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extant among the other ruins of ancient buildings in the environs 

 of the modern city. The juma-musjed, or grand mosque at Cam- 

 bay, was, as I have formerly remarked, a Hindoo temple of great 

 antiquity before it was dedicated by the mahomedans to Alia, 

 Shawuk pagoda, and many other Hindoo edifices bear a very an- 

 cient date. The antiquity of the Hindoos involves such a variety 

 of matter, and embraces so many objects, that it is a very difficult 

 field to enter ; and yet who could travel over the plains of Cam- 

 baya without recollecting they had employed the pens of Arrian 

 and Ptolemy many ages past? And, if not already proved, it 

 will most probably soon be discovered, that there has been a very 

 ancient communication between Hindostan and Great Britain. 

 Should it be ascertained that the latter is one of the Sacred Isles of 

 the West, in the Hindoo pu?'or,as, it is impossible to calculate the 

 result of such researches. 



This is a subject too deep for my investigation, but has been 

 ably taken up in the Asiatic researches, by Captain Wilford, whose 

 learned Essays tend to prove, that " the sacred isles in the west, of 

 which Sweta-dwipa, or the White Island, is the principal, and the 

 most famous, are in fact the holy land of the Hindoos. There, the 

 fundamental and mysterious transactions of the history of their re- 

 ligion in its rise and progress took place. The White Island, this 

 holy land in the west, is so intimately connected with their religion 

 and mythology, that they cannot be separated ; and of course, di- 

 vines in India are necessarily acquainted with it, as distant Mussel- 

 mans with Arabia/' This, says Captain Wilford, " I conceive lo 

 be a most favourable circumstance, as in the present case the 

 learned have little more to do than to ascertain whether the While 



VOL. III. L 



