82 AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION

SECT. ocean which was to be considered as the fameJX. with the Taprobane of the Greeks and Romans.As both Pliny and Ptolemy describe it as lyingin part to the south of the Equator, some learnedmen maintain Sumatra to be the island whichcorresponds to this description. But the greatdistance of Sumatra from the peninsula of Indiadoes not accord with any account which theGreek or Roman writers have given of the situa-tion of Taprobane, and we have no evidence thatthe navigation of the ancients ever extended sofar as Sumatra. The opinion more generally re-ceived is, that the Taprobane of the ancients isthe island of Ceylon; and not only its vicinity tothe continent of India , but the general form ofthe island, as delineated by Ptolemy, as well asthe position of several places in it, mentioned byhim, establish this opinion (notwithstanding someextraordinary mistakes , of which I shall afterwardstake notice) with a great degree of certainty.

The other islands to the east of Taprobane,mentioned by Ptolemy, might be shown (if sucha detail were necessary) to be the Andaman andNicobar Islands in the Gulf of Bengal.

After this long , and, I am afraid , tediousinvestigation of the progress made by the ancients,in exploring the different parts of India , andafter tracing them as far as they advanced towardsthe East, either by sea or land, I shall offer somegeneral remarks concerning the mode in whichtheir discoveries were conducted, and the degreeof confidence with which we may rely on the

i