the war between the children of Israel and the Amalekites, and various particulars, relative to the Jewish monarchs, Saul and David, and the prophet Samuel. The Afghans are called Solaimani, either because they were formerly the subjects of Solomon, king of the Jews, or because they inhabit the mountain of Solomon.-Their nation has produced many conquerors of provinces,' and seven princes ' of this race have sat upon the throne of Dehli.'

The order of ranks, which prevails among them, cannot but have operated in preserving a large part of them separate from those who are of a different origin. They framed regulations,' says the author of the Persian abridgment, dividing themselves into four classes. The first is the pure class, consisting of those, whose fathers and mothers were Afghans.' The Afghans, Mr. Vansittart observes, have been subject to the kings of Persia, as well as to the princes of Hindostan.

That the ten tribes were transported into some of the provinces of the Persian empire, is universally admitted"; and that they continued there for a considerable time, and were very numerous, cannot be doubted. Now as we know them to have been exposed in that empire, at differ

65 See the Dissertations, &c. p. 119-128. The Afghans, says Mr. Hanway, 'have an utter aversion against marrying their daughters to strangers,' Hist. of the Revolutions of Persia, vol. III. p. 43.

66 At the beginning of the present century, the province of Kandahar, which the Afghans inhabited, was subject to Persia. Oppressed and plundered in the most outrageous manner by the Persian governor, and the licentious troops whom he commanded, the Afghans in the year 1709 rebelled, and succeeded in erecting that province into a small but independent monarchy. In the year 1722 the Afghans penetrated to the heart of the Persian empire; and, having defeated an army of nearly 50,000 Persians, and obtained possession of Ispahan, the prince of the Afghans ascended the throne of Persia. In the year 1726 the Porte having declared war against the Afghan king of that country, the Afghans defeated an army of between 70 and 80,000 Turks. But the Afghans, in the year 1729, were defeated by the celebrated Kouli Khan, and expelled from Persia. For these facts see Hanway's Account of the Revolutions in Persia. Vol III. p. 22-255; and vol. IV. p. 1-40.

67 See bp. Newton, vol. I. p. 206, 207.

ent periods, to oppression and the severest calamities; it certainly does seem reasonable to conclude, independently of any positive testimonies which may be alleged on the subject, that considerable numbers of them, in order to escape from the fury of persecution, would enter and inhabit one or both of the two adjoining countries of Tartary and India, where their settlement would be favored by the facility with which revolutions were affected, and by the comparatively small power, which the princes of those countries, from the smallness of their territories frequently possessed. That they would gradually be induced to corrupt the purity of the Jewish worship, to embrace heathenism, and afterwards to acknowlege a belief in the divine mission of Mahomet, seems also extremely probable; powerfully led to it, as they would be, by motives of policy and the contagion of example, by ignorance of letters, and their total separation from their brethren in Turkey and in Europe. To these conclusions the preceding extracts are doubtless favorable; nor are they unsupported by the testimonies of other writers.

The quotation that follows is from bishop Law. At the termination of the captivity of the Jews at Babylon, the greatest part of them, and those of the greatest eminence, staid behind, and settled in Chaldea, Assyria, and other Eastern provinces; whence it is probable, that some of their descendants spread so far as the East Indies, where their posterity continue to this day; as appears from the accounts of many modern travellers".'

As the subject is curious, some of these accounts, though certainly not exempt from error, may perhaps deserve to be collected, and to be briefly noticed. That the Afghans are those, to whom some of these travellers refer, can hardly be doubted.

The learned Mr. Jacob Bryant, speaking of a colony of Jews at Cochin upon the coast of Malabar, says, they came

68 See Basnage's Hist. of the Jews.

69 Law's Theory of Religion, 3d ed. p. 140.

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there according to Hamilton" as early as the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. Thus much is certain, the æra is so far back, that they know not now the time of their arrival.They consisted formerly of 80,000 families: but are now reduced to 4000. Mr. Bate, a clergyman, who had a son in the East Indies, made application to have some particulars of their history. "I wrote over to the coast of Malabar, to know what tradition the Jews have retained, as to the time of their settlement at Cochin, but had no satisfactory answer. Ezekiel, the Rabbin of the synagogue, did, indeed, send me a transcript of their copper plate, hung up in their synagogue. It is written in the Malabar language, put into common Hebrew characters; interlined with a literal version in Hebrew?". This account, it is manifest, does not relate to the Afghans. But it may be observed, that it is at least a possible case, that of the Jews who emigrated from Persia a small portion might, like their bre, thren of Europe, steadily adhere to the religion of Moses.

The extract which follows is from Bernier's description of Hindostan, Bernier was a learned Frenchman, who re, sided twelve years at the court of the Great Mogul, and in the year 1664 accompanied him in his journey to the small kingdom of Kachemire or Cashmere; a country very rarely visited by Europeans, as it is situated at the extremity of Hindostan, borders upon Tartary and upon Persia, and is extremely difficult of access, being shut up and almost insulated by the mountains of Caucasus". In answer to some inquiries made by that industrious traveller, M. Thevenot, whether there were Jews in the kingdom of Cashmere, and

70 Account of the East Indies, c. xxvi. p. 323.

71 Bate's Rationale, p. 223. Maffeius in his Indian History speaks of those Jews, as being in great numbers at Cochin.-See his Hist. Lib. XVI. p. 332.'

72 Bryant upon the Authenticity of the Scriptures, and the Truth of the Chr. Rel. p. 273.

73 In order to form an accurate idea of the singularly insulated situation of Cashmere, see the Map of the South East part of Asia, prefixed to Dr. Robertson's Hist. Disq. on India: or major Rennel's map of the Countries between the Sources of the Ganges and the Caspian Sea; or the map of Cashmere in the second volume of the Voyages de Bernier.

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whether they were possessed of the writings of the Old Testament; Bernier informs him, that if there have in that country been those who have professed Judaism, as there is some reason to believe, there are none now remaining,' but that all the inhabitants are either Pagans or Mahometans.-Nevertheless one cannot fail of finding there many marks of Judaism. The first is, that on entering this kingdom, after having passed the moun ́tains of Pire-penjale, all the inhabitants that I saw in the first villages appeared to me to be Jews in their air and deportment, and moreover in that indefinable peculiarity, which enables us to distinguish one nation from another74. I am not the only person; who has been of that opinion; our father, the Jesuit, and many of us Europeans have entertained it before me. The second is, that I have remarked, that among the lower ranks of people in this town", although Mahometans, yet the name of Mousa, which signifies Momuch in use. ses, very The third is, they commonly say, that Solomon came into their country, and that it was he who cut through the mountain of Baramoulé to give a free passage to the waters. The fourth, that Moses died at Cashmere, and that his tomb is one league distant from this town. The fifth, that they pretend, that that little and very ancient edifice, which appears from this place upon an high mountain, was built by Solomon, and that it is for that reason, that to this very day they call it the throne of Solomon. Therefore I would not deny, that some Jews have penetrated hither. These people, in the lapse of time, may have lost the purity of their law; have become idolaters, and at length Mahometans".'

is

74 Speaking in another place of the inhabitants of Cashmere, he says, 'they are celebrated for their fine complexion. They are as well made as we Europeans at the same time having nothing of the countenance of the Tartar, with his flat nose, and little pig's eyes.' Voyages de Francois Bernier, tom. II. p. 281.

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75 The town of Cashmere, I apprehend.

76 Voyages de François Bernier, docteur en Medicine de la Faculte de Montpellier; contenant la description des Etats du Grand Mogol. Amsterdam,

'The race of the Afghans,' says the Persian writer translated by Mr. Vansittart, ' possessed themselves of the mountain of Solomon, which is near Kandahar", and the circumjacent country, where they have built forts.' And Mr. Vansittart adds, the country of the Afghans, which is a province of Cabul, was originally called Roh, and from hence is derived the name of Rohillahs". The city, which was established in it by the Afghans, was called by them Paishwer, or Paishor, and is now the name of the whole district". It is worthy of observation, that the city of Kandahar stands on the very frontier of Persia; that not only the province of that name, but also that of Cabul, is on the borders of the Persian empire; and that the former of these provinces is adjacent to the kingdom of Cashmere, and that the latter immediately joins it. With respect to the city of Paishwer, a principal residence of the Afghans, the maps of Hindostan ascertain its vicinity to Cashmere.

After introducing extracts from Bernier and Bryant, Vansittart and Sir W. Jones, it may, perhaps, not be improper briefly to notice the statements of three celebrated Jewish writers, Benjamin of Tudela, Eldad, and Peritful of Ferrara, though their narratives, it must be admitted, have so great a mixture of what is fabulous and untrue, that they deserve not attention any farther than they are

1723, tom. II. p. 316. Bernier was a man of penetration, and greatly superior to the general mass of travellers. Accordingly Mr. Gibbon (vol. 1. p. 333), when speaking of his journey to the kingdom of Cashmere and of the camp of Aurengzebe, says, that most curious traveller Bernierdescribes with great accuracy the immense moving city. And it is observed by major Rennel (Mem. of a Map of Hindostan, p. 66), that Bernier deserves the greatest credit for veracity.'

77 That the Afghans originally inhabited the mountainous tract lying between India and Persia, or the ancient Paropamisus,' is the statement of major Rennel. Memoir of a Map of Hindostan, pref. p. 48.

78 of the Rohilla nation, who are a part of the Afghans, and who inhabited the beautiful province of Rohilcund, a considerable part were cruelly extirpated in a war undertaken by the instigation of Mr. Hastings. 79 See the Asiatic Researches, or Dissertations, ut Supra.