Vincent,
to consider these as the Maldive Islands. It may be objected to this
supposition, that the Maldives are situated at a very great distance from
the straits that separate Arabia from the opposite coast; but a cursory
acquaintance with the geographical descriptions of the ancients will
convince us, that their information respecting the situation of countries
was frequently vague and erroneous, (as indeed it must have been,
considering the imperfect means they possessed of measuring or even judging
of distances, especially by sea) while, at the same time, their information
respecting the nature of the country, the productions of its soil, and the
manners, &c. of its inhabitants, was surprisingly full and accurate. In
identifying places mentioned by the ancients, we should therefore be guided
more by the descriptions they give, than by the locality they assign to
them. Agatharcides, it is true, adds that these islands extend along the
sea, which washes Gadrosia and India; but he probably had very confused
notions of the extent and form of India; and, at any rate, giving the
widest latitude to the term, the same sea may be said to wash Gadrosia and
the Maldive Islands. If these are the islands actually meant by
Agatharcides, it is the earliest notice of them extant.
Our concern with Agatharcides relates only to the geographical knowledge
which his writings display; and even of that we can only select such parts
as are most important, and at the same time point out and prove the
advances of geographical knowledge, and of commercial enterprize; before,
however, we leave him, we may add one fact, not immediately relating to our
peculiar subject, which he records: after stating that the soil of Arabia
was, as it were, impregnated with gold, and that lumps of pure gold were
found there from the size of an olive to that of a nut, he adds, that iron
was twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold.
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