faid, infufferable ftyle of indignant talking. I am refponfible to the public for the accuracy of the accounts which I have published of my experiments; but it cannot reasonably be expected that I fhould anfwer all the objections that may be made to the conclufions which I have drawn from them. It will, however,' he adds, at all times afford me real fatisfaction to fee my opinions examined, and my mistakes corrected; for my first and most earnest wish is, to contribute to the advancement of useful knowledge.' We have addreffed our remarks to Count Rumford, as the author of the latter part of this paffage, rather than of the former, and have fhaped our examination of his pofitions to meet the fpirit of condefcenfion which feems for a moment to have directed him in this fentence. We trust that our endeavours have not been thrown away, and entertain fome hopes that the labour we have bestowed upon the correction of his errors, particularly in the preceding article, will afford him fomething of the fame fatisfaction which, we doubt not, will be felt by all the friends of fcience at the detection of his plagiarism. ART. XIII. A Tour through the British Weft Indies, in the years 1802 and 1803; giving a Particular Account of the Bahama Islands. By D. M Kinnen Efquire. 8vo. pp. 280. London. White. 1804. ALTHOUGH no part of the globe prefents a greater field of interesting obfervation than the Weft Indies, whether we regard the beautiful fcenery of thofe tropical regions, or the peculiar political and moral circumftances of their inhabitants, or their high importance to the wealth and power of the mother country; yet it has happened that they have scarcely ever been vifited by any of thofe communicative travellers whofe pens have been exhaufted in defcribing the familiar features of the European world. In truth, a climate very unfavourable to European conftitutions, and a state of fociety as little congenial to the habits. of men accustomed to the more polite and fecure intercourfe of the old world, have confpired to render the fouthern colonies of America an ineligible refidence, and converted them into a place of temporary refort for thofe adventurers alone whose wants can reconcile them to danger, and who delay not a moment longer than is neceffary their return to the eastern hemifphere. A few perfons engaged in purfuits of a more than ordinary affinity to fpeculative inquiries, have indeed prefented us, from time to time, with their obfervations upon the physical and Dd2 mora! moral peculiarities of thofe fplendid and interesting scenes: But their accounts have been deficient in the various attractions that render the information fo fafcinating which is communicated in the shape of narrative, and incorporated with perfonal anecdote. Hence it is, that, in the fcarcity of Weit Indian travels, we are glad to fix even upon fo meagre and unfatisfactory tract as Sir William Young's Tour through the Windward lands; and perüfe, with an intereft difproportioned to its merits, this folitary labourer in that rich and neglected field, in fpite of the more than fufpicious fidelity of the narrative, where it touches upon controverted points of Weft Indian policy. For the fame reafon, we eagerly follow the author of the book now before us in his more extenfive wanderings, and haften to make our readers ac quainted with what is to be found in a work fo rare, as a Tour through the Weft Indies. Although we are far from praifing it as a masterpiece, and have reafon to wonder how fo little no velty and intereft could be infufed into such a subject, we can promife thofe who may be inclined to accompany us, that their trouble will be rewarded both by amufemént and inftruction. The tour of this gentleman was performed in the years 1802 and 1803, and his route lay through both the Windward and Leeward Charibbees, the Great Antilles, and the Bahamas. He landed at Barbadoes, of which his account is pretty minute and particular-proceeded, without stopping at the intermediate fettlements, to Dominica, of which a thort and general notice is given-and from thence continued his voyage to Antigua. In his account of this valuable little ifland, he introduces a difcuffion, whether the whole of the British windward colonies fhould not be incorporated in the fame government, and joined, as the Leeward Charaibean part of the chain are, under one governor, council, and reprefentative affembly? The reafons which he offers on the oppofite fides of this question are fo contradictory, the views are fo narrow and ill defined, and the inferences fo hefitating and obfcure, that we are impreffed with an unfavourable opinion of the author's ikilk in colonial affairs. His defcriptions of Weft Indian fcenery are generally lively, and we know them to be faithful. As a fpecimen, we may felect the following sketch of the Antigua landfcape. This valuable little island is for the most part encircled by a range of hills, which rife to a confiderable height in the fouth and fouthwestern quarters. The interior, with the exception of fome spots of high ftony ground and tracts of pafture, exhibits a level and well cul tivated furface of rich cane land. From a central height turning to the east, and thence northerly to the town of St Johns, the eye traverfes a view of one of the fairest and best cultivated tracts of country in the Windward Llands. It is highly pleafing to a perfon who has recently recently come from the woods and mountains of the more fouthern colonies, to behold so extenfive a scene of cleared land. The whole of the interior, though divested for the most part of its native wood, is by no means under cultivation of the hoe: A confiderable part of the ifland, where the foil is unfit for canes (which feem particularly to engage the attention of the planters in Antigua), is laid out in paftures, and covered with herds of cattle. Here and there I obferved fome fmall groves, confifting principally of white cedars; and on the pafture grounds an abundance of the guava bufhes, yielding that fruit from whence the excellent conferves of guava marmalade and jelly are made. Nothing appears more completely like a garden, than the fugar plantation under good cultivation; and fuch is the prevailing scenery in the interior of this ifland where it is fufceptible of tillage. The green fields of cane (which, when I faw them, in many places had fhot up into feathery tops previous to their ripening) were intermixed with provifion grounds of yams and eddoes, or the dark and regular parterres of holed land prepared for the reception of the fucceeding year's plant-canes. A large windmill on each eftate; the planter's dwellinghouse and sugar-works, with the negro huts, in their beautiful groves of oranges, plantains, and cocoa-nut trees, completed a landscape that continually recurred in paffing over the island. p. 55-58 From Antigua, Mr M'Kinnen returned to Barbadoes for the benefit of the trade-wind, and went from thence to Jamaica. His account of this ifland is unpardonably feanty; and we have particularly to blame a perfon, refiding how fhort a time foever in that great fettlement during fo interefting a period, for not procuring fome accurate information refpecting the feelings excited in all ranks and orders of the people by the events then confummating in St Domingo. Not a word is to be found upon this fubject in any part of the book: But our author agrees with all former writers on colonial topics, in his account of the general uncomfortable character of the fociety even in that extenfive fettlement. The Bahama Islands were the next object of Mr M'Kinnen's attention; and as his refidence there was much longer, his account of them is more copious, and we recommend it to the attention of our readers, as the only defeription of thefe interefting fpots which has yet been given to the public. In the mean time, we haften to felect a few particulars for their entertainment. The account of the tureckers is perhaps the most fingular part of the whole narrative. Thefe perfons derive their livelihood and diftinguishing character from the very dangerous navigation of the Bahama Channel. The immenfe variety of banks, fhallows, and unknown paffages and coafts with which thofe islands (above feven hundred in number) are furrounded, render the Dd3 chance chance of fhipwreck greater perhaps in this quarter than in any other part of the ocean. In order to fave the crews and the property thus continually expofed to danger, the governor of the Bahamas licenses a number of very daring nautical adventurers, who conftantly ply about thofe feas and channels, in order to obtain a certain falvage, which they are allowed on all goods which they fave from fhipwreck. Until the American rebellion drove thither a number of loyalifts, the inhabitants of the Bahamas were all engaged either in fishing or in this defperate occupation of wrecking, or in piracy. A race of men more hardy-more skilful in the management of fmall veffels, and more inured to all the dangers and viciffitudes of the feafaring life, were never produced. As a fpecimen of the kind of character and fentiments which thefe occupations formed, we may allude to a converfation related by our author in p. 139. He afked a wrecker what fuccefs they lately had? The reply was, that there had been above forty fail of wreckers lying along the Florida coaft for four months. Mr M'Kinnen obferved, that they must have rendered great service to the crews wrecked on that dangerous paffage. The wrecker faid, 'No-they generally went on in the night. But could not you light up beacons on fhore, or fhow your own lights?' No, no,' faid he, laughing: we always put them out for a better chance." would have been more humane.' I did not go there for humanity-I went racking.' Our author alfo relates the following fingular anecdote of one of these men, which we extract as a curious illuftration of the power which a life of conftant viciffitudes has to render any state comfortable. A fisherman at anehor in a boat, while attentively employed in cafting his nets at a small distance from the fhore of an adjacent ifland, towards the dusk of the evening, was furprised by a fudden gutt of wind coming off the land. His boat, notwithstanding all his exertions, was foon driven from her mooring, and, drifting before the wind out of fight of land, was expofed to the fwell of an increafing fea, which overtopped and threatened to overwhelm her every inftant as it paffed. The boat continued, however, to float till the night was fomewhat advanced; and, in the awful expectation of his fate, the fisherman, who now had scarcely any thoughts of relief, heard the found of breakers at a distance. This, which at another time would have excited the greatelt alarm, afforded him at that defperate crifis a ray of hope. Scarcely had he begun to diftinguith their foam in the darkness of the night, when he found himself plunged into the midst of them, and his boat dafhed upon the rocks on the eastern edge of the Great Bahama Bank. At a fmall diftance from thefe rocks lay a key or bank called Kagged Ifland; and, floating almoft fenfelefs on the water, he was flung upon this defolate ifland. Though now preferved from the waves, there was neither water nor food to be found on the key, which pro duced only a few fruitlefs fhrubs. But as he had been accustomed to: dive for conchs, which abound in many places on the coafts of the Bahamas, he fwam to fome diftance from the fhore, and fortunately, on fearching the bottom, difcovered a fufficient quantity of thefe fhellfifh for his fubfiftence. For nearly fix weeks he lived entirely on conchs, their liquor fupplying the place of water. During that time, having erected a fignal on fhore, he obferved several veffels pass without noticing it: But fo well reconciled had this Crufoe become to his defert island, that he declared, when taken off, had his wife been with Him, he could have lived very happily there for life. p. 141-143. i The account given by Mr M'Kinnen of John Teach, the fa mous pirate, known in the Bahamas by the name of Black Beard, is extremely entertaining; and fhows, that at a period much more recent than the age of the Buccaneers, the trade of depredation was carried on fyftematically, and to an enormous extent, in the Charaibean feas. This freebooter lived in the reign of George, the Second. This extraordinary man had united in his fortunes a defperate and, formidable gang of pirates, ftyling himfelf their Commodore, and affum, ing the authority of a legitimate chief. Under a wild fig-tree, the trunk of which still remains, and was fhown to me in the eastern part of the town, he ufed to fit in council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating his plans, and exercifing the authority of a magiftrate, His piracies were often carried on near the English fettlements on the coaft of North America, where he met with extraordinary fuccefs.* Perhaps in the hiftory of human depravity, it would be difficult to select actions more brutal and extravagant than Black Beard's biographer has recorded of him. As the narrative to which I allude is generally credited, and bears ftrong internal evidence of truth, it may be amufing to mention a few particulars of a man who was for dome time con-t fidered as fovereign of this ifland." ཨཏྠཱ In perfon, as well as difpofition, this defperado, who was a native of England, feems to have been qualified for the chief of a gang of thieves. The effect of his beard, which gave a natural ferocity to his countenance, he was always folicitous to heighten, by fuffering it to) grow to an immoderate length, and twitting it about in fmall tails like a Ramillies wig; whence he derived the name of Black Beard. His portrait in time of action is defcribed as that of a complete fury; with, three brace of piftols in holsters flung over his fhoulders like bandoliers,, and lighted matches under his hat, fticking out over each of his ears. All authority as well as admiration amongst the pirates was conferred on those who, committing every outrage on humanity, dilplayed the great eft audacity and extravagance. Black Beard's pretenfions to an elevated rank in the estimation of his affociates, may be conceived from the character of his jokes. Having often exhibited himfelf before them as a dæmon," |