The Periplus of the Eritrean Sea

The Periplus of the Eritrean Sea

Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First
Century

1. Of the designated ports on the Eritrean Sea, and the market-towns around
it, the first is the Egyptian port of Mussel Harbor. To those sailing down from
that place, on the right hand, after eighteen hundred stadia, there is Berenice.
The harbors of both are at the boundary of Egypt, and are bays opening from the
Erythraean Sea.

2. On the right-hand coast next below Berenice is the country of the Berbers.
Along the shore are the Fish-Eaters, living in scattered caves in the narrow valleys.
Further inland are the Berbers, and beyond them the Wild-flesh-Eaters and Calf-Eaters,
each tribe governed by its chief; and behind them, further inland, in the country
towards the west, there lies a city called Meroe.

3. Below the Calf-Eaters there is a little market-town on the shore after sailing
about four thousand stadia from Berenice, called Ptolemais of the Hunts, from which
the hunters started for the interior under the dynasty of the Ptolemies. This market-town
has the true land-tortoise in small quantity; it is white and smaller in the shells.
And here also is found a little ivory like that of Adulis. But the place has no
harbor and is reached only by small boats.

4. Below Ptolemais of the Hunts, at a distance of about three thousand stadia,
there is Adulis, a port established by law, lying at the inner end of a bay that
runs in toward the south. Before the harbor lies the so-called Mountain Island,
about two hundred stadia seaward from the very head of the bay, with the shores
of the mainland close to it on both sides. Ships bound for this port now anchor
here because of attacks from the land. They used formerly to anchor at the very
head of the bay, by an island called Diodorus, close to the shore, which could be
reached on foot from the land; by which means the barbarous natives attacked the
island. Opposite Mountain Island, on the mainland twenty stadia from shore, lies
Adulis, a fair-sized village, from which there is a three-days’ journey to Coloe,
an inland town and the first market for ivory. From that place to the city of the
people called Auxumites there is a five days’ journey more; to that place all the
ivory is brought from the country beyond the Nile through the district called Cyeneum,
and thence to Adulis. Practically the whole number of elephants and rhinoceros that
are killed live in the places inland, although at rare intervals they are hunted
on the seacoast even near Adulis. Before the harbor of that market-town, out at
sea on the right hand, there lie a great many little sandy islands called Alalaei,
yielding tortoise-shell, which is brought to market there by the Fish-Eaters.

5. And about eight hundred stadia beyond there is another very deep bay, with
a great mound of sand piled up at the right of the entrance; at the bottom of which
the opsian stone is found, and this is the only place where it is produced. These
places, from the Calf-Eaters to the other Berber country, are governed by Zoscales;
who is miserly in his ways and always striving for more, but otherwise upright,
and acquainted with Greek literature.

6. There are imported into these places, undressed cloth made in Egypt for the
Berbers; robes from Arsinoe; cloaks of poor quality dyed in colors; double-fringed
linen mantles; many articles of flint glass, and others of murrhine, made in Diospolis;
and brass, which is used for ornament and in cut pieces instead of coin; sheets
of soft copper, used for cooking-utensils and cut up for bracelets and anklets for
the women; iron, which is made into spears used against the elephants and other
wild beasts, and in their wars. Besides these, small axes are imported, and adzes
and swords; copper drinking-cups, round and large; a little coin for those coming
to the market; wine of Laodicea and Italy, not much; olive oil, not much; for the
king, gold and silver plate made after the fashion of the country, and for clothing,
military cloaks, and thin coats of skin, of no great value. Likewise from the district
of Ariaca across this sea, there are imported Indian iron, and steel, and Indian
cotton cloth; the broad cloth called monache and that called sagmatogene, and girdles,
and coats of skin and mallow-colored cloth, and a few muslins, and colored lac.
There are exported from these places ivory, and tortoiseshell and rhinoceros-horn.
The most from Egypt is brought to this market from the month of January to September,
that is, from Tybi to Thoth; but seasonably they put to sea about the month of September.

7. From this place the Arabian Gulf trends toward the east and becomes narrowest
just before the Gulf of Avalites. After about four thousand stadia, for those sailing
eastward along the same coast, there are other Berber market-towns, known as the
‘far-side’ ports; lying at intervals one after the other, without harbors but having
roadsteads where ships can anchor and lie in good weather. The first is called Avalites;
to this place the voyage from Arabia to the far-side coast is the shortest. Here
there is a small market-town called Avalites, which must be reached by boats and
rafts. There are imported into this place, flint glass, assorted; juice of sour
grapes from Diospolis; dressed cloth, assorted, made for the Berbers; wheat, wine,
and a little tin. There are exported from the same place, and sometimes by the Berbers
themselves crossing on rafts to Ocelis and Muza on the opposite shore, spices, a
little ivory, tortoise-shell, and a very little myrrh, but better than the rest.
And the Berbers who live in the place are very unruly.

8. After Avalites there is another market-town, better than this, called Malao,
distant a sail of about eight hundred stadia. The anchorage is an open roadstead,
sheltered by a spit running out from the east. Here the natives are more peaceable.
There are imported into this place the things already mentioned, and many tunics,
cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed; drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small
quantity, iron, and gold and silver coin, not much. There are exported from these
places myrrh, a little frankincense, (that known as far-side), the harder cinnamon,
duaca, Indian copal and macir, which are imported into Arabia; and slaves, but rarely.

9. Two days’ sail, or three, beyond Malao is the market-town of Mundus, where
the ships lie at anchor more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore.
There are imported into this place the things previously set forth, and from it
likewise are exported the merchandise already stated, and the incense called mocrotu.
And the traders living here are more quarrelsome.

10. Beyond Mundus, sailing toward the east, after another two days’ sail, or
three, you reach Mosyllum, on a beach, with a bad anchorage. There are imported
here the same things already mentioned, also silver plate, a very little iron, and
glass. There are shipped from the place a great quantity of cinnamon, (so that this
market-town requires ships of larger size), and fragrant gums, spices, a little
tortoise shell, and mocrotu, (poorer, than that of Mundus), frankincense, (the far-side),
ivory and myrrh in small quantities.

11. Sailing along the coast beyond Mosyllum, after a two days’ course you come
to the so-called Little Nile River, and a fine spring, and a small laurel-grove,
and Cape Elephant. Then the shore recedes into a bay, and has a river, called Elephant,
and a large laurel-grove called Acannae; where alone is produced the far-side frankincense,
in great quantity and of the best grade.

12. Beyond this place, the coast trending toward the south, there is the Market
and Cape of Spices, an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward
the east. The anchorage is dangerous at times from the ground-swell, because the
place is exposed to the north. A sign of an approaching storm which is peculiar
to the place, is that the deep water becomes more turbid and changes its color.
When this happens they all run to a large promontory called Tabae, which offers
safe shelter. There are imported into this market town the things already mentioned;
and there are produced in it cinnamon (and its different varieties, gizir, asypha,
areho, iriagia, and moto) and frankincense.

13. Beyond Tabae, after four hundred stadia, there is the village of Pano. And
then, after sailing four hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place the
current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone, into which the
same things are imported as those already mentioned, and in it the greatest quantity
of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), ind slaves of the better sort, which
are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers; and a great quantity of tortoiseshell,
better than that found elsewhere.

14. The voyage to all these farside market-towns is made from Egypt about the
month of July, that is Epiphi. And ships are also customarily fitted out from the
places across this sea, from Ariaca and Barygaza, bringing to these far-side market-towns
the products of their own places; wheat, rice, clarified butter, sesame oil, cotton
cloth, (the monache and the sagmatogene), and girdles, and honey from the reed called
sacchari. Some make the voyage especially to these market-towns, and others exchange
their cargoes while sailing along the coast. This country is not subject to a King,
but each market-town is ruled by its separate chief.

15. Beyond Opone, the shore trending more toward the south, first there are the
small and great bluffs of Azania; this coast is destitute of harbors, but there
are places where ships can lie at anchor, the shore being abrupt; and this course
is of six days, the direction being south-west. Then come the small and great beach
for another six days’ course and after that in order, the Courses of Azania, the
first being called Sarapion and the next Nicon; and after that several rivers and
other anchorages, one after the other, separately a rest and a run for each day,
seven in all, until the Pyralax islands and what is called the channel; beyond which,
a little to the south of south-west, after two courses of a day and night along
the Ausanitic coast, is the island Menuthias, about three hundred stadia from the
mainland, low and and wooded, in which there are rivers and many kinds of birds
and the mountain-tortoise. There are no wild beasts except the crocodiles; but there
they do not attack men. In this place there are sewed boats, and canoes hollowed
from single logs, which they use for fishing and catching tortoise. In this island
they also catch them in a peculiar wav, in wicker baskets, which they fasten across
the channel-opening between the breakers.

16. Two days’ sail beyond, there lies the very last market-town of the continent
of Azania, which is called Rhapta; which has its name from the sewed boats (rhapton
ploiarion) already mentioned; in which there is ivory in great quantity, and tortoise-shell.
Along this coast live men of piratical habits, very great in stature, and under
separate chiefs for each place. The Mapharitic chief governs it under some ancient
right that subjects it to the sovereignty of the state that is become first in Arabia.
And the people of Muza now hold it under his authority, and send thither many large
ships; using Arab captains and agents, who are familiar with the natives and intermarry
with them, and who know the whole coast and understand the language.

17. There are imported into these markets the lances made at Muza especially
for this trade, and hatchets and daggers and awls, and various kinds of glass; and
at some places a little wine, and wheat, not for trade, but to serve for getting
the good-will of the savages. There are exported from these places a great quantity
of ivory, but inferior to that of Adulis, and rhinoceros-horn and tortoise-shell
(which is in best demand after that from India), and a little palm-oil.

18. And these markets of Azania are the very last of the continent that stretches
down on the right hand from Berenice; for beyong these places the unexplored ocean
curves around toward the west, and running along by the regions to the south of
Aethiopia and Libya and Africa, it mingles with the western sea.

19. Now to the left of Berenice, sailing for two or three days from Mussel Harbor
eastward across the adjacent gulf, there is another harbor and fortified place,
which is called White Village, from which there is a road to Petra, which is subject
to Malichas, King of the Nabataeans. It holds the position of a market-town for
the small vessels sent there from Arabia; and so a centurion is stationed there
as a collector of one-fourth of the merchandise imported, with an armed force, as
a garrison.

20. Directly below this place is the adjoining country of Arabia, in its length
bordering a great distance on the Erythraean Sea. Different tribes inhabit the country,
differing in their speech, some partially, and some altogether. The land next the
sea is similarly dotted here and there with caves of the Fish-Eaters, but the country
inland is peopled by rascally men speaking two languages, who live in villages and
nomadic camps, by whom those sailing off the middle course are plundered, and those
surviving shipwrecks are taken for slaves. And so they too are continually taken
prisoners by the chiefs and kings of Arabia; and they are called Carnaites. Navigation
is dangerous along this whole coast of Arabia, which is without harbors, with bad
anchorages, foul, inaccessible because of breakers and rocks, and terrible in every
way. Therefore we hold our course down the middle of the gulf and pass on as fast
as possible by the country of Arabia until we come to the Burnt Island; directly
below which there are regions of peaceful people, nomadic, pasturers of cattle,
sheep and camels.

21. Beyond these places, in a bay at the foot of the left side of this gulf,
there is a place by the shore called Muza, a market-town established by law, distant
altogether from Berenice for those sailing southward, about twelve thousand stadia.
And the whole place is crowded with Arab shipowners and seafaring men, and is busy
with the affairs of commerce; for they carry on a trade with the far-side coast
and with Barygaza, sending their own ships there.

22. Three days inland from this port there is a city called Saua, in the midst
of the region called Mapharitis; and there is a vassal-chief named Cholaebus who
lives in that city.

23. And after nine days more there is Saphar, the metropolis, in which lives
Charibael, lawful king of two tribes, the Homerites and those living next to them,
called the Sabaites; through continual embassies and gifts, he is a friend of the
Emperors.

24. The market-town of Muza is without a harbor, but has a good roadstead and
anchorage because of the sandy bottom thereabouts, where the anchors hold safely.
The merchandise imported there consists of purple cloths, both fine and coarse;
clothing in the Arabian style, with sleeves; plain, ordinary, embroidered, or interwoven
with gold; saffron, sweet rush, muslins, cloaks, blankets (not many), some plain
and others made in the local fashion; sashes of different colors, fragrant ointments
in moderate quantity, wine and wheat, not much. For the country produces grain in
moderate amount, and a great deal of wine. And to the King and the Chief are given
horses and sumpter-mules, vessels of gold and polished silver, finely woven clothing
and copper vessels. There are exported from the same place the things produced in
the country: selected myrrh, and the Gebanite-Minaean stacte, alabaster and all
the things already mentioned from Avalites and the far-side coast. The voyage to
this place is made best about the month of September, that is Thoth; but there is
nothing to prevent it even earlier.

25. After sailing beyond this place about three hundred stadia, the coast of
Arabia and the Berber country about the Avalitic gulf now coming close together,
there is a channel, not long in extent, which forces the sea together and shuts
it into a narrow strait, the passage through which, sixty stadia in length, the
island Diodorus divides. Therefore the course through it is beset with rushing currents
and with strong winds blowing down from the adjacent ridge of mountains. Directly
on this strait by the shore there is a village of Arabs, subject to the same chief,
called Ocelis; which is not so much a market-town as it is an anchorage and watering-place
and the first landing for those sailing into the gulf.

26. Beyond Ocelis, the sea widening again toward the east and soon giving a view
of the open ocean, after about twelve hundred stadia there is Eudaemon Arabia, a
village by the shore, also of the Kingdom of Charibael, and having convenient anchorages,
and watering places, sweeter and better than those at Ocelis; it lies at the entrance
of a bay, and the land recedes from it. It was called Eudaemon, because in the early
days of the city when the voyage was not yet made from India to Egypt, and when
they did not dare to sail from Egypt to the ports across this ocean, but all came
together at this place, it received the cargoes from both countries, just as Alexandria
now receives the things brought both from abroad and from Egypt. But not long before
our own time Charibael destroyed the place.

27. After Eudaemon Arabia there is a continuous length of coast, and a bay extending
two thousand stadia or more, along which there are Nomads and Fish-Eaters living
in villages; just beyond the cape projecting from this bay there is another market-town
by the shore, Cana, of the Kingdom of Eleazus, the Frankincense Country; and facing
it there are two desert islands, one called Island of Birds, the other Dome Island,
one hundred and twenty stadia from Cana. Inland from this place lies the metropolis
Sabbatha, in which the King lives. All the frankincense produced in the country
is brought by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by
inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has
a trade also with the far-side ports, with Barygaza. and Scythia and Ommana and
the neighboring coast of Persia.

28. There are imported into this place from Egypt a little wheat and wine, as
at Muza; clothing in the Arabian style, plain and common and most of it spurious;
and copper and tin and coral and storax and other things such as go to Muza; and
for the King usually wrought gold and silver plate, also horses, images, and thin
clothing of fine quality. And there are exported from this place, native produce,
frankincense and aloes, and the rest of the things that enter into the trade of
the other ports. The voyage to this place is best made at the same time as that
to Muza, or rather earlier.

29. Beyond Cana, the land receding greatly, there follows a very deep bay stretching
a great way across, which is called Sachalites; and the Frankincense Country, mountainous
and forbidding, wrapped in thick clouds and fog, and yielding frankincense from
the trees. These incense-bearing trees are not of great height or thickness; they
bear the frankincense sticking in drops on the bark, just as the trees among us
in Egypt weep their gum. The frankincense is gathered by the King’s slaves and those
who are sent to this service for punishment. For these places are very unhealthy,
and pestilential even to those sailing along the coast; but almost always fatal
to those working there, who also perish often from want of food.

30. On this bay there is a very great promontory facing the east, called Syagrus;
on which is a fort for the defence of the country, and a harbor and storehouse for
the frankincense that is collected; and opposite this cape, well out at sea, there
is an island, lying between it and the Cape of Spices opposite, but nearer Syagrus:
it is called Dioscorida, and is very large but desert and marshy, having rivers
in it and crocodiles and many snakes and great lizards, of which the flesh is eaten
and the fat melted and used instead of olive oil. The island yields no fruit, neither
vine nor grain. The inhabitants are few and they live on the coast toward the north,
which from this side faces the continent. They are foreigners, a mixture of Arabs
and Indians and Greeks, who have emigrated to carry on trade there. The island produces
the true sea-tortoise, and the land-tortoise, and the white tortoise which is very
numerous and preferred for its large shells; and the mountain-tortoise, which is
largest of all and has the thickest shell; of which the worthless specimens cannot
be cut apart on the under side, because they are even too hard; but those of value
are cut apart and the shells made whole into caskets and small plates and cake-dishes
and that sort of ware. There is also produced in this island cinnabar, that called
Indian, which is collected in drops from the trees.

31. It happens that just as Azania is subject to Charibael and the Chief of Mapharitis,
this island is subject to the King of the Frankincense Country. Trade is also carried
on there by some people from Muza and by those who chance to call there on the voyage
from Damirica and Barygaza; they bring in rice and wheat and Indian cloth, and a
few female slaves; and they take for their exchange cargoes, a great quantity of
tortoise-shell. Now the island is farmed out under the Kings and is garrisoned.

32. Immediately beyond Syagrus the bay of Omana cuts deep into the coast-line,
the width of it being six hundred stadia; and beyond this there are mountains, high
and rocky and steep, inhabited by cave-dwellers for five hundred stadia more; and
beyond this is a port established for receiving the Sachalitic frankincense; the
harbor is called Moscha, and ships from Cana call there regularly; and ships returning
from Damirica and Barygaza, if the season is late, winter there, and trade with
the King’s officers, exchanging their cloth and wheat and sesame oil for frankincense,
which lies in heaps all over the Sachalitic country, open and unguarded, as if the
place were under the protection of the gods; for neither openly nor by stealth can
it be loaded on board ship without the King’s permission; if a single grain were
loaded without this, the ship could not clear from the harbor.

33. Beyond the harbor of Moscha for about fifteen hundred stadia as far as Asich,
a mountain range runs along the shore; at the end of which, in a row, lie seven
islands, called Zenobian. Beyond these there is a barbarous region which is no longer
of the same Kingdom, but now belongs to Persia. Sailing along this coast well out
at sea for two thousand stadia from the Zenobian Islands, there meets you an island
called Sarapis, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the mainland. It is about
two hundred stadia wide and six hundred long, inhabited by three settlements of
Fish-Eaters, a villainous lot, who use the Arabian language and wear girdles of
palm-leaves. The island produces considerable tortoise-shell of fine quality, and
small sailboats and cargo-ships are sent there regularly from Cana.

34. Sailing along the coast, which trends northward toward the entrance of the
Persian Sea, there are many islands known as the Calxi, after about two thousand
stadia, extending along the shore. The inhabitants are a treacherous lot, very little
civilized.

35. At the upper end of these Calaei islands is a range of mountains called Calon,
and there follows not far beyond, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there is
much diving for the pearl-mussel. To the left of the straits are great mountains
called Asabon, and to the right there rises in full view another round and high
mountain called Semiramis; between them the passage across the strait is about six
hundred stadia; beyond which that very great and broad sea, the Persian Gulf, reaches
far into the interior. At the upper end of this Gulf there is a market-town designated
by law called Apologus, situated near Charax Spasini and the River Euphrates.

36. Sailing through the mouth of the Gulf, after a six-days’ course there is
another market-town of Persia called Ommana. To both of these market-towns large
vessels are regularly sent from Barygaza, loaded with copper and sandalwood and
timbers of teakwood and logs of blackwood and ebony. To Ommana frankincense is also
brought from Cana, and from Ommana to Arabia boats sewed together after the fashion
of the place; these are known as madarata. From each of these market-towns, there
are exported to Barygaza and also to Arabia, many pearls, but inferior to those
of lndia; purple, clothing after the fashion of the place, wine, a great quantity
of dates, gold and slaves.

37. Beyond the Ommanitic region there is a country also of the Parsids, of another
Kingdom, and the bay of Gedrosia, from the middle of which a cape juts out into
the bay. Here there is a river affording an entrance for ships, with a little market-town
at the mouth, called Oraea; and back from the place an inland city, distant a seven
days’ journey from the sea, in which also is the King’s court; it is called —–
(probably Rhambacia). This country yields much, wheat, wine, rice and dates; but
along the coast there is nothing but bdellium.

38. Beyond this region, the continent making a wide curve from the east across
the depths of the bays, there follows the coast district of Scythia, which lies
above toward the north; the whole marshy; from which flows down the river Sinthus,
the greatest of all the rivers that flow into the Erythraean Sea, bringing down
an enormous volume of water; so that a long. way out at sea, before reaching this
country, the water of the ocean is fresh from it. Now as a sign of approach to this
country to those coming from the sea, there are serpents coming forth from the depths
to meet you; and a sign of the places just mentioned and in Persia, are those called
graoe. This river has seven mouths, very shallow and marshy, so that they are not
navigable, except the one in the middle; at which by the shore, is the market-town,
Barbaricum. Before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis
of Scythia, Minnagara; it is subject to Parthian princes who are constantly driving
each other out.

39. The ships lie at anchor at Barbaricum, but all their cargoes are carried
up to the metropolis by the river, to the King. There are imported into this market
a great deal of thin clothing, and a little spurious; figured linens, topaz, coral,
storax, frankincense, vessels of glass, silver and gold plate, and a little wine.
On the other hand there are exported costus, bdellium, lycium, nard, turquoise,
lapis lazuli, Seric skins, cotton cloth, silk yarn, and indigo. And sailors set
out thither with the Indian Etesian winds, about the, month of July, that is Epiphi:
it is more dangerous then, but through these winds the voyage is more direct, and
sooner completed.

40. Beyond the river Sinthus there is another gulf, not navigable, running in
toward the north; it is called Eirinon; its parts are called separately the small
gulf and the great; in both parts the water is shallow, with shifting sandbanks
occurring continually and a great way from shore; so that very often when the shore
is not even in sight, ships run aground, and if they attempt to hold their course
they are wrecked. A promontory stands out from this gulf, curving around from Eirinon
toward the East, then South, then West, and enclosing the gulf called Baraca, which
contains seven islands. Those who come to the entrance of this bay escape it by
putting about a little and standing further out to sea; but those who are drawn
inside into the gulf of Baraca are lost; for the waves are high and very violent,
and the sea is tumultuous and foul, and has eddies and rushing whirlpools. The bottom
is in some places abrupt, and in others rocky and sharp, so that the anchors lying
there are parted, some being quickly cut off, and others chafing on the bottom.
As a sign of these places to those approaching from the sea there are serpents,
very large and black; for at the other places on this coast and around Barygazal,
they are smaller, and in color bright green, running into gold.

41. Beyond the gulf of Baraca is that of Barygaza and the coast of the country
of Ariaca, which is the beginning of the Kingdom of Nambanus and of all India. That
part of it lying inland and adjoining Scythia is called Abiria, but the coast is
called Syrastrene. It is a fertile country, yielding wheat and rice and sesame oil
and clarified butter, cotton and the Indian cloths made therefrom, of the coarser
sorts. Very many cattle are pastured there, and the men are of great stature and
black in color. The metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton
cloth is brought down to Barygaza. In these places there remain even to the present
time signs of the expedition of Alexander, such as ancient shrines, walls of forts
and great wells. The sailing course along this coast, from Barbaricum to the promontory
called Papica opposite Barygaza, and before Astacampra, is of three thousand stadia.

42. Beyond this there is another gulf exposed to the sea-waves, running up toward
the north, at the mouth of which there is an island called Baeones; at its innermost
part there is a great river called Mais. Those sailing to Barygaza pass across this
gulf, which is three hundred stadia in width, leaving behind to their left the island
just visible from their tops toward the east, straight to the very mouth of the
river of Barygaza; and this river is called Nammadus.

43. This gulf is very narrow to Barygaza and very hard to navigate for those
coming from the ocean; this is the case with both the right and left passages, but
there is a better passage through the left. For on the right at the very mouth of
the gulf there lies a shoal, long and narrow, and full of rocks, called Herone,
facing the village of Cammoni; and opposite this on the left projects the promontory
that lies before Astacampra, which is called Papica, and is a bad anchorage because
of the strong current setting in around it and because the anchors are cut off,
the bottom being rough and rocky. And even if the entrance to the gulf is made safely,
the mouth of the river at Barygaza is found with difficulty, because the shore is
very low and cannot be made out until you are close upon it. And when, you have
found it the passage is difficult because of the shoals at the mouth of the river.

44. Because of this, native fishermen in the King’s service, stationed at the
very entrance in well-manned large boats called tappaga and cotymba, go up the coast
as far as Syrastrene, from which they pilot vessels to Barygaza. And they steer
them straight from the mouth of the bay between the shoals with their crews; and
they tow them to fixed stations, going up with the beginning of the flood, and lying
through the ebb at anchorages and in basins. These basins are deeper places in the
river as far as Barygaza; which lies by the river, about three hundred stadia up
from the mouth.

45. Now the whole country of India has very many rivers, and very great ebb and
flow of the tides; increasing at the new moon, and at the full moon for three days,
and falling off during the intervening days of the moon. But about Barygaza it is
much greater, so that the bottom is suddenly seen, and now parts of the dry land
are sea, and now it is dry where ships were sailing just before; and the rivers,
under the inrush of the flood tide, when the whole force of the sea is directed
against them, are driven upwards more strongly against their natural current, for
many stadia.

46. For this reason entrance and departure of vessels is very dangerous to those
who are inexperienced or who come to this market-town for the first time. For the
rush of waters at the incoming tide is irresistible, and the anchors cannot hold
against it; so that large ships are caught up by the force of it, turned broadside
on through the speed of the current, and so driven on the shoals and wrecked; and
smaller boats are overturned; and those that have been turned aside among the channels
by the receding waters at the ebb, are left on their sides, and if not held on an
even keel by props, the flood tide comes upon them suddenly and under the first
head of the current they are filled with water. For there is so great force in the
rush of the sea at the new moon, especially during the flood tide at night, that
if you begin the entrance at the moment when the waters are still, on the instant
there is borne to you at the mouth of the river, a noise like the cries of an army
heard from afar; and very soon the sea itself comes rushing in over the shoals with
a hoarse roar.

47. The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as
the Arattii, the Arachosii, the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is
Bucephalus Alexandria. Above these is the very warlike nation of the Bactrians,
who are under their own king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated
to the Ganges, leaving aside Damirica and the southern part of India; and to the
present day ancient drachmae are current in Barygaza, coming from this country,
bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after
Alexander, Apollodorus and Menander.

48. Inland from this place and to the east, is the city called Ozene, formerly
a royal capital; from this place are brought down all things needed for the welfare
of the country about Barygaza, and many things for our trade: agate and carnelian,
Indian muslins and mallow cloth, and much ordinary cloth. Through this same region
and from the upper country is brought the spikenard that comes through Poclais;
that is, the Caspapyrene and Paropanisene and Cabolitic and that brought through
the adjoining country of Scythia; also costus and bdellium.

49. There are imported into this market-town, wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean
and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior
sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint
glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when
exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not
much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of
silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing
of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these
places spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth
of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things
as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town
from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi.

50. Beyond Barygaza the adjoining coast extends in a straight line from north
to south; and so this region is called Dachinabades, for dachanos in the language
of the natives means ‘south.’ The inland country back from the coast toward the
east comprises many desert regions and great mountains; and all kinds of wild beasts
— leopards, tigers, elephants, enormous serpents, hyenas, and baboons of many sorts;
and many populous nations, as far as the Ganges.

51. Among the market-towns of Dachinabades there are two of special importance;
Paethana, distant about twenty days’ journey south from Barygaza; beyond which,
about ten days’ journey east, there is another very great city, Tagara. There are
brought down to Barygaza from these places by wagons and through great tracts without
roads, from Paethana carnelian in great quantity, and from Tagara much common cloth,
all kinds of muslins and mallow cloth, and other merchandise brought there locally
from the regions along the sea-coast. And the whole course to the end of Damirica
is seven thousand stadia; but the distance is greater to the Coast Country.

52. The market-towns of this region are, in order, after Barygaza: Suppara, and
the city of Calliena, which in the time of the elder Saraganus became a lawful market-town;
but since it came into the possession of Sandares the port is much obstructed, and
Greek ships landing there may chance to be taken to Barygaza under guard.

53. Beyond Calliena there are other market-towns of this region; Semylla, Mandagora,
Palaepatmoe, Melizigara, Byzantium, Togarum and Aurannoboas. Then there are the
islands called Sesecrienae and that of the Aegidii, and that of the Caenitae, opposite
the place called Chersonesus (and in these places there are pirates), and after
this the White Island. Then come Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica,
and then Muziris and Nelcynda, which are now of leading importance.

54. Tyndis is of the Kingdom of Cerobothra; it is a village in plain sight by
the sea. Muziris, of the same kingdom, abounds in ships sent there with cargoes
from Arabia, and by the Greeks; it is located on a river, distant from Tyndis by
river and sea five hundred stadia, and up the river from the shore twenty stadia.
Nelcynda is distant from Muziris by river and sea about five hundred stadia, and
is of another Kingdom, the Pandian. This place also is situated on a river, about
one hundred and twenty stadia from the sea.

55. There is another place at the mouth of this river, the village of Bacare,
to which ships drop down on the outward voyage from Nelcynda, and anchor in the
roadstead to take on their cargoes; because the river is full of shoals and the
channels are not clear. The kings of both these market-towns live in the interior.
And as a sign to those approaching these places from the sea there are serpents
coming forth to meet you, black in color, but shorter, like snakes in the head,
and with blood-red eyes.

56. They send large ships to these market-towns on account of the great quantity
and bulk of pepper and malabathrum. There are imported here, in the first place,
a great quantity of coin; topaz, thin clothing, not much; figured linens, antimony,
coral, crude glass, copper, tin, lead; wine, not much, but as much as at Barygaza;
realgar and orpiment; and wheat enough for the sailors, for this is not dealt in
by the merchants there. There is exported pepper, which is produced in quantity
in only one region near these markets, a district called Cottonara. Besides this
there are exported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, spikenard
from the Ganges, malabathrum from the places in the interior, transparent stones
of’ all kinds, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise-shell; that from Chryse Island,
and that taken among the islands along the coast of Damirica. They make the voyage
to this place in a favorable season who set out from Egypt about the month of July,
that is Epiphi.

57. This whole voyage as above described, from Cana and Eudaemon Arabia, they
used to make in small vessels, sailing close around the shores of the gulfs; and
Hippalus was the pilot who by observing the location of the ports and the conditions
of the sea, first discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean. For
at the same time when with us the Etesian winds are blowing, on the shores of India
the wind sets in from the ocean, and this southwest wind is called Hippalus, from
the name of him who first discovered the passage across. From that time to the present
day ships start, some direct from Cana, and some from the Cape of Spices; and those
bound for Damirica throw the shlp’s head considerably off the wind; while those
bound for Barygaza and Scythia keep along shore not more than three days and for
the rest of the time hold the same course straight out to sea from that region,
with a favorable wind, quite away from the land, and so sail outside past the aforesaid
gulfs.

58. Beyond Bacare there is the Dark Red Mountain, and another district stretching
along the coast toward the south, called Paralia. The first place is called Balita;
it has a fine harbor and a village by the shore. Beyond this there is another place
called Comari, at which are the Cape of Comari and a harbor; hither come those men
who wish to consecrate themselves for the rest of their lives, and bathe and dwell
in celibacy; and women also do the same; for it is told that a goddess once dwelt
here and bathed.

59. From Comari toward the south this region extends to Colchi, where the pearl-fisheries
are; (they are worked by condemned criminals); and it belongs to the Pandian Kingdom.
Beyond Colchi there follows another district called the Coast Country, which lies
on a bay, and has a region inland called Argaru. At this place, and nowhere else,
are bought the pearls gathered on the coast thereabouts; and from there are exported
muslins, those called Argaritic.

60. Among the market-towns of these countries, and the harbors where the ships
put in from Damirica and from the north, the most important are, in order as they
lie, first Camara, then Poduca, then Sopatma; in which there are ships of the country
coasting along the shore as far as Damirica; and other very large vessels made of
single logs bound together, called sangara; but those which make the voyage to Chryse
and to the Ganges are called colandia, and are very large. There are imported into
these places everything made in Damirica, and the greatest part of what is brought
at any time from Egypt comes here, together with most kinds of all the things that
are brought from Damirica and of those that are carried through Paralia.

61. About the following region, the course trending toward the east, lying out
at sea toward the west is the island Palaesimundu, called by the ancients Taprobane.
The northern part is a day’s journey distant, and the southern part trends gradually
toward the west, and almost touches the opposite shore of Azania. It produces pearls,
transparent stones, muslins, and tortoise-shell.

62. About these places is the region of Masalia stretching a great way along
the coast before the inland country; a great quantity of muslins is made there.
Beyond this region, sailing toward the cast and crossing the adjacent bay, there
is the region of Dosarene, yielding the ivory known as Dosarenic. Beyond this, the
course trending toward the north, there are many barbarous tribes, among whom are
the Cirrhadae, a race of men with flattened noses, very savage; another tribe, the
Bargysi; and the Horse-faces and the Long-faces, who are said to be cannibals.

63. After these, the course turns toward the east again, and sailing with the
ocean to the right and the shore remaining beyond to the left, Ganges comes into
view, and near it the very last land toward the east, Chryse. There is a river near
it called the Ganges, and it rises and falls in the same way as the Nile. On its
bank is a market-town which has the same name as the river, Ganges. Through this
place are brought malabathrum and Gangetic spikenard and pearls, and rnuslins of
the finest sorts, which are called Gangetic. It is said that there are gold-mines
near these places, and there is a gold coin which is called caltis. And just opposite
this river there is an island in the ocean, the last part of the inhabited world
toward the cast, under the rising sun itself; it is called Chryse; and it has the
best tortoise-shell of all the places on the Erythraean Sea.

64. After this region under the very north, the sea outside ending in a land
called This, there is a very great inland city called Thinae, from which raw silk
and silk yarn and silk cloth are brought on foot through Bactria to Barygaza, and
are also exported to Damirica by way of the river Ganges. But the land of This is
not easy of access; few men come from there, and seldom. The country lies under
the Lesser Bear, and is said to border on the farthest parts of Pontus and the Caspian
Sea, next to which lies Lake Maeotis; all of which empty into the ocean.

65. Every year on the borders of the land of This there comes together a tribe
of men with short bodies and broad, flat faces, and by nature peaceable; they are
called Besatae, and are almost entirely uncivilized. They come with their wives
and children, carrying great packs and plaited baskets of what looks like green
grape-leaves. They meet in a place between their own country and the land of This.
There they hold a feast for several days, spreading out the baskets under themselves
as mats, and then return to their own places in the interior. And then the natives
watching them come into that place and gather up their mats; and they pick out from
the braids the fibers which they call petri. They lay the leaves closely together
in several layers and make them into balls, which they pierce with the fibers from
the mats. And there are three sorts; those made of the largest leaves are called
the large-ball malabathrum; those of the smaller, the medium-ball; and those of
the smallest, the small-ball. Thus there exist three sorts of malabathrum, and it
is brought into India by those who prepare it.

66. The regions beyond these places are either difficult of access because of
their excessive winters and great cold, or else cannot be sought out because, of
some divine influence of the gods.

Source:

W.H. Schoff (tr. & ed.), The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade
in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century (London, Bombay & Calcutta
1912).