66 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. he might be able to describe them with greaterxi. accuracy, relates, that the Ganges enters the oceanby one mouth " , we are warranted in conclud-ing , that in his time there was either no directnavigation carried on to that great river, by thetraders from the Arabian Gulf, or that this voyagewas undertaken so seldom , that science had notthen derived much information from it.

The next author, in order of time, from whomwe receive any account of India, is the elder Pliny,who flourished about fifty years later than Strabo.As in the short description of India given in hisNatural History, he follows the same guides withStrabo, and seems to have had no knowledge ofthe interior country, but what he derived fromthe officers who served under Alexander and hisimmediate successors, it is unnecessary to examinehis description minutely. Pie has added, however,two valuable articles, for which he was indebtedto more recent discoveries. The one is the accountof the new course of navigation from the Arabian•' Gulf to the coast of Malabar , the nature ,and• importance of which I have already explained.

^ The other is a description of the island of Ta-**• probana , which I shall consider particularly ,after inquiring into what Ptolemy has contributedtowards our knowledge of the ancient state ofIndia.

Though Ptolemy , who published his worksabout fourscore years after Pliny, seems to have

3P Strabo, lib. xv. ion. C.