The people of Thibet have made considerable progress in civilization, but the sciences are neglected. The literature is chiefly connected with the religion, and together with the language, is of Hindoo origin. The houses are meanly constructed, and built of rough stones with few apertures to admit light. Mutton forms a common article of food, and tea is a favorite beverage. The people may in general be described as mild and gentle, and though sunk in superstitions free from many of the sanguinary customs of the Hindoos. The religion is that of Boodha, which has however, undergone some 'changes. The Grand Lama or supreme pontiff, it is supposed, is an incarnation of the Deity under different human forms. This creed includes a belief in the transmigration of souls, a future state, purgatory, invocation of saints, image worship, confession, absolution, pardon, celibacy, holy water, and various observances of the Romish church.

There are a great many recluses and temples. There are alsò a great many subordinate lamas, or priests, who assume the whole business of prayer. They sell a certain number of prayers which are written out and attached to the cylinder of a mill, and every turn is supposed to constitute a valid prayer. Some are moved by water. The Thibetians are said to reverse the general practice of the east, in polygamy: though it is probably related without much foundation, that wives are permitted to have several husbands. The dead are buried, burned, thrown into a stream, or exposed in the open air to be devoured by beasts. The Emperor of China has taken military possession of Thibet under the pretence of protecting the Grand Lama, in whose name he

acts.

CHAPTER CIX.-CHIN INDIA.

1. BOUNDARIES, Extent and DIVISIONS. This country, sometimes called Further India and India beyond the Ganges, received the name of Chin India from Malte Brun; its population constituting an intermediate link between the Hindoos and Chinese. It is bounded north by Thibet and China; east by the gulf of Tonquin, and the China Sea; south by the straits of Malacca and west by the Bay of Bengal and Thibet. It extends from 20 to 26° N. lat., and from 92° to 1080 W. lon. It may be considered under four general divisions. The Birman Empire, Siam, Cochin China and Malacca.

2. THE BIRMAN EMPIRE. This occupies the northwestern part of the territory, and is washed on the west by the Bay of Bengal, and contains 194,000 square miles, of which 51,000 are possessed by the English. The northern part of the country is mountainous, the central portion consists of hills of moderate height, and the southern part is a level flat annually inundated by the rivers. It is watered by the Irrawady and Thalaya, and enjoys a similar climate to Hindoostan, but more salubrious. A great portion of the country is covered with forests inhabited by wild elephants and tigers. On the coast are the harbors of Martaban, Rangoon, and Bassim. Gold, silver, tin, iron, lead, arsenic and sulphur are numbered among its mineral riches. Diamonds, sapphires, and many other precious stones are also found. Marble and loadstone are abundant. The country contains wells of petroleum, or rock oil, which yield annually above 4,000,000 dollars.

Ava, the capital, stands on a branch of the Irrawady: it has a population of 354,000, or according to some, of 1,000,000.

Ummerapoora, the former capital, was once a splendid and populous city : it is six miles from Ava. Pop. 30,000.

Pegu, formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name, was destroyed

about the middle of the last century but is now rebuilding. Rangoon, at the de mouth of the Irrawady, is the chief seaport. Pop. 30,000.

Amherst, a British settlement, on the Gulf of Martaban, has a good harber and healthy situation.

Rice, wheat, 'other kinds of grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco, indigo and all the tropical fruits are raised here in perfection and abundance. Some trade is carried on with China and Hindoostan. Teak and other timber, sugar and cotton are the chief exports. The population is variously estimated, from 4 to 17,000,000.

The government is a rude despotism. In 1824 the British invaded the country and defeated several armies of the Birmese, when the king consented to a treaty ceding a large portion of his empire to the East India Company.

3. SIAM. This country, including the tributary state of Laos, is bounded west and north by the Birman empire, east by Cochin China, and south by the Gulf of Siam. It contains 250,000 square miles. The western limit is mountainous. The great river Meinam passes through it from north to south, and inundates the country in September. The climate is hot and moist. The rainy season lasts from April to September. The soil along the banks of the rivers is amazingly fertile. Gold, copper, lead, tin, antimony and iron abound here, and the forests are filled with tigers, elephants, wild boars, buffaloes, deer, and monkeys.

Bankok, the capital, stands on the Meinam, and is occasionally visited by British and American ships: the houses are of wood, and many are built on bamboo rafts in the river. Pop. 412,000, three fourths of whom are Chinese Siam, the former capital, is a large and splendid city.

Rice is the chief article of cultivation; maize and cotton are also raised. The exports are chiefly grain; the commerce is carried on chiefly by the Chinese. The population is about 5,000,000. The government is a despotism.

4. COCHIN CHINA. This country including the tributary districts of Tonquin, Champa and Cambodia, is bounded north by China, east by the gulf of Tonquin and the China Sea, south by the China Sea and west by Siam. It contains 100,000 square miles. Some parts are mountainous; many of the level parts are intersected by canals. The climate is similar to that of Siam, and the soil is highly productive. Some gold, silver and iron are produced, and valuable forest trees are abundant.

Little is known of the cities. Sai-gon in Cambodia, on the river Donna, 60 miles from its mouth, was visited by Captain White, an American, som years since. It is regularly built, with wide streets, and houses mostly of wood A canal 23 miles long, and 80 feet wide, extends from this place to the great river of Cambodia. Pop. 180,000.

Hué, the capital, is surrounded by walls and has a strong citadel. Here are some Roman Catholic missionaries.

Rice, sugar, maize, tobacco, pepper, cotton, silk, cinnamon, coffee, betel, areka, &c, are cultivated. The commerce is mostly in the hands of Chinese. The population is about 10,000,000. The government is despotic, but the king is a nominal vassal of the Chinese empire.

5. MALACCA. This territory forms a long narrow peninsula, extending south to 1° 22′ N. lat. It is 775 miles in length and 125 in average breadth, and s separated from Sumatra by the Straits of Malacca. A range of mountains extends through its whole length; the interior is covered with thick woods an pestilent marshes, and has been little explored. The sea coast is covered with wood and exhibits a great variety of verdure. The soil is not very tile, but fruits grow here in abundance. Iron, gold, and tin are found in the interior, and ambergris and pearls upon the coast. The islands of Pulo Pe nang and Sincapore, on the coast, are held by the British, as also the city Malacca at the western extremity of the peninsula. These places have con

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siderable trade. The exports are wax, opium, tin, edible birds' nests, rice, ratans, ivory, gold dust, sago, hides, betel nuts, cutch, dammer, and various sorts of wood. The British population in 1828 amounted to 33,806 persons. The native population consists of Malays and a tribe of diminutive negroes. Their numbers are unknown.

6. INHABITANTS. Comparatively little is known of the Birmans. They are no less inflated than the Chinese; and one of the ministers of the Emperor assured an English agent that had his master been properly solicited he would have sent a Birman army, to give the English possession of France.

Buddhism is the chief religion, differing somewhat from that of the Hindoos. The Birmans do not undergo the penances, which the Hindoos inflict upon themselves. The Birmans have no distinctions of caste, and women are not secluded among them.

In manners and customs they resemble the Chinese more than the Hindoos. The government is a complete despotism. The White Elephant is highly reverenced in the Birman Empire. He is the second dignitary in the kingdom, and ranks above the queen. He lives in great state, and receives rich offerings. He is supposed to contain a human soul in the last stage of transmi gration, before it is absorbed in the essence of the Deity. The following cut represents a pagoda at Rangoon called the great Dagon.

The Siamese are an indolent people, and so much oppressed that they have little incitement to labor. The government is avaricious and despotic, though the monarch is revered by his subjects, as being something more than human. The laws are so severe that death or mutilation is a common punishment. The religion is Buddhism.

In manners and customs there is a general resemblance to the Birmans. The Malays are known as merchants, pirates, and robbers. Their vessels traverse all the oriental seas, and piracy is with them as regular an employment as commerce. The most daring attempts are often made against vessels of superior force. Their political system is partly feudal. The sultan is the head and the nobles in like manner preside over their vassals: but over so restless and turbulent a people all authority is precarious that is not supported by great personal energy.

The language of the Malays is the softest, and most harmonious tongue of the East. The literature is principally tales derived from Java, and the Koran and Commentaries from Arabia. The language is widely diffused. The religion is Mohammedan, but the Malays are the most liberal of their sect. At the city of Malacca there is an Anglo-Chinese college for the reci procal cultivation of English and Chinese literature. It will answer useful

missionary as well as commercial purposes, and Malacca is now one of the most important stations of the London Missionary Society. An accoun missions however is given in another place.

The Cochin Chinese have a great resemblance to the Chinese as they once formed a part of the population of China. They differ however in dress, in allowing great freedom to women, and in being forever gay, and always taking. The women have as much freedom as the men, so far as regards speech or conduct: but the labors of agriculture are chiefly carried on by females The language is a dialect of the Chinese, and the religion is a modification of Buddhism, which is so widely diffused over the east. The government is an absolute monarchy.

The Tonquinese also resemble the Chinese; and their laws and language are similar to those of China. The government is absolute, and the religion is a kind of polytheism, including a believe in the existence of genii and the deification of men eminent for virtue.

THIS Country is bounded north by Russia, east by the sea of Corea and the Channel of Tartary, south by China, and west by Independent Tartary. It is inhabited by wandering tribes, but only the western part is occupied by the proper Tartars, the rest being in the possession of the Mongols and the Mantchoos, who are entirely distinct from them. This country is commonly divided into three parts. I. Little Bukaria, in the west; 2. Mongolia, in the middle; and 3. the land of the Mantchoos, in the east.

1. LITTLE BUKARIA. This country appears to be bounded north and east by Mongolia; south by Thibet, and west by Independent Tartary. It is almost entirely unknown to Europeans, and all the materials on which its description is founded are imperfect and obscure. The inhabitants are Tartars and Mohammedans, and since 1759 have been tributary to the Chinese. The principal towns are Yarkand and Cashgar.

2. MONGOLIA. Mongolia is an extensive country bounded north by Asiatic Russia, east by the land of the Mantchoos, south by China and Thibet, and west by Little Bukharia and Independent Tartary. It includes a great part of the desert of Shamo or Cobi, and is traversed by the wandering hordes of that nomadic race which, under the name of Monguls or Moguls, hare been so celebrated in the annals of Asia. Under Genghis Khan they extended their dominion not only over the finest regions of this continent, but over a great part of northern Europe. At present they are split into a number of petty states, dependent on the emperor of China.

3. COUNTRY OF THE MANTCHOOS. This country is bounded north by Siberia, from which it is separated by the Altay mountains, east by the sea of Japan, south by Corea and China Proper, and west by a chain of mountains which separates it from Mongolia. It is watered by the great river Amour, and is almost as extensive as China Proper, but is as little known to Europeans as central Asia. The inhabitants were originally nomades, but since they conquered China in 1644 their union with a civilized people has occasioned the introduction of agriculture and the arts, and a part of the nation now inhabit towns and villages. The race who at present occupy the throne in China originated in this country.

4. ISLAND. Saghalien is a large island, 450 miles long, from 40 to 130 broad, and separated from the continent, by a narrow channel called the channel of Tartary. It appears to be thinly inhabited. The northern part

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is occupied by a colony of Mantchoos; at the southern extremity the Japanese formed a settlement which has been destroyed by the Russians, who, it is supposed, intend to form an establishment there themselves.

The people of Chinese Tartary are of various tribes and too little known for precise description. The principal tribes are the Mongols and Manshoors. The latter belong to the race called Tongooses, by the Russians; and their language is radically distinct from that of the Mongols. The general dress of the Manshoors is like that of the Chinese, but the women do not cramp their feet like the females of China. The Mongols are a very ancient people but not much known in history till the time of Genghis Khan. They differ from the Manshoors chiefly in being less civilized. The Mongols like the Manshoors resemble the common Tartar tribes described in Independent Tartary. Many of the tribes profess the religion of the Lamas, which was introduced from Thibet, others have adopted Shamanism. This includes a belief in a Supreme Being, who is thought however to be too great to pay any attention to the affairs of men. He is supposed to have assigned the government of the world to various inferior deities who are propitiated with various superstitious observances.

1. BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT. China is bounded by Chinese Tartary and a long wall on the north; by the Pacific Ocean, which divides it from North America, on the east; by the Chinese sea on the south; and by the Tartarian countries and Thibet on the west. It extends from 220 to 410 N. lat., and from 100 to 121° E. lon., and contains 1,100,000 square miles.

2. MOUNTAINS. The provinces of Yunan, Koeicheou, Sechueen, and Fochen, are so mountainous as greatly to obstruct cultivation and that of Chekian has lofty and precipitous mountains on the west. In the province of Kiannan there is a district full of high mountains, which are also numerous in the provinces of Shensee and Shansee. The greater part of the country, however, is level, and most assiduously cultivated.

3. RIVERS. The two principal rivers of China, are the Hoanho and the Kianku; the former, called the Yellow River, from its discolorment by the mud which its waters bring down, has its source among the mountains of Thibet, and falls into the Yellow Sea, after a course of 1850 miles. The Kianku rises near the source of the Hoanho, and after passing the city of Nankin, falls into the sea about one hundred miles to the south of the mouth of the Hoanho, having traversed a course of 2000 miles. There are many rivers of inferior note in China; but the water of this country is in general very indifferent, and, in some places, must be boiled to make it fit for use. 4. ISLANDS. The island of Hai-nan, lies upon the southern coast, and forms the eastern limit of the Gulf of Tonquin. It contains 14,000 square miles and is partly mountainous. It produces sugar, indigo, cotton, and rice. Farther north is Formosa, a very beautiful island; it is rich and populous, but subject to earthquakes. Farther to the east are the Loo Choo Islands, which are well inhabited and productive. The Ladrone Islands to the south of the bay of Canton, are peopled by a race of pirates.

5. CLIMATE AND SOIL. The climate of China varies according to the situation of the places. Toward the north it is cold, in the middle mild, and in the south hot. The soil is, either by nature or art, fruitful of everything that can minister to the necessities, conveniences, or luxuries of life; and agriculture is carried to a high degree of excellence.