side) with marble, and stone intermixed, but the interior is lined with ivory, most curiously inlaid with silver foliage, and mosaic ornaments in great profusion. Several others. also merit very particular attention; but however attractive they may appear to the spectator, they certainly would be too tedious in description.

The various reservoirs and aqueducts, for the conveyance of water to every part of this extensive city, and which were constructed at such a vast expence, are now involved in one common ruin and devastation.

A little distance from the city is a lake called Kokarea, which is more than a mile in circumference, and is lined throughout with stone, having flights of steps all around. Se. veral of the entrances into this fine sheet of water, are decorated by small domes, which are supported by elegant stone pillars. In the center of this lake a beautiful island (planted with the red tamarind-trees, which are very luxuriant, and bear most delicious fruit) rises its verdant banks, above the placid surface of the water, which every where reflects the surrounding scenery, and has a most

charming effect. Here too is a very curious palmira, or brab-tree, branching out into forty or fifty separate boughs, each of which is furnished with a large tuft of spreading leaves at its extremity. This tree has a very beautiful appearance, and is esteemed a very great natural curiosity, as the palmira in general, like the cocoa-nut tree, has only one straight stem, bearing a single tuft of leaves on the top.

A bridge of forty-eight arches affords a communication to the island from one side of the lake, which, together with the ruins of a summer-house, surrounded by a kind of fortification, has a pleasing effect.

The Dutch have a burying ground near the margin of this lake, which contains several very elegant tombs, some of whose inscriptions are dated from the beginning of the seventeenth century. They had then a considerable factory in Ahmedabad, that is now withdrawn. The British company had likewise a spot of ground allotted to them for a factory, but from some unknown cause it has never been established.

Manufactories of every kind of rich and curious silks, brocades, and cottons, were for

merly encouraged, and carried on with great success in this capital, which was also (and about the same æra) famed for having the best workmen in gold, jewellery, ivory, and enamel work, and for bringing to perfection every species of refined luxury. Large quantities of indigo were made here, and several other branches of a valuable commerce carried on, which are now no longer in existence. Scarcely any traces of the extensive manufacture and commerce of Ahmedabad are now left to make known its consequence and its wealth, that was formerly equal, if not su perior, to all the cities of the east.

If we may credit the assurances of the most respectable moguls, we shall find that this city, when in its most flourishing state, contained upwards of three million of inhabitants, a number almost incredible. There are now about three hundred thousand, twothirds of whom are Mahometans, and the rest Hindoos; the Parsees not having yet settled. here. This computation of the number of inhabitants, both in its former, and its present state, is very far below what the Cazee and Sciads inform us.

Nothing can be more illustrative of the mutability of all human grandeur, and human exertions, than the contemplation of those innumerable cities that have rose in every age, and every part of the earth, arrived at the highest pitch of human power, flourished for a while, decayed, and at length have been swept away into annihilation, leaving but an empty name behind. The reflection is melancholy and presaging, but it is instructive.

There is a grand mosque at Surcoza, a place that is situated about five miles distant from this city, on the opposite shores of the river Sambrematty. It is said to be an exact model of the holy temple at Mecca, which is so highly revered and deified by all true-believers. Here too is a building exactly resembling the square temple at Mecca, that is renowned over all Asia, not only for its vast antiquity, but also for the interesting circumstance of its being highly honoured and revered by the ancient Arabian poets, who were accustomed to decorate its walls by the most beautiful passages of their compositions,. written in golden characters upon fine silk, where the men of letters, and the distinguished.

nobles of the country, used to go and pay them divine honours. But when the Mahometan faith spread like the morning dew to refreshen all the plains of the east, the enthusiastic prophet persuaded his countrymen, and his followers, to cast off all remains of their iniquitous idolatory, and embrace his tenets, which he assured, and convinced them were true, immutable, and eternal.

No sooner was the Mahometan faith embraced by the inhabitants of the eastern empires, than the sacred altars, the golden images, and the inspired effusions of their poets were torn down from the walls of the temple of Mecca, which was almost as instantaneously dedicated to the True God, the Father, and the Protector of all good Musselmen.

When Mahomet extended his eyes over the eastern nations, in order to fix upon a spot which he should consecrate to his god, and to which he should command all his followers to go in holy pilgrimage once during their lives, in order to render themselves acceptable to him, he had fixed upon the walls of Jerusalem; but his thoughts suddenly descended from the regions of bliss, and the