, or from, the
gates of Rome, and "embassies from regions far remote," crowding the
Appian or the Emilian roads, some

"From the Asian kings, and Parthian amongst these;
From India and the golden Chersonese,
And utmost Indian isle Taprobane
* * * * *
Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed;"

it is probable, from the mention of this island Taprobane following so
closely after that of the Malabar peninsula, that Milton held it to be the
island of Ceylon, and not of Sumatra. In this he does but follow the
stream of geographical critics; and, upon the whole, if any one island
exclusively is to be received for the Roman Taprobane, doubt there can be
none that Ceylon has the superior title. But, as we know that, in regions
less remote from Rome, _Mona_ did not always mean the Isle of Man, nor
_Ultima Thule_ uniformly the Isle of Skye or of St Kilda--so it is pretty
evident that features belonging to Sumatra, and probably to other oriental
islands, blended (through mutual misconceptions of the parties, questioned
and questioning) into one semi-fabulous object not entirely realized in
any locality whatever. The case is precisely as if Cosmas Indicopleustes,
visiting Scotland in the sixth century, should have placed the scene of
any adventure in a town distant six miles from Glasgow and eight miles
from Edinburgh. These we know to be irreconcilable conditions, such as
cannot meet in any town whatever, past or present. But in such a case many
circumstances might, notwithstanding, combine to throw a current of very
strong suspicion upon Hamilton as the town concerned. On the same
principle, it is easy to see that most of those Romans who spoke of
Taprobane had Ceylon in their eye. But that all had not, and of those who
really _had_, that some indicated by their facts very different islands,
whilst designing to indicate Ceylon, is undeniable; since, amongst other
imaginary characteristics of Taprobane, they make it extend considerably
to the south of the line. Now, with respect to Ceylon, this is notoriously
false; that island lies entirely in the northern tropic, and does not come
within five (hardly more than six) degrees of the equator. Plain it is,
therefore, that Taprobane, it construed very strictly, is an _ens
rationis_, made up by fanciful composition from various sources, and much
like our own mediaeval conceit of Prester John's country, or the fancies
(which have but recen