5 o AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

$ E C T. never 'revived there. At present a few miserableJl. 1 huts of beggarly Arabs are scattered in the courtsof its stately temples, or deform its elegant porti-coes ; and exhibit an humiliating contrast to itsancient magnificence.

fcBut while the merchants of Egypt and Syriaexer$3*their activity in order to supply the increa-sing demands of Rome for Indian commodities, andvied with each other in their efforts, the eagernessof gain (as Pliny observes) brought India itselfnearer to the rest of the world. In the course oftheir voyages to that country , the Greek and Egyp-tian pilots could not fail to observe the regularshifting of the periodical winds or monsoons, andhow steadily they continued to blow during onepart of the year from the East , and during theother from the West. Encouraged by attending tothis circumstance , Hippalus, the commander of aship engaged in the Indian trade, ventured, aboutfourscore years after Egypt was annexed to theRoman empire, to relinquish the stow and circuit-ous course which I have described, and stretchingboldly from the mouth of the Arabian Gulf acrossthe ocean, was carried by the western monsoon toMusiris, a harbour in that part of India, now knownby the name of the Malabar coast.

This route to India was held to be a discoveryof such importance, that in order to perpetuate thememory of the inventor, the name of Hippalus wasgiven to the wind which enabled him to perform thevoyage *. As this was one of the greatest efforts of* serin. Mar. Erythr. p. 33.