CIVIL AND NATURAL. Xll 



totlcs, which Providence has thrown into the arms of 

 Britain for their protection and welfare, the religion, 

 manners, and laws of the natives preclude even the idea 

 of political freedom ; but their histories may pass; 

 suggest hints for their prosperity, while our country 

 derives essential benefit from the diligence of a placid 

 and submissive people, who multiply with such in- 

 crease, even after the ravages of famine, thai in one 

 collectorship out of tKtiehty-fotir^ and that by no means 

 the largest or best cultivated (1 mean Chrlshna-nagar) 

 there have lately been found, by an actual enumeration, 

 a million and three hundred thousand native inhabitants ; 

 whence it should seem, that in all India there cannot 

 be fewer than thirty millions of black British sub- 

 jects. 



Let us proceed to geography and chronology, with- 

 out which history would be no certain guide, but 

 would resemble a kindled vapour without either a set- 

 tled place or a steady light. For a reason before inti- 

 mated, I shall not name the various cosmographical 

 books which are extant in Arabic and Persian, ncr 

 give an account of those which the Turks have beau- 

 tifully printed in their own improved language, but 

 shall expatiate a little on the geography and astronomy 



of India ; having first observed generally, that all the 



j • ' • "... 



Asiatic nations must be far better acquainted with their 



several countries than mere European scholars and tra- 

 vellers ; that, consequently, we rriiik learn their geo- 

 graphy from their own writings ; and ihat, by collating 

 many copies of the same woik, we may correct the 



b 3 blunders 



