good effeits o f the climate: yet it would be intolerable was it
not for the regular refreihing breezes and cooling ihowers that
come from the fea at Rated hours. Thefe happily arrive in
what is called the | Celeflial fummer,’ when the fun is vertical,
and their neceflity the firongefi. The winds that pafs over
the land, come heated by their paflage over the fands like the
air of the mouth o f an oven. The night and day are here nearly
equally difparted, though not in the fame exait divilion as
under the equator, yet, partly in that, and wholly in other re-
fpe£ts, fo as to vindicate the beautiful quotation from our celebrated
Prior, vol. ii. p. 157. To make that paifage more clear,
I muft introduce the doubts o f Solomon refpeiting the habitability
o f the frigid and torrid zones, according to the notions
which were held of them by the antients.
I doubt o f many lands, i f they contain
Or herd o f beaft, or colony of man,
I f any nations pafs their deftin’d days ,
Beneath the neighb’ring fun’s direiter rays.
If any fuffer on the Polar coaft
The rage of Arctosy and eternal froft.
May not the pleafiire of Omnipotence
To each of thefe fome fecret good difpenfe.
Thofe who amidft the torrid regions live,
May they not gales unknown to us receive;
See daily ihow’rs rejoice the thirfty earth,
And blefs the flow’ry buds fucceeding birth ?
May they not pity us, condemn’d to bear
The various Heav’n of an obliquer fphere :
W h ile
While by fix’d laws, and with a.juft return
They feel twelve hours that (hade, for twelve that burn ;
And praife the neighb’ring fun whofe conftant flame
Enlightens them with feafons Hill the lame.
Fort St. George (the new name for Madras) was founded about Four Sr.
the year 1643, by permiflion o f a prince tributary to the king o f Geoeoe‘
Golconda, the Gentoo Raja o f Cbandergberri, on their purchafed
land o f Chinapatam * . Poflibly we had as little territory round
our infant fettlement, as the Tyrian queen gained round Carthage
by her flratagem of the lengthened thongs o f her bull’s-
hide. Had his majeRy looked into the mirror o f fate, he P r o p h e t i c
would have feen his own kingdom fwallowed up by Aureng- VlsI0N‘
zebe, in 1687 : he would have feen, under that prince, the Hin-
dooftan empire fpread over the mighty peninfula; after a few
years the glafs would have reflected a wondrous change: A
Perfian monarch carrying his arms to the capital of the empire,
bidding its weak monarch defcend from his throne; and, itili
more mortifying, bidding him remount the abdicated Rate: he
would afterwards have feen this mighty empire fall to pieces,
disjointed by the defeaion o f the great viceroys, and the emperor
himfelf left with lefs power and lefs dominion than
the weakeR o f thofe governors, who had lately trembled at his
nod. The horrors of the viiion would have multiplied : he
would have feen a fallen monarch, and the miferable Mogul+
and tender family, left to fuffer the pains o f hunger and thirR;
ladies of the blood royal flarved to death; and others in de-
fpair precipitating themfelves from the fummit o f the palace
• Orme’s Fragments, 84. f Shah Alliim.
V ol . II. t
1 in to