shall. The Waverley Novels, Vol. XIV. EdinTransactions, vol. i. p. 3. Sir Alexander, who his friend Sopater, also a merchant, who burgh, Cadell; London, Simpkin and Mar- filled the situation of president of his Majesty's about the year 550 returned from Ceylon to council, and chief justice of that island, at Adule, near Arkeeko, the harbour of the terriTHIS volume concludes the deeply-interesting the desire of the government, not only tra- tory of Axum, in Ethiopia. At that period tale of the Bride of Lammermoor;" so that versed it in every direction, but caused with Ceylon was in the possession of a most extenthese fourteen neat and small volumes contain the assistance of the Mahomedan priests and sive trade, extending itself over the eastern the original quantity published in the twelve- merchants, whose ancestors had been in the coasts of Africa, Yemen, and Persia, and not volume octavo edition. We cannot compliment possession of the trade, and who, having very only to the coast of this side of the peninsula of Mr. E. Landseer on the frontispiece of Ra- little intercourse with strangers, had completely India, but also to the islands of Sunda, to venswood shooting the bull. The vignette, monopolised every information a thorough in China. The harbours and merchandise of these by T. Duncan, is very well, but not of striking vestigation to be made into the history of their countries were famed; and it is observed that ancient commercial establishments. The infor- the inhabitants of the interior (the land of mation being totally derived from historical jewels) differ much from those dwelling on the sources, and not from the poetical dramas and sea-coast, who live under various chieftains romances, the professor found himself able to the latter partly Persians, who had formed a cients, and with the still existing antiquities on of true Persian descent, or only inhabitants of compare these accounts with those of the an- Christian establishment;-whether they were the island. the countries on the Persian Gulf, who from time immemorial kept up an intercourse with India, remains uncertain. merit. The Classical Library, No. VII.; of Herodotus, Vol. III. Colburn and Bentley. THIS volume concludes the admirable history of Herodotus, with the Erato, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope. The notes are worthy of much approbation. The Aldine Poets, No. III. The Poetical The British Naturalist, Vol. II. 12mo. pp. 383. Whittaker and Co. AVERY interesting and entertaining compilation, which embodies a great miscellany of natural history of all kinds, not very lucidus in the orio, nor fruitful of new facts; but altogether exremely pleasing and instructive. The island of Ceylon, the largest on this side of the Ganges, and about the size of Ireland, appears from its position, and that of its har- The trade of Ceylon carried on there being of bours of which Trincomalee, the finest in a reciprocal nature, and consequently one which India, is the principal to have been well cal-affected the whole world, the emporium of that culated to be the centre of the trade between trade could not but enrich the immense storeAfrica and China. On the north it is separated houses, and fill the market. For these reasons, from the continent of India by a ridge of sand- we must not be surprised that no mention has banks, which extends from the southern penin-been made of the products of the island itself, sula of India, and is known by the name of consisting principally of cinnamon and pearls, Adam's bridge, through which there are two since they were of little consequence, compared passages. One of these, called the Manar with the merchandise of the foreign countries. passage, which separates the island of Manar The professor now went back from the time from the opposite coast of Ceylon, near Man- of Cosmas to the period of Ptolemy, about totte, is not above four feet deep at high water. 150 years after Christ. He has dedicated a The other, called the Paumbum passage, sepa- complete chapter in his work on Geography to rates the island of Ramissarum, celebrated the island of Taprobane, or Salice; and though throughout India for its Hindu pagoda, from he has given no history of trade, still we may the opposite coast of the peninsula of India, infer the nature of it. He was acquainted not near Tonnitorré point; it is very narrow, and only with the sea-coast, but also with the intenot above six feet deep at high water. The rior ports. The former was lined with harbours importance of the first of these passages arises and commercial settlements; and the principal from its being that through which all the production of the interior was the rice. Even small vessels trading between the south-west the manner of catching the elephants seems and north-west ports of Ceylon must pass. not to have escaped his attention. The proThe importance of the latter arises from its fessor has already shewn, in a paper on the being the passage through which all the smaller geography of Ptolemy, that his accounts are vessels trading between the coast of Malabar taken from travelling-books of merchants. The and the coast of Coromandel must pass. From author now proceeded to compare Ptolemy's the information collected by Sir A. Johnston account with that of Robert Knox, who, toPOFESSOR HEEREN, who has devoted him- during frequent visits which he paid to the wards the middle of the seventeenth century, sef for so many years to the study of oriental islands of Ramissarum and Manar, he ascer- resided twenty years on the island, and learned hitory, has lately drawn up, for a society at tained beyond doubt that both these passages the language; and it is remarkable to observe Gttingen, a most interesting account of the had been much deeper in ancient times. The a resemblance existing between the names of inercourse which subsisted from the most interior is filled with mountains, though the the places in the present, and of the same arient period between Europe and Asia, and maritime provinces, particularly the northern, places in Ptolemy's time. The mountain, mre particularly of that between Europe and are remarkable for their tameness. In that part which in those days was called Male (the the island of Ceylon, which, in former times, of the island which extends from Trincomalee was the great emporium of trade between the to Manar and Aripo, there were still not only estern and western parts of the world. In traces to be found of the ruins of pagodas and casequence of the efforts which are making to towns, but also of tanks, or artificial lakes, arange a rapid communication, through Egypt, built of freestone, and extending over a surface btween England and India, by means of steam- of three or four British miles. They were used bats, it becomes a subject of interest to see the to irrigate the fields of rice in the neighbouring nture of the intercourse which was carried on districts, which are now mere deserts. By one beween Europe and Asia, through Egypt, in of these lakes, near Mantotte, called the Giant's fomer days; we therefore give a translation Tank, it appears from an account of Sir A. of this memoir, which is the first that has Johnston's, that if put into repair, it would apeared in England. It is entitled De Ta- irrigate lands sufficient for the production of pobane insula, hodie Ceylan dicta, ante Lu- one million of parrahs of paddy, each parrah siznorum in Indiam navigationes, per viginti containing forty-four English pounds weight of fer sæcula communi terrarum mariumque rice. The inhabitants of the interior (the Cinautralium emporio, and commences with no- galese) differ very much from those who inhabit tieng the very great importance the ancients the sea-coast, tempted thither by the advanha attached to the island during their com- tages of commerce, and living under the guidmecial intercourse with India. Hitherto, ance of chieftains. ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. STEAM NAVIGATION TO INDIA. hovever, no information had been procured The professor then proceeded to take a comwhch served to fill up a portion of the chasm prehensive view of the trade of the island, tha exists in the history of the trade of India about the middle of the sixth century after durng the middle ages, until the appearance of Christ. Cosmas, a merchant, and afterwards a leter addressed by Sir Alexander Johnston a monk, in his Topographia Christiana has to the Secretary of the Asiatic Society, in their given us an account which he received from Adam's Peak), now bears the name of Malell; the principal river, the Ganges, is plainly the Mavela Gonga; Madutti will easily be recognised as the present Mandotte; and the name of the old capital, Amurogramma, with its district in the great plain, in which is situated the artificial lake (the Giant's Tank) for the purpose of irrigating the rice fields, has not lost its name: Knox calls it Amaroguro. Ptolemy has also, as well as Cosmas, mentioned the Maldiva islands; he states them to be nineteen in number, and to be called collectively the Atolloms; and even goes so far as to fix the number of the land islands at 1376. In the last, he knows Java (Jabadia), with the town of Argentum, near to the present Batavia, and Bantam, as well as the island of Sunda (Sinde), inhabited by cannibals (Battas), and the boats which are made use of by them, the Monoryla; lastly, he is not unacquainted with China and its trade. About half a century later follows the celebrated voyage of Arrian, who gives a very faithful account of the then Indian trade. Unfortunately, though not far from Ceylon, he these accounts were often fabulous and contra- their subordinate agents, who resided at the never reached it, having got only to the coast of which was carried on by them with Egypt, From their agents at Trincomalee they received rice and indigo; from those at Jaffna, the chaya-root, or red dye, the wood of the black palmyra-tree, and the sea shells called chanks; from those at Coodramallé, pearls ; from those at Putlam, areca nut for chewing with betel leaves, ebony, satin, and calamander wood for furniture, and sappan wood for dyeing; from those at Colombo, cinnamon and precious stones; from those at Barbareen, cocoa-nut oil and coire; and from those at Point de Galle, ivory and elephants. By means of armed vessels, which they maintained at their own expense, near the island of Manar, they commanded the only two passages by which vessels of any size could pass, as we have already described; and the wealth which they circulated through the country, enabled the inhabitants of the adjoining provinces to keep their tanks, or reservoirs for water, in perpetual repair, and their rice fields in a constant state of cultivation. The Portuguese, on their first arrival on Ceylon, at the conclusion of the fifteenth century, found that the Mahomedan traders still monopolised the whole export and import trade of the island, and that they were, from their commercial and political power in the country, the most formidable rivals whom they had to encounter. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the trade and affluence of the Mahomedans on the island of Ceylon have been gradually, and constantly, on the wane; owing, in seme degree, to the general decline of their trade and influence in every part of India, but more particularly to the systems of policy which have been respectively adopted by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English governments of Ceylon, and to the great improvement which has been made within the last three centuries in the science of navigation. The Mahomedan population on that island now consists of about seventy thousand persons, who are distributed in every part of the country. We may therefore, from what has been said, deduce the three following points:-1st, It has been historically proved that Ceylon had been, until the latter end of the fifteenth century, the emporium of the trade carried on between Africa, India, and China. 2dly, We may infer, from the imperfect accounts delivered to us, that Ceylon had been, during 500 years before On this part of Ceylon, at an equal distance Christ, of the greatest possible importance in from their respective countries, the silk mer-respect to trade; and that, during that period, chants of China, who had collected on their it had also been the staple of the Indian trade. voyage aloes, cloves, nutmegs, and sandal wood, 3dly, That the trade was not carried on by the It must, however, appear curious, that Era-maintained a free and beneficial commerce inhabitants of the interior of the country, but tosthenes and others should have believed the with the inhabitants of the Arabian and Per- by settlers on the sea coasts, who had come there reports spread about the size of Taprobane, at sian Gulfs: it was, in fact, the place at which after the Islam Mahomedan Arabs; and accordthe time of the Ptolemies. This is explained all the goods which came from the East were ing to Knox, they differ entirely from the by our knowing that at this period no direct exchanged with those which came from the Cingalese, in their appearance, language, and voyage had been made to India from Alexan- West. Although the Mahomedan traders who manners. dria, as the Indian wares were to be procured were settled on Ceylon had acquired great in the southern parts of Arabia. Strabo clearly wealth and influence very early in the eleventh and positively asserts, that no single vessels century; and although they continued to poshad then arrived in India from Egypt; and sess a most extensive and lucrative trade in its the narrative of a certain Iambulus, handed ports till the end of the fifteenth century, it down to us by Diodorus, belongs to the time of was during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the travels of Taurinius and Damberger. that they attained the highest degree of their The accounts of which Eratosthenes and commercial prosperity and political influence on other geographers made use, were not received that island. During that period, the great direct from Ceylon, but came by the way of Mahomedan merchants of Manar and ManPalibothra, the capital of the Prasii on the totte received, into the immense warehouses Ganges, whither the Seleucida had sent their which they had established at this emporium, ambassador Megasthenes, and others; and that the most valuable produce of the island from The northern parts of the island are still inhabited mostly by Malabars, whose descendants live in the commercial and maritime towns. ARTS AND SCIENCES. CELESTIAL PHENOMENA FOR JULY. 224 22h 38m the Sun enters Leo, according to the fixed signs: his true place in the heavens is near Presepe in Cancer. Solar Spots. June 29d several of these, of considerable magnitude and singular arrange ment, are visible on the solar disc; the Irrgest is to the north-east of the centre, and sur MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. a pair for their sufferings, changed the husrounded with an extensive umbra, through DR. SHORT in the chair. Among the dona- Toolsee plant; and commanded, that in future band into the Sálágrama, and the wife into the which is a narrow channel directly connecting tions were a splendid collection of indigenous the two should be offered together upon his the nucleus with a small spot on the circum- and exotic medicinal and other plants flower- altar. He then metamorphosed himself into ference of the shadowing. From the internal edge of the umbra are bright filaments stretch-ing at this season, from Mr. Gibbs, of Old the holy pool above mentioned! and to this Brompton, the treasurer; and a collection of ing towards the centre as across a dark gulf: medicinal plants from Mr. Houlton, who de day the Sálágrama and the Toolsee are ever the principal combination of spots is arranged in livered an introductory lecture on botany. grama is a fossil, containing one or more amunited on the altar of the deity. The Sáláthe form of a sector, and exhibits appearances Dr. Whiting related the following case: of perturbation. monites : : and Mrs. Skinner was assured by a child about four years old, while playing under some laburnum trees (Cytisus laburnum Linn.) coveries in Druidical antiquities in Somersetgentleman who has made some curious dispicked some of the capsules, and having eaten shire, that on every altar of Druid worship them with greediness, soon became drowsy, which had fallen under his notice in that counpale, and exhausted, in which state it was ty, he found a similar stone. carried to its mother, who, greatly alarmed, sent immediately for a surgeon. As she began, however, to suspect the cause of the attack, DR. LABUS, of Milan, has just published a the violence of which increasing, excited ap; series of very curious observations on some prehensions for the child's life, she procured Latin inscriptions recently discovered at Vesome hog's-lard, and forced a quantity down its Lunar Phases and Conjunctions. r. H. M. O Full Moon in Sagittarius .... 5 14 24 Last Quarter in Pisces..... 12 15 36 New Moon in Cancer. 19 12 14 First Quarter in Virgo... 27 8 36 The Moon will be in conjunction with Jupiter in Sagittarius Mars in Pisces D. H. MY 10 18 45 Occultation of Aldebaran. - 16a This remarkable star will again be occulted by the moon, visible only with a good telescope: the phenomenon will occur in the W.S.W., at an altitude of about 40°. The following are the circumstances, as calculated for four British observatories and the French capital:- 9da favourable opportunity will occur of observing the planet Mercury before sunrise; his greatest angular distance from the sun will then be 26° 29', or 1° 51' less than his maximum of elongation. 14d 19h-in conjunction with Geminorum. 254 in perihelio. 9d Venus in conjunction with 166 Mayer: difference of latitude 4'. This beautiful planet is retreating from the earth, and shines as a morning star, not very remote from Mercury. Mars will soon be a conspicuous object on the midnight sky; the distance between this planet and the earth is diminishing. stars. 5d 0b 15m-Jupiter in opposition, and appearing on the low brow of eve with its greatest beauty and brilliancy. 274 12h in conjunction with 1, Sagittarii. VENETIAN ANTIQUITIES. throat: she had soon the pleasure of witnessing nice, or in its neighbourhood, and particularly At a subsequent meeting, Earl Stanhope in the chair, a large collection of East India drawings, &c. from Dr. Conwell; another donation of medicinal plants from Messrs. Gibbs and Houlton, and a beautiful specimen of cactus from Mr. Campbell, were received. Dr. Clendinning delivered an introductory lecture on toxicology. Dr. Whiting and Mr. Houlton made some interesting observations on several of the medicinal plants upon the table, and Mr. Everett on the detection and analysis of prussic acid. LITERARY AND LEARNED. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. raising upon that occasion the valuable table of oriental granite which forms what in Italy is still called, after the usage of the primitive church, the Mensa, or sacred table, it was discovered that it rested on an antique altar, dedicated to the sun, as appears from the following inscription, engraved in very beautiful Roman characters: SOLI Q. BAIENVS NO MIMVS. Dr. Labus's explanations with respect to this monument and its inscription have for their principal object to shew the worship for which the altar had been used, and the title SIR ALEXANDER JOHNSTON in the chair. by virtue of which it was erected. He estaThe following donations were made: by the blishes, by a number of analogous ancient inchairman, 4 vols., Ins' translation of Valen- scriptions of the same age, that the monument Welland, Esq., a splendid Persian MS., con- the sun, revived in the east from that of the tyne's works on Ceylon and Java;-Abraham in question was consecrated to the worship of taining the Shah Jehan Nameh, or Memoirs Persian god Mithra, and that it was one of the of Shah Jehan: this copy was written ex-ministers of that worship, termed pater nomiThe Asteroids.-6-Vesta near the small pressly for that monarch, and bears his auto- mus, or, as Dr. Labus interprets it, legitimate stars 42 and 43 in Cetus. Juno, a degree and graph in a compartment of the illuminated father, consecrated father, who erected this a half north of ʼn Aquarii. Pallas, 5° south of title;-Admiral Sir C. M. Pole, Bart., a very monument of one of the oriental superstitions Bootis. Ceres, forming an equilateral triangle fine Arabic MS. copy of the Koran, with a which longest and most obstinately disputed with, and Virginis the asteroid east of the running paraphrase in Persian. A great num- the ground with infant Christianity. Dr. Laber of other donations were likewise made to bus remarks, that the expression nomimus, the Society. hitherto unknown to Latin lexicographers, is Mrs. Skinner, intended to illustrate the Sálá- a custom of which the inscriptions of the same A short paper was read, from the pen of only the Greek vs latinised, according to grama, or sacred stone, presented to the Soage furnish numerous examples; and that this ciety by that lady. It is entitled, "the History expression answers to those of pater and sacraof the Sálágram," and is to the following effect. tus, which appear by themselves in several To the south of a mountain called Himopen- Mithriac inscriptions. Dr. Labus might have vatum is a river named Gundagee Nudee, sig- added, that the title which seems to have been nifying one of the sources of the Ganges; on the most eminent in the Mithriac hierarchy, the north side is a holy pool, 180 miles in that of pater sacrorum, which is to be met with circumference, called Vishnu Chatrum, and in several inscriptions of the second and third Saturn is too near the Sun to be satisfactorily here are found the stones called Sálágramas. centuries, is probably the same which is exNear this spot, where Vishnu loved to dwell, a pressed in this altar by the words pater nomi31d 19h Uranus in opposition, 5' south of happy pair had made their habitation; the mus; since the Latin qualification of pater 19 Capricorni. Though this planet was dis- god saw, and became enamoured; he tried sacrorum cannot be rendered into Greek in a covered to be such by Herschel, it had been every art in vain, to win the constant wife more precise and exact manner than by rang observed nearly a century before by Flamstead, from her duty: during the absence of the opis, words which re-appear, almost identi in different places of the heavens, and registered husband, who was fighting the battles of his cally, under a Latin form, in the words pater in each position as a fixed star. The earliest country, Vishnu is represented to have denomimus.-Revue Encyclopédique. observation is Dec. 13th, 1690, as 34 Tauri; scended to earth, and to have assumed the another observation March 22d, 1712, as g Leo-husband's form. The soldier returned earlier nis: there are also three other observations, in than the god had anticipated; and in his 1715, which agree with the position of the rage rushed on his wife to plunge a dagger MR. MARSDEN'S EXHIBITION. planet at that time. into her bosom; Vishnu stayed his hand, WE were exceedingly gratified on Wednesday Deptford, J. T. B. resumed his own form, and, to recompense the last by a private view of a very fine picture seen. Eclipses of the Satellites. First Satellite, emersion D. H. M. 8. 24 9 56 45 Second Satellite. 25 9 1 23 FINE ARTS. never reached it, having got only to the coast of Malabar. Yet of Ceylon he has related several interesting facts. İle says, the island was called Palasimundus, after the name of the town, which, acccording to Pliny, contained 200,000 inhabitants probably near to Trincomalee, though some imagine it to be Jafnapatam. Large ships were then able to pass through the straits. The northern part of the island he reports to be well cultivated; and besides the products before mentioned, he states woollen cloth to be a principal commodity of export. Half a century later we have Pliny and Strabo as witnesses. The account given by Strabo of Taprobane, as well as of India, is very meagre. He mentions the trade as consisting of ivory, tortoise-shell, and other Indian commodities that given by Pliny is taken from the travels of a diplomatic mission, sent, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, to Rome from Taprobane, at whose head was a rashia, or rajah. According to their account, the island contained 500 towns. The capital, as well as principal harbour, was Palasimundus. They were rich in precious wares, even more so than Rome. They traded as far as Serica, to which place the father of the rajah had travelled. The king, who sent the mission, did not rule over the interior; he inha- | bited a town on the sea coast. Ceylon appears to have been much in the same state then as it was later at the period of Ptolemy and Cosmas. these accounts were often fabulous and contra- | their subordinate agents, who resided at the We now come to the Persian period, about 500 years before Christ: it would scarcely be of any utility to prove that those accounts, which we have from Nearchus and Onesicritus, are well authenticated, and not to be doubted; and also, that even before the Persian monarchy there existed a more animated trade between Babylon and India, as the author has already shewn in his critical examination of the Babylonian history. But as the name of Taprobane had not reached the west, the author did not wish to return to the time of Salomo, and his expedition to Ophir, to avoid the slightest shade of doubt being cast over his statement. The professor, therefore, reverted to the point at which he had begun this discourse, namely, the age of Cosmas; and from thence he passed over to the history of the commerce of Ceylon in the middle ages. The first Mahomedans who settled on Ceylon were, according to the tradition which prevails amongst their descendants, a portion of those Arabs of the house of Hashim who were driven from Arabia in the early part of the eighth century by the tyranny of the Caliph Abdul Malek; and who, proceeding from the Euphrates southward, made settlements in the This refers us to the time of Alexander and Concan, in the southern parts of the peninsula the Ptolemies. The two commanders of the of India, on the island of Ceylon, and at Mafleet, Nearchus and Onesicritus, who conducted lacca. The division of them which came to Ceyit from the Indus to the Persian Gulf and the lon formed eight considerable settlements along mouth of the Euphrates, heard of the fame the north-east, north, and western coasts of of Taprobane. Our visiters first discovered that island; viz., one at Trincomalee, one at it to be an island, in circumference about Jaffna, one at Mantotte and Manar, one at 5000 stadia. But, what is more remarkable Coodramallé, one at Putlam, one at Colombo, is the mention of Adam's Bridge, and the pas-one at Barbareen, and one at Point de Galle. sages through the same, as being of great im- The settlement at Manar and Mantotte, portance to the maritime interests. The island on the north-west part of Ceylon, from its was separated from the continent by shoals, local situation with respect to the peninsula of through which there were passages, narrow, India, the two passages through Adam's Bridge, but very deep, sufficient to allow ships of and the chank and pearl fisheries on the coasts 3000 amphoras to pass. The division of the of Ceylon and Madura, naturally became for year favourable to the sailing of vessels was the Mahomedan what it had before been for also known at that time. Vessels only went the ancient Hindu and Persian traders of out during four months, according to the change India, the great emporium of all the trade of the monsoons. All this we have received which was carried on by them with Egypt, from Pliny. Nearchus informs us, that on Arabia, Persia, and the coast of Malabar, on reaching the entrance of the Persian Gulf, as one side, and the coast of Coromandel, the soon as he saw the promontory of Maceta (Mas-eastern shores of the bay of Bengal, Malacca, cate), he was told this was the emporium of Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas, and China, on the cinnamon and other Indian wares, which the other side. were conveyed from thence to Babylon. We need no more to convince us that Taprobane had already gained that importance which she retained in the time of the Romans. From their agents at Trincomalee they received rice and indigo; from those at Jaffna, the chaya-root, or red dye, the wood of the black palmyra-tree, and the sea shells called chanks; from those at Coodramallé, pearls: from those at Putlam, areca nut for chewing with betel leaves, ebony, satin, and calamander wood for furniture, and sappan wood for dyeing; from those at Colombo, cinnamon and precious stones; from those at Barbareen, cocoa-nut oil and coire; and from those at Point de Galle, ivory and elephants. By means of armed vessels, which they maintained at their own expense, near the island of Manar, they commanded the only two passages by which vessels of any size could pass, as we have already described; and the wealth which they circulated through the country, enabled the inhabitants of the adjoining provinces to keep their tanks, or reservoirs for water, in perpetual repair, and their rice fields in a constant state of cultivation. The Portuguese, on their first arrival on Ceylon, at the conclusion of the fifteenth century, found that the Mahomedan traders still monopolised the whole export and import trade of the island, and that they were, from their commercial and political power in the country, the most formidable rivals whom they had to encounter. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the trade and affluence of the Mahomedans on the island of Ceylon have been gradually, and constantly, on the wane; owing, in seme degree, to the general decline of their trade and influence in every part of India, but more particularly to the systems of policy which have been respectively adopted by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English governments of Ceylon, and to the great improvement which has been made within the last three centuries in the science of navigation. The Mahomedan population on that island now consists of about seventy thousand persons, who are distributed in every part of the country. We may therefore, from what has been sud, deduce the three following points:-1st, It has been historically proved that Ceylon had been, until the latter end of the fifteenth century, the emporium of the trade carried on between Africa, India, and China. 2dly, We may inter, from the imperfect accounts delivered to us, that Ceylon had been, during 500 years befre On this part of Ceylon, at an equal distance Christ, of the greatest possible importance in from their respective countries, the silk mer- respect to trade; and that, during that period, chants of China, who had collected on their it had also been the staple of the Indian trade. voyage aloes, cloves, nutmegs, and sandal wood, | 3dly, That the trade was not carried on by che It must, however, appear curious, that Era- maintained a free and beneficial commerce inhabitants of the interior of the country, bat tosthenes and others should have believed the with the inhabitants of the Arabian and Per- by settlers on the sea coasts, who had come there reports spread about the size of Taprobane, at sian Gulfs: it was, in fact, the place at which after the Islam Mahomedan Arabs; and accordthe time of the Ptolemies. This is explained all the goods which came from the East were ing to Knox, they differ entirely from the by our knowing that at this period no direct exchanged with those which came from the Cingalese, in their appearance, language, and voyage had been made to India from Alexan-West. Although the Mahomedan traders who manners. dría, as the Indian wares were to be procured were settled on Ceylon had acquired great in the southern parts of Arabia. Strabo clearly wealth and influence very early in the eleventh and positively asserts, that no single vessels century; and although they continued to poshad then arrived in India from Egypt; and sess a most extensive and lucrative trade in its the narrative of a certain Iambulus, handed ports till the end of the fifteenth century, it down to us by Diodorus, belongs to the time of was during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the travels of Taurinius and Damberger. that they attained the highest degree of their | The accounts of which Eratosthenes and commercial prosperity and political influence on 224 22h 38m-the Sun enters Leo, according other geographers made use, were not received that island." During that period, the great to the fixed signs: his true place in the heavens direct from Ceylon, but came by the way of Mahomedan merchants of Manar and Man-is near Presepe in Cancer. Palibothra, the capital of the Prasii on the totte received, into the immense warehouses Solar Spots.-June 29d Ganges, whither the Seleucidae had sent their which they had established at this emporium, of considerable magnitude and singular arrange ambassador Megasthenes, and others; and that the most valuable produce of the island from ment, are visible on the solar disc; the largest The northern parts of the island are still inhabited mostly by Malabars, whose descendants live in the commercial and maritime towns. ARTS AND SCIENCES. CELESTIAL PHENOMENA FOR JULY. several of these. MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. DR. Snowy in the chair-Aming the dons. pair for their i ferings, dar god, the han I see plast, and commanded, that in future Fard into the Na Agrama, and the fe into the the two stanud he offered together upam de altar. He then netam rplined hired! in to the body pool above ment, med' and to t day the Malɗrama and the Txiker are ever alted estate a at of the de ty. Tue .. gruma in a í ma 1, custa ning aue of mire_am. monites; and Mrs. PiGEner was namized by a gentleman who has maile same (trims d so posed some of the capa ses, and having eaten, Pat on every actar of Dr. d with p coveries in Druid al artiquites in SummerweL uleta with greeditions, soon becatue d'uwAY, w! hud fauen under h • not or in thai cımbə pase, and exuausted, in which state it was he found a spikar stake. carried to its mother, who, great¡y alarmed, set immest.ately for a virgroti, As she began, however, to suspect the cause of the attack, Da. Lanus, of Milan, has just published ad about four years c'd, wh. le p'a ...ng under mene la'urt um trees {{ vtum diurnum 1. 555 led ap. VENETIAN ANTIQUITITA, they of spach statuan tid, et Ata sets, sent meeting. Earl Stanhope in ortunity w occur of Mr. Everett on the detect in and azai jet Mercury before sunrise: prussic at d. • gremirst aiutar distance from the sun w læ 26-27, or 1.1 less than his maxi. 14 19. LITERARY AND LEARNED. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. SIR ALEXANDER JOHNSTON in the car. taiting the wish. Je ati Mars 42 and 43 in Cet.us. of a Jehan; this CIT wata mind • Vargtluð — bize asterisk east of the running parapi rase in Pere an. A great time her of -tær donat ons were likewise made ti to have mom and the |