that the Lunar dynasty then became totally extinct; and, in many of their legends, they particularize, by saying, the king who then reigned was of the tenth generation. For example, Mavaliporam the magnificent residence of the great house of Bali was founded by a grandson of Prathaud, mentioned in the fourth Avatar. The stately palaces, august temples, and stupendous edifices of this once magnificent city, are universally believed by every Hindu, whether learned or unlearned, to have been destroyed by "a general deluge brought upon the earth, by the immediate mandate of the supreme God." They still shew the chasm in the rock, that forms one of the largest choultrys; and the divided sculpture but too plainly shews that nothing less than such a convulsion of nature could have rent so large a mass of solid stone, leaving the divided sculpture on each side the chasm, evidently denoting that it was carved before the convulsion took place. This is a truth too apparent to be denied. But Mr. Maurice concludes his history of the fifth Avatar, by saying "the fable of the destruction of this capital by an inundation caused by the immediate mandate of the Gods, naturally inclines us to suspect those allegorists of confounding a deluge which subverted a great city, with a greater deluge which inundated the whole earth." This observation was necessary to support his hypothesis that Bali was descended from the Rajahs of Delhi of the name of Bal. Here the geographic information of this author is as erroneous, as his historic and chronological details are unfounded. Delhi is a province of Bengal, Mavaliporam a town situated near to Madras, on the Coromandel coast. Prathaud, from having been born in the house of Hirina-hassiak, was considered as his heir. He was of the fifth generation in the line of Atri, or the Moon; the Maha Bali of the fifth Avatar, who, in the early part of his life, was eminently mild, virtuous, and religious; but when he had attained the summit of his ambition he became so arrogant that his kingdom was taken from him by Vishnu, and given to the Soors, or children of the Sun. The generations are given as follows: 4. Hirinakassah the brother of Hirinacheren. 5. Prathaud. 6. Namachee. 7. Bali, the founder of Mavaliporam. 8. Banacheron. 9. Name omitted. 10. Malecheron, in whose time was the great deluge. These we must suppose to have been the generations of the illegitimate race of Lunar princes. We have seen that those of the fourth generation were usurpers, and those of the fifth illegitimate. It therefore appears probable, that, when Prathaud, of the fifth generation, was deposed by the Solar race, he retired to the coast of Coromandel, and founded the city of Mavaliporam, where his descendants erected those stupendous edifices, which are still the wonder of mankind. The Brahmans admit, that, for a whole generation, Mavaliporam was deserted; when Malecheron returned, repaired, and added to the capital, by building magnificent palaces and temples roofed with gold, and floored with ivory: that, during his reign, impiety increased so greatly, that the supreme God let loose the billows of the deep, for the destruction of the whole race. By Malecheron is certainly intended the contemporary of Noah in an illegiti mate race. For in this list, the ten generations are given without noticing them as kings in succession: whereas the Chaldeans fix the epoch of the deluge at 1680 years of 360 days; and then tell us, that the sum of the generation of patriarchs was ten; of whom six in the race of Cain, exclusive of Alorus or Adam, became sovereigns in succession that their collected reigns lasted 740 years of 360 days, which reached to the deluge: and that the contemporary of the last generation was Sisuthrus, the son of Ardates, who was saved in an ark. If, therefore, the Brahmans of Mavaliporam are correct in their account, Sisuthrus was the contemporary of Malecheron. If we proceed to the Chinese history, we find nearly a similar, although a less perfect account of the antediluvians, but a yet more explicit account of the first ruler in the postdiluvian world. For we have the year of his birth, as well as the year of his rule or reign; the former is placed at A. M. 1056, which meets the Hebrew text; and his rule at A. M. 1649, the year in which his father died. They speak decisively, in repect to the year of the flood: which is not only placed at 1680 prophetic years, but is particularized by Confucius, as being the 756th year of the Cali age. They likewise make Yau the first postdiluvian ruler, the eighth ruler of the world. The Chinese profess to have no records that can be depended on, prior to the rule of Yau. Nevertheless, I am inclined to think that a diligent and unprejudiced researcher might find abundant antediluvian information. Couplet was a most diligent, but most prejudiced historian. Presupposing Fo-hi to be Noah, he has wrested every transaction to answer that chimera. Fo-hi was the first-created, the parent of mankind: "Fo-hi the son of heaven," could never be intended for Noah, the son of Lamech. Fo-hi was of the first generation; Noah of the tenth: Yau became the first ruler of the new world, the year after the deluge, stated, as we have seen, at a. M. 1656; but he is supposed to have commenced his rule in the old world on the death of his father, seven years sooner, or A. M. 1649, the year that Chi died. The genealogy is given as follows: 1. Fo-hi. 2. Shing-nang. 4. Shau-han. 5. Chwen-Hyo. 6. Ti-co. Of these seven kings, the Chinese do not profess to have any certain knowledge respecting the year when their several reigns commenced, or the duration thereof; further than that Fo-hi, the first ruler, was considered as a king for 115 years; and that Ci-e, the seventh emperor, was the last in the old world. Couplet places the commencement of the reign of his successor, Yau, at the year B. C. 2357, or A. M. 1649. This is evidently a supposititious date, inferred from Chi, who was not an emperor, having died at that period. It is difficult to determine, from which race the Chinese give the genealogy of the six princes between |