4 ANESSAYONINDIA, 



they fuppofed fituated behind the Antilles, they named the TVeJi 

 Indies, becaufe it might be reached by failing weftward. Herjce 

 appears the reafon why in our age the name o( Indies is fo widely 

 extended. 



That India whence the animals now to be defcribed are takcn^ 

 is Eajl India. But even here there is much variation as to the 

 countries to which this name is proper and peculiar. In the firft 

 place it is maintained, that India is only wherever the Hindu 

 nation inhabits, or the country called by the Perfians, Hindojian, 

 which is comprehended between the rivers Sind and Ganges, 

 clofed to the north by the ridge of Imaus or Gaucafus -, and on the 

 fouth furrounded by the ocean ; fo that the whole peninfula on 

 this fide the Ganges, belongs to Hindofian, 



But in a more extended fenfe, the peninfula beyond the Ganges 

 alfo is a part of India. And its limits are much more extenfive, 

 if under this fecond fignification of India are reckoned all the 

 iflands of the Indian fea, from the eaft and north of Madagajcar, 

 as far as New Holland, and thence eaftward to the Phill-ppne 

 iflands, together with New Guinea; and it is principally with 

 this meaning that the Englijh and Dutch failors ufe the word 

 India, and Mr. Pennant feems to have adopted it in his account 

 of the animals of India. 



From what has been faid, it will be evident that a difquifition 

 concerning the chmate, foil, and feas of India, thus largely under- 

 ftoodj will be a matter of much difficulty. 

 ■Mountains. Mount Imaus, arifing in the very borders o( Perfia, and whole 



northern ridge feparates India from Bokara or BaSria, from C<?- 

 pimire or Cafpatyrus, from the kingdom of "Tibet, and from the 

 Chineje province of Yunnan, terminates at length in the kingdom 



of 



