Taprobana,[34] under the name of the “land of the Antipodes,” was long looked upon as another world: the age and 32 the arms of Alexander the Great were the first to give satisfactory proof that it was an island. Onesicritus, the commander of his fleet, has informed us that the elephants of this island are larger, and better adapted for warfare than those of India; and from Megasthenes we learn that it is divided by a river, and that their country is more productive of gold and pearls of great size than even India. Eratosthenes has also given the dimensions of this island, as being seven thousand stadia in length, and five thousand in breadth: he states also that there are no cities, but villages to the number of seven hundred. It begins at the Eastern sea, and lies extended opposite to India, east and west. In former times when the navigation was confined to vessels constructed of papyrus with the tackle peculiar to the Nile, this island was supposed to be twenty days’ sail from the country of the Prasii,[35] but the distance has been esti............