64 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. on the east side of the peninsula now known by theII. name os the Coromandel coast. He describes theseas cmporia, or stations of trade 2S ; but from anattentive consideration of some circumstances in hisaccount of them, I think it probable that the (hipsfrom Berenice did not fail to any of these ports ,though they were supplied, as he informs us, with thecommodities brought from/Egypt, as well as withthe productions of the opposite coast of the penin-sula ; but these seem to have been imported in coun-try ships 2<! . It was likewise in vessels of their own,varying in form and burden, and distinguishedby different names, some of which he mentions,that they traded with the Golden Cherfouesus, orkingdom of Malacca, and the countries near theGanges. Not far from the mouth of that river heplaces an island, which he describes as situated underthe rising sun, and as the last region in the Eastthat was inhabited i7 . Of all these parts of India,the Author of the Circumnavigation appears tohave had very slender knowledge, as is manifest,not only from what he mentions concerningthis imaginary island, and from his not attemptingto describe them, but from his relating, withthe credulity and love of the marvellous, whichalways accompany and characterise ignorance,that these remote regions were peopled withcannibals , and men of uncouth and monstrousforms 28 .

25 I’eripl. p. " nnr.'.x

27 Peripl. p. z6. ' Ibid. p.

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