Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/27

Rh Chinese and Latin, show that there were some trade relations with Rome in the time of the early emperors. During the period of the Byzantine empire quite an overland traffic was maintained, and we find accounts of frequent embassies to and from Arabia and India from the beginning of the Christian era onward through the mediæval period. But the most authentic and detailed narratives are those of Arab travelers and merchants in and after the ninth century, showing an extensive trade by sea from the ports of Arabia and the Persian Gulf; and even at that date Chinese junks were making voyages to India, Ceylon, and still farther west. As indicating the state of intercourse during the Mohammedan ascendancy, it may be noted that in 1420 a Chinese embassy was commissioned to go to all the nations of the Western Ocean extending as far as Arabia Felix, and the record is that it was well received by them.

When European vessels began to visit China foreign