necessary, under mediaeval circumstances, to have resort to the musk or opopanax of the East to counteract the odours resulting from the bad sanitary habits of the West.  But above all, for the condiments which were almost necessary for health, and certainly desirable for seasoning the salted food of winter and the salted fish of Lent.  Europeans were dependent upon the spices of the Asiatic islands.  In Hakluyt’s great work on “English Voyages and Navigations,” he gives in his second volume a list, written out by an Aleppo merchant, William Barrett, in 1584, of the places whence the chief staples of the Eastern trade came, and it will be interesting to give a selection from his long account.

  Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java. 
  Nutmegs from Banda. 
  Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca. 
  Pepper Common from Malabar. 
  Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon). 
  Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor. 
  Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal). 
  Corall of Levant from Malabar. 
  Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia. 
  Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China. 
  Myrrha from Arabia Felix. 
  Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor. 
  Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi. 
  Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople. 
  Oppopanax from Persia. 
  Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca. 
  Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate. 
  Agaricum from Alemannia. 
  Bdellium from Arabia Felix. 
  Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah). 
  Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia. 
  Thus from Secutra (Socotra). 
  Nux Vomica from Malabar. 
  Sanguis Draconis (Dragon’s Blood) from Secutra. 
  Musk from Tartarie by way of China. 
  Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia. 
  Silkes Fine from China. 
  Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania. 
  Masticke from Sio. 
  Oppium from Pugia (Pegu) and Cambaia. 
  Dates from Arabia Felix and Alexandria. 
  Sena from Mecca. 
  Gumme Arabicke from Zaffo (Jaffa). 
  Ladanum (Laudanum) from Cyprus and Candia. 
  Lapis Lazzudis from Persia. 
  Auripigmentum (Gold Paint) from many places of Turkey. 
  Rubarbe from Persia and China.

These are only a few selections from Barrett’s list, but will sufficiently indicate what a large number of household luxuries, and even necessities, were derived from Asia in the Middle Ages.  The Arabs had practically the monopoly of this trade, and as Europe had scarcely anything to offer in exchange except its gold and silver coins, there was a continuous drain of the precious metals from West to East, rendering the Sultans and Caliphs continuously richer, and culminating in the splendours of Solomon the Magnificent.  Alexandria was practically the centre of all this trade, and most of the nations of Europe found it necessary to establish factories in that city, to safeguard the interests of their merchants, who all sought for Eastern luxuries in its port Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, who visited it about 1172, gives the following description of it:—­