The English possessions in Hindostan have led the way to two sets of discoveries, or rather advancements in geographical knowledge:  one which was derived from the journies frequently made overland from India to Europe; and the other, which was derived from embassies, &c. from Calcutta to the neighbouring kingdoms.  In general, however, the journies overland from India, having been undertaken expressly for the purpose of expedition, and moreover being through countries which required the utmost caution on the part of the travellers to preserve them from danger, did not admit of much observation being made, or much information being acquired, respecting the districts that were passed through.  The travels of Jackson, Forster, and Fitzclarence, are perhaps as valuable as any which have been given to the public respecting the route from India to Europe, and the countries, and their inhabitants, passed through in this route.

From the embassies and the wars of the British East India Company in Hindostan, we have derived much valuable information respecting Persia, Thibet, Ava, Caubul, &c.; and from their wars, as well as from the institution of the Asiatic Society, and the facilities which their conquests afforded to travellers, the whole of the peninsula of Hindostan, as well as the country to the north of it, as far as Cashmere and the Himaleh mountains, may be regarded as fully explored.  Perhaps the most valuable accession to geographical knowledge through the English conquests, relates to these mountains.  They seem to have been known to Pliny under the name of Imaus:  they are described by Plotemy; and they were crossed by some of the Jesuit missionaries about the beginning of the seventeenth century; but they were not thoroughly explored till the beginning of the nineteenth.  Mr. Moorcroft was the first European, after the missionaries, who penetrated into the plains of Tartary through these mountains.  The fullest account, however, of the singular countries which lie among them, is given by Mr. Frazer, who in 1814 passed in a straight line, in a direction of this chain, between 60 and 70 miles, and also visited the sources of the Ganges.

Our commerce with China for tea, and the hope of extending that commerce to other articles, produced, towards the end of the last century and the beginning of this, two embassies to China, from both of which, but especially from the first, much additional information has been gained respecting this extensive country, and its singular inhabitants; so that, regarding it and them, from these embassies, and the works of the Jesuit missionaries, we possess all the knowledge which we can well expect to derive, so long as the Chinese are so extremely jealous of strangers.