BOOK II. INDOSTAN. CHAPTER I. VOYAGES TO INDOSTAN, PRIOR TO THE PASSAGE OF THE CAPE. Cosmas Indicopleustes.-Conti.-Sto. Stefano.-Abdoulrizack. Barthema. WE have already seen, that India, from the earliest ages, was viewed as a splendid and wonderful region, and as the source of the richest commodities produced in any part of the world. The moderns, therefore, even prior to the discovery of the passage by the Cape, made repeated attempts to penetrate thither, and to establish a commercial intercourse. The first navigator whose work we shall here notice, is one that can scarcely be considered as modern. The "Indian Topography" of COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, is shewn by Montfaucon to have been written between 535 and 547. This work, however, was composed with a much higher aim than to record the mere local observations of its author. It professes to exhibit a full and general view of the structure of the world, and the system of nature. His conclusions rest, not upon the fallacious deductions of science, but upon holy writ, which was destined, as he imagines, to guide man as much to natural as to spiritual knowledge. On this principle he pronounces a dire anathema against all who shall presume to question any part of a system resting upon this basis. He begins with a deep invective against the impiety and folly of those who asserted the globular form of the earth. He challenges them to produce a single passage in Moses, the Prophets, or the Gospels, which could give the slightest countenance to such an idea. On the contrary, their firm and invariable doctrine was, that the earth was a plain surface. Yet a number of philosophers, with a wise and pompous look, alleging some fanciful observations on the phenomena of eclipses, presumed to hold a doctrine which made the authors of all these sacred books" mere bab"blers and authors of lies, and scripture a mass of "fables." Dread, however, as their impiety was, their folly was if possible still more glaring. How could any one imagine, that men could live below the earth; or what sort of life would be led |