f* A HISTORY OF 



T*}e argest rivers of Asia are, the Hoanho, in China, which is eight 

 h indred and fifty leagues in length, computing from its source at Ra- 

 j* Ribron, to its mouth in the Gulf of Changi. The Jenisca of Tar- 

 tbcy, about eight hundred leagues in length, from the lake Selinga, to 

 ti> Icy Sea. This river is, by some, supposed to supply most of that 

 grat quantity of drift wood which is seen floating in the seas, near the 

 Ai v;tic circle. The Oby, of five hundred leagues, running from the hike 

 of Kila into the Northern Sea. The Amour, in Eastern Tartary, 

 wb ise course is about five hundred and seventy-five leagues, from its 

 source to its entrance into the sea of Kamtschatka. The Kiam, in 

 China, five hundred and fifty leagues in length. The Ganges, one of 

 the most noted rivers in the world, and about us long as the former. 

 It rises in the mountains which separate India from Tartary ; and 

 running through the dominions of the Great Mogul, discharges itself 

 by several mouths into the bay of Bengal. It is not only esteemed 

 by the Indians for the depth and pureness of its stream, but for a sup- 

 posed sanctity which they believe to be in its waters. It is visited 

 annually by several hundred thousand pilgrims, who pay their devo- 

 tions to the river as to a god : for savage simplicity is always known to 

 mistake the blessings of the Deity, for the Deity himself. They car- 

 ry their dying friends from distant countries, to expire on its banks ; 

 and to be buried in its stream. The water is lowest in April or May ; 

 but the rains beginning to fall soon after, the flat country is overflow- 

 ed for several miles, till about the end of September ; the waters then 

 begin to retire, leaving a prolific sediment behind, that enriches the 

 soil, and, in a few days' time, gives a luxuriance to vegetation, beyond 

 what can be conceived by a European. Next to this may be reckon- 

 ed the still more celebrated river Euphrates. This rises from two 

 sources, northward of the city Erzerum, in Turcomania, and unites 

 about three days' journey below the same, from whence, after per- 

 forming a course of five hundred leagues, it falls into the gulf of Per- 

 sia, fifty miles below the city of Bassora in Arabia. The river Indus 

 is extended from its source to' its discharge into the Arabian Sea, four 

 hundred leagues. 



The largest rivers of Africa are, the Senegal, which runs a course 

 of not less than eleven hundred leagues, comprehending the Niger, 

 which some have supposed to fall into it. However, later accounts 

 seem to affirm that the Niger is lost in the sands, about three hundred 

 miles up from the western coasts of Africa. Be this as it may, the 

 Senegal is well known to be navigable for more than three hundred 

 leagues up the country ; and how much higher it may reach is not vet 

 discovered, as the dreadful fatality of the inland parts of Africa, not 

 only deters curiosity, but even avarice, which is a much stronger pas- 

 sion. At the end of last war, of fifty Englishmen that were sent to 

 the factory at Galam, a place taken from the French, and nine hun- 

 dred miles up the river, only one returned to tell the fate of his com- 

 panions, who were destroyed by the climate. The celebrated rivei 

 Nile is said to be nine hundred and seventy leagues, from its source' 

 among the Mountains of the Moon, in Upper ./Ethiopia, to its opening 

 into the Mediterranean Sea. The sources of this river were con- 

 sidered as inscrutable by the ancients; and the causes ofity jieriodi 



