Hist. Generale des Voyages, (tom.
vi. p. 201.)]

[Footnote 71: The knowledge, or rather ignorance, of Strabo, Pliny,
Ptolemy, Arrian, Marcian, &c., of the countries eastward of Cape
Comorin, is finely illustrated by D'Anville, (Antiquite Geographique de
l'Inde, especially p. 161--198.) Our geography of India is improved by
commerce and conquest; and has been illustrated by the excellent maps
and memoirs of Major Rennel. If he extends the sphere of his inquiries
with the same critical knowledge and sagacity, he will succeed, and may
surpass, the first of modern geographers.]

[Footnote 72: The Taprobane of Pliny, (vi. 24,) Solinus, (c. 53,) and
Salmas. Plinianae Exercitat., (p. 781, 782,) and most of the ancients,
who often confound the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra, is more clearly
described by Cosmas Indicopleustes; yet even the Christian topographer
has exaggerated its dimensions. His information on the Indian and
Chinese trade is rare and curious, (l. ii. p. 138, l. xi. p. 337, 338,
edit. Montfaucon.)]

As silk became of indispensable use, the emperor Justinian saw with
concern that the Persians had occupied by land and sea the monopoly
of this important supply, and that the wealth of his subjects was
continually drained by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An active
government would have restored the trade of Egypt and the navigation of
the Red Sea, which had decayed with the prosperity of the empire; and
the Roman vessels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to the
ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a more
humble expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies,
the Aethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of
navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, [73] [7311]
still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along the
African coast, they penetrated to the equator in search of gold,
emeralds, and aromatics; but they wisely declined an unequal
competition, in which they must be always prevented by the vicinity of
the Persians to the markets of India; and the emperor submitted to the
disappointment, till his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event.
The gospel had been preached to the Indians: a bishop already governed
the Christians of St. Thomas on the pepper-coast of Malabar; a church
was planted in Ceylon, and the missionaries pursued the footsteps of
commerce to the extremities of Asia. [74] Two Persian monks h