Art. II.

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Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, from the earliest Ages to the present Time. By Hugh Murray, Esq. F. R. S. E. 8vo. 3 vols. pp. 1602. Price 21. 2s. London.

LL mere systems of geography have their interest greatly diminished by the necessary exclusion of details connected with personal adventure and individual character: they can give only abstracts and results. But, independently of this disadvantage attaching to works of dry analysis, their positive value is affected by the absence of that specific information which not only imparts vividness and attraction, but materially assists us in forming correct impressions. The information communicated by a traveller cannot be accurately estimated, without a precise knowledge of the circumstances in which he may have been placed, nor without taking into the account his qualifications, his modes of thinking, feeling, and expression, as they may be ascertained from his narrative. If, for instance, the compiler of some grammar or compendium of geographical knowledge should choose to place implicit reliance on Sir William Gell's notorious octavo about Greece, he would convey an impression altogether erroneous, and one which would be effectually removed from the mind of an intelligent reader by the perusal of the book itself, with its bad temper, supercilious tone, and illiberal prejudice. Similar cases might be readily and abundantly produced, and some in which geographical compilers have been grievously misled by their authorities. But we have adverted to the defect common to such publications, simply for the purpose of illustrating the obvious utility of works like the present. Though deficient in systematic form and technical minuteness, they present to more advantage, the actual state as well as history of our geographical knowledge. They not only inform us what has been done, but they introduce us to the very individuals who have obtained for us the information we possess, and apprise us of the circumstances under which it was procured. We do not mean to represent them as superseding the primary authorities, but to recommend them as ready and accessible substitutes,—as filling up an important vacancy in general literature, and as supplying an interesting addition to that class of books which profess to combine instruction with entertainment.

The present series originated in a small volume on Africa, compiled by the late Dr. Leyden. That little work was, after a considerable interval, republished with large additions, by Mr. Murray, to whom high praise was deservedly awarded, for the very able manner in which he executed his task; nor has he displayed less skill and diligence in the completion of the

present section of his undertaking. While Africa presents objects of inquiry, peculiarly stimulating to curiosity, from the hitherto insurmountable difficulties which lie in the way of direct investigation, the wonders of the more splendid East appeal with still greater power to the imagination, and the unchanged character of Asiatic manners, carries us back to periods of remote antiquity. The Arab Bedouin differs little from the immediate posterity of Ishmael; the Persian chivalry are the same that hovered round the legions of Julian; and the native of Hindostan preserves unaltered the moral and mental features which distinguished him in the days of Porus and Megasthenes. Asia, in fact, presents to us, man, not only as he now exists, but as he has been in many former ages all has continued fixed as by enchantment.'

The marking distinction of this grand division of the globe, consists in the variety and the powerful contrasts which every where present themselves. The natives of the American continent seem, with the exception of its two extremities, to have been of the same family: the red Indian was found in possession of the central portions both of the northern and the southern regions. In Africa, the whole aboriginal population consisted of the Ethiopic tribes. But in Asia, the varieties are multiplied: the Tartar, the Hindoo, the Malay, the Arab, the Persian, are as distinct in feature and character from each other, as they are all from the European. Every thing throughout these countries is on a large and magnificent scale. The mountains are of unrivalled altitude, and while they overshadow, on one side, realms of high civilization, splendid cities, and a wide expanse of rich and cultivated territory, on the other, they frown upon arid deserts and interminable steppes tenanted by wild and wandering hordes, waiting only to be marshalled by some modern Jenghiz Khan, again to break forth like a torrent over the fairer tracts inhabited by wealthier and less warlike nations. All the natural features of this portion of the earth are of the same decided character: nothing is petty, nothing insignificant. Nor is the political aspect of the Asiatic kingdoms inferior in magnitude and splendour. Their cities, although too many of them exhibit the melancholy vestiges of violence and misrule, are extensive and enriched with lavish ornament. The seats of monarchy are resplendent' with gold ' and gems;' and in no part of the world are the pomp, pride, and circumstance' of majesty displayed with so much magnificence. Add to all this, that our earliest associations connect

* See Eclectic Review, N.S. Vol. IX. p. 297.

with these realms, the romantic adventure, and the wild enchantment of the eastern tales; and we shall have a sufficient explanation of the interest excited in the mind by all that professes to illustrate the history, the manners, and the geography

of Asia.

The knowledge of this extended region possessed by the ancients, was limited, at least down to the time of Alexander's successors, by the Indus and the Scythian frontier. India, Serica (China), and Scythia (Tartary), were countries which excited at once the curiosity of men of science, and the cupidity of conquerors. Semiramis, at the head of an immense army, having achieved the conquest of Bactria, advanced upon the Indus. Having employed three years in preparations for the passage of that river, she defeated the flotilla of boats by which it was defended, and drew up her mighty army on the eastern bank, in face of a formidable host collected from all parts of Hindostan. Her Assyrians

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' were particularly dismayed by the reports of the great bodies of elephants trained to war, which formed the strength of the Indian armies. To dissipate their alarm, a species of artificial elephant was constructed; a mass of hide being formed into the shape of this huge animal, and moved internally by the force of camels and men. machines, when brought into real battle, had the success which might have been anticipated. At the shock of the mighty war elephants, their pseudo-antagonists instantly resolved into their component parts, and the scattered fragments fled in dismay. The whole army followed, and the Queen, severely wounded, was saved only by the swiftness of her horse. She is said scarcely to have brought back a third part of her army to Bactria.'

Darius attempted the same enterprise with better fortune. He penetrated to Moultan and Lahore, and acquired the temporary sovereignty of the Punjab. But the most celebrated of the ancient invasions of India, was that of Alexander the Great, so well described by Arrian, and so ably illustrated by Dr. Vincent. The conquests of that daring monarch originated a more secure and permanent communication between Europe and the East, and tended both to extend and to correct the imperfect information which had hitherto been obtained respecting the natives and the productions of Hindostan.

Although Alexander had not penetrated beyond the Punjab, his observations, with those of the intelligent officers who accompanied him, communicated to Europe a much more accurate idea than before, of the aspect of the Indian world. The first circumstance which seems to have struck them was the grandeur of the features of nature. The Indus appeared to them far to surpass. in the mass of its waters, the Nile and the Danube, the mightiest streams of the western world ;

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while a series of tributaries, rivals to the Rhine and the Po, poured into it their collected streams. The Ganges was reported to be still larger than the Indus, and, in a great part of its course, to resemble a sea, the eye being unable to reach across it. The mountains of Imaus, or Emodus, and the vast snows with which they were covered, were also known, though not visited. They seem to have been peculiarly struck by the gigantic magnitude of the trees by which those regions are shaded. One is mentioned, the shadow of which extended for more than half a mile; and another, beneath whose leaves a whole army might find shelter. Vast, however, as are the dimensions of some natives of the Indian forest, these statements cannot be acquitted of some exaggeration. The cotton-tree also struck the Greeks as a very singular phenomenon. They remark with wonder,' that trees clothe the Indians' that wool grows upon trees; while another writer observes, that it cannot properly be called wool, being rather something finer and whiter than linen. Among animals, their particular attention was arrested by the elephant, unknown in Europe and Western Asia, while in India it forms so conspicuous an instrument, both of war and of regal pomp.'

The narratives of Alexander's annalists, while they give evidence of the existence of caste in its more essential characters, seem to shew that it was of old less mischievous and less exclusive in its effects than at present. Instead of four classes, the number now acknowledged, there were seven; and this single fact is sufficient to prove that the system bore less oppressively upon the lower orders, than in its actual form. In proportion as gradations are multiplied, transitions are less abrupt, and those on the higher levels are less conspicuous, and consequently less haughty, in their elevation. Another circumstance, mentioned by those historians, is of value as suggesting important inferences in connexion with certain much agitated questions relating to the government of India. The caste of husbandmen is affirmed to have ranked considerably higher in the general estimation, than it does under the existing modification of the system. It seems, indeed, to have been invested with a sort of consecrated character, since its members were held in such reverence, that they ploughed and sowed in the sight of hostile armies without dreading the slightest molestation.' From this to the Wulsa, is a tremendous fall; and it shews, most impressively, the deteriorating effects of foreign invasion, as well as of internal disunion and conflict. It may be taken, too, as affording a very reasonable ground of suspicion, that the institutions of the East have not always maintained that character of inflexibility which is conventionally assigned to them.

Among all the sudden revolutions which have shaken the East, none ever produced a change at once so rapid and so lasting, as that

effected by the followers and successors of Mahommed. The united enthusiasm of religion and arms carried at once a new system of faith, government, and manners, into the remotest regions of Asia. The impression once given, has continued unaltered during thirteen centuries; and half the extent of Asia still continues Mahommedan. The first caliphs were altogether ignorant and bigoted; but their successors soon began to cultivate letters and every species of information they were then the means of diffusing Arabic, and, in some degree, Grecian learning, through a great part of the continent. Geography appears to have been a favourite pursuit among the learned Arabians; and, indeed, its study would be both prompted and facilitated by that wandering and commercial character which the nation have always combined with their predatory habits. They soon, therefore, acquired a more extensive knowledge with respect to the eastern parts of the world, than had been possessed by Rome during her most flourishing era; and, even amid the boasted extension of modern travel, their accounts of some parts of the interior of Asia, as well as of Africa, are still the most recent and authentic to which we can appeal.'

These observations are peculiarly applicable to that immense tract which may be generally described as extending from the Himmalayan range northward to Siberia, and as bounded, on the west by the sea of Aral, on the east, by the mountainous frontier of Chinese Tartary. This region consists of vast and fertile plains, profusely watered by the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and innumerable minor streams. That blessing, unknown to the rest of Asia, a temperate climate, is here enjoyed in all its perfection, and crowns with health, vigour, and abundance, the inhabitants of this Eastern Paradise.'

According to Ibn Haukal, there are three spots on the globe, which surpass all the rest in beauty and fertility. These are, the Ghutah of Damascus, the banks of the Aileh, and the plain of Samarcand; but while the two former are only small detached spots, the last is a large country, equally beautiful all over. Abulfeda enthusiastically calls it the most delightful of all places which God created.' The populousness is said to be such, that one of the kings had declared, that an army of three hundred thousand horse, and the same number of foot, could be drawn from it without the country suffering by their absence.'

The Arabian writers luxuriate in their description of the splendid cities which adorned this terrestrial Eden; but, of their accuracy in these dazzling pictures, we have but few and incidental means of forming a judgement, since these tracts have never been explored by modern travellers, so as to give us an opportunity of ascertaining how far these vivid representations would bear the test of cool and critical examination. Much, indeed, would be found subject to abatement, if we may take the measure of their correctness from the statements given by