Before I left Europe, I had insisted in conversation, that the Tuzuc, translated by Major Davy, was never written by Taimur himself, at least not as Cæsar wrote his Commentaries, for one very plain reason, that no Tartarian king of his age could write at all; and in support of my opinion, I had cited Ibnu Arabshah, who, though justly hostile to the savage by whom his native city, Damascus, had been ruined, yet praises his talents and the real greatness of his mind; but adds, "He was wholly illiterate ; he neither read nor wrote any thing; and he knew nothing of Arabic, though of Persian, Turkish, and the Mogul dialect he knew as much as was sufficient for his purpose, and no more. He used with pleasure to hear histories read to him, and so frequently heard the same book, that he was able by memory to correct an inaccurate reader." This passage had no effect on the translator, whom great and learned men in India had assured, it seems, that the work was authentic, by which he meant composed by the conqueror himself: but the great in this country might have been unlearned, or the learned might not have been great enough to answer any leading question in a manner that opposed the declared inclination of a British inquirer; and, in either case, since no witnesses are named, so general a reference to them will hardly be thought conclusive evidence. On my part, I will name a Muselman whom we all know, and who has enough both of greatness and of learning to decide the question both impartially and satisfactorily: The Nawwab Mozaffer Jang informed me of his own accord, that no man of sense in Hindustan believed the work to have been composed by Taimur, but that his favourite, surnamed Hindu Shah, was known to have written

that book and others ascribed to his patron, after many confidential discourses with the Emir, and perhaps nearly in the prince's words as well as in his person: a story which Ali of Yezd, who attained the court of Taimur, and has given us a flowery panegyric instead of history, renders highly probable, by confirming the latter part of the Arabian account, and by a total silence as to the literary productions of his master. It is true, that a very ingenious but indigent native, whom Davy supported, has given me a written memorial on the subject, in which he mentions Taimur as the author of two works in Turkish, but the credit of his information is overset by a strange apocryphal story of a king of Yemen, who invaded, he says, the Emir's dominions, and in whose library the manuscript was afterwards found, and translated by order of Alishir, first minister of Taimur's grandson; and Major Davy himself, before he departed from Bengal told me, that he was greatly perplexed by finding in a very accurate and old copy of the Tuzuc, which he designed to republish with considerable additions, a particular account written unquestionably by Taimur, of his own death. No evidence therefore has been adduced to shake my opinion, that the Moguls and Tartars, before their conquest of India and Persia, were wholly unlettered, although it may be possible, that even without art or science, they had, like the Huns, both warriors and lawgivers in their own country some centuries before the birth of Christ.

If learning was ever anciently cultivated in the region to the north of India, the seats of it, I have reason to suspect must have been Eighur, Cashghar, Khata, Chin, Tancut, and other countries of Chinese Tartary, which lie between the thirty-fifth and forty

fifth degrees of northern latitude; but I shall, in another discourse, produce my reasons for supposing that those very countries were peopled by a race allied to the Hindus, or enlightened at least by their vicinity to India and China; yet in Tancut, which by some is annexed to Tibet, and even among its old inhabitants the Seres, we have no certain accounts of uncommon talents or great improvements: they were famed, indeed, for the faithful discharge of moral duties, for a pacific disposition, and for that longevity which is often the reward of patient virtues and a calm temper; but they are said to have been wholly indifferent in former ages to the elegant arts, and even to commerce; though Fadlu'llah had been informed, that near the close of the thirteenth century many branches of natural philosophy were cultivated in Cam-cheu, then the metropolis of Serica.

We may readily believe those who assure us, that some tribes of wandering Tartars had real skill in applying herbs and minerals to the purpose of medicine, and pretended to skill in magic; but the general character of their nation seems to have been this, they were professed hunters or fishers, dwelling on that account in forests or near great rivers, under huts or rude tents, or in waggons drawn by their cattle from station to station; they were dexterous archers, excellent horsemen, bold combatants, appearing often to flee in disorder for the sake 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 language.

Thus has it been proved, and in my humble opi

nion beyond controversy, that the far greater part of Asia has been peopled and immemorially possessed by three considerable nations, whom for want of better names we may call Hindus, Arabs, and Tartars: each of them divided and subdivided into an infinite number of branches, and all of them so different in form and features, language, manners, and religion, that if they sprang originally from a common root, they must have been separated for ages. Whether more than three primitive stocks can be found, or in other words, whether the Chinese, Japanese, and Persians, are entirely distinct from them or formed by their intermixture, I shall hereafter, if your indulgence to me continue, diligently inquire. To what conclusions these inquiries will lead, I cannot yet clearly discern; 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 presents itself, we must beware of those false rays and luminous vapours which mislead Asiatic travellers, by an appearance of water, but are found on a nearer approach to be deserts of sand.

DISCOURSE VI.

DELIVERED FEBRUARY 19, 1789.

ON THE PERSIANS.

Important remarks on their ancient languages and characters. -Primeval religion, and its connexion with their philosophy. On the ancient monuments of Persian sculpture and architecture.-The arts and sciences of the old Persians.

GENTLEMEN,

I TURN with delight from the vast mountains and barren deserts of Turan, over which we traveled last year with no perfect knowledge of our course, and request 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 possibly procure on a nation so disunited and so unlettered as the Tartars: I mean that which Europeans improperly call Persia, the name of a single province being applied to the whole empire of Iran, as it is correctly denominated by the present natives of it, and by the learned Muselmans who reside in these British territories. To give you an account of its largest boundaries,