semble the seeds of other fruit. In what respect microscopical investigations have discovered them to be as wonderful as the human frame, as stated by the author, we are not at all aware. But can it be supposed for a moment that the author's credulity is such as to admit the following absurdity; and yet it is gravely detailed?

"Signior Francesco Lana, in his Prodromus to some philosophical discoveries, tells us, that there is a way of producing oranges without sowing or planting the trees, only by infusing the flowers in oil of almonds: for that this oil will, many years afterwards, at the proper season, produce both flowers and ripe oranges." P. 280.

Mulberry-Concerning the mulberry, Morus Nigra, Mr. Phillips speculates, that it might be successfully and profitably cultivated in England for the purpose of feeding the silk-worm; and he recommends it as a fence in place of the hedgerow trees at present in use. The breeding and feeding of the silk worm, he thinks, would afford employment to the aged and infirm of the lower classes, and thus diminishing the number of inmates in the workhouses, would reduce the heavy load of poor-rates. The suggesstion is assuredly important, and, if practicable, would prove highly beneficial. But the climate of Britain, we suspect, is too unsteady and ungenial, if not for the tree, at least for the insect; and therefore it may be doubted, whether the silk of Britain can ever be obtained in such favourable circumstances as to be considered a profitable commercial commodity to be brought into competition with the produce of other countries.

Many other plants,both indigenous and exotic, and of considerable interest, remain unnoticed.-But we must now bring our remarks to a close; and, notwithstanding the defects already pointed out, we freely admit, that Mr. Phillips has produced a very entertaining book. With a little more discrimination and judicious arrangement, it might be greatly improved and extended. It is beautifully printed; but the large margin and fine paper add nothing to the real value of the work; and the coloured engravings, which are very indifferently executed, while they increase the expense, contribute very little to its illustration.

ART. VII.—Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia, from the Earliest Ages to the present time. By Hugh Murray, F.R.S.E. author of Historical Account of Discoveries in Africa. In 3 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh. Constable and Co.

1820:

THIS is an instructive, and withal an amusing performance. With a laudable industry, the author searched public and private libraries for books and manuscripts relative to his subject, and corresponded

and conversed with men distinguished for their knowledge of oriental affairs. He thus accumulated an immense mass of materials for his intended work, which, with singular felicity, he has arranged and condensed into a very attractive form. Having collected into a focus the rays of knowledge which lay obscured amid dust and lumber, and scattered over a vast extent both of time and space, he has made them shine with a concentrated and steady light; so as to give us a luminous and highly interesting view of many a daring and arduous enterprise, and to disclose scenes of society and nature fitted to suggest useful trains of reflection. By the same means he has also succeeded in unfolding the motives of ambition and avarice which, operating in various places of Europe from the remotest ages, and perseveringly seeking, at every hazard, the possession of their objects, have at last made many of the regions of Asia as familiar to our thoughts as the well known places of our native country. The work is confined entirely to the continent; voyages of discovery along its northern coasts, as well as among the islands of the Indian Archipelago, having been deliberately, and for good reasons, excluded from the plan. It consists of six books, preceded by an introduction, which records the discoveries of the ancients, and of the Arabians in Asia. "The first book contains general travels "through Asia, including the narratives of those travellers who "went over the larger part of it, or passed from one to another of "its great divisions. In the succeeding books, the leading natural "divisions of Asia, with the travels performed through each, are "successively treated of." Any thing like a regular analysis of a work of this description, which is itself an analysis of some hundreds of volumes, is altogether out of the question. We shall therefore content ourselves with a short statement of the occasion and result of some of the more prominent enterprises of discovery, with a few occasional extracts from such parts of the work as are deemed most curious or important.

The Persian war made the Greeks acquainted with that empire, and their previous habits gave them a turn for observation and inquiry. Alexander's expedition into India had in view both conquest and discovery; and while a considerable part of its interior was traversed, the voyage of Nearchus ascertained the nature of the coast from the mouth of the Indus to the head of the Persian Gulf. This part of Asia was farther explored under the auspices of Seleucus, both by land and sea, and was found in most respects essentially the same as at the present moment. Commerce led to a new species of enterprise; and while the farthest shores of India were visited from the ports of the Red Sea, regular caravans were sent from Byzantium to the Seres, the remotest people known to the an

cients. This overland communication lay across the whole breadth of Asia to Serica, supposed to be China. Political revolution afterwards made the peaceful pursuits of commerce impracticable, and "the regions of eastern Asia then sunk into a state of oblivion, till 65 they were destined, after many ages, and under new names, to become grand objects of modern discovery.”

Geography was a favourite study among the learned Arabians; and, according to them, there are three spots on the globe which surpass all the rest in beauty and fertilit the Glutah of Damascus, the banks of Aileh, and the plain of Samarcand. The latter especially is said to be the most delightful of all the places which God created. It was full of splendid cities, and of men of virtue, peace and hospitality. The poorest people had an apartment in their houses allotted for the reception of strangers. The Turks, a name of equal latitude of application with that of Scythians of old, or of Tartars at present, inhabit the northern regions of Asia. The most remote of these hordes are said to "resemble beasts; their "hearts are hard; their character bad; they are without faith or "religion." Those who dwell on the "Sea of Darkness,” have, in summer, an uninterrupted day, and in winter a night of the same length. The snow never melts, and the inhabitants subsist on fish. The Arabians knew India, which they describe under two great divisions,-Sind on the Indus, and Hind on the Ganges. Cashmire, with its beautiful region, inclosed within immense mountains, was also known to them; as was also China, which they call Seen.

"The description of China is such as, owing to the permanence of institutions and manners in that empire, might even now be considerd as accurate. They mention the manufacture of porcelain, described as an excellent kind of earth, of which is made a ware as fine and transparent as glass; the universal custom of drinking, infused in hot water, an herb called tcha (tea) which is supposed to cure every disease; the use of rice as the staple article of food, and the manufacture from it of a strong liquor. We learn from them also the extensive cultivation of silk, and the prevailing use of it in the dresses of all ranks. They mention the general knowledge of reading and writing; also the strictness of the police, the care with which crimes are prevented or punished, and the copious application of the bamboo for that purpose; to which they add the more culpable custom, by which government, in every city, license and pay a certain number of courtezans. The deficiency of cleanliness in the people, and their inordinate habits of gaming, are also touched upon. We may add the exclusive circulation of copper money; the large revenue levied on salt; and, as a minor object, the official use of drums and bells. So many curious particulars, thus accurately narrated, leave no doubt as to the genuineness of the travels, and the intelligence of those by whom they are narrated."

A Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, or Rabbi Benjamin, has left a relation of his travels through Asia during part of the twelfth century. It has been doubted whether these travels were really

performed, or are not merely a compilation. At any rate, they shew the state of knowledge of the countries of the east at the early period of their publication. They relate to the Holy Land, Tadmor or Palmyra, Bagdad, Persia, and India.

A mission sent by the Pope to the Tartars on the northern frontier of Persia, is the first European enterprise mentioned in the work. A Franciscan friar, named Ascelin, was at its head. But, though a good monk, he knew little of the ways of men, and was therefore but ill qualified for the office to which he was appointed. The embassy was so ill received, because they exalted the Pope above the Khan, brought no presents, and refused to prostrate themselves in the presence of Baicthney, the viceroy of Zingis, that they were doomed to die, a sentence which would have been executed, had not the principal wife of Baicthney interposed in their behalf, and obtained their life from her exasperated lord. They were then dismissed with a letter to the Pope, of this tenor:

"Know, Pope, that your messengers have come to us, and have given your letters, and have held the strangest discourses that ever were heard. We know not if you gave them authority to speak as they have done; but we send you the firm commandment and ordinance of God, which is, that if you wish to remain seated in your land and heritage, you, Pope, must come to us in your proper person, and do homage to him who holds just sway over the whole earth; and if you do not obey this firm command of God, and of him who holds just sway over the whole earth, God only knows what may happen."

Before the return of Ascelin, Carpini, with some other preacher friars, had been sent on a second mission to Tartary; and proceeded through Germany and Poland to the court of Bathy, second in authority under the khan in the north. After an interview with this prince, they were obliged to go onward to the court of the khan himself. He had just been elected, and his own chiefs, and the ambassadors of foreign princes, had assembled to congratulate him upon the event, to the number of 4000 nobles. Carpini failed also in obtaining the object of his mission; but his account of it made known the nature of the country, with many things respecting its inhabitants.

The king of France, St. Louis, in his zeal to propagate the Christian faith, sent a third embassy to Tartary, with the view of obtaining liberty to appoint preachers to that country. This mission was entrusted to Rubruquis, a Minorite friar; and in the course of its execution, he visited successively the courts of Sartach, of Scacatai, Baatu, and Mangu Khan, the son of Zingis. Rubruquis's account is replete with curious and valuable information; but he received no satisfaction as to the object for which his journey was undertaken; and, in conclusion, he suggests, that, if success was expected from missions into Tartary, they must be headed by a bishop, and not by poor friars like himself.

We come now to the travels of Marco Polo, in the account of which we must be somewhat more particular. He travelled as a merchant, in company with his father and uncle, and after an absence of four-and-twenty years, returned to Venice, his native city, immensely rich in jewels. He was afterwards a prisoner in Genoa, and dictated the narrative of his travels to a friend who visited him during his confinement. Turcomania, a part of Asia Minor, on the shore of the Black Sea, a country celebrated for the manufacture of carpets, is first described. The mountainous region of Armenia was next traversed; Georgia and the Caspian, which the traveller says is a lake entirely enclosed by land, are well described. Bagdad had come under the power of the Moguls, but it was still a great city, with manufactures of embroidered silks, damasks, and flowered velvets; and with schools for the study of the Koran, magic, physics, and astronomy, Persia was found a fine fertile country, interspersed with deserts, and infested by bands of robbers. Ormus was a great emporium, having a communication with India, and also with Europe. On leaving this commercial mart, he travelled through the fertile province of Kerman, thence through a desert to Kubus, where he found a manufactory of steel lookingglasses; proceeding onward, he crossed a desert very desolate and dreary, abounding with pools of salt-water; and, after eight days travelling through it, he came to Timochain, the site of which has not been distinctly ascertained, but supposed to be a populous kingdom in the north of Persia.

"Here he learned much of the dynasty of the Ismaelis or Assassins, the prince of which, under the appellation of the Old Man of the Mountain, was viewed in Europe with a mixture of fear and wonder. A full account is here given of the process by which he had established this power so much dreaded. In the recesses of the rugged and inaccessible mountains over which he reigned, he had formed a garden, adorned with all the finest plants and odoriferous flowers of the east. Having fixed upon some youth who appeared suited to his purpose, he caused him, by a soporific draught, to be thrown into a deep sleep, and transported into the enchanted garden. Here all was arranged to represent the paradise which Mahomet has promised after death to the gallant defenders of his faith. Besides the assemblage of every object that could delight the eye and the ear, the most delicious viands were supplied in abundance, while beautiful damsels representing the houris of Mahomet, lavished on him the most fascinating caresses, After remaining for several days steeped in this sea of voluptuous pleasure, the soporific draught was again administered; on awaking from which, he found all the gay scene departed, and nothing around him but the bleak and mountainous world, to which his eyes had been accustomed. He was then called before the prince, and informed that a foretaste had now been granted him of the paradise destined for those who had shed their blood in the cause of Islamism, and that death, met in the execution of his commands, would at once introduce him to the permanent enjoyment of those brilliant and regretted mansions which he had just quitted. The alacrity with which the initiated, thenceforth, threw themselves on the most certain and terrible forms of death, clearly indicated the success of this institution,