2-8

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

and fingers, who paid a tax to government; Ferishta,translated by Dow, vol. i. p. The third kingdom,

was Cachemire. Massoudi, as far as I know, is the firstauthor who mentions this paradise of India , of which hegives a short but just description. The fourth is the king-dom of Guzerate, which he represents as the greatest andmost powerful ; and he concurs with the two ArabianTravellers, in giving the sovereigns of it the appellation ofBalhara. What Massoudi relates concerning India is moreworthy of notice, a? he himself had visited that country ;Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque duRoi, tow i. p. 9, 10. Massoudi confirms what the twoArabian Travellers relate, concerning the extraordinaryprogress of the Indians in astronomical science. Accordingto his account, a temple was built during the reigns ofBrahman, the first monarch of India, with twelve towers,representing the twelve signs of the zodiac; and in which'was delineated , a view of all the stars as they appear inthe heavens. In the fame reign was composed the famousSind-Hind, which seems to be the standard treatise ofIndian astronomy; Notices, &c. torn. i. p. 7. AnotherArabian author, who wrote about the middle of the four-teenth century , divides India into three parts. The nor-thern, comprehending all the provinces on the Indus. Themiddle, extending from Guzerate to the Ganges. Thesouthern , which he denominates Comar, from CapeComorin ; Notices, &c. torn. ii. p. 46.

NOTE XXXVII. Sect. III. P . 10r.

The naval skill of the Chinese seems not to have beensuperior to that of the Greeks, the Romans, or Arabians.The course which they held from Canton to Siraf, nearthe mouth of the Persian Gulf, is described by their ownauthors. They kept as near as possible to the shore untilthey reached the island of Ceylon, and then doubling CapeComorin, they sailed along the west side of the Peninsula,