“Though this account of the officer was highly exaggerated, it was probably built on some foundation in truth. Pigafetta mentions, that he had heard there were fowls of such strength and magnitude near the gulf of China, as to be capable of carrying large animals [g] through the air: and that a bird, of stupendous size, exists in the southern parts of the Indian ocean, appears from the testimony of an English navigator, whose veracity is as unquestionable as his professional abilities. It is mentioned in Dr. Kippis’s Life of Cook, “that he found in an island, not far from New Holland, a bird’s nest, which was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than six and twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches in height.” In this manner might the whole work be gone through. And this mode of illustration would have been farther advantageous than what I have here pointed out. If diligently pursued, it might lead to interesting discoveries, relative to the progress of ideas from one nation to another. A scientific translator would not only be induced to trace many of these stories to a classic origin; but likewise to retrace some of the classic fictions to their primitive Eastern derivation. In the middle ages the Arabians borrowed largely from the Greeks; and the latter, in much earlier times, derived from the banks of the Ganges, and not unfrequently through the medium of Egypt, the greater part of their literature and mythology. This fact seems to be clearly ascertained by late translations from the ancient writers of India; and from them the Arabs appear some times to have adopted directly, without the intervention of any other medium, many imaginary occurrences and popular tales. [h] I shall now cite a few authors who have spoken of the Arabian Nights as containing faithful delineations of the manners and customs of Oriental nations; and begin with our fair countrywoman, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, from whose entertaining, and I believe accurate, letters I shall make two extracts. The first describes her visit to the wife of the second officer in the Turkish empire.