Sea, and is
the boundary of the monsoon. At the marts between Mosullon and this Cape,
no articles of commerce are specified, except frankincense, in great
abundance and of the best quality, at Alkannai. At the Cape itself, there
was a mart, with an exposed roadsted; and to the south of it, was another
mart; from both these, the principal exports consisted of various kinds of
aromatics.
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