The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a work which has been frequently
referred to, is rich in materials to illustrate the geographical knowledge
and the commercial enterprize of the ancients in the part of the world to
which it relates. We have already assigned its date to the age of Nero. Our
limits will prevent us from giving a full account of this work; we shall
therefore, in the first place, give a short abstract of the geographical
knowledge which it displays, and in the next place, illustrate from it, the
nature of the commerce carried on, on the Red Sea, the adjacent coasts of
Africa and Arabia, and the ports of India, which are noticed in it.

At the time of Strabo, the geography of the ancients did not extend, on the
eastern coast of Africa, further to the south than a promontory called Noti
Cornu, (the Southern Horn,) which seems to have been in about 12-1/2
degrees north latitude. Beyond this an arid coast, without ports or fresh
water, arrested the progress of navigation; but it appears by the Periplus,
that this promontory was now passed, and commerce had extended to the port
of Rhapta and the isle of Menutias, which are supposed to correspond with
Babel Velho and the island of Magadoxa. The author of the Periplus, who
seems to have been a merchant personally acquainted with most of the places
he describes, had heard of, but not visited the promontory Prasum: he
represents the ocean beyond Rhapta as entirely unknown, but as believed to
continue its western direction, and after having washed the south coast of
Ethiopia, to join the Western Ocean. The whole of the west coast of India,
from the Indus to Trapobane, is minutely described in the Periplus. Some of
the particulars of the manners and customs of the inhabitants coincide in a
striking manner with those of the present day; this observation applies,
among other points, to the pirates between Bombay and Goa.

Dr. Vincent, in his learned commentary on the Periplus, gives it as his
opinion, that the author of the Periplus never went further than Nelkundah
himself, that is, to the boundary between the provinces of Canara and
Malabar. The east coast of the Indian peninsula is not traced so minutely
nor so accurately as the west coast, though there are names and
descriptions in the Periplus, from which it may fairly be inferred, that
the author alludes to Cavary, Masulapatam, Calingapatam, Coromandel, and
other places and districts of this part of India. The c