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to fhew the very fpot where every miracle, or tranfaction recorded in the fcripture, happened.

At Mecca, the capital of all Arabia, and the birthplace of Mahomet, is a mofque fo glorious, that it is generally counted the moft magnificent of any temple in the Turkish dominions. The number of pilgrims, who yearly vifit this place, is almoft incredible, every muffulman being obliged, by his religion, to come hither once in his life-time, or fend a deputy. At Medina, about 50 miles from the Red Sea, the city to which Mahomet fled when he was driven out of Mecca, and the place where he was buried, is a stately mofque fupported by 400 pillars, and furnished with 300 filver lamps, which are continually burning. It is called Most Holy, by the Turks, because in it is placed the coffin of their prophet Mahomet, covered with cloth of gold, under a canopy of filver tiffue. Hither the pilgrims refort, as to Mecca, but not in fuch numbers.

The Arabs are defcended from Ishmael, of whose pofterity it was foretold, that they fhall be invincible, "have their hands against every man, and every man's hands against their's." They are at present, and have remained from the remotest ages, during the various conquests of the Greeks, Romans and Tartars, a convincing proof of the divine origin of this prediction.

The famous Mahomet was born in the year 569, at Mecca. From his flight to Medina, which happened in the 622d year of Chrift, the 54th year of Mahomet's age, and the tenth of his miniftry, his followers, the Mahometans, compute their time, and the era is called in Arabic, Hegira, "the Flight."

Mahomet, by the affistance of the inhabitants of Medina, and of others, whom his address daily attached to him, brought over all his countrymen to a belief, or at leaft, to an acquiefcence in his doctrines. The speedy propagation of his fyftem among the Arabians, was a new argument in its behalf among the inhabitants of Egypt, and the Eaft, who were previoufly difpofed to it. Arians, Jews and Gentiles, all forfook their ancient faith, and became Mahometans. In a word, the contagion spread over Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Perfia ;

and

and Mahomet, from a deceitful hypocrite, became the moft powerful monarch in his time. He was proclaimed King at Medina, in the year 627, and after fubduing part of Arabia and Syria, he died in 632, leaving two branches of his race, both esteemed divine among fubjects.

their

See "The Hiftory of the Turkish or Ottoman Em pire, from its foundation in 1300, to the peace of Belgrade, in 1740; to which is prefixed an Historical Difcourfe on Mahomet and his fucceffors;" tranflated from the French of Mignot, by A. Hawkins, Efq. publithed in 1787.

THE

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HE Japan Islands, forming an empire, governed by a moft defpotic king, lie about 150 miles east of China. The foil and productions of these islands are much the fame as thofe of China. The Japanese are the groffeft idolaters, and irreconcileable to Chrif tianity. They are of a yellow complexion, narrow eyes, fhort nofes, black hair. A famenefs of drefs prevails through the whole empire, from the emperor to the peafant. The first compliment offered to a stranger in their houses, is a dish of tea, and a pipe of tobacco. Obedience to parents, and respect to fuperiors, characterize the nation. Their penal laws are very fevere, but punishment is feldom inflicted. The inhabitants have made great progrefs in commerce and agriculture. Formofa is a fine iflard east of China, abounding in all the neceffaries of life.

The Philippines, 1100 in number, tying 200 miles foutheast of China, belonging to Spain, are fruitful inall the neceffaries of life, and beautiful to the eye. They' are, however, fubject to earthquakes, thunder and lightning, venomous beafts, and noxious herbs, whose poison kills infantaneously. They are fubject to the Spanish government. The Sultan of Mindanao is a Mahome

tan.

Borneo,

Borneo, 800 miles long, and 700, broad, next to New Holland, is thought to be the largest island in the world. It lies on both fides of the equator, and is famous for being the native country of the Ouran Outang, which, of all irrational animals, resembles a man the most.

Sumatra, west of Borneo, produces fo much gold, that it was thought to be the Ophir mentioned in the Scriptures. But Mr. Marfden, in his late hiftory of this island, thinks it was unknown to the ancients; and Mr. Bruce has pretty clearly, fhown that the Ophir mentioned in the fcriptures, is in Africa.

Ceylon belongs to the English,* and is faid to be by nature the richest and finest island in the world. The natives call it, with fome fhew of reafon, the terrestrial paradife. They are a fober inoffenfive people, but idolThis island is noted for the cinnamon tree.

aters.

Java principally belongs to the Dutch, who have here erected a kind of commercial monarchy, the capital in which is Batavia, a noble and populous city, lying in the latitude of fix degrees fouth, at the mouth of the river Jucata, and furnished with one of the finest harbours in the world. The Chinese, refiding in this ifl and, are computed at 100,000; about 30,000 of that nation were barbarously maffacred without the smallest offence ever proved upon them, in 1740.

AFRICA.

the fourth grand divifion of the globe,

bears fome resemblance to the form of a pyramid, the base being the northern part of it, which runs along the fhores of the Mediterranean, and the point or top of the pyramid, the Cape of Good Hope. Africa is a peninfula

It belonged to the Dutch till 1802, when it was ceded to the English by the treaty establishing a general peace.

peninsula of a prodigious extent, joined to Afia only by a neck of land, about 60 miles over, between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, ufually called the Ifthmus of Suez, and its utmost length from north to fouth is 4300 miles; and the broadeft part is 3500 miles from eaft to weft. It is bounded on the North by the Mediterranean fea, which feparates it from Europe; on the Eaft, by the Ifthmus of Suez, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, which divide it from Afia; on the South, by the Southern Ocean; and on the West, by the great Atlantic Ocean, which separates it from America.

The most confiderable rivers in Africa, are the Niger, which falls into the Atlantic or Western Ocean, after a courfe of 2800 miles. It increafes and decreases as the Nile, fertilizes the country, and has grains of gold in many parts of it. The Gambia and Senegal are only branches of this river. The Nile, which, dividing Egypt into two parts, discharges itself into the Mediterranean, after a prodigious courfe from its fource in Abyffinia. The most confiderable mountains in Africa are the Atlas, a ridge extending from the Western Ocean, to which it gives the name of Atlantic Ocean, as far as Egypt, and had its name from a king of Mauritania, a great lover of aftronomy, who used to obferve the stars from its fummit; on which account the poets reprefent him as bearing the heavens on his fhoulders. The Mountains of the Moon, extending themselves between Abyffinia and Monomopata, and are ftill higher tha thofe of Atlas. Thofe of Sierra Leona, or the Mountains of the Lions, which divide Nigritia from Guinea, and extend as far as Ethiopia. These were ftyled by the ancients, the Mountains of God, on account of their being fubject to thunder and lightning. The Peak of Teneriffe, which the Dutch make their meridian, is about two miles high, in the form of a fugar loaf, and is fituated on an ifland of the fame name, near the coaft. The moft neted capes, or promontories, in this country, are Cape Verd, the most wefterly point of the continent of Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope (fo denominated by the Portuguese, when they first went round it in 1498) the fouth extremity of Africa, in the country

of

of the Hottentots. There is but one ftrait in Africa, which is called Babelmandel, and is she communication between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.,

Africa once contained feveral kingdoms and states, eminent for the liberal arts, for wealth and power, and the most extenfive commerce. The kingdoms of Egypt and Ethiopia, in particular, were much celebrated; and the rich and powerful ftate of Carthage, that once formidable rival to Rome itself, extended her commerce, to every part of the then known world. Upon the decline of the Roman empire, in the fifth century, the north of Africa was overrun by the Vandals, who contributed, ftill more to the destruction of arts and sciences; and, to add to this country's calamity, the Saracens made a fudden conquest of all the coafts of Egypt and Barbary, in the feventh century. Thefe were fucceeded by the Turks; and both being of the Mahometan religion, whofe profeffors carried defolation with them wherever they came, the ruin of that once flour. ifhing part of the world was thereby completed.

The inhabitants of this continent, with respect to religion, may be divided into three forts: namely, Pa gans, Mahometans, and Chriftians. The first are the moft numerous.

Having given the reader fome idea of Africa in general, we fhall now confider it under three grand divifions: First, Egypt; fecondly, the states of Barbary, ftretching along the coaft of the Mediterranean, from Egypt, on the East, to the Atlantic Ocean, Weft; and, laftly, that part of Africa, between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope; the last of these divifions, indeed, is vaftly greater than the other two; but the nations which it contains are fo little known, and fo barbarous, and, like all barbarous nations, fo fimilar in most refpects to one another, that they may, without impropriety, be thrown under one general head.

EGYPT.

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