NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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East, are erroneous nearly in the fame proportion. Itappears , indeed , that in remote seas, the coasts wereoften delineated from an imperfect account of the distancessailed, without the least knowledge of the bearings ordirection of the ship’s course. Ptolemy , it is true, usedto make an allowance of about one-third for the windingof a snip’s course , Geogr. lib. i c. 12. ; but it is plain,that the application of this general rule could seldomlead to an accurate conclusion. Of this there is a strikinginstance in the form which that geographer has given tothe Peninsula of India. From the Barygazenum Prornon-torium to the place marked Locus unde folvunt in Chryferanavigantes, that is, from Surat on the Malabar coast, toabout Narfapour on the Coromandel coast, the distancemeasured along the sea-shore is nearly the same with whatit is in reality; that is, about five hundred and twentyleagues. But the mistake in the direction is astonishing,for the Malabar and Coromandel coast, instead of stretchingto the south, and intersecting one another at Cape Comorin,in a very acute angle, are extended by Ptolemy almost inthe same straight line from west to east, declining a littleto the south. This coast is, at the fame time , marked •with several bays and promontories, nearly resembling,in their position, those which actually exist on it Allthese circumstances compared together, point out veryclearly what were the materials from which the ancientmap of India was composed. The ships' which had visitedthe coast of that country, had kept an account of thetime which they took to fail from. one place to another ,and had marked, as they stood along shore, on whathand the land lay, when they shaped their course acrossa bay, or doubled a promontory. This imperfect journal,with an inaccurate account, perhaps, of the latitude ofone or two places, was probably all the information con,cerning the coast of India, which Ptolemy was able toprocure. That he should have been able to procure nobetter information from merchants who failed with noparticular view of exploring the coast, will not appear won-

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