2?0

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

tc in both countries. I have failed from the Indies tot( Persia in Indian ships, when no European has been“ aboard but myself. The pilots were all Indians, andt£ they used the fore-stafF and quadrant for their obferva-£ ‘ tions. These instruments they have from us, and made“ by our artists, and they do not in the least vary from“ ours, except that the characters are Arabic. The Arabstc are the most skilful navigators of all the Asiatics orw Africans; but neither they nor the Indians make use of£t charts; and they do not much want them : some theyt£ have, but they are copied from ours, for they are<c altogether ignorant of perspective. " Inquiry when theMahomedans first entered China, p. 141, &c. "WhenM. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found a magnetic needlein the possession of a stlahomedan, which served to pointout the Kaaba , and he gave it the name of El Magnatis ,a clear proof of its European origin. Voyage en Arabie,torn. ii. p. 169.

NOTE XXXVIII. Sect. III. p. 104.

The progress of Christianity, and of Mahomedanifm,both in China and India, is attested by such evidence asleaves no doubt with respect to it. This evidence iscollected by Assemannus, Biblioth. Orient, vol. iv. p. 4 J 7,&c. 421, &c.; and by M. Kenaudot, in two Dissertationsannexed to Anciennes Relations; and by M. de la Croze,Histoire du Christianifme des lodes. In our own age ,however, we know that the number of proselytes to eitherof these religions is extremely small, especially in India.A Gentoo considers all the distinctions and privileges ofhis cast, as belonging to him by an exclusive and incom-municable-right. To convert, or to be converted, areideas equally repugnant to the principles most deeply rootedin his mind; nor can either the Catholic or Protestantmissionaries in India boast of having overcome theseprejudices, except among a few in the lowest casts, or