which frequented the ports of Ceylon, the
native merchants carried on an extensive trade in their own vessels, and on
their own account. In addition to pepper from Mali on the coast of Malabar,
and the articles already enumerated from China, &c., copper, a wood
resembling ebony, and a variety of stuffs, were imported from Calliena, a
port shut to the Egyptian Greeks at the time of the Periplus; and from
Sindu they imported musk, castoreum, and spikenard. Ceylon was a depot for
all these articles, which were exported, together with spiceries, and the
precious stones for which this island was famous.

Cosmas expressly states that he was not in Ceylon himself, but that he
derived his information respecting it and its trade from Sopatrus, a Greek,
who died about the beginning of the sixth century. This, as Dr. Vincent
observes, is a date of some importance: for it proves that the trade opened
by the Romans from Egypt to India direct, continued upon the same footing
from the reign of Claudius and the discovery of Hippalus, down to A.D.
500; by which means we came within 350 years of the Arabian voyage
published by Renaudot, and have but a small interval between the limit of
ancient geography and that of the moderns.

From this author we first learn that the Persians having overcome the
aversion of their ancestors to maritime enterprise, had established a
flourishing and lucrative commerce with India. All its principal ports were
visited by Persian merchants; and in most of the cities there were churches
in which the service was performed by priests, ordained by a Persian
archbishop.

We shall conclude our notice of Ceylon, as described by Cosmas, from the
account of Sopatrus, with mentioning a few miscellaneous particulars,
illustrative of the produce and commerce of the island. The sovereignty was
held by two kings; one called the king of the Hyacinth, or the district
above the Ghants, where the precious stones were found; the other possessed
the maritime districts. In Ceylon, elephants are sold by their height; and
he adds, that in India they are trained for war, whereas, in Africa, they
are taken only for their ivory. Various particulars respecting the natural
history of Ceylon and India, &c. are given, which are very accurate and
complete: the cocoa-nut with its properties is described: the pepper plant,
the buffalo, the camelopard, the musk animal, &c.: the rhinoceros, he says,
he saw only at a distance; he procured s