NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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as far as the mouth of the Indus , and thence fleered alongthe coafl to the place of their dedication, Mem. de Literat.tom. xxxii. p. 36"'. Some authors have contended, thatboth the Arabs and Chinefe were well acquainted with themariners’ compafs , and the ufe of it in navigation; but itis remarkable that in the Arabic , Turkifii, or Perfiunlanguages there is no original name for the compals. Theycommonly call it Bo'fo^a, the Italian name, which fhowsthat the thing fignified is foreign to them as well as theword. There is not one lingic obfervation, of ancient date,made by the Arabs on the variation of the needle, or anyinftruction deduced from it, for the affiitance of navigators.Sir John Chardin , ore of the rao 4 learned and beftinformed travellers who has vifited the Eaft, having beenconfulted upon this point, returns for anfwer, “ I boldly“ affert, that the Afiatics are beholden to us for this0 wonderful inlirurnent, w >ich they had from Europe a<£ long time before the Forcuguefe conquefts. For, firlt,“ their compaffes are exactly like ours, and they buy<c them of Europeans as much as they can, fcarce daringtl to meddle with their needles themfelves. Secondly, It“ is certain that the old navigators only coaffed it along ,“ which I impute to their want of this inftrnment to guideu and inflrudt them in the middle of the ocean. We“ cannot pretend to fay that they were afraid of venturing“ far from home, for the Arabs , the firft navigators inc ‘ the world, in my opinion, at leaf! for the Eaftern feas,“ have, time out of mind, failed from the bottom of thect Red Sea , all along the coafl of Africa ; and the Chinefe“■ have always traded with Java and Sumatra , which is a“ very confiderable voyage. So many iflands uninhabited“ and yet productive, fo many lands unknown to the“ people I fpeak of, arc a proof that the old navigatorsu had not rhe art of failing on the main fea. I have“ nothing but argument to offer touching this matter,c; having never met with any perfon in Ferfia or the Indies“ to inform me when the compafs was firft known among“ them , though I made inquiry of the moft learned men

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