42

AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT, the interior parts of the country , by artificialI. works. As their fubjects, however, were no i fs

dehrous than the people around t>’em, to poflefsthe valuable productions and elegant manufacturescf India , thefe were coruey^d to all the parts oftheir extenlive dominions by land - carriage. Thecommodities deftmed for the fnpplying of thenorthern provinces, were tranfpoited on camelsfrom the banks of the Indus to thofe of the Oxus ,down the ftream of which they were carried tothe Cafpian fea, and diftributed, partly by land-carriage, and partly by navigable rivers, throughthe different countries, bounded on one band bythe Cafpian and on the other by the Euxine fea" 5 .The commodities of India intended for the fouth-ern and interior provinces, proceeded by landfrom the Cafpian gates to fome of the great rivers,by which they were circulated through everypart of the country. This was the ancient modeof intercourfe with India, while the Perfian empirewas governed by its native princes; and it hasbeen obferved in every age, that when any branchof commerce has got into a certain channel, al-though it may be neither the nioft proper northe mofl commodious one, it requires long time,and confiderable efforts, to give it a differentdire&ion 6f .

To all thefe reafons for fuffering the monarchsof Egypt to continue in the undifturbed poffeffionof the trade with India by fea, another may be

Strabo , lib. xii. 776. D. Plin. Nat. Hift, lib. vi. c. 17.

" See NOI£ XVilJ.