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he faw among them what has fince become the popular idol of France, equality. This circumftance, however, is not ascertained.

The iflands called, in the old Spanish charts, La Mesa, Los Majos, and La Difgraciada, were fought in vain. La Péroufe thinks, with great reafon, that these were in reality the Sandwich Islands, but were placed 16 or 17 degrees farther to the east. We fhall extract nothing from this work concerning the Sandwich Islands, as fo many Englifh navigators have defcribed them. We fhall only remark that la Péroufé confiders captain Cook as the aggreffor, in his laft unfortunate fkirmish, and acquits modern navigators of the reproach of having introduced the venereal disease among the islanders, while the editor, with little difcrimination or enquiry, condemns them.

The first part of North America which the navigators particularly examined, was Monti Bay, regarded by the editor as the Port Mulgrave of Dixon; but Port Mulgrave is in Behring's Bay. It is ftrange that an editor fhould decidedly contradict what the officers faw. La Pérouse rested for fome time in a bay, which he called Port des François. It is near Cape Fairweather, and is in many refpects a good harbour, as well as a proper place for the eftablishment of a commercial depot. The natives poffeffed iron and copper, which they probably procured from the Ruffians, who extend their mercantile excurfions to this neighbourhood.

The animal and vegetable productions of the country about this bay, (fays la Pérouse,) refemble those of many other regions; but its appearance has no fort of comparison; and I have my doubts whether the profound valleys of the Alps and Pyrenees prefent views as frightful, but which are at the fame time fo picturefque, that they would deserve the vifits of the curious were they not at the extremity of the world.

The primitive mountains of granite, or schiftus, perpetually covered with fnow, upon which are neither trees not plants, have their foundation in the fea, and form upon the fhore a kind of quay; their flope is fo rapid, that, after the first two or three hundred toifes, the wild goats cannot climb them; and all the gullies which feparate them are immenfe glaciers, of which the tops cannot be difcerned, while the bafe is wafhed by the fea: at a cable's length from the land there is no bottom at less than a hundred and fixty fathoms.

The fides of the harbour are formed by fecondary mountains, the elevation of which does not exceed nine hundred toifes. They are covered with pines, and over

fpread with verdure, and the fnow is only feen on their fummits; to me they appeared to be entirely formed of fchiftus, which is in the commencement of a state of decompofition; they are extremely difficult to climb, but not altogether inacceffible.

Nature affigns to this frightful country inhabitants who as widely differ from the people of civilifed countries, as the fcene I have juft defcribed differs from our cultivated plains; as rude and barbarous as their foil is rocky and barren, they inhabit this land only to deffroy its popula tion at war with all the animals, they defpife the vegetable fubftances which grow around them. I have feen women and children eat fome rafpberries and ftrawberries, but thefe are undoubtedly viands far too infipid for men, who live upon the earth like vultures in the air, or wolves and tigers in the forefts.

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'Their arts are in fome degree advanced, and in this refpect civilifation has made confiderable progrefs; but that which foftens their ferocity, and polishes their manners, is yet in its infancy: their mode of life excluding all kind of fubordination, they are continually agitated by fear or revenge; prone to anger, and eafily irritated, they are almoft conftantly attacking each other. Expofed in the winter to the danger of perifhing for want, because the chase cannot be fuccefsful, they live during the fummer in the greatest abundance, as they can catch in lefs than an hour a fufficient quantity of fifh for the fupport of their family; they remain idle during the reft of the day, which they pafs at play; for to this amufement they are as much addicted as fome of the inhabitants of our great cities. This gaming is the great fource of their quarrels. If to thefe deftructive vices they fhould unfortunately add a knowledge of the ufe of any inebriating liquor, I fhould not hesitate to pronounce, that this colony would be entirely annihilated."

It is fuppofed that these Americans are not conftant inhabitants of this diftrict, but that they only pafs the fummer in it. None of their cabins feemed to be fheltered from the rain. Thefe huts are fo flight, that the whole fubftance and contents of them are eafily carried away in a canoe. The men who were feen in this neighbourhood, < pierce the cartilage of the ears and nofe, to which they hang different fmall ornaments; they make fcars on their arms and breafts, with a very keen-edged inftrument, which they fharpen by paffing over their teeth as over a ftone; their teeth are filed clofe to the gums, and for this operation they ufe a fand ftone rounded in the fhape of a tongue. They ufe ochre, foot, and plumbago, mixed up with train oil, to paint the face and the reft of the body in a frightful manner. In their full drefs, their

hair is flowing at full length, powdered, and plaited with the down of fea birds; this is their,greateft luxury, and is perhaps referved only to the chiefs of a family; their fhoulders are covered with a fimple fkin; the rest of the'. body is abfolutely naked, except the head, which is generally covered with a little ftraw hat, very fkilfully plaited; but they fometimes place on their heads two horned bonnets' of eagles' feathers, and even whole heads of bears, in which they fix a wooden fcull-cap. In wearing these head-dreffes, i their principal object is to render themfelves frightful, for the purpose of keeping their enemies in awe.

Some Indians had entire fhirts of otter's fkin, and the common dress of a great chief was a fhirt of a tanned fkin of the elk, bordered with a fringe of the hoofs of deer' and beaks of birds, which, when they dance, imitate the noife of a kind of bell. This drefs is very well known among the favages of Canada, and other nations which inhabit the eaftern parts of America.

I never faw any tatooing but on the arms of a few women, who are addicted to a cuftom which renders them hideous, and which I could fcarcely have believed, had I not been a witnefs to it. All of them, without exception, have the lower lip fit at the root of the gums, the whole width of the mouth; and they wear a kind of wooden bowl without handles, refting against the gums, to which this lower cut lip ferves for a fupport, fo that the lower part of the mouth projects two or three inches."

In this bay, two boats were loft amidit the breakers, with twenty-one perfons on board. A cenotaph was erected by the furvivors, in honour of their unfortunate friends.

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The Strait of Fuca, and the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, are difbelieved by la Péroufe, and treated with ridicule by the editor. It appears, however, that they exift, though without leading to the expected confequence, the union of the Pacific with the Atlantic. It is creditable to the judg ment of our navigatór, that he fuppofed he had been coafting only a chain of iflands, as far as 54° N. L. In reality, he was to the weft of King George's Archipelago; and captain Vancouver examined various channels more than 3° of longitude to the east of the moft eaftern fituation of the French voyagers.

La Péroufe defcribes Monterey nearly as captain Vancouver has done. He fpeaks of the natives, however, as more ftupid, and as kept in fubjection by more rigorous punishments, than from the account of the English navi gator we had reason to suppose. They are indeed children; and to have taught them the rights of man, or to

have made them legiflators, as la Péroufe (or perhaps the editor) feems to have wifhed, would be an attempt trifling. and impracticable. More art is employed in the converfion and management of these Americans than captain Vancouver fufpected: they are taught, it seems, that the priests have an immediate and a continual communication with the Almighty himself.

In this part of the work, la Péroufe fpeaks of the aftronomical obfervations, on the accuracy of which, he thinks,, navigators may depend. He examines the fources of error in thefe obfervations; and they appear to be inconfiderable. M. Berthoud's time-piece feems to have been very accurate in its courfe, and more regular than any of those which captain Vancouver carried with him.

In their voyage from Monterey across the Pacific, the French made a fruitlefs fearch for various iflands which they had feen in charts. The discovery of a new ifland, to which they gave the name of Necker, is fcarcely worthy of mention, as it is a fmall barren rock. At length, they reached Macao, whence they haftened to the Philippines. The metropolis of the principal ifland of this groupe is. thus defcribed.

The city of Manilla, with its fuburbs, is very confiderable; its population is estimated at thirty-eight thofuand fouls, among which there are not more than a thousand or twelve hundred Spaniards, the reft being Mulattoes, Chinese, or Indians, who cultivate all the arts, and carry on every fpecies of industry. The pooreft of the Spanish families have one or more carriages: two very fine horfes coft thirty piaftres; the board and wages of a coachman are fix piaftres a month: thus there is not any country where the expence of a coach is deemed more neceffary, and is at the fame time lefs weighty. The neighbourhood of Manilla is delightful; a beautiful river flows by it, branching into different channels, the two principal of which lead to that famous lagune, or lake of Bahia, which is feven leagues within the country, bordered by more than a hundred Indian villages, fituate in the midst of a highly fertile territory.

Manilla lies at the mouth of a river, which is navi, gable as far as the lake from which it derives its fource, and is perhaps the moft delightfully fituate of any city in the world. All the neceffaries of life are found there in the greatest abundance, and at a reasonable rate of purchafe; but the clothes, manufactures, and furniture of Eu rope, bear an exceffive price."

The natural beauty and fertility of this groupe of iflands are unfortunately counter-balanced by the errors of go

vernment, by regulations the most impolitic, and impofitions the moft oppreffive. An hoftile attempt, it is fuppofed by la Péroufe, would be affifted by a general infurrection of the inhabitants, and perhaps the boafted courage of the troops would not make a very powerful refiftance.

From the Philippines the French fteered towards Formosa, and the Likeu or Liqueo Islands. In this course they met with foundings, fuddenly and greatly variable, but with no banks or thallows that are particularly dangerous! The largest of the Liqueo Islands, it is obferved, might be come an advantageous commercial depôt. We are indeed furprised, that, as the trade of fea-otter fkins is now of im portance, fome convenient fituation has not been chofen, to which the fhips might bring their peltry, and from which it might be eafily carried to the neighbouring countries, where it is deemed fo valuable. If the accounts of the enterprising Benyowski may be credited, and in this refpect he is fupported by the narratives of other travellers, the chiefs of those islands are not likely to oppofe fuch an attempt; and the Chinese would not be able to difpoffefs a powerful nation which fhould aim at fuch an establishment.

Proceeding to the northward, la Péroufe approached the ifland of Quelpaert, to the fouth of Corea: its appearance he describes as very attractive; but, as thofe who had been fhipwrecked on its coafts had been detained in flavery, he did not venture to fend a boat to the fhore. He now direct ed his courfe to the fouth-west point of Niphon, as captain King had examined its north-eaft cape. About 20 leagues from Corea, he discovered an island to which he gave the name of Dagelet. It is well wooded; and the Coreans feem occafionally to frequent it for the purpose of building boats, A remarkable meteorological obfervation, in this course, we fhall felect.

This day, (the 26th of May, 1787,) was one of the fineft in our whole voyage, as well as most interesting, from the bearings we had taken of an extent of coaft of more than thirty leagues. Notwithstanding this fine weas ther, the barometer fell to twenty-feven inches ten lines; but, as it had several times given us falfe indications, we continued our courfe along the coaft, which we diftinguished by the light of the moon till midnight; the wind then veered from fouth to north with confiderable violence, without any cloud's announcing this fudden shift the fky was clear and ferene, but it became very black, and I was obliged to ftand off fhore, to prevent my being embayed by the eafterly winds. Though the clouds had not given us previous notice of this change, we had a warning which we did not understand, and which it is not,

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