State of the trade of India, from the sixth to the ninth century.
From Cosmas we learn that, in his day, great
numbers of vessels from all parts of India, Persia, and
Æthiopia, were in the habit of trading with Ceylon;
and that the island itself had "numerous fleets of
ships belonging to its own merchants." He reckons
the tonnage of these vessels "as generally of about
three thousand amphoræ";[1] adding that "their mariners
do not make astronomical observations, but carry
birds to sea, and letting them go, from time to time,
follow the course they take for the land." Cosmas
further remarks, that "they devote only four months
in the year to the pursuits of navigation, and are particularly
careful not to trust themselves on the sea
during the next hundred days after the summer solstice,
for within those seas it is, at that time, the middle
of winter." But the "numerous fleets of ships" he
refers to were, probably, the property of Arabian
merchants settled in the island, navigated by their
own countrymen, and not by the natives of Ceylon.
The Singhalese, indeed, in ancient and modern times
alike, have shown an apathy in all matters connected
with navigation, the more remarkable as, by
its position and the character of its coasts, Ceylon is
singularly well adapted to be the nursery of an able
race of seamen. The boats now found there are all
copies from models supplied by other nations; even
their strange canoes, with out-riggers and a balance
log, are but repetitions of the boats of the islanders
of the Eastern Archipelago; while their ballams,
canoes of a larger and more substantial description,
are borrowed from the vessels of Malabar. It is
curious that, to this day, the gunwales of their dhows
are frequently topped by wicker-work, smeared with
- ↑ One thousand amphoræ are equal to about thirty-three tons.
