period,) a portion of the Indian commodities, which before had been carried by land to Petra were brought by sea to Sabaea.  It appears that in the age of Agatharcides, the monopoly of the trade between India and Europe by this route was wholly possessed by the Sabeans; that, in order to evade the effects of this monopoly, the Greeks of Egypt found their way to Aden and Hadraumaut, in Arabia, and to Mosullon on the coast of Africa.  Here they met with other Arabians, who at this time also traded to India, and sold them Indian goods at a cheaper rate.  And, lastly, we have seen that these ports on the southern coast of Arabia, and on the coast of Africa, were frequented by the merchants of Egypt, till, by the discovery of the monsoon, their ships were enabled to sail directly to India.  It is undoubtedly true that before this discovery, single ships occasionally reached India by adhering to the coast all the way, but the direct communication was very rare.  After the nature of the monsoon was thoroughly understood, and it was ascertained that complete dependence could be placed on its steadiness and regularity, and that by its change, the ships could be brought as safely and quickly back from India, as they had reached it, the ancients, who at first only ventured to the mouth of the Indus, gradually made their way down the western coast of the Indian peninsula.

The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a work which has been frequently referred to, is rich in materials to illustrate the geographical knowledge and the commercial enterprize of the ancients in the part of the world to which it relates.  We have already assigned its date to the age of Nero.  Our limits will prevent us from giving a full account of this work; we shall therefore, in the first place, give a short abstract of the geographical knowledge which it displays, and in the next place, illustrate from it, the nature of the commerce carried on, on the Red Sea, the adjacent coasts of Africa and Arabia, and the ports of India, which are noticed in it.

At the time of Strabo, the geography of the ancients did not extend, on the eastern coast of Africa, further to the south than a promontory called Noti Cornu, (the Southern Horn,) which seems to have been in about 12-1/2 degrees north latitude.  Beyond this an arid coast, without ports or fresh water, arrested the progress of navigation; but it appears by the Periplus, that this promontory was now passed, and commerce had extended to the port of Rhapta and the isle of Menutias, which are supposed to correspond with Babel Velho and the island of Magadoxa.  The author of the Periplus, who seems to have been a merchant personally acquainted with most of the places he describes, had heard of, but not visited the promontory Prasum:  he represents the ocean beyond Rhapta as entirely unknown, but as believed to continue its western direction, and after having washed the south coast of Ethiopia, to join the Western Ocean.  The whole of the west coast of India, from the Indus to Trapobane, is minutely described in the Periplus.  Some of the particulars of the manners and customs of the inhabitants coincide in a striking manner with those of the present day; this observation applies, among other points, to the pirates between Bombay and Goa.