Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/197

 The whole time occupied on the voyage from the mouth of the Indus to Susa, appears to have been 146 days—five lunar months and six days, and not seven months, as stated by Pliny. In calling attention to this fact, Dr. Vincent remarks that a modern vessel can perform in three weeks the passage which Nearchus was five months in accomplishing. "Within the memory of man," he adds, "a voyage to India required eight or nine months; but Dr. Robertson mentions that, in 1788, the Boddam East Indiaman reached Madras in 108 days, and it has since been performed in 96." To this we may add that the voyage to India (Bombay), by way of Marseilles, Egypt, and the Red Sea, is now performed in 28 days; that auxiliary screw steam-ships from Liverpool and London perform the voyage, by way of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, to Bombay and Ceylon, heavily laden with cargoes each way, and back to England in 80 days; and that by means of the electric telegraph we can now communicate with any portion of that vast empire in a day, practically in a few minutes if there are no obstacles in the way.

But conquests in Asia and Western India were not

which formed a portion of the author's return cargo to Bombay; and also, he may add, to the "robbers" by whom he was attacked when conveying, from an inland town in the vicinity of Bushire, some treasure which was destined for his ship.]
 * [Footnote: difficulties and dangers; and can testify to the abundance of the dates,