we shall briefly notice a few remarkable positions. India derived its name from the river Indus, or Sind, which forms its western boundary. The great stream of the Ganges divided it into two parts, called India intra Gangem, or India to the west of the Granges, and India extra Gangem, or India to the east of it. East of Bactriana is Indo-Scythia among the ranges of the Hindoo Koosh. East of the Indus is Taxila, now Manikyala, north of which is another Aornos, probably Akora above Attock, a fortress thought to be impregnable, from the capture of which Alexander assumed to himself much glory. From Taxila Alexander advanced across the Hydaspes, or Jhylum, to give Porus battle, and on its banks he built the city of Nicea in honour of his victory, and Bucephala in memory of his horse Bucephalus; he then crossed the Acesines, or Ravee, the Hydraotes, or Beas, and the Hyphasis, or Sutlej. On the eastern shores of the Hyphasis, he erected altars in memory of his progress eastward, but the discontent of his soldiers would allow him to advance no farther.* Towards the mouth of the Hydraotes, he found the warlike nations of the Oxydrace and Malli, in Moultan; and then, descending the Indus, came to the royal city of the Sogdi, now Bukor; having then visited the city of Patala, now Tatta, and the mouths of the Indus, he returned through Gedrosia to Babylon. Many places were known to the antients on the coast of the peninsula of Hindostan† (Pl. I.), a particular enume *Timur-leng in this respect surpassed Alexander, for he boldly entered the Desert, and took the city of Delhi; but Timur was familiar with deserts. Seleucus, after the death of Alexander, seems to have reached the Ganges with an army. He had a minister at Palibothra. † A pot of Roman gold coins, principally of the reigns of Trajan and Antoninus Pius, was found by a peasant at Nellore, in 1787. ration of which is unnecessary in a work of this nature. The promontory of Comaria is unquestionably Cape Comorin, and Taprobane is the island of Ceylon; the Maldives also were known to the antients, as the Multitudo Insularum. The river Chaberis is the modern Cavery; and north of it Arcati Regia, is Arcot. Maliarpha is Maliapur, near Madras. The Magnum Ostium of the Ganges was the Hoogley; and to the west of it, in the interior, was Palibothra, perhaps Patna or Allahabad ; though this latter city seems to correspond with Helabas, and is venerated among the Indians as the traditional residence of the first parent of mankind. In India beyond the Ganges, the Aurea Chersonesus, is now Malaya; the southern promontory of it was called Magnum Promontorium, now the Cape of Romania, beyond which was the Magnus Sinus, or Gulf of Siam; and beyond the river Senus, or May Kiang, the great river of Cambodia, was the country of the Sinæ or Cochin China, to be distinguished from those hereafter to be mentioned east of Serica. West of the Chersonesus Aurea was Jabidii Insula, now perhaps Sumatra; and the antients knew also the smaller islands lying above it in the Sinus Gangeticus, or Bay of Bengal. The country to the north of these already described is called Scythia or Tartary. It was divided into Scythia intra Imaum*, or Scythia on the west of the Imaus, or Muz Tagh, and Scythia extra Imaum, to the east of it. The ridge of mountains called the Imaus is connected with the Paropamisus, or Indian Koosh, which separates Bactriana from Aria. To the south-east this latter chain takes the name of Emodus or Himmaleh. North-east of Scythia extra Imaum was Serica, now * Imaus, Emodus, and Himmaleh are all derived from the Sanscrit word Hem, snow. Gete or Eygur, which last denomination is derived from the Ithaguri and Mons Ithagurus, in this district. The principal nation towards the confines of Serica were the Issedones, who had two towns called Issedon. Among the Seres the most interesting town is Sera, the metropolis, now Kantcheou, in the Chinese province of Shefi-si, without the great wall of China. This city has been erroneously confounded with Pekin, the capital of China, 300 leagues distant; but some think that the antients had no immediate knowledge of China properly so called. They knew, indeed, by name, a nation called Sinæ, east of Serica, who were probably settled in the province of Shensi, the most westerly province of China, immediately adjoining the great wall, in which there was a kingdom called Tsin, which probably gave name to these northern Sina, who are not to be confounded with the Sinæ already mentioned in the description of India.* * But we learn from the Chinese historians, on the authority of M. de Guignes, that An-toun, i. e. Antoninus, Emperor of the west, sent a commercial Embassy to Oan-ti, who reigned in China about A. D. 150, and this is confirmed by later researches. See Mr. Murray's Memoir, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, Vol. VIII. p. 171. CHAP. XVII. AFRICA. A. G. Plates I. XX. XXI. XXII. THE division of the world into two portions, the eastern and the western, of which the latter comprised both Europe and Africa, was common to the most antient geographers*, though the triple division became established in later times. The third of these portions was comprehended in the great continent of Africa, though its northeastern corner, named Egyptus, from its close connexion with Asiatic countries, was sometimes considered a part of Asia. The name of Africa was derived by the Romans from the Carthaginians, who applied it to a small portion of the north coast, the centre of their own possessions. From this region, as the first they became acquainted with, the Romans extended the appellation to the rest of the continent. The Greeks always called it Libya, a name extended in like manner from a special locality, the part of the north coast opposite to Greece, to the continent generally. In the language of poetry, the Romans use the Greek word and their own term indifferently. Very little * This division is referred to by Sallust, Jugur. 17. K of this division of the globe was known to the antients, except the parts adjacent to the coast of the Mediterranean: the interior of Africa they thought to be uninhabitable from excessive heat, or peopled it with fabulous monsters, of which Africa was proverbially the nurse.* Nevertheless, they were aware of the commercial intercourse carried on between the people of the north coast and the nations of Nigritia. They had heard of a river which may be identified with the Niger. The Hesperii Æthiopes may perhaps be placed upon the coast of Guinea. The extreme points of Western Africa in this direction were Theon Ochema or Currus Deorum, considered as the approach to heaven, and Notu Ceras. It is perhaps doubtful whether Libya Palus and Chelonates Lacus were Lakes Tchad and Fitre, but the Lunæ Montes of Ptolemy were probably the elevated regions almost under the equator, from which the Nile flows. Herodotus also reports a tradition that the continent had been circumnavigated by Phoenician vessels, though he questions its authenticity on the very ground which may be thought to substantiate it, that the sailors affirmed that they had seen the sun at mid-day on their right hand, as they pursued their course westward. The Carthaginian Hanno sailed from the north coast westward, and advanced into the Atlantic. Some critics suppose him to have skirted the western coast as far as Sierra Leone; but others contend that he did not get farther than the river of Nun. *Plin. Hist. Nat. VIII. 16. †The phenomenon was familiar in the time of Lucan. Of certain tribes who were supposed to come from beyond the equator, he says (Pharsal. III. 247.) :— Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem Umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras. Looking in the direction of the sun's course, the shadows fall of course to the right in the northern and to the left in the southern hemisphere. |