History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)Lindsay, W. S. (William Schaw)
History
History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)
Lindsay, W. S. (William Schaw)
Commerce -- History; Shipping -- History; Steam navigation -- History
Phœnicia, we can accomplish so much the more successfully by means of
our well appointed fleets.”
[Sidenote: Kane.]
[Sidenote: Sachal.]
The Arabians had also a considerable intercourse with the East from
Kane,[244] a port on the south-western shores of Arabia, in Hadramaut,
a place enjoying a direct intercourse with Sana, and thence by the
great caravan route with Saba. The merchants of Kane traded, on the
one hand, with Baroach, Sindh, Ormus, and Persia, and on the other,
with Egypt, whence they imported wine, corn, cloths suited for the
Arabian market, salt, brass, tin, resin, specie, wrought plate, carved
images, and horses, and exported various commodities common to the
country, and especially frankincense and aloes. From Kane the Arabian
vessels, and afterwards some of the Egyptian traders in the time of
Arrian, proceeded along the coast to the north-east until they reached
Sachal, on the shores of Hadramaut, their chief trade being incense,
which, according to Arrian, was there “collected by the king’s slaves,
or by malefactors condemned to this service as a punishment.” Most of
the incense, however, was sent through Thomæra, the capital of the
Gebanites, to Gaza, on the coast of Palestine, by way of Petra, by
the important caravan route already noticed, and continued in a great
measure to find its way to Egypt by this inland route even after the
merchants of Alexandria had established a regular maritime commerce
with the East.
[Sidenote: Moshka.]
[Sidenote: Maskat.]
[Sidenote: Omana.]
From Sachal the traders on the coast proceeded to Moskha, where
vessels from Baroach and Larike, on the Gulf of Cambay, if too late
for the favourable monsoons, usually endeavoured to exchange their
Indian muslins for the frankincense of the place. From this place,
also, native vessels made a coasting voyage till they reached Maskat
and Kalaiso. Near these ports they were able to cross the gulf at its
narrowest parts, and steered nearly due north, or about N.N.E. for the
port of Omana, which evidently takes its name from Oman in Arabia, and
was, doubtless, a colony of Arabs, established on the coast opposite
to their own, for the purpose of approaching nearer to Western India.
From Omana they steered almost due east along the coast of Beloochistan
until they reached their destination at the mouth of the Indus or in
the Gulf of Cambay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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