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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

derful, if we consider that even the celebrated Periplus ofHanno would not enable a geographer to lay down thecoast of Africa with more precision, than Ptolemy hasdelineated that of India.

NOTE XXXV. Sect. II. p. 96.

The introduction of the filk-worm into Europe, and theeffects which this produced, came under the view of Mr.Gibbon, in writing the history of the Emperor Justinian ,and though it was an incident of subordinate importanceonly, amidst the multiplicity of great transactions whichmust have occupied his attention , he has examinedthis event with an accuracy , and related it with aprecision, which would have done honor to an authorwho had no higher object of research. Vol. vii. p. 74, &c.Nor is it here only that I am called upon to ascribeto him this merit. The subject of my inquiries has led meseveral times upon ground which he had gone over, and Ihave uniformly received information from the industry anddiscernment with which he has surveyed it.

NOTE XXXVI. Sect. III. p. 100.

This voyage , together with the observations of AbuZeid al Hasan of Sirjjf, was published by M. Renaudot ,a. D. 1718? under the title of “ Anciennes Relations des“ Indes, et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahometans,cc qui y allerent dans le Neuvieme Siecle, traduices de" l’Arabe, avec des remarques fur les principaux endroits“ de ces Relations. ” As M. Renaudot, in his remarks,represents the literature and police of the Chinese, in colorsvery different from those of the splendid descriptions whicha blind admiration had prompted the Jesuits to publish,