The Works of William Robertson ... To which is prefixed, an account of his life and writings by Dugald Stewart. ... A new edition

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THE WORKS OF WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, HISTORIOGRAPHER TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND, AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY AT MADRID. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS, BY THE REV. ALEX. STEWART. IN TWELVE VOLUMES. VOL. XII. LONDON : PRINTED FOR RICHARDSON & CO. ; SHARPE & SON ; BALDWIN & CO. ; W. BAYNES & SON ; T. TEGG ; G. OFFER : W. ROBINSON & SONS, LIVERPOOL: BARCLAY; LAWSON; AND EURDEKIN, YORK: WHITE & CO. AND P. BROWN, EDINBURGH : ALSO GRIFFIN & CO. AND WYLIE, GLASGOW. 1822. Printed by Walker & Greig, Edinburgh. AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION CONCERNING THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE ANCIENTS HAD OF INDIA; AND THE PROGRESS OF TRADE WITH THAT COUNTRY PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE TO IT BY THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIVIL POLITY THE LAWS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS— THE ARTS AND SCIENCES AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE INDIANS.

Preface

. The perusal of Major Rennell's Memoir for illustrating his Map of Indostan, one of the most valuable geographical treatises that has appeared in any age or country, gave rise to the following Work. It suggested to me the idea of examining more fully than I had done in the Introductory Book to my History of America, into the knowledge which the Ancients had of India, and of considering what is certain, what is obscure, and what is fabulous, in the accounts of that country which they have handed down to us. In undertaking this inquiry, I had originally no other object than my own amusement and instruction : But in carrying it on, and consulting with diligence the authors of an tiquity, some facts, hitherto unobserved, and many which had not been examined with proper attention, occurred ; new vieAvs opened ; my ideas gradually extended and became more interesting ; until at length I imagined, that the result of my researches

PREFACE.

. might prove amusing and instructive to others, by exhibiting such a view of the va rious modes in which intercourse with India had been carried on from the earliest times, as might shew how much that great branch of commerce has contributed, in every age, to increase the wealth and power of the nations which possessed it. Thus the Historical Disquisition which I now lay before the Reader was begun and completed. What degree of merit it pos sesses, the Public must determine. My grateful recollection of the favourable man ner in which my other works have been received, naturally increases the solicitude with which I wait for its decision concerning this which I now publish. When I first turned my thoughts to this subject, I was so fully aware of the disadvantage under which I laboured in under taking to describe countries of which I had not any local knowledge, that I have been at the utmost pains to guard against any errors which this might occasion. I have consulted, with persevering industry, the works of all the authors I Could procure, who have given any account of India; I

PREFACE.

. V have never formed any decided opinion, which was not supported by respectable au thority ; and as I have the good fortune to reckon among the number of my friends, some Gentlemen who have filled important stations, civil and military, in India, and who have visited many different parts of it, I had recourse frequently to them, and from their conversation learned things which I could not have found in books. Were it proper to mention their names, the Public would allow, that, by their discernment and abilities, they are fully entitled to the con fidence which I have placed in them. In the progress of the Work, I became sensible of my own deficiency with respect to another point. In order to give an accurate idea of the imperfection both of the theory and practice of navigation among the Ancients, and to explain, with scientific precision, the manner in which they ascertained the position of places, and calculated their longitude and latitude, a greater portion of mathematical knowledge was requisite, than my attention to other studies had permitted me to acquire. What I wanted, the friend ship of my ingenious and respectable Col league, Mr Playfair, Professor of Mathema- VI

PREFACE.

. tics, has supplied ; and I have been enabled by him to elucidate all the points I have mentioned, in a manner which, I am con fident, will afford my readers complete satis faction. To him, likewise, I am indebted for the construction of a map necessary for illustrating this Disquisition, which without his assistance I could not have undertaken. I have adhered, in this Work, to an arrangement I followed in my former compositions, and to which the public has been long accustomed. I have kept historical narrative as much separate as possible from scientific and critical discussions, by reserv ing the latter for Notes and Illustrations. I flatter myself that I may claim, without pre sumption, the merit of having examined with diligence what I submit to public inspection, and of having referred, with scrupulous accuracy, to the authors from whom I have derived information. College of Edinburgh, May 10. 1791. CONTENTS.

Section I

Intercourse "with India, from the earliest Times until the Conquest of Egypt by the Romans. Whoever attempts to trace the operations of men in remote times, and to mark the various steps of their progress in any line of exertion, will soon have the mortification to find, that the period of authentic history is extremely limited. It is little more than three thousand years since the Books of Moses, the most ancient and only genuine record of what passed in the early ages of the world, were composed. Herodotus, the most ancient Heathen historian whose works have reached us, flourished a thousand years later. If we push our inquiries concerning any point beyond the era where written history commences, we enter upon the region of conjecture, of fable, and of uncertainty. Upon that ground I will neither venture myself, nor endeavour to conduct my readers.

In my researches concerning the A intercourse between the Eastern and Western resect, V, gions of the earth, and concerning the progress of that great branch of trade, which, in every age, has contributed so conspicuously towards raising the people who carried it on to wealth and power, I shall confine myself within the precincts I have marked out. Wherever the inspired writers, intent upon higher objects, mention occa sionally any circumstance that tends to illustrate the subject of my inquiries, I shall attend to it with reverence. Whatever other writers relate, I shall examine with freedom, and endeavour to ascertain the degree of credit to which they are entitled. The original station allotted to man by his Creator, was in the mild and fertile regions of the East. There the human race began its career of improvement ; and from the remains of sciences which were anciently cultivated, as well as of arts which were anciently exercised in India, we may conclude it to be one of the first countries in which men made any considerable progress in that career.

The wisdom of the East was early celebrated,* and its productions were early in request among distant nations.t The intercourse, how ever, between different countries was carried on at first entirely by land. As the people of the East appear soon to have acquired complete do minion over the useful animals,:, they could early * 1 Kings, iv. 30. f Gen. xxxvii. 25. J Gen. xii. 16. xxiv. 10, 11. SECT. I. undertake tlie long and toilsome journeys which it was necessary to make, in order to maintain this intercourse ; and by the provident bounty of Heaven they were furnished with a beast of bur den, without whose aid it would have been im possible to accomplish them. The camel, by its persevering strength, by its moderation in the use of food, and the singularity of its internal structure, which enables it to lay in a stock of water sufficient for several days, put it in their power to convey bulky commodities through those deserts which must be traversed by all who travel from any of the countries west of the Euphrates towards India.

Trade was carried on in this manner, par ticularly by the nations near to the Arabian Gulf, from the earliest period to which historical infor mation reaches. Distant journeys, however, would be undertaken at first only occasionally, and by a few adventurers. But by degrees, from atten tion to their mutual safety and comfort, numerous bodies of merchants assembled at stated times, and forming a temporary association, (known afterwards by the name of a Caravan), governed by officers of their own choice, and subject to regulations of which experience had taught them the utility, they performed journeys of such ex tent and duration, as appear astonishing to nations not accustomed to this mode of carrying on com merce. But, notwithstanding every improvement that could be made in the manner of conveying the productions of one country to another by land, SECT, I. the inconveniencies which attended it were obvious and unavoidable.

It was often dangerous ; always expensive, and tedious, and fatiguing. A method of communication more easy and ex peditious was sought, and the ingenuity of man gradually discovered, that the rivers, the arms of the sea, and even the ocean itself, were destined to open and facilitate intercourse with the vari ous regions of the earth, between which they ap pear, at first view, to be placed as insuperable barriers. Navigation, however, and ship-building, (as I have observed in another work),* are arts so nice and complicated, that they require the talents as well as experience of many succes sive ages, to bring them to any degree of perfec tion. From the raft or canoe, which first served to carry a savage over the river that obstructed him in the chase, to the construction of a vessel capable of conveying a numerous crew, or a con siderable cargo of goods, to a distant coast, the progress of improvement is immense.

Many efforts would be made, many experiments would be tried, and much labour as well as ingenuity would be employed, before this arduous and important undertaking could be accomplished. Even after some improvement was made in ship-building, the intercourse of nations with each other by sea was far from being extensive. From the accounts of the earliest historians we learn, that navigation made its first efforts in the Medi- * Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 2. SECT. I. terranean and the Arabian Gulf, and in them the first active operations of commerce were carried on. From an attentive inspection of the position and form of these two great inland seas, these ac counts appear to be highly probable. These seas lay open the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and spreading to a great extent along the coasts of the most fertile and most early civilized countries in each, seem to have been destined by nature to facilitate their communication with one another.

We find, accordingly, that the first voyages of the Egyptians and Phœnicians, the most ancient navigators mentioned in history, were made in the Mediterranean. Their trade, however, was not long confined to the countries bordering upon it. By acquiring early possession of ports on the Arabian Gulf, they extended the sphere of their commerce, and are represented as the first people of the West who opened a com munication by sea with India. In that account of the progress of navigation and discovery which I prefixed to the History of America, I considered with attention the mari time operations of the Egyptians and Phœnicians : a brief review of them here, as far as they relate to their connexion with India, is all that is requisite for illustrating the subject of my present in quiries. With respect to the former of these people, the information which history affords is slender, and of doubtful authority.

The fertile soil and mild climate of Egypt produced the ne cessaries and comforts of life in such profusion, SECT. I. as to render its inhabitants so independent of other countries, that it became early an esta blished maxim in their policy to renounce all intercourse with foreigners. In consequence of this, they held all seafaring persons in detesta tion, as impious and profane ; and fortifying their harbours, they denied strangers admission into them.* The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, disdain ing the restraints imposed upon it by these con tracted ideas of his subjects, prompted him to ren der the Egyptians a commercial people ; and in the course of his reign he so completely accomplished this, that (if we may give credit to some historians) he was able to fit out a fleet of four hundred ships in the Arabian Gulf, which con quered all the countries stretching along the Ery thraean Sea to India.

At the same time his army, led by himself, marched through Asia, and sub jected to his dominion every part of it as far as to the banks of the Ganges ; and crossing that river, advanced to the Eastern Ocean. t But these efforts produced no permanent effect, and appear to have been so contrary to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that, on the death of Sesostris, they resumed their ancient maxims, and many ages elapsed before the commercial connexion of Egypt with India came to be of * Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Wesselingi. Amst. 1746. Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1142. A. edit. Casaub. Amst. 1707. t Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 64. SECT I. such importance as to merit any notice in this disquisition.* The history of the early maritime operations of Phœnicia is not involved in the same obscurity with those of Egypt.

Every circumstance in the character and situation of the Phœnicians was fa vourable to the commercial spirit. The territory which they possessed was neither large nor fertile. It was from commerce only that they could derive either opulence or power. Accordingly, the trade carried on by the Phœnicians of Sidon and Tyre was extensive and adventurous ; and, both in their manners and policy, they resemble the great commercial states of modern times, more than any people in the ancient world. Among the various branches of their commerce, that with India may be regarded as one of the most considerable and most lucrative. As by their situation on the Mediterranean, and the imperfect state of navigation, they could not at tempt to open a direct communication with India by sea ; the enterprising spirit of commerce prompted them to wrest from the Idumæans some commodious harbours towards the bottom of the Arabian Gulf.

From these they held a regular intercourse with India on the one hand, and with the eastern and southern coasts of Africa on the other. The distance, however, from the Arabian Gulf to Tyre was considerable, and rendered the conveyance of goods to it by land * See Note I. at the end of the Volume. s SECT. I. AN HISTORICAL DISQUISITION carriage so tedious and expensive, that it became necessary for them to take possession of Rhino colura, the nearest port in the Mediterranean to the Arabian Gulf. Thither all the commodities brought from India were conveyed over land by a route much shorter, and more practicable, than that by which the productions of the East were carried at a subsequent period from the opposite shore of the Arabian Gulf to the Nile.* At Bhinocolura they were re-shipped, and transport ed by an easy navigation to Tyre, and distribut ed through the world.

This, as it is the earliest route of communication with India of which we have any authentic description, had so many ad vantages over any ever known before the modern discovery of a new course of navigation to the East, that the Phœnicians could supply other na tions with the productions of India in greater abundance, and at a cheaper rate, than any peo ple of antiquity. To this circumstance, which, for a considerable time, secured to them a monopoly of that trade, was owing, not only the ex traordinary wealth of individuals, which rendered the " merchants of Tyre princes, and her traf fickers the honourable of the earth,"t but the extensive power of the state itself, which first taught mankind to conceive what vast resources a commercial people possess, and what great exer tions they are capable of making.^ * Diod.

Sic. lib. i. p. 70. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1128. A. f Isaiah, xxiii. 8. } See Note SECT. I. The Jews, by their vicinity to Tyre, had such an opportunity of observing the wealth which _ flowed into that city from the lucrative commerce carried on by the Phœnicians from their settlements on the Arabian Gulf, as incited them to aim at obtaining some share of it. This they effected under the prosperous reigns of David and Solomon, partly by the conquests which they made of a small district in the land of Edom, that gave them possession of the harbours of Elath and Esiongeber on the Red Sea, and partly by the friendship of Hiram, King of Tyre, who enabled Solomon to fit out fleets, which, under the direction of Phœnician pilots, sailed to Tar shish and Ophir.* In what region of the earth we should search for these famous ports which furnished the navy of Solomon with the various commodities enumerated by the sacred historians, is an inquiry that has long exercised the industry of learned men.

They were early supposed to be situated in some part of India, and the Jews were held to be one of the nations which traded with that country. But the opinion more generally adopted is, that Solomon's fleets, after passing the Straits of Babelmandeb, held their course along the south-west coast of Africa, as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a country cele brated for its rich mines of gold and silver, (from which it has been denominated the Golden Sofala by Oriental writers),! and abounding in all the * 1 Kings, ix. 26. x. 22. f Notices des MSS. du Roi. torn. ii. p. 40. SECT. I. other articles which composed the cargoes of the Jewish ships. This opinion, which the accurate researches of M. D'Anville rendered highly pro bable,* seems now to be established with the ut most certainty by a late learned traveller ; who, by his knowledge of the monsoons in the Arabian Gulf, and his attention to the ancient mode of navigation, both in that sea and along the Afri can coast, has not only accounted for the extraordinary length of time which the fleets of Solo mon took in going and returning, but has shewn, from circumstances mentioned concerning the voyage, that it was not made to any place in India.t The Jews, then, we may conclude, have no title to be reckoned among the nations which carried on intercourse with India by sea ; and if, from deference to the sentiments of some re spectable authors, their claim were to be admit ted, we know with certainty, that the commercial effort which they made in the reign of Solomon was merely a transient one, and that they quickly returned to their former state of unsocial seclu sion from the rest of mankind.

From collecting the scanty information which history affords, concerning the most early at tempts to open a commercial intercourse with India, I now proceed, with more certainty and greater confidence, to trace the progress of com- * Dissert, sur le Pays d'Ophir, Mem. de Literat. torn. xxx. p. 83, &c. f Bruce's Travels, book ii. ch. 4. SECT. I. ' munication with that country, under the guidance of authors who recorded events nearer to their own times, and with respect to which they had received more full and accurate intelligence. The first establishment of any foreign power in India which can be ascertained by evidence meriting any degree of credit, is that of the Per sians ; and even of this we have only a very ge neral and doubtful account. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, though raised to the throne of Persia by chance or by artifice, possessed such active and enterprising talents as rendered him worthy of that high station.

He examined the different provinces of his kingdom more diligently than any of his predecessors, and explored regions of Asia formerly little known.* Having subjected to his dominion many of the countries which stretched south-east from the Caspian Sea to wards the river Oxus, his curiosity was excited to acquire a more extensive and accurate know ledge of India, on which they bordered. With this view he appointed Scylax of Caryandra to take the command of a squadron fitted out at Caspatyrus, in the country of Pactya, (the mo dern Pehkely), towards the upper part of the navigable course of the river Indus, and to fall down its stream until he should reach the ocean. This Scylax performed, though it should seem with much difficulty, and notwithstanding many obstacles ; for he spent no less than two years * Herodot. lib. iv. c. 44.

SECT. I. and six months in conducting his squadron from the place where he embarked, to the Arabian Gulf.* The account which he gave of the po pulousness, fertility, and high cultivation of that region of India through which his course lay, rendered Darius impatient to become master of a country so valuable. This he soon accomplished ; and though his conquests in India seem not to have extended beyond the district watered by the Indus, we are led to form an high idea of its opulence, as well as of the number of its inhabitants, in ancient times, when we learn that the tribute which he levied from it was near a third part of the whole revenue of the Persian mo narchy.! But neither this voyage of Scylax, nor the conquests of Darius, to which it gave rise, diffused any general knowledge of India.

The Greeks, who were the only enlightened race of men at that time in Europe, paid but little atten tion to the transactions of the people whom they considered as Barbarians, especially in countries far remote from their own ; and Scylax had em bellished the narrative of his voyage with so many circumstances manifestly fabulous, t that he seems to have met with the just punishment to which persons who have a notorious propensity to what is marvellous are often subjected, of being listen ed to with distrust, even when they relate what is exactly true. * Herodot. lib. iv. c. 42. 44. f Id. lib. iii. c. 90—96. See Note III. % Philostr. Vita Apoll. lib. iii. c. 47. and Note 3d of Olea rius Tzetzet. Chiliad, vii. vers. 630. SECT. I, About an hundred and sixty years after the reign of Darius Hystaspes, Alexander the Great undertook his expedition into India.

The wild sallies of passion, the indecent excesses of intem perance, and the ostentatious displays of vanity too frequent in the conduct of this extraordinary man, have so degraded his character, that the pre-eminence of his merit, either as a conqueror, a politician, or a legislator, has seldom been justly estimated. The subject of my present inquiry leads me to consider his operations only in one light, but it will enable me to exhibit a striking view of the grandeur and extent of his plans. He seems, soon after his first successes in Asia, to have formed the idea of establishing an universal mo narchy, and aspired to the dominion of the sea as well as of the land. From the wonderful efforts of the Tyrians in their own defence, when left without any ally or protector, he conceived an high opinion of the resources of maritime power, and of the wealth to be derived from commerce, especially that with India, which he found en grossed by the citizens of Tyre.

With a view to secure this commerce, and to establish a station for it preferable in many respects to that of Tyre, as soon as he completed the conquest of Egypt he founded a city near one of the mouths of the Nile, which he honoured with his own name ; and with such admirable discernment was the situation of it chosen, that Alexandria soon be came the greatest trading city in the ancient world ; and, notwithstanding many successive revolutions in empire, continued, during eighteen SECT. I. centuries, to be the chief seat of commerce with India.* Amidst the military operations to which Alexander was soon obliged to turn his attention, the desire of acquiring the lucrative commerce which the Tyrians had carried on with India, was not relinquished. Events soon occurred, that not only confirmed and added strength to this desire, but opened to him a prospect of obtaining the so vereignty of those regions which supplied the rest of mankind with so many precious commodities.

After his final victory over the Persians, he was led in pursuit of the last Darius, and of Bes sus, the murderer of that unfortunate monarch, to traverse that part of Asia which stretches from the Caspian Sea beyond the river Oxus. He ad vanced towards the east as far as Maracanda,t then a city of some note, and destined in a future period, under the modern name of Samar cand, to be the capital of an empire not inferior to his own either in extent or in power. In a progress of several months through provinces hitherto unknown to the Greeks, in a line of march often approaching near to India, and among people accustomed to much intercourse with it, he learned many things concerning the state of a country t that had been long the object of his thoughts and wishes, § which increased his desire of invading it.

Decisive and prompt in all his resolutions, he set out from Bactria, and cross- * Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 21. f Arrian, iii. c. 30. t Strabo, xv. p. 1021. A. § Anian, iv. c. 15. ed that ridge of mountains which, under various denominations, forms the Stony Girdle (if I may use an expression of the Oriental geographers) which encircles Asia, and constitutes the northsect. v '' j ern barrier of India. The most practicable avenue to every country, it is obvious, must be formed by circumstances in its natural situation, such as the defiles which lead through mountains, the course of rivers, and the places where they may be passed with the greatest ease and safety. In no place of the earth is this line of approach marked and de fined more conspicuously, than on the northern frontier of India ; insomuch that the three great invaders of this country, Alexander, Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah, in three distant ages, and with views and talents extremely different, advanced by the same route, with very little deviation.

Alexander had the merit of having first discovered the way. After passing the mountains he encamped at Alexandria Paropamisana, not far from the mountains denominated the Indian Caucasus by his historians, now known by the name of Hindoo Kho ;* and having subdued or conciliated the nations seated on the north-west bank of the Indus, he crossed the river at Taxila, now Attock,t where its stream is so tranquil * In the second edition of his Memoir, Major Rennell gives the modern names of the Hydaspes, with some variation in tlieir orthography, Behut and Ihylam. f Rennell, Mem. p. 92. See Note IV. SECT. I. that a bridge can be thrown over it with greater ease than at any other place. After passing the Indus, Alexander marched forward in the road which leads directly to the Ganges, and the opulent provinces to the south east, now comprehended under the general name of Indostan.

But, on the banks of the Hydaspes, known in modern times by the name of the Betah or Chelum, he was opposed by Porus, a powerful monarch of the country, at the head of a numerous army. The war with Porus, and the hostilities in which he was successively engaged with other Indian princes, led him to deviate from his original route, and to turn more to wards the south-west. In carrying on these ope rations, Alexander marched through one of the richest and best peopled countries of India, now called the Panjab, from the five great rivers by which it is watered ; and as we know that this march was performed in the rainy season, when even Indian armies cannot keep the field, it gives an high idea both of Alexander's persevering spirit, and of the extraordinary vigour and har diness of constitution which soldiers, in ancient times, derived from the united effects of gym nastic exercise and military discipline.

In every step of his progress, objects no less striking than new presented themselves to Alexander. The magnitude of the Indus,* even after he had seen the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tigris, must have * Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1027. C. & note 5. Casaub. SECT. I. filled him with surprise. No country he had hitherto visited was so populous and well cultivated, or abounded in so many valuable productions of nature and of art, as that part of India through which he had led his army. But when he was informed in every place, and probably with exaggerated description, how much the In dus was inferior to the Ganges, and how far all that he had hitherto beheld was surpassed in the happy regions through which that great river flows, it is not wonderful that his eagerness to view and to take possession of them should have prompted him to assemble his soldiers, and to propose that they should resume their march to wards that quarter, where wealth, dominion, and fame awaited them.