never have migrated from India to Iràn, because they are expressly forbidden by their oldest exifting laws to leave the region which they inhabit at this day; the Arabs have not even a tradition of an emigration into Perfia before Mohammed, nor had they indeed any inducement to quit their beautiful and extenfive domains and :.. as to the Tartars, we have no trace in hiftory of their departure. from their plains and foreits till the invafion of the Medes, who, according to etymologifts, were the fons of Madai; and even they were conducted by princes of an Affyrian family. The three races therefore, whom we have already mentioned (and more than three we have not yet found), migrated from Iràn, as from their common country. And thus the Saxon chronicle, I presume from good authority, brings the first inhabitants of Britain from Armenia; while a late very learned writer concludes, after all his laborious refearches, that the Goths or Scythians came from Perfia; and another contends with great force, that both the Irish and old Britons proceeded feverally from the borders of the Cafpian; a coincidence of conclufions from different media, by perfons wholly unconnected, which could fcarce have happened, if they were not grounded on folid principles. We may therefore hold this propofition firmly established, that Iràn, or Perfia in its largest fenfe, was the true center of population, of knowledge, of languages, and of arts; which, inftead of travelling weftward only,, as it has been fancifully fuppofed, or eaftward, as might with equal reafon have been afferted, were expanded in all directions to all the regions of the world in which the Hindu race had fettled under various denominations. But, whether Afia has not produced other races of men diftin&t from the Hindus, the Arabs, or the Tartars, or whether any apparent diverfity may not have fprung from an intermixture of thofe three in different proportions, muft be the fubject of a future enquiry.'

The feventh difcourfe treats of the Chinefe. The author's object is to inquire whence the nation, that peopled China before the Tartarian conqueft, was derived The various fyftems of different writers on this fubject are examined; but the only opinion which fir William thinks defenfible, is that which derives the Chinefe from the Hindoos. In the inftitutes of Menu, it is obferved, that fome military tribes, having gradually abandoned the ordinances of the Veda, lived in a ftate of degradation. Among these are the Chinas. Whether these were the Chinese, is doubtful; but no real argument oppofes the Indian authority; and, as, in early ages, the population of China is faid to have been confined to the north-weft, it is corroborated by fir George Staunton's remark, that the fouthern country was once covered by the fea. From the fame authority, we learn a fact, fupporting in fome degree the idea of a foreign population;

for the aborigines of Cochin-China are defcribed as of coarfe features, rude manners, and black complexions. There is reason to think that the whole of this part of the continent was once peopled with the Troglodyte of the ancients; a race which, in the Arabian fictions, gave birth to the ferocious black giants. The Budha of the Hindoos is the Fo of China; but, before his appearance, the religion appears to have been that of the Bramins; and fir George defcribes many remaining idols, which, on comparison with thofe of Hindoftan, and from their fimilitude to the deities of Greece, as pointed out by fir William Jones in the first volume of the Researches, feem to fupport this opinion.

Three great families of nations are therefore found in the eaftern regions; the Perfians (the parents of the Hindoos and Chinefe), the Tartars, and the Arabs: but, before fir William draws his conclufions, he examines the more uncultivated people on the confines of thefe vaft countries.

The prefident begins from the western coaft of Afia, viz. Idume, Erythra, or Phoenice. The inhabitants of this part, diftinguished in facred writ by the name of Edomites, were an Indian race, migrating to Egypt, perhaps conquering that country, and fending forth, in their profperity or on their difperfion, various colonies, to which Greece probably owed her inhabitants. Sir William admits that Evander and his Arcadians were of this race; but, if we had fufficient leifure or room, we could extend the argument, fo as to include the other colonifls fuppofed to have been Egyptians. From the knowledge which thefe Edomites had, in an early period, of letters, aftronomy, &c. they are fuppofed by our author to have been of an eastern stock, fince the eaft was at that time the great fource of fcience. He might have referred them, more ftrictly and accurately, to the Chaldean race, forming, with the Hindoos, the earliest divarication from the original trunk in Perfia. On the other fide of the Red Sea, we find the Ethiopic or the Abyffinian race, proceeding from the fame fource; and the Curds, who inhabit the branches of Taurus, or the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, still fpeak the Chaldaic language.

The principal inhabitants of the mountains, which separate Perfia from India, were deftroyed or expelled by the Afghans, whom we find to have been Jews. Near the mouth of the

Indus is the Sangada of Nearchus, the country of the Sanganians, Zinganians, or Zinganos, who have rambled over Europe, diftinguished by the name of Gipfies. Their origin is certainly Indian; for the most common appellations which CRIT. REV. VOL, XXIV. Nov. 1798.

U

they ufe for neceffary articles, are pure Sanfcrit. The Boras, who inhabit the towns of Gujurat, are Jews in features, genius, and manners, having probably emigrated with the Afghans. The Moplas, of the western parts of the Indian empire, appear by their books to be Arabians. The wild races of the mountains are Indians, mingled with Tartars.

The islands of the Indian Ocean, particularly Ceylon and Sumatra, received their inhabitants from Hindostan; and the fame race feems to have extended itself, very widely, to the eaft and to the fouth.

To the northward of India, the inhabitants of Thibet are of the Hindoo race; and fome neighbouring tribes, which in manners are feemingly Tartars, may rather, having a written language, be referred to Hindoftan.

In the last essay on this subject, the writer says,

• Let us begin with a fhort review of the propofitions, to which we have gradually been led, and feparate fuch as are morally certain, from fuch as are only probable: that the first race of Perfians and Indians, to whom we may add the Romans and Greeks, the Goths, and the old Egyptians or Ethiops, originally spoke the fane language and profelled the fame popular faith, is capable, in my humble opinion, of inconteftible proof; that the Jews and Arabs, the Affyrians, or fecond Perfian race, the people who spoke Syriack, and a numerous tribe of Abyffinians, used one primitive dialeft, wholly diftinct from the idiom juft mentioned, is, I believe, undifputed, and, I am fure, indifputable; but that the settlers in China and Japan had a common origin with the Hindus, is no more than highly probable; and, that all the Tartars, as they are inaccurately called, were primarily of a third feparate branch, totally differing from the two others in language, manners, and features, may indeed be plaufibly conjectured; but cannot from the reafons alledged in a former effay, be perfpicuously shown, and for the prefent, therefore, must be merely aflumed. Could thefe facts be verified by the best attainable evidence, it would not, I prefume, be doubted, that the whole earth was peopled by a variety of fhoots from the Indian, Arabian, and Tartarian branches, or by fuch intermixtures of them, as, in a courfe of ages, might naturally have happened.'

The conclufion, which we confider as founded on evidence the most fatisfactory, and reasoning the moft accurate, that the prefent fate of hiftorical knowledge will admit, we will give in our author's words.

From the teftimonies adduced in the last fix annual difcourfes, and from the additional proofs laid before you, or rather opened,

on the prefent occafion, it feems to follow, that the only human family after the flood established themselves in the northern parts of Iràn; that, as they multiplied, they were divided into three diftinct branches, each retaining little at firft, and lofing the whole by degrees, of their common primary language, but agreeing severally on new expreffions, for new ideas: that the branch of Y'afet was enlarged in many scattered fhoots over the north of Europe and Afia, diffufing themselves as far as the western and eastern seas, and at length, in the infancy of navigation, beyond them both; that they cultivated no liberal arts, and had no ufe of letters, but formed a variety of dialects, as their tribes were variously ramified; that, fecondly, the children of Ham, who founded, in Iran itself, the monarchy of the first Chaldeans, invented letters, obferved and named the luminaries of the firmament, calculated the known Indian period of four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, or an hundred and twenty repetitions of the faros, and contrived the old fyftem of mythology, partly allegorical, and partly grounded on idolatrous veneration, for their fages and lawgivers; that they were dispersed, at various intervals, and in various colonies, over land and ocean; that the tribes of Mifr, Cufh, and Rama, fettled in Africk and India; while fome of them, having improved the art of failing, paffed from Egypt, Phenice, and Phrygia, into Italy and Greece, which they found thinly peopled by former emigrants, of whom they fupplanted fome tribes, and united themselves with others; whilst a swarm, from the fame hive, moved, by a northerly course, into Scandinavia, and another, by the head of the Oxus, and through the paffes of Imaus into Cafugar and Eighúr, Khatá, and Khoten, as far as the territories of Chin and Tancút, where letters have been used and arts immemorially cultivated; nor is it unreasonable to believe, that fome of them found their way from the eastern ifles into Mexico aud Peru, where traces were dif covered of rude literature and mythology analogous to thofe of Egypt and India; that, thirdly, the old Chaldean empire being overthrown by the Affyrians under Cayúmers, other migrations took place, especially into India, while the rest of Sham's progeny, fome of whom had before fettled on the Red Sea, peopled the whole Arabian peninfula, preffing close on the nations of Syria and Phenice; that, lastly, from all the three families, were detached many bold adventurers, of an ardent fpirit, and roving difpofition, who difdained fubordination and wandered in feparate clans, till they fettled in diftant ifles, or in deferts and mountainous regions; that, on the whole, fome colonies might have migrated before the death of their venerable progenitor, but that states and empires could fcarce have affumed a regular form, till fifteen or fixteen hundred years before the Chriftian epoch, and that for the first thousand years of that period, we have no hiftory, unmixed

with fable, except that of the turbulent and variable, but eminently diftinguifhed nation defcended from Abraham.'

We fhall difmifs this work for the prefent by obferving, that thefe differtations are admirable for clofenefs of reafoning and extent of information, and would alone have establifhed the reputation of fir William Jones.

(To be continued.)

A Voyage of Difcovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the World; by Captain Vancouver. (Continued from p. 12.)

IN our furvey of this interefting voyage, our last remarks and quotations related to the Society Iflands. Purfuing this part of the fubject, we may obferve, that the character of Pomurrey, the former Otoo, is greatly changed. Since he Has refigned the maro, he has become generous and benevolent, inftead of being cold and unfriendly; and he is no longer trifling and infipid; for his various acquifitions render him highly intelligent. A remarkable trait of difinterestedness was thus exhibited by him. Sufpecting that captain Vancouver intended to add to his prefents, he ftopped his hand, reminding him that he was going to vifit many other countries, where fuch articles would be equally valuable, and that he ought on that account to be ceconomical.

Of the prefent chief, the following character is given.

The youth of Otoo authorifes us to say little more, than he bore every appearance of becoming a very promifing man. Some circumftances attendant on this young monarch were fo very peculiar and extraordinary, as to make a few obfervations indifpenfable. Amongst the first was the curious restriction which prohibited his entering any of our habitations. His father, when too, and king of the island, was under no fuch interdiction; but, as frequently as his inclination prompted, vifited our fhips and tents without attaching the inconvenience which would now have fallen upon the people had the young king done the fame. Nor was the grandfather Taow then treated with that degree of obedience and refpect, which is at prefent paid to him on all occafions. The origin of the above myfterious reftraint, or the reafoning on which it has been founded, I could not fatisfactorily learn. The refult, however, of my inquiries on this head induces me to believe, that a ceremony very fimilar to the Natche of the Friendly Inlands de feribed by captain Cook, on Poulahon's fon being permitted to