as 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, the meaning is buried under the almost 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 continent of Asia extends over 77 degrees of latitude, or one-fifth of the periphery of the globe, and in the latitude of the Dardanelles, over 128 degrees of longitude, or very nearly one-third of the circumference of the globe under that circle. Its northernmost extremity is Cape Chelinskian, which projects into the Arctic Ocean in about N. Lat. 78°, in Long. 100° E. In the S. it extends to N. Lat. 1. 15. at Cape Bulus or Buro, or the S. end of the peninsula of Malacca; but if we include the Indian islands, Asia extends as far as S. Lat. 11°, or the parallel of Rottie, a small island to the S.W. of Timor. Its continental extremity in the W. is Cape Baba, in Asia Minor, opposite the island of Mytilene, in E. Long. 26. 4.; and its easternmost point is Cape Wostotchny, or the "East Cape," also called Cape Swernoi Tchukotsky, that is "the North Cape of the Tchuketches" (who call it Po-orten), and which must not be confounded with Cape Tchukotsky Noss, the latter lying more to the S. The continent of Asia is bounded in the N. by the Arctic Ocean, in the E. by Behring's Strait, which separates it from America, and by the Sea of Kamtschatka, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, and lastly, the Tong Hai, or East Sea. But the Japanese and several other groups of smaller islands, being appurtenances of the continent, it is evident that the North Pacific Ocean is the real eastern boundary of Asia. The southern limits are the Chinese Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Gulf of Bengal, the Arabic Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Gulf of Aden; the latter four being limbs of the Indian Ocean. The great Indian islands, the Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Spice and Sunda islands, and all those smaller ones which, dotting the Sea of Banda, extend as far as the shores of New Guinea, are now generally reckoned to Asia, with which, indeed, they are so intimately connected by ethnological, religious, commercial, and political ties, that we are bound to consider them as appurtenances of that great continent. Asia consequently extends in the S.E. to the very threshold of Australia, or Oceania, but there are no natural limits separating them into two distinct portions of the globe. In physical geography, all or most of those islands form one vast volcanic group with the other islands along the east coast of Asia, the peninsula of Kamtschatka included. The limits of Asia in the W., are, the Red Sea, which separates it from Africa, the Mediterranean, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus, and the Black Sea, on the side of Southern Europe; and the Ural and the Caucasus on the side of Eastern Europe. Between the Ural and the Caucasus there is a gap without natural limits, the great steppes of Western Asia advancing here into Eastern Europe; whence some geographers, in their eagerness to find natural limits where there are none, have substituted divers incon siderable inequalities of the ground to serve as lines of demarcation between two large portions of the globe. But the Caucasus is a natural barrier, and if the plains to the N. of that great chain bear an Asiatic character, and are inhabited by Asiatic people, which cannot be denied, it is equally true that the steppe in its progress from E. to W. gradually assumes a European character, inasmuch as from a salt steppe, such as in Turkistan, it changes into a grass steppe, such as in the S. of Russia; and so far as regards the Asiatic character of the people, the influence of Europe through Russia is so great, that that difference also has all the appearance of being on the wane. The river Jaik or Ural, between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian, affords a convenient line of demarcation on that side; not that it is a natural limit between two continents, or that the steppe on its right bank differs from that on its left; but because that river has been turned by the Russian government into a visible, fortified, and garrisoned line between various nations living under European influence in the W., and uncontrolled Asiatic barbarians in the E. This view of the subject will be our excuse, if we refrain from saying much about the Obtchey Sirt, a ridge of low sand-hills between the southern foot of the Ural and the Wolga, marking the northern edge of the steppe, which some geographers have called a natural boundary, to fill up the gap on that side. It is worth noticing, that in the political division of Russia, no distinction is made between Europe and Asia, some of its governments, as for instance that of Perm, extending over both sides of the Ural Mountains.
Asia contains a larger area than any of the other divisions Extent. of the globe, viz., including its islands, 12,960,000 square geographical miles; the area of America being 10,600,000, that of Africa 8,550,000, and that of Europe 2,560,000. The islands of Asia are—in the Arctic Ocean, Nova Zembla, consisting of two large islands, and New Siberia, consisting of three islands of considerable extent discovered in the course of this century. Along the E. coast—the volcanic group of the Kuriles; the Japanese islands, of which Nipon is the principal; the Lu-ku group to the S. of Japan; the large islands of Formosa and Hainan on the coast of China. Saghalin, opposite the coast of Manchuria, was long believed to be an island, but is a peninsula extending over 8 degrees of latitude, and connected with the continent by a low, narrow, and sandy isthmus, a little to the S. of the mouth of the River Amur. In the S.E. and S.—the Philippines, among which Luzon and Magindanao are the largest, and half a dozen others have areas surpassing or approaching those of Cyprus and Candia; the great Islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Celebes; the Moluccas or Spice Islands, among which Gilolo, Ceram, Buro, and Amboyna, between Celebes and New Guinea; Nias, Batu, the two Pora, &c., on the W. coast, and Battam, Linga, Banka, and Billiton, on the E. coast of Sumatra; and, finally, the Sunda and Banda islands, a vast latitudinal archipelago, extending from the E. point of Java towards Australia and New Guinea, and composed of myriads of islands, among which the principal are in a direction from W. to E.; Madura, Bali, Lombok, Sumbava, Sandelbosh or Tshindana, Flores, Timor (250 miles long), Timor Laut, and Aru, which form a bridge as it were between Asia and Australia. In the Indian Ocean—the Nicobar and Andaman Archipelagos, between the N.W. point of Sumatra and the mouths of the Irrawaddy; the large island of Ceylon; and, on both sides of the 70th meridian E., stretching due N. from S. Lat. 8° nearly as far as the latitude of Goa, the archipelagos of the Tshagas, Maldives, and Lakkadives, all three composed of myriads of mostly very small islands of coral formation. In the Persian Gulf—Ormuzd, Kishm, and Bahrain. In the Red Sea—Perim, Arish (erroneously called Harnish), Farsan, and Dhalak. In the Mediterranean—Cyprus, Rhodes, Chios, &c.
The surface of this vast continent is exceedingly varied. In some places it towers in stupendous mountains, forming four great chains, with subordinate branches, of different names. It often exhibits vast plateaux or elevated table-lands, of prodigious extent; in other points it stretches in plains little elevated above the level of the ocean; while in certain points it presents enormous hollows or depressions that are lower than the surface of the Black Sea. Humboldt computes the superficies of all Asia at 1,346,000 geographical square leagues. Of this a large proportion is mountainous, or raised in elevated plains. The same eminent authority estimates these as follows:
| The mountainous parts of Arabia, Beluchistan, or the plateau of Kelat, Kandahar, with the mountain ridges of India | 240,000 | |---------------------------------------------------------------|---------| | The mountainous parts of China | 54,400 | | The plateau of Gobi or Sha-mo | 42,000 | | The plateau of Tibet and Ladak, between the Himalaya and Kuen-lun Mountains | 41,000 | | The plateau of Persia | 27,000 | | The Taurus of Asia Minor, Ararat, and the Hindu Kho | 81,300 | | Of which that of Ararat alone is | 3,500 | | The Caucasus, from Baku to Anapa | 2,700 | | The Oural and Altai groups | 3,400 |
The northern portion of Asia consists of a series of plains divided by mountains of small elevation, forming the comparatively low land of Siberia, intersected by several large rivers, and occupied often by extensive swamps. This region is estimated at about 400,000 square leagues. The central part of Asia, still imperfectly known to Europe, was till lately conceived to be one vast table-land, of irregular form, buttressed on every side by lofty mountains; but it now appears, on the contrary, to be traversed by long mountain chains.
Asia presents to the eye such a compactness of conformation, and its outlines are at the same time so diversified by deep indentures of the sea, forming gulfs and peninsulas of every shape and dimension, that neither Africa can be called more compact, nor North America more diversified. Every prominent feature of this vast continent is on a gigantic scale; and the aggregate of its mountains and rivers, its low plains and its elevated plateaux, surpasses those of the other divisions, not only in magnitude, but also by its contrasting variety. Its mere steppe rivers approach the size of the Don and the Dniepr; and the second of its salt lakes, the Aral, is still larger, by 6400 square geographical miles, than Lake Superior, the largest sheet of water in America; while the combined superficies of all the American lakes would not suffice to cover the area of the Caspian. Its Indian Archipelago forms a world by itself, with which the West Indian Islands can be compared neither for extent nor importance; its mountains rise higher into the regions of eternal snow than the far-famed Chimborazo; it has its deserts of burning sand, and of frozen swamps, alike destructive to the human race. Nowhere is there such an exuberance of animal and vegetable life, not only spread over the whole continent, but also displaying itself within the narrowest limits, as the traveller rapidly descends from the crest of the Himalaya into the plain of Bengal. The same variety, the same contrasts, appear in its history. Asia, the cradle of mankind, the mother of religion, the nurse of civilization, where arts and letters were cultivated in the remotest times, contains within her inaccessible mountain forests numerous descendants of her primitive inhabitants, who still continue that brutish life which their forefathers led when the first vine was planted, the first hieroglyphic character carved in the rock.
Nature has divided Asia into six portions, of which each Division is so vast and so distinct from the other as almost to present a world by itself. These are Central, Western, Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Oceanic Asia. We place Central Asia at the head, because it is not only the nucleus of the whole continent, comparable to a huge citadel situated in the centre of a fortress, of which the other divisions are the bastions and ramparts, the peninsulas and islands the outworks; but also because the nations by which it is inhabited have exercised, from the remotest times, a most powerful influence on those of the other divisions, so that most of the great revolutions by which Asia has from time to time been convulsed since the very dawn of history, and which affected even Europe in such a degree as to change the whole ethnographical and political aspect of that continent also, can be traced back to commotions among the forefathers of those barbarous tribes of shepherds, who still wander in the cold and dreary steppes over which the Bogdo Ula towers in awful, majestic solitude.
Central Asia, the greatest and highest table-land on the Central globe, extends between the Himalaya in the S., which se-Asia.
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1 According to Berghaus, there are 19 rivers in America, and 12 in Asia, the basin of each of which contains upwards of 10,500 German, or 168,000 geographical square miles. The united area of the former, the first of which is the Amazon, and the last the Rio Negro, is 324,500 German, or 5,192,000 geographical square miles; of which the basin of the Amazon occupies not less than 2,018,400. That of the latter, the Obi standing at the head with 924,800 geographical square miles, and the Tarim being the last, is 363,738 German, or 5,820,000 geographical square miles; giving a difference of 628,000 geographical square miles in favour of Asia. The total length of the 10 American Rivers, windings included, is 75,640 geographical miles; that of the Asiatic, 98,448 geographical miles; difference in favour of the latter, 21,808 geographical miles. Yet the system of the Maranon in the former stands unequalled by any in the world. parates it from India, and the chain of the Altai, with its eastern continuation, the Daurian Mountains, in the N., towards Siberia. Its western boundary is the Bolor Daghi, a lofty range beginning at the Hindu Koh in E. Long. 72°, by which it is separated from Turkistan, and which stretches due N. as far as the steppes of the Khirgises, in about N. Lat. 46°. In the E. it is bordered by China and Manchuria. From the junction of the Hindu Koh and the Bolor Daghi, a snowy range extends E. in the 35th parallel, as far as the Alps of Shensi, in China; its western portion, towards the Bolor Daghi, is called Tsung-ling; its eastern, Kwan-lun or Kuen-lun,—both names meaning Blue or Onion Mountains. From the Kuen-lun the Sive-shan and Amie Gangeer Ula branch off N.E., towards the Lake Kuku-nur. Another high range shoots from the central portion of the Bolor Daghi, N.E. and E., far into the interior. It is called Tengri Daghi by the Turks in those parts, Thian-shan by the Chinese—both of which names signify Celestial Mountains; and Mus Daghi, or Ice Mountains, by the Mongols. Separated from the Thian-shan by an intervening portion of the desert of Gobi, extends the snowy range of Gadschar or In-shan along the northern frontiers of China. The highest peak of the Thian-shan is the celebrated Bogdo Ula, or Holy Mountain, one of the loftiest mountains in Asia, at the western foot of which lies the volcano of Petshan.
The four chains of the Himalaya, the Kuen-lun, the Thian-shan, and the Altai, are, in the whole, parallel to each other, and divide the table-land of Central Asia into three plateaux of decreasing elevation and different dimensions, namely, Tibet, High Tartary, and Mongolia.
The highest terrace is Tibet, between the Himalaya and the Kuen-lun, and the Bolor and China; between N. Lat. 28° in the extreme S., 36° in the N., and 39° in the extreme N.E.; and between E. Long. 68° and 98° from W. to E. Ladakh in the extreme W., Kham in the E., and Tangut in the N.E., are appurtenances of Tibet. The level of Tibet is not equal, its surface showing numerous and extensive depressions, with steppe rivers flowing into salt lakes without outlets; the valleys of the Indus, the Dzangbo and the Yang-tse-kiang (in Kham), especially that of the Dzangbo, are also much below the general level. The highest plateaux are around the culminating point of the Himalaya, the Hindu Koh, the Bolor Daghi, and the Kuen-lun, on the borders of Turkistan; and Ritter thinks that the plateaux around Lake Kuku-nur are quite as high. Their elevation is not accurately known, but they are both higher than the plateaux stretching from the sources of the Sutlej E. towards the sacred mount Kailasa, which rise 16,800 feet above the sea, increasing in height further E. The average height of the other Himalaya plateaux is about the same. Mount Purkuyor Tashgong, on which Lieut. Gerard reached, in 1818, an altitude of 18,210 feet, is 21,300 feet high; but the highest known peaks of the Himalaya do not lie on Tibetan territory. According to all appearance the peaks which rise above the high table-land on the borders of Turkistan, and those around Lake Kuku-nur, probably equal in elevation the highest peaks of the Himalaya. In Kham, also, which is intersected by numerous valleys encompassed by precipitous Alpine rocks, there are mountains of stupendous height, and mountain passes lying 18,000 feet above the sea, over which, however, the Chinese more than once penetrated into Tibet with armies of 100,000 men. The climate of Tibet is very severe, the winters being almost insupportable, but the summer season in the lower valley of the Dzangbo is genial, the country producing grapes, peaches, and other choice fruit, in abundance. Tibet contains the sources of the Indus, the Dzangbo, the Yang-tse-kiang, and the Hoang-ho, the latter two being in Tangut. The largest lakes, which are all surrounded by vast and excellent pastures, are Kuku-nur in Tangut, and Tengri-nur in Tibet Proper. Our scanty knowledge of Tibet has lately received a valuable addition in the journal of the Rev. Mr Puch, a French missionary, who proceeded from Peking, through Mongolia and Tangut, to L’Hassa, the capital of Tibet, which he left for China by the road through Kham. An English translation of his MS. journal was recently published under the auspices of Lord Palmerston.
The slope of this terrace, which comprises Chinese Tur-Second kistan, the western portion of the desert Gobi, and the southern portion of the Chinese government Kan-fu, is from the high plateaux of the Bolor Daghi E., towards the desert Gobi. Its highest tracts lie in the Bolor Daghi, the Thian-shan, especially around the Bogdo Ula, the Tsung-ling and Kuen-lun, and in the far E., in Kan-fu, along the snowy Tangut range, the slope of which towards the Gobi seems to be very rapid. There the province of Kan-fu penetrates edgewise into Mongolia, extending N. and W. towards the Altai Proper. The central and eastern portions of High Tartary are occupied by the southern Gobi, which lies much below the general level of the terrace. The elevation of this terrace is considerably lower than that of Tibet, as appears from the genial climate of Chinese Turkistan, which is said to produce grapes, pomegranates, peaches, and other choice fruit of southern climes. The river Ta-rim, swelled by numerous affluents descending from the Bolor, the Tsung-ling and the Kuen-lun, traverses the whole of Chinese Turkistan from W. to E., and empties itself into the steppe lake Lob, on the borders of the Gobi, after a course of about 1000 geographical miles. It is also called Ergho-gol, and Yar-kiang Daria, which, however, is but the name of a large southern affluent washing the walls of Yar-kiang. The natives and the Chinese contend that the Ta-rim was once connected with the Hoang-ho, of which it formed the upper course, but that the connection was interrupted in consequence of the level of the Gobi having been raised by volcanic power. Besides the Lob, there are the large steppe lakes Babakul and Bosta, at the foot of the Thian-shan. Of the desert Gobi more will be said under the next head, and Kan-fu, although cultivated in many parts, partakes on the whole of the desolate character of the other highlands and plateaux in this region. The climate of Chinese Turkistan is exceedingly dry, rains being rare phenomena, whence all cultivated fields are watered by artificial irrigation. The winters are very severe. The original inhabitants of the extensive tracts watered by the Ta-rim were Tadjiks, a nation akin to the Persians, and who are also, but erroneously, called Bokharians, because they are very numerous in Bokhara. The Tadjiks were conquered by the Turkish tribe of the Usbecks, who established several small principalities, gave their name to the country (Turkistan), and ruled over it till they were subjugated by the Chinese in 1757. Thence the European name of Chinese Turkistan. The Chinese themselves call it Thian-shan-nan-lu (the province along the southern foot of the Celestial Mountains), and it is a portion of their “Si-yu,” or “West Country.” There are also many Mongolish tribes in the country.
The most elevated plateaux of Mongolia, which are over-third topped by some of the loftiest peaks in Asia, lie in the S., race, or in the In-shan, on the borders of China, and the Thian-Mongolia, shan, on the borders of Chinese Turkistan. They slope gradually down towards the Altai, and the desert of Gobi, which occupies the central parts of Mongolia. The level of the terrace, consequently, varies very much, but measurements have only been made in Songaria, along the Altai, and along the great caravan road which leads from Peking to Kiakhta, on the frontiers of Siberia. On ascending the plateau from Peking, the traveller is almost suddenly transported from a southern clime to a cold, dreary table-land, resembling Siberia much more than China. The point where the road crosses the great Chinese wall, lies about 5100 feet above the sea, and marks the beginning of the desert of Gobi; the level of Zaghan-bal-ghassu, further N., is 4200 feet; near Zakil-dakhlan begins a sandy desert dotted with salt lakes, which lies much below the plateaux to the S. and N. of this tract, and seems to be the dried-up bed of an inland sea. It extends as far as Durma, where the soil changes from sand to a hard salt clay, producing saline plants, and strewn over with large fragments of rock, mostly porphyry and jasper, while in other places the steppe is literally covered with chaledonies and agates. This tract is about 2400 feet above the sea, and the dreariest of the whole Gobi. The level rises in the direction of the Bussu-tchillon, or Belt Mountain, a steep, high wall of syenite rock, extending E. and W., and standing on a basis 3480 feet high. On the northern side of that conspicuous ridge, the plateau rises again to 4600 feet, at Dijrgalanta, whence it slopes down to 4000 feet, at Erga or Urga, a large town at the foot of the lofty, wood-clad Khan Ula, and the capital of the Khal-khas Mongols. Erga lies at the northern foot of the Guntui range, which marks the beginning of the Gobi, but not that of Mongolia, on the side of Siberia.
Gobi is a Mongolian name signifying a country without trees and water, the same as the Chinese Shamo, and no less appropriate than the well-known terms Sahara and Ab-kai'. It extends 1600 geographical miles from S.W. to N.E., with a width varying between 250 and 500 geographical miles, and occupies the central portions of both the second and third terrace of Central Asia. The Gobi is one of the most desolate tracts on the face of the globe. The utter absence of fresh water, the deceiving salt lakes glittering in the midst of inhospitable solitudes, the whirling clouds of dust and the myriads of gnats which pursue the weary traveller in the summer, combined with the intense cold, the icy blast of hurricanes, and the all-burying snow storms of the winters, are phenomena no less redoubtable than all the horrors of the Sahara. But the Gobi also has its cases of luxuriant pastures around most of its salt lakes and along the steppe rivers, where the wandering Mongols pitch their tents of felt, and rear large herds of cattle, sheep, camels, and horses. The part occupied by the Chinese province of Khan-fu seems to be the least desolate; it is watered by two considerable steppe rivers, the Thola and the Bulon-ghir, and contains many settled inhabitants as well as some towns of importance. Our scanty knowledge of southern Mongolia has lately received most valuable additions through the journal of Mr Puch.
From the Guntui Mountains, in the territory of the Khal-khas Mongols, the Khing-khan, a high range, runs E. towards Manchuria, and another, under various names, towards the Altai in the W. This extensive mountain system is composed of the Khangai, the Guntui, and the Tangu chains, and forms a curve connected in the W. and E. with the curve of the great Altai system; and between the two curves lies an immense longitudinal tract, divided by northern branches of the Guntui and Tangu into three basins. In the eastern basin are the head waters of the Amur; in the central one, those of the Selenga, which, after having crossed lake Baikal, assumes the appellations of Angara and Upper Tunguska, under which name it joins the Yeniscei, of which it is the principal affluent; the western basin, finally, is watered by the upper course of the Yeniscei, which rises here. But, although this great tract contains the sources of three of the greatest rivers of Asia, its elevation, except towards Erga, is much lower than that of High Mongolia, and not much above that of Southern Siberia, towards which it slopes down very gradually. Kiakhta, the frontier town of Siberia, lies 2100 feet above the sea. The political frontiers of Russian and Chinese Asia have been fixed across the tract without any consideration of natural boundaries, so that the northern portion belongs to Siberia, and the southern to Mongolia. It is inhabited by various Mongolian tribes. This circumstance, together with the abundance of water, the luxuriant pastures, the wooded mountains, and the comparatively genial climate, have given this tract the title of Mongolia Felix, a name not inappropriate, considering the contrast it offers to the adjacent Gobi. Western Mongolia, also, which is watered by the great steppe river Djahagan, which flows into Lake Ike Aral, is, comparatively speaking, a good country.
The westernmost part of Mongolia, or the plateau of Songaria, Songaria, lies between the Altai and the Thian-shan, along the western slopes of a high chain connecting those great ranges in a direction from N. to S. In its highlands there are peaks covered with eternal snow, and in the N. lies the Bielukha, the highest peak of the Altai, to which Mr Gebler, who visited the country in 1833, assigns an elevation of 11,723 feet. In Songaria are the sources of the Bukhtar-ma and Erisis, which are the main feeders of the great Siberian river Irtish. It contains several large salt lakes, as the Kizilbash, the Akaka-gol, the Issi-gol, and the Dsaisang; and it slopes rapidly down towards the great Balkash, the elevation of which is under 1800 feet. Songaria is a thriving Chinese province, with a motley commercial, agricultural, and nomadic population of Mongols, Turks, Tadjiks, and Chinese, most of the latter being exiled or transported criminals.
Western Asia contains Turan or Turkistan in the N.; Western Iran or Persia, Afghanistan, and Beluchistan, in the E. Asia, and S.; the Caucasus, the Armenian table-land, and Asia Minor, in the W.; and Arabia with Syria in the extreme W. and S.W. Its natural limits are,—in the N., none, although the low western spurs of the Altai are sometimes called so; in the E., the link between the Altai and the Thian-shan (true Altai of Humboldt), and the Bolor Dagh towards Mongolia and Chinese Turkistan, and the Indus towards India. The western and southern limits coincide with those of Asia. Western Asia extends 3000 geographical miles from S.W. (Babelmandeb), to N.E. (Altai), and 2100 geographical miles from W. (Dardanelles), to E. (Bolor Dagh).
Turan or Turkistan comprehends the original seats of the Turan or Turkish race, that is, the Osmanlis, the Turkomans, the so-called Tartars (or, better, Tstirs) in European and Asiatic Russia, the Khirgis, the Usbek, the Kara Kalpaks, the Bashkirs, and many other tribes, many of which have left their original homes to settle in distant countries.
This vast tract measures 1300 geographical miles from Steppe of W. to E., and about 500 from N. to S. It is partly a salt the Khir-steppe, partly a grass steppe, the latter characteristic prevailing on the side of Siberia, into which it gradually merges. Low offshoots of the Altai fill its northern parts. It contains a great number of salt lakes and steppe rivers. Among the former, the Balkash, on the borders of Songaria, has an area of 4800 square geographical miles, and is one of the largest in Asia; the Alaktu-gol, the northern Tenghiz, and the Tchurch-edshin, are considerable. The Ishim and Tobol Rivers, and other affluents of the Irtish, water the north; the steppe rivers Karaturgai, Naru, and Sarisin, the centre; and the Tchui, which issues from Lake Issi-gol, and empties itself into Lake Kahan Kulak, after a course of 700 miles, separates the steppe of the Khirgis from the slopes of the northern Bolor Dagh. Of the Caspian and the Aral, more will be said under the head “Turkistan.” The Khirgis, a Turkish tribe, call themselves Kazaks or Cossacks, and are divided into three Hordes (a corruption of “ordu,” tribe); namely, the Great Horde in the E., under the nominal supremacy of China and the Khan of Khokan, and the Little and Middle Hordes over which Russia has obtained a protectorate, which is more and more assuming the character of sovereignty. The fortified line of the River Ural is still the principal boundary of the Russian empire towards the The surface of Turkistan Proper shows a greater difference of level than any other known country; the highest peaks of the Bolor and Hindu Koh, together with the table-lands over which they rise, vying with those of the Andes and Himalaya; while the level of the Caspian lies 83,67 feet below that of the Black Sea, and a large tract around it is also below the level of the ocean. The area of the Caspian contains 118,000 square geographical miles, and is as large as that of the Baltic. Lake Aral was carefully surveyed in 1847-48 by a Russian naval expedition under Captain Butakov, assisted by Captain Maksheyef; but the astronomical observations were made by Mr Lemm in 1846. The lake extends between the parallels of 43° 42', 41°, and 46° 44'. N. Lat., and 58° 18', 47°, and 61° 46', 44° E. Long.
The Aral, a large gulf called the Little Aral included, covers an area of 17,600 square geographical miles, or only one-half of that which it was until lately believed to have. It contains many islands, but only a few good harbours, and receives no rivers besides the Sihun and the Djihun; the supposition that the Djan Daria reaches the lake having not yet been substantiated. Its water is salt, though less so than that of the ocean, and near the mouths of the rivers so little brackish, as to be drinkable; its average depth is between 10 and 15 fathoms, its greatest, 37 fathoms; it is exposed to sudden and violent squalls, and abounds with fish, but there are no seals, of which there are such great numbers in the Caspian. Connected with the Aral in the S.W., is the large swamp Aibuyir or Laudan, which extends S. as far as 42° 30'.
The plains of Turkistan rise very gently towards the Bolor and Hindu Koh, the whole western slopes of which are a high, Alpine country, well wooded, and abundantly watered by the feeders and affluents of the Djihun and Sihun. The sources of the Sihun, or Sir Daria, lie near the culminating point of the Bolor and Thian-shan, on the high table-land inhabited by the Karakalpaks, or Black Caps, a tribe of Turkish nomads who call themselves Buruts, and differ very little from the Khirgises. After a course of 1200 geographical miles, or perhaps less, and changing from W. to N., and again W., the Sihun flows into the Aral through several channels, none of which is deeper than three feet. The Djihun comes from the high plateau of Pamir (16,800 feet), where its sources were discovered by Lieutenant Wood; its course lies W. and N.W., and it forms a large delta at its mouth. Its total length is about 1400 geographical miles. The deepest of its embouchures has about 3 feet water. There can be little doubt that the Djihun, the ancient Oxus, once emptied itself into the Caspian, a fact which was known by Jenkinson in 1558; Abulghazi, Sultan of Khozwaren, mentions it in his History; and a Russian survey all but confirmed it about thirty years ago. The ancient bed is still distinguishable, and in many parts filled with water. The climate of Turkistan, which lies between the isotherms of the rainless regions, is exceedingly dry, whence all cultivation ceases where there is no running water, or such as is obtained from the numerous canals of irrigation. But wherever fresh water is found, the land is well cultivated, and yields an abundance of grain and fruit of most excellent quality: the grapes, melons, peaches, oranges, and other exquisite fruits are renowned in Asia. The waterless districts are either salt steppes or sandy deserts, especially near the Cassian, and between the Aral and its two tributaries. A great proportion of the settled population of Turkistan are Tadjiks.
The country contains the independent Khanats of Khiwa, Bokhara, Kunduz, and Khokand; the two latter of which occupy nearly the whole tract of the western slopes of the Bolor Mountains, the high plateaux of the centre along the whole of the range being inhabited by tribes of Karakalpaks and other Khirgises, who are but little dependent on the neighbouring princes.
A western continuation of the Hindu Koh, the range of Iran, or Khorassan, and the Damani Koh, separates Iran from Turan, Persia, and decreases in height as it approaches the south-eastern with Ar- corner of the Caspian. There the lofty chain of the Alborz glanistan, or Elburz rises suddenly, and trending W., connects the system of the Himalaya with the Caucasus and the Taurus. The highest peak of the Hindu Koh, in this part, is the Kohi Baba, N.E. of Kabul, which rises 16,900 feet above the sea; in the Elburz, the volcanic peak of Demawend is 18,870 feet high. The northern part of Afghanistan is very mountainous; and the table-land of Kabul is about 6000 feet high. To the W. of it, there is a great salt desert, in the midst of which are the fertile oases of Herat and Kandahar. On the plateau of Afghanistan are the sources of the steppe rivers Marghab, which flows N. into the plain of Turkistan; Heri Rud, which waters Herat and Meshed; and Hilmend, the most considerable of the three, which empties itself into Lake Hamun, on the borders of Persia. Beluchistan is a plateau, the interior of which is but imperfectly known. The slope of the plateau of Afghanistan towards the plain of the Indus is very abrupt, the mountain chains having in many localities the aspect of steep rock walls. Persia is a plateau from 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea, and nearly on all sides encompassed by lofty and rugged chains, through which narrow mountain passes lead into the interior. But it is open towards Western Turkistan and Central Afghanistan. Between Abushelr (Bushire) on the Persian Gulf, and Shiraz, there are no less than seven terraces. A large portion of the interior of Persia is occupied by a great salt desert, diversified in some places by highly fertile oases. On the whole, the interior of Persia is a miserable country, resembling the central parts of Arabia, and lying like them within the isotherms of the rainless region. But Mazanderan, the narrow district between the Elburz and Caspian, has a moist climate, in which trees and plants of every description grow most luxuriantly. In the west, also, the slopes of the Kurdistan Alps, and the Pushli Koh towards the Tigris, and the extremity of the Persian Gulf in Khuzistan, are well watered and highly productive. The latter chain is a portion of Mons Zagros of the ancients. The peak of Rowandiz, to the S. of Lake Urumiyeh is of enormous height. But the highest portion of Persia is the province of Azerbijan, which, however, belongs to the plateau of Armenia. See Persia.
The Armenian plateau occupies a large tract between the Anti-Taurus and the Caspian, and the plains of Mesopotamia and the Caucasus. It is of great elevation; the plateau plain of Erzrum being 6114 feet above the sea, which is about the average height of the whole plateau. Above this basis, a great number of peaks are covered with eternal snow, among which the Ararat is the highest (17,266 feet). The climate is very dry, but much less so than that of Iran and Turan; and there being an abundance of running water, cultivation is carried on with success on plains which otherwise would be barren. Deep valleys encompassed by steep rocks furrow the table-land in every direction; there the settled population accumulates, the nomadic tribes, chiefly Kurds, preferring the uplands. On the Armenian
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1 Ritter's Review of Maksheyef's description of Lake Aral, in Monthly Bulletin of the Geographical Society in Berlin, May 1852. plateau are the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, which flow into the Persian Gulf through a common channel; the Aras or Araxes, and the Kurtwa tributaries of the Caspian; and the Tchoruk and the Kizil Irmak, which empty themselves into the Black Sea. Among the lakes, two belong to the largest in Asia, namely, Urumiye (about 300 miles in circumference) or Azerbaijan, and Lake Van (about 190 miles in circumference) on the Turkish territory. Mr Layard supposes the latter to be the real source of the Tigris, issuing from it through a subterranean channel.
From the table-land of Armenia, the Elburz branches off E., towards the far Hindu Koh; the Kurdistan Alps branch off S.; and the Taurus and Anti-Taurus W. In the extreme N., along the Black Sea, an intricate system of irregular chains connects it with the mountains in the N. of Asia Minor, and, in an opposite direction, with the Caucasus, from which the plain of the Kur separates it further E.
The lofty chain of the Caucasus, which divides Asia from Europe, extends 600 geographical miles, between the Black Sea and the Caspian, in a direction from N.W. to S.E. The average height of its crest is 8000 feet; but upwards of a hundred peaks rise to a considerable elevation above it: the highest are the E. and W. summits of Elburz, respectively 18,513 and 18,449 feet, and Karbek 16,844 feet. The Caucasus is celebrated for the sublime wildness of its scenery. Among its wooded mountains rise the Kuban, the Kuma, and the Terek, in the N., the former joining the Black Sea, and the two latter the Caspian; and several of the head waters of the Kur, which flows into the Caspian in the S. It shelters hardy tribes of mountaineers, who have long maintained their independence. See Caucasus.
Syria and Arabia.
Syria is a link between Asia Minor and Arabia, its lofty mountains being connected in the N. with the Taurus, and in the S. with Mount Sinai, and the coast range of Northern Hedjaz. The principal southern portion of the Syrian mountains is the Lebanon, which the valley of the Orontes, the Coele-Syria of the ancients, divides into Libanus and Anti-Libanus. The highest peak is the Djebel Sheikh, or Great Hermon, the southernmost buttress of the Anti-Libanus, which rises abruptly over the plateau of Northern Palestine, and attains an elevation of at least 13,500 feet, and very probably 14,000 feet. Its summit is covered with eternal snow, whence the Arabs call it also Djebel-el-Teldj, or Snow Peak. See Syria.
Arabia is a table-land, except in the extreme N., where it slopes down to a low sandy desert. The elevation of the central plateaux varies between 3000 and 5000 feet, but those in the S., in Hadhramaut, are 8000 feet above the sea. The whole N. and centre of Arabia are within the isotherms of the rainless regions, but the southern portions are refreshed by tropical rains; the volume of which is, however, far from being the same everywhere, much depending upon local causes. See Arabia.
Northern Asia, or Siberia.
Siberia was originally the name of a Turko-Mongolian Khanat, comprehending a large tract between the Ural and the Ob, and extending south over a portion of the steppe of the Khirgises. It was one of the fragments of the huge empire of Zinghis Khan, and took its name from the capital Sibir, of which some remnants are still visible near Tobolsk. The Kossack Yermak conquered Sibir in 1581, for his master, Ivan IV., surnamed the Terrible, Czar of Muscovy; and the Russian dominions having gradually extended itself over the whole of North Asia, the name of Siberia became the general designation of that vast region, as being the most prominent among the several territorial divisions of that part of Asia. The S. of Siberia is a mountainous country occupied by the Altai system, except a tract towards the steppe of the Khirgises. Its greater western portion between the Altai, the Ural, the Polar Sea, and the River Lena, is an immense plain of but little elevation above the sea; but Eastern Siberia, between the Lena and the seas of Okhotsk and Kamtschatka, is a mountainous country, except along the shores of the Polar Sea. The name Altai is now generally, but improperly, given to the whole of the great mountain system on the borders of Central and Eastern Asia; but originally it only designated its westernmost portion around the sources of the Irtysh, Obi, and Yenissee. The highest peak of that Altai is the Biokhka in Songaria, which is covered with eternal snow, and 11,700 feet high, according to Gebler, or 12,790 according to Tchibatchef. In both the Turkish and Mongolian languages, Altai Dagh or Tau means Gold Mountain; and the abundance of that precious metal fully justifies the name. The chain of Ergik Targak runs E. towards the Baikal, and as far as that lake the system is called Western Altai. The Baikal has salt, or rather brackish water, covers an area of 10,000 geographical square miles, and is surrounded on all sides by spurs of the Altai.
The chain, improperly called Eastern Altai, is composed of several chains, which are known by the collective name of the Daurian Mountains. The principal chain, which stretches far E. between Siberia and Mantchuria, is distinguished by its rounded summits, whence the Russians call it Yablonoi-Khirebet, or Apple Mountains. It is also called Stannowoi-Khirebet, or Stony Mountains; its Mantchu name is Khing-khan-tagurik. In the centre of the Daurian Mountains are the rich gold mines of Nertchinsk, a town situated on the Shilka, or northern branch of the Amur. Further E., along the sea of Okhotsk, are the Aldanian Mountains, with Mount Kapitan, 8780 feet high; and the extreme N.E. of Asia is traversed in every direction by the mountains of the Tchukitches, through which the Anadir meanders towards the entrance of Behring's Strait. These chains, together with their numerous northern spurs, are covered with magnificent forests, which, in the Aldanian Mountains, in N. Lat. 60°, reach an elevation of 2100 feet. Both the western and eastern chains are rich in various metals, and the gold mines yield precedence only to those in California and Australia. The great peninsula of Kamtschatka is a volcanic country, traversed from N. to S. by a lofty range, the southern portion of which is distinguished by a countless number of extinct volcanoes, situated along its western slopes. The northernmost, in N. Lat. 54° 40', is the Shiveluch, and the highest the Klutchef, 14,730 Parisian feet high, as measured by Erman. In the interior, especially in the Baidar Hills, are plateaux 1800 feet above the sea, and covered with lava. The southern tracts of Siberia, those which belong to Mongolia Felix, as well as the valleys of the Altai, and the plains along its northern foot, are a fertile country; and although the winters are very severe, the summers are hot, and the soil yields abundant crops. But the steppes in the centre, and still more those in the north, have a very different character.
The Ural extends from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in Ural. N. Lat. 70°, to the middle course of the river Ural in N. Lat. 51°. The mountains in the island of Nova Zembla (among which Mount Glassowsky attains an elevation of about 2500 feet), are a northern continuation of the Ural; with which, in the extreme south, are connected the plateau of Uptchei Syrt, between the Volga and the Don; the low ridge of Mugodjar, which terminates in the steep plateau of Usturt, between the Caspian and the Aral, and other low hills in the steppe of the Khirgises. The main and central portion of the Ural consists of a principal western chain, from which many spurs branch off towards Russia; and two parallel chains on the Asiatic side, the easternmost and lowest of which is the Irmel, which rises abruptly over the steppes of Siberia. The highest summits are a little to the E. of, and detached from, the main chain, near Bogosolowsk, in Lat. 60°; they attain an elevation of from 8000 to 9000 feet, and among them the Daneshken Kamen is considered to be the highest. The highest summits in the S. are the Yurna, the Togansai, and the Iremel, none of which rises more than 4000 feet above the sea. The Pawdinski Kamen was formerly believed to be the highest mountain in the Ural, but its recent measurements have shown that it is not higher than the Tuganai, viz., 3500 feet. Generally speaking, however, the average height of the crest of the whole Ural is not considerable. Near Katherinenburg, where the grand road from Europe to Asia leads over it, it is only 1600 feet; the highest point of the road between Miyask and Slatovsk is not above 1800 feet; and the town of Katherinenburg lies only 900 feet above the sea. The northernmost portion is called the Obdor Ural; south of it the Poyos, the Werschourian, the Katherinenburg, and the Bashuirian-Ural. The Ural is rich in minerals, especially in the district around Katherinenburg, and its gold and platinum mines are the richest in the Old World.
It has already been observed, that the basin of Mongolia Felix is a plateau much less elevated than High Mongolia, and that it slopes gradually down towards the low steppes of Siberia, a fact which could not escape the notice of those who had an opportunity of observing the gentle current of the great Siberian rivers. Kiakhta, on the steppe of the Selenga, on the frontiers of China, lies 2100 Parisian feet above the Polar Sea; the elevation of Lake Baikal, into which the Selenga flows, is 900 feet lower, or 1200 feet; that of the Irish, near Tobolsk, about 500 miles from the Obi Gulf, is 110 feet; that of the Obi at Barnaul, in the midst of the northern spurs of the Altai, is only 360 feet. But Siberia, around and east of the Baikal is more elevated, and the low steppes begin in a much higher latitude. They increase in desolation towards the N., and between the 70th parallel and the Arctic Ocean they present the aspect of an immense frozen swamp, the surface of which, thawing up in the summer, covers itself with moss. These dreary plains or Tundra, were first and graphically described by the Russian Admiral Wrangel.
This division comprehends Hindustan, Burmah, Siam, Laos, and Cambodia, and though not in extent the largest, it is in many respects the most important portion of Asia.
It is not easy to give the extent of Hindustan with precision, from the extension given to the appellation by geographers; but if we carry a straight line from Cape Comorin, its southern point, to the northern boundary of Cashmere, its extreme length may be stated at 27° of latitude, or about 1890 English miles. Its form is an irregular triangle, the greatest breadth of which, in Lat. 24° N. from the mouth of the Indus, to the mountains of Cassay in Burmah, extends from Long. 69° to 92° E., a distance of about 1250 English miles. This area has an exceedingly varied surface, and contains a very mingled population. The northern and western portions are diversified by mountain ranges, often exceedingly steep and rugged; especially in the northern provinces, where they may be considered as spurs of the vast Himalaya chain; and also in the less lofty range which skirts the western coasts of the Indian peninsula, distinguished by the name of Western Ghauts, which in some points attain an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet. The mountains of the eastern side are far less elevated. A great portion presents extensive valleys, or vast plains, watered by noble rivers; but in a few places there are wide deserts, as on the eastern side of the Indus; and where water is deficient, as on portions of the eastern coast, there are sandy wastes. But in the plains traversed by the Ganges and its numerous affluents, by the Brahmaputra, the Ganga, the Nerbudda, and the Kristna, the soil is of surprising fertility, and often presents scenes of varied beauty. Where nature has denied the usual means of irrigation, art has often supplied the deficiency by artificial canals, and an enormous population finds the means of subsistence. These riches are not without alloy. Wherever water stagnates, especially in the midst of thick jungle, that locality becomes the chosen abodes of malignant fever and of spasmodic cholera; scourges that annually carry off multitudes in every part of India. The mountain streams for ages have afforded golden sands; eclipsed however in latter times by the riches of the Oursals, of California, and Australia. The central part of Hindustan affords diamonds; and for ages the only locality of that gem was believed to be Golconda.
The population of Hindustan consists of various races. The original inhabitants are said to be still represented by some mountain tribes, that may be yet distinguished from the Hindus, the Malayans, and the Cingalese; and the less swarthy Mahometan population are descendants of Arabian, Persian, and Tartar immigrations. See Hindustan.
The country now known under the name of Burmah comprehends the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu. Its northern boundary is the mountains of Assam; its western, British India and the Gulf of Bengal; the southern, the Malayan peninsula; and the eastern is Siam. Its extent is not well defined; but it appears to stretch from the 9th to 26th degree of N. Lat., or a length of about 1080 English miles, with a varying breadth from 600 to 240 English miles. The northern portions are mountainous, and afford gold, silver, sapphires and rubies; but the principal part is a vast plain, watered by the noble Irrawaddy and its affluents. The lower portions, about Rangoon and Pegu, are low and swampy. The whole is the seat of a warlike people, that have twice braved the armies of British India with more than Eastern courage. See Burmah and Ava.
Malaya or Malacca is a narrow peninsula extending into Malaya, the Indian Ocean, with a length of about 700 English miles, and a mean breadth of 150; and it has numerous fine harbours. On the coasts are some European settlements, one of which, Singapore, belongs to Great Britain. The interior is a longitudinal mountain chain, from which various arms descend on either hand. The interior is imperfectly known to Europeans. The native Malays are an enterprising, restless, vindictive race, much given to navigation and to piracy. In former times, they appear to have spread themselves over a considerable portion of the Pacific. See Malacca.
Of the interior of Siam, Laos, and Cambodia, we know little. They occupy two extensive river-valleys between Cambodia, Burmah and the mountains that join the western boundary of Cochin-China. Both rivers are navigable for a considerable distance, especially that of Siam, which bears the name of Maygue, and appears to arise in the mountains of Tibet, and falls into the Gulf of Siam. The river district, including Cambodia and Laos, is divided from Siam by a wide group of mountains running N. and S. It owes its fertility to the Maylung, a large river, also arising in Tibet, and running parallel to the Maygue. Both rivers are subject to periodic inundations, that give great fertility to the regions through which they pass. Laos is represented by Kaempfer as a powerful state, protected from foreign enemies by deep forests and rugged mountains. It lies N. of Cambodia, with which it is conterminous. The valleys are fertile; the mountains produce gold and sapphires. Cambodia is chiefly known as producing the drug we term gamboge, which is probably the juice of a Hebradendron.
Eastern Asia comprehends Cochin-China, Tunkin, and the Chinese empire.
Cochin-China or Southern China is a narrow mountainous tract, bounded on the E. by the ocean, on the W. by Tunkin, deserts and mountains, that separate it from Cambodia and Laos, and on the N. is divided by a small river from Tunkin, which it has lately partially conquered. It has many good harbours along its extensive coasts, of which Turon is Asia.
Staunton represents the country as fertile and well cultivated, the people as industrious and civilized. They, as well as the Tunkinese, are of Chinese descent. Their coasts abound with the edible birds' nests, formed by a species of swallow. See Cochin-China and Tunkin.
The vast empire of China presents an area computed at 1,297,999 square miles, according to Staunton, and a population of 333,000,000, being the most densely populated region of the earth. Its enormous surface is much varied, producing the vegetable riches of every climate. Chinese Tartary is very mountainous; and chains of granite mountains traverse China in various directions; but the great chains generally run from W. to E., and send the principal rivers in that direction through fertile plains of enormous extent. The principal of these rivers are the Amur, in the north; the Hoan-ho, and Kian-ku in the central districts, both having a course of more than 2000 miles; and the Hon-Kiang, and Pe-kian in the S. It is needless to state here what is discussed fully under China.
Oceanic Asia embraces all the Asiatic Isles properly so called; and some would also include under this head the distant New Zealand, and vast continent of Australia. We limit this division to Ceylon, the Andaman Isles, the Sumatran chain, including Java, &c., Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, the Manilas or Philippines, Formosa, Lu-ku, Japan, Jesso, and Tchoma. For a particular account of this division, we refer to the different heads just enumerated.
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. To such inquiries some uncertainty will always attach, and anomalies may appear of which we can offer no solution. Facts are our only sure guides; and to these, therefore, in the following observations, we shall endeavour to adhere.
The height of the land above the level of the sea is assured 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 S., and which contains a greater proportion of land within the tropics than any other division of the globe, is a vast store-house 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 N. sufficiently accounts for the coldness of its climate—the N.W. winds which sweep across its frozen wastes extending their inroads 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 E., 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 Tibet, 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 W., along the whole range of elevated country 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 Bokhara, which lie on the northern declivity of the great ridge of the Hindu Koh Mountains, in the same latitude as the S. 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, Hindustan, 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. Hindustan, 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 S.W. and N.E., with some slight variations, and which extend their influence over all the countries.
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1 See Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. 2 Turner's Embassy to Tibet, p. 217, 301, 356. 3 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khurasan, Appendix, p. 95. 4 Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 122. It is mentioned in the Journal of a 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.) 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 irruption 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 Hindustan, Burmah, and China, heated by the intense rays of a vertical sun, powerfully 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 S.W. to the N.E. 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 S. from the N.E. in the direction of the continent, as it formerly flowed towards the N. from the S.E. The S.W. 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 W. 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 southern 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°, and even, it is said, to 120°, 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 Baghdad they raise the thermometer to 120° in the shade. It has been already mentioned that the progress of the monsoons to the N. is arrested by the central mountains; and the elevated tract of country, therefore, which lies to the N. of this barrier, namely, the kingdom of Kokanu, over which are spread the headwaters of the Oxus, Balk, the ancient Bactria, Bokhara, and the countries W. of the Indus, as far as the Hellespont, depend on the spring and the winter rains which they receive from the W.
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 simoom 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 N. 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 Manchuria, 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 Amur; 2ndly, to the still greater mass of mountains which separates the Amur from the Lena; 3rdly, 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. This, however, is only true with regard to the extreme N.E. of Asia; but in the whole, such causes tend to the increase of cold. They are, however, counterbalanced by the influence of the Eastern and Arctic Oceans; and the average cold is consequently greater towards the centre of the continent than along its northern shores. The average cold of the winter in Nova Zembla, between N. Lat. 70. 30. and 73. 30., is −35° 30' Celsius; its minimum was −59° 30'; but at Statute, in N. Lat. 55., near the Ural, it is as low as 44°, while the minimum was 46°. The greatest cold ever observed in Asia was at Nishnei Kolymsk on the Kolyma, in N. Lat. 68. 32., namely −50° 20' on the 8th January 1821.
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 Hindustan 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
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1 Elphinstone's Account of Caled, chap. v. 2 Niebuhr, vol. ii. sect. 29. 3 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorassan, Appendix, p. 95. 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 Bokhara, 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 aliment 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 begin to fail; and the forests present dwarf trees with lichens, and some species of eatable wild berries, among which is the Empestrum nigrum. In ascending the Asiatic wild 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 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 Sutlej river, which must have been at least in the 30th degree of N. Lat., 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 N. Lat., plants were found that ripened their seed at the enormous height of 17,000 feet. In Lat. 30. 25, the same travellers saw fields at the height of 11,790 feet, not only without snow, but covered with extensive crops of buckwheat and Tartaric barley. The decrease of heat in proportion to the altitude attained appears to be affected in those climates by the transport of the warm moist air of the S.W. monsoons from the Indian Ocean. 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 Tibet 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 it is a source of prodigious wealth. It has more lately been found also in Assam, where it has been successfully cultivated by the British. Arabia is the native country of coffee, where it still arrives at its greatest perfection. The sugar-cane is cultivated in Hindustan, though not with the same energy and skill as in the West Indies; and also in some of the hottest parts of Asia Minor. Tobacco is very generally produced in Southern and Western Asia; and opium, the great intoxicating drug of the East, is an important article of cultivation in Hindustan. It is chiefly produced in Bengal, Bahar, and Malwah; and upwards of 4,000,000 pounds of opium were annually sent to China, before it was prohibited by the Chinese government. 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 and Persia. 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 cultivated in India, growing in Arabia, Persia, and throughout Asia Minor; and the mulberry which, by feeding the silkworm, affords so splendid an article of dress, is grown 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 tribe, and diffuses an exquisite perfume. Arabia has 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 durability. There are many trees which minister to the wants and appetites of man. The sago palm yields from its stem and roots the well-known farinaceous substance which bears its name. The toddy palm yields a rich juice which, when fermented, becomes a strong spirituous liquor. 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, and the elm; and still farther N., 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 carried to
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1 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, Appendix, p. 96. the same perfection as in Europe. 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.
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 at one time supposed that this formidable animal did not haunt the forests and jungles of India. But lions have been seen in great numbers in the N. of India, in Guzerat, and in the province of Delhi, to the N. of that 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 is he 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 retires 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 W. of that river into the mountain tracts of Beluchistan. 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 full 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 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 nearly 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 W., 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 other 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 Beluchistan and the other countries to the west of the Indus. The first three 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 striped hyena is often to be met in the Persian forests. The wild dog is common in Northern India, in Beluchistan, and in all the mountainous countries to the E. 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 hemionus or wild horse is found about the Sea of Aral. 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 N. 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 common camel with only one hump. The latter is the camel of Arabia, Syria, Persia,
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1 Elphinstone's Account of Cabul, p. 141. 2 Bishop Heber. 3 See Pottinger's admirable account of the countries of Beluchistan and Sind, 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. 4 Kinneir, Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 42. 5 Pottinger's History of Beluchistan, chap. vii. 6 Bishop Heber. India, and Northern Africa. A lighter variety of this species is the dromedary, used only for riding, and differs from the camel of burden as the racer does from the draught-horse. The two-humped camel is the Bactrian species, and is so rare, even in Western Asia and India, that Captain Lynch states, that in a caravan of 5000 camels, there were not above eight or ten of this Bactrian species. In Mongolia, however, they are very numerous. 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 common camel 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 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 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 E. 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 Bokhara they are excellent and numerous, and are exported in great numbers to Hindustan. The mule and the ass, all over India, are miserable animals. The mules are of better quality in the Punjab, on the upper course of the Indus, and they improve still more further west. In the countries W. of the Indus, they are superior to those in Hindustan, and in Persia there is a still finer breed. But the mule of the East is inferior to that of Europe. The ass partakes of a similar improvement in his progress westward, 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 Khorassan, and in the hilly tracts of Afghanistan, consists chiefly in sheep, which have tails a foot broad, and composed entirely of fat, but 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, size, and fierceness; and the wolf, the bear, the glutton, 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, stunted in their full 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 Northern Asia, 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 S. and W. 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. Tibet and Central Asia, till beyond the Altai Mountains, are inhabited by Mongolish and Turkish 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 labours of agriculture. The yak of Tartary, or the bushy-tailed bull of Tibet, seems to supply the place of the camel in these mountainous countries. This animal is about the size of a small 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 Tibet; 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 N., where the cattle are stunted in size, and can scarcely subsist, their place is supplied by the reindeer, a species peculiar to a 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
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1 Elphinstone's Account of Kabul, chap. vi. 2 Ibid. p. 143. 3 Turner's Embassy to Tibet, p. 186. 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 gypaete, 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 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 fringillide, 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 Python Bivittatus, attaining the length of 20 feet, and of such prodigious muscular strength as to coil round and crush large animals to death. The influence of cold is adverse to the growth of large serpents, which are not found in Asia to the N. 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. Innumerable insects of every form, and 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 common in 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 N. and W. of the Indus, in Beluchistan, 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 their 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 Scriptures, of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. According to the account of Ktesias, the Greek physician of Artaxerxes Minemon, the Assyrian empire was founded by Nimus, about 2182 years before our era, and lasted during 13 centuries. Nimus is considered as the founder of Nineveh, and is said to have extended his dominion over all the regions between Bactria and Egypt. He was succeeded by his wife Semiramis, who is stated to have been the founder or enlarger of Babylon, and to have extended her conquests as far as India. To her succeeded her son Ninyas, after whom follow a long succession of more obscure sovereigns, whose very names, except in as far as they may yet be recovered by the recent discoveries at Nineveh, and of the key to the arrowheaded character, may be said to have perished. The last of the series was that Sardanapalus who immolated himself when his capital was taken by his revolted subjects, Arbaces governor of Media, and Belesis viceroy of Babylon, about 800 years before the Christian era. It seems proved, however, that notwithstanding this alleged termination of this empire, the Assyrians of Nineveh continued to possess considerable dominions for two centuries later; and in fact it was only in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., that the monarchy attained to a very high degree of power under the kings whom the Hebrew Scriptures call Pul, Tiglath-pilesar, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon, who extended their empire over Syria, and destroyed the kingdom of Israel. But their power rapidly declined; and Nineveh was finally destroyed by the united Medes and Babylonians, about 606 years B.C.
In the Sacred Scriptures we read of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter," "the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel." But nothing more is said of him; and all the early history of Babel or Babylon is very uncertain. All that we know is, that it was the seat of a kingdom in the year 747 B.C.: for its ruler Nabonassar established a chronological era, commencing in that year; but we know not whether he was an independent sovereign, or a tributary prince under the empire of Nineveh. In the following century, however, the kingdom of Babylon was raised to a high pitch of grandeur by several able princes, who extended their dominion to the shores of the Mediterranean. Of these, the most powerful was Nebuchadnezzar, who overturned the kingdom of Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and carried away the principal inhabitants captive to Babylon, about 600 years B.C. He so greatly embellished that city as to consider himself as its second founder; but its glories were ephemeral; for in a few years after his death, it was besieged and taken by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus; from which time it ceased to be the capital of an independent state.
The ancient Medes seem to have been a branch of the great Indo-European family of nations; but their early history is utterly unknown, except in as far as it may have been interwoven with that of the Persians; by whose annalists both are represented as having been the inhabitants of Iran, under the empire of Jemshid. Media afterwards seems to have fallen under the dominion of the Assyrian monarchs; but, according to Ktesias and others, its governor Arbaces revolted against his sovereign, and established an independent kingdom. The history of that revolution, however, is so obscure, that some authors have considered Arbaces as not merely founding a new kingdom for himself in Media, but as supplanting Sardanapalus on the Assyrian throne at Nineveh. However that may be, it is pretty certain that, within two centuries after the time of Arbaces, Media was still subject to the kings of Nineveh.
According to Herodotus, the Medes lived long in a state
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1. Voyages de Pallas, tome ii. p. 309. 2. Pottinger's Journey through Belochistan, p. 129; Elphinstone's Account of Cabul, p. 145. 3. Pallas' Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. p. 425. of anarchy, till, tired of its evils, they chose for their king Deiokes, a person who had acquired a great reputation among them for his just arbitration of their differences. Deiokes built a fortified palace at Ecbatana, and established himself in the sovereign power of Media, which he transmitted to his descendants. His son and successor, Phraortes, engaging in a war with the Assyrians of Nineveh, was defeated and slain on the plain of Rogan. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares, in whose reign the Scythians burst into the S.W. of Asia, and retained possession of Media for 28 years. On their expulsion, Cyaxares attacked the Assyrians; and, assisted by the king of Babylon, took and destroyed Nineveh, about 606 years B.C. He was succeeded by his son Astyages, in consequence of whose defeat by Cyrus, the empire was transferred from the Medes to the Persians, about 546 years B.C.
The Persians, like the Medes, appear to be a branch of the Indo-European family. Their early legends describe as their original seat a delightful country, enjoying a very mild climate, with seven months of summer weather. But Arimanes, the Genius of Evil, smote it with the plague of cold, so that it came to have ten months of winter, and only two of summer. In consequence, the people were compelled to seek other settlements, and, under the guidance of their sovereign or patriarchal leader, Jemshid, gradually found their way to the several fertile regions interspersed among the deserts that still cover a large portion of Persia. Their original country, of which Arimanes thus deprived them, is supposed by some to be the modern Turkistan; while others look for it in the opposite direction, in the modern Azerbijan. In the lapse of time the Persians were found occupying Persis, Fars, and also spread over the hilly and barren country extending towards the Indus and the Caspian. They seem to have been divided into many tribes, no less distinguished by their mode of life, than by diversity of rank. Three of them were considered as noble; and of these the Pasargadae were the most illustrious. Of that noblest tribe, the most noble family was the Achemenian; and to that family belonged Cyrus the founder, and Darius the establisher of the Persian empire.
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 Bactriana 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 was revived under the dynasty of the Sassanids. In Eastern Hindustan Asia the splendid and populous empires of Hindustan and China, China, though imperfectly known in Europe, had flourished for many centuries. The origin of the Hindu power is buried in a remote antiquity. The first authentic notice of this truly remarkable 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 Hindus possess very imperfect materials for their history. Hindustan comprehended then, as now, the extensive country bounded by the Indus on the W. and the Ganges on the E., 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, as then known.
The historical sketch which we have given above includes the pastoral portion of Asia. 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-lands of Central Asia, though containing large tracts of desert, are nevertheless interspersed with fertile and well-watered valleys, which produce abundance of pasture; and the immense plains to the N. of the Altai Mountains, which extend over the whole breadth of the continent, from the Aldan Mountains E. of the Lena to the Urals, afford 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 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,
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1 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. ii. 2 Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, chap. iv. 3 Rennell's Memoir of a Map of Hindostan. 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 E. or to the W., the kingdoms of Europe or the empires of Hindustan 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 Kharism, Bokhara, and Samarcand became the seats of industry and of flourishing manufactures, and the great marts of the Indian and European commerce; while the Roman territory in the W. 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 seventh 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 infidel 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 W. and Persia in the E.; 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 khalif, whose authority, a century after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, in the year 622, extended in Asia about 200 days' journey from E. to W., from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Hellespont, and in Europe and Africa as far W. 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 khalif at Baghdad, their temporal as well as spiritual ruler. In the decay of the supreme power, those rulers, under the forms of the most abject submission, had acquired independence; and the khalif remained at Baghdad 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 Khurasan, Seistan, the high plains of Balk on the northern side of the great Himalaya ridge, and the countries of Transoxiana, with the cities of Bokhara 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 Ghuzzedevies, the founder of which was Subuctagreen or Sebectagi, who, from a common soldier, rose to the rank of a petty prince, and fixed his residence at Ghuzni. 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 Hindustan, subdued Northern India and the province of the Punjab, and rendered the princes of the countries tributary to the princes of Ghuzni. His son Mahmoud of Ghuzni, 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 Bokhara; and he now determined, in the true spirit of Mahometan intolerance, to wage a holy war against the idolaters of Hindustan. At this period the Mahometans had effected no permanent settlement in Hindustan. The people were purely Hindu, without any admixture of foreign manners; and the whole country along the E. side of the Indus to Cashmere was ruled by a prince of the Brahmin race, and between whom and the kings of Delhi, Ajmere, Canoge, and Callinger, a confederacy was now formed against the common enemy of their country and religion. Mahmoud entered Hindustan in A.D. 1000, and having defeated the armies of the confederate kings, he reduced the province of Moultan. 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
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1 Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, chap. vii. 2 See Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, xlv. Major Rennell's elaborate and masterly researches have thrown great light on the geography of this interesting portion of Asia. places, 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 1028, 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 Ajmere in Northern India. Sir J. Malcolm assigns Georgia and Baghdad for its limits on the W. and S.W.; Bokhara and Cashgar on the N. and N.E.; and Bengal and the Deccan, as far as the Indian Ocean, to the E. and S.E. But though a large portion of Hindustan 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 Turkish tribe of the Seljoukees, which was so called from the name of their renowned chief Seljook, who, being banished by his khan or chief from Turkistan, passed the Jaxartes with his numerous followers, and settled in the plains of Bokhara, 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 Hindustan, 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 Bokhara when they first attracted the notice of the Sultan Mahmoud, the founder of the dynasty of the Ghuznevides, who had advanced into Bokhara 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 Turkomans were shepherds or robbers. They either molested the neighbouring states by petty inroads, or, with the whole united force of the nation, they practised robbery on the great scale, seizing on kingdoms and despoiling nations. The first migration of these eastern Turkomans is generally fixed in the tenth 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 Togrul Beg, whom they had now elected king, invaded Khorassan, and finally expelled the Ghuznevides, the descendants of Mahmoud, from A.D. 1037, the eastern provinces of Persia. They fled eastward towards the Indus, and established the Ghuznian empire in the north-western provinces of India. This empire was maintained with various success till about the year 1184, under the Ghuznian 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 Kabul or Afghanistan, and the Indian provinces of Lahore and Moutlan. The Ghuznian dynasty was superseded by that of the Afghan or the Patan emperors, who completed the conquest of the greatest part of Hindustan Proper about the year 1210. Togrul Beg hastened to improve his victory over the Persian monarch. Turning his arms to the W., he invaded Irak, in the centre of Persia, and advancing westward of the Caspian Sea into Azerbaijan, the ancient Media, he made his first approaches to the confines of the Roman empire. He afterwards proceeded to Baghdad, and by his conquest of that place gained possession of the person of the khalif, who was treated with the most profound veneration. His successors Alp Arslan and Malek Shah extended the empire transmitted to them by Togrul Beg. They subdued the fairest portion of Asia. Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which flourished under the mild sway of the khalifs, 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 Seljoukian Turks extended, under Malek Shah, from Egypt and Syria to Bokhara, which he conquered as far as Samarcan and Kharisme. He received homage from the tribes beyond the Jaxartes, and compelled the 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 Internal 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 wars, 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 Seljukian monarchs, and subdued the greater portion of their dominions. He extended his inroads over Syria, and had become the terror of the Ayoubite princes and the sultans of Iconium; and he finally established his wide dominions from the Persian Gulf to the borders of India and Turkistan.
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 N. of China, seems, about the beginning of the thirteenth 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 historian of Rome, "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 S." 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 irresistible 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 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 Samarcand, Bokhara, Kharisme, 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 everything that had life, with the city itself, was destroyed. The cities that perished in this general ruin were, Bokhara, situated on a branch of the Jaxartes, a populous city, the centre of an extensive commerce, and the seat of science and religion; Otrac; Cojend, on the Oxus; Samarcard, situated near the source of the same river as Bokhara; Kharisme, where 100,000 men were massacred, and the surviving population reduced to slavery; Balk, to the S. of the Upper Oxus, which contained 200 splendid mosques, and a numerous population; Nisabaur; Herat, in Khorassan; Candahar, farther E.; 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, Kharisme, 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 historian of Rome, "five centuries have not been sufficient to repair the ravages of four years." The conquests of Zinghis, before his death, A.D. 1227, extended W. 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 N. and S., was subduced and laid waste by his grandson Khublai, 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 Corea, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Pegu, Bengal, and Tibet. 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 Baghdad, put the kalif 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 Seljukian 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 Turkistan, 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 Tartary. The unity
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1 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 island 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.
2 De Guignes, *Histoire des Huns*, tome iii. livre 10.
3 Ibid. tome iv. livre 15.
4 Gibbon, vol. xi. chap. 64.
5 "Les hommes," says De Guignes (tome iv. livre 17), "les femmes, et même les enfants à la mammelle, furent égorgés."
VOL. III. 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 meantime 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 Turkish 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 Turkistan, or Transoxiana, about the year 1380, when he subdued the kingdom of Cashgar, and carried his conquests 480 leagues to the N.E. 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 pillage. He proceeded northward towards the sources of the Ganges in a crusade against the idolatry of the Hindus, 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 principalities 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 fifteenth 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 Safavean 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 Mahmoud, 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 N. 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 E. he conquered Hindustan, 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 E. In 1747 the Afghans, under the new dynasty of the Doorannee kings, resumed their independence, which they still retain. But the Doorannee Empire, which at one time extended over a vast region between the Oxus and the Indus, touching Persia and Hindustan, has melted away into several minor states.
In Hindustan the influence of the Mahometan conquerors, which was firmly established in 1210, was gradually 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 Malwah, 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 Hindustan 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 Samarcan, 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, Akbar, who, from 1555, reigned 51 years, and subjected to his sway all the provinces that had revolted, from Ajmere to Bengal; and, 2ndly, by Aurungzebe, who, after deposing and imprisoning his father, the feeble Jehem Shah, the grandson of Akbar, 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.
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1 Gibbon, vol. xii. chap. 65. 2 Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. ii.; Major Rennel, Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, Introduction, lxi. 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 Ajmere,—the Sikhs, 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 still is, 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 Sevacee. 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 tract 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 Hindustan. 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 Hindustan, 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 Plassy, 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 equivalent to 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 enlarge their empire. The British dominions in India may now be said to extend, with little interruption, from the banks of the Indus to the frontiers of Burmah, and from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya. Our actual possessions in that country may be roughly estimated to comprise an area of 750,000 square miles, with a population of 100 millions. See Hindustan.
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 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 Hindus, 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 Hindus, 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 Brahmins in India. Having thus ascertained the analogy between the language of the ancient Persians and that of the Arabs and the Hindus, he concludes that they must have originally been the same nation; and that, as Persia could not be peopled from the east by the Hindus, 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 Hindus 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 Tibet are descended from the Hindus, and, according to the hypothesis of Sir W. Jones, who, on all those subjects unites solid reasoning with the most profound learning, have engravened the doctrines 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 Hindustan, are said to have sprung originally from the Jews; but their language, which is evidently of the Indo-European root, does not warrant 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 by some ethnologists to belong to the Hindu race, though others give them a Tartar origin.
The Tartars or Tatars, 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 Kalmucks, differ entirely from the Hindus 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 Hindus, who, abandoning the ordinances of the Brahmin
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1 Major Rennel, Introduction, lxxxv. religion, and living in a state of degradation, emigrated eastward, and occupying the countries bordering on Hindustan, 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 Hindu ancestry.
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 most of the dialects spoken in these islands, they appear to be descended from the Hindus. 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. It is possible that the inhabitants of the great Indian archipelago may have come originally from Hindustan, bringing with them the Sanscrit tongue; although it is probable that they are sprung from the same stock as the people of the adjacent regions. 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. Crawford, 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 as consisting 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 Crawford, 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 Crawford 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 Crawford 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 Kaw, 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 Crawford, prove that these islands were peopled by emigrants from Hindustan. 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 Kaw 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 Hindu 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 Hindu empire, which has disappeared in the lapse of ages, while the Hindu superstition has been supplanted by the Mahometan creed. Whether this empire was established by conquest in that early period, while the Sanscrit was yet
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1 Sir S. Raffles' History of Java, chap. II. 2 History of the Indian Archipelago, by John Crawford, F.R.S., vol. II, chap. v. a living language, or whether the Hindus 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 Hindu missionaries should have had influence, as Mr. Crawford 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 immigration of the Hindu people.
Of the various races which people the islands of Asia, 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 Gual or Mengkasar in Celebes on the coast; like the Malays, they sent forth numerous colonies; and at one period extended their conquests as far west as Aceh in Sumatra and Kedah 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 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, Hindustan, 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 Hindustan, Persia, and other countries, assert that moral turpitude may be said to pervade the 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 with cruel and treacherous; without any regard to truth, and indulging, 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 Hindus 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 Belochistan and Sind. 3 "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." 4 See Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan. 5 See Crawford's Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Ava in the year 1827. 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 “nobler 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 Hindustan and the Asiatic isles, the people have adopted the Mahometan faith; in Hindustan they have followed the religion of Brahma; and in Thibet, 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 those different systems enjoy 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 Hindus 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 Hindus, 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 of the inhabitants of Asia, what, it may be asked, is the condition of the tribes. 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 Zinghis 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, Hindustan, 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 Kalnauses, 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, Kalkas, 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 Gerbilion, 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 Hindustan 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 Hindustan and Persia, including Sind at the mouth of the Indus; and westward the mountainous regions of Beluchistan, 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 Hindu Koh or Himalaya Mountains, and in Bucharia or Bokhara, on the fertile banks of the Oxus and the Jaxartes, where the towns of Bokhara, Samarcan, Khivah, Koukan, 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 Usbecks, 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 Kharasam, 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 Bokhara and Khivah. On the south the wild inhabitants of Beluchistan, 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; very little of the northern plains inhabited by the Scythian tribes, and of the rich and improved countries of Hindustan 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 Moulton, 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 or wool growing on trees; 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 Sacae, 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 Bactriana in pursuit of the Persian army. Having passed the Paropamisan range of the Himalaya Mountains, crossed the Oxus, and taken Maracanda, the modern Samarcan, 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 Kabul or Afghanistan, to the south of the Hindu Koh 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 Mekran, 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 Bokhara, they passed the great branch of the Himalaya Mountains which runs northward from the main range under the modern appellation of Bolor Daghi; and descending into the lower plains of Little Tibet, 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 Bolor Daghi 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 Hindustan, 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 incursions 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 the Caspian; 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 Sea of Aral. There seems, however, an ancient channel by which at least one portion of the waters of the Oxus at one time may have found their way into the Caspian, as mentioned by ancient authors.—Humboldt, Asie Centrale, ii. 296.
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 sixteenth and seventeenth 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 Tibet, 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 N., 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 Tibet, 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 Irawaddy 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
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1 See Crawford's Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochinchina. 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 Haklay'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. 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 mountains, and not in the imaginary lake of Cayanay, as had been generally believed. Gruéber, who set out on his travels to the East in 1656, 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 Tibet, and thence through the mountainous country of Nepaul to Batawa 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 Tibet; 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 Selincha, 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 Bolor Mountains, one of the cross ridges which run N. and S. 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 N., 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 Hindustan, 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, through 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 W. of China, and under its dominion, we know little except from the earlier travellers and missionaries, and from the accounts published of the journeys of the Russian embassies through these countries. The travels of Huc, Gabet, and Puch, have made some additions to our knowledge of Tartary and Tibet; and the hitherto proverbial jealousy of the Chinese authorities in regard to the intrusion of foreigners into their western dominions, may perhaps now be expected to give way to a more tolerant policy.
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 Hindustan 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; Hindustan its muslins, cotton, precious stones, and aromatics of all sorts; costus, bdellium, 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 Hindustan. 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 sixth and the seventh 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 khalifa's who reigned at Baghdad 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 Bekhara, 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 Cashgar contained Cassigar 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 Tibet. The armies of Zinghis Khan in the thirteenth, and of Tamerlane in the beginning of the fifteenth 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 fourteenth 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 grow- ing 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 sixteenth 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, Hindustan, Burmah, &c., with Turkey, the eastern countries of Europe, and with the intervening countries of Persia, Balk, Bokhara, and the regions of the Oxus; also, by a different route, the trade with Russia and the N. of Asia. 2dly, 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 Hindustan, China, the Burmese countries, Tibet, and the western countries of Persia, Afghanistan, Bokhara, 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 Mangalshuik, and thence to Khyvah and Bokhara. 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 ulterior route is through Afghanistan and the Punjab into Hindustan, or to Tibet and China, or the more northern districts of Balk, Bokhara, and the country of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. Bokhara though reduced to desolation by Zinghis Khan, is still one of the largest towns of the East, its population being estimated by Burnes at 160,000. 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 Balfoosh, Ashruff, Astrabad, Mushed, Serrukhs, Merve, formerly the capital of the Seljook sovereigns, but now surrounded by deserts, and at Bokhara. From this great centre of commerce they proceed north-eastward about 400 or 500 miles to Khujend and Koakun, the former a large city, said to contain 30,000 houses; and crossing the Bolor range of the Himalaya Mountains, they arrive in the Mahometan states of Kashgar and Yarkund, 600 miles E. of Koakun, 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 Bokhara are iron, steel, copper, brass, quicksilver, vermilion, 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 Buduckska, where there are famous mines of these precious stones. From Cashgar, Yarkund, and the side of China, Bokhara 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 Isphahan; 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; cumblet made of 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 Bokhara, 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 Bokhara and Khyvah, where they are exposed for sale like cattle. The balance of trade is always in favour of Bokhara. 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 N. shore of the Caspian Sea, are frequently attacked by the Kirgeesh and Cossack tribes, and prisoners are carried off and sold into slavery. Fraser was assured that the number of Persian slaves in Khyvah 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 Bokhara no less than 60,000 Russian slaves.
The commerce of the west with the southern countries of Asia, namely, Kabul 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 entrepot of commerce, and a conve-
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1 Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, Appendix. nient resting-place for all the caravans, both from the East and other quarters; through Furrah 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 Kabul, Cashmere, and India on the one side, and from Bokhara, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, and even Europe on the other. From Herat the route continues through Furrah and across the river Helmund and the ranges of the Paropamisan Mountains, to Candahar, a journey of about 800 miles; thence to Kabul, Peshawur, 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 N., as well as to the S. From Bokhara there is a mountainous route into Little Tibet, and thence through Tibet 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—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 Bushire, whence they reach the interior of Persia, and are thence carried eastward into Kabul 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 Bokhara, in the bazaars of Baghdad and Constantinople.1 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, fur, shawls, Moulitan chintz, madder, assafetida, 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 Kurrahee and other parts of Sinde, and thence to Kabul and Candahar. The Indian cloths, shawls, chintzes, and also the indigo, are exported to Bokhara, from which are imported the broad cloths, cutlery, and hardware of Europe, received from the Russians, and finally consumed in Kabul and the countries of the Indus, loaded with the expenses of a land journey across nearly half the globe.
In the E. 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, Kabul, 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 Peshawur, the capital of the Afghan country of Kabul, 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 commerce Egypt and all the countries on the Mediterranean. A great trade is also carried on from Hindustan 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 civilization. Sumatra was the seat of the Malay empire, Java of a Hindu 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 ninth 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 fifteenth century, Malacca, Acheen, 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.
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1 Elphinstone's Calcut; Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of Persia; Fraser's Travels in the Persian Provinces around the Caspian Sea, Appendix, p. 384. The Portuguese fixed on Goa, on the Malabar 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 Hindustan 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, Tunkin, 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 Hindustan; 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 E. the annual fleet of Chinese junks arrives with the favourable monsoon among these islands, from Canton, Amoy, 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 entrepôt. 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, tortoiseshell, 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 south-west 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 articles 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 sixth or seventh 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 Hindustan, 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 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 India, and even partially in China; they are found in the bazars of Bokhara, Samarcand, and Cashgar, and are carried eastward by the caravans into the wilds of Tartary. 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 necessities 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. Since the expiry of the charter of the East India
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1 Raffles' History of Java; Marsden's Sumatra. Company in 1834, the trade has been thrown open to all classes of British subjects, and our merchants can now freely trade to all places accessible to Europeans to the E. of the Straits of Malacca. During the short time that has elapsed since then, the increase of the exports and imports have fully realized the expectations held out by those who opposed the Company's monopoly. See Hinx-