merce, fince, amidst unbounded expence, the country was rich and flourishing. At fome moments, abforbed as they were in pleasure, they thought of its welfare. Ptolemy Physcon fent Eudoxus, the Cyzicenian, ambaffador, to various potentates of India, and the accounts this celebrated navigator brought added to the knowledge they had of those countries, and encreafed the avidity of merchants, who undertook new expeditions to the East, and penetrated the Ganges as far as Bengal. After the king's death, his widow, Cleopatra, commanded Eudoxus to vifit the nations at the extremity of Africa; and, failing from the Red Sea, he arrived on the coaft of Sofala. Finding the prow of a fhip, he knew to be from Cadiz, on the shore, he formed the project of coasting this great continent. Returning to Egypt, he found Ptolemy Lathyrus on the throne, who did not love him, and attempted his meditated enterprize. Pafling the ftraits of Babelmandel, he doubled the cape, and landed at the pillars of Hercules. This was the second time a voyage fo daring had been performed. It is eafy to judge how difficult was the enterprize, how able and intrepid

the

the mariners must be, and what obftacles and perils he was expofed to, in times when the compafs directed not his courfe. It is eafier, at prefent, to fail round the world.

The merchants of Alexandria, under Ptolemy IX. continued to navigate the Euxine, the Mediterranean, the Perfian Gulph, and to the farthest Ind. Not to the good adminiftration of the Egyptian monarchs was this extensive commerce indebted, but to lafting establishments; and, when not impeded, to the routine that long had been traced.

During the Alexandrian war, which Ptolemy XII. sustained against Cæfar, the latter burnt a hundred and ten large fhips, and the Egyptians still had resources enabling them to equip a fleet, capable of facing the enemy. But who could withstand the genius of Cæfar! The efforts of the Alexandrians were infufficient, oppofed to the conqueror of the Gauls. To a woman the glory of triumphing over this great man was referved, Cleopatra fubjected the conqueror, by charms irrefiftible. During the course of her life, this queen difplayed magnificence and pro· digality of which hiftory contains not a fe

cond

cond example. Cited by Antony (b), then at Tarfus in Cilicia, to render an account of her conduct, he went to meet the Roman General. Paffing the Mediterranean, she failed up the Cydnus, in a veffel the defcription of which resembles what the poets give us of the fhell of Venus. The fails were

purple, the prow and fides of glittering gold, and the oars, which kept time with the mufic, were plated with filver. The Queen, reclining under a canopy, enriched with gold and ineftimable gems, correfponded, in dress, to the fplendor of her fhip. The richest robes, bedecked with pearls and diamonds, veiled, but did not conceal, her charms. Like the Cytherean goddefs, round her were numerous children, habited like cupids, agitating the air this new deity breathed, while clouding perfumes, inceffantly burnt, were wafted to the shores. Antony, intending to punish Cleopatra, foon felt the power of her beauty; and, forgetting the judge, became the lover. Yet, not to beauty alone was the Egyptian Queen indebted for victory. She had wit, and a cultivated understanding;

(b) Plut. in Antonio.

knew

knew the Oriental languages; fpoke the Greek, Ethiopic, Hebrew, Parthian, Syriac, and Perfian, and converfed, in their own idioms, with the various foreigners who inceffantly came to the port of Alexandria, that, after the fall of Carthage and Corinth, was become the emporium of the world (i), and contained three hundred thoufand free people, with, at least, double the number of flaves.

Cleopatra had vanquished Cæfar and Antony, but in vain attempted Aguftus, a cold and artful man; and, fearing to be led in triumph by this pompous conqueror, fhe killed herself. Egypt was then governed by the Romans, and was to Rome what Peru has been to Spain, and Bengal is to England: fupplying Italy with gold and filver in fuch abundance that provifions, merchandize, and lands, were doubled in value; thus haftening the ruin of the empire.

Robbed of their monarchs, and subject to the Romans, the Egyptians became their factors; the former ardently undertaking the commerce of India, the product of which, according to Pliny, was a hundredfold, and,

(i) Diod. Sic. lib. 1.

purfuing

purfuing the fteps of their predeceffors, fome, entering the Indus, penetrated up the country; others, landing at the ifle of Ceylon, and others, doubling cape Comorin, proceeded up the Ganges as far as Palibothra (k), a mighty city, to which the Egyptians long had traded, and where was a vast concourse of Oriental nations. They brought back cotton-cloths, and filks, which Auguftus firft wore, after whom the Romans, ftudying luxury, imagined perfumes, pearls, and diamonds, real wants: now that the mulberry tree and filkworm are tranfplanted into Europe, ftuffs, unknown to the Roman Confuls, are worn by men of all conditions. They have not yet, however, acquired the excellence of thofe of Bengal, or the durability of their colours; perhaps the fmall Indian colony, fettled in France by an Admiral whofe talents, virtues, and victories, honour his country, may disclofe the fecrets of the Eaft to the French manufacturers.

In proportion as the Romans narrowed the limits of their empire, they adopted the

(*) Strabo, lib. 15.