Extract from a Letter addressed by the Reverend

Dr. Vincent to the Reverend R. Patrick.

"Dear Sir,

Notwithstanding the authority of Sir W. Jones, I have never been convinced of any original relation between the Chinese and Hindoos: all my researches have led me to the conclusion, that the Chinese are of Tartar extraction: the religion of Fo (now proved to be Boud) is modern in comparison; and I have my doubts whether the Chinese knowledge of Boud is not rather from Boud-tan than from Hindostan; though they themselves derive it from the latter this, however, is mere matter of specu lation.

I remain, with great respect,

Your most obedient and faithful servant,

Deanry, Westminster,

Oct. 17. 1811.

W. VINCENT."

PROPERTIUS classes the Seres with the Bactrians in

bk. Iv. Eleg. 3. v. 7.

Te modo viderunt iteratos Bactra per ortus ;

Te modo munito Sericus hostis equo:
Hibernique Geta, pictoque Britannia curru,

Ustus et Eoo decolor Indus equo.

Broukhusius here says:-" Seres et Bactra etiam apud Horat. junguntur 1. 3. Od. 29.

Urbi sollicitus times

Quid Seres, et regnata Cyro

Bactra parent, Tanaisque discors.

et 1. 4. Od. 15.

Non Seres, infidive Persæ,

Non Tanaim prope flumen orti."

The obvious reason for this geographical collocation is this: the Seres, or the Chinese, are proved by Mr. Patrick, from Sanscrit and Arabic authours, to have lived adjoining to, and in Bactriana, the classical name for Bucharia, of which the capital, the ancient Bactra, is the city of Sarmachand. But the reader will please to turn to the letter of Dr. Vincent's inserted in a former page.

Lucan in bk. x. v. 290. says of the Nile,
Cursus in occasus flexu torquetur, et ortus,

Nunc Arabum populis, Libycis nunc æquus arenis;

Teque vident primi, quærunt tamen hi

quoque, Seres, Ethiopumque feris alieno gurgite campos.

The reader may see, by turning to the note of Glareanus in Oudendorp's Lucan, that this passage has long

been the crux of commentators: Glareanus himself supposes that Lucan means by the Seres the Indians: Facciolati says in his Dictionary: "Lucani L. x. v. 292. de Nilo doctorum ingenia valde torquet; sunt enim Nili fontes in Africa; Serum sedes in Asia orientali:" Oudendorp thinks, "Pro gente Æthiopica sumsit auctor Seres, cum aliis; ut doctissime ostendit Palmerius in Apolog. contra Scaligerum." The passage is this: "At (inquit) etiam per Seras Nilum fluere dixit, Lucan. 1. x.

Teque vident primi, quærunt tamen hi quoque, Seres: id equidem dicentem Egyptium inducit suum fluvium μεγαλύνοντα, quo sermone nihil aliud voluit innuere quam remotissimos et ignoratos ejus fontes esse, et prima fluenta: quod si putavit (ut ait Scaliger, nec ego multum repugno) Lucanus cum Virgilio et aliis, Æthiopas et Indos aut eosdem esse, aut gentes conterminos, nihil mirum si Seras adjungit, gentem sine dubio Indis conterminam: nam eo seculo ignoraban

tur earum gentium veri situs, et intercedentia maria, quæ postea a Trajano navigata, Romanis tamen adeo non notiora, quin Ptolemæus ipse Africam circumfluam esse ignoraret, et ejus Australem partem Seris, per terram incognitam, conjunctam esse crederet, et mare Indicum undequaque terra ambiri scripto traderet (1. vII. c. 5.): inde etiam est, quod post Trajanum Pausanias dixit Seras esse Ethiopis consanguineis (Eliac, 1. 11. p. 205.): inde est quod Virgilius de Nilo scribit

Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis:

inde est quod Procopius, 1. vi. περὶ κτίσματος.
Νεῖλος μὲν ὁ ποταμὸς ἐξ Ινδῶν ἐπ' Αιγύπτου φερόμενος:
ů
inde est quod Heliodorus, 1. x. Seras subditos
Hydaspi Æthiopum regi facit, nisi forte fuerint alii
Seres in Africa, de quibus loquuntur Lucan. et
Heliodor. inde est quod Ægyptius ille apud Lucan.
Nilum per Seras fluere dixit, ut illum a remotissimis
regionibus fluere innueret: quod tamen non est tam
absurdum, quam eorum sententia, qui Nilum ex
Euphrate manare per occultos meatus volebant, quod
testatur Pausan. in Corinthiac." I do not see why
we should not understand by Ethiopum campi the
Chinese, or Eastern Ethiopians: the Poet says:

Teque vident primi, quærunt tamen hi quoque, Seres,
Ethiopumque feris alieno gurgite campos :

that is, "The country of the Seres is the first country, through which the Nile passes after its source; yet (says the Poet) even the Seres know not its source;" plainly intimating that the source of the Nile was supposed to be beyond the Seres: the last line only amplifies the idea: the Ethiopum refers to the Seres in the precedent line; and the alieno gurgite refers to the quærunt tamen hi quoque of the precedent line as the Nile is here supposed to rise beyond the Seres, of course its gurges was alienus with respect to them. I must request the reader to recollect the very important geographical observation of Mr. Patrick, which is supported by an appeal to Herodotus,' that there were two Æthiopias, of which one is placed in the East:' this Eastern Ethiopia is supposed by Mr. P., with great probability, to be the seat of the Chinese: this interpretation of the passage is also supported by another passage in bk. 1. v. 19, Sub juga jam Seres, jam barbarus isset Araxes,

Et

gens si qua jacet nascenti conscia Nilo.

A Lat. Schol. says here: "Seres populi Indiæ, adhuc Romanis non subjecti, apud quos sericum nascitur:" Lucan here too supposes the Seres to be placed near the sources of the Nile; that is, as I have just observed, he supposed the Nile to rise beyond the Seres.