according to the ancients, was one of the three great divisions of the earth, and is considered by the moderns as one of the four quarters of the habitable globe. Its extent is immense; and its importance, both in a historical and in a philosophical point of view, is very great. It contains every variety of soil and climate, and is inhabited by nations which possess undoubted claims to the highest antiquity. When Europe was yet covered by deep forests, thinly inhabited by a few wild animals, or by a barbarous race of men, destitute of science, and even of the means of those accommodations which the progress of art now enables all classes of people to enjoy, Asia abounded with flourishing cities and populous nations, in which commerce and agriculture had reached a considerable measure of improvement.

The revolutions which have occurred in different regions of the great Asiatic continent, occupy a great part of Asia in the general history of the human race. These to be considered revolutions have possessed this peculiar character, that as when they commenced in one quarter of Asia, we most frequently find that they extended themselves, in a few other years, to the remotest regions, and even sometimes into the centre of Europe. As the human mind usually derives its character from the situation in which it is placed, we shall be enabled by attention to the soil and climate, and geographical position of the principal parts of Asia, to form some general principles from which to deduce the causes that have influenced the destiny of the nations by which it is inhabited. Without enlightened notions of general geography, history degenerates into a mere detail of romantic adventures, and no valuable progress can be made in political or in commercial science. We shall therefore give a general description of this vast continent, considering it, as far as possible, as one great whole, the various parts of which have at times possessed an influence over each other; leaving its particular districts and countries, to be separately discussed as they occur in the arrangement of our work, unless in such instances... Beginning with its north-west corner adjoining to Europe, the boundary of Asia commences at Waigats straits, opposite to the island of Nova Zembla, in what is called the Northern ocean or Icy sea. From thence the boundary extends southward along the Uralian chain of mountains, which are thus accounted half European and half Asiatic. After leaving these mountains, Asia is understood by geographers, to proceed in a south-westerly direction, through the provinces of the Russian empire, till it meets the river Don, where it approaches nearest to the Volga. Proceeding along the river Don, it enters into the Black sea, which it crosses diagonally, proceeding to the south-west through the straits of the Bosphorus, at Constantinople, and through the Propontis and Hellespont; from whence turning south it proceeds through the Archipelago, and the eastern part of the Mediterranean sea called the Levant, to the isthmus of Suez, a narrow neck of land of 65 miles over, which divides Asia from Africa. The remaining part of the western boundary of Asia, is formed by the Red sea or Arabian gulf, which is connected with the Arabian sea, by the strait of Bab-el-mandeb.

The southern boundary of Asia, is formed by the great Indian ocean, under a variety of names derived from the different parts of the Asiatic coast, which are washed by its waters. Along the whole of this southern boundary, the ocean and the land alternately encroach upon each other, thereby forming immense bays and gulfs of the ocean, and peninsulated tracts of land. Thus to the eastward of the straits of Bab-el-mandeb, the Indian ocean advances northward under the appellation of the Arabian sea, having the peninsula of Arabia on the west, and the western peninsula of India on the east. Penetrating still farther north, it receives the name of the gulf of Ormus, and afterwards of the Persian gulf, which advances very far in a north-westerly direction, having Arabia on the south-west, and Persia on the north-east. The same Arabian sea in its north-eastern extremity, making a flatter inroad upon the land, receives the river Indus on the east of Persia, and is called the gulf of Scind. To the eastward of the nearest peninsula of India, the same Indian ocean forms a most extensive gulf, called the bay of Bengal, bounded on the east and west by the two Indian peninsulas. The farther peninsula stretches to a great distance southward under the name of Malacca, beyond which the boundaries of the continent assume in general an easterly direction, more especially after passing the gulf of Siam, immediately beyond Malacca and the gulf of Tonkin, on the boundaries of China and of the farther India. The Chinese empire encroaches eastward upon the great Pacific ocean, which is here the boundary of Asia. Its coasts are sufficiently regular. Its bays and gulfs are trifling when compared with those of the Indian ocean, although towards its northern extremity, the Pacific ocean, under the name of the Yellow sea, advances into the continent, forming to the eastward the peninsula of Corea, of moderate extent. After which this eastern ocean passing the isles of Japan, at a great distance to the north, again encroaches on the land, forming the sea or great bay of Ochotck, which has the peninsula of Kamtschatka on its eastern side, and the country of Siberia or the mainland of Asia on the west. Beyond Kamtschatka one more gulf is formed in that direction, called the sea of Anadyr, terminating in the gulf of Notchen, to which succeeds the peninsula of Tchelutski, stretching to the eastward, till it approaches the coast of America at the bay of St Laurence. After which, turning to the westward, the Asiatic continent is entirely bounded on its northern side by the Icy sea, forming obscure gulfs and promontories, of which little knowledge has yet been obtained, and which can never be of much importance to the human race.

The great continent whose general outline we have Extent of thus slightly traced, must necessarily vary considerably in breadth and length, according to the points continent, from which an estimate of its menuration is formed. Some idea, however, may be obtained of the territory included in it, from observing that the continent of Asia, from the Hellespont at 26° of E. Long., extends to nearly 190° E. Long., at Laft Cape, or to the 170° of W. Long., being a line of 164° or 9,500 geographic miles, allowing 60 miles to a degree. The extreme breadth of this continent, from the south cape of Malacca, in 2° of N. Lat. to Cape Severo Vostochnoi, in 77° N. Lat., amounts to about 4,500 geographic miles. Hence the length of the continent of Asia is not less than 7,583 British miles, and its breadth from south to north is about 5,250.

That the relative situation of the nations inhabiting this continent may be rightly understood, it is necessary to remark that the centre of Asia consists of an immense and irregular plain, which is elevated to a vast height above the surrounding countries, and extends some thousand miles in every direction. This elevated region or high level of land, stands aloft like a table, and is supported by a crest or front of lofty and precipitous centre of rocks, which overlook in every direction the surrounding Asia regions. The high level, or elevated territory, which these rocks surround and seem to uphold on all sides, constitutes the proper country of Tartary. The climate, even in latitude 27°, which elsewhere is extremely hot, is here very cold, and the soil is barren. In some directions, to the extent of 1,000 miles, nothing is to be found but frightful deserts, covered with moving sands, which at times are carried aloft, as in Arabia and Africa, by the winds. They are rendered passable by ridges of mountains which divide them; and the summits of these mountains are covered with perpetual snow. Even where the soil seems more favourable, only the hardiest plants and trees can flourish in this barren region, whose inhabitants have in all ages remained in the pastoral state, subsisting by the produce of their flocks and herds, without engaging in the labours of agriculture.

This vast upland tract, which is probably the highest region of the old hemisphere, and which forms the largest extent of continued elevated land upon the countries of the globe, contains in general the tract or countries of the Asia, Kalmuks, the Mongols, Thibet, and Eastern Turkestan, or the original country of the Turks. From the borders of this tract in the centre of Asia, the great rivers of that continent descend towards the ocean in every direction; such as the Oxus and Jaxartes. on the west, the Amur on the east, the Ganges and Burrampooter on the south, and the Oby and Jenisea on the north. The countries that surround this tract are, therefore, justly considered by Major Rennel and others, as a kind of inclined planes or hanging levels, or defeces along the skirts of it, feeding the waters flow so regularly and uninterruptedly from it, as from a common centre, to all the surrounding seas. On the south of this elevated region, are the vast countries of India, descending gradually to the great southern or Indian ocean. They receive from their exposure the fierce rays of a tropical sun, and are sheltered by the rocky front of the high country behind them from every northern blast. On the west of the elevated tract, are the countries which formed the ancient Persian empire, and which, in like manner, descend gradually, though more irregularly, towards the setting sun, and the territory of Europe. On the east of the high table, or elevated central region, is the immense empire of China, descending with its rivers towards the great Pacific or Eastern ocean. On the north of the same region is Siberia, descending gradually to the Icy sea. The high country to the south intercepts from Siberia the heated air which might otherwise advance towards it from a more fervid climate, while its gradual descent towards the north exposes it unprotected to every blast that may ascend from the icy regions of the pole, and thus the climate is rendered as much too cold in proportion to its latitude, as India is too hot. The soil, however, of Siberia, is in many places equal in fertility to that of almost any other country of the globe, and it has only been prevented from rising into importance, by the intolerable severity of a long winter, which has always operated as a tax upon the industry of its inhabitants, to prevent any great increase of population. Its rivers are bound up during half the year, under a covering of almost impenetrable ice; and the ocean into which they flow, can at no season be navigated with safety, a circumstance which banishes those resources which an extensive commerce might afford, to compensate the evils of the climate.

It may here be remarked, that the rivers which descend towards the south, from the high centre of Asia, through countries subject to periodical rainy seasons, have by their alluvions, or by carrying down immense quantities of mud and earth, formed vast fertile plains near the sea coasts, similar in their nature to the Delta, or rich valley of Lower Egypt. Accordingly, in the south of Asia, from Persia to China; near the mouths of the Indus, the Ganges, and other rivers, immense tracts of level country are found, which are periodically overflowed, and which, aided by the warmth of the climate, exhibit a degree of fertility in all the productions of the vegetable world, of which in our temperate and colder regions we have little conception.

The high level of which we have now spoken, which is of so much importance both to the geography and to the history of Asia, is bounded, as already mentioned, on all sides by a crest or ridge of mountains, adjoining to which are lesser chains of hills, which gradually subside in the neighbouring low countries. The great ridge called Imaus by the ancients, or the Indian Caucasus, is properly the crest or front of the western declivity towards Persia. The part of this crest or the front of the high level towards the south was anciently called Emudut, and sometimes also Imaus, of which it is a continuation. The modern name is Hindoo Kho.—The northern front of the high territory which overlooks the Baikal lake, and the whole length of Siberia, is of immense extent, and is usually called by historians the Altaic ridge or chain. The appellation of the front of the same high country towards China is little known to European geographers, but it forms in itself nothing more than a continuation of the ridges of Imaus and Altai surrounding the high country of Tartary.

This high country or elevated level, which may with chain of propriety be called Grand Tartary, extends in different directions various ramifications of itself, or chains of mountains, to the utmost extremities of Asia. Thus high level it extends forth eastward a chain of mountains to the gulf of Corea to the northward of Pekin. This chain appears like a continuation of the Altaic mountains, which may thus be considered as proceeding from the 70° to the 140° of east longitude, or about 5000 miles. Another mountainous chain proceeds north-eastward to the gulf or sea of Ochotka opposite Kamtchatka. A similar ridge, called the Uralian chain, proceeds to the north-west, and terminating in the vicinity of Nova Zembla, within the polar circle, has already been mentioned as one of the boundaries which divide Asia from Europe. Another chain, better known to both ancient and modern writers, proceeds from Imaus, or the front of the great high level, westward, under the celebrated name of Mount Taurus, and terminates in the Mediterranean sea at the peninsula of Lesser Asia. This important ridge has on the one side, or to the south, a great part of the ancient Persian empire, and on the north the great salt lake called the Caspian sea, and also the Black sea, with the high country of Georgia between them, which anciently received the appellation of the Grecian Caucasus.

A great tract of low country which lies to the east and to the north of the Caspian, and proceeds westward along the shores of the Black sea, also receives from modern geographers the appellation of Tartary, and was formerly anciently denominated Scythia. Hence what is called Tartary. Tartary must be regarded as consisting of two very distinct tracts of country situated upon very different levels. Eastern Tartary, lying beyond the mountains of Imaus and southward of the mountains of Altai, constitutes the high level or elevated central region of Asia; whereas the country called Tartary situated upon the Caspian and the Black seas, now sometimes called Ruffian Tartary, is not only situated upon a lower level, but instead of consisting of a horizontal plane, it lies upon a south exposure, and its rivers, such as the Wolga and the Don, descend southward into the Caspian and the Black seas, which are placed along the northern basis of the ridge of mountains anciently denominated Taurus. Beyond the sources of the Don and the Wolga, however, the country begins to descend towards the polar circle and the Icy sea, like the rest of Siberia, of which it partakes the name.

In all ages Asia might be divided into two regions; Asia div.; the civilized, containing men who cultivated the soil into civilized and lived in cities; and the barbarous, whose inhabitants subsisted by hunting or by the pastoral life. To the former belonged the three countries which descend from the elevated region of Asia on the east, the south, and the west, forming the empires of China, of India, and the ancient Persian empire, extending to the Hellespont. To the barbarous or uncivilized nations have always belonged the far more extensive tracts of Siberia, of High Tartary, and of the Western or Lower Tartary, which lies to the north of the Caspian sea, of Mount Caucasus, and of the Black sea. On the southwest of Asia also a different race of barbarians, engaged in a great measure in a similar life of pasturage, under the denomination of Arabs, have occupied an immense portion of territory; and both of these classes of barbarians, the Tartars of the east and north, and the Arabs of the south-west, have at times acted a most important part in the affairs of Asia, and even of Europe; and by their movements have decided the destiny of nations.

The knowledge of the ancients concerning Asia appears to have been extremely limited. Herodotus, like all the ancient writers, admitted the existence of a northern ocean, upon the shores of which the Hyperboreans were supposed to exist, a peaceful race of men, upon whom nobody made war, and who never disturbed the tranquillity of other nations. He was also acquainted with the existence of various Scythian, or, as we now call them, Tartar tribes, inhabiting the country to the north of the Black sea and the Caspian, and upon the river Jaxartes, which he understood to flow into the lake Aral to the eastward of the Caspian. But Herodotus did not believe in the existence of an eastern ocean, or that Asia was in that quarter bounded by the sea. He also extended Europe indefinitely to the east, including all in that division of the globe that lies to the northward of Mount Caucasus and the Caspian sea. To the eastward of what he called Asia, that is, the Persian empire, he considered India as the last inhabited country, asserting, that "the Indians are the people of Asia that are nearest the east and the place of the rising sun." Beyond India he confessed that he knew nothing. "As far as India (says he) Asia is well inhabited; but from India eastward the whole country is one vast desert, unknown and unexplored." In these times, therefore, it is certain that the Greeks knew nothing of the vast empire of China and its dependencies, or of the peninsula beyond the Ganges, which forms the eastern division of India. Indeed it would appear that the elevated region of Tartary formed in these early times an impenetrable barrier which divided the western nations of Asia from those on the east. Neither does it appear that Herodotus was well acquainted with the southern frontiers even of Persia and Arabia. The whole Arabian sea, including the Arabic gulf, was called the Erythrean or Red sea; but he does not seem to have known that the sea bordering upon the ancient kingdom of Persia or Persia Proper, is itself nothing more than a gulf like that which divides Arabia from Egypt and Ethiopia, to which the name of Red sea is now exclusively confined.

It is a circumstance not a little singular, that the visit of Alexander the Great to India through Persia did by no means extend the limits which preceding geographers had assigned to Asia. A correct knowledge of the coast of the conquered empire of Persia was indeed acquired, but neither to the east nor to the north was any knowledge gained. The high ridge of Imaus, forming the front of the elevated region of Tartary was denominated by the geographers of Alexander the Indian Caucasus, probably from some obscure notion, that this ridge was a continuance of the mountains of that name between the Euxine and Caspian seas. Beyond India also he admitted of no tract of land whatever, thus making India the most eastern country of Asia, and consequently of the whole earth, although Herodotus had placed a vast desert beyond it. But it is probable that this diminution of territory to the eastward might be a sacrifice to the vanity of Alexander, who wished to imagine, and to make others believe, that he had approached the world's boundary. In another point also the geography of Asia was falsified by the followers of this conqueror. Herodotus had rightly described the Caspian sea as a great lake, but the followers of Alexander imagined they had discovered it to be a gulf of the northern ocean. With this ocean, therefore, they were under the necessity of supposing it to communicate by a narrow channel; a circumstance which led them to limit the continent to a very trifling extent northward. The knowledge which Herodotus possessed concerning the unconnected state of the Caspian in respect of other seas being thus lost, its geographical position as a lake remained unknown in the times of Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Pliny. It was, however, regained in the age of Ptolemy, who restored its form of a lake, but under such dimensions and proportions as demonstrate that the smaller lake, called Aral, which is 250 miles to the eastward, was mistaken for a part of it.

The most remarkable feature in the ancient Greek and Roman descriptions of Asia, that is, of the country to the westward of Imaus, and to the south of the Caspian sea, is the high ridge of mountains which they in general denominated Taurus. This ridge was to them as it were a line of separation between two worlds, the civilized and the barbarous; or two climates, the warm and fertile, and the cold and barren. As Taurus, however, is at times broken into distinct chains of mountains which occasionally alter their general direction, various names were ascribed to particular parts of it, such as Niphates, Caphius, Parapamissus, Caucasus, Emodus, &c. The general chain, however, or the Taurus of the ancient geographers, originated in the south-west extremity of what they called Asia Minor, that is, the small part of Asia embraced between the Euxine or Black sea on the north, the straits of the Hellespont and the Dardanelles on the west, and the Levant or eastern part of the Mediterranean sea on the south. The ridge of Taurus was understood to pass eastward through lesser Asia at no great distance from the shores of the Levant. From thence, in its course eastward, it separated Armenia from Melopotamia, the two countries called Media from each other, and the greater Media from the narrow tract along the southern border of the Caspian sea. Opposite to the south end of the Caspian its inferior ridges were divided by a vast chasm called the Caspian strait, which was with the Carthagenians an important geographical point, being supposed to be in the same parallel with Ifus and Rhodes. This remarkable chasm or strait formed the best road or passage from Media, Melopotamia, and the western... western countries in general, to Parthia, Hyrcania, Aria, and others on the east, because by it considerable deserts to the south might be avoided. Alexander the Great passed through it in his way from Rages towards Aria and Bactria. It is at present called the strait of Khoward, from a town or district in the neighbourhood, and is almost due north from Ilpahan: it is eight miles through, and is in general not more than 40 yards in breadth. Pliny says, that it is only wide enough for a carriage, and modern writers have said that where it is narrowest and most winding, a litter can scarcely pass. The mountains are very lofty on each side. The bottom is upon the whole flat, and at certain seasons a considerable stream of salt water flows along it towards the desert on the south.

After having passed the south-east corner of the Caspian, Taurus proceeding farther eastward, was understood by the ancients, and represented, as separating the countries of Parthia, Margiana, and Bactria, on the north, from those of Aria, Drangiana, and the north-western provinces of India, watered by the heads of the Indus. Here Taurus was known to meet the lofty ridge of Imaus, which we have already mentioned as the western front of the elevated region that forms the centre of Asia. But as this general account of the opinions of the ancients concerning the course of these mountains can give little idea of the general level of the countries through which they pass, we shall here notice more particularly the elevation of these countries, and the way in which they are divided from each other. In doing so we shall chiefly follow the authority of the learned and accurate Major Rennell; and we prefer the use of ancient appellations to the names assigned to these provinces by the barbarians who now inhabit or rather wander over them.

We have said, that from Imaus, or from the high region of central Asia, or Greek Tartary, the country descends gradually towards the west, forming what was called Asia by the ancients, but what was in truth little more than the Persian empire. In departing from Imaus, however, the country is very elevated, and various ridges occur, which gradually, after assuming a variety of forms, unite in the ridge which terminates far to the west at the extremities of the Lesser Asia, and was called Mount Taurus, as already stated. In their progress the valleys or ordinary country near these mountains gradually becomes lower as it proceeds towards the west, and the mountains themselves decline in height. Even in the west, however, the mountains appear not a little elevated.

Returning from the west, or beginning with the petty territory of Asia or Asia Minor, which is enclosed on three sides by the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Euxine seas, it is to be remarked that even this tract acquires speedily a considerable elevation; but the southern part of Lesser Asia towards the Mediterranean is by far the highest, being the proper Taurus itself, rising abruptly from the neighbourhood of the sea-coast, and turning the courses of the principal waters towards the Euxine sea on the north.

The next portion of territory is still more elevated, extending from the Euxine to the Caspian sea. To the north it extends forth a tract of very mountainous country called Caucasus, or the modern Georgia, which overlooks the Sarmatian plains, or, in other words, the desert of Astracan, and the country of the Tartars called Don Cossacks, being the low lands on the north both of the Euxine and Caspian seas. Southwards this high region, which is a part of the Taurus of the ancients, overlooks the vast low countries, in which are contained the kingdoms or states of Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Babylonia, and even the great Arabian desert. The ancient divisions of this high region were called Cappadocia, Armenia, Pontus, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, the country of the Carduchians, and a part of Media. It seems to be the highest continued tract of territory in Western Asia, giving rise to the rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Cyrus, Araxes, Hypanis or Kuban, and Phasis, which flow from it in different directions towards the Euxine or Caspian seas, or the Persian gulf. It is worthy of remark, that in the higher parts of this region two great salt lakes are to be found.

Advancing eastward is a third portion of still more elevated territory, extending from the Caspian sea to the lofty Indus, or western crest of the great Asiatic highlands. This third region is still higher than the two former parts of the tract of Mount Taurus. Its breadth is very various. Its western quarter is limited by the approach towards each other of the Caspian and Persian seas; but the high country expands to a much greater breadth beyond the Caspian, till it is again narrowed on its approach to Imaus by two valleys, along the one of which flows the river Indus to the south, and along the other the Oxus to the north-west, anciently terminating in the Caspian sea, but now in the sea or lake of Aral. Of this third portion of the high country of Western Asia the northern part between the Caspian sea and Mount Imaus contains the ancient Parthia, Margiana, and Sogdiana, which overlook towards the north the low countries of Western Tartary in that quarter called Chorasmia, and the seats of the Mallagetæ (the ancient Magyars) at the Jaxartes. The middle part of the high country contains Aria and Bactriana, adjoining on the east to Mount Imaus. The southern part of the same elevated region contains Persia Proper, Carmania, Arachosia, &c., which towards the Persian gulf are bordered by the low tract of maritime Persia. The highest continuous ridge of this territory is that which passes by the south-east of the Caspian sea and Hyrcania, between Drangiana on the south and Aria on the north, and from thence between Bactriana and the provinces of India; where, as it approaches Imaus, which, as already stated, is the front of a yet more elevated region, it swells to an immense magnitude and height, and is covered with snow annually till the month of August.

From this tract of elevated country, which we have thus described as gradually increasing in height from the Mediterranean to Mount Imaus, various lateral ridges project towards the south, forming between them different hollow basins or low countries. But these southern projections are not equal in altitude to the great chain that proceeds from west to east. The most westerly of these cross ridges is that which begins from the body of Taurus, near the place where it is crossed by the Euphrates, at the northern extremity of Syria. The ridge proceeds to the south, inclining to the west, and forms a kind of mound or dam, skirting the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, under the names... names of Amanus, Lebanon, &c. Having passed the Mediterranean and the southern border of Palestine, it advances to the eastern coast of the Red sea, where it spreads out, and forms the centre of Arabia, finally terminating in what is called Arabia Felix, or the southern part of the Arabian peninsula.

Farther to the east another ridge proceeds towards the south, which was called by the Greeks Zagros, and advances to the neighbourhood of the Persian gulf. Between this last ridge on the east, and the former, or Syrian ridge, on the west, and Taurus on the north, is a great valley or tract of low country that formed the ancient empire of Assyria, which was guarded in this manner by a wall of mountains on three sides, and by the Persian gulf and the Arabian desert on the south. It is watered by the fertilizing streams of the Tigris and Euphrates, upon which Nineveh and Babylon formerly stood. To the eastward the country becomes more dry and elevated. Passing through Media, a great salt desert occupies the centre of the country, having Persia Proper on the south, and Parthia on the north; and continuing still to ascend, the mountains become more numerous and less regular, in proportion as they approach Imaus. These regions, however, are of great importance in ancient history as the seats of civilization and of empire, though they are now sunk into obscurity, and a prey in a great measure to tribes of barbarians, who wander over them with their flocks and herds, and reside in tents. The eastern part of the countries known to the ancients as Asia, or rather as the Persian empire, still retains that name; but to the westward of the Euphrates Asia belongs to Turkey, excepting the great country or peninsula of Arabia, of which we shall here take some general notice.

This country is worthy of the utmost attention in a historical point of view, on account of the influence which its inhabitants have had upon a great part of the nations of Asia, and consequently upon a large portion of the human race. They have contrived to extend themselves farther over the world than almost any other people, and have preserved in all situations more strongly than other nations, their language, religion, manners, and peculiar customs. From the river Senegal, on the west coast of Africa, to the Indus, colonies of Arabs are to be met with, and also from the heads of the Euphrates on the north to the island of Madagascar. Even the Tartar hordes have scarcely occupied a wider extent on the globe.

Arabia, properly so called, is that great peninsula formed by the Red sea, or Arabic gulf, on the west, the Indian ocean, or Arabian sea, on the south, and the Persian gulf on the north-east. Accordingly, the ancients appear to have comprehended under the name of Arabia, the whole tract lying between those seas and a line drawn from the point of the Persian gulf to that of the Arabic gulf. This line, however, was never the real boundary of the country, which appears to have at all times extended northwards to a great distance, and to have been limited on one side by the river Euphrates, and on the west by Syria, Palestine, and the isthmus of Suez. Thus Arabia may be regarded as a vast but irregular triangle. From the northern point at Beles, where Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates, to the straits of Bab-elmandel, is a line of 1500 miles, forming the western side of the triangle, while its southern basis presents a front of 1000 miles to the Indian ocean. The medium breadth of the peninsula from Bassora on the Persian gulf to Suez on the Red sea is upwards of 700 miles. The entire surface of the country, therefore, exceeds France or Germany in a fourfold proportion. Being situated from 30° to 30° of N. Lat. and of consequence partly between the tropics, its climate must necessarily be regarded as hot. In some provinces, indeed, the heat is excessive; but in this country, as in others, the degrees of elevation of the soil produce effects upon the temperature which set aside all calculations that might be founded upon the general principle of the vicinity or remoteness of the torrid zone. To understand the varieties of climate that exist in Arabia, it is necessary to attend to the form and aspect of its surface. The whole centre of the Arabian peninsula, or interior country, consists of a succession of mountains. Around the foot of these mountains, adjacent to the sea-coast, is a belt of flat ground. This belt surrounds the whole of the Arabian peninsula. It proceeds along the shores of the Red sea, of the Indian ocean, and of the Persian gulf. Even the desert of Syria on the north may be considered as a part of this belt. It extends everywhere to the distance of about two days journey from the sea, and is denominated Tehama by the Arabs. This belt of flat land is dry and sandy, and presents one unvaried picture of desolation. It bears every mark of having been anciently a part of the bed of the sea. Its bottom soil is a grayish clay, with a large proportion of sand, and having remains of marine animals intermixed to a great distance from the shore. It contains large strata of salt, which in some places even rise up into hills. Its regular inclination towards the sea indicates that it has emerged gradually; and the sea seems still continuing to recede. The banks of coral are still increasing, and coming nearer to the shore, so as to render the navigation round Arabia every day more and more dangerous. The sand accumulated by the billows gradually fills up the intermediate space, and joins the beds of coral to the continent. This reception of the sea, however, or conquest over the watery element, has produced little advantage to man. The Tehama is everywhere a frightful desert of sand, diversified only by naked rocks, with nothing to soften the force of the sun's rays, and in which all vegetation is burnt up. The drought is so extreme in these flat plains, that whole years pass without rain; and the torrents which descend from the hills, which occupy the interior of the country, are lost among the sands long before they can reach the sea.

In the interior country, the soil and climate are very different. The great ranges of lofty mountains attract vapours, which, descending in abundant rains, cool the air, and quicken vegetation. The cold occasioned by the height of the country produces falls of snow, but this never lies long upon the ground. While the inhabitants of the plains suffer by heat, those of the hills are obliged to wrap themselves in pelices; but as the hills or mountains are by no means of the primary order in point of elevation, ice and steady frost seem to be unknown. The soil, however, is as much diversified as in other countries; but the figure of the hills is unfavourable to their fertility. They are in general to craggy and precipitous as to afford little space or soil for vegetable productions, the best part of the soil being continually washed away by the waters. Hence the culture of the land is difficult and expensive. Terraces must be formed, and the soil carefully preserved and accumulated upon them; so that, upon the whole, no part of Arabia can with any propriety be denominated rich or fertile. In the southern division of it, called by the ancients, by way of eminence, the Happy, or Arabia Felix, the inhabitants are at once industrious and poor. The desert between Syria and the Euphrates, or that part of Arabia which extends to the northward of the peninsula, is altogether incapable of improvement by culture. A wide level of land is only intersected by sharp mountains delitute of verdure, which render more powerful by reflection the intense rays of an almost tropical sun. The rare and hardy plants, the tamarind, or the acacia, that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of night. A grove of date trees, or a green pasture, attracts a small colony of Arabs; and a well of water is a place of importance and of resort.

Yet this desert is not destitute of a tolerable number of inhabitants. They rear the camel, a strong and patient beast of burden, which subsists on the most stunted and withered roots, or upon herbs of the gourd species, which abound in the driest countries. Neither are they destitute of horned cattle, and goats and sheep; and naturalists consider this as the native country of the horse, which is the peculiar favourite of the Arabians.

Properly speaking, there are two kinds or classes of Arabs; the one sedentary, that is, living in cities, or attached to husbandry, and the other, wandering in the pastoral state, called Bedouins. The Arabs settled in cities, and especially in sea-port towns, of which there are several on the coasts of the peninsula, have lost somewhat of their distinctive national manners by their intercourse with strangers; but the Bedouins, who live in tents, and are divided into tribes or clans, retain the customs and manners of their earliest ancestors. They are the genuine Arabs, and possess in the aggregate all those characteristics of which the other branches of the nation exhibit different shades and degrees. It is the difference in their ways of living that constitutes the great distinction between the different tribes. The genuine and nobler Arabs disdain husbandry, as an employment by which they would be degraded. They maintain no domestic animals but sheep, camels, and horses. Hence it is known, that Mahomet, the founder of their religion, belonged to a noble tribe or race, because he was a dealer in camels. Some tribes are even mentioned contemptuously by their countrymen, because they keep cows or dromedaries; and the peasants who cultivate the soil are accounted the lowest class. Even among the tribes which apply to agriculture, the chiefs live always in tents, and leave the culture of their grounds to their subjects, whose dwellings are miserable huts.

In the interior of Arabia, towards the Indian ocean, which is chiefly the quarter capable of being cultivated, some governments exist of a considerable extent; such as Yemen and Hadramant, and Oman. In these the people are of a mild and civilized character. A stranger travels unprotected and alone with as much safety as in any country in Europe. The only danger of imposition or of ill usage occurs in the sea-port towns, from the officers of government. Here also the religion of Mahomet exhibits a less intolerant aspect than in Turkey, Africa, or almost any other country. Indeed it is not a little singular, that while this religion extended itself to the pillars of Hercules, to the mouths of the Ganges, and to the extreme regions of Tartary, several tribes of native Arabs, secure in the fastnesses of their rugged mountains, regarded it with indifference or contempt. Some tribes in the interior could never be subdued by the power of the caliphs, and retain the worship of the heavenly bodies, as in the times of their ancestors. Even a tribe of Jews has existed for ages amidst these inaccessible mountains, though the most odious of mankind in the eyes of the surrounding Mahometans.

The Bedouins, or wandering Arabs, who constitute the body of the nation, are divided into an endless variety of tribes. Their chiefs, whether high or low, are denominated sheikhs. These sheikhs or nobles are very numerous, and the plebeians are invariably actuated and guided by them: They are both shepherds and soldiers. The dignity of sheikh is hereditary, but is not confined to the order of primogeniture. The petty sheikhs, who form the hereditary nobility, choose the grand sheikh of any district out of the reigning family, without regarding the degree of his propinquity to his last predecessor. They pay him little or no revenue, and the other sheikhs are rather his equals than his subjects. If dissatisfied with his government, they depose him, or go away with their cattle, and join another tribe. These emigrations, which happen not unfrequently, produce great revolutions among the tribes. Even the peasants possess a similar privilege. Though understood to be slaves, they may quit the service of a master with whom they are dissatisfied, and choose another. It was remarked, in the time of the Romans, that the Arabs were at once addicted to robbery and to commerce; a fact which holds true to this day. They become the faithful servants of the merchant, who hires them to conduct him through the desert; while at the same time they are extremely apt to consider the property of unprotected travellers as an object which they may lawfully seize. But it may also be remarked, that we are sometimes apt to consider as robbery what the Arabs view in another light. Every grand sheikh, or sheikh of sheikhs, as he is called, considers himself as the absolute lord of his whole territory, and exacts duties upon all goods carried through his dominions. The Europeans are wrong when they suppose the sums paid by travellers to the grand sheikhs to be a ransom to redeem them from pillage. On the contrary, it is regarded by the Arab nobles in no other light than as the duties levied in other countries by princes for the support of the government. The southern part of Arabia, called by the ancients Arabia Felix, has at times been subdued by strangers; but the Bedouins, who live in tents in the desert, do not appear to have ever been effectually conquered. In a contest with them, much is hazarded, and little can be won. Their horses and camels, which in eight or ten days can perform a march of 400 or 500 miles, disappear before a victorious army. The secret waters of the desert elude... the search of the invader, and his troops are consumed by hunger, thirst, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who mocks his efforts, and at all times finds safety in the midst of a burning solitude.

Notwithstanding the memory of their ancient independence, even the wandering Arabs are frequently tempted to settle near towns, or in fertile provinces; which has in different ages brought them into subjection to the sovereigns of these provinces. Their neighbours, also, such as the Persians, the princes of the Greek empire, and the modern Turks, have contrived to acquire an influence over some of the tribes, by founding divisions among the great families, and espousing the cause of pretenders to the dignity of grand sheikhs. Accordingly the Turks allege that they are the sovereigns of Arabia; but this is no more than a vain-glorious assertion, which is so far from being true, that they find it necessary to pay the usual tribute to the sheikhs when their caravans pass through the desert to Mecca. The tribes who live near the road keep the wells open, permit the passage of merchandise, and escort the caravans. Quarrels, indeed, often occur, in which the capacity of the Bedouins is seldom more remarkable than the insolence of the Turks, who regard all the Arabs as rebels. The famous Ali Bey, when he conducted the Egyptian caravan, would not pay all the duties on his way to Mecca, but promised to pay the rest on his return, and forgot his promise. On the year following the Arabs assembled in greater numbers, and obliged the captain of the caravan to pay both for himself and Ali Bey. The Turks exclaimed against this as an act of robbery; yet the Arabs had only done themselves justice. The conduct of Abdalla, pasha of Damascus, who commanded the Syrian caravan in 1756, was still more odious. When the sheikhs of the tribe of Harb came to meet him to receive the stipulated toll, he gave them a friendly invitation to visit him; but instead of paying the toll, he cut off their heads, and sent them to Constantinople, as a proof of his victory over the rebel Arabs. The stroke which they had thus suffered, by the death of their chiefs, hindered them from attempting anything in revenge, on either that or the following year: The caravans travelled in triumph to Mecca, and the Turks boasted of the valour and prudence of Abdalla Pasha. But in the third year the Arabs avenged the slaughtered sheikhs, and, with an army of 80,000 men, raised out of all the tribes, routed the Turks, and pillaged the caravan.—Thus the Arabs, notwithstanding their internal divisions, consider themselves on extraordinary occasions as one nation. A certain subordination even subsists among the tribes: The petty tribes being unable to defend themselves, place themselves under the protection of the greater, and are governed by their laws; and thus are powerful tribes formed by the union of several small tribes.

The climate and barren soil of their country has a considerable influence on the general character of the people. Arabians. They are an extremely sober and frugal nation, which produces in them an appearance of leanness and stinted growth. The usual articles upon which the better sort subsist are, rice, pulse, milk, and butter: mutton is their most common species of butcher's meat, but they seldom eat of it, as all kinds of animal food are accounted unwholesome in these hot countries. The common people have little other food than a kind of bread made of durra, a sort of coarse millet, by kneading it with camel's milk, oil, butter, or grease: They also use barley bread. Like the other natives of the warm regions of Asia, they have less reflexions or natural desire for exercise than the natives of the colder countries of Europe; and this inactivity is, no doubt, increased by their general habits of abstinence and extreme frugality with regard to food. They are astonished when they observe the quantity of all kinds of meat that Europeans devour at a meal, and account them guilty of the most odious gluttony; for they themselves, at least the wandering Arabs, are not only taught from their youth to live upon little, but even to accommodate themselves to any kind of food. Hence locusts are in common use among them, and have a considerable influence upon their condition. Immense clouds of these animals sometimes descend upon a district, and produce the greatest mischief, by destroying the whole verdure. They darken the air, and appear at a distance like clouds of smoke. The noise of their flight is stunning, like that of a waterfall. Every thing that is green is wasted by them; but corn, either ripe or nearly so, is too hard for their use. The Arabs of the desert convert this scourge to their advantage. They roast the locusts alive, and devour them eagerly; or they kill and dry them, and store them up for use: This food is said to be by no means unwholesome. The Jews of Arabia affirm, that the fowls, of which the Israelites ate so largely in the wilderness or desert, were only clouds of locusts; and they ridicule our translators, for supposing that they found quails where quails never were.

In Arabia polygamy was always tolerated, and is permitted by the law of Mahomet; but the Arabians are, in general, too poor to avail themselves of the words privilege of possessing a plurality of wives. The law, however, has this effect, that it often induces the rich to give their daughters to poor men in preference to those who are wealthy. The marriage articles are made out before the cadi or judge. The wife's property is secured to her even during the marriage, so that she becomes absolute mistress of her husband's house; and he, having no separate property, can have no means of bringing another wife into the family. All women, however, in Arabia live in a most retired manner. They receive no visits from strangers of the other sex. In the houses of the rich the front apartments belong to the men, and those behind to the women. In the houses of persons of inferior rank, destitute of a variety of apartments, when the husband carries a stranger to his house, he enters before him, and calls aloud, tarik, retire; upon which the women instantly disappear; and even his most intimate friends never see one of them. Their notions of the delicacy necessary to be observed, with regard to women, is extreme. It is accounted impolite to salute a woman, or even to look her steadfastly in the face. In the neighbourhood of the city of Barra, an adventure occurred which displays in strong colours the jealousy of the Arabians in whatever concerns the other sex. A man of eminence, belonging to the tribe of Montefidfi, had given his daughter in marriage to an Arab of the tribe of Korne. Shortly after the marriage a sheick of an inferior tribe asked him in a coffeehouse, whether... whether he was father of the handsome young wife of such a one, whom he named? The father supposing his daughter's honour ruined, immediately left the company to stab her. At his return from the execution of this inhuman deed, he who had so indirectly put the question, was gone. Breathing nothing now but vengeance, he fought him everywhere; and not finding him, killed in the mean time several of his relations, without sparing even his cattle or servants. The offender offered the governor of Korne a great sum, if he would rid him of so furious an adversary. The governor sent for him who had been offended, and endeavoured by threats and a show of the apparatus of punishment to force him to a reconciliation; but the vengeful Arab would rather meet death than forego his revenge. Then the governor, to preserve a man of such high honour, soothed him to an agreement, by which the first aggressor gave his daughter, with a handsome portion, in marriage to him whom he had offended. But the father-in-law durst never after appear before his son-in-law.

Revenge is indeed among the Arabs a most ungovernable sentiment. In some of the states of the southern part of the peninsula the government is strong enough to restrain private revenge, and to confine itself the punishment of crimes, as in other civilized countries; but over a great part of Arabia the relations of a person slain are allowed to accept a composition in money, to require the murderer to surrender himself to justice, or to avenge themselves on him or his family. The passion of avarice is often found to afford, among barbarians, the best means of subduing animosity; but in many places among the Arabians it is accounted disgraceful to take money for the shedding of blood, which, by their laws of honour, can be expiated only by blood. Their refined malice even refuses to be satisfied by the destruction of the assassin either by their own hands or by the hand of public justice; for this would be to deliver from an unworthy member a family which deserves no such favour from them: hence they revenge themselves, as custom allows, by substituting an innocent to the guilty person, and seek an opportunity of slaying the chief or the most considerable person of the race of him by whom they have been injured. When a murder has been committed, therefore the two families are in continual fears till some one or other of the murderer's family be slain. Till this occur no reconciliation can take place, and the quarrel is occasionally renewed. If in the contest a man of the murdered person's family happen to fall, there can be no peace till two others of the murderer's have been slain, and there are instances of such family feuds lasting forty years.

Nor is the point of honour confined to such cases as those we have now mentioned. The noble Bedouins carry their pride higher than even our barbarous ancestors seem to have done. If one chieftain says to another, with a serious air, "thy bonnet is dirty," or "the wrong side of thy turban is out," nothing but blood can wash away the reproach; and not merely the blood of the offenders, but that also of all the Arabs of his family. An insult offered to the beard of an Arab is regarded with equal indignation, and produces equal resentment.

When these capital points, however, are avoided, the Arabs are understood to be by no means quarrelsome. They take a pride in preserving their coolness of temper against reproachful language. When a dispute happens suddenly to arise among them, they make much noise, and are apt to forget themselves, and to proceed to extremities; but should an indifferent person calmly say to them, "think of God and his prophet," they instantly make an effort to resume their tranquillity, and a reconciliation is effected. If this contest cannot be settled at once, they choose arbitrators, to whose decision they submit.

The manners of the Arabs are grave and serious. As soon as boys attain to five or six years of age, they pass whole days together in their father's company, and are indeed allowed to be as seldom out of it as possible. Being thus always under the eyes of persons advanced in life, they acquire a penitence and gravity of manners, and an air of recollection, at a very early age. Their imaginations being accustomed to barren deserts and bare rocks, are apt to acquire a gloomy cast; but in Yemen or Arabia Felix, where the soil is more fertile and the population more considerable, they possess sufficient vivacity of character, and are extremely fond of society. In the towns of Syria in which they settle they are far more cheerful and fond of amusement than the Turks. Both there and in Arabia Felix they are fond of frequenting coffee-houses and public markets.

In the earliest ages the Arabians were always accustomed admirers of poetry, and were accustomed to celebrate in verse the military exploits of their chiefs. The genius and merit of a rising poet was rewarded by the applause of his own and of the kindred tribes; and they regarded him as a herald risen up to immortalize their renown. Before the days of Mahomet there existed an institution which the fanaticism of his first followers abolished. An annual fair was held, to which the most distant or hostile tribes resorted, and which lasted thirty days. For some time before and after this fair, amounting in all to two, or as some say, to four months, a general truce took place; during which every public and private quarrel was suspended throughout the whole extent of Arabia. This truce was sanctioned by the laws of honour; and, as a breach of it was attended with perpetual infamy, every sword was religiously sheathed while it lasted. At this great market not only corn and wine, but also eloquence and poetry were exchanged. The prize was disputed by the emulation of the bards, and the victorious performance was deposited in the archives of the prince; and, on some extraordinary occasions, inscribed in letters of gold, and suspended in the temple of Mecca, which even in these early times was a place of national pilgrimage. Generosity and valour formed the favourite theme of the songs of the Arabian poets; and their keenest satire or bitterest reproach against a despotic race, consisted of the affirmation, that the men knew not how to give, nor the women to deny. Such a festival, resembling, in some measure, the Olympic games of the Greeks, must have possessed considerable influence in humanizing the manners of the people.

As the northern part of Arabia was situated in the very centre of the most civilized nations of antiquity, whose caravans must have been continually passing through it; its inhabitants, therefore, could not fail at a very early period, to acquire some portion of that information which an acquaintance with intelligent strangers brings along with it. As a commerce with India appears at a very early period to have been carried on by sea from the southern parts of the peninsula, it is probable that such a portion of literature as might be requisite for conducting its transactions would be cultivated by the Arabians in a very distant antiquity. Literature however was never diffused to any great extent in this peninsula. In the northern parts, indeed, or in the Syrian desert, where the Roman and Persian empires flourished on each side, the Arabian city of Palmyra appears to have received and cultivated the learning and the arts of Greece; and at a future period, when the successors of Mahomet carried their dominion into other countries, in which they settled and pursued the arts of peace, the Arabian conquerors cultivated various branches of literature. At all times, however, the desert itself, or the native country of the Arabians, has exhibited an illiterate race of men. At present their youth are not indeed entirely neglected. The chiefs of the desert can frequently read and write, and in the cities many of the lowest of the people possess these qualifications. They have schools in their mosques for the education of the poor; and in great towns there are schools to which persons in better circumstances send their sons; but no girls attend the public schools, being privately taught at home by women. The Arabians can scarcely be said to possess any science. Astronomy is somewhat valued by them, but only in subordination to astrology, a science highly esteemed and very lucrative in the East, though prohibited by the Mahometan law. From their ignorance they are indeed extremely fond of what are called the occult sciences, which are supposed to enable their possessors to become familiar with genius, and to oblige them to obey their pleasure, to teach how to command the winds and seas, to cure the bites of serpents and many diseases or infirmities. A great part, however, of these occult sciences have appeared to strangers to be nothing more than tricks, which the credulity of the people induces individuals to practise upon them. The Arabians are also extremely superstitious. It frequently happens that a town has been reared on the spot which it occupies, merely in consequence of its having been the dwelling place of some Mahometan hermit or saint. In this way the city of Loheia was founded. Its founder and patron was a saint called Schieck Szelei, who spent his days in a hut on the shore of the Red Sea. A house of prayer was afterwards raised over his tomb, and some devout persons imagining it would be a great happiness to live near the remains of so holy a person, built huts around it. Nearly at the same time the sea having receded from a neighbouring harbour, an accident which is always happening on the Arabian coast, the inhabitants deserted it, and settled at Loheia, which is now a well-frequented port. In the same way the city of Beit el Fakeh originated around the tomb of a saint called Ahmed ibn Mufa. Some devout persons built themselves cottages round his tomb, and the harbour of Galifka being about the same time choked up, the inhabitants of that city removed thither. This saint was a great worker of miracles. A Turkish pasha, who had been for 20 years a captive in Spain, where he was bound with ponderous chains to two large stones, long and vainly invoked the aid of different saints. Last of all he bethought himself of the great Achmed, and invoked him also in his turn. The saint stretched out his hand from his tomb; and at that very instant, in the presence of many witnesses, the pasha arrived from Spain, bearing with him his chains and the stones to which they were fixed. This miracle took place not many years ago, on the eve of the festival of the saint; and the Arabs regard it as authenticated by unexceptionable evidence, notwithstanding all prayers or invocations to saints are strictly prohibited by the Koran. Another miracle performed by Imael Mulk, the patron saint of the city of Taes, is easily accounted for. Two beggars had asked charity from the dola or governor of Taes, but only one of them had tasted of his bounty. The other went upon this to the tomb of Imael Mulk to implore his aid. Imael, who, when alive, had been very charitable, stretched his hand out of the tomb, and gave the beggar a letter containing an order on the dola to pay the beggar an hundred crowns. Upon examining this order with the greatest care, it was found that Imael Mulk had written it with his own hand, and sealed it with his seal. The governor could not refuse payment, but to avoid all subsequent trouble from such bills of exchange, he had a wall built inclosing the tomb.

In the southern parts of Arabia the posterity of the saints are treated with as much respect as is shown to the descendants of Mahomet at Mecca, which is very great. Every person who can number a reputed saint among his ancestors, is dignified with the title of Schieck, and accounted an ecclesiastic by birth. Families thus find it their interest to establish, by every possible means, the sanctity of the person from whom they are descended, and to maintain the authenticity of the miracles ascribed to him. In this manner, in spite of the Koran, which is strictly unitarian, the superstitious worship of saints is daily extending its influence among the Arabs, and feigned miracles are consequently multiplying, so that they may be said in some measure to be relapsing into the polytheism of their ancestors. At the same time it is to be observed, that within these forty years a sort of reformation of religion has been attempted, and even accomplished, in a part of the central or mountainous country of Arabia, by one Abdul Wahheb, in whose family a sovereignty of considerable extent has been established. He taught that God, as the creator and governor of the world, is the only proper object of worship. He forbade the invocation of saints, and the very mention of the name of Mahomet, or of any other prophet, in prayer, as practices favouring of idolatry. He forbade the making of vows to obtain deliverance from danger, as a crime against providence. He represented Moses, Mahomet, Jesus Christ, who were respected by his countrymen as prophets, as merely great men, whose history might be read with improvement; denying that any book was ever written by divine inspiration, or brought down from heaven by the angel Gabriel.

In thinly peopled countries men can afford to be hospitable to strangers, because they see them seldom, and charity. In Arabia, however, this virtue is still more valued than elsewhere. Poverty is a misfortune very general among among the people of this country; and when travelling through their deserts they are apt to suffer great hardships both from hunger and thirst. Hence among them kindness to strangers, and charity to the poor, are the most popular of all virtues, and a breach of the sacred laws of hospitality is productive of the most indelible dishonour. The rapacity of even an Arabian robber is checked by the influence of this law, and an enemy is safe with those who have consented to taste along with him a morsel of bread. On the whole it appears that the inhabitants of this great territory, though in general barbarians, are yet of a mixed character. A part of them have in every age participated the civilization of the countries in their neighbourhood; and though the tribes of the desert have been always in some measure independent, and governed only by their own fancy or prejudices, yet they have always acknowledged a connexion with the rest of the nation that reside in towns, or that cultivate the soil. Though labouring under a degree of that tendency to indolence which is common to rude nations, yet their poverty and the hardships to which they are inured, prepare them for the toils of war, and render them capable of enterprise.

Of the present Persian empire, in a general view of Asia, it is unnecessary to take much notice. Both sides of the Persian gulf are at some distance possessed by the Arabs, and the interior provinces have sunk into decay under a long succession of military usurpations. Cultivation is in a great measure confined to the near neighbourhood of a few towns; and a considerable part of the open country is used for the pasturage of the cattle of wandering hordes of barbarians that have descended from Tartary, and that now occupy these seats of ancient civilization and riches.

We have already remarked, that between the Persian gulf on the south, and the Caspian sea on the north, but nearest to the Caspian, a chain of mountains, the celebrated Taurus of the ancients, proceeds from the straits of the Dardanelles eastward to the front of the high central region of Asia called Imaus. After passing the Caspian sea and the Persian gulf, these mountains widen to a great extent, and the middle ridge, as it reaches Imaus, becomes very elevated. This middle ridge appears to be crossed by no rivers, and accordingly the streams which descend from itself, or from Imaus on the northern side of it, proceed in a north-westerly direction to the Caspian or the lake Aral. These are chiefly the Oxus and the Jaxartes. To the south of the middle ridge of Taurus, the rivers descend southward to the Arabian sea or Indian ocean. The principal river that descends southward from the western or south-western front of Imaus is the river Sind or Indus, the upper branches of which approach very near to those of the Oxus; and it may be proper here to remark that the present commerce between the Russian empire and India proceeds in this channel. The merchants, after leaving the Caspian sea, travel in caravans or bodies up the river Oxus and down the river Indus. In the mountainous country near the western and south-western front of Imaus, are several beautiful valleys, which in all ages have been the admiration of travellers. Among these we may mention between Imaus and the Caspian, the valley or country of Sogdia with its capital Samarcan. This country was in ancient times accounted by the orientals a terrestrial paradise, possessing all the fertility of a torrid climate with the salubrity of the coldest regions. Not less remarkable, upon the south-western front of Imaus, on one of the heads of the river Indus, is the valley of Cashmere, which in every age has been the happy valley of the Indian poets, or the paradise of Hindoostan. It is of an oval form, about 80 miles in length and 40 in breadth, and is supposed to have been once filled with water, which having burst its mound, left this valley fertilized to the most distant ages by the mud which had been deposited in it. The emperors of Hindoostan frequently visited it to forget the cares of government, and to collect new health and vigour from the salubrity of the air and the beauties of the place. In 1664 Aurengzebe went thither for this purpose from Agra his Indian capital. M. Bernier attended in quality of physician to one of his omrahs. The train of the emperor was extremely splendid. The heats on the march were dreadful, as the lofty mountains that skirt the front of the high region of Tartary prevent the cool air of the north from descending to refresh the parched plains of India. A vast mountain called Bember divides Cashmere from India. The southern side of this mountain is steep and arid. The procession encamped in the channel of a large torrent dried up, full of sand and stones, which were burning hot. "After passing the Bember (says M. Bernier) we pass from a torrid to a temperate zone: for we had no sooner mounted this dreadful wall of the world, I mean this high, steep, black, and bald mountain of Bember, than in descending on the other side, we found an air that was pretty tolerable, fresh, gentle and temperate. But that which surprized me more in these mountains was to find myself in a trice transported out of the Indies into Europe. For seeing the earth covered with all our plants and shrubs, except hyssop, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary, I imagined I was in some of our mountains of Auvergne in the midst of a forest of all kinds of trees, pines, oaks, elms, plane-trees. And I was the more astonished, because in all those burning fields of Indoflan, whence I came, I had seen almost nothing of all that.

"Among other things relating to plants this surprized me, that one and a half days journey from Bember I found a mountain that was covered with them on both sides, but with this difference, that on the side of the mountain that was southerly towards the Indies there was a mixture of Indian and European plants, and on that which was exposed to the north I observed none but European ones, as if the former had participated of the air and temper of Europe and the Indies, and the other had been merely European." The same traveller proceeds in his description of this valley or kingdom of Cashmere. "Thousands of cascades descend from the surrounding mountains of this enchanting plain, and forming rivulets meandering through all parts, render it so fair and fruitful, that one would take this whole kingdom for some great evergreen garden, intermixed with villages and boroughs discovering themselves between trees, and diversified by meadows, fields of rice, corn, and divers other legumes, of hemp and saffron, all interlaced with ditches full of water, with channels, with small lakes and rivulets here and there. Up and down everywhere are..." also seen some of our European plants, flowers, and all sorts of our trees, as apples, pears, prunes, apricots, cherries, nuts, vines. The particular gardens are full of melons, skirrets, beets, radishes, all sorts of our pot-herbs, and of some we have not."

This delightful spot is surrounded by the mountains adjoining to Imaus, which are of vast height and rude aspect, perpetually covered with snow. At the foot of the exterior chain of mountains is an inner circle of hills, which abound in trees, grass, and various sorts of vegetation, and which are full of all kinds of cattle, as cows, sheep, goats, gazelles, and mules. The exterior mountains are so lofty and cold, that the pioneers of Aurengzebe were obliged to cut through a glacier, or a great mass, as Bernier calls it, of icy snow. The capital is sometimes called Cashmere, sometimes Sirinagar, and sometimes Nagor. It is in N. Lat. 34.12. on the banks of a celebrated river, the fabulous Hydaspes of the ancients. Its current is smooth, and it is navigable in Cashmere by small boats. The town was in Bernier's time three quarters of a French league long on both sides of the river, and extending from it along a navigable canal to a small but beautiful lake. The houses are built of wood, four stories or more in height. The lower story is for the cattle, the next for the family, and the third and fourth serve as warehouses. The roofs are planted with tulips, which have a most beautiful effect in the spring. Every part of the country exhibits the remains of palaces, pavilions, and gardens, formed there by the emperors of Hindoostan.

The periodical rains which almost deluge the rest of India, are excluded from Cashmere by the height of the mountains; and it experiences only light showers, which, however, are sufficient to feed the thousands of cascades which descend into the valley from every part of the stupendous and romantic bulwark of mountains by which it is encircled. The horfes of this country are small, hardy, and sure-footed. The cows are black and ugly, but yield abundance of milk and excellent butter. They have also a kind of fleece which is used to carry burdens. The elk is mentioned as one of the wild animals that inhabit the woods at the base of the snowy mountains in the neighbourhood.

Cashmere is famous for its manufacture of shawls made of the wool of the broad tailed sheep of Thibet, whose fleeces, in fineness, beauty, and length, are said to exceed all others in the world. The Cashmerians engage this article, and have factors in all parts of Thibet for buying up the wool, which is sent into Cashmere and worked into shawls of the highest value. The Indian emperor Akbar, who conquered this country in 1585, greatly encouraged this manufacture, and introduced it into Lahore. The natural colour of the wool is said to be gray tinged with red, but sometimes it is quite white.

The Cashmerians are accounted an ingenious people, fond of poetry, and having a language of their own. They are industrious mechanics, and the various articles of their workmanship are sent to all parts of India. They are celebrated for the fineness of their features and their admirable complexions. They look like Europeans, and neither resemble their neighbours of Tartary nor of India, having nothing of the flat noses and small eyes of the Tartars, nor of the black colour of the Indians. In the time of Bernier the Indian courtiers were extremely solicitous to obtain Cashmerian women, to have children by them whiter than the natives of Hindoostan, that they might pass for the true Mogul breed of the same race with their monarch.

As already mentioned, India consists of two peninsulas, one to the westward and the other to the eastward of the Ganges. The western peninsula is overlooked from the north, by that part of the chain of Imaus or Emodus which constitutes the southern front of the region of Tartary. In the south-western side of this high region the rivers Ganges and Indus have their source. After advancing westward to no great distance from the Indus, the river Ganges turns towards the south, and afterwards traverses almost the whole breadth of the peninsula in an easterly direction, till at last it proceeds south into the bay or gulf of Bengal. The Indus, rising in the south-western part of Tartary, called Cashgar, descends in a south but somewhat westerly course, till it enters the Arabian sea by various channels to the northward of the bay of Cutch. At its mouth it has a broad delta or tract of fertile land, like the Nile in Egypt, formed by its own alluvions, or the deposition of mud brought down from the high country by the periodical floods to which it is subject. To a great distance from the sea it flows, like the Nile, along a fertile valley enriched by its inundations. Parallel to the channel of the river, after it has received all its tributary streams, run two chains of mountains, by which its course is directed, and its valley is separated from other countries. Beyond the mountains, on the east, extends a sandy desert of 200 miles in breadth, by which the valley of the Indus is shut out from the rest of India. The whole course of this river amounts to nearly 1000 miles. It has an uninterrupted navigation from the sea, for flat-bottomed vessels of nearly 200 tons, as high as the city of Lahore, at the distance of about 650 miles. The current of the Indus must be rapid, as vessels frequently fall down the river from Lahore in 12 days; but the ascending passage requires six or seven weeks.

As the Indus and the Ganges nearly peninsulate or enclose western India on the north, in a manner similar referred to that in which it is enclosed by the ocean on the south, we shall take some farther notice of the course of the Indus. This river is the most westerly of India. Before it enters the narrow tract already mentioned between the mountains, which run parallel to its course, it is formed by the contribution of a variety of streams, which have their sources in the rugged country adjacent to high Tartary. These rivers, whose union forms the Indus, water a large and fertile territory, a part of which appears to have belonged to the ancient Persian empire of Darius Hyphasis. Various great and populous cities have in different ages stood upon these streams, in what is called the Panjab, or country of the five rivers, which consists of spacious and fertile plains. Alexander the Great reached these plains, and they formed the scene of his exploits against Porus and other Indian kings. Here also ended the progress of the Macedonian conqueror. He built a fleet of vessels, and defended the river with his army; an attempt which he is said to have been induced to make, from a notion that he had found out the head of the Nile. As in his time it was not known to the Greeks that any other river in the world, excepting that of Egypt, contained crocodiles, the discovery of crocodiles in the river Indus, suggested the notion in these times, when geography was so little understood, that there might be some communication between this river and the great river of Africa. Arrian says, that Alexander had even written to his mother an account of his discovery of the head of the Nile. But the voyage down the river pointed out the mistake, as it brought him to the ocean.

The lower parts of the Indus, or the fertile but swampy land near its mouth, was in the time of the ancients unhealthy and hot in the extreme. This rich delta or triangle of land is of great extent, each side of the triangle being 115 miles in length. The mouth of the river was well known at a very early period. Not only did Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, sail from it to the Persian gulf; but at a much earlier period, Darius Hydaspes, from curiosity to ascertain the place at which the Indus met the ocean, built, according to Herodotus, a fleet on the borders of Scythia, that is, of Tartary, high up the river, and gave the command of it to Scylax, a Grecian of Caryanda, an able sailor. He was directed to be attentive to discoveries on both sides; and when he reached the mouth, to sail westward, and that way to return home. He executed his commission; sailed the straits of Babelmandel; and in thirty months from the time he sailed from Calpatrius, landed safely in Egypt; at the place from whence it is said, that Necho sent his Phoenicians to circumnavigate Africa, by its now well-known promontory the Cape of Good Hope. This expedition took place in the 12th year of Darius, and in the year 509 before the Christian era.

The delta or low country is still extremely unhealthy. The heats are so violent, in consequence of the vicinity of the sandy deserts, that it is found necessary to ventilate the houses occasionally, by means of apertures in the tops like chimneys. When the hottest winds prevail, the windows that are closely shut exclude the warmer current of the air, while the more elevated part of the atmosphere being cooler, descends through the chimneys. The soil depends for its fertility entirely upon the overflows of the river; and it sometimes happens that a single shower does not fall during three years. There are no trees upon the delta; but in the drier parts the soil is covered with brushwood. The city of Tatta stands in the delta, upon the western branch of the river, about 65 miles from the sea, which is the distance to which the tide ascends. The British had at one period a factory here, for the purpose of transmitting the English broad cloths to the high countries around the sources of the Indus. Beyond Tatta, various towns are formed along the fertile banks of this river, during its whole progress between the parallel ranges of mountains, which are distant from its banks from 30 to 40 miles. In latitude 29° 8', on the eastern side, the Indus is joined by the river Setlege or Hydadrus; and it is to be remarked, that in consequence of the sandy deserts by which the lower parts of the Indus are surrounded, this is the first river that falls into it, in a tract of 520 miles from the sea. The river Setlege is the southern boundary of the Panjab already mentioned, which having from time immemorial been a most fertile and populous region, and at the same time the frontier of India towards the north-west, has been the scene in different ages of the most dreadful massacres, by the celebrated destroyers of mankind, Alexander the Great, Timur or Tamerlane, and Kouli Khan. The river Setlege rises at the foot of Mount Imaus, and is joined by another stream, called the Beyah or Hyphafir. Both of them pass through a fertile tract of country.

About 50 miles above the discharge of the Setlege, Chunaub, another river, called the Chunaub or Aefines, falls into the Indus. On the southern banks of the Chunaub, in latitude 30° 34' stands the city of Moultan, the capital of a province, in a country very fertile in cotton, the Baniyas, who are also sugar, opium, brimstone, galls, and abundant in camels, which animals also are reared in great numbers on the lower parts of the Indus. This city is remarkable for being the principal residence of the Baniyas, an hereditary caste or tribe, who employ themselves solely in commerce, and are the merchants or brokers of India. Their chief resides here, but they form settlements in every commercial town of India; and they send colonies to the trading towns of Arabia and Persia, and even as far as Afracan. As these die away or incline to return home, a supply is sent from India of unmarried young men. As no females attend them, they live at Afracan and some other places, with Tartarian women; but the contract lasts only during their residence. They are highly esteemed for the integrity of their dealings, and are trusted to a great extent by Europeans and other strangers, as well as by the natives. They are the bankers of India; and the confidence repose in them is one of the means by which the civilization of that country has been preserved amidst its revolutions and the fanquinary wars of its princes. No prince has ever offered violence to the Baniyas, with the view of extorting from them their treasures, without speedily finding himself undone. His officers have instantly conspired against him, because by robbing the Baniyas, or bankers in whose hands their money was deposited, he ultimately plundered the very persons who supported his power, and had the readiest access to his person.

About 160 miles above Moultan, is Lahore, the capital of the Seiks, a set of religionists who venerate the ox like the Hindoos, but who are pure Monotheists and Predestinarians, worshipping God without the use of images. They form a sort of aristocratical republic. They can raise 100,000 cavalry, and they have of late become very formidable. They are a kind of Indian reformers, hostile both to the government and the religion of the country. They admit of profelytes, and have no castes or division into distinct hereditary professions. In their territory a vast mountain of rock salt is found, which is cut into dishes, plates, and stands for lamps.

Between Lahore and Moultan, the Chunaub is joined by the Behut, or the fabulosus Hydapher, which flows, as already mentioned, from the romantic Cathmere. A little above the mouth of the Chunaub, the Indus receives an obscure river, the Lucca, from the territory on the north-west, called the kingdom of Candahar. The city of Candahar, situated in N. Lat. 33° E. Long. 67° 15', was anciently a place of much importance, being the gate of India, with respect to Persia, and the great magazine of Indian and Persian goods. goods. Somewhat higher, that is, more northerly, two tributary streams enter the Indus, called the Cow or Cophenes, and the Kameh or Gurdas. On the former stands the city of Ghizni, and on the latter is Cabul. This last city is in N. Lat. 34° 36' and E. Long. 68° 58' near the foot of the Indian Caucasus, or Imaus. It stands in so happy a climate, that it produces the fruits both of the temperate and torrid zones, though it is in the near neighbourhood of mountains, whose summits are covered with perpetual snow. The Indian historians speak of it with raptures. Cabul is the residence of the kings of Candahar. It has at all times been of much importance, as the frontier of India towards the river Oxus, which flows into the Caspian sea, and towards Tartary. In ancient times, it always was a great commercial magazine, as well as an important fortress. To this day, it is on the direct road by which the commerce of the southern parts of the Russian empire is carried on with India. It is at present noted for its vast fairs of horses and cattle, the first of which are brought hither by the Uzbek Tartars; and merchants resort to these markets from Persia, China, and Tartary. Near the mouth of the river Kameh, the city of Attock stands upon the Indus. Attock signifies forbidden; this being the original boundary of Hindoostan, towards the north-west, which the Hindoos were prohibited to pass. Here the river is three quarters of a mile broad, and the water is cold, and the stream rapid and turbulent, having much black sand suspended in it. To this place the Indus descends from the lofty mountains of Imaus, and the high region of Tartary. The remainder of its course, therefore, lies through a country little known, and so rude in its soil and climate, as scarcely to admit even of the most slender population.

Returning to the ocean, it is to be observed, that the most eastern of the branches into which the Indus is divided towards its mouth, flows into the bay or gulf of Cutch, which advances far into the country, receiving the river Puddar. This river, and the bay into which it flows, form one side of the fertile peninsula of Guzerat, the other side of the same peninsula being contiguous to the gulf of Cambay. The western parts of the peninsula of Guzerat are mountainous and woody. The rest is extremely rich, and once famed for a very considerable commerce of its productions. Here stood in former times, on the promontory of Guzerat in the neighbourhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese in India, the great temple or pagoda of Sumnat. It was destroyed in the eleventh century by Mahmud, the greatest of the princes of that race of Tartars called Turks. He was the sovereign of Ghizni, which we have already noticed as a town in the kingdom of Candahar, upon one of the streams that fall into the Indus from the north-west. Being a most fanatical Mahometan, he undertook 12 holy wars, as they were called, against the unbelieving nations of India. Lahore, Moultan, and Delhi, were compelled to open their gates to him, and he at last reached and conquered the rich peninsula or kingdom of Guzerat. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions, and the people their lives and fortunes; but to the religion of the country Mahmud was inexorable. Many hundred temples or pagodas were levelled with the ground. Many thousand idols were demolished; and the servants of the Arabian prophet were stimulated, and rewarded, by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of Sumnat was at this time conspicuous beyond all the retreats of Indian superstition. Its magnificence and its destruction deserve well to be noticed, as indicating the character of two Asiatic nations: the riches and devout superstition of the one, and the furious fanaticism which the other had been able to diffuse over a great part of the world. This pagoda, or temple, was endowed with the revenue of 2000 villages; 2000 Brahmans were consecrated to the service of the deity, whom they washed each morning and evening with water from the distant Ganges. The subordinate ministers consisted of 300 musicians, 300 barbers, and 500 dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the temple were protected by the ocean: the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or artificial precipice, and the city and adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but they boasted, that if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge the faith of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian deity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the spears of the Molesms; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The trembling Brahmans are said to have offered ten millions sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, that the destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoo, and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. "Your reasons," replied the sultan, "are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols." He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree the devout prodigality of the Brahmans. The fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened, says the historian, Gibbon, to the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph, with the title of Guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet.

Adjoining to the peninsula of Guzerat, and at the bottom of the gulf of Cambay, stands the city of that Cambay name, which once was the capital of a considerable kingdom. It is situated in a great manufacturing country, which furnishes large quantities of coarse unbleached cotton cloth, for Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and Abyssinia; also blue cloths for the same countries, and for the English and Dutch trade on the western coast of Africa; likewise blue and white checks to be used as mantles in Arabia and Turkey, some coarse, and others enriched with gold; muslins for turbans, gauzes, mixed stuffs of silk and cotton, and shawls made of the Cashmerean wool. This country also sends annually to Surat, Bengal, China, Persia, and Arabia, immense quantities of raw cotton, as well as rich embroideries of various kinds.

From the bottom of the gulf of Cambay, the peninsula of western India may be said to begin in the strictest Hindoostan. Asi.

Aft. est tenfe; as a line of coast here commences, which proceeds without interruption, or any considerable bending, to Cape Comorin, the southern part of the peninsula, after which the coast suddenly turns to the north-east; and the bay of Bengal bounds the peninsula on the east. From Cambay to Cape Comorin, the western coast of the peninsula may be divided into three unequal parts. The first extends from the most advanced part of the gulf southward, a little beyond the city of Surat. The second tract of coast, which is more extensive than this, in a fourfold proportion, is called the coast of Concan, or the pirate coast. To the southward of this, the coast of the peninsula, all the way to Cape Comorin, receives the appellation of the Malabar coast. The first of these divisions, lying upon the eastern shore of the gulf of Cambay, consists of a low country, into which the rivers descend from the upper part of the peninsula of Hindostan. After passing Surat, however, the physical structure of the peninsula assumes a peculiar character well worthy of attention. The Concan and Malabar coasts which form almost the whole of the western shores of the peninsula are extremely low, and a narrow stripe of level land, of from 40 to 50 miles in breadth, runs along the coast of Surat to Cape Comorin. At the back of this strip of low land, a chain of mountains runs parallel to the sea shore. They are called the Ghauts, and rise to a surprising height, opposing to the west a lofty wall of rugged and precipitous rocks. The whole chain seems one continued crest or wall, inaccessible to the summit, unless by paths which have been worked by the hand of man, and which cannot be ascended, even by a single traveller, without the fatiguing labour of many hours. From the root of these rocks, the plain towards the sea is variegated with small hills, which gradually descend into a level and fertile country, blest with a cool and healthy air. The small hills near the foot of the Ghauts are clothed with forests of the most valuable timber; and from the sides of the mountains magnificent cataracts descend, forming torrents which facilitate the conveyance of the timber to the sea coast.

The word Ghauts signifies pass; but this name has been given to the whole front of rocks which overlooks the western coast. At the summit of the Ghauts the country is level, and consists of an elevated tract of fertile and populous plains, which are supported to the west by the Ghauts, as by the walls of a terrace formed on an immense scale. The country, however, begins gradually to descend towards the east; and accordingly from Surat to Cape Comorin, the great rivers of the peninsula uniformly flow from the Ghauts eastward, and form considerable tracts of low rich land upon that coast, which receives the appellation of the Coromandel coast. Thus the western peninsula of India must be considered as resembling a plane, gradually inclining towards the east, and supported on the west by a long chain of lofty rocks.

In the north-western quarter of the peninsula, the two most considerable rivers that flow into the gulf of Cambay, are the Nerbudda, in N. Lat. 23° 10' E. Long. 82° 10', which runs a course of 700 miles, from the centre of the northern part of the peninsula; and the river Tapti, upon which stands the celebrated city of Surat, in N. Lat. 21° 11'. This city has long been well known as a place of great commerce. It is the port from which the Mahometan pilgrims sail on their way to Mecca. The oldest British factory in India is in this city, and it is still a place of the first commercial importance. Wheat grows in great abundance in the surrounding country, of equal quality with that of Europe, though it scarcely flourishes farther to the south.

On the coast of Concan, or the Pirate coast, is the island of Bombay, containing a celebrated British settlement which need not here be noticed. The Pirate coast contains a great variety of harbours, and is thus described by Mr. Remmel: "Perhaps there are few coasts so much broken into small bays and harbours, and that at the same time have so straight a general outline. This multitude of small ports, uninterrupted view along shore, and elevated coasts favourable to distant vision, have fitted this coast for the seat of piracy; and the alternate land and sea breezes that prevail during a great part of the year, oblige vessels to navigate very near the shore. No wonder then that Pliny should notice them in his time, as committing depredations on the Roman East India trade; and although a temporary check has been given them in the destruction of Angria's fleet, &c.; yet we may expect they will continue the practice while commerce lasts. They are protected by the shallowness of their ports and the strength of the country within. As pirates, they have greater natural advantages than those of Barbary, who being compelled to roam far from their coasts, have expensive outposts; here the prizes come to their own doors, and the cruisers may be secure in port until the prey is discovered."

In ancient times the Romans were obliged to put on board their merchant ships a number of archers to defend them against the attacks of these pirates. In modern times the pirates have made a considerable figure, particularly under a chief called Angria, who was subdued by the English, and his port Gheriah taken. They sometimes use vessels of 300 tons with three masts; but, in general, they are of 150 tons and only two masts. Their cannon are six and nine pounders. They make prize of all that do not descend to purchase their passports. As the British trade in these seas is carried on in large vessels, it does not suffer from the pirates; but the ships of the Indians are much exposed to their enterprises. It is said, that the celebrated Hyder Ally established a sea port upon this coast, at the town of Mangalore, with a view of accomplishing a most grand but visionary plan. He hadly's project formed the project not only of becoming sovereign of invading the Indian seas, but even retaliating on the British invasions they had made into India. To become a naval power, he invited shipwrights from all countries, and under them trained his own subjects. He had heard something of the effects of frost in cold climates, and had formed some strange ideas of the solidity and strength, or hardiness, of the waters of the European seas. Under the notion, therefore, of combating against oceans of ice, he strengthened his ships with planks of great thickness. But his port was twice taken by British detachments. In 1786 a fleet from Bombay brought away from it nine great ships and several veral lesser ones. In 1781, he had nearly finished six ships of the line, and several frigates and sloops of war, when the port of Mangalore was again captured.

It is to be observed, that the approach to this coast was formerly thought very dangerous. Ships were hurried forward by too rapid a current, that they could neither keep their reckoning, nor distinguish the coast during the rainy season. Many vessels were consequently lost. These misfortunes have ceased, since an observation was made of a fact noticed by Arrian in ancient times, that in the Indian ocean, at a certain distance from land, many water serpents, from 12 to 13 inches in length, are to be seen rising above the surface of the water. When these serpents are seen, they indicate that the coast is precisely two degrees distant. This coast of Concan was anciently denominated the Lymirica regio. It was greatly frequented by Roman merchants, and is thus spoken of by Arrian: "Originally they performed only coasting voyages from harbour to harbour, falling from Cana, on the coast of Arabia Felix, till Hippalus, an adventurous seaman, having considered the situation of the harbours and the form of the sea, found out a navigation through the ocean, at the season in which the winds blow with us from the sea, and the west-south-west wind prevails in the Indian ocean, which wind is called Hippalus, from the first discoverer of that navigation. From that time till now, some fail in a direct course from Cana, others from the harbour of the Aromati: they who fail for Lymirica make a longer stay; others who steer for Barygaza or Scythia, stay not above three days; they spend the rest of the time in completing their usual voyage."

Southward of Mangalore, all the way to Cape Comorin, this shore receives the appellation of the Malabar coast. It contains several towns, the first of which is Tellicherry: from the shore to the Ghauts, the country here and elsewhere is extremely beautiful. Pepper is the chief article of commerce; but coffee is also cultivated. There are various other towns of note, particularly Mahi, originally a French settlement, Calicut, Cannanore, Cochin, and Ajenga. The interior of the level country, to the foot of the Ghauts, is covered with fine forests, both here and in Concan, which contain that most valuable of all treasures for the navigation of the Indian sea, the teak wood, which deserves particular attention. It is an evergreen, and esteemed a sacred tree. The Gentoes repair or build their pagodas with this timber only, when timber is at all used. Its property of resisting the worm, which in these climates is so destructive to all ships, renders it of the utmost importance. Mr Rennel speaks in the following terms of it: "I cannot close this account, without remarking the unpardonable negligence we are guilty of in delaying to build teak ships of war for the use of the Indian seas. They might be freighted home without the ceremony of regular equipment, as to masts, sails, and furniture, which might be calculated just to answer the purpose of the home passage at the best season, and crews could be provided in India. The letter annexed, which was written with the best intentions nine or ten years ago, will explain the circumstances of the same case. Teak ships of forty years old and upwards, are no uncommon objects in the Indian seas, while an European built ship is ruined there in five years. The ships built at Bombay are the best, both in point of workmanship and materials, of any that are constructed in India; and although fourth rates are mentioned only in the letter, there is no doubt that third rates may be constructed, as there is a choice of timber. The Spaniards build capital ships in their foreign settlements. The East India Company have a teak ship on her fourth voyage at present, which ship has wintered in England; therefore, any objection founded on the effects of frost on the teak timber is done away.

"Frequent have been the opportunities I have had of observing how very rapid the decay of ships built of European timber is in the East Indies; and, on the contrary, how durable the ships are that are built of the wood of that country, namely, the teak, which may not be improperly styled Indian oak. The number of ships of war that were ruined in those seas during the late war (1757 to 1762), may be admitted as a proof of the former remark; and the great age of the ships built in India may serve to prove the latter. What I mean to infer from this for your lordships' use is, that ships of war under third rates may be constructed in India, and, with moderate repairs, last for ages; whereas a ship of European construction can remain there but a very few years; to which disadvantage may be added, that of losing, in the meantime, the services of the ships that are sent to relieve the worn-out ones.

To the westward of the Malabar coast, at the distance of several leagues, are the Laccadive islands. They extend from latitude 10° to 12° 50' north. They are supposed to be the isles mentioned by Ptolemy, under the title of Insulae numero 19; though in fact they are 32 in number. They are small, and covered with trees. They have some trade. They export the product of the cocoa trees, that is to say, the oil extracted from the nut, and cordage formed of the rind. They also export dried fish to the continent of India, and receive rice in return. Ambergrise is frequently found floating near these islands. At a considerable distance from the Laccadives are the Maldive islands. They extend from N. Lat. 1. to 7. 25. From their number, Ptolemy calls them Insulae 1378. The natives make the number of their isles amount to 12,000. They are divided into 13 provinces under one king, whose subjects are miserably poor. He assumes, however, the magnificent title of Sultan of the Maldive, king of 13 provinces and 12,000 isles: But these isles, whatever their number may be, are extremely trifling. A fishery, however, is carried on in their vicinity; and they produce cocoa nuts, which, with the cordage produced from that useful tree, are sold upon the western coast of India. These isles are chiefly worthy of notice, on account of one article obtained from them: this is the cowry, a small species of shell, the cypraea moneta Cowry of Linnaeus. These shells, which appear to be produced in the Maldives alone, have been used as current coin for ages past in different parts of the world. The shells are collected twice in the month, at the full and new moon, by the women, who wade into the sea for that purpose up to their middle. They are packed up in parcels of 12,000 each, and are used as current money among the poor in Bengal. As provisions are exceedingly cheap in that country, it is found absolutely Absolutely necessary to employ, for the use of the common people, something less valuable than any coin formed of metal. These shells or cowries serve this purpose. One cowry is rated in Bengal at the hundredth and sixtieth part of a penny. Eighty cowries make a pun; and from 50 to 60 puns are equal to a rupee, or four shillings and sixpence British money. In Africa, in the country of the negroes, upon the rivers Niger, Senegal, and Gambia, these cowries also pass as current money; but at about ten times the value that they bear in Bengal. Hence, the English, French, and Dutch, are induced to purchase them in India, and to bring them to Europe, from whence they are afterwards exported for the purposes of trade; and thus, an useless shell, brought from the miserable islands of which we are now speaking, comes to be ultimately employed to purchase the persons of men.

Cape Comorin is the most southern part of this peninsula, and consequently of Hindostan. It is in N. Lat. 8°. A little to the north of this cape, the Ghauts terminate. The sea adjacent to it is considered by the natives as sacred, and persons resort thither to perform ablutions and lustrations. From this point the land turns towards the north-east, along the gulf of Manara, which is between the main-land and the island of Ceylon. This island was known to the ancients, by the name of Taprobana. Pliny treats very particularly concerning it, and the Arabian geographers of a later age give it the name of Serendib. It is rich in almost all mineral productions excepting the diamond, and possesses a fertile soil. On account of the cinnamon which it produces, the Portuguese made themselves masters of the whole of its ports. In 1656, they were expelled by the Dutch; who had been invited thither by the monarch of the island, to refuse him from the state of dependance in which he was held by the Portuguese. The emperor repaid the Dutch in cinnamon, all the expense of their efforts in his favour; and in return speedily found himself in the same dependant state as before his victories over the Portuguese. The cunning Dutchmen obtained from him a grant of coast, round the island, 12 miles in breadth, reckoning from the sea; and under pretence of defending him from foreign invasions, they fortified every one of his ports. Having thus hemmed in his majesty, these good allies had it at all times in their power, by refusing to sell him salt, to compel him and his subjects to submit to any terms they were pleased to dictate.

It is to be observed, that the natives of this island differ totally in their language, and in a considerable degree in their religion, from the inhabitants of the neighbouring continent. They are worshippers of Budho or Gaudma, who they believe came upon earth for the salvation of mankind. They have many pagodas or temples, which are richly carved. Between the island of Ceylon and the continent, at the narrowest part of the strait, is a chain of rocks which runs entirely across the channel. The length of the chain is about 30 miles, but the whole is frequently interrupted by narrow passages, which however are extremely shallow. It is very probable that this succession of rocks, at some period, formed part of an isthmus, which united Ceylon to the continent. Pliny takes notice of the greenish cast of this shallow part of the channel, of its being filled with shrubs, that is, with corals. On each side of the chain of rocks, the water does not exceed for some distance the depth of 13 or 14 feet. The chain of rocks which we have now mentioned, is called by the Mahometans Adam's Bridge. Their tradition is, that our common father, after his transgression, bridge was cast down from paradise, which they understand to have been celestial, and not terrestrial as we do; that he fell upon Ceylon; but that afterwards this bridge was made by angels, to enable him to pass over to the continent. The highest mountain of the island, which is of a conical form, is called Adam's Peak. On Adam's summit is a flat stone, with an impression resembling a human foot, which is two feet long. The Mahometans say that it is the mark of Adam's foot; that he fell from paradise on this summit, and that Eve fell near Judda in Arabia. They were separated 200 years, after which he found his wife, and conducted her to his old retreat in Ceylon, where he died and was buried, and where two large tombs remain, which are visited by Mahometan pilgrims. But the Pagan inhabitants of the island ascribe the mark of the foot to their great deity Buddo, Budho, or Gaudma, when he ascended into heaven. To this summit therefore they also make pilgrimages, and here they offer sacrifices, which, by an ancient custom, descriptive of a very tolerant spirit, they give to the Mahometan pilgrims.

This fine island, with the valuable spices and other riches which abound in it, is now relinquished by the relinquished Dutch in favour of the British; and it remains to be seen whether the natives will find their independence increased by this new alteration of the protectors of their coast, and the purchasers of their cinnamon; or whether the monarch and his people will not as usual be kept under control, by the aid of the monopoly of salt, an article of immense importance in hot climates where vegetable food is chiefly used.

From Cape Comorin north-eastward to Cape Calmere, in N. Lat. 10° 20', is above 220 miles. The country is watered by frequent streams from the north-west, that is, descending from the eastern side or summit of the Ghauts. At Cape Calmere what is properly called the Coromandel coast begins. In the southern part of Coromandel it is the pearl fishery, which has been well known and practised during several ages.

Around Cape Calmere, is the delta of the river Ca-River Cavery, which proceeding from the south of the Ghauts, near the western shore of the peninsula, there forms an extensive tract of low and fertile land, well suited to the cultivation of rice, the grain best suited to hot climates. This delta formed what was called the kingdom of Tanjore, now a province belonging to the British East India Company. The river is at one place divided by an island called Seringham, upon which are two pagodas or Indian temples, one of which is perhaps the most famed in Hindostan for its sanctity, magnitude, and the vast resort of pilgrims, who go to it from all quarters. Mr Orme gives the following description of Pagoda of this sacred retreat. "It is composed of seven square enclosures one within the other, the walls of which are 20 feet high, and four feet thick. These enclosures are 350 feet distant from one another, and each has four large gates with a high tower, which are placed, one in the middle of each side of the enclosure, and opposite to the four cardinal points. The outward wall is near four miles in circumference, and its gateway to the..." the south is ornamented with pillars, several of which are single stones 35 feet long, and nearly five in diameter; and those which form the roof are still larger. In the inmost enclosures are the chapels. About half a mile to the east of Seringham, and nearer to the Cavery than the Coleroon, is another large pagoda called Jumbakiha, but this has only one enclosure. The extreme veneration in which Seringham is held, arises from a belief that it contains the identical image of the god Witschnu, which used to be worshipped by the god Brachma. Pilgrims from all parts of the peninsula come here to obtain absolution, and none come without an offering of money; and a large part of the revenue of the island is allotted for the maintenance of the Brahmins who inhabit the pagoda; and these with their families formerly composed a multitude not less than 40,000 souls, maintained without labour by the liberality of superstition. Here, as in all the other great pagodas of India, the Brahmins live in a subordination which knows no resistance, and slumber in a voluptuousness which knows no wants; and sensible of the happiness of their condition, they quit not the silence of their retreats to mingle in the tumults of the state, nor point the brand, flaming from the altar, against the authority of the sovereign, or the tranquillity of the government."

Upon the same coast is situated the small Danish settlement of Tranquebar; to the northward of which is Pondicherry belonging to the French, part of which, at a considerable distance, the British settlement of Madras succeeds. Near Pondicherry, the bird called the vulture is frequently found. This animal is well known to feed upon dead or putrid carcases. A singular circumstance concerning it has been observed in every age in the eastern countries, that though very rare in a particular quarter, yet when two hostile armies approach to give battle to each other, the air is suddenly seen filled with multitudes of them, flying with their usual sluggish wing, from every quarter, to partake of the carnage. Hence in former times they were supposed to possess a prophetic instinct, or presage of battle, which led them to seek the spot of future slaughter three days before the event. To this opinion Milton alludes, when he compares the great enemy of mankind to one of these birds.

"As when a flock Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote, Against the day of battle, to a field Where armies lie encamp'd, come flying, lur'd With scent of living carcases design'd For death, the following day, in bloody fight; So scented the grim feature, and upturn'd His nostril wide into the murky air, Sagacious of his quarry from afar."

Paradise Lost, book x. l. 273.

Between Pondicherry and Madras, the river Palar enters the sea. Upon this river, about 66 miles above its mouth, stands the city of Arcot, the Arcui regia Sorae of Ptolemy, and Soro-mandalam, corrupted into the modern Coromandel, giving name to the whole coast.

At a considerable distance to the north is the great river Kifnab or Krishna, in Lat. 15. 43. It rises near the western Ghauts, and like all the other rivers of this extensive coast annually overflows a vast tract of country. Into the north side of this river, in Lat. 16. 20. flows a great stream called the river Beema, which also rises at the head of the Ghauts, within 50 miles of the other side of the peninsula. It runs a course of 350 miles. To the north of the river Krishna is the celebrated and once powerful kingdom of Golconda, abounding in corn, rice, cattle, sheep, and every necessary of life; also in fish, which are found in the numerous rivers, which in some places are in a great measure formed by art. Dams are made across the hollows between hills sometimes half a league in length. These are filled during the rainy season; and the inhabitants introduce the water as it is wanted into the lower country, which, assisted by the heat of this climate, produces prodigious fertility.

The river Godavary is the next great stream upon Godavary, this eastern coast of the peninsula. Like the others, it rises near the western coast, and flows towards the east. It is joined by another great river called the Bain-gonga. The delta of this river is of vast fertility, enriched by the soil brought down by the periodical inundations. To this river succeeds a flat coast, which, unlike the more southerly parts of this eastern side of the peninsula, has behind it, at some distance inland, a barren lofty chain of rude and almost inaccessible mountains. The part of the coast betwixt the sea and these mountains is called the Circars. To the northward the country descends regularly towards the east, as throughout the rest of the peninsula. In general, however, it is soft and morass, though fertile. This country was known in the time of Pliny. It is now called Orissa or Orissa, and was in his time said to be the seat of the Gangaridae Calingae, whose monarch was very powerful, being able to bring into the field 70,000 foot, 1000 horse, and 500 elephants. Beyond this part of the Indian territory, at some distance, the mouths of the Ganges begin, forming the extremity of the bay of Bengal, and of the eastern side of this peninsula.

The Ganges is the most celebrated of all the eastern rivers, being in every part of its course held sacred by the original inhabitants of the country. It periodically overflows an immense extent of fertile territory, formed by the deposition of mud, which in the course of ages it has brought down from the higher country. Compared to this mighty stream, the Egyptian Nile sinks into insignificance, and the fertility which it produces is trifling. So completely is the whole of this country formed by the alluvions of its river, that there is not a stone quarry on the banks of the Ganges for the space of 500 miles. The depth of the river to that distance is 30 feet. Immediately at the mouth, however, it is obstructed by the mud brought down by its own floods, so that its eastern or true channel cannot be entered by large vessels. The channel called the Hoogley river, upon which the Hoogley city of Calcutta stands, is the most useful of its mouths, being that which is entered by large vessels, though even at the mouth of this branch great danger is experienced from numbers of longitudinal banks at its entrance, formed by the mud or sand brought down and deposited there by the waters of the river. There are some other branches also which may be entered during the rainy season, or at its close. At the great tract tract which faces the bay is a collection of flat islands, divided by a labyrinth of canals covered with trees, and forming altogether a forest as large as the principality of Wales. The head of the delta is 220 miles from the sea in a straight line. The numerous channels which pass through it in every direction, form a complete inland navigation along the lower parts. Ships sail amidst a forest divided into numberless isles by a continual labyrinth of channels, so various in breadth that a vessel has at one time her masts almost entangled in trees, while at another the paths uninterruptedly along a capacious river beautifully sheltered with woods. The woods, however, are dreadfully infested by tigers, to which the pious Hindoos, when coming on a pilgrimage, to wash themselves in the sacred stream, are apt to fall a prey.

It has been already mentioned, that this great river rises in the southern part of the high central region of Asia. The territory round its source is called the kingdom of Thibet, and is in about Lat. 33° 10'. From thence the Ganges proceeds to a considerable distance westward, among lofty and savage mountains, after which it precipitates itself into a vast and deep chasm, from which, at a great distance, it escapes after a course in all of 800 miles from its origin, and enters at once, as from a second source, into the vast and fertile plains of Hindoostan. Through these it runs navigable with an easy and smooth current 1320 miles, till it reaches the sea. The place at which it emerges through a gap or division of the lofty Imaus, or southern front of Tartary, is called Hardwar. In this neighbourhood the mountains are covered with lofty spires of ice, overlooking the torrid plains of India. Into the Ganges flow multitudes of great rivers from each side, which give a matchless inland navigation. It receives in its course through the plains eleven rivers, some of which are equal in size to the Rhine, and none less than the Thames. It maintains 30,000 boatmen by the carriage of salt and food for ten millions of people in the province of Bengal, and all this independent of its fisheries, and of its different exports and imports. Where it passes through valleys which require not the aid of its inundations to assist the fertility of the soil, the country is defended by vast dikes, which are kept up at an enormous expense. One branch of the Ganges is thus confined for the extent of 70 miles, so that when the river is full, passengers in ships and boats look down on each side as from a lofty eminence into the adjacent country. Its waters are periodically increased by the tropical rains, and by the melting of the snows in the mountains of Tartary adjacent to its source; it then assumes the appearance of a sea of almost boundless extent. When the rains subside the water quickly passes away, and in its stead there suddenly ascends to view a fertile country, which, by the rapidity of tropical vegetation, is almost instantly covered with corn fields and other plantations, some of the islands of the Ganges producing three or four crops yearly.

The most important of the rivers which join the Ganges is the Jumna from the south. It proceeds through a very fertile country; and Delhi and Agra, the ancient Mogul capitals, are situated upon it. Though the waters of the Ganges are in every part held sacred, yet they are doubly so at their junction with the Jumna, which is also accounted sacred. The city, which stands at the junction or forks of the two rivers, is therefore called Allahabad or the City of God.

At some distance below this is the city and district of Benares, the great seat of the Hindoo sciences, in which the Brahmans instruct immense numbers of pupils in their religion, contained in books written in, what is now a dead language, the Sanscrit. Many other great cities stand upon this river, of which it is unnecessary here to take notice. The whole country naturally enjoys extreme fertility, and being possessed by an industrious people it abounds with inhabitants.

To the north-east of Bengal, which is the province Bootan, at the mouth of the Ganges, the high country of Bootan is situated, near the foot of the mountains that overlook the plains of Hindoostan. Here the great chain of Emodus, capped with eternal snow, shows itself to the inhabitants of Hindoostan, over the lesser hills which guard its approach. On the eastward of the Ganges the river Burrampooter also falls into the Burram bay of Bengal. This river is superior to the Ganges in poorter size and extent of course. It rises, like it, in the southern part of the high regions of Tartary, but flows eastward; and as its channel lies among rugged rocks and mountains, inhabited only by scattered and barbarous tribes, it is of little renown, and till lately was unnoticed by strangers, though its mouth is close to the mouth of the Ganges. It has only been discovered to be a first-rate river so late as the year 1765. Beyond the lower part of the Burrampooter Hindoostan speedily terminates to the east, at a narrow chain of mountains running from north to south, the last province receiving the appellation of Chittagong. This province proceeds only to a short distance southward along the eastern shore of the bay of Bengal.

The great country of Hindoostan, from the Panjab and the course of the Indus on the west, to the lower part of the Burrampooter and Chittagong on the east, and from the front of Tartary on the north to Cape Comorin on the south, has undoubtedly from the most distant ages been one of the most fertile and populous regions on the globe. Its civilization runs back to the remotest periods, and the monuments of ancient magnificence which it exhibits are innumerable. When Alexander the Great invaded the western part of it, he found it, as it now is, filled with an industrious, wealthy, and civilized people, possessing the same religion and manners as at present. In its original state it does not appear that India, like China, was ever united under one government, unless when subjected to a foreign yoke. It would seem to have been divided into a great number of independent principalities, and it has always had a tendency to fall back into that state, a circumstance which has rendered its different parts an easy prey to foreigners. The Hindoos are a character mild and humane people; but they are at the same time of the Hindu extremely inactive, timid, and feeble race of men, patient of insults and injustice, so that all invaders have been able to subdue them. A Tartar conqueror introduced the Mahometan religion and a feudal government into their country, and changed their language for that of Persia, though to this day the Mahometans are only as one to ten of the population. The British also coming from an island of the Western ocean, have, with a handful of men, been able to become their masters. A remnant, indeed, of Hindoo independence exists. exists in what are called the Mahratta states, upon the summit of the Ghauts in the western part of the peninsula; but this independence they will not probably be long able to preserve. Even in the ordinary exertions of life, the Hindoos act like men destitute of energy. As carpenters, for example, they perform their work with much neatness and dexterity, but they employ small and light tools, which to men of a more vigorous character and habit, appear contemptible; and when an ordinary beam is to be turned over, an afflatus labourer must give his aid, of which an European workman would not perceive the necessity; but the Hindoos living in a country in which labour is extremely cheap, are accustomed to supply by numbers their own deficiency of energy of mind, or of strength of body.

A general imbecility of character seems indeed to mark this nation, or an incapacity to make any vigorous effort of self-command. In matters of intellect they are slaves of imagination and of education. On the banks of the Ganges, in a fertile climate, in which human life is easily sustained, and the constitution naturally prone to indolence, a superstition has been invented which seems to have proved a source of the greatest misfortunes to the nation. Not only is the imagination filled, and the exercise of the understanding injured, by endless legends or tales about the transfiguration of their divinities, but a set of ceremonies and regulations is introduced which places every part of life under control. The whole people are divided into tribes or hereditary castes. A member of one of these castes cannot marry into a different caste without contracting impurity, and bring for ever dishonoured or driven out of his tribe. A Hindu is not permitted by his religion to eat with a stranger, or even to drink water that has been drawn by impure hands, that is to say, by persons belonging to a different caste. One caste only, the Rajaputes, are permitted to eat animal food, but the rest are compelled by their religion to live upon vegetables alone. Endless minute observances in their eating are also imposed upon them, founded on the notion of the possibility of contracting pollution in this way. Thus are the Hindoos, though a mild and humane race, rendered in the most ordinary actions of life, the most unsocial as well as the most irrational of mankind. Being occupied at every moment by some religious ceremony or other, and filled with the dread of pollution, they appear contemptible to those strangers whom they avoid as profane or impure. From the impossibility, in this manner imposed upon them, of uniting in any respect with the Tartars who conquered their country, they have sunk into a degraded and despised race; whereas, could they have united or mingled with the invaders, they must speedily have become as one people, and the evils resulting from conquest would gradually have been forgotten. They have persevered for ages in the same intellectual errors, because they have got possession of their imaginations, and because they want energy to cast off any habit or train of thought to which they have once submitted.

The Hindoos appear to be no less destitute of self-command in their active than in their intellectual powers. Hence arises the unbounded superiority in all military enterprises which the Europeans possess over them. The attack of their armies is thus described by an ingenious writer: "It may perhaps afford some measure of gratification to European curiosity, to be informed, that the undisciplined troops of Asia, generally inflamed with bhang and other intoxicating drugs, pour forth, as they advance, a torrent of menacing and abusive language on their adversaries. Every expression of contempt and aversion, every threat, fitted to make any impression of terror, or to excite ideas of horror, that custom readily prefers or inventive fancy can suggest, accompanies the utmost ferocity of looks, voice, and gesture. A murmuring sound, with clouds of dust, announces their approach, while they are yet at the distance of several miles. As they advance, their accents are more and more distinctly heard, until at last, with their eyes fixed and weapons pointed at some individual, they devote him, with many execrations, to destruction, giving his flesh, like the heroes in Homer and the Philistine warriors, to the dogs, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field. The numbers of the Asiatic armies, the ferocity of their manner, and the novelty of their appearance, would unnerve and overcome the hearts of the small European bodies that are opposed to them in the field of battle, if experience had not sufficiently proved how much the silence of discipline excels barbarian noise, and uniformity of design and action, the deftly efforts of brutal force, acting by flurts, and liable to the contagion of accidental impression."

Indeed the superiority of Europeans over Hindoos is so great, that it is never balanced by almost any difference in point of numbers. If a body of European troops is only sufficiently numerous to cover a tolerable extent of ground, so that one part of them may rest while the other is on guard, and that advantage may be taken of the victory when gained, the event of the war is uniformly unfavourable to the feeble natives of this region. There seems to exist a defect in their moral nature, to which military discipline cannot afford a remedy. An European gentleman, though a stranger to the use of arms, if called upon by what he accounts his honour or his duty, is able, with an unchanging countenance, to meet the hazard of instant death, and can take the chance of giving or receiving destruction with little passion, and without exhibiting the external symptoms either of anger or of fear. The case is different with the mild and timid inhabitants of Hindooistan; they cannot meet danger with coolness and recollection, but are under the necessity of working themselves into a rage, which enables them to rush upon perils which they are unable calmly to encounter. Thus their fury is irregular and fruitless, like that of men under the influence of intoxication; while at the same time, if their passion decline for an instant, they are seized with sudden terror, and under its influence sometimes rush into greater perils than they wished to avoid. They possess throughout their country fortresses situated upon elevated and precipitous mountains, or surrounded by works of art of inconceivable solidity and strength. Many of these fortresses, under defence, would prove absolutely impregnable, and in this ardent climate, the armies of their northern invaders might perish miserably before them; but these fortresses the Hindoos have been utterly unable to defend. They cannot long remain coolly and without passion on the defensive; in some moment or other of weakness they become panic-struck, and all is lost. They cast themselves headlong from the summit of the walls, and sometimes, having murdered their wives and children, they cast themselves upon the weapons of their antagonists; finding death in this manner, though the agitation that accompanies their blind fury prevents them from finding revenge for their calamities.

In every age, the inhabitants of Hindoostan, who want nothing from the rest of mankind, have received the gold and silver of other nations in return for the precious productions of their favoured soil: the sugar, the spices, the gems, and the valuable manufactures of the country, have at all times been sought, either by commerce or by conquest. But excepting these productions of nature, or of art, it does not appear that any valuable advantages can be derived from an intercourse with the people. Notwithstanding the high antiquity of their civilization, they are inferior in every branch of science to ourselves. Their moral and political speculations are extremely trifling, so far at least as has hitherto been discovered. Their poetry may have its beauties, but it undoubtedly equals not the productions of the north-western regions, that is, of Europe. It is probable, that the only branch of valuable knowledge which could be improved by an intercourse with the people of these countries is, that which concerns the construction of different machines, or the performance of processes connected with the various parts of manufacturing, agricultural, or domestic economy. They are underfed to possess several machines of wonderful simplicity, and to perform many processes in an easier and less expensive mode than we are accustomed to do in Europe. They use, from time immemorial, the drill plough, which with us is a late invention. Their hand-mills for grinding grain are at once simple and effectual; as also their process of distillation. It ought to be recollected by the European nations, that they are but of yesterday when compared with the Hindoos; though we have outrun them in the career of intellect, or of general science, yet the improvement of the processes and instruments connected with the economy of ordinary life requires various successive experiments, which can only be performed during a great length of time, especially if these processes are not usually performed by persons conversant in the highest walks of literature. All newly invented machines and processes are apt to be complex, expensive, and imperfect. It is only after repeated trials and alterations that they are reduced to that simplicity which constitutes their excellence. Ample leisure has been allowed for these trials and improvements in the civilized nations of the East; and the simplicity of their machines, which deducts from their apparent importance, ought to be regarded as their perfection. They were probably invented by more ingenious men than those who now use them, and they probably had the same imperfections by which ours are at present affected: but succeeding generations gradually improved them, and they have at last come down into the possession of a degenerate race, incapable of discerning the value of tools in whose construction there is no seeming intricacy, though their gradual progress to the present state may have required much exertion from successive minds possessed of great energy and ingenuity. We may take the liberty to suggest, therefore, to such of our countrymen as have occasion to reside for any length of time among this ancient people, that one of the most valuable services which they can perform to society in Europe might consist of executing and transmitting accurate descriptions of the different tools and machinery made use of by the Hindoos, and of the processes used by them in the different branches of their domestic economy and management. The discovery of the ancient code of Roman law at Amalfi in Italy, together with the introduction of Grecian literature after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, gave to the European nations immense affluence in their progress to civilization, by exhibiting to them the practices and the sentiments of a former enlightened age, and thereby abridging their labour in the pursuit of intellectual improvement. A similar aid, or abridgement of the labours of invention, would in all probability be derived from a minute acquaintance with the practices and machinery employed with success during so many ages in the economy of Hindoostan.

Leaving this mild, but timid and feeble race of men, we pass to the eastern peninsula of India, a narrow peninsula of part of which stretches under the name of Malacca to India, within two degrees of the equator. Before advancing to the main land, however, we may notice towards the south-eastern part of the bay of Bengal a group of isles called the Andaman, chiefly remarkable on account of the singular people by whom they are inhabited. They Andaman are the northern division of a number of small islands, stretching from 10° 3' to 13° 46' N. Lat. and from 90° 6' to 92° 9' E. Long.: the southern division of these isles is called the Nicobars, inhabited by a mild and inoffensive people. What is called the Great Andaman, the chief of the northern division of islands, is 140 miles in length, and 20 in breadth. A settlement was established upon it by the British in 1793, and convicts are transported thither from Bengal. All that voyagers have related of uncivilized life is said to fall short of the barbarism of the people of Andaman. The ferocious natives of New Zealand, or the shivering half-animated savages of Terra del Fuego, are in a state of refinement, compared to these islanders. The population of the Great Andaman, and its dependencies amounts to little more than 2000 souls, whose sole occupation it is to rove along the margin of the sea in quest of a precarious meal of fish, which during the tempestuous season they often seek in vain. In stature, the Andamaners seldom exceed five feet. Their limbs are disproportionally slender, their bellies protuberant, with high shoulders and large heads; and, strange to find in this part of the world, they are a degenerate race of negroes, with woolly hair, flat noses, and thick lips. Their eyes are small and red; their skin of a deep footy black; whilst their countenances exhibit the extreme of wretchedness, a mixture of famine and ferocity. They go quite naked, and are insensible of any shame from exposure. Two young women, allured by the temptation of fish, were secured, and brought on board a ship at anchor in the harbour. The captain treated them with great humanity: They soon got rid of all fear of violence, except what might be offered by their charity, which they guarded with unremitting vigilance. Although they had a small apartment allotted to themselves, and had no real cause for apprehension, henfion, one always watched while the other slept. They suffered clothes to be put on, but took them off again as soon as opportunity offered, and threw them away as useless incumbrances. When their fears were over they became cheerful, chattered with freedom, and were inexplicably diverted at the sight of their own persons in a mirror. They were fond of singing, sometimes in melancholy recitative, at others in a lively key; and often danced about the deck with great agility, flapping their posterior with the back of their heel. Wine and spirituous liquors were disagreeable to them: no food seemed so palatable as fish, rice, and sugar. In a few weeks, having recovered strength, and become fat, from the more than half-starved state in which they were brought on board, they began to think confinement irksome, and longed to regain their native freedom. In the middle of the night, when all but the watchmen were asleep, they passed in silence through the captain's cabin, jumped out of the stern windows into the sea, and swam to an island half a mile distant, where it was in vain to pursue them, had there been any such intention; but the object was, to retain them by kindness, not by compulsion; an attempt that has failed on every trial. Hunger may (and these instances are rare) induce them to put themselves in the power of strangers; but the moment that want is satisfied, nothing short of coercion can prevent them from returning to a way of life more congenial to their savage nature. The few implements they use are of the rudest texture; a bow from four to five feet long; the string made of the fibre of a tree, or a slip of bamboo, with arrows of reed, headed with fish bone, or wood hardened in the fire, is their principal weapon. Besides this, they carry a spear of heavy wood sharply pointed, and a shield made of bark, to defend themselves from the assaults of their enemies; for even these poor wretches have rights to assert and dignities to maintain. Necessity has taught them an expert management of their arms, on which they rely for subsistence. Happily for them, their numerous bays and creeks abound with fish, which they shoot and spear with surprising dexterity. They are said also to use a small hand-net made of the filaments of bark; the fish, when caught, are put into a wicker basket, which they carry on their backs. Having kindled a fire, they throw the food on the coals, and devour it half-broiled. A few diminutive swine are to be found in the skirts of the forests, and among the mangrove thickets in the low grounds; but these are very scarce, and are probably the progeny of a stock left by former navigators. When a native has the good fortune to slay one, he carefully preserves the skull and teeth, to ornament his hut. They cross the bays, and go to fish, either in canoes formed of a hollow tree, or on rafts of bamboo, which they direct by paddles. Their habitations display little more ingenuity than the dens of wild beasts; for sticks stuck in the ground are bound together at the top, and fastened transversely by others, to which branches of trees are suspended; an opening is left on one side, just large enough to admit of entrance—leaves compose their bed. Being much incommodeed by insects, their first occupation in a morning is to plaster their bodies all over with mud, which, hardening in the sun, forms an impenetrable armour. They paint their woolly heads with red ochre and water. When thus completely dressed, a more hideous appearance is not to be found in human form.

Although their principal food consists of fish, yet they eagerly seize on whatever else presents itself: lizards, guanas, rats, and snakes, supply a change of repast. The vegetable diet of the Andamaners consists of the natural produce of the woods, in which the researches of Europeans find little that is palatable or nutritious. The fruit of the mangrove is principally used, having often been found in their deserted habitations, steeping in an embanked puddle of water. As they have no pot or vessel that can bear the action of fire, they cannot derive much advantage from such excellent herbs as the forests may contain; indeed, their exhausted and diseased figures too plainly indicate the want of wholesome nourishment. Unhappily for them, the cocoa-nut, which thrives in the utmost luxuriance in the neighbouring isles, is not to be found here; but they are extremely fond of it; and whenever a nut was left in their way by the settlers, it was immediately carried off with much apparent satisfaction.

There are several sorts of trees on the island; among which are, the *ficus religiosa*, or banyan tree, the almond tree, and the oil tree; which latter grows to a great height, and from it a very useful oil is thus produced:—A horizontal incision being made in the trunk, six or eight inches deep, a chip fourteen or fifteen inches long is cut at right angles, and the surface of the incision being hollowed and filled with live coals, the turpentine, or wood oil, exudes copiously from the top of the wound. The peniagre tree is also found, and is well adapted for the knees of ships; and the iron tree, of stupendous size, whose timber almost bids defiance to the axe of the wood-cutter; the red wood, which makes beautiful furniture, little inferior to fine mahogany. Besides these, there are numberless creepers and rattans which surround the stems of the larger trees, and, interwoven with each other, form so thick a hedge, that it is impossible to penetrate far into the forests, but by the slow and laborious process of cutting a road.

It is a sort of historical mystery how a race of negroes should be found here, a people so widely differing, not only from all the inhabitants of that vast continent in which the island of Andaman is embayed, but also from the natives of the Nicobar islands, which are immediately contiguous to it. Some have supposed, that a Portuguese vessel, early in the sixteenth century, laden with slaves from Africa, may have been cast on these shores, and that the present Andamaners are the descendants of such as escaped drowning. This conjecture, however, is proved to be erroneous, from an account of the Andamaners given by two Mahometan travellers, long before the navigation of those seas by Europeans. But an accident similar to that now suggested may possibly, at some period or other, have occurred to an Arabian vessel, as that people are known to have sailed upon the Indian ocean as early as the seventh century; and they not only explored the continent of India as far as the Chinese sea, but likewise gained a knowledge of most of the Eastern islands.

Returning from these islands to the province called Chittagong, which forms the extremity on the east of the British East India Company's possessions, as well as the boundary in that quarter of the territory of Hindoostan, we enter upon the farther or eastern peninsula. Asia of India. From Chittagong, proceeding southward along the eastern shores, the coast is fertile and rich for a considerable distance within land, forming the ancient kingdom of Aracan. Parallel to the coast runs a chain of lofty and precipitous mountains, forming the boundary of Aracan to the eastward. Beyond these mountains eastward is a level and fertile country, containing rivers which, descending from the regions of High Tartary already mentioned, descend southward along the peninsula, fertilizing the soil by their periodical floods, and forming at their mouths a great extent of low and fertile territory, or delta land. The country to the south-east of Aracan is called Pegu; that to the east has long been called Ava by Europeans, from the name of the former capital, but is called by the people of the country Birmah, and the people themselves Birmans. This last people, the Birmans, have recently subdued both of the kingdoms called Pegu and Aracan, and form at the present period a rising empire of great importance in the east, and well deserving our attention. Though their territories are only divided from those of the British East India Company by a narrow chain of mountains, and at one place by a trifling river called the Naaf, yet it was only very lately that they were at all known to the Europeans in that quarter as a neighbouring power of any consideration, our connexion with them having formerly been merely in the way of commerce carried on from their southern ports, near the mouth of the bay of Bengal.

The following circumstance gave rise to farther inquiries concerning them:—The trade of Aracan had suffered by the attacks of some robbers, or pirates, who infested the rivers near the coast. They conveyed their plunder across the river Naaf into the Chittagong province, where, being secured from pursuit under the protection of the British flag, they disposed of their spoils to advantage, and lived at ease till returning want impelled them to resume their predatory excursions. On its being ascertained that three of the most distinguished of the robbers had sought refuge in the British districts, the king or emperor of the Birmans sent one of his officers into the East India Company's territories at the head of 5000 men, with instructions to the commander to bring with him the delinquents, dead or alive, and not to return without them. To support this detachment, an army of 20,000 men was held in readiness at Aracan.

Sense Nunda Kiozo, the Birman chief, having crossed the river Naaf, and encamped within the Company's territory on the western bank, sent a letter to the British magistrate of Chittagong, acquainting him of the reasons for the inroad; that the seizure of the delinquents was his sole object, without harbouring any design of hostility against the English. At the same time he declared, that till the delinquents were given up, he would not depart from the Company's territory. In confirmation of this threat, he fortified his camp with a stockade. These matters being reported to the British government at Calcutta, the refugees were ordered to be apprehended and kept in custody; and, in the meantime, detachments of Europeans, and of Indian troops in their service, called Sepoys, with proper artillery, were sent to the spot under Major General Erskine. On the approach of General Erskine, the Birman general sent a flag of truce to propose terms of accommodation, stipulating for the surrender of the fugitive pirates as the basis of the agreement. It was replied, that no proposal could be listened to while the Birmans continued on the British territory; that, unless they departed from it in a limited time, force would be used; but that, if they would withdraw peaceably, the subject of their complaints would be discussed. On receiving this answer, the Birman chief, with a manly confidence in the character of his antagonists, which commanded respect, personally waited on General Erskine, and stated the nature of his infruption, the enormity of the offenders, and the outrages they had committed. General Erskine assured him that the British government had no desire to afford an asylum to robbers; that it had no objection to do justice; but insisted, that in the first instance, the Birmans ought to retire peaceably from the British territory. The Birman general, in consequence of these assurances, professed his reliance on General Erskine, and agreed to withdraw his troops. The retreat was conducted in the most orderly manner; and so strict was the discipline of the Birman army, that not one irregular act was committed while they remained within the Company's territory. The charges against the refugees were afterwards investigated, and their guilt being clearly established, they were delivered over to their own laws, by whose sentence two out of the three underwent capital punishment.

This event called the attention of the British government in India towards the Birmans, a people evidently of a superior character to the Hindoos, whose territory was in their vicinity, and with whom, by their southern ports, a very extensive commerce had within a few years sprung up; which, in the single article of teak-wood, already required an annual return of Indian commodities to the amount of 200,000l. sterling. It therefore appeared a matter of importance to enter into something in the nature of a commercial treaty with this power, at least to the effect of obtaining regular protection for our merchants when visiting their ports. With this view, and to obtain farther intelligence concerning the nature of the government, the character of the people, and the advantages to be derived from intercourse with them, the governor-general of Bengal, Sir John Shore, sent by sea to the principal Birman port a regular embassy; at the head of which was Michael Symes, Esq., then a captain in the British army. From the information obtained and published by the consequence of this embassy, the following account of Birmans, and their empire is extracted.

As already noticed, the Birman empire extends along the western coast of the eastern peninsula of India, or forms the eastern side of the bay of Bengal. It approaches the frontier of China on the north-east, and is limited on the north by the rugged and mountainous country which forms the south-eastern front of the high region of Tartary, being a continuation to this quarter of the great chain of Imaus. From the foot of that elevated region, this, like the western peninsula of India, descends gradually to the south, and the rivers proceed in that direction till the largest of them terminate near Cape Negrais in the south-eastern quarter of the bay of Bengal, where the coast turns suddenly eastward to a considerable distance; after which it proceeds as formerly to the south. The principal The Birmans and the people of Pegu have long been rival states. The Birmans, though formerly subject to the king of Pegu, revolted about the middle of the sixteenth century, and appear to have acquired a superiority over the Peguers which continued down to about the year 1749. At that period a war took place, which was prosecuted on both sides with savage ferocity; but as the Peguers, living to the southward near the mouth of the navigable rivers already mentioned, had a considerable intercourse with European traders, from whom they could purchase better arms than are manufactured in the east, they gradually obtained a superiority, and gained several victories over the Birmans in the years 1750 and 1751. These advantages were so vigorously prosecuted, that in the year 1752 the Birman capital Ava was invested. The Birmans, dispirited by repeated defeats, and probably ill commanded, after a short siege Diveepdee, the last of a long line of kings, was made prisoner with all his family, except two sons who escaped to Siam. Beinga Della, king of Pegu, left his brother Apporaza as governor of Ava, and carried to Pegu the captive Birman king. Thus a complete conquest appeared to be effected. The landholders and principal inhabitants of the country round Ava submitted, and took an oath of allegiance to the king of Pegu, who in an insolent proclamation, announced the annexation of the Birman country to the Pegu monarchy. In the mean time, a Birman of low extraction, Alompra, aspired to become the deliverer of his country. He had submitted like the rest, and was continued by the conqueror in the command of an inconsiderable village, Monchaboo. Here he had no more than 100 devoted followers, upon whose intrepidity and fidelity he could rely. This village, like most of the Birman towns, was surrounded by a stockade. This he strengthened and repaired, without awakening any suspicion in the Pegu conquerors, who never suspected that so inconsiderable a person would attempt a rebellion. In Alompra's village of Monchaboo there were no more than 50 Pegu soldiers, who treated the Birmans with great arrogance: Taking advantage of the indignation excited by some particular act of indignity, Alompra encouraged his followers to attack the Pegu soldiers, and he put every one of them to the sword. Even after this act of rebellion, Alompra disguised his intention with a view to gain time. He wrote to the brother of the Pegu king Apporaza, who had been left governor of Ava, expressing much humility and regret for what had happened, professing his fidelity to the Pegu government, and representing the massacre as the result of an accidental quarrel between the Pegu soldiers and the people of his village. These assurances prevented vigorous measures from being taken with sufficient speed against him. Apporaza, having pressing business at Pegu, left Ava under the government of his nephew Dotachew, with instructions to keep Alompra as a prisoner. Accordingly about a thousand men were sent to occupy Alompra's turbulent village, and to send himself to Ava. They expected no opposition, and came ill prepared for it. They were not a little dismayed to find the gates of the stockade around the village shut against them on their arrival, which was late in the evening; and at daybreak next morning they were suddenly attacked and routed by the Birmans. Alompra, having thus involved a small party of his countrymen in rebellion against their conquerors, represented to them that there no longer existed for them any safety but in victory; that they would never be forgiven, and must resolve to conquer or perish. He invited the Birmans of the neighbouring towns to join his standard, and he found a small number who were willing to embrace his apparently desperate fortunes; with these he adopted the sudden resolution of marching towards Ava the Birman capital, before the numerous detachments of Peguers that were scattered over the provinces could be recalled for its defence. As he advanced, fame magnified his numbers. The governor of Ava, who had no more than 3000 men, was disconcerted; and, despairing of success, deserted that city with his troops, and a few of his countrymen who remained behind him were put to death by the populace. Instead of advancing in person, Alompra's now sent his second son Shembuan to take possession of Ava. These events occurred in autumn 1753. In consequence of his first success Alompra's reputation became unbounded. His countrymen everywhere revolted, and attached themselves to him as their deliverer. The Pegu king was alarmed for the northern districts of his own territory, in which the Birman population exceeded that of the Peguers. A large force was collected under Apporaza the Pegu king's brother. It consisted of an army, and of a numerous fleet of war boats, which sailed up the Irrawaddy to reduce the insurgents. He laid siege to Ava, where Shembuan held out 40 days, till his father Alompra advanced to his aid. Apporaza raised the siege, and went to encounter Alompra. The contest was chiefly confined to the fleet; the armies only skirmishing on shore. Shembuan having advanced from the fort of Ava to attack the rear of the Peguers, they gave way and fled with precipitation, suffering great slaughter in their retreat. The Peguers, enraged by these misfortunes, put to death the deposed monarch of the Birmans, together with all the principal men of his nation, to the amount of several hundreds, that were in their power, under pretence that they had been detected in a plot against their conquerors. This only rendered the mutual hatred of the nations more violent; and in several towns the Birmans rose upon the Pegu garrisons, and massacred the whole of them.

In the mean time Alompra continued to improve Alompra's fortune, and avowedly endeavoured to establish in aspire to his own person the sovereignty of his country. When royalty, the son of the late king attempted to return, he drove him back to his asylum among the Siamese. Towards the end of the year 1754 the Pegu king Beinga Della, with a considerable army, laid siege to Prome, a frontier town defended by a solid wall, a deep ditch, and a strong stockade. The Birmans successfully resisted a general assault, and the Peguers had recourse to a blockade. Alompra sent 36 war boats to the assistance of the town, which stands upon a river; the commander of these threw himself with a considerable supply of men and provisions into the town, and sent back his boats, only a few of which were taken. After A farther delay of six weeks, Alompra arrived in person and attacked the Peguers both by land and water. Instead of keeping up a fire of musketry as usual, the boats closed, and after a desperate engagement, the Peguers abandoned the siege. The tide of success was now so completely turned, that the war was become defensive on the part of the king of Pegu. He retired to his capital, which being near the sea-coast, the contest became a kind of maritime warfare in the mouths and creeks of the rivers; which last are extremely numerous in the low delta land near their mouth. At this time both the French and English were in possession of factories in the Pegu country, and both the Peguers and Birmans solicited the affluence of the strangers, being abundantly sensible that a few ships of burden furnished with guns would give a vast advantage to either party, in a contest against the war boats used in their country. In the course of the year 1755 both the French and English appear to have entered secretly into separate negotiations with each of the parties, and to have promised aid to each of them. Both of them ultimately broke faith with Alompra, and joined the people of Pegu. Notwithstanding this affluence, the Birman leader continued to enjoy a career of success. He was victorious on land, and the aid of the foreigners by water only produced a slight degree of embarrassment. At one time three English ships and one French ship assisted the Pegu force, consisting of 200 armed boats, while 10,000 men marched along with them as a land force; but the Birmans disconcerted the attack by a stratagem. With considerable ingenuity they constructed fire-rafts, consisting of a number of boats fastened together, and filled with combustibles. These rafts were floated with a strong spring tide to where the European ships lay at anchor, and directed with such skill and effect as to oblige them to flip their cables and remove, the French ship narrowly escaping destruction. Alompra at last succeeded in cutting off the communication between Pegu and the sea. A French ship coming to the affluence of the Peguers was taken by surprise; and as her papers proved the object of her voyage, her officers were put to death by the order of Alompra: other foreigners, however, particularly the English, taken in the important Pegu town of Syriam, were suffered to depart unmolested, though he had sufficient reason to complain of their countrymen. Alompra was at last, in consequence of his success in every quarter, enabled to lay siege to Pegu itself, the capital of his enemies. It was situated on an extensive plain, surrounded with a high solid wall, flanked by small towers, and strengthened on each face by demi-bastions equidistant. A broad ditch contained about three feet depth of water, and the pagoda of Shoemadoo, which will be afterwards described, served as a citadel. Circumvallation is a favourite mode of warfare with the Birmans, as they are almost destitute of cannon, and therefore trust rather to famine than to force. Having invested Pegu, and erected numerous stockades both to hem in the town, and to secure his own army against external attack, Alompra, in the month of January 1757, resolved to wait patiently till the want of supplies should bring the city into his power. After a siege of two months the numerous population of Pegu became mutinous in consequence of want. The king summoned a council of his family and chiefs, and proposed to sue for peace, on condition of being allowed to govern his country, consenting to do homage for it to the Birman monarch. The proposal was accepted by Alompra; but, as a preliminary, the Pegu king was under the necessity of surrendering to the conqueror his only unmarried daughter. For some days the peace seemed restored, and the besiegers and the beleagued mingled with each other in amity; but Alompra, probably with a treacherous intention, having introduced some soldiers in disguise into the town, they were seized and put to death by order of the king of Pegu's nephew Choopava. Hostilities recommenced, and at last the king of Pegu, who appears to have been a timid man, privately admitted the Birmans into the city, on condition that Pegu taken, his own life should be spared; the town itself was delivered up to plunder.

Alompra, thus successful, extended his power over several surrounding provinces, and rendered Monchaboo, his original residence, the seat of imperial government. While upon an expedition to Caffay, a northern province of his empire, the Peguers revolted, but were defeated on his return. On this occasion he was led to suspect, that the persons belonging to a British settlement at the island of Negrais, had given assistance to the revolters: They were suddenly attacked, therefore, by his orders, in October 1759, and most of them destroyed. A few escaped in two vessels, the Shattesbury and the Victoria. Alompra next made war upon his neighbours on the coast, the Siamese, accusing them of assisting his enemies of Pegu, and of raising conspiracies against his authority. He undertook an expedition against the capital of Siam; the enemy harassed his march, but did not hazard a decisive engagement. In a month he reached the vicinity of the metropolis, which prepared to sustain a siege; but here the career of Alompra terminated. He was taken ill of a mortal disease, said to be a species of scrophula. He foresaw his end, and gave orders for an immediate attack; but he died on the 15th of May 1760, before he reached his capital. He was deeply regretted by his people, who admired his talents and his success, and regarded him as their deliverer from a foreign yoke. He is represented as having performed no less service to his country by the laws which he enacted, than by the battles which he fought. In particular, he reformed the administration of justice, prohibited magistrates to fit in judgment, unless in a public place, and required every decree to be registered. He also issued edicts against gaming, and the use of spirituous liquors, in his dominions.

The Birman law vests the right of succession in the eldest heir male; but, upon the death of Alompra, his second son, Shembuan, made an attempt to seduce the army and to seize the throne. Receiving little support, he submitted to his eldest brother, Namdogge, by his eldest son Nuttoon, was a more dangerous rival. A division of the army under his command seized upon the city of Ava. He expected succours from Siam, but was disappointed; and being besieged in Ava, he was reduced to great distress. He tried to make his escape; but was taken and put to death with most of his adherents. The destruction of Nuttoon did not put an end to the disturbances that agitated the Birman empire.

A younger brother of Alompra, who held a considerable government, aspired to independence; but he also was taken in his fortress, after a siege of three months. His life was spared, but he was kept a close prisoner. Namdoge Praw died at his capital in March 1764, of the same disease that brought his father to the grave, leaving one son, Momien, an infant. Shembuan, the second son of Alompra, now seized the government as king; and the child of his elder brother was educated in religious obscurity, as a rahan or priest. Shembuan's first undertaking was a war against the Siamese, whose country, in the year 1766, he entered at different points with three armies; which, after some resistance, effected a junction. Having approached the capital, a general battle was fought, in which the Birmans were successful, and invested the capital of Siam. Each party had some artillery, which was of little service; and the Birmans had recourse to blockade, which, as already noticed, is their favourite system of warfare. After two months' siege, the king of Siam secretly made his escape. The city capitulated, and a Siamese governor was appointed, who swore allegiance, and engaged to pay tribute to the Birman monarch.

In the beginning of the year 1767, a Chinese army invaded the Birman empire. Shembuan prepared to meet this danger; and it appears that, in consequence of the numerous wars in which they had recently been engaged, the Birmans were enabled to act upon this occasion with a considerable degree of military skill and energy. They formed two separate armies; one consisting of 10,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, was sent to meet the invaders. They accordingly advanced, and encamped within eight miles of the Chinese army. On the following day, an action took place, in which the Birmans were worsted and retired. The Chinese, elated by their success, pressed eagerly forward, and were in this manner drawn to a considerable distance into the country. In the mean time, a second Birman army, amounting to 30,000 men, had taken a circuitous road, and got into the rear of the Chinese. The army in front now made a stand, and the invaders found themselves hemmed in on all sides. The Tartar cavalry, on whose activity the Chinese army depended for provisions, would no longer venture out either to procure supplies or to protect convoys. The Birmans now attacked their enemy with impetuosity, who resisted with a resolution founded on despair. The conflict lasted three days, and the Chinese at last attempted to cut their way through the weakest part of the Birman line. This attempt proved fatal. The Birmans, sure of being reinforced, maintained their ground till the troops of both their armies arrived to their assistance. The Chinese now sunk under the pressure of an attack from numbers which were increasing every hour. The carnage was dreadful, as the Birmans are extremely ferocious and unrelenting in war. Of the Chinese army not a man returned to his native country. About 2500 were preserved from the sword and conducted to the Birman capital, where they were employed in such occupations as they understood, without any other reward for their labour than a bare subsistence.

Meanwhile, Shembuan's successes against the Siamese were attended with no permanent advantage. His armies were no sooner recalled than his authority was openly disregarded. He sent one of his generals once more into their country; but he met with such opposition as compelled him to retreat and to demand reinforcements. This last request was complied with, in a manner that produced a serious danger. One of the viceroys of the southern parts of the empire was commanded to raise the necessary supplies; but as his jurisdiction was inhabited chiefly by families of Peguers, he had no sooner assembled his recruits and placed arms in their hands, than they became conscious of their own strength, and were seized with a desire to regain their empire. They rose upon their Birman officers and companions, and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter. It was not till after an army of 20,000 men was assembled, with 24 pieces of cannon, besides a great number of war boats, that they could be subdued. While this struggle was going on in the lower part of the empire against the people of Pegu, now considered as rebels, Shembuan followed out a plan of conquest to the north-west, in the country called Caffay. His troops even penetrated within what are called the Himmaleh hills, which form a continuation of the lofty Imaus, and which descending towards the extremity of the bay of Bengal, seem to be a barrier raised by nature to protect the unwary inhabitants of Hindoostan from the more hardy natives of the east. Shembuan lost a great number of troops in attacking the chiefs or rajahs of these hilly countries, but at last succeeded in subduing a great number of them, though the conquest could be of little utility, as possession of these rude territories could scarcely be retained.

On his return from this north-western expedition, Shembuan went southward to visit his Pegu territories, which had so recently been involved in civil war. On this occasion he pretended to discover that the old king of Pegu, who had been taken by Alompra, and had remained all this while in prison, had engaged in some kind of conspiracy. In consequence of an accusation to this effect, the dethroned monarch underwent the form of a trial, was condemned and put to death. Many persons of rank, of the race of the Peguers, were also put to death on this occasion, under pretence that they had given countenance or aid to the late rebellion.

These were among the last transactions of Shembuan's life. He died in the city of Ava, about the Shembuan middle of spring, in the year 1776. He was succeeded by his son Chenguza, who appears in every respect Chenguza to have been incapable of exercising dominion with success to any tolerable degree of propriety. He degraded his throne, father's most respectable officers, and plunged into the most shameful debauchery, which he avowed openly by repealing the edict against the use of spirituous liquors. He put to death a younger brother, from jealousy of his ambition, employed himself wholly in hunting, and left public affairs to be managed by favourites. He also put to death one of his uncles, kept another of them close prisoner, and watched vigilantly a third of them, who affected to live in the most inoffensive obscurity. In a fit of jealousy he also put to death his wife in a public and open manner, and having at last rendered himself both odious and terrible, a conspiracy was... was formed against him, at the head of which was his uncle Minderagee Praw, the result of which was, that the latter obtained possession of the throne, and Chenguza, deserted by all the world, was killed by the father of the wife whom he had put to death, though the slayer was afterwards also put to death, under pretence of having shed royal blood contrary to the express letter of the law of the Birmans.

Shembuan Mia Shean Minderagee Praw, the fourth son of the deceased Alompra, thus succeeded to the possession of the empire. In the first days of the conspiracy, a pretence had been made that the object of it was to raise to the throne Momien, the only child of Namdogee Praw the eldest son of Alompra; but this pretence was speedily laid aside, and in eleven days after his accession to the throne, he was put to death. Minderagee Praw, notwithstanding the manner in which he obtained the sovereignty, is understood to have governed well, and he was upon the throne when the British envoy, Captain Symes visited that country. While he led a private life, however, this monarch is represented as having imbibed much of the superstition that so strongly characterizes every form of religion in the east. During his days of leisure he had directed much of his attention to astronomy, and became a thorough believer in judicial astrology. Some few Brahmins had for ages been accustomed to emigrate from Caffray and Aracan, to Ava, where, on account of their superior knowledge, they were employed as professors of science. A college was established and lands appropriated for its support. These Brahmin doctors composed almanacks, calculating eclipses; and from their intercourse with the planets, pronounced the propitious hour and season to attempt any momentous undertaking. Long before his elevation, these Brahmins had foretold to Minderagee Praw the fortune that awaited him. The accomplishment of their prophecy confirmed their influence over him. He appointed a certain number to be his chaplains, who, on court days, arrayed in white robes and standing round the throne, chanted a solemn benediction in melodious recitative. This ceremony is performed as soon as the king ascends the imperial seat, and before the commencement of public business. Prompted by the persuasions of his counsellors, Minderagee resolved to withdraw the seat of government from Ava, and to found a new city. The site fixed on for the projected settlement was judicious: about four miles north-east of Ava, there is a deep and extensive lake called Toungemann, formed by the influx of the river during the monsoon, through a narrow channel, which afterwards expands and displays a body of water a mile and a half broad, and seven or eight miles long. This lake first takes a northerly direction, nearly parallel with the river; it afterwards curves to the south-east, in a lessening sheet, and diminishes to a morass favourable to the culture of rice. When filled by the periodical rains, the lake with the river on one side, encloses a dry and healthy peninsula, on which Ummerapoora, the name given to the new city, now stands. Buildings in the Birman country are composed for the most part of wood; and water carriage being here convenient, the old town was speedily demolished, and the present capital rose from its materials; whilst such was the affluity used in removal, that Ummerapoora became, in a short time, one of the most flourishing and well built cities of the east. The fort likewise, which is spacious and regular, is completely fortified after the Asiatic manner. A lofty rampart, protected by a parapet, and strengthened by bastions composed of excellent masonry, is further secured by a deep and broad ditch, faced with brick and filled with water: the gateways are guarded by cannon, and retrenchments defend the passes of the ditch. The new monarch soon resolved to extend his dominions westward, by the conquest of Aracan. This country, and as already mentioned, is situated to the westward of Ava, along the shore of the bay of Bengal, but the direct road is embarrassed by a chain of mountains 56 miles in breadth. The road is so difficult that enterprising people might easily have defended the passes against any superiority of number; but the Birman king knew too well the indolent character of the king of Aracan, and the unwarlike disposition of his subjects, to dread any vigorous opposition. This country, however, had never been completely conquered; the Moguls on the west, the Peguers on the east, and the Portuguese from Europe, had at different times carried their arms into the heart of the country, but after these passing inroads Aracan had always recovered its independence. The difficulty of conquest, on the present occasion, consisted chiefly of finding a way into a country so well defended by nature. The range of lofty mountains, already mentioned, nearly encircles it on the east. From the southern quarter at Negrais, Aracan could only be invaded by water, through the many rivers that intersect the country adjacent to the sea. From the side of Chittagong, entry into Aracan must be effected by a march along the sea beach, which is interrupted by several channels, that owe their waters chiefly to the action of the tide. The coast, however, is extremely well adapted to commerce, by the various large and well cultivated islands which it possesses, and the variety of channels by which vessels can pass into the country, which to the mountains is everywhere low and well watered. The trade of Aracan has not indeed been very considerable. It is confined to salt, bees wax, elephants teeth, and rice. This latter article is produced in such abundance, that it might be improved into a lucrative branch of commerce. Possession of Aracan and its islands is not only coveted by the Birmans, on account of the fertility of the soil, but also from the protection it might afford to their boats, which navigating along the coast make an annual voyage to Chittagong and Calcutta, where they dispose of the produce of their country, and in return bring back cloth and the commodities of India.

In the year 1783, the Birmans accomplished their intended invasion, by attacking Aracan in different detachments, a part of which crossed the mountains, while others went round by water. After a naval engagement, which terminated in favour of the invaders, the king of Aracan took flight with his family; but being closely pursued, he was taken prisoner, and conducted to the Birman capital, where he was treated with humanity, but died in the course of a year. The town and port of Aracan fell after a faint resistance. The booty found in it was considerable, but on nothing was a higher value placed, than on an image of burnished brass of the god of the Birmans, called Gaudma, or Boondh. Boodh, or Budhoo. The figure is about 10 feet high in the customary fitting posture, with the legs crossed, the left hand resting on the lap and the right pendent. This image is believed to be an original resemblance, taken from life, and is so highly venerated, that pilgrims have for centuries come from the remotest countries, even Ceylon, China, and Japan, where the supremacy of Gaudma is acknowledged, to pay their devotions at the feet of his brazen representative. There were also found five images of Rakufs, the daemon of the Hindoos, of the same metal and stature. These were valued as guardians of the sanctity of the idol. A singular piece of ordnance was also found of enormous dimensions, composed of huge bars of iron beaten into form. This ponderous cannon measured 30 feet in length, two feet and a half in diameter at the mouth, and 10 inches in the calibre; it was transported to Ummarepoora by water, and deposited in the yard of the royal palace, where it is now preserved as a military trophy; it is mounted on a low carriage supported by six wheels, and is covered from the weather by a wooden pent-house. Gaudma and his infernal guards were, in like manner, conveyed by water to the capital, with much pomp and superfluous parade.

Since this period Aracan, with its dependencies, has constituted a province of the Birman empire, and is governed by a mayor or vicerey. Birman troops are distributed in the different towns, and lands were granted to many Birmans, on condition that they should come with their families and settle in the country. The valuable acquisition of Aracan did not satisfy the ambition of Minderage Praw, and he speedily turned his arms against the Siamele, his neighbours on the south-east. From the year 1785 to 1793, he carried on against them a very sanguinary war, in which he suffered a considerable number of defeats, though the Siamele could make no progress against him upon his own territory. At length the Siamele proposed a negotiation, which terminated in a treaty of peace, very favourable to the Birman interests, as the Siamele consented to relinquish to them a considerable extent of territory to the southward, on the western side of the peninsula.

The result of all these acquisitions is, that the Birman empire upon the whole, at present, appears to include the space between 9° and 26° N. Lat. and between 92° and 107° E. Long. from Greenwich, or about 1050 geographical miles in length, and 600 in breadth. These are stated as the ascertainable limits taken from the Birman accounts, though it is thought that their territories stretch still farther to the north; but it must be remarked, that in the southern parts the breadth often varies, and is in many places very considerable. On the whole, however, they possess a territory superior in extent to the German empire. But their perpetual wars, especially their sanguinary contests with Pegu and Siam, have greatly depopulated their country; and here, as in every other part of the world, it has been found, that war, while it ruins the vanquished, is seldom the source of internal prosperity to the victorious nation. From what can be discovered, there is no reason to believe that their present population, including Aracan, exceeds 17,000,000. Yet the soil of the southern provinces of the Birman empire is remarkably fertile, and produces as luxuriant crops of rice as are to be found in the finest parts of Bengal; but extensive plains, on which the vestiges of former culture and population are abundant, remain without a single house or inhabitant, having been defoliated by the ravages of war, during the contests of Birmans and Peguans, so that the finest territories in the world have in many places of this empire become, for a time at least, the undisputed domain of the wild beasts of the forest. In the northern parts of the empire, the country becomes irregular and mountainous; but the plains and valleys, particularly near the rivers, are exceedingly fruitful. They yield good wheat, and the various kinds of small grain, which grow in warm climates, with the different sorts of esculent vegetables: sugar cane, tobacco of superior quality, indigo, cotton, and the different tropical fruits in perfection, are all natural products of this favoured land.

The climate of every part of the Birman empire is Climate. said to testify its own salubrity by the best of all criterions, the appearance and figure of the natives, who appear equal in strength and activity to any other race of men in the world. The seasons are regular, and the extremes of heat and cold are seldom experienced; at least the duration of that intense heat, which immediately precedes the commencement of the rainy season, is so short, that it inconveniences but for a very little time. During the residence of the British embassy in the country, only one man was lost by disease. Another met an accidental death: in wandering through the woods he became the prey of a tiger.

One of the most valuable productions of this empire Teakwood. is the teak tree, which grows in vast abundance in the southern parts of the empire, near the great rivers. This article alone renders a free commerce with the Birmans of vast importance to the British settlements in India. Teak wood, so absolutely necessary for the navigation of the eastern seas, cannot be conveyed from the Malabar to the Coromandel coast of the western peninsula of India, or to Calcutta, but at an expense so great as to preclude the attempt. This wood grows indeed on the banks of the river Godaverry, but the impediments to procuring it from that quarter have hitherto been found insurmountable. Hence a great part of British India depends for ship-timber upon the Birman empire. Most other descriptions of timber are also found in this empire; on the banks of the river Irravady a large log of fir was seen by Doctor Buchanan, one of the gentlemen belonging to the embassy. He was informed by the natives that it had been washed down by the torrents from a mountainous part of the country northward of the capital, where it grows in abundance and of considerable magnitude. It is called teeny. The turpentine is extracted from it, and turned to use, but the wood is considered as of little value on account of its softness. It will probably hereafter be brought to market in India, as top-gallant-masts and yards made of teak are thought too heavy, and European and American spars are often bought for these purposes at a very exorbitant price.

On account of the depopulation of various parts of Animals. the country by war, the wild animals have multiplied to a great extent. The most troublesome of these are tigers, which infest all the forests, and what are called jungles or woody thickets near the banks of torrents, so as to render it dangerous to enter them: wild elephants also also abound, and occupy the forests in great numbers. These powerful animals, allured by the early crops of rice and sugar cane, make predatory excursions in large troops, and do much mischief, destroying more than they devour. The peasantry have often to lament the destruction of their most exposed plantations in consequence of these inroads. Herds of deer are frequently seen, and horses and cattle are reared in abundance by the people. They have also large herds of buffaloes, which have a powerful antipathy to a red or scarlet colour, and are extremely fierce, that the tigers dare not attack them.

The two peninsulas of India are the native countries of the peacock, and also of our barn-door fowl; the latter abound in the jungles or thickets, and are well known to sportsmen in India. They differ little from the barn-door fowl in Europe, except that the wild sort are all similar in colour; a dark red, with black breast and legs: their flesh is very delicate.

The Birman empire abounds in minerals. Near the frontiers of China they have mines of gold and silver; there are also mines of gold, silver, rubies, and sapphires, at present open on a mountain near the river Keenduom; but the most valuable, and those which produce the finest jewels, are in the vicinity of the capital. Precious stones are found in several other parts of the empire. The inferior minerals, such as contain iron, tin, lead, antimony, arsenic, sulphur, &c., are met with in great abundance; amber, of a confluence unusually pure and pellucid, is dug up in large quantities near the principal river. Gold likewise is discovered in the sandy beds of streams which descend from the mountains; diamonds and emeralds are not found in any part of the Birman empire, but it affords amethysts, garnets, very beautiful chrysolites, jasper, loadstone, and marble. This last is equal in quality to the finest marble of Italy, and admits of a polish that renders it almost transparent; but it is not allowed to be sold in its rude state or in blocks, being held sacred, and used only for the purpose of manufacturing images of Gaudma.

They have also wells of petroleum, which were visited by the British envoy, who describes his journey to them in the following terms: "Doctor Buchanan partook of an early dinner with me, and when the sun had descended so low as to be no longer inconvenient, we mounted our horses to visit the celebrated wells that produce the oil, an article of universal use throughout the Birman empire. The face of the country was cheerful and fertile; the road, which wound among rocky eminences, was barely wide enough to admit the passage of a single cart; and in many places the track in which the wheels must run, was a foot and a half lower on one side than the other: there were several of these lanes, some more circuitous than others, according to the situation of the small hills among which they led: vehicles going and returning were thus enabled to pursue different routes, except at particular places, where the nature of the ground would only admit of one road; when a cart came to the entrance of such a defile, the driver hallooed out to stop any that might interfere with him from the opposite side, no part being sufficiently wide for two carts to pass. The hills, or rather hillocks, were covered with gravel, and yielded no other vegetation than a few stunted bushes. The wheels had worn ruts deep into the rock, which seemed to be rather a mass of concreted gravel than hard stone, and many pieces of petrified wood lay strewn about. It is remarkable, that wherever these petrifications were found, the soil was unproductive, and the ground destitute of verdure. The evening being far advanced, we met but few carts; those which we did observe were drawn each by a pair of oxen, and of a length disproportionate to the breadth, to allow space for the earthen pots that contained the oil. It was a matter of surprise to us how they could convey such brittle ware, with any degree of safety, over so rugged a road; each pot was packed in a separate basket, and laid on straw; notwithstanding which precaution, the ground all the way was strewn with the fragments of the vessels and wet with oil; for no care can prevent the fracture of some in every journey. As we approached the pits, which were more distant than we had imagined, the country became less uneven, and the soil produced herbage; it was nearly dark when we reached them, and the labourers had retired from work. There seemed to be a great many pits within a small compass: walking to the nearest, we found the aperture about four feet square, and the sides, as far as we could see down, were lined with timber; the oil is drawn up in an iron pot, fastened to a rope passed over a wooden cylinder, which revolves on an axis supported by two upright posts; when the pot is filled, two men take the rope by the end, and run down a declivity which is cut in the ground to a distance equivalent to the depth of the well; thus, when they reach the end of their track, the pot is raised to its proper elevation; the contents, water and oil together, are then discharged into a cistern, and the water is afterwards drawn off through a hole at the bottom. Our guide, an active intelligent fellow, went to the neighbouring house and procured a well-rope, by means of which we were enabled to measure the depth, and ascertained it to be 37 fathoms, but of the quantity of oil at the bottom we could not judge; the owner of the rope, who followed our guide, affirmed that when a pit yielded as much as came up to the waist of a man, it was deemed tolerably productive; if it reached to his neck it was abundant; but that which rose no higher than the knee was accounted indifferent; when a well is exhausted, they restore the spring by cutting deeper into the rock, which is extremely hard in these places where the oil is produced. Government farm out the ground that supplies this useful commodity; and it is again let to adventurers, who dig wells at their own hazard, by which they sometimes gain, and often lose, as the labour and expense of digging are considerable. The oil is sold on the spot for a mere trifle; I think two or three hundred pots for a tal-chaal or half-a-crown. The principal charge is incurred by the transportation and purchase of vessels. We had but half gratified our curiosity when it grew dark, and our guide urged us not to remain any longer, as the road was said to be infested with tigers that prowled at night among the rocky uninhabited ways through which we had to pass; we followed his advice, and returned, with greater risk, as I thought, of breaking our necks from the badness of the road than of being devoured by wild beasts. At ten o'clock we reached our boats without any misadventure."

The Birmans are very far from being in a state of character intellectual darkness. Though they have not explored of the Bir-

---

**Note:** The text contains paragraphs that are not properly aligned due to formatting issues. the depths of science, nor reached to excellence in the finer arts, they yet have an undeniable claim to the character of a civilized and well-instructed people. Their police is better regulated than in most European countries. In their natural dispositions they are high-spirited, active, impatient and irritable; but at the same time they are friendly and hospitable to strangers, and their manners are rather expressive of manly candour than of courteous dissimulation: a knowledge of letters is so widely diffused, that there are no mechanics, few of the peasantry, or even the common watermen, usually the most illiterate class, who cannot read and write in the vulgar tongue; few, however, are versed in their books of science, which containing many Sanskrit terms, and being often written in the Pali text, are (like the Hindu Shasters) above the comprehension of the multitude.

The Birmans are not shackled by any prejudices of caste like the Hindoos, restricted to hereditary occupations, or forbidden to participate with strangers in every kind of social connexion. Hence it is probable, that if a respite is allowed them from foreign wars, their progress in improvement will be rapid. They are a very sober people, and though the activity of their character renders them fond of amusements, yet multitudes of them are seen assembled together upon their public festivals, without one act of intemperance being committed, or a single instance of intoxication being perceived.

The laws or customs of the Birmans with regard to women contain a strange mixture of reason and of absurdity; on the one hand the women are allowed entire freedom, and are considered as of much importance, while in other respects they are treated with great contempt. The Birmans encourage all strangers to marry Birman wives; even slaves taken in war who comply with this invitation, acquire considerable privileges. This custom, in which these people agree with the wildest and best governed nations of antiquity, is singular among the civilized countries of the east, and peculiarly remarkable in a people surrounded by kingdoms where women are kept inviolably sacred from the sight and converse of strangers, and where the exclusive system of castes or tribes admits neither of civil nor religious polygamy. Even the public prostitutes in China are prohibited from having intercourse with strangers. The Hindoo women of rank are no less inaccessible, and admission into a respectable caste is not to be obtained by money. The Birmans, on the contrary, sensible that the strength of an empire consists in its population, admit to their society men of all religions and complexions, Pagans or Jews, Mahometans or Christians, the disciples of Confucius or the worshippers of fire; the children of whom, born of a Birman woman, are understood to be natural-born subjects of the state, and are entitled to the same protection and privileges as if they had sprung from a line of Birman ancestry. Accordingly the jealousy which prompts the eastern nations to immure their women within the walls of a haram, and to surround them with guards, seems scarcely to have any influence over the minds of this extraordinary people. Birman wives and daughters are not concealed from the sight of men, and are suffered to have as free intercourse with the world as the rules of European society admit. A man can only marry one wife; but it appears that their men of rank take a second in the character of a concubine, who is by law, however, obliged to attend and obey the lawful wife as a servant. Women are accounted of such political importance, that great care is taken to prevent their being conveyed out of the country. The law in this point is very rigorous; every ship, before she receives her clearance, is diligently searched by the officers of the customhouse; even if their vigilance were to be eluded, the woman would be quickly missed, and it would soon be discovered in what vessel she had gone, nor could that ship ever return to a Birman port but under penalty of confiscation of the property, and the infliction of a heavy fine and imprisonment on the master: female children also, born of a Birman mother, are not suffered to be taken away. Men are permitted to emigrate; but they think that the expatriation of women would impoverish the state, by diminishing the sources of its population.

On the other hand, women are treated in many respects as not belonging to the same scale of creation as men; the evidence of a woman is not received as of equal weight with that of a man, and a woman is not suffered to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but is obliged to deliver her testimony on the outside of the roof. The lower class of Birmans make no scruple of selling their daughters, or even their wives, to strangers who come to reside among them for a short time, and none of the parties are understood to be dishonoured by the connexion. When the master of a family incurs debts which he cannot pay, his wife and daughters may be sold as slaves for payment of his creditors. Near the great towns is a place, called tackally, in the suburbs, assigned to common prostitutes, who are under the control of a public superintendent. He frequently purchases the unfortunate women who are sold for the payment of the debts of their relations, and makes gain by the prostitution of them.

Still, however, domestic society is on a very different footing among the Birmans from that in which it is placed among the other eastern nations, and the women take a much more active share in the superintendence of all affairs, as appears from the following anecdote, which fell under the observation of the British embassy, in the neighbourhood of whose residence a large ship was building for the governor of Maindu. "If this ship was not composed of prime materials, the building at least was well attended to; every morning the governor's wife crossed the river in her husband's barge, attended by two or three female servants: after landing, she commonly took her seat on one of the timbers in the yard, and overlooked the workmen for some hours; after which she returned home, and seldom missed coming back in the evening to see that the day's task had been completed. The ship on which the ship was built happened to be contiguous to our first habitation, a circumstance that caused us to remark her constant visits; curiosity, however, did not prompt her, or any of her attendants, to come within our precincts, whilst decorum deterred us from making advances towards an acquaintance. Her husband never accompanied her, and she did not seem to require his aid. Women in the Birman country are not only good housewives, but likewise manage the more important mercantile concerns of their husbands, and attend to their interests in all outdoor transactions; they are industrious..." Marriages among the Birmans are not contracted till the parties attain the age of puberty. The contract is purely civil, and the priests have no interference in it. When a young man is desirous to marry a girl, his mother, or nearest female relation, first makes the proposal in private. If the suit be successful, a party of his friends proceed to the house of the parents of the maiden, and adjust the dowry. On the morning of the bridal day the bridegroom sends to the bride three loongees, lower garments; three tubbeeks, or fathes; and three pieces of white muslin; also such jewels, ear-rings, and bracelets, as his circumstances admit of. A feast is prepared by the bride's parents, and formal writings are executed. The new-married couple eat out of the same dish. The bridegroom presents the bride with some pickled tea, which she accepts, and returns the compliment, which terminates the ceremony.

The Birmans are extremely polite, but at the same time unceremonious in their manners. Their form of demonstrating respect consists of assuming a sitting or low posture. Accordingly, when persons of rank visited the East India Company's ambassador, they no sooner came into the apartment than they instantly took to themselves chairs and sat down, while their attendants assumed a low posture, by resting upon their hams in the eastern manner. Though the embassy was at first received with considerable distrust by the government, yet the members of which it was composed were treated with the utmost politeness and personal respect, both by persons in office and by all ranks of people. The curiosity with which they were visited when at Pegu is thus described:—“Our hall in the morning was generally crowded, as every person of distinction in Pegu paid us the compliment of a visit, except the maywoon, who, within the precincts of his own government, where he represents the king, never returns a visit. Numbers both of men and women, prompted by harmless curiosity, surrounded the palings of the enclosure from morning till night: Those of a better class usually came in, some previously asking permission; but many entered without it. Perfectly free from restraint among themselves, the Birmans scruple not to go into your house without ceremony, although you are an utter stranger. To do them justice, however, they are not at all displeased at your taking the same freedom with them. This intrusion is confined wholly to your public room: they do not attempt to open a door; and where a curtain dropped denotes privacy, they never offer to violate the barrier. On entering the room, they immediately descend into the posture of respect. Of all our customs, none seemed to surprise them more than the preparations for dining: the variety of utensils, and our manner of fitting at a table, excited their wonder. They never took any greater liberty than merely to come into the room, and sit down on the floor: they meddled with nothing, and asked for nothing; and when desired to go away, always obeyed with cheerfulness. Had untold gold been placed before them, I am confident not a piece would have been purloined.” The behaviour of these people at another of their towns is thus mentioned:—“The news of the mission had reached the place before we arrived, and excited a general curiosity to see the boamien of the colars, or the general of the strangers, as they were pleased to denominate me. Not only the better class of the inhabitants of Mecaday came to visit us, but likewise people of condition from all the towns and villages twenty miles round; I have sometimes received eight or ten different companies in a morning. When a party wished to be introduced, a message was sent to ask permission; which being obtained, they entered the room in a crouching position, and sat down on their heels, men and women alike. They always brought a gift of something, whatever they supposed might be acceptable; tobacco, onions, fine rice, &c. No company presented themselves empty handed: it would not have been respectful. Of course, their offerings drew from me a suitable return; such as fillets of Indian muslin to the women, and a Coffembuzar silk handkerchief to the men. Several parties of women came unaccompanied by their husbands, or any of their male friends; and, according to the notions entertained by them, there was nothing indecorous in it: They were unconscious of anything but an innocent desire to gratify curiosity and manifest respect. Women of a better class were always accompanied by a train of female attendants; and, like the sex everywhere, were more lively, good-humoured, and inquisitive than the men.”

Among the public amusements of this people are Amule-mentioned boxing-matches, fireworks, processions, exhibitions of dancing; as also plays and puppet-shows. Persons of rank among them are fond of chess. This game is held in high estimation among the superior ranks: the board they use is exactly similar to ours, containing 64 squares, and their number of troops the same, 16 on each side; but the names, the power, and disposition of them, differ essentially. The king and his minister (a queen is never introduced by the orientals) are mounted on elephants: these are defended by two castles or yettay; two knights on horseback, men; two officers on foot, one called meem, the other chekey; and eight maundelay or foot soldiers. The forces of each party are arranged on three lines, by which eight squares remain unoccupied: none of the pieces possess equal force with our queen; and this restricted operation renders the Birman mode of playing more complex and difficult than ours. The Birmans affirm that it is a game of high antiquity, and that it is acknowledged and authorized by their sacred writings, although every play of chance is prohibited. This testimony confirms the opinion of the late Sir William Jones, that chess was invented in India, and is not, as generally imagined, of Persian origin. The Birmans call it chedreen, a word that bears some resemblance to the name which is given to the game in most other parts of the world.

One of their amusements deserves attention, chiefly Throwing on account of its singularity and the good temper which water on it indicates. It is thus described by Mr Symes, who the last day held the place of ambassador:—“On the 12th of April, the last day of the Birman year, we were invited by the maywoon to bear a part ourselves in a sport that is universally practised throughout the Birman dominions on the concluding day of their annual cycle. To wash away the impurities of the past, and commence the new year free from stain, women on this day are accustomed to throw water on every man they meet,” meet, which the men have the privilege of retorting.

This license gives rise to a great deal of harmless merriment, particularly among the young women, who, armed with great syringes and flagons, endeavour to wet every man that goes along the street, and in their turn receive a wetting with perfect good humour. Nor is the smallest indecency ever manifested in this or in any other of their sports. Dirty water is never cast. A man is not allowed to lay hold of a woman, but may fling as much water over her as he pleases, provided she has been the aggressor; but if a woman warns a man that he does not mean to join in the diversion, it is considered as an avowal of pregnancy, and she passes without molestation.

About an hour before sunset we went to the maywoon's, and found that his lady had provided plentifully to give us a wet reception. In the hall were placed three large china jars, full of water, with bowls and ladles to fling it. Each of us, on entering, had a bottle of rose water presented to him, a little of which we in turn poured into the palm of the maywoon's hand, who sprinkled it over his own vest of fine flowered muslin. The lady then made her appearance at the door, and gave us to understand that she did not mean to join in the sport herself, but made her eldest daughter, a pretty child in the nurse's arms, pour from a golden cup some rose-water mixed with sandalwood, first over her father, and then over each of the English gentlemen: this was a signal for the sport to begin. We were prepared, being dressed in linen waistcoats. From ten to twenty women, young and middle aged, rushed into the hall from the inner apartments, who surrounded and deluged without mercy four men, ill able to maintain unequal contest. The maywoon was soon driven from the field; but Mr Wood having got possession of one of the jars, we were enabled to preserve our ground till the water was exhausted: It seemed to afford them great diversion, especially if we appeared at all dittrayed by the quantity of water flung in our faces. All parties being tired, and completely drenched, we went home to change our clothes, and in the way met many damsels who would willingly have renewed the sport; they, however, were afraid to begin without receiving encouragement from us, not knowing how it might be taken by strangers; but they assailed Baba-theem and his Birman attendants with little ceremony. No inconvenient consequences were to be apprehended from the wetting; the weather was favourable, and we ran no risk of taking cold. Having put on dry clothes, we returned to the maywoon's, and were entertained with a dance and puppet show that lasted till even.

The court dress of the Birman nobles is represented as very becoming. It consists of a long robe of flowered satin or of velvet, reaching to the ankles, with an open collar and loose sleeves. Over this there is a scarf, or flowing mantle, that hangs from the shoulders, and on their heads they wear high caps of velvet, either plain, or of silk, embroidered with flowers of gold, according to the rank of the owner. Ear-rings are worn by the men; and some persons of condition use tubes of gold about three inches long, and as thick as a large quill, which expands at one end like the mouth of a speaking trumpet. Others wear a heavy mass of gold, beaten into a plate, and rolled up. This lump of metal forms a large orifice in the lobe of the ear, and drags it down by the weight to the extent sometimes of two inches. Men of rank wear in common dress a tight coat, with long sleeves made of muslin, or of extremely fine nankeen, which is manufactured in the country; also a silk wrapper that encircles the waist. The working class are usually naked to the middle, but in the cold season, a mantle or vest of European broad cloth is highly prized. The women tie their hair in a bunch on the top of the head. They bind it round with a fillet, the ornaments of which express the rank of the wearer. A short shift, reaching to the pit of the stomach, and drawn tight by strings, supports the breasts. Over that is a loose jacket, with close sleeves. Round their waist they roll a long piece of silk or cloth, which reaching to their feet, and sometimes trailing on the ground, encircles them twice, and is then tucked in. When women of condition go abroad, they wear a silk shawl resembling a long shawl, which covers their bosom, and is cast over the shoulders, so as to flow gracefully on each side. The lowest class of females often wear only a single garment in the form of a sheet, which, wrapped round the body, and tucked under the arm, covers their breasts, which it scarcely conceals, and descends to their ankles. Thus when they walk, the lower part of the cloth, where it overlaps, is opened by the protrusion of the leg, and displays to a side view as high as the middle of the thigh. Indeed, every woman when walking must show a great part of her leg, as the lower part of their dress is never closed by a seam. Women in full dress stain the palms of their hands and their nails of a red colour, by means of a vegetable juice, and throw on their bosoms powder of sandal wood, or of a bark called by them junneka, with which some rub their faces. Both men and women tinge the edges of their eyelids and their teeth with black.

The Birmans in their features have a nearer resemblance to the Chinese than to the natives of Hindoo people. The women, especially in the northern parts of the empire, are fairer than the Hindoo females, but not so delicately formed. They are inclined to corpulence, and their hair is black, long, and coarse. The men are athletic and active, but not tall. They have a very youthful appearance, from the custom of plucking out the hair of their beards instead of shaving. Girls are taught at an early age to turn their arms in such a manner as to make them appear distorted. When the arm is extended, the elbow is inverted, the inside of the joint being protruded, and the external part bending inwards.

With regard to religion, the Birmans are a sort of Hindu; not votaries of Brahma, but sectaries of Boond; which latter is admitted by Hindoos of all descriptions to be the ninth avatar or descent of the deity in his capacity of preserver. He reformed the doctrines contained in the vedas, and severely censured the sacrifice of cattle, or depriving any being of life. He is called the author of happiness; his place of residence was discovered at Gaya in Bengal, by the illustrious Amara, renowned amongst men, "who caused an image of the supreme Boond to be made, and he worshipped it: Reverence be unto thee, lord of the earth; reverence be unto thee an incarnation of the deity," and eternal one; reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of mercy!"

Gotma, or Gantum, according to the Hindoos of India, or Gaudma, among the inhabitants of the more eastern parts, is said to have been a philosopher, and is by the Birmans believed to have flourished above 2300 years ago. He taught in the Indian schools the heterodox religion and philosophy of Boadh. The image that represents Boadh is called Gaudma or Gantum, which is now a commonly received appellation of Boadh himself: This image is the primary object of worship in all the countries situated between Bengal and China. The sectaries of Boadh contend with those of Brahma for the honour of antiquity, and are certainly far more numerous. The Cingalese, that is, the original inhabitants of Ceylon, are Boadhists of the purest source; and the Birmans acknowledge to have originally received their religion from that island. It was brought, say the rhaahans, first from Zehoo (Ceylon) to Arakan, and thence was introduced into Ava, and probably into China; for the Birmans assert with confidence that the Chinese are Boadhists.

This is a curious subject of investigation; and the concurrent testimony of circumstances, added to the opinions of the most intelligent writers, seem to leave little doubt of the fact. It cannot, however, be demonstrated beyond the possibility of dispute, till we shall have acquired a more perfect knowledge of Chinese letters, and a readier access to their repositories of learning. Little can at present be added to the lights cast on the subject by the late Sir William Jones, in his discourse delivered to the Asiatic society on the Chinese. That great man has expressed his conviction in polite terms, that "Boadh was unquestionably the Fo of China," and that he was also the god of Japan, and the Woden of the Goths; an opinion which corresponds with, and is perhaps grafted on, the information of the learned and laborious Kaempfer, corroborated afterwards by his own researches. On whatever grounds the latter inference rests, it will not tend to weaken the belief of his first position, when I observe that the Chinese deputies, on the occasion of our introduction to the serdan, or high priest of the Birman empire, prostrated themselves before him, and afterwards adored an image of Gaudma with more religious fervour than mere politeness or acquiescence in the customs of another nation would have excited. The bonzes also of China, like the rhaahans of Ava, wear yellow, as the sacerdotal colour; and in many of their customs and ceremonies there may be traced a striking similitude.

The laws of the Birmans are connected with their religion, being contained in what they call the Derma Sath, or Saflra, which is one of many commentaries on the writings of Menu, to whom, according to the Hindoos, the sacred principles of their law were revealed by divine authority.

The Saflra provides specifically for almost every case of crime that can be committed, and adds a copious chapter of precedents and decisions to guide the inexperienced. The Birmans agree with the Hindoos in one benevolent doctrine, the sinfulness of depriving any creature of life to satisfy a carnivorous appetite; but the Birmans do not carry this branch of their religion to any scrupulous length, like the timid and superstitious natives of the western peninsula. Merely to eat flesh is not deemed a crime by the Birmans; but he who eats it is not exempt from sin, unless the creature died a natural death, or was slain by accident, or by other hands. But in every thing that concerns religion the Birmans are abundantly liberal. The prohibition to kill animals as objects of food is nowhere very scrupulously observed, except by the rhaahans or priests. In times of danger, or in consequence of superstition, the king and his viceroys sometimes issue proclamations, enjoining obedience to the sacred law; but these produce little other effect than to cause the animals for a short time to be killed with more secrecy than usual; and wherever foreigners are in question, both the government and the people are abundantly tolerant. The naywoon of Pegu, who sent to the embassy large supplies of fruit, rice, oil, tamarinds, and spices, did not indeed offer any butcher's meat for the use of the table; but they were allowed to purchase and kill whatever they wanted, such as fowls, kid, and venison. When they had advanced farther into the country, a private intimation was given to the ambassador, that there would be no crime if a servant of his should kill a fat bullock when he met one; that it would be ascribed to accident, and reparation might be made to the owner, who would think himself amply recompensed for his loss by two tachals, about six shillings; and the beast being dead, there could be no sin in eating it, but that a public sanction could not previously be given to slaughter one. The Birmans never quarrel with a stranger on account of his religion. Their principal sea-port, Rangoon, has long been the asylum of insolvent debtors from the different settlements of India. It is crowded with foreigners of desperate fortunes, who find from the Birmans a friendly reception, and carry on a petty trade, which affords a decent subsistence to those who act with prudence. Here are to be found fugitives from all countries of the east, and of all complexions: Malabars, Moguls, Persians, Parsees, Armenians, Portuguese, French, and English all mingle here, and are engaged in various branches of commerce. The members of this discordant multitude are not only permitted to reside under the protection of government, but likewise enjoy the most liberal toleration in matters of religion: They celebrate their several rites and festivals, totally disregarded by the Birmans, who have no inclination to make proselytes. In the same street may be heard the solemn voice of the muezzin, calling pious Muslims to early prayers, and the bell of the Portuguese chapel tinkling a summons to Roman Christians. Processions meet and pass each other without giving or receiving cause of offence. The Birmans never trouble themselves about the religious opinions of any sect, nor disturb their ritual ceremonies, provided they do not break the peace, or meddle with their own divinity, Gaudma; but if any person commit an outrage, which the multitudes in their zeal for the true faith will sometimes do, the offender is sure to be put into the stocks; and if that does not calm his turbulent enthusiasm, they bastinado him into tranquillity.

The rhaahans, or priests, are a kind of monks who live in cloisters, profess celibacy, and abstain from every sensual indulgence. The prescribed punishment for a rhaahan detected in an act of incontinence, is expulsion. expulsion and public disgrace. The delinquent is seated on an ass, and his face daubed with black paint, interpered with spots of white. He is thus led through the streets, with a drum beating before him, and afterwards turned out of the city. The juniors only go abroad by the permission of the superior or prior of the convent. They are dressed in a long loose cloak, and yellow is the only colour worn by them. The rahaans never dress their own victuals, holding it an abuse of time to perform any of the common functions of life, which, so long as they occupy, must divert them from the abstract contemplation of the divine essence. They receive the contributions of the laity ready cooked, and prefer cold food to hot. At the dawn of the morning they begin to perambulate the town, to collect supplies for the day: Each convent sends forth a certain number of its members, who walk at a quick pace through the streets, supporting with the right arm a blue lacquered box, in which the donations are deposited; these usually consist of boiled rice mixed with oil, dried and pickled fish, sweetmeats, fruit, &c. During their walk they never cast their eyes to the right nor to the left, but keep them fixed on the ground; they do not stop to solicit, and seldom even look at the donors, who appear more desirous to bestow than the others to receive. The rahaans eat but once a-day, at the hour of noon. A much larger quantity of provisions being commonly procured than suffices for the members of the convent, the surplus is disposed of as charitably as it was given, to the needy stranger, or the poor scholars who daily attend them to be instructed in letters, and taught their moral and religious duties.

In their choice of a residence, the rahaans commonly select the most retired spots they can find, where shady trees, particularly the tamarind and banyan, protect them from the noontide sun. Their monasteries are different from common houses; they are made entirely of wood; the roof is composed of different flanges supported by strong pillars; the inside comprehends one large hall; the whole house is open at the sides, and no private apartments are allowed. Publicity is the prevailing system of Burmese conduct, and they admit of no secrets either in church or state. All kiongs or monasteries, whether in town or country, are seminaries for the education of youth, in which boys of a certain age are taught their letters, and instructed in moral and religious duties. To these schools the neighbouring villagers send their children, where they are educated gratis, no distinction being made between the son of the peasant, and of him who wears the tsaloe or string of nobility. A piece of ground contiguous to the grove is enclosed for a garden, where they sow vegetables and plant fruit trees; the Indian sweet potato and the plantain, being the most nutritious, are principally cultivated. The charity of the country people supplies them abundantly with rice, and the few necessaries which their narrow wants require. Abstracted from all worldly considerations, they do not occupy themselves in the common concerns of life: they never buy, sell, or accept of money. Formerly there were nunneries of virgin priestesses, who, like the rahaans, wore yellow garments, cut off their hair, and devoted themselves to chastity and religion; but the Burmese government has long since abolished these societies, and refuses to allow women, under pretence of religion, to be withdrawn from the performance of the important duty of contributing to support and increase the population of the state.

The Burmese are extremely magnificent in the structure of their temples; that of Shwemadoo, at the ancient city of Pegu, is most remarkable. We shall therefore give the description of it at full length:

"The object in Pegu that most attracts and most merits notice, is the noble edifice of Shoemadoo or the Temple of golden supreme. This extraordinary pile of buildings Shoemadoo is erected on a double terrace, one raised upon another. The lower and greater terrace is about 10 feet above the natural level of the ground, forming an exact parallelogram: the upper and lesser terrace is similar in shape, and rises about 20 feet above the lower terrace, or 30 above the level of the country. I judged a side of the lower terrace to be 1391 feet; of the upper 684. The walls that sustained the sides of the terrace, both upper and lower, are in a ruinous state; they were formerly covered with plaster wrought into various figures. The area of the lower is strewn with the fragments of small decayed buildings; but the upper is kept free from filth, and is in tolerably good order. There is reason to conclude, that this building and the fortresses coeval, as the earth of which the terraces are composed, appears to have been taken from the ditch; there being no other excavation in the city, or in its neighbourhood, that could have afforded a tenth part of the quantity.

"The terraces are ascended by flights of stone steps, which are now broken and neglected. On each side are dwellings of the rahaans raised on timbers four or five feet from the ground. These houses consist only of a large wall; the wooden pillars that support them are turned with neatness; the roofs are covered with tiles, and the sides are made of boards; and there are a number of bare benches in every house, on which the rahaans sleep; but we saw no other furniture.

"Shoemadoo is a pyramidal building composed of brick and mortar, without excavation or aperture of any sort, octagonal at the base, and spiral at top; each side of the base measures 162 feet; this immense breadth diminishes abruptly, and a similar building has not unaptly been compared in shape to a large speaking trumpet.

"Six feet from the ground there is a wide projection that surrounds the base, on the plane of which are 57 small spires of equal size, and equidistant; one of them measured 27 feet in height, and 40 in circumference at the bottom. On a higher ledge there is another row, consisting of 54 spires of similar shape and measurement.

"A great variety of mouldings encircle the building, and ornaments somewhat resembling the fleur-de-lys surround the lower part of the spire; circular mouldings likewise girt it to a considerable height, above which there are ornaments in stucco not unlike the leaves of a Corinthian capital: And the whole is crowned by a tee or umbrella, of open iron-work, from which rises a rod with a gilded pennant.

"The tee or umbrella is to be seen on every sacred building that is of a spiral form; the raising and consecration of this last and indispensable appendage is an act..." act of high religious solemnity, and a season of festivity and relaxation. The present king bestowed the tee that covers Shoemadoo. It was made at the capital; and many of the principal nobility came down from Ummerapoora to be present at the ceremony of its elevation.

"The circumference of the tee is 56 feet; it rests on an iron axis fixed on the building, and is farther secured by large chains strongly rivetted to the spire. Round the lower rim of the tee are appended a number of bells, which, agitated by the wind, make a continual jingling.

"The tee is gilt, and it is said to be the intention of the king to gild the whole of the spire. All the lesser pagodas are ornamented with proportionable umbrellas of similar workmanship, which are likewise encircled by small bells.

"The extreme height of the edifice, from the level of the country, is 361 feet, and above the interior terrace 331 feet.

"On the fourth-east angle of the upper terrace there are two handsome saloons or kiouns lately erected, the roofs composed of different stages, supported by pillars; we judged the length of each to be about 60 feet, and the breadth 30; the ceiling of one is already embellished with gold leaf, and the pillars are lacquered; the decoration of the other is not yet completed. They are made entirely of wood; the carving on the outside is laborious and minute; we saw several unfinished figures of animals and men in grotesque attitudes, which were designed as ornaments for different parts of the building. Some images of Gaudma, the supreme object of Birman adoration, lay scattered around.

"At each angle of the interior and higher terrace there is a temple 67 feet high, resembling in miniature the great temple; in front of that, in the southern corner, are four gigantic representations in masonry of Palloo or the evil genius, half beast half human, seated on their hams, each with a large club on the right shoulder. The Pundoo who accompanied me, said that they resembled the Rahufs of the Hindoos. These are guardians of the temple.

Nearly in the centre of the east face of the area are two human figures in stucco beneath a gilded umbrella; one standing represents a man with a book before him, and a pen in his hand; he is called Thagfamee, the recorder of mortal merits and mortal misdeeds; the other, a female figure kneeling, is Maha Sumdera, the protector of the universe, so long as the universe is doomed to last; but when the time of general dissolution arrives, by her hand the world is to be overwhelmed and everlasting destroyed.

"A small brick building, near the north-east angle, contains an upright marble slab, four feet high, and three feet wide: there is a long legible inscription on it. I was told it was an account of the donations of pilgrims of only a recent date.

"Along the whole extent of the north face of the upper terrace there is a wooden shed, for the convenience of devotees who come from a distant part of the country. On the north side of the temple are three large bells of good workmanship, suspended nigh the ground between pillars; several deers horns lie strewn around; those who come to pay their devotions first, take up one of the horns and strike the bell three times, giving an alternate stroke to the ground: this act I was told is to announce to the spirit of Gaudma, the approach of a suppliant. There are several low benches near the foot of the temple on which the person who comes to pray places his offering, commonly consisting of boiled rice, a plate of sweetmeats, or cocoa nut fried in oil: when it is given, the devotee cares not what becomes of it; the crows and wild dogs often devour it in presence of the donor, who never attempts to disturb the animals. I saw several plates of victuals disposed of in this manner, and understood it to be the case with all that was brought.

"There are many small temples on the areas of both terraces, which are neglected and suffered to fall into decay. Numberless images of Gaudma lie indiscriminately scattered. A pious Birman who purchases an idol, first procures the ceremony of consecration to be performed by the rahaans; he then takes his purchase to whatever sacred building is most convenient, and there places it within the shelter of a kioun, or in the open ground before the temple; nor does he ever again seem to have any anxiety about its preservation, but leaves the divinity to shift for itself. Some of these idols are made of marble that is found in the neighbourhood of the capital of the Birman dominions, many are formed of wood and gilded, and a few are of silver. The latter, however, are not usually exposed and neglected like the others. Silver and gold are rarely used, except in the composition of household gods.

"On both the terraces are a number of white cylindrical flags raised on bamboo poles; these flags are peculiar to the rahaans, and are considered as emblematic of purity and of their sacred functions. On the top of the staff there is a henza or goofe, the symbol both of the Birman and Pegu nations.

"From the upper projection that surrounds the base of Shoemadoo, the prospect of the circumjacent country is extensive and picturesque; but it is a prospect of nature in her rudest state: there are few inhabitants, and scarcely any cultivation. The hills of Martaban rise to the eastward, and the Sitang river, winding along the plains, gives an interrupted view of its waters. To the northward about 40 miles are the Galadzet hills, whence the Pegu river takes its rise; hills remarkable only for the noisome effects of their atmosphere. In every other direction the eye looks over a boundless plain, chequered by a wild intermixture of wood and water."

The temple of Shoemadoo appears to be the largest in the Birman dominions. At the same time, they have many others formed upon a similar plan and of great extent. Of one of these we shall take notice, on account of the coincidence between its name, and the name of a Pagan temple mentioned in the sacred Scriptures. It is to be observed, that in the Birman tongue the word /boe, signifies golden; and the name of the temple to which we allude, is called Shoedagon, or the temple of the golden Dagon. It is thus described:

"The temple of Shoedagon or Dagoning, about two miles and a half north of Rangoon, is a very grand building, although not so high by 25 or 30 feet as that of Shoemadoo at Pegu. It is much more ornamented; the terrace on which it stands is raised on a rocky eminence, considerably higher than the circumjacent..." It is customary when the king, or when persons of high rank travel, to erect temporary habitations for houses. These temporary houses are thus described:

"The materials of which these houses are made, are always easy to be procured; and the structure is so simple, that a spacious and by no means an uncomfortable dwelling, suited to the climate, may be erected in one day. Our habitation, consisting of a small room to each, and a hall, open to the north, in little more than four hours was in readiness for our reception. Fifty or sixty labourers completed it in that time; and, on emergency, could perform the work in much less.

Bamboos, grass for thatching, and the ground rattan, are all the materials requisite; not a nail is used in the whole edifice; a row of strong bamboos from eight to ten feet high are fixed firm in the ground, which describe the outline, and are the supports of the building; smaller bamboos are then tied horizontally, by strips of the ground rattan, to these upright poles; the walls, composed of bamboo mats, are fastened to the sides with similar ligaments; bamboo rafters are quickly raised, and a roof formed, over which thatch is spread in regular layers, and bound to the roof by filaments of rattan; a floor of bamboo grating is next laid in the inside, elevated two or three feet above the ground; this grating is supported on bamboos, and covered with mats and carpets: this ends the process, which is not more simple than effectual. When the workmen take pains, a house of this sort is proof against very inclement weather. We experienced during our stay at Meeaday a severe storm of wind and rain, but no water penetrated nor thatch escaped; and, if the tempest should blow down the house, the inhabitants would run no risk of having their brains knocked out or their bones broken; the fall of the whole fabric would not crush a lady's lap dog."

In the administration of justice the Birman are extremely regular and formal; the place where the judges sit is called the rhoom, where they hear the justice, pleadings of parties or their counsel, and examine witnesses, whose depositions are taken down in writing. These depositions are sent to the maywoon or viceroy, who represents the king, and the judges transmit their opinions along with the evidence, which the maywoon either confirms or rejects as he thinks proper; and, in cases of capital conviction, orders execution or pardons the culprit. From his judgment there lies no appeal, unless the offender hold a royal commission; in which case the evidence must be transmitted to the council of state, and the king himself applies the law and pronounces judgment.

The building denominated the rhoom is also the official hall where the members of provincial governments and all municipal officers are accustomed to assemble to transact public business. Every man of high rank in the Birman empire is a magistrate, and has a place of this description and name contiguous to his dwelling; but always on the outside of the enclosure of his court-yard, and not surrounded by any fence or railing, in order to manifest publicity, and show that it is the seat of majesty and justice, to which all mankind may have free access. An imperial mandate to a governor, or an order from a governor to a petty mongee or chief of a small town or district, is invariably opened and read aloud in this sanctified hall. The Birman government, in the administration of public affairs, professes no such thing as privacy or concealment. The throne is likewise an appendage of dignity, as it denotes him to whose habitation it is annexed to be a person of rank and consequence; a building of this sort was erected within a few yards of the front gate of the British ambassador's enclosure. It is to be remarked, that when the ambassador had obtained from the government the establishment of certain regulations respecting commerce, and had returned to the sea port of Rangoon, the viceroy of that district informed him that the orders for carrying into effect the late regulations would be publicly read and registered at the throne on the following day. The viceroy also invited him to send a confidential person to be present at the ceremony; adding, that the records were also open to the public inspection; and that whoever chose might, at any time, procure a copy, by paying a trifling fee to the officers of the court. The result of this publicity is, that foreigners, acquainted with the character of the people, do not hesitate to trust themselves in the very centre of the country. At the distance of 150 miles from the coast, including the windings of the river, our embassy found a fullgrown merchant from Surat, out of economy, building a vessel of four hundred tons burden, instead of building it at the sea port of Rangoon. He meant, as soon as the hull should be finished, to float it down the stream. The inland navigation is considered as dangerous; but this merchant chose to encounter the risk for the sake of obtaining the teak timber at a cheap rate near the spot where it grows, and probably also for the sake of obtaining labour at a more moderate price. This adventurer furnishes a proof of the confidence that may be placed in the Birman government, and the security that a stranger has for his property.

The Birman government is of a feudal nature in the strictest sense of the word. The people are a nation of soldiers; every man in the kingdom being liable to be called upon military service, and war is deemed the most honourable occupation. The regular military establishment of the nation, however, as among our ancestors in feudal times, is very inconsiderable, consisting only of the royal guards, and as many troops as are necessary to preserve the police of the capital. These are supposed to amount, in all, to about 2000 infantry, and 300 cavalry, though it is said that the cavalry scattered in small detachments through the districts adjoining to the capital, amount to about 2000. The infantry are armed with muskets and sabres, and are not uniformly clothed; the cavalry in the king's service, are natives of the northern province of Caflay, who are accounted much better horsemen than the Birmans; they seldom use any other weapon than a spear about seven or eight feet long. They ride like all Orientals with short stirrups, and a loose rein; their dress is not unbecoming; it consists of a tight coat, with skirts reaching down to the middle of the thigh, and on their head they wear a turban of cloth rolled hard and plaited, which forms a high cone, that bends backwards in a graceful manner; their horses are small, but hardy and active, and are frequently exported to the western peninsula. When an army is to be raised, a mandate issues to all the viceroys of provinces and governors of districts, requiring a certain number of men to be at a general rendezvous on an appointed day; the levy is proportioned to the population of the province or district, estimated from the number of registered houses that it contains; the provincial court determines the burden which each house is to bear; a certain number of houses furnish a recruit among them, or pay 300 taekal in money, about 43l. or 45l. The recruit is supplied with arms, ammunition, and, it is believed, with a daily allowance of grain, from the government; but he receives no pay. The families of these conscripts are carefully retained in their districts as hostages for the good conduct of their relations. In case of desertion or treachery, the innocent wife, children, and parents of the guilty person, are dragged to execution without pity; even cowardice subjects the family of the delinquent to capital punishment, and this barbarous law is rigorously enforced.

By far the most respectable part of the Birman military force is the establishment of war-boats; every town of note in the vicinity of the principal rivers is obliged to furnish a certain number of men, and one or more boats, in proportion to the magnitude of the place; thus the king can command at a very short notice 500 of these vessels: They are constructed out of the solid trunk of the teak-tree, which is excavated partly by fire and partly by cutting; the largest are from 80 to 100 feet long, but the breadth seldom exceeds eight feet, and even this space is produced by artificially extending the sides after the trunk has been hollowed: they carry from 50 to 60 rowers, who use short oars, that work on a spindle. The prow is solid, and is a flat surface, on which, when they go to war, a piece of ordnance is mounted; a six, nine, or even a twelve pounder. The gun-carriage is secured by lashings to strong bolts on each side, and swivels are frequently fixed on the curvature of the stern. Each rower is provided with a sword and a lance, which are placed by his side while he plies the oars. Besides the boatmen, there are usually 30 soldiers on board, who are armed with muskets: thus prepared, they go in fleets to meet the foe, and when in fight, draw up in a line, presenting their prows to the enemy. Their attack is extremely impetuous; they advance with great rapidity, and sing a war song, at once to encourage their people, daunt their adversaries, and regulate the strokes of their oars; they generally endeavour to grapple, and when that is effected, the action becomes very severe, as these people are endowed with great courage, strength, and activity. In times of peace they are fond of exercising in their boats, and they display much dexterity in the management of them. The vessels being low in the water, their greatest danger is that of being run down by a larger boat striking on their broadside, a misfortune which the fleeterman is taught to dread and to avoid above all other. It is surprising, says the author, to see the facility cility with which they steer and elude each other in their mock combats. The rowers are also practised to row backwards, and impel the vessel with the stern foremost; this is the mode of retreating, by means of which the artillery still bears upon its opponent. The largest of the war boats do not draw more than three feet water.

The revenue of the Birman king is, according to the laws of their religion, as stated in their sacred books, a tenth of all produce, and it is certain that one-tenth is the amount of the king's duty on all foreign goods imported into his dominions. The revenues arising from the customs on imports, and from internal produce, is mostly taken in kind; a small part of which is converted into cash: the rest is distributed as received in lieu of salaries to the various dependants of the court. Princes of the blood, high officers of state, and provincial governors, receive grants of provinces, cities, villages, and farms, to support their dignity, and as a remuneration of their services; the rents of these assignments they collect for their own benefit. Money, except on pressing emergency, is never disbursed from the royal coffers: to one man the fees of an office are allotted; to another a station where certain imposts are collected; a third has land; each in proportion to the importance of his respective employment. By these donations they are not only bound in their own personal servitude, but likewise in that of all their dependants; they are called slaves of the king, and, in turn, their slaves are denominated slaves to them; the conditions of these grants include also services of war as well as the duties of office. Thus the Birman government exhibits almost a faithful picture of Europe in the darker ages, when, on the decline of the Roman empire, the principles of feudal dependence were established by barbarians from the north.

This system of feudal dependence may be considered as existing in the Birman government in its purest state. There are no hereditary dignities or employments; all honours and offices on the demise of the possessor revert to the crown, a circumstance which when taken along with the obligation to military service, which is incumbent upon all down to the lowest of the people, gives to this government that appearance of a military encampment and subordination which the feudal tenures have been understood to exhibit, but from which they degenerated in Europe, when dignities and authority became hereditary. In consequence of the feudal principles which here prevail, the subordination of rank is maintained and marked by the Birmans with the most tenacious strictness. In the manner of constructing houses, whether temporary or lasting, strict attention is paid to the form which indicates the rank of the inhabitants; nor dare any subject assume a mode of structure to which he is not legally entitled: the distinction consists chiefly of the number of stages of which the roof is composed; even domestic implements, such as the betel-box, water-flagon, drinking-cup, and horse-furniture, all express by their shape and quality the precise station of the owner; nor can one person intrude upon the rights of another under penalty of incurring a most severe punishment, which is never remitted. The tsoe, or chain, is the badge of the order of nobility, of which there are different degrees, distinguished by the number of strings or small chains that compose the ornament. These strings are fastened by bosses where they unite: three of open chain-work is the lowest rank; three of neatly twisted wire is the next; then of six, of nine, and of twelve; no subject is ever honoured with a higher degree than twelve; the king alone wears 24.

As gold is understood to be the noblest of metals, the king of the Birmans, who is the foundation of rank, is designated or described by the appellation of /loe or golden; thus, a particular village inhabited by watermen in the service of the king, is called Shoe-lee-rna, or golden boat village, nor is the person of the sovereign ever spoken of but in conjunction with this precious metal. When a subject means to affirm that the king has heard anything, he says, "It has reached the golden ears;" he who has obtained admission to the royal presence, has been at the golden feet; the perfume of otter of roses, a nobleman observed one day, "was an odour grateful to the golden nose." Gold among the Birmans being a type of excellence, is not merely ascribed to their king, but on solemn occasions it is placed on his dress in such quantities as to prove not a little cumbersome. The form in which the ambassadors were introduced to his majesty, and the appearance which he made, are thus described: "On entering the gate, we perceived the royal falcon of cession of amity in front of us, and the court assembled in all bays to the parade of pomp and decoration. It was an open hall, supported by colonnades of pillars, 20 in length and only four in depth; we were conducted into it by a flight of steps, and advancing, took our places next the space opposite to the throne, which is always left vacant, as being in full view of his majesty. On our entrance, the base of the throne was alone visible, which we judged to be about five feet high; folding doors screened the seat from our view: the throne, called yazapalay, was richly gilded and carved; on each side a small gallery, enclosed by a gilt balustrade, extended a few feet to the right and left, containing four umbrellas of state; and on two tables at the foot of the throne were placed several large vessels of gold, of various forms, and for different purposes; immediately over the throne a splendid piafath or pyramid rose in seven stages above the roof of the building, crowned by a tee or umbrella, from which a spiral rod was elevated above the whole.

"We had been seated little more than a quarter of an hour, when the folding-doors that concealed the seat opened with a loud noise, and discovered his majesty ascending a flight of steps that led up to the throne from the inner apartment; he advanced but slowly, and seemed not to possess a free use of his limbs, being obliged to support himself with his hands on the balustrade. I was informed, however, that this appearance of weakness did not proceed from any bodily infirmity, but from the weight of the legal habiliments in which he was clad; and if what we were told was true, that he carried on his dress 15 vifs, upwards of 50 pounds avoirdupois of gold, his difficulty of ascent was not surprising. On reaching the top, he stood for a minute, as though to take breath, and then sat down on an embroidered cushion, with his legs inverted. His crown was a high conical cap, richly studded with precious stones; his fingers were covered with rings, and in his dress he bore the appearance of a man cased in golden armour, whilst a gilded or probably a golden wing on each shoulder did not add much lightness to his figure. His looks denoted him to be between 50 and 60 years old, of a strong make, in stature rather beneath the middle height, with hard features, and of a dark complexion; yet the expression of his countenance was not unpleasing, and seemed, I thought, to indicate an intelligent and inquiring mind.

"On the first appearance of his majesty, all the courtiers bent their bodies, and held their hands joined in an attitude of supplication. Nothing farther was required of us than to lean a little forward, and to turn in our legs as much as we could; not any act being so unpolite or contrary to etiquette as to present the soles of the feet towards the face of a dignified person. Four Bramins, dressed in white caps and gowns, chanted the usual prayer at the foot of the throne: a nakhana then advanced into the vacant space before the king, and recited in a musical cadence the name of each person who was to be introduced on that day, and of whose present, in the character of a suppliant, he entreated his majesty's acceptance. My offering consisted of two pieces of Benares gold brocade; Doctor Buchanan and Mr Wood, each presented one. When our names were mentioned, we were separately desired to take a few grains of rice in our hands, and, joining them, to bow to the king as low as we conveniently could; with which we immediately complied. When this ceremony was finished, the king uttered a few indistinct words, to convey, as I was informed, an order for investing some persons present with the insignia of a certain degree of nobility; the imperial mandate was instantly proclaimed aloud by heralds in the court. His majesty remained only a few minutes longer, and during that time looked at us attentively, but did not honour us with any verbal notice, or speak at all, except to give the order before mentioned. When he rose to depart, he manifested the same signs of infirmity as on his entrance; after he had withdrawn, the folding doors were closed, and the court broke up."

It may here be added, that among the Birmans the royal family is held of so much importance, that to succeed to the throne, every prince must be descended from royal parentage by both father and mother; for this reason incestuous marriages are permitted to their princes, but to nobody else; the king may indeed marry a second wife of inferior rank while his first is alive, but she is accounted merely a concubine, and her children are illegitimate, and cannot inherit the throne.

The books of the Birmans are generally formed of the palmetto leaf, on which the letters are engraved with a stylus. Books are sometimes composed, however, of thin strips of bamboo delicately plaited, and varnished over in such a manner as to form a smooth hard surface upon a leaf of any dimension. This surface is afterwards gilded, and the letters traced upon it in black and shining japan. The margin is illumined by wreaths and figures of gold. The Birmans write from left to right, and though they leave no distinguishing space between their words, they mark the pauses of a sentence and the full stops. Their letters are distinct, and their manuscripts are in general very beautiful. Their language contains 33 simple sounds, and their alphabet consists of an equal number of distinct characters, exclusive of various marks and contractions, which are explained in their spelling-book. Their common characters consist of circles, and fragments of circles, variously disposed and combined. The Birmans are extremely fond both of poetry and music: their poetry, when repeated by a well-educated person, is extremely melodious; it is sometimes in succession, and sometimes in alternate rhymes: they have epic as well as religious poems of high celebrity, and they are fond of reciting in heroic numbers, the exploits of their kings and generals. It is said, that the prowess of the great Alompra, the deliverer of his country, is recorded in verses not unworthy of his courage and his fortune. The members of the British embassy were invited by the maywoon or viceroy of Pegu to one of their dramatic representations, which they applaud not a little. "The theatre was the open court, splendidly illuminated by lamps and torches; the maywoon and his lady sat in a projecting balcony of his house; we occupied seats below him, raised about two feet from the ground, and covered with carpets; a crowd of spectators were seated in a circle round the stage. The performance began immediately on our arrival, and far excelled any Indian drama that I had ever seen. The dialogue was spirited without rant, and the action animated without being extravagant; the dresses of the principal performers were showy and becoming. I was told that the best actors were natives of Siam, a nation, which though unable to contend with the Birmans and Peguans in war, have cultivated with more success the refined arts of peace. By way of interlude between the acts, a clownish buffoon entertained the audience with a recital of different passages; and by grimace and frequent alterations of tone and countenance, extorted loud peals of laughter from the spectators. The Birmans seem to delight in mimickry, and are very expert in the practice, possessing uncommon versatility of countenance. An eminent practitioner of this art, amused us with a specimen of his skill, at our own house, and, to our no small astonishment, exhibited a masterly display of the passions in pantomimic looks and gestures; the transitions he made from pain to pleasure, from joy to despair, from rage to mildness, from laughter to tears; his expression of terror, and, above all, his look of idiotism, were performances of first-rate merit in their line; and we agreed in opinion, that had his fates decreed him to have been a native of Great Britain, his genius would have rivalled that of any modern comedian of the English stage.

"The plot of the drama performed this evening, I understood, was taken from the sacred text of the Ramayen of Balmiee (called by Sir William Jones, Valmee) a work of high authority among the Hindoos. It represented the battles of the holy Ram, and the impious Rahwaan, chief of the Rakufs or demons, to revenge the rape of Seeta, the wife of Ram, who was forcibly carried away by Rahwaan, and bound under the spells of enchantment. Vicissitudes of fortune took place during the performance that seemed highly interesting to the audience. Ram was at length wounded by a poisoned arrow; the sages skilled in medicine consulted on his cure; they discovered, that on the mountain Indragurru grew a certain tree that produced a gum, gum, which was a sovereign antidote against the deleterious effects of poison; but the distance was so great that none could be found to undertake the journey. At length Honymaan, leader of the army of apes, offered to go in quest of it. When he arrived at the place, being uncertain which was the tree, he took up half the mountain and transported it with ease: thus was the cure of Ram happily effected, the enchantment was broken, and the piece ended with a dance and songs of triumph."

When at the capital, Ummerapoora, our author describes his visit to the royal library in the following terms: "Having finished our introductory visits to the different members of the royal family, we had now leisure to gratify our curiosity by viewing whatever the capital contained that was most deserving the notice of strangers. The day not being far advanced, we walked from the palace of Paghram to see the pedigree tree, or royal library: it is situated at the north-west angle of the fort, in the centre of a court paved with broad flags, and close to a very handsome kioum or monastery. Before we entered the library we ascended the kioum, and found the inside corresponded with the external appearance; the building was spacious and richly gilded; the pillars, the ceiling, and the panels, were entirely covered with gold leaf; and the image of Gaudama shone with a brilliant lustre; a balustrade of wood, minutely and beautifully carved, protected the image from intruders. On the panels of the walls were represented figures of inferior agents of the divinity, and of prostrate rhaaans in the act of devotion; these were all shaped in fret-work in the wood, and were of no contemptible workmanship: a well wrought foliage of the same bordered the panels. The image of Gaudama in this kioum, was large, and made of marble; it was seated on a broad pedestal entirely gilded; in front of which, within the balustrade, stood a handsome girandole of cut glass of European manufacture: near the image was a gilded couch, which we were informed was the customary bed of the principal rhaan, or head of all the Birman priesthood, when he chose to pass the night in the fort, which rarely happened. It was splendidly gilt; the bottom, however, was only a bare board; pillars were not wanting, for there were two, but they were made of wood. A mat spread on the floor is the highest luxury of repose in which the rhaaans indulge.

"From the kioum we proceeded to visit the adjacent library; it is a large brick building raised on a terrace, and covered by a roof of a very compound structure. It consists of one square room, with an enclosed veranda, or gallery, surrounding it: this room was locked, and as we had not brought a special order for seeing it, the person who had the care of the library said, that he was not at liberty to open the doors; but assured us, that there was nothing in the inside different from what we might see in the veranda, where a number of large chests, curiously ornamented with gilding and japan, were ranged in regular order against the wall; I counted 50, but there were many more, probably not less than 100. The books were regularly clasped, and the contents of each chest were written in gold letters on the lid. The librarian opened two, and showed me some very beautiful writing on thin leaves of ivory, the margins of which were ornamented with flowers of gold neatly executed. I saw also some books written in the ancient Pali, the religious text. Everything seemed to be arranged with perfect regularity, and I was informed, that there were books upon divers subjects; more on divinity than any other; but history, music, medicine, painting, and romance, had their separate treatises. The volumes were disposed under distinct heads, regularly numbered; and if all the other chests were as well filled as those that were submitted to our inspection, it is not improbable that his Birman majesty may possess a more numerous library than any potentate from the banks of the Danube to the borders of China."

Books were afterwards brought for sale to the gentlemen of the embassy, but always clandestinely; and an exorbitant price was demanded, under pretence that if any person were discovered to have sold books to a foreigner without permission, he would be liable to a severe penalty. A man was actually imprisoned for an offence of this nature, upon which Captain Symes sent a message to the chief woongee or prime minister, apprising him of the circumstance, and desiring to know whether it was illegal to sell books to himself or his suit; adding, that if their law prohibited it, he would reject such as in future might be brought, and direct every person under his authority to do the same. The woongee returned a civil message, and the man was set at liberty. His majesty being made acquainted with the affair, summoned on the following day, the principal rhaaans to attend his council, and submitted to them, whether or not it was consistent with Birman tenets, to grant books that treated of their history and laws to foreigners? The conclave, after solemn deliberation, determined in the affirmative, and added, that it was not only admissible, but laudable, for the diffusion of knowledge. His majesty was therupon pleased to order a handsome copy of the Razawayn, or history of their kings, and of the Dhermafath, or code of laws, to be delivered to Captain Symes from the royal library; each was contained in one large volume, written in a beautiful manner, and handsomely adorned with painting and gilding.

Music is a science that is held in no small degree of estimation throughout the Birman empire, and is very generally cultivated; there is scarcely even a boatman who does not possess an instrument of some sort; they who can procure no better have at least what is called a Jew's harp, with which they delight to beguile half an hour of a cool evening, after a day spent in severe labour under a burning sun. Some of the professional musicians display considerable skill and execution; and the softer airs are pleasing even to an ear unaccustomed to the melodies of the country. The principal instruments are a fowm or harp, made of light wood hollowed and varnished, in shape somewhat resembling a canoe with a deck; at the extremity, a piece of hard wood is neatly fastened, which tapers to the end, and rising curves over the body of the harp; from this curvature the strings, usually made of wire, are extended to a bridge on the belly of the instrument; there are two founding holes, one on each side of the bridge. The size of the fowm varies from two to five feet in length. The turr resembles our violin. It has only three strings, and is played on with a bow. The pullaway is a common flagelet. The kyezoup is a collection of about about 18 cymbals, suspended in a bamboo frame; these cymbals, varying in size, produce modulated gradations of sounds. The patola, or guitar of the Birmans, is said to be a curious instrument: it is the exact form, in miniature, of a crocodile; the body of which is hollow, with sounding holes in the back; three strings of wire extend from the shoulder to the tail, to which they are fastened. It is played on by the fingers, and is generally used to accompany the voice. The bondaw is a collection of drums, oblong in form, and varying in size, which are suspended perpendicularly in a wooden frame by leather thongs. The whole machine is about five feet in diameter, and four feet high. The performer stands in the centre, and beats on the drums with a small stick. This instrument is always introduced when there is a full band, and is much used in processions, of which the Birmans are very fond, being carried by two men, while the performer shuffles along in the inside, playing as he goes. The heem is the pipe of Pan, formed of reeds neatly joined together, and sounded by a common mouth-piece. It produces a very plaintive melody.

The Birmans divide their year into 12 months, which, strictly speaking, cannot be called symmetrical, although they comprehend the same number of days. A revolution of the moon, in passing from one conjunction with the sun to another, is performed in 29 days 12 hours and 44 minutes: but the Birman lunations consist of 29 and 30 days alternately, which causes a difference between the Newtonian and Birman lunar account of 8 hours and 48 minutes. The Birman months are as follows:

| Month | Days | |----------------|------| | Tagoo contains | 29 | | Kayoung | 30 | | Nay Young | 29 | | Wazoo | 30 | | Wagoung | 29 | | Toozelien | 30 | | Tandaing Guite | 29 | | Tazoung Moang | 30 | | Gnadoh | 29 | | Peenzoo | 30 | | Taboodiray | 29 | | Taboung | 30 |

In order to complete a solar revolution, they intercalate in every third year a month of 30 days, which is called Toodea Wazoo; in this third year the months of Tagoo and Nay Young have each 30 days instead of 29; they likewise suppress or pass over a day, which, if reckoned, would either be the 31st Taboung, or the 1st of Tagoo; by these means the number of days in three solar years is thus computed:

| Description | Days | |--------------------------------------------------|------| | Three lunar years of 354 days each | 1062 | | Intercalary month in the third year | 30 | | Two intercalary days in Tagoo and Nay Young | 2 | | Suppressed or passed over at the end of the year | 1 |

This computation corresponds in the number of days with three years; every fourth year, however, will occasion the difference of a day, on account of our bixatile or leap year; of this the Birmans are fully sensible, as well as of many other defects in their manner of reckoning; to remedy the confusion likely to ensue from such erroneous calculations, their style or mode has frequently been altered by arbitrary authority.

The manner in which the Birman month is subdivided is somewhat peculiar; instead of reckoning the days progressively from the commencement to the close of the month, they divide it into two parts, and number the days of the increasing and of the waning moon separately. Each moon or month is also divided into weeks of seven days each, and Sunday, as with us, is the first day of the Birman week. The eighth day of the increasing moon, the fifteenth or full moon, and the eighth of the decreasing moon, are observed as sacred festivals. On these holidays no business is transacted in the rhoom; mercantile dealings are suspended; handicraft occupations are forbidden, and the strictly pious take no sustenance between the rising and the setting sun. This last instance of self-denial, however, is uncommon, except in the metropolis, where it is submitted to by ambitious persons with a view to obtain favour with the king, who is understood to be a great favourer of the austerities of the Birman religion. Minute portions of time are divided as follows: "The space in which the finger can be raised and depressed is called charazi; ten charazi make one piaan; six piaan one bezana, about a minute. The day, of 24 hours commencing at noon, is divided into eight portions or yettee, of three hours each. These divisions of time are ascertained by a machine resembling the hour-glass, and sometimes by a perforated pan placed in a tub of water; they are announced by a stroke on an oblong drum, which is always kept near the dwelling of the chief magistrate of the city, town, or village; it is commonly raised on a high bamboo stage, with a roof of mats to protect it from the weather.

The edifice at the royal palace for the reception of this instrument is of masonry, and very lofty, whence the sound is said to be distinctly conveyed to the remote quarters of the city.

The Birmans, like the Chinese, have no coin. Silver in bullion, and lead, are the current moneys of the country; weight and purity are of course the standard of value, and in the ascertainment of both the natives are exceedingly scrupulous and expert. What foreigners call a tackal, properly kint, is the most general piece of silver in circulation; it weighs 10 dwits 10 2 gr.; its subdivisions are, the tubbee, two of which make one moo; two moo, one math; four math, one tackal; and one hundred tackal compose one vif. Money scales and weights are all fabricated at the capital, where they are stamped, and afterwards circulated throughout the empire; the use of any other is prohibited. The bankers, called by foreigners pyntons, are likewise workers in silver and assayers of metal. This is a class of people very numerous, and indispensably necessary, as no stranger can undertake either to pay or receive money without having it first examined. Every merchant has a banker of this description, with whom he lodges all his cash, and who, for receiving and paying, gets an established commission of one per cent.; in consideration of which he is responsible for the quality of of what goes through his hands; and in no instance has it been known that breach of trust was committed by one of these bankers. The quantity of alloy varies in the silver current in different parts of the empire; at Rangoon it is adulterated twenty-five per cent; at Umawapooa, fine, or what is called flowered silver, is most common; in this latter all royal dues are paid. Any person may have his silver either purified or depreciated to whatever standard he chooses; the nearest silver-smith will be glad to perform the work, free from charge for his labour, as the bringer, by the operation, must lose a trifle, which the artist gains; the small quantity of metal that adheres to the crucible is his profit.

The Birman measures of length are a paul-gaut or inch, 18 of which compose the jaim or cubit; the saundgaling or royal cubit, equal to 22 inches; the dad or bamboo, which consists of 7 royal cubits; 1000 da make one Birman league or dain, nearly equal to two British miles and two furlongs; the league is also subdivided into tenths. The Birmans keep their accounts in decimals, after the manner of the Chinese.

The Birmans have hitherto carried few of the arts to very great perfection. The art of agriculture, which is the foundation of all others, seems in a very imperfect state; this, however, does not appear to arise so much from want of skill in the people as from their present situation, which renders great exertions to procure subsistence by no means necessary. The soil is extremely fertile, while the population is very scanty; the Birmans, therefore, are somewhat in the state of colonists upon a new territory; land is abundant and cheap, while labour is obtained with difficulty; hence they cultivate only the most fertile spots, and these in an indifferent manner, leaving the greater part of the work to nature, which has been very bountiful to them. They are not, however, altogether unacquainted with some useful practices; they everywhere burn the rank grass, once a year, to improve the pasture. In some quarters of the country near farms are to be seen, with lands well fenced and divided into enclosures to receive the cattle, of which there are great abundance; the fields are divided by thorn hedges; the low grounds are prepared for rice, and the higher lands are planted with leguminous shrubs, or left for pasture.

The Birmans are at present endeavouring with great spirit to improve their maritime architecture. Formerly they used only small vessels, no better than a kind of boats; but having obtained farther information from their communication with Europeans, they are now launching vessels of considerable magnitude. When the British embassy were at Rangoon, they saw several ships, upon the stocks from 600 to 1000 tons burden; one belonging to the maywoon of Pegu, about 900 tons, was considered, by professional men, as a specimen of excellent workmanship; it was entirely formed by Birman carpenters upon a French model, as are most of their large vessels, the Birmans having received their first rudiments of the art from that nation: three or four vessels of burden were likewise in a state of forwardness belonging to English adventurers. Birman shipwrights appear to finish their work well; they are athletic men, and possess, in an eminent degree, that vigour which distinguishes Europeans, and gives them pre-eminence over the enervated natives of Hindoostan.

Upon the sea coast they manufacture great quantities of salt, from which the government derives a considerable revenue. Cloths of different kinds are manufactured by the women in all parts of the empire; and even in the royal palace they carry on domestic manufactures. On a visit to the mother of the queen, the ambassador saw, in one of the galleries of her palace, three or four looms at work. At Pegu the women weave for their own use and their husbands use silk and cotton cloth: the thread is well spun; the texture of the web is close and strong, and is mostly chequered like Scotch tartan. At a town in the interior, called Pakong-yag, situated on the river Irrawaddy, large quantities of silken cloth, and of silk and cotton mixed, are manufactured. The silk of which these goods are made comes from Yunnan, the south-west province of China, in a raw state; the colours are bright and beautiful; the texture is close, and the cloth is said to wear much longer than any Chinese or Indian manufacture. At a town called Summei-kium is saltpetre the greatest manufactory of saltpetre and gunpowder and gunpowder in the kingdom. From a prejudice not unusual in the infancy of commerce, neither saltpetre nor gunpowder is suffered to be exported upon any plea. At the suburbs of a town called Pagahm, the members of the embassy found the inhabitants employed in pressing oil from the sesamum seed; the grain is put into a mill, deep wooden trough, in which it is pressed by an upright timber fixed in a frame; the force is increased by a long lever, on the extremity of which a man sits and guides a bullock that moves in a circle, thus turning and pressing the seed at the same time; the machine was simple, and answered the purpose effectually. There were not less than 200 of these mills within a narrow compass. From the circumstances of the cattle being in good order, we concluded, that they were fed on the feed after the oil was extracted. The land about Pagahm scarcely yields sufficient vegetation to nourish goats.

Our readers will readily believe, that we pursued glass with much pleasure the following passage in Captain Symes's Account of his Embassy: "Among the articles of foreign trade which had found their way into the Birman country, nothing was held in higher estimation than the European glass-ware, imported into Rangoon from the British settlements in India. The art of vitrification has long been known and practised in most countries of the east; but nowhere can they make a pure transparent substance, like that which is brought from Europe. The Birman monarch, who is a great admirer of the manufacture, was particularly desirous to introduce it into his own dominions; and supposing that every Englishman must be versed in the knowledge of making whatever comes from his own country, he sent a message to request that I would furnish his artists with such instructions as might enable them to fabricate glass of a quality equal to what was made in England. Unluckily none of us happened to be skilled in the mystery of a glass-house; all, therefore, that we could do, was to explain the principles of the art, which Dr Buchanan obligingly undertook; and, in order to facilitate them in the acquirement, ment, and guide them in the practice, I lent them the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and pointed out the article where the proof is fully explained. Baba Sheen, the second in authority at the port of Rangoon, and the Armenian interpreter, translated it into the Birman tongue."

As the Birmans possess within their country the whole materials from which the best kinds of glass are prepared, there is little reason to doubt, that this active people would speedily be enabled to reduce to practice the lesson they obtained in the manner above mentioned; and thus the proprietors and conductors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have the satisfaction to know, that the former edition of their work has contributed to diffuse, in the most distant regions of the globe, a knowledge of those arts which add convenience and elegance to civilized life. The utility of their undertaking has exceeded the limits of their own foresight, as they have, in this instance at least, laboured for the instruction and improvement of a prince and of a people, whose very name and existence were unknown to them when their labours commenced. Happy had it been for the nations of the east, had they derived from their intercourse with Europeans no other fruits than the extension of science, and the enlargement of their powers, by an acquaintance with that command over the different objects of nature, which human ingenuity has attained in this quarter of the world.

One manufacture on which the Birmans bestow much attention, must not pass unnoticed. It is carried on at a village called Kyock Zeit, and consists of the formation of idols of marble. Our author saw 30 or 40 large yards crowded with statuary at work, on images of various sizes, but all of the same personage, Gaudma, sitting cross-legged on a pedestal. The quarries whence the materials are obtained, are only a few miles distant. The marble is brought to the village in blocks; and after being fashioned, the blocks are publicly sold to pious people. The largest little exceeded the human size, and the price was said to be 100 ticals, that is, 12l. or 13l.; but some diminutive Gaudmas were to be disposed of as low as two or three ticals. The workmen were civil and communicative. Their tools were a chisel and a mallet, and they smooth the image with freestone and water. Many of the idols were beautifully polished, which is said to be accomplished by rubbing the marble with three different sorts of stone; the first rough, the second finer, and the third, such as hones are made of. The workmen afterwards use the palms of their hands. This last operation gives it a transparent clearness, far surpassing the brightest polish that European marble ever exhibits. Such images as are designed for gilding, are not finished so highly; but none of the idols are allowed to be sold to any, except native Birmans.

An extensive trade is carried on between Ummerapoora the capital of the Birman dominions, and Yunnan in China. The principal export from the Birman territory is cotton, of which it is said there are two kinds, one of a brown colour, of which mankeens are made, the other white, like the cotton of India. This commodity is transported up the Irrawaddy in large boats, as far as a place called Bamoo; where it is bartered at the common market with Chinese merchants, who convey it partly by land and partly by water, into the Chinese dominions. Amber, ivory, precious stones, betel nut, and the edible nuts brought from the eastern Archipelago, are also articles of commerce. In return, the Birmans procure raw and wrought silks, gold leaf, preserves, paper, and some utensils of hardware. A great inland commerce is also carried on between the capital and the southern parts of the empire, which is greatly assisted by the noble river Irrawaddy, that waters the country. The chief objects of this commerce are the necessaries of life. Several thousand boats are employed in transporting rice and salt from the southern or lower provinces, to supply Ummerapoora and the northern districts. Up the same stream are conveyed China ware and glass; also European broad cloth, with some hardware and coarse muslins from Bengal. Silver, lace, and precious stones, are brought down by the merchants.

We have treated somewhat minutely of the manners and situation of this people, because they form a striking exception to the general features of the Asiatic character, as it has always existed among the other nations that inhabit the more fertile districts of that great continent. It is to be observed, that the Birmans are also of importance, in consequence of their geographical position in relation to the great British empire in India. A durable vessel of burthen cannot be built in the Ganges without the aid of teak plank, which can only be procured from Pegu. Should the timber trade of the Birman empire therefore be interrupted, the marine of Calcutta, amounting to 40,000 tons of shipping, would be reduced nearly to annihilation. This marine has already been of importance to Britain. In 1794, 14,000 tons of shipping, almost entirely India built, were freighted to carry rice to England, and reduced the price of that article of food to three halfpence per pound. The maritime ports of the Birman empire are extremely commodious for Indian commerce. Birmans possess the western side of the bay of Bengal; the Birmans the eastern, which is far superior to the former for the purposes of navigation. From Cape Comorin to the Ganges, is an unbroken line of exposed shore, without a single harbour capable of affording shelter to a vessel of 500 tons burden: But the Birmans possess three excellent ports, Negrais, the securest harbour in the bay; Rangoon, and Mergui, each of which is as convenient, and not less accessible than the Ganges, which is the only British port in the whole bay. In such circumstances, the importance to the government of the western peninsula of retaining a good understanding with these people, cannot be disputed. They are a very different race from the timid and passive Hindoos, whom we have conquered. Though unequal to Europeans in manufactures or in arts, yet in a climate adapted to their natural constitution and unfriendly to ours, they might prove dangerous enemies, in a contest with whom much might be lost, and nothing can be gained.

After this account of the Birmans and their empire, it will be unnecessary to take much notice of the rest of remainder of the eastern peninsula, as the inhabitants of that territory appear upon the whole to possess the same general character, laws, and manners. To the south-east of the Birman territory, the great eastern peninsula becomes forked, or divides itself into two separate peninsulas, with the gulf of Siam between them. The most westerly of these two peninsulas, is a narrow tract of of country called Malacca, which stretches southward to a great distance, till it approaches the equator. The peninsula to the eastward of the gulf of Siam is much broader than the other, but proceeds to a much less distance southward. The city of Siam stands at the bottom of the bay of that name, where the division of Farther India into two peninsulas commences. The peninsula, beyond the Siamese territory, contains the countries called Ciampa, Cambodia, and Cochin-China, on the east, and Tonquin on the north-east.

The isthmus, or neck of land, by which the peninsula of Malacca joins the continent, is only about 50 miles in breadth. To the westward of it, at the distance of 260 miles, is the island of Junkfeilong, which yields considerable quantities of tin. In 1784, 500 tons of that metal were exported. Malacca itself yields few commodities for exportation, excepting ivory and tin. The city of Malacca, however, is a true emporium or magazine of the various rich articles of commerce brought from the surrounding countries. This coast was known to the ancients. It was celebrated for its gold, on account of which it received the appellation of Aurea Chersonesus. Some imagine this to have been the Ophir of Solomon, though others contend that Ophir was a port in Africa. One reason for supposing this or some other port of India to have been Ophir, is this, that Solomon's fleet is said to have brought home peacocks. These birds are natives of India, and at that early period were unknown in the interior or southern coasts of Africa. It is farther to be remarked, that on the eastern side of this peninsula, much gold is found near Pahang. This town is situated in N. Lat. 3° 50', in a most fruitful country, at the mouth of a river which has an estuary of about a mile broad. The river contains much gold. Lumps of five or six ounces weight are said to have been found. It is brought up by divers. Sometimes eight hundred weight has been exported. This place, therefore, might well be the Ophir of Solomon; and the Jewish historian, Josephus, actually fixes it here.

Tranganor or Tranganor, a small town a little to the north of Pahang, is seated on a river near the sea. It consists of about 1000 houses, half of which are inhabited by Chinese, who traffic in their junks to Siam, Cambodia, and Tonquin. Tranganor is most deliciously situated amidst low hills, covered with the eternal verdure of deciduous trees. Lemons, oranges, mandarins, and all the fruits of the Indies, grow here in perfection; and the valleys produce grain, pulse, sugar, and especially pepper, in great abundance; but only in consequence of the industry of the Chinese, for the Malays themselves are too indolent to make the earth yield its full increase. We know too little of the ancient history of this singular people in particular, and indeed of the whole peninsula beyond the Ganges in general, to be able to account in a satisfactory manner for their present state, or their connexion with a multitude of adjoining tribes and states. The ancients formed of the whole of this great eastern peninsula, along both sides of the bay of Siam, a mighty empire, to which they gave the appellation of Thina, or Sina, distinguishing them from the Chinese on the one hand, and from the Hindoos on the other. The similarity of character and customs that is to be found among the whole of these states of Birmah, Malacca, Siam, Cambod-

dia, Cochin-China, and Tonquin, render the existence of such an ancient empire extremely probable. It may have been destroyed by Tartar conquest or internal revolutions, and the inhabitants may have lost a great part of the civilization, and a multitude of the arts, which they once possessed. That this last supposition is not only probable, but in some degree true, is sufficiently demonstrated by a fact mentioned by Captain Symes, in the account already noticed, of his embassy to Ummarapora. He saw in many places beautiful vaults and arches formed of stone or brick, supporting lofty buildings; but he learned, that the art of constructing vaults or arches is at present entirely lost in the country, and that no Birman workman will at the present period engage to erect a building of that kind.

The character of the inhabitants of the peninsula beyond the Ganges, appears to be more strikingly marked of the Malays than any other people; and at some remote period, they have undoubtedly made a considerable figure in these regions, and must have possessed a great spirit of national enterprise. They differ from the other states of the peninsula only in this, that the Arabs have converted them to Mahometanism. The feudal system at present exists among them in full perfection or barbarity. They have the same pride of honour and delight in war that distinguish the Birmans, and that marked the character of the ancient inhabitants of the north of Europe. They are governed by petty chiefs, who are engaged in endless and sanguinary hostilities against each other. Like the Birmans, the people in their persons are robust, but not tall. They are active and restless, and their ferocity in war is unbounded: No enterprise is so dangerous as to deter them from engaging in it. Not only will a handful of them in a boat attempt to board an European vessel of any size, and to murder the crew with their poniards; but when employed by the Dutch as soldiers in their wars against the English or Portuguese, 14 or 20 of them have been known to fall from a fort, under cover of the smoke of the cannon; and having found their way in an instant into one of the batteries of the besiegers, they have stabbed almost the whole gunners while working the artillery, and retreated with little loss, and before effectual measures could be taken against them. The Dutch are so cautious with regard to them, that unless in case of extreme necessity, they never employ above two or three of them at once as mariners on board the same ship: Yet this people, barbarous as they now are, have at one period made such national exertions, that their race and language is found to extend over a very large portion of the globe. To the south and east of Malacca the great Asiatic Archipelago is situated, containing a multitude of islands of immense extent. Over a great part of these islands the Malays have spread themselves, and their language is spoken. The first island to the south and south-west of Malacca is Sumatra, the passage between which and the main land, is called the Straits of Malacca. The island of Sumatra is crossed in the middle by the equator: its length is about 800 miles, and its breadth about 130. A range of mountains runs along the whole island, sometimes in a double or triple chain, with beautiful valleys between them; but unless where cleared, both valleys and mountains are clothed with shady forests. The island island has long been celebrated for its gold, and a mountain under the line is called Ophir, which affords an additional reason for supposing that the ships of King Solomon came to this quarter of the world. It is 13,842 feet high, or two miles and 1,094 yards. The Malays upon the island are said to be skilful artists in works of filigree, in both gold and silver. Sugar, ivory, teak wood, and all the other tropical productions, are found upon it; but its climate is extremely destructive to Europeans. Though no snow is ever seen on the island, yet the inhabitants of the mountains, like those of other Alpine regions, are subject to monstrous wens in the neck, or goitres.

To the east of Sumatra, and divided from it by the straits of Sunda, is the island of Java, in which also the Malays abound, and in which the Dutch have their settlement of Batavia. Like Sumatra, a chain of mountains runs along the middle of it, and it is extremely unhealthy to Europeans. Eastward of Java is the great island of Borneo, immediately under the line. A great part of the coasts is in the hands of the Malays, though Moors and Javanese are also found here. It produces all the vegetable and mineral productions that are found in the other parts of the Indies. The interior is mountainous, but unhealthy; and this, like all the rest of these islands, is subject to frequent and very dangerous earthquakes. The original inhabitants of this and the other islands in its neighbourhood are extremely barbarous, and have been driven from the sea coast by the Malays and other strangers. To the north-east of Borneo are the Philippine islands; and to the south-east are Celebes and the Molucca isles, beyond which is New Guinea, with a multitude of adjoining islands, all inhabited by barbarous tribes of little importance in a general view of Asia. To the south of all these islands is the vast island, or rather continent, of New Holland, which is scarcely inhabited, though equal in size to Europe.

Returning to the continent of Farther India, the kingdom of Siam is situated, as already mentioned, at the bottom of the bay of that name, to the south-east of the Birman territory. The city stands at the mouth of a large river called Meimam, which fertilizes the country, and affords an internal navigation to a considerable distance. The river is deep, rapid, and broader than the Elbe. The upper part is rocky and interrupted by cataracts. At its lower part, the stream divides into several channels, passing through a level country, which it fertilizes by periodical inundations. The country is woody. The houses, like those of the Birmans, are raised aloft on stilts or poles; but upon the river a kind of floating habitations are used, in which many people constantly reside, and occasionally move from place to place when the waters are high. The capital is in latitude 14° 30', and is surrounded by a lofty brick wall, which has not always been able, as already noticed, to defend it against the arms of the Birmans. Rice is produced in amazing crops, and all the fruits of the Indies rise up with little or no cultivation. Logwood, like that cut in Campeachy, is said to be one of the productions of the country. The Siamese territory is very narrow from east to west, but extends northward along its own river to a considerable distance.

To the eastward of Siam is the kingdom of Cambodia, extending along the banks of its river, which flows in a course nearly parallel to the river of Siam. The most southerly point of the country, being the eastern extremity of the gulf of Siam, is called Cape Cambodia, beyond which the coast turns to the eastward, and the river Cambodia discharges itself into the sea through several mouths, forming by its alluvions a very fertile tract of territory, like the rivers of Siam and of Birmah. The capital stands 90 miles up the river, and consists only of one street, built on an eminence, to preserve it during the inundations: The present city of Cambodia, is supposed to be near the site of Thina Metropolis Sinarum, of Ptolemy and Mar. Ancientianus. Mr Caverhill quotes Argenf for the proof, city, and says, on his authority, that marble ruins of an extensive city have been discovered to the north-west of Cambodia: yet Ptolemy relates, that it was not surrounded with such walls, nor had any thing worth mentioning. Arrian, in his Periplus Maris Erythraei, calls it the greatest of the inland cities, and that it sent to Barygaza, the modern Barochia, on the western side of Hindoostan, wool, thread, and othonium fericum. These were carried the whole of the journey by men on foot: prodigious indeed must the journey have been, if it is true that they went through Baetra, a detour of amazing extent. The kingdom of Cambodia was known to the Arabs by the name of Rachmi. It was visited in the ninth century by two Arabian travellers, who report, that the finest muslins in the world were made there, and that the natives wore garments so fine, that they might be drawn through a middle-sized ring. The same writers tell wonderful things of the karkandlan or unicorn; but from the whole description, it is evident, that they mean no other animal than the one-horned rhinoceros.

The noted island of Pulo Condore lies about 15 leagues to the south of the western channel of the Pulo Condore Cambodiana. It is situated in latitude 8° 40'. Its form is that of a crescent; the length not above eight miles, the greatest breadth about two: the whole is lofty and mountainous, and it is surrounded by lesser isles. The name is derived from pulo, an ille, and condore, a calabash, from its production of that fruit. It was visited by Dampier in 1686. Here Dampier's crew found the custom to prevail which we have noticed, among the inferior class of Birmans, which exists over the whole peninsula beyond the Ganges, of the people of ordinary rank allowing their women to live with strangers. Our poet, Prior, humorously exaggerates the practice, and by mistake ascribes it to the Chinese.

"In China, Dampier's travels tell ye, (Look in his index for Pagelli), Soon as the British ships unmoor, And jolly long-boats row to shore; Down come the nobles of the land, Each brings his daughter in his hand; Receiving th' imperious tar, To make her but one hour his care. The tender mother stands affrighted, Left her dear daughter should be slighted; And poor Miss Yaya dreads the shame Of going back the maid she came."

Eastward of the estuaries of the river of Cambodia, is Giampa. the small territory of Ciampa, extending about 150 miles along the shore; the breadth not exceeding 92. The people appear to be of the same race with those that inhabit the rest of the peninsula, but their chief is tributary to the Cochin-Chinese, whom, however, they excel in naval, though not in military affairs. Their ships, or junks, are extremely well built; they are chiefly employed in the fisheries, which are very considerable, and form their most important source of commerce. The Chinese send ships very frequently to the northern parts of the country laden with tea, an inferior sort of silk, porcelain, and some other commodities of that empire. They take in return gold and columbo wood, to be burnt on the tombs of their ancestors and relations, or before the altars of their divinities. It is to be observed, that a strange mixture of religions here exists, in consequence of the influence of the neighbouring nations upon this small maritime state. Many of the people are Mahometans. Others are followers of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius; a third sort are worshippers of Gaudma; and the greatest part of the people jumble all these systems together. They all agree, however, to tolerate each other.

To the eastward of its tributary, Ciampa, the kingdom of Cochin-China begins, forming a long stripe of territory along the eastern side of the farther peninsula of India. To the westward it is limited by a chain of lofty mountains, which run parallel to the coast of the Chinese sea, or eastern Pacific ocean. The whole of Cochin-China, beginning from the borders of Cambodia, is in form of a bow, bending into the ocean as far as Cape Varelo, in Lat. 13°, when it inclines to its northern extremity, in Lat. 17° 30'. The whole length of this great curvature is about five hundred and sixty miles, the breadth not exceeding that which we have ascribed to Ciampa. The northern borders are defended by a wall, which runs from the sea to the great chain of mountains, and forbids all approach from that quarter, as the inaccessible chain itself does every attempt of invasion from their western neighbours. The lower parts of this kingdom are overflowed during the rainy season; and here, as elsewhere in India, rice is the greatest harvest: a kind as white as snow is cultivated on the mountains and dry soils: when dressed, it is of a flinty viscous nature, and is made into pastes. Sugar, cotton, pepper, and other Indian commodities, are also cultivated here in great abundance by the labour of free men, and are articles of commerce with China. Among other commodities which are exported, mention is made of silk, and of certain kinds of wood much esteemed in the east, such as, aloes wood, or agollocha, erroneously called eaglewood, columbo, and others, of value either in mechanics or for their sweet scent. The price of columbo wood on the very spot is five ducats a pound, at the ports sixteen, and in Japan, to which much is exported, two hundred. A pillow of this wood is the highest luxury of the orientalists, particularly of the Japanese, who will give three or four hundred ducats per pound for a piece big enough for that purpose. The agollocha bears a good price, great quantities being shipped for Hindoostan for the use of the Hindoos, to burn their dead, who seem to emulate the ancient Romans in the aromatic profusion of their funeral piles.

The war-boats of the Cochin-Chinese are very numerous, and resemble those of the Birmans. Those allotted to the defence of the coast are finely painted and highly varnished, rowed with fifty oars, and carry a cannon at the head, and two small ones on each side. The navy of the country is quickly manned, every district being bound to furnish a certain number of sailors, who serve with alacrity, as they are well treated, and their wives and children supported during their absence. They are dressed in uniform, with a gilt helmet, and a cloak which leaves their right arm quite bare.

The Cochin-Chinese have considerable fisheries, and both consume and export fish in large quantities. They make use of elephants as beasts of burden. On the backs of these huge animals they place a machine like the body of a coach, which conveys outside and inside passengers about thirteen or fourteen persons. When the elephants arrive at a river, they take the water very readily, and even convey their fare in perfect safety over an arm of the sea a mile wide. The people of this country resemble the Chinese in their persons, but they are less in body, and more brave and active. The complexion of those on the coast is olive: that of the inland inhabitants near the mountains is fairer, and approaches to that of Europeans.

The bay of Tonquin begins near the wall of Cochin-China, at the northern extremity of that kingdom. The entrance of the bay is bounded on the eastern side by the island of Hainan. The tides of this bay have long been remarked on account of the following peculiarity, that a single flux and reflux occupies a full period of 24 hours. The kingdom of Tonquin is very narrow towards the south, at the Cochin-Chinese wall. To the west it is there bounded by the Cochin-Chinese chain of mountains, which soon retires, and gradually leaves a larger and larger expanse to the great plain of which this kingdom consists. The country is very populous, being thickly set with villages. It is watered by a river, which, coming from the north or north-west, is called by the name of the country, Tonquin. It enters the bay by two mouths, one of which, having only 12 feet water, is frequented by the flat-bottomed vessels of the Siamese and Chinese; but the other being deeper, is frequented by European vessels. The river is subject, like all others in that territory, to periodical floods, which fertilize the soil, and enable it to give forth abundant crops of rice and other productions of warm climates. The natives are acquainted, like the Birmans, with the practice of rearing occasional dwellings for any temporary purpose. About six leagues from the mouth of the river is the village of Domea, usually consisting of a hundred houses; yet, on the arrival of the European ships, it soon increases to a large town. The natives resort, for the sake of trade, from all parts. Houses suddenly spring up; for being only constructed of frames of bamboo, and the roof of palm or other leaves, a temporary town is quickly formed, in which a fair is kept as long as the ships remain in the harbour. Here, as well as in Cochin-China, Chinese opinions and notions prevail in a considerable degree. The religion of the country appears to be that of Budho, or Gaudma. Here also, as among the Birmans and all the other nations of the peninsula beyond the Ganges, the strange practice prevails. vails of rendering the teeth black by means of art. All persons, high or low, rich and poor, are under the necessity of undergoing a dyeing process, for the purpose of avoiding that disgrace to human nature, of having teeth white, like those of dogs or elephants. Prior mention this custom, but transfers it to the Chinese:

"In China, none hold women sweet, "Unless their fangs are black as jet: "King Chiku put nine queens to death, "Convict on statute iv'ry teeth."

From the brief description here given of these countries, it will not be difficult to understand the physical aspect of the great peninsula of Farther India, and the political divisions which have resulted from it. Arakan on the west, and Cochin-China on the east of the peninsula, bear a considerable resemblance to each other. They both consist of a narrow tract of fertile territory, extending along the shore, and having behind them towards the continent a large chain of lofty and rugged mountains, which form the natural as well as political boundary. The rest of the peninsula is chiefly formed in the following manner:—Several chains of mountains run from north to south. Between every two chains is a tract of fertile country, watered by a large river, proceeding also from north toward the south. Each of these valleys forms a kingdom, which is long and narrow, and bounded to the east and the west by a chain of mountains: Thus are formed the countries of Birmah, Siam, Cambodia, and Tonquin. The narrow peninsula of Malacca, however, must be regarded as a sort of territory itself, probably formed by a continuation to a great distance southward of the chain of mountains that divides the Birman from the Siamese territory. Were it possible to unite into one empire the various nations which we have mentioned as inhabiting this vast peninsula of India to the eastward of the Ganges, the vigorous character of the people would probably render them extremely formidable to their neighbours the Chinese on the north coast, as well as the Hindoos of the western peninsula. Any union of these countries, however, into one state, though a possible event, could only be accomplished during a great length of time, and after many struggles, in consequence of the bravery of the people, and the readiness with which they engage in war. The Birmans have indeed conquered Pegu, but only in consequence of a long continuance of the most sanguinary conflicts, which exhausted the population of both states, and almost destroyed the inhabitants of the conquered country. Arakan was, no doubt, more easily united to the Birman empire; but this in all probability arose from its being accidentally ill governed, and perhaps also from its vicinity to Hindoostan, which had led its inhabitants to acquire much of the feeble character of the Hindoos. In the contests between the Birmans and the Siamese, it appeared that neither of the nations could be subdued, and that before the one of them could enlarge its territory, it must nearly exterminate the population of the other.

From the peninsula of Farther India, we proceed north-eastward to China, of which we shall not here find it necessary to say much. As already mentioned, it is the tract of country which forms the gradual descent from the high regions of Tartary towards the Pacific ocean on the east. The dominion of the Chinese emperor extends over a civilized people, from the straits of Hainan, in N. Lat. 20° 15', to the extremity of the province of Pe-tche-li, in Lat. 41° 15', comprehending a space of nearly fifteen hundred miles in length, and in breadth above a thousand. Or, more accurately, according to the information obtained by Lord Macartney's embassy, China Proper includes a space of 1,297,999 square miles, inhabited by a population of 333,000,000. The island of Hainan, already mentioned, is at the southern extremity of the empire; but it is not only half subdued, the natives in the interior of it maintaining their independence amidst lofty mountains. It produces gold, and the lapis lazuli, which is in great request among the Chinese, for giving a blue glazing to their porcelain. It has considerable fisheries on its coasts. From the continent opposite to this island the coast proceeds towards the north-east to the bay of Canton, which is the port frequented by Europeans. At Canton Canton begins the celebrated imperial canal, or passage by water, which reaches from hence within land to Pekin, and the extremities of the empire; an extent of about 1800 English miles. Part of this inland navigation is formed by rivers and lakes, and the rest of it consists of a canal 900 miles in length, and a fathom and a half in depth. On the course of this internal navigation, multitudes of populous cities are situated, amidst a country in which the cultivation of every part of the soil is carried on with the most minute attention and economy.

Of the coasts of China, and indeed of the country at large, not much is known, in consequence of the jealousy which they entertain of all foreigners, and of the great rigour with which they put in force their prohibition to trade in any of their ports except Canton.

The next province to the north-east, proceeding along the coast, is called Foo-tchien. The country is hilly and irregular: but, by the industry of the inhabitants, the sides of the hills are formed into terraces, ascending in a series of twenty or thirty, one above another; and these terraces are often continued for several miles in length. Water is forced up to these terraces in pipes of bamboo, and grain and other vegetables are cultivated upon them. On an island called A-muy, on the coast of this province, is a vast rock, rising alone, of 40 tons weight, moveable by the slightest touch. Opposite to the coast, also, is the island of Formosa, 90 leagues in length and 30 in breadth.—The next province northward on the eastern coast is called Tche-Tchiang. Like the rest of China, it is amazingly commercial. It is remarkable for its rich embroidered silks, its timber, its forests of bamboo, its salt-works upon the coasts, its mushrooms, hams, and vegetable tallow. A great part of the province has been won from the sea, as Holland was by the Dutch. It is guarded by immense mounds from the fury of the waves; and these mounds remain as stupendous marks of the industry of this most populous nation. They far exceed the similar dykes of Holland, as they have a much more powerful ocean to resist than that which afflicts the coast of the European low countries.

The next province northward is called Kyang-Nan, near the northern boundary of which is the great and famous rapid river Whang-ho-hoo. Among the curiosities of this province is said to be the worm that fabricates not the common silk, but that mentioned by Pliny, which he and the ancient writers believed to be the only species of that beautiful production. Pliny represents silk as a vegetable, combed from the leaves and branches of trees. His error is not surprising; for the wild worms of this province, which resemble caterpillars, spin their webs on shrubs and bushes, and furnish as great quantities as the domestic worms. This silk costs in a manner nothing, and is so strong that the goods made from it are uncommonly lasting.

From hence northward, the Chinese coast is exposed not to the open ocean, but to a gulf, the eastern side of which consists of the peninsula of Korea. In Lat. 38° 1' begins the province of Pe-tche-li already mentioned, which in N. Lat. 35° takes a north-eastern direction, and on the side of the gulf finishes China Proper, in N. Lat. 40°. The capital, Pekin, is in this northern part of the empire, about 100 miles from the mouth of the river Pei-ho. The empire ends about 150 miles farther, in Lat 45° 45', where the celebrated wall begins, whose length in a straight line is 700 or 800 miles, and including its windings and ascents over craggy mountains, or descents into deep valleys, may be estimated at double that length. It was intended as a bulwark against the invasions of the Tartars on this most accessible side of the empire; but this purpose it has never successfully fulfilled.

The climate of China is liable to severe vicissitudes of heat and cold. The heat is powerful during the summer, because a great part of the country is in a southern latitude, and because its great extent does not admit of its being cooled by breezes from the sea. At the same time its vicinity to Siberia on the north, and to the elevated country of Tartary on the west, the mountains of which are covered with perpetual snow, expose it to a degree of cold in winter greater than what is known in the southern parts of Europe. It is also to be remarked, that the Chinese rivers, especially towards the northern parts of the empire, have a far more rapid current than those of either peninsula of India: the reason is, the country of China is itself much more elevated than India. It rises far more suddenly from the Pacific ocean than India does from its own seas. Hence it is enabled to oppose a more powerful front to the waters which wash its coasts, and which, impelled by the trade winds, would otherwise very rapidly encroach upon the land in this quarter of the globe.

In China, domestic life is undoubtedly upon a worse footing than in the Indian peninsulas. The Hindoos who have not become Mahometans are monogamists; and we have seen that the same law prevails among the Birmans and the other nations of the eastern peninsula. But in China polygamy has always been allowed. This necessarily produces an unfeeling mode of living, and the jealous seclusion of one half of the human species which uniformly attends the existence of such a law. It is not improbable, however, that the permission of polygamy, accompanied as it is in China, by a law of succession, which admits of no right of primogeniture, but divides the whole property of the parents equally among the children, may contribute in no small degree to the production of the crowded population that is found to exist in this empire. The luxury and sensuality of rich men is thus directed into a particular channel. Instead of becoming ostentatious and magnificent in their dress, equipage, and houses, they are led to expend their wealth in supporting and rearing up very numerous families.

The structure of the Chinese government perhaps deserves even more attention from philosophers than it vermin has hitherto obtained. They acknowledge in their emperor absolute power in the most unlimited degree. From the nature of human affairs, however, it is evident that this power can be directly exerted over only a few individuals of the immense society of which he is the head. The people at large must necessarily be governed by delegated authority; and the value of the constitution of the state, or of the mode of government, must depend upon the manner in which a selection is made of those magistrates to whom the imperial power is intrusted. The Chinese emperor, like other Asiatic princes, will naturally be led to pass much of his time in the luxury of his palace among eunuchs and women. Were the nomination of the magistrates of the empire altogether intrusted to such a man, it is evident that the administration of affairs would speedily go into confusion, and usurpation and anarchy prevail. This, however, rarely occurs; and it is the peculiar nature of the Chinese government to reconcile despotism with a regular and prudent administration of affairs, and the luxury and weakness of the prince, with fidelity and ability on the part of his ministers. Foreign conquest does not alter this order of things. The strangers speedily coalesce with the vanquished people, and the conqueror submits his arbitrary will to the customs that he finds established among a wealthy and a numerous people. Hence the civilization of China has existed from the remotest antiquity. It has had periods of interruption and of anarchy, during which the nation has submitted to strangers; but these strangers soon ceased to be known as such. The ancient laws of the empire, by the admiration which they excited, subdued the minds of the barbarians, whose arms had proved irresistible.

The offensive maxim of the Chinese government or constitution is this: that paternal authority is in all situations to be respected and implicitly obeyed; that the emperor is the father of the people, and to be regarded with boundless reverence as such; that all inferior magistrates are to be regarded in the same point of view; and the severities they inflict are to be considered not as the punishment of criminals, but as the chastisement of children intended for their benefit. From the nature of the human character, however, it is evident that this fiction, applied to a Tartarian conqueror recently seated upon the throne, would only go a short way to preserve the tranquillity of the state, and that, even under a long established line of hereditary princes, it would have little effect in restraining the ambition of enterprising individuals, or in preserving the submission of a discontented people. It may operate at times perhaps as a salutary prejudice on the minds of the weak and ignorant, or it may afford a plausible justification of that implicit obedience in the people, and absolute power in the prince, which are established and maintained by more powerful means; but farther its influence can scarcely extend.

The radical principle of the political constitution of China must consist of a more powerful and efficient principle, principle, which appears to be this:—The law, or ancient custom of China, so arranges affairs, that the best informed men in the country, and those whose characters are most unexceptionable, shall at all times possess the power of the state and the administration of public business. Literature there affords the means of advancement; and China affords the singular example of a country governed by its men of letters. In this empire no order of nobility or of magistracy is hereditary. The whole country, however, is ruled by a privileged class of individuals called Mandarins, and it is upon the mode in which this ruling class is nominated, or selected from the mass of the people, that the peculiarity of the Chinese constitution and its whole value depend. There are two sets of mandarins, the civil and the military, who are employed in these different departments of the public service. Of each department there are six or seven classes or orders of mandarins, ascending above each other in a regular gradation of rank. The son of the lowest person in the state is allowed at certain appointed periods to present himself for trial before the mandarins of his district, either civil or military. If his character is without reproach, and if after various examinations, his learning or skill in the appointed exercises appear complete, he is admitted to the rank of a mandarin of the lowest order, which makes him a candidate for certain public offices, as the emperor, unless in very singular cases, only confers public employments upon mandarins thus found duly qualified. After a certain time he may present himself for trial in his district before the next superior order of mandarins, and, if received into their number, his rank in society is proportionably augmented, and he becomes a candidate for still higher employments. He may thus ascend by force of talents, and of an unblemished reputation, through all the orders of mandarins, till he is enrolled in the highest class, out of which the ministers of state, governors of provinces, and commanders of armies are appointed. In the different examinations and trials, favour or hereditary interest can give little assistance to the candidate; for no mandarin ever holds an office in the province where he was born; so that the judges cannot be the kindred of the persons who appear before them for examination or trial.

One would almost suppose that such a constitution must be absolutely perfect. The establishment of a hereditary reigning family at its head represses inordinate ambition, and prevents military usurpations by holders of fortune. As the emperor possesses the power of appointing any one of the imperial family as his successor, the hazard is avoided of having at any time an idiot or an infant placed at the head of the state. The expense of his court can be of little importance in this mighty empire. The absolute power ascribed to him can do little harm, as he is at all times surrounded by the ablest and most virtuous men of the nation. The manners of the people cannot become corrupted, because vice is not kept in countenance by the bad example of powerful men; as distinction and power can only be attained by persons whose integrity of conduct is proved to the satisfaction of men of advanced age, who have themselves risen to eminence by the accomplishments of their minds and the purity of their lives. It must be difficult, or almost impossible, to disturb the internal tranquillity of such a nation, because the ablest men that it contains are at the head of all affairs; and the power which results from uniting intellectual superiority to the authority of office must evidently prove irresistible. The administration, also, of public business will in general be well conducted, because the inferior mandarins, unprotected by family connections, will have no means of securing indemnity for ill conduct, and because their ambition will naturally lead them constantly to endeavour to recommend themselves to those of a superior class, whose public approbation affords the only means of obtaining farther preferment. Accordingly, in no country in the world has any government found it practicable to execute and keep in repair such immense public works as are found in China. Their prodigious canals and regular roads, together with the immense public magazines of grain accumulated to guard against any partial or general scarcity, demonstrate this to the satisfaction of every traveller.

Yet this apparently unexceptionable government, which produces a numerous, an industrious, a peaceful, and wealthy people, does undoubtedly contain in a moral or intellectual point of view, some great and radical defect. It is true, that under it men become no worse; but it is also true that they become no better. No improvements are ever made; arts and sciences have remained for ages in the same state; invention is unknown: Imitation, regularity, and routine, pervade every order of society, and lull the human faculties into everlasting slumber. Though the Chinese annals extend to many thousands of years of civilization, yet in a few centuries, the Europeans, emerging from barbarism, have been able to surpass them in every science, and almost in all the arts of life. The present Chinese are precisely what their forefathers were 4000 years ago, and should their political arrangement continue for ages to come, there is no reason to believe that they will rise above their present state. With all their literature and all the encouragement they give to it, they do not yet practise alphabetical writing; but having a mark for every separate word, it is necessary for them to spend many years in learning to write and read. Though they have been acquainted with gunpowder from a very remote antiquity, the military art among them is so contemptible, or such is understood to be the feebleness of their character, that it is believed an European army of 100,000 men would find little difficulty in dethroning their emperor, and seizing the government of the country.

The imbecility of character, or the stagnation of the intellect which takes place in China, cannot be ascribed to religion as among the superstitious Hindoos, for they tolerate all religions: they even admit of no religious establishment, and the greater number of them are supposed, as already mentioned, to be of the same religion with the more vigorous and active Birmans. The weakness of the Chinese, therefore, and want of progress in improvement, is in all probability to be ascribed to the manner in which power and preferment are obtained under their political constitution. In all countries the higher classes of society are apt to be afraid of novelties, because their situation cannot be made better. The lower classes, on the contrary, perceiving ceiving themselves at the bottom of the wheel of fortune, readily set changes at defiance, and are fond of whatever promises to improve their condition. Hence they applaud and patronize, though frequently to their cost, the fearless, the ambitious, and the contrivers of whatever is bold or uncommon. The higher classes naturally oppose all this, and patronize among their inferiors the qualities of caution, docility, submition, and whatever is farthest from innovation or an impatience of control. In every society, ambitious men regulate their conduct in the way best calculated to recommend them to those from whom promotion comes. Hence in England, in consequence of the existence in the political constitution of a portion of popular patronage, aspiring individuals have often attempted to recommend themselves to notice by turbulence, and by loud declaration that all was wrong and ought to be altered. But in a society arranged like China, every candidate for preferment must necessarily study to regulate his conduct and manners in the way most acceptable to his superiors, who in that country are a set of wealthy and prudent old men. He will, therefore, like a student on trial for a degree at one of our universities, avoid whatever looks like novelty, rashness, or disrespect for those above him: He will labour to speak as they speak, and to think as they think: thus ambition itself will make him tame and submissive, and the passion for distinction will render him careful to keep in the beaten track, and to subdue his mind to an unqualified acquiescence in whatever has been long established. A society, whose most vigorous members are thus constantly occupied in subduing their own minds, and reducing them to this passive temper and to a corresponding demeanour, will necessarily possess the character of prudence, languor, timidity, and perpetual old age: It will hate novelty and invention, which will render improvement impossible, because all improvements are new, and the result of a restless spirit. Could the Chinese constitution be reversed; were the first or lowest class of mandarins elected by the multitude, or by persons of moderate wealth; were the second class elected by the first, the third by the second and so upwards; it is evident, that the intellectual character of the people would speedily alter, and they would become as restless and enterprising, as they are now passive and stationary. That the happiness of this multitude of people would not by such a change be increased, is undoubtedly very true; that they might even in consequence of it be exposed to many sanguinary convulsions, is also very probable; but their rank in the scale of intelligent beings would be altered, and their importance among nations would be immeasurably increased. Foreigners would cease to be objects of terror to a people ruled by men of an enterprising character: To preserve tranquillity at home, it would be found necessary to have recourse to objects of distant enterprise: the immense population of this empire would enable and compel it to cover all Asia with its colonies; to fill the Indian ocean with its fleets, and the islands with its commercial and political establishments.

Adjacent to the north-eastern quarter of China, and opposite to a part of the Chinese coast, is the peninsula of Korea, extending from latitude 42° 50' to latitude 34°; bounded on one side by the gulf of Pe-tche-li, and on the eastern side by the Japanese gulf. Japan extends the whole length of the coast of Korea, and even stretches beyond its southern part. Korea is of an oblong form; about 100 leagues in breadth, and 180 in length. Its inhabitants are a mixed people, and have been conquered at different periods by the Japanese, the Tartars, and the Chinese. The yoke of China, however, is very light, as the Chinese fear, that severe treatment might at some period induce them to unite with the Russians, who have advanced through Siberia towards the Chinese frontiers. Korea is mountainous, and produces most of the European fruits and forest trees; it was protected by a wall to the north-west, which, however, did not prevent a Tartar conquest, and is now neglected. The government is regular, and the customs and laws resemble those of the Chinese. The natives carry on a great commerce openly with China, and clandestinely with Japan, the Philippine islands, and perhaps Java: They also trade with the Russians to a considerable extent, and procure from them large quantities of furs, which they convey to China, and represent there as the produce of their own country. To facilitate their illicit trade with the Japanese, the latter have ceded to them a small island called Sufima near their coast. As they possess abundance of European goods, no part of which they purchase in China, they are underfed to obtain them by their trade with the Dutch at Batavia.

To the eastward of the Chinese coast, and south of Liquejo, the peninsula of Korea, are several islands called the illes illes of Liquejo. The most considerable is Kintchin, extending north and south between latitude 26° 28' and 27° 45'. It is about 50 leagues long, and 15 broad; the east and south parts of it are skirted by numberless little isles and rocks. The inhabitants are chiefly Chinese, who fled from the Tartars at the time of the last revolution; they export considerable quantities of cowries of the same species that is found in the Maldivian isles: From these shells is prepared a white varnish. They also export a sort of large flat shells, which, when polished, are almost transparent, and are used by the Japanese in their windows instead of glass.

To the eastward of Korea are the illes of Japan; they extend from latitude 30° to 40° north: their longitude is from 145° to 161° east. The surrounding seas are stormy and filled with dangerous rocks; the climate is changeable and subject to frequent rains; thunder is frequent, and earthquakes so common, as not to be regarded, unless, which is often the case, they produce dangerous consequences; the summer heat rises in July and August to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and the cold of winter is proportionally severe; the country is everywhere mountainous, and the people of a mixed race from the neighbouring countries, but possessing a very active character. See JAPAN.

To the north of the wall of Korea and of China, Chinese Tartary begins. It is in general inhabited by Tartars. Tartars in a pastoral state, subject to the present imperial family of China, who are themselves Tartars. This country extends northward to the river Amoor or Saghalien. This river takes its rise from the Keutuham Squer's mountains, about the latitude of 49°, and longitude 110° east from Greenwich; and is here called Onon. Its direction is nearly north-east; and at the discharge of of the Nirza, where the city of Nerthinsk is situated, about latitude $52^\circ$, it bears the name of the Shilba. This course it continues to latitude $52^\circ$, its most northern extremity, where the Tungoode call it Amoor, and the Chinese Seghaalien Ula (black mountain river, from the oak forests on the mountains hereabouts, which the Chinese call blackwood). From hence it is navigable in vessels of moderate size, having received considerable supplies from the torrents running down the eastern and northern mountains, as also from a very considerable river flowing from the south-west, and called the Argoon, which discharges itself into the Amoor, about $18^\circ$ miles east of Nerthinsk. In the vicinity of these parts, the Russians have several forts. From latitude $52^\circ$ to $47^\circ$, it flows nearly south-east, receiving in its course a number of rivers both east and west. The Tshukir has its source from this side of the same mountains as gave rise to the Olekma and Aldan, (both emptying themselves into the Lena), and flowing nearly south, joins with the Silenpid, which flows from the vicinity of the Ud; keeping nearly a western course into the Amoor. All these rivers are navigable for boats nearly to their source. The country is very mountainous, but the plains and valleys are spacious and fertile: the low country, however, labours under the disadvantage of being subject to inundations and earthquakes, which are very frequent.

No rivers of any importance join the Amoor from the east, except the two above mentioned. The Nonni Ula, however, a very large river which takes its rise about the latitude of $51^\circ$, and longitude $123^\circ$, makes a considerable inland circuit, and empties itself into the Amoor at its southern extremity, about the latitude of $47^\circ$. Another considerable river, the Ufuri, flows itself into the Amoor nearer its estuary, about latitude $48^\circ$. It rises from the lake Hinka, and has a communication after a short day's journey by land with the sea of Japan. It now flows in its own channel north-west into the sea of Ochotck, about the latitude of $52^\circ$, opposite the island Saghalien. This river is well stocked with fish, and its borders are covered with forests of oak, walnut, birch, and different sorts of pines. The soil is very rich, the climate mild and healthy. The whole course of this great river and its tributary streams is subject to the Chinese, or inhabited by people under their protection. It was discovered by the Russians in 1639 by means of some Cossacks: the Russians were delighted with the discovery of a river which report made to cast up gold and silver, and its neighbourhood to abound with the most precious furs, cattle, and fruit: the Russian colonists of Siberia emigrated thither in crowds, and depopulated their former country. They founded a fort in latitude $53^\circ$, which they called Albafin. The Chinese burnt it in 1680, and carried the garrison prisoners to Pekin; but it was rebuilt and strongly garrisoned, till it gave such serious cause of jealousy, that the affair was at last terminated in 1689, by a treaty at Nerthinsk, upon the river Indoga, in the reign of John and Peter afterwards named the Great, and of Kang-hi, emperor of China. Had the Russians obtained the possession of Amoor, and of the forests and fertile territory in its vicinity, they might soon have got the command of the sea of Japan and of the coasts of China, by descending the river with their fleets.

Even by marching from this river as from a magazine of arms and provisions, they could without difficulty have assaulted the Chinese empire, with an army trained in the discipline and the military tactics of Europe. By the treaty of Nerthinsk, however, the Chinese empire was declared to extend as high as Lat. $56^\circ$ $32'$. Its western limit is near the lake Baikal, at the northern front of the high region of Tartary, the greatest part of which also it includes. Beyond this, to the north and west, the territory is claimed by the Rufians, who have settlements in various situations, and are in a great measure matters of the Tartar inhabitants of different tribes. These tribes are apt to become discontented with the Rufian government; hence great numbers of them have recently emigrated to the Chinese territory upon the river Amoor. In the year 1787, there emigrated from the Rufians no less than 6000 of the tribe called Yakuti, with all their cattle and goods, who put themselves under the protection of the Chinese. Thus at present upon the river Amoor, a mixed race of Chinese, and of people from all the Tartar and Siberian tribes, is uniting in a fertile country under the government of China, and will probably form out of their several dialects a new language of their own. The Chinese justly consider them as a valuable advanced guard to their frontiers, and give them every encouragement, by afflicting them in the cultivation of grain, and in carrying on trade with Korea and other places in their neighbourhood.

Passing to the north of the Amoor and of the streams that flow into it, we come to Siberia, the proper country of the rein-deer, and of men who pass the winter in holes dug in the earth, to protect them against the severity of the climate. The whole territory inclines, as already mentioned, down toward the polar circle; but the surface of the country is various, and the coasts exhibit some peculiarities. Opposite to the mouth of the Amoor is the island of Saghalien, inhabited by a peaceable people, little known either to the Rufians or Chinese. The island is 160 miles long, and 80 broad. It is situated at the mouth of the sea or gulf of Ochotck, which has the main land of Siberia on the west, and the peninsula of Kamtchatka on the east. Kamtchatka is settled on both sides of the bay. This peninsula having been visited of late years by different European navigators, has been described at least as minutely as its importance on the map of Asia requires. It is in general very mountainous; but a part of it which is level contains a deep rich soil composed of black earth. Firs, common pine, and larch trees of a tolerable size, with birch, poplar, ash, and mountain ash, cover the hills in the middle of the peninsula. The underwoods are currants, dog-roses, hawthorn, alder, and bushes producing berries. The climate in the southern parts is chilled by the sea-breezes, and in the northern by the cold winds from Siberia; but in the centre of the peninsula a sheltered valley produces very fine cabbages, potatoes, turnips, carrots, &c., together with buck-wheat and rye. Hemp also grows remarkably well, but there is little necessity for cultivating it, as the nettle answers every purpose equally well. The Kamtchadals and Rufians make sewing thread of this last plant, the nettle, and fabricate from it their fishing nets, which, if used with caution and properly dried, serve them four or five years; the pro- cess of preparing it is nearly the same as that for hemp. On a good soil the nettle grows to the height of six or seven feet; the fibres are much finer, and a thread of equal thickness is said to be stronger than that made of the best hemp. The country is very subject to earthquakes, and has several volcanoes and hot springs.

In this quarter of the globe the coasts of the two great continents of America and of Asia begin to approach each other. From the American coast, opposite to Kamtschatka, extends to a considerable distance into the ocean the peninsula of Alyafka. From the point of this peninsula a succession of islands called the Aleutian isles, in the form of a crescent, extends over to Kamtschatka. These islands are most closely joined where they approach the American continent, and the intervals between them become more considerable near the Asiatic shore. The concavity of the crescent is towards the north. The islands are, in general, inhabited; but the natives have been subdued by the Russians, or rather by the bodies of men who have been sent thither by different trading companies for the purposes of hunting and fishing. One of the Aleutian islands called Oonalafka is worthy of attention; it is in north latitude $53^\circ 45'$, and east longitude $193^\circ 47'$. It is very mountainous, and the natives live chiefly by fishing; they are of a middle size, of a very dark brown and healthy complexion, with round features, small nose, black eyes and hair, the latter very strong and wiry; they wear seal skins, with the hair outward, fattened like a carter's frock; they go bare-footed, unless when walking on the rocky beach, when they wear a kind of awkward boots made of the throat of the sea lion, foled with thick seal skin, which they line with dry grats. The men sometimes wear a kind of clothing made of the skins of birds, with the feathers occasionally outward or inwards; the skin side is dyed red, and ornamented with flips of leather hanging down to a considerable length: the seams are covered with thin flips of skin, ornamented or embroidered with white deers hair, goats hair, and the finews of sea animals dyed of different colours; they also wear light pantaloons of white leather; the men have their hair cut short; the women wear theirs short before, combed over the forehead, and tied in a club on the top of the back part of the head. In wet weather, or when at sea, they wear a dress formed of the intestines of sea animals, the bladder of the halibut, or the skin of the tongue of a whale; it has a hood to cover the head, and is tied close round the neck and wrists, so that no water can penetrate; it is nearly transparent, and looks well. The men wear a wooden bonnet ornamented with the whiskers of the sea lion and with beads. Their baidars or boats, which are the admiration of travellers from the sea with which they are navigated, are built in the following manner: A keel eighteen feet long, four inches thick on the top, not three inches deep, and two inches, or somewhat less, at the bottom. Two upper frames, one on each side, about an inch and a half square, and fifteen feet long, join to a sharp flat board at the head, and are about fifteen inches shorter than the stern, joined by a thwart, which keeps them about twelve inches astern. Two similar frames near the bottom of the boat, five inches below the upper ones, about one inch square. Round sticks, thin, and about six inches distant from each other, are tied to these frames, and form the sides. For the top thwarts, very strong sticks, and nearly as thick as the upper frames, curved so as to raise the middle of the boat about two inches higher than the sides. There are thirteen of these thwarts or beams: seven feet from the stern is one of them; twenty inches nearer the head is another; a hoop about two inches high is fastened between them for the rower to fit in; this is made strong, and grooved to fasten an open skin to, which they tie round their body, and it prevents any water getting into the boat, although it were sunk. This frame is covered with the skin of the sea lion, drawn and sewed over it like a case. The whole is so extremely light, even when sodden with water, that it may be carried with ease in one hand. The head of the boat is double, the lower part sharp, and the upper part flat, resembling the open mouth of a fish, but contrived thus to keep the head from sinking too deep into the water; and they tie a stick from one end to the other, to prevent its entangling with the sea weeds. They row with ease, in a sea moderately smooth, about ten miles in the hour, and they keep the sea in a fresh gale of wind. The paddles that they use are double, seven or eight feet long, and made equally neat with the other articles.

The women of these islands plait neat straw mats, which serve for curtains and beds; they also make baskets, and kindle fires readily by throwing the powder of native sulphur upon dry grats or mors, after which they strike two pieces of quartz one against the other over it; the fine particles of sulphur immediately blaze like a flint of lightning, and set the whole of the dry grats or mors in a flame. The whole natives of the Aleutian islands are held in a state of most miserable slavery by the Russian hunters, who reside in this remote quarter of the globe, and compel them to hunt and fish in their service. Foxes and marmots are almost the only animals that the Russian hunters themselves can kill; for they are not capable of catching the sea animals, which require particularly agility in governing the small leather canoes in which the natives pursue the sea lion, the urine seal, sea otter, porpoises, and common seals. The sea lion, called by the Russians froufou, is the strongest and largest of the seal kind; it is covered with dark-coloured coarse hair, which is very thick and long about the neck and shoulders; the hinder part is tapering, with smooth short hair. The largest of these animals is about eight feet long; they have a small white spot on the temples, which is the only place about them vulnerable by arrows, which hardly pierce the skin in other parts; but if poisoned, they penetrate deep enough to destroy the animal. The flesh of the sea lion is cut into thin shreds and dried, and is eaten by the Russian hunters. The urine seal has a soft downy under fur, resembling Urine seal brown silk; the largest of the species are about five feet long; when very young the fur is of a beautiful short glossy black, which changes to silvery when they grow up, and, when they become old; it is almost white. The most valuable fur is that of the sea otter, called in Russian morfobobre; the largest are about five feet long, with a rich fur nearly black, interspersed with longer hairs of glossy white. From their value the pursuit after them has been so eager, that their numbers are declining fast. Indeed the destruction of all all kinds of animals that produce valuable kinds of fur has there, of late, been so great, that the trade will probably soon be at an end; and this is the only period at which the natives of these islands, and of the adjoining Asiatic and American coast, can expect a deliverance from the state of slavery under which they have been reduced by the Russians. From the Aleutian chain of islands the two continents irregularly but rapidly approach toward each other till they come within a distance of 40 miles at Bering straits. At this quarter, the part of Asia that approaches nearest to America is a peninsula, having the Icy sea on the north and the Pacific ocean on the south; it is inhabited by a tribe called the Tchukchi, who appear to be the same class of people that inhabit the opposite coast of America. The Tchukchi nation or tribe is divided into two distinct branches: the one consists of stationary or fixed inhabitants of the coast; the other are called Reindeer or Wanderers. Of the stationary part of the tribe the population amounts to about 3000 males; they are industrious and neat workmen, as appears from their boats, lances, arrows, bows, apparel, and utensils, with which they supply the wandering part of their tribe; they dig cellars, in which they keep their supplies of food and oil. Their provisions consist of the dried flesh of sea animals and deer, of roots and berries. They keep the oil of the sea animals in seal skins; they obtain immense quantities of it, which they use for food, fuel, and light: and also, as an article of commerce with the wandering tribes.

This wandering tribe consider themselves as a very superior and independent race of beings. They call all the nations that surround them old women, only fit to be their servants. Reindeer are their only riches. These, and the skins of animals that they kill in hunting, they barter with the Russians for kettles, knives, and trinkets; which articles they again exchange with the stationary tribe, for arms, dresses, &c.

Of Siberia in general it may be observed, that the Russians have fixed their capital in the neighbourhood of the Baikal lake, near the northern front of the high region of Tartary. It is called Irkutsk, and is situated in 103° 46' 45" east, of Greenwich, and in N. Lat. 52° 16' 30". It contains 1500 houses, chiefly of wood, twelve stone churches, a cathedral, and two monasteries: besides which, there are several public buildings; an hospital, a public school, a library, and a theatre. The number of inhabitants is about 20,000. The merchants are numerous and affluent, and a considerable trade is carried on with the Chinese. Here the affortments of furs are made which are brought from America and the northern parts of Siberia. There is a glass-house near the Baikal lake, and a distillery, in which 60,000 jiggers of spirits are made in a year; there are also salt-works at three springs, which supply the neighbouring country. The people are extremely hospitable to strangers. All kinds of food are cheap, as are spirituous liquors, and home-brewed beer; silks, cottons, linen, furs, and even English cloths, are sold at a moderate price. Many articles of luxury are brought from China, and the country itself supports immense herds of cattle and horses, and produces all the kinds of European grain; the chief disadvantage under which it labours is the intense severity of a winter which lasts during six months of the year. The severity of the winter, and its duration, increase in proportion to the distance from this most southern part of Siberia.

The first of the great rivers of Siberia towards the River Koelst that runs into the Icy sea is the Kovima, which takes its rise in what are called the Virchovoyki mountains, to the westward of the most northerly part of Kamtschatka. It flows in a direction nearly north-east about 1800 Russian versts, each verst being about three quarters of an English mile. Different Russian villages are situated upon it, or upon the different streams that fall into it. Of these it may be observed, that the village called Virchini is in N. Lat. 65° 28' 25", and E. Long. 153° 24' 30". Seredni, another village upon the same river farther down to the north, is in N. Lat. 67° 10' 14". A third village, containing 70 houses and a church, called Neizhini, is in N. Lat. 68° 17' 14", and E. Long. 163° 17' 30".

To give a correct idea of the climate of these latitudes we shall state the temperature at Virchini, as observed during nine days of the month of November 1786, old style, by Martin Sauer, secretary to a Russian expedition, sent to attempt to navigate the Icy sea; the observations appear to have been made with a spirit thermometer of Reaumur.

| Date | Wind | Temperature | |------|------|-------------| | Nov. 22 | 4 A.M. | 39° S.E. | | | 4 A.M. | 38° S.W. light airs | | | 6 | 39° | | | 8 | 39° | | | 12 M. | 38° | | | 4 P.M. | 39° S.S.E. | | | 6 | 39° | | | 8 | 39° | | | 12 | 40° | | Nov. 23 | 4 A.M. | 37° | | | 6 | 36° | | | 8 | 32° | | | 12 M. | 32° S.E. | | | 4 P.M. | 32° | | | 6 | 32° | | | 8 | 30° | | | 12 | 33° | | Nov. 24 | 4 A.M. | 34° N. | | | 6 | 35° | | | 8 | 36° | | | 12 M. | 35° | | | 6 P.M. | 35° | | | 12 | 36° | | Nov. 25 | 4 A.M. | 34° S.W. little wind. | | | 2 M. | 34° N.W. ditto. | | | 4 P.M. | 35° | | | 6 | 36° | | | 8 | 37° | | | 12 | 38° | | Nov. 26 | 4 A.M. | 34° S.W. little wind. | | | 2 M. | 34° N.W. ditto. | | | 4 P.M. | 35° | | | 6 | 36° | | | 8 | 37° | | | 12 | 38° |

On the 22d, at fix A.M. nine ounces of mercury froze in two hours; the earth, the ice of the river, the cold timber of the houses, &c. cracking with reports equal to those of a musket. On the same evening ten ounces of mercury in a flopped phial, froze in two hours and a half. On the 23d, about ten o’clock A.M., the mercury in a flopped phial thawed, but in the evening of the same day was again quite frozen. On the 26th, in the morning, there was a thick fog, and the earth and the river cracked violently. On the 27th, at nine A.M., a sealed bottle of African brandy (there called French brandy) exposed to the frost, thickened very much, but was not frozen. On the 28th, at noon, the mercury thawed, but at half past ten at night it was observed frozen. At 37° it was almost impossible to fell timber (which was as hard as the hatchet) unless it was perfectly dry; and in the greatest severity of the cold, the hatchets, on striking the wood, broke like glass. On coming out of a warm room it was absolutely necessary to breathe through a handkerchief; the body was immediately surrounded by a mist arising from the breath, and this mist consisted of very small nodules of hoar ice. Breathing caused a noise like the tearing of coarse paper or the breaking of thin twigs, and the expired breath was immediately condensed into the fine substance already mentioned. The northern lights were constant and very brilliant; they assumed an amazing diversity of shapes, and might be heard to shoot along.

The vegetable productions of this climate were chiefly the following.

Larch.—This is the chief tree in use for building, firing, &c., and the most plentiful. It is pretty sizeable as far as Virchini, and the country is moderately wooded about 200 versts lower, but the trees very felled; beyond that they are in clutters on elevated spots of ground to about 30 versts from the Icy Sea, where they cease growing, in about the latitude 68° 30'.

Birch extends to a little below Seredni, but very felled and small trees.

Poplar and ash grow to a moderate size on the islands sheltered by mountains about the source of the Kovima, but do not extend so low down as Virchini.

Mountain ash is plenty as far as Virchini, but very scarce lower down.

Alder and willow have a trunk about 18 inches in circumference, and grow to the height of two fathoms, about Virchini. They gradually diminish in size, and cease growing with the larch.

Creeping-cedar, bruthwood, black and red currant, rose, and juniper, are met with as low as Neizhini. Bruthwood and creeping-willows extend to the Icy Sea, but never exceed from six to eight inches. The creeping cedar, or pinus cembra, produces a considerable quantity of seeds or nuts in cones, like the common pine: but they ripen only the second year. Immense numbers are collected by the inhabitants; sometimes considerable quantities are found in the squirrels nests in hollow trees; in fact they are the chief food of squirrels and mice. A very pellucid and sweet oil is extracted from these seeds.

Mountain ash berries are gathered, and used to give a pleasant flavour to their drink.

Black and red currants are collected in abundance, and preserved in casks among ice; some are boiled and preserved. The black only extend to about Seredni, but the red continue growing as far as Neizhini.

Cranberry.—These are scarce, and extend no further north than Seredni; they are always preserved raw.

Brusniki, vaccinium vitis idaea, whortleberry.—These are very plenty as far as Neizhini, and are preserved raw.

Colubniki are very numerous: they seem to delight in such stony places as are overflowed in the spring. They are very pleasant tasted, of a dark-blue colour, and grow on a low bush exactly resembling a myrtle. They are preserved by boiling.

Marolika, rubus chamaemorus.—These are the favourite berry of the inhabitants, and grow in damp mossy places, particularly near lakes. They are reckoned a certain cure for the soury, and are always preserved raw.

Siccha, growing on dry stony places about the mountains, on a creeping species of heath, with short needle leaves; they are very small, black, and stony, are collected in great abundance, and preserved by boiling.

Knezhhiniti, rubus arcticus, are scarce, growing about the roots of the alder, and currant bushes.

The following animals are found in the neighbourhood of the river Kovima, and are hunted for food or on account of the value of their skins.

| Name | Price of the Skins | |------------|--------------------| | Elk | 2 rubles | | Deer | 1 do. | | Bear | 1 do. | | White bear | 1 do. | | Glutton | 2 to 10 do. | | Wolf | 2 to 8 do. | | Fox | 1 to 5 do. | | Stone Fox | 50 copeeks. | | Ermine | 5 do. | | Lynx | 3 to 10 rubles, according to the length of the hair. | | Otter | 8 to 10 rubles. | | Sable | 10 do. | | Sheep, argali | 1 do. | | Hare | 3 to 5 copeeks. | | Marmot | 5 to 10 do. | | Squirrel | 3 to 5 do. |

Most of the kinds of birds known in the northern parts of Great Britain are also found in Siberia at some period of the year. At Neizhini the swallows were observed swarming together under the eaves of the church, chirping very much, particularly on the 2d of August old style, which is still used in Russia; and on the 3d there was not one to be found, nor had any body seen them depart. They appear about the 21st of May, and depart between the 2d and 6th of August, never staying beyond the latter date. The red breasted remains a day or two longer than the white. The snow bunting, the first bird that appears, is seen about the middle of March, feeding on the seeds of grasses on the sandy shores of the river, and about the roots of bushes where the snow is earliest melted by the sun. Different flights follow after each other for about a month; eagles follow close upon them. Swans, geese, and ducks arrive towards the end of April, and continue about the neighbouring lakes and rivers till the beginning of September. The river Kovima is frozen over about the 20th of September, and opens about the 24th of May, when it deluges the low country. At Neizhini, on the 25th of November, the sun goes... goes down, and does not rise again till the 16th of January, when it appears above the horizon, and this is the time of the greatest cold.

The coast of the Icy Sea is moderately high, formed by projecting promontories and shallow bays, exposed to every wind except the south. The mountains are covered in different places with snow, which melting, produces small torrents that rush into the sea. The mountains are composed of granite, quartz, and a hard black stone; they produce moss, a kind of vetch, the root of which is edible, creeping willow and birch, not exceeding ten inches in height. Near the mouths of the large rivers the shores are covered with drift-wood, and in every place remains of huts left by different hunters are seen. Upon the shore rein-deer are found pretty numerous; bears, but not white; wolves, foxes, stone fox, wild sheep, and the whistling marmot; the gulls, ravens, hawks, black-headed buntings, snow-larks, a few partridges, geese, ducks, and divers. The productions of the sea itself are very few; some seals, herrings, whales, and a small species of salmon; but no traces of shell-fish of any kind are to be met with. The atmosphere is always cold and chilly, though the thermometer in the middle of July rises 14° and 16° above the freezing point of Reaumur. The fogs upon this sea are very remarkable, continually hovering above the ice at no great height; sometimes having the same appearance with islands when seen in a haze, and resembling vast columns of smoke. Neither ebb nor flow of the tide is perceived, and the ice is always brackish to the taste.

This ocean never has been, and, in all probability, never can be fully explored; various attempts, however, have been made by individuals, as hunters, in search of places in which abundance of game may be found, or in search of what are called the mammoths' tusks: these are the tusks of a species of animal that is now unknown and extinct; but which must once have existed in immense multitudes in Siberia. These tusks are found in great numbers buried under the high sandy shores of rivers at a considerable depth; the spring floods bring them to view by washing away the sand that covers them, and they appear to have been originally buried by similar floods; they are equal to elephants' teeth in whiteness, beauty, and value, but very different in their shape, being all bent spirally: the largest are found on the shores of the Icy Sea; one is mentioned, which in direct length extended to four feet one inch French measure; when measured along the bending, it was eight feet seven inches and four lines in length; its circumference near the root was 14 inches and 3 lines; the thickest part, which was at 22 inches from the root, was 17 inches and 8 lines; the weight of the whole was 115 lb. avoirdupois. The outside was very brown from its having been exposed to the weather, and it was cracked through the coat or upper stratum about an inch; the inside was firm and very white.

In search of this valuable kind of ivory, which forms an important branch of Siberian commerce, individuals have attempted to penetrate into the Icy Sea in the hope of discovering untouched stores upon new islands, or some unexplored continent. With this view one Lachoff made an expedition from the river Yana, with some attendants, in the year 1770, and the following years.

Of this expedition Mr Sauer obtained the following account from Zatai Protodiokanoff, a burgher of a Siberian town called Yakutsk, in N. Lat. 62° 1' 50", E. Long. 129° 34'. The account is of great importance on account of the savage nature of the unknown region to which it refers, and the extraordinary circumstance of the bones of animals, particularly the rhinoceros, being found in it, which in our times can only inhabit the warmest latitudes. "Protodiokanoff accompanied Lachoff in 1770, from his winter buildings at the estuary of the Yana, in the month of March, to Swatol Nofs, the northern promontory of a bay which receives this river.

"They saw an immense herd of deer going to the Expedition south, and observed that their traces were from the north across the Icy Sea. Lachoff resolved, if possible, to find out whence they came; and in the beginning of April, set out very early in the morning, with his fledge drawn by dogs. Towards evening he arrived at an island 70 versts from the promontory, in a due north direction, where he passed the night, and the next day proceeded farther, the traces of the deer serving as a guide. About noon he arrived at a second island 20 versts distant, and in the same direction. The traces coming still farther from the north he continued his route. At a small distance from the second island he found the ice so rugged and mountainous as to prevent his proceeding with dogs. He observed no land; and therefore, after passing the night on the ice, he returned, and with great difficulty, for want of provisions for his dogs, regained Swatol Nofs. He represented his discovery to the chancery of Yakutsk, and the intelligence was forwarded to St Petersburg. The empress Catherine II. called the islands by the name of the discoverer, and gave him the exclusive right of collecting ivory, and hunting animals in this place, and in any other that he might thereafter discover.

"In 1773 he went with five workmen in a boat to the islands, and continued across straits, where he found the sea very flat, and a current setting to the west. He soon saw land to the north, the weather being pretty clear, and arrived on what he called the third island. The shore was covered with drift wood. The land was very mountainous, and seemingly of great extent; but no wood was seen growing, nor did he observe the traces of any human being. He found some tusks of the mammoth, saw the tracks of animals, and returned (without making any other discovery) to the first island, where Lachoff built a hut of the drifted wood, and passed the winter. One of his companions left a kettle and a palma on the third island.

"This was reckoned a discovery of some importance, and the land-surveyor Chvoinoff received orders from the chancery of Yakutsk, to accompany Lachoff to this farthest island, and take an exact survey of the same. In 1775, on the 9th February, he left Yakutsk, and arrived on the 26th March at Uit Yanfs Lemovia, or winter huts at the estuary of the Yana. He immediately proceeded across the bay to Swatol Nofs, which is 400 versts from the discharge of the river in a direction north-west-east. On the 6th May he arrived at the first island, which is 150 versts long, and 80 versts broad in the widest parts, and 20 versts in the narrowest. In the middle is a lake of considerable extent, but very shallow, but the borders of which are steep." The whole island, except three or four inconsiderable rocky mountains, is composed of ice and sand; and, as the shores fall, from the heat of the sun's thawing them, the tusks and bones of the mammoth are found in great abundance. To use Chvoynoff's own expression, the island is formed of the bones of this extraordinary animal, mixed with the horns and heads of the buffalo, or something like it, and some horns of the rhinoceros; now and then, but very rarely, they find a thin bone, very straight, of considerable length, and formed like a screw.

"The second island is 20 versts distant from this, low, and without drift-wood; 50 versts in length, and from 20 to 30 versts broad. Here also the tusks and other bones are found; and great numbers of the arctic foxes are to be met with on both. The surface is a bed of moss of considerable thickness, producing a few low plants and flowers, such as grow about the borders of the Icy sea. This moss may be stripped off as you would take a carpet from a floor, and the earth underneath appears like clear ice and never thaws; these spots are called kallyae.

"The straits to the third island are 100 versts across. He travelled along the shore, and on the 21st May discovered a considerable river, near which he found the kettle, palma, and some cut wood, in the same place and situation, as they had been left by Lachoff's companions three years before Chvoynoff's arrival. This river he called Izarevovia Reka, in consequence of having discovered it on the 21st of May. The shore was covered with drift-wood, all of it extremely shattered. Ascending to the top of a very lofty mountain, he saw a mountainous land as far as his eye could trace in clear weather, extending east, west, and north. Continuing his route along the coast 100 versts, he observed three rivers, each of which brought down a great quantity of wood, and abounded in fish; and here the merk, a species of salmon frequenting Ochotsk and Kamtchatka, was in abundance, though not found in the Kovima or Indigirka. On this land he passed the summer, and returned in the autumn to Swatol Noi.

"I asked, whether he observed any regular ebb or flow of the tide? He said, 'that he did not observe any remarkable alteration.' Whether he recollected how the current fell? 'He believed to the west.' Whether the water was salt? 'Yes, and very bitter.' He further observed, that there were whales and beluga, white bears, wolves, and rein-deer. No growing wood was to be seen, and the mountains were bare stone. None of these travellers took any notice of the depth of the water, nor were they acquainted with the nature of tides."

We account it worth while to take notice of these facts; partly, because no circumstance that can tend to elucidate the general structure of this globe, or point out its different productions, ought to be regarded as unimportant; and partly, because some philosophers have attempted, from the remains of animals which appear to have once inhabited the dreary regions within the polar circle, to infer that these countries must once have possessed a better climate, more favourable to animal life, which must have been altered by some extraordinary change in the astronomical position, or in the general temperature of the earth.

Besides the rivers we have already noticed, Siberia contains many others; the chief of which rise near the northern front of the high region of Tartary, and receive the rest as tributary streams in their passage to Siberia, the Icy sea; the principal are the Lena, the Jenisey, and the Ob. The description of them all is similar. They flow through a country containing a very trifling population, but which is as varied in its surface and in its mineral productions as any other part of the world: We shall here take notice of the Lena only, as a description of it will afford a sufficient general idea of the river.

About a hundred miles west-south-west of a small River Lena Ruffian village called Katfugia Priflan, the Lena takes described its rise from an inconsiderable lake among the mountains of Altai, near the Baikal lake. It flows in a gentle and uninterrupted stream, though here and there impeded by shallows at a late season, to about the distance of 300 miles from its source; when it deepens considerably. The direction is very winding, but pretty uniformly east-north-east to Yakutsk, and nearly north from thence to its discharge into the Icy sea, about the latitude 71° 30', and longitude 129° east of Greenwich, after a course of 3450 geographical miles. The appearance that it assumes is continually varying. In some places, mountains bound the channel on both sides, clothed to the summits with stately pines; in others they are barren, projecting into the river, and turning its course, taking fantastic shapes, resembling ruins of large buildings, towers, and churches; the chasms overgrown with hawthorn, currant bushes, dog roses, &c. In some places the mountains retreat inland for miles, forming a background to extensive plains, and exposing a miserably built town, surrounded with corn fields, gardens, and pasture grounds, with a few herds of cattle grazing. These openings are frequent, at unequal distances of five to forty versts from each other, and are always occupied by villages as far as Olekma, 1800 versts from Katfugia. All beyond is desolate, except a few huts inhabited by convicts who have the charge of horses for the pofts, and the towns of Petroftsky, Yakutsk, and Giganik. The best of them is only a collection of huts inhabited by priests and their attendants, officers, and Cossacks, who teach obedience, and enforce the payment of tribute from the wandering tribes of Tartars that infest the neighbourhood. The following are the rivers that flow into the Lena.—The Ilga, 170 versts from Katfugia, flowing into the effluvium of this river is a salt lake, which is very shallow, and works, the property of the present ifravink of the district, at which one boiling produces 1080 pounds weight of salt. Marakofka, 601 versts from Katfugia. Makarova, 690. Kiringa, 778. Vittima, 1178. This last river flows from a lake east of the Baikal. It is nearly equal to the Lena in width, depth, and extent; and is famous for fables, lynx, fox, ermine, squirrel, and deer. The fables of this river, and of the Momo, which falls into it 300 versts from the discharge, are very valuable, and of a superior quality. Numbers of Tungoofe travel about here on the chafe. Three versts up this river are the mountains that produce tale. Specimens have been formerly found, 28 inches square, and transparent as glass; what is now found is very small, but perfectly pellucid. All the windows of these parts are glazed with it. The river Pellidul, 1252 versts from Kathugia; also famous for the above mentioned animals, and the last place that produces corn. Sparrows and magpies are not seen farther north: they only came here about the year 1782, after the ground had begun to be cultivated. The Nuye, 1475 versts from Kathugia. The Yerba, 1305. The Patama, 1575. The Oonaghtali, 1595. The Olekma, 1822. The Aldan, 2620. Besides several rivers farther north of no material consequence.

The most remarkable of the native tribes of Siberia are the Tungoofe, the Yakuti, and the Burati; all of whom appear to have originally descended thither from the southern and more elevated regions of Tartary. To these may be added the Cofacks, whom the Russians have everywhere introduced. The Tungoofe wander over an amazing extent of ground, from the mouth of the Amour to the Baikal lake, the rivers Angara or Tungoofka, Lena, Aldan, Yudoma, Mayo, Ud, the sea coast of Ochotik, the Amicon, Kovima, Indigirka, Alafey, the coast of the Icy sea, and all the mountains of these parts, constantly on the look-out for animals of the chase. They seldom reside more than six days in one place, but remove their tents, though it be to the small distance of 20 fathoms; and this only in the fishing season, and during the time of collecting berries. They leave their supplies of fish and dried berries in large boxes, built on trees or poles, for the benefit of themselves and their tribes in travelling during the winter. Berries they dry by mixing them with the undigested food (lichen) out of the stomach of the rein-deer, making thin cakes, which they spread on the bark of trees, and dry upon their huts in the sun or wind. They seem callous to the effects of heat or cold: their tents are covered with shamo or the inner bark of the birch, which they render as pliable as leather, by rolling it up, and keeping it for some time in the steam of boiling water and smoke. Their winter dress is the skin of the deer, or of the wild sheep, dressed with the hair on; a breast-piece of the same, which ties round the neck, and reaches down to the waist, widening towards the bottom, and neatly ornamented with embroidery and beads; pantaloons of the same materials, which also furnish them with short stockings, and boots of the legs of rein-deer, with the hair outward; a fur cap and gloves. Their summer dress only differs in being simple leather without the hair. They commonly hunt with the bow and arrow; but some have rifle-barreled guns. They do not like to bury their dead, but place the body, dressed in its best apparel, in a strong box, and suspend it between two trees. The implements of the chase belonging to the deceased are buried under the box. Except a sorcerer is very near, no ceremony is observed; but in his presence they kill a deer, offer a part to the demons, and eat the rest. They allow polygamy; but the first wife is the chief, and is attended by the rest. The ceremony of marriage is a simple purchase of a girl from her father; from 20 to 100 deer are given, or the bridegroom works a stated time for the benefit of the bride's father. The unmarried are not remarkable for chastity. A man will give his daughter for a time to any friend or traveller that he takes a liking to; if he has no daughter he will give his servant, but not his wives. They are rather below the middle size, and extremely active; have lively smiling countenances, with small eyes; and both sexes are great lovers of brandy. They declare that they know no greater curse than to live in one place, like a Russian or Yakut, where filth accumulates, and fills the habitation with stench and disease.

The Yakuti, or Socha, are a Tartar tribe that originally descended into the country of Siberia from the high regions on the south. A nation of Mongals inhabiting a part of the country near China also call themselves Socha, and speak the same language as the Yakuti. The Russians discovered them in 1620: they were divided into many tribes, and the differences that existed among them contributed to their being subdued. Their number is computed at 50,000 males; but the population is declining. They complain of the oppression of the Russian government; and of late, as already mentioned, many of them have emigrated to the river Amoor, to enjoy the advantages arising from the protection of the milder and more popular government of the Chinese.

There is perhaps no nation in the world that can exhibit a greater variety with regard to size than the Yakuti. The affluent, whose dwellings are situated about the meadows on the south side of the Vichoyanfki chain, are from five feet ten inches to six feet four inches high, well proportioned, extremely strong, and very active; while the indigent inhabitants of the more northerly parts are in general below the middle size, indolent, and of an unhealthy complexion; evidently flunted by the badness of their food, the severity of the climate, and the want of proper clothing. Their wealth consists of horses and horned cattle. The private property of no individual at present exceeds 2000, all species included; formerly, numbers of them possessed 20,000.

With regard to their capacity of supporting themselves, they are independent. Their only necessaries of subsistence are, a knife, hatchet (or palma), flint and steel, and a kettle; and with these articles the all-providing hand of God sufficiently supplies them, and capacitates them to furnish the other tribes. From the iron ore of the Vilui, they make their own knives, hatchets, &c., and of such temperature as baffles the more enlightened art of the Russians. This ore may be called native iron, from the little trouble they have in preparing it. Every utensil and article of dress they make themselves.

Tanghra is with them the general name of god, or perhaps of the supreme God; but they have other deities, whose names are in their language descriptive of their attributes. One of these is styled Aar-toyon, (or the merciful chief). To him they ascribe the creation, and suppose that he has a wife, whom they call Kubey Chatoon, (shining in glory). They are both almighty. Another god, called Wechyt, (the advocate), carries up their prayers, and executes the will of the godhead. He sometimes appears among them, assuming the form of a white stallion, or of any bird, from the eagle to the cuckoo. It is he that intercedes for them, and procures all desirable things. The wife of Wechyt, is called Akbt, (the giver). There are their benevolent gods, together with a being whom they adore in the sun. They regard the fire, as containing a peculiar being possessed both of good and evil qualities, ties, and to whom they constantly offer sacrifices. Their malevolent aerial spirits are very numerous; they have no less than 27 tribes or companies of them. Their chief they call Ooloo Toyon: he has a wife and many children. Sugai Toyon, the god of thunder, is his minister of immediate vengeance. (Sugai signifies a hatehet). The rest they distinguish by the names of different colours. Cattle and horses are sacred to the different spirits whose colours they bear. They reckon eight tribes of spirits inhabiting Mung Taar (everlasting misery). Their chief is called Abary Bioho (the mighty). They have wives, and the cattle sacred to them are quite black: Their departed shamans, or magicians, are supposed to unite to these. They dread greatly an evil goddess, whom they call Enachfys, (cowherdcs). She damages the cows, inflicts disorders on them, destroys calves, &c. She is frequently honoured with propitiatory sacrifices.

Their magicians, or shamans, are chiefly men, though a few of them are women. Young magicians are instructed by an old professor of the art, who conducts them to the most solitary places of the woods; shows them the favourite spots of the spirits of the air and of the pit, and teaches them to invoke their power and prevail with them to appear. The magicians have a peculiar dress, consisting of a leather jacket, and an apron reaching from the chin to the knees. The whole is ornamented all over with iron plates, and pieces of iron and brass, hanging, which make a dismal noise when they agitate their bodies, during the fantastic but childlike ceremonies which they perform while driving, as they say, the demons out of sick people. They use a tambour in their ceremony, and are the priests and physicians in the tribe.

In their roving parties, on the chase or travelling, they only take with them a scanty supply of koumiss, depending on chance for the rest; and should their pursuits prove unfortunate, they find their food in the inner bark of the pines and birch-trees, or the different edible roots. Squirrels are in their estimation very good eating, but their favourite food is the whistling marmot. Of all their provisions, however, koumiss is the most valued; it is formed of mare's milk, collected in large leather buckets, wide at bottom, and narrow at the top: each containing about an anker. Into this a small piece of the stomach of a calf or colt is thrown, and some water mixed with it: it is agitated till it ferments, and acquires an agreeable acidity; and when taken in great quantities it has an intoxicating quality (See Koomiss). Of this drink every one collects as much as he can; and some of the chiefs obtain more than 500 ankers of it. A day is then fixed upon by each chief to consecrate his flock, which is performed as follows:—A summer hut is built of thin poles, of a conical form, covered with the inner bark of birch, on some extensive meadow. It is ornamented, inside and out, with branches of the birch tree, and a hearth is made in the centre. Relations and acquaintances are invited to the banquet; but all guests are welcome, of every nation, indiscriminately. The magicians, or shamans, take the head seats; others are seated according to the estimation of their seniority. When the hut is full, the elder shaman rises, and commands one of the Socha that he knows to be qualified (namely, that has not seen a corpse within the month, and that never has been accused of theft, or bearing false witness against any body, which defiles them forever, and renders them unqualified for this sacred and solemn task), to take a large goblet, called a thoron, which is used to drink out of on solemn occasions, and fill it with koumiss out of the first fymir; then to place himself before the hearth, with his face to the east, holding the thoron to his breast about two minutes. He then pours koumiss three times on the hot embers, as an offering to Aar Toyon. Turning a very little to the right, he pours three times to Kubey Chatoon; then, to the fourth, he offers in the same manner to each of the benevolent gods. With his face to the west, he pours three times to the 27 tribes of aerial spirits, and three times to the north to the eight tribes of the pit, and to the manes of their departed sorcerers. After a short pause, he concludes his libation by an offering to Enachfys, the cowherdcs. The sorcerer then turns the man with his face to the east, and commences a prayer aloud, thanking the godhead for all favours received, and soliciting a continuance of their bounty. On concluding his prayer, he takes off his cap, with which he fans himself three times, and cries out aloud, "Oorui" (grant), which is repeated by all present. The elder shaman, then, taking the thoron, drinks a little, and hands it to his brethren of the same order, from whom it passes to the company as they fit, except such as are deified. Women are not admitted into the hut; nor are they or the disqualified allowed any of the koumiss out of the first fymir, which they call sanctified, as professing the power of purifying and strengthening in a divine sense. They all now go out of the hut, and seat themselves on the firewood branches of birches, in half circles, facing the east. All the fymirs are carried, and placed between the branches of trees stuck in the earth, and they commence drinking; every person having their fymir, thoron, and professed shaman who fills the goblet, and pushes it about with the course of the sun. The quantity that they drink is incredible. Tournaments now begin; wrestling, running, leaping, &c.; and if any one carry off the prize in all the achievements, he is esteemed as particularly favoured by the deities, and receives more respect and credit in his testimony than falls to the lot of a common man. When the ceremony is finished, they mount their horses, forming half circles, drinking a parting draught, and wheeling round with the sun's course, ride home. Women attend, and form parties among themselves at some distance from the men, where they drink, dance, &c.

The Yakuti or Socha, in their intercourse with each other, have few atrocious vices. Robberies are seldom committed; they sometimes, indeed, lose their cattle from their straying in these wide countries. If stolen, detection is almost certain, as they relate all their losses at every public meeting; in consequence of which, if the lost beast has been seen, information is given, and it is traced. A thief is not only compelled to make reformation, but to make good all the losses of other Yakut during the year, whether he has stolen the property or not. If one is accused of having stolen cattle, and eaten or killed them, he must either pay for them, receive a flogging, which is very disgraceful, or take an oath of his innocence, which is administered with so many superstitious solemnities, that innocent persons will They are very revengeful of insults, and entail upon their progeny the duty of revenge; their gratitude, however, is equal to their resentment; they never forget a benefit; and not only make a return, but recommend to their children to persevere in friendship and gratitude to the benefactors of their parents. They are very obedient to their chiefs and old men. They deliberate in council on all matters of public concern, as the course which each is to take in the chase, &c. The old men are surrounded by the rest, and their advice is implicitly obeyed. A young man gives his opinion respectfully and cautiously; and, even when asked, he submits his ideas to the judgment of the old. They are extremely hospitable and attentive to travelers, and are very inquisitive; they ask questions frequently, but, at the same time, they answer them without embarrassment, and with a considerable appearance of intelligence. They are a vigorous race, accustomed to travel in the severest frosts, and to endure hunger with patience. They are, however, subject to some diseases, particularly rheumatism, weakness of the eyes, boils, and the itch. The smallpox and measles have also at times proved very destructive amongst them.

They have a multitude of petty superstitions, independent of their religion. Ravens, crows, and cuckoos, are ominous birds; and, if these perch near their huts, they dread some misfortune, which can only be averted by shooting the birds. On the contrary, eagles and large birds of prey are the foreboders of good; and almost every tribe has its object of veneration, but not of worship, as the eagle, the swan, the stallion, &c. They always take care to make the doors of their huts towards the east; the fire-place is in the middle, with the back of the chimney towards the door; the sides of the hut are furnished with benches and small cabins, which serve for sleeping places, and for sitting on. The men keep upon the south side and the women upon the north. Except the hostess, no woman may present food to a male stranger in front of the fire-place, but must walk round the chimney to present it. They never wash the vessels that contain their food; but when a dish is emptied, they clean it as well as they can with their fingers, accounting it ominous, or that it forebodes a scarcity, to wash away any part of their food. Their earthen vessels are preserved extremely clean by repeated burnings, as the fire consumes what adhered to the sides. Before eating any thing, they cast a morsel into the fire. Every Yakut has two names, and is only called by the right name, in cases of necessity, to avoid the search of evil spirits. They never mention the dead, unless allegorically, and forfeit the hut in which any one has expired.

Polygamy is allowed among them, and some have six wives, but the first is respected by all the rest, and they dwell in separate huts; their marriage ceremonies are extremely formal. The young man, who wishes to marry, sends his friend to ask the consent of the bride's father, and what kalym (purchase) he demands; that is, how many horses and cattle, as also the quantity of raw meat, horse flesh, and beef, that he requires for treats and feasts; this they call kurim; half of the quantity is always given in presents to the bridegroom by the bride's father, and is called yrdy. The daughter's inclinations are always consulted; and, if she does not object, the kalym and kurim are stipulated. The bridegroom kills two fat mares, dresses the heads whole, and the flesh in pieces, and goes with three or four friends to the father of the bride. On his arrival at the hut, one of his friends enters, and places one of the dressed horse's heads before the fire, and returns to his companions without speaking a word. They then all enter the hut; and a sorcerer being placed opposite the fire, the bridegroom kneels on one knee with his face towards it, into which butter is thrown; he then lifts up his cap a little, and nods his head three times without bowing his body. The sorcerer pronounces him the happy man, and prophesies a succession of happy years, &c. Then the bridegroom rises, bows to the father and mother, and takes his seat opposite the bride's place, but keeps silent. The meat is then brought in, and the father of the bride distributes it among his own friends, but kills a fat mare to treat his new guests. Supper being over, the bridegroom goes to bed; the bride, who has not been present, is conducted into the hut, and to his bed, by some old women, and they sleep together; sometimes, however, the bride does not appear at the first visit. In the morning the friends return home, but the bridegroom remains three or four days. A time is now fixed for payment of the kalym, either at the new or full moon. The kalym and kurim are then carried without any ceremony, and delivered in the presence of many friends, who are feasted, and the bridegroom remains again three or four days, and fixes a time to receive the bride at his own dwelling, which must be new built on purpose; and this also at the new or full moon. All her relations, male and female, with friends and neighbours, sometimes more than a hundred, accompany the bride with her father and mother, taking with them eight or ten fymirs full of melted butter, and the dressed meat of three mares. They go to the new hut prepared for them; three men are sent to the bridegroom in his old hut, and the greatest drinkers are chosen for this purpose. On entering, the first says, "we are come to see your dwelling, and to fix pots before your door." They then kneel on one knee before the fire: an ayack is filled with koumis, and handed by two men to the three kneeling; each of whom empties an ayack at three draughts. They then rise and go out, all the company saluting them with one cheer. Three others enter; the first with nine fables, the second with nine foxes, and the third with twenty-seven ermine skins; these hang on a peg in the chief corner of the hut, and retire. Then a number of women conduct the bride, her face being covered with ermine skins, to the hut; the entrance has a wooden bar placed across it, but of no strength, which the bride breaks with her breast, and enters the hut. She is placed before the fire, holding her hands open before her, into which seven pieces of sticks are put; as also several pieces of butter, which she throws into the fire. The shaman pronounces a blessing; she then rises and is again conducted, with her face concealed all the while, to the new hut, where the cover is taken from her face. The bridegroom enters, and feasts his guests two days; then presents all his relations with cattle, over and above the kalym; which is, however, returned on paying their formal visits, perhaps a year or more afterwards. Afterwards. When a child is about to be born, the husband is called; and two skilful women, in his presence, assist the delivery. If a son be born, a fat mare is killed on the third day; all the neighbours are invited to supper; the child is rubbed all over with fat, and a name given to it, the more insignificant the better; for an elegant name would only entice the demons to be continually about it. No ceremony is observed if the child be a daughter.

The Yakuti bury a dead person in his best apparel, with his knife, flint, steel, tinder, and some meat, that he may not hunger on the road to the dwelling of souls. Two holes are dug under a tree; a favourite horse of the deceased is killed and buried in one, while the corpse is laid in the other: a fat mare is killed, dressed, and eaten, by the guests; her skin is suspended on the tree, under which the body lies with the head to the west. A magician, playing upon his tambour, invokes the demons to let the spirit of the departed rest in peace; and the ceremony is finished by filling up the grave. If an elder brother die, his wives become the property of the younger; but the wives of a younger brother become free at his death.

Their dress is similar to that of the Tungoofe, but more complete. Their principal arts consist of working iron ore, as already mentioned, by means of charcoal, rendering it malleable without any previous process of fusion, and of dressing leather, which they are said to perform with wonderful success, so as to render it completely water-proof, in the following manner: For furs or buckets, they take a fresh skinned cow's or horse's hide, and steep it in water a few days, when the hair easily rubs off. It is then hung up till nearly dry, when they lay it in blood until soaked through, and then hang it in a smoky place for a considerable time; of this they make their buckets and soles of boots, &c. The latter are completely water-proof, and the buckets or furs even retain oil. The legs of boots they make of colts or calves' skins, scraped and rubbed till they be soft, then sewed, steeped in blood, and dried in smoke; afterwards blackened with wood coals and fat several times, and smoked again: they are then water-proof. The thread with which they sew their clothes is made of the sinews from the legs of the horse-deer or elk. They are expert archers, and have a plentiful supply of arrows in their quivers. They make considerable quantities of hay, and collect berries which they preserve by boiling. To save their hay, they kill at the beginning of winter the cattle they intend to use for food, and let it freeze, which preserves it fresh and good during the whole of that season.

Another tribe of Siberians inhabiting the southern parts of the territory, is the Burati. They are divided into a great number of separate small tribes, and are also a race of Tartars. They possess immense herds of cattle and horses. They are not unacquainted with letters, and have lamas or priests, like the inhabitants of the southern parts of High Tartary. There are also various other tribes, such as the Yukagiri, the Thuvantii, Chatinify, &c. who do not seem to differ in their manners and character from those already described. On the whole, however, it appears that the population of Siberia is very trifling. It is greatest towards the southern boundary, in the latitudes of the Baikal lake and the river Amoor, where the climate is mildest. To give an idea of the population of the lower or northern part, we shall here state, from the work already quoted, an account of the number of inhabitants from the latitude of 64°, to the extremity of the north coast, and from the river Kovima westward to the Anabara. "The district of Lashverik comprehends the rivers Kovima, Alasch, Indigirka, and Yana, and those that flow into them: The tributary nations are

| Nation | Population | |--------------|------------| | Yakuti | 2810 | | Lamut and Tungoofe | 742 | | Yukagiri | 322 | | Thuvantii and Chatinify | 37 |

Tribute received in 1788, amounts to 4560 rubles. The circuit is about 6000 versts in circumference.

"The district of Giganisk, a town north of Yakutsk on the Lena, contains one church, two government houses, seven private ones, and 15 huts. It has a mayor (gorodnitsa/bib) and his chancery, and court of the district (leinshofud) and a magistracy, although the merchants are mere trading pedlars, and only two I think in number. Its circuit also is about 6000 versts from the Yana to the Anabara, which divides the governments of Tobolik and Irkutsk. The tributary nations are

| Nation | Population | |--------------|------------| | Yakuti | 1449 | | Tungoofe | 489 |

Tribute received in 1798, 56 fables, 262 foxes, and 1196 rubles in money.

"The Russians inhabiting both districts, including exiles, &c. do not exceed 750 males."

The Russian inhabitants of the better parts of Siberia, especially towards the west, employ themselves in Siberia, the cultivation of grain, or as graziers or carriers. They have an excellent breed of horned cattle, with which, as well as with butter, they supply both the northern and eastern districts of the empire. They are wealthy, hospitable, healthy, and clean, and live under no control of individuals, only paying a trifling sum to the captain of the district for government. The Siberians throughout are more industrious and independent than any Russian peasants, and live far more comfortably. They are making considerable progress in civilization, and this is perhaps, so far as the bulk of the people are concerned, the happiest part of that great empire.

We now return to the territory from which we set out, Grand Tartary, or the elevated level tract which tary, constitutes the central region of Asia. This high country possesses considerable variety of soil and appearance. Towards China is an immense desert forming the boundary of that empire. It consists of sands, that move with the winds like the current of a river. Nature has formed three passages across them by means of three chains of mountains, which, as in Arabia or Defert in Africa, are mixed with pleasant valleys amidst these deserts, and oceans of sand. Travellers who take any other course roads are apt to be overwhelmed with the torrents of sand, through which are equally dangerous as in the Arabian desert.

Vol. II, Part II. The first of these communications is in latitude 42° north, to the east-north-east of Pekin; the second to the east of the province of Shensi; and the third in latitude 32°, to the east of Hami, on the frontiers of Thibet. By these roads a safe access was given through the vast Tartarian regions, from the countries bordering on the Caspian sea, and more remotely from Europe itself, to caravans of merchants, who had no other way of carrying on commerce with China in the middle ages, before the invention of the mariner's compass, and the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, had laid open an easier mode of communication. It is not wonderful, that when travelling in these dreary solitudes, the imaginations of men should have been haunted and terrified by illusions. Accordingly, Marco Polo, a traveller in the middle ages who passed through the great desert, which he names the desert of Lop, says, that during the night, the caravans are terrified with the demons which haunt these horrid sands and dreadful deserts; the travellers must be careful how they stray, for they will imagine themselves called by their names by voices familiar to them, till they are brought to the edge of a precipice, and sometimes they will be entertained with aerial music. These romances reached Europe; and our poet, Milton, makes the lady in Comus, when benighted and bewildered on her way, to speak in the style of them.

"A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses."

Even these deserts, however, are not entirely destitute of inhabitants, as a few Tartars are found upon them, with their horses, asses, and mules.

The rest of this high region possesses a considerable variety of soil. In general, however, though it bears abundance of trees and grass, the climate is extremely severe. The summits of all the chains of mountains are covered with perpetual snow, which augments the cold of the adjoining plains. Even in the southern parts of it, in latitude 31° 39', within eight degrees of the burning Calcutta, the cold is frequently found to reach 29° below the freezing point, and this even within a dwelling house. The high country, as already mentioned, looks down from its different sides upon Persia, India, China, and Siberia, towards all which it is surrounded by steep precipices of difficult descent, which exclude its inhabitants from holding an easy intercourse with these regions. Southward, however, on the side of India, the mountains appear to be most precipitous, and the approach most difficult. Towards Siberia, on the north, it seems less so, and accordingly it is chiefly in that direction, or by the north-east or south-west, that the Tartars have in different ages approached China or Persia, and through them the northern regions of the Indies. The inhabitants of this lofty territory have in every age possessed the same character, and engaged in the same occupations. They have subsisted in a pastoral state, by means of their flocks and herds, and upon the flesh of such wild animals as they could obtain by the chase. They have, at the same time, been rude, and in general illiterate barbarians, possessing similar manners to the Siberian kindred, whom we have already described, the Tungusoffe, the Yakuti, and Burati. It is a singular circumstance, however, that in the southern part of this territory, called Thibet, a superstition should have established itself, which gives to an established priesthood the whole dominion of the state. What proves in a singular manner the influence of education upon mankind, is this, that the subjects of the lama, or high pontiff of the Tartars of Thibet, are no less warlike and unfit to defend themselves against invaders, than the subjects of the high-priest, who, in the regions of the west has so long occupied the capital of the Caesars. This corner, however, of Grand Tartary, must be regarded merely as an exception to the general character of the people, who have at all times displayed the greatest aptitude for military enterprises. From this high region the great conquerors of Asia have descended, and under the names of Moguls, Turks, or Tartars, have repeatedly overrun, and assumed complete dominion over the surrounding civilized nations.

The general history of the great continent of Asia (of the may be stated in a few words. When the civilized history of nations which occupy the coasts of it on the west, the Asia and its revolution, and the east, are well governed; when society is in a proper state, and its powers can be directed with skill and energy for the public protection, Grand Tartary becomes a place of little importance, or is merely regarded as a grazing territory fit for the breeding of cattle, which periodically are brought down to the great markets of the richer countries in which they are intended to be fattened and consumed. The Tartars themselves, divided into an immense multitude of tribes, are easily kept by the intrigues of their more artful neighbours in a state of constant domestic hostility, or they readily submit to the dominion, and engage in the service of the rulers of a better foil and climate, to which they are at all times willing to emigrate.

On the contrary, when the arrangements of society become defective in the surrounding nations; when public institutions are allowed to fall into decay, and when anarchy and weakness of government prevail, the Tartars gradually resume their independence. Being no longer either divided by the arts or overawed by the power of their neighbours, they acquire a contempt for their weakness, and an avidity to possess their riches. On such occasion, if an aspiring chief of a Tartar tribe is able by persuasion or by force to unite under his standard a few neighbouring tribes, he speedily becomes dangerous to the nations in his vicinity, and almost to the human race. By the booty obtained in some successful inroads, he acquires new associates; the hope of plunder brings his whole countrymen to his standard, and the few who are not led by hope, are compelled to follow and obey him through fear. All Tartary is soon in motion, and China, Persia, and India, are defoliated and subdued.

That this is a correct account or true theory of the history of Asia, is evident from its present and past state. At present, China, which has repeatedly been conquered by the Tartars, commands them with the greatest ease. The power of the Chinese emperor is uncontrolled in the country of Thibet, which he protects by his arms, and rules by mandarins, his deputies, ties. Almost the whole of the high region of Tartary westward to Imaus, which looks down upon the Caspian sea, and northward along the coast of the Amoor and the Baikal lake, acknowledges his authority. The same appears to have been the case during the third century of the Christian era, when a Chinese general, in the reign of Vou-ti-thi, first emperor of the seventh dynasty, marched as far as the Caspian. A single anecdote will sufficiently point out the authority which the Chinese possessed over Tartary at that period. Mamgo, a Tartar chief, whose horde frequented the skirts of China, having incurred the displeasure of the government of that country, retired with his followers to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor, the reigning emperor of Persia. The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise, that he would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the west; a punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile, and a large district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another, according to the different seasons of the year.—Between that period and the present, however, China has been repeatedly desolated by Tartar invasions, though it has always risen from its ruins, and resumed its ancient power and prosperity.

Thus Asia has been the scene of continual revolutions. At one period the Tartars have been divided and weak barbarians, destitute of arts and of power, and subject to the control of their civilized neighbours. These neighbours have at the same time been prosperous, commercial, and great. After the lapse of some time, however, the reverse of all this has taken place; the civilized nations have sunk into anarchy; Tartary has become strong; its ferocious tribes have united, and the enterprises resulting from their union have covered the earth with desolation and carnage. Thus the history of Asia has always proceeded in a circle; and it becomes the duty of the philosophical geographer to investigate the causes of this peculiarity, which has attended the human race in so great a portion of the globe. We shall here, therefore, endeavour first to point out those qualities in the character and manners of the Tartars, which have enabled them to vanquish the civilized nations of the earth from China to Germany, for so far their conquests have reached, as the Hungarians and the Turks originally descended from Grand Tartary, as well as the race of princes who now rule the great empire of China. We shall afterwards endeavour to explain the circumstances in the state of society among the eastern nations, which periodically reduce them to degeneracy and political weakness, and prevent their persevering in that career of civilization and of improvement, in which the nations of Europe are now so rapidly advancing, and to which the friends of humanity and of science, as yet, rather wish than hope a perpetual duration. If we are successful in our investigation of the causes of the revolutions now alluded to, the philosophy of general history will become extremely simple, and mankind will be enabled, from the experience of past ages, to distinguish the institutions which contain within themselves the seeds of decay and dissolution, from those which have a tendency to increase the energies of the human character, and to preserve upon the earth the dominion of civilization and of science over barbarism and ignorance.

We formerly remarked, that the human character is formed by its situation, or by the education which diversity of it receives. The education, however, of barbarians, or the situation in which they are placed, is almost entirely the result of their physical wants, and of the climate and soil which they inhabit: Hence their character is formed by these circumstances, and is the same in every age. On the contrary, the most remarkable circumstances in the situation and education of civilized men, and those which have the most powerful effect upon their character, arise not so much from the cold or heat of the region in which they are born, or from its comparative fertility or barrenness, as from the civil, religious, and political institutions which have been established in it, and the degree in which the human mind is habituated to the pursuits of an enlightened science, or accustomed to make exertions for the improvement of the various arts of life. Hence we shall find, that although the Tartars always resemble each other, yet in countries of equal fertility and of similar temperature, the Turks or Persians, and the Chinese and Indians, differ widely in consequence of the diversity of their institutions.

Though Grand Tartary, situated in the centre of Asia, and in contact with its great monarchies, is the place from which the revolutions of that continent have usually commenced, this high region must not be considered as the sole country of that barbarous race of people, usually called Tartars by the Europeans. We have seen, that kindred tribes inhabit the countries to the northward of China upon the river Amoor; they also occupy the whole length of the habitable part of Siberia, and proceed westward to the Caspian sea, and along the northern shores of the Black sea, to the mouth of the Danube. Thus they range over 110 degrees of longitude. When a movement, however, is once begun in Grand Tartary, it is apt to extend itself in a lesser or greater degree over the whole of these savage regions. Vanquished tribes are driven westward before their conquerors, and precipitated upon others, who in their turn are pressed upon the northern nations of Europe. At other times, the whole barbarous world submitting to the same matter, and gathering around his victorious standard, has been known to pour down upon the more wealthy and peaceful nations of the south. In this way were accomplished the great conquests of the Moguls and Tartars, the Turks, and the Huns. A Tartar chief has been known to number 1,500,000 followers in arms, and to make an expedition at the head of 500,000 horse. Zenghis Khan's army usually amounted to 800,000 barbarian cavalry, who trod down the nations in their progress.

Considered as a nation of shepherds and of warriors, the following circumstances have in all ages contributed to prepare the Tartar, or as they were anciently called the Scythian tribes, for a career of victory.

The corn or the rice which constitutes the ordinary food of a civilized people can be obtained only by the patient toil of the husbandman. Some of their food. of the savages who dwell between the tropics are plentifully supplied with vegetable food by the liberality of nature; but in the climates of the north, and in the fertile plains of Grand Tartary, a nation of shepherds is reduced to depend for subsistence upon their flocks and herds. When animal food is drafted in a certain way, the common association of carnivorous and cruel probably deserves to be considered in no other light than that of a humane prejudice; but if it be true that the sentiment of compassion is imperceptibly weakened by the sight and practice of domestic cruelty, we may observe, that the horrid objects which are disguised by the arts of European refinement, are exhibited in their naked and most disgusting simplicity in the tent of a Tartarian shepherd. The ox or the sheep are slaughtered by the same hand from which they were accustomed to receive their daily food; and the bleeding limbs are served, with very little preparation, on the table of their unfeeling murderers. In the military profession, and especially in the conduct of a numerous army, the exclusive use of animal food appears to be productive of the most solid advantages. Corn is a bulky and perishable commodity; and the large magazines which are indispensably necessary for the subsistence of our troops, must be slowly transported by the labour of men and horses. But the flocks and herds which accompany the march of the Tartars afford a sure and increasing supply of flesh, milk, &c. In the far greater part of the uncultivated waste the vegetation of the grass is quick and luxuriant; and there are few places so extremely barren that the hardy cattle of the north cannot find some tolerable pasture. The supply is multiplied and prolonged by the undistinguishing appetite and patient abstinence of the Tartars. They indifferently feed on the flesh of those animals that have been killed for the table or have died of disease. Horse flesh, which has in every age and country been proscribed by the civilized nations of Europe and Asia, they devour with peculiar greediness; and this singular taste facilitates the success of their military operations. The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed in their most distant and rapid incursions by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the speed or to satisfy the hunger of the barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty. When the forage round a camp of Tartars is almost consumed, they slaughter the greatest part of their cattle, and preserve the flesh, either smoked, or dried in the sun. On the sudden emergency of a hasty march, they provide themselves with a sufficient quantity of little balls of cheese, or rather of hard curd, which they occasionally dissolve in water, and this unsubstantial diet will support, for many days, the life and even the spirits of the patient warrior. But this extraordinary abstinence, which the stoic would approve, and the hermit might envy, is commonly succeeded by the most voracious indulgence of appetite. The wines of a happier climate are the most grateful present, or the most valuable commodity, that can be offered to the Tartars; and one of the most remarkable examples of their industry consists of the art, already mentioned, of extracting from mares milk a fermented liquor, which possesses some power of intoxication. Like the animals of prey, the savages, both of the old and new world, experience the alternate vicissitudes of famine and plenty, and their stomach is insured to sustain, without much inconvenience, the opposite extremes of hunger and of intemperance.

The nature of their habitations also prepares the Tartars for war. In a country in which agriculture is carried on, the husbandmen are scattered over the face of the soil, and some time must elapse before they can assemble in a body to defend their own confines, or to invade the territories of others. The progress of manufactures and commerce infallibly collects a large multitude within the walls of a city: but these citizens are no longer soldiers; the arts which adorn and improve the state of civil society, corrupt the habits of the military life. The pastoral manners of the Scythians seem to unite the different advantages of simplicity and refinement. The individuals of the same tribe are constantly assembled, but they are assembled in a camp; and the native spirit of these dauntless shepherds is animated by mutual support and emulation. The houses of the Tartars are no more than small tents, of an oval form, which afford a cold and dirty habitation for the promiscuous youth of both sexes. The palaces of the rich consist of wooden huts, of such a size that they may be conveniently fixed on large waggons, and drawn by a team perhaps of 20 or 30 oxen. The flocks and herds, after grazing all day in the adjacent pastures, retire on the approach of night within the protection of the camp. The necessity of preventing the most mischievous confusion in such a perpetual concourse of men and animals, must gradually introduce, in their distribution of the order and the guard of the encampment, the rudiments of the military art. As soon as the forage of a certain district is consumed, the tribe, or rather army of shepherds, makes a regular march to some fresh pastures; and thus acquires, in the ordinary occupations of the pastoral life, the practical knowledge of one of the most important and difficult operations of war. The choice of stations is regulated by the difference of seasons. In the summer the Tartars advance towards the north, and pitch their tents on the banks of a river, or at least in the neighbourhood of a running stream; but in the winter they return to the south, and shelter their camp, behind some convenient eminence, against the winds, which are chilled in their passage over the bleak and icy regions of Siberia. These manners are admirably adapted to diffuse, among the wandering tribes, the spirit of emigration and conquest. The connexion between the people and their territory is of so frail a texture, that it may be broken by the slightest accident. The camp, and not the soil, is the native country of the genuine Tartar. Within the precincts of that camp, his family, his companions, his property, are always included; and in the most distant marches, he is still surrounded by the objects which are dear or valuable, or familiar in his eyes. The thirst of rapine, the fear or the resentment of injury, the impatience of servitude, have, in every age, been sufficient causes to urge the tribes of Scythia boldly to advance into some unknown countries, where they might hope to find a more plentiful subsistence or a less formidable enemy. Even the severity of the climates which they inhabit facilitates their enterprises. In the winter season, the broad and rapid rivers that discharge their waters into the Euxine, the Caspian, or the Icy sea, are strongly frozen; the fields are are covered with a bed of snow; and the fugitive or victorious tribes may securely traverse with their families, their wagons, and their cattle, the smooth and hard surface of an immense plain.

The ordinary exercises of these people prepare them for war. The pastoral life, compared with the labours of agriculture and manufactures, is undoubtedly a life of idleness; and as the most honourable shepherds of the Tartar race devolve on their captives the domestic management of their cattle, their own leisure is seldom disturbed by any fervent and afflicting cares. But this leisure, instead of being devoted to the soft enjoyments of love and harmony, is usually spent in the violent and sanguinary exercise of the chase. The plains of Tartary are filled with a strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are usually trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant practice has seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life, to eat, drink, and even to sleep without dismounting from their steeds. They excel in the dexterous management of the lance; the long Tartar bow is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim, and irresistible force: these arrows are often pointed against the harmless animals of the desert, which increase and multiply in the absence of their most formidable enemy; the hare, the goat, the roebuck, the fallow-deer, the stag, the elk, and the antelope. The vigour and patience both of the men and horses are continually exercised by the fatigues of the chase; and the plentiful supply of game contributes to the subsistence and even luxury of a Tartar camp.

But the exploits of the hunters of Scythia are not confined to the destruction of innocent beasts; they boldly encounter the angry wild-boar when he turns against his pursuers, excite the sluggish courage of the bear, and provoke the fury of the tiger as he slumbers in the thicket. Where there is danger there may be glory; and the mode of hunting which opens the fairest field to the exertions of valour, may justly be considered as the image and as the school of war. The general hunting matches, the pride and delight of the Tartar princes, compose an instructive exercise for their numerous cavalry. A circle is drawn of many miles in circumference, to encompass the game of an extensive district; and the troops that form the circle regularly advance towards a common centre, where the captive animals, surrounded on every side, are abandoned to the darts of the hunters. In this march, which frequently continues many days, the cavalry are obliged to climb the hills, to swim the rivers, and to wind through the valleys, without interrupting the prescribed order of their gradual progress. They acquire the habit of directing their eye, and their steps, to a remote object; of preserving their intervals; of suspending or accelerating their pace, according to the motions of the troops on their right and left; and of watching and repeating the signals of their leaders. Their leaders study in this practical school the most important lesson of the military art; the prompt and accurate judgment of ground, of distance, and of time. To employ against a human enemy the same patience and valour, the same skill and discipline, is the only alteration which is required in real war; and the amusements of the chase serve as a prelude to the conquest of an empire.

The nature of their domestic government has at all times greatly favoured every attempt of the Tartars towards conquest. The political society of the ancient Germans has the appearance of a voluntary alliance of independent warriors. The tribes of Scythia, distinguished by the modern appellation of hordes, affluence, on the contrary, the form of a numerous and increasing family; which in the course of successive generations, has been propagated from the same original stock. The meanest and most ignorant of the Tartars preserve, with conscious pride, the inestimable treasure of their genealogy; and whatever distinctions of rank may have been introduced by the unequal distribution of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves and each other, as the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The custom, which still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful of the captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this extensive consanguinity is in a great measure legal and fictitious. But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the sanction of time and opinion, produces the effects of truth; the haughty barbarians yield a cheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and their chief, or murza, as the representative of their great father, exercises the authority of a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the original state of the pastoral world, each of the murzas (if we may continue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief of a large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar territories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual consent. When, by a coincidence of fortune and of talents, a successful chieftain contrived to unite under his command a great number of separate hordes, with a view to a common enterprise, he found, from their ordinary habits of obedience and subordination, an army ready formed and arranged for action: each tribe or horde followed its own chief, to whose authority it was accustomed to submit. If the chief was taught to obey, the obedience of his horde might, from the habits of the people, be safely relied on. Thus these barbarians have at all times been able to send forth detachments upon distant expeditions, which have acted with all the promptitude of a well disciplined military force, and enabled them at once to push their conquests towards the tropic and polar circle, the Chinese empire, and the banks of the Danube.

To these advantages the Tartar chiefs have sometimes added a portion of military skill, according to the taste in which it existed in the civilized nations in their quainted neighbourhood. It has been an usual practice among Chinese princes to receive into their pay some of the Tartar military arts, chiefs, and to use as soldiers considerable bodies of this brave and hardy race of men. These are employed as the cavalry of the Chinese armies, and become a convenient engine in the hands of an artful government, at once to keep Tartary itself in subjection, and to repel every attempt at rebellion among the Chinese themselves, when they at any time happen to become discontented, either in consequence of a corrupted and tyrannical administration, or of accidental famine, to which that over-peopled country is exposed. But these Tartar auxiliaries, or tools of power, have sometimes ultimately become very dangerous. When the Chinese princes, princes, trusting to the passiveness of their people, and to the irresistible force of their mercenary troops, have suffered themselves to sink into indolence, and to neglect the administration of affairs, the Tartar chiefs in their pay have sometimes learned to despise their feeble matters, and have turned against them the portion of military knowledge which they had acquired in the Chinese service, adding to it the whole vigour and ferocity which they derived from the habits of their early life. The most celebrated of the Tartar chiefs was the renowned Temujin, or Zinghis, who, in the 13th century of the Christian era, erected a monarchy among his pastoral countrymen, and, in his own person, or by his descendants, subdued the whole civilized nations of Asia. In his youth he was a vassal of the Chinese empire; he was led to invade it by a knowledge of its weakness and of the means of success, at a time when it was distracted by domestic faction, and left exposed in consequence of the revolt of 100,000 Khitans, who guarded the frontier. The conquest of the five northern provinces of that empire rendered him more dangerous to other nations. He marched westward, and attacked the flourishing and civilized empire of Carizme, which then existed to the eastward of the Caspian sea. After a battle, in which the sultan of Carizme lost 160,000 of his troops, that prince withdrew into his towns, in the hope of wearying out the barbarians by the length and difficulty of a number of regular sieges. But the foresight of Zinghis had formed a body of Chinese engineers, skilled in the mechanic arts, informed perhaps of the secret of gunpowder, and capable, under his discipline, of attacking a foreign country with more vigour and success than they had defended their own.

The Persian historians relate the sieges and reduction of Otrar, Cosend, Bochara, Samarcan, Carizme, Herat, Merou, Nifabour, Balch, and Candahar; and the conquest of the rich and populous countries of Transoxiana, Carizme, and Chorasan. From the Caspian to the Indus, the Tartars ruined a tract of many hundred miles, which was adorned with the habitations and labours of mankind; and five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years.

The right of hereditary succession to the sovereignty of a number of united hordes, together with the revenue, which, by their customs, the sovereign was entitled to levy, had a tendency to render them long formidable. Zinghis had originally been raised to power by the admiration of his equals, and the success of his enterprises, under the title of khan. The right of hereditary succession was long confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment all the khans who reign from the Crimea to the wall of China, represent themselves as the lineal descendants of the renowned Zinghis. But as it is the indispensible duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects into the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and some royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and valour, is entrusted with the sword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are levied on the tribes, to support the dignity of their national monarch, and of their peculiar chief; and each of those contributions amounts to the tythe, both of their property and of their spoil. A Tartar sovereign enjoys a tenth part of the wealth of his people; and as his own domestic riches of flocks and herds increase in a much larger proportion, he is able plentifully to maintain the rustic splendour of his court, to reward the most deserving or the most favoured of his followers, and to obtain, from the gentle influence of corruption, the obedience which might be sometimes refused to the stern mandates of authority. The manners of his subjects, accustomed, like himself, to blood and rapine, might excuse, in their eyes, such partial arts of tyranny as would excite the horror of a civilized people; but the power of a despot has never been acknowledged in the deserts of Scythia. The immediate jurisdiction of the khan is confined within the limits of his own tribe, and the exercise of his royal prerogative has been moderated by the ancient institution of a national council. The coronation, or diet, of the Tartars was long regularly held in the spring and autumn, in the midst of a plain, where the princes of the reigning family and the muras of the respective tribes may conveniently assemble on horseback, with their martial and numerous trains; and the ambitious monarch, who reviewed the strength, must consult the inclination of an armed people. Thus the rudiments of a feudal government may be discovered in the constitution of the Scythian or Tartar nations; and in all their conquests they have uniformly been disposed in some degree to retain some resemblance of this form of government, by distributing their new territory among their chiefs, to be ruled and divided among their followers in subordination to the head of the state.

One circumstance, however, has always been necessary to the success of Scythian or Tartar conquest, that of other neighbouring nations should be in a state of weakness. The Chinese and the Russians are at present the successors of the Tartars, who heretofore tyrannized over the world. The Chinese rule them partly by art and partly by force; and the Russians find that they are unable to resist the arts and the military skill of Europe. The population of China amounts to between 300,000,000 and 400,000,000. That of Hindoostan is equal to 100,000,000; and the ancient Persian empire was capable of pouring forth to the invasion of Europe, an army amounting, as it is said, to three millions of men. Such nations, possessed of superior arts and means of defence, could not upon their own territory have been vanquished by any number of barbarians that could unite against them, did not some defect exist in their character, or had they not been brought into a state of political weakness by some fault in their government. Such reasoning is natural to modern Europeans, who see the present state of the Tartars with just indifference, as by no means formidable to the peace of the world. It is confirmed by history and experience. We shall therefore proceed to consider the circumstances which have hitherto had a tendency to expose all the Asiatic states to conquest and to ruin.

One circumstance, which in most of the Asiatic states has a powerful tendency to produce a permanent inferiority of character in the people, and a constant tendency to anarchy and revolution in the government, arises from the imperfect state of domestic society. In all the countries of Asia that have adopted the Mahommedan religion, polygamy is authorized by law; that is to say, besides Arabia, in Turkey, Persia, and Hindoostan, which last contains 10,000,000 of Mahommedans. The same practice is also allowed in China, China, and it has always prevailed among the rude tribes of Tartars. It is probable, that this law upon the whole facilitates population. It divides between the rich and the poor more equally, that is, in a better proportion to their means, the expense of rearing the future generation, as rich men, who can afford to do so, will naturally be led to have a greater number of children. But at the same time, there can be no doubt that this law must have a powerful tendency to repress the intellectual improvement of the people. The rich in every country dictate the fashions of life; and by this institution a fashion is necessarily introduced of treating women with jealousy, and thus of excluding one half the species from the ordinary society of the other. Women thus shut up in retirement, must possess illiterate and unimproved characters; they must also be prevented in a great degree from carrying on any part of the common business of life. From these circumstances more evils will arise than are at first obvious. One half of society, instead of being useful, becomes a burden upon the industry of the other.

A secluded and unsocial mode of life is introduced, and as the human powers are best improved by the intercourse with society, a considerable difficulty is thrown in the way of the enlargement of our faculties. Besides this, it must happen, that the ignorance and imbecility of one half of the species will affect the other. An Asiatic retires from the management of his business, to the society of an unintelligent and weak being, who neither sees nor knows anything of the world or its affairs. In such society he must relinquish his reason and his rational faculties, before he can enjoy much satisfaction. In such society, however, he was educated during his first years, and a great part of his time must necessarily be spent. He cannot fly from it to the house of a friend, for no friend can receive him; and he can receive nobody freely into his dwelling, lest his female prisoners should be seen. This at least is the case with all those who live not in spacious mansions with a variety of apartments. In such a state of society, it is impossible that many men can acquire, or long preserve, much zeal for scientific pursuits, or that the improvement of literature and of ingenious arts can be very earnestly cultivated.

These effects of the law which regulates domestic society, appear even to the most careless observer of an Asiatic city. It occupies a large extent of territory, because every family excludes itself from the other. Every house is surrounded by a wall, and stands in an enclosed area: Each family thus fortifies itself as within a rampart against the intrusion of all neighbours. Hence it has happened, that no attempt has ever been made in the cities of Asia to establish a republican form of government, even when the people were driven to despair by the severest oppression. There exists not that rapid communication of sentiment, and that confidence in each other, which takes place where society is more intimately blended, and which leads men to repose such confidence in each other, as to believe that they can act under the mere authority of public passions or laws, without the intervention of a matter. The mode of erecting their dwellings also explains the wonderful stories, told us by the ancient writers, of the immense extent of Babylon and of Nineveh. It also accounts for the great tracts of territory, which in modern times are occupied by the Asiatic cities. This circumstance also has contributed more than anything else to expose them to the enterprises of invaders. The extent of their walls in proportion to the population they contain, rendered the defence of them difficult or impossible.

The law of polygamy has also had a very fatal effect upon the Asiatic governments, and has been one of the most ordinary means of introducing anarchy into them. The princes have very numerous families by different women. Each of the female favourites of the reigning monarch attempts to establish her own children in the most advantageous situations. Hence, the Asiatic courts are at all times occupied by an endless multitude of dangerous intrigues. Attempts are often successfully made to inspire an old man with jealousy of his eldest son, the apparent heir. The knowledge of reigning the existence of such attempts, or even of the possibility of their existence, and of the fatal effects which they may produce in a despotic government, disposes all the sons of the prince to watch the conduct both of him and of each other with the utmost jealousy: this jealousy is apt to burst out into open rebellion, and frequently does so. At all events, upon the death of an Asiatic monarch, his numerous sons, whose rivalry, hatred, and jealousy of each other, have hitherto been confined within decent bounds, openly break out into violence. A younger brother knows that he is hated by the elder, who is now become his master. In defiance of his own existence, therefore, he is compelled to have recourse to arms, and to obtain a crown or submit to destruction. In this way, the successor of an Asiatic prince has often to begin his reign by struggling against a considerable number of desperate rebellions, and must wade to the throne through the blood of his nearest kindred. As success does not always attend the arms of the elder brother, the law of primogeniture, being frequently violated, loses its importance and estimation in the eyes of the multitude. The royal family itself, covered as its members must be with parricides and crimes, cannot be greatly respected by the people, in whose eyes success and victory become, therefore, the only undoubted titles to obedience. Powerful subjects also, therefore, or enterprising military leaders, are frequently tempted to disregard the claims of the reigning family, and to appeal to the fortune of arms as a title to dominion. When successful, they find a people distracted by civil wars, and by the pretensions of different candidates, ready to acquiesce in any government that can bestow upon them a temporary repose.

Even should a reigning family escape these obvious calamities which lay waste the territories of a nation, produces and overthrow its prosperity by sanguinary civil contentions, there are evils by which the law of polygamy more gradually, though not more certainly, undermines the safety of the state. The founder of a new dynasty is usually an ambitious and artful military chief. His first successors, educated in an active reign, and anxious to secure their dubious authority, usually partake his talents and energy. Time, however, soon sanctifies their right to the throne, though originally founded in usurpation. The monarch now placed in security, indulges in that luxury to which he is tempted by his situation; and luxury, where the law law of polygamy exists, has more powerful and dangerous attractions, and is attended with more pernicious effects, than elsewhere. This kind of luxury, above all others, leads to an indolent life, and to the production of an ignorant and unintelligent character. The prince is led to shut himself up among a crowd of eunuchs and women, from whose society he can derive no improvement, and to whose councils and passions he is ultimately led to intrust the direction of the most important affairs of his government. The armies of the state are soon neglected, by a monarch, whose favourites employ every art to inspire him with a disgust of the toils of war, that he may the more easily be retained within the precincts of his palace, and under their management and influence. The provinces are subjected to the most ruinous exactions to gratify their avarice, and every place of public trust comes to be filled by men who undertake not to administer public affairs, but to extort large sums of money from the people, to be conveyed to the favourites that rule within the palace. Thus the state experiences a rapid decay of its population and resources; and if it is attacked from abroad, it has no head to call forth its remaining powers, and direct them with vigour and skill against an invader. The population that remains may still be sufficiently ample for the defence of its own territory, and abundance of personal courage may exist among the citizens; but they cannot be arranged, or their force rendered effectual, from the want of an active government. This appears to be precisely the situation of the Turks at the present moment: Their first princes, inhabiting the frontier of Europe and of Asia, exhibited, during a much longer period than is usual in the families of Asiatic monarchs, a very considerable degree of spirit and of exertion. But the law which authorizes them to live with a multitude of women, all of whose children are legitimate, gradually produces its natural effect. The latter princes have shut themselves up in their palace, and neglected the administration of affairs. The provinces have been wasted; and instead of the numerous people which they once contained, immense forests are rising over the whole territory, and becoming the habitation of wild beasts. The governors of the remoter provinces are aspiring to independence; anarchy prevails in different quarters; and a foreign conquest is only prevented by the jealousy of the neighbouring nations, who cannot agree to whose lot these fine countries shall fall. Yet at this day the Turks are a race of as stout and brave men as their Scythian forefathers. They are equally willing to fly to arms, and sufficient numbers still remain to set every enemy at defiance; but they are not led by those vigorous chiefs who conducted their ancestors from the foot of Imaus, refitted the power of Persia, seized the city of Constantine, and diffused terror over Europe. A man of talents only is wanting to render them still respectable, if not formidable; but their unusual respect for the descendants of so many illustrious princes, has hitherto prevented their government from being seized, and their nation preferred by a bold usurper; while, in the mean time, their sultan, lost in the indolence and voluptuousness of his effragio, and blinded by his favourites, refuses to come forth and to undertake the direction of the remaining armies of the state, or to place himself at the head of a warlike people.

This law of polygamy appears to be the single circumstance that has brought about the revolutions which have occurred in China. From the nature of the singular form of government established there, the human mind is indeed preserved in a state of perpetual imbecility, and is prevented from rising in improvement beyond a certain degree; this degree, however, it never fails to attain. It is sufficient to render the nation decidedly superior to their rude neighbours of Tartary; and as Chinese improvement can never advance far, there appears no good reason why it should ever decline or pass away. But the law of polygamy from time to time deranges all their institutions, and the regular march of their government. As they ascribe absolute power to their monarch, and their laws secure tranquillity to the state and complete obedience to his will, he can have no occasion to quarrel with his people, or to disturb institutions which give him the command of as much wealth as his wives can crave, and as much power as he personally can have any inclination to exert. Accordingly, for some time after a recent conquest, all goes well in China: the monarch is delighted with the submission and tranquillity of his people, the industry and prosperity of the country, and the immense revenue which is placed at his disposal, and which he can have no occasion to use otherwise than in works of public magnificence, generosity, or utility. Speedily, however, this peaceable state of things produces its natural effects. The monarch having nothing to fear, and little to do, resigns himself to pleasure; and that pleasure most probably consists in the kind of indulgence which the law allows and encourages, of collecting around him, and passing his time in the society of a multitude of beautiful women. Such, however, is the skilful structure of the Chinese government, that it proceeds and prospers without the interference of the prince, who is rather a useless name to prevent military usurpation than an active organ of the constitution. Affairs being in the hands of the most prudent men in the state, who have risen by approved fidelity and talents to the highest rank and trust, are conducted with abundance of care; and the responsibility of all inferior magistrates is enforced. Thus the emperor may be allowed to flatter with secure dignity in his palace: If he interfere not to do harm, the constitution of the state will provide for the management of public business and the prosperity of the people. But matters cannot long rest thus. A weak and ignorant prince, who passes his days secluded from the world, amidst eunuchs and women, will not comprehend the value of that constitution at the head of which he is placed; his favourites prevail with him to encroach upon its fundamental maxims; he is induced to distrust those officers who have risen by a gradual progress under the direction of the law to distinction and power, and to confer authority upon individuals to whom the constitution gives no title to receive it. As implicit obedience to magistrates, and above all to the emperor, is a fundamental maxim of Chinese jurisprudence, and inculcated as superior to all other duties, the will of the emperor meets with no resistance: The constitution trusts that he will not attempt to violate it; but but if he do so, it provides no other remedy than the prayers and entreaties of the highest order of mandarins, which they have been known to employ at the hazard of their lives, and even with the certainty of destruction. As the imperial will, therefore, can in no way be resisted or controlled, when an emperor relinquishes himself to the dominion of the inmates of his palace, the consequences speedily occur which we have already mentioned as resulting from the law of polygamy in other countries. The defence of the state is disregarded; worthless men are raised to the command of armies and provinces; corruption becomes the means of obtaining preferment: The Tartar subjects find out the important secret, that the reins of government are loosely held, that the barriers which protect the treasures of a wealthy nation have fallen into decay, and that these treasures have come to be at the mercy of poverty and courage. Some chief endeavours to unite the shepherds of the west and the north in a common enterprise: His first efforts procure him plunder, if not dominion, and the prospect of his riches procures him new adherents, till at last the hardy cavalry of Scythia are enabled to disperse the feeble and ill-conducted armies of the Chinese; and their leader and his family, seated on the throne of a mighty empire, is gradually led, by similar circumstances, to proceed in the same career, from strength and activity, to weakness, degeneracy, and ruin. The constitution of China, indeed, triumphs over these calamities. The Tartars admire the arts and manners of the vanquished people; and the conqueror is willing to revive and preserve a constitution which preserves the prosperity of the people, while it submits every thing to the will of their master. Had the laws of that empire provided, as in Europe, that the inheritance both of public and private individuals should only pass to their legitimate children by one woman, China might undoubtedly have avoided many of its revolutions. Its princes might have been men of talents or otherwise, according to the ordinary vicissitudes that in the course of nature occur in families; but the possession of talents by the prince is not necessary to the good government of China: it is enough that he interfere not to do positive mischief, and under such a law, every temptation to do mischief would be removed from him.

Another cause of periodical weaknesses in Asiatic nations arises from the general form of government that has been there adopted. Excepting in China, the Tartars have in all their conquests been led to establish themselves under a form of feudal arrangement. In their native country, they were divided and subdivided into tribes and families, under a chief who had led them forth to war and conquest. In their new territories, it was natural for the chief to reward his successful officers with grants of provinces, which they were again to subdivide among their followers, under condition of remaining in subjection to himself, and of being ready on all occasions to attend him in war. These grants, however, were only bestowed upon individuals personally who received them: They were given as the price or pay of military service: They might be recalled at will, like the commission of an officer; and they were never meant to go to the heirs of the favoured chief, though undoubtedly in equal circumstances his heirs would be preferred to others. A government like this is exposed to two kinds of disorders; the one, arising from exorbitant power acquired by the great vassals; and the other, arising from the too great despoticism of the prince.

Under a monarch of great activity and vigilance, the chief vassals of the state, who have received large grants of territory, may be retained in sufficient subjection. He may summon them and their followers frequently to attend his person; and by engaging them in wars under him, may preserve his personal ascendancy over them, by having frequent occasion to change their situations, and to prefer others to the places they occupy. Should his immediate successors, however, not be men of equal talents with himself, or vermin should a disputed succession occur, the greater chiefs apt to be will immediately aspire to independence: the empire anon cratic will fall to pieces, and degenerate into a hereditary aristocracy, in which every chief is engaged in hostility with his neighbours, and in which the people at large, opprested by a multitude of petty tyrants, can enjoy no repose or prosperity. Such has been the destiny of several of the nations of Asia; and it was also the destiny of Europe after its conquest by the northern barbarians. It is true that the European princes gradually recovered the power that had been wrested from them, and converted into local inheritances by their great nobles. To subdue these nobles, they associated themselves with the populace, with the few merchants, and the industrious part of the nation. They encouraged these people to unite themselves into communities, and to fortify themselves with walls. They established courts of justice, whose regular and equitable procedure gained the affection of the weak, whom they protected, and brought odium upon the violence and despotism of the petty local tyrants of the country. The commercial and industrious part of the community were induced to contribute to the support of the prince, who seemed thus to labour only for their welfare, and to protect them against oppression. By this wealth he was enabled to confirm his power, and to subdue his refractory vassals. By following out these prudent maxims for a few generations, the dominion of law and order, along with the power of the sovereign, were established in the nations of Europe. But nothing of all this can occur in Asia. Power may there be acquired by the violence of sudden conquest, but it cannot be gained by a train of artful policy steadily pursued from father to son during a course of several generations. In consequence, as already mentioned, of the law of polygamy, no sooner does a prince die than one of two things occurs; either a war for the succession ensues among his children by different wives, which consumes the wealth of the people, and augments the power of the nobles, upon whom the candidates for dominion must rely for aid; or, to prevent this calamity, the eldest son of the deceased monarch seizes his younger brothers, and puts out their eyes, or destroys their lives. Thus an example of cruelty and injustice is exhibited, which destroys in the minds of the people every growing sentiment favourable to the establishment of order, and of humane and equitable laws.

On the other hand, it has frequently happened in Asia that the power of the monarch has not been lost even by its vassals converting different districts into hereditary possessions. A succession during a few generations of active and warlike princes has given leisure for the chiefs of the Tartar tribes to acquire the manners of the nations whom they vanquished, and to sink, like them, into a state of permanent subjection to a sovereign, become too powerful to be resisted. In this case, however, an error exists in the general structure of Asiatic governments, which gradually brings them to decay. The monarch divides his territory into provinces, and over each province he places a governor, or viceroy, whom he appoints and recalls at pleasure. The governor of a province possesses within it the whole power of the master whom he represents; he collects the taxes, and remits them to the capital; he administers justice by himself, or by deputies whom he appoints and removes at pleasure; and lastly, he commands within his district the armies of the state. On a little reflection it will readily be conceived, that a nation governed in this way cannot permanently prosper. An absolute monarch can scarcely fail to be patriotic, because the whole country is his own, and he must regard his people as his property, or as a kind of appendage to his family. He will therefore intend to govern them well, or as advantageously as possible. But the governors whom he places over the provinces must entertain very different sentiments: The state is not their inheritance; they are appointed only for a season; and like tenants at will, they will endeavour to make the most of their temporary possession, though they diminish the permanent value of the estate. Hence these men are always apt to govern ill; and, with a view to make the most of their time and opportunity, they oppress the people by their rapacity. The monarch has no intention to sanction their conduct, but there exists no other means of restraining it than to maintain a perpetual and vigilant inspection over them. If he is not constantly at short intervals travelling into every part of his dominions, and viewing objects with his own eyes, the governors of provinces will take advantage of their situation, to oppress the people, and will endeavour to secure their own safety by corrupting the ministers who are near the person of the prince.

In a government thus constituted, too much is made to depend upon the activity and vigilance of one man. If the monarch relax in his attention, the state at once begins to decay; and even his personal infirmities, his youth, or his old age, produce important effects upon the provinces. When a weak prince happens to succeed to the throne, the decline of the empire becomes visible in a few years; and the most active reign scarcely suffices to repair the injuries which a short period of weak government has occasioned. All these evils are aggravated in Asia by the tendency which the law of polygamy has to introduce into the palace of the monarch a system of seclusion from business, of indolence, and of favouritism.

In the ancient Roman empire this practice was adopted of ruling the provinces by temporary governors possessed of unlimited power, and was attended with all the bad consequences which we have here described. From its first establishment, that empire, like an Asiatic monarchy, underwent a gradual progress of decay; and instead of the people becoming gradually more powerful, wealthy, and enlightened, every science and every art, together with the population of the state, declined, till the whole was oppressed and sunk under the inroads of the northern barbarians. It is a curious circumstance, and well worthy of all our attention, that the progress of modern Europe is altogether the reverse of this. In Asia a monarchy is no sooner established than its decline commences, and it gradually becomes weaker and weaker, till, in the course of a few centuries, its overthrow is easily accomplished: whereas in Europe, for some centuries past, every state or monarchy of any tolerable extent, has gradually been decaying waxing stronger and stronger, and is capable of greater exertions in proportion to the time that it has stood.

Such, at least, is the case, with regard to the middle and northern states of Europe. The mode in which the government is administered will explain this, when contrasted with that which is adopted in most of the Asiatic states, and which existed in the Roman empire. In Europe the sovereign does not intrust the whole government and administration of affairs in a province to an individual, who is at once to be tax-gatherer, judge, and commander of the military force. On the contrary, instead of portioning out the whole territory of the state in provinces, to be allotted to particular viceroys, a more artificial arrangement is adopted. The business to be done is divided into different branches, and these branches, though sometimes extending over the whole territory, are intrusted by the sovereign to distinct individuals or classes of individuals. Thus an office or office is established near the person of the prince, into which the whole taxes of the nation are ultimately paid. Under this office, or its managing minister, a variety of tax-gatherers are sent throughout the whole country, to collect in the different towns and districts the taxes established by law, and to remit them to the government. These tax-gatherers have no interference in military affairs or in the administration of justice. In like manner, a particular class of persons, properly qualified for the duty to be performed, are appointed to administer justice in the provinces, and to interfere no farther in public affairs. No part of the revenue comes into their hands, and they have no command of the military force of the state. Lastly, the whole military or soldiers likewise form a separate and distinct body. Their officers are all appointed by the prince and his ministers, upon whom they immediately depend, and they have no concern in the collection of the taxes, or in the administration of justice. Under a government thus constituted, if a tax-gatherer make an unjust exaction from any of the people, they complain to the judges, who, having no share in the management of the public revenue, and deriving no profit from the oppressions that may be committed in it, are disposed to listen to all complaints, and to do justice against the collectors of the taxes. The judges themselves are kept under control in a similar way. Not being commanders of the military force, or entrusted with the direction of its operations, they can only pronounce decrees, but have no power to execute them. This must be performed by the military, who are a distinct body. They, however, will have no inclination to see the power of judges and lawyers exorbitantly increased, and will revolt from the idea of putting in force decrees which are notoriously unjust, and of which the public disapprove. Thus the people will, in every respect, be assured of protection. The judges will protect them against the tax-gatherers. gatherers and the military, who, in their turn, will regard with jealousy the power of the judges. In this way a just and equitable government is maintained. Access is easily had to the prince, who can have no wish to see affairs ill administered. A great nation is governed like a single family, by allowing different duties to its different members, who are prevented from abusing their power. Industry is encouraged by the security of property; and the human mind, unfettered by oppression, and animated by hope, is led to exert its whole energies in improving its own character and condition. Whereas in Asia, and in all those countries in which governors of provinces are appointed with absolute power to conduct the whole business of administration, every province is converted into a separate empire, in which no redress can be obtained for any grievance. If a tax-gatherer makes an undue demand, the citizen can only state his complaint to the employer of that tax-gatherer, the provincial-governor, who is to receive the money that is to be paid. If a soldier does wrong, he can only be complained of to the same governor who is the master and patron of the soldier. If a judge is unjust, it is still to the same individual that the complaint must be carried. Thus no check or control exists; and if the governor of the province is rapacious and unjust, and has need of unprincipled dependents to support his power, the people must submit to an oppression for which there is no remedy; and the whole state, thus divided into departments and oppressed, must speedily sink into ruin. Commerce cannot flourish where the fruits of industry are not secure; and without commerce those arts cannot prosper, the practice and improvement of which afford some of the best means of enlarging the human faculties."

In many parts of Asia, religion is also a great source of national weakness. This arises from two causes; either from its dividing a state into different parties, or from its doctrines being of such a nature as to restrain in too great a degree the activity and improvement of the human mind.

Before the Turks subdued the Greek empire, they had been long enough settled in the countries near the Caspian sea, to acquire the religion of a more civilized people. By the time they subdued the country round Constantinople, and at last the capital itself, they were become zealous Mahometans; whilst the nation over whom they established their dominion, consisted of no less zealous Christians. Hence a line of separation was drawn between the conquerors and the conquered, which time has not been able to obliterate. One half of the state consists of masters, and the other of oppressed people. In other nations the evils of conquest have been temporary, because in a short time the victors and the vanquished, mingling in the ties of affinity and hence of consanguinity, have ceased to be distinguished from each other, and have coalesced into one common people. But in Turkey, to this day, the proud invader is known from the vanquished native. Their respective religions have fixed upon each of them a mark, which has proved as indelible as that by which, in our West India islands, nature distinguishes the negro slave from his European master. Hence the Turks continue to act the part of insolent oppressors to their subjects, the Greeks; while the latter, accustomed to insults and to a sense of inferiority, have acquired the characteristics of slaves, insincerity and cowardice. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the Turkish empire should decay. It not only labours under all the evils attending upon the law of polygamy, and of a government by viceroys called pachas; but to these have been added an internal division among the people, which degrades the character of one half of the nation, without conferring any improvement upon the other. The same evil has existed during many centuries in Hindoostan. Before the conquest of it by the Mogul or Tartar princes, they had also embraced the Mahometan faith. Their new subjects, however, the Hindoos, adhered to the religion of their ancestors, with still more obstinacy than the Greek Christians have done against the Turks, and the result has been similar. The Mahometan conquerors, with all the advantages on their side, of victory, of public employment, and royal favour, never amounted to above one-tenth of the population of the country. The great body of the people, therefore, necessarily sunk into a contemptible and degraded condition, which impaired the national strength, and retained society in a violent and unnatural state in which it could not flourish.

We can scarcely consider as religious systems the hurtful superstitions of the Siberians and Tartars, or other rude Asiatic tribes. Leaving them out of view, therefore, the religions of Asia are chiefly three: that of Budho, Gaudma, or Fo, which prevails in Ceylon, the farther peninsula of India, China, Japan, and Thibet; the Mahometan religion, which, besides Arabia, is in possession of Turkey, Persia, and partly of Hindoostan; and, lastly, the Gentoo faith, which is adhered to by ninety millions of people in India. Of these, religion of the religion of Budho, Gaudma, or Fo, seems the Budho, least pernicious. It is loaded with few ceremonies, so that it cannot greatly occupy the human mind. It is perfectly tolerant, and thus does not positively prohibit intellectual improvement; and its priests are men who voluntarily choose their profession, and, excepting in the sterile country of Thibet, have no interference in the ordinary business of life, and no share in the administration of public affairs. All error is, however, injurious to the human intellect, by diminishing its power of discerning truth. Even independent of this general circumstance, the religion of Gaudma has been dangerous in another point of view. It has a book which is of sacred authority, and believed to be the work of inspiration. That book is said to regulate minutely the ordinary affairs of life; the taxes to be paid to the state, and what ought to be accounted just and unjust in the common transactions of men: But an infallible law for the regulation of ordinary affairs is always a great evil, as it renders error and ill government perpetual. Such a book, at the time when it was written, might perhaps be a useful work, and contain many valuable maxims and rules for adjusting all kinds of business, and for the decision of all disputes; but human affairs, to proceed well, must be in a state of improvement, that is, in a state of change to what is better: But such a book has a tendency to oblige the nation that adopts it to stand still, and consequently to fall behind other nations. Hence they have all the chances chances of falling back into barbarism that affect other nations, while there exists no possibility of their advancing farther in improvement.

The Mahometan law has this speculative advantage over that of Gaudma or Budho, that it suffers not the supreme Intelligence to be likened to a stock or a stone; but its practical character is much more injurious to the world. It not only has an infallible book, which in the countries where it is adopted is regarded as the law of the land for regulating the decision of controverted causes in all courts of justice, but enjoins to its followers the observance of a number of daily ceremonies, consisting of prayers and washings at stated intervals, which tend to fix down superstition upon the human mind. In addition to these, its extreme intolerance has a tendency to render the intellectual improvement of the people that have once adopted it extremely difficult, while the sanction that it gives to the law of polygamy, at once places private society on a defective footing, and ensures the bad government of the state.

The most pernicious of all the religions of Asia, however, appears to be the Gentoo superstition, or the religion of the natives of Hindoostan. It does not indeed authorize polygamy, nor does it sanction the persecution of those who believe in other religions; but in every other respect, it is most evidently ruinous to the vigour of the human character. It fills the mind with all the idle tales and superstitions of an absurd polytheism. It enjoins an endless variety of rites and purifications; and under its influence a morsel of bread cannot be eaten, or a cup of water tasted, without the utmost caution, that it have not come into contact with impure hands or impure vessels. The division of the people into hereditary castes, of different degrees of dignity according to their respective employments, none of which castes can intermarry, or even eat or drink together, completely inflates every caste of inhabitants; and by fixing them down to hereditary occupations, prevents every exertion of talents beyond the sphere in which individuals happen to be born. Religion, or superstitious fear of offending against the rules of his caste, constantly occupies and absorbs the whole mind and faculties of a Hindoo, so utterly to deprive him of intellectual vigour or courage to investigate the foundations of the notions which place under control every step of his life. A people thus divided can possess little united strength or energy as a nation, and the feebleness even of their bodily exertions may well suggest the question, Whether superstitious fear and intellectual imbecility fixed down upon a people during a course of ages, has not a tendency to diminish the corporeal powers, and to render the body as feeble as the mind? In justice to the religion of the Hindoos, however, it may be observed, that if it prevent the nation from acquiring great power, it also guards its civilization, or the arts that it possesses, from being entirely lost in consequence of conquests by barbarians. Every Hindoo being bound by his religion to follow the occupation of his father, if a whole caste is not utterly exterminated, the arts which were understood by its members cannot be lost. They are immediately practised anew; they come to be in request, and the caste is employed by society, and multiplied as before.

That we may not appear, however, from a love of system, altogether to deny the effect of physical causes upon the history of the civilized nations of Asia, we shall acknowledge, that the fertility of the soil in these countries in all probability affects the tendency to negligence of management which appears in their go-civilized governments. In the more barren regions of Europe, it is absolutely necessary that a government act with a considerable degree of caution, and administer justice well, to enable a nation to attain to any tolerable share of power or prosperity. With us, man has many imperious wants, which must be supplied before an individual can contribute anything to the public. He must at least have food, which can only be extorted from an ungrateful soil by patient and skilful industry. He must also have clothes and fuel. The fertility of the Asiatic soil enables man to obtain food with less labour than in Europe, while the mildness of the climate subjects him to little expense on account of fuel and clothing. Hence in these countries a much less degree of industry is necessary for the support of individuals, and to enable them to contribute something towards the public revenue. Governments, therefore, are not so soon brought under the necessity of repairing their own errors. Abuses are more readily allowed to multiply, and at last can be got quit of with greater difficulty. Add to this, that in a country whose inhabitants could not originally subsist without the exertion of much industry, a more vigorous character is apt to diffuse itself among the people, than in those nations upon whom, in their rude state, the slightest effort of labour conferred abundance, and who have only come to find good management and industry requisite, in consequence of the great multiplication of their numbers.

Besides the revolutions occasioned by Tartar invasions, several of the nations of Asia experienced a conquest, great revolution from the arms of another barbarous race of men, the inhabitants of the peninsula of Arabia. Similar causes to those which have repeatedly given victory to the Tartars, enabled the Arabians to vanquish the neighbouring nations. They also exist in a pastoral state, and are divided into tribes or families. The Arabians, however, have not been accustomed to conquer like the Tartars. Arabia is of trifling extent, when compared to Tartary and its dependencies; its strength being less, it is less likely to be engaged in distant enterprises. Unlike to Tartary, it has always possessed some cities, and a part of the people have connected themselves with the arts and the commerce of the civilized nations around them. Hence something more was necessary to rouse the Arabian nation, and to unite its members in one common enterprise, than the mere love of dominion. The Arabs became conquerors, only because Mahomet was successful in rendering them fanatics; and they subdued the earth, not so much from a desire to possess its riches and its luxuries, as from a zeal to extend the glory of God, and to give the means of salvation to mankind. When their religion had prevailed in all directions, and other nations adopted the same spirit and cause, the Arabians relapsed into their original unimportance, and ceased to be dangerous to the peace of the world.

Of late some of the nations of Asia have undergone subjugation, subjugation, and others have been threatened with it, not from the ordinary quarter of Tartary, or from any other race of barbarians, but from the enterprizes of the civilized nations of Europe. This new peril has originated from several causes. The discovery of the mariners compass, and the improvements which have occurred in navigation, have brought the nations of Asia, as it were, nearer to those of this north-west corner of the globe, and exposed them in a greater degree to their attacks. The nations of Europe, also from their better government, and from a religion which prohibits polygamy, and which, at least in the protestant states, interferes little in the affairs of this world, and confers no dominion upon its priests, have of late been enabled to make a more rapid progress in the improvement of every art, than was ever formerly done, and among the rest they have improved the terrible art of war. In the mean time, the civilized nations of Asia have been either standing still as usual, satisfied with their allotted measure of intelligence, or they have been going backward. Thus the relative strength of these two quarters of the world has been greatly altered, and should any remarkable additional improvement in the art of navigation be soon made, it is probable that all Asia will be enslaved by European nations. Should such an event take place, its first consequences will probably prove unfortunate. Europe will be corrupted, while Asia will not be reformed. Its imperfect governments, however, and its false religions, will be broken up. The superiority of the human character in European countries is so great, and the population of North America is increasing so rapidly, carrying the pursuits of science and the practice of the arts in its train, that there is little doubt the race of Europe must in a few centuries obtain the dominion of the earth. A new era, therefore, is commencing for Asia, the events of which cannot be foreseen. From the short review, however, which we have taken of that great continent, we perceive, and we perceive with satisfaction, that the most beautiful regions of this globe are by no means unfit, as was supposed, for the production of a vigorous and active race of men. The Hindoo is timid and feeble; but it is not his climate which renders him so. In the same climate with Hindoostan, and scarcely divided from it, a vigorous race of men has been found to exist, forming a rising people, eager to emulate the career of civilized and powerful nations. It is the religion of the Hindoo, therefore, that is the cause of his weakness, as the government of China is the cause of the stationary character of its people. Were these causes of feebleness removed, and above all were the art of printing diffused, the nations of the earth would probably by degrees approach nearer to a similarity of mind and talents, than they have hitherto been accounted capable of doing. Even Siberia itself, by the great tracts of fertile land which attention to its inland navigation is capable of laying open, may one day contribute to the general stock of human power and riches. It ought never to be forgotten that this globe is given as a valuable domain or possession to the human race, only in proportion to the degree in which they subdue its native wilderness or sterility; and it becomes a fit and salubrious habitation for them, according to the degree in which it is improved by cultivation. The rein-deer once wandered in the forests of Germany. It cannot now live upon the shores of the Baltic, and is forced to seek a region sufficiently cold for its constitution, within the polar circle and in the neighbourhood of the Icy sea. The progress of civilization and of agriculture have accomplished this change in the climate of the north of Europe, and the descendants of Europeans may probably accomplish still greater alterations upon the north of Asia.