172 ON THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY 



gion, it qualifies us to ascertain the progress which mankind 

 have made, during so long; a succession of ages. 



There are perhaps no regions with regard to which this 

 question possesses equal interest, as those which formed the 

 eastern extremity of the ancient world* The faint and decay- 

 ing light of science there shone, not upon inhospitable de- 

 serts, not upon the abodes of rude and pastoral tribes, but 

 upon civilized, populous, and commercial regions* which, in 

 all the arts and improvements of life, were not perhaps much 

 inferior to the lloman empire during its most flourishing 

 era. Yet the question, what regions these were, is involved in 

 as deep obscurity as any which has occupied the inquiries of 

 the learned. Many interesting points are still totally unfixed, 

 and afford room for the most discordant opinions. Having 

 been induced to study this subject with peculiar attention, it 

 has appeared to me, that some light might still be thrown upon 

 it, by a careful analysis of the ancient statements, as well as by 

 attentively comparing them with some discoveries which have 

 recently been made in that quarter of the world. 



The two nations whose territory formed, to the ancients, the 

 eastern extremity of the known world, were the Seres and the 

 Since, of whom the former were approached by land, and the 

 latter by sea. Of these the Seres were the most celebrated and 

 interesting people, and will form the main object of the pre- 

 sent inquiry ; but it may be convenient to begin with fixing the 

 position of the Sinse. The approach to their coast is thus de- 

 scribed by Ptolemy. After passing the mouth of the Gan- 

 ges, and a long extent of coast beyond, navigators rounded a 

 large peninsula, called the Golden Chersonese. Then passing 

 a great bay (Magnus Sinus) they came to a coast, which was 

 that of the Sin^e, which extended from north to south, with an 

 ocean on the west. The early modern opinion was, that the 



Sinae 



