Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/155

 months. Thence they could easily reach the shores of Malabar, even by adhering to an almost strictly coasting route, in the forty days, in which, as we learn from Pliny, that portion of the voyage was usually performed.

The merchants who carried on these important trades, both under the Ptolemies and the Romans, resided chiefly, if not altogether, at Alexandria; and though the Ptolemies, for their own interest, were willing to extend, as far as possible, mercantile privileges, the law of Egypt still required (as in the case of Naucratis) the employment of an Alexandrian factor for the transaction of the merchant's business: a custom which in a great measure accounts for the immense wealth of Alexandria.

It is clear that the prevailing winds must now have been studied with care, and the intercourse between West and East so arranged as to admit of the utmost possible advantage being derived from them. Towards the latter end of July the annual, or Etesian (north), wind commences its influence and extends from the Euxine Sea to Syene in Upper Egypt. As a northerly wind, prevailing at the time of the year when the Nile is at its greatest height, it affords an excellent opportunity of advancing against the stream. Hence the voyage from Alexandria to Coptos, a distance of three hundred and eight Roman miles, was usually performed in twelve days.

The Canopic branch of the Nile (the nearest to Alexandria) was then the chief navigable approach to Egypt from the sea. From its entrance a canal