11. But besides these there are several other immense rivers, of which the ancients, probably, never so much as even heard. The Yang-tse-Kiang, which rises in Tibet close to the source of the Bautisus or Hoang-Ho, is the longest river in the Eastern Hemisphere, and enters the Yellow Sea a little below Nankin. In the Eastern part of Mongolia, is the Amoor or Sagalin, which rises in the Yablonnoy Mountains, and runs with an Easterly course into the Gulf of Tartary opposite the I. of Sagalin. In Siberia there are many large rivers, which flow Northward into the Frozen Ocean, from the chain of mountains bounding the province on the Southward. Amongst these we may name the Kolima, which is next to Kamtchatka, the Lena, the Toungouska, the Enisei, the Obe, and the Irtish.

12. The following table will convey some idea of the actual, and comparative lengths of these rivers :

SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS OF ASIA.

13. The principal cities of ancient Asia were, in Asia Minor, Trapezus Trebisonde, Sinope Sinub, and Heraclea Erekli, on the shores of the Euxine; Smyrna Smyrna, Ephesus Aiasaluc, and Halicarnassus Boodroom, on the Egæan Sea; Attalia Adalia, Tarsus Tersoos, and Íssus Oseler, on the Mediterranean. In Syria, may be mentioned Antiochia Antakia on the R. Orontes, Sidon Sayda and Tyrus Soor, on the Mediterranean Sea; Jerusalem (or Hierosolyma) Jerusalem, Damascus Damascus, and Palmyra Palmyra, in the interior of the country. The capital of Arabia Petrea was Petra in Wady Mousa: in

Arabia Felix were Iathrippa Medina, Macoraba Mecca, Sheba Saade, and Arabia Felix Aden: in Arabia Deserta were Omanum Oman, and Gerrha El Katif. The chief towns of Colchis were Pityus Soukoum, and Ea; of Iberia, Sura Surami, and Zalissa Tiflis of Albania, Albana Niezabad, and Gætara Baku; of Armenia, Artaxata Ardashat, and Tigranocerta Sert. The most important cities in Assyria were Nineveh Mosul, and Ctesiphon Al Modain, both on the R. Tigris; in Mesopotamia were Edessa Orfa, Charræ Harran, and Nisibis Nisibin; in Babylonia were Seleucia Al Modain, and Babylon Hillah.

14. Amongst the chief cities of the Persian provinces we may mention Ecbatana Hamadan, and Rhagæ Rha near Teheran in Media; Susa Shuster, in Susiana; Persepolis Istakar, near Shiraz; Carmana Kerman, in Carmania; Hecatompylon Damghan, in Parthia; Zadracarta Goorgaun, in Hyrcania; Aria Herat, and Ortospana Kandahar, in Ariana; Pura Pureg, and Oræa Haur, in Gedrosia. In India intra Gangem were Taxila Attock, and the possessions of the Malli, both on the Indus; Palimbothra Patna, and Gange Regia Calcutta, both on the Ganges; Barygaza Baroche, Perimuda I. Salsett, and the district Male Malabar, on the Western coast; Malange Madras, and Caliga Calingapatam, on the Eastern coast of the Peninsula. In India extra Gangem were Adisaga Ava on the R. Sabaracus, Besynga Zittaung, Agimatha Siam, and the Aurea Chersonesus, or the great promontory of Malaya. To the Sinæ belonged Thina Sai-Gon, on the shores of the China Sea, and Coccoranagara Cambodia, on the Cambodia R.; the metropolis of Serica was Sera Singanfou, on a branch of the great river Bautisus or Hoang-Ho. The chief tribes in Scythia extra Imaum were the Echardæ, Issedones, and Chauranaci; in Scythia intra Imaum, were the Tectosaces, Alani, Anaraci, Cachassæ, and Chorasmii. The principal town of Bactriana was Bactra Balkh; in Sogdiana were Maracanda Sumerkund, and Alexandria Ultima Koukan, on the R. laxartes or Sihon.

MODERN ASIA.

15. THE foundation of the existing divisions of Asia may be readily traced in those, we have already mentioned as obtaining amongst the ancients. Asia Minor and Syria still preserve their names, and form, together with Babylonia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, and a great part of Armenia, the Asiatic part of the Turkish Empire: amongst its chief cities may be mentioned Smyrna on the Ægæan Sea, Arzroum, Diarbekir, Aleppo, and Damascus, in the interior of the country, Bagdad on the Tigris, Tripoli and Acre on the shores of the Mediterraneau, and Jerusalem between the latter and the Dead Sea. Below it lies the vast country of Arabia, ruled by its own independent chiefs or Imams: its principal cities are Medina and Mecca near the coasts of the Red Sea, Mocha and Aden near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, Muscat on the Eastern coast opposite Persia, and Bassora at its N. E. corner on the banks of the Tigris. To the East of Turkey and Arabia is the Kingdom of Persia, extending

as far as the borders of the ancient Ariana and Gedrosia: it contains the seven provinces of Azerbijan, Ghilan, Mazanderan, Khorasan, Irak, Fars, and Kerman. The chief cities of Persia are Tabriz, Teheran, and Mushed, in the North; Hamadan, Kermanshah, and Ispahan 12 in the West; and Shiraz, Busheer, and Kerman, in the South. To the East of Persia, and extending beyond the Indus into the Northern part of India, is the Kingdom of Cabul, containing the two great provinces Affghanistan and Baloochistan: its principal cities are Cabul, Candahar, Kelat, and Cashmere. India follows next to the Eastward, extending to the mouths of the Ganges, and from the Himaleh Mountains to the Ocean; by far the greater part of it is under the dominion, or protection, of the British: its chief cities are Lahore12, Delhi, Allahabad, and Catmandoo, in the North; Bombay, Poonah, and Goa, in the West; Seringupatam, Travancore, and Madras, in the South; Kuttack, Calcutta, and Patna, in the East.

16. Still farther East is the Birman Empire, including Birmah and Pegu; the kingdoms of Siam, Cambodia, Laos, Cochin-China, and Tonkin, [or the Empire of Annam as they are sometimes called]; and the peninsula of Malaya or Malacca: all these compose the great Trans-Gangetic peninsula of India. The capital of Birmah is Ummerapoora, of Pegu, Pegu; of Siam, Siam or Juthia; of Cambodia, Cambodia ; of Malacca, Malacca; and, of Cochin-China, Toan-hoa. Above it is the Empire of China, washed on the East by the Pacific Ocean, and on the South by the China Sea; it is called China Proper, in contradistinction to Chinese Tartary or Mongolia, which is subject to it. This last is a vast extent of country, stretching from the shores of the Pacific on the East, to the ridge of mountains between the rivers Indus and Irtish on the West; and from the great mountain-range of Yablonnoy and Sayansk on the North, to the Himaleh Mountains and the Chinese Wall on the South. The principal cities of China are Canton in the South, Nankin in the East, and Pekin in the North: amongst the towns of Mongolia we may notice Holin and Karakum in the centre of the country, Maimatchin on the Russian frontier, Cashgar and Yarkand towards Independent Tartary, and Leh, Gortope, and Lassa above India. To the West of Mongolia, and extending as far as the Caspian Sea, is Independent Tartary or Tataria Proper, which touches to the South on the kingdoms of Persia and Cabul, and to the North on the Russian province of Tobolsk: its chief towns are Sumerhund, Chiva, and Turkestan. The whole Northern part of Asia is under the dominion of Russia, and is hence called Russia in Asia or Asiatic Russia: it is likewise named Siberia, and is bounded on the North by the Frozen Ocean, on the East by the Pacific, on the South by the mountains of Yablonnoy and Sayansk, and on the West by the Ouralian Chain, which (as we have already seen) separates Asia from Europe. The principal towns of Asiatic Russia are Astrakhan 13, at the entrance of the Volga into the Caspian Sea; Orenburg, on the Oural; Tobolsk, on the R. Irtish; Tomsk, on the Obe; Irkoutsk, near the Baikal Lake; and Okotsk, on the shores of the Pacific, to an arm of which it has given

name.

12 His eye might there command wherever stood

City of old or modern fame, the seat

Of mightiest empire, from the destin❜d walls

Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can,

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne,
To Paquin of Sinæan kings; and thence

To Agra and Lahor of Great Mogul,
Down to the Golden Chersonese; or where
The Persian in Ecbatan sat, or since
In Hispahan.

Milton, Par. Lost, Book XI. 394.

13 As when the Tartar from his Russian foe,
By Astracan, over the snowy plains,
Retires.

Id. Book X. 432.

17. To the S. E. of the continent of Asia is a group of immense islands, which are commonly described as the East India Islands, though some have chosen to call them by the collective name of Australasia. The nearest of them to the continent is Sumatra, which is only separated from Java by a narrow strait: to the E. of Sumatra lie Borneo, Celebes, Gilolo, New Guinea, &c., and to the South of all these is the enormous island of Australia, (or New Holland, as it is called,) which is nearly as great as all Europe put together; below it lies Van Diemen's Land. Several of these islands belong to the Dutch, but the dominion, which they claim over many of them, is rather nominal than actual: Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and some others, belonging to the British. To the North of Borneo lies a large group of islands called the Philippines, which are in the possession of the Spaniards: and still farther North, off the coast of Chinese Tartary, is the Empire of Japan, consisting of several islands, as Nipon, Jesso, Kiusiu, Sikoke, and others. The name of Polynesia is applied to those extensive chains of islands which lie scattered in the Pacific Ocean between the Equator and the Southern Tropic, to the Eastward of New Guinea and Australia: it is also considered by some as including the islands to the N. of the Equator, and E. of China and Japan. 18. The superficial extent, and probable population of each country in Asia, will be seen by the following table:

STATISTICAL TABLE OF MODERN ASIA.

CHAPTER V.

AFRICA vel LIBYA'.

1. AFRICA was bounded on the North by the Mediter ranean Sea, on the W. and S. by the Atlantic Ocean, on the East by the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea: it was separated from Asia by the Isthmus of Suez, (which is only 60 miles across,) though many of the older authors made the Nile the common boundary between the two continents. The ancients were acquainted with little more than the Northern half of Africa; but, according to some of their traditions, they had completely sailed round it by steering Westward from the Red Sea, and entering the Mediterranean by the Pillars of Hercules, after a perilous navigation of three years: the truth of this, however, is exceedingly problematical. Though Africa is more than three times as large as all Europe, it is by far less important; from its lying so immediately under the Sun, the maritime parts only are inhabited, the inland country being a vast sandy desert. There is no cultivation, except in the immediate vicinity of a river or spring, all the rest being one wide tract of utter desolation; and hence, these cultivated places

2

Dives.

Virg. En. IV. 37.

Αιβύη μὲν γὰρ δηλοῖ ἑωυτὴν, ἐοῦσα περίῤῥυτος, πλὴν ὅσον αὐτῆς πρὸς τὴν Ασίην οὐρίζει. Νεκὼ τοῦ Αἰγυπτίων βασιλῆος πρώτου τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν, καταδέξαντος. ὃς ἀπέπεμψε Φοίνικας ἄνδρας πλοίοισι, ἐντειλάμενος ἐς τὸ ὀπίσω δι' Ηρακληίων στηλέων διεκπλέειν ἕως ἐς τὴν βορητην θάλασσαν, καὶ οὕτω ἐς Αἴγυπτον ἀπικνέεσθαι. Ὁρμηθέντες ὧν οἱ Φοίνικες ἐκ τῆς ̓Ερυθρῆς Θαλάσσης, ἔπλεον τὴν νοτίην θάλασσαν. ὅκως δὲ γίνοιτο φθινόπωρον, προσίσχοντες ἄν σπείρεσκον τὴν γῆν, ἵνα ἑκάστοτε τῆς Λιβύης πλέοντες χινοίατο, καὶ μένεσκον τὸν ἄμητον· θερίσαντες δ ̓ ἂν τὸν σίτον, ἔπλεον· ὥστε δύο ἐτέων διεξελθόντων, τρίτῳ ἔτει κάμψαντες Ηρακληΐας στήλας, ἀπίκοντο ἐς Αἴγυπτον. καὶ ἔλεγον, ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐ πιστὰ, ἄλλῳ δὲ δή τεφ, ὡς περιπλώοντες τὴν Λιβύην, τὸν ἠέλιον ἔσχον ἐς τὰ δεξιά. Herod. IV. 42.