It has been frequently observed by those who have been acquainted with India, that although almost the whole of the wide extent of country from the southern coasts of Ceylon to the snowy range of the Himalaya mountains, and from the confines of China to the shores of Guzarat has, within the last century, come under the dominion of Great Britain, there is scarcely a spot in the civilized world so incorrectly known to the British community in general as India. Tales of romance have beguiled the ardent imaginations of youth, and tale no less fictitious and delusive have misled the more ripened and sober judgement of manhood: for, with the general or local histories of the nations and tribes of Hindustan; the positions of the several states in regard to each other; the varieties in the people: or with their religion, their customs, or their manners, even the well-informed parts of European society have been almost as little acquainted, as if this important and valuable portion of our empire had been placed within the ice-bound regions of the frozen ocean.
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