2: ABOU-ZEYD, vol. i. p. 128; REINAUD, Discours; &c., pp. lx.—lxix.; Introd. ABOULFEDA, p. cdxii.
An opinion has been advanced by Bertolacci that the entrepôt was Mantotte, at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Manaar. Presuming that the voyages both ways were made through the Manaar channel, he infers that the ships of Arabia and India, rather than encounter the long delay of waiting for the change of the monsoon to effect the passage, would prefer to "flock to the Straits of Manaar, and those which, from their size, could not pass the shallow water, would be unloaded, and their merchandise trans-shipped into other vessels, as they arrived from the opposite coast, or deposited in stores to await an opportunity of conveyance."[1] Hence Mantotte, he concludes, was the station chosen for such combined operations.
1: BERTOLACCI'S Ceylon, pp. 18,19.
But Bertolacci confines his remarks to the Arabian and Indian crafts alone: he leaves out of consideration the ships of the largest size called in the Periplus [Greek: kolandiophônta], which kept up the communication between the west and east coast of India, in the time of the Romans, and he equally overlooks the great junks of the Chinese, which, by aid of the magnetic compass[1], made bold passages from Java to Malabar, and from Malabar to Oman,—vessels which (on the authority of an ancient Arabic MS.) Reinaud says carried from four to five hundred men, with arms and naphtha, to defend themselves against the pirates of India.[2]
1: The knowledge of the mariner's compass probably possessed by the Chinese prior to the twelfth century, is discussed by KLAPROTH in his "Lettre à M. le Baron Humboldt sur l'invention de la boussole." Paris, 1834.
2: See the "Katab-al-adjajab," probably written by MASSOUDI. REINAUD, Mémoires sur l'Inde, p. 200; Relation et Discours, pp. lx. lxviii.; ABOULFEDA, Introd. cdxii. May not this early mention of the use of "naphtha" by the Chinese for burning the ships of an enemy, throw some light on the disquisitions adverted to by GIBBON, ch. lii., as to the nature of "the Greek fire," so destructive to the fleets of their assailants during the first and second siege of Constantinople in the seventh and eighth centuries? GIBBON says that the principal ingredient was naphtha, and that the Greek emperor learned the secret of its composition from a Syrian who deserted from the service of the Khalif. Did the Khalif acquire the knowledge from the Chinese, whose ships, it appears, were armed with some preparation of this nature in their voyages to Bassora?
On this point we have the personal testimony of the Chinese traveller Fa Hian, who at the end of the fourth century sailed direct from Ceylon for China, in a merchant vessel so large as to accommodate two hundred persons, and having in tow a smaller one, as a precaution against dangers by sea[1]:—and Ibn Batuta saw, at Calicut, in the fourteenth century, junks from China capable of accommodating a thousand men, of whom four hundred were soldiers, and each of these large ships was followed by three smaller.[2] With vessels of such magnitude, it would be neither expedient nor practicable to navigate the shallows in the vicinity of Manaar; and besides, Mantotte, or, as it was anciently called, Mahatitta or Maha-totta, "the great ferry," although it existed as a port upwards of four hundred years before the Christian era, was at no period an emporium of commerce. Being situated so close to the ancient capital, Anarajapoora, it derived its notoriety from being the point of arrival and departure of the Malabars who resorted to the island; and the only trade for which it afforded facilities was the occasional importation of the produce of the opposite coast of India.[3] It is not only probable, but almost certain that during the middle ages, and especially prior to the eleventh century, when the trade with Persia and Arabia was at its height, Mantotte afforded the facilities indicated by Bertolacci to the smaller craft that availed themselves of the Paumbam passage; but we have still to ascertain the particular harbour which was the centre of the more important commerce between China and the West. That harbour I believe to have been Point de Galle.
1: Foĕ-kouĕ-ki, ch. xl. p. 359). In a previous passage, FA HIAN describes the large vessels in which the trade was carried between Tamlook, on the Hoogly, and Ceylon:—"A cette époque, des marchands, se mettant en mer avec de grands vaisseaux, firent route vers le sud-ouest; et au commencement de l'hiver, le vent étant favorable, après une navigation de quatorze nuits et d'autant de jours, on arriva au Royaume des Lions."—Ibid. chap. xxxvi. p. 328.
2: IBN BATUTA, Lee's translation, p. 172.
3: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 51; ch. xxv. p. 155; ch. xxxv. p. 217.