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
Barygaza, on the same coast, soon, however, became a more important
mart than Pattala; and, by the minute description Arrian has given of
its position, that port would seem to correspond with Baroach, on the
great river Nerbudda, by means of which it had navigable communication
for many hundred miles into the rich interior of India. The articles
of import and export were much more various and abundant at Barygaza
than at Pattala. Besides those already mentioned, Arrian enumerates
among the former, Italian, Greek, and Arabian wines, brass, tin, lead,
girdles or sashes of curious textures, white glass, red arsenic, black
lead, and gold and silver coin. Among the exports were the onyx and
other gems, ivory, myrrh, various fabrics of cotton, both plain and
ornamented with flowers, and pepper. At Musiris, the port Hippalus
reached when he first took advantage of the monsoons, the articles
imported were much the same as at Barygaza; but, as it lay nearer to
the eastern parts of India, the commodities exported from it were
more numerous and more valuable. Pearls are specified as being there
obtainable in great abundance and of extraordinary beauty, besides
a variety of silk stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoise-shell, different
kinds of transparent gems, especially diamonds, and pepper of the best
quality.
[Sidenote: Cape Comorin.]
[Sidenote: Ceylon.]
Although Arrian, from the accurate description he has given of it,
would seem to have sailed along the coast as far as Cape Comorin, the
southernmost point of the Indian peninsula, the ships from Berenice
do not appear to have traded with any place on the coast south of
Musiris, where, however, various Egyptian commodities were to be found.
Probably these articles were received in exchange for the produce of
the East, brought by native vessels from the countries near the Ganges,
or from Malacca and China to Ceylon. Many native vessels were, however,
evidently confined, in their trading operations, exclusively to that
coast. Although the island of Ceylon was the great mart or depôt, where
the manufactures and produce of the West were exchanged for those of
the then far distant and almost unknown East, it is probable that the
ships from Egypt did not, at least during the early portion of their
operations, proceed as far as that island, but that their cargoes were
transported thither in the native coasters, and there bartered for silk
and for other commodities produced in Ceylon, or in the countries to
the eastward of it. In all likelihood the merchants of Alexandria were
deterred from sending their ships as far as Ceylon, through fear of the
dangers of which Pliny has preserved a report. “The sea,” he remarks,
“that lies between the island and the mainland, is full of shallows,
not more than six paces in depth; but in certain channels no anchor
has ever found a bottom. For these reasons,” he adds, “the vessels are
constructed with prows at each end, so that there may be no necessity
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