INDIA, one of the greatest regions of Asia, is bounded on the East by China, on the West by Persia, North by Great Tartary, and on the South by the Indian Sea. It is divided into three parts, viz. Indostan, or the Empire of the Great Mogul; India on this side the Ganges, and India beyond; the cities of Deli
[sic]
and Agra are the two chief, and, by turns, the residence of the Great Mogul, at each of which he has a very splendid palace. The most noted city on the coast is Surat, a place of great trade, where the English have a factory. India on this side the Ganges contains many petty kingdoms. On the coast are Goa, belonging to the Portuguese, which is their staple for East-India goods; and Bombay, a little island and town belonging to the English. On this coast are Pondicherry, Fort St. David, and Fort St. George, which belong to the English, who in fact possess the supreme dominion of the country, most of the native princes being either dependent on them, or happy to enter into alliance with them. India beyond the Ganges, is also divided into various kingdoms, and contains a great number of large and populous cities, of which we have no knowledge besides their names. The people are for the most part tawny, strong, and big, but very lazy. They eat on beds, or tapestry spread on the ground. They burn most of their dead, and their wives glory in being thrown into the funeral piles, and there consumed to ashes. The Great Mogul is a Mahometan, and esteemed the richest King in the world in jewels; one of his thrones is said to have cost five millions sterling
. Their commodities are silks, cottons, callicoes, muslins, sattins
[sic]
, carpets, gold, silver, diamonds, pearls, porcelain, rice, ginger, rhubarb
, aloes, amber, indigo, cinnamon, cocoa, &c. They are mostly Pagans, and worship idols of various shapes, and the rest are Mahometans, except a few Christians. Their monarch is absolute, and so are all the petty Kings; who are so fond of titles that they often take them from their jewels, furnitures, equipage, and elephants, to make up a number. This country is so exceeding rich, that it is thought by many to be the Land of Ophir, where Solomon sent for gold.
Of TURKEY in ASIA.
THIS vast continent takes in Natolia, Arabia, Phœnicia, Judea, or Palestine, and the Euphratian Provinces. The people are chiefly Mahometans, though there are many Jews and Christians in some places among them. There are various governments, but they are all subject to the Grand Signior, who depopulates these fine countries, and discourages industry; so that the Phœnicians, formerly famous for commerce, are at present a poor despicable people; and Judea, the land which heretofore flowed with milk and honey, is in general still fruitful, abounding in corn, wine, and oil, where cultivated, and might supply the neighbouring countries with all these, as they anciently did, were the inhabitants equally industrious. The parts above Jerusalem, its once famous capital, are mostly mountainous and rocky; but they feed numerous herds and flocks, and yield plenty of honey, wine, and oil, and the vallies