PREFACE.

1 HE perusal of Major Rennell’s Memoir sotillustrating his Map oflndostan, one of the mostvaluable geographical treatises that has appearedin any age or country, gave rife to the followingwork. It suggested to me the idea of examiningmore fully than I had done in the IntroductoryBook to my History of America, into the knowledgewhich the Ancients had of India, and of consider-ing what is certain, what is obscure, and what isfabulous , in the accounts of that country whichthey have handed down to us. In undertakingthis inquiry, I had originally no other objectthan my own amusement and instruction: Bus

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