, if a direct and regular communication
between Egypt and India did not take place in their reigns, we may be
assured it was unknown to the Egyptians at the period of the Roman
conquest. To their reigns, then, we shall principally direct our enquiries.

That Ptolemy Philadelphus was extremely desirous to improve the navigation
of the Red Sea, is evident from his having built Myos Hormos, or rather
improved it, because it was more convenient than Arsinoe, on account of the
difficulty of navigating the western extremity of that sea: he afterwards
fixed on Berenice in preference to Myos Hormos, when the navigation and
commerce on this sea was extended and improved, since Berenice being lower
down, the navigation towards the straits was shorter, as well as attended
with fewer difficulties and dangers. But there is no evidence that his
fleets, which sailed from Berenice, were destined for India, or even passed
the Straits of Babelmandeb. It is, however, not meant to be asserted that
no vessels passed these straits in the time of this Ptolemy. On the
contrary, we know that his admiral, Timosthenes, passed the straits as low
as Cerne, which is generally supposed to be Madagascar; but commerce, which
in our times, directed by much superior skill and knowledge, as well as
stimulated by a stronger spirit of enterprize and rivalship, and a more
absorbing love of gain, immediately follows in the track of discovery, was
then comparatively slow, languid, and timid as well as ignorant; so that it
is not surprizing that it did not follow the track of Timosthenes. Ptolemy
Philadelphus also pushed his discoveries by land as far as Meroc: he opened
the route between Coptus and Berenice, establishing ports and opening
wells; and from these and other circumstances he seems to have been
actuated by a stronger wish to extend commerce, and to have formed more
plans for this purpose, than any of his successors.

Ptolemy Euergetes directed his thoughts more to conquest than to commerce,
though he rendered the former, in some degree, useful and subservient to
the latter. After having passed the Nile, and subdued the nations which lay
on the confines of Egypt, he compelled them to open a road of communication
between their country and Egypt. The frankincense country was the next
object of his ambition: this he subdued; and having sent a fleet and army
across the Red Sea into Arabia, he compelled the inhabitants of the
district to maintain the roads