268 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



which cannot properly be laid to be inhabited hj thofe hordes of Tar- 

 tars that wander throug'i it : And in his travels, which he has pub- 

 lilhed, he oblerves, that there is more uninhabited country in that part 

 of Alia than would contain and fupport all the Inhabitants of Europe. 

 India, the mofl populous country known when Diodorus wrote, is 

 not, I am perfuaded, near fo populous as it was ; though, I believe, 

 it is not near fo much diminifhed in its numbers as the other countries 

 I have mentioned, becaufe the Indians have preferved their antient 

 manners better than any other nation now exifting. But having been 

 conquered by the Mogul Tartars, and having had their country 

 overrun by Geachii Chari^ Tamerlaney and Koidi Chan^ and fo much 

 of it taken from them by the Britifli, (more, 1 am told, than all Great 

 Britain, France, and Ireland put together,) it is, I think, impoffible 

 that they Ihould be now as numerous as they were formerly, the 

 Britifh alone, if we can believe the French, having deftroyed five 

 millions of them. 



As to the Chinefe, their country has been twice conquered by the 

 Tartars; and from what I hear of their manner of living, their vices 

 and dileafes, I think it is impoffiiile, by the nature of things, that 

 they fliould not be much diminifhed in their numbers, though they, 

 as well as the Japanefe, have the prudence to avoid, as much as pof- 

 fible in a country that carries on commerce, any great intercourfe 

 with Europeans, who have propagated their vices and difeafes to fo 

 many other nations. 



Of Japan we know fo Httle, that we cannot fay whether it be in- 

 creafmg or diminilhing in its numbers. It is certainly very popu- 

 lous ; 1 believe the mofl populous country at prefent on earth, ac- 

 cording to the account we have of it from an author who accompa- 

 nied a Dutch Ambaflador to Jeddo, the capital of Japan. But we 



know 



