And again, in the eighth Eclogued: Imarus aut Rhodope aut extremi Garamantes e Where Servius his commentator explains the word "extremi," by adding, "quafi a confortio communitatis remoti." Horace too, under the impreffion of the fame fentiments, calls the Indians "extremos," and " haud ante domabiles." Many other paffages might be adduced, if neceffary, from various authors, to prove what obfcure and erroneous notions prevailed among the ancients concerning India and its inhabitants. It was not before the expedition of Alexander, defcribed with fuch accuracy by Arrian, and with fuch elegance by the more ornamental pen of Quintus Curtius, that this remote region became more particularly known to the Greeks. Of how little genuine informa tion upon this point, even they were previously in poffeffion, is evident from the grofs mistake into which that prince, who was by no means an inattentive obferver of nature, nor unaccompanied, we must fuppofe, by men of science in his Indian incurfion, unaccountably fell in imagining, on his arrival at the Indus, that he d Eclogue viii. 1. 44. e The Garamantes were a barbarous nation, fituate on the confines of Ethiopia Propria. 1 had difcovered the fources of the Nile f. That mighty river, he fuppofed, after rolling through immenfe unexplored deferts, poured, by fome unknown tract, its rapid ftream into Ethiopia, where it loft the name of Indus, and affumed the appellation of the Egyptian river. He was confirmed in this ftrange conjecture, by the appearance, fays Arrian, of crocodiles in the ftream of the Indus, and of beans growing on its banks, fimilar to thofe which grew on the fhore of the Nile, as well as by the recollection that Homer had called the Nile Ægyptus on its entering Egypt; a circumstance which feemed to prove that it acquired, in its progrefs, the name of the various countries through which it paffed. Experience, diligently fought, and finally obtained, after a long feries of peril and difficulty, taught the Macedonian invader, as får at least as his army penetrated, a truer notion of the geography of India. * ? The natural and ardent avidity of mankind after whatever delights by its novelty, or aftonifhes by its fingularity, induced, however, many of those who fought for glory in an Indian campaign, in fome inftances to listen with too • Προτερον μεν γε εν τῳ Ινδῳ ποταμῳ κροκοδείλες ιδων, μονω των άλλων ποταμων πλην Νειλό, προς δε ταις οχθαις τε Ακεσινε κυάμες πεφυκότας, οποίες η γη εκφέρει η Αιγυπτια και ακέσας οτι ὁ Ακεσίνης εμβαλλει εις τον Ινδον ποταμον, έδοξεν εξευρηκεναι το Νείλε τας αρχας. Arrian, lib. vi. cap. r. ready ready an ear to the exaggerated tales which national bigotry reported; while the defire of human distinction urged them to multiply thofe fictions, in order to excite more forcibly the attention, and fecure more permanently the admiration, of their countrymen. Strabo, who was a writer equally learned and judicious, feverely cenfures both Megafthenes and Oneficritus, two officers of high repute for literature, and of exalted station in the army of Alexander, for the abfurd and incredible stories they propagated concerning the Indian country and people. At the fame time, he gives us himself, in the fifteenth book of his invaluable treatise of Ancient Geography, the most authentic and faithful accounts at that time known, of the divifions and fubdivifions of India, interfperfed with many fublime moral reflections and entertaining historical relations; which demonftrate him not only the man of taste and erudition, but the profound philofopher. Indeed, nobody could poffibly write on that fubject with a better grace, or more indubitable information, than himself, as he had added practice to theory, and had travelled over half the countries which his inftructive volumes defcribe. After this particular mention of Strabo, it would be unjust not to take as particular notice of Ptolemy, the greatest g Strabo, lib. ii. p. 65. mathe.. mathematician and astronomer of his age, whofe geographical history and tables must ever continue to be of the most important use to thofe who tread that barren path of antiquity. Born in the neighbouring kingdom of Egypt, he had every opportunity of exploring, he is therefore entitled to every credit in elucidating, the fubject of which we now treat; and accordingly both Ptolemy and Strabo are conftantly confulted as the moft certain guides in illuftrating the geography of ancient countries. The rich and extenfive region of India, according to these and other respectable geographers of antiquity, was divided by the river Ganges into two parts, which they denominated India intra Gangem, and India extra Gangem; a mode of divifion that ftill very generally prevails. Of India intra Gangem, the principal theatre of the events recorded in thefe pages, Nature herself feems to have fixed the eternal boundaries; for on the weft it is terminated by the great and rapid river Indusi; on the north and north-west, by that stupendous chain of mountains to which the ancients gave the general name of Caucafusk; on the eaft, by the h Ptolemæi Geogr. lib. vii. Strabonis Geogr. lib. xv. i That is, by its most westerly branch. facred k The different regions of this vaft chain were diftinguished by the particular names of Paropamifus, Taurus, Emodus, and facred waters of the Ganges; and on the fouth it is embraced by the Mare Erythræum, or Indian ocean. It muft, however, be obferved, that the accurate Ptolemy does not abfolutely affert the Indus to be the boundary of India Propria on the weft; for he affigns as its confines on that fide, the territory of the Paropamifada (the Afghans of the present day); the province of Arachofia, the modern Zablestan ; and that of Gedrofia, at present denominated Mocran. The reafon and propriety of Ptolemy's fixing thefe provinces rather than the Indus as its western termination, will be hereafter more clearly evinced, by a quotation from an author in elegance and accuracy hardly inferior to himself, when we come to confider Hindoftan according to the divifions of the Orientals themselves. Thefe provinces, indeed, feem to be confidered by Pliny1 rather as a part of the Indian than the Perfian empire; to which he adds that of Aria, whofe capital is the modern Herat for this, however, he is condemned by Cellarius, who obferves m, Quod de quatuor Imaus. Thus Pliny: "Junguntur inter fe Imaus, Emodus, Paropamifus, Caucafus, a quibus tota decurrit India in planitiem immenfam et Ægypto fimilem." Plinius, lib. vi. cap. 17. 1 Plinius, lib. vi. cap. 20. m Cellarii Geographia Antiqua, lib. iii, cap. 23. |