Note 1 — CHAP. II

: The knowledge of the mariner's compass probably possessed by the Chinese prior to the twelfth century, is discussed by KLAPROTH in his "Lettre à M. le Baron Humboldt sur l'invention de la boussole." Paris, 1834.

2: See the "Katab-al-adjajab," probably written by MASSOUDI. REINAUD, Mémoires sur l'Inde, p. 200; Relation et Discours, pp. lx. lxviii.; ABOULFEDA, Introd. cdxii. May not this early mention of the use of "naphtha" by the Chinese for burning the ships of an enemy, throw some light on the disquisitions adverted to by GIBBON, ch. lii., as to the nature of "the Greek fire," so destructive to the fleets of their assailants during the first and second siege of Constantinople in the seventh and eighth centuries? GIBBON says that the principal ingredient was naphtha, and that the Greek emperor learned the secret of its composition from a Syrian who deserted from the service of the Khalif. Did the Khalif acquire the knowledge from the Chinese, whose ships, it appears, were armed with some preparation of this nature in their voyages to Bassora?