culiar ornament to China: and the Porcelain or China ware has long maintained a superiority over that of all other countries: but this superiority consists rather in the purity of the materials employed than in the form, or the ornaments; in which points the establishments of Dresden, of Seve near Paris, &c. have a decided advantage.

The language of China differs from all others in this respect, that the original words consist only of one syllable, and these primitives are not very numerous, but by their combinations, and the various modes of sounding the component letters, a very copious language is produced. The written language has no alphabet, or series of symbols, or letters, which, by expressing simple sounds, may be combined together to express any complex sound, the Chinese having for each separate word, a separate mark, or character, amounting to upwards of eighty thousand; from which arises the extreme difficulty strangers, and even the natives themselves, meet with, in acquiring a competent skill in it.

INDIA, OF HINDOOSTAN. This next great portion of Asia consists chiefly of one wide peninsula, or rather promontory, confined between the river Indus on the west, and the Ganges on the east, the northern boundary being ranges of lofty mountains, from whence these rivers proceed. The extent between the mouths of the Indus and Ganges, is about 1200 geographic miles, and the distance from Cape Comarin to the northern mountains, is about 1500 geographic miles.

The climate, in this widely extended country, is, although various, very warm, notwithstanding the perpetual snows of the mountains on the northern frontier. The hot or dry season begins with March, and continues to June, when the rains commence and last till September: the remaining months of the year are generally pleasant, but the beginning of the year usually brings in a series of thick unhealthy

fogs.

fogs. These periodical rains deluge the country and swell the rivers so, that the adjoining lands are inundated for a considerable extent on each side. In the latter end of July all the lower parts of Bengal contiguous to the Ganges and the Burrampooter, are overflowed, forming an inundation of more than a hundred miles in width; nothing appearing but villages and trees, excepting very rarely, the top of an elevated spot, the artificial mound of some deserted village, floating like an island.

The face of the country is very various, but in general it presents one extended plain; for the highest range of hills, those running south parallel to the western shore, called the Gauts, are not reckoned to exceed 3000 feet in elevation.

The rivers are numerous and considerable: the Ganges, which rising in the mountainous country of Tibet, and entering Hindoostan, flows in general south-easterly, receiving the tribute of many noble streams, discharges itself into the Bay of Bengal by a number of mouths, that on the west, which washes the walls of Calcutta, and that on the east which unites with the Burrampooter, being the most considerable. This last great stream is supposed to have its sources not very remote from those of the Ganges, but taking at first an opposite course, again winds to the westward, and joins the Ganges at no great distance up from the sea. The Indus or Sindeh, which forms the western boundary of India, rises in the same elevated country which sends forth the two rivers above mentioned, and flowing in general southerly, falls by several openings into the Indian Ocean. The Nerbudda, rising in the centre of the country, flows westerly into the Gulf of Cambaya, near Surat. The Godavery, following a parallel, but contrary direction, crosses the country eastward, which it enriches by its inundations, and discharges itself into the Bay of Bengal. The Kistna and the Caveri, which last incloses by

its arms the well known fortress of Seringapatam, also fall into the same bay.

The only mountains in India, if they may be so styled, are the ranges of hills stretching from north to south along the western shore, known in the country by the very improper name of the Gauts, a native term signifying not a mountain but a pass. The lofty ranges however which bound India on the north, are supposed to be the most elevated region on the face of the globe, that called Himmala (perhaps the Imaus of the antients) rising by observation 20,000 feet above the plain to the southward, itself elevated 5,000 feet above the sea.

Many of the natural productions of India are very valuable. The precious diamond of the greatest purity is only found in that quarter of the globe, in the neighbourhood of Golconda; those of Brasil in South America being of an inferior quality. The diamond is found in the beds of torrents, or in a yellowish earth, under rocks of quartz or sandstone: the usual shape being a six-sided prism, terminated at each end by a six-sided pyramid. The diamond is the hardest substance with which we are acquainted; and the conjecture of Sir Isaac Newton, founded on its great refracting power, that it was a combustible body, has of late years been fully confirmed by repeated experiments, diamonds having, when exposed to a very intense heat, been inflamed, entirely consumed and dissipated. Gold is found in the sands of some of the northern rivers: but silver is rare here as in most other eastern countries. Rice, which is the great article of food in India, maize and sugar-canes, are very abundant, and cotton furnishes employment to many of the natives in various branches of manufacture. The rich botanical treasures of India would require volumes to enumerate: the curious Banyan tree, or Indian fig, the cocoa-nut tree, the sago, and other varieties of the palm, are well known to Europeans; and the teek wood, so valu

able

able for ship-building, has of late years been brought into very general use. Elephants, horses, cattle with a bunch on the shoulder, camels, the antelope known by the name of the nilgau, the royal tyger, such are a few of the quadrupeds of India.

The British possessions in India are chiefly the following: Bengal, Bahar, and Benares, on the Ganges, occupying a space of above 500 miles by 300, containing a native population of between ten and eleven millions. The capital of these tracts, and of the whole British dominions, is Calcutta, a large and populous town, containing about half a million of inhabitants, on the east bank of the western branch of the Ganges, about 100 miles from the sea; but the river is navigable up to the town for the largest vessels requisite in that country. Twenty-six miles above Calcutta, is Hoogly, an antient place which gives its name to that branch of the river. Patna, the chief town of Bahar lies, 400 miles higher up than Calcutta, and is the principal mart for saltpetre. Benares, 46 miles above Patna, is celebrated as the seat of the ancient learning of the Brahmins.

In the southern parts of the peninsula, the British possess Madras, or Fort St. George, containing, with the adjoining territory, about 80,000 natives, besides from 400 to 500 Europeans. On the western coast is Bombay, (so called by corruption from the Portuguese term signifying a good bay) situated on a small island containing the town and fortress, with a large dock and arsenal, and forming an excellent harbour. In the interior of the peninsula, lies Seringapatam, inclosed by two arms of the river Cavery, the former capital of the dominions of Tippoo.

Between the Ganges and China are a succession of separate states, viz. the Birman empire, separated by the Ganges, from the British possessions, comprehending Aracan and Pegu. The projecting peninsula of Malacca is the native country of the Malays, a singular race, whose language is so

widely disseminated over the eastern seas, and who by their activity, desperate valour, and peculiar arms, have long been the terror of the Indian seas. Farther to the eastward, lie the territories of the Siamese, the Cochin-Chinese, and the Tunquinese; these last in manners, and in the productions of their country, approaching their neighbours of China,

PERSIA. This antient and celebrated portion of Asia is bounded on the east by the river Indus, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and that inlet of it called the Persian Gulf, on the west by an imaginary line separating it from the Turkish dominions, and on the north by the Caspian Sea, and the independent central states of Asia. Its extent from west to east is about 1200 miles, and from north to south about 1000 miles. The population has been estimated at ten millions, that of the capital, Ispahan, being reckoned at 600,000. This extensive city stands on a small river, in a plain enclosed by mountains, in the heart of the country. Other considerable towns are Shiraz, nearer the seacoast, Derbent on the Caspian, Gombroon or Bender Abassi on the Persian Gulf, Cabul and Candahar in the north eastern quarter of the empire.

Persia is in general a very mountainous region: but there are various extensive plains, usually barren, sandy deserts; for the rivers being few, and of no great importance, even the vallies between the mountains require the hand of the husbandmen to refresh them with artificial streams for the purposes of agriculture. This is peculiarly necessary in the southern and central provinces: those bordering on the Caspian Sea are naturally more productive.

The Persian horses, although less swift, are taller and more graceful in their figure and motions than those of Arabia. The camels differ from the Arabian in having only one bunch, and are supposed to be the true dromedaries of the antients. In the northern provinces are found a peculiar