because he did not think it necessary to reduce the Greek of Strabo to that standard of purity: but till the corrections of the text shall be assigned to their respective authors, we would restrain our censure in deference to the opinion of Schweighaeuser: 'Denique eximium ac prorsus singulare decus ac præsidium est, quo hoc nostrum institutum ornare voluit vir doctus Adamantes CORAY, Smyrnensis, ut Medicinæ Doctor solertissimus, sic in Græcarum literarum, quæ ei vernaculæ sunt, exquisitiori studio verissimus Valckenarianæ & Ruhnkenianæ scholæ alumnus; qui suas in plurima difficiliora vexataque Athenæi loca emendationes & adnotationes, non minus profunditate eruditionis, quam ingenii acumine insignes ultro mihi obtulit communicavitque. Præf. in Athen. p. cxvii, cxviii.

M. De La Porte Du Theil has the care of the Greek MSS. in the Paris Library, and is the author of several memoirs in the collection of the papers of the French academy. M. Gosselin is known by his learned publications on ancient geography. We have had occasion to censure this work in various parts, but we still consider it as an accession to the literature of the century; and although we cannot adopt every opinion and emendation, yet they are the result of too much learning to justify the neglect of them, and indeed they may worthily exercise the talents and erudition of any future editor or translator of Strabo.

ART. II. An Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul; being the Substance of Observations made during a Mission to that Country, in the Year 1793. By Colonel Kirkpatrick. Illustrated with a Map and other Engravings. 4to. pp. 386. London. Miller. 1811.

To the advertisement announcing the publication of the work before us, is appended the following notice:

'N. B. This volume is dedicated to the Honourable the Court of Directors, and is the first published account of a country hardly known even by name, and is almost a blank in the maps of India.'

We notice this little flourish, because it is calculated to mislead. It contains, in fact, no less than three mistakes in the compass of as many lines. In the first place, it is not the first published account' of Nepaul. In the second volume of the Asiatic Researches, there is a very curious and interesting description of this country, communicated by Sir John Shore, now Lord Teignmouth, from the works of Giuseppè Bernini, prefect of the Roman missions, who resided at Lellit Pattan, a city of Nepaul,

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for many years. Secondly, this country hardly known even by name,' is not only known, but described, by Major Rennell, in his Memoir of a Map of Hindostan.' It is mentioned with its capital Catmandu and river Bhagmutty, in Captain Turner's account of the extraordinary peregrinations of the Fakeer Praun Poori, a narrative of which, communicated by Governor Duncan, is also in the Asiatic Researches, where the name of Nepaul occurs at least in fifty different places. It is described in Pinkerton's modern Geography,' in Guthrie's geographical Grammar,' and in every gazetteer published within the last twenty years. And thirdly, instead of being almost a blank in the maps of India,' we find it laid down, pretty much in detail, in Major Rennell's Map, published in 1788; in Arrowsmith's Map of Asia,' 1801, and particularly in his Map of India,' 1804, in which Catmandu and the other cities and towns of note, the various hills, and rivers, the latter all tributary branches of the Ganges, are distinctly marked.

That the information respecting Nepaul, and the tract of country intervening between it and Cashmir to the westward, is both scanty and inaccurate, we are ready to admit; and when it is considered that the frontier of Bengal borders on Nepaul, that the horizontal distance from the former to the capital of the latter does not exceed seventy miles, it may be thought remarkable that a more frequent and intimate intercourse has not been established. But the truth is, that these mountaineers are exceedingly jealous of their British neighbours, who, on their part, are restrained by difficulties of a physical as well as political nature. As some account of those mountainous regions, and particularly of Nepaul, may serve as an useful introduction to Colonel Kirkpatrick's book, we are induced to draw up a summary sketch of what is known of them.

That portion of those elevated regions of Tartary, which lie to the westward of Thibet, is separated from the plains of Hindostan by an immense chain of mountains, running in the direction W.N.W. and E.S.E. called Himmaleh, or more properly Himmalaya, a term in the Sanscrit language signifying the abode of snow.' This great chain is supposed by Major Rennell to be a continuation of the Emodus and Paropamisus of the ancients, the Imäus of Pliny, incolarum lingua nivosum significante, and to be equal in height to any of the mountains of the old hemisphere, being commonly, we may add eternally, covered with snow, and visible from the plains of Bengal, at the distance of 150 miles. About that part of this magnificent barrier, in whose bosom lies the secluded valley of Cashmir, a number of inferior mountains branch out towards the plains of Hindostan, and, at the distance of 80 or 100 miles from

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the Himmalaya, form a connected range, continuing in a direction parallel to the former, along the provinces of Lahore, Oude, Bahar and Bengal. Of the height of that part which borders on Bengal, we may form a tolerable idea from the following passage of Major Rennell: The southernmost ridge of the Bootan mountains rises near a mile and a half perpendicular above the plains of Bengal, in a horizontal distance of only fifteen miles; and from the summit the astonished traveller looks back on the plains, as on an extensive ocean beneath him.'

Between the Himmalaya and this inferior chain is included a series of plains and valleys, distributed into a number of petty states, which, commencing with Cashmir and proceeding eastward, occur in the following succession: 1. Sirinagur. 2. Kemaoon. 3. Chowbeisia, or the Country of the Twenty-four Rajahs. 4. Gorka. 5. Nepaul. 5. Nepaul. 6. Bootan. 7. Assam; and 8. an unknown tract of country included in the remarkable bend of the Burampooter, where its course takes a westerly direction into the province of Bengal.

Skirting the feet of this ridge, and verging on the provinces above-mentioned, is a broad belt of country, from 15 to 20 miles in width, of swamps, jungle and forests, abounding with elephants, tygers, leopards, buffaloes, and all the wild and ferocious beasts of India. The whole of this tract is so loaded with infectious vapours, that it is very thinly inhabited. Few travellers venture even to cross it, excepting perhaps pilgrims from Hindostan, or petty traders from Thibet and Bootan. That part of the belt opposite to Nepaul is called Turyani, (swampy ground,) where, we are told by Father Guiseppe, 'people in their passage catch a disorder called in the language of the country, aul:' it is a putrid fever, of which the generality of those who are attacked with it die in a few days.

The Rajah of Bootan, however, notwithstanding all the dangers and difficulties of the passage, contrived to march an army into British Bengal, and to plunder the inhabitants on the frontier. The Teshoo Lama, then regent of Thibet during the minority of the Delai Lama, fearful of the consequences of this unprovoked attack, deemed it expedient to dispatch a conciliatory vakeel to Calcutta. His mediation was accepted; and in 1774 Mr. Bogle carried back the answer of the Governor General to the Teshoo Lama. This was the first time that any Englishman had crossed the mountains; nor does it appear that any farther communication was held with that country till the death of the Lama at Pekin led to the subsequent discovery of his imperishable soul in the body of an infant; upon which occasion, in 1783, Mr. Hastings dispatched Captain Turner to present his congratulations to the baby Lama at Thibet,

"VOL. V. NO. X.

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Thibet, of which an interesting account has been given to the public.

The intercourse again ceased till the year 1792, when intelligence was received at Calcutta that the Rajah of Nepaul had commenced hostilities against the Rajah of Bootan, by crossing the mountains, plundering the city of Teshoo Lomboo, the residence of the young Lama, and driving the whole fraternity of Gylongs, or priests, to the other side of the Burampooter. The Emperor of China, under whose immediate protection the Grand Lama has long considered himself, and to whom Thibet is tributary, caused a numerous army to be collected, which, after some skirmishing, succeeded in driving the Nepaulese into their own territories. The Rajah, in his turn, now became alarmed, and applied for assistance to the English. The Governor General declined interfering, except as a mediator, and, in that capacity, Colonel Kirkpatrick was dispatched to the Chinese General, with instructions to take Nepaul in his way. In the mean time, however, the Rajah had found it expedient to make peace with the Chinese, at the expense of restoring all the booty which he had taken, and acknowledging himself a tributary to the Emperor of China: and, for the better security of the peace, and payment of the tribute, a number of military posts were established by the Chinese on the ridges of the hills which divide Nepaul from Bootan. Colonel Kirkpatrick, having reached Patna before he was apprized of these occurrences, determined to continue his journey as far at least as Nepaul, which he reached on the 3d of March, 1793.

Since that time no intercourse seems to have taken place till 1801, when Lord Wellesley sent an ambassador to Catmandu. Doctor Buchanan, availing himself of this opportunity, resided in the country for some time, and is said to have written a circumstantial account of it, which however is locked up for the present among the records of Leadenhall Street; for what reason we pretend not to divine. But the Doctor, it seems, 'obligingly communicated his MS.' to Mr. Pinkerton, who has not very obligingly' compressed the important information' with which he says it abounds,' within the compass of a short note; the substance of which is, that Nepaul is an immense plain;' that the chain of mountains which immediately bounds Hindostan on the north is called Binda, or Vinda; that the goitre or swelled throat is not uncommon;' that the people are very black, though surrounded with mountains covered with perpetual snow;' that 'sheep with four horns are the common beasts of burden ;' that the best fruits are oranges and pine-apples;' that Catmandu, the residence of the court, is neatly built, the houses being often of three floors;' that a guard of females, armed with swords, attend the princess on

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horseback, riding astride like men;' that they are chosen for their beauty;' and that their licentiousness is equal to their charms."

The information from Father Guiseppe is more in detail. From him we learn that, from the summits of the surrounding mountains, the plain of Nepaul exhibits a vast amphitheatre, over the surface of which lie scattered a number of cities, towns and villages, swarming with population. That the three principal cities are Catmandu, Lelit Pattan, and Bhatgan; the first containing 18,000, the second 24,000, and the third 12,000 houses, generally built of brick, and three or four stories high. The streets are paved with brick or stone, in a regular slope to carry off the water, which runs through all of them in small canals. In the gardens of the royal palace at Catmandu there are fountains of clear water. In all the towns are verandas for the accommodation of travellers and the public, and near them square tanks with flights of stone steps, for the convenience of those who may be inclined to bathe; that of Catmandu is represented as of good workmanship, and two hundred feet on each side. The temples are said to vie in splendour with those of the most populous and flourishing cities of Christendom. One of these near Lelit Pattan is described as peculiarly magnifi cent: the court is paved with blue marble, inlaid with flowers of bronze. From the edges of the cupolas and roofs of the pyramids are suspended a number of little bells, which, with the slightest breeze, emit a tinkling sound. The religion of the inhabitants is of two kinds; but no dissentions arise among them on that account. There was but one Mussulman in the whole country, a Cashmirian merchant, who administered to their wants, supplied them with conveniences, and locked up his Koran in his closet. The votaries of Brahma and of Buddh equally enjoy their festivals and proces sions without interruption or molestation from each other. The king and the court join in these processions with the inhabitants indiscriminately. Almost every day is a festival. Sometimes the idols are removed from the temples, and drawn through the streets with songs and musical instruments. On such occasions every thing wears the appearance of gaiety and joy.

Who would not suppose, from this description, that the 'Happy Valley' of the Prince of Abyssinia was realized in that of Nepaul! Surrounded on all sides by high and almost impassable mountains, the natives are secluded from the rest of mankind, and form a little world within themselves. The sides of those mountains are covered with trees; the banks of the brooks are diversified with flowers; every blast shakes spices from the rocks, and every month drops fruits upon the ground:' but though the blessings of nature are here collected,' are its evils excluded? Do the sages who instruct the sons and daughters of Nepaul, tell them of nothing but