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THE
WORKS
OF
WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D.
4
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND PRINCIPAL
OF THE UNIVERSITY, OF EDINBURGH,
HISTORIOGRAPHER TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND,
AND
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY
AT MADRID.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED,
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS,
BY DUGALD STEWART, F.R.S. ED1N.
A NEW EDITION.
IN TWELVE VOLUMES.
VOL. XIL
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIES ; F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; G. WILKIE;
J. NUNN ; J. CUTHELL ; CLARKE AND SONS ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES,
ORME, AND BROWN ; E. JEFFERY ; J. BOOKER ; J. AND A. ARCH ; S.BAGSTER;
BLACK, PARBURY, AND ALLEN; J. AND T. GRAY; JOHN RICHARDSON;
J. M. RICHARDSON ; CARPENTER AND SON ; R. H. EVANS ; J. MURRAY ;
W. PHILLIPS; W. STEWART; J. MAWMAN ; BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY;
OGLE AND CO.; GALE AND FENNER; R. S. KIRBY; W. REID ; AND W. GINGER.
1817.
•-.-v-
D
7
ft?
mi
)
AN
HISTORICAL
DISQUISITION
CONCERNING
THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE ANCIENTS HAD OF
INDIA;
AND THE
PROGRESS of TRADE with that COUNTRY
PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE TO IT BY
THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
With an APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIVIL POLITY -THE LAWS AND JUDICIAL
PROCEEDINGS— THE ARTS AND SCIENCES— AND RELIGIOUS
INSTITUTIONS OF THE INDIANS.
PREFACE
TO
THE DISQUISITION CONCERNING
ANCIENT INDIA.
THE perusal of Major Rennell's Memoir for
illustrating his Map of Indostan, one of the
most valuable geographical treatises that has ap-
peared in any age or country, gave rise to the
following work. It suggested to me the idea of
examining more fully than I had done in the
Introductory Book to my History of America,
into the knowledge which the Ancients had of
India, and of considering what is certain, what
is obscure, and what is fabulous, in the accounts
of that country which they have handed down
to us. In undertaking this enquiry, I had ori-
ginally no other object than my own amusement
and instruction : But in carrying it on, and con-
sulting with diligence the authors of antiquity,
some facts, hitherto unobserved, and many which
had not been examined with proper attention,
occurred ; new views opened -> my ideas gra-
dually extended and became more interesting ;
until, at length, I imagined that the result of
my researches might prove amusing and instruc-
tive to others, by exhibiting such a view of the
various modes in which intercourse with India
had been carried on from the earliest times, as
VI 11
PREFACE TO THE DISQUISITION
might shew how much that great br anch^of com-
merce has contributed, in every age, to increase
the wealth and power of the nations which pos-
sessed it.
Thus the Historical Disquisition which I now
lay before the Reader was begun and completed.
What degree of merit it possesses, the Public must
determine. My grateful recollection of the fa-
vourable manner in which my other works have
been received, naturally increases the solicitude
with which I wait for its decision concerning this
which I now publish.
When I first turned my thoughts to this sub-
ject, I was so fully aware of the disadvantage
under which I laboured in undertaking to describe
countries of which I had not any local knowledge,
that I have been at the utmost pains to guard
against any errors which this might occasion. I
have consulted, with persevering industry, the
works of all the authors I could procure, who
have given any account of India ; I have never
formed any decided opinion, which was not sup-
ported by respectable authority ; and as I have
the good fortune to reckon among the number of
my friends some Gentlemen who have filled im-
portant stations, civil and military, in India, and
who have visited many different parts of it, I had
recourse frequently to them, and from their con-
versation learned things which I could not have
found in books. Were it proper to mention their
7
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.
names, the Public would allow that, by their
discernment and abilities, they are fully entitled
to the confidence which I have placed in them.
In the progress of the work, I became sen-
sible of my own deficiency with respect to an-
other point. In order to give an accurate idea
of the imperfection both of the theory and
practice of navigation among the Ancients, and
to explain, with scientific precision, the manner
in which they ascertained the position of places,
and calculated their longitude and latitude, a
greater portion of mathematical knowledge was
requisite, than my attention to other studies had
permitted me to acquire. What I wanted, the
friendship of my ingenious and respectable Col-
league, Mr. Playfair, Professor of Mathematics,
has supplied ; and I have been enabled by him
to elucidate all the points I have mentioned, in
a manner which, I am confident, will afford my
readers complete satisfaction. To him, likewise,
I am indebted for the construction of two maps
necessary for illustrating this Disquisition, which
without his assistance I could not have under-
taken.
I have adhered, in this work, to an arrange-
ment I followed in my former compositions, and
to which the public has been long accustomed.
I have kept historical narrative as much separate
as possible from scientific and critical discussions,
by reserving the latter for Notes and Illustrations.
PREFACE.
I flatter myself that I may claim, without pre-
sumption, the merit of having examined with
diligence what I submit to public inspection,
and of having referred, with scrupulous accuracy,
to the authors from whom I have derived in-
formation.
College of Edinburgh,
May loth, 1791.
CONTENTS
i
OF
THE TWELFTH VOLUME.
DISQUISITION CONCERNING
ANCIENT INDIA.
SECTION I.
Page
Intercourse with India, from the earliest Times
until the Conquest of Egypt by the Romans 1
SECTION II.
Intercourse with India, from the Establishment of
the Roman Dominion in Egypt, to the Conquest
of that Kingdom by the Mahomedans - 46
SECTION III.
Intercourse with India, from the Conquest of Egypt
by the Mahomedans, to the Discovery of the Pas-
sage by the Cape of Good Hope, and the Esta-
blishment of the Portuguese Dominion in the
East 98
SECTION IV.
General Observations - - - - -'. - - - -163
APPENDIX - - . - - - 195
Notes and Illustrations - 289
AN
HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
CONCERNING
ANCIENT INDIA
SECTION I.
Intercourse with India, from the earliest Times
until the Conquest of Egypt by the Romans.
WHOEVER attempts to trace the operations sect.
of men in remote times, and to mark the L
various steps of their progress in any line of ex-
ertion, will soon have the mortification to find,
that the period of authentic history is extremely
limited. It is little more than three thousand
years since the Books of Moses, the most ancient
and only genuine record of what passed in the
early ages of the world, were composed. Hero-
dotus, the most ancient Heathen historian whose
works have reached us, flourished a thousand
years later. If we push our inquiries concerning
any point beyond the aera where written history
commences, we enter upon the region of con-
jecture, of fable, and of uncertainty. Upon that
ground I will neither venture myself, nor endear
VOL. XII. b
2 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
sect, vour to conduct my readers. In my researches
L concerning the intercourse between the Eastern
and Western regions of the earth, and concern-
ing the progress of that great branch of trade,
which, in every age, has contributed so conspi-
cuously towards raising the people who carried it
on to wealth and power, I shall confine myself
within the precincts I have marked out. Where-
ever the inspired writers, intent upon higher ob-
jects, mention occasionally any circumstance that
tends to illustrate the subject of my inquiries, I
shall attend to it with reverence. Whatever
other writers relate, I shall examine with free-
dom, and endeavour to ascertain the degree of
credit to which they are entitled.
The original station allotted to man by his
Creator, was in the mild and fertile regions of
the East. There the human race began its ca-
reer of improvement ; and from the remains of
sciences which were anciently cultivated, as well
as of arts which were anciently exercised in India,
we may conclude it to be one of the first coun-
tries in which men made any considerable pro-
« gress in that career. The wisdom of the East was
early celebrated a , and its productions were early
in request among distant nations. 5 The inter-
course, however, between different countries was
carried on at first entirely by land. As the people
of the East appear soon to have acquired com-
plete dominion over the useful animals , they
a 1 Kings, iv. 30. b G en , xxxvii, 25.
c Gen.xii. 16. xxiv. 10, 11.
5
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 3
could early undertake the long and toilsome sect.
journies which it was necessary to make, in order L f
to maintain this intercourse ; and by the provi-
dent bounty of Heaven, they were furnished
with a beast of burden, without whose aid it
would have been impossible to accomplish them.
The camel, by its persevering strength, by its
moderation in the use of food, and the singula-
rity of its internal structure, which enables it to
lay in a stock of water sufficient for several days,
put it in their power to convey bulky commodi-
ties through those deserts, which must be tra-
versed by all who travel from any of the countries
west of the Euphrates towards India. Trade
was carried on in this manner, particularly by
the nations near to the Arabian Gulf, from the
earliest period to which historical information
reaches. Distant journies, however, would be
undertaken at first only occasionally, and by a
few adventurers. But by degrees, from atten-
tion to their mutual safety and comfort, nume-
rous bodies of merchants assembled at stated
times, and forming a temporary association,
(known afterwards by the name of a Caravan,)
governed by officers of their own choice, and*
subject to regulations of which experience had
taught them the utility, they performed journies
of such extent and duration, as appear astonish-
ing to nations not accustomed to this mode of
carrying on commerce.
But, notwithstanding every improvement that
could be made in the manner of conveying the
b 2 ..
4 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
sect, productions of one country to another by land,
L the inconveniences which attended it were ob-
vious and unavoidable. It was often dangerous ;
always expensive, and tedious, and fatiguing.
A method of communication more easy and ex-
peditious was sought, and the ingenuity of man
gradually discovered, that the rivers, the arms of
the sea, and even the ocean itself, were destined
to open and facilitate intercourse with the vari-
ous regions of the earth, between which they ap-
pear, at first view, to be placed as insuperable
barriers. Navigation, however, and ship-build-
ing, (as I have observed in another work d ,) are
arts so nice and complicated, that they require
the talents as well as experience of many suc-
cessive ages, to bring them to any degree of
perfection. From the raft or canoe, which first
served to carry a savage over the river that ob-
structed him in the chase, to the construction of
a vessel capable of conveying a numerous crew,
or a considerable cargo of goods, to a distant
coast, the progress of improvement is immense.
Many efforts would be made, many experiments
would be tried, and much labour as well as in-
genuity would be employed, before this arduous
and important undertaking could be accom-
plished.
Even after some improvement was made in
ship-building, the intercourse of nations with
each other by sea was far from being extensive.
From the accounts of the earliest historians, we
d Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 2.
_>
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 5
learn, that navigation made its first efforts in the sect,
Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, and in L
Sony
them the first active operations of commerce
were carried on. From an attentive inspection
of the position and form of these two great inland
seas, these accounts appear to be highly proba-
ble. These seas lay open the continents of Eu-
rope, Asia, and Africa, and spreading to a great
extent along the coasts of the most fertile and
most early civilised countries in each, seem to
have been destined by nature to facilitate their
communication with one another. We find, ac-
cordingly, that the first voyages of the Egyptians
and Phenicians, the most ancient navigators
mentioned in history, were made in the Medi-
terranean. Their trade, however, was not long
confined to the countries bordering upon it. By
acquiring early possession of ports on the Arabian
Gulf, they extended the sphere of their com-
merce, and are represented as the first people of
the West who opened a communication by sea.
with India.
In that account of the progress of navigation
and discovery which I prefixed to the History of
America, I considered with attention the mari-
time operations of the Egyptians and Pheni-
cians - y a brief review of them here, as far as they
relate to their connection with India, is all that
is requisite for illustrating the subject of my pre-
sent inquiries. With respect to the former of
these people, the information which history af-
fords is slender, and of doubtful authority. The
b 3
6 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
fertile soil and mild climate of Egypt produced
the necessaries and comforts of life in such pro-
fusion as to render its inhabitants so indepen-
dent of other countries, that it became early an
established maxim in their policy, to renounce
all intercourse with foreigners. In consequence
of this, they held all sea-faring persons in detes-
tation, as impious and profane ; and fortifying
their harbours, they denied strangers admission
into them. e
The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, dis-
daining the restraints imposed upon it by these
contracted ideas of his subjects, prompted him
to render the Egyptians a commercial people ;
and in the course of his reign he so completely
accomplished this, that (if we may give credit to
some historians) he was able to fit out a fleet of
four hundred ships in the Arabian Gulf, which
conquered all the countries stretching along the
Erythrean sea to India. At the same time his
army, led by himself, marched through Asia,
and subjected to his dominion every part of
it as far as to the banks of the Ganges ; and
crossing that river, advanced to the Eastern
Ocean. f But these efforts produced no perma-
nent effect, and appear to have been so contrary
to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that,
on the death of Sesostris, they resumed their an-
cient maxims, and many ages elapsed before the
e Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Wesselingi. Amst. 1746.
Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1142. A. edit. Casaub. Amst. 1707*
f Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 64.
CONCERNING AJSTCIENT INDIA. 7
commercial connection of Egypt with India came sect.
to be of such importance as to merit any notice L
in this disquisition^
The history of the early maritime operations
of Phenicia is not involved in the same obscurity
with those of Egypt. Every circumstance in
the character and situation of the Phenicians was
favourable to the commercial spirit. The terri-
tory which they possessed was neither large nor
fertile. It was from commerce only that they
could derive either opulence or power. Accord-
ingly, the trade carried on by the Phenicians
of Sidon and Tyre was extensive and adven-
turous ; and, both in their manners and policy,
they resemble the great commercial states of
modern times, more than any people in the an-
cient world. Among the various branches of
their commerce, that with India may be regarded
as one of the most considerable and most lucra-
tive. As by their situation on the Mediter-
ranean, and the imperfect state of navigation,
they could not attempt to open a direct commu-
nication with India by sea ; the enterprising
spirit of commerce prompted them to wrest from
the Idumaeans some commodious harbours to-
wards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf. From
these they held a regular intercourse with India
on the one hand, and with the eastern and south-
ern coasts of Africa on the other. The distance,
however, from the Arabian Gulf to Tyre, was
g See NOTE I. at the end of the Volume.
B 4 *
g AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
sect, considerable, and rendered the conveyance of
goods to it by land-carriage so tedious and ex-
pensive, that it became necessary for them to
take possession of Rhinocolura, the nearest port
in the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gidf.
Thither all the commodities brought from India
were conveyed over land by a route much
shorter, and more practicable, than that by
which the productions of the East were carried
at a subsequent period from the opposite -shore of
the Arabian Gulf to the Nile. h At Rhinocolura
they were re-shipped, and transported by an easy
navigation to Tyre, and distributed through the
world. This, as it is the earliest route of com-
munication with India, of which we have any
authentic description, had so many advantages
over any ever known before the modern disco-
very of a new course of navigation to the East,
that the Phenicians could supply other nations
with the productions of India in greater abun-
dance, and at a cheaper rate, than any people of
antiquity* To this circumstance, which, for a
considerable time, secured to them a monopoly
of that trade, was owing, not only the extraordi-
nary wealth of individuals, which rendered the
" merchants of Tyre, Princes, and her traffickers
" the Honourable of the Earth 1 ;" but the ex-
tensive power of the state itself, which first taught
mankind to conceive what vast resources a com-
mercial people possess, and what great exertions
they are capable of making. k
h Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 70. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1 128. A.
1 Isaiah, xxiii. 8, fe See NOTE II.
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. g
The Jews, by their vicinity to Tyre, had such sect.
an opportunity of observing the wealth which L
flowed into that city from the lucrative commerce
carried on by the Phenicians from their settle-
ments on the Arabian Gulf, as incited them to
aim at obtaining some share of it. This they
effected under the prosperous reigns of David
and Solomon, partly by the conquests which they
made of a small district in the land of Edom,
that gave them possession of the harbours of
Elath and Esiongeber on the Red Sea, and partly
by the friendship of Hiram, King of Tyre ; who
enabled Solomon to fit out fleets, which, under
the direction of Phenician pilots, sailed to Tar-
shish and Ophir. 1 In what region of the earth
we should search for these famous ports which
furnished the navy of Solomon with the various
commodities enumerated by the sacred histo-
rians, is an inquiry that has long exercised the
industry of learned men. They were early sup-
posed to be situated in some part of India, and
the Jews were held to be one of' 1 the nations
which traded with that country. But the opinion
more generally adopted is, that Solomon's fleets,
after passing the straits of Babelmandeb, held
their course along the south-west coast of Africa,
as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a country cele-
brated for its rich mines of gold and silver, (from
which it has been denominated the golden So-
fala, by oriental writers" 1 ,) and abounding in all
1 Kings, ix. 26. x. 22.
m Notices des MSS. du Eoi, torn. ii. p. 40.
10 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
SECT, the other articles which composed the cargoes of
I. the Jewish ships. This opinion, which the accu-
' rate researches of M. D'Anville rendered highly
probable 11 , seems now to be established with the
utmost certainty by a late learned traveller ; who
by his knowledge of the monsoons in the Arabian
Gulf, and his attention to the ancient mode of
navigation, both in that sea and along the Afri-
can coast, has not only accounted for the extra-
ordinary length of time which the fleets of Solo-
mon took in going and returning, but has shewn,
from circumstances mentioned concerning the
voyage, that it was not made to any place in In-
dia. The Jews, then, we may conclude, have
no title to be reckoned among the nations which
carried on intercourse with India by sea ; and if,
from deference to the sentiments of some respect-
able authors, their claim were to be admitted, we
know with certainty, that the commercial effort
which they made in the reign of Solomon was
merely a transient one, and that they quickly
returned to their former state of unsocial seclu-
sion from the rest of mankind.
FRom collecting the scanty information which
history affords, concerning the most early at-
tempts to open a commercial intercouse with In-
dia, I now proceed with more certainty and
greater confidence, to trace the progress of com-
n Dissert, sur le Pays d'Ophir, Mem. de Literat. torn. xxx.
p. 83, &c.
Bruce's Travels, book ii. ch.4.
CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 11
mimication with that country, under the guid- sect.
ance of authors who recorded events nearer to . L
their own times, and with respect to which they
had received more full and accurate intelligence.
The first establishment of any foreign power
in India which can be ascertained by evidence
meriting any degree of credit, is that of the Per-
sians y and even of this we have only a very ge-
neral and doubtful account. Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, though raised to the throne of Persia
by chance or by artifice, possessed such active
and enterprising talents, as rendered him worthy
of that high station. Pie examined the different
provinces of his kingdom more diligently than
any of his predecessors, and explored regions of
Asia formerly little known. p Having subjected
to his dominion many of the countries which
stretched south-east from the Caspian sea to-
wards the river Oxus, his curiosity was excited
to acquire a more extensive and accurate know-
ledge of India, on which they bordered. With this
view he appointed Scylax of Caryandra to take
the command of a squadron fitted out at Caspa^
tyrus, in the country of Pactya, [the modern
Pehkely,] towards the upper part of the naviga-
ble course of the river Indus, and to fall down
its stream until he should reach the ocean. This
Scylax performed, though it should seem with
much difficulty, and notwithstanding many ob-
stacles - } for he spent no less than two years and
p Herodot. lib. iv. c.44.
12 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
SECT, six months in conducting his squadron from the
i- place where he embarked, to the Arabian Gulf. q
The account which he gave of the populousness,
fertility, and high cultivation of that region of
India through which his course lay, rendered
Darius impatient to become master of a country
so valuable. This he soon accomplished j and
though his conquests in India seem not to have
extended beyond the district watered by the
Indus, we are led to form an high idea of its
opulence, as well as of the number of its inha-
bitants, in ancient times, when we learn that the
tribute which he levied from it was near a third
part of the whole revenue of the Persian mo-
narchy/ But neither this voyage of Scylax, nor
the conquests of Darius, to which it gave rise,
diffused any general knowledge of India. The
Greeks, who were the only enlightened race of
men at that time in Europe, paid but little atten-
tion to the transactions of the people whom they
considered as Barbarians, especially in countries
far remote from their own ; and Scylax had
embellished the narrative of his voyage with so
many circumstances manifestly fabulous 8 , that
he seems to have met with the just punishment
to which persons who have a notorious propen-
sity to what is marvellous are often subjected, of
being listened to with distrust, even when they
relate what is exactly true.
q Herodot. lib. iv. c. 4-2. 44.
r Id. lib. iii. c. 90—96. See NOTE III.
s Philostr. Vita Apoll. lib. iii. c. 47., and Note 3d of Olea-
rius Tzetzet. Chiliad, vii. vers. 630-