Note 1 — Chapter I

: HEEREN, Hist. Researches, vol. ii. Appendix xii.

2: LASSEN, De Taprob. Ins. p. 4. From the error of Ptolemy in making the coast of Malabar extend from west to east, whilst its true position is laid down in the Periplus, VINCENT concludes that he was not acquainted with the Periplus, as, anterior to the invention of printing, cotemporaries might readily be ignorant of the productions of each other (VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 55). Vincent assigns the composition of the Periplus to the reign of Claudius or Nero, and Dodwell to that of M. Aurelius, but Letronne more judiciously ascribes it to the period of Severus and Caracalla, A.D. 198,210, fifty years later than Ptolemy. The author, a Greek of Alexandria and a merchant, never visited Ceylon, though he had been as far south as Nelkynda (the modern Neliseram), and the account which he gives from report of the island is meagre, and in some respects erroneous. ARRIANI Periplus Maris Eryth.; HUDSON, vol. i. p. 35; VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 493.