independent of each other. There were some of them, whose princes united their neighbours under their sceptre, and assumed the diadem; but they rarely transmitted it to their descendants.

The interior part of the country is cold, and destitute of fertility, because the mountains are covered with snow during the greater part of the year; but the maritime provinces produce grain and fruits of every kind. The climate is mild, which renders it as agreeable a residence as any of the most beautiful countries of Asia. The ancient Thracians were ferocious and cruel. It was almost always Thracian soldiers that tyrants employed for their sanguinary executions. They followed the same religion as the Greeks; but they honoured, in a particular manner, Mars and Mercury, the gods of the brave and of thieves.

The Thracians had such a gloomy idea of human life, that they wept at the birth of their children, and rejoiced at the death of their neighbours. In districts where polygamy was established, the women disputed with each other for the honour of having been most beloved, in order that they might be sacrificed, by the nearest relation, at the tomb of their husbands. The Thracians sold their children, and bestowed very little care in watching over their daughters; but they were exceedingly jealous of their wives. Idleness, in their eyes, had an air of dignity and grandeur, and they considered it honourable to live by rapine.

The names, alone, of the different Thracian tribes would form a very long list; but it would be difficult to swell it with interesting facts. We find, in the history of the Dolonci, a very dexterous stratagem employed to get possession of a throne, without bloodshed. On the death of the king of the country, which was situated in the Chersonesus, his brother came from Athens, where he resided, with a design of succeeding him. When he arrived, finding that the Chersonesians were not disposed to give him the crown, he led a retired life, under a pretence of mourning for the death of his brother. The Thracians participating in his affliction, sent the chiefs of the different cities to compliment him in the name of

the nation; but the afflicted prince caused them all to be detained, and with these hostages he found no difficulty to get himself acknowledged sovereign of the country, which had been governed by his brother.

The Bessi, the inhabitants of Mount Hamus, the most ferocious of all the Thracians, whose capital was Adrianople, notwithstanding their bravery, and the ruggedness of their country, were subdued by the Romans. The conquerors left them their kings; but Piso, the governor of Macedonia, being, as appears, dissatisfied with one of them, surprised him by treachery, and caused him to be publicly beheaded. The nation, incensed at this act of perfidy, shook off the Roman yoke.

The following is a maxim of one of the Thracian monarchs: "There is no difference between a king fond of peace, and a groom." This prince died at the age of eightytwo, after having carried on war during his whole reign. We might say with greater justice, that a good groom is better than such a king. We are acquainted with the names and position of eighteen Thracian hordes, and the names and succession of a dozen of kings, or rather chiefs, of bands of plunderers. They were treated as such by the Romans; who placed them on the throne; made them descend from it, exiled, imprisoned, and punished them at their pleasure; but they did not neglect their treasures, which often became a prey to their avaricious generals. This country, though the seat of ignorance, produced Democritus, the philosopher, and Thucydides, the historian.

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CHINA.

THE vast empire of China is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, which divides it from North America; on the south by the Indian Ocean; on the north by a stupendous wall of stone, from 1,200 to 1,500 miles long, which divides it from Tartary; and on the west by inaccessible mountains. It lies between 115° and 181° east longitude, and between 20° and 41° north latitude, in the same parallel with as much of the United States, as lies to the southward of the city of New York.

That the Chinese, though an ancient nation, are not among the most ancient, is probable, from their situation on the north-eastern extremity of Asia, at a great distance from the centre of postdiluvian population, which persons, skilled in oriental literature, generally suppose to have been near the south-western extremity, of that first settled quarter of the globe. The same opinion is corroborated by the following circumstances. The Chinese are not mentioned in any part of the Holy Scriptures, nor by Homer, or Herodotus, the most ancient of poets and historians. In one 'or other of these ancient records, most of the primitive nations of the world are mentioned or alluded to. The Chinese were neither conquered nor overrun by either of the first four grand monarchies, the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, or Roman, though the two last considered themselves to be, in successive periods, masters of the world. It would seem as though population, which generally advanced westerly, had, in the case of the Chinese, proceeded in an opposite direction, from which they gained the high privilege of exemption from the great revolutions of empire. Their remote situation, insulated them as it were from the rest of the world, and laid the

foundation of the policy, by which they have uniformly acted, in shunning intercourse with strangers.

The Chinese have been less exposed to foreign invasion, less harassed by external wars, and less agitated by internal commotions, than other nations; and scarcely has any great empire, during so long a period of political existence, undergone so few revolutions. In all other parts of the world, empires, both older and younger than the Chinese, have disappeared, and left only an empty name, and the renown of a splendor, which is no more; but these singular people, though conquered, have continued the same in habits, manners and

customs.

The number of emperors, who are said to have reigned in China, for 1736 years since the Christian æra, and for 2207 years before it, amount to 235; and are ranged in twenty-two dynasties. A bare list of their uncouth names, would fill more than a page. A brief recapitulation of their history, fills 118 pages of the seventh volume of the Universal History, to which the reader is referred; but at the same time apprised, that he must expect very little, of either pleasure or improvement, from the perusal.

The most interesting particulars in the Chinese history, relate to the incursions of the Tartars, who appear to have been their only enemies. These incursions began at a very early period, and were repeated at different times, and with different issues. About the year 213, B. C. Shiwang IV. emperor of China, with a view to check the Tartars, ordered a great wall to be built on his northern frontier, or at least united several walls that had formerly been constructed with the same design. This is carried over deep rivers, steep rocks, high mountains, and low vallies. In most places it is built of brick and mortar, which is so well tempered, that, though it has stood 2000 years, it is but little decayed. It is from fifteen to thirty feet high, and is wide enough, on the top, for five or six horsemen to travel abreast. It is said, that a third of the able bodied men in the empire were employed in constructing it; that the labourer's stood so close to each other for miles, that they could hnd materials from one to the

other; and that the whole was begun, and finished in the space of five years. The emperor was so elated with what he had done, that, on the completion of the work, he formed a design of making posterity believe, that he was the first Chinese emperor who had ever sat on the throne. For this purpose he ordered all the historical writings to be burnt, and caused many learned men to be put to death, that every record, date, or authority, relative to public events, prior to those of his own reign, might be irrecoverably destroyed; but, notwithstanding the strictness with which he enforced his orders, the end in view was but partially obtained.

What immediate or durable effect the great wall had in preventing the invasion of the Tartars, we are not particularly informed; but we find, that in the tenth century, the Kitan Tartars obtained a settlement in China. In the twelfth, the Kin Tartars destroyed the empire of the Kitans. In 1211, Jenghis Khan, chief of the western Tartars, commonly called Moguls or Mungls, invaded China. In a few years after, his son put an end to the dynasty of the Kin Tartars. The empire of China was now shared between the Chinese and the Moguls. Wars between these rivals raged with great violence, and an immense destruction of the human race. In 1356, Chu, a Chinese, recovered Nanking from the Tartars; and, in 1368, he put an end to the authority of the Mungls. In 1643, the Manchew Tartars obtained a complete conquest of all the Chinese provinces, and have ever since retained possession of the country, over which they have reigned with great lenity. This great revolution was, virtually, no more than a transfer of the sovereignty from one family to another; for it made little or no alteration in the national institutions. The Tartars adopted the constitution, laws, and manners of the Chinese, in almost every particular. From this circumstance, connected with the removal of the seat of government to Pekin, Tartary seems rather to have been conquered by China, than China by Tartary.

A topographical description of the provinces of China has been, and easily might be, extended to several volumes; but such minute information of a country so remote, and which VOL. II.

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