es of Europe
were dependent upon her relations with Asia. Since prehistoric times
there has always been some commercial intercourse between the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean and the peninsula of Hindustan. Tyre and
Sidon carried on such trade by way of the Red Sea.[310] After Alexander
had led his army to Samarcand and to the river Hyphasis, the
acquaintance of the Greeks with Asia was very considerably increased,
and important routes of trade were established. One was practically the
old Phoenician route, with its western terminus moved from Tyre to
Alexandria. Another was by way of the Caspian sea, up the river Oxus,
and thence with camels to the banks of the Indus.[311] An intermediate
route was through Syria and by way of the Euphrates and the Persian
gulf; the route which at one time made the greatness of Palmyra. After
the extension of Roman sway to the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Euxine,
these same routes continued to be used. The European commodities carried
to India were light woollen cloths, linens, coral, black lead, various
kinds of glass vessels, and wine. In exchange for these the traders
brought back to Europe divers aromatic spices, black pepper, ivory,
cotton fabrics, diamonds, sapphires, and pearls, silk thread and silk
stuffs.[312] Detailed accounts of these commercial transactions, and of
the wealth of personal experiences that must have been connected with
them, are excessively scant. Of the Europeans who, during all the
centuries between Alexander and Justinian, made their way to Hindustan
or beyond, we know very few by name. The amount of geographical
information that was gathered during the first half of this period is
shown in the map representing Claudius Ptolemy's knowledge of the earth,
about the middle of the second century after Christ. Except for the
Scandinavian world, and some very important additions made to the
knowledge of Asia by Marco Polo, this map fairly represents the maximum
of acquaintance with the earth's surface possessed by Europeans previous
to the great voyages of the fifteenth century. It shows a dim knowledge
of the mouths of the Ganges, of the island of Ceylon, and of what we
sometimes call Farther India. A very dim knowledge, indeed; for the huge
peninsula of Hindustan is shrunk into insignificance, while Taprobane,
or Ceylon, unduly magnified, usurps the place belonging to the Deccan.
At the same time we see that some hearsay knowledge of China had made
its way