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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 / By William Robertson, D.D.F.R.S. Ed. Principal Of The University, And Historiographer To His Majesty For Scotland : With an Appendix, Containing Observations on the Civil Policy - the Laws and Judicial Proceedings - the Arts - the Sciences - and Religious Institutions, of the Indians
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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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F.aft, are erroneous nearly in the fame proportion. Itappears , indeed , that in remote Teas, the coafts wereoften delineated from an imperfed account of the diftancesfailed, without the lead knowledge of the bearings ordirection of the fhip’s courfe. Ptolemy, it is true, ufedto make an allowance of about one-third for the windingof a Harp’s courfe , Geogr. lib. i. c. 12. ; but it is plain,that the application of this general rule could feldomlead to an accurate conciufion. Of this there is a ftrikinginflance in the form which that geographer has given tothe Penmfula of India . From the Barygaxenum Pramon-torium to the place marked Locus unde folvunt in Chryfennavigantes, that is, from Surat on the Malabar coaft, toabout Narfapour on the Coromandel coaft, the diflancemeafured along the fea-fhore is nearly the fame with whatit is in reality;- that is, about five hundred and twentyleagues. Rut the millake in the direction is aftoniihing,for the Malabar and Coromandel coaft, inftead of ftretchingtotheibuth, and interficting one another at Cape Comorin ,in a very acute angle, are extended by Ptolemy almoft in.the fame ftruight line from weft to eaft, declining a littleto the fouth. This coaft is, at the fame time, markedwith feveral bays and promontories, nearly refembling,in their pofition, thofe which actually exift on it. Allthefe circumltances compared together, point out veryclearly what were the materials from which the ancientmap of India was compofed. The fhips which had vifitedthe coaft of that country, had kept an account of thetime which they took to fail from one place to another,and had marked, as they ftood along fhore, on whathand the land lay, when they fhaped their courfe acrofsa bay, or doubled a promontory. This imperfect journal,

• with an inaccurate account, perhaps , of the latitude ofone or two places, was probably all the information con-cerning the coaft of India , which Ptolemy was able toprocure. That he fhould have been able to procure nobetter information from merchants who failed with noparticular view of exploring the coaft, will not appear won-

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