Dr. Vincent, in his learned commentary on the Periplus, gives it as his opinion, that the author of the Periplus never went further than Nelkundah himself, that is, to the boundary between the provinces of Canara and Malabar.  The east coast of the Indian peninsula is not traced so minutely nor so accurately as the west coast, though there are names and descriptions in the Periplus, from which it may fairly be inferred, that the author alludes to Cavary, Masulapatam, Calingapatam, Coromandel, and other places and districts of this part of India.  The countries beyond the Ganges, the Golden Chersonese, and the countries towards China, are very obscurely noticed in the Periplus, though the information he gives respecting the trade carried on in these parts is much more minute and accurate.  His description of the direction of the coast of India, is on the whole, surprisingly consonant to truth:  according to him, it tends from north to south, as far as Colchos (Travancore); at this place it bends to the east, and afterwards to the north; and then again a little to the east, as far as the Ganges.  He is the first author in whom can clearly be traced the name of the great southern division of India:  his term is Dachanabades,—­Dachan signifying south, and abad a city; and Decan is still the general name of all the country to the south of Baroche, the boundary assigned by the author.  The particulars he mentions of the bay of Cutch, of Cambay, of Baroche, and of the Ghauts, may also be mentioned as proofs of his accuracy with respect to those parts of India, which he visited in person.

Having thus given a sketch of the geographical knowledge contained the Periplus, we shall next attend to the commercial information which it conveys.  As this work is divided into two distinct parts, the first comprising the coast of the Red Sea, and of Africa, from Myos Hormos on the former, to Rhapta in the latter:  and the second part, beginning at the same place, and including the whole coast of Arabia, both that which lies on the Red Sea, and that which lies on the Ocean, and then stretching from the Gulf of Persia to Guzerat, describing the coast of Malabar, as far as Ceylon, we shall, in our abstract of the commercial intelligence it contains, enumerate the principal imports and exports of the most frequented marts in Africa, (including the Red Sea,) Arabia, and India.

I. The Red Sea and Africa.  Myos Hormos is described as the first port of Egypt on the Red Sea; as it lies in twenty-seven degrees north latitude, and Rhapta, the boundary of the Periplus to the south, in nearly ten degrees south latitude, the distance between them will be about 2,500 miles.  It is to be supposed, that every thing relating to the geography, navigation, and commerce of the Red Sea, from Myos Hormos to Aduli, on the western side, and Moosa, on the eastern side of it, was well known to the merchants of Egypt, as the author of the Periplus gives no circumstantial