IV. Then follows a passage from the Straits to India by three different routes: the first by adhering to the coasts of Arabia, Karmania, Gedrosia, and Indo-Skythia, which terminated at Barugaza (Bharoch), a great emporium on the river Nammadios (the Narmadâ), at a distance of thirty miles from its mouth; the second from Kanê, a port to the west of Suagros, a great projection on the south coast of Arabia, now Cape Fartaque; and the third from Cape Guardafui, on the African side—both across the ocean by the monsoon to Mouziris and Nelkunda, great commercial cities on the coast of Malabar.
V. After this we must allow a similar voyage performed by the Indians to Arabia, or by the Arabians to India, previous to the performance of it by the Greeks, because the Greeks as late as the reign of Philomêtôr met this commerce in Sabæa.
VI. We obtain an incidental knowledge of a voyage conducted from ports on the east coast of Africa over to India by the monsoon long before Hippalos introduced the knowledge of that wind to the Roman world. This voyage was connected, no doubt, with the commerce of Arabia, since the Arabians were the great traffickers of antiquity, and held in subjection part of the sea-board of Eastern Africa. The Indian commodities imported into Africa were rice, ghee, oil of sesamum, sugar, cotton, muslins, and sashes. These commodities, the Periplûs informs us, were brought sometimes in vessels destined expressly for the coast of Africa, while at others they were only part of the cargo, out of vessels which were proceeding to another port. Thus we have two methods of conducting this commerce perfectly direct; and another by touching on this coast with a final destination to Arabia. This is the reason that the Greeks found cinnamon and the produce of India on this coast, when they first ventured to pass the Straits in order to seek a cheaper market than Sabæa.
II. Articles of Commerce mentioned in the Periplus.
I. Animals:—
1. Παρθένοι εὐειδεῖς πρὸς παλλακίαν—Handsome girls for the haram, imported into Barugaza for the king ([49]).[3]
2. Δούλικα κρείσσονα—Tall slaves, procured at Opônê, imported into Egypt ([14]).
3. Σώματα θηλυκὰ—Female slaves, procured from Arabia and India, imported into the island of Dioskoridês ([31]).
4. Σώματα—Slaves imported from Omana and Apologos into Barugaza ([36]), and from Moundou and Malaô (8, 9).
5. Ἱπποι—Horses imported into Kanê for the king, and into Mouza for the despot (23, 24).