tereft to the subject, by obferving on the motives for exertion, on the confequences of fuccefs, and on the effects of "that mafter-spring of action, on which equally depends the profperity of individuals and empires:-TUE DESIRE IM PLANTED IN THE HUMAN BREAST, OF BETTERING ITS CONDITION." But we fhall here put a limit for the present to our obfervations on this fubject, intending to refume them at the next convenient opportunity. (To be continued.) ART. XII. A Geographical and Hiftorical View of the World; exhibiting a complete Delineation of the natural and artificial Features of each Country, and a fuccinct Narrative of the Origin of the different Nations, their political Revolutions and Progrefs in Arts, Sciences, Literature, Commerce, c. the whole comprising all that is important in the Geography of the Globe and Hiftory of Mankind. By John Bigland, Author of Letters on Ancient and Modern Hiftory, Effays on various Subjects, &c. &c. In 5 vols. 8vo. 31. 15s. Longman and Co. 1810. NOTWITHSTANDING publications on the fubject of geography are fo numerous, and many of them fo excellent, and although every fucceeding year produces an acceffion to this branch of knowledge, it is ftill exceedingly defective, and offers an ample field of refearch to the inquifitive adventurer. Geographical hiftory muft neceffarily be commenfurate with geographical difcovery, and it is the combination of both, fo far as the knowledge already acquired extends, which gives the work before us a particular claim to our attention. If there be any book of the kind poffeffing equal merit, and alike claiming our recommendation for the inftruction of youth, it is not at prefent in our recollection. There are many books of hiftory in which geographical defcriptions are agreeably and inftructively interfperfed, and there are profeffed geographical productions, in which a great abundance of hiftorical knowledge is judiciously exhibited, but the plan of this author appears to us fo fatisfactory, that it is but rendering him juftice to place it before our readers. In the first place, his object is to treat of the geography of each particular country, its phyfical peculiarities, its mineral, vegetable, and animal productions. He then proceeds to a minute and circumftantial defcription of the principal Cc 2 monu monuments of human art and human induftry; the capitals of the different empires and governments; the fate of the arts in each, their progrefs in literature, and the general condition of fociety. The third object is the hiftory of the people or nation, whofe geographical fituation and circumflances are before defcribed; its progrefs from rudeness to civilization, its different wars, with a view of its focial circumstances in each fucceeding period. The last part is the prefent condition of each people and country, its peculiar modern characteristics, and its relative importance as to the nations by which it is furrounded. To this arrangement there feems to be no exception, and it really appears to us to merit no finall commendation, that fo great a mafs of matter should have been fo fuccessfully amalgamated in the space of five octavo volumes. But it is time that the reader fhould judge for himself of the juftice of the preceding remarks. We fhall take an extract from that part which relates to Perfia, as a portion of the globe with which we are not yet very familiarly acquainted, though from circumftances a prefent object of anxious enquiry. We fhall give a fhort fpecimen of each of the four divifions into which the author has arranged his materials. "Perfia having from early times been a powerful empire, and often the theatre of great revolutions, has fometimes extended its limits, and fometimes been reduced within narrower boundaries. The geographical outlines of its general extent, however, are ftrongly marked. The Cafpian fea, and the Tartarian deferts near the lake of Aral on the north, other deferts and mountains, with the river Araba, which feparates it from India on the eaft, as well as the Indian ocean, which form its fouthern limits, are indelible features of nature; and its boundaries towards Afiatic Turkey on the weft have never greatly varied. Modern Perfia extends from about 25° to 44° north latitude, and from 44° to 70° eaft longitude, being nearly 1300 miles in length from east to west, and scarcely less from north to south +. "Face of the country.] The general face of the country is * Cluverius estimated Perfia as extending above 1800 miles from the mouth of the Araxes to that of the Indus. Geog. lib. v. cap. 13. + Sir John Chardin reckoned the extent of Perfia from the river Indus to the mountains of Ararat, which cannot be lefs than 2000 miles. Chard. tom. iii. moun mountainous, and one of its moft remarkable features is the want of rivers and wood, of which no country except Arabia is more deftitute. Extenfive fandy deferts likewife frequently occur in various parts, although some districts difplay the most luxuriant vegetation. Mountains.] The chains of European mountains, notwithftanding the modern improvements in geography, have scarcely as yet been accurately defined. No great exactness can, therefore, be expected in defcribing thofe of Afia. An accurate furvey of continuous ranges, extending feveral hundreds of miles in countries little known, and feldom vifited, is indeed an arduous task, which is feldom undertaken by travellers. The Caucasian ridge extends to the weft of the province of Ghilan, and then turning to the fouth of Mazendran, terminates on the fouth of the Caf pian fea*. Another ridge runs parallel to the Perfian Gulph, at the distance of about fifty or fixty English miles. A third range running in nearly the fame direction, is connected with the Caucafian chain. A fourth feparates the ancient countries of Affyria and Media +. Ararat is a folitary mountain, fituated in an extenfive plain not far from the Caucafian ridge ‡. Almost all the provinces of Perfia are feparated by ranges of mountains, of which geographers have in vain attempted to defcribe the extent and direction. This must ever be the cafe where materials are deficient. Geography may be arranged, but cannot be originally produced in the clofet. Actual furveys muft furnish the fundamental documents. I fhall, therefore, fhorten an article on which fo little can be faid with precifion. It may, however, be obferved that late travellers have fometimes been unable to find the mountains which are placed in the maps. According to the concurrent teftimony of travellers, the Perfian mountains are in general deftitute of fprings, metals, and trees; those of Kurdistan alone are adorned with forefts, "Rivers.] There is scarcely one navigable river in Perfia, except the Araxes. Some of thofe of the north, as the Tedjeu, or ancient Oxus, the Kur or Cyrus, and fome others, flow into the Cafpian Sea. The Ahwaz rifes in the mountains of Elwend, and divides itself into two branches, one of which discharges itfelf into the Tigris, above its junction with the Euphrates, and the other into the æftuary of these two conjunct rivers. The Zenderoud, the Hinmend, and indeed most of the rivers of central Perfia, are loft in the fandy deferts of the interior. Such is the termination of a great number of ftreams in different provinces, * Gmelin Dec. Ruff, 2 Traduct. Françoise." "+D'Anville Geog, ancienne, vol. ii. p. 462." "Tournefort, vol. iii. letter 7.” "Rennel, p. 153. Fofter's Trav. vol. ii." which might be more confiderable if the inhabitants were not obliged to divert their waters into fmall channels for the pur pofe of irrigating their lands, a procefs on which their produc. tivenefs greatly depends, and which having formerly been prac tifed more than at prefent, is a circumftance that may in a great measure account for the contraft between the fertility of ancient and the barrennefs of modern Perfia. Tavernier fays, apparently on good authority, that in the fpace of twenty-four years preceding his vifit to Perfia, no less than eighty channels had been fuffered to run to ruin, and be choked up in the fingle province of Tauris." P. 84. "Principal cities and towns-Edifices-Ilands.] The capital of modern Perfia is Ifpahan, a name of uncertain etymology, but often written, and always pronounced Spanhaun. It is fituated on the river Zenderoud. This was originally a small brook; but Abbas the Great, who, being charmed with the fituation, made this place his capital about the year 1620, cut a channel, by which he introduced a more copious stream into that river, By this acceffion of waters, the Zenderoud is rendered as wide in the fpring feafon at Ifpahan, as the Seine is at Paris, or nearly half as wide as the Thames at London. Of all the Afiatic capi tals, Ifpahan has been the most accurately defcribed by travellers, at leaft as it appeared about a century ago; and fince that time our accounts of Perfia have in general been extremely defective. Sir T. Herbert, the Holftein ambaffadors, Tavernier, Carreri, and efpecially Chardin and Le Brun, have given defcriptions of this metropolis of Perfia, as ample and elaborate as any that we poffefs of fome European capitals. Ifpahan ftands in a beautiful, fpa. cious, and fertile plain, furrounded with mountains, which defend it from the piercing winds of the winter feafon, allay the fultry heats of fummer, and caufe a mild and pleafant temperature of the air, which, with the goodnefs of the waters, both in the river and the fprings, renders this place a healthful refidence +. The plain, and even the city, are watered by feveral rivulets and branches of the Zenderoud, a circumftance extremely favourable to vegetation. Many of the streets are adorned with plantains; and almost every house having its garden well stocked with fruittrees, the whole refembles a wood, and at a distance the city can fcarcely be diftinguifhed. The circuit of Ifpahan is computed by Chardin at twenty English miles. The walls confift only of a rampart of earth, fo covered with houfes, and shaded with trees, as not to be eafily difcovered; and the citadel is a mean Structure, in a ruinous ftate, but provided with a few cannon, "Tavernier, tom. i. lib. 4. ch. 1." Ipahan is fituated in the fouth-eaft corner of the ancient Media, Renneil's Geog. of Herodot. p. 271 The The houfes are vile, and the ftreets narrow, irregular, and extremely ill-paved. The royal palace is three quarters of a league in circumference, and has fix gates. The grand marketplace is large and magnificent; and the principal street, called Chiar-hang, which is adorned with fplendid fhops, is one of the grandeft ornaments of the city. The bridge of Allawerder Khan, over the Zenderoud, conftructed of large ftones, and confifting of thirty-three arches, commands one of the fineft profpects in the world, comprising pleafure-houfes, gardens, mofques, and various kinds of ftructures. The fuburbs of Julfa were, in the time of Chardin, very large, and inhabited by the Armenians. Various eftimates have been made of the population of Ifpahan. Sir Thomas Herbert computed it 200,000. Sir J. Chardin esteemed its population equal to that of London, which, in his time, might contain 600,000 inhabitants. But in that age the population of great cities was almoft always exaggerated; and travellers could fcarcely avoid being led into errors by mifinformation. It is, however, to be prefumed, that in confequence of the intestine commotions and frequent revolutions which have, during the laft century, taken place in this country, the metropolis has greatly declined. In 1722 it was taken and plundered by the Afgans; and Mr. Hanway, in his Travels, informs us, on the authority of a Perfian merchant, that it was fo greatly reduced, as not to have above 5000 of the houfes inhabited. Of the prefent ftate of Ifpahan little is known at prefent in this quarter of the world; but whoever should' view it at this day, would certainly not find it to correfpond with the defcription here given of it from Chardin and Le Brun." P. P. 97. But "Hiftorical View-General Progrefs of Society, of Letters and Science, of Arts and Commerce.] Perfia, as already obferved, is early noticed in facred hiftory, under the name of Elam*. from the reign of Chedorlaomer, contemporary with the patriarch Abraham t, to that of Cyrus the Great, we have no accounts of its history. For fome time previous to the reign of Cyrus, although the Perfian throne was poffeffed by its native princes, they appear to have been tributary, or vaflals to the powerful empires of Affyria, Media, or Babylon. The whole of this dark period is buried in oblivion; and the fubverfion of the Babylo nian empire is the event which first gave importance to Perfian hiftory. The conqueft of Babylon, and the foundation of the Perfian empire by Cyrus, whofe name hiftory, both facred and profane, has immortalized, is the greatest revolution that marks the annals of remote antiquity, Cyrus, having fucceeded his uncle Cyaxeres, called in fcripture Darius, iffued his memorable "See Hiftorical Sketch of Afiatic Turkey." + Genefis, chap. xiv." Cc 4 edi& |