Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/134

 to the king, by his officers employed along the Arabian Gulf, with the report that he had been found in a ship, alone and half dead, and that they knew not who he was or whence he came, as he spoke a language unintelligible to them.

Strabo further states that this Indian, when, after a certain time, he had acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Greek language, related how, after leaving the coast of India, he had lost his course, and reached Egypt alone, all his companions having perished of hunger, adding that he would point out to any persons sent with him by the king the best and quickest route by sea to that part of India whence he had started. Eudoxus, who had previously prevailed on the king to attempt the exploration of the Nile, was able to carry out the wishes of the Indian, by sailing to India in a vessel under his own charge and with the Indian as his pilot. It appears, further, that the voyage was successful, and that Eudoxus brought back in due time to Egypt, in exchange for the presents he had taken with him, aromatics and precious stones, some of which, he said, were collected among the pebbles of the rivers, while others were dug out of the earth.

On the king's widow, Cleopatra, succeeding him on the throne, Eudoxus was despatched on a second voyage, with a still richer cargo, for purposes of exchange; but his previous good fortune did not, on this occasion, attend him; for, on his return, he was driven by adverse winds on the south coast of Æthiopia, where he is said to have conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles the natives did not possess, receiving in