CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

5

Even after fome improvement was made in fhip- s E c l'.building, the intercourfe of nations with each other i.by fea was far from being extenfive. From theaccounts of the earlieft hiftorians, we learn thatnavigation madeits firftefforts in the Mediterranean: and the Arabian Gulf , and in them the firft aeftive

; operations of commerce were carried on. From

an attentive infpedlion of the pofition and formof thefe two great inland feas, thefe accountsappear to be highly probable. Thefe feas lay-open the continents of Europe , Afia, and Africa,

1 and fpreading to a great extent along the coafts

1 of the mod fertile and moft early civilized coun-

f tries in each, feem to have been deftined by nature

t to facilitate their communication with one another.

We find, accordingly, that the firft voyages ofe the Egyptians and Phenicians, the mod: ancient

i navigators mentioned in hiftory, were made in

1 the Mediterranean. Their trade, however, was

5 not long confined to the countries bordering upon

t it. By acquiring early pofleflion of ports on the

;8 Arabian Gulf , they extended the fphere of their

, commerce , and are reprefented as the firft people

of the Weft who opened a communication by feaif with India .

In that account of the progrefs of navigation and:, difeovery which I prefixed to the Fliftory of Ame-

>r rica, I confidered with attention the maritime opera-

re tions of the Egyptians and Phenicians ; a brief

dc review of them here, as far as they relate to their

connexion with India , is all that is requifite for il-luflrating the fubjetft of my prefent inquiries. With

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