II. ARABIA, 1300 miles long, and 1200 broad; between 12 and 30 deg N. lat. and 35 and 60 deg. E. lon.-- Mecca, Medina, Mocho.

lem, in a plain about twenty miles long and nine broad, is a village called Raba, the ancient Jericho. About fix miles fouth east from Jerufalem, on an eminence, is Bait-el-labm, anciently Bethlehem, which can furnish fix hundred men capable of bearing arms, of whom about one hundred are Chriftians; twenty-one miles to the fouth of this village is Habroun or Hebron, at the foot of an eminence, the moft confiderable village in thofe parts, from the manufacture of cotton and glafs. The inhabitants of Hebron are at continual variance with thofe of Bethlehem. This whole country in general is hilly and rugged. The country to the south called Paleftine, anciently the country of the Philiftines, is entirely a level plain, and fertile.

Palestine fometimes has a governor of its own, who refides at Gaza, but u fually, as at prefent, it is divided into three Appenages, rafa, (anciently Joppa,) Loudd (Lydda, v. Dieffelis,) and Gaza, farmed out to Agas. These are now very inconfiderable places, having been frequently ravaged by hoftile invasions. About a mile fouth of Loudd stands Ramla, the ancient Arimathea. Nine miles fouth of this on the road to Gaza is Yabna, anciently Jamnia; beyond which are various ruins, the most considerable at Ezdoud, arciently Azētus. —GAZA is faid to have got its name from Cambyfes, in his war against Egypt, placing there his military cheft (pes et pecunia, TAZA,) Mel. i. 11. It was anciently a place of importance, and ftrongly fortified, as being the frontier town of Palestine towards Egypt. Beyond Gaza are only deferts, part of which abound with barren mountains, confifting of calcareous ftene or granite, as Sinai and Horeb; on the former of which is a convent of monks, whither many pilgrims refort to visit the relics of a St Catharine, which are preferved there.

Syria is much lefs populous than it was in ancient times. The tyranny of the Turkish government has reduced many parts to a mere waste wilderness. The territories of Jamnia and Joppa in Pale ftine, which in the time of Strabo were able to bring into the field 40.000 armed men, Strab. xvi. 159. could not now furnish 3000. Judæa, which in the time of Titus is thought to have contained four millions of inhabitants, does not now contain the tenth part of that number. The whole population of Syria is fuppofed hardly to amount to two millions and a half. The country of the Drufes and Maronites, although leaft fertile, is the most populous. The Pacha of each department is, like the Sultan, a mere defpot. He poffeffes the most ablolute power of life and death, which he excrcifes without formality and without appeal. Wherever he meets with an offence, he orders the criminal to be fe.zed, and the executioner, by whom he is accompanied, ftrangles him, or cuts off his head on the spot; nay fometimes the Pacha himself does not difdain this office. The Pacha frequently trolls about difguifed, and wo to the man whom he furprifes in a fault. Eut as he cannot be prefent every where, he commits this duty to a deputy, called the Wali, who patroles night and day, and, like the Pacha, judges and condemns without appeal. The criminal bends his neck, the executioner ftrikes, the head falls, and the body is carried off in a leathern fack. The Wali has a multitude of fpies, by whofe means he knows every thing. He infpects the markets, and punishes with the greatest feverity any deficiency in weights and measures. Little or no attention is paid in Turkish cities to the cleanliness of the ftreets, which are never paved, fwept, or watered, either in Syria or Egypt. They are narrow and winding, and almoft always encumbered with rubbish. Strangers are, above all, fhocked at the fight of great numbers of hideous dogs roaming about, without an owner. The Turks, who fhed the blood of man fo readily, never kui thefe animals, though they avoid touching them as unclean. They, in like manner,

III. PERSIA, 1300 miles long, 1100 broad; between 25 and 44 deg. N. lat. and 45 and 70 deg. E. lon. Spahawn, Shiras, Tauris or Tebris.

Ifpahan or

IV.

manner, refrain from either hurting or touching kites or turtle-doves. It is remarkable, that canine madness is unknown both in Syria and Egypt.

The great aim of the Pachas is to amafs money; and for that purpose they employ every method of extortion. This however often proves fatal to them. For when an accufation is brought against any one of them, for which his rich. es afford a pretext, an officer is difpatched, called a Capidji, with a fecret order or kat fherife to cut off his head. The Pacha in common tamely fubmits, and his fortune devolves to the Sultan; but fometimes he prevents his fate by dif patching the officer sent to destroy him. There are frequent inftances of Pachas rebelling against the Porte, but none of them have hitherto fucceeded in eftablishing their independence.

The only part of authority with held from the Pachas is the adminiftration of juftice in civil affairs, which is exercifed by perfons called Cadis, independent of the Pacha. These Gadis or Judges depend on the grand Cadi, who refides at Conftantinople, called Cadi-el-afear or Cadi Lefkier, i. e. Julge of the army. He names the judges of the capital cities, as Aleppo, Damafcus, &c. and they name others in the places within their dependency. But all thefe employments are fold to the highest bidder; hence the administration of justice is as venal and corrupt as that of the executive power.

The religion of Mahomet, called Islamism, instead of correcting the abuses of government, ferves to confirm them. The Koran, or Bible of the Mahometans, contains nothing concerning the relative duties of the governors and governed. It only inculcates implicit faith and fervile obedience.

Chriftians in Turkey are expofed to the greatest indignities. The Maho. metans or Muffulmans ufually addrefs them by the name of infidel, impious, dog, or the like; and to mortify them, often practife before them the ceremonies of their worship. A Christian cannot ftrike a Mahometan, without risk of his life; but if a Mahometan kill a Chriftian, he escapes for a stipulated price. Chriftians must not mount on horseback in towns; they are prohibited the ufe of yellow flippers, white fhawls, and every fort of green colour. Red for the feet, and blue for the drefs, are the colours affigned them.

The inhabitants of Syria have no property, either real or perfonal. The Sultan arrogates to himself the property of all the lands by right of conqueft. When a father dies, the inheritance reverts to the Sultan, or his delegate; and the children can only redeem the fucceffion by a confiderable fum of money. Hence arifes an indifference to landed eftates, which proves fatal to agriculture. The only method of fecuring a perpetual ufus fructus, is by making what is called a Wakf, that is an endowment or donation of an estate to a Mofque.

The tribute impofed on the land by Selim, when he conquered Syria from the Mamlouks, called miri, ftill remains, and is very moderate; but it is rendered oppreffive and intolerable by the exactions of the Pachas. Hence the coudition of the peafants in Syria is most wretched, especially where they are expofed to the incurtions of the Arabs. Here the hufbandman muft fow with his mufket in his hand, as in Paleftine. In the tributary countries, fuch as thofe of the Drufes, the Maronites, &c. property is more fecure, and the condition of the pealants more comfortable. Thole who refide in towns, fuch as traders and artifans, are in more eafy circunftances; hence the populoufnefs of cities. The arts are very little cultivated in Syria, and the fciences in a manner unknown. Books are extremely fearce, and the inftruction of youth almoft entirely neglected. There was not a printing prefs in all Syria, till the year 3733, when one was established at a convent in the mountains of the Drufes, call

ed

IV. INDIA is a country of immenfe extent, about 2400 miles long, and 2000 broad; between 1 and 40 deg. N. lat.

and

ed MAR HANNA, by one ABDALLAH, whofe ardour to promote the diffufion of knowledge at Aleppo, excited against him the refentment of the priests, who procured a Kat-herif, or warrant of the Sultan, for cutting off his head. Fortunately Abdallah received timely warning, and escaped into Lebanon, where his life was in fafety.

The manners of the Syrians, and of the eafterr. nations in general, are very different from ours. We wear fhort and close dreffes; theirs are long and ample. We fuffer our hair to grow, and fhave the beard; they let the beard grow, and have the head. With us, to uncover the head is a mark of refpect; with them a naked head is a fign of folly. We falute in an inclined pofture; they upright. We pafs our lives erect; they are almoft continually feated. They fit and eat upon the ground; we upon raifed feats. With respect to their language, likewife, their manner of writing is directly contrary to ours, and the greatest number of mafculine nouns in French, for inftance, are feminine with them. The Turks exprefs in their countenances, words, and gestures, an appearance of devotion, which proceeds not from true religion, but from igno rance and a fanatic fuperftition, and is the fource of innumerable diforders. Inftead of that open and chearful countenance, which we either naturally poffefs or affume, their behaviour is ferious, auftere, and melancholy; they rarely laugh, and the gaiety of fome Europeans appears to them a fit of delirium. When they fpeak, it is with deliberation, without gestures and without paffion; they liften without interrupting you; they are filent for whole days together, and have no defire to fupport a converfation. If they walk, it is always leifurely, and on bufinefs; they have no idea of walking backwards and forwards for amufement. Continually feated, they pafs whole days mufing, with their legs croffed, their pipes in their mouths, and almoft without changing their attitude. It should feem as if motion were a punishment to them, and that, like the Indians, they regard inaction as effential to happiness.

The indolence of the oriental and fouthern nations, and the defpotifm to which they have been ufually fubjected, are generally afcribed to the heat of the climate, which enervates the vigour both of mind and body. But this does not hold univerfally. The character of nations depends not merely on the climate, but alfo on the nature of their government and religion, their progress in refinement, and improvements in knowledge, and on various other circumftances. Hence the character of the inhabitants of the fame country has been found to be very different at different times. The immoderate ufe of opium is thought to encreafe the indolence of the Turks.

Syria has undergone various revolutions, which have confounded the different races of its inhabitants. They at prefent may be divided into three claffes, the pofterity of the Greeks, the Arabs, and Turks. The Turks did not exterminate the former inhabitants, but having embraced their religion, incorporated with them.

There are feveral wandering tribes, which inhabit part of Syria and the adjoining countries, very different in their manners from thofe who poffefs fixed fettlements and cultivate the ground. The wandering or fhepherd tribes, are the Turkmen, the Curds, and Arabs.-The TURKMEN are of the number of thofe Tartar hordes, who, on the great revolution of the empire of the Caliphs, emigrated from the eastward of the Cafpian fea, and spread themselves over the vaft plains of Armenia and Afia Minor. The CURDS are defcended from the Card-uchi, mentioned by Xenophon in his Anabafis, who inhabited the mountains of Armenia, and oppofed the retreat of the Ten Thoufand; and who, though fhut in on all fides by the Perfian empire, had conftantly braved the power of the Great King, and the arms of his Satraps. The ARABS, called

Bedouins,

and 66 and 109 deg. E. lon. containing above 100 millions of inhabitants.

India is commonly divided into India within or on this fide the Ganges, called alfo Indoftan or Hindooftan, or the empire of the Great Mogul; and India beyond the Ganges.

I.

Bedouins, or Bedouin Arabs, i. e. inhabitants of the defert, poffefs an immenfe extent of country, extending from Aleppo to the Arabian fea, and from Egypt to the Perfian gulph, nearly one thoufand eight hundred miles in length, and nine hundred in breadth, They with reason boaft of being the pureft of the Arab tribes, as having never been conquered, nor having mixed with any other people by making conquefts. The Arabs who rendered themselves fo illuftrious under Mahomet and his fucceffors, dwelt along the Red Sea, were cultiva tors of land, poffeffed cities, and were fubject to regular governments. The Arabs in the interior or defert had no concern in the great revolutions which the former produced. The Bedouin Arabs retain the fame cuftoms, manners, language, and even religious opinions, with their ancestors in the most remote

ages.

The Arabs feem to be condemned to a wandering life from the very nature of their deferts; covered with a fky, almoft perpetually inflamed, and without clouds; confifting of immenfe and boundless plains, without houses, trees, rivulets, or hills; where the eye frequently meets nothing but an extenfive and uniform horizon, like the fea; though in fome places the ground is uneven and ftony. Almost invariably naked on every fide, the earth prefents nothing but a few wild plants, thinly fcattered, and thickets, whofe folitude is rarely dif turbed but by antelopes, hares, locufts, and rats.

The Turkmen, Curds, and Arabs, although they agree on the whole, in their manner of life, as being paftors and wanderers, and fubfifting chiefly on the produce of their herds, yet differ in feveral particulars. They all profefs the Mahometan religion, but pay little regard to its ceremonies. They have neither priests, temples, or regular worship. In this refpect every one acts and thinks as he pleases. The Turkmen and Arabs give their daughters a marriage-dowery; the Curds receive a premium for them. The Turkmen pay no refpe to that antiquity of extraction which we call nobility; the Curds and Arabs honour it greatly. The tribes of the Arabs are diftinguished from each other, by the name of their refpective chiefs, or by that of the ruling fa mily; and when they speak of any of the individuals who compofe them, they call them the children of fuch a chief, though they may not be all really of his blood, and the chief himself may have been long since dead; as the poets in ancient times: See Homer, Virgil, Ovid, &c. paffim.; alfo the Poems of Offian. The Arabs apply this mode of expreffion even to the names of countries. The Turk men do not steal or plunder. The Curds and Arabs are noted plunderers; but excuse their depredations, as being exercised on those whom they confider as enemies. The government of these tribes, particularly of the Arabs, is at once republican, ariftocratical, and even defpotic. Nothing can be tranfacted without the confent of the majority of the people; but the fhaiks or chiefs have great influence; and the principal fhaik has an indefinite and almost absolute authority, which however he cannot very much abufe. The manners of the Arabs agree precifely with the descriptions in Homer, and the hiftory of Abraham and the other patriarchs in Genefis. They are remarkable for their generosity and hofpitality. If an Arab confent to eat bread and falt with a guest, nothing in the world cat induce him to betray him. To obferve how they conduct them. felves to one another, one would imagine that they poffeffed all their goods in com mon. Nevertheless they are no strangers to property. But it has none of that selfishnefs, which the increase of the imaginary wants of luxury has given

I. INDIA within the Ganges*, or Indoftan, is about 2007 miles long, and 1500 broad; between 7 and 40 deg. N. lat. and 66 and 92 deg. E. ion.

It is divided into two parts, the CONTINENT and PENINSULA. 1. On the CONTINEN I, towards the mouth of the Ganges, is the rich province of BENGAL, belonging to the English. Their chief city, where the Governor-General of India refides, is CALCUTTA, 22 33′ N. lat, 88 28 E. long. from Greenwich; fituate on the western arm of the Ganges, about one hundred miles from the fea, where about ninety years ago there was only the village of Govindpour; fuppofed at prefent to contain at least five hundred thousand inhabitants. Its citadel is called FORT-WILLIAM, which was begun to be built immediately after the victory at Plafley. It is fuperior in point of itrength

and

it among polished nations. The Arabs have no books; and few even of their Shaiks can read All their literature confits in reciting tales and hitteries in the manner of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, of which they are remark ably fend.

The fame fimilarity and diverfity is obfervable in the defcriptions given of the wandering Scythians, (Errantes, profugi, et campestres Scytbe), by ancient authors. Some of them, as of the modern Tartars and Arabs, were cultivators of the ground, and others of them fhepherds. Heredet. iv. 16.-83. Strab. vii. 302. &c. Fujiin. ii. 2. Korat, ad, iii. 249, &c. Mela, iii. 5. Curt. vii. 8. &c.

Hißorical Account of the PRINCIPAL REVOLUTIONS and TRADE of India, The geography, as well as the hiftory of India, was very imperfe&tly known, before the modern conquefts of the Europeans in that part of the world The first foreign prince we read of, that made himfeif matter of any part of ludia, was DARIUS, the fon of Hyftafpes, king of Perfia, who extended his conquefts to the Indus; and derived from that country a tribute nearly equal to the third part of the revenue of his other dominions, Herodot, iii. 90.—96 — It deferves remark, that the Indians paid Daries their tribute in gold, and the other Satrapies in filver. The account of the invafion of India by Semiramis, Diodor. ii. 74. appears fabulous.

Darius, before he undertook his expedition, appointed one SCYLAX of Caryandra to fail down the Indus till he fhould reach the ocean, with fome fhips which had been fitted out at Cafpatyrus, in the country of Padya, now Pekely, towards the upper part of the oavigable courfe of that river. This Scylax performed, though, it should feem, with much difficulty, and notwithstanding many obstacles; for he spent no less than two years and fix months in conducting his fquadron from the place where he embarked to the Arabian Gulf, Id. iv. 42. 45. See p. 610. The account which Scylax gave of his voyage was fo mingled with fable, that little regard was paid to it.

The next who invaded India was ALEXANDER the Great, who having crushed Beffus, the niurderer of Darius, fct out from Bactria, and having paffed mount Imaus, or the fony girdle, as it is called by the oriental geographers, crossed the Indus at Taxila, now Attack, the only place where the rapidity of that river permits an army to be conveniently tranfported. It is remarkable, that in after ages Timur or Tamerlane, and Nadir Skab or Thomas Kouli Khan, entered India by the fame route with Alexander. On the banks of the Hydafpes, now Betab or Cholum, Alcxander was opposed by PORUS; and he had advan

ced