crowns of kings and nobles,
the emerald, the topaz, the ruby, the diamond, all came from the
East--mainly from India. The whole of mediaeval medical science was
derived from the Arabs, who sought most of their drugs from Arabia
or India. Even for the incense which burned upon the innumerable
altars of Roman Catholic Europe, merchants had to seek the materials
in the Levant. For many of the more refined handicrafts, artists had
to seek their best material from Eastern traders: such as shellac
for varnish, or mastic for artists' colours (gamboge from Cambodia,
ultramarine from lapis lazuli); while it was often necessary, under
mediaeval circumstances, to have resort to the musk or opopanax of
the East to counteract the odours resulting from the bad sanitary
habits of the West. But above all, for the condiments which were
almost necessary for health, and certainly desirable for seasoning
the salted food of winter and the salted fish of Lent. Europeans
were dependent upon the spices of the Asiatic islands. In Hakluyt's
great work on "English Voyages and Navigations," he gives in his
second volume a list, written out by an Aleppo merchant, William
Barrett, in 1584, of the places whence the chief staples of the
Eastern trade came, and it will be interesting to give a selection
from his long account.

Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java.
Nutmegs from Banda.
Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca.
Pepper Common from Malabar.
Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon).
Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor.
Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal).
Corall of Levant from Malabar.
Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia.
Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China.
Myrrha from Arabia Felix.
Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor.
Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi.
Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople.
Oppopanax from Persia.
Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca.
Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate.
Agaricum from Alemannia.
Bdellium from Arabia Felix.
Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah).
Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia.
Thus from Secutra (Socotra).
Nux Vomica from Malabar.
Sanguis Draconis (Dragon's Blood) from Secutra.
Musk from Tartarie by way of China.
Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia.
Silkes Fine from China.
Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania.
Masticke from Sio.
Oppium from Pug