ASIATIC NATIONS. 203 Arabs did so. In the Indian islands we have no relics of the manners, religion, or language of Pagan Arabia. Whatever is there that is Arabian is connected with the present religion. The words of their language which exist in the dialects of the converted tribes are almost all mythological, and in those of the unconverted tribes there is not a syl- lable at all. Connected with this subject, we may remark it as a curious and interesting fact, that every important change in the mode of con- ducting the commerce of India has been the re- sult of, or has followed, a religious revolution or convulsion. The trade of the Hindus extended in no direction but towards Arabia, until a reli- gious schism propelled their enterprise to the hi- therto unknown countries which yielded spices. The Arabian navigators went no farther east than the coast of Malabar, until they acquired enthu- siasm and energy from the religion of Mahomed, when they crossed the Bay of Bengal, colonized in the Indian islands, and pushed their commerce and their settlements to China. Even the last great revolution in the commerce of the East, effected by the European race, is distinctly connected with the great changes in religious as well as other opinions which characterized the commencement of the sixteenth century. In barbarous periods of society, indeed, it is through religious revolution, or change alone, that we can expect to find auy
