This division of the globe is distinguished by its vast extent; by the striking character of its interior geography; above all by the stupendous revolutions of which it has been the scene; and, lastly, by the high antiquity of its civilization, of which we can still faintly trace the precious remains. Stretching from the southern hemisphere into the northern regions of perpetual winter, it comprises within its bounds the opposite extremes of heat and cold; all the varieties consequently of the animal and vegetable tribes; and that still more interesting variety which the irresistible law of climate impresses on the human species. The surface of Asia, towering to its height far above the regions of perpetual snow, presents, when superficially examined, a confused mass of lofty mountains, diverging into an endless variety of inferior ridges, apparently without plan or system. But a more attentive survey discloses, amid the bold irregularities of nature, the same order and unity of design in the structure of this great continent, as in all the other works of creation.

Asia was the earliest abode of the human race; and, when all the other parts of the world were either uninhabited or sunk in barbarism, it was the seat of great empires and of flourishing and splendid cities, of commerce, of literature, and of all the arts of civilized life. But its early prosperity was blighted by the ruthless devastations of war; its populous cities were utterly destroyed, so that the spot on which many of them stood is now only marked by masses of ruins; their arts and literature have perished; and in such fragments of their writing as still survive, all meaning is buried under the impenetrable veil of an ancient and unknown character. In touching on the various topics which are comprehended under the designation of Asia, it must be remembered that in the following article we are to confine our attention to such general views of its geography, history, institutions, policy, and manners, as will not supersede a more particular description of its various states under their respective designations.

The name of Asia was at first applied by Homer and others of the ancient poets and historians to a small district of Lydia, occupied by a tribe called Asiones, who inhabited a city of the name of Asia. The Greeks, gradually enlarging their discoveries in those eastern countries, still retained the original name, until it embraced the whole of Asia Minor and the countries to the east; and it was at last applied to all the vast regions which subsequent discoveries have brought to light.

The limits of Asia are in some cases marked out by nature, and admit of no dispute; in other parts they are not very clearly defined, and have been differently settled by geographers, according to their own notions of propriety or distinctness. The modern innovation or improvement of erecting the Indian Archipelago and the numerous islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean into a fifth division of the globe, under the title of Australasia, has given rise to some difficulties in fixing the limits of the continent on the south-east. According to some, the Philippines, the Moluccas, the Celebes, Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, should still be included within the boundaries of Asia, leaving on the east the islands of Papun and New Holland to form the western limits of Australasia. Others, however, are for giving the whole Indian Archipelago to Australasia, on the ground that there can be no possible reason for detaching the Philippines and the other islands from the chain of which they evidently form a part, and assigning them to Asia; that they form one entire mass, which presents no natural point of separation; and that on this account the passage between the Philippine Islands and Formosa, and the Straits of Malacca constitutes the most natural boundary of Asia on the east. According to this division, all the islands to the east and south of this line, as far as New Zealand and the Society Islands, would belong to Australasia, the continent of which, or the principal mass of land, would be formed by the immense island of New Holland. But this division, simple and distinct though it may appear, has not been generally adopted by geographers, who have assigned for the western boundary of Asia a line passing from Kerguelen's Land to the north-east, cutting off on the west the islands of Timorlaut, Ceram, Mysol, and Salwatty, and on the east the island of Papun or New Guinea, and stopping at the 132d degree of east longitude, at the equator; thus giving to Asia the fertile islands of Sumatra and Java, the great island of Borneo, Amboyna and the Spice Islands, the Celebes Islands, and to the north of the equator the Philippines, the Pelew Isles, the Carolinas, the Ladrones, the isles of Japan, the Kurile Isles, and, beyond the latitude of 50 degrees, the Aleutian or Fox Islands. The other boundaries of Asia are, on the south the Indian Ocean, and on the south-west the Straits of Babelmandib and the Red Sea, separating it from Africa, with which its only point of junction is by the Isthmus of Suez. Asia is divided from Europe towards the west by the Mediterranean, the Archipelago, the Straits of the Dardanelles and of Constantinople, the Black Sea, the Straits of Caffa, and the Sea of Azof. Here this natural boundary ceases; and from the Straits of Caffa to those of Waigatz in the Northern Ocean different boundaries have been assumed. Some will have the ancient Tanis, now the Don, to be the natural boundary between the two continents of Europe and Asia. But besides that the Don has too winding a course for this purpose, it soon terminates, and we are then left to find our way to the Northern Ocean by an arbitrary line, which has accordingly been sometimes traced as the western limit of Asia from the mouth of the Don to that of the Dwina in the White Sea. But in all cases a natural is to be preferred to an artificial boundary; and the line which leaves the smallest space to be filled up by the fancy of geographers is surely the best. On this ground the Uralian Mountains, which stretch from the 50th degree of north latitude in a northern direction, to the sea of Kara in the Arctic Ocean, constitute a strongly marked boundary between Northern Asia and Europe; and in order to avail ourselves of this boundary, we must approach the Caspian from the Black Sea; and here, therefore, the line of separation between Asia and Europe will run eastward along the rivers Manitch and Kuma, the first flowing by a westerly course into the north-eastern angle of the sea of Azof, and the second eastward into the Caspian. From the mouth of the Kuma the Caspian Sea will mark the frontier of Asia to the mouth of the river Ural, which, along with the Ural Mountains, will complete the western boundary as far as the Straits of Waigat. From these straits the Frozen Ocean, of which very little is known, bounds the northern shores of Asia to Behring's Straits, which separate the Asiatic from the American continent. From Behring's Straits the Pacific Ocean extends along the eastern shores of Asia to the Straits of Malacca.

Asia contains a larger area than any of the other divisions of the globe. Europe is estimated to be 2000 miles in breadth, and nearly 3000 in length; Africa about 4300 miles by 4140; and America about 10,000 miles by the average breadth of 2000. The length of the Asiatic continent, taken obliquely from the Isthmus of Suez to Behring's Straits, is about 7370 miles; and its breadth from north to south, from Cape Comorin in India to Cape Taimura in Siberia, is about 4230 miles. Under the 80th parallel, from Suez to Nanking, its length is less than 6000 miles; from the Straits of the Dardanelles to Cova it is 6000 miles; and under the polar circle it is about 4230 miles. Asia is not of the same irregular form as America, nor is it, like that continent, broken into two natural divisions of North and South. It forms, like Europe and Africa, one continuous mass of solid continent. It is surrounded on all sides except the west by the sea; and, by the provident economy of nature, it has on this side, for half its length, the two great navigable inlets of the Red Sea, which for the space of 1400 miles divides Arabia from Egypt and Abyssinia; and of the Mediterranean, which, penetrating into the land from the west to the depth of nearly 2000 miles, and skirting the whole extent of the European and African shores, gives to Asia a sea-coast of nearly 1500 miles in extent, and secures a navigable communication on this side with the Atlantic Ocean, as well as with Africa and Europe. The northern shores of Asia are occasionally irregular and broken, and indented with some deep inlets, which it is useless to enumerate, as they can never, in those frozen regions, be subservient to the purposes of commerce. On the eastern shore there is the sea of Ochotsk, in breadth between 300 and 400 miles, inclosed on the east by the peninsula of Kamtschatka, projecting southward to a great length, and running out into the Kurile Islands; and on the west by the shores of Siberia, part of Chinese Tartary, and the island of Saghalien. The islands of Japan, which commence where the Kurile Islands terminate, stretch along the shore for above 600 miles, and inclose between them and the coast of Chinese Tartary the Sea of Japan. These islands are succeeded as we advance southward by the Loochoo and other islands by the large island of Formosa, and finally by the Philippines, Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and other groups of the Indian Archipelago. Between the islands of Japan and the coast of Corea, which shoots out southward, is the Strait of Corea, 60 miles in breadth; and between the coast of Corea on the east and the Chinese shore on the other, is inclosed the Yellow Sea, which penetrates northward into the land, and forms a deep inlet, which is of great utility to the commerce and navigation of the northern provinces of China. The southern shore of Asia, from Cambodia to the Red Sea, presents an immense waving line, the ocean and the land alternately encroaching on each other, and forming immense bays and gulfs, and peninsulated tracts of land. Thus, on the eastern extremity, the Gulf of Siam is formed by the kingdom of Cambodia on the one side, and on the other by the peninsula of Malacca, the most southern point of Asia; and westward of this peninsula the Indian Ocean, advancing northward, forms the Bay of Bengal, bounded on the east and west by the two great Indian peninsulas. The same Indian Ocean makes another deep inroad into the land, between Arabia on the west and Hindostan on the east; and towards the north-western frontier of Hindostan it forms the two smaller gulfs of Cutch and of Cambay. On the opposite shore it penetrates deeply into the land, and forms the Persian Gulf, which divides the Persian from the Arabian shore, and is 600 miles in length and 220 miles in its greatest breadth, though at the entrance it is not above 55 miles broad.

The islands of Asia on its southern shore are the Andaman Islands, the Mergui Archipelago, and the Nicobar Isles on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal; and on the opposite coast of Coromandel the large island of Ceylon. The Laccadive and Maldive Islands lie off the coast of Malabar; and in the Persian Gulf is the celebrated island of Ormuz, formerly the seat of a splendid city and of an extensive commerce. In the Mediterranean are the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, which belong to Asia.

The interior structure of this continent is on a scale of peculiar magnificence: its mountains are of stupendous height; and these, together with its great rivers and its vast and boundless plains, impress on the mind the highest conceptions of natural grandeur. America, which vies in some respects with Asia in its imposing aspect, is nevertheless formed on an entirely different plan. It is long in proportion to its breadth; and throughout its whole length, from Cape Pilares in the Straits of Magellan to its northern limits on the Frozen Ocean, runs the vast ridge of the Cordilleras in South America and the Rocky Mountains in North America, which, rising suddenly and abruptly to their height about 200 or 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean, but sloping more gradually towards the Atlantic for the space of 1500 or 2000 miles, give to the country its peculiar form and character. Asia, on the other hand, which is a more solid and compact territory, attains its highest elevation towards the centre of the country; and Central Asia is accordingly a vast platform, of an irregular figure, raised to a great height above the surrounding country, and faced on each side with an immense mountain-wall, formed of enormous rocks and peaks, which tower into the regions of perpetual snow.

The high land which these mountains seem to support on all sides reaches in a direction north and south about 1200 miles, namely, from the 30th to the 50th degree of north latitude; and in length about 2000 miles east and west, from the Caspian Sea to the Lake of Baikal on the north, and on the south from the sources of the Indus to those of the Burrampooter. It is the largest tract of elevated ground which is to be found in the globe, and has been generally distinguished by the appellation of Tartary, being the native country of all those savage tribes which, under the names of Huns, Tartars, Turks, or Mongols, have at different periods desolated the world. It contains generally the extensive country of Thibet, which lies on the northern side of the Himalaya range; Chinese Tartary in the east; and, to the west of the Chinese empire, Independent Tartary, which lies on the northern declivity of the great ridge, and comprehends the countries watered by the Jaxartes and the Oxus, as far west as the Lake Aral and the Caspian Sea; in which are Buckharia, Balk, the cities of Buckharia, Samarcan, Khvay, &c., and which may be more distinctly pointed out as the country that lies between the frontiers of China on the east, of Persia on the south, and of Russia on the north. The high land of Central Asia constitutes the proper country of Tartary, and is generally of a rude and desolate aspect. It consists of low rocky hills, destitute of vegetation; of extensive arid plains; and occasionally, for the space of 1000 miles, of great deserts of loose sand, which being carried about by the winds, is raised aloft in drifting clouds, as in Arabia and Africa, and adds greatly to the danger of journeying in those inhospitable regions. The cold of winter is piercing and severe, from which the Russian embassy, in their journey to Peking through the deserts of Cobi in 1820, suffered grievously in the month of October, the thermometer being frequently below zero; while in summer the country is often afflicted with long-continued drought, which burns up the pasture, and occasions great mortality among the cattle, the chief subsistence of the pastoral tribes by whom this region is inhabited. But the uniform dreariness of the scene is at times relieved by flowing rivers, and also by luxuriant meadows, on which the inhabitants feed their flocks, shifting their habitations with the seasons, and wandering over the desert in quest of pasture. The ridges of mountains which encompass and uphold the great central plain of Asia gradually subside, though somewhat irregularly, into lower ridges, with intervening and fertile valleys, and finally into the plains, which spread outward, as from a common centre, to the sea. Thus, on the north of the Altai Mountains we have the vast expanse of the Siberian plains, through which the great rivers, the Irtisch, the Yenesei, and the Lena, roll their lazy currents to the Northern Ocean. On the eastern declivity, which is diversified with some lofty ranges of mountains, stretches out the empire of China, with the extensive regions of Chinese Tartary; and the rivers Hoangho and Yang-tse-Kiang here pursue an easterly course to the Pacific, while the great river Amur is turned towards the north by a ridge of mountains that diverges from the great body of high land. On the south the mountainous ridge of the Himalaya descends into the low country of Hindostan and India beyond the Ganges; while the western crest of mountains, falling to a lower level, forms the table-land of Persia and the mountainous countries of Western Asia, until, in the south, it finally subsides into the Arabian mountains and plains.

The southern front of Central Asia overlooks Hindostan and the countries to the east, and consists of the great ridge of the Himalaya or Snowy Mountains, which, commencing near the Burrampooter on the east, run in a direction nearly north-west, as far as the country of Cashmere, forming the magnificent boundary of Bengal on the north. From Cashmere the general direction of the ridge is south-west, as far as the snowy peak of Hindoo Coosh, to the north of Kabul, in long. 69.12. E. The name of Hindoo Coosh is applied to the whole of this ridge, which declines in its progress westward to a lower level, and is neither so conspicuous among the mountain ridges by which it is surrounded, nor does it any longer present a continued line of perpetual snow. It is crossed by various routes from Candahar northward to Balk, about 50 miles west, where, in the mountain passes, snow is only found for four months in the year. Those mountains, in extending westward to Herat, in long. 62.15. E., still continue to decline in height, and appear to be lost among the confused masses of the Paropamisan chain.

For a long period Europeans were but imperfectly acquainted with those interesting regions of interior Asia, and the Andes of America were supposed greatly to exceed in height this mountainous barrier of Hindostan. But since the gradual extension of the British conquests in Central India, several enterprising travellers have ascended these mountainous tracts; and it is now ascertained, from the accurate mensurations of Captain Webb and others, that their loftiest summits exceed the height of any other mountains in the world. The height of the Andes has indeed been underrated, as well as that of the Himalaya range. Chimborazo, estimated by Humboldt to rise 21,440 feet above the level of the sea, was formerly supposed to be the most elevated peak of those mountains. But from subsequent observations made by Mr Pentland, it appears that the summit of Illimani is 24,350 feet, that of Sorate 25,400 feet in height, which is still somewhat inferior to the highest summits of the Asiatic chain, 27 different peaks of which were found from Mr Webb's corrected observations to range from an altitude of 17,994 to 25,669 feet in the Hindoo Coosh Mountains, which are a continuation of the Himalaya chain to the west. Lieutenant Macartney, who accompanied the British embassy of Mr Elphinstone into Cabul, found one of the highest peaks to rise 20,493 feet above the level of the sea. The elevated table-land of Central Asia was calculated by Captain Webb to stand generally at a level of 15,000 feet. The lofty summits of these stupendous mountains, towering aloft in all their natural majesty, fill the mind of every traveller with astonishment and awe; and the bright outline of white, when it is projected on the deep azure of a cloudless sky, is seen at the prodigious distance of 150, and, according to some, of 250 miles.

To the south of the main ridges of the Himalaya and Hindoo Coosh the land declines from its height, and presents a lower terrace of mountains, which runs parallel to the great range, and by which, as well as by branches issuing from it, the country is still rendered sufficiently rugged, though there are intervening valleys of great beauty and fertility. In the hilly districts thus formed under the higher mountains are the countries of Assam, Bootan, Nepaul, Kumaon, and Sirengur. Those lower hills rise with a steep ascent from the plains of Bengal. According to Major Rennell, the southernmost ridge of the Bootan Mountains attains nearly a mile and a half of perpendicular height in a horizontal distance of 15 miles; and, from the summit, the traveller looks back with astonishment on the extensive prospect of the plains beneath him. Where the great range changes to a westerly direction, near the sources of the Indus and the Ganges, the lower mountains are separated from it by a wider interval, which is occupied by the high valley of Cashmere; and to the south and south-west is a mountainous country, which on the north bounds the Punjab, or the country of the five rivers, namely, the head streams of the Indus, which were crossed by Alexander the Great in his invasion of India. To the south of those well-watered plains extends a tract of sandy desert almost to the Gulf of Cutch on the Indian Ocean. From the Hindoo Coosh Mountains several extensive ranges, though of inferior height, branch off to the south and west, and spread over the country to the west of the Indus as far as the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. Some of these, such as the Soliman range, are still diversified with snowy peaks, though their height gradually declines as they recede from the central high lands of the country.

At the distance of about 200 miles to the north of the great Himalaya ridge there is another inner range of lofty mountains, which, though it does not rise quite so high as the exterior ridge, runs parallel to it, and is known under the appellation of Mus-tag or Moos Taugh, signifying, in the dialect of the country, Ice-hill. It extends as far as the 67th degree of east longitude; and between it and the main ridge of Himalaya and Hindoo Coosh is inclosed an elevated table-land, extending eastward into Thibet, though it is but little known beyond the meridian of Ladac, in 75.12. E. The vast deserts of Central Asia are indeed rendered almost inaccessible by the mountain-wall which surrounds them; and hence a comparatively small portion of the country has been explored by European travellers.

The western crest of the great Asiatic high lands is formed by a range of mountains which leaves the chain of Hindoo Coosh in 71° east longitude, in a direction east of north, and is known by the name of Belur Tag, a corruption, according to Elphinstone, of Beloot Taugh, or Cloudy Mountains. This range of mountains, though inferior in height to that of Hindoo Coosh, has generally snow on its summits. It crosses the ridge of Moos Taugh, and is continued towards the north till it reaches the chief range of the Altai Mountains, which form the northern barrier of the great central plains. It is the natural boundary between Chinese and Independent Tartary, and the dividing ridge from which the rivers flow east and west into both countries. Here is also the dividing ridge between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, which flow northward into the lake of Aral, and the great Indus, which takes a southerly course to the Indian ocean.

From this great western boundary of the central plains the country descends slowly to a lower level by successive ridges of rugged and desolate mountains, intermingled with high and desert plains, and fertile spots scattered at great distances over the barren waste. Towards the north these mountainous ridges do not seem to extend beyond the sea of Aral, or about half way between the high land of the interior and the Caspian Sea, leaving on the north-west of the Aral vast plains, the habitation of pastoral tribes; and on the west of the Caspian Sea the desert expanse of Khauresme or Carisme, the abode of predatory hordes, who infest the surrounding countries. To the south of the Caspian extends the great table-land of Persia, which consists of mountainous ridges, varied with elevated and barren plains, which, judging from the extraordinary severity of the winter cold, must be raised from 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea. Persia is situated in this manner on the great western declivity of Asia; and its mountains are connected with those of the great central ridge of Hindoo Coosh, which, extending westward, under the name of the Paropamisan Mountains, to the south of Balk and to the north of Cabul or Afghanistan, sends forth branches which spread over Persia in various directions in the south as well as in the north. The northern ridge, taking a north-westerly course, turns westward to the Caspian Sea, diverging in its progress into various ramifications towards the south. It passes along the southern shore of the Caspian; and for a space of 1500 miles, namely, from the eastern country of Balk to the Persian province of Azerbijan, west of the Caspian, it appears to form the boundary and rampart wall of a great table-land to the south, which extends eastward beyond the Persian territory, and is estimated to be 3000 or 4000 feet higher than the flat country between it and the Caspian Sea on the north, or than the desert which extends eastward of this sea into the country of Balk; and so steep are those mountains, generally known by the name of the Elburz Mountains, on the north, that the low country comes suddenly up to their base as to a wall. This northern chain of mountains appears to unite, in the western provinces of Persia, with another chain issuing from the great western coast of the central plains farther to the south, and to form that mass of mountains which separate Armenia from Mesopotamia, and from which diverge westward into Asia Minor, along the shores of the Mediterranean, the celebrated ridge known to the ancients under the name of Mount Taurus, and northward between the Black Sea and the Caspian the mountain chain of Caucasus, which rises to a great height, being in many parts above the line of perpetual snow. This appears to be the highest continued tract of elevated territory in Western Asia; and it gives rise to the great streams of the Euphrates and the Tigris, which flow southward into the Persian Gulf, as well as those rivers flowing northward into the Euxine; also to the Aras, the ancient Araxes; the Kur and the Kuma, which run east into the Caspian; and to the Kuban, and other inferior streams, which, by a westerly course, reach the Black Sea. This mountainous tract of country has chiefly a southern exposure, and the dividing ridge between the waters which flow south and north being on the borders of the Black Sea, the streams flowing northward from the mountain tract into this sea are consequently insignificant in size compared with the Tigris and the Euphrates, which run down its southern declivity. Towards the east the streams, having to run over a larger space before they reach the Caspian Sea, are of course more considerable.

From this elevated tract of country, which takes a westerly course on leaving the great ridge of the Hindoo Coosh Mountains, its altitude declining as it advances in this direction, various lateral ridges, of inferior height to the main ridge, project towards the south, inclosing between them extensive valleys or low countries. The most westerly of these cross ridges is that which begins from the body of Taurus, near the sources of the Euphrates, at the northern extremity of Syria. This ridge proceeds towards the south, and afterwards inclining to the southwest, it skirts the western shore of the Mediterranean, where it is known under the names of Amman, Sinai, Syria, &c.; and in its course southward it forms the two ridges of Libanus or Lebanon, the mountain of this name being of great height, as is indicated by its snow-clad top, and the inferior ridge of Anti-Libanus to the east. 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 central mass of the Arabian mountains, and the ridges which run along the eastern shores of the Red Sea and terminate in Arabia Felix, on the shores of the Indian Ocean.

The northern front of the great central plain of Asia is formed by the vast range of the Altai Mountains, which, under different names, traverse the whole extent of this continent from east to west for a space of not less than 5000 miles. At their western extremity they join the Ural Mountains, which seem to be a continuation of them; and they stretch almost due north in a direction nearly parallel to the course of the Obi, until they reach the shores of the Frozen Ocean, and, crossing the narrow strait of Waigat, they terminate amid the rigours of winter in the desolate island of Nova Zembla. On the east the Altai Mountains send forth two ridges, which appear, in the same manner as the Ural ridge, to be a continuation of the original chain, and which reach to the utmost extremities of Asia. One of these, under the name of the Zangai or Changai Mountains, extends in a direction south-east, and, attaining a great height, terminates in the Gulf of Corea, to the northward of Peking. Another chain, namely, the Daouria or Nertschinsk Mountains, proceeds north-eastward along the Gulf or Sea of Ochotsk, and only terminates with the limits of the continent in the vicinity of Behring's Straits. From this chain an inferior one breaks off, and taking a southeasterly direction, penetrates to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Kamtschatka. This northern bulwark of the central high land of Asia is greatly inferior in height to the Himalaya and Hindoo Coosh Mountains, the boundary on the south. Its elevation is not supposed to exceed 5000 or 6000 feet, which is sufficient, however, in that northern latitude, to bring it within the line of perpetual snow. Besides the outward ridge, which faces the north, there are interior and parallel ridges, imperfectly known, and between which the country spreads out into elevated plains. It is in these interior and apparently higher mountains that the head waters are to be found of the Irtisch, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena, which pierce through deep defiles in the outer ridge of the Altai Mountains, and make their way through the plains of Siberia to the Frozen Ocean. The great river Amour, however, being confined by this barrier, and turned aside to the west into Chinese Tartary, finally reaches, by a northerly course, the Sea of Ochotsk. To the north of the Altai Mountains the country subsides into the low country of Siberia, which, with occasional ranges of high ground, presents one vast plain from the base of the Altai Mountains to the Arctic Sea. Here are three tracts, or steppes as they are called, which extend for hundreds of miles on a dead level, and exhibit the same aspect. Of these the steppe of the Issim extends, in the southwestern part of Asiatic Russia, along the base of the Altai chain, from the Ural river and the Caspian Sea, across the sources of the Tobol, the Itchim, and the Irtisch. The steppe of the Irtisch reaches from that river to the Yenesei, a space of 1000 miles from east to west; and it seems to be continued between the lower course of the streams as far as the Frozen Ocean. A similar tract reaches from the Yenesei to the Lena. These plains are generally barren: some of them abound in rock-salt and in salt lakes, others are covered with deep forests, and some parts are fitted for agriculture or pasturage. They are of the most dreary aspect; and as they advance into the northern latitudes, they combine the double evil of a barren soil and a severe climate.

Of the mountains inclosing the great plain of Central Asia on the east, and which subside into the lower country of China, we cannot attempt any geographical description, as they are very imperfectly known. From the nature of the country, however, which is known, and from the direction of its mountains and streams, we may deduce some general inferences as to those regions which are unknown. The great chain of the Himalaya Mountains, on entering the peninsula beyond the Ganges, inclines towards the south; and numerous chains of inferior magnitude breaking off in this direction, divide that peninsula into long parallel valleys, in which the great streams of the Irrawaddy, the Menam, the Maygue, and the Japanese, flow southward to the Indian Ocean. Those mountains which thus break off from the Himalaya range to the south also diverge, without doubt, towards the north; and they will thus form the western frontier of China, and the mountain wall which supports the central table-land on the east. We are ignorant of the height or other particulars regarding this chain. But from the direction of the two great rivers, the Hoangho or Yellow River, and the Yang-tse-Kiang or Blue River, which water the central regions of China, and which have their sources in the interior deserts, it is evident that from the central high lands the country must be a continued declivity, varied occasionally with lower terraces of hills, to the Eastern Ocean. A range of mountains runs through the southern provinces of China, which seems to be a prolongation, on a lower scale, of the great Himalaya ridge; and a lofty chain of naked rocks, already noticed, runs along the southern frontier, and separates China from Tartary. It is a branch of those mountains which turn aside the river Hoangho into a northerly direction; and it is only by a circuitous and winding turn that it regains its original course towards the east.

The rivers of Asia correspond in grandeur with all the other great natural features of the country. A river, it is evident, will be great or small according to the extent of the basin or valley of which it is the natural drain, and according also as it recedes from or approaches the regions of rain which lie under the equator. The largest rivers are accordingly those which have the longest course, and that course within the tropics or near to the equator; and all the great rivers of the globe will be found to coincide with this hypothesis; many of those in high latitudes with a long course being inferior in magnitude to the rivers within the tropics which have a shorter course, and which are fed by the periodical rains. The Amazons is unquestionably the largest river in the world. It pours into the ocean a stream of the greatest magnitude, being 180 miles broad at its mouth, and of an amazing depth; and it combines the two necessary conditions of a great river. It has a long course of fully 3000 miles (chiefly within the 6th or 7th degree of S. lat., where it crosses nearly the whole breadth of America), swollen into a most prodigious volume of water by the almost constant rains of the equator. The Mississippi in North America has a long course, including its windings, of nearly 3000 miles; and it is the only drain of that vast valley situated between the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Allegany Mountains on the east, the area of which cannot be less than 2,000,000 of square miles. But its course lies without the limits of the tropical rains; and it wants, consequently, one of the requisites of a great river. It will be found, accordingly, that it does not pour into the ocean such a volume of water as the Orinoco, the course of which is not estimated to exceed 1300 or 1400 miles; and its basin is inferior in extent by two thirds to that of the Mississippi. Yet this latter, though a magnificent stream, is not, opposite New Orleans, 102 miles from its mouth, above 132 feet deep during the inundation, and 4500 feet broad; while the Orinoco was found in the dry season at St Thomas, 250 miles from its mouth, to be 390 feet deep and 2300 feet broad. In Africa, again, the Nile has a course of above 2000 miles, and it has its rise within the tropics. But its northerly course carries it away from the periodical rains into Northern Africa, where rain seldom or never

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1 Depon, Voyage à la Partie Orientale de la Terre Ferme dans l'Amérique Meridionale, 1801–2–3–4. The rise of the river during the rainy season is stated by the same author to be 13 fathoms opposite St Thomas. Tome iii. p. 301. falls; and hence, for the space of 1000 miles, it receives not the aid of a single tributary stream. It is merely the collected rains of the northern tropic, diminished rather than increased as they flow through the African deserts to the Mediterranean. Hence the magnitude of the Nile is not in proportion to the space over which it flows. It has not so large a stream as either the Orinoco or the Ganges, which, though they have each a shorter course, are yet swollen to a greater size by the tropical rains. If the Nile had flowed in an opposite direction towards the equator, it would have ranked in the first class of rivers.

The vast expanse of Asia presents an ample area for the formation of the largest streams. In the interval which extends from the loftiest ridges of the central mountains, the multitudinous waters of the most distant regions may be poured into one common channel; and the rivers of Asia, therefore, from the space over which they flow, ought to be the greatest in the world. This, however, is not the case. They are indeed most magnificent streams, and present, in the roar and foam of their impatient waters while they are yet imprisoned within the mountains, in the violence with which their conflicting tides successively intermingle in their progress to the sea, and in the breadth and majesty of the overflowing stream sweeping over the plains, all the most imposing phenomena of the greatest rivers. But they are inferior in magnitude to the chief rivers of South America—to the Orinoco, and still more to the Amazonas; and the explanation of this fact must be sought for in the position of Asia, of which only the southern extremity is within the region of the tropical rains. The solid mass of the Asiatic continent just reaches the northern tropic; and it is only the peninsular tracks of Arabia, Hindostan, and the narrow strip of Malacca, that shoot out beyond this boundary towards the equator. The greatest rivers of Asia, namely, the Ganges and the Indus, are consequently without the limits of the tropics. But in Asia the rainy season has a wider range than in Africa, where it does not extend beyond the northern tropic. In the tropical countries of Asia this season sets in with the south-west monsoon, which drives the gathering clouds from the Indian Ocean over the plains of Hindostan, and as far as the northern barrier of the Himalaya Mountains, by which their progress is at length arrested, and extends the periodical rains over the whole intervening country. Hence both the Ganges and the Indus are fed by these rains, though the northern latitude in which they flow would in Africa place them in the driest regions of the earth. They accordingly rank among the rivers of the first class, whether we look to their length of course or to the body of water which they pour into the ocean. They both have their rise in the great Himalaya ridge, among the regions of perpetual snow, at no great distance from each other, when they diverge—the Indus into a south-westerly, and the Ganges into a north-easterly course, according to the slope of the land, and reach the Indian Ocean exactly on opposite points of the peninsula of Hindostan. They form each the great drain of their respective valleys, and they have many tributaries, which it is unnecessary here to state in detail. The great river of the Brahmaputra, which is fully equal to the Ganges, has its source from the opposite side of the same mountains; and after a long easterly course among desert mountains, in which it approaches the confines of China, it winds towards the west by a vast circuit round the mountains, and joins the Ganges after a course of about 1600 miles. The other great rivers of Eastern Asia which flow down the southern declivity of the central mountains are, the Irrawaddy, which has its rise in the eastern mountains of Thibet, and, after a course of 1200 miles, falls by many mouths into the Gulf of Bengal; the Menam, which falls into the Gulf of Siam; and the Camboja, which, rising in the northern mountains, after a course of nearly 2000 miles falls into the Chinese Sea to the east of the Gulf of Siam, in about lat. 10. S. The course of all these rivers lies more within the region of the rains than that of either the Indus or the Ganges; and the Irrawaddy, and especially the Camboja, are of great length. But the basins or valleys of which they are the outlets are long and narrow, and their collected waters are not sufficient for the formation of such large rivers as the Indus or the Ganges. Yet the Irrawaddy is of great magnitude; it has its delta and its periodical overflow; and during the rainy season it is a mile broad, and of great depth. It decreases during the dry season to half a mile in breadth and to a depth of eight feet. The Menam is not a river of any imposing magnitude; and of the Camboja we have but very imperfect accounts; but judging from the great length of its course, which is also within the region of the heaviest rains, its stream can hardly be inferior to the largest rivers of Asia. It is said to be navigable for large vessels 40 leagues from its mouth, to be in general two miles wide, and so deep that ships can approach almost close to its banks. The peninsula of Hindostan, which projects southward, and is subject to periodical deluges of rain, is not of sufficient space for the formation of any great river. Amid the lower ranges of mountains, the Nerbudah, which in some countries would be thought a large river, takes its rise, and flows from east to west down the western slope of the great plain of Central India into the Gulf of Cambay; and here commences the mountain range of the Ghauts, which runs along the coast of Malabar to Cape Comorin, at the distance of not more than 100 miles; while from the opposite coast the intervening country extends from 300 to 700 miles; thus exhibiting on a small scale the formation of the American continent, which rises to its height at the distance of about 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean, leaving the vast space on the other side of the mountains to the Atlantic for the course of all the great rivers. In like manner, all the great rivers of Hindostan flow down the eastern declivity of the Ghaut Mountains, namely, the Mahanuddy, the Godaverry, the Kistnah, the Tuptee, and the Cavery, which flow from the Ghauts in an easterly direction across the country to the Indian Ocean. The streams on the opposite declivity of the mountains have necessarily a short course, and are chiefly inconsiderable mountain torrents, except when they are swollen by the rains. The Euphrates and the Tigris, which have their origin in the mountains of Armenia, are the only other considerable rivers of Asia which flow southward into the ocean. They are not rivers of the first class, not nearly equalling either the Ganges or the Indus, though the Euphrates must be nearly equal to the Danube, the greatest river in Europe; and they are in no respect tropical rivers, as they derive their supplies from the melting of the snows, and from the spring and the winter rains. It is accordingly in January that the great overflow of the Euphrates takes place. It may be here remarked, that throughout Asia the countries without the limits of the monsoon depend on the rains, which generally fall in the spring, and more copiously in the winter, though these rains are far from being so regular as the rainy season within the tropics.

The great ridges of the Himalaya and Hindoo Coosh Mountains divide the rivers of Asia which flow southward to the Indian Ocean, from those which flow northward or eastward into the central deserts of Tartary. They do not appear, however, to be considerable; and are probably lost amid the wastes of sand extending over a great portion of that country, or in some of its interior lakes. On the north the Oxus, a great river; and the Jaxartes, of which the sources approach those of the Indus and the Ganges, being on the opposite sides of the same high land, emerge from the mountain deserts into the plains, and, after a long course, both reach the interior lake of Aral, to the east of the Caspian Sea. The great rivers in the east of Asia, namely, the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Hoangho, which rise in the unknown deserts of Tibet, and flow through China into the Eastern Seas, have each a course of extraordinary length; and they must no doubt pour a large stream into the ocean. But we have no accurate accounts of their size, neither of their breadth nor depth; and as they are not within the limits of the rains, the magnitude of their stream cannot be in proportion to its great length, as the rains of these northern regions never accumulate into such a body of water as the rains of the tropics. The great river Amour, which runs down the eastern declivity of the Asiatic high lands, is remarkable for the length of its course; but though it must be a great river, we have no accurate information respecting it.

On the north, where the central table-land of Asia declines towards the Frozen Ocean, there is ample space for the formation of rivers; and accordingly, through the vast and desolate wastes of Siberia flow the Irtisch, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena, by a winding course, to the Arctic Sea. The whole breadth of Asia, from the Eastern Ocean to the Ural Mountains, is drained of its waters by these four rivers and their tributaries; and the Irtisch, the Yenesei, and the Lena, from their source in the unknown deserts of Chinese Tartary, must flow over a space of nearly 4000 miles, which greatly exceeds the course of the great Amazonas. We know little as to the volume of water contained in these rivers, which, though it must be great, yet, judging from the magnitude of other rivers in the same latitude, cannot equal that of the great tropical rivers. The Volga is a large river; it has a great length of course; but its depth does not exceed 15 feet. The basins of the northern rivers of Siberia are no doubt of great extent; but even though we estimate their streams at double the magnitude of the Volga, they will only attain a depth of 30 feet, which is not one tenth part the depth of the Orinoco, though, according to Major Rennell, it is equal to that of the Ganges.

Asia is distinguished by the variety and extent of its interior lakes; and its extensive table-lands, intersected by mountains, favour the collection of those masses of water. In general these lakes are distinguished by the saline, brackish, or sulphureous nature of their waters. Asia Minor contains numerous salt lakes which have no outlet, and some of them of considerable extent. To the west of the Caspian Sea are the lakes of Van and Urmia, Ooromea or Shalhee, the waters of which are intensely salt. In Syria, the great chains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus contain several lakes, the most celebrated of which is the Lake Asphaltites or the Dead Sea in Palestine, whose bituminous waters cover a space of nearly 500 square miles. The Caspian Sea on the western declivity of the central heights is beyond all comparison the largest lake that is known, being in length 646 miles from north to south, and 265 in extreme breadth; while the greatest length of Lake Superior in North America is not more than 381 miles in length and 161 in breadth. Lake Aral, to the west of the Caspian Sea, is 150 miles in length by 60 in breadth; and to the east the lakes of Aksakol, Telegul, Balkashi or Palcati, and numerous smaller lakes, are scattered over the region which lies between the central mountains and the Caspian Sea. In all these lakes the waters are salt or brackish. Persia contains in its salt deserts numerous small lakes; and also the large lake of Zere or Zurrah, which covers a space of 1000 square miles.

On the northern declivity of the table-land of Tartary are scattered numerous lakes, many of which are scarcely known by name in Europe, though they are of great extent, and are fed by the rivers from the surrounding mountains. Of these the Lake Tchany or Czany is the largest. The high plains in the table-land of Tartary and Thibet, environed on all sides by lofty mountains, are the receptacles of the imprisoned waters of these elevated regions. Near the southern ridge of this mountain tract is found the large and variously designated lake which gives rise to the Irtisch; and the southern plains, inclosed by the mountains of Chinese Tartary and Thibet, the most elevated summits of Asia, are said to contain considerable rivers, which are either lost in the sands or in interior lakes. The country of Thibet abounds in lakes, in most of which the waters are salt. Some of these are of great extent. The Terkiri, according to the accounts of the Chinese missionaries, from whom we derive our chief knowledge of these vast countries, is 60 miles long by 40 broad. The Kokonor, which signifies a great sea, is on the borders of China: it contains 1840 square miles, and a space of 600 miles on both sides of Lake Terkiri, and includes no less than 23 lakes, some of them of considerable extent. There are comparatively few lakes in the exterior plains of Asia. The Lake Baikal, in Upper Siberia, is 366 miles in length by from 20 to 53 in breadth. But Lower Siberia is one continued series of marshes, with intervening plains adapted for pasture. China contains few lakes, the country being one continued declivity; and from the same cause the peninsula of Hindostan contains not a single lake of any extent.

From its internal structure Asia does not possess the same advantages of navigable intercourse as the other divisions of the globe. From the peculiar structure of the American continent, all the great rivers flow to the east or to the south-east, some of them across almost the whole breadth of the continent, and scarcely leave any part far out of the reach of a navigable communication. North as well as South America has also a southern or eastern exposure, in consequence of which the Mississippi, the Orinoco, the Amazonas, and the Plata rivers, flow either to the south or to the east, into the seats of civilization and of commerce. The structure of Asia is different: it is of the most imposing grandeur and simplicity, and is eminently calculated to impress on the mind an idea of vastness and of majesty; but it is not so well adapted for the purposes of internal improvement. From its form, which rises into a great table-land towards the centre, the rivers naturally descend on all sides to the sea, as radii from a common centre, leaving vast tracts and high plains a prey to perpetual drought and sterility, and without any navigable communication with the sea. Not that the great table-land of Asia, if we except the vast sandy deserts of Cobi and Shamo, presents such a uniform aspect of frightful wastes as is generally supposed. It is not by any means wholly destitute of water and vegetation, but contains extensive plains fertilized by rivers flowing into interior lakes, and well adapted for pasture, the chief occupation of the inhabitants, and which, if they were properly cultivated, would yield grain and other produce. But the want of moisture is still the chief disadvantage; and the streams which arise in this elevated region having no outlet to the sea, afford no facilities of exterior intercourse. This disadvantage necessarily belongs to a country of elevated plains of immense extent, fenced round with mountains, and thus insulated from and almost unknown to the whole world besides. A lake which does not communicate with the sea merely facilitates the communications between its own shores. Hence it is of no material use in the intercourse of a country; and the nature of the ground to which these lakes owe their formation is a positive disadvantage, as its effect is to intercept the interior waters in their progress to the sea, and to collect them into a large reservoir in the heart of the country. Thus the Oxus and the Jaxartes flow into the Aral; and the Caspian Sea, which presents no facilities for internal improvement, is the recipient of some very great rivers. But if they had reached the Black Sea, how much more would they have conduced to the improvement of the country. The great rivers of what we may call Southern Asia, namely, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Indus, the Ganges, and the streams which run into the Indian Ocean in the peninsula beyond the Ganges, are well adapted for navigation and commerce; and the Ganges more especially is of vast advantage both in fertilizing the soil and improving the intercourse of the country through which it flows. The course of the other great rivers, such as the Indus, &c. would equally promote the same great objects; but the adjacent countries are inhabited by barbarous tribes, who neglect all those natural advantages. The Chinese rivers which wind across that country from the western mountains are rendered eminently subservient to navigation and commerce by that industrious people. But the course of the great rivers flowing from the central mountains into the Frozen Ocean, into which course they are turned by the northern exposure of Asia, is eminently unfavourable for the improvement of the country, as they are carried entirely out of the seats of commerce and wealth to the Arctic Sea, the gloomy abode of perpetual winter. These great rivers, therefore, the Irtisch, the Obi, the Yenesee, and the Lena, owing to their having a northern course, must forever remain useless to commerce and navigation. They lead to countries from which no benefit can ever be derived, to seas bound up in perpetual ice, and to regions of sterility and cold, which mankind desire to fly from rather than to visit. These rivers, great and navigable though they be, present no outlet to the produce of the interior; nor can they greatly aid the general routes of the traveller in crossing Siberia. They afford considerable advantages, however, especially in their upper streams, for carrying goods into and from China. It is singular that to the west of the Ural Mountains the country should have a southern exposure, and the great rivers of northern Europe, accordingly, the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper, flow with a southerly course into the Caspian or the Black Sea.

From the general view which has been given of the form and interior structure of this great continent, and of the system of its mountains and rivers, it may be distinguished with advantage into five great natural divisions, namely, Central Asia, Southern and Northern Asia, and Eastern and Western Asia.

1. Central Asia, or the great high lands, with their elevated plains and almost boundless wastes, is, in the eastern parts, chiefly within the limits of the Chinese dominions. It contains Thibet and Chinese Tartary, to whose powers we cannot assign any definite limits. But it is certain that in the south the dominion of China extends very far west, to the 80th degree at least, as it now borders with the British frontier in Hindostan, where Chinese horsemen are placed to guard, with their usual jealous policy, the celestial empire from intrusion. On the north the territories of China border with those of Russia; and the whole intervening tract must be included under the Chinese dominion. But we know little of these wild and desolate regions; and it is uncertain how far the pastoral or predatory hordes which range over them are controlled by the Chinese authorities. The country of Thibet is also bounded by China on the east and on the north, though we cannot exactly determine the limits of their respective territories. Farther to the north the sway of China extends to the 78th degree of E. long., and includes the rich and populous Mahometan towns of Kashgar, in long. 76. 5. 45. E. lat. 39. 25. N., and Yarkund, in long. 78. 27. 45. E. lat. 38. 19. N.; the first reckoned to contain 80,000 inhabitants. It does not seem to be separated from Independent Tartary by any distinct boundary. The countries near the sources of the Indus and the Oxus, about the 78th degree of E. long., are inhabited by wild and independent tribes, who, like most of their race, subsist by pasturage or plunder. Here is Balk, the ancient Bactria or Bactriana, where there are several chiefs who rule over their rude and intractable subjects with a precarious sway. Here is also the city of Buckharia, which, with the surrounding country, is ruled by an independent sovereign; and the independent states of Khyvah and Kokna, the first extending on and near the banks of the Oxus, between 100 and 200 miles, and the latter divided into two parts by the Jaxartes, and reckoned to be more than 200 miles in length and 150 in breadth. To the west, as far as the Caspian Sea, is the proper region of Independent Tartary, bounded on all sides by the Russian, Chinese, and Persian empires.

2. Southern Asia includes Hindestan from the Himalaya Mountains; on the west Afghanistan and the independent tribes scattered in the lower valley of the Indus; the kingdom of Nepaul on the east; the hilly country of Bootan, the Burman empire, the peninsula of Malaccu, and the kingdom of Camboja.

3. Western Asia contains Persia, the peninsula of Arabia, the extensive countries over which Turkey maintains a loose and uncertain authority, comprehending Mesopotamia, Armenia, Syria, and Palestine; Asia Minor, surrounded on the north, south, and west, by the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, and the mountain regions of Caucasus between the Black and the Caspian Seas.

4. Eastern Asia is occupied by the Chinese empire and by Chinese Tartary.

5. Northern Asia forms the Asiatic part of the Russian empire, which extends from the Altai Mountains to the Frozen Ocean.

Asia, extending from the equator to the Arctic Sea, necessarily possesses great variety of climate. But though here, as in every other country, the climate is regulated by the distance from the equator, this general law is modified by accidental causes, which it is curious to trace. In the wide extent of Asia great peculiarities of temperature occur, which cannot be very clearly explained. The system of the universe is conducted on so vast a scale that our faculties of observation do not keep pace with its great movements. How can we, for example, trace the rapid course of the winds, on which the temperature of countries so essentially depends, traversing as they do the whole space of the habitable globe at the rate of 1000 miles in 24 hours? How can we ascertain their origin and follow their progress, which is modified by the various interruptions of mountains, continents, and seas? How can we distinctly point out, amid such a complication of unknown facts, the connection between cause and effect? To such inquiries some uncertainty will always attach, and anomalies may appear of which we can offer no solution. In these circumstances, facts are our only The height of the land above the level of the sea is as sure a cause of cold as distance from the equator; and countries are not only cold in proportion to their height, but a mass of cold air is accumulated above them, which, being dispersed, is carried towards the equator, and extends the dominion of cold into the regions of heat. Land and water, also, are the causes either of heat or cold, according to their situation. The great mass of the ocean is little affected by the changes of the seasons; and it consequently preserves the medium temperature of the whole year. Hence the vicinity of the ocean cools the temperature of the equinoctial regions; and in higher latitudes it moderates the extremes both of heat and cold, being in winter of a higher temperature, and in summer of a lower temperature, than the superincumbent air. The surface of the earth, again, imbibes heat or cold much more readily than the ocean; and it is only at considerable depths that it is found to give the medium temperature of the year. The vicinity of land, therefore, in the polar countries, is the cause of cold, while in the southern regions of the equator it is an equally powerful cause of heat. Thus Africa, which extends so far to the south, and which contains a greater proportion of land within the tropics than any other division of the globe, is a vast storehouse of heat, from which it is dispersed far and wide, and even reaches the shores of Europe in hot and parching winds; while, on the other hand, the breadth and extent of the American continent towards the north sufficiently accounts for the coldness of its climate, the north-west winds which sweep across its frozen wastes extending their influence into the regions of heat as far sometimes as Mexico or Vera Cruz. The influence of the ocean in moderating the severity of the winter is exemplified in the climate of Great Britain, where no such intense cold ever prevails as in corresponding latitudes on the continent of Europe, and more especially on that of Asia. The climate of a country is also affected by the direction of the winds; and hence the eastern shores of America, owing to the trade-winds, which blow from the east, and are cooled in their passage across the Atlantic, have not the same sultry heats as the opposite shores of Africa, where the same winds are heated to an intense degree in their passage over the burning deserts of the interior. The northern frontiers of Asia, and its prodigious elevation towards the centre, necessarily consign the greatest portion of it to the dominion of cold. Among the central mountains perpetual winter reigns; and from these snowy deserts the influence of cold is widely extended over the high plains of the interior. In Thibet, which is about the same latitude as Northern Africa or Arabia, namely, between the 30th and 35th degrees, there is a continuous and severe winter of three months, which is of such uniform severity that at its commencement the inhabitants kill their meat, and it is kept perfectly fresh for three months. To the west, along the whole range of elevated land that extends into Persia and to the Caspian Sea, the climate is modified by the elevation of the ground. In the countries of Balk and Bucharia, which lie on the northern declivity of the great ridge of the Hindoo Coosh Mountains, in the same latitude as the south of Europe, namely, the 39th and 40th degrees, and all along the banks of the Oxus, the climate is remarkably severe. For three months the winter is intensely cold, the wind being dry and piercing, and the snow lying deep on the ground. The rivers are all frozen over, and the Oxus during all that period is passable for caravans. The summer, again, is equally hot. Persia, in like manner, being nearly in the same latitude as Arabia, the hottest part of the earth, and having an excessively hot summer, has in the northern and central parts the severe winter of a northern climate, with drifting snow, which lies deep on the ground for three months; and this is owing entirely to its elevation, which is estimated by Fraser to be 4000 feet above the Caspian Sea. The lower valleys and exterior plains of Asia, which lie to the south of the Himalaya Mountains, including Arabia, the southern and flat parts of Persia, Hindostan, and India beyond the Ganges, constitute the tropical and warm regions of this continent, of which the climate, though it agrees in general with their position on the globe, still varies from local causes. Hindostan, for example, and India beyond the Ganges, though they approach nearer to the equator, are not nearly so hot as Arabia or the adjacent countries. The course of the seasons is also more constant; and it is here that we meet with those remarkable winds, the monsoons, which blow six months in opposite directions, from the south-west and north-east, with some slight variations, and which extend their influence over all the countries which lie between the mouth of the Indus and the Chinese Sea. The monsoons follow the course of the sun, and this fact points to the cause of the phenomenon. Heat and cold being the great agents which, by rarefying or condensing the air, disturb its equilibrium, and set the winds in motion, land, when it is heated by the solar rays, acts on the superincumbent air, and causes it to ascend, when it is immediately replaced by an eruption of cold air from the sea. Hence the regular sea-breeze which prevails in all the tropical islands during the day, and the opposite current from the land during the night; and this alternation of the sea and the land breezes, occasioned within 24 hours by the varying temperature of an island, is just an example of the effect that must be produced by a heated continent and by the change of the seasons. As the sun advances into the northern tropic, the land of Asia, Europe, and almost the whole of Africa, is heated by his influence; by which the air being rarefied, and rising aloft, a current of colder air rushes in from the sea. Accordingly it is found, that with the approach of summer, the plains of Hindostan, Burmah, and China, heated by the intense rays of a vertical sun, violently attract the cold air, which flows with a steady stream from the Southern Ocean, exactly in the tract of the heated continent, namely, from the south-west to the north-east. When the sun passes into the southern hemisphere, the monsoon alters its course. Winter now reigns in the mountainous and northern parts of Asia, and the heat in the lower regions is not so great. The land, in place of heating, cools the air, which flows into the warm regions of the south from the north-east in the direction of the continent, as it formerly flowed towards the north from the

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1 See Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. He mentions, that at Vera Cruz the centigrade thermometer sometimes falls, owing to those northern blasts, to 0 or to 32 degrees of Fahrenheit; and that even at Mexico they sometimes, though rarely, bring down the thermometer to the freezing point.

2 Turner's Embassy to Thibet, p. 217, 301, 356.

3 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, Appendix, p. 95.

4 Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 122. It is mentioned in the Journal of Mr Campbell, quoted by Sir J. Malcolm, that while he was at Tabreez a heavy fall of snow occurred in May; and in December and January the thermometer at night was never above zero. (Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. ii. p. 509.) south-east. The south-west monsoon sets in about the beginning of June in all the islands of the Indian Ocean, and traverses the southern plains, until it is turned towards the west by the central mountains, and finally arrested in its progress. It is ushered in with the most tremendous thunder and lightning, with tempests of wind and floods of rain. This is the commencement of the periodical rains through all the tropical regions of Asia, which are at their height in July, and gradually abate about the end of September, departing amid thunders and tempests, as they came. Before the setting in of the monsoons there is a clear sky, with a hot parching wind, succeeded by sultry calms, under which all nature seems to droop. The rains effect a sudden and total change in the aspect of the country: the rivers are swollen, the air is pure and refreshing, the sky varied with clouds, and the earth covered with the most luxuriant verdure. Such is the climate of Southern Asia, from China to the coast of Africa. But the peninsula of Arabia is not subject to the influence of the monsoons; and in place of the tropical rains, it has generally, in the mountainous parts, the winter and the spring rains. The climate during summer is hotter than in any other part of the world, the thermometer frequently rising to $110^\circ$, and even it is said to $120^\circ$, in the coolest and shadiest parts, while dead calms prevail often without interruption for 50 or 60 days, and are succeeded, as the temperature begins to vary and the winds to resume their activity, by violent and hot blasts from the desert. The vicinity of Arabia to the African continent, by which it is sheltered from the cool breezes of the sea, while it receives the sultry air from its burning plains, is unquestionably the cause of its extraordinary heat; and it will be remarked that those violent heats extend eastward from Arabia exactly in the direction in which they are received into the lower valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris, where at Bagdad they raise the thermometer to $120^\circ$ in the shade. It has been already mentioned that the progress of the monsoons to the north is arrested by the central mountains; and the elevated tract of country, therefore, which lies to the north of this barrier, namely, the kingdom of Kokanu, over which are spread the headwaters of the Oxus, Balk, the ancient Bactriana, Buchkaria, and the countries west of the Indus, as far as the Hellepsont, depend on the spring and the winter rains which they receive from the west.

Western Asia has been long celebrated for the mildness and serenity of its climate, which is hot and dry, though it is tempered by the cool breezes from the mountain tracts by which it is intersected. In the northern parts, along the coasts of the Black Sea, the country is liable to excessive rains; while the southern shores of the Mediterranean are exposed to the sultry sirocco blasts from the African or Arabian deserts.

Northern Asia, of which the Altai chain is the boundary, is the proper region of cold; and the severity of the climate is said to be aggravated by the vast expanse of the continent in the frozen latitudes of the north. In the interior of Asia the milder element of the ocean can have no influence on the rigour of perpetual winter; and from the Arctic Ocean to the Altai Mountains the north wind sweeps without interruption along the Siberian plains, and occasions an intensity of cold which is not experienced in the corresponding latitudes of Europe. It is remarked by Malte-Brun, that the cold increases as we proceed eastward, to such a degree, that on the coasts of Tartary, in the same latitude as France, the winter commences in September. This intensity of cold he ascribes to several causes: 1st, To vast mountains covered with glaciers, which rise between Corea and the countries on the river Amour; 2dly, to the still greater mass of mountains which separates the Amour from the Lena; 3dly, to the thick and cold fogs which constantly overhang those frozen countries, and intercept the rays of the sun; and, 4thly, to the absolute want of inhabitants, and consequently of cultivation. There is no doubt that such causes tend to the increase of cold. They must, however, be somewhat counterbalanced by the vicinity of the Eastern Ocean tempering the severity of a Siberian winter; and the greatest degree of cold should still, therefore, be found towards the centre of the continent. On the northern shores of Asia the severity of the cold will not, as in milder climates, be counteracted by the influence of the ocean, which is either covered with solid or with floating ice. The natural coldness of the air in these countries will be aggravated rather than softened by the vicinity of these frozen seas.

Asia, from its vast extent and unequal surface, not only comprehends within its bounds the vegetable produce of the whole earth, from the low creeping lichen which flourishes on the borders of perpetual snow, to all the splendid varieties of tropical vegetation; but it presents these varieties within a very short compass. It would be inconsistent with the plan of the present article to describe in detail the animal and vegetable kingdoms of Asia. It may be therefore generally stated, that the great staples of agriculture, the alimentary plants on which man depends for his subsistence, are, in the tropical countries of Asia, rice, of which there are 27 varieties; maize, millet, and many varieties of a coarser grain called dourra; as well as other species of legumes not known in Europe. The cultivation of these nutritious grains is confined to the plains of Hindostan and the hot countries to the east. Rice or maize may be sometimes seen in Persia, or in the hot plains of Lower Syria; but agriculture in these countries generally depends on the grain of a colder climate. Persia is accordingly famed for the most excellent wheat, which is the chief food, and for barley and millet. Oats are more rarely attempted in that climate. Throughout Syria and Asia Minor, as well as Arabia, wheat, rye, barley, beans, and other grains, are chiefly sown; and in Buchkaria, and generally in all the countries that lie between the Oxus and the Caspian Sea, these and other grains, with a variety of leguminous plants, constitute the chief dependence of the inhabitants. Between the 50th and 55th degrees, these grains may with care be raised all over Asia; but beyond this they cannot so well resist the severity of the climate. This is therefore the proper region of barley and oats, the cultivation of which may be extended to the 60th degree. Beyond this the powers of vegetation fail under the benumbing influence of cold; and the earth yields nothing but dwarf trees, lichens, and some species of the wild berry. In ascending the Asiatic mountains, the same varieties of vegetable produce are observed as in receding from the equator, until, at the line of perpetual congelation, all traces of vegetation disappear. But the decrease of heat in proportion to the altitude varies in different situations, according as it is affected by local and accidental causes; and though the most accurate calculations have been made on the subject by Leslie, Humboldt, and others, they are modified by local causes. Thus the limits of perpetual congelation have been fixed by Humboldt at

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1 Elphinstone's Account of Caledon, chap. v. 2 Niebuhr, vol. ii. sect. 29. 3 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, Appendix, p. 95. 4 Ibid., Appendix, p. 96. 15,700 feet under the equator, and 15,000 in the latitude of 20 degrees; yet Captain Webb, in his journeys among the Himalaya Mountains, observed, on the banks of the Sutledge river, which must have been at least in the 30th degree of north latitude, the finest pastures, and crops of a species of barley from which the natives make their bread, at a height of 15,000 feet, the supposed line of perpetual frost. And at a pass among these mountains, in 30 degrees of north latitude, plants were found that ripened their seed at the enormous height of 17,000 feet. In latitude 30° 25' the same traveller saw fields at the height of 11,790 feet, not only without snow, but covered with extensive fields of buck-wheat and Tartaric barley. The decrease of heat in proportion to the altitude attained appears not to be subject to any certain rule; and it would be extremely interesting to ascertain by actual observation the height at which the produce of the colder climates could be cultivated in different parts. We cannot fix either the lower or the higher limit at which wheat and other European grains could be brought to maturity among the Asiatic mountains. It is evident that the decrease of heat as we rise above the level of the sea is modified by local causes, in the same manner as when we recede from the equator; and hence the same vegetable produce is not uniformly found at the same height, any more than within the same latitudes. It is possible that in the interior mass of the mountains the cold may be greater than among the exterior ridges, and that the European grain, and the other congenial produce of a cold climate, may not on this account ripen at so high an elevation. It is mentioned by Turner, that he saw wheat in Thibet in a green state, which he was assured would never ripen owing to the severity of the climate.

Of the other plants which minister to the comfort of man, and afford valuable articles of commerce, Asia possesses great variety. The tea plant, which is exported so largely to Europe, is indigenous to China, to which its cultivation has hitherto been confined, and to which it is a source of prodigious wealth. Arabia is the native country of coffee, where it still arrives at its greatest perfection. The sugar-cane is cultivated in Hindostan, though not with the same energy and skill as in the West Indies; and also in some of the hottest parts of Asia Minor, but not to any extent. Tobacco is very generally produced in Southern and Western Asia; and the poppy plant, the great intoxicating drug of the East, is a great article of cultivation in Hindostan, and is now exported in immense quantities to the China market. The vine grows to great perfection among the rocky heights of Palestine, and in the mountains of Syria, where wine of a good quality is made, and also in Arabia. Industry and skill are alone necessary to improve the advantages of nature, and to render this precious produce a valuable article of commerce. The cotton shrub, which yields so useful an article of clothing, has from time immemorial been naturalized in India, growing in Arabia, Persia, and throughout Asia Minor; and the mulberry, which affords so splendid an article of dress, is cultivated with success in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. Flax and hemp are common throughout both Southern and Western Asia, and they would grow also in Northern Asia if the inhabitants knew how to profit by the advantages of the country. Indigo is another important article, which is cultivated in India and in some parts of Syria, as well as in Arabia. The Asiatic islands have been long celebrated for various aromatic plants; and the juice which exudes from the trunks of the smaller trees is of the richest fragrance. Among the species of laurels which abound in the southern parts of India and Ceylon we find those which produce mace, cassia, and camphor; and, lastly, the cinnamon tree, formerly supposed to be a native of Arabia; also the clove and the nutmeg trees. The balm of Mecca is the finest of all the gums, and diffuses an exquisite perfume. Ambia has also been long celebrated for frankincense and myrrh. Asia furnishes also many plants used in medicine, as well as in dyeing, such as the castor-oil plant, the senna, the aloe, and others, which extend all over the southern parts and through Asia Minor.

In Southern Asia the forests abound with the most valuable trees, with the most durable woods, and with every variety of ornamental and dye woods. The teak tree, which grows in the woods of India, surpasses all others in hardness and durability. There are many trees which minister to the subsistence of man. All the palms, for example, distil a rich and nutritious juice; that of the sago palm, distinguished for its beauty and spreading foliage, is so thick and nutritious, that it is used in this country as a medicinal and wholesome diet. The fan palm, which grows in some parts of India, is remarkable for the breadth of its leaves, one of which is sufficient to cover a dozen of men, and two or three to roof a cottage. The bread-fruit tree, which grows in India, yields a farinaceous fruit resembling bread prepared from grain. All the common fruit trees of Europe are also found in the hilly parts of India. Asia Minor and the banks of the Euphrates abound in the myrtle, the laurel, the turpentine, mastic, tamarind, cypress, sycamore, and other trees. The oriental plants are numerous in Persia; and in the Syrian mountains the oak and the cedar, celebrated in ancient times, grow to a great height. In the northern countries of Asia the trees most prevalent are the oak, the ash, the elm, &c.; and still farther north there is the dwarf birch and the mountain willow; also the pines and the firs, which rear their tall heads, and spread over the scenery their permanent hue of dark green. The strong and glutinous liquid which exudes from these northern trees is converted into tar, pitch, and turpentine, and becomes a valuable article of commerce, useful for many purposes.

All the most delicious fruits are raised in the tropical countries of Asia. Those most celebrated in India are the guava, the jambo, the mango, and the pine-apple; many others might be raised if garden-cultivation were attended to as it might be in that country. Syria, Palestine, the banks of the Euphrates, and Persia, are famous for the variety of their fruits, and produce abundantly pomegranates, oranges, lemons, almonds, peaches, figs, quinces, olives, walnuts, and melons of all sorts. In the neighbourhood of Damascus all the fruits of Europe arrive at maturity; and near the Caspian Sea there are whole forests of chestnut trees. The date tree, the fruit of which is in many parts the chief subsistence of the inhabitants, grows in Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Syria, and Palestine. In the higher parts of these countries other fruits are to be found, namely, the apple, the pear, the cherry. In Northern Asia horticulture is little practised; and, excepting wild berries, few other fruits are to be seen in its desert and inhospitable plains. Flowers of all sorts, in the most splendid profusion and variety, and of the richest fragrance, adorn the country in Southern and Western Asia, and give it the appearance of a flower-garden. On such a subject, however, which presents so wide a field of inquiry, we cannot enter into details, which would hardly prove satisfactory to the general reader, and still less to the man of science.

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1 Minutes of Evidence before Committee of House of Commons on China Trade. The desolate tracts of thick jungle and dense forest which abound in Asia afford extensive cover for wild animals, which are accordingly found in great numbers, and comprise all the known genera of the globe. The lion is found in Persia, Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and was formerly known in Asia Minor, but has now either entirely disappeared, or is rarely seen. It was not supposed that this formidable animal haunted the forests and jungles of India. But of late lions have been seen in great numbers in the north of India, in Guzerat, and in the province of Delhi, to the north of this place. The tiger is a native of Asia, to which continent he exclusively belongs, having never migrated into the other regions of the globe. He is spread over all parts of Southern Asia, from the islands of the Indian Ocean, where he exists in amazing power and ferocity, to the great ridge of the Himalaya Mountains. His progress northward is checked by the increasing cold; yet he is found in some of the higher regions, where ice is seen during the winter. It is certain, however, that he is a native of a hot climate; and it is probable, therefore, that when he feels the approach of winter, he will retire from the cold of the high country into the warmer and lower valleys of the south. Tigers are seldom seen in the countries westward of the Indus, though they may occasionally stray from their native haunts along the west of that river into the mountain tracts of Belochistan. The tiger is not found in Persia, Arabia, or in any part of Africa, though it is quite certain that the country is quite congenial to his constitution and habits, and that if he could once reach it he would quickly propagate his race through its deep forests. Yet the lion reigns supreme in the woods of Africa, while the tiger is the lord of the Asiatic jungles. It would be curious, if we had materials for such a speculation, to trace the distinct regions of the globe which are occupied by the various animal and vegetable tribes. Plants, we know, are transported from the countries in which they are indigenous, and flourish in another soil and climate equally congenial; and, in like manner, the animals of one country have been transported with equal success to other countries, where they have multiplied. The wild and ferocious animals it is the object of man to destroy rather than to increase; and they would therefore receive no aid from him in their migrations from one region to another. Hence we find that those countries which are widely separated, and which present no practicable communication for animals, have each its own peculiar and distinct class. America has an entirely different race of animals from Africa or Asia; while the animals that are found in the islands or continent of Australasia (New Holland), resemble those of no other quarter of the world. The zoology of Asia and Africa, from their vicinity, and from the comparatively easy communication between them, does not present such diversities; yet it is remarkable, that while the lion is common over all Africa, the tiger has never yet been seen; while in Asia it is just the reverse, the tiger, and not the lion, being the more common of the two. There can be no reason, we should imagine, why the tiger should be confined to Asia, while there are other countries equally suited to his habits, except that, being indigenous in the regions of Eastern Asia, he has never been able to cross the barrier of mountains and deserts by which these regions are separated from Persia on the west. Beyond the western banks of the Indus the country is mountainous and impassable, and the climate extremely cold; the ridges from the Himalaya Mountains extending southward nearly to the sea, and the country beyond being merely a narrow strip of hot and sandy desert. Beyond this, farther to the west, extensive deserts are found, destitute of water and of all traces of vegetation, which would as effectually oppose the passage of wild beasts as the trackless ocean which divides Africa and America, and leaves to each its own class of indigenous animals. The other wild animals of Southern Asia are leopards, hyenas, jackals, tiger-cats, wild boars, antelopes, elks, red and moose deer, foxes, hares, mongooses, ferrets, porcupines, &c. All these are to be found in the southern plains of Asia. The hyenas, wolves, jackals, and bears, abound in some of the hilly tracts, and in the mountains of Belochistan and the other countries to the west of the Indus. The three first make dreadful havoc among the flocks. The same animals are found in Persia, Mesopotamia, in Asia Minor, and in Palestine; and it is said that the lion is occasionally seen on the banks of the Jordan. The ounce is a formidable animal in these countries and in Syria, and is sometimes mistaken for the tiger. The timid zebra is found in the depths of the Persian forests. The wild dog is common in Northern India, in Belochistan, and in all the mountainous countries to the east of Persia. It is a large and powerful animal, and extremely ferocious. They hunt in packs of 20 or 30, and frequently seize a bullock, which they kill in a few minutes. The bones and remains of tigers, supposed to have been destroyed by the combined attack of these animals, are also sometimes found in the woods of Northern India. The wild ass is a native of Persia, and is remarkably wild, and fleet in its movements. It is also common in the northern mountains of India, and in the countries to the west of the Indus. The wild sheep and the wild goat are common among the mountains.

Of the domestic animals, the elephant claims the pre-eminence, being unequalled by any other animal for the purposes of draught. This animal is confined to the southern countries of India, where the climate is hot, being seldom seen in the mountainous tracts towards the north. The camel is used for domestic purposes over a far wider extent of country than the elephant. This animal is of two species, the one with two humps, and the dromedary with only one hump; and it is domesticated all over India and the mountainous countries to the north of the Himalaya ridge, in Balk or Bactria, in Bucharia, in Tartary, in all the countries bordering on the Caspian Sea, even in the southern provinces of Europe, in Persia, Asia Minor, and the countries bordering on the Black Sea, and in the Arabian deserts. The two-humped camel is a remarkably useful animal for burden, being heavy in his make, with enormous bones, shaggy coat, amazing strength, and incredible patience of fatigue and of thirst. The dromedary is chiefly used for travelling, and its valuable quality is swiftness, by which, joined to its capacity of enduring hardship, it is qualified to travel at an incredible rate for many successive days. In all the low countries, especially in the dry and sandy tracts, such as Arabia, Syria, &c., the dromedary is employed. The two-humped camel is a native of the high countries in the neighbourhood of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, where it is

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1 Elphinstone's Account of Ceylon, p. 141. 2 Bishop Heber. 3 See Pottinger's admirable account of the countries of Belochistan and Sinde, chap. vii. which is replete with interesting information. The journey of this officer and of Captain Christie, from India to Persia, through these wild tracts, inhabited by hordes of robbers, may be considered a most perilous and honourable achievement, worthy of the greatest travellers. 4 Kinneir, Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 42. 5 Pottinger's History of Belochistan, chap. vii. 6 Bishop Heber. still chiefly used. So large a portion of Asia is occupied by vast plains and wastes of sand, that its interior intercourse must be maintained by land journeys. But without the aid of the camel it would be impossible to traverse extensive deserts, destitute both of food and water; and in those arid countries such an animal, which has been truly called the ship of the desert, is the most valuable gift which Providence could bestow.

The other domestic animals of Southern and Western Asia are horses, mules, asses, buffaloes, black cattle, sheep, goats, &c. Arabia may be considered the native country of the horse, in which he arrives at the highest perfection, and combines all the most estimable qualities of symmetry of form, fineness of skin, fire, docility of temper, fleetness, and hardiness. It is chiefly from the Arabian breed that the horses in other parts of the world have been improved. In Persia the horses are neither so graceful nor so swift as those of Arabia, being high, with long legs, spare carcasses, and large heads; but they are highly prized by the inhabitants for their extraordinary capacity of enduring fatigue. To the east of Persia, at Herat, the breed of horses is fine; also on the banks of the Indus and its tributaries; and in the higher regions of Balk and Buchkharin they are excellent and numerous, and are exported in great numbers to Hindostan. The mule and the ass, all over India, are miserable animals. The mules are of a better quality in the Punjab, on the upper course of the Indus, and they improve still more farther west. In the countries west of the Indus they are superior to those in Hindostan, and in Persia there is still a finer breed. But the mule of the east is inferior to that of England. The ass partakes of a similar improvement in his progress west, and is a far finer animal in Western Asia than in Europe. In Syria, Palestine, and generally in Asia Minor, he is distinguished by agility, fire, and patience of fatigue, and ranks in the first class of domestic animals. Buffaloes are found in the hot plains of Asia, as well as in the mountainous tracts; and the oxen which are used in the plough have all a hump on their backs. The wealth of the pastoral tribes who rove about in the western plains of Khorasan, and in the hilly tracts of Afghanistan, consists chiefly in sheep, which have tails a foot broad, and composed entirely of fat, and in other respects resemble the English sheep, being better and handsomer than those of India. Goats are common all over Asia, especially in the mountains, where there are some breeds with curiously twisted horns; and they are by no means scarce in the plains.

In the northern parts of Asia, and in the high mountain tracts, a different class of animals is to be found. These cold regions are not distinguished by the same profusion of animal life as the tropical countries. The beasts of the forest decrease in numbers, in size, and also in fierceness; and the wolf, the bear, and the wild boar, are the only ferocious animals which thrive in these northern climates. In advancing on the desolate plains of Siberia to about the 60th degree of N. lat., we find the cold still taking effect on the animal as on the vegetable creation, and the living creatures as well as the plants and trees stinted in their fair proportions. Beyond this limit a different order of animals appears, protected against the severity of the climate by a thick covering of fur, which is sought after as a rich article of dress in more opulent countries. These animals are accordingly hunted for their skins, which constitute the great staple article of trade in Northern Asia. In the Arctic regions the bear seems to form the only exception to the diminished grandeur of the animal creation. This animal, nourished in the regions of perpetual snow, acquires a larger size and far greater power and fierceness than in southern climates. The domestic animals of the northern and mountainous countries of Asia are of a less imposing appearance, and not nearly of the same strength as those in the lower valleys of the south and west. In the high and cold plains of Central Asia the camel is no longer used as a beast of burden, nor in the northern parts of the continent. Thibet, Tartary, and the plains to the north of the Altai Mountains, are mostly inhabited by Tartar tribes, whose wealth consists in their cattle, which not only furnish them with food, clothing, and shelter, but are also used as beasts of burden, and in the labors of agriculture. The yak of Tartary, or the bushy-tailed bull of Thibet, seems to supply the place of the camel in these mountainous countries. This animal is about the size of an English bull, of great strength, and is reckoned a valuable property among the itinerant hordes of Tartars, to whom it affords the means of easy conveyance, of clothing, and shelter for their tents, from the prodigious quantity of long flowing glossy hair on its tail, and finally of subsistence from its milk and flesh. In those mountains is also found the musk-deer, which delights in the most intense cold, and of which the musk, a secretion by the male, affords a revenue to the government, as well as a valuable article of trade. Here also, on the highest mountains, amid ice and snow, is the Cashmere goat, the wool of which affords the materials of the finest shawls. Wild horses are seen in the high plains of Thibet; and the breed of sheep, a peculiar species of which is indigenous to the climate, is of great value. They are nourished on the short and dry herbage of these exposed plains, and serve for subsistence to the inhabitants, as well as for beasts of burden. The wild and extensive plains of Tartary are inhabited by pastoral tribes, who depend in like manner on their herds. On the southern side of the Altai Mountains we find the same tribes of wanderers, most of them the scattered remnants of the Tartar nations who had formerly so deep a share in the great revolutions of Asia. All these tribes subsist chiefly by pasturage. Near the Ural Mountains some live chiefly by hunting or ensnaring the elk and other wild animals for their furs. Among those who are shepherds, sheep and horned cattle are found; while the hunting tribes have scarcely any domestic animals. In all these countries the wolf and the bear are known to abound. In the rigorous climate farther to the north, where the cattle are stunted in size, and can scarcely subsist, their place is supplied by the rein-deer, a species peculiar to this rigorous climate, and most valuable for all domestic purposes, whether for draught or for subsistence. During part of the year the inhabitants of those desolate countries subsist upon its flesh or milk, its skin furnishes them with the chief part of their dress, and its horns with such domestic utensils as they require. The dog is also trained to draw the sledge.

The feathered race in Asia includes almost every known species. In the southern parts are found all the tropical birds, distinguished by the most beautiful plumage, and some of them uttering sounds that have a resemblance to the human voice. Here are also found some of the largest and rarest birds,—the ostrich, the cassowary, and in the Himalaya Mountains the condor, one of which, shot by a British officer, is stated by Bishop Heber to have measured from the extremity of one wing to another the enormous length of 14 feet. The other birds are

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1 Elphinstone's Account of Cabil, chap. vi. 2 Ibid. p. 143. 3 Turner's Embassy to Thibet, p. 186. eagles, kites, vultures, magpies in the higher countries, hawks, crows, wild geese and ducks, flamingos, herons, bustards, florikens, rock pigeons, lapwings, storks, plovers, snipes, quails, partridges, different species of the ortolan tribe, and almost all the other small birds to be found in similar climates. In Northern Asia the feathered creation is nearly the same as in Europe.

The principle of life, which is so active throughout the torrid zone, and produces quadrupeds of the most enormous size, is also visible in the magnitude and numbers of the reptile tribe, many of them armed with the most fatal poisons, all of them odious to the sight, and some, such as the boa constrictor, attaining the length of 30 feet, and of such prodigious muscular strength as to coil round and crush the largest animals to death. The influence of cold is adverse to the growth of these serpents, which are not found in Asia to the north of the Altai Mountains. The shark, which is found in all warm climates, haunts the tropical seas of Asia; and the crocodile, which is a different animal from the alligator of America, though equally powerful and ferocious, infests the rivers. All sorts of insects, namely, mosquitoes, ants, gnats, flies, &c., most of them noxious and destructive, swarm in the torrid regions of this continent. During the short summers of Northern Asia the musquito and other insects abound in the woody tracts of Siberia, insomuch that near the Ural Mountains the peasants burn constant fires before their cottages, as a defence against their attacks. But the locust, which is peculiar to certain parts of Asia, is the most mischievous of all these winged creatures. They light upon a country in a cloud which darkens the air, and leave nothing green behind them; fields sown with grain being utterly laid waste, and trees stript of their leaves, and of all power to ripen their fruits. They overspread the country with an appearance of blackness for many miles; and when they are driven by the winds into the sea, their dead bodies cover the shore in heaps. These destructive animals appear occasionally in the countries to the north and west of the Indus, in Belochistan, in the desert tracts of Khorassan, and in Persia. They are sometimes seen in Arabia in countless swarms; and frequently to the north of the Altai Mountains, at the sources of the Irtisch, whence they extend their destructive flight as far as the Crimea and the southern provinces of the Russian empire.

Asia has been subject to more awful revolutions than any other part of the world. Though it was at a very early period the seat of flourishing kingdoms, it was soon desolated by war. Its wealthy cities, sacked by its conquerors, fell into decay and ruin; and many of its countries, once civilized and populous, now languish in desolation from violence and misrule. The mighty revolutions which have shaken this continent form an interesting subject, on which volumes might be filled. All that we can propose is a historical sketch of the great leading events which distinguish the annals of Asia, with a brief notice of the various nations which have flourished, or are now to be found within its limits.

The early history of Asia, like that of all other countries, is lost in antiquity; and the obscurity is but slightly dissipated by the indistinct accounts which we receive from the Greek historians, and the brief notices in the sacred volume, of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. The Assyrian empire appears to have been established by Ninus or Belus, the Nimrod of the Scriptures, who, we are told, began to be mighty on the earth, and the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel or Babylon. It was farther enlarged by the renowned queen Semiramis, who carried her arms into India, and extended her sway from the Euphrates to the Indus. The great city of Nineveh had its origin about the same time as Babylon. Sardanapalus was the last king of the Assyrian empire, which subsisted, according to some historians, 1300 or 1450 years. But Herodotus fixes its duration, on what authority does not appear, at 520 years. Sardanapalus was dethroned by Arbaces, governor of Media; and on the ruins of this kingdom two others arose, namely, the empire of Nineveh, under Arbaces, formerly governor of Media; and the empire of Babylon, under Beleisis, the former governor of that city. Nineveh was the capital of the former empire, which embraced the countries on the upper course of the Euphrates and Tigris, and also the country to the east. To the empire of Babylon belonged Chaldea, including the lower valley of the Euphrates. This revolution took place in the 747th year before the Christian era, and in the 7th year after the building of Rome. Some are of opinion that three kingdoms arose on the ruin of the Assyrian empire; but this is generally considered to be an error, the two supposed kings, Arbaces and Tiglath-Pileser or Ninus the younger, being the same person.

It is conjectured that the cities of Babylon and Nineveh were begun about 100 years after the flood, or in the year of the world 1771. At the same time we have no data for fixing with accuracy the chronology of this early period; and the different opinions held by most learned writers sufficiently mark the uncertainty of history in those ancient times. It would appear, however, that the fertile countries of Asia were rapidly overspread with inhabitants. Abraham, according to the Jewish chronology, was born 290 years after the flood; and in his time we hear of the cities of Ur of the Chaldees and of Damascus, besides others which had arisen in the valley of the Jordan, the inhabitants of which devoted themselves to commerce and agriculture; and we are told that this tract of country was well watered, and was even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. But from the incidents related, it would still appear, that excepting the plains of Jordan, which were brought under cultivation, the country was occupied by pastoral tribes. Abraham, when he proposes to separate from Lot, in consequence of the strife of their herdsmen, tells him that the whole land is before him; and he gives him his choice of either going to the right or to the left with his flocks; an arrangement which was scarcely consistent with a high state of cultivation, and which could not have been afterwards proposed when the country was fully peopled.

The posterity of Abraham, who were settled in Egypt, having greatly multiplied in the course of 450 years, were at last permitted to depart; and having crossed the Red Sea, they pursued their triumphant march to the land of Canaan, expelling or extirpating the inhabitants. Thus was laid the foundation of the Jewish commonwealth, which became, in the prosperous reigns of David and Solomon, one of the most flourishing empires of Asia, extending on the east as far as the Euphrates, and having ports both on the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean.

Western Asia was in this manner occupied between the 7th and 8th centuries before the Christian era by the

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1 Voyage de Pallas, tome ii. p. 369. 2 Pottinger's Journey through Belochistan, p. 129; Elphinstone's Account of Kabul, p. 146. 3 Pallas' Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. p. 426. 4 Genesis, chap. x. 5 Prideaux, book L 6 Genesis, chap. xiii. great Assyrian empires of Nineveh and Babylon, and by the kingdom of Israel. The limits of the first two to the east and west are not accurately defined. The Assyrian monarchs sometimes carried their victorious arms eastward into Bactria and to the Indus; but whether they ruled over these conquered countries is uncertain. Their empire, it is probable, extended westward into Asia Minor. On the shores of the Mediterranean, Tyre, with several other flourishing cities, had at a very early period attained to wealth and splendour. Arabia was, as at this day, inhabited by wandering tribes of shepherds and robbers; and other tribes of the same character had spread themselves abroad on the northern plains.

The great ruling powers of Asia were engaged in continual wars; and the Medes, having thrown off the Assyrian yoke, contended with the others for the dominion of the world. Having joined the Babylonians, they invaded the kingdom of Nineveh, already broken by repeated assaults, and took and burnt the capital, thus bringing to an end this great and ancient empire, which had flourished nearly 1500 years, and 185 years after its separation from Babylon. The rise of these formidable empires on the Euphrates was portentous to the peace and safety of the neighbouring states. The kingdom of Israel, weakened by the revolt of the ten tribes, was accordingly invaded by the Assyrian armies. Samaria was subdued; and Jerusalem, overpowered by the victorious armies of Babylon, was taken and utterly destroyed, and the people carried away captive. The overthrow of the Jewish kingdom took place 588 years before the Christian era.

Persia did not at this period (A.D. 3405, B.C. 599) include more than one province of the extensive country since known under that name, nor did it contain more than 120,000 inhabitants. But it was soon after united with Media, under the vigorous rule of Cyrus; and that warlike monarch enlarged his dominions on every side. Having subdued the Lydians under Croesus, the allies of the king of Babylon, and the other adjacent states in Asia Minor, he thence proceeded into Syria and Arabia, which he also subjected; and extending his conquests from the Aegean Sea to the river Euphrates, he finally advanced against Babylon, and, having taken that great city, put an end forever to the Assyrian empire, which had been renowned from the earliest period of the world. The kingdom of Babylon had subsisted, after its separation from Nineveh, 209 years. It was overthrown 50 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and 540 years before the Christian era.

Persia continued to rule over Asia for above 200 years, when its power was overthrown by Alexander the Great. His extensive conquests were divided among his generals, who renewed the strife for dominion which had been for a time extinguished by the ascendancy of Persia. Amid these contentions Parthia and Bactria in the east rose to the rank of independent states. The Roman armies entered Asia about 200 years before the Christian era, and subduing all opposition, they finally established the dominion of Rome from the Hellespont to the eastern boundary of the Euphrates. By the decided triumph of this great power mankind obtained a fresh respite from the calamities of war. It was the first care of the Romans to cement by policy what they had gained by arms, and to establish order and tranquillity in all parts of their widely extended territories. From this period, accordingly, may be dated the commencement of that brilliant era of prosperity and repose enjoyed by this portion of Western Asia for nearly 700 years, the time which elapsed from its final conquest by the Roman armies under Pompey to its subjugation by the Saracens in the 638th year of the Christian era. The people, profiting by the singular felicity of their lot, devoted their attention to commerce and the arts of peace, and attained to a high degree of wealth and refinement. All the civil institutions of society flourished; science and literature were cultivated; and mankind, basking in the sunshine of domestic repose, seemed to enjoy the illusion of perfect happiness. It is estimated that 500 populous cities covered the face of the country. These were adorned with magnificent temples and other splendid monuments of art; and some of them, such as Pergamus, Smyrna, Ephesus, &c., and especially Antioch and Alexandria, rivalled in extent and magnificence the majesty of Rome itself.

After an interval of 500 years, the Persian monarchy Hindostan was revived under the dynasty of the Sassanides. In Eastern Asia the splendid and populous empires of Hindostan and China, though imperfectly known in Europe, had flourished for many centuries. The origin of the Hindoo power is buried in a remote antiquity. The first authentic notice of this mild and pacific people was brought to Europe by the officers who accompanied Alexander's expedition to India. Prior to the era of the Mahometan conquest in the year 1000, the Hindoos possess very imperfect materials for their history. Hindostan comprehended then, as now, the extensive country bounded by the Indus on the west and the Ganges on the east, though we know but little of its boundaries or internal state. The origin of the Chinese, as of other nations, is hid in obscurity. They claim their descent from a very high antiquity, their history going back by tradition to the remote period of 40 centuries, and for 2000 years their annals are verified by the testimony of contemporary historians. It is quite certain, indeed, that long before the Christian era they had emerged from the barbarism of pastoral life, and were devoted to agriculture and commerce; that they had acquired wealth and prosperity, and were thoroughly instructed in all the arts and refinements of civilized nations.

The historical sketch which we have given above includes only the civilized portion of India. But a great proportion of her population were in ancient times shepherds, who dwelt in tents; and it is the more necessary to attend to the distinction between these two classes, as it will be found to illustrate the political history of Asia, and those stupendous revolutions which have not only shaken this continent to its centre, but have been extended to the remotest parts of the world.

It has been already mentioned that the vast table-land of Central Asia, though containing large tracts of desert, is nevertheless interspersed with fertile and well-watered valleys, which produce abundance of pasture; and the immense plain to the north of the Altai Mountains, which extends over the whole breadth of the continent, from the Eastern Ocean to the Volga, is one continued meadow, affording subsistence for innumerable herds of cattle. In all ages, accordingly, those plains have been inhabited by wandering tribes of shepherds, rude, ferocious, and delighting in war. It is finely observed by the Roman historian, that "the pastoral manners, which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life." Such, accordingly, has been the character of all the pastoral nations. They have been always

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1 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. ii. 2 Rennell's Memoir of a Map of Hindostan. 3 Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, chap. iv. addicted to violence and plunder; and their predatory expeditions, whether for the plunder of individuals or of empires, have been invariably conducted with the same fierceness and cruelty. In a pastoral state every man is a soldier, and he is trained to war by his daily occupations. He is hardened in his body by continual exercise and exposure to the weather; in hunting the wild animals of the forest, he acquires skill in horsemanship and in the use of all warlike weapons; and in the perpetual migrations of his tribe, which must be carried on with the same order as the march of an army, he is trained to vigilance and discipline. These wandering barbarians were, besides, engaged, as may be easily supposed, in continual wars with each other. Here, as elsewhere, the usual scarcity of subsistence and of room would soon be experienced with the progress of population. Disputes would thence arise, and fierce contests, which would only terminate with the destruction of one or other of the contending tribes. Of such obscure wars we have no accurate account, though it is certain, that from time immemorial the work of mutual slaughter has been going on in the interior of Asia; and it is obvious that those vast multitudes, if they had been united under some able leader, who could compose or crush all domestic dissensions, might, in place of wasting their strength in intestine strife, have directed it against the civilized portion of the earth, where wealth presented a tempting prize to barbarian cupidity; and, accordingly, this was precisely the calamity by which mankind were at length overtaken. The world was to be disturbed by a conflict, not as heretofore between improved states, but between barbarism and refinement. The question was now to be decided, whether polished nations or barbarians should rule the world; whether literature, science, the arts, the improved institutions, and the whole order of civilized society, should be broken up and buried under an overrunning flood of savage hostility. From the earliest times the countries of Asia Minor, and some parts of Europe, were subjected to the irruptions of barbarians; but no permanent conquest was ever attempted, and the invaders were in general quickly repelled. Asia Minor was defended against the inroads of the Scythians by the Persian monarch; and Rome, in the lion-like vigour of her growing strength, quickly shook off such unequal adversaries. Whether, however, from the increasing population of the Asiatic plains, or from the greater political union of the different tribes, those attacks were renewed with more vigour than ever; and at times the mighty mass of population over the whole breadth of the continent seemed to be agitated by one movement; and, according as the impulse given was to the east or to the west, the kingdoms of Europe or the empires of Hindostan and China were swept by the tempest of invasion. Those formidable expeditions were attended with various results. In those states which were vigorously ruled, the discipline and tactics of civilized warriors proved an overmatch for the untutored valour of barbarians. But, on the other hand, when the people, enervated by ease and luxury, neglected the study of war, and trusted for safety to a mercenary force, the country was overwhelmed by its barbarian conquerors. The Chinese empire was overturned about 200 years before the Christian era, by an irruption of the Huns; the fertile countries on the banks of the Oxus, and of the Jaxartes as far as the Caspian Sea, which had attained to wealth and prosperity under the Macedonian kings, and had ever since been cultivated like a garden, were reduced by the white Huns, and under their sway Carisme, Buckharia, and Samarcand became the seats of industry and of flourishing manufactures, and the great mart of the Indian and European commerce; while the Roman territory in the west was repeatedly assailed, and finally overturned, by hosts of barbarians, who had quitted the crowded plains of Asia in quest of settlements to be won at the point of the sword.

It was about the middle of the 7th century that the Mahometan power emerged from the Arabian deserts; and the shepherds of those burning plains, inflamed by religious enthusiasm and the love of plunder, were equally formidable in war with their brethren of the north. Of all the invaders who, in this unhappy period, desolated the world, the Arabian tribes were the most fierce and cruel. Their religion enjoined the blindest intolerance; they were commanded to propagate their faith by the sword; and it was accounted a merit in a true believer to shed torrents of Christian blood. The track of Mahometan invasion was accordingly marked by the ruin of peaceful cities and by unsparing slaughter. In the course of two years the plain and valley of Syria was subdued by the Arabs or Saracens, whose conquests were soon extended over Asia Minor in the west and Persia in the east; and the country of Transoxiana, or the fertile plains lying on the Oxus and the Jaxartes, were, after several severe battles, reduced under the power of the caliphs, whose authority, a century after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca in the year 662, extended in Asia about 200 days' journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Hellespont, and in Europe as far west as the Atlantic Ocean.

The dominions of the Arabian princes, in their widest extent, were divided into provinces, under subordinate governors, who owned themselves the servants or slaves of the caliph at Bagdad, their temporal as well as spiritual ruler. In the decay of the supreme power, these rulers, under the forms of the most abject submission, had acquired independence; and the caliph remained at Bagdad the vain object of outward homage, while he was inwardly despised. The Persian kingdom was also detached from their dominion, being usurped by a new dynasty, and was extended from the Caspian Sea to the ocean. This dynasty, as usually happens in disorderly times, was supplanted by two families, who, making a division of the kingdom, ruled, the one over Khorassan, Seistan, the high plains of Balk on the northern side of the great Himalaya range, and the countries of Transoxiana, with the cities of Buckharia and Samarcand; and the other over the southern provinces of Persia, as far as the Persian Gulf, namely, Irak, Fars, Kerman, Khusistan, and Laristan. These families appear to have ruled in Persia for 125 years, namely, from 874 to 999. They were overthrown by the Turkish princes of the line of the Gaznevides, the founder of which was Subactageen or Sebactagi, who, from a common soldier, rose to the rank of a petty prince, and fixed his residence at Ghizni. His dominions consisted chiefly of the tract of country which, after the division of Alexander's empire, composed the kingdom of Bactria, namely, the countries lying between the Caspian Sea and the Indus, and near the source of the Oxus. He invaded Hindostan, subdued Northern India and the province of the Punjab, and rendered the princes of the countries tributary to the princes of Ghizni. His son Mahmoud or Mahmud, who reigned in Persia about 1000 years after the birth of Christ, was still more famous for the extent of his conquests. He had extended his empire northward by the reduction of Buckharia; and he now determined, in the

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1 Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, chap. vii. true spirit of Mahometan intolerance, to wage a holy war against the idolaters of Hindostan. At this period the Mahometans had effected no permanent settlement in Hindostan. The people were purely Hindoo, without any admixture of foreign manners; and the whole country along the east side of the Indus to Cashmere was ruled by a prince of the Brahmin race, and between whom and the kings of Delhi, Agrimere, Canoge, and Callinger, a confederacy was now formed against the common enemy of their country and religion. Mahmoud entered Hindostan in A.D. 1090, and having defeated the armies of the confederate kings, he reduced the province of Moulton. Eight years afterwards he penetrated into the heart of India, where his farther progress was opposed by the confederated princes of the country, from the Ganges westward to the Neerbuddah. But the fanatical invader was still victorious, and his progress was signalized by rapine and slaughter. The idols were all broken to pieces, the temples, many of them of the most beautiful architecture, were pulled down, and an immense spoil was carried away. In the course of his twelve expeditions into India Mahmoud extended his conquests to the Ganges; and when he died in 1098, his territories were of great extent.

The annals of those disorderly times afford no very accurate data for ascertaining their exact limits, which are variously stated by writers of great authority. According to Major Rennel, the empire which he established comprehended the eastern, and by much the largest part of Persia, and extended nominally from the upper and western course of the Ganges to the peninsula of Guzerat, and from the Indus to the mountains of Agimere in Northern India. Sir J. Malcolm assigns Georgia and Bagdad for its limits on the west and south-west; Bukhara and Cashgar on the north and north-east; and Bengal and the Deccan, as far as the Indian Ocean, to the east and south-east. But though a large portion of Hindostan was at this time overrun by the Mahometan armies, it was only the Punjab, or the country of the five rivers, that was entirely reduced under any regular government, the other parts of the country being merely occupied by troops.

The empire of Mahmoud declined after his death, owing to divisions and civil wars, but chiefly to the rise of the great Tartar or Turkish tribe of the Seljookie, so called from the name of their renowned chief Seljook, who, being banished by his khan or chief from Turkestan, passed the Jaxartes with his numerous followers, and settled in the plains of Bukharia, in the neighbourhood of Samarcan, where he embraced the Mahometan religion. It is only when those barbarous hordes emerge from the desert, and come into contact with civilized life, that we obtain any clear account of their migrations and history. Their contests with each other, and their obscure wanderings in the interior, are not chronicled among themselves, and are seldom known to other nations. Hence we have rarely any clear data for tracing their origin, or their early conquests, or the consolidation of many tribes into one great nation. It is certain, however, that the vast population of Asia, agitated by internal tempests, has been always violently driven on the great empires of China and Hindostan, or on those of Persia and Rome; and has either made a breach, or, if repelled, has assailed the civilized world at some other more vulnerable point. China has been in all ages an object of attack; and it is generally believed that the Turks, and especially that tribe of them under Seljook, had been driven by the Chinese and a tribe of Tartars from the high plains of Asia, a short time before they sought refuge in the provinces of Transoxiana. They were living near the territories of Bukharia when they first attracted the notice of the Sultan Mahmoud, the founder of the dynasty of the Gaznevides, who had advanced into Bukharia with his army, and was so impressed with the fine military qualities of their chief, the son of Seljook, that he induced them to cross the Oxus and to occupy the country of Khorassan. He had soon reason to repent of this fatal error. Like all those wandering hordes, the Turkmans or Turks were shepherds or robbers. They either molested the neighbouring states by petty incursions, or, with the whole united force of the nation, they practised robbery on the great scale, seizing on kingdoms and despoiling nations. The first emigration of these eastern Turkmans is generally fixed in the 10th century. They became formidable to Mahmoud, and more especially to his successor Massoud, who, from inability to resist their progress, was forced to grant them lands. He was afterwards defeated by them in a general battle; and the victorious Turks, under their leader Togrol Beg, whom they had now elected king, invaded Khorassan, and finally expelled the Gaznevides, the descendants of Mahmoud, from the eastern provinces of Persia. They fled eastward towards the Indus, and established the Ghizian empire in the south-western provinces of India. This empire was maintained with various success till about the year 1184, under the Ghizian emperors. It is difficult to give any accurate view of its limits, which in such turbulent times would naturally vary with the fortune of war. They appear to have embraced the eastern parts of Persia, the mountain country of Cabul or Afghanistan, and the Indian provinces of Lahore and Moulton. The Ghizian dynasty was superseded by that of the Afghan or the Patan emperors, who completed the conquest of the greatest part of Hindostan Proper about the year 1210. Togrol Beg hastened to improve his victory over the Persian monarch. Turning his arms to the west, he invaded Irak, in the centre of Persia, and advancing westward of the Caspian Sea into Azerbijan, the ancient Media, he made his first approaches to the confines of the Roman empire. He afterwards proceeded to Bagdad, and by his conquest of that place he gained possession of the person of the caliph, who was treated with the most profound veneration. His successors Alp Arslan and Malek Shah extended the empire transmitted to them by Togrol Beg. They subdued the fairest portion of Asia. Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which flourished under the mild sway of the caliphs, was taken and pillaged by one of the lieutenants of Malek Shah; and it was the vexation and rapine to which the Christian pilgrims were exposed in their journey to Jerusalem under the barbarous rule of the house of Seljook, that inflamed the indignation of the Christian powers, and gave rise to those wild and warlike expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Land, known under the name of the Crusades. The empire of the Seljookian Turks extended, under Malek Shah, from Egypt and Syria to Bukharia, which he conquered as far as Samarcan and Kharisme. He received homage from the tribes beyond the Jaxartes, and compelled the

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1 See Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, xlv. Major Rennel's elaborate and masterly researches have thrown great light on the geography of this interesting portion of Asia. 2 Major Rennel's Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, xlvii. 3 De Guignes, Histoire Generale des Huns, des Turcs, &c., tome iii. livre 16. 4 Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 142; Major Rennel's Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, cxli. sovereign of Cashgar to offer up public prayers for his prosperity, to strike money in his name, and to pay him an annual tribute.

From this period till the invasion of Zinghis or Ghenghis Khan, which is 110 years, namely, from 1092 to 1202, Asia was convulsed by foreign and intestine wars. The death of Malek Shah dissolved the unity of his extensive empire, in which three new dynasties arose; while in many cases the provincial governors contended for supreme authority, and harassed the country by their mutual wars. It was during this era of division and weakness that Asia Minor, which was ruled by the dynasties of Iconium and Aleppo, was invaded by the hosts of the European crusaders, who rapidly subdued the country, took the holy city of Jerusalem, and extending their conquests over the hills of Armenia and the plains of Mesopotamia, founded the first principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted 54 years, beyond the Euphrates. Those European invaders retained possession of Asia Minor and of Syria for nearly 200 years. Exhausted at length by a long series of sanguinary services, and not receiving reinforcements from home, they were finally driven from all their conquests by the coalition of the Turkish powers.

The Turkish dynasty of the Seljooks continued for 158 years, or 215 years if we reckon from the time that the tribe first emerged from the desert under its leader Seljook. The sultan of Carisme or Kharisme, who ruled over the country situated between the Oxus and the Jaxartes with delegated authority, profiting by the distractions of the neighbouring kingdoms, declared himself independent, and invading Persia with a powerful force, he defeated and slew the last of the Seljook monarchs, and subdued the greater portion of their dominions. He extended his inroads over Syria, and had become the terror of the Ayyubite princes and the sultans of Iconium; and he finally established his wide dominions from the Persian Gulf to the borders of India and Turkestan.

The continued irruptions of those barbarous tribes into the regions of civilization had given rise to scenes of calamity and of revolution hitherto unequalled in the history of the world. Conquests had no doubt been achieved before by the warlike nations of antiquity, and the rage of war had been satiated by the ruin of peaceful cities and the massacre of the people. But these evils, great as they were, fell far short of those inflicted on mankind by the conquests of the pastoral tribes, which were carried to such a height by Zinghis Khan and his destroying bands, as nearly to threaten the desolation of the earth, and the extinction of all the arts, improvements, and civil institutions of society. This Tartar chief, or savage, who was originally the khan of a horde of shepherds, comprising 30,000 or 40,000 families, inhabiting the countries to the north of China, seems, about the beginning of the 13th century, to have united under his sway all the other tribes which, under the various designations of Huns, Turks, Moguls, or Tartars, wander on the spacious high lands and plains of Asia between China, Siberia, and the Caspian Sea. He became, to use the expressive language of the great Roman historian, "the monarch of the pastoral world, the lord of many millions of shepherds and soldiers, who felt their united strength, and were impatient to rush on the mild and wealthy climates of the south."

This great conqueror swept over the whole breadth of the earth with his barbarian hordes. Art and nature were found alike unequal to stay his destructive course. He traversed mountains and rivers, barren deserts and unhealthy climates, with resistless speed; and he oppressed the walled towns by his countless multitudes. The Chinese were the first enemies with whom, after quitting the desert, he measured his strength. His innumerable squadrons penetrated at all points the feeble rampart of the great wall. Ninety-six cities were plundered and destroyed, and the smaller towns and villages were reduced to ashes; the aged were given up to the destroying sword; a prodigious multitude of children were carried away, who were afterwards massacred in the march homeward; besides a rich spoil in gold, silver, silk, and cattle. In a second expedition he was equally successful; the emperor fled before his enemies to a more southern residence; Yenking or Peking was taken and burnt; and, through the weakness and division of the Chinese councils, the five northern provinces of the empire were reduced under the dominion of the Moguls. The invincible arms of Zinghis were now turned against the sultan of Carisme or Kharisme, who, as has been already mentioned, ruled over the fertile countries situated between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and had extended his conquests over a great part of Persia. At this period his territories contained the flourishing and commercial cities of Samarcan, Beckharia, Carisme, Herat, Balk, &c. His troops were overpowered in a bloody conflict with the Tartar host, the country was subdued, and the rights of conquest were as usual most savagely abused. The open country was desolated; the rich cities plundered, and the inhabitants either slaughtered or carried into captivity; and in some cases every thing that had life, with the city itself, was destroyed. The cities that perished in this general ruin were, Buckharia, situated on a branch of the Jaxartes, a populous city, the centre of an extensive commerce, and the seat of science and religion; Otrar; Cojend, on the Oxus; Samarcan, situated near the source of the same river as Buckharia; Carisme, where 100,000 men were massacred, and the surviving population reduced to slavery; Balk, on the Upper Jaxartes, which contained 200 splendid mosques, and a numerous population; Nisabaur; Herat, in Khorassan; Candahar, farther east; besides numerous other smaller towns and villages. All that tract of country which extends from the Caspian Sea to the Indus, comprehending the ancient territories of Transoxiana, Carisme, and Khorassan, and which was fertile, populous, and well cultivated, was entirely ruined by this irruption of the Tartars, so that, to use the words of the Roman historian, "five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years." The conquests of Zinghis before his death, extended west from the Indus to the Euxine, from the Pacific Ocean to the Volga, and from the Persian Gulf to the confines of Siberia.

The children of Zinghis, who succeeded him, completed the career of conquest which he had begun. China, divided at that time into the two dynasties or empires of the north and south, was subdued and laid waste by his grandson Cublai, with all the unrelenting cruelty of a Tartar conqueror; and he extended his influence and the terror of his arms over the circumjacent kingdoms of Corca, Ton-

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1 D'Herbelet: De Guignes, Histoire des Huns, tome iii. livre 14. 2 De Guignes, in his learned and laborious work Histoire des Huns, gives a very clear narrative of the situation and boundaries of this kingdom, and of its final ruin by the invasion of Zinghis Khan. The fate of the sultan, formerly a conqueror, who, flying from the Tartar horse, took refuge in an isle in the Caspian Sea, where he requested a horse might be allowed to feed near his tent, as the companion of his solitude, and his solace in adversity, is particularly touching. See tome iii. livre 14. 3 Gibbon, vol. xi. chap. 64. quin, Cochlin-China, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet. A new dynasty of Mogul princes was established in China, under whose sway the country gradually settled; and in the succeeding generation the habits of the invaders were mollified by the influence of civilized life. Letters, commerce, and the arts of peace were revived, and the ancient system and machine of Chinese manners and policy resumed its accustomed action. One hundred and forty years after the death of Zinghis, his degenerate race were expelled by a revolt of the Chinese, and the native dynasty of princes, namely, that of Ming, was elevated to the vacant throne.

Persia was overwhelmed by the invasion of the Tartar armies under Holagou Khan, the grandson of Zinghis. The princes who ruled in the different districts of the country, under the titles of sultans, emirs, and attabeks, were successively crushed under this great conqueror, who, advancing to the Euphrates, stormed and destroyed the city of Bagdad, put the caliph to death, and thus for ever extinguished the line of the Abassides. Syria was overflowed by the torrent of invasion; Damascus and Aleppo were given up to pillage; the kingdoms of Armenia and Anatolia were overthrown; and the sultans of Iconium, the last remnant of the Seljookian dynasty, were extirpated by the armies of Holagou.

The descendants of Zinghis had no sooner subverted the empire of China, than they resolved on the conquest of the western world; and collecting a mighty host, they advanced from China to Europe, inundating the intervening space with their innumerable hordes, and extirpating the reigning powers in Turkestan, Tartary, and the northern plains of Asia. They penetrated into Europe with their victorious armies, of which detachments were sent northward to contend with the Russian princes for the frozen regions of Siberia. The unity of the Mogul empire, so firmly maintained by Zinghis Khan, was weakened by the extent of its conquests. According to its original constitution, all the other khans were the dependents or vassals of the great khan, under whose investiture they held their authority. But by distance, and the various mutations of time, those ties of allegiance were gradually loosened. The different branches of the Mogul family conformed, from policy or conviction, to the religion of the conquered countries, those who ruled in China to the idolatry of the Chinese, and the invaders of the Moslem territories to the Mahometan faith; and from this diversity of religion and manners divisions arose, which terminated in a lasting disunion. From A.D. 1240 till the rise of Timour or Tamerlane, about the year 1360, the Mogul power in Western Asia was shaken by intestine strife; and a crowd of emirs, sultans, and petty rulers contended, in incessant wars, for the fragments of the broken empire; while such of the Moslem potentates as survived the invasion of Zinghis, still maintained, by their valour, the balance of power in Syria against their Tartar enemies. The Ottoman line of princes, the permanent rulers of the country, were in the mean time slowly emerging into view. Amid the anarchy which reigned in Western Asia from the downfall of independent powers, and the rise of usurpers in their place, the country swarmed with a warlike population, with loose disbanded soldiers, and adventurers of every description. Among these were many of the Turkman hordes who had formerly pitched their tents on the southern banks of the Oxus, and the khan of one of those obscure tribes was the father of the Ottoman dynasty. Othman was the first of this line who, about the year 1326, by his conquests, laid the foundation of the Turkish empire, which has ever since continued to rule in Syria and Asia Minor. About the year 1400 the Turks, under Bajazet, had acquired an extensive empire, the glory of which was for a time obscured by the conquests of Timour the Tartar, or Tamerlane, who began to acquire renown by his early conquests in Eastern Turkestan, or Transoxiana, about the year 1360, when he subdued the kingdom of Cashgar, and carried his conquests 480 leagues to the north-east of Samarcan. He finally extended his dominion to the Irtisch and the Volga; and in 1398, having previously reduced the Punjab and the province of Moultan, he advanced across the intervening desert to Delhi, which submitted to his arms, and was abandoned to pilage. He proceeded eastward towards the sources of the Ganges in a crusade against the idolatry of the Hindoos, who were massacred without pity; and, after an expedition of five months, he finally retraced his steps to Samarcan, without effecting any permanent conquest. In the western countries of Asia he encamped and overthrew the rising power of the Turks under Bajazet, and extended his conquests over Syria and Asia Minor, giving over its flourishing cities, such as Aleppo, Damascus, Smyrna, &c., to the sword and the flame. The rise and progress of this great Tartar chief, and his rapid successes, rivalled those of Zinghis himself; but they were not on the same vast scale, nor had they such lasting effects. The kingdoms which were conquered by Zinghis were colonized by his soldiers and inherited by his children; but Tamerlane's conquests were more like predatory inroads; and though for the time he subverted the existing order of things, and trampled in the dust the princedoms and powers of the country, yet, as the flood of his invasion receded, those powers quickly resumed their sway. In Asia Minor the Ottomans speedily regained their ascendancy on the ruins of the Greek power. They reared up, in the middle of the 15th century, the permanent fabric of their empire. Towards the end of the same century Persia was, by a singular revolution, transferred from the Tartar chiefs to the dynasty of Safavane kings, or saints as they were considered before their elevation to the throne. Under their rule the country continued without any material change, until it was invaded in 1722, and conquered by Mahmood, the first of the Afghan rulers of Persia. The independence of Persia was vindicated by the rise of the celebrated usurper Nadir Shah, who, ascending the throne about the year 1730, quelled all internal dissensions, and re-established the Persian empire in its ancient greatness and glory. He restrained the Turks within the western boundary of the Euphrates; on the north he extended his dominions to the Oxus, and awed by the terror of his arms the Usbecs, and other wandering tribes of the desert; and on the east he conquered Hindostan, which he plundered of its wealth, and fixed the Indus as the boundary of his empire. Under his successors Persia has decreased in extent of territory and in power, but has not been subjected to any violent revolution, and still continues one of the independent though declining empires of the east. In 1747 the Afghans, under the new dynasty of the Dooranee kings, resumed their independence, which they still retain. Their kingdom is bounded on the east by the Indus, and on the west by Persia, or by intervening deserts.

In Hindostan the influence of the Mahometan conquerors, which was firmly established in 1210, was gra-

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1 "Les hommes," says De Guignes (tome iv. livre 17), "les femmes, et même les enfants à la mammelle, furent égorgés." 2 Gibbon, vol. xii. chap. 65. dually extended over the southern provinces, amid rebellion and massacre. The uncertain dominion of the country appears to have been shared among a crowd of tributary princes, who, from their intestine quarrels, became an easy prey to the invader. Delhi was the capital of the Mahometans; and their conquests were extended over Malawah, the Deccan (by which we mean the country between the Nerbudah and the Krishna rivers) and the Carnatic, which was ravaged from sea to sea. The invasion, or rather the predatory inroad of Timour in 1398, did not subvert the Mahometan dynasty, which terminated in 1413 by the death of the monarch. The throne was then filled by a Seid, i.e., one of the race of Mahomet, whose posterity enjoyed it till the year 1450, when an Afghan took possession of it; and all Hindostan was divided into separate governments. After an interval of reviving prosperity, the empire, about the year 1516, fell again into utter confusion, which paved the way for the conquest of the country by Sultan Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane and of Zinghis Khan, who being driven from the provinces situated between the Indus and Samarcand, over which he reigned, determined to try his fortune in India. He crossed the Indus in 1518, and having defeated the emperor of Delhi, he established the dynasty of Timur, or the Mogul line as it has been termed, which was illustrated by two of the greatest princes that ever reigned in India, namely, 1st, Achar, who, from 1555, reigned 51 years, and subjected to his sway all the provinces that had revolted, from Agimerce to Bengal; and, 2ndly, by Aurungzebe, who, after the interval of anarchy that continued for 50 years on the death of Achar, ascended the throne in 1660, and died in 1707, in the 90th year of his age. In this reign the dominion of the Moguls was extended over the Deccan, the whole of which, excepting only the mountainous and inaccessible parts, was either entirely subjected, or rendered tributary to the court of Delhi. His authority reached from the 10th to the 35th degree of latitude, and to nearly the same extent in longitude; and his revenue amounted to 32 millions sterling. The Mogul empire gradually fell to pieces under a succession of feeble princes; and about the year 1750 it was reduced to the city of Delhi, and a small tract of adjacent territory. The last imperial army that ever appeared in the field was defeated by the Rohillas in 1749; and during this period the whole country was one scene of commotion, all the viceroys and petty feudatories of the Delhi sovereigns,—the various mountain tribes, such as the Rajpoots, who ruled in Agimerce,—the Seiks, who had become formidable, and had established themselves in Lahore,—and the Jats, a tribe also in the north of India,—contending in arms for independence. Nothing remains of Mogul greatness but the name, which was, and is still, used as the symbol of sovereignty, and the sanction of all political and civil rights.

The decline of the Mogul empire paved the way for the rise of the Mahratta power, which had already become formidable in India under its founder Sevajee. At his death in 1680 he had acquired considerable dominion on the western coast of India. The confusion and anarchy that followed the death of Aurungzebe greatly facilitated the Mahratta conquests; and in 1740 this growing empire, which was divided between two chiefs, the one residing at Poonah in the west, and the other at Nagpoor in the east, occupied the whole track from the western sea to Orissa, and from Agra to the Carnatic. The Mahrattas, thus daily gathering strength, and the Mahometans, were now the two great rival powers in Hindostan. The contest between them was brought to an issue in the memorable battle of Paniput in 1761, when the Mahratta host of 200,000 men was entirely overthrown, with the loss of the greater part of their army, and their best generals; and from that fatal day their power began to decline.

The rise of the British power forms an important era in the history of India. The unwarlike inhabitants of British Hindostan, successively subdued by the Greek, the Mahometan, and the Tartar armies, were now destined even more surely to fall under the science and discipline of Europe. The French maintained their ground in India only for the short period of 12 years, from 1749 to 1761. The British, who engaged about the same time in the wars and politics of India, were more successful. The battle of Plassey, in 1757, fought with Surajah Dowlah, nabob of Bengal, gave them a firm footing in the country. The war which followed terminated in their favour; and in 1765 they acquired the right of collecting the revenues of Bengal, which was in fact the sovereignty of the country. The jealousies of the native powers, excited by the encroachments of the Europeans, gave rise to new contests. But victory was still the result of each new struggle; and all the wars undertaken against the British only tended to consolidate and extend their empire. The long and memorable struggle with Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo, who ruled in Mysore, terminated in their entire overthrow in 1799, and in the capture of Seringapatam, the capital of the kingdom. The peace of India, which was re-established by this decisive success, was not, however, of long duration. The British were regarded by the native princes as the common enemies of Indian independence. They were alarmed by their growing power, and they naturally united with each other against them. The British, on the other hand, viewed with equal jealousy the hostile dispositions of the native princes. They foresaw that a struggle would take place for the dominion of India, and they made suitable preparations for the impending crisis. A combination of the Mahratta chiefs Scindiah and the rajah of Berar was overthrown by the skilful and vigorous movements of Sir A. Wellesley. Holkar, who rashly measured his strength with the British, was also overthrown, and peace was re-established. In 1817, when the British were prosecuting the war against the Pindarees, the Mahratta powers formed a new coalition, and took the field in great force. They were separately overthrown: the Peswha, the head of the Mahratta states, was deprived of his throne, and his territories placed under the administration of the British. The rajah of Nagpoor was also driven from his dominions; and Holkar was again humbled, and deprived of his rank as an independent prince. This was the last expiring effort of Indian independence, by which the struggle was closed, and the dominion of the British firmly established, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya Mountains.

Amid those revolutions, of which we have attempted to give a brief sketch, it is not surprising that some of the most ancient empires of Asia should have entirely disappeared; that populous cities should have fallen into decay and ruin; and that extensive countries, once the seats of wealth, commerce, and science, should now lie desolate. The Babylonians and Assyrians have been long blotted out of the page of history; and no traces of them remain in the population of the world. The kingdom of

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1 Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. ii.; Major Rennel, Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, Introduction, lxi. 2 Major Rennel, Introduction, lxxxiv. the Jews has also been overthrown; but this ancient race are still wanderers on the face of the earth, and are found in most parts of Asia. There are other five principal races, who, it is remarked by Sir W. Jones, have in different ages divided among themselves as a kind of inheritance, and who still occupy, the vast continent of Asia, with the many islands depending on it. These are the Hindoos, the Chinese, the Tartars, the Arabs, and the Persians. The origin of those different races is a curious subject of inquiry, and must be sought for in the remotest antiquity, and from the doubtful analogies supplied by religion, manners, and language. Sir W. Jones, who has so well illustrated many obscure points of ancient history, is of opinion that Persia was the original seat of mankind, from which, as from a common centre, they have gradually spread over the earth. According to his learned hypothesis, deduced from ancient works and an examination of the primitive languages, a flourishing empire was established in Persia or Iran, in the earliest dawn of history; and the population consisted of the three distinct races of Hindoos, Arabs, and Tartars. About the era of Mahomet, it appears that, besides the language in common use, the learned had a language of their own, which had the name of the Pahlavi; and there was the still more ancient and abstruse language of the Zend, in which some sacred books were written, only known to a sect of priests and philosophers. The Pahlavi he clearly proves to be of Chaldaic origin, and the Zend, from an imperfect vocabulary which he procured, to be a dialect of the Sanscrit, the ancient and learned tongue of the Brahmans in India. Having thus ascertained the analogy between the language of the ancient Persians and that of the Arabs and the Hindoos, he concludes that they must have originally been the same nation; and that, as Persia could not be peopled from the east by the Hindoos, whose religion forbids them to emigrate, nor by the Arabs from the west, as we have not the slightest tradition of any such emigration, both Arabs and Hindoos must have come from Persia, since we may still trace in this country the remains of their respective tongues, all of which appear to have been derived from one common and more ancient root.

The people of Thibet are descended from the Hindoos, and, according to the hypothesis of Sir W. Jones, who on all those subjects unites solid reasoning with the most profound learning, have engrafted the heresies of Buddha on their ancient religion. Their language, though it has been corrupted by an intercourse with the Chinese, still bears the traces of a Sanscrit origin. The Afghans or Patans, who occupy Afghanistan, between Persia and Hindostan, are said to have sprung originally from the Jews; and their language, which is derived from the ancient Chaldee, so far confirms this tradition. The Japanese and the Chinese are evidently derived from a common stock, their literature, religion, and manners being the same. The Burmese are considered, on the best evidence, to belong to the Hindoo race, though others give them a Tartar origin.

The Tartars, under which appellation we include the hordes of shepherds who range over the vast plains of Asia, under the names of Scythians, Huns, Mongols, and Kalmucs, differ entirely from the Hindoos and Arabs in features, complexion, and form, as well as in manners and language, and appear evidently to be a distinct race. Their language, which is the Turci or the Turki, of which the modern Turkish is a dialect, might, according to Sir W. Jones, be easily traced to a different root from the others. This ancient Tartarian language he mentions, on grounds which it would not be easy to disprove, was current in Persia at a very early age; and hence he concludes that the Tartars formed part of the ancient population of Persia, and, along with the other two races, issued from that country to occupy the deserts of Asia. The Chinese, according to the same learned author, whose opinion is founded on the Sanscrit institutes of Menu, were originally a military tribe of the Hindoos, who, abandoning the ordinances of the Brahmin religion, and living in a state of degradation, emigrated eastward, and occupying the countries bordering on Hindostan, laid the foundation of the Chinese empire. But the whole country has been since overrun and conquered by hordes of Tartars; and from the intermixture of those two races have sprung the modern Chinese, whose coarse, broad, and Tartar-like physiognomy bears no longer the traces of their Hindoo ancestors.

We have no sure data to determine from what country the population of the world at first proceeded; and most of the theories on this subject rest chiefly on the doubtful analogies of language, or on other evidence equally uncertain. It is the opinion of many learned inquirers that the Chinese are not Hindoos; but that they, along with all the inhabitants of Eastern Asia, are originally a Tartar race. This opinion is founded on the usual evidence of a common origin, namely, a resemblance in features, language, and customs. Dr F. Buchanam, who travelled into the Burmese country, and has furnished some interesting information respecting this people, observes, that "there is one very extensive nation which inhabits the east of Asia, and that it includes the Eastern and Western Tartars of the Chinese authors, the Kalmucs, the Chinese, the Japanese, and other tribes inhabiting what is called the peninsula of India beyond the Ganges, and the islands to the south and east of this, as far at least as New Guinea." The features and figure of all those different nations which he describes indicate a Tartar origin. They are in stature short, squat, and robust; their face is sharpened towards the mouth and chin, while at the cheek-bones it is very broad. Eyebrows that scarcely project; narrow eyes, placed rather obliquely in the head; a very small nose, with the apertures of the nostril nearly circular; harsh, lank, and black hair, complete the portrait of a Tartar face. By such features they have been distinguished in all ages. The ancient writers, in describing the barbarians who invaded the Roman empire, particularly mention their small twinkling eyes, punctured as it were in their heads; their broad shoulders, short stature, and their shrill voices, which is not mentioned by Dr Buchanam as characteristic of the inhabitants of Eastern Asia. There seems no reason to question those strong evidences of a Tartar origin; and admitting so far the theory of Sir W. Jones, that the Chinese were originally descended from a tribe of Hindoos, they appear in the course of ages to have lost all traces of that ancient race.

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1 Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of their firm and compactly built limbs, their thick necks, their large and bent figures; and, in a tone of exaggeration, compares them to two-legged brutes, or to the rude figures which were placed by the Romans at the end of bridges. He mentions also the practice which prevailed among them of rooting out the hairs of their beards. "Ubi quoniam ab iis nascenti primatis infantum ferro sulcantur altius genae, ut pilorum vigor tempestivus emergens corrugatis cicatricibus, se-nescent imberbes aboque illa venustate, spadonibus similes; compacts omnes firmique membri, et optimis cervicibus; prodigiose formae et pandi, ut bipedes existimes bestias, vel quales in commarginatione pontibus eligiati stipites delantur incompto. (Amm. Marcell. lib. xxxi. cap. ii.) The tribes who inhabit the great Asiatic archipelago, which extends from Madagascar to the Philippines and the neighbouring peninsula of Malacca, bear in their features, language, and customs the undoubted marks of the same origin; and as the Sanscrit may be traced as the root of all the various dialects spoken in these islands, they appear to be descended from the Hindoos. But in the lapse of ages, and in the various chances of war or migration, different nations may be intermingled; the original traits by which each was distinguished will then gradually disappear, so that it may not be possible to discern the traces of a common origin in the varieties of the same race. Like the Chinese, therefore, the inhabitants of the great Arabic archipelago may have come originally from Hindostan, bringing with them the Sanscrit tongue; and in the course of migration or conquest they may have acquired the features of the Tartars, without losing their native language. Sir Stamford Raffles, not less distinguished by his eminence in eastern literature and antiquities than as a legislator and a statesman, is of opinion that the Asiatic islands were peopled from that portion of the continent which lies between Siam and China. "The less civilized of the tribes," he observes, "inhabiting the islands, approach so nearly in physical appearance to that portion of the inhabitants of the peninsula which has felt least of the Chinese influence on the one side, and of the Burman and Siamese on the other, and exhibit so striking an affinity in their usages and customs, as to warrant the hypothesis, that the tide of population originally flowed toward the islands from that quarter of the continent lying between Siam and China." But at what era this migration commenced—whether, in the first instance, it was purely accidental, and subsequently gradual, or whether originally it was undertaken from design, and accelerated at any particular periods by political convulsions on the continent, we cannot at present determine, as we have no data on which to rely with confidence. It is probable, however, that these islands were peopled at a very remote period, and long before the Burman and Siamese nations rose into notice. Mr J. Crauford, who resided for nine years in the Asiatic islands, and whose history of those countries displays extensive research, and a profound knowledge of eastern literature and antiquities, adopts a different hypothesis respecting the original population of the Indian archipelago. He describes the original inhabitants to consist of two races, one a brown-complexioned people, with lank hair, and in their persons short, squat, and robust, supposed by other writers to be Tartars; and the other, a negro race, of a puny stature and feeble frame, in complexion black, or rather sooty-coloured, with woolly or frizzled hair. The brown-coloured race compose the civilized portion of the people; and they have supplanted the negroes, who are constantly found in a savage state in Sumatra, Java, and Celebes, where civilization has made the greatest progress; while in New Guinea and other islands the negroes are almost the sole inhabitants. The origin of these two races, and the period when they settled in the Asiatic islands, is, according to Mr Crauford, buried in the remotest antiquity. The Tartar origin of the one race, though supported by many writers of learning, and the African origin of the negroes, is treated by him as absurd and unfounded. "Either hypothesis," he observes, "is too absurd to bear the slightest touch of examination. Not to say that each race is radically distinct from the stock from which it is imagined to have proceeded; the physical state of the globe, the nature of man, and all that we know of his history, must be overturned to render these violent suppositions possible."

Dr F. Buchanan, Sir Stamford Raffles, and others, deduced the Tartar origin of those insular tribes from their form and features, which is the best evidence we can have where history is silent. The prevalence of the Sanscrit language in these islands has also, and with apparently some reason, been supposed to indicate the quarter from which the tide of population flowed; nor is it easy to see how the migration of a people from the continent of Asia into this archipelago is at variance with the "physical state of the globe, the nature of man, and all that we know of his history." Mr Crauford traces the various languages of the Asiatic islands to one common root. From this fact he concludes those islanders to have all sprung from one source, and he fixes on Java as their original place of settlement. Here he supposes they took up their abode when they were little better than wandering savages; whence they gradually spread over the other islands. Now it is on the same ground that others trace their origin to some continental nation of great antiquity. The language of a nation may throw light on its origin and its subsequent migrations; and in the present case it is admitted by Mr Crauford that there is a large infusion of Sanscrit in all the Polynesian tongues; that it is "a more essential, necessary, and copious portion of the insular languages than Arabic;" that it exists in "a state of as great purity as the articulation and alphabets of the archipelago would admit, nearly unmixed with any modern dialect of which it is a part, and apparently in a state of original purity;" and that it is "pure and abundant as each dialect of the same tongue is improved, and rare and corrupt as the language is common and popular." Sanscrit words, according to those who are versed in both languages, abound in the court dialect of Java in the proportion of three to four, and seem to constitute its basis; in the Kami, or learned language of the priests, they occur still more frequently, and in their original purity; they are also common in the written language, and are found, though not so generally, in the ordinary dialect of the people. The existence of Sanscrit to such an extent in the languages of Java and the other islands, does not, according to Mr Crauford, prove that these islands were peopled by emigrants from Hindostan. He acknowledges that the fact of the Sanscrit not being mixed in their languages with any living dialect of India, is somewhat puzzling, and not easily reconciled to his theory; but on farther consideration, he thinks this fact tends rather to explain the manner in which it was introduced, which he ascribes to a few Hindu missionaries or priests brought to those islands from a desire to propagate their religion. They would naturally, he supposes, use the Sanscrit in teaching the mysteries of their faith, which, being mixed with the common language of the country, would form the Kami or learned language of the priests, and would thence be diffused in a corrupted state over the common dialect of the people. From the prevalence of Sanscrit to such an extent in the Polynesian dialects, as well as from the ancient monuments of Hindoo idolatry which are found everywhere in those islands, it seems highly probable that they must, at a very early period, have been the seat of a Hindoo empire, which has disappeared in the lapse of ages, while the Hindoo superstition has been supplanted by the Mahometan creed. Whether this empire was established by conquest in that early period, while the Sanscrit was yet a living language, or whether the Hin-

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1 Sir S. Raffles' History of Java, chap. ii. 2 History of the Indian Archipelago, by John Crauford, F. R. S., vol. ii. chap. v. doos were the original settlers in these islands, and afterwards, from the intermixture of other races, lost the traces of their ancient lineage, are points which lie hid in the darkness of antiquity. It does not seem very credible, however, that a small number of Hindoo missionaries should have had influence, as Mr Crauford supposes, to change the language of the people, and to substitute for the ancient religion of the country their own foreign superstitions. So great a change seems more probably to have been produced by foreign conquest, or by a large emigration of the Hindoo people.

Of the various races which people those islands, the Malays appear to deserve particular notice. Sir W. Jones supposes them to be descended, since the time of Mahomet, from the Arabian traders and mariners who frequented the Asiatic archipelago. But by later and more accurate inquiries they are now ascertained to have been originally settled in Menangkabau, in the centre of the island of Sumatra, and to have ruled over the whole country, from which they sent out colonies to the other islands. The Malayan annals examined by Mr Marsden, and other documents, satisfactorily prove that, so far from emigrating, as was generally supposed, from the peninsula of Malacca to the Asiatic islands, they were original settlers in Sumatra, from which they issued to invade and conquer the Malacca peninsula; and they had established a powerful empire prior to the Mahometan conquests. The Malays profess the Moslem creed, which was introduced about the end of the thirteenth century, and has made rapid progress among all those islanders. But their original religion was that of Brahma, blended with the antecedent rude idolatry of the country, such as is still seen among the Battas. The Malay adventurers who invaded the Malacca peninsula in the 12th century conquered the country; and the indigenous inhabitants, so far from being the stock from which the Malays have sprung, are an entirely different race, resembling more nearly the negroes of Africa. The Malayan empire, which extended all over Sumatra, is now dismembered, though its colonies have been found on the coasts of the Malacca peninsula, and throughout the islands as far east as the Moluccas. The Malayan language is spoken without any mixture in the inland country of Sumatra; it is understood everywhere, and has extended over all the eastern islands. The Bugis in the island of Celebes are a well-known race in the eastern archipelago. During the flourishing era of the Malayan empire in Sumatra they had established that of Guah or Mengkasar in Celebes on the east; like the Malays, they sent forth numerous colonies; and at one period extended their conquests as far west as Aceh in Sumatra and Keddan in the Malayan peninsula; and in almost every part of the archipelago Malayan and Bugis settlers are to be found. In all those Asiatic islands there is, however, an indigenous race, who were settled there prior to the Malays or the Bugis; and these last appear to have been intruders, but at what period of the world cannot now be known. The native inhabitants of Sumatra, Java, and the other islands, differ from them in character, habits, and features. The Battas, in the interior of Sumatra, are a distinct people, with their own peculiar habits and language: they have been reproached by travellers for eating human flesh, of which Sir Stamford Raffles produces undeniable evidence. The natives of Java are a quiet, contented race, attached to the soil, and have not the roving, maritime, and piratical habits of the Malays.

With regard to the number of inhabitants in Asia, we have no data for any accurate estimate. The Asiatics inhabit possess no statistical knowledge; and, excepting surveys instituted by government for the purposes of taxation, no other political inquiries are ever set on foot by authority. The various accounts of the Chinese population differ to the extent of 100,000,000. Those regarding Persia, Hindostan, the Asiatic islands, &c. are little more to be depended on; and still less can we expect any accurate census of the roving population of Arabia or Tartary.

The character of the Asiatics is represented in a very unfavourable light by all travellers. Lieutenant Pottinger, and many others who travelled in Hindostan, Persia, and other countries, asserts that moral turpitude may be said to pervade the Asiatic population and society of every nation in Asia of which we have the slightest knowledge; and this description is confirmed by other travellers, who describe the people to be dissolute in their morals, of cold and selfish dispositions, and withal cruel and treacherous; without either restraint or shame, in the most scandalous crimes. Of all the nations in Asia the Persians are reckoned to be the most refined; and yet, according to Herbert, Chardin, and others, and more recently Fraser, Pottinger, and Sir J. Malcolm, they are stained with all the Asiatic vices of cruelty, meanness, lying, and the grossest licentiousness. The Hindoos do not rank higher than the Persians in the scale of morality; and among the Burmese and other eastern states the treatment of women, who are held to be an inferior class, and are sold into slavery by their husbands and parents, and the cruelties which they commit in war, besides other revolting customs, indicate a state of manners which, contrasted with those of Europe, may be justly considered barbarous. Of the low state of morals among the Chinese we need seek no other evidence than the inhuman practice, which is known to prevail in all the populous cities, of exposing new-born children to perish on the streets. There is no truer mark of barbarism than an indifference to the sufferings of our fellow-creatures; as on the other hand it is only in a highly civilized community that man is trained to the exercise of social benevolence. The savage is always found to be cold, unsocial, and selfish; in the progress of society this selfish principle is corrected; man is impressed with the duties which he owes to his fellow-men, and is taught to know experimentally, that it is not in the selfish pursuit of his own good, but in the mutual interchange of benefits, that the greatest sum of individual happiness is to be found. If we examine the manners, institutions, and policy of different nations, it will be seen that mankind are humane and moral exactly as they are instructed; and that as the diffusion of knowledge leads to the practice of all the social virtues, ignorance as surely produces cruelty, selfishness, and vice. Thus, among the Persians and Turks cruelties are committed which would be repudiated by the more advanced civilization of Russia; and in illustration of the same principle we may here mention a circumstance which serves to place in an equally striking contrast the manners of the English and the Chinese. An

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1 History of Sumatra. 2 See Travels in Bokhistan and India. "I hope," he adds in a note, "I shall not be stamped as a misanthrope on account of the sentiments I entertain of all Asiatics. I am convinced the farther our researches spread, and the more intimately we become acquainted with the East, we shall discover stronger, clearer proofs of the general application of the conclusion I have drawn. I should be happy to have any evidence to the contrary, but do not anticipate it." 3 See Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khurasan. 4 See Crauford's Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Ava in the year 1827. 5 Sir S. Raffles' History of Java, chap. ii. English vessel happened to be at anchor in the roads of Canton, when a Chinese boat was overset, and the crew precipitated into the water. The accident was observed by numbers of the Chinese, who beheld with the utmost indifference their countrymen struggling for their lives. But the officers and seamen of the English vessel instantly lowered their boats, and were seen, with all their usual zeal in the cause of humanity, striving to save the lives of those who were entire strangers to them. Now we cannot have a surer index to the station which each nation holds respectively in the scale of civilization, than the opposite conduct which they severally pursued in this case; and this insensibility to human distress is not peculiar to the Chinese; it seems to pervade the whole population of Asia; while in Europe we see everywhere proofs of active benevolence,—the most munificent establishments for the relief of misery; hospitals for the sick and infirm; houses of refuge for the aged, the blind, the destitute, and the insane; besides charitable associations of every description. For all the afflictions to which frail humanity is subject, the active sympathy of Europe supplies a remedy; and the spacious structures which, under the influence of this feeling, have been reared up in all the European towns, are at once the splendid monuments of humanity and of high civilization. In Asia the rich and the powerful associate, not to relieve, but to oppress the poor; and throughout its wide extent no asylum for distress, nor any charitable institutions, are to be seen. The miserable are left to their fate, which is generally to die unpitied, either of famine or disease. There is no part of Asia in which intelligence is widely diffused among the people; and hence, while they are to "vice industrious," they are to "noble ends timorous and slothful." Yet in the exterior pomp and show of the Asiatics there is something specious and imposing; and the rich magnificence of their flowing robes, their gorgeous palaces, their splendid mosques and gilded temples, are calculated to raise ideas of high improvement, which a nearer inspection fails to realise; and, after all, what is there in this tinsel glare of oriental luxury that can be compared to the severe simplicity and solid refinements of Europe.

This degraded state of society seems to be the joint effect of tyranny and superstition. In Asia there is no government which wears even the semblance of freedom. In form, as well as in practice, they are purely despotic, the princes being tyrants, and the people slaves. Nor is the power of the prince controlled by the influence of manners, as in Europe, where the monarch, however absolute, seldom indulges in the licence of despotic sway, and where life and property are fully protected. The manners of Asia favour the exercise of unlimited power; and this vast continent is accordingly one scene of excess and misrule, where the mere will of the monarch is a warrant for the proscription and death of any individual, however powerful, and for the ruin of his family. The people, ruled according to those severe maxims of despotism, live in continual dread of violence and wrong; and they naturally resort, in self-defence, to fraud, falsehood, and treachery, which are the resources of weakness. Thus all sense of independence is at last extinguished; and under the iron rod of their political masters they degenerate into abject slaves, without honour, intelligence, or morality. Despotism in Asia assumes so severe a character, that it invades the security of private life, relaxes all social ties, and re-acting on the people with its pernicious influence, tends still farther to debase them, and to fit them for the endurance of its degrading yoke.

The prevailing superstitions of Asia have had their due share in corrupting the manners of the people. In Asiatic Turkey, in Arabia, Persia, and partly also in Hindostan and the Asiatic isles, the people have adopted the Mahometan faith; in Hindostan they have followed the religion of Brahma; and in Tibet, and farther eastward among the Burmese, in China, and the isles of Japan, the religion of Buddha or Foe is universally established, which, however corrupted in its various forms and idolatries, is still known to be derived from the Brahminical faith. Now all these different systems enjoin a variety of minute observances, and tedious pilgrimages and penances, a strict compliance with which constitutes the essence of religion. A pilgrimage to Mecca, for example, atones for all the iniquities of a Mahometan life; and the Hindoos and others have their pilgrimages and penances for the expiation of guilt. A relaxation of morals is the consequence; and hence in those eastern countries a strict profession of religion is not inconsistent with the most scandalous crimes.

The sanction given to polygamy by all the systems of religion in the East has also tended to encourage licentiousness. Mahomet found it convenient to allow this indulgence to his followers; and the Hindoos, the Burmese, the Chinese, and most of the other Asiatic nations, follow the same rule. In all Christian countries marriage is respected as a sacred and an honourable tie, equally binding on both parties; and experience proves, that where its obligations are duly fulfilled, it is calculated to produce all the happiness and virtue which can be attained by man in this sublunary state. In the intercourse of a European family the best affections of our nature are called forth. Here, as the poet expresses it,

Flows the smooth current of domestic joy;

and in those scenes the rising generation receive, from the example and tuition of parents, those just and early impressions, which are never erased. How different are the baneful consequences of polygamy, which, being contrary to the order of nature, must be upheld by tyranny, and which degrades the weaker sex, from being the free and equal companions of man, into the slaves of his pleasures. The domestic tyrants of the East rule with absolute power over all the inmates of the harem; any of whom, in a fit of rage or jealousy, they may consign to a cruel death, no eye witnessing the deed. The effect of polygamy in this manner is not merely to taint the morals of society, but the laws and policy of the state. It establishes a tyrant, not on the throne, which would be the lesser evil, but at the head of every family; and on his unruly passions the law imposes no restraint. Hence in Asia domestic comfort, so much prized in Europe, cannot be known. An Asiatic family is not the abode of purity and of domestic peace, but of licentiousness and strife; the husband and father the object of terror rather than affection; the women his abject slaves, leading a life of jealousy and malice, and often conspiring against each other by the most diabolical arts. The institution of polygamy, which in this manner converts one half of the community into tyrants and the other half into slaves, has proved, in every country in which it has been introduced, the bane of morality as well as of social peace. In Europe the purer influence of Christianity, consecrating the marriage union, and impressing on man a just consideration for the other sex, has raised them to the rank in society which properly belongs to them. It has released them for ever from the bondage of tyranny and vice; and under its mild and beneficent maxims the nations of Europe have attained to a degree of morality, refinement, and intelligence, which distinguishes them to their advantage above the most polished nations of antiquity, and presents a decided contrast to the licentiousness and misery of the East.

But if such be the state of society among the civilized inhabitants of Asia, what, it may be asked, is the condition of its rude tribes? Among those semi-barbarians who have no fixed habitations, but who dwell in tents, migrating periodically with their flocks in quest of pasture, all crimes of violence, such as rapine, revenge, and murder, prevail without any restraint. The pastoral tribes of Asia retain all their Tartar habits of ferocity; robbery is their daily occupation, handed down from father to son; and they are perpetually engaged in predatory inroads, in which they carry off as their lawful prey all that they can seize—corn, cattle, goods, and men and women, who are sold for slaves. If any traveller were to venture within this region of violence, he would be robbed and murdered without mercy; and no merchandise can be transported from one place to another without a sufficient escort. The regular commerce of Asia is in consequence carried on in caravans, or large companies of merchants, who travel together for safety; and even these are not secure from the savage tribes, the remnants of the Tartar population, who inhabit the mountains and central plains, and who frequently emerge from their fastnesses in great force for the purposes of plunder. Such were the shepherds who, under Zenghis Khan and Tamerlane, issued forth in innumerable bands, subverting the great empires of the world, and extending their dominion from sea to sea. But various causes have concurred to circumscribe their power. Among these we may reckon the invention of fire-arms, which in war gives the entire ascendancy to civilized nations. Prior to this invention the weapons used were extremely simple, and could be easily fashioned by the rudest tribes. In archery, or in the use of the sling, the merest savages may excel; and for a close encounter the spear or the sword could be easily procured, and as effectually wielded by a barbarian as by any other arm. But the matériel of modern war is far more complicated and expensive, and cannot be procured without the aid of wealth, and the nicest mechanical art as well as science; so that it is justly observed by the historian of Rome, that in the present state of the military art, a nation must be civilized before it can conquer other nations. Since the invention of fire-arms the superiority of civilized over barbarous nations has been seen in every encounter which has taken place, and "the reign of independent barbarism has been contracted within a narrow span."

The extensive region of Tartary, which occupies the centre of Asia, has never been very distinctly defined; but it is surrounded on all sides by the civilized empires of Asia,—on the north by Asiatic Russia, and on the south by Persia, Hindostan, and China; and as the use of fire-arms has augmented the military strength of these different states, they have gradually extended their sway over the savage tribes on their frontiers. Russia, which was overrun by Tamerlane and other conquerors about the end of the 14th century, was, after about 200 years of obstinate and bloody wars, emancipated from the Tartar yoke; and it has ever since been making reprisals on its barbarous enemies, having reduced the tribes on its frontiers—the Kalmyks, the Bashkirs, the Kirghises, who inhabit the banks of the Volga and the country on the shores of the Caspian Sea, besides numerous other Tartar tribes on the Chinese frontier, near the sources of the Irtisch, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena. Her wars with the Turks also, an Asiatic tribe, though of a different origin from the broad-featured race of Tartars, exemplify in a striking manner the warlike superiority of civilized nations. The contests of China with the barbarous hordes of Mongols, Kalkus, and Eluths, to the west and north-west of her territory, and with the Mantchoo Tartars, who inhabit the country to the north, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, have also terminated in their entire subjection. They have been successively subdued by the Chinese armies; and the missionary Gerbillion, giving an account of a great victory gained by the Chinese, ascribes it to the superiority of their artillery, which the barbarians had no means of opposing. Persia has been long a feeble power; and the Tartar tribes who range along her northern and eastern frontiers are still extremely powerful, and frequently molest the adjoining countries by their incursions. Independent Tartary may now therefore be comprised within the following boundaries, namely, the Altai Mountains on the north, which form the southern boundary of the Russian empire; the Caspian Sea on the west; Chinese Tartary on the east; and Persia and Hindostan on the south. These boundaries inclose a space of about 1200 miles in length, from the Altai Mountains to Persia; and 900 in breadth, from the Caspian Sea to Chinese Tartary. To this must be added the country between Hindostan and Persia, including Sinde at the mouth of the Indus; and westward the mountainous regions of Belochistan, as well as Afghanistan. In the high district of Balk, which is within this space, and which is situated on the northern declivity of the Hindoo Coosh or Himalaya Mountains, and in Buckharia or Bokhara, on the fertile banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, where are the towns of Buckharia, Samarcan, Khvah, Konkan, Khojund, and Murghelan, &c. some form of civil order is maintained by the independent princes of the country; but with these exceptions the Tartar manners still prevail throughout this extensive region. The towns are thinly scattered, and the pastoral hordes range over the face of the land in all the licence of savage freedom. These consist, not of the Tartars who possessed the country in the time of Tamerlane, but of the Ushaeks, a Turkoman tribe, who appear to have descended, with the whole mass of their people, from the inhospitable countries in the north, to the fine plains of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and to have expelled the Tartars, whose place they now occupy. The Turkoman tribes, who inhabit the Elburz Mountains to the south of the Caspian, and the deserts of Kharasm, which extend eastward from this interior sea about 600 miles, are described by Fraser, in his instructive work on Persia, as singularly fierce, cruel, and blood-thirsty in their habits. They pour down from their deserts in great force on the cultivated districts, plundering villages and caravans with every circumstance of atrocious outrage, murdering on the spot the old, the feeble, and the helpless, and carrying into slavery those who are fit for labour, and thus depopulating extensive tracts that were before fertile and well inhabited. On the east of Persia the same ravages are committed by other tribes, who dispose of their captives to slave merchants, by whom they are carried to the markets of Buckharia and Khvah. On the south the wild inhabitants of Belochistan, so well described by Lieutenant Pottinger, one of the most judicious and enterprising travellers of modern times, plunder and murder their prisoners, or carry them for sale to some of the great slave-markets in the East. Numerous tribes of shepherds feed their flocks on the banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes; and they are found scattered over all the northern and eastern countries of Central Asia, as far as the boundaries of Russia and China. But in the present improved state of the military art they are no longer formidable, and they waste their force in casual inroads, which are easily repelled.

From the earliest ages the countries of Western Asia, Progress namely, Asia Minor, the valley of the Euphrates and of the Tigris, and Persia, were familiarly known to Europeans; but of the northern plains inhabited by the Scythian tribes, and of the rich and improved countries of Hindostan and China in the east, they were only informed by vague and inaccurate reports, which were slowly corrected by the progress of commerce or of conquest. Of the ancient expedition of Semiramis into India we know nothing more than that her armies were forced to retreat with loss. But the subsequent invasion and conquests of Darius extended the knowledge of the Europeans to the modern provinces of Lahore and Moutan, commonly called the Punjab, or the country watered by the five head branches of the Indus. Herodotus describes the climate of the country as intensely hot; the inhabitants in some points as little better than barbarians; and with a small grain of truth he mixes the strangest and most absurd fables. He mentions the populousness and wealth of the country, and the staple produce of cotton growing wild on trees; also the story of the white ants turning up the earth and digging up gold, which has been copied by succeeding writers; and, finally, the region of the five rivers as bounded by a barren plain, which must no doubt be the sandy desert that lies between the valley of the Indus and the Ganges. The Scythians or Tartars who wandered over the northern and eastern plains of Asia were only known by their irruptions into Europe. The two tribes of the Massagetae and the Sacæ, the former inhabiting the desert plains to the east of the Aral and north of the Jaxartes, and the latter the country to the north-west of India, are mentioned by Herodotus and other ancient writers; and their description is merely a detail of pastoral manners. The expedition of Alexander into India was a great step in the progress of Asiatic geography. This warlike prince was intent not merely on conquest, but on the diffusion of arts, commerce, and science; and, like some modern conquerors, his army was accompanied by a body of men of science, who were instructed to measure each day the distance traversed, to make an accurate table of the various routes, and to observe and describe the countries through which they passed. Science thus followed in the train of arms; and it was by a European army that the remote regions of the East were first explored. Alexander pursuing his victorious march through Asia Minor, passed the limits of European discovery, and entered the eastern country of Bactria in pursuit of the Persian army. Having passed the Paropamisan range of the Himalaya Mountains, crossed the Oxus, and taken Maracanda, the modern Samarqand, he advanced northward to the Jaxartes, where he pursued the Scythian host into the northern deserts to the eastward of the Aral. Retracing his steps, he again crossed the Paropamisan Mountains, and advancing eastward among hostile tribes, through the modern country of Cabul or Afghanistan, to the south of the Hindoo Coosh range, he crossed the Indus near the mountains, and having defeated the Indian army of Porus, he obtained the command of the country watered by the five tributary streams of the Indus, where his course was arrested by the murmurs of his troops, who refused to follow him across the desert to the Ganges. Still intent on discovery as well as on conquest, he fitted out a large fleet, and sailing down the Indus to its mouth, in the Indian Ocean, he instructed his admiral, Nearchus, to return to Persia by sea, while he took his course through the modern country of Makran, and was nearly lost with his whole army in its sandy deserts. Nearchus directed his course along the shores of Asia, and triumphing over the perils of unknown seas, arrived safely in the Persian Gulf, which he ascended to the mouth of the Tigris. This is the first great voyage of discovery of which we have any authentic account; and considering the age of the world in which it was accomplished, it must be viewed as a singular display of courage and of nautical skill. Alexander was not equally successful in tracing the connection of the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean, which remained unknown until the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt.

Seleucus, the successor of Alexander, carried his arms into India for the purpose of completing its conquest; but he does not appear to have reached the valley of the Ganges. He sent, however, to the court of Sandracottus, an Indian prince who reigned over all the countries from Delhi to the mouth of the Ganges, his ambassador Megasthenes, who acquired the most important and clear information respecting those unknown regions. He visited the celebrated city of Palibothra, the site of which has so much perplexed modern geographers; and, with some admixture of fable, he accurately describes the countries on the Ganges, and their productions; the amazing size of the rivers; the most remarkable animals which he saw, among others the Bengal tiger; and the manners of the people, and their division into castes, with other singular customs.

During the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt the geography of Asia was still farther illustrated, not by conquest, but by commerce. Alexandria was at that time the great emporium of the eastern trade; and India was explored in its most remote parts, for the precious commodities which it was supposed to produce. The Egyptian mariners entering the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea, and coasting along the Arabian shore, stretched across the Persian Gulf by the help of the south-west monsoon, to the mouth of the Indus, whence they sailed southward along the Malabar coast, and doubling Cape Comorin, extended their voyage on the coast of Coromandel as far as the modern city of Masulipatam.

In the age of Ptolemy the geographer, which was a century later, the knowledge of the Europeans had extended eastward beyond the Ganges to the Burman empire and the Gulf of Siam, though it does not appear that the navigators of antiquity ever reached the Chinese coast. The commerce of India was carried on by land as well as by sea; and regular caravans commenced their route from Byzantium eastward through Asia Minor and Persia, passing through the modern cities of Hamadan and Herat; and journeying northward, and crossing the Oxus and the modern country of Buckharia, they passed the great branch of the Himalaya Mountains which runs northward from the main range under the modern appellation of Beloor Taugh; and descending into the lower plains of Little Thibet, they assembled in great numbers, and, after halting for some time, took their journey to the capital of Serica or China, which occupied a period of seven months. The description given of the Seres as a frugal and mercantile people, averse to all intercourse with strangers, and carrying on their trade at a single station on the frontier, answers entirely to the modern character of the Chinese. The commerce, which during the flourishing era of Rome was carried on between Europe and the eastern parts of Asia, was interrupted by the inroads of the barbarous nations who assailed, and in the end overthrew, the Roman empire; and all knowledge of Asia was for a time lost. It was not till the 6th or 7th century, during the reign of the caliphs at Bagdad, that the Arabian geographers acquired a knowledge of those countries. During this period the country to the west of the Beloor Taugh Mountains, which stretch northward nearly to the frontier of Siberia, consisting of extensive plains, watered by the Oxus and the Jaxartes, was well known to them; and they were imperfectly acquainted with the southern plains of Asia inhabited by the Tartars, though they were as usual the subject of fables. The eastern countries of Hindostan, the beautiful region of Cashmere, the great Asiatic plains, and China, with the island of Sumatra and others, were known to the Arabian geographers, though they seem to have had no correct knowledge of the Asiatic shores. Their accurate description of Chinese manners leaves no doubt of their having reach- ed that country. The invasion of the Holy Land by the crusaders tended, among its other consequences, to introduce into Europe a knowledge of those countries in Asia which were famed for wealth and the remains of ancient refinement; and from the camps of the crusading kings, as well as from the pope, some remarkable embassies were sent to the Tartar sovereigns, the descendants of the conqueror Zinghis, the site of whose capital of Karakorum is now the subject of dispute; though it is generally agreed that it must have been situated far east, in the wilds of Tartary. The object of the embassies dispatched by the pope to the Tartar camp was to divert the storm of barbarian invasion from Europe. The ambassadors were friars, who were carried to the head-quarters of the Tartars, in the eastern wilds of Asia, through countries which had never been explored by any European. Rubruquis, a friar, who was sent ambassador by St Louis to the Tartars, has given a lively and circumstantial account of his adventures. He reached the Tartar capital of Karakorum after a fatiguing and dangerous journey of more than two months, having traversed a vast tract of unknown country, and brought to the knowledge of the Europeans the immense plains and high lands of Central Asia, Eastern Tartary or the country of the Mongols, Thibet, and Cathay or China, and the eastern shores of the continent. All those countries were afterwards visited by the celebrated Venetian traveller Marco Polo, who, being dazzled by the splendid accounts diffused through Europe of the wealth and luxury of Asia, was inflamed with the desire of exploring those distant countries. He accordingly proceeded through Asia Minor, Persia, the high country of Balk, visited the cities of Cashgar and Yarkund, and skirting the great desert of Shamo or Cobi, he reached the Tartar capital of Karakorum, and finally entered the Chinese empire, of which his account is circumstantial and correct, and of which some of the magnificent cities, though they have fallen from their ancient importance, are still recognised in his accurate description. He returned to Venice by sea after an absence of twenty-four years, having obtained accounts of the eastern islands of Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and of Ormus in the Persian Gulf; at that time the great and splendid emporium of the Indian trade. The discovery, in 1498, of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, opened the Indian seas to the European fleets; and shortly after this great event, the southern, and partly also the eastern shores of Asia, were completely explored, as well as that great archipelago which extends from the Malacca peninsula to New Holland. In the interior of the continent the progress of discovery was much slower, and only kept pace with the gradual extension of the Russian dominion over the barbarous tribes in Northern Asia. The Tartars under Tamerlane in 1382 had invaded the east of Europe, had taken Moscow, and overrun all the countries on the Volga and the Dnieper. The rise of the northern empire was for more than two centuries obstructed by the inroads of the barbarians; and it was only after long and obstinate struggles that they yielded to the superiority of the Russian arms. About the middle of the 16th century Russia had extended her conquests to the Obi, and her empire was enlarged northward and eastward, until it reached the frontiers of China and the Pacific Ocean. The general form of the continent, which was exhibited in the maps from mere conjecture, was in this manner laid open to Europeans; and in the course of the last century the eastern and northern shores were surveyed; also Kamtschatka, the Kurile Islands, and Jesso. The islands of Japan had been previously discovered by navigators. The relative limits of the Asiatic and American continents were traced by Behring, Tschirikoff, and other navigators, who also discovered the Aleutian or Fox Islands; and finally by Captain Cook, who advancing into Behring's Straits as far as the parallel of 70° 44', ascertained the near approach and true bearing of the two continents.

The interior countries of Asia near the Caspian and Aral Seas have been visited by Russian travellers, who have corrected some errors of long standing in Asiatic geography. Lake Aral was either unknown to the ancients, or they confounded it with the Caspian Sea, of which they supposed it to form a part, and to be the receptacle of the great river Oxus. After the fact of two separate seas was fully known, the Oxus was still supposed to terminate in Lake Aral; and its course was laid down accordingly in all the most approved charts. The Russians having visited those countries, ascertained by actual observation that the Oxus, as well as the Jaxartes, terminates in the Caspian Sea.

Eastern Asia, namely, the Chinese empire, with the source and termination of all its great rivers; the northern country of the Tartars; the course of the great river Amour; with the high lands of Central Asia, namely, Mongolia, the original seat of the Mongols, were in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries explored by the Romish missionaries, as well as by mercantile travellers. In 1624 Antonio d'Andrade, a jesuit, travelled from the coast of the Great Mogul to China. He passed through the country of Serinagur, and ascending the great Himalaya range, he and his companions endured such incredible hardships that he was forced to return. He afterwards crossed these mountains along with a caravan, and was among the earliest travellers who reached the country of Thibet, which he describes, and also the manners and religion of the people. In 1603 the missionary Goez set out from Lahore, where he resided at the Mogul court on his way to China. He travelled westward, and crossing the Indus, passed through the countries of Kabul or Afghanistan, Cashgar to the north, and the country on the banks of the Oxus; and crossing a ridge of the Himalaya Mountains, he arrived at Yarkund. From this place he journeyed with a caravan across the central country of Mongolia to China. These missionaries were received into high favour by the Chinese emperors, who valued them on account of their science, and gave them access to the public archives, which contained all the Chinese surveys of the empire and of the adjacent countries. By the help of these they exhibited with accuracy the interior geography of Thibet, and also of that extensive country beyond the Ganges which now forms the Burman empire, and which is watered by the great rivers that take their rise in the central mountains and run southward,—the Irrawaddy into the Indian Ocean, the Setang into the Gulf of Martaban, of which it forms the estuary, the Saluen into the same gulf, the Menam into the Gulf of Siam, and the Menam-Kong or the Mekong into the Chinese Sea. These missionaries prosecuted with equal activity and zeal their inquiries into the interior geography of China; they traced the great rivers the Hoangho or Yellow River, and the Yank-tse-Kiang or Blue River, to their termination as well as to their source, which they found to be in the depths of the central moun-

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1 See Crawford's Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochlu-China. Geographers are not agreed on the respective appellations of these rivers; in this we have been guided by Mr Crawford.

2 For a more detailed account of these missionary travels the reader is referred to Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages; Purchas' Pilgrims; Histoire Generale des Voyages, Paris, 1749; and to the Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, by H. Murray, who has given an equally learned, judicious, and comprehensive abstract of all the existing information on the subject of Asiatic geography. Asia, tains, and not in the imaginary lake of Cayamay, as had been generally believed. Grueber, who set out on his travels to the East in 1658, traversed the whole country of China, partly by land and partly by water; and his route to Europe was through the Tartar deserts to Lassa, a town in Thibet, and thence through the mountainous country of Nepaul to Battana on the Ganges, Benares, and finally to Agra, which he reached after a journey of more than twelve months. Other journeys equally enterprising were also undertaken by the missionaries. Desideri set out in 1714 from Delhi, and travelled across the Himalaya Mountains through Cashmere into Thibet; and, at a later period, Horace de la Penna, with a body of twelve missionaries, resided in the same country for a number of years. The missionary Gerbillon, who was in great favour at the Chinese court, travelled in 1688 through the Tartar deserts, with a Chinese embassy, to the banks of the Selingha, there to settle with the Russians the respective limits of the two empires; and having been also in the practice of following the emperor in his hunting expeditions into Tartary, he contributed with other travellers to illustrate the geography of these countries and the manners of the people.

The great extension of the British conquests in Northern India has laid open to Europeans all that portion of Asia which lies on the southern declivity of the Himalaya Mountains, which is interesting not only from its natural grandeur, but also as it contains the sources of the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmapootra. The Europeans were indebted for all the knowledge which they possessed of those countries to the Chinese missionaries, who represented the Ganges to rise on the north of the Himalaya chain, from two small streams which pass the town of Ladak. They fixed the source of the Indus in the Beloor Mountains, one of the cross ridges which run north and south from the main Himalaya ridge. The British in India, with all their characteristic ardour in the cause of science, have corrected those errors of the Chinese geographers, having ascertained the source of the Ganges to be not on the north, but on the southern side of the Himalaya Mountains. The extent and bearing, and the vast elevation, of many of the highest peaks of this northern barrier of Hindostan, have also been fixed by the accurate observations of Lieutenant Webb and other officers. From the embassy of Elphinstone into Afghanistan we have received more full details of that country; and the course westward of the great Himalaya chain has been accurately traced, as well as the upper course of the Indus, though the source of that river is still imperfectly known. The missions of Turner into Bootan, of Kirkpatrick and Buchanan into Nepaul, and the embassy of Major Symes and Dr Buchanan to the court of Ava, and of Mr Crawford, who resided in the character of ambassador at that court, and whose works have thrown great light on the commerce and manners of Asia, have contributed materially to illustrate the geography of those countries. Of the vast regions of Tartary to the west of China, and under its dominion, we know nothing except from the earlier travellers and missionaries, and from the accounts published of the journeys of the Russian embassies through these countries; nor is there any immediate prospect of reaching those central districts from the south; for though the inhabitants appear mild and friendly, the Chinese authorities are firm in repressing the slightest intrusion of strangers into the sacred territory.

Asia, notwithstanding the wars by which it has been desolated, was from an early period the seat of commerce and of wealth. The eastern countries of Hindostan and China appear to have preceded Europe in civilization and industry, and, independent of that diversity of natural productions which is the foundation of trade, they had cultivated many arts and manufactures which were unknown in the western world. Asia accordingly abounded in many precious commodities which could not be produced by the ruder industry of Europe. Thus China had its silk and porcelain; Hindostan its muslins, cotton, precious stones, and aromatics of all sorts; costus, beldilum, spikenard, ivory, tortoise-shell, pepper, &c. These were in general demand throughout Europe, where they could not be produced; and they were procured in exchange chiefly for bullion, which then, as in later times, was the great article of export to India; also for woollen cloths, wine, brass, lead and tin, glass, coral, female slaves, &c., all which commodities met with a ready sale in the markets of Hindostan. The staple commodity of China was silk; and the mode of producing this esteemed luxury being unknown in Europe, it was brought in large quantities, either by the caravans or by the annual fleets, to Alexandria, at that time the great commercial mart of the East, and was thence sent to supply the demand at Rome, where it sold at one time for its weight in gold; but, owing to the high profit, caravans began to travel so regularly to China, that the supply increased with the demand, and the price was reduced. Between the 6th and the 7th centuries Eastern Asia was robbed of this precious monopoly by the art of two Persian monks, who contrived, in a hollow cane, to transport the eggs of the silk-worm from China to Europe, where they were hatched by means of heat, and the race quickly propagated; and one great link of commerce between China and Europe was in this manner broken. The trade of Asia was interrupted by the irruption of the barbarians, who invaded and finally subverted the Roman empire; but the moment the storm was past, commerce resumed its quiet course. Constantinople, the eastern capital of the empire, was still the centre of luxury and trade; as were also such parts of the Roman territory as had not been swept by barbarian invasion; and with those places the caravans still traded, shaping their course as they best could to avoid the distractions of the interior. Farther to the east the caliphs who reigned at Bagdad encouraged science, commerce, and the arts; and the extensive country through which the Oxus and the Jaxartes flowed was the seat of a flourishing commerce and of many opulent cities. Besides Buchkara, still a great city, Balk, Samarcand, Cosh, and others in the valley of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, numerous splendid cities are enumerated which are scarcely known to Europeans. To the east of the great range of mountains which takes a direction from the main Himalaya ridge, the country of Cashgur contained Cashgur its capital, and Khoten, which were both large, populous, and wealthy. Those countries served as the connecting link between India and Europe, and the resting-place of the caravans, which there collected in great force, and prepared for their journey to China across the great eastern desert, or for a more southerly course through the country of Thibet. The armies of Zinghis Khan in the 13th, and of Tamerlane in the beginning of the 15th century, laid waste this highly cultivated and flourishing region. But those conquerors were not the enemies of commerce, and the surplus produce of India still reached Europe, though by a route rendered more difficult and dangerous from the desolation of the intervening countries. But the effect produced on the trade of Asia in the East by the encroachments of barbarism, and by the disorders in the interior, was more than counterbalanced by the growing civilization of Europe. About the beginning of the 14th century, the darkness which had so long covered the western world began to dispel, and the Italian cities of Venice, Genoa, and others, had already made advances in letters, science, and commerce. The costly articles of Asia, her rich stuffs and precious aromatics, were now required to answer the growing demands of luxury and wealth; and the produce of India, imported into Alexandria through the Red Sea, was thence brought into Italy by the nobles of Venice and Genoa, who were all engaged in trade, and was diffused in smaller quantities all over Europe. The Italian states were enriched by this lucrative traffic, which only ceased with the discovery of the maritime route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. From this period the trade between Asia and Europe took a different direction. The commodities of India and China were transported to Europe directly by sea; and neither Alexandria nor the other ports of the Red Sea or of Italy were any longer the depositories of the eastern trade. The Portuguese, always distinguished by their ardour for maritime discovery, were the first adventurers in the Asiatic seas. In the course of the 16th century the English and Dutch appeared as their competitors; and with the growing wealth of those countries the trade to the East rapidly increased. The commerce of Asia may therefore be distinguished into the following branches—1st, The inland trade of China, Hindostan, Burmah, &c. with Turkey, the eastern countries of Europe, and with the intervening countries of Persia, Balk, Buckharia, and the regions of the Oxus; also, by a different route, the trade with Russia and the north of Asia. 2ndly, The maritime trade, including the coasting trade and the trade to the eastern archipelago, and the great trade to Europe and America, in which, from the progress of wealth and luxury, there is a great consumption of Asiatic produce.

The inland trade of Asia is carried on by caravans, or large bodies of merchants, who travel together for the sake of security through those parts of the country which are disturbed by predatory tribes. It is only from the southern countries of Asia, such as Hindostan, China, the Burmese countries, Thibet, and the western countries of Persia, Afghanistan, Buckharia, and the regions of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, that Europe can derive any supply of valuable commodities; and all this trade, from whatever quarter it comes, must flow in its progress to Europe through the countries that lie between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea; as the caravans could not, without inconvenience and danger from wandering tribes, pass to the north of this sea or the sea of Aral; and accordingly, though an annual caravan is sent from Astracan to Khyvah and the countries on the Oxus, the chief trade with Russia is by sea to the port of Mangalsbuck, and thence to Khyvah and Buckharia. The Russians have also begun to trade with Persia from the Caucasian province of Georgia, of which Tiflis, the capital, has, from a wretched collection of wooden huts, been rapidly improved, under the protecting influence of a European government, into a respectable and wealthy town, the future emporium, as may be anticipated, of this growing trade. The caravans from Constantinople and Syria proceed through Asia Minor and the northern or southern provinces of Persia, according as their anterior route is through Afghanistan and the Punjab into Hindostan, or to Thibet and China, or the more northern districts of Balk, Buckharia, and the country of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. Buckharia, though reduced to desolation by Zinghis Khan, is still one of the largest towns of the East, and is only exceeded by Peking and other Chinese cities, or by Calcutta. It is also a great commercial mart; and the caravans which come from the west, passing along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea through the Persian province of Astrabad, a most luxuriant and fertile country, arrive successively at Balroosh, Ashruff, Astrabad, Mushed, Serrukhs, Merve, formerly the capital of the Seljook sovereigns, but now surrounded by deserts, and at Buckharia. From this great centre of commerce they proceed north-eastward about 400 or 500 miles to Khujend and Kokaua, the former a large city, said to contain 30,000 houses; and crossing the Beloor range of the Himalaya Mountains, they arrive in the Mahometan states of Kashgar and Yarkund, 600 miles east of Kokaua, passing some towns on the way, of which Ush is the most important, being a trading and populous town. Those two latter states lie within the precincts of the Chinese authority, where the most exact order is enforced; and they are fertile, rich, and well cultivated. The town of Cashgar is said to contain 20,000 houses, and to be thronged with strangers from all parts of Asia. Yarkund is also wealthy and populous. So strict a police is maintained by the Chinese authority, that, according to the information given to Fraser, a single traveller may traverse the whole territory as safely as a large caravan. From Kashgar there is a constant intercourse through Chinese Tartary, along the edge of the great central desert, with China, though we know little of the intervening countries beyond what we learn from the accounts of the early missionaries. Besides this eastern trade, and the trade westward along the southern shore of the Caspian, two caravans, consisting of 4000 or 5000 camels each, proceed to Astracan by Khyvah, round the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. The imports from Russia into Buckharia are iron, steel, copper, brass, quicksilver, vermillion, coral, hardware, plated goods, gold and silver embroidery, copper-wire; furs, the broad cloths and cotton manufactured goods of Britain, Germany, and France; refined sugar, cochineal, paper, and a variety of rich goods, which, from this great commercial depot, are diffused far and wide over Central Asia. Russia receives in exchange black lamb-skins, certain manufactures of cotton and silk imported from Persia, antique gems and coins, lapis lazuli, rubies, and turquoises, which are received from the southern country of Buducksha, where there are famous mines of these precious stones. From Cashgar, Yarkund, and the side of China, Buckharia receives large quantities of tea, the great modern staple of the China trade, porcelain and China ware, and the various manufactures of China; and in return sends turquoises, coral, sheep, lamb, and fox-skins, and furs, &c. From Persia shawls are imported, and woollen goods from Kerman; silk stuffs from the cities of Yezd and Ispahan; gold and silver embroidery, copper-ware, loaf, candy, and raw sugar; Hamadan leather; and turquoises, of which there are mines in Persia; and, in return, black sheep and lamb-skins are sent, which are in great request, to be manufactured into black caps; camel's hair, coarse coloured silk handkerchiefs, lapis lazuli, indigo from India, cochineal, tobacco, chintzes from Masulipatam, and cotton manufactures. Slaves form a staple article in the commerce of Buckharia, and also of Khyvah. These are made prisoners by the disorderly tribes of Asia, the Koords, Turkomans, &c., in the course of the wars in which they are constantly engaged; and they are carried to the great slave markets of Buckharia and Khyvah, where they are exposed for sale like cattle. The balance of trade is always in favour of Buckharia. Money is consequently in great plenty, and cannot be imported with a profit into this trading city. The Russian caravans, as they journey round the north shore of the Caspian Sea, are frequently attacked by the Kirgeesh and Cossack tribes, and prisoners

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1 Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, Appendix. are carried off and sold into slavery. Fraser was assured that the number of Persian slaves in Khiva and its dependencies exceeded the male population of these countries, and amounted to 150,000; and that, according to inquiries set on foot by the empress Catherine, there were in Buckharia no less than 60,000 Russian slaves.

The commerce of the west with the southern countries of Asia, namely, Cabul or Afghanistan, Cashmere, and India, passes through Persia by a different and more southerly route, namely, by Cashan, Yezd, which is the seat of rich silk manufactures, a great entrepôt of commerce, and a convenient resting place for all the caravans, both from the east and other quarters; through Farrah, and Herat, on the frontiers of Persia, famed for its rich manufactures of silk stuffs, a great channel of communication between the east and the west, and also an entrepôt of all the richest productions from Cabul, Cashmere, and India on the one side, and from Buckharia, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, and even Europe, on the other. From Herat the route continues through Farrah and across the river Helmund and the ranges of the Paropamisan Mountains, to Candahar, a journey of about 800 miles; thence to Cabul, Peshawer, and the countries on the Indus, and across extensive sandy deserts to the rich valley of the Ganges, whence, by this river, there is an easy access to Bengal and to Central India. There are various other routes by which the commerce of Asia, concentrated within the comparatively narrow boundaries of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, diverges in its progress eastward to the north, as well as to the south. From Buckharia there is a mountainous route into Little Thibet, and thence through Thibet into China; besides other more sequestered and difficult roads, through glens and mountains, where the only mode of transport is on the backs of asses and mules.

Persia, from its central situation between the east and the west, is not only a great entrepôt of Asiatic trade, but, though on the whole rather a poor country, it still contributes some valuable productions to the commerce of the East. It has long been famed for its abundant produce of raw silk, of cotton, and of wool, that of the province of Kerman especially being so valuable for shawls that it rivals in some respects that of Cashmere; of fruits, turquoises, tobacco, grain, &c. Almost all the principal towns of Persia, such as Kashan, Isfahan, Yezd, Tabreez, Kerman, Herat, &c., excel in the manufacture of silks, cottons, woollens, fine carpets, &c.; Kerman also in the manufacture of shawls; and others in that of cutlery, arms, &c. These are its chief exports to other countries, in exchange for their manufactures or produce. To India Persia sends raw silk, carpets, Kerman shawls, dried fruits, tobacco, horses, in which there is a considerable traffic, swords, &c., and specie to make up the deficient balance. The imports from India are cotton goods, as chintzes, sent from Masulipatam by sea to Beshire, whence they reach the interior of Persia, and are thence carried eastward into Cabul and the countries on the Indus; the same article from Moultan, Lucknow, Delhi, &c.; some muslins, indigo, spices, sugar, and sugar-candy, in large quantities; gold and silver stuffs and brocades from Benares; precious stones, Cashmere shawls, iron, lead, copper, &c. Many of these articles, namely, Cashmere shawls, spices, indigo, muslins, &c., are carried through Asia Minor by a long land carriage to their final destination in European Turkey, and are found, along with the lamb-skins of the no less distant Buckharia, in the bazaars of Bagdad and Constantinople. To those countries Persia exports also every article of her own rude and manufactured produce; coarse fabrics, both of silk and cotton, for the consumption of Asia Minor; and many heavy articles, such as grain, rice, tobacco, salt, coffee, cotton, &c.; besides fine silks, brocades, and prints, which are exchanged in Turkey for European goods brought through the countries of the Levant, namely, broad and narrow cloths, cassimeres, cotton goods, chintzes, muslins, veils, silks, satins, French brocades and embroidered goods, imitation shawls, cutlery of all sorts, glass, &c., and a considerable quantity of gold and silver bullion. Persia imports coffee and pearls from Arabia, in exchange for wheat, dried fruits, and cloaks. The mountainous country of Afghanistan, on the southern declivity of the Himalaya ridge, and the country on the head streams of the Indus, export to India horses and ponies bred in Tartary, furs, shawls, Moultan chintz, madder, assafoetida, tobacco, and dried and other fruits, such as almonds and pistachio nuts. The imports from India are coarse cotton cloths, worn by the common people of this country, and also in Tartary; muslins and other fine manufactures, silken cloth and brocade, indigo in great quantities; ivory, chalk, bamboos, wax, tin, sandal wood; almost all the sugar which is used in the country, and spices from the Malabar coast, through Koratchee and other parts of Sinde, and thence to Cabul and Candahar. The Indian cloths, shawls, chintzes, and also the indigo, are exported to Buckharia, from which are imported the broad cloths, cutlery, and hardware of Europe, received from the Russians, and finally consumed in Cabul and the countries of the Indus, loaded with the expenses of a land journey across nearly half the globe.

In the east of Asia, China has from the earliest times been the seat of wealth and of an extensive trade. The Chinese have been always noted for their industrious habits, and the country has from time immemorial abounded in the most valuable produce and manufactures. These were sent westward in the caravans to Asia Minor and into Europe, or they were transported by sea to India, and carried thence by the European fleets to the Red Sea. The same commerce is still continued, and China exports its produce of woollens, silk, and satin; tea in small boxes of thin lead; china, porcelain, raw silk, cochineal, crystal, gold dust, golden ingots, and silver with the Chinese stamp. These are sent through Chinese Tartary into the countries on the Oxus, and also to Cashmere, Cabul, and the countries situated on the southern declivity of the Himalaya Mountains. Regular caravans of horses and ponies, no other animal being fit to travel through those mountainous districts, set out from Cashmere, and from Peshawer, the capital of the Afghan country of Cabul, and a considerable commercial resort, to make their way through Chinese Tartary with goods imported from India and Persia. China carries on also an interior trade to a considerable extent with Russia by the frontier town of Maimatchin, in which European goods and furs are received in exchange for tea, silk, and other articles of Chinese produce and manufacture.

In addition to her internal trade, Asia maintains an extensive intercourse by sea with Europe, America, and with Egypt and all the countries on the Mediterranean. A great trade is also carried on from Hindostan and China to the Asiatic archipelago, and the trade of the Asiatic islands with each other is of great importance. It appears that those islands were at a very early period the seat of commerce; and the learned researches of Europeans have brought to light, in some of them, the monuments of ancient

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1 Elphinstone's Cabul; Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of Persia; Fraser's Travels in the Persian Provinces around the Caspian Sea, Appendix, p. 364. civilization. Sumatra was the seat of the Malay empire, Java of a Hindoo state; and the Celebes were inhabited by the Bugis, a race of expert navigators and merchants. The productions of these islands, and of the Moluccas and Borneo, namely, spices, aromatics, and gold, entered into the commerce of the ancient world, and were imported into Rome through Egypt. In later times, about the 9th century, the Asiatic archipelago was visited by the Arabs and the Chinese, while the adventurous Malays frequented the coasts of Asia, and even of Africa, and particularly the African island of Madagascar. When these islands were visited by Europeans, about the 15th century, Malacca, Aceh, and Bantam were the great mart of the eastern archipelago, where the rich produce of Sumatra, Borneo, and the Moluccas, conveyed in the small trading craft of the country, was exchanged for that of India and China. The Portuguese fixed on Goa, on the Mahabar coast, as the capital of their eastern settlements; and they afterwards selected Malacca as a central station for protecting and extending their intercourse with the neighbouring nations. The Dutch chose Bantam, and afterwards Batavia, situated midway between Hindostan and China, as the centre of their commercial settlements. The situation was most advantageous, and the port was soon frequented by vessels from China and Japan, Tonquin, Malacca, Cochin-China, and the island of Celebes. But the great and flourishing trade of Java was crushed under the colonial monopoly of the Dutch, and under what Sir Stamford Raffles terms "the short-sighted tyranny of a mercantile administration." The conquest of Java by the British in 1812 put an end to this thraldom, and the great trade of the Asiatic archipelago began to centre in Batavia, which was fast rising into a great commercial emporium; all the articles which were the exclusive produce of the eastern islands being collected at its principal ports for re-exportation to India, China, and Europe. Since Java was restored to the Dutch, the free port of Singapore, established by the British, is the centre of a great trade, and is frequented by the Chinese in their junks, and by all the other navigators of those seas with the produce of their respective islands. The Chinese take back with them the nests of a certain species of bird, which are esteemed a great luxury at their tables, and sell, it is said, for their weight in silver; biche-de-mer or tripang, a dried sea-slug, also used in Chinese dishes; Malayan camphor, the exclusive produce of Sumatra and Borneo; the tin of Banca, the spices of the Moluccas, opium, indigo imported from Hindostan; gold and silver, the first collected in Sumatra, Borneo, and some of the other islands. The maritime country trade of the Asiatic islands is carried on chiefly by the Chinese in their junks and brigs, by the Arabs in square-rigged vessels, and by the Bugis, the inhabitants of Celebes, who are all bold and expert navigators.

From the east the annual fleet of Chinese junks arrives with the favourable monsoon among these islands, from Canton, Amoi, and other provinces, with cargoes of teas, raw silk, silk piece-goods, and innumerable minor articles, for the use of the Chinese, who are settled in great numbers here, and are distinguished by their shrewd, intelligent, and industrious habits. The Chinese extend their voyages to Sumatra, the Straits of Malacca, and eastward as far as the Moluccas and Timor, collecting edible bird-nests, biche-de-mer, and other articles of which Java is the great entrepot. Java is also a great depot of European goods; and the people being rather industrious cultivators of their fertile island than mariners or traders, it exports rice, a variety of vetches, salt, oil, tobacco, timber, brass-wire, and its own cloths, and a considerable quantity of European, Indian, and Chinese goods, in exchange for gold dust, diamonds, camphor, benjamin, and other drugs; edible bird-nests, biche-de-mer, rattans, bees-wax, tortoise-shell, and dyeing woods from Borneo and Sumatra. The rice and other productions of Java are exchanged for spices and pungent oils of the Moluccas, and for the tin of Banca. The natives of Celebes are famed for the manufacture of a particular species of fine cloths, of a very strong texture, which are in great request, and, along with spices, wax, and sandal-wood, are exchanged for the produce of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java, whence they are exported to China. The Bugis have a large share of the carrying trade of the Asiatic archipelago; and they bring the produce of the Moluccas, and of Borneo and Sumatra, to Java and the other islands, and receive in exchange tobacco, rice, and salt, from Java, besides opium, iron, steel, European chintzes, and broad cloths and Indian piece goods, with which they return eastward during the southwest monsoon.

The eastern countries of Asia, viz. India and China, as we have already stated, have from time immemorial been famed for certain manufactures, such as silks, cambrics, muslins, &c., as well as for other products peculiar to the climate, viz. spices, precious aromatics, medicinal herbs, &c. These were always in great demand in Europe, while the produce of Europe was not wanted in Asia. From the rude state of industry among the western nations, they had nothing to offer in exchange for the finer manufactures of India, and still less could the soil of Europe yield any equivalent for the more genial produce of eastern climes. Hence the great article of export in those times from Europe to Asia was always bullion, the instrument of exchange all over the world. Bullion could only be procured by an exportation of European produce or manufactures at such low prices as to insure a sale; and the loss on such transactions must have been made up to the merchant by the high price of Asiatic goods. The ancient monopoly of silk secured to Asia a favourable balance of trade with Europe, bullion being the only article with which it could be purchased. Notwithstanding the introduction of the silk manufacture into Europe about the 6th or 7th century, the commercial pre-eminence of Asia still continued, and bullion was the chief article of export to the East. Throughout the interior of Asia this superiority remains to the present day; and a continual stream of bullion flows from the Bosphorus eastward through Asia Minor and Persia into Hindostan, and is finally dispersed in the great ocean of the Chinese currency. Bullion is also the principal article sent from Arabia to India in exchange for Indian goods.

But a great revolution has taken place in the trade between Asia and Europe, and especially with Great Britain. Europe is now in a condition to offer an equivalent in manufactures for the produce of Asia; goods of various kinds are sent in exchange for those of India; and from Great Britain remittances in bullion have nearly ceased. So prodigiously has the price of goods been lowered by the use of machinery, that the cotton wool of India is now imported into Britain, and, after being manufactured, is re-exported to the place of its growth, and sold at a lower price than the same goods from the loom of the Indian workman, though it is loaded with the expense of a double voyage across half the globe. The goods of the Eu-

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1 Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on the affairs of the East India Company, March 1830. 2 Raffles' History of Java; Marsden's Sumatra. European manufacturers are poured into Asia through all its seaports, and reaching the interior on the backs of mules and asses, often after a journey of several thousand miles over deserts and mountains covered with perpetual snow, they are sold cheaper than the same articles by the native workmen. The woollen manufactures of Yorkshire, the cotton goods of Manchester and Glasgow, French cloths, and German linens, are dispersed all over Hindostan, and even partially in China; they are found in the bazars of Bukharia, Samarcand, and Cashgar, and are carried eastward by the caravans into the wilds of Tartary.1 The accounts laid before the House of Commons of our exports and imports to and from India and China from 1814 to 1828, exhibit a falling off in the importation of Indian manufactures, and a proportional increase in that of the raw materials, such as silk, cotton, indigo, &c. From India and China the annual value of the imports amounts to about L10,000,000. In 1829 they amounted in value to L10,687,441; of which the sum of L8,561,345 is made up of four articles, viz. cotton wool, indigo, raw silk, and tea.2 The value of the cotton manufactures exported, which amounted in 1814 to L11,341, had increased in 1829 to L754,098. The natural productions of Asia, namely, spices, rich aromatics, dyes, and other rare luxuries of tropical climates, will always be in demand in Europe; and the monopoly of tea by the Chinese gives them the command of the European markets. Tea has now almost become one of the necessaries of life, and it travels for a market across half the globe. It is the great commercial link between Europe and China, from which, like the precious produce of silk in ancient times, it can only be procured. But the improved industry of Europe supplies, as already observed, an equivalent in woollen and cotton goods for this highly prized luxury; and there can be no doubt that if the trade were not obstructed by the East India Company's monopoly, it would gradually extend with the growing demand of the Chinese market. The charter of the East India Company expires in 1834; and if the trade is thrown open, it is certain that British produce will make its way into all the most distant markets of the East. Such an intercourse would not only benefit commerce, but would promote the higher interests of civilization, as it would extend to the benighted countries of Asia the literature and science, and all the other improvements of Europe.

Asia Minor is the most western portion of the great continent of Asia, bounded by the Black Sea on the north, by the river Euphrates on the east, and on the west by the Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, and the Straits of the Hellespont and Bosphorus. It is of an irregularly oblong figure, about 1000 miles in length from east to west, and between 400 and 500 in breadth from north to south. The whole country is under the Turkish government; and it is divided into several provinces, of which Natolia and Caramania are the most important. The country is inhabited by Turkish Mahometans, and Christians of various sects and denominations. For other particulars see the preceding article.

ASIARCHÆ (termed by St Paul, Chief of Asia, Acts xix. 31) were the Pagan pontiffs of Asia, chosen to superintend and have the care of the public games, which they did at their own expense; for which reason they were always the richest and most considerable men of the community.