rafts fewed together with the papyrus. Hap pily for the Egyptians, the views of those pacific princes were folely directed to the establishment of a vigorous internal commerce between the refpective provinces of that fertile kingdom; to conftructing canals for the more equal diftribution of the waters of the Nile; and raising ftupendous bulwarks to fecure the Delta from being a fecond time defolated by the ravages of the robbers, known to us by the name of the Scenite Dynafty, a race whofe recorded barbarities evince them to have been the most unfeeling tyrants that ever governed the oppreffed progeny of Mizraim. In confequence of this relapfe of the Egyptians into their ancient prejudices, no port remained open on all the coaft of Egypt for the admiffion of foreign veffels for nearly a thousand years, except Naucratis, a moft celebrated mart, fituated not very remote from Sais, then the capital of Lower Egypt, and which gave its name to one of the mouths of the Nile. It was Pfammetichus, the firft of that name, who, rejecting the contracted policy of excluding ftrangers from Egypt, threw open its ports to all nations, and gave a firm settlement to his allies, the Greeks, who were fo inftrumental

VOL. VI.

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ftrumental in fixing him on the throne of that kingdom.*

In refpect to the Perfians, they were equally reftrained, by the precepts of religion and policy, from engaging in maritime expeditions. The element of water, not less than that of fire, was the object of their fuperftitious veneration, and while that fuperftition made them fhudder at the idea of polluting it themfelves, by any fpecies of filth, thrown from veffels, the dread of invasion from a quarter in which they were fo defenceless, induced them to prohibit the entrance of foreigners into their dominions, by any maritime inlet, under penalties extremely rigorous. Indeed, to render that event impoffible by the channel of their two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, they effectually dammed up the mouths of thofe rivers with immense engines; to remove which coft Alexander, when his fleet, under the command of Nearchus, failed, by the route of the Perfian Gulph, into Mefopotamia, no fmall portion of time and labour. At length, roused to a fenfe of danger by the accounts brought to the court of Perfia of the naval armaments

Herodotus, lib. ii. p. 163

fitted out by the rifing states of Greece, their dauntless and afpiring neighbours, the Perfian fovereigns, broke through the fetters of that ancient fuperftition, and, by the affiftance of the Phoenicians, and even the Greeks themfelves, conftructed a navy, and ploughed the forbidden ocean. In this new project, am bition alfo had a confiderable fhare, and it was a defire of exploring and conquering the western provinces of India, that induced Darius to fit out at Cafpatyra, on the Indus, the fleet fo celebrated in history, of which he gave the command to Scylax, a Carian Greek, with exprefs orders to fail down the current of that rapid river; diligently to obferve the countries that lay on either fide of it; to enter the great ocean beyond it; to coaft along the Perfian and Arabian fhore; to enter the Red Sea by the Straits of Babelmandel; and, finally, failing up that Gulph, to land in Egypt, and by that route return to the capital of Perfia. This tedious, and, for those days, hazardous, navigation, Scylax fuccessfully accomplished in the thirtieth month from its commencement, and, arriving at the court of Sufa with the defired intelligence, animated that monarch to an undertaking which added fo much luftre to his crown,

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crown, and brought fo large an increafe of revenue into his treafury. It will scarcely be expected, after the ample aftronomical detail exhibited in the former portion of this volume, that a circumftance fo remarkable as that of the revenue thus acquired amounting to 360 talents, the exact fum of the days of the ancient year, fhould be omitted being noticed in this place; more particularly, as it is an undeniable proof of the Perfian year being not at that time reformed. It is probable, that, in this expedition of Darius into India, he learned from the Brahmins the true number of the days of the reformed year; fince, in the pompous march of Xerxes, to dispute the empire of the world with Alexander, the number of youths clothed in scarlet robes, the emblem of the folar fire, arranged with a view to the fame mythological fuperftition, was three hundred and fixty-five.* It fhould be alfo remarked, that this tribute from the newly-conquered province of India was paid in gold, while that of all the other Satrapies was paid in filver; and that the Indian tribute alone, according to Herodotus, amounted to 4680 Euboic talents, nearly a third

Herodotus, lib. ii. p. 189, and Quintus Curtius, lib. iii. cap. 3.

part

₹

༣

part of the whole revenue of his other dominions, which was 14,560 Euboic talents, or 2,807,4371. fterling.* The reason of its being paid in gold rather than filver is properly affigned by Rennel, from the Ayeen Akbery, that "the Eastern branches of the Indus, as well as fome other ftreams that defcend from the northern mountains, anciently yielded gold-duft." The value of the ancient talent varied extremely in different countries of Afia; if the Indian tribute was paid in Euboic talents of gold, it must have amounted to an immenfe fum, and far greater in proportion than the other nineteen provinces into which the Perfian empire was divided. We must not, however, fuppofe the larger fum mentioned above to have been the total of the revenues of Perfia, for many of the diftant kingdoms, fubject to that throne, paid their tribute in kind; as for inftance, that of the Satrap of Armenia, according to Strabo, was twenty thousand young horfes, while the governor of Arabia, the country of aromatics, furnifhed that luxurious court with frankincense equal in weight to a thousand talents.‡

* Herodotus, lib. iii. p. 288, et feq.

+ Rennel's Memoirs, p. 25.

† Strabo, lib. ii, p. 530,

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Inde