Their

make a traffic of Tartar flaves who have been folen, and felt them to the Turks and the Perfians. chief riches confill in horfes, of which perhaps there are more in Tartary, than in any other part of the world. The natives are taught by custom to live in the fame place with their horfes; they are continually employed in managing them, and at laft bring them to fuch great obedience, that the horse fee.ns actually to underftand the rider's intention.

To this race of men alfo, we muft refer the Chinefe and the Japanese, however different they feem in the r manners and ceremonies. It is the form of the body we are now principally confidering; and there is, between thefe countries, a forprifing refemblance. It is in general allowed that the Chinele have broad fices, fmall eyes, Bat nofes, and fcarce any beard that they are broad and fquare fhouldered, and rather lefs in ftature than Europeans. Thefe are marks common to them and the Tartars, and they may, therefore, be confidered as being derived from the fame original. "I have obferved, fays Chardin, that in all the people from the eatt and the north of the Cafpian fea, to the peninfula of Ma lacca, that the lines of the face, d the formation of the vifage, is the fame. This has induced me to beleve, that all these nations are derived from the fame original, however different either their complexions or their manners may appear: for as to the complexion, that proceeds entirely from the climate and the food; and as to the manners, there are generally the refult of their different degrees of wealth or power." That they come from one flock, is evident alfo, from this; that the Tartare who fettle in China, quickly refemble the Chinefe; and, on the coatrary, the Chinefe who fettle in Tartary, fon affome the figure, and the manners of the Tartars.

The Japanese fɔ much refemble the Chinele, that one cannot hesitate to Tank them in the fame clafs. They only differ in being rather browner, as they inhabit a more fouthern cli mate. They are, in general, defcrib

ed, as of a brown complexion, s fhort ftature, a broad fat face, a very little beard, and black hair. Ther cyftoms and ceremonies are nearly the fame; their ideas of beauty fimilar; and their artifical deformities of blackening the teeth, and bandaging the feet, entirely alike in both countries. They both, therefore, proceed from the fame flock; and al though they differ very much from their brutal progenitors, yet they owe their civilization wholly to the mildaefs of the climate in which they refide, and to the peculiar fertility of the foil. To this tribe alfo, we may refer the Cochin Chinefe, the Stamele, the Tonquinese, and the inhabitants of Aracin, Lios, and Pegu, who, though all differing from the Chinele, and each other, nevertheless, have too ftrong a refemblince, not to be tray their common original.

Another, which makes the third variety in the human fpecies, is that of the fouthern Afiatics; the form of whofe features and perfons may be eafily diftinguished from thofe of the Tariar races. The nations that inhabit the peninfula of India, feem to be the principal flock from whence the inhabitants of the inlands that lie fcattered in the Indian ocean, have been peopled. They are, in general, of a fender fape, with long firait black hair, and often with Roma nofes. Thus they refemble the Earopeans in flature and features; but greatly differ in colour and habit of body. The Indians are of an olive colour, and, in the more fouthern parts, quite black; although the word Mogul, in their language, fig. nifies a white man. The women are extremely delicate, and bathe very often they are of an olive colour, as well as the men ; their legs and thighs are long, and their bodies short, which is the oppofite to what is feen among the women of Europe. They are, as I am affured, by no means fo frontful as the European women; but they feel the pains of child birth with much less fenfibility, and are generally up and well the day following. In fat, these pains seem greatest in all Countries where the women are moft delicate, or the conflitution enfeebled by luxury or indolence. The wo

mes

men of favage nations feem, in a great measure, exempt from painful labours; and even the hard working wives of the pealants among ourfelves, have this advantage, from a life of induftry, that their child. bearing is less painful. Over all India, the children arrive fooner at maturity, than with us of Europe. They often marry, and consummate, the husband at ten years old, and the wife at eight; and they frequently have children at that age. However, the women who are mothers fo foon, cease bearing before they are arrived at thirty; and, at that time, they appear wrinkled, and feem marked with all the deformities of age. The Indians have long been remarkable for their cowardice and effeminacy; every conqueror that has attempted the invasion of their country, having fucceeded. The warmth of the climate entirely influences their manners; they are flothful, fubmiffive and luxurious: fatisfied with fenfual happiness alone, they find no pleafüre in thinking; and contented with flavery, they are ready to obey any mafter. Many tribes among them eat nothing that has life; they are fearful of killing the meaneft infect; and have even erected hofpitals for the maintainance of all kinds of vermin.

The Afiatic drefs is a loose flowing garment, rather fitted for the purposes of peace and indolence, than of induftry or war. The vigour of the Afiatics is in general conformable to their drefs and nourishment; fed upon rice, and cloathed in effeminate filk veftiments, their foldiers are unable to oppose the onset of an European army; and, from the times of Alexander to the prefent day, we have fcarce any inftances of their fuccefs in arms. Upon the whole, therefore, they may be confidered as a feeble race of fenfualifts, too dull to find rapture in any pleafures, and too indolent to turn their gravity into wifdom. To this clafs we may refer the Perfians and Arabians, and, in general, the inhabitants of the iflands that lie fcattered in the Indian

ocean.

(To be continued.)

A Defcription of the Island of Madeira, with an Account of the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants.

(Continued from Page 554.)

ESTERDAY I made an excur

Yfion to the furrounding moun

tains, an undertaking of too much difficulty and fatigue for Portuguese indolence to encounter. My felf and two English gentlemen (one of them long refident here, and the fame who had ferved me before as interpreter) were the party. We were all mounted on mules, and, agreable to the cuftom of the country, the owners of the beafts ran on foot as guides, and two others on foot alfo carried bafkets of provifions for ourfelves, and our mules, wine, &c. and although barefooted, ran among the cutting ftones fafter than we had occafion for them to do; the basket bearers having I believe near an hundred weight each to carry. We fat out before lix, and afcended extreme fleep and craggy ways; for about four measured miles the country was all as I have defcribed it; then we gradually leffened the number of vines and fruit trees, getting more among chefnuts, walnuts, and teel trees; and a little more corn than nearer the town, and more craggy ground. The fig trees were ftill very frequent. When we had gone two miles further we had left the vines, and more cultivated parts intirely, but yet all in our view, and we were among trees, in open groves or in tufts, as if defignedly planted: fome places too perpendicular in appearance for a goat to climb, had yet corn in little frips to the very fummit; the more craggy, the more myrtle abounded; and, as I have already faid, you are to look on this Island as one continued ridge of hills, with fmaller rifing out of its fides; there was of courfe numbers of little hollows, in these were the peasants hutts, being juft like thofe of the wild Indians; thatched with broom, or flubble, down within one yard of the ground, and flanding on pofls, the

fides.

fides quite open; thefe miferable things, however, all flood under chefnut trees, with each a fpot of vines, yaums, elders, canes, &c. clofe to them, and an orange tree or two; but as their produce was only for their own fupport, and not for fale, they had but fmail patches. They often gain about five perce, or fixpence, by carrying a great burden of wood (which Uy cut on the mountains) down to the towns, either for the kitchen, or chiefly for the vine frames. Here the peafants children had on moftly only a coarse fhirt, the boys efpecially; the men that, and a kind of drawers or trowfers; the wo men a ragged petticoat, and fometimes another round their fhoulders; in fhort their appearance of poverty is great.

After going through much the fame country about four miles more, we began to have fewer chefnuts, and more pines, but chiefly a kind of ve ry low underwood of pine, phyllerea and wild pomegranate, and foon the chefnuts grew very fcarce, and the Country of courfe much more barren. Three miles more brought us to the fummit of all we were to afcend; when a little down on the other fide we faw a plain (very level for Madeira) of about three or four miles acrofs every way, and in the middle ftood a little chapel, dedicated to St. Antoine de Sarra, which means of the wilderness. That plain was not at all rocky, but the fol of a fiff red clay, as were indeed the fummits of many of the most perpendicular hills, and the underwood high as in England at twelve or fourteen years growth. The defcent from the fummit, from whence we faw the plain into it, was about feventy or eighty yards, but that part was much lower than the circle of hills in general that encom paffed it, which formed a perfec horfe fhoe, whofe opening fronted the eaft fea, where about three or four leagues off were two other Islands called the Serters. The hills on the back, facing the opening, were the highet, and moft irregular of any we yet had feen, and fo fingularly and beautifully broken, that only just seeing them cannot give a proper idea of them.

By the time we had reached the chan pel, we had been five hours and a taif on our mules, and an half an hour we had spent in breakfasting under fome of the chefnuts; and as near as I, my companions, and guides could judge, we had gone rather more than fltera Engh miles. There was a poor intle chapel, a little lodging hoole, and many fables and large long rooms as out houfes over them; the afe of which was to accomodate a great refort of people that annually in the middle of June go there, originally a

pilgrimage, but now more for merriment, or gaming, and flay four days, or even longer, lying promifcuouky on rushes firewed on the floors at night. The eating and drinking es pences are borne by a (mall junto of the natives, who take their tur Agreeable to their indolence, they ever go by water as far as they can: the fame rout by which we returned, there was a preft, fome lay brothers, and an hermit; the latter of whom, amidft his long beard and dirt, wasas merry as poffible; we dined with the hermit and prieft on our own provifions; and what with Latin, of which both underflood much less than even myfelf; what with English and French, of which they fill know lefe; and what with an attempt at Porteguefe on my part, about equal to their English, our converfation was a medley unequalled. They had walked in a very small part of this plain for a garden, and had cut away the underwood in walks, very rudely made, and kept; but had improved it by plasting chefnuts, oranges, jeffamine, honey-fuckles, and myrtle on the fides of the walks; and made a conftant impenetrable fhade, very agreeable, and indeed feveral narrow rides through the whole plain, which being not rocky, but level, and the clay as good as gravel, by fo much dry weather as is here, made the fituation exceffively pleasant.

After two hours ftay here, giving a fmall prefent of our wine, and a little money to be remembered in their prayers, as is the custom, we. fet forward, and croffed the reft of the plain and about oppofite to where we had entered it; we then afcended the ridge again through the fame kind of wuder wood.

underwood. As foon as we had got on the top of that ridge, we looked down on a hollow plain of about three hundred and fifty yards diameter, encompaffed by a hill (of which the spot we flood on was part) of about twenty-five yards perpendicular height very remarkable for the exactness of its circular form, for its perfe&ly uniform height, and flope, lengthened into an easy descent; from its continuance without any apperture; all cloathed with underwood to the beginning of the plain, which also was regular in its form; gradually deep ening towards the center, and called the lake, as being generally filed with water, full fufficient, as all affured me, to float twenty men of war; but I wanted faith, as (unless my eye deceived me) it was not in the middle (the very deepest part) above fifteen feet deeper than the level of the foot of the hill, and underwood; higher than which the water never came.

On departing thence we foon loft the underwood, and were in a very barren, craggy country; no trees or fcarce any thing but vaft quantities of very low fhrubby myrtle, all in full bloom, growing like furze between the ftones and rocks. We rode on in this manner to the ridge of a very high mountain that hung over a town called Machico, the fecond in the Ifland, though a small one; in a long broad, and very gently floping valley with a ftream through the middle, facing the fea, and covered as about here with vines, and all forts of the fame fruit trees; and the contraf of that, with the place we flood on, and round us, was exceffive romantick.

mirtle,but not as a fence, feveral openings to go in being left: indeed fences are not requifite, for neither cow, ox, mule, hog, and (near the vintage) even dogs, are loofe, but all tied to a ftake, the fame of fheep and goats, excepting quite on the barren tops of the mountains, where children always watch them, and have them fo tame as to lead them by the horns, or ears any where. Here we baited again our guides, fent them and the mules to town by land, about eleven or twelve miles, and took boat ourselves and coafted round (about as far) with a very pleasant breeze, which brought us to Fonchall; the coafting being as agreeable a part of our expedition as any; for the shore every moment improved in beauty, the nearer we approached this capital, where we arrived juft on the clofe of the evening. I forgot to mention, that (among the chefnut groves particularly) there were perpetual rills of water falling down all the hollows, and making, from the ruggedness of their channels, and their fleep descent, a moft agreeable found; for it was too loud to be called murmur: we went under feveral that fell a great height, one particularly I believe near an hundred feet, in three or four perpendicular breaks; and in the very fream (which was however (mall for a cafcade) grew in the clefts of the rock flunted chefnut, telus trees, and myrtle; and the fame, but still more of them, above and below it, and on each fide. With a larger body of water nothing could have exceeded it; and with what it had, it was ftill infinitely beautiful. I muft not omit that the Portuguefe indolence, contracted by the English gentlemen, who accompanied us, and was our interpreter, made what was really little more than an agreeable excursion, so great a fatigue to him, as not to be recovered in fome days; and the account of fuch a preformance, fcarce gains credit with the Portuguèfe, who hourly come where I lodge to enquire into the truth of it: none of them nor any ftrangers who have made even fome ftay on the island, having ever fuffered their curiofity so far to pre. vail, as to attempt this rout, which magnified through the perspective of

We had been conftantly gradually defcending from the lake, and continued to do the fame through the laft kind of barren country, to a town about feven English miles and a half, from St. Antoine de Sarra, on the feafhore; inconfiderable, but neat; the third in repute, not near fo much Cultivated as by Machico, or this place, but still agreeably fo. In the middle was a large fquare opening, or green, planted with abele trees, fome oranges, &c. like a grove, jeffamine, honey-fuckles, and roses; and fur rounded on all four fides by a double edge; the outer rofee, and the inner

infinite

infinite fupineners, the true character of the Portuguese, has hitherto been reputed very long, arduous, and dan gerous. I must confefs that great part of the road required one accuf tomed to hills, and the mule is the only animal I should chufe to truf myfelf on; for many places were really extremely frightful, but fuofe I generally walked.

In the evening I walked up to the quinta to the large chefnut tree, accompanied by an English gentle man fettled here, who, by paffing his younger days with one well verfed in gardening, is looked upon among the inhabitants in this island as such himfelf; and is much the most underftanding perfon among them in the vegerable world; for that reafon I had been introduced to his acquaintance, to get any feeds, plants, &c. that I thought might be worth our propagating in England; I take two or three trivial ones the voyage round with me, and fettle a correfpondence with him to fend me the feeds of fome trees, &c. that this is not the proper feason for, and cuttings of all their vines.

I confefs, excepting the teel tree, the jeff mines, and alexandrian laurels, I see not any that will quite anfwer, or bid fair to fucceed in our climate. Their peaches, apricots, plumbs, or pears, and apples, are inferior to ours much; as they never touch them with a knife, graft, nor take any pains to improve them: I am however told that the beût forts are not yet ripe.

While we were at this quinta, (which my new acquaintance it seem ed had contrived for the late poffeffor) there came there alfo to fit under the tree, a rich Portuguefe of fafhion; born deaf and dumb; and with him a young man, who by figns imparted to him every thing that was fair, and explained his anfwers. My gardening acquaintance knew him well, and made his compliments by figns, and talked to him a good deal, understanding him almost as well as his interpreter.

He was very fond of the English, and begged (for we were juft going) that we would ftay longer, and on our all fitting down, he was in as

high fpirits as could be, and by his interpreter told feveral facetious flories; faid he was acquainted with feveral English gentlemen, particularly Captain Montagu, Lord Sandwich's brother, with whom he was very intimate; related several of their mad pranks jointly, asked if he was married, if he had children, and of which fex; and his interpreter explained our discourfe in one third of the time we took to fay it; the dumb man often foreftalling his explication by letting him know he understood it. He invited us to his town and country houfe, afked how long we Яayed, and told us he had made his gardens in a place thought too barren for any improvement; commended the tree we fat under, and the fituation of the place.

Had I not been an eye witnefs of it, I could not have believed the poffibility of fuch a thing; for he did not form letters by his fingers, but his explication feemed without method, although it doubtless was otherwife. Having spent an hour in this manner we returned a different way home.

Yefterday morning Iwent on foot, with a guide to a church that is repairing aud beautifying, called NoAtra Seignora delle Monte, about four miles off; our rout, to it was fill through the vineyards, fleeper than our day's ride, and the last half mile through the chefnut groves, which on this fide grew nearer the town, and were finer than those where our ride the day before led us.

The

The church was on a fugar loaf hill, on the fide of thegrand ridge, fo as to overlook the chefnuts immediately under it, the whole country and town, out into the fea. mountains on the back (mofily covered with chefnuts) inexpreffibly irregular, feemed ready to fall, and overwhelm it; although towards the fea we feemed to be up in the air.

There was nothing in the church worth a particular notice. From thence we walked about a mile the fame height from the fea, and allo under the fame fhade, and impending mountains; and then breakfafted on fruit and bread under the vines that covered a cottage. We continued about three miles more under moftly

the