Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.32

c11.32

Outside the straits, the first port is Kane, where ships took in water and provisions for their long run. From here the course differed. Vessels for South India struck straight out to sea, past Sokotra or Dioscorida (*Sukhādhāra-dvīpa*, the Isle of the Blest³); the rest sailed up the coast of the frankincense country, dark and lowering, with clouds hanging low over the hills. It was desperately unhealthy, and the frankincense was mostly collected by convicts. But its wealth was prodigious. Presently Cape Syagrus (Ras Fārtak) hove in sight, with its headland and fort, and then came the roadstead of Moscha, a port of call for India and a port for the frankincense trade. After this there were no important ports till the traveller came to the Persian Gulf, on which was the port of Ommana. At the mouth of the Euphrates was Apologus, an important harbour, of which, however, our author merely remarks that it imported timber from Barygaza—sandalwood, teak, ebony, and blackwood. The importation of Indian wood was as old as the days of Sennacherib, and it is found in ancient Chaldean and Assyrian temples.