B a t n j e .
T h e S e r e s .
C&MEDiE.
Euxine fea, and appears to me a communication of great
praiiicability.
I m a y alfo mention Batna, a large commercial city, built,
(according to Ammianus, lib. xiv*. c. 3.) not remote from the
Euphrates in Mefopotamia, by the Macedonians. It was filled
with rich merchants; an annual fair was held there in the
beginning o f September, and it was then the refort of multitudes
o f people, for the fake o f the commodities brought
from India, and even Seres or China, and various other places,
both by land and water; the laft, by the channel of the Perfian
gulph, and fo up the Euphrates.
T he Seres reminds me o f the laft communication I ihall
mention, which was to the north, leading to the diftant country
o f China. The Chinefe merchants defcended from their country,
and leaving the head o f the defert o f Gobi to the weft, reached
little Bucharia, and got the conveniency o f the river Ilak for
part o f their journey.
T h e ancient Comeda, the fame with Cajhgar, feated in
Lat. 40° N. in the Cajia Regio o f Ptolemy, lay at the foot of
mount Imaus. The Indian and Chinefe trade carried on through
this city, is ftill confiderable. The river Sir, the old Iaxartes, is
not far to the weft o f Cajhgar, and might, by its falling into lake
Aral, be an ancient channel o f communication with the Cafpian
fea. This city was the rendezvous, even in early times, of the
merchants trading with the country to the north and to the
fouih. This, I dare fuppofe, was the “ receptaculum eorum
u qui ad Seras negotii caufa profifciuntur penes Imaum mon-
*l tern” of Ptolemy; and near it, to the eaft, wag the Lithinon
Purgon,
Purgon, and Turris Lapidea o f Ammianus*, which, by the name, Turris
could be no other than a beacon, fixed op a ftane tower, L a p i d e a .
Hierken, to the fo.uth -of Cajhgar, wag anpther celebrated Hierken.
mart, and is ftill the centre o f commerce between the north of.
P\fia, India, 'Thibet, and Sihiria. When the merchants reached
the Indus, they fell into the traits before defcribed.
The Seres, above fpoken of, were the inhabitants o f the north
of China, remarkable for their filk, which the ancients believed
was combed from the leaves of trees, and, when fteeped in
water, was corded and fpun, and after their manner wove ipto
a web. Thefe Seres had fome intercourfe with the Romans-,
for Floras tells us that they lent ambalfadors to Augujlus, who
•were four years on their journey. They were a molt gentle
race» and Ihunned mankind: yet carried on a traffic, in the
fame manner as the weftern.J^bi?rj: do at prefent, with people,
they never fee. The Moors go annually in caravans, laden with Singular
trinkets, to an appointed place on the borders of Nigritia,
There they find leveral heaps of gold depofited by the Negroes;
againft each o f which the Moors put as many trinkets as they
think o f equal value, and then retire. If, the next morning,
the Negroes approve the bargain, they take the trinkets and
leave the gold; or elfe they make fome deduition from the
gold duft; and in this manner tranfaci the .exchange, without
the left inftance of diflionefty on either part t.
* Shaw's Travels, p. 302.
f Taffy?s Memoirs, p. 311. — Tally's account is, that a commerce ilmilar to this is
carried on between a nation called the Cadenfis and the ISfegrqes, The Cadeniis 3$ gs the
middle man between them and the Tuqifiatis, who ,go to their country, ¡and obtain gpld arut
negro Haves for European commodities.
V o l . I . C Candahar^