In the year 1771, all the Tartars which compofed the nation of the Tourgouths, left the fettlements which they had under the Ruffian go vernment on the banks of the Wolga, and the laick, at a small distance from the Cafpian Sea, and, in a valt body of fifty thousand families, paffed through the country of the Hafacks; after a march of eight months, in which they furmounted innumerable difficulties and dangers, they arrived in the plains that lie on the frontier of Carapen, not far from the banks of the river Ily, and offered themfelves as fubjects to Kien-Lung, em peror of China, who was then in the thirty-fixth year of his reign. He received them gracioufly, furnished them with provifions, clothes, and money, and allotted to each family a portion of land for agriculture and pafturage. The year following there was a fecond emigration of about thirty thousand other Tartar families, who alfo quitted the fettlements which they enjoyed under the Ruffian government, and submitted to the Chinese fceptre. The emperor caufed the hiftory of thefe emigra tions to be engraven upon ftone in four different languages.

The hopes which were lately indulged of the great and manifold advantages to be derived from the embaffy of lord Macartney to the court of Peking have ended in difappointment. Never, perhaps, was there a character better qualified for the management of an embaffy of fuch de licacy and importance than lord Macartney: but, notwithstanding his lordthip's adroitnefs, he found it utterly impoffible to obtain permiffion for the refidence of an Englishman at the capital of China, as ambaffa. dor, conful, or in any other character, or any exclusive settlement for the English within the Chinese dominions, even on a temporary grant, and folely for the purpofes of trade. According to a fundamental principle in Chinese politics, innovation, of whatever kind, is held to be inevitably pregnant with ruin; and on this principle the emperor declined to admit a foreign refident at the court of Peking, or to expand the princi. ples on which our commercial intercourfe with this country are at prefent regulated and confined.

The embaffy arrived in the river Pei-ho, in the Gulf of Peking, the beginning of August 1793, and on the 21ft of the fame month reached the city of Peking. They remained here till the beginning of September, when they were conducted to Zhe-hol, or Jehol, one of the emperor's country refidences in Tartary, diftant about forty or fifty leagues from Peking. Here they had their audience of the emperor, who accepted the prefents they had brought in the moft gracious manner, and returned others of great value, of which two are fo fingular as to claim particular notice. The one is a poem addreffed to his Britannic majefty, the compofition of the emperor himself, and his own hand-writing: it is lodged in a black, wooden, carved box, of no great value, but as an antique, to which character it has a juft claim, having been two thousand years in the poffeffion of the imperial family of China. The other prefent is a mafs of coftly agate, of unequalled fize and beauty. It has always been the practice with the emperor to hold this agate in his hand, and to fix his eyes upon it, whenever he spoke to a mandarin, or any of his minif ters; as to look upon a fubject is confidered as not only derogatory to the imperial dignity, but to confer too much honour on the individual addreffed.

Kien-Lung, the late emperor of China, appeared, at the time he gave audience to the embaffy, to be perfectly unreferved, cheerful, and unaf fected; his eyes were full and clear, and his countenance open. He was clad in plain dark filk, with a velvet bonnet, in form not much different from the bonnet of Scotch Highlanders; on the front of it was placed large pearl, which was the only jewel or ornament he appeared to have

about him.

Kien-Lung, the late emperor of China, was only the fourth fovereign of the Tartar dynasty which took poffeffion of the throne of that country about the year 1644. He afcended the throne of China in 1736, and died February 11, 1799. He was fucceeded by Ka-Hing, the prefent emperor, who, immediately on his acceffion to the throne, degraded and imprifoned Ho-choong.taung, the prime minifter of his predeceffor. This minifter was in power at the time of lord Macartney's embassy, and was fuppofed to be very hoftile to the object of it: his difgrace has given hopes that fuch another attempt might now prove fuccefsful.

SITUATION AND

BOUNDARIES.

INDIA IN General.

THIS vaft country is fituated between the 66th and 109th degrees of caft longitude, and between 1 and 40 of North latitude. It is bounded on the North by the countries of Ufbec Tartary and Thibet; on the South, by the Indian Ocean; on the Eaft, by China and the Chinese Sea; and, on the Weft, by Perfia and the Indian Sea.

DIVISIONS.] We fhall divide, as others have done, India at large, into three greater parts: first, the Peninfula of India beyond the Ganges, called the Farther Peninfula; fecondly, the Main Land of Hindoostan, or the Mogul's empire; thirdly, the Peninfula within, or on this fide the Ganges; all of them vaft, populous, and extended empires. But it is neceffary, in order to fave many repetitions, to premife an account of fome particulars that are in common to thofe numerous nations, which fhall be extracted from the most enlightened of our modern writers, who have visited the country in the fervice of the Eaft-India company.

POPULATION, INHABITANTS, RE-The Mahometans, or, as they

LIGION, AND GOVERNMENT.

} are called, Moors, of Hindo

tan, are computed, according to Mr. Orme, an excellent and authentic hiftorian, to be about ten millions, and the Indians about a hundred millions. Above half the empire is subject to rajahs or kings, who derive their defcent from the old princes of India, and exercife all rights of fovereignty, only paying a tribute to the Great Mogul, and obferving the treaties by which their ancestors recognised his fuperiority. In other refpects, the government of Hindooftan is full of wife checks upon the overgrowing greatness of any fubject; but, as all precautions of that kind depend upon the adminiftration, the indolence and barbarity of the Moguls or emperors, and great viceroys, have rendered them fruitless.

their

The original inhabitants of India are called Gentoos; or, as others call them, Hindoos, and the country Hindooftan. They pretend that Bumma, who was their legiilator both in politics and religion, was in ferior only to God, and that he exifted many thousand years before our account of the creation. This Brumma, probably, was fome great and good man, whofe beneficence, like that of the pagan legiflators, led his pople and their pofterity to pay him divine honours. The Brahmins, or Gentoo priefts, pretend that he bequeathed to them a book called the Vedam, containing his doctrines and inftitutions; and that, though the original is loft, they are ftill poffeffed of a commentary upon it, called the Shahftah, which is wrote in the Shanferit, now a dead language, and known only to the Brahmins.

The foundation of Brumma's doctrine confifted in the belief of a Su

rior, and fome inferior to man; and in the immortality of the foul, and a future ftate of rewards and punishments, which is to confist of a tranf migration into different bodies, according to the lives they have led in their pre-existent state. From this it appears more than probable, that the Pythagorean metempfychofis took its rife in India. The neceffity of inculcating this fublime but otherwife complicated doctrine, into the lower ranks, induced the Brahmins, who are by no means unanimous in their doctrines, to have recourfe to fenfible reprefentations of the Deity and his attributes; fo that the original doctrines of Brumma have degenerated into idolatry, in the worship of different animals, and various images of the most hideous figures, delineated or carved.

The Hindoos have, from time immemorial, been divided into four great tribes. The firft and most noble tribe are the Brahmins, who alone can officiate in the priesthood, like the Levites among the Jews, They are not, however, excluded from government, trade, or agricul ture, though they are ftrictly prohibited from all menial offices, by their Jaws. The fecond in order is the Sittri tribe, who, according to their original inftitution, ought to be all military men; but they frequently follow other profeffions. The third is the tribe of Beife, who are chiefly merchants, bankers, and banias, or fhop-keepers. The fourth tribe is that of Sudder, who ought to be menial fervants; and they are incapable of raising themselves to any fuperior rank. If any one of them should be excommunicated from any of the four tribes, he and his pofterity are for ever fhut out from the fociety of every perfon in the nation, excepting that of the Harricaft, who are held in utter deteftation by all the other tribes, and are employed only in the meaneft and vileft offices. This circumstance renders excommunication fo dreadful, that any Hindoo will fuffer the torture, and even death itself, rather than deviate from one article of his faith.

Befides this divifion into tribes, the Gentoos are alfo fubdivided into cafts and fmall claffes or tribes; and it has been computed that there are eighty-four of these cafts, though fome have fuppofed there was a greater number. The order of pre-eminence of all the cafts, in a parti cular city or province, is generally indifputably decided. The Indian of an inferior would think himself honoured by adopting the cuftoms of a fuperior caft: but this latter would give battle fooner than not vindicate its prerogatives: the inferior receives the victuals prepared by a fuperior caft with refpect, but the fuperior will not partake of a meal which has been prepared by the hands of an inferior caft. Their marriages are cir cumfcribed by the fame barriers as the reft of their intercourfes; and hence, befides the national phyfiognomy, the members of each caft preferve an air of ftill greater refemblance to one another. There are some casts remarkable for their beauty, and others as remarkable for their uglinefs.

The members of each caft, favs Dr. Robertfon, adhere invariably to the profeffion of their forefathers. From generation to generation, the fame families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life. To this may be afcribed that high degree of per fection confpicuous in many of the Indian manufactures; and though veneration for the practices of their ancestors may check the fpirit of invention, yet, by adhering to thefe, they acquire fuch an expertnefs and delicacy of hand, that Europeans, with all the advantages of fuperior science, and the aid of more complete inftruments, have never been able

to equal the exquisite execution of their workmanship. While this high improvement of their more curious manufactures excited the admiration and attracted the commerce of other nations, the separation of professions in India, and the early distribution of the people into classes attached to particular kinds of labour, secured such abundance of the more common and useful commodities, as not only supplied their own wants, but ministered to those of the countries around them.

To this early division of the people into casts, we must likewise ascribe a striking peculiarity in the state of India; the permanence of its institutions, and the immutability in the manners of its inhabitants. What now is in India, always was there, and is still likely to continue; neither the ferocicas violence and illiberal fanaticism of its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its European masters, has effected any considerable alterations. The same distinctions of condition take place, the same arrangements in civil and domestic society remain, the same maxims of religion are held in veneration, and the same sciences and arts are cultivated. Hence, in all ages, the trade with India has been the same; gold and silver have uniformly been carried thither in order to purchase the same commodities with which it now supplies all nations; and, from the age of Pliny to the present times, it has always been considered and execrated as a gulf which swallows up the wealth of every other country, that flows incessantly towards it, and from which it never returns *.

All these casts acknowledge the Brahmins for their priests, and from them derive their belief of the transmigration; which leads many of them to affict themselves even at the death of a fly, although occasioned by inadvertence. But the greater number of casts are less scrupulous, and eat, although very sparingly, both of fish and flesh; but, like the Jews, not of all kinds indifferently. Their diet is chiefly rice and vege tables, dressed with ginger, turmeric, and other hotter spices, which grow almost spontaneously in their gardens. They esteem milk the purest of foods, because they think it partakes of some of the properties of the nectar of their gods, and because they esteem the cow itself almost like a divinity. Their manners are gentle; their happiness consists in the solaces of a domestic life; and they are taught by their religion, that matrimony is an indispensable duty in every man, who does not entirely separate himself from the world from a principle of devotion. Their religion also permits them to have several wives; but they seldom have more than one; and it has been observed, that their wives are distinguished by a decency of demeanour, a solicitude in their families, and a fidelity to their vows, which might do honour to human nature in the most civilized countries. The amusements of the Hindoos consist in going to their pagodas, in assisting at religious shows, and in fulfilling a variety of ceremonies prescribed to them by the Brahmins. Their religion forbids them to quit their own shores ; nor do they want any thing from abroad. They

Dr. Robertson's Historical Disquisition concerning India, Appendix, p. 261, 262. The Gentoos are persuaded, that the waters of the three great rivers, Ganges, Kistna, and Indus, have the sacred virtue of purifying those who bathe in them from all pollutions and sins. This religious idea seems to be founded on a principle of policy, and intended to restrain the natives from migrating into distant countries: for it is remarkable, that the sacred rivers are so situated, that there is not any part of India where the inhabi tants may not have an opportunity of washing away their sins. The Ganges, which rises in the mountains of Thibet, with its different branches, runs through the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa, and the upper provinces of Oude, Pohilcunde, Agra, Delhi, and Lahore. The Kistna divides the Carnatic from Golconda, and runs through the Visapore into the interior parts of the Deccan. And the Indus, bounding the Guzurat provinces, separates Hindoostan from the dominions of Persia.

might, therefore, have lived in much tranquillity and happiness, if others had looked on them with the same indifference with which they regard the rest of the world.

The soldiers are commonly called rajah-poots, or persons descended from rajahs, and reside chiefly in the northern provinces, and are gene. rally more fair-complexioned than the people of the southern provinces, who are quite black. These rajah-poots are a robust, brave, faithfal people, and enter into the service of those who will pay them; but when their leader falls in battle, they think that their engagements to him are finished, and they run off the field without any stain upon their reputation.

The custom of women burning themselves upon the death of their husbands still continues to be practised, though much less frequently than formerly. The Gentoos are as careful of the cultivation of their lands, and their public works and conveniences, as the Chinese; and there scarcely is an instance of a robbery in all Hindoostan, though the diamond merchants travel without defensive weapons.

RELIGION]. The institutions of religion, publicly established in all the extensive countries stretching from the banks of the Indus to Cape Comorin, present to view an aspect nearly similar. They form a re gular and complete system of superstition, strengthened and upheld by every thing which can excite the reverence and secure the attachment of the people. The temples consecrated to their deities are magnificent, and adorned not only with rich offerings, but with the most exquisite works in painting and sculpture which the artists highest in estimation among them were capable of executing. The rites and ceremonies of their wor ship are pompous and splendid, and the performance of them not only mingles in all the transactions of common life, but constitutes an essen. tial part of them. The Brahmins, who, as ministers of religion, preside in all its functions, are elevated above every other order of men, by an origin deemed not only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred.They have established among themselves a regular hierarchy and grada. tion of ranks, which, by securing subordination in their own order, adds weight to their authority, and gives them a more absolute dominion in the minds of the people. This dominion they support by the command of the immense revenues with which the liberality of princes, and the zeal of pilgrims and devotees, have enriched them.

The temples or pagodas of the Gentoos are stupendous but disgustful stone buildings, erected in every capital, and under the direction of the Brahmins. To this, however, there are some exceptions; for, in propor tion to the progress of the different countries of India in opulence and refinement, the structure of their temples gradually improved. From plain buildings they became highly ornamented fabrics, and, both by their extent and magnificence, are monuments of the power and taste of the people by whom they were erected. In this highly finished style there are pagodas of great antiquity in different parts of Hindoostan, particularly in the southern provinces, which are not exposed to the de structive violence of Mahomedan zeal. In order to assist our readers in forming a proper idea of these buildings, we shall briefly describe two, of which we have the most accurate accounts. The entry to the pagoda of Chillambrum, near Porto Novo, on the Coromandel coast, held in high veneration on account of its antiquity, is by a stately gate, under a pyramid, a hundred and twenty-two feet in height, built with large stones above forty feet long, and more than five feet square, and covered with plates of copper, adorned with an immense variety of figures, neatly