264 AN ESSAY ON THE 



Should the learned reject this,* not deeming the 

 presumpnve proofs strong enough, I beg their in- 

 dulgence in the few cases of this description, which 

 certainly cannot mislead them. Tt is seldom the 

 lot of authors to write without some enthusiasm, a 

 portion of which may perhaps be necessary. I have 

 faithfully collected whatever I could find in the 

 Puranas and other Hindu books, relating to this 

 holy land, whether hearing some marks of truth, or 

 pbviously fictitious; and I solemnly declare that I 

 have not the desire, either to defend or impugn the 

 noti(jns of the Hindus, as I conceive them, in re- 

 gard to these Sacred Isles. 



It would have been doing injustice to the sub- 

 ject, to have attempted to give an account of these 

 Islands, without the geographical- system of the 

 Hindus^ who believe them, dnd consider them as a 

 terrestrial paradise. 



I have, therefore, premised an ample, but still 

 incomplete system of geography, according to the 

 followers of Brahma' and Budd'ha. 



I have added an essay on the chronology of the 

 Hindus and the emperors of hulia; with geogra- 

 phical, mythological, and historical sketches of the 

 intermediate countries from India to the British 

 Isles, inclusively. It will appear, in the course of 

 this work, that the language of the followejS of 

 Brahma', their geographical knowledge, their his- 

 tory and mythology, have extended through a range 

 or belt about forty degrees broad, across the old 

 continent, in a South-East and North-West direc- 

 tion, from the Eastern shores of the Malaya '\i(^\\\xi' 

 sula to the Western extremity of the Bi^itish Isles. 



Through this immense range^ the same original, 



