branches of natural philofophy were cultivated in Cam-cheu, then the metropolis of Serica.

We may readily believe thofe, who affure us, that some tribes of wandering Tartars had real skill in applying herbs and minerals to the purposes of medicine, and pretended to skill in magick; but the general character of their nation. seems to have been this: they were profeffed hunters or fishers, dwelling on that account in forefts or near great rivers, under huts or rude tents, or in waggons drawn by their cattle from ftation to station; they were dextrous archers, excellent horfemen, bold combatants, appearing often to flee in diforder for the fake of renewing their attack with advantage; drinking the milk of mares, and eating the flesh of colts; and thus in many respects resembling the old Arabs, but in nothing more than in their love of intoxicating liquors, and in nothing less than in a taste for poetry and the improvement of their lan

guage.

Thus has it been proved, and, in my humble opinion, beyond controverfy, that the far greater part of Afia has been peopled and immemorially poffeffed by three confiderable nations, whom, for want of better names, we may call Hindus, Arabs, and Tartars; each of them divided and fubdivided into an infinite number of branches, and all of them fo different in form and features,

language, manners and religion, that, if they fprang originally from a common root, they must have been separated for ages: whether more than three primitive ftocks can be found, or, in other words, whether the Chinese, Japanese, and Perfians, are entirely diftinct from them, or formed by their intermixture, I shall hereafter, if your indulgence to me continue, diligently inquire. To what conclufions these inquiries will lead, I cannot yet clearly difcern; but, if they lead to truth, we shall not regret our journey through this dark region of ancient history, in which, while we proceed step by step, and follow every glimmering of certain light, that prefents itself, we muft beware of thofe falfe rays and luminous vapours, which mislead Afiatick travellers by an appearance of water, but are found on a near approach to be deferts of fand.

THE SIXTH

DISCOURSE;

ON THE

PERSIANS,

DELIVERED 19 FEBRUARY, 1789.

GENTLEMEN,

I TURN with delight from the vast mountains and barren deferts of Túràn, over which we travelled laft year with no perfect knowledge of our courfe, and requeft you now to accompany me on a literary journey through one of the most celebrated and most beautiful countries in the world; a country, the history and languages of which, both ancient and modern, I have long attentively studied, and on which I may without arrogance promise you more positive information, than I could poffibly procure on a nation fo difunited and fo unlettered as the Tartars: I mean that, which Europeans improperly call Perfia, the name of a single province being applied to the whole Empire of Iràn, as it is correctly denominated by the prefent natives of it,

and by all the learned Mufelmans, who reside in these British territories. To give you an idea of its largest boundaries, agreeably to my former mode of describing India, Arabia, and Tartary, between which it lies, let us begin with the fource of the great Affyrian stream, Euphrates, (as the Greeks, according to their custom, were pleased to mifcall the Foràt) and thence defcend to its mouth in the Green Sea, or Perfian Gulf, including in our line fome confiderable diftricts and towns on both fides the river; then coafting Perfia, properly fo named, and other Iranian provinces, we come to the delta of the Sindhu or Indus; whence afcending to the mountains of Cafhghar, we difcover its fountains and those of the Jaibùn, down which we are conducted to the Cafpian, which formerly perhaps it entered, though it lose itself now in the fands and lakes of Khwárezm: we next are led from the fea of Khozar, by the banks of the Cur, or Cyrus, and along the Caucafean ridges, to the shore of the Euxine, and thence, by the feveral Grecian feas, to the point, whence we took our departure, at no confiderable diftance from the Mediterranean. We cannot but include the lower Afia within this outline, because it was unquestionably a part of the Perfian, if not of the old Affyrian, Empire; for we know, that it was under the dominion of CAIKHOSRAU; and DIODORUS, we

find, afferts, that the kingdom of Troas was dependent on Affyria, fince PRIAM implored and obtained fuccours from his Emperor TEUTAMES, whose name approaches nearer to TAHMU'RAS, than to that of any other Affyrian monarch. Thus may we look on Iràn as the nobleft Island, (for fo the Greeks and the Arabs would have called it), or at least as the nobleft peninfula, on this habitable globe; and if M. BAILLY had fixed on it as the Atlantis of PLATO, he might have fupported his opinion with far stronger arguments than any, that he has adduced in favour of New Zembla: if the account, indeed, of the Atlantes be not purely an Egyptian, or an Utopian, fable, I fhould be more inclined to place them in Iran than in any region, with which I am acquainted.

It may seem ftrange, that the ancient history of fo distinguished an Empire fhould be yet fo imperfectly known; but very fatisfactory reasons may be affigned for our ignorance of it: the principal of them are the superficial knowledge of the Greeks and Jews, and the lofs of Perfian archives or hiftorical compofitions. That the Grecian writers, before XENOPHON, had no acquaintance with Perfia, and that all their accounts of it are wholly fabulous, is a paradox too extravagant to be seriously maintained; but their connection with it in war or peace had, indeed,