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is illuftrated with charts and engravings. We understand that a fecond edition of the first is about to be published with fimilar embellishments.*

"Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope. To which is fubjoined, a Journey from Cape Town to Blettenburg's Bay. By ROBERT SEMPLE."

An amufing volume, particularly to the admirers of fentimentality. The defcriptions are varied, and the work is not defti

view. We fhall not draw any invidious comparifon between the volumes of Mr. Barrow and Mr. Percival: the former gentleman is a first-rate naturalift, the latter does not pretend to an extenfive acquaintance with natural history. This obfervation is due to Mr. Barrow. Much information on every other fubject connected with the fettlement, is to be derived from both these valuable publications.

the local advantages it may command in a political, military, and commercial point of view, either with refpect to itself, or in its relations with other countries; its refources, and their application; its revenues, jurifprudence, population, and a variety of other points which, when attentively taken, form a topographical and ftatistical account, whence both the statefman and the philofopher may be inftructed and amufed. It may be flated, that one main object of this volume is to fitute of information. mulate the English government to recon- Mr. PERCIVAL's "Account of the Cape quer the Cape. Mr. Barrow had before of Good Hope" is, like his Account of the folicitoufly avoided any political difcuffion, Inland of Ceylon, a work of sterling merit. confidering that one tentiment had pre- M. Barrow enters into a defcription of vailed univerfally as to the importance of the interior parts of the country contithe Cape to the interefts of the Bith guous to the Cape; the prefent author Empire, and particularly to the Eaft India confines himself to an account of the manCompany. Exceedingly mortified that it ners, customs, difpofition, and policy of fhould have been thought neceffary to re- the inhabitants of Cape Town and its linquish the p offeffion of it, he has now immediate vicinity; eftimating, however, entered very fully into the question of the the importance of the fettlement in a compolitical, military, and commercial advan-mercial, military, and political point of tages on his grand outwork, as he calls it, of all the European poffeffions in India. Mr. Bairow has divided his work into fix chapters: the firft is devoted to preliminary and mifcellaneous remarks; the fecond gives an account of a military expedition to the Caffre frontier; the three next are intended to fhew the importance of the Cape of Good Hope, confidered as a military and a naval station, and, in a commercial point of view, as a depôt for the fouthern whale fishery. By a military ftation Mr. Barrow does not fimply mean a garrifon for the defence of the fettlement, but as a fituation where we may recruit our armies for India; the climate being of that moderate temperature which may prepare the raw foldier for fuftaining the extremes of heat and cold. Mr. Barrow is moreover very minute in defcribing the Cape as a naval ftation: he fays, that it affords good fhelter to hips injured or diftreffed by storms; that the fituation is one of the best in the world for affembling convoys; that fhip's crews may be provided here, at a reasonable rate, with fruits, vegetables, and fresh provifions, &c. &c. As to the commercial advantages to be derived from the Cape, Mr. Barrow has taken confiderable pains to fhew that thefe, although confeffedly interior in point of confequence to others which he had enlarged on, are yet by no means unimportant. The concluding chapter is devoted to a topographical and statistical account of the fettlement, which is drawn up with reat care and judgment. This volume MONTHLY MAG. No. 117.

"An Account of Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. To which is added, an Account of the present State of Medicine among them. By THOMAS WINTERBOTTOM, Phyfician to the Colony."

The latter of thefe two volumes treats of the difeafts of the Africans, their regi. men, medicines, &c. and proves that Dr. Winterbottom is a most attentive and judicious obferver of what relates to his profeffion. The first volume is for general readers, treating on the genius and manners of the various African nations which furround the colony of Sierra Leone. H re we meet with but little that is new: indeed we have had fo many Travels through this part of Africa, that much novelty was not to be expected.

"A Supplement to the Account of the Peler Islands, &c. &c. by the Rev. JOHN PEARCE HOCKIN."

Who will not be pleafed to learn fur

Mr. Barrow was fecretary to the Earl of Macartney on his embaffy to the court of Pekin, and we are glad to fee, in an advertisement, that he is abou. to publish an Account of his Travels through the Chinese Empire. 4 R

ther

ther particulars of these friendly iflanders? of the venerable Abba Thule, the father of Lee Boo? In return for their hof. pitable conduct towards the crew of the Antelop Jope, the East India Company refoived, in the beginning of the year 1790, to lend two veflis with prefen's to the chiefs of the Pelew Iflands: the Panther and Endeavour were fi ted out for this fervice, under the command of Captain Macciuer. The particulars of this em by, the reception it met with, &c. are nai ated in thele pages in a plain and unaff &ed manuer.

"A Chronological Hiflory of the Discoweries in the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean. -Part I. commencing with an Account of the earliest Discovery of that Sea by Europeans and terminating with the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, în 1579. Illuftrated with Charts. By JAMES BURNEY, Captain in the Royal Navy."

Struck with the obstacles to an acquifition of knowledge in maritime geography, refulting from the want of a general arrangement to the multiplied and elaborate accounts of voyages now in poffeffi n of the public, Captain Burney medicated the practicability of forming a general digeft of maritime geographical difcoveries, and has offered the prefent volume as a ipeci

men.

As this is only the fire, we trust, of a fuccellion, it may be proper to give a fketch of the projected plan. Captain Burney has two important obj-&s in view, claffification and compreffion; after stating his objections against a chronol g cal or national arrangement in a general biftory of voyages, he gives a dec.ded preference to the method of claffitying voyages, according to fome hydrographical divifion of the globe, preferving to each the chronological order of narration; he propoles the following as one which appeals capable of preferving its clailes in a great measure diftin&t from each other: the first clafs may contain the voyages to the north of Europe, thofe in the North Seas, and towards the North Pole, the fecond, thofe along the weft coaft of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, and the discoveries of the Atlantic Illands; the third, eat from the Cape of Good Hope to China, including the Extern Archipelagos between New Holland and the coaft of China; Japan might have a fection to itfelf, as a fupplement to this clis; the fourth might contain the whole of the discovery of the caft fide of America, except the Straits of Magalhanes and of Le Maire, which are more connect

ed with the voyages to the South Sea; the fifth clafs may comprehend the circumnavigation and voyages to the South Sea. With thefe, the difcoveries on the the weft coat of North America are so much interwoven, that they cannot, without difadvantage, are separated. The dif coveries made by the Ruffians in the feas near Kamfe.atka, and from thence to the north, would appear not improperly as a fupplement to the fifth class. New Holland might form a fixth clafs This country would naturally have divided itself between the third and fifth, had not its importance fo much increased within the few last years, that it now requires a distinct clafs to itself.

The foregoing divifion is offered as a fketch for a general plan. The claffes are capable of modification, according to the convenience or inclination of those who may undertake any part of the task. Captain Burney ferved as lieutenant in the laft two voyages of that great difcoverer and excellent navigator, Captain Cook. This accounts for his choice of the difcoveries made in the South Seas, as the fubject of the prefent work, to which discoveries his attention has been principally directed. This volume commences with a de cription of the natural lints of the South Sea, and with a concife narrative of the difcoveries made and meditated prior to the voyage of Magalhaens, a well written and clear account of which is drawn up from the detached and broken naira ives which exist of that most important and fuccessful enterprize. Mg lhaens was the first who penetrated from the Atlantic to the South Sea, and confequently the first who was enabled to ci.cumnavigate the globe.

The poffibility, however, of failing round the fouth point of Africa having recently been afcertained by the Portugueze, it had been already fufpected that America might terminate to the fouthward in a fimilar manner, and in the year 1515, a voyage was projected for difcovering a paffage to the South Seas, by Juan Diaz de Solis, who was killed at Rio de la Plata. The undertaking was abandoned, and this was the glory referved for Magalhaens.

Cant. Burney justly confiders the voyage of Magalhaens," as one of the inoft extraordinary and eventful that has ever been performed as a voyage which cannot be contemplated without producing impreffions only to be communicated by original difcovery. While the advance ment of science hall continue to intereft mankind,

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mankind, Magalhaens, whofe enterprifing perfeverance first practically demonftrared the form of our planet, will be remembered with admiration and gratitude.'

In the year 1513, the South Sea was fit feen by Europeans from the Ifthmus of Darien; and Captain Burney makes this remark on the origin of the name South Sea: "The particular pofition of the coaft of that part of the American continent, from whence the fea on the other fide was fiift difcovered, appears to have ftamped on it the denomination of the South Sea. The Ifthmus of Darien lies nearly eat and weft; confequently, there the two feas appear fituated, the one to the north, and the other to the fouth. If the new fea had been firft dif covered from any any part to the fouth of the Bay of Panama, it would probably have received fome other appellation. A confequence refulting from the name thus impofed has been, that the Atlantic Ocean, by way of contra-diftinction, has occafion. ally been called the North Sea, even in its moft fouthern part. A fhip failing through the Strait of Magalhaens, has been faid to have pafled from the North Sea into the South Sea; or, vice verfa: and in the Dict. Encyclopédique, we met with the following arucle- Riviere de la Plata, qui prend fa fource a Pérou et va se jetter dans la Mer du Nord, par le 35me deg. de lat. merid.' The two leas, nevertheless, relative to each other, are north and futh only in the neighbourhood of the Ifthmus of Darien: in their general extent they are east an i weft."

The voyages and difcoveries comprehended in the contents of this volume, fubfequently to the voyage of Magalhaens, appear in the following order: Progrefs of Difcovery on the Weitern Coalt of America to 1524. Voyage of Loyafa from Spain to the Moluccas, and of Saavedra from New Spain alio to the Moluccas. The Discovery of California. Notices of various unfuccessful or fruitlefs Attempts to pass through the Strait of Magalhaens into the South Sea. The Voyage of Grijaiva and Alvarado from Peru to the Moluccas. Franciico de Ulloa's Difcovery of California being Part of the Continent. Voyage of Juan Cabrillo to the exterior Cost of California Of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos from New Spain to the Moluccas-Of Ladrilleros from Valdivia to the Strait-Of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi from New Spain to the Philippine Iflands. Difcovery of Ilands near the Continent of America. Difcovery of the Salomon Islands, by Alvaro do Mendana. Enterprize of John Ox

nam, an Englishman, in the South Sea. Reports, which obtained credit, concerning the Discovery of a Southern Continent; and the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake round the World, with which the narrative part of the volume is concluded.

The materials for thefe relations are collected in a great measure from the journals of the navigators themselves; but where thefe are not extant, from other early authorities. The voyage of Sir Francis Drake is narrated with great care from a comparison of all the accounts hitherto rec ived, either in manuscript or in print. The Appendix contains "Remarks on the Projections of Charts, and part cularly on the Degree of Curvature proper to be given to the Parallels of Latitude." This effay contains a great deal of the moft ufeful information; and the wok is altogether executed with fuch care and accuracy, and difplays fuch judgmen: and knowledge, that we fhall impatiently expect the con inuation of it.

"The Progrefs of Maritime Difcovery, from the earlieft Period to the Clofe of the Eighteenth Century; forming an extenfive Syftem of Hydrography. By JAMES STANIER CLARKE, F. R. S. Domeftic Chaplain to the Prince. With Plates and Maps."

Mr. Clarke must have been a most bold man even to have contem,lated fuch an undertaking as the prefent; to have actually let his hand to it, must have required the confciouinels of uncommon powers, and uncommon perfeverance.

The prefent quarto volume, containing very nearly a thou and pages, is to be fucceeded by fix others! "The introduction to this volume (fays Mr. Clarke) will be found to contain a progreffive memoir of maritime difcoveries by the Cuthites and Phenicians, the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans." The work itfelt, after fome illuftrations of commercial hittery, in which, among other fubjects, the doubtful progress of the northern mariners is glanced at, proceeds t review the early periods of Portugueze hiftory, pior to the fifteenth century; an account is then given of their mot dif tinguished writers on Portugueze Afia and America; and the history of their difcoveries follows, from the reign of John I. in 1385, to the arrival of Da Gama, in 1498, on the coaft of Malabar, wh.ch compactes the firt great divifion of my labours. In the Appendix are many curious and searce tracts respecting navigation, which are intended to elucidate the preceding pages."

To the introduction and body of the. 4 R 2 work

work fucceeds an Appendix of nearly three hundred pages, containing merciless transcriptions from preceding authors on the fubject of the work. It was incumbent on Mr. Clarke to collect facts from preceding authors, and arrange them in his own work. It really is not fair to fwell his own volume by tranfcribing whole tracts from other people. The principal fault of this work, and a very ferious one it is, is the want of lucid arrangement. It contains a great deal of information, but it is scattered and confused.

The introduction is divided into four fections; thefe contain an account of four diftin&t divifions of the subject. 1. The earliest periods. 2. The facred periods. 3. Grecian periods. 4. Carthaginian and Roman periods. The two former of these contain the fubftance of Mr. Bryant's learned, ingenious, but unsubstantial, conjectures. In the third and fourth we are conducted by the more steady light of authenticated history, and the valuable works of Dr. Vincent on the Voyages of Nearchus and the Periplus of Erythrean fea, are very copiously extracted. The introduction concludes with a Differtation on the Commerce of the Romans, by the author's grandfather, the Rev. W. Clarke, of Chichester, with the additional remarks of Dr. Taylor, who first published it in his "Elements of Civil Law." From the introduction we proceed to the body of the work, the fit chapter of which is divided into two fections, the one embracing a view of the commercial and maritime fate of Europe antecedent to the fifteenth century, and the other a sketch of the History of Portugal, as introductory to the Por ugueze voyages. This history begins in the fecond chapter, and is continued through that and the third, to the arrival of Vafco de Gama on the coast of Malabar, in 1498. Altogether this work has a great appearance of being a book maker's job.

No book has excited more general attention for fome time paft, than the fplen did volumes which give the account of Mr. HOLCROFT'S Travels. In May, 1801, Mr. Holcroft, accompanied by his wife and daughter, let off from Hamburg, on a journey to Paris. Taking the route of Bremen, Oldenburg, Leer, and Neue Schantz, he paffed through Groningen to Amiterdam, thence to Rotterdam, whence he proceeded, by way of Antwerp, Bruffels, Lifle, and Amiens, directly to Paris. The public expecta, tion was very highly raised on the annunciation of thefe volumes, the acuteness

and penetration of Mr. Holcroft being already known, as well as his poffeffion of that knowledge which, above all others, enables a man to profit by travelling and to inftruct his readers; namely, the know. ledge of the human heart. He who expests an ample defcription of every town and village through which the travellers pafs, will be disappointed: he had better employ his bookfeller to purchase him fome Directory. Many of Mr. Holcroft's are outlines-mere fketchesbut they are done with great spirit and life, are full of character, and bespeak a ftrong refemblance. When he conducts us into the Confular Territories, however, the outlines are filled up, and he enters with minutenefs into the defcription of every thing which can add to our information on a fubject become fo interefting to us, as the moral and political ftate of the French people. Mr. Holcroft is disposed to believe, that the ftate of the French peafantry is improved: he fays they are better clothed, and, if not more merry, more evenly cheerful. Nevertheless there are many who affirm they were happier under their former masters; who make even bitter complaints, and feel deep and unfeigned regret. "He knows but little of the human heart (fays Mr. Holcroft) who fhall adduce this as a proof that the pealants are now actually more wretched. Scarcely the wifelt man has the wisdom fo to recollect himself as to be fatisfied with the prefent. There are but few scenes in past life, fo marked by miffortune or pain as not, when remembered, to excite regret that they are gone, never to return. In fuch a town, in fuch a country, among fuch and fuch friends, how pleasantly, fays memory, were the days paffed! Faithlefs hiftorian! deceitful varnisher! how difmal and dirty was the town; how folitary and bleak the country; how dull, how infipid, how fatiguing were the friends! An old woman laments the days of her youth; an old man the days of yore."

As to the ftate of religion in Franceon this fubject it is extremely difficult to form an accurate opinion. From the account which is given here, we should fear that it is lamentably neglected. As Mr. Holcroft's obfervations and enquiries, however, appear to have been in a great meafure limited within the circle of the most luxurious and diffipated metropolis perhaps in the world, we gladly indulge a hope, that the priestly functions are dif charged with more reverence in the provinces of the empire, and that more external decorum, at least, is observed among

those

thofe who enter the holy temples of devotion. The Proteftants are allowed three chapels; the total for Catholics and Proteftants is forty-two: befides thefe, there is at prefent no other place of religious worship at Paris. You can fcarcely ever enter thele churches, but a few folitary devotees are to be feen kneeling by fome petty fide-altar and muttering their interceffions to the Holy Virgin. The greater number of thefe are old women. The young of either sex are feldom there, except brought to high mafs by their parents, or attracted by fome ceremony or church feftival. "At high mafs itself, the old are much more numerous than the young, and the women than the men. In proportion as the crowd is attracted, the congregation is diforderly. There are no feats, a very few within the choir excepted, for perfons in office; but the choir being open, a multitude of rush-bottomed chairs, exceedingly rude, and generally old and dirty, ftand ready to be hired; I forget if at a halfpenny or a penny each; and this is a fource of church revenue.

"At every part of the fervice, as well in fermon time as during mafs, numbers are in motion; people come and go, make the church their thoroughfare, are filent or talkative, dirty or clean, and act with the most perfect indifference with refpect to time, place, or other circumftance. Behind the preacher a prompter is feated, who, as is the practice at the theatre, whispers the word, if the actor blunders in his part. During the fervice, the fuperintendants of the chairs make the round of their customers to collect the fous." The cold, mechanical, and unfeeling manner in which the priests are reprefented as, performing their functions, is not likely to arreft the attention of their congregation, or animate their devotion.

A confiderable portion of these volumes relates to Paris. A very ample account is given of the ftate of its public buildings, gardens, galleries, and curiofities. The public inftitutions for the advancement of arts and fcience, for genera land particular education, are attended to, as they ought, with great care; and indeed Mr. Holcroft has omitted nothing which can render his work at once interefting and inftructive. The engravings which accompany thefe volumes, are very numerous and well executed.

Dr. MACLEAN'S "Excurfion in France, c." is but a barren journal. It should be obferved, however, that his view in travelling was not to write a book of anecdotes, but to establish the truth or fallacy of an hypothefis which he had

formed; namely, that peftilential diseases are not contagious. It is to be regretted that he was difappointed in his hope of fettling this question. He has given a narrative which cannot fail to excite interest and abhorrence of the detention of English in France as prifoners of war.

"Paris as it was and as it is; or, a Sketch of the French Capital; illuftrative of the Effects of the Revolution, with refpect to Sciences, Literature, Arts, Religion, Education, Manners, and Amujements; comprifing also a correct Account of the most remarkable National Etablishments and Public Buildings. In a Series of Letters, written by an English Traveller during the Years 1801 and 1802, to a Friend in London."

We are indebted to an anonymous writer for these two very interefting volumes. Should the conclufion of a peace enable Englishmen to vifit Paris, this will be a molt ufeful companion. The author has interfperfed his narrative with a variety of hiftorical anecdotes, illuftrative of the French character and manners; and he has devoted a great deal of attention to thofe natal, military, and civil inftitutions, which have been fo multiplied fince the era of the Revolution. We remark that this gentleman is much more fanguine in his expectations of the eventual importance of the feminaries of public education and fchools for public services than Mr. Holcroft, and indeed gives a more flattering account of their prefent advancement and apparent progreffion.— There are two establishments to which the patriotic author is particularly defirous of directing the attention of our government, thefe are the Dépôt de la Marine and the Dépôt de la Guerre.

The Dépôt de la Marine is a general depofitory of maps, charts, plans, jourals, and archives of the navy and of the colonies, under the direction of a flag officer. To this dépôt are attached the hydrographers and aftronomers of the navy, as well as an adequate number of engl neers and draftsmen. A library has lately been added to it, compofed of all the works relating to navigation and naval a’chitecture, as well as of all the voyages published in the different dead or living languages. All the commanders of veffels belonging to the ftate are bound, on their return to port, to addrefs to the minifter of the naval department, in order to be depofited in the archives, the journals of their voyages, and the aftro. nomical or other obfervations which they have been enabled to make, and the charts and plans which they have had an oppor

tunity

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