CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

39

have been conveyed to that capital wholly bywater. But either on account of fome dangerapprehended from completing it, that work wasnever finiflicd; or from the flow and dangerousnavigation towards the northern extremity of theRed Sea , this canal was found to be of fo littleufe, that in order to facilitate the communicationwith India , he built a city on the weft coaft ofthat fea, aimoft under the Tropic, to which hegave the name of Berenice 1 his new city foonbecame the flaple of the trade with India ’ 9 . FromBerenice the goods were tranfported hv land toCoptos , a city three miles diftant from the Nile,but which had a communication with that riverby a navigable canal, of which there are ftill fomeremains ", and thence carried down the ftrearn toAlexandria. 7 he diftance between Berenice andCoptos was, according to Pliny , two hundredand fifty-eight Roman miles, and the road laythrough the defart of Thebais , aimoft entirelydeftitute of water. But the attention of a power-ful monarch made provifton for fupplying thiswant, by fearching for fprings, and whereverthefe were found he built inns, or more probablyin the caftern ftyle caravanferas , for the accom-modation of merchants' 1 . In this channel theintercourfe between the Eaft and Weft continued

” Strabo , lib. xvii. ii<;6. D. Plin. Nat. Hift lib. vi.c. 29. ” See NOTE XVI. “ D’Anville Mem.

de l’Egypte, p. 21. *' Strabo , lib. xvii. p. 1157.

D. fifty

D 4

E C X

1 .