CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 5

Even after some improvement was made in ship- s“building, the intercourse of nations with each otherby sea was far from being extensive. From theaccounts of the earliest historians, we learn thatnavigation made its first efforts in the IVlediterraneanand the Arabian Gulf, and in them the first activeoperations of commerce were carried on. Froman attentive inspection of the position and formof these two great inland seas, these accountsappear to be highly probable. These seas layopen the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa,and spreading to a great extent along the coastsof the most fertile and most early civilized coun-tries in each , seem to have been destined by natureto facilitate their communication with one another.We find, accordingly, that the first voyages ofthe Egyptians and Phenicians, the most ancientnavigators mentioned in history, were made inthe Mediterranean. Their trade, however, wasnot long confined to the countries bordering uponit. By acquiring early possession of ports on theArabian Gulf, they extended the sphere of theircommerce , and are represented as the first peopleof the West who opened a communication by seawith India.

In that account of the progress of navigation anddiscovery which I prefixed to the History of Ame-rica, I considered with attention the maritime opentions of the Egyptians and Phenicians ; a briefreview of them here , as far as they relate to theirconnexion with India, is all that is requisite for il-lustrating the subject of my present inquiries. With

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