28 - • ESSAY ON 'XHK 



Swa'yambhuva, or Adam, had ten sons, and intended to have divided, 

 the whole earth among them ; but three of them having renounced the 

 world, he divided it between the seven others; and such is the origin of 

 the seven dwipaSy or grand divisions of the earth. This evidently shows, 

 that the Atlantis is the pld continent, and the tenth and last division of 

 it called Gades, after one of the sons of Neptune, is declared to have 

 been at the furthest extremity; which is true, only if we admit that the 

 Atlantis was the old continent. The Atlantis was destroyed by a most 

 violent storm : this is well known to the PauranicSy some of whom assert, 

 that in consequence of this dreadful convulsion of nature, six of the dwipas 

 (disappeared, and Jambu only escaped, from the fury of an overwhelming 

 ocean : but the general opinion is, that though all the dwipas suflfered- 

 snuch, they were by no means destroyed. The seven islands belonged ta 

 Proserpine, or Lacshmi, called also Pnthwi or the goddess Tellus^ 

 orthe earth, according to t\iQ Hindus, 



Marcellus informs us, that all that was known m the west concerning 

 the Atlantis, its kings, their power and conquests, was from legendary 

 histories, preserved by the inhabitants, as related by their ancestors. This 

 Marcellus was a Roman, but he is otherwise unknown to me: there was, 

 in the time of Commodus, a Roman legate or governor of that name in 

 Britain, whose abstinence, cleanliness, watchfulness, and inquisitive turn 

 w^ere astonishing: but whether he wrote historical treatises, is not known; 

 at least D 10 -and Suidas take no notice of it. 



II. Besides the three principal islands, there are four inferior ones, 

 according to the Hindus, and five according to the followers of Budd'ha. 

 Hence, in the peninsula, the islands of Lancd are called Tail-Lancd or 

 the seven islands of Lancd, according to the information of Mr. Duncan ; 



