(43) +Barugaza+ (Bharoch) which was 30 miles distant from its mouth, was both difficult and dangerous of access; for the entrance to the Gulf itself was, on the right, beset with a perilous stripe (_tainia_) of rocky shoal called +Herônê+, and on the left, (which was the safer course,) the violent currents which swept round the promontory of Papikê rendered it unsafe to approach the shore or to cast anchor. The shoal of Herônê was opposite a village on the mainland called +Kammôni+, the Kamanê of Ptolemy (VII. i.), who however places it to the north of the river’s mouth. Again, it was not only difficult to hit the mouth of the river, but its navigation was endangered by sandbanks and the violence of the tides, especially the high tide called the ‘Bore,’ of which our author gives a description so particular and so vivid as suffices to show that he was describing what he had seen with his own eyes, and seen moreover for the first time. With regard to the name +Barugaza+ the following passage, which I quote from Dr. Wilson’s _Indian Castes_ (vol. II. p. 113) will elucidate its etymology:—“The +Bhârgavas+ derive their designation from +Bhargava+, the adjective form of +Bhṛigu+, the name of one of the ancient Ṛishis. Their chief habitat is the district of Bharoch, which must have got its name from a colony of the school of Bhṛigu having been early established in this Kshêtra, probably granted to them by some conqueror of the district. In the name +Barugaza+ given to it by Ptolemy, we have a Greek corruption of Bhṛigukshêtra (the territory of Bhṛigu) or Bhṛigukachha (the tongueland of Bhṛigu).” Speaking of the Bhârgavas Dr. Drummond, in his _Grammatical Illustrations_, says:—“These Brâhmans are indeed poor and ignorant. Many of them, and other illiterate Gujarâtîs, would, in attempting to articulate Bhṛigushêtra, lose the half in coalesence, and call it Bargacha, whence the Greeks, having no _Ch_, wrote it Barugaza.”
44. For this reason native fishermen appointed by Government are stationed with well-manned long boats called _trappaga_ and _kotumba_ at the entrance of the river, whence they go out as far as +Surastrênê+ to meet ships, and pilot them up to Barugaza. At the head of the gulf the pilot, immediately on taking charge of a ship, with the help of his own boat’s crew, shifts her head to keep her clear of the shoals, and tows her from one fixed station to another, moving with the beginning of the tide, and dropping anchor at certain roadsteads and basins when it ebbs. These basins occur at points where the river is deeper than usual, all the way up to +Barugaza+, which is 300 stadia distant from the mouth of the river if you sail up the stream to reach it.