192. The chief rivers of Tahtary are the Jihon, or Oxus, and the Sirr or Sihon; and the most considerable lake or inland sea is that of Aral.

OF ARABIA.

193. Arabia may be considered as a province of, being generally tributary to, the Turkish empire. Its coasts exhibit many towns and villages, but the people of the interior are mostly wanderers and robbers, such as are described in Holy Writ. The climate is, in some parts, hot and dry, and subject to poisonous winds. In other parts the soil is fertile, and the air salubrious. In the great deserts, travellers guide themselves by the stars and compass, as mariners do at sea.

Obs. The Arabians are the Assyrians of Antiquity, and as such made great conquests. In the seventh century, Mahomet spread his conquests from Arabia over great portions of Asia and Africa. Within the last thirty years, great changes have been produced in the religion of Arabia, by Abdal Wahheb, whose numerous followers are called Wahabees.

194. Arabia is divided into three parts: Arabia the Stony, Arabia the Desert, and Arabia Felix, or the Happy.

(1) Stony Arabia is a small province north of the Red Sea, between Egypt and Palestine. The chief town is Suez.

(2) Arabia the Desert is the north-eastern part of the country, extending to the Persian Gulf and southward.

(3) Arabia Felix, or Happy, comprises the west and south-west parts of the country, called Hejas and Yemen.

195. The chief town is Sana in Yemen. Mecca, in Hejas, was the birth-place of their prophet Mahomet, and Medina the place at which he was

F

buried. Mocha is a port on the Red Sea, and Aden a port near the strait of Babelmandeb.

Obs. 1. Medina boasts of a stately mosque supported on 400 pillars, and furnished with 300 silver lamps, which are continually burning. Mahomet's coffin is covered with cloth of gold, under a canopy of silver tissue.

2. Mecca, situated in a barren valley, is supported chiefly by the annual resort of many thousand pilgrims.

196. Between the narrow branches of the northern extremity of the Red Sea, are Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb, on which are several cells or chapels possessed by monks.

Here also is the wilderness where the children of Israel sojourned forty years in passing from Egypt to Canaan.

197. Arabian horses are much esteemed. Camels and dromedaries are the common beasts of burden. The coffee of Arabia is superior to that of all other countries, and its chief article of export.

Obs. 1. The Arabians are excellent horsemen, expert at the bow and the lance, good marksmen, and a brave people, inured to live in tents, and remove from place to place with their flocks and herds. Their dress is a blue shirt, tied about them with a sash or girdle, over which some of them throw a vest of furs.

2. The inland country is under the government of petty princes styled Cheriffs, or Imans, both of them including the offices of king and priest, governing by no other laws than those found in the Koran.

OF THE ORIENTAL ARCHIPELAGO.

198. The immense cluster of islands, called the Oriental or Eastern Archipelago, is divided into, (1) The islands of Sunda, or the Sumatran chain, which comprise Sumatra, Java, Bally, Lombock, Flores, and Timor, with several others of less mag. nitude.

(2) Borneo, and some small surrounding islands. Borneo is the largest island in the world, exceptin

Australia, which comprises New Holland and New South Wales.

(3) The Manillas, or Philippine islands, including Luzon, Mindanao, Palawa, Mindora, Pany, Negros, Zebu, Leyta, Samar, and several hundred smaller islands.

(4) The Celebesian isles, viz. Celebes, Boeton, and the surrounding small islands. Boeton is governed by a Mahometan Sultan.

(5) Moluccas, including the Spice Islands: these are, Gilolo, Ceram, Bouro, Oby, Amboyna, Banda, Tidore, Ternate, &c. which produce nutmegs, cloves, and other valuable spices.

Obs. These islands lie under the equator, and are the hottest regions in the world; they are full of inhabitants who are half civilized, but in a state of slavery.

OF AUSTRALASIA.

199. The islands comprehended within the space denominated Austral-Asia are, Australia, which is under the dominion of Great Britain, and divided into two great parts, New Holland and New South Wales, by the meridian of 135 degrees east: attached to Australia is the island called VanDiemen's Land, one of the finest spots on the earth. With these are included

(1) All the islands between twenty degrees west and twenty or thirty degrees east of it. Australia is about three-fourths of the magnitude of all Europe, but has not yet been fully explored: a great portion is desert, but other parts, in different directions, are fertile and beautiful, and all under an auspicious climate.

On the south-eastern side of Australia is the flourishing colony of Port Jackson, near Botany Bay,

to which place culprits are transported from England, &c.

(2) Papua, or New Guinea, and the Papuan isles.

(3) New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon isles.

(4) New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides. (5) New Zealand.

(6) Van-Diemen's Land, separated from New South-Wales by Bass's strait or channel.

The British population in this island is rapidly increasing. Several towns have been laid out, and its capital is Hobart, on the south-east, upon the river Derwent, finely and most advantageously situated for all the purposes of commerce. This place will probably become the metropolis of a future empire.

Obs. All these were first discovered and explored within the last two hundred years, and the indigenal inhabitants still continue in a barbarous state.

OF THE POLYNESIA.

200. The cluster of islands in the great Pacific Ocean, called Polynesia, consist,

(1) Of the Pelew Islands.

(2) Of the Ladrone or Marian Islands; the principal of which are Guam and Tinian.

(3) Of the Carolines, the largest of which are Hogolen and Yap.

(4) Of the Sandwich Islands, discovered by Captain Cook; at the largest of which, Owhyhee, that great navigator lost his life.

(5) Of the Marquesas; which are very numerous. (6) Of the Society Islands, about sixty or seventy in number: Otaheite is the largest.

(7) King George's Islands, about thirty, includ