Apologus is the present
Oboleh, on the canal that leads from the Euphrates to Basra.
If the author of the Periplus did not enter the Gulf of Persia, he
certainly stretched over, with the monsoon, either to Karmania, or directly
to Scindi, or to the Gulf of Cambay; for at these places the minuteness of
information which distinguishes the journal again appears.
Omana in Persia is the first mart described; it lay in the province of
Gadrosia, but as it is not mentioned by Nearchus, who found Arabs in most
other parts of the province, we may conclude that it was founded after his
time. The trade between this place and Baragaza in India, was regular and
direct, and the goods brought from the latter to the former, seems
afterwards to have been sent to Oboleh at the head of the Gulf; the imports
were brass, sandal-wood; timber, of what kind is not specified; horn,
ebony; this is the first port the trade of which included ebony and
sandal-wood: frankincense was imported from Kane. The exports to Arabia and
Baragaza were purple cloth for the natives; wine, a large quantity of
dates, gold, slaves, and pearls of an inferior quality.
The first place in India to which the merchants of Egypt, while they
followed the ancient course of navigation by coasting, were accustomed to
trade, was Patala on the Indus; for we have admitted that single vessels
occasionally ventured beyond the Straits of Babelmandeb, before the
discovery of the monsoon, though the trade from Egypt to India, previously
to that discovery, was by no means frequent or regular.
Pages:
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428