Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/161

 manned with all necessary officers and hands, viz. a captain, a steersman, and a number of servants who would hold the oars and the ropes and bale out water. Small boats were launched only in small rivers that overflowed during the rainy seasons.

To ensure safety there were also in force many strict regulations regarding the fording or crossing of rivers. Fording or crossing of rivers without permission was prohibited in order to ensure that no traitor or enemy could escape. The time and even the place for fording and crossing rivers were definitely fixed, so that any person fording and crossing outside the proper place and in unusual times was punished with first amercement; and the man who forded or crossed a river at the usual place and time but without permission had to pay a fine of $26 3⁄4$ panas. Exceptions to this stringent rule were, however, allowed in the interests of trade and public good. Thus the following were