CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA,. 69

and with minute and bold decision he fixed the lon-gitude and latitude of the most remarkable placesin each of them. All his determinations, however,are not to be considered as the result of actualobservation , nor did Ptolemy publish them assuch. Astronomical science was confined, at thattime, to a few countries. A considerable part of theglobe was little visited, and imperfectly described.The position of a small number of places only hadbeen fixed with any degree of accuracy. Ptolemywas therefore obliged to consult the itineraries andsurveys of the Roman Empire, which the politicalwisdom of that great state had completed withimmense labor and expense Beyond the pre-cincts of the empire, he had nothing on which hecould rely, but the journals and reports of travellers.Upon these all his conclusions were founded; andas he resided in Alexandria at a time when thetrade from that city to India was carried on toits utmost extent, this situation might have beenexpected to afford him the means of procuringample information concerning it. But either fromthe imperfect manner in which that country wasexplored in his time, or from his placing toolmuch confidence in the reports of persons whohad visited it with little attention or discernment”,his general delineation of the form of the Indiancontinent is the most erroneous that has been trans-mitted to us from antiquity. By an astonishingmistake, he has made the peninsula of India stretch

J+ See NOTE XXVIII. " Geogr. lib. i. c. 17, '

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E C T.II.