46 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. of India have always been held in the highestII. estimation. The capital of the greatest empireever established in Europe, filled with citizens whohad no occupation, but to enjoy and dissipate thewealth accumulated by their ancestors, demandedevery thing elegant, rare, or costly, which thatremote region could furnish, in order to supportits pomp, or heighten its pleasures. To supplythis demand, new and extraordinary efforts becamerequisite, and the commerce with India increasedto a degree, which (as I have observed in anotherplace 1 ) will appear astonishing even to the presentage, in which that branch of trade has been ex-tended far beyond the practice or conception ofany former period.

Besides the Indian commodities imported intothe capital of the empire from Egypt, the Romansreceived an additional supply of them Hy anothermode of conveyance. From the earliest times,there seems to have been some communicationbetween Mesopotamia , and other provinces onthe banks of the Euphrates, and those parts ofSyria and Palestine, which lay near the Mediter-ranean. The migration of Abram from Ur, ofthe Chaldees to Sichem in the land of Canaan , isan instance of this 1 . The journey through thedefart, which separated these countries, was muchfacilitated by its affording a station aboundingwith water, and capable of cultivation. As theintercourse increased, the possession of this station

1 Hist. of America, vol. i. x. 2;. * Genes. xi. and xii.

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