untry, for
the ocean encircles it oh the east. From this it is evident that the
Tzenistae of this author, and the Seres of the ancients, are the same; and
in specifying the imports into Ceylon, he mentions silk thread, as coming
from countries farther to the east, particularly from the Chinese. We thus
see by what sea route silk was brought from China to those places with
which the western nations had a communication; it was imported either into
the peninsula of Malacca by sea, and thence by sea to Nelkundah, whence it
was brought by a third voyage to the Red Sea; or it was brought directly
from China to Ceylon, from which place there was a regular sea
communication also with the Red Sea.

The author of the Periplus informs us, that raw as well as manufactured
silk were conveyed by land through Bactria, to Baraguza or Guzerat, and by
the Ganges to Limurike; according to this first route, the silks of China
must have come the whole length of Tartary, from the great wall, into
Bactria; from Bactria, they passed the mountains to the sources of the
Indus, and by that river they were brought down to Patala, or Barbarike, in
Scindi, and thence to Guzerat: the line must have been nearly the same when
silk was brought to the sources of the Ganges; at the mouth of this river,
it was embarked for Limurike in Canara. All the silk, therefore, that went
by land to Bactria, passed down the Indus to Guzerat; all that deviated
more to the east, and came by Thibet, passed down the Ganges to Bengal.

A third land route by which silk was brought to the Persian merchants, and
by them sold to the Romans, was from Samarcand and Bochara, through the
northern provinces of China, to the metropolis of the latter country: this,
however, was a long, difficult, and dangerous route. From Samarcand to the
first town of the Chinese, was a journey of from 60 to 100 days; as soon as
the caravans passed the Jaxartes, they entered the desert, in which they
were necessarily exposed to great privations, as well as to great risk from
the wandering tribes. The merchants of Samarcand and Bochara, on their
return from China, transported the raw or manufactured silk into Persia;
and the Persian merchants sold it to the Romans at the fairs of Armenia and
Nisibis.

Another land route is particularly described by Ptolemy: according to his
detail, this immense inland communication began from the bay of Issus, in
Cilicia; it then crossed Mesopotamia, from the Euphra