sented in the maps corresponds with Rennell's statement, that the city "appears to have been in existence during the early part of the last century." (See p. lxxxi. ante.)

The next subject which calls for inquiry is the site of this ancient Bengala. All the maps enumerated in the first of the foregoing lists, with the exception of the oldest one by Gastaldi, locate Bengala either on the north-east, due east, or south-east of Chatigam. Now, if the relative situation of the two cities corresponded with one or other of these descriptions, it is difficult to conceive how the site of Bengala could have been carried away by the river, as Rennell supposes, and that of Chatigam, or Chittagong, left intact. Reverse the position of the two places, and such a result would not only be probable, but would moreover serve to account for the present greater depth of the Gulf of Bengal in that direction as compared with the delineations of it given in the old maps, and also for the increased distance which now appears to exist between Chittagong and the eastern mouth of the Ganges. Singularly enough, Gastaldi does so transpose the sites of the two cities, placing Catigan on the south-east of Bengala, as will be seen from the accompanying section copied from his map.

This alone is but slender ground whereon to form an hypothesis; nevertheless, the inference which I am disposed to draw therefrom receives support from the manner in which De Barros and De Faria y Souza describe the Ganges in the extracts already quoted from their writings. Both profess to indicate its two

SECTION FROM GASTALDI'S MAP OF ASIA, A.D. 1561.

extremities where it debouches into the sea, and in doing so both select Satigan as its western and Chatigam as its eastern boundary; whereas, had Bengala been to the south-eastward or southward of Chatigam, it is presumable that, standing as Barbosa tells us it did on the mouth of the nether Ganges, they would have chosen it, rather than Chatigam, to mark the eastern termination of that river.

In the absence, therefore, of any direct proof to the contrary, beyond the not very reliable information contained in the old atlases, I am inclined to infer that Bengala occupied a position between the Hattia and Sundeep islands, situated at the present mouth of the Brahmaputra, which I conceive to be the eastern branch of the Ganges of the earlier geographers, and have so placed it, marked with a star, in the map attached to this volume. That I may be mistaken is more than possible; but it is worth while hazarding an erroneous opinion on a subject of this nature, if it were only for the sake of eliciting ulterior research and discussion, which may result in defining the correct site of the ancient city of Bengala.

G. P. B.

ADVANTAGES OF TRAVEL.1

Go, traverse distant lands, in each you'll find
Some in the place of those you leave behind:
Some, it may chance, of more congenial hearts,—
Sympathy is life's charm,-its bane ennui,-
No honour lies in inactivity,—

Then quit your home, go, range in foreign parts.
The stagnant puddle foul and fetid grows,
Healthful and clear the running fountain flows:
Unless the changes of the moon on high
Revealed the future to the sage's eye,
He would not watch her aspect in the sky:
Unless he left his den, the forest-king

Would win no trophies of the sylvan war :
Unless the arrow parted from the string,

It could not hit the destined mark afar:
The Tibr, when from its native mine cast forth,
Appears as vile unprofitable earth;

The aloës-wood enjoys but slight esteem
In its own land,-mere fuel for the hearth;
Let either quit the country of its birth,
The one, an ore all-coveted we deem,

The other, a perfume of priceless worth.

1 Translated from the Arabic. For the English versification, the Editor is indebted to the Rev. P. G. Hill.

2 Tibr means unwrought gold, either in the form of dust or nuggets. The word is also applied to designate native ores generally.