142 
and precarious, compared with the direct course across 
the Arabian Sea. By the latter, also, the western coast 
of the peninsula of India became better known, and 
opened the way for other discoveries in the interior as 
well as on the Bay of Bengal. The whole extent of 
country south of the line joining the mouth of the In- 
dus and the mouth of the Ganges, was soon explored, 
Geography and is described with considerable minuteness by Pliny 
of Pliny and 
and Ptolemy. Of the north of India, the accounts of 
these writers are extremely vague; but it appears that 
‘Thibet was pretty well known under the name of Se- 
rica. On this subject, indeed, there has been much 
learned disquisition among critics’ and geographers, 
some supposing, as we have now stated, that Serica 
included Thibet, with part of the north of India, while 
others consider it as denoting China. This last opi- 
nion is chiefly founded on the calculations of Ptolemy, 
by which Serica appears to be situated in the middle 
of the Pacific Ocean; but these calculations are obvi- 
ously in direct contradiction, not only to Pliny, butito 
Ptolemy himself. According to the former, Asia ter- 
minated a little to the east of the Ganges and the north 
ef the Caspian Sea; and he distinctly says that the 
Seres inhabit the middle of the eastern regions, of 
which the Scythians and Indians occupy the two ex- 
tremes. The latter also describes Serica as bounded 
on the east by unexplored countries, and on the south 
by the mountains of Emondus, (the modern Emod, 
Hema, or Himmala), which separate it from Indias It 
is unnecessary to observe, that neither of these accounts 
can possibly apply to China, while both are accurate if 
understood of Thibet. ‘ Here, then,” to use the words 
of a modern geographer, “among the Alps of Asia, 
and on the borders of the great desert of Shamo, ex- 
pired the last ray of the geographical knowledge of the 
ancients.” 
To pursue the history of aphy through the 
riod on which we are now Boat x p Bees would boss 
trace the decay of every thing dignified and ennobling, 
and to mark the progress of ignorance and barbarism, 
triumphing over science and civilization. We should 
find, in the course of a few centuries, the inhabitants 
of the whole civilized world completely extirpated, and 
succeeded by a race of men who knew nothing of them- 
selves farther back than their recollection carried them, 
and nothing of the rest of mankind but what the 
learned during their career of victory and bloodshed. 
We should perceive the termination of all friendly in- 
tercourse among different countries, and wars carried 
on no longer with a view to conquer and civilize, but 
to extirpate and destroy. It isnot consistent, however, 
either with the nature or the limits of the present ar- 
ticle, to enter into a minute detail of the circumstances 
that conspired to accelerate the destruction of the Ro- 
man empire, or enumerate the various tribes that took 
possession of the different countries of Europe, and the 
revolutions that took place in their manners and form 
of government. | We shall only observe, therefore, that 
during the latter period of the Roman history, litera- 
ture and the fine arts had in a great measure banished 
the cultivation of science, and the ardour of curiosity, 
so necessary in all laborious researches, but) particular- 
ly for geographical discovery, had degenerated into a 
love of indalence and ease. “A great deal still remained 
to be done by active and enterprizing adventurers, be- 
fore the science of geography could be successfully pro- 
secuted in the retirement of an academy; but enter- 
prize and adventure were no longer to be found among 
GEOGRAPHY. 
History. a route, must have been exceedingly slow, expensive, 
ies of and dis- 
ation. We find, oe ly, that from the time of » 
lemy, till the overthrow of the Roman empire, there 
is scarcely a ners be fact on record that deserves a place 
in the history of geographical discoveries. From that _ 
period, the progress of all knowledge was retrograde. _ 
Phe chohuroctie fleas that had been reared by 
the persevering labours of many , were successive- A, 
ly overthrown ; till Alexandria itself, the last 2 of 
persecuted science, fell a sacrifice to the merciless fury 
of a barbarous fanatic, The work of devastation was 
now complete. - The last faint glimmerings of intellec- 
tual light were extinguished, and the gross perversion 
of an rhe principle in Europe, with the establish- 
ment of a false system in Asia, threatened to stu: 
ate ep darkness which had enveloped the civili 
world. . Pi ; tHe dt smd = § 
Such was the state, and such the of liter- G 
ature and science about the middle of the séventh cen- 
tury. There was still one country, however, which had 
not yet felt the shock of revolution, and from which 
the light of science was again destined to emanate. 
Arabia, from time immemorial, had preserved its inde- 
pendence ; and while the rest civilized world 
was hurrying into decay, ‘it continued to enjoy its an« 
cient laws and privileges, and made considerable é 
gress in many of the useful arts. Even the establishe ; 
ment of Mahometanism, at first so fatal in its operation, 
and which, like every other false system of religion, _ 
might have been supposed inimical to the progress of 
science, eventually contributed to the advancement of 
geographical knowledge. The Arabians, pues ; 
erably 
a people enervated by every 
great extent of sea-coast, had from a very early 
carried on an extensive trade, which was consi 
poi by the renee of Mahomet and his imme- 
iate successors. In their eagerness to propa the 
doctrines” of Islamism; ‘the Arabian: fabian : 
their arms to the pillars: of Hercules in the west, and 
the banks of the Ganges in the east, and thus 
phical discovery was once more associated with its most 
powerful ally, a spirit of military and commercial ad- _ 
venture. By the middle of ‘the ninth century, the 
Arabians had formed settlements in different parts of — 
China, and established: an intercourse with Madagascar, 
the Maldives, Ceylon; Sumatra; Java, and other ori+ 
ental islands. ' Nor was it to geography, considered ina — 
commercial point of view, that their attention was ex 
clusively directed. ‘Their generals had orders to’ pro 
cure geographical accounts of all the countries» which 
they subdued ; and we find the Caliph Al Mamon, as 
per be as 883, obtaining the measurement of a, 
of latitude im ‘the desert of Sandgiar, for the purpose-of 
ascertaining the magnitude of theearth, © a) Ju 
While the followers of Mahomet were thus extend-’ 
ing the boundaries of geography in Asia, a spirit of en= 
terprise séemed for a time to break out in the north of & 
Europe. ©The earliest account of Denmark, Norway, & 
and Sweden, on which any reliance can be placed, is — 
that given by Alfred king of England, towards the end — 
of the 9th century. This account is chiefly founded on 
the information of certain Norman adventurers, who 
finding the southern parts of Europe already in fe 
sion of their own countrymen, were forced to betake 
themselves to maritime expeditions in quest of new set- 
tlements. These adventurers gradually extending their 
researches into the Norther Ocean, discovered Green« 
land and the Shetland isles, on both of which they N 
planted colonies, about the end of the 10th:century. In 4 
the year 1001, Biorn, a Norman navigator, while steers 
