minute calculations and careful measurements, undertaken and carried on with a most complete apparatus,' and on ground better suited to the Major's views. The base line was measured on an unbroken flat of nearly eight miles, north and south, at no great distance from Fort St. George, and triangles were extended from this base, along the Coromandel coast, down to Cuddalore. The greatest possible precautions were taken against even trivial error, and the evidences of patient and skilful labour, afforded by this paper, and by subsequent statements, are of the most admirable kind. The utmost care was used to determine the stations permanently, by enclosing the pickets which marked them, in structures of masonry, while the precise point was minutely ascertained by the intersection of fine silken threads, and by the coincidence of the plummet with the centre of the inclosed picket. In the tenth volume was inserted a yet more gratifying detail of extensive operations carried across the peninsula, over the lofty ranges of the Eastern and Western Ghauts, through an extent of more than three hundred and sixty miles, on the parallel of the mean latitude between Madras aud Mangalore. This important and laborious work, Major Lambton describes himself as having been enabled to accomplish successfully by the unrestricted liberality of the supreme and local governments. It is pleasant to meet with an instance of prompt and unsuspecting assistance afforded by a native prince, the Coorg rajah, to whose liberal aid he was indebted for the suc'cessful means he had of carrying the triangles over the stupen'dous' summits of the Western Ghauts. In the present volume, we have the continuance of these trigonometrical measurements, carried on with admirable zeal, skill, and perseverance, and ranging from Gooty to Cape Comoria. Besides this, an additional series has been extended from Tranquebar and Negapatam, to Paniany and Calicut, and we learn that it is intended to pursue these operations through the Dekkan up to the northern confines of the territories of the Nizam, beyond the latitude of twenty degrees. The Major adds, that the base near Gooty had been the foundation of triangles, connecting Masulipatam with Goa, which were to be completed in 1813, and he expresses his confidence, that, at the termination of that year, the correct geographical position would be ascertained, of every place from Cape Comorin to Goa ou the west, and to Masulipatam on the east, including all the interjacent space. His calculations relating to the measurement of the grand meridional are, and bis formulæ for determining the figure and dimensions of the earth, are also stated in these papers, but for them we must refer to the book itself. The following striking piece of description occurs in the last communication.

There are some remarkable facts with respect to the country to

the westward of Bangalore. After passing the range of hills, in which Savendroog, Paughur, and several other stations are situated, the country has a sudden descent, and continues low considerably to the westward of Sering apatam, where it begins again to rise towards the mountains called the Western Ghauts, which are, in general, from two to three thousand feet higher than those which form the Eastern Ghauts. Seringapatam, therefore, and all the country north and north-easterly towards the ceded districts, is a valley, upwards of a thousand feet below the table land round Bangalore, descending as we advance to the northward. The Savendroog range forms a kind of barrier to the east, but a more complete one is formed to the westward, by those stupendous mountains which form the Ghauts, a number of which are from five to six thousand feet above the sea. The countries of Canara and Malabar lie immediately below these Ghauts, and the sea is every where in sight. These countries are low, but broken, and much interspersed with back-water, rivers, and extensive ravines, shaded with forest and jungle, and filled with population; for the upland is barren, and it is in these ravines, and on the banks of the rivers, where all the inhabitants reside. In the month of February, the low country becomes excessively hot, and the vapour and exhalation so thick, that it is difficult to see to the distance of five miles. I have viewed this curious laboratory from the tops of some of the highest mountains, where I was scarcely able to bear the cold. The heat increasing during the months of March and April, a prodigious quantity of this moisture is collected, which remains day and night in a floating states, sometimes ascending nearly to the height of the mountains, where it is checked or condensed by the cold; but immediately after descending, it is again rarefied, and becomes vapour before it can reach the earth; and in this state of floating perturbation it remains till the setting in of the western monsoon, when the whole is condensed into rain, some falling on the low country, some among the mountains, and what escapes is blown across the Mysoor, and immediately over this valley, which I have just mentioned. This account is foreign to my present purpose; but I trust I shall be pardoned for the digression, as it is a statement of facts relative to a part of the country, which has been a grave both to Europeans and natives, ever since the fall of Seringapatam.'

Amid

The second article is, On the Malayu nation, with a translation of its maritime institutions. By Thomas Raffles, Esq. Sir Thomas Raffles is, certainly, an extraordinary man. the anxieties and exertions of the very laborious offices which he has discharged with exemplary activity and talent, he has found leisure for extensive and well-conducted inquiries into the history, manners, arts, and literature of the different tribes among whom he has been resident. When Sir Thomas was only secretary to the government of Pulo Penang, Mr. Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, bore testimony to his intelligence and zeal in the pursuit of knowledge,' and expressed the strongest hope of his becoming an ornament to oriental literature.' This hope has since been amply realised: the essay before us,

6

though brief and incomplete, is at once the result of great and well applied labour and knowledge, and the pledge of future and unrelaxed research. It had been affirmed by Mr. Marsden, in the valuable work just referred to, that the Rejangs and other tribes of Sumatra were destitute of any written criterion of the laws,' and consequently, governed by traditionary usage;' and this observation has been usually considered as extending itself to the whole of the Malayan Archipelago. Sir T. Raffles has, in the present essay, stated more clearly the distinction between the aborigines of this extensive group, and the Malays, who, excepting in one instance, are never found in the interior of the islands, but invariably on the sea-coast. We are not, however, quite satisfied with Sir Thomas's statement, that the Malays seem to have occupied a country previously unappropriated, for if we except an inconsiderable race of Caffries, who are occasionally found near the mountains, and a few tribes of the Orang benua, there does not exist a vestige of a nation anterior to the Malays in the whole peninsula.' The exception seems to us to mar the whole of the inference; for it does not appear, at least from Sir T. Raffles's shewing, but that these are the remains of nations once powerful, numerous, and widely spread. It was the opinion of Mr. Marsden, that the Menangkabaw nation, now inconsiderable, and limited to a small territory in the centre of Sumatra, originally possessed the whole island, and after successfully invading the Malayan peninsula, drove before them the indigenous inhabitants into the mountains, where, thinned by misery and the sword, they were compelled to linger out their wretched and precarious existence. It is a corroboration of this hypothesis, that the Sumatran state of Menangkabaw, small and powerless as it is, is still looked up to with reverence by the Malays in general; and that the Rajah and 'officers' of a considerable Malay tribe, inland of Malacca, never consider their authority and appointments' complete, until they have received written commissions' from the same weak, though venerated state. The Malays themselves are said by Sir Thomas, as quoted by Mr. Marsden, to affirm without hesitation, that they all came originally' from Pulo Percha (Sumatra). Dissatisfied with the little knowledge possessed by Europeans respecting the institutions of the different Malay states, Governor Raffles has exerted himself very effectually to obtain illustrative materials, and appears to have succeeded in collecting, besides Malay manuscripts of every description, copies of the Undang Undang Malayu,

Which, with the various collections of Addat, or immemorial customs, and what may be usefully extracted from the Sejareh Malayu and Akal Malayu, or annals and traditions of the Malaya, compríze what may be termed the whole body of the Malay laws, customs,

and usages, as far as they can be considered as original, under the heads of government, property, slavery, inheritance, and commerce.'

In this paper, Sir T. Raffles has confined himself to a sketch of the maritime code of the Malays, which, in a more complete and corrected form, he expresses his intention of publishing as part of a general digest of the Malay laws. The regulations are minute, and, with some exceptions, judicious; the relative privileges and duties of the different descriptions of persons navigating the Prahus, are distinctly defined; and in certain cases, the Captain is entrusted with the power of life and death. Beside this sketch,' he has inserted two interesting translations from Malayu manuscripts, the first relating to the Sumatran invasion of the peninsula, which we have already adverted to, and the second, describing the artifices by which the Portuguese gained possession of Malacca, and the means by which they were afterwards expelled. We ought not to omit stating, that Sir Thomas gives it as his opinion, that the Malays are a mixed race, and that they had no separate and distinct' national existence before the arrival of the Arabians in the eastern seas.' He supposes them to have been gradually formed' as a nation, and separated from their original stock by the admixture of · Arabian blood, and the introduction of the Arabic language and Moslem religion.'

No. 3, is a brief but able essay on the early History of Algebra, by Edward Strachey, Esq. written chiefly with a view to ascertain whether that science be of Greek or Indian origin. Mr. S. favours the latter hypothesis, and appears to believe that Diophantus, the only Greek writer upon the subject, was indebted, for the elements, at least, of his knowledge, to communications obtained from India through Alexandria. In support of this opinion he refers to Bombelli, who affirmed in 1579, that he had translated part of Diophantus, and that he found him frequently adverting to Indian authors. To the objection, that no such references now appear in the published works of that scientific Greek, it is replied, that Bombelli used a particular MS., then, and perhaps still, in the library of the Vatican; and that the correctness of his citations cannot be fairly questioned, until their absence from that MS. be ascertained. In his illustrations of Hindoo science, Mr. Strachey communicates a satisfactory analysis of the Khulasat-ul-Hisab, considered by the natives of Hindustan as the best treatise on Algebra now extant. From another Algebraic work, the Bija Ganita, of high reputation in the east, we shall extract Mr. Strachey's comparative estimate of that treatise, and of the work of Diophantus.

The Bija Ganita will be found to differ much from Diophantus's work. It contains a great deal of knowledge which the Greeks had

not; such as the use of an indefinite number of unknown quantities, and the use of arbitrary marks to express them; a good arithmetic of surds; a perfect theory of indeterminate problems of the first degree; a very extensive and general knowledge of those of the second degree; a knowledge of quadratic equations, &c, The arrangement and manner of the two works will be found as essentially different as their substance. The one constitutes a body of science, which the other does not. The Bija Ganita is well digested and well connected, and is full of general rules which suppose great learning; the rules are illustrated by examples, and the solutions are performed with skill. Diophantus, though not entirely without method, gives very few general propositions, and is chiefly remarkable for the ability with which he makes assumptions in view to the solution of his questions. The former teaches Algebra as a science, by treating it systematically; the latter sharpens the wit by solving a variety of abstruse and complicated problems in an ingenious manner. The author of the Bija Gamita goes deeper into his subject, and treats it more methodically, though not more acutely, than Diophantus. The former has every characteristic of an assiduous and learned compiler; the latter of a man of genius in the infancy of science.'

Prefixed to the fourth Article, we felt gratification at seeing the name of the venerable Dr. Carey. This paper, though short, contains a curious description, communicated by Felix. Carey, of the funeral ceremonies of a Burman Priest. The Doctor appears to think that the manner in which different nations dispose of their dead, has 'in most instances,' reference to their opinions concerning a future state. Partially, this may be correct; but we are disposed to attribute at least an equal influence to circumstances, which, in common parlance, are purely accidental. Those nations, writes Dr. C.

who believe in the doctrine of the resurrection, practise inhumation. The Hindoos and other nations who believe the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, and consider fire as the element which purifies all things, usually burn their dead, with a variety of ceremonies suited to those religious notions which are peculiar to the different sects. The inhabitants of Thibet, differing from most other nations, either totally neglect the bodies of their dead, or treat them in a manner which to us appears highly barbarous. The Burmans burn their dead like the Hindoos, though with a great difference in the method, and the attendant ceremonies. With them, the wood of the coffin, (which is made larger and stronger than with us) is nearly all the fuel used to consume the bodies of the common people. The priests, or Poongees, are, like them, burnt by the wood of their own coffins; but the fire is communicated by means of rockets.'

In the instance of the individual whose funeral ceremonies are here described, it appears, that after undergoing the process of embalming, and having been kept in that state for about two years, preparations were made for burning the body. Rockets of an enormous size, and colossal figures of various animals,