sians, who seem at one period (from the tenth to the thirteenth century) to have far surpassed in that respect the contemporary nations of Europe. The epic poet Firdousi, in his romantic history of the Persian kings and heroes, rivals Ariosto in luxuriance of imagination, and is said to equal Homer in the powers of description. The writings of Sadi and of Hafiz, both in prose and in poetry, are to this day in high esumation with those who are conversant in Oriental literature.

The trade of Europe with Persia is carried on by the gulf of Ormuz, and by the way of Turkey. The chief manufactures of Persia are raw and wrought silks, mohair, camlets, carpets, and leather; for which the English merchants give woollen cloths in exchange. The sovereign of Persia is himself the chief merchant, and he usually employs his Armenian subjects to traffic for his behoof in different quarters of the world. The agents of the king must have the refusal of all merchandise before his subjects are permitted to trade.*

To the north of Persia, that immense tract of country which is called Tartary had from time to time sent forth a succession of conquerors, who, carrying everything before them, produced astonishing revolutions in the continent of Asia. We have formerly taken notice of the subversion of the empire of the califs by this race of northern invaders. Mahmoud conquered Persia and a great part of India toward the end of the tenth century; Gengis Khan marched from the extremity of Tartary in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and subdued India, China, Persia, and Russia. Batoucan, one of the sons of Gengis, ravaged as far as the frontiers of Germany. Of the vast empire of Kapjac, which was the patrimonial inheritance of Batoucan, there remained in the last century no more

The history of Persia has now been made fully and accurately known to Europeans by the writings of General Sir John Malcolm, who died in 1833-EDITOR.

than Crim Tartary, which till lately was possessed by his descendants under the protection of the Turks. Tamerlane, whose conquests we have already taken notice of, was of the same nation of the Tartars, and of the race of Gengis.

To the north of Chma were the Mongol and Mantchou Tartars, who made a conquest of this country under Gengis, and who professed that religion, of which we shall presently speak, whose head is the Great Lama. Their territories again are bounded on the west by the empire of Russia. A variety of different hordes of wandering Tartars occupy the country extending from thence to the Caspian sea. The Sultan Baber,* great grandson of Tamerlane, subdued the whole country that lies between Samarcand, in the territory of the Úsbecs, and Agra, one of the capitals of the Mogul empire. At that time, India was divided between four principal nations-the Mahometan Arabians; the ancient Parsees or Guebres: the Tartars of Gengis Khan and Tamerlane; and lastly, the real Indians in different castes or tribes.

The wandering Tartars follow at this day the life of the ancient Scythians. In the spring, a large body or horde, amounting perhaps to ten thousand, set out in quest of a settlement for the summer. They drive before them their flocks and herds; and when they come to an inviting spot, they live upon it till all its verdure is eaten up, and till the country supplies no more game for the chase. They exchange cattle with the Russians, the Persians, or the Turks, for money, with which they purchase cloth, silks, stuffs, and apparel for their women. They have the use of firearms, which they are very dexterous at making, and it is almost the only mechanical art which they exercise. They disdain every other species of labour, and account no employment to be honourable, unless that

The curious Autobiography of Baber has recently been translated into English.-EDITOR.

of hunting. It is customary with them, as it is likewise with the Canadian savages, that when a man, from age, is incapable of partaking in the usual occupation of his tribe, they build him a small hut upon the banks of a river, and giving him some provisions, leave him to die, without taking any further charge of him.

The mode of life for the Tartars during the winter season is for each family to burrow itself under ground; and it is said that, for the sake of social intercourse, they have subterraneous passages, cut from one cabin to another, thus forming a sort of invisible

town.

The inhabitants of Thibet, which is the most southern part of Tartary, do not follow the same wandering life with their northern brethren.

The religion and government of Thibet form one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of mankind. The kingdom of Thibet is governed by a young man personating a living god, who is called the Great Lama, or Dalai Lama. He resides in a pagoda or temple upon a mountain, where he is seen continually sitting in a cross-legged posture, without speaking or moving, except sometimes lifting his hand, when he approves of the addresses of his votaries. He appears to be a young man of fair complexion, between twenty and thirty years of age. Not only the people of Thibet, but the neighbouring princes, resort to the shrine of the Lama, and bring thither the most magnificent presents. The Lama is both the national god and the sovereign. He appoints deputies under him, the chief of whom is called the Tipa, who manages the temporal affairs of the kingdom, which it is beneath the dignity of the Lama ever to attend to. The creation of this prince, or god, is kept a most mysterious secret by the priests. When it is the misfortune of this poor image of divinity and sovereignty to fall sick, or to lose his youthful appearance, he is put to death by the priests, who have always another

young man whom they have privately educated and properly trained to supply his place. Thus the religion of the Lama is nothing else than an artful contrivance of the priests of Thibet to engross to themselves the sovereignty and absolute government of the country.

To the south of Thibet lie those countries known both in ancient and in modern times by the name of India; though neither that term nor the word Hindoo are proper to the country, but seem to have been given to those regions and their inhabitants by the Persians. In the Sanscrit, or ancient language of India, the country is called Bharata; a name which has not been given to it by any other nation. The earliest accounts which any of the ancient writers have transmitted to us of this country are those of Herodotus, who wrote his history about a century before the time of Alexander the Great; and it is singular that his accounts, though on the whole very meager and imperfect represent the character of the people and their manners precisely the same as those of the modern race of Hindoos. He takes notice of their living chiefly on rice, of their putting to death no animals, and clothing themselves with cotton. He informs us that Darius Hystaspes, about the year 508 before Christ, had sent Scylax of Caryandra to explore the river Indus; but Scylax had not the good fortune to be believed in the accounts which he gave of his journey. By the expedition of Alexander the Great into India, the Greeks received the first authentic accounts of those countries which border upon the river Indus. It is certain that this great conqueror penetrated into that part of the country which is now called the Punjab. Here the extreme distress which his army sustained from the monsoons, or periodical rains which fall in that country at stated seasons of the year, gave rise to an obstinate determination of his troops to proceed no farther. Alexander, therefore, with much mortification, was obliged to fix here the limits of his conquests.

He now embarked on the Hydaspes, which runs into the Indus, and pursuing his course down that great river for above a thousand miles, till it reaches the ocean, and subduing in his progress all the nations on both sides, he must have explored a great tract of the country of India. Of this expedition, his three officers, Ptolemy, Nearchus, and Aristobulus, kept exact journals, from which Arrian informs us that he compiled his history. The particulars given in those accounts relative to the manners of the people accord likewise entirely with all the modern accounts of the manners of the Hindoos.

After the death of Alexander, the Indian conquests of that monarch fell to the share of Seleucus, who made an expedition into the country, and, it is probable, maintained at least a nominal sovereignty over it. From that time, however, for near two centuries, we hear no more of India from any of the Greek writers till the period of Antiochus the Great, who made a short expedition into that country, and asserted a species of dominion over some of the Indian princes, by forcing them to give him presents of money and a number of elephants. The Greek empire of Bactria, it is probable, kept up an intercourse with the Indian countries in its neighbourhood; but from those times down to the end of the fifteenth century, no European power had any thought of establishing a dominion in India; the only intercourse which continued between the predominant powers of antiquity and that country being confined to the purposes of commerce. Egypt, during the time it was governed by the successors of Alexander, possessed exclusively the commerce of India, by means of the Red sea. When Egypt fell under the dominion of the Romans, the commodities of India continued as usual to be imported to Alexandria, and from thence to Rome. When the seat of the empire was removed to Constantinople, that capital became, of course, the centre of Indian commodities. But it was not only by sea that the Roman em