pestry ever superior to all others, if not in the defign, at least in the dazzling luftre of the colours, are abundant proofs of these affertions. Who has not heard of the fhawls of Cashmere, of the fine veils, fumptuous vefts, and gaudy fashes, made in India, and of the exquifite fineness of their muflins, especially of those curious robes, of this delicate manu→ facture, appropriated to the use of the fultanas of the court of Delhi, while Delhi had a court; woven with fuch elegance, that the whole dress might be drawn through a small ring, and, when spread on the grafs, on account of the minuteness of the threads, were fcarcely visible to the eye? To what European nation has not the loud thunder of the British navy proclaimed the excellence of the falt→ petre of Bengal; and what Afiatic army has not had its fury in battle increased by the infpiriting fumes of its opium, not exceeded by the beft produced in Egypt? How would the table of luxury have been spread, not only in our times, but in those of Greece and Rome,

how great and general was the confumption, previous to that prohibition, of this commodity, may be learned from what is recorded in Poftlethwayte on this article, relative to the cargo of the Tavistock, which brought 9000 pieces of damask only, independent of other forts of wrought filk, each of which being worth at market 97. or more, the damask only amounted to near 90,000 1.

had

had it not been for the aid which culinary fkill has received from the pepper, the nutmegs, the cloves, the ginger, the mace, the cinnamon, of the tropical regions of India? Add to this, their rich fweetmeats and preferves of all kinds, their fruits dried or green, the anana, the mango, and many others, of fuch exquifite flavour and poignancy, that the appetite ranges among their endless variety without danger of being fatiated or disgufted.

In respect to the various articles of which their thriving domeftic commerce principally confifted, they in a particular manner marked the native ingenuity and taste of a people, one order of whom are entirely devoted, from their infancy, to mechanical employ and manual labour, and thofe articles were, at once, elegant in fabrication and infinite in number. Among these may be reckoned curious bafkets made of those flexible reeds, with which the banks of their rivers and marthy grounds abound in wonderful variety; various fpecies of beautiful pottery of the more elegant kind, and fome even fcented; an infinite affortment of coftly toys, fabricated of ivory, and what we call mother-of-pearl; light fcreens richly gilded, and painted with the most vivid colours; fans and umbrellas formed of the beau

tiful feathers of the numerous tropical birds that flutter in their forefts and carol in their groves; mufical inftruments adapted to every fpecies of melody, martial or festive, folemn or plaintive, from the dreadful resonance of the tom-tom to the fprightly air of the vena and tambour: in these, and a thousand other minuter articles, which it would be tedious to enumerate in this place, the Indians, in periods to which European chronology scarcely afcends, carried on, and ftill maintain, an extenfive and vigorous traffic.

But left I fhould be thought to have exaggerated matters in this account of the varied and extenfive trade of ancient India, I fhall now defcend to fome particular statements and extracts from the volume, cited before, which will fully prove the truth of the preceding affertions. I fhall, alfo, for the convenience of the reader, continue to be precifely accurate in referring to the pages which I cite, and fhall begin with mentioning two or three articles on which I fhall have occafion to difcourfe more at large hereafter, when difcuffing certain parts of the trade of India with Britain in modern periods. The firft of thefe is

SUGAR.

SUGA R.

THAT the ancient Indians, at this remote æra, were accustomed not only to extract fugar from the cane, which anciently grew and still grows in luxuriant abundance in their country, and was, probably, thence tranf ported into our Weft-India fettlements; but also knew how to draw from the melaffes an ardent spirit, like the liquor which we call RUM, is evident from the following paffage in these Institutes, page 320, where it is said, "Inebriating liquor may be confidered as of three principal forts; that extracted from DREGS OF SUGAR, that extracted from bruised rice, and that extracted from the flowers of the Madhuca; as one, so are all; they fhall not be tafted by the chief of the twice-born;" that is, the Brahmin, who, according to the received notion of præ-existence in India, is fuppofed to be a fecond time born, when he enters on his earthly career,

In this paffage we find the exact parallel, or, perhaps, the origin, of that ancient precept of the Egyptian code, that the priest should refrain from tafting wine and fpirituous liquors; and the reafon afterwards affigned

for

for this ftrict prohibition, at least in India, is, left, when in a state of Intoxication, he should pronounce some fecret phrase of the myfterious Veda. The next are

INDIGO AND DYED COTTONS.

THAT the merchants of India, also, in that early period, drove a traffic in Indigo is certain, fince, in the fame book, when Menu is enumerating the fpecies of commodity in which it is lawful for a diftreffed Brahmin to deal, indigo is one, among many others, forbidden him; and indeed from that very paffage we may collect many other articles then forming a part of the domeftic and foreign trade of India.

Among the various kinds of merchandize alfo there enumerated, but prohibited the Brahmin to trade in, if diftrefs fhould drive him to derive his fuftenance from commerce, are different species of cloth, made of wool, or of the bark of trees, dyed of a red colour, and these are repeatedly fpecified in fo particular a manner, that we have the strongest reason to conclude they had obtained from the Phoenicians fome information concerning

the