Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/242

 The word has led to much unnecessary confusion in the translation of this passage. Our author is describing a sailing-course which is obvious by referring to the map. The straight course before the trade-wind, from Hisn Ghorab to the Gulf of Cambay or the mouth of the Indus, would carry a vessel along the Arabian shore as far as Ras Fartak, beyond which the coast gradually recedes, so that the vessel would stand out to sea without changing its course. A vessel bound for the Malabar ports and sailing before the wind, with the type of rigging then in use, would have required steering off her course the whole time, thus describing a wide curve before making the Indian coast. Boats were not handled as easily then as now on a beam wind. The quarter-rudder required a constant pull on the tiller by the hands of the steersman.

57. The same course.—Pliny's account of the voyage to India (VI, 26), which has been cited by most commentators on the Periplus, is appended for comparison. It will be seen that while it agrees with the Periplus in many points, particularly in its description of Arabia, its description of the Indian coast is not altogether the same:

"In later times it has been considered a well-ascertained fact that the voyage from Syagrus, the Promontory of Arabia, to Patala, reckoned at thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles, can be performed most advantageously with the aid of a westerly wind, which is there known by the name of Hippalus.

"The age that followed pointed out a shorter route, and a safer one to those who might happen to sail from the same promontory for Sigerus, a port in India; and for a long time this route was followed, until at last a still shorter cut was discovered by a merchant, and the thirst for gain brought India even still nearer to us. At the present day voyages are made to India every year; and companies of archers are carried on board the vessels, as those seas are greatly infested with pirates.

"It will not be amiss too, on the present occasion, to set forth the whole of the route from Egypt, which has been stated to us of late, upon information on which reliance may be placed, and is here published for the first time. The subject is one well worthy of our notice, seeing that in no year does India drain our empire of less than five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces, giving back her own wares in exchange, which are sold among us at fully one hundred times their prime cost.

"Two miles distant from Alexandria is the town of Juliopolis. The distance thence to Coptos, up the Nile, is three hundred and