Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/69

 Chap. l.J ROUTES OF INDIAN COMMERCE. 3.">

which ministered so greatly to their luxury and comfort; and however much they b.c. - may have wished it to be thought that they could have carried their conquests farther, had they believed that there was anything beyond to tempt their am- bition, it is sufficiently obvious that India never felt the terror of their power, merely because inhospitable deserts and warlike nations interposed to place it lieyond their reach.

While it is impossible to give the Romans credit for moderation in refraining from any attempt to conquer India, it is pleasing to find in their conduct an illustration of the important fact, that the peaceful intercourse which commerce carries on between distant nations, besides escaping all the horrors which war carries in its train, secures all and more than all the advantages which could have been hoped from the most absolute and least expensive form of con- quest. In Rome and all its dependencies, the rich products of the soil and the looms of India arrived as surely, as abundantly, and as cheaply as they could have done had the whole country from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin been one vast Roman province.

Before leaving ancient India, it will not be out of ])lace to take a survey of Leading

_ _ routes of

the leading routes by which, at this early period, the traffic between the East Indian com- and West was conducted. Overland the only practicable method of traffic w.is by means of caravans, which, after (quitting the western confines of India, pro- ceeded directly to Bactria. Here the first great halt was made at Balkh, on the southern frontiers, and a great emporium was established. From Bactria the usual line of route was toward Babylon, which, in like manner, became another great emporium. In pursuing this line the shores of the Caspian were nearly approached, and advantage was often taken of it to ship goods, which were carried north to a convenient spot, and then conveyed by land to the Black Sea, by wiiich not only the countries adjacent to the coasts could be supplied, but an easy access could be had through the Dardanelles to the ports of the Mediter- ranean. From Babylon the route westward led directly to Palmp-a, which, in imand consequence of the mart thus establislied, overcame all the di.sadvantages of its situation in the heart of a desert, and became the capital of a powerful and oi)ulent kingdom. From PalmjTa the coast of the Levant was reached without much difficidty, and its harbours became places of exchange for the three quar- ters of the globe, bartering the spices of India and the frankincense of Ai-abia !• against the peculiar products both of Europe and Africa. Besides the direct overland route now traced, there were many lines of divergence from what may

tbe called its main trunk. These were chiefly intended to supj^ly the places which lay at a distance on either side of it, and thus furnished the means of transport for a very extensive inland trade. The overland route, which, but for the camel, would have been altogether impracticable, was necessarily slow, toilsome, and expensive, and was therefore less extensively used than the maritime route, especially after a knowled<Te of