4* AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. the interior parts of the country , by artificialli works. As their subjects, however, were no less

desirous than the people around them, to possessthe valuable productions and elegant manufacturesof India, these were conveyed to all the parts oftheir extensive dominions by land - carriage. Thecommodities destined for the supplying of thenorthern provinces, were transported on camelsfrom the banks of the Indus to those of the Oxus,down the stream of which they were carried tothe Caspian sea, and distributed, partly by land-carriage, and partly by navigable rivers, throughthe different countries, bounded on one hand bythe Caspian and on the other by the Euxine sea".The commodities of India intended for the south-ern and interior provinces, proceeded by landfrom the Caspian gates to some of the great rivers,by which they were circulated through everypart of the country. This was the ancient modeof intercourse with India, while the Persian empirewas governed by its native princes; and it hasbeen observed in every age, that when any branchof commerce has got into a certain channel, al-though it may be neither the most proper northe most commodious one, it requires long time,and considerable efforts, to give it a differentdirection ".

To all these reasons for suffering the monarchsof Egypt to continue in the undisturbed possessionof the trade with India by sea, another may be

*' Strabo, lib. xii. 77 6. D. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17.

* See NOTE XVIII.