mpiiii- CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library PR 4705.F6A12 1877 Fosteriana; consisting of thoughts, ref ie 3 1924 013 344 720 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3344720 FOSTEEIANA OOKSISTIMQ OP THOUGHTS, REFLECTIONS, AND CRITICISMS, 3 iU^ Mi,^ EDITED BY ... ... ..... ..HENEY. a .3.QSN. .. . ■ • •:'. :*.:: : : : ::•-.•»• • •. « LONDON : GEOBGE BELL AND SONS, YOEK STEEET, COVENT GARDEN. 1877. P LONDON ; PEINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, SIAMFOBD STREET AND CHAKING CROSS. 14L04 PREFACE. The present volume of Ana consists, almost exclusively, of Extracts made from such of the Ig^e Mr. Poster's Contributions to the "Eclectic Eeview" as have not already been published in the collection, entitled " Critical Essays." The papers which have here afforded so much of what is believed to be sterling matter, were, in their original form, too diffuse and mixed to be successfully republished entire, and for this reason had been allowed to remain undisturbed in their original repositories. , But a desire to give to the world, as completely as pos- sible, the works of a writer who has been pronounced by Sir James Mackintosh " one of the most profound and eloquent that England has produced," induced the publisher to re-examine vsdth close attention these comparatively neglected papers; and he soon perceived that although unavailable as a whole, they abounded with valuable morceaux which might be advantageously detached. In this feeling he determined to make selections in the form they are now presented. All the intersecting chapter- headings, printed in capitals, and repeated in the Table of Contents, are additions of his own; and though in some instances they may seem capricious, they have never been adopted without due consideration. In this department of his labour, he has throughout consulted Mr. J. E. Ryland, the iriend and biographer of Mr. Poster, and is much IV PREFACE. indebted to that gentleman for his judicious advice ; but not having invariably followed it, he is bound to take all responsibilities on himself. A high appreciation of the writings of John Tester has long actuated the publisher to collect them all, with the view of 'publishing them popularly in a uniform series, and he is happy to say that he is now in a condition to fulfil his intentions. The present volume will be followed by one containing Mr. Fester's " Introductory Essay to Dr. Doddridge's Eise and Progress of EeHgion," his " Observations on the Eev. Eobert Hall," an unpublished and unfortunately unfinished " Essay on the Employment of Time," of which a specimen is given at pages 558 — 60, arid other Miscellanies ; after which, the whole works, consisting of ten volumes, will be arranged in the following order, and general titles be given In the last : — Life and Correspondence. Two Vols. Lectures. Two Vols. Critical Essays. Two Vols. Fosteriana. One Vol. Essays oir Doddridqb, Hall, Time, etc. One Vol. Essays on Decision of Character, etc. One Vol. Essays oh PoptrLAR Iqnorakob, etc. One Vol. H. G. B. CONTENTS. FALSE MODEL OF AN INDEPENDENT MAN * ON MORAL EVIDENCE .... ON MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION . THE LOVE OP TRUTH A NATURAL PEOPENSITT ON THE MULTIPLICATION OP THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY ON INFLATED STYLE AND THE MISAPPLIOATION OJ METAPHOR ] HOLLAND AND THE RHINE ..'..] DUTCH LOVE OP MONEY DUTCH GRAVITY . . ., DUTCH CAUTION AND ECONOMY PUBLIC MEN THE OHAKACTBR OP LORD MACARTNEY FOREIGN TRAVEL ENGLISH POWER IN THE EAST , BUDDHISM AND BRAHMINISM ON WORTHLESS BOOKS ON TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES INTO THE ORIENTAL LANGUAGES .... THE HIGH CHURCH AND DISSENTERS , THE FORCE OF HABIT ANGLO-INDIAN LITERATURE .... ON THE DESTRUCTION OP IDOLATERS TRANSLATION AND DIPPU8I0N OP THE BIBLE . RESPECT FOR LORDS QUALIFICATIONS OP A TRAVELLER IMPORTANCE OP THE CAPE OP GOOD HOPE . . . ON THE CONVERSION OP THE HINDOOS MISMANAGEMENT OP THE INDIA SHIPPING POLYGAMY ...... CHRISTIANITY IN ABYSSINIA .... SACRED BOOKS OF THE HINDOOS PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDLA. PERSECUTION OP THE MISSIONARIES IN INEIA . MISSIONARY PREACHmO NOT THE CAUSE OP INDIAN REVOLT ON THE MUTINY AT VELLOEB . . . . ' BHAHMINICAL PREJUDICES .... ' HINDOO ANTIPATHY TO MAHOMETISM . . . < ON THE PROBABILITY OP CONVERTING THE HINDOOS . I QUAKERS OP NORTH AMERICA AN EXAMPLE POR INDIA . « CRUELTY TO ANIMALS * The large capitals are used to distinguish the commencement of a n« Brtiole. The particular book under review ia always mentioned at foot of page. CONTENTS. OS THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA EXAMPLES OP BAD ENGLISH . ADVANTAGES Or BRITISH SUPKEMAOT IN INDIA SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS UTOPIA . ARCHBISHOP WHITGIPT HUET, BISHOP OP AVRANCHES THE DELPHIN CLASSICS SPAIN SPAIN AND POETUQAL COMPARED SPANISH EEEEDOM IMPROBABLE POPISH SUPERSTITIONS AMELIORATION OP THE AFRICANS . BUQGBSTIONS EOR COHMEEOE WITH AERIOA THE SLAVE TRADE AN IMPEDIMENT TO COMMERCE EUROPEAN EDUCATION OE AFRICANS . , ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A TRAVELLER FAULTS OP TRAVELLERS ' . PICTURE OF RUSSIA MOSCOW DURING EASTER THE RUSSIAN ARISTOCRACY RUSSIAN PEASAKTRT . RUSSIAN SERFDOM, OR WHITE SLAVERY RUSSIA ESSENTIALLY DESPOTIC ON EPIC POETRY . GRAMMATICAL CRITICISM . AMERICAN INDIANS NEPAUL AND THE CHINESE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY SURINAM MARTINIQUE PARAMARIBO .... DUTCH COLONIAL POLICY . SEA COW AND OTHER NORTH AMERICAN LUXURIES LONGEVITY OF THE LADIES IN SURINAM . SLAVERY IN SURINAM .... THE CHURCH AND THE MISSIONARIES TEMPLE OF JUGGERNAUT ENGLISH SANCTION OF IDOLATRY . THE FUNERAL PILE .... THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES THE MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO - . PARENTS EATEN BY THEIR CHILDREN THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS THE INQUISITION AT QOA BRITISH OCCUPATION OF INDIA . DOUBTFUL VALUE OF BRITISH INDIA FALSE NOTIONS OF INDIAN GRANDEUR CHARACTER OF TIPPOO SAIB . , CONTENTS, SIR JOHN CARR THE MAID OF SABAQOSSA . SPANISH BULL PIGHT . SEVILLE .... ROAD-SIDE SOnrVENBRS ON THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS LITERABT OHABAGIEB OF MURPHY THE EAMAYUNA AND SANSCRIT LITERATURE JAMES HERVET AND HIS MEDITATIONS ON THE ALARMINO INCREASE OP BOOKS OF TRAVELS THE READING TASK OF FUTURE TIMES . THE PERSIAN EMBASSY INSENSIBILITY THE EFFECT OF DESPOTISM BUBHIB'E .... STATE PROCESSION OF THE EMBASSY PERSIAN ENTERTAINMENT AND ETIQUETTE INFLUENCE OF ASTROLOGY CEREMONY OF THE ISTAKBALL SHraAZ .... WATBR-SPOUTINa AND ROPE -DANCING FILIAL RESPECT AMONG THE PERSIANS THE ROYAL AUDIENCE PERSIAN NOTIONS OF AMERICA AND ENGLAND DRAMATIC REPRESENTATION OF THE DEATH OS HOSSEIN THE PERSIAN HAREM .... THE MAN AT THE TOP, OR DEFERENCE TO BANK MENTAL INDUSTRY .... JOHN SELDEN .... SELDEH'S HISTORY OF TITHES . ROYAL METHOD OF SETTLING CONTROVERSIES SELDEN'S FORBEARANCE SRLDEN IMPRISONED BY CHARLES I. SELDEN'S PARLIAMENTARY LIFE SELDEN'S RELIGIOUS OPINIONS SUPERSTITION AND ITS EFFECTS MORAL EFFECTS OF IDOLATRY HINDOO INFANTICIDE .... INFANTIOIDB IN KUTOH INFANTICIDE IN KATTYWAR MODES OF INFANTICIDB ORIGIN OF INFANTICIDE REVERSAL OF MORAL SENTIMENTS . CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INFANTIOIDB MEASURES FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INFANTICIDE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH INFLUENCE IN INDIA BISHOP WAYNEFLETE FOUNDATION OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE . EXQUISITE NONSENSE . 210 CONTENTS. INFLUENCE OF SCENERY ON THE MIND QEANDEUB OB' lOELANDIO SOENERT EEIKEVIO, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND . ICELAMDIO HOSPITALITY INCONVENIENCES OP TRAVELLING IN ICELAND THE QETSBB SPRINGS AN lOELANDIO CHUEOH WONDERS FAMILIARIZED BECOME INDIPPEEBNT CH0KCHES USED AS WAREHODSES EXTRAORDINARY SALMON PISHINQ . FIRE AT SEA .... LIBERTY OP THE PRESS . THE PEENOH REVOLUTIONISTS . THE FACTIONS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION UNANIMITY OF THE GIRONDISTS CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ADVANTAGES OP ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH ON ALLEGORY .... ALLEGORY AN INFERIOR MODE OF INSTRUCTION Spenser's " FAIRY queen" BUNYAN'S " PILGRIM'S PROGRESS " ISAAC D'ISRAELI .... THE POETICAL WITS .... ARISTOCRATIC PATRONAGE OF AUTHORS ROYAL ELEEMOSYNARY GRANT TO STOWE COWLEY, DENNIS, AND ORATOR HENLEY COMPATIBILITY OF STUDY WITH LONG LIFE LABORIOUS AUTHORS CARDINAL WOLSEY .... WOLSEY'S BOUNDLESS AMBITION THE VARIETIES OP HUMAN CHARACTER CHARACTER OP M. CHATEAUBRIAND DESIGN OF THE BEAUTIES OF CHRISTIANITY DEFECTS IN CHATEAUBRIAND'S SCHEME OF THEOLOGY PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRIES INTO THE TRINITY CARELESS EXPRESSIONS IN THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS . THE FALL OF MAN .... OHARAOTERISTICS OF THE SERPENT TRIBE . THE POWER OF MUSIO OVER A SERPENT AMERICAN INDIFFERENCE TO TOPOGRAPHY VERIFIED PROGNOSTICS REGARDING AMERICA . FERDINAND DE SOTO .... RIVALRY OF SPAIN AND FRANCE IN CANADA FOUNDATION OF QUEBEC .... THE MISSISSIPPI ADVENTURERS STORY OF THE NATCHEZ .... THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME CESSION OP LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES ADMONITION TO AUTHORS . CONTENTS. IX ON FRIENDLY OPINIONS IN LITERATURE . THE MARQUESAS PROFLIGACY OP THE ISLANDEKS . . FACILITIES OF MARRIAGE AND DIVOEOB . . GOVEENMENT OF THE MARQUESAS . THE TABOO ...... WAR TBASTS OF THE MAEQTJESAKS . OANNIBALIgM OF THE MARQUESANS WOMEK DENIED THE LUXURY OF EATING THEIR PARENTS INSPIRED CANNIBALISM .... JUNIUS WNOinS PRO MAGNIFIOO, OR THE POWER OF MYSTERY glover's CLAIMS TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF JUNIUS THE CHARACTER OF GLOVER CONSIDERED . CARDINAL SIMENES REMOVAL OF THE COURT OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA PROMOTED TO THE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF TOLEDO . XIMENES AS A MILITARY LEADER ." XIMENES APPOINTED REGENT OF SPAIN DISMISSAL AND DEATH OF XIMENES CHARACTER OF XIMENES .... THE USE OF EMBLEMS IN EDUCATION EMBLEM OF THE PROGRESS OF LIFE FREE WILL AND ORIGINAL SIN DANGEROUS GROUND INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE . , ' . THE WHITE ANTS OF INDIA .... DESTRUCIIVBNESS OF PARROTS AND PAEROQUETS SUSCEPTIBILITY OF THE CHAMELEON THE SWINGING DEVOTEES ' . . . ORNAMENTAL WELLS OF INDIA . . ' . FALSE CHRISTIANITY AT GOA ... THE SALT-PANS OF MALABAR AND BENGAL . CHEAPNESS OF CHILDREN AT MALABAR LOW ESTIMATE OF THE HINDOO OHARAOTEE ON HINDOO CASTES ..... HINDOO MARRIAGES .... A MAHBATTA CAMP ..... INDIAN WARFARE ..... THE BHAUTS OF GUZEEAT .... INDIAN RECKLESSNESS OF LIFE . . . MUTUAL TOLERATION BETWEEN THE HINDOOS AND MAHOMETANS EFFECTS OF TIME AND CLIMATE IN PRODUCING TOLERATION HINDOO AND MAHOMETAN HATRED OF EUROPEANS . THE UNIVERSITIES PRESTIGE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ON THE DECLINE THE MONARCHY OF ETRURIA A QUEEN IN ADVERSITY .... KIDNAPPING THE POPE ..... ABYSSINIA . . ... X CONTENTS. THE INTERIOR OE ABYSSINIA INACOBSSIBLE ABTSSINIAN SLAVE MARKEI EUROPEAN IGNORANCE OE THE INTERIOR OE ABYSSINIA THE MAKOOA NATION .... ABYSSINIAN LUXURIES . TRIPLE DIVISION OS THE KINGDOM OE ABYSSINIA THE AOOW CHRISTIANS . SHOOTING AT THE HIPPOPOTAMUS , LIVING RUMP STEAKS . AN ABYSSINIAN ELEPHANT HUNT . MERCANTILE ADVENTURE A EIETY-TWO DAYS' EAST . ABYSSINIA ESSENTIAXLY CHRISTIAN CONJEVERAM, NEAR VELLORE MAQNIEIOENT PAGODA AND TEMPLE LOFTY PAGODA DEDICATED TO SEEVA TEMPLE TO VISHNOU BRAHMIN MODE OF BEOOVEBINQ CASTE SOUTHERN AFRICA . STOICISM OE HOTTENTOTS . DANGERS OE AN AFRICAN STATION DIEJ'ERENT ESTIMATES OP SOLITUDE MINERAL COLOURING POWDERS IN AFRICA THE CITY OF LATTAKOO ..... EELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF THE LATTAKOOS AFRICAN NOTIONS OF MISSIONARY OBJECTS EMPLOYMENTS AT LATTAKOO ..... NATURE OF AFRICAN GLORY .... THE WANKETZENS AND THEIR MURDEROUS PROPENSITIES AN AFRICAN DESERT ' . ADVENTURE WITH LIONS ... ASBESTOS MOUNTAINS ..... SUPINENESS OF THE BUSHMEN- ..... MONSIEUB LB VAILLANT DRUBBED BY A LADY INTENSE HEAT .... THE SOLITUDES OF AMERICA . .'>'.' THE OSAGE INDIANS THE OSAQES LINEALLY DESCENDED FROM A SNAIL AND A BEAVER THE AMERICAN PRAIRIES .... a HE SIOUX INDIANS . . THE YANKTONS FOUR ACRES OF LITTLE DOGS THE MANDANS . . . THE MEDICINE MAN . INDIAN FEROCITY INDIAN ENDURANCE OF COLD VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS . BEAR-SHOOTING ADVENTURE BUFFALO DECOY THE ROOKY MOUNTAINS PASS 304 305 306 306 307 307 309 309 310 311 312 312 312 313 314 315 316 316 316 318 319 S20 322 323 324 325 325 326 326 327 327 328 328 329 329 330 332 332 333 334 334 335 335 336 336 337 337 338 339 340 CONTENTS. AMERICAN OATAEAOTS . . THE SNAKE INDIANS OBOBSma THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS DBSOENDINO THE RAPIDS . A WINTER CAMP AMERICAN INDIAN NOTIONS OF PHRENOLOGY RUSSIAN CONQUESTS IN ASIA RELIGION 01 THE OIEOASSIANS CIRCASSIAN PBATINQ MACHINES WOODEN PRAYER-BOOKS THE MASTER BOOK OF THE WORLD PRIESTCRAFT SANOTIFICATION OP SHADOWS . MONGOL SUPERSTITIONS IN THE BUILDING OP TEMPLES THE LAMA RELIGION . ' . DOMESTIC AMARS OP THE' MONGOLS THE TSOHERKESSIANS, OR CIBOASSIANS CLARKE AND HUMBOLDT THE PACHA OF ACRE THE SERPENT-EATERS THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT TUMOURS PRODUCED BY IMPURE WATER THE CITY OF CAIRO AND ITS INSALUBRITY SCENES ON BOARD A TURKISH FRIGATE REFINEMENT OP MOHAMMEDAN JUSTICE GREEK MANUSCRIPTS AT PATMOS CLASSICAL AND SCRIPTURAL ASSOCIATIONS THE IDEAL FORMS OF ART THE CELTIC CONTROVERSY TRACES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS . CLASSIFICATION OF BARROWS . LONG BARROWS OF HIGH ANTIQUITY BURNING BODIES A REFINEMENT ON SIMPLE BURIAL DEEP GRAVES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS TUMULI OF FEMALE BRITONS OF RANK . TUMULI OF HUNTERS AND WARRIORS ANCIENT BRITISH POTTERY TUMULUS OF AN ANCIENT WARRIOR IRON NOT FOUND IN THE MOST ANCIENT TUMUU SEPULCHRAL ORNAMENTS INDICATIONS OF PRIMEVAL VILLAGES RUDE HABITATIONS OF ANCIENT BRITONS STONEHENGE .... TIMBUCTOO ADVENTURES ON THE WESTERN COAST OF AFRICA SULPHUR MOUNTAINS .... DESCRIPTION OF TIMBUCTOO BUTTERING THE SKIN .... TIMBUCTOO CUSTOM OF SELLING CRIMINALS . XU CONTENTS. PEEDATOKT EXOUESIONS ron SLATES . ADAMS EANSOMED BT THE MOOKS . ADAMS'S FURTHER ADVENTURES .... LAROCHEJAQUELEIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLU- TION . ... LA VENDEE AND THE LOYALISTS PRIMITIVE STATE OE SOOIETT IN LA VENDEE FIRST OUTBREAK IN LA VENDUE CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH REPUBLICANS THE PEASANTRY OF LA' VENOfc AUTHORS OF THE FIRST LOYALIST MOVEMENT ..... RECKLESS SELF-DEVOTION OF THE LOYALISTS FEMININE TIMIDITY OVERCOME BY NECESSITY . SAVAGE FEROCITY OF THE REPUBLICANS INFLUENCE OF THE PRIESTS ECONOMY OF THE ROYALIST CAMPS GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF THE VENDEANS MONASTIC AND BARONIAL REMAINS . BENJAMIN WEST .... FIRST EMANCIPATION OF NEGRO SLAVES BENJAMIN west's EARLY INDICATIONS OF ART-LOVE ARTISTIOAL USB OF A CAT . west's PBIMITIVB CAMERA OBSCBEA west's first sight OF AN ENGRAVING WEST ENCOURAGED AT PHILADELPHIA . QUAKERS FORMERLY OPPOSED TO THE PAINTEE'S AET QUAKER SOLDIERS ..... DEATH OF WEST'S MOTHER, AND HIS SUBSEQUENT JOURNEY west's reception at ROME .... THE APOLLO BELVEDERE LIKE A MOHAWK WARRIOR . A PRESBYTERIAN AND THE POPE . . . BENJAMIN WEST COMPARED TO RAPHAEL MENGS , EFFECTS OF EXCITEMENT ... . , west's GRAND TOUR AND ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND RETROSPECT OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. ANTICIPATIONS OF AMERICAN PROGRESS SPANISH AMERICA AND HUMBOLDT GOOD FRIDAY IN THE BRAZILS .... IMPOSED DEFERENCES ..... VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL INCONVENIENCES RAPID VEGETATION IN THE BRAZILS IQNOBANCE AND CREDULITY OF THE SEETANEJ03 . THE MUMMy-PITS OF THEBES DANGEROUS ADVENTURE IN THE MUMMY-PITS SACRED BATH AND FAIR ON THE GANGES HINDOO TOLERANCE OF ENGLISH MISSIONAEY PREACHING INHUMANITY OF THE HINDOOS THE SUTTEE, OR THE BURNING OF WIDOWS . AERIAL MONASTERIES OF METEORA PAOE 380 380 381 382 3H5 386 387 387 388 389 3ii9 390 391 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 397 398 398 399 400 400 401 402 403 403 404 405 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 411 412 413 417 418 419 420 421 CONTENTS. xiii EXPERmENTS ON THE GEYSER SPRINGS . . ^423 THE GREAT VOLCANO " KBABLA TOKUIi " . . , 424 THE SULPHUB MOUNTAIN ..... 426 TBEBIFIO PASSES OF ICELAND .... 427 SCAECITT OP THE BIBLE IN ICELAND .... 428 ENORMOUS FIELDS AND MOUNTAINS OF ICE . . 428 AWFUL ERUPTION OF THE SKAFTAE VOLCANO . . . 429 THE BOILING SPRINGS AND SEA-PARROTS OF BREIDAFIORD . 430 GEOIXJGICAL FEATURES OF ICELAND . . . .431 THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT . . . . , 432 THE VALLEY OF SMOKE ..... 433 WONDERFUL MICE ...... 433 THE ICY CAVE OF SURTSHALLIE .... 434 THE HOT SPRINGS OF HVEEAVELLIB . . . 435 THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OP MAN . . .436 THE CELTIC TRIBES, OTTADINI, GADBNI, AND SBLGOVa) . 438 MILITARY WORKS OS THE ROMANS ON THE BORDERS . . 438 SAXON ARCHITECTURE ..... 439 INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM INTO SCOTLAND . 440 BENEFITS OP MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS . . . 440 OHARAOTBR AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE BOEDER WAES . 441 THE SCOTTISH BORDER- STEENGTHS — PEELS AND.BASTLB HOUSES 442 ENGLISH REPRISALS ON THE SCOTTISH BOEDEEBES . . 443 STTPBEIORITY OF THE SOUTHERN BORDERERS . . 443 OHAEACTBR AND ECONOMY OF THE SCOTTISH BOEDEEBES . 444 SCANTY EBUGIOUS OBSEEVANCES OF THE BOEDEEBES . 445 OEIOLN OF THE CAMEEONIANS ..... 446 OHAEACTER OF THE WARDEN GOVERNMENT . . 447 SUMMARY MODE OF PUNISHING MARAUDERS . . . 448 MICKLE-MOUTHBD MEG ..... 448 BLACK AGNES ....... 449 THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN DISCOVERY . . .450 INFLUENCE OF MYSTERY ON THE MIND . . .452 CONJEOTUEBS RESPECTING CENTRAL AFRICA . . 452 THE RIVER ZAIEE, CONGO, OR NIGER .... 454 THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON . . . .455 THE MOUTH OF THE EIVEE ZAtRB .... 455 AFKICAN INDICATIONS . . . . .456 AN AFRICAN LEVEE ...... 456 SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE CONQOES . . . 457 THE CATARACT OF YELLALA ..... 467 SLAVES THE STAPLE OF CONGO .... 458 CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS . . . . .459 GANGAM KISSEY, A CONJUROE-PRIBST . . . 459 HOPELESSNESS AND TERMINATION OF THE ENTBEPEISB . 469 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA . . .460 HUMAN SKULES USED AS DOMESTIC ORNAMENTS . . 461 A HUNDRED MILLION PETEELS IN ONE FLIGHT . . 462 KINS GEORGE'S SOUND, WESTERN AUSTBALIA . . . 462 XIV COKTENTS. KANGAROO ISLAND . PELICAN ISLANDS THE AUSTEALIAN TLOEA SCANDINAVIAN SCENERY . THE REGIONS OE PERPETUAL LIGHT A REIN-DEER CARAVAN SOMETHING ABOUT MEETING-HOUSES SALMON SPEARING PERSECUTION BT THE MOSQUITOS . THE NOMADE iAPLANDEES HIDDEN TREASURES OF THE LAPPS THE CLOUDBERRY CURE THE ATTRACTIONS OE A BALLOON AND A SERMON A HINT ON OHUROH DISCIPLINE RELIGION IN HARMONY "WITH A TASTE FOR THE FINE ARTS ARTISTIC MISREPRESENTATIONS DEPRECATED . THE PROPRIETY Off DISCRIMINATION IN SELECTION . THE BEAUTIES OE SMOKE IN SCENERY .... INDIAN AFFAIRS IN 18ir .... MILITARY AUTHORSHIP ..... JUSTIFICATION OF THE WAR IN INDIA TREACHERY OF THE NATIVE POWERS .... INFATUATION OF THE NATIVE PRINCES THE DESIGNS OF PROVIDENCE IN REFERENCE TO THE BRITISH CONQUESTS IN INDIA . . ... MDELITY OF THE SEPOTS ..... SUPERIORITT OF THE SEPOYS OVER THE NATIVE TROOPS PROGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN MILITARY SYSTEM IN INDIA . INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS NOT INSUPERABLE INDIAN OASTES MERGED IN MILITARY DUTIES THE QUESTION OF TOLERATION OR CONVERSION IN INDIA LINCOLN CATHEDRAL . . . . . POWER OF SIZE ON THE IMAGINATION . . . . MIXED ARCHITECTURE OF LINCOLN CATHEDRAL THE POWER OF MYSTERY OVER THE MIND SPECULATIONS ON THE NORTH-WESTERN PASSAGE . ' . ' GREENLAND AND THE DANISH MISSIONARY, EGEDE THE GOLD MINES OF GREENLAND IN THE CUSTODY OF DEVILS THE AMOR PATRI^ OF THE GEEENLANDEES OEEENLAND SUPEESTITIONS THE TORNGARSUK, OR DBVIL's GRANDAM THE GREENLANDEES' NOTION OF A FUTURE STATE CHARACTER OF THE QKEBNLANDERS THE KRAKEN ... ■ . . NEPAUL NEPALESE RACES . . .'.'_' ANTICIPATIONS RESPECTING INDIA AND CHINA DESCRIPTION OF NEPAUL . , ' ' PASK 463 464 464 464 465 465 466 467 467 468 469 470 470 470 471 472 473 474 474 475 476 477 478 478 478 479 479 480 481 481 483 483 484 486 486 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 492 493 494 494 495 CONTENTS. XV PASS OHAHiOTBB OP THE NBPALESE .... 495 DIFffEKENOEB IN BUDDHISM .... 496 THE QOT OR QARDENBBS' OASTE .... 497 GRADATION OF CASTES EEOM BARBERS TO SHOEMAKERS . 498 THE POWER OE SUPERSTITION ..... 499 OOORKA DOMINION OVER THIBET AND BOOTAN . . 499 INOBNIOUS MODE OF APPLTINQ FINES . . . .499 DANGEROUS POWER OF THE GOORKAS . . . 500 POISONED ARROWS ...... 600 HUMAN CATTLE . .... 500 NATIVE SLAVES ...... 601 THE CESSION OP JAVA TO THE DUTCH . . 501 THE SUPPOSED INSALUBRITY OF JAVA .... 502 EXTENSIVE VOLCANOES IN JAVA .... 603 THE GREAT ERUPTION OF ,THE TOMBORO . . . 604 THE TEAK FORESTS OF JAVA .... 504 THE JAVAN POISON TREES ..... 605 TARTAR ORIGIN OF THE JAVANESE .... 506 A YELLOW COMPLEXION AND BLACK TEETH THE TYPE OP JAVANESE BEAUTY ..... 507 EARLY MARRIAGES AND FACILITIES OF DIVORCE . . 607 CHEAPNESS OF HOUSES ..... 508 PICTURESQUE GROUPING OF THE VILLAGES OF JAVA . . 508 THE JAVANESE AN AGRICULTURAL PEOPLE . . . 609 THE COMMERCE OF JAVA ..... 509 EDIBLE BIRDS'-NESTS ..... 610 THE GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION OF JAVA . . . 611 POMPEII ....... 512 REFLECTIONS ON THE SUDDEN EEVEALMENT OF PAST AGES ' . 513 COMMENDATORY NOTICE OF SIB WM. GELL'S POMPBIANA . 614 DIFFICULTIES OF EXCAVATING HERCULANEUM . . . 51 4 THE VARIOUS STRATA WHICH COVER POMPEII . . 515 ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF POMPEII .... 516 STRIKING MEMORIALS OF THE ERUPTION . . . 516 OSTENTATION OF SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS . . . 616 SINGULAR FUNERAL CEREMONY .... 517 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF POMPEII . . . ■ 618 HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE AND IMPLEMENTS FOUND AT POMPEH 519 fiOGER WILLIAMS, THE AMERICAN PILGRIM . . 520 THE ABORIGINES GRADUALLY EXTERMINATED BY THE MARCH OF CIVILIZATION ...... 521 RECESSION OF WILD ANIMALS OONCUEEENT WITH THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION ...... 522 APOLOGY FOR COLONIZATION .... 522 THE TIMES OF THE BED MEN ..... 523 THE PURITANS INTOLERANT TO EACH OTHER . . 624 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF EOGBE WILLIAMS , . . 524 ROGER WILLIAMS BANISHED FROM MASSACHUSETTS . 525 SUPERNATURAL INTERPOSITION .... 626 XVI CONTENTS. PiOJ TERKOKS OP THE POBEST . . , . . • 527 THE RED man's EEIENDLT EECEPTION 01' WILLIAMS . . 527 THE riRST SABBATH IN THE WILDERNESS . . . 528 THE RED man's COSMOGONY AND SCHEME OF FAITH . . 528 RETU6N OF WABAN ..... 629 WILLIAMS BECOMES A PACIFICATOR BETWEEN MASSASOII AND THE NARRAGANSETS ..... 530, THE PAWAW OR WIZARD CHIEF OF OHEPIAN . . . 631 THE MANITIOO, OE CHARMED RATTLESNAKE . . 631 StJCOESS OF THE NEGOTIATION ' . . . 532 ROGER WILLIAMS'S FIRST SETTLEMENT . . . 532 WILLIAMS AND HIS FAMILY TRACKED BY THE PAWAW . . 533 THEY TAKE HEF0GE IN A CAVE .... 534 aili; PAWAW AND HIS BLOODHOUND .... 534 WILLIAMS ESTABLISHED IN HIS SETTLEMENT . . 536 NEW TROUBLES. — A DEACON AGAIN .... 635 WILLIAMS'S SECOND PILGRIMAGE . . . .636 ABBIYAL AND SETTLEMENT AT A SPOT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY . 637 GENERAL DEPRAVITY OF THE HUMAN RACE . 538 CURIOSITY INHERENT IN MAN ..... 538 IMPROBABILITY OF DISCOVERING AN UTOPIA . . 538 GENERAL FIDELITY OF MODERN TRAVELLERS . . . 639 REFLECTIONS ON THE PREVALENCE OF MORAL DEFORMITY . 640 THE ADAPTABILITY OF MAN TO HIS LOCATION . . . 640 PHYSICAL VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND . . . 541 MORAL AND SOCIAL VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND . . . 542 POLAOK'S personal experience of the NEW ZBALANDERS 542 THE ' ATUA ' superstition OF THE NEW ZEALAHDEES . . 643 NEW ZEALAND BELIEF IN METEMPSYCHOSIS . . 545 THE REINQA, A NEW ZEALAND WALHALLA . . , 545 NEW ZEALAND PRIESTCRAFT .... 646 EXTENSIVE CANNIBALISM ..... 547 THE NEW ZEALAND CHIEF e'oNGI, ONCE RESIDENT IN ENGLAND 548 IMPROVED CHARACTER OF THE NATIVES . . . 649 FICKLE COURAGE OF THE NATIVES .... 650 PARENTAL AFFECTION OF THE NEW ZEALANDEES . . §60 THE OEEEMONY .OF THE TANQI .... 551 THE UNIVERSAL RELATIONSHIP OF MAN . . . 652 VIRTUES OF THE NEW ZEALAND WOMEN . . . 552 ARISTOCRACY AMONG SAVAGES .... 553 VALUABLE QUALITIES OF THE HEW ZEALANDEES . . 554 PROSPECTIVE COLONIZATION OF NEW ZEALAND . . , 556 THE IMPROVEMENT OP TIME .... 558 ON THE WASTE OF INTERVALS .... 558 FOSTERIANA- THOUGHTS, EEFLECTIONS, AND CEITICISMg, BEX.EOTBD FBOU REVIEWS NOT PUBLISHED IN THE "CRITICAL ESSAYS." FALSE MODEL OF AN INDEPENDENT MAN.* By Independent Man, the author simply means, a man born to the inheritance of sufficient property to be the entire master of his plan of life ; and the work professes to delineate a course of education and study for such a man, from his earliest infancy to an advanced period of maturity. It may be proper to state generally, in a very few words, the kind of character which it is proposed that this man shall acquire, and the practical career through which it is presumed that he will be led. His virtue is to be of the true Roman quality, adopted for its dignity rather than sanctity, and therefore sustained by pride rather than con- science. After becoming an accomplished scholar, he is to liberalise and enlarge his views by travelling in foreign countries. By the time that he returns, he will be qualified to distinguish himself; and the ambition of doing this is to be a leading principle of his life, cherished by his instructors during his childhood, and afterwards cultivated and stimu- lated by himself. Ther6 is not one sentence in the book that intimates an acknowledgment of a future life ; and there are unequivocal marks of a total rejection of that revelation which has opened the prospect. The writer even rarely makes a serious reference » Th& Independent Man ; or an Essay on the Formation and Deve- lopment of those Principles and Faculties of the Human Mind which cobstitute Moral and Intellectual Excellence. By QeOrg;e Ensor, Esq. Two vols. 8vo. 1806. B 2 FOSTEKIANA. to a Divine Being ; and it is in the language of contempt that he e presses, here and there, a transient allusion to religion, which he usually designates by the term superstition, especially when it is to Christianity that he alludes. This malignity is not always bold and explicit ; for, as he says, " the authorized superstition of nations is only to be circum- vented by distant approaches and desultory attacks ; " meaning, \ undoubtedly, that the assailants must take care of their own impunity. It is hardly worth while to remind such a writer, of what has been repeated to his class a thousand times, that it was not in this sorry mode that the men, whose names he hates, assaulted the authorized super- stitions of the pagan nations. If it had, the worship of Jupiter, Bacchus, and Venus might, for them, have flourished long enough in all its glory. They sounded the trumpet, and advanced firmly in the face of their enemy, at the peril of incomparably greater evils than Mr. Ensor and his friends would, in these times, have to fear from any human power, in the most formal attack on what they account superstition. The hostility of those heroic innovators did not thus show itself for a moment, wriggling and hissing, and then slink back into a ditch. Our author and his class will reply, with the accustomed sneer, that they have no very eager desire for sufferings, though the Christians might : and assuredly, considering the nature of their dissent, they are perfectly wise in not risking their safety for their opinions. But then they ought to have the decency to be totally silent about magnanimity, generous devotion to truth, the vindication of the claims of reason, and such nonsense (worse than non- sense in the mouths of these sneaking cowards).; and yet this is a kind of dialect for which they afifect a particular fondness. Few of them, however, speak out more intelligibly than our author ; and when he does not choose to be precise, he resorts to the expedient, so common in his school, of intimating that the "dogmas of religion" are not only undeserving of the belief, but below the attention, of any one pretending to reason or philosophy. " It is not for me " this writer says, " to investigate such matters." We have dwelt so particularly on this part of the character of the book, because we deem the preclusion and contempt of the sublime expectations founded on religion, to FALSE MODEL OF AN INDEPENDENT MAN. 3 be absolutely fatal in a work professing to be a compre- hensive scheme of intellectual and moral institution. For the final object of that institution, and consequently many of its principles and rules, must in a scheme which disowns those expectations, be fixed according to a standard infinitely too mean for the interests of man, if there may be the smallest chance that he may be immortal. If, on the con- trary, it is certain there is a full end of him at death, then a discipline so strenuous as that here proposed, is perfectly ridiculous, by the contrast between the greatness of its labours, and the poorness and vanity of its object. According to this scheme, a man must force himself to an exertion as severe and unintermitted as ever a slave expired under — and for what ? Why, to make, during a few years, a little figure and noise in the world, dividing the attention of the public with a Vestris, a Betty, or a Catalani, and enjoying incomparably the smaller share ; or to obtain, jnst in order to lose, a partnership in office and power, with persons who, he might know, will endure none of his Catonic notions ; or to make one more hapless trial to verify that weakest, wildest dream of philosophical fanaticism, that the complacency of virtue, without looking beyond itself, creates a happiness independent of all external circumstances ; or to earn 'a little posthumous fame, which will be the same thing to him as the vyinds that will whistle over his tomb. The writer who can gravely propose a scheme so humble in its ends, and BO onerous in its means, has neither, on the one hand, the sobriety of views requisite for adjusting a plan of discipline for beings who are to exist only a few years, and whose true policy is to incur as little uneasiness, and seize as much pleasure, as they can ; nor, on the other, hand, the enlargement of views indispensable in framing a system of education for beings who are to live for ever. He may give very good instructions relative to some of the specific parts and details ; he may be a judicious guide in respect of a language or a science, and may even offer useful sugges- tions relating to morals ; but believing, as we do, that the subject of his discipline is immortal, we caimot deem him better qualified to frame a sjaiem for the education and subsequent life of the Independent Man, whom he has taken under his management, than a bargeman on the river is B 2 FOSTEBIANA. competent to command a ship which is to circnmnavigate the globe, or than a vestry legislator is qualified to investigate the interests of an empire, or a parish ofScer to govern it. It is impossible to imagine a book written, for the greater part, nuder a more complete exemption from all the laws of regular connexion and consecutive train. The work is a huge mass of separate particles, brought into vicinity and contact, but not into combination. They are in the same situation as the atoms of the author's favourite Lucretius, at that particular period, when, after having danced about in the great vacuum in a state of infinite dispersion and freedom from all eternity, they at last, some million or two of ages before the complete formation of the world, found themselves, to the astonishment of each, all congregated thick together, waiting, as it came out afterwards, to be organized into a system. The work contains but little of what bears any semblance to reasoning, and scarcely any- thing that can be called disquisition. This is compensated, however, by an extraordinary measure of dogmatism, which is emitted in an oracular tone, and in shorter sentences than we can recollect to have been in use with any other of the pagan oracles. The author has a right to sneer, as he sometimes does, at " the believers ;" for he, on every subject he touches, is far beyond mere belief; he always knows. A more imperfect scheme of morals was perhaps never exhibited in a work designed, and sufficiently amplified, to comprehend the outlines of whatever is indispensable to the formation of a character of exalted excellence. It totally omits or rejects some of the highest virtues according to the Christian scheme : this is a matter of course ; but it also places the virtues , which it does enjoin on a treacherous basis, and under the feeblest sanctions. The presence of the all-seeing Governor and Judge of the world, and the infinite importance of His approbation, were considerations too mean, vulgar, or fanatical, to be recollected by our philoso- pher, among the motives to virtue. And as to the dis- approbation of that power, he expressly and vehemently protests against the inculcation of any such barbarous idea on the youthful mind. The observations on morals are followed by three short and very miscellaneous sections, under the titles — genius FALSE MODEL OP AN INDEPENDENT MAN. 5 and study requisite to great undertakings; objections to learning answered; remarks on reading. These contain sensible observations and learned allusions, but nothing particularly new ; arid the composition is so disconnected, that we are reminded of the description mentioned by Mr, Ensor as having been applied to the composition of Seneca, " sand without Ume." Here, and in several places, ho inculcates the favourite principle of Eousseau, that the value of individuals is in their being component parts of the community. A man's own happiness is to be made a secondary thing, as it should seem, to the welfare and glory of his friends and his country. The language of the work is neither vulgar nor classical. Occasionally, it is really forcible ; but very often it is unsuc- cessfully attempted to be made so, by short, snapped kind of sentences, which continually remind us of the crackers bouncing about the streets, with so much friskiness and petty explosion, on the evening of the fifth of November. There is often an incorrectness of construction, a quaintness of phrase, a s-rudeness in the enunciation of the thought, which we wonder so much familiarity with so many classical authors should not have prevented or reformed. The figurative illustrations now and then appear to have been brought into their places by main force, but in other instances are natural, expressive, and happy. The most obvious feature of the composition, is a surprising frequency of proper names. A considerable number of this pi-ivileged order, this aristocratic class of words, has an enlivening effect, and helps to catch the attention of a person that may happen carelessly to open the book. But here they are crowded on the page, as plentifully as tin spangles on the robe of a strolling actress. F08TEKIANA. ON MOEAL EVIDENCE* The province of demonstration is a very exalted, but a con- tracted and secluded region. Its votary finds himself in a situation somewhat like the narrow ridge ot the summit of Mont Blanc, where the atmosphere is refined to ethereal subtility ; where the stars appear with a lustre unknown to the people of the world beneath ; where the man of science apprehends no intrusion of the vulgar, and where he may enjoy his apotheosis among diagrams which he draws in the eternal snow; but where there is no living thing, nor sustenance for life, and even the vital operation of breathing is uncongenial with the place ; where he seems at an infinite distance from the community of man ; where the exercise of his moral functions is suspended for want of objects, and where often the whole face of the world, with all its beautiful diversities of form and colour, is intercepted from his view by a wide stratum of clouds, which compels him to be satisfied with looking into empty space. The attainment of absolute certainty in reasoning, is a high triumph of the understanding ; but the elation with which the mind surveys that portion of truth which it can ascertain by demonstrative proof, is repressed by observing, that the truths of this order form but a small part of what it is important for us to know, and that they do not involve the most interesting subjects. For the scope of demonstration is too confined to reach to the great questions of morals, of religion, or of political science, nor can it assist us in our inquiries into the events of past ages ; in our speculations on our own nature ; in our estimate of the pleasures of which that nature is capable ; or, in short, in our theory of the nature and means xjf happiness. Throughout this wide extent of speculation, the truth is to be ascertained by another mode of proof, denomi- nated moral evidencOjOn the ground of which, our reasonings on almost all subjects, but mathematical ones, must proceed. * An Introduction to the Study of Moral Evidence; or, of that Species of Reasoning whicli relates to Matters of Fact and Practice With an Appendix, on Debating for Victory, and not for Truth. By James Edward Gambler, M.A. 12mo. 1806. ON MORAL EVIDENCE. 7 Mankind, therefore, in general, and even the cultivated and intellectual part of them, have occasion to bring a thousand — perhaps ten thousand — questions to a decision, on this species of proof, for one which requires or admits a process of demonstration. We may be disposed to lament, that the nature of things makes it impossible to apply this most infallible method of decision to incomparably the greatest proportion ,of the subjects of our knowledge; but this regret for the exclusive nature of the most perfect of mental operations, should make us anxious to attain a finished mode of performing the next, which is of less pure intellectual dignity indeed, but of infinitely greater value, on account of the extent of its application. ON MATHEMATICAL DEMONSTRATION. In common with every rational man, Mr. Gambier expresses his high respect for demonstrative reasoning ; but says, he has had many occasions of observing how little it qualifies a person for forming right opinions on moral and practical subjects. Since the methods of demonstration are necessarily confined to science, it is only its spirit, its severe accuracy, that can be transferred to the investigation of these more general subjects. This intellectual severity, carried into moral reasonings, would be of the greatest advantage, provided the inquirer would constantly recollect the nature of his subject, and let this spirit operate in the way of producing a vigorous exactness in the development and combination of such arguments as those subjects admit, instead of exciting an impatience for such as in their very nature they preclude. And, accordingly, several distin- guished mathematicians have been admirably successful iu questions of moral evidence. On the other hand, not a few of them, disabled, as it should seem, by their scientific studies, to employ their understanding in any other than a mathematical method, have, with regard to subjects of religion and morals, either reasoned ill, or abandoned them- selves to scepticism. And to one or other of these con- sequences, but especially the latter, every man accustomed to demonstrative reasoning will be liable, if he do not make the nature of moral evidence a distinct and careful study. 8 rOSTBKlANA. THE tOVB OF TRUTH A NATURAL PROPENSITY. When considering the influence of testimony on out belief, the author is inclined to coincide with Dr. Eeid's opinion, that there are two principles implanted in our nature, which correspond with each other : first, a propensity to speak the truth ; and secondly, a disposition to confide in the veracity of others.' It may be impossible to prove the non-existence of these specific original principles, in the constitution of our nature ; because the human mind cannot be made a subject of investigation, till after it has begun to pass under those impressions, which may produce the appearance of a distinct specific principle, by giving a specific determination to a general one. But we think the experience of ^ the children (for in the very worst society, every child probably hears a hundred truths for one falsehood), and the incomparably greater facility of relating from memory than from invention, are quite sufficient to account for the tendencies to credulity and veracity, without supposing distinct principles in the constitution of the mind ; and if these causes are competent to the effects, it is unphilosophical to seek for others. ON THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.* Many of our readers, we are persuaded, like ourselves, have been sorry that such a number of pens are employed on the proofs of the Divine authority of the Scriptures. This circumstance of multitude is injurious to the cause ; the inquirer is absolutely confounded and distracted by the mass and diversity ; unless he is fortunate enough to fall, in the first instance, on two or three of the ablest works, with which his judgment may be satisfied without reading any more, or to which, amidst various subsequent reading, his mind may continually recur, as containing the grand stamina of the argument. If, when defences of revelation are as common as gram- • Lectures on Soripture ^aots. By the Eev. 'Willinm Bengo CoUyer, 8vo. 1807. ON THE EVIDBNCBB OP CHRISTIANITY. 9 mars or compendiums of geography, a man can be ignorant enough to set up for a sceptic or a deist, without being apprized of these iiow familiar arguments, there seems little chance that they will come to the knowledge, or fix the attention, of such a stupid or friyolous mortal, merely in consequence of being exhibited in one more change of vehicle. And if it is after being made acquainted with these arguments, especially if it is after having read them as stated by the ablest advocates of religion, that he can still please himself with impiety and quibbles, we do not see on what ground a writer can expect to convince such a man, unless he really thinks he can reason more forcibly than Leslie, Butler, or Paley. When the work has been done by several writers, in a manner supremely excellent, we should think succeeding authors, even of equal ability and preparation, would be anxious not to divert the public attention from those decisive performances, by labouring formally on the same ground, just as if nothing had previously been done. If they do employ themselves awhile on this ground, it will be for the purpose of just enumerating and concentrating the argu- ments by which it is so well pre-occupied, and earnestly enjoining their readers to study those great works in which these arguments are conclusively established. Their own principal efforts will be directed to what they deem substan- tially new. But then it is most clearly the duty of less qualified writers to forbear the sacrilege of injuring the powerful reasonings of their predecessors, and, therefore, injuring the great cause itself, by repeating and amplifying those reasons in a loose and enervated form. Without doubt, it is the duty of a minister sometimes to enforce these arguments from the pulpit, according to his measure of ability, whether it be greater or less; but when we consider the materials which infidels and sceptics are made of, we are anxious, we acknowledge, that all the works which challenge them through the press, should he such as would not depend for their effect on that most improbable preUminary, — that the prejudiced and scornful reader's own understanding shall be candidly exerted to give a stronger form to the arguments than the writer himself has given them. 10 F08TBEIANA. ON INFLATED STYLE, AND THE MISAPPLICATION OF METAPHOR. There are probably few literary workmen who have not often in their time been vexed to feel, with how much more ease they could put together the figures of a picture, than the members of a syllogism. Mr. Collyer, in his anxiety to mark the elegant and the touching circumstances of a repre- sentation, sometimes gives such a prominence to little par- ticulars, on account of their supposed gracefulness, that the attention fixes on them alone, to the neglect of the more general features of the object. In viewing this object, we feel much in the same way as we remember to have done in hearing a late reverend doctor who used to wear several beautiful rings on his fingers. We could perceive that the sermon was good, and that the man looked respectable enough ; but our perverse attention reverted every instant to the rings, and to those nice gesticulations of the hand by which they were made to sparkle so agreeably in the sun- shine. Or, if we were for once to borrow an illustration from the art of painting, we should say, that he is sometimes less studious of the harmony and effect of the whole group, than of some elegant particularity of dress or attitude in one of the figures. The histories adopted as the foundation of these lectures, involve some tender and many tragical scenes, and afford excellent opportunities of addressing the passions : these are never neglected by the author ; and he is sometimes very successful in delineating affecting situations. But in this particular we have found reason to complain of the sameness of images. Bereaved families, widows and orphans, aged parents dying, the separation of affectionate friends, are among the most interesting subjects of pensive thought. When they are brought in our view on occasions where it seems natural and inevitable, the heart acknowledges their claims, and willingly pays them the tribute of compassion and tears. But if they are made a topic of habitual recurrence, and brought forward whether the subject fairly introduce them or not, our feelings begin to change ; the sacredness of sorrow seems to be profaned, when the subjects of it are made to meet us wherever we go, as if by a con- ON INFLATED STYLE, ETC. 11 trived plan to play on our feelings. The sympathetic interest claimed by the scenes of mourning is lost in the hard effort, which candour enforces the duty of making, to believe that such deliberate and systematic contrivance is compatible with a great share of real sensibility in the contriver, who is watching every occasion to renew before us the same or similar spectacles of sorrow. In various parts of the lectures, we observe a certain tincture of the language exclusively appropriate to subjects of a tender class, attempted to be infused into the compo- sition, where it required a language of cool didactic or narrative simplicity. It is not going entirely out of the bearing of this remark to notice, that in a vast number of instances the term " bosom " is substituted for the plain, obvious word " mind." The most prevailing fault in this work is one likely to be corrected by time and intellectual maturity. What we refer to is an excessively rhetorical cast of composition, which offends critical laws, sometimes by poetical apo- strophes, when the train of ideas ought to have gone forward in a sober manner ; frequently by personifications, when it is impossible to suppose either the speaker or the hearers, either the writer or his readers, to be in that state of vivid imagination, which is required to save a violence of figure from appearing altogether an effort of cold and forced invention ; sometimes by representing as in sight of the assembly, past or distant events and objects ; often by transmuting into metaphor what ought to have been in ordinary words ; sometimes by amassing a number of mag- nificent images where one was suflcient ; and very often by an artificial and too parading style. After alleging this fault, it is proper to transcribe^ome instances ; and that we may not be suspected of having sought out these passages with invidious care : " One should imagine that Moses had snatched a feather from the wing of time, to record the swiftness of his flight." " But who regards the silent finger of religion, pointing to an inheritance above the stars, promising splendour that shall never expire ?" " The laurel which he proudly boasts was nourished in the empurpled plains of carnage, and snatched from the field of death." " When Homer draws the picture of eternity with 12 F08TEBIANA. the pencil of fancy." " Where Eome's awful senate con- vened, time strides over the ruin, and writes on the broken triumphal arch, The glory is departed." " We have learned from them [the orientals] in our eloquence to thunder with the storm, to rush with the torrent, to glide with the river, to murmur with the rill, and to whisper with the breeze." " At that period of the world when science unveiled all her splendours, and irradiated the discovered globe from pole to pole ; when philosophy sat upon her throne enjoying the zenith of her power ; and when reason had attained the meridian of her glory." " Hark, the trampling of the horses at the door, and the chariot of fire waits to bear thee to heaven." " This connexion looks death in the face." " Casting a mantle of forgiveness over this sinful pusilla- nimity." " If his mercy speaks in whispers, soft as the breath of the morning, or grateful as the gale fanned by the wings of the evening, every passion sinks to rest, every tumultuous feeling subsides, and we are lost in wonder, in love, in ecstasy." " See yonder Druid with fierceness glaring in his eyes, and the consecrated branch in his hand, polluting thy soil, O Britain ! with the ashes of hundreds of victims, consumed in an enormous ilnage 1 But soft — we promised to produce examples only from polished nations. My heart fails me, and the blood curdles in my veins with horror, when I I'ecoUect it was a custom common among the Car- thaginians to sacrifice children to Saturn." " The earth- quake that shakes, the towering palace, and the proud battlements of the city, to the ground, rends the bosom of the earth, and discloses the shells and teeth of fish." We should despair of the critical perception of any reader who would require us to prove, that it must be a false taste to be pleased with these passages, to which so many others might be added. Our candour would attribute this injudicious rhetoric to a cause which forms a very amiable feature in a juvenile mind, — an eagerness to give full effect to important truth; in the indulgence of which laudable feeling, we easily forgive a youth for havin" recourse to the obvious expedients of sonorous expression and showy ornament; since it requires a patience hardly natural to his years, to subdue himself to the hard and prolonged labour necessary for the attainment of vigorous ON INFLATED STTLB, ETC, 13 thought, and a chaste and precise language. At particular moments during our perusal, we confess a slight suspicion has come upon us, that the author had really persuaded himself to consider this mode of oratory as absolutely eloquent rather than as a very early stage in the progress towards true eloquence. But it would have been most unjust not to repel this suspicion, as it does seem impossible that a writer, acquainted with the most eloquent works of ancient and modern times, should deem the same epithet applicable to this species of composition, which we trust his growing good sense will abandon as one of the weaknesses of youth ; and we are happy to suggest it to him as a consolation amidst his efforts to improve, that some of our best writers have begun their career with a certain degree of the same fault in their compositions. HOLLAND AND THE EHINE.* About twelve or fourteen years since, there was not a day in which nearly all the people of England did not think and talk of Holland, the Low Countries, and the Ehine. In contemplating the situation of Holland at that time, our minds reverted to the illustrious origin of its free- dom, to its subsequent train of heroic characters and achieve- ments, and to the national energy which had so long maintained at once its physical existence against the ocean, and its political independence against the most powerful neighbouring depots, while its commercial relations had extended to the remotest points of the globe. To see a state which had held so conspicuous a rank among nations approaching at last to its catastrophe ; to see those moral and political mounds which had combined with the obstacles of nature to preclude the access and repel the approach of foreign dominion wearing away, and at length subverted at the very moment that nature too, in an extraordinary * A Tour through Holland, along the Bight and Left Banks of the Bbine, t<7 the South of Germany, in the Sumtuer and Autumb of 1806. By Sir JoSm Oarr. 4to. 1807. 14 rOSTBEIAlTA. manner, reversed her conduct, and opened the barrier to the irruption of a new and overwhelming power, which if it once inundated the land, was not likely to subside or recede ; and to see all those events consummated by the final surrender of that proud country, excited in our minds an attention and an emotion, in comparison with which many of evep the important concerns of our own country were matters of but insipid interest. During a year or two before this event, the Netherlands had been the scene to which our imagination constantly returned, in every interval of our immediate business, and often while that business was in our hands ; we were far more familiar with its cities and fortresses than with the towns in the farthest part of th_e county in which we i esided. In thought we traversed every district; in following the movements of armies, we often saw from a high tower the field of battle, placed ourselves alternately in the situation of defenders and assailants of entrenchments and ramparts ; and amidst our amazement at the heroic enthusiasm which had perhaps never before animated so many combatants at once, we could almost imagine the shades of chiefs and legions who had fought and fallen in the same fields in former ages, recalled to the scene, and viewing with mixed wonder and envy the exploits which eclipsed their fame. The Rhine was perhaps already the most celebrated river on earth, from the martial triumphs and devastations which had illustrated and afflicted the regions through which it flows. The events, however, which had made it so memor- able, 'had long since sunk into the quietness of history, and our thoughts but little frequented its vicinity, till the tumult of a new and unparalleled contest extended along its banks. And then, for awhile, our imagination saw the Rhine wherever we went, and we were still musing on the sublime achievements (for there is hardly any man that does not associate rather a grand than a frightful and odious idea with distant war) which were probably at that very hour thundering on the one or the other brink of that stream. It was much indeed if we could walk over a bridge, or be rowed over a ferry, without thinking of armies swimming across the Rhine, to attack the enemy's lines on the opposite bank. Over these borders our anxiety and wonder hovered HOLLAND AND THE RHDTB. 15 for a considerable time ; and it was thought a rather extrava- gant presumption if any one predicted, that the scene of action and of interest was yet to be transferred far toward the east. After a year or two, however, all was changed. The fields which hsid been so fiercely contested were resigned to the peasant and his cattle ; the battlements no longer shook under the discharge of artillery, except when it announced some distant conquest, and the river was once more left to flow in peace. As soon as its neighbourhood ceased to be terrible, our imagination deserted it, and this famous river, and the territories immediately adjacent, have been for years past nearly as little thought of, as the Oby and its wildernesses and barbarian hordes. It could rarely be recalled to our recollection, while our thoughts were borne away by the strange progress, we might almost say flight of war, to the Adige, the Brenta, the Nile, the Danube, the Oder, the Elbe, the Vistula, and the Narva. The author intermixes many anecdotes of the Dutch painters. It would have been no bad thesis for the exercise of his ingenuity, if he had attempted to account for the production of such a disproportionate number of painters, in a country where the natural scenery is so little adapted to inflame or enrich the imagination, where the heavy uniformity of society and manners would seem to afford so few diversities and combinations of character, and where poetry, the best nurse of the genius of painting, has never been able to preserve her sensibility and enthusiasm, amidst the eagerness for getting money, the exhalations of stagnant canals, and the smoke of tobacco. DUTCH LOVE OP MONEY. The sober, orderly character of the Dutch people does not much engage our respect, since it unquestionably springs in no small degree from the " root of all evil." But, considering the general state of the world, we may congratulate ourselves on meeting with a national characteristic which is good in practical effect, however unsatisfactory the principle. We are glad when vice is prevented, even though it be vice that prevents it. It will be a most sublime spectacle whenever a nation shall be found to renounce riot and dissipation from a principle of obedience to Divine laws : but in the mean- 16 FOSTEBIANA. timo, it is very pleasant to be infonned, even though there be little religion there, that a city is moderately quiet at night, that there is a general industry, and a tolerable share of domestic regularity and morality, that " drunkenness is held unpardonably infamous," and that there are excellent public institutions for the relief of distress, and for the salutary discipline of the profligate. Undoubtedly, a mate- rial proportion of this must result from something better than that mean passion for which the Dutch are notorious ; it is partly the consequence of that careful education, which we are assured prevails in Holland, DUTCH GRAVITY. In spite of all the painters, the warriors, and the memorable events of Holland, there is still something on which the imagination cannot endure to be detained ; it is impatient to fly off, in quest of a country that should really seem a production of nature rather than of art, and in quest of a more lively or more dignified people. There is in this people nothing playful to divert us, nothing graceful to enchant us, and nothing majestic to keep us in awe. There is gravity enough, but it is more like the dry vulgar gravity with which a tax-gatherer makes up his accounts, than that of a philoso- pher exploring truth, or a philanthropist deliberating on plans of utility. It is the gravity of a man who despises gaiety without being able to rise to contemplation. It is the gravity of a man that we wish fairly asleep in order to get out of his company, instead of that gravity which we respectfully wait upon, regretting its reserve, and anxiously soliciting it into social converse. The love of money always creates a certain coarseness in the moral texture either of a nation or an individual. Such a quality disables the mind to feel the fine part of any subject ; and all that cannot be measured by roods, or valued by guineas, is considered as the business of men who came into the world to dream, and whine, and rant, and starve, being unhappily not born to the wisdom of mind~ ing and securing the main chance. DUTCH CAUTION AND ECONOMY. It is well known that the bronze statue is the third raised to Erasmus in his native city, the first having been of wood, PUBLIC MEN. 17 and the second of blue stone. . Tor this a very characteristic reason has been assigned :— namely, that the worthy burghers, not knowing whether the race of genius, now that it had naturalized itself among them, might not be as prolific as that of rabbits, and very naturally considering what an expense it would in that case prove to raise a statue to each, except of the plainest materials, determined to begin on a plan which would enable their exchequer to accommodate all the tribe, let them be ever so numerous. Finding, however, at the end of near twenty years, that no second Erasmus had appeared, they allowed their heretofore well-judged parsi- mony to relax ; but still keeping a cautious and calculating look out, they, thought it not prudent to venture beyond the expense of working a piece of good blue stone. After sixty-flve years more had passed on, during which long period the threatened inundation of geniuses, wits, and literati, had not, in whole or in part, broken in upon them, they concluded that the danger was fairly over, and, instigated to a bold feat of liberality, they commemorated at once the merit of Erasmus and the security of their finances by a fine metal figure of the stature of ten feet. PUBLIC MEN.* The great crowd of what are called public men, deserve no individual description or memorial. After having examined a few specimens, it is easy to guess the qualities of the rest. Compound an ordinary portion of talent with a rather extra quantity of cunning, and just as much selfishness as you please, existing in the lowest form of ambition and avarice, or both, and you have the substance of what is most com- monly called a public man ; a very cheap composition, because it can be made up without the expense of a drachm of that rare and costly ingredient, public spirit. If there are persons, in the more retired walks of life, so simple as • Some Account of the Public Life of the Earl of Macartney ; iaduding an Account of the Russian Empire, a Journal of an Embassy to China, &o. ByJohn Barrow, F.E.S. Two vols., 4to. 1807. 1 8 rOSTERIANA. to regret that they cannot have the privilege of intimately observing the characters of the occupants of power and office, it might allay their discontented curiosity to be assured, that they may see everywhere around them exact models, on a smaller scale, of what they are precluded from inspect- ing. They may find, in the most subordinate ranks of society, plenty of the very same genus of personages, only with narrower scope for acting out their dispositions, and somewhat less plausibility of manners. If the high and imposing titles by which the upper part of the genus have agreed to call one another, have impressed a certain degree of awe on the minds of our supposed inquisitive recluses, it will perhaps be a little of the nature of a discovery and a surprise to them to find, that the schemes, and jealousies, and rivalries, and quarrels, that the intriguing, the cheating, the pettifogging, and the speechifying, of a country village, form a very good counterpart, except in speciousness of management, to the characters and proceedings of the men who generally transact the business of states. If they feel such surprise, however, they have only themselves to thank for the ignorance of so obvious a fact, as that mean and selfish passions predominate in human nature, that these must operate in all ranks of mankind equally, and almost in the same manner, and that consequently, in what are called public men, they will operate just to the extent of their larger sphere and opportunities. It is but to look at the portrait of a private and subordinate man's character through a glass that will magnify it to the dimensions of the public man's condition, and we have the latter character placed fairly before us. This expedient of magnifying the features of the private and vulgar character, is perhaps even the best way of obtaining a true idea of what assumes so much importance under the title of a public character ; for if we look directly at the public character itself, it is placed in a situation so much above the ordinary level, and in so pecu- liar a light, that we view it under a kind of optical decep- tion, by which the coarse lines and features acquire a certain fallacious smoothness of appearance. If the character of men in the higher stations be thus for the most part truly represented by a multitude of characters in all the lower ranks, the public, on which fhese men have LOBD MACARTNEY. ]9 laid so many imposts during their lives, is but little obliged by the attempt to lay a new tax on its time and money, by ^^olumes of tedious detail, after they are gone, of their com- monplace qualities and actions. But there is just now and^ then an individual among these persons of public life, who combines such extraordinary talent with depravity, or it is possible (for the thing has happened) with high virtue, or ■who has transacted business in such uncommon circum- stances, that it may be fairly claimed for him to be an object of considerable attention after his mortal agency has ceased. The curiosity which would feel but little interest in looking at those public productions, briars, nettles, and thistles, would be strongly excited at sight of the banyan, for its remarkable appearance ; and still more of the manchineel and the upas, for their qualities, if the latter were more than a fabled phenomenon ; it would be considerably excited if even a very ordinary tree were seen growing out of a crevice at the top of a high tower, or in any other strange situation. THE CHAKACTER OF LOKD MACABTNEr. Lord Macartney appears to have been of so different a composition from the vulgar tribe of men of office, that, independently of the singular embassy which has given the chief notoriety to his name, a patriot would be gratified to see a compressed discriminative sketch of his life exhibited to the nation, as, in a good degree, a standard by which to estimate men in high stations, and we wish it might not imply a hope which it is foolish to cherish, if we add, exhibited as a pattern for the imitation of such men. But though we feel so little hope of its being imitated, we are gratified in contemplating the one individual example of disinterestedness, prudence, and inflexible and courageous probity. To have the very possibility of such a chai-acter thus practically evinced, is something in these times ; and if it be useless, as it will of course, for operating any amendment, it will at least war- rant the aggravated censure of what is incorrigible. This memoir confines itself very strictly to its professed subject, the public life of Lord Macartney. And indeed^ after reading the whole of this publication, we view him as so entirely and exclusively a public character, that we have c 2 20 FOSTERIANA. not the slightest curiosity about his private life. From almost the time of his being at school his ambition was directed toward the employments of the state ; and this con- tinued to be his leading passion through his whole life. Having set in for a statesman, his studies, his habits of thinking, and the cast of his language, took the character appropriate to office. The whole intellectual and moral man grew into a political shape, wonderfully tallying, as if made on purpose, with the shape of the British state and consti- tution. He was very much like a tree trained and nailed to the wall of a building, perhaps vigorous and productive, but losing the free and various form of nature, in its adhe- rence to the flat and the angles to which it is affixed. Though always desirous of public employment, he had nevertheless too much dignity and principle to seek it by cringing to the powerful, or intriguing with the profligate. Both in the earlier and later periods of his life, his only method was to place in the view of those at the head of government the proofs of capacity and virtue, in such a way as to indicate a willingness to be honourably employed. And as to the execution of the high offices in which he was engaged, we must be speaking of an extraordinary man when we say, we sincerely believe that, toward the close of his life, he would have been willing, as he avowed to a per- son who solicited materials for writing his biography, for every circumstance of his official conduct to be universally known. FOREIGN TRAVEL.* Some of us can recollect it among the vain feelings of earlier life, that we regretted the disproportion between the dimen- sioQS of the globe and the locomotive powers of man, and should have been glad for the one to have been greater or * A Deacriptiou of Ceylon; with Narratives of a Tour roiind the Island in 1800, the Campaign in Candy in 1803, and a Journey to Ramiaseram in 1804. By the Eev. Jamea Cordiuer, A.M. Two vols 4to 1807. FOREIGN TRAVEL. 21 the otlier less. Or it would have partly contented us, as to our own gratification (and we own we were not much carinj; for that of persons in distant nations), if ten or twenty of the most wonderful objects and scenes in the whole world had been placed in such contiguity as to be comprehended in one country, and in Europe, where a moderate share of travelling might have brought us in sight of all that most deserved admiration on earth. But as these objects are placed at such distances that a hundred thousand miles of travelling, and the average length of human life, would hardly suffice to carry a man to all the principal of them, we felt great mortification, while burning with a most eager passion for the sight of the wonders we read of, to think of the miserable slowness of the modes of human motion, as set against the immense spaces which must be traversed to gratify the ambition of curiosity. When, in addition to this, we found ourselves denied the means and facilities for visit- ing even many remarkable scenes much nearer home than those which make the most conspicuous figure in a descrip- tion of the globe, — means which would have enabled the ordinary powers of motion to reach these nearer objects of curiosity in a comparatively short time, — ^we did sometimes feel the wonderful accounts of travellers and naturalists operate as a bitter satire on our lot as belonging to such a slow moving genus of animals, as being placed so far from the most interesting spots on the earth, and as having at command so few of the compensations derivable from view- ing more accessible, though less magnificent, wonders. It was mortifying, after reading of Niagara, to find nothing in the compass of our walks more striking than the weir of the mill-pond ; to turn our eyes from the page which described an eruption of Etna, to see the smoke of a brick-kiln or forge ; to be reminded of the pyramids by the sight of a steeple, or to have our reverie about Thebes or Palmyra interrupted by coming in view of a ruined manor-house. And even when, being in a much less romantic and classical mood, we carried the excursions of fancy no farther than Derbyshire, Cumberland, Killarney, or the Highlands, the indulgence became a very equivocal gratification, while we looked over the dull level or the insignificant hillocks around us, and considered how many things concurred to forbid our 22 FOSTERIANA. going even a hundred leagues to indulge our taste for the beautiful and the sublime. With no very good grace, perhaps, we submitted to our destiny, which every interesting book of travels we succes- sively read, tempted us to deem an unfortunate one, but which we endeavoured to alleviate by making to ourselves a positive assurance, that at some period of life we absolutely would and must repay ourselves, by gazing on alps, or cataracts, or the ruins of ancient grandeur. It was not so obvious how this could be ; but an acknowledged certainty that it was not to be, would really have been a grievous conviction. Though still subject to a revival of all our ancient enthu- siasm when we look into some parts of the books of Bruce or Denon ; and though it is somewhat hazardous to our peace of mind to read about Rome, Herculaneum, Vesuvius, and Antiparos, yet time, sober reflection, and disappoint- ment, not to add the infirmities of age, have done a good deal toward reconciling us to our excursions of half a mile, to our garret, and to our arm-chair, sitting in which garret and chair we often depute our imagination to accompany, instead of our bodily form and substance, the adventurers who traverse large tracts of sea and land. When these heroes are brought into desperate perils, we look com- placently round on the dingy walls of our garret, and kindly grasp the arm of the chair, feeling ourselves very glad that our bodily substance is where we find it to be ; but no sooner do we see them dexterously eluding, or bravely sur- mounting the danger, than we begin to think that we were qualified to share the exploit, and deserving to share the triumph. When we beheld Park in the very romantic pre- dicament of finding the gates of the town shut against him, while he heard a lion roar, and perceived its very near approach by the rustling of the bushes, there is no doubt that we blessed ourselves in the security of our situation ; but when this man of resources mounted a tree, and defied the enemy, we thought that we also could have climbed a tree with the adroitness of apes, and there laughed at the formidable king of beasts. Some of our readers may be spiteful enough to say, that a cluster of reviewers, with, their spectacles on, up in a tree, would have been a goodly BUDDHISM AND BRAHMINISM. 23 sight, and to wish we might have been reduced to hold our sessions nowhere else to the end o'f time. They must, how- ever, parden our opinion, that no tree was ever so richly- loaded as the one in question would be : but we are talking about the adventures of travellers, and the employments of our garret. Till that impatience to see wonderful things, which we have described as the grand passion of our youth, shall totally subside in old age, we shall hold it a principle of prudence to distribute books of travels into two classes — the animated and wonderful, and the sober and common. The former class we may hope to read in safety and advan- tage in our dull and languid seasons, since they will be at such times sufficient to enliven our spirits, without exciting us to deplore the want of wings or balloons, which we should be likely to do if we were to take up such books at an hour when our minds are at all infected with ardour and enthusiasm. This latter is the proper season for perusing slow-paced narratives and tame descriptions, which may contribute to damp the distempered passion, that is so fierce for distant climates. ENGLISH POWEE IN THE EAST It is curious enough to see just about as many Europeans as might have been carried out in two, or three good ships, holding in subjection the entire coast of an island nine hun- dred miles in circumference, and rigorously confining the ancient native monarchy within the woods and hills of the central region, a space^ indeed, which humanity would regret as too large to be left under the power of such an odious tyranny, even if it did not exceed a hundred acres, much more when it comprises several thousand square miles. ' The character of the native inhabitants, as to anything re- lating to knowledge and spirit, may be inferred from the fact, of more than oue-third of them being kept under domi- niisn by a stupid barbarian despot, and the remainder by a mere handful of Europeans. The Malabars, as their name indicates, are descended from emigrants of some former age from the Peninsula, and retain their Hindoo and Mahometan manners and religion. They differ much from- their neighbours, the Cingalese, 2'1 FOSTBRTANA. being stouter, more active and enterprising, but less inno« cent and more fraudulent. BUDDHISM AND BEAHMINISM, The greater proportion of the Cingalese and Candians profess the religion of Buddha, which is said to -differ mate- rially from that of Brahma, though our eastern scholars have failed as yet to determine the degree or all the points of dif- ference ; and probably, if it could be done, the labour would be but indifferently bestowed, excepting so far as any inci- dental light for exploring ancient history might arise from the investigation. The merits of the two systems, if they may be so called, are probably much on a par, the super- stition of Buddha not giving place to that of Brahma, or any other, in point of raving folly and puerile monstrosity of fiction. It talks of its twenty-six heavens ; of a stone, a kind of perching place of a god, which is the amount of a hundred and forty thousand English miles in circumference, and upwards of nine hundred and fifty thousand miles in height ; of a bird named Gourolass, which lives somewhere on the outside of heaven, and is two thousand one hundred miles in stature ; of elephants found in some region, of which we forget the name, which are a thousand million times stronger than those of Asia; of iron, silver, and golden cities, , which had wings and were ambulatory ; and of a period of years in the life and adventures of Buddha, which is expressed by an unit followed by sixty-three cyphers. It is yet to be determined who and what this Buddha was ; he is sometimes represented as an incarnation of Vishnu, but proves not to be identical with any of the nine Avatars of the Hindoos. Indeed there have been, it seems, more than twenty Buddhas in former periods of the universe, to whom are to be added five more for its present economy, four of* which gentry have appeared already, and the fifth wiU be here a few thousand years hence ; till his appearance there is a vacancy or interregnum of Buddhas, as Gautama Buddha, the last of the four, was off a good while ago, leaving a Sahampattu Maha Brachma, or supreme of all the gods, to keep the world under his management tiU the appearance of Maitri Buddha. Gautama Buddha is the one whose "religion" how prevails in Ceylon, Siam, and BUDDHISM AND BBAHMINISM. 26 Other parts of Asia. Before his appearance as a man, he was a god, and the supreme of all the gods, at the solicita- tions of many of whom he descended on earth to appear in a human form, and was born about 2,440 years since. " He lived happily with his queen Yassodera and forty thousand concubines for thirty-one years. The six next he passed in the 'midst of wildernesses, qualifying himself to be a Buddha. At the close of this period his calling became manifest to the world, and he exercised his functions as Buddha forty- five years. After his death he ascended to the Hall of Glory, which is a place above, and exceeding in magnifi- cence the twenty-sixth heaven : there he will live for ever in happiness and incorruptibility, never to be born again in this world." Some of the loading doctrines professed by his followers are said to be the following : That there has never been a creation, all things that now exist having existed from eter- nity ; that the universe has often fallen into a kind of chaos, but has in some inexplicable manner recovered itself into order again ; that there are an immense number of gods, all of them occupying their proper ofiices in the universe ; and, that human souls, after certain transmigrations, will at some very remote period cease to exist. But whatever are the precise tenets of this superstition, as delineated in any of the sacred books, or held by the few of what may called, by courtesy, the learned men, "the generality of the Cingalese professing it are in the highest degree ignorant, and possess no knowledge of the principles of any religion, beyond what is to be found in the most savage state." And unfortunately this appears to be too true also of the very large proportion of Cingalese who profess a preference of Christianity. This proportion is reckoned at one half, part of whom belong to the reformed church, and part to the church of Rome. " Both are alike ill instructed, and adhere to the forms of their particular faith more through the strength of habit than from any serious conviction." These two modes of profession origi- nated from the exertions of the Portuguese and Dutch masters of the island. S6 FOSTERIANA. ON WORTHLESS BOOKS.* Fable has gone very great lengths, but fable has its Umits. It ascribed to King Midas the power of transmuting everything he touched into gold ; but it has never attri- buted to any man, king or subject, the faculty of turning all the books he might touch, or even read, into sense and value. Had there been any such man, we should have been very glad to receive his assistance, or steal his art, on occa- . sion of examining this specimen of typographical elegance and literary futility. If it should be judged that there is any chance of such a magician arising in future times, and of his not having quite enough work in operating on the publications of his own day, it may perhaps be worth while to preserve just one copy of the book before us, in the spacious repository which the state should be recommended to erect, for preserving, till the appearance of this new and greater Gregory Thaumaturgus, single copies, accumulating through years or ages, of the successive books that shall be deemed to labour under an infirmity of meaning at present incurable. There will thus be a grand hospital of invalid books ; and glorious will be the day, and vast the flood of light, when our great enchanter shall arrive to help them all into sense and new editions, and set them a-going in infinite swarms. Even this "Midas' may then be con- sidered as one of the most precious remains of a former literary world ; and many a student, whose taste shall be polished, or whose genius kindled by perusing it, may be grateful that all the copies were not surrendered to the ser- vice of candles, soap, and snuff. And the reviewers of those times, though of tempers probably far less benign, and of justice far more rigid than we, may congratulate their nation on the re-appearance of a work which they can ascribe to nobody but Apollo himself ; for as to Anthony Fisgrave, LL.D., they will believe, as we do, that it is a mere manufactured name. If, on the other hand, it shall be deemed not at all reasonable seriously to expect, in any * Midas ; or, a Serious Inquiry concerning Taste and Genius ; including a Proposal for the certain Advancement of the Elegant Arts. By Anthony Fisgrave, LL.D. 12mo. 1S08. ON WOETHLESS BOOKS. 27 length of future time, sucli a phenomenon as fable has never presumed to feign, we are afraid the whole edition must go to the uses just now mentioned ; though it is really a pity to see such a pretty offspring of the paper-mill and the let- ter-foundry consigned to so ungentle and inelegant a part of the great literary economy. Perhaps we deserve only to be laughed at for having taken considerable pains to understand the meaning and object of this production, especially as we must acknowledge the labour has been nearly in vain ; we question, indeed, whether the author had any meaning at all beyond a mere literary hoax. A certain degree of art appears to be used in keeping the composition from coming out into sense, when sometimes it seems on the point of doing so. It would be hardly possible, indeed, for pure honest absurdity to get through so many pages without telling what its joke is aiming at. A portion of dexterity, which, applied the same length of time to some honest task, might perhaps have given instruction or got money, is required in making up a thousand or two of sentences, on one leading subject, each of them sufficiently intelligible in itself, and all joined toge- ther in an orderly manner into a composition so effectually confounded, that the writer cannot be cited as holding any one opinion on any one topic. The dexterity is employed to preserve an absolute confusion and contradiction of ideas, and not in advancing any class of opinions under a regular sham appearance of maintaining the contrary, as in Swift's " Argument for abolishing Christianity," or Burke's " Vin- dication of Natural Society ;" nor in contriving a plausible train of mock-serious arguments in support of some merely fantastical proposition, just to show what ingenuity can do. When any purpose is meant to be answered by a piece of grave ironical reasoning, there must be a consistency and uniform bearing in the series of arguments and illustrations; they must all be, to use a convenient vulgar phrase, right wrong. In the production before us, observations which are unmeaningly ironical are crossed and blended with such as are soberly and unmeaningly true. Nor is the incongruous farrago disposed into any remote resemblance of a regular alternation of remarks, adapted to maintain the two opposite sides of a question, and prolong an amusing argumentative 88 FOSTEEIANA. indecision ; the whole is a mere thicket of involved con- fusion. If anything more, than the sport of making a num- ber of curious people wind and toil through a literary brake to get at a choice fruit tree which they are told is to be found in the midst of it, and then laughing at their disap- pointment, was in the writer's view, we Should perhaps have conjectured that he might intend to ridicule the pre- tensions and conceit of connoisseurs in the fine arts, and to rescue professors, and men of genius, from the arrogance of their judges. Something of this kind might seem intended in the mock proposal of a sovereign court of taste, to which every performance in the arts should be required to be sub- mitted, and which should peremptorily and definitively pro- nounce on its merits, and with such authority as to preclude all further question, and all difference of opinions in the pubUc. But in the various topics which are brought in as having some kind of connexion with the argument for this ludicrous institution, there is no management to bear out the joke, and make it tell to any purpose of either wit or sense. Just as much ridicule, and with just as little point or use, seems to be splashed, in the author's course through this puddle of whim and absurdity, on the men of real genius as on the pretended men of taste. ON TRANSLATING THE SCKIPTUEES INTO THE ORIENTAL LANGUAGES.* It may be presumed the principal object of the proposal to the_ English Universities, for the appointment of four of their members to preach on this subject, was rather to excite the national attention and interest, than either to bring under discussion the general question of the pro- priety of thus translating the Bible, or to obtain specific instructions relative to the mode of executing such a work. * Four Buchanan Prize Sermons, on the Duty and Expediency of Translating the Scriptures into the current languages of the East. 1 By the Rev. F. Wrangham, Cambridge, May l^O, 1 807. 2. By the Rev. John Dudley, Cambridge-, June 28, 1807. 3. By the Rev. W. Barrow, Oxford November 8, 1807. i. By the Rev. E. Nares, Oxford, November 29, 1 807* ON TEANSLATme THE SCEIPTURES. 29 That propriety, indeed, could not be held to need any argu- ment, or admit any debate, among persons beKeving the volume to be, and to be exclusively, a Divine revelation ; and the questions relative to the particular methods and rules of translating, arid to the number, and the order of precedence, of the Eastern dialects which should be made vehicles for the sacred oracles, would be more within the competence of the Christian scholars in the East, than of the most learned judges to whom they could be submitted here. Indeed, the work had already made such a progress in the able hands of Mr. Carey and his associates, long before any kind of co-opei-ation was thought of by any of the persons assembled since in the Bengal College, or the smallest notice was taken by the learned in this country, as to prove that no ostentatious scheme, no formal movement in the learned world was necessary, in order to effect a very rapid, and, at the same time, careful, transfusion of the Holy Scriptures into the Asiatic languages. Aided by annual supplies of money, in sums surprisingly small, considering the vast extent of the work, that Briareus of translators, with his assistant missionaries, and some learned natives of the East whom he has been vigilant and successful in seeking for the service, would in a few years have equipped the Bible for invading every idolatrofis region of Asia, though unassisted by the slightest favour or co-operation of any learned intitu- tion whatever. We feel it the more necessary to do this justice to Mr. Carey, and his missionary coadjutors, because we have observed not a few instances of a disposition to withhold it. We have perceived in some quarters' the indications of a wish to pass as slightly as possible over the unparalleled achievements of these men ; while representations would be still making of the necessity of translations into the Eastern languages, and of a plan of appointing translators, so and so selected, so and so qualified, so and so authorized, and so and so patronized, just as if the fact were not before our eyes, that there already are many translations going on with the utmost despatch, a number far advanced, and several very nearly finished ; that there already are in full action a set of translators, whose combined industry, fidelity, facility, and 80 FOSTEEIANA. attainments in the Asiatic languages, tliere can be no chance of ever finding men worthy to supersede. Mr. Wrangham's is the first in the order of time. It begins in a pointed and sprightly manner, with a quotation from a venerable English prelate, a Bishop of Chichester in the sixteenth century, who was of opinion that the most pernicious effects would accrue to the devotion of worshipping congregations, from the prayers being in a language which they could understand. After some remarks on the fierce resistance made by the priests to the extension of the knowledge, of the Scriptures, even in any language, and especially to translations into the mother-tongue, as the most effectual means for that extension, Mr. Wrangham enters on his proper subject, by charging this country with a negligence, at least, of its duty in respect to the communication of Divine knowledge to the people of the East ; and proposes to consider the subject of translations into their languages under the following topics of inquiry : With what languages, from moral and political considerations, shall the undertaking begin ? — In those which we may prefer, shall we publish the Scriptures collectively, or in separate portions ; and in the latter case, what shall be the succession adopted ? — From what text, and by what persons, shall the translation be made ? Supposing that such an inquiry had not been rendered somewhat impertinent — by the fact of a translation of nearly the entire Scriptures into the Bengalee, and of a large pro- portion of them into many other languages of India, — the question proposed could still have admitted very little doubt or discussion ; the vast province which forms, if we may so express it, the head part of our Indian empire, in which we have the greatest extent and familiarity of intercourse with the natives, and in which the translators would almost necessarily be stationed, being very evidently the proper one to begin with. But the preacher has made the proposed inquiry merely a starting-point, from which to go into a wide diversity of observations, on our perverse indisposition to impart a privilege to which we are so much indebted as Divine truth, to a country to which we are said to be so much indebted as India ; on the indications of the will and probable ON TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES. 31 intentions of heaven in giving us so vast a foreign power ; on the nature of the bigotry of the Hindoos, and their wretched condition ; on the advantages afforded by the centrality of our Eastern Empire for diffusing the gospel over all Asia; on the possibility of overcoming the paganism even of Hindostan ; on the inutility of the Eoman Catholic mode of proselyting the heathens ; on the. various dialects of India ; on the advantages derived from the institution of an Eastern college, and on several other topics. In the course of these observations, our connexion with India is asserted to be so vital to the interests of this country, that the sever- ing of it " would open an artery by which we should bleed to death." We suspect Mr. "Wrangham would find himself involved in great embarrassment, if reduced to state and prove the prodigious benefits derived by our nation from the possession of India; and to us it would seem very like a reflection on the arrangements fixed by the Creator, in the economy of the globe, to maintain, that the welfare or ruin of a cultivated people, possessing a cultivated land, can ever, without some monstrous violation of the order of nature, be dependent on a country on just the other side of the planet. On reading a few pages of Mr. Dudley's sermon, our attention was forcibly arrested by an unexpected and unaccountable strain of eulogium on the political and moral state of the ancient people of India, and on the moral cha- racter of its present inhabitants. Citing the testimony of Greeks who visited that country in the time of Alexander, confirmed by historical indications found in some of the newly discovered Sanscrit records, he asserts that thewhole of modern Hindostan was, in the earliest ages, divided into a variety of powerful states, some monarchial, and others republican. With respect to ancient Indian freedom, even supposing we had not the means of knowing that their i-eligious economy was utterly mortal to any such thing, it would require far more precise evidences than any we have hap- pened to see, to satisfy us that such a people could know anything about what a modern political philosopher ought to mean by the term free constitution. When maintaining that the ancient Hindoo population were virtuous and happy, we presume Mr. Dudley necessarily means and asserts that they were so under the prevalence of the Brahminical system, the 33 FOSTERIANA. system indeed which has prevailed with supreme authority from the earliest ages of which we have any historical notices of Hindostan, only with a partial and temporary suspension by the conquests of Buddha. Now it is too well known to need repeating here, that the Brahminical system of religion (as we are trying to learn to call it, in conformity with the pious complaisance of the times) comprehended everything, without exception, in the life and concerns of its believers ; it constituted the morals, the economics, and the politics, as well as the theology of tlie nation, and, as Mr. Dudley very pointedly insists, and repeats, the character of the Indians has always been most wonderfully conformed to their religion, insomuch that whatever they were and are, they were and are in obedient devotion to its principles and institutions. The grand repository of those principles and appointments is the Institutes of Menu. Now then let a sober man read this book, keeping in mind, throughout, that he is reading the comprehensive, the sacred, and sovereign institution of the people. Our preacher has read this famous work himself, and should know what he has seen in it. To say that he has seen there a set of false and silly dogmas and fancies about Deity, though combined indeed with one or two ideas that appear like the traces and relics of a true theology that had once been known, but had long since vanished, may not seem directly to the purpose; though it may be assumed as unquestionable, that a false religion is absolutely incompatible with the existence of a pure morality in the community enter- taining such religion, and that, as matter of fact, there is not, nor ever was, a nation in which they have existed together. But he has seen there the actual economy of practice, exhibited at great extent in the moral, civil, and ceremonial institutions. He has seen that the most prominent thing in the whole system is that infernal contrivance of castes, which would be the death of all feelings, and all right conceptions, of justice and benevolence, even if the distinctions were less flagrantly iniquitous than they are, and were brought into operation in a hundred times fewer modes and instances. He has seen, in the definitions and classification of virtues and crimes, and the punishments appointed to the latter, a greater accumulation of absurdities by far, and a more complete abjuration of all just moral principles, than in the ON TEANSLATINO THE SOEIPTUBES. 33 institutions of any other pagan nation, or of all the pagan nations taken together. He has seen in that work so vast a catalogue of ridiculous and often nauseous ceremonial pre- scriptions, as could have left no room in the thoughts, no rectitude or independence in the understanding, and very little space in life, for the study or the exercises of true morality. And, finally, he has seen the priest and the king conjoining themselves in a relentless unlimited despotism. All this may be seen in the Institutes of Menu ; the system exhibited in these Institutes was practically in operation in the early ages ; the character of the people accorded, even to a wonderful degree, with their religious institutions ; and the writer will have it, notwithstanding, that such a people wore virtuous and happy. A more desperate absurdity, we imagine, was never advanced from pulpit or press, since preaching or printing began. The reports of.the adventurers who returned from Alexander's expedition to tell just what stories they pleased in Greece ; the va'gue assertion of Arrian, or the traces of ancient history found in Sanscrit writings, are all not worth a straw as opposed to the evidence resulting from the records of the religious institutions. We know what was the system, both in the general principles and the detail, which not only was arranged in a book, but did actually and imperiously tyrannize over the population lof ancient India ; and we know that that system was of a nature incomparably more deadly to freedom, virtue, and happiness,' than any system that ever cursed the human race. In adverting to the theological and moral doctrines of ths ancient philosophers of India, our preacher falls into the error, in which many writers ha^e preceded him, — the error of taking a few lofty speculative ideas,, and a few good moral prescriptions, which have been detected here and there in the writings of those sages, as proof that their philosophy was sublime in its views, and excellent in its precepts ; as if a system, of which perhaps a fiftieth part is true in theory and useful in practical application, might claim to be held in high veneration because it hafi failed, because it really has just failed, as the very worst systems must do, of being all false and all pernicious. Why will not the writers, who do not advert with an irreligious design to the few shining particles of true theology and pure morality discoverable in 3i FOSTEBIANA, the Indian literature, always take care to tell us what a load of base materials is to be examined, and washed, and sifted in order to get a sight of this slender proportion of gold dust ? Why do they not recollect to notice how nugatory, in point of enlightening and salutary influence, must be this diminutive quantum of truth intermixed and buried in heaps of absurdity and pollution? And why will they not, or can they not, perceive, that when a noble idea, perhaps concerning the Divine nature, or virtue, does present itself in these revered literary importations from Benares, it is hardly allowed to continue noble for an instant ? Scarcely has the reader begun to admire it, and to wonder at finding it in a heathen page, when suddenly it sinks into baseness, or shoots into a monster, or is dispersed in smoke. It is connected, in the very same or the next sentence, with some puerile conceit or vile superstition ; the figure that seemed to begin with the face of an Adonis or Apollo, ends with the tail of a snake. No transformation of an object from great to despicable in one of our dreams, can be more whimsical, more sudden, or more devoid of rational process. The writer has, for instance, read and quoted the Geeta, which is celebrated in a preface to Wilkins's translation by that eminent Christian divine Mr. Warren Hastings, as a performance " of a sublimity of con- ception, reasoning, and diction, almost unequalled ; and a single exception, among all the known religions of mankind, of a theology accurately corresponding with that of the Christian dispensation, and most powerfully illustrating its fundamental doctrines." But, unless awed and dazzled by the authority of this great theologian, he must have observed, in this production of Hindoo illumination, many instances of what we have described, of a just and striking theological or moral thought lapsing instantly into some inexpressibly silly phantasm, or some grossness of superstition, or into a mys- tical inanity, under a diction that gliijimers of philosophical abstraction, but is, in fact, a more exquisitely perfect non- sense than Jacob Bebmen ever even dreamed. Mr. Dudley allows, that in later ages the Hindoo super- stition, with its inseparable system of moral principles and ordinances, is become inexpressibly abominable. Well, the Hindoos take their character, with astonishing correctness, from their superstition : and yet, in the face of this his own ON TEANSLATDfG THE SCBIPTUEES. 35 position, and in con tradic lion to every — yes, every— respect- able authority, lie describes these Himloos as distinguished by their " fidelity," " punctuality, " " filial obedience" (as, for instance, in burning their mothers), " gentleness andmildnesg of temper," " elegant manners," and " amiable dispositions," " and adorned by many virtues, which shine with an endear- ing brightness through every shade of either fault or vice." We might quite as well stop here : and we shall only notice that the preacher disapproves of employing missionaries ; the Bible is to be translated to get into the hands of the learned Hindoos, to convince them, and then all the rest of the people will follow. How it is to find its way to each of these learned persons, and excite their attention, we are not told. But at all events, the gospel must not, as in the beginning of its beneficent and victorious career, be " preached to the poor ; " it must not begin its labours and successes in India, as it has in other countries, among the lower orders of the people. " If that cause ever triumph in India, it mu.^t owe its success to arguments which may convince the head, not to contrivances for securing the foot ; the Brahmin must be gained before the Sudra will be turned. To bsgin with attempting the conversion of the lower classes, would in all probability be injurious to the general success of the Chris- tian cause : for the proud Brahmin, offended by observing the men he has been accustomed to lead, anticipating him in 'he reception of the faith of the gospel, would be apt to main- tain from prejudice, an obstinate persuasion that the religion of the Christian is fit only for the basest of mankind, and wholly unworthy the regard of men of higher birth, of nobler natural powers, and the more especial favourites of heaven." Let the learned Brahmin be convinced, and declare for Christianity, and the reverential multitude, our preacher thinks, must naturally be awed into the same faith. He for- gets the trivial circumstance, that the moment the Brahmin does this, he will lose his caste, and sink to a class that even the Sudra beholds with contempt. Doctor Barrow wishes the English version to supersede the originals as the authoritative standard for the Oriental translators,* notwithstanding that these translators are to be exclusively Europeans. He does not even signify that any * The adoption of it as the original, is literally his expression. o 2 36 rOSTERIANA. exception should be made in favour of the translation of the New Testament into the Sanscrit, though he must know there is a wonderful resemblance of structure between that language and the Greek. With regard to the Hebrew, he says that our scholars in the East have probably not studied it critically. It is not for us to decide how far this is the fact ; but we may well presume they will think it an indis- pensable prerequisite for translating the Old Testament, to acquire so much knowledge of the original language, and of the collations and criticisms supplied by several distin- guished scholars, as to be able, in their own minds, to rest the authority of their version into the Eastern languages on the true original, and on their own comprehension of the "most material criticisms of the best Hebraists. Several very obvious considerations would occur to forbid their taking the English version in substitution for the original. Even on the absurd supposition that these translators could believe that the English version does, in every sen- tence in the whole Bible, as truly express the sense of the original as it is possible for the English language to express it, yet they would be aware that in a thousand instances the peculiar idioms and figurative expressions of the original (especially an Oriental original), are of necessity dropped in the English version. Now every scholar, of the most middling acquirements, is sensible how much the precise cast and colour of the sense depends on these peculiar phrases and figures. The meaning may in substance be faithfully given in the translation ; but a certain nice characteristic modification, which gave it a definite and peculiar bearing, a significance, force, or beauty, is lost, through the impossibility of literally translating the original idioms, or finding any exactly parallel to them. How many times this has been urged as an argument, in this country, for studying both the sacred writings and the classics in their originals, notwithstanding the acknowledged excel- lence of our translations ! The observation always is, that you are much more absolutely in possession of your author, that you have a far more vivid and discriminate impression of his thought, than you could by means of the best possible translation. There is the same dilTerence, as there would be between seeing the natives of a distant country, settled ON TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES. 37 among ourselves and adopting our own dress and customs, and seeing them in their proper climate, with all their appropriate habiliments and manners. But if such know- ledge of the original be so desirable for a mere reader, how much more for the translators to be appointed for the proposed undertaking. In the long process of translating the whole Bible into any one of the Oriental languages, let it but be considered what a prodigious number of instances will occur, in which the translator will have to choose his form of words among a variety of modes of expression, one more dignified and one more common, one more plain and one more figurative, one more moderate and one more vehement, one more specific and one more general, in either one of which ,the idea as it stands in English, divested of the striking particularity which it perhaps bears in the original, might be almost indifferently rendered. Now, in a vast number of these instances, it is obvious that his knowing the precise manner in which the idea is presented in the original would instantly determine his choice, when the language of the English version would have given him no assistance for deciding it ; and it is fair to presume that, in a great majority of these instances, the selection so determined will be much better than the one which would else have been adopted nearly by chance. ' These instances will be so numerous, that there can be no manner of doubt that the Bible, as translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek into one of the Eastern languages, would appear consider- ably dififerent from what it would as translated by the very same men on the plan of taking the English " as the ori- ginal." And not only would there be this prominent dif- ference of idioms and figures, but the far greater confidence, which is felt by a translator from an original, will impart to the general course of the composition a certain vigour and firmness, which can never be given by a translator who is reminded that the ground and authority on which he is proceeding is only itself a version. We are ashamed to be obliged to dwell on such very trite considerations. Thus far the case is stated, on the supposition that the translators in the East could be made so superstitious as even to take the English version positively for a work of Divine authority, which renders every part and passage of 38 -rOSTKEIANA. the sacred Scriptures as strongly and accnrately as it ia possible for them to be rendered in English , but, secondly, they know too well that this is not the fact. They know that a vast number of important criticisms, tending to a more correct interpretation, have been accumulated by a series of indefatigable scholars ; and that the result of the collations has confessedly proved the necessity of modifying, in a considerable number of instances, the original text, by changes which, though in general not very important perhaps in themselves, might often become extremely material at the distance and divergency of a version of a version. They cannot avoid perceiving, besides, that a con- siderable number of passages in our translation have a perplexity and obsom-ity of expression, which they will not and should not be disposed to impute to the original ; and they will only have to look into Lowth's Isaiah (though they will feel certain that so general an alteration of lan- guage is far from necessary or desirable), to see how much more perspicuously many passages might be rendered. Taking, therefore, the present version as their invariable authority, the translators would be quite certain that they were transfusing the Divine revelation into the languages of Asia, under the disadvantage of a multitude of defective and inaccurate expressions, which the actual state of biblical criticism has furnished the means of preventing. Another important objection to the plan, arises from the consideration of the low repute in which a trax^lation from a translation is held, and ever will be held, in all parts of the world. Who, among ourselves, has not described such works in the usual phrase, " the shadow of a shade ? " Who has not heard and repeated how little regard is due to works which bring the Icelandic compositions into our language only through the medium of the Latin, and those of Arabia or Persia through that of the French ? And. what is to prevent the more intelligent and learned part of the readers in the East from entertaining a similar senti- ment in the case in question ? Indeed they will not only know how very much modified and deteriorated the pro- fessed sacred books are likely to have become under this double transmission, but they will be apt to surmise some- thing aiore, and something worsa It may happen that some ON TRANSLATING THE SCKIPTUKBS. 30 few of them will ask, sigaifioantly, Why this scrupulous adherence to the English version, as a standard? Whence is it, that in the use of your sacred book, and exactly that alone of the numberless volumes of your literature, you set up or acknowledge a higher authority in your version than in the original ? Is there, in that version, some important difference from the original, of which difference you are kindly resolved, as good Christians, that we, the people of Asia, shall enjoy the benefit ? What are the translators to say in reply ? It ought not to be possible for them to answer with truth that they really do not themselves under- stand the original ; for it is easy to conceive what a mischievous effect this would have on the minds of inquisitive heathens, who are inclined to reject, doubt, or cavil, and cannot be aware of the full evidence which, in this country, a person not able to read the originals has, notwithstanding, of the general faithfulness of the translation. And what will be the impression on the minds of those same heathen inquirers and opposers, if the translators shall fairly assign the reason which our learned preachers have more than intimated as requiring a strict adherence to the English standard ; namely, that there is in England a legal religions establish- ment, from any tenet or appointment of which it is essential that no expression even in the Oriental Bibles should be suffered to dissent ? . While Dr. Barrow advises that selected portions of Scripture be circulated among the heathens of the East before the whole is given to them, he very judiciously con- demns any plan that should propose to give out the Bible in a long succession of small parcels, at considerable intervals, regulated by a spiritual policy of adapting the various parts of the sacred book to the occasions and the attainments of the people. He observes, — " It was thus that the pretended Prophet of Arabia intro- duced Ms Koran to his followers and converts: and such a system is in its own nature liable to the suspicion of forgery and fraud. It may reasonably excite apprehension in tbe natives of the East, that we shall continue to produce what we shall represent as inspired writings, as long as they appear willing to receive them ; as long as we have any interest to be. served by their credulity; or any political influence to be procured by the submission of their minds." 40 FOSTEErANA. As to "perfect uniformity," it is exceerlingly strange at tliis time of day, so long since the period when the Emperor Cbailes made the observation on his watches, to hear such a thing spoken of as a possibility. There can be but one man in England uninformed, that no formulary of faith ever did or ever can secure imiformity of opinion ; that no existing creed is found capable of precluding numberless questions and controversies among those who are willing, on the whole, to subscribe to it. No creed, consisting of a moderately long series of articles, could probably be so framed, as not to require at least a thousand new articles, to fix the definitive sense of the primary ones, and guard it with every nice discrimination, if it is really required that all the subscribers shall receive precisely the same idea from every term and clause of every article. Perfect uniformity of doctrine, which the preacher requires in the Christian teachers in India, in order to give the natives an impression of the certainty of our religion, would produce the directly opposite effect ; it must appear to them the result of collusion. They are not, we suppose, to be taught, that all these teachers are inspired from heaven, and directed by a uniform infallible intelli- gence in all their thoughts and words on the subject of religion. They are to be taught, that these men have certain inspired books in their hands, but that all the interpretations of them are purely the wort of these fallible, though honest and thoughtful men. They will soon perceive that the inspired authorities, though in many parts of most perfectly decided meaning and easy compre- hension, do yet, in other parts, afford much matter for the exercise, and not a little for the difficulty and doubtfulness of understanding. Their common sense will tell them, that their teachers must read these documents, and deliberate, and balance, and reason on them, with the same diversity, and in some points perplexity, of opinion, as they do them- selves. Now this being the case, if the missionaries are all found to agree exactly in the opinions they hold forth, throughout the wide extent of Christian doctrine, the intelligent natives will feel certain that this cannot be an ■honest agreement. They will know that so many distinct minds, each thinking, with honest simplicity and indepen- THE HIGH CHTIKCH AND DISSENT BBS. 41 dence, on the very multifarious doctrinal contents of an ample volume, never could come, in so many points, to the same conclusion ; and therefore they will be soon convinced the whole is a concerted system to impose upon them. Mr. Nares, with much ingenuity and plausibility, represents the happy introduction which the Christian doctrines will find, to the acceptance of the Hindoos, through their own theo- logical dogmas. We must say, that experience, if no other cause, would make us exceedingly sceptical on this point ; we cannot remember to have read of any Hindoo convert who professed any obligations to his heathen creed for inclining him to the admission of Christianity, except, indeed, by means of the contrast of evil with good. There is incomparably so much more that is utterly hostile to the true religion, than concordant with it, or analogous to it, in the Indian system, that we can see no slope for sliding smoothly from the one to the other. THE HIGH CHUECH AND DISSENTEES.* Some of the most zealous friends of the English church have maintained, that it would have little to fear from ex- ternal hostility so long as it should be true to itself ; and that the corruptions toTvhich, like all other human establish- ments, it was liable, were to be dreaded as the chief causes and symptoms of its falling, like others, into decay. Indeed we had been so long fixed in this opinion ourselves, that we cannot help repeating how utterly we were confounded to hear the Eev. Josiah Thomas predicting the fall of a church, in which his keenest scrutiny had found hardly a single circumstance for censure or reform. He has nowhere told us he had the smallest reason to apprehend, that a consider- able proportion of its clerical members entered on the sacred ofSce, not from feeling a profound interest in religion, and a pious zeal to promote it by the instruction and conversion * High Chuvoli Claims Exposed, and the Protestant Dissenters and Methodists Vindicated ; or. Free Bemarks on a Pamphlet by the Eev. Josiah Thomas, entitled Strictures, &o. In a Letter to the Author, by a Layman. 8vo. 1808. 42 rOSTEEIANA. of mankind, but from the mere necessity of clioosing a pro- fession, or from expectations of emolument or preferment ; — that many of its chief officers, occupying situations of solemn and anxious responsibility, were content to live in showy, stately indolence ; — that its stations of wealth, dignity, and power were carefully withheld from clergymen of eminent zeal and piety, while they were conferred with a view to enrich relations and friends, to reward political services, or to strengthen parliamentary influence ; — that great numbers of its ministers were found in theatres, or at balls, assemblies, and card-tables ; or habitually playing the fop, or the buck, or the wag ; or mixing in the mirth, the intemperance, and the songs of convivial parties ; or at one time trussed up in a jacket, wielding a fowling-piece, and maintaining a peripatetic dialogue with a couple of pointers, and at another time racing after a pack of hounds ; —that many of them were observed to perform their functions in the slightest, scantiest, and most careless manner possible ; or to decry, even with scorn or violence, a popular fervent mode of addressing the conscience and passions of mankind, in behalf of religion and their eternal salvation ; or to neglect teaching, and even to hold up in ridicule, those doctrines of a renewal of nature and the operations of a Divine Spirit, and the evangelical plan of salvation for mankind, to which they had formally subscribed in the articles of the church, and which are so exceedingly prominent in the New Testament ; or that they were generally chargeable with a spirit of arrogance and persecution against conscientious seceders from their communion, of sycophancy toward persons of rank, or of servility to the party in power. If he had found any such grounds as these for the apprehension of the friends to our church, he would certainly have done well — not to cry out in this frightened and childish manner, that the church wiU fall, — but to recommend measures of reformation as highly conducive to its respectability and perpetuity. But we trust that, on a careful consideration of the subject, Mr. Thomas's apprehensive mind wiU become reassured and cheerful ; for it may be clearly gathered from his own work, we repeat, even from his own pamphlet — which labours hard to represent the condition of the church of England in the most gloomy light,— that, vrith some THE HIGH CHURCH AND DISSENTEKS. 43 trifling quantity of exception, our church, is not beset by any of the ominous circumstances we have here enumerated. Our author refers us to the destruction of our national church, effected by the dissenters at the time of the " great rebellion ; " and plainly declares there are awful indications of a similar catastrophe threatening our present establish- ment, and even the state too, from the same kind of men and operations. Now we are surprised he should need to come to us for consolation on this head, when one single sober reflection would have dissipated all his fears. It is this : the dissenters (we are too much in good humour to contend with him about the propriety of calling them "rebels"), the dissenters of the seventeenth century, who accomplished this remarkable subversion, notoriously had among them a very large share of talent and learning, but for which their designs would have burst like a bubble, instead of exploding into a revolution ; whereas the dissenters of the present day are the most ignorant, silly, and despicable of mankind, according to our author's own testimony, — which we look upon, for the reason already assigned, as of peculiar weight. We will confess that one fact, which he states, did rather at the first moment " give us pause," as appearing to prove there was more reason in his terrors than we had been willing to allow. He deposes in the following words : " We know that a man, not unfrequently, by going thither" (to the meeting-house), " if he do by chance forego the vices of men, adopts those of devils." We are very sorry to learn this fact ; from any little acquaintance we have with the dissenters, we should not have imagined it ; and we must own such a phenomenon would seem to portend no good to our national establishment. There is, indeed, some- thing that might be cavilled at in the terms of the deposi- tion ; but the plain fair construction is, that often, by going to the meeting-house, men are converted into real veritable devils, retaining indeed the human flesh and shape. The fact, we fear, since it is so attested, must not be denied; but we think we can again suggest to the reverend gentle- man a consideration of very consolatory efficacy. He will recoUect it is said, that " If Satan be divided against him- self," his cause will come to nothing ; the position involving, 44 rOSTEEIANA. of course, tlie whole tribe of infernals, whether inhabiting' human forms or subtler vehicles. Now it is obvious to say, that the incarnate demons in question are divided one against another ; there are Trinitarians against Unitarians, Arminians against Calvinists ; there are Independents, Methodists, Bap- tists, and many other sorts, and some of the sorts differing from some of the rest far more than from the Established Church : we surely need not draw the inference for the learned gentleman. But even if all this were too little to allay his fears, and if he were desperately convinced that, in spite of all these divisions among them, there is still one main purpose, in which " Devil with devil damned Firm concord holds," he has after all the £nal consolation of an assurance, in favour of the true church (and it is impossible he can have any doubt which is the true one), that the gates of hell (i.e. the meeting-house ?) shall not prevail against it. THE FOECE OF HABIT.* A WHIMSICAL anecdote is told of a hawker crying certain small wares on the Thames, at a time when it was frozen over, and a sort of fair was held on the ice. The story is, that when the ice broke under this unfortunate person, and in closing again severed the head, the force of habit was such, that the head, in rolling along the ice, continued for a while, like that of Orpheus, to articulate a part of the ac- customed cry. It is not according to the best morality, to fabricate for a jocular purpose stories involving a tragical idea; and it would not perhaps be according to the best * Major Scott Waking's Remarks on the Sermons preached before the University of Oxford by Dr. Barrow and the Rev. Mr. Nares ; on tlie Prize Dissertations of tlie Eev. Mr. Pearson and Mr Cunnino-ham, read at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge ; and on a Pamphlet written by a late Resident in Bengal, on tbe Practicability, Policy, and Obligation of communicating to the Natives of India the Knowledge ot Christianity. 8vo. 1808. ^ THE FOECE OF HABIT. 45 morality, for critics to be affected cHefly by the ludicrous- ness of the thing, -when they witness in controversy a case nearly parallel to the above story. The writer whose fourih bulljy pamphlet we have many months omitted to notice, from nausea of literary dulness and dregs, not to say of impiety, has long since, as a reasoner (if it were at all allow- able so to apply that denomination) been "cut sheer;" but he has not the less gone on repeating just the same things in almost literally the same words. Such of our readers as have not taken the trouble to look through the whole of his pam- phlets, will really suspect ourselves of being under some com- pulsory spell to iterate the same sentences whenever we have to do with this unfortunate writer ; they will impute to us a total want of the discrimination requisite to vary the modes of critical description and animadversion. Wo cannot help it. When a yogi in that part of the world to which these jjublicatidhs relate, has fixed himself on the top of a post under a vow to repeat some one word or phrase millions of times, a person that should be sent repeatedly to reconnoitre him, and report what he is about, must every time return with the same story. The ,only variation he can make in his report will be to signify, after each visit of observation, how much nearer the perfonner's ens ratiovis appears to have approached towards that final irremediable fatuity, in which the describers of the Hindoo customs inform us that this " religious " exercise not unfrequently terminates. Probably no external stimulus was necessary to ensure the repetition, through a hundred and twenty additional pages, of the phrases and sentences, " mania of conversion," " ignorant sectarian higots," " mad Galvinistic missionaries," " / am decidedly of opinion that the conversion of the Hindoos is impracticable," " these proceedings mil end in the destruction of our Eastern Mnpire," and about a half a dozen more. There was something so ingenious, so eloquent, and, we may add, BO genteel, in such expressions, that to have once hit upon them created both an inducement and a warrant to repeat them a hundred times over at the least. ANGLO-INDIAN LITEEATUEB. Dr. Buchanan and others have strongly represented the causes which operate towards irreligion in the minds of the 46 FOSTERIANA. European residents in India. One of the most unequivocal evidences before the English public, relative to this point, is in the writings of our Oriental literati. No terms of admiration can be too strong in applause of the indefatigable exertions and the attainments of those men ; and there are some of them that have not published anything for which they owe an atonement to Christianity. But in the writings of more than a few of them, we fear, the student will find a sort of language which appears to insinuate or assume that all religions are of the same authority ; that authority being, of course, in no case absolute and divine. And yet, even this principle of infidel equity, he shall find violated, by levity, not to say malice, of allusion to the Jewish and Christian religion, while a manner of respect and almost of veneration is maintained towards the mythologies, the institutions, and the impostors of Eastern superstition. He shall see these philosophers affecting to accept the diction and the delusions of the pagans, and gravely writing about the " gacred books," and the " awful doctrines," about this " inspired sage," and the other " divine legislator." There appears often a studied, and in some instances a palpably malignant endeavour, to transfer to these subjects the lan- guage in which Christians have been accustomed to speak of tbe Bible, its religion, its prophets, and .its Messiah. Anj"^- thing in the wild, fabulous records of India, that appears capable of being turned into a plausible contradiction of the Scripture history, is sedulously and ostentatiously elaborated into an authentic document. There is a show of discovering wonders of recondite and inestimable wisdom in that deplorable depot of phantasies and abominations, the mythology. And in adverting to the pretended antiquity of the Hindoo literature, some of these gentlemen have given signs of a credulity, which fairly disqualifies their understand- ings for admitting anything so sober and strict as the evidences of the Christian religion. On the whole, and with excep- tions in favour of particular individuals, the Anglo-Indian literature will but very indifferently contribute to support the claim to the character of believers in revelation which the Major pretends to make in behalf of "gentlemen in India." He adduces, however, a more satisfactory kind of evidence ; he brings testimony to prove, that, whore their ON THE DESTRUCTION OP IDOLATOES. 47 situation allows it, they go to churcli. We confess this is strong ; especially as no one ever heard of such a thing, as that a number of these gentlemen, after attending divine service at church in the morning (suppose on a thanksgiving day), should in the afternoon publicly go in procession with oiferings to a temple of Gonga in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. ON THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATERS. The author in deploring that so large a proportion of our subjects should be idolaters, was naturally led to reflect on the deep malignity of idolatry in the sight of the Supreme Being ; and cited as one of the many illustrations of the divine abhorrence, that command in the Mosaic law which enjoins the Jews to stone to death even the nearest relative or friend that should be guilty of enticing to the worship of the heathen gods. Every reader but one instantaneously appre- hended the design and the pertinency of this citation.' The palpable object was to urge, that, the Almighty having by this and a multitude of other denunciations, declared idolatry to be so detestable a crime, we ought to dread giving it such a sanction in the conduct of our Eastern government as to involve ourselves in any degree in the guilt. But the quotation of this passage from the Bible, with the very plain and solemn inference from it (an inference which it is melan- choly and alarming to find a necessity of pressing on the conscience of a Christian nation and government), confounds the understanding of the Major. He returns to it several times ; and '' it strikes him," he says, " with astonishment ; " and not without reason, for with his utmost efforts he cannot comprehend what is meant by it, imless that we ought forth- with to kill all idolaters, which, as he very truly conceives, would be a strange thing for the writer to recommend, and not strictly consistent either with justice or policy to attempt in India. He has not thought it safe, however, to trust the matter to the public and the government without some reasoning, to prove the injustice of such a measure. One of his arguments is, that on this principle of its being our duty to slay all idolaters, the Protestants, to be consistent with the opinion they profess to entertain of the Popish image- worship, will be obliged to kill all the Papists of the United Kingdom. 48 fosteEiana. Another is, that the Hindoos having, as he says, the same right to condemn our religion as false, that we have to con- demn theirs, will be authorized, on this principle of the noble writer, to adopt towards us what may be called a pre- ventive retaliation. TRANSLATION AND DIEFUBION OP THE BIBLE. While impiety is fretting itself away in imprecations and menacing predictions, the cause which has excited all this imbecile anger, and mocks it, is still going on, and with augmented force. Providence is sometimes too kind to a people to visit its governors with that ominous infatuation, for which some of their subjects are venting angry prayers. By such a visitation, indeed, that Providence would not in effect suspend for an hour its process for the destruction of paganism and all the superstitions that governments or nations might sacrifice themselves to maintain ; but it is grati- fying to find, that the government in the East continues to give the fullest protection to the most important by far of the missionary operations, the translation and diffusion of the Bible. The very restrictions imposed on some of the other labours of the missionaries, have but concentrated their efforts in this grand employment. They have been accomplishing entire versions, during the very time that their unfortunate calumniators have been wasting themselves away in feeble invectives. Their children are rising up zealously intent upon the same object, and some of them almost prodigies of early capacity and attainment. Thus the great cause is multiplying its agents, and every month consciously enlarging its powers and completing its formidable apparatus. Thus an infinite number of phials are charging with that electric element, that lightning of heaven, which will be directed to explode every idol and temple into atoms. The prophets and apostles are springing up within the dominion of each pagan god almost as suddenly as the armed host of Medea, and appointed, instead of assaulting one another, to challenge all the priests and all the demons of superstition to a last and mortal battle. KlSSrBCT FOB LOBDS. 49 EESPECT FOE LOEDS.* In spite of all tliat the privileged orders, the administrators of government, and the advocates of arbitrary po^ver, have reproachfully uttered against the people of England, to the effect of imputing democratical and levelling dispositions, the English in general feel a profound respect for lords, as such, and have by no means renounced the truly philosophic and salutary notion, that there is in noble blood a mysterious something which constitutes a man intrinsically superior to the surrounding commonalty. We cannot be williijg "to forego the merit of having entertained this persuasion our- selves ; and may properly plead it, in the present instance, as a reason for being extremely reluctant and slow to admit into our minds any feeling of disappointment in reading a part of this sumptuous publication. QUALiriOATIONS or A TKAVELLBE. Some degree of disappointment will however be felt, we apprehend, by many of its readers. The first perception of defect will probably be, that the writer is not eminently an original, speculative, sagacious observer. We are not made to feel as if he had been formed on purpose for a traveller. He notices and describes the most obvious features of the scenes he traverses, as any other well-educated and sensible man might. He does not make his narrative inform us of any- thing more than just so much superficial fact. No unexpected questions are started, few important reflections are made. The traveller seems neither to have carried theories and general principles along with him, to be verified and illus- trated by the diversified facts that he should see ; nor to have surveyed the accumulated mass of facts with that independent speculation which elicits principles immediately from fects, without regard to any previous systems or notions whatever, A man of strong understanding and earnest observation, in passing over a considerable portion of the globe, is not con- tent with merely recording a series of dry particulars, without any attempt to generalize, and to trace the connexion between effects and their causes. He will be sensible that, * Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Bed Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt, in the Years 1802, 1S03, 1804, 1805, and 1806. Uy George, Viscount Valentia. 4to. Three vols. 1809. s 50 FOSTBEIANA, while travelling among the various tribes of mankind, placed at great distances from one another, and while witnessing so many phenomena of the natural world, he owes it to his species, to truth, and to his high and enviable privilege, to endeavour to make his observations furnish some direct light to moral, political, and philosophical inquiry. IMPOBTANCB OF THE OAPK OF GOOD HOPB. Lord Valentia insists warmly that the Cape, which, at the time he was there, was preparing to be delivered back to the Dutch, ought always to be in the possession of the English, and he expatiates very sensibly on its value and capabilities. He says, the expected cessation of the English government was regretted by the respectable part of the JDutch settlers, who were both pleased with its equity, and terrified by the apprehended aggressions and reveng* of the Cafires and Hottentots. The former had already assumed a warlike attitude, and even the Hottentots he represents as no longer a race of imbecile, submissive victims. His lordship's zeal for maintaining possession of the Cape, does not prevent him from being honest enough to advert to the fact, that the expense of the civil and military establish- ments of the said possession has exceeded the revenue, by a sum between £200,000 and £300,000 per annum. But he wishes to attribute this unfortunate state of the balance in a considerable measure to temporary causes, and confidently predicts the case will mend in time ; insisting, nevertheless, that though it should not, the Cape must be retained at all events, as highly important to the security of our trade, and as capable of facilitating the most destructive designs if in the hands of Bonaparte, who would be sure to have it, he says, if we should yield it up. Perhaps, in the particular instance of the Cape of Good Hope, the plea for maintaining a foreign settlement at a constant and heavy loss, is stronger than in almost any other ; but it is mortifying to reflect on the delusion of this nation, which, in its foolish passion for multiplying and extending its foreign settlements, is always fancying some wonderful advantages to trade, when the fact often is, that all the beuetlts capable of being really brought to account against the cost, come ultimately to nearly the same piaod and prosperous reckoning, as that of CONVEKSION or THE HINDOOS. 61 a nation that should, with great bustle and importance, send some thousands of miles to find a bog into which to toss the earnings of its domestic toils. ON THE CONVERSION OF THE HINDOOS. With regard to his lordship's " belief that the impediments to the conversion of the Hindoos are unconquerable," it might be fairly asked. What does his lordship know of the Hindoos, beyond what any one may learn by reading a small number of books, or conversing with a few' persons who have been a good while in India? What intercourse did he hold with them ? what researches did he make into their character and economy ? But however attentively he might have inspected them, of what consequence is his belief, or that of any man else, placed in opposition to the matter of fact, that they sometimes are converted, that several even of the Brahmin caste are on the list of recent converts ? To see the full absurdity of such assertions, we have only to suppose them made in the midst of a small devout assembly of such converts, with several of the quondam Brahmins among them. His lordship says the advocates for the schemes of con- version shrink from meeting that argument against its practicability, which is derived from the failure of the Mahometans, with all their power, during the whole loi.g period of their ascendancy, to convert the Hindoos, and from the failure of the Roman Catholics, in the latter part of this period, with all their zeal. 'Now so far from evading this redoubtable argument, we thought those advocates had replied that the premises are not true ; for that, first, according to the best accounts and the most reasonable conjectures, the Mahometans have made, in the past ages, a great multitude of converts from among the Hindoos ; that this is the only way of accounting for so large a proportion of the population being Mahometans, and being so like the Hindoos in physical appearance, and ' that th% opponents cannot bring the shadow of a proof to the contrary : secondly, that the Eoman Catholics have also made many thousand converts, so far at least as to induce the loss of caste, which is alleged as the insupprable obstacle. But in the next place, these advocates say, that the argument is of trifling weight with them, even were the premises true ; for that they E 2 52 FOSTEKIANA. believe, and here will be the mystery to his lordship, that there exists an All-governing Providence, which will certainly give an ultimate, and they hope a not very distant prevalence to Divine truth. The proposal to circulate translations of the Scriptures among the Hindoos, is rendered altogether illusory by the proviso — " if it will not induce them to make unfavourable comparisons between our lives and our doctrines, and con- sequently expose us to contempt ; " — for his lordship has very freely charged immorality and neglect of religion on the Europeans in India. And what a state of the judgment or moral principles is indicated, in making such a proviso ! It assumes that the preserving of an unmerited reputation to a number of irreligious and immoral foreigners resident in a country (for that is the character supposed in our author's words), is an object of greater importance, than for the population of that country to obtain the knowledge of the only true religion and morality ! The people of India must remain in all the horrors of paganism, rather than become qualified, by Christian knowledge, to pronounce a deserved condemnation on the vices and impiety of Englishmen! — because some thousands of these English choose to be bad in spite of better light, all Asia must be kept bad also, if possible, by the preclusion of that light, lest these English should become liable to be affronted by a censure! If our nation is really going to learn moral principles like this, on an extensive scale, from its possession of India, that posses- sion is one of the greatest curses that Divine wrath could have inflicted. And to be gratified by such a possession, on such a condition, f.s about as rational as it would be for a man to be pleased with the ,fine colours of a great serpent, when winding its wreaths round him in order to grapple and sting him to death. But did bis lordship mean to confine the application of the hint to India ? There are possibly other parts of the world, beside India, where it would be prudent in the possessors of power and rank to prohibit the Bible, lest the people should get at the knowledge that there is something detestable in the profanation of the sacred name and day, or in venality, peculation, and adultery. At Lucknow, our author witnessed a splendid celebration of the Moharam, the Mahometan festival to the memory of CONVERSION OF THE HINDOOS. 6S Hassan and Houssein ; and he describes the Imaunibarah, the sacred edifice in which the celebration was completed, in terms which, for the first time in his narrative, present before us the full splendour of the Oriental romances. A striking description is given of a tremendous storm, carrying along such a cloud of sand as to render the air perfectly dark. MISMANAGEMENT OF THE INDIA SHIPPING. The Parsees of Bombay almost monopolise the esta-^ blishment of the dockyard ; no European master-builder, it seems, has been permitted long to survive his arrival ; and, in the hands of these virtuous fire-worshippers, the whole business has become a mass of fraud and abuses. He represents, with much probability, the whole administration of the India Company's marine establishment here as most villanous, and the fitting out of the vessels with which he went a second time to the Bed Sea, was an excellent sample. The situation of the town was extremely unhealthy, and the evil is aggravated by the cheapness of spirituous liquors, which leads to a dreadful mortality among the European soldiers, particularly on their first arrival. He thinks a sudden attack, on the land side, might easily reduce or destroy the place. The trade of Bombay, he says, is now " very inferior to what it was in former times, which is chiefly owing to the indulgences given to the Arabs, particu- larly the Imaum of Muscat, whose flag being recognised as neutral, his vessels sail to and from the Isle of France, carrying there provisions, and taking back prize goods, which they purchase at half tjieir prime cost." POLTGAMT. In consequence of Bruce's assertion, that, from Suez to the Straits of Babelmandel, four females are born for one male, Lord Valentia made some inquiries on the subject at Mocha, and was assured that the proportion is two females to one male. The information being given him, however, by Mahometans, to whose privilege of polygamy such a fact might seem, to give a sanction, was not received by him without some doubts of correctness; nor, supposing it true, does he soem disposed, like Bruce, to admit it as a justifica- tion of polygamy. He cites from Dr. Kussell the report of a 54 FOSTEEIANA. Maronite priest, who had been employed in 1740 to make a census of the Mohametans in Aleppo, on a coast where Bruce haa asserted there are nearly three females to one male ; the result of which census was 1,533 females to 1,500 males. CHEISTIANITT IN ABYSSINIA. There seems a sort of melancholy ludicrousness in men- tioning the Christianity of Abyssinia. Something so named, however, does retain a precarious existence in the shape of priests, a few churches, a few old books, superstitious cere- monies, and numerous pictures of St. George, who appears to be the favourite saint. They are prompt to avow them- selves Christians, on being visited by foreigners ; and have a degree of pride in being so distinguished from the Mussulmans and Pagans. Nor are they disposed, as it should seem, to let these foreigners, when ostensibly bearing the same distinction, escape without some trial of their attainments in religious knowledge. Few of the religious observances are particularized ; the most obvious one was their frequent fasting, much according to the Eomau Catholic sense of that word. They have a sufScient number of religious ideas to make their profound ignorance deplorably superstitious. Mr. Salt observes, "I am fully persuaded that there is no part of the world where European influence might be exerted with more beneficial effects than in Abyssinia." This appears to us a very interesting subject for specula- tion. In the interior of Africa there is a nation which very early received Christianity. , From, various causes their knowledge of this, religion has become so obscured, as nearly to reduce it to a few historical facts, prominent names, and ritual observances. Still it has been so far maintained, as to preclude the prevalence of any other religion ; the people are tenacious of the Christian name, and would be well disposed to receive Christian knowledge. Without European interference, they are likely, in a few years more, to be finally overrun by the surrounding tribes of absolute savages, partly pagan, and partly Mahometan. This catas- trophe would involve the destruction of all the institutions which preserve the name, and some small measure of the knowledge of Christianity ; and would probably involve, too, GHKI8TIANITT IN ABYSSINIA. 55 the exercise of a rancorous intolerance against all that retained any trace of its profession. A very small supply of English knowledge, arts, arms, and agents, quietly introduced through th& channel of commercial intercourse, under the express and most willing sanction of the king of Abyssinia and the gOTCrnor of Tigre, would completely vindicate and secure the independence of the country, would probably restore its tranquillity, and would thus obtain a most advantageous ground for the exertions of the friends of Christianity and civilization. As an exceedingly sub- ordinate object, we should not neglect to add what is so strongly insisted on by our travellers, that we should obtain a profitable market for our British and Indian exports, and an advantageous position in the Bed Sea, for frustrating the designs of the French against our Eastern possessions. May we humbly presume to hope, that an object like this may have any chance of obtaining a moment's attention of a Christia,n nation that can afford' to spend so much more than a million sterling a week for promoting the tranquillity and improvement of the world, when that Christian nation shall have concluded its more generous and dignified employ- ments of fighting for the re-establishment of the Inquisi- tion, and manuring the opposite coasts with the thousands of dead bodies of its troops ? SACRED BOOKS OF THE HINDOOS.* We hope that, in due time, very accurate translations will be given to the English and European public, of the most important parts, if we may so apply that epithet, of these revered Oriental books. Not that it is possible to conceive a greater waste of time than to read them ; we mean as far as respects their direct value, in either the power of instructing or amusing. But they will serve a very excel- lent purpose in making some classes of infidels keep the peace ; and they will also afford any good man, who can spare a few * Ancient Indian Literature, illustxative of the Researches of the Asiatic Society, from original MSS. 1809. 56 FOSTEItlANA. liours to look into them, an occasion of giving a stronger emphasis to his thanks to Heaven for a Divine revelation. Judging from such specimens as have already appeared, they never can in England become interesting as general reading ; not even the epic poems, from the destitution of that right reason, that perception and observance of the laws 01 possibility, probability, and consistency, which cultivated Europeans have learnt to require, even in the lightest works of amusement. We can indeed contrive now and then, even after the period of childhood, to run so far wild as to be amused for half an hour in the Arabian Nights, though we soon steal back, almost ashamed, within the boundaries of reason : but the Arabian Nights are perfect models of sobriety and consistency, compared with what has yet been exhibited to us of Hindoo poetry and theology. There can be no harm in so far giving credit to this pro- fessed translation of some parts of three Puranas, as to transcribe a short sample of what we are to possess, after a while, in greater plenty. We will take part of the second section of the SJieeve Poorane, as it is here written : — " Narayen and Narayenee, having collected all these things into one place, again betook themselves to repose, and from their navels there appeared a lotus flower, whose leaves were beyond the bounds of all idea, and of the length of several thousand yojens,* and which cast a light, which flashed like many croresf of suns; and from that lotns I (Brahma) came into existence ; and, except that, I could trace nothing. I then reflected with vast astonishment, VvTio am I, and whence came I ? and how should I employ myself ? and who is my creator ! Amid these doubts, I determined with myself that as I came into existence from the lotus flower, that assuredly must be my creator. Under this groundless idea, I descended for a hundred years toward the root of the lotus ; but, as it was an insuperable difficulty to get to its bottom, and wide of my efforts to reach its extremity, still tasking myself to arrive at the place of my origin, for another hundred years I measured upwards the road of my desires ; but no mark ever appeared that way of the end of the lotus ; and I considered, in deep amazement, O God ! what enchanted wondei-s are these that spring in this manner from nothing into existence 1 I was ia * A yojen may lie reckoned abniit 7J miles, t A crore is IQ mllliona BAORED BOOKS OF THE HINDOOS. 57 tHs trance of thouglitfulness and perplexity, when a voice Buddenly struck my astonished ear, saying, ' Tepe, Tepe,' i.e., worship, worship." A malicious being of the name of Tareke, wanting to obtain from Brahma the power and liberty to perform a certain destructive exploit, bought his license at the following price : — " In the wood Medhoo he selected a pleasant and beautiful spot, adorned with verdure and blossoms, and there exerted himself with penance and moi-tifications, with an intention, and for the purpose, of annihilating the Deivetes. 1. For one hundred years he held up his two ai'ms and one foot towards heaven, and fixed his eyes on the sun for the whole time. 2. For one hundred years he remained standing upon his great toes. 3. For one hundred years more he nourished himself with nothing but water. 4. For a hundred years more he lived on nothing but air. 5. For a hundred years more he stood and made his adorations in the river. 6. For a hundred years more he stood and made his adorations in the earth. 7. For one hundred years more he stood upon his head, with his feet towards heaven. 9. For a hundred years more he stood upon the palm of one hand resting on the ground. 10. For a hundred years more he hung by his hands on the branch of a tree. For a hundred years more he hung to a tree with his head downwards. " When he came to a respite from these severe mortifications, a flame, arising from his head, began to bum the world." PEOPAGATION OF CHEISTIANITY IN INDIA.* It is of prime importance, in discussing the question of the propagation of Christianity, to state it in its true and precise terms. It is not whether Christianity should be taught to the Indians, but whether Christianity should not be hindered from being taught to them. That is, in plain English, Whether or not ought Chris- tianity to be persecuted in India? That such is the real import of the question we cannot think any man will scruple to admit, as soon as the coincidence is suggested to his mindi It is one species of persecution, no doubt, to * An Historical Eeview of Hindostan : the Eise and Progress of Christianity in the East, itd present Ctoii ,ition, &c. By Kobeit Chat- field, LL.B., Vicar of Chatteris. 4lx). 1808. 58 FOSTEEIANA. be called upon actually to renounce and. disavow any set of opinions ; and it is a different species, to be commanded under penalties not to propagate these opinions. This latter, however, is still persecution, though a kind somewhat less atrocious than the former. Suppose, how absurd soever the supposition, — suppose a decree to pass the British legisla- ture, that no Presbyterian doctrines shall any longer be taught in this kingdom, as not being favourable to royalty, and that penalties shall be inflicted on all those by whom the statute shall be broken; would not the Presbyterians call this persecution ? and would not every unprejudiced man allow that they called it rightly ? In fact, the persecution which the emperors of Eome exercised against Christianity was neither more nor less than what we find recommended to the British government in India ; it was barely com- manding the Christians not to preach in the name of Jesus, and punishing them when they did so.- But it was a point of conscience with those Christians so to preach. If any Christians in India are actuated by a similar principle, it is a similar persecution to forbid, and to punish them. It will,- we doubt not, be said, — for many of the advocates for the persecution system are inconsiderate enough to say anything, — " We are not for persecuting the missionaries; we only propose to forbid them." But what if the missionaries, judging that God bids them do what you forbid, should not obey ? Do you propose to punish, or to let them go on ? or do you know any alternative ? — " Oh, yes ; we will send them out of the country." That is to say, you wish for a law to banish them. And is banishing, then, in your opi- nion, no punishment ? It will very possibly be said, that banishing Englishmen from India is no great punishment. That evidently depends, however, upon the force of desire that may exist in any man's breast to remain in India ; and the missionaries evince that their desire to remain in India is ^ery strong. But, at any rate, thus much is certain, — that to send Christians out of India, for preaching Chris- tianity, is persecuting Christianity to the extent (whatever it may be) of the penal infliction which banishment from India implies. It is to be observed, besides, that banish- ment from India has annexed to it several adjuncts, which are liable to operate in many cases as the most atrocious PERSECUTION OF MISSION A.EIE8 IN INDIA. 59 punishment. It implies the being seized upon, and being imprisoned for such a length of time, greater or smaller, as may be necessary to intervene before it may be convenient to send the imprisoned missionary to Europe. It is well known that this would often be a very considerable period. Now imprisonment is in any country ranked among the severest punishments. Under the climate of India there is scarcely one more dreadful. No European constitution can endure it for many months; to most it is fatal in a few weeks, or days._ After this, the unfortunate victim is to be placed in a ship, which to a man not used to a ship, and placed in it against his will, must be one of the most incon- venient and most odious of prisons; and in this, without any preparation made for him, he must accommodate himself among the common sailors, for a period of about six months. If, making a fair estimate of all this misery, we should figure to ourselves an equivalent portion inflicted on the banks of the Ganges in the shape of direct torture, and conceive any man coming forward in parliament with a bill conferring power to torture Englishmen to this extent, for the persecu- tion of Christianity in India, can we doubt for a moment what would be the feelings in the breast of the most hardened and profligate amongst us? Why should the calling of the same thing by a different name make such a prodigious difference in our sentiments ? PERSECUTION OF THE MISSIONARIES IN INDIA. The question, whether Christianity ought to be, or ought not to be, persecuted, by any detachment of the British Government in any quarter of the empire, one would hardly have expected, among a people and under a govern- ment professedly religious, to have seen so flippantly and confidently answered in the affirmative. For us, who are the impartial, irreconcilable enemies of persecution, wherever operating, against whomsoever, by whatever penalties, whether open or disguised ; as we would protect Brahmins teaching their opinions in a Christian country,* if anybody cared to listen to them besides the half-dozen wretched pamphleteers who have lately been the furious advocates of their superstition, so would we protect Chris- tians propagating their doctrines among Hindoos, even * Of "course, the protection cannot be extended to those overt actions 60 FOSTERIANA. independently of the consideration of those doctrines being true. " Oh ! bnt you are bigots and fanatics," cry our antagonists ; " and in your blind zeal for things of the other world, you lose sight of all the consequences of your actions in this." — Let us just remind these temperate disputants, that it is not impossible to be bigots and fanatics for other things besides- Christianity. For example, the Emperor Julian, who has been perhaps improperly called an apostate, but who, in his early days, had been certainly instructed in Christianity, was a bigot for the twelve gods of Olympus. The value which ought to be set upon Christianity is not the point here in question. Were Hindooism a better religion than Christianity, as some of those who contend against the preaching of Christianity pretty plainly give us to understand is their belief, still we should claim entire * freedom for those who thought otherwise, to go and present their doctrines, with all the efficacy they could derive from their powers of persuasion. Whether this opinion or that opinion be right or wrong, whether the difference be material or trifling, it can h.ardly ever happen — in regard to all per- manent arrangements it can probably never happen — that the freedom or restraint of enunciating opinions is not a concern- ment of transcendent importance. When we are contending, as at present, for freedom of opinion, and our antagonists are contending for persecution, we are willing to leave it to the consideration of our readers on which side the bigotry lies. MISSIONARY PUBAOHINQ NOT THE CAUSE OP INDIAN EBVOLT. But, say the opponents, you do nob consider the mischief you are about to produce. The Hindoos, they inform us, will take fright at the preaching of Christianity ; they will revolt, and we shall lose Hindostan. We meet them with a direct negative ; and assure them of our conviction that the Hindoos will do no such thing. ON THE MUTINY AT VELLORE. Oh ! BUT Vellore, they cry ; think of that. Did not the which a civilized state must necessarily prohibit and punish as civil crimes. There is no helping it, if such persons as the aforesaid pamphleteers should spurn at this proviso as a piece of bigoted into- lerance, and insist on a legal saootion for the Brahmins and their proselytes to expose children, to bui'n women alive, exhibit tUo Lingam, sit in Dhurna, &c„ te. ON THE MUTINY AT VBLLORB. 61 Sepoys mutiny ? The business of Vellore, we answer, is a strong and convincing proof to all who choose to understand it, that OM position is just, and that youi-s is erroneous. The mutiny of Vellore was produced, not by preaching Christianity, but by altering head-dresses, which form an essential part of the religion of Hindoos : not by fear, in the breasts of this people, of being persuaded to become Christians; but by fear of being compelled. The wearing of the anti-Hindoo caps, it is to be carefully remembered, was a matter of compulsion. Now observe the strength of the evidence which this case affords. Christianity has been preached in various places of India : no mutiny or revolt was ever the consequence. Compulsion was applied to the head-dresses, at one place, where no missionary, it appears, had ever been ; and mutiny was immediately produced. Here is experience itself, to prove that the preaching of Christianity is harmless, and that compulsory measures alone are productive of evil. After the business at Vellore, which has come so con- veniently for our disputants to hold up as a bugbear, and which has been for that purpose stuck upon the end of so many of their poles, we are presented, as their next grand resource, with a brilliant display of the mighty antipathies which prevail among the Hindoos against Chiistianity. Now as for these antipathies, we shall not dispute one single word of what they say. But we will tell them, what it is almost incredibleilfchey themselves should not Jiave perceived, that these prove nothing whatever with regard to the point in question. If the Hindoos violently abhor all other religions but their own, why should that make it appear to them more likely that force is to be used to deprive them of their own ? And if they are satisfied that they have nothing to apprehend in the nature of force, their violent predilections must render them but the more secure with regard to any efforts of persuasion. Their confident preference of their own religion, if it has any operation in this case at all, must operate as a tranquillizing power, and render them less subject to alarms. If the disciples of the Brahmins are so unalterable in attachment to their own religion and in antipathy to every other, the Brahmins themselves need feel no anxiety, and can ' have no sort of inducement to excite commotion. 62 FOSTEEIANA. BEAHMINICAL PKBJUDIOES. There is an instance produced by some of the advocates of persecution, by which many, we are told, have been deeply impressed. A Brahmin was found by some Chris- tians on the banks of the Ganges just expiring. Moved by humanity, one of them poured a cordial, which he happened to have about him, down his throat. The Brahmin revived. But what was the consequence? He was regarded with abhorrence by all his tribe, he lost caste, and was reduced (if we do not mistake) to the extremity of destroying himself. But what connexion has this with the con- sequence ascribed to it? so that provided an incident like this should bo liable to happen among any people, it must necessarily follow that they will rise in arms if Christianity is preached to them ? How is the one made to appear as indissolubly connected with the other ? It is very evident there is no such connexion between them. These disputants of ours betray, at the same time, the most pitiable ignorance of the. Hindoo character and principles. Had a votary of the very same religion with this Brahmin, had a member of any of the inferior castes, performed the same act of humanity, the same degradation and suicide would have been the abominable consequence. HINDOO ANTIPATHT TO MAHOMETISM. But a third party, an indifferent spectator, may here say to us, and with great propriety, your arguments have as yet been only of the negative kind ; you have shown that there is but little force in the reasons which your opponents allege for their fears. Can you give us any positive reasons why we should unite with you in your confidence ? Yes, truly ; you shall judge. Some four or five hundred years ago (no matter for the exact date) the Hindoos were conquered by a nation of Mahometans ; as they have lately been conquered by one of Christians. Their antipathy to Mahometism was at first as great as it is to Christianity. These Mahometans mixed themselves with the people they had subdued ; and not only taught their own religion, but studied to insult (as is the genius of Mahometism) the religion of the Hindoos ; they domineered overthe professors of it in the style of masters, and carried on against them on various occasions the most HIHBOO ANTIPATHY TO MAH0METI8M. 63 fierce and bloody persecutions. What were the consequences ? Did the Hindoos revolt from religious motives ? Was any religious war kindled in Hindostan ? Was there any religious insuriection ? No such thing. From whatever cause the Mogul government was at any time disturbed, religion was in no instance the primary or even the secondary motive. Let us not be reasoned with, on a subject of this importance, as if we were children. A very considerable proportion of the whole population of Hindostan is at this moment Mahometans, and the Mussulman doctors are preaching every day, as they have there preached for 500 years, against the religion of the Hindoos. What should there be in a handful of Christian missionaries, that they should excite those extravagant alarms, which myriads of preachers of Mahometism have failed to produce during many ages ? ON THE PBOBABILITY OP CONVERTING THE HINDOOS. As to the quantum of immediate good which may arise from the efforts of the missionaries, neither they nor their advo- cates indulge very sanguine expectations. Among all orders and races of men, the teachers of the Christian religion meet with mmierous impediments and but partial success. Among the heathens, and especially among this particular division of the heathens, beyond all doubt, they have peculiar difBculties to contend with. It is not the less true, however, that their enemies have immeasurably exaggerated the resistance to change in the character and principles of the Hindoos. The principles of change have already made no inconsiderable progress ; and so far is it from being true, that the texture of Hindoo society cannot by any means be altered, that the fact is, no power can now prevent it from altering, and that with increasing rapidity, every day. Mr. Forster, one of the most intelligent of the eye-witnesses to whom we owe our infor- mation respecting India, tells us (See his Travels, vol. i., p. 54), " Many of the fences that marked the limits of the respective tribes are now broken down. The Brahmins of the Deccan and Punjab have taken up the sword, and are seen crowding the ranks of an army ; the Chitteiy occasionally betakes himself to traffic, and the Sooder has become the inheritor of principalities. Mararow, the gallant Mahrattah officer, and chief of Ghooty, was of the fourth caste of Hindoos." The family of the Paishwa is of the Brahmin 64 FOSTEIilANA. caste. In like manner Dr. Buchanan tells us in his instruc- tive account of Lis " Travels in the Mysore," (vol. i. pp. 18, 19, and 318), that the distinct employment of the castes is now very little attended to ; that the Brahmins perform almost all functions, except those which are reckoned very degrading ; and that the Soodras are most commonly the cultivators, and very often the soldiers. Even in religion the facts which prove the practicability of change are numerous, and of the highest importance. Whole nations of Hindoos have in reality changed. The Cashmirians have all become Mahometans ; the Seiks have renounced Brahminism for the tenets of a pretender to a revelation among themselves. It has been remarked by a writer in the •' Asiatic Eesearohes" (vol. vi. p. 11), that the Hindoos and Moguls in India have, by their necessary inter- course, become remai'kably assimilated, not only in manners, disposition, &e., but even in religion ; and he states a very striking fact in confirmation of his remark, namely, that Scindiah, who is a superstitious Hindoo, is likewise very observant of Mahometan ceremonies. There are heretical sects besides, in India, whose influence is by no means in- considerable ; as the Jain, for example, who reject the Vedas, and the eighteen Piiranas ; have sacred books of their own ; and say that Brahma, Vishna, and Siva, were no gods ; that Vishna was a rajah, and Siva and Brahma only a rajah's sons. This sect extends over all India, and is extremely numerous in Tulava.* The enemies to the preaching of Christianity, allow that the missionaries may make converts iimong the impm-e and most degraded castes. This admission is of more importance than they seem to be aware of. These, instead of being the most pernicious members of the society, are in reality the most valuable. They are the most industrious, and the most docile, because they are exempt from that pride of privilege which engenders idleness and self-conceit. So sensible was Hyder Ali of their value, that, in his exoursites, By Major Pike. 4ta. 1811. ' AMERICAN INDIANS. 115 mucli greater numher. The posterity of these virtuous outcasts, and of a few parties of various character that subsequently embarked, at ditferent times, for the same destination, followed by a succession of individuals and families whose transmigration from Europe was not of consequence enough for any chronicles to record, are now the proprietors, on a tenure of necessary perpetuity, of so vast a portion of the earth, that they cannot survey it but in the way of " exploring " it. To learn the situation and extent of their lakes and mountains — to ascertain the, course, the origin, and the very number, of their great rivers, they must send out formal expeditions of discovery; of which even the starting place must be several months' , journey in advance from the points at which theii' ancestors first landed and established their diminutive colonies. The adventurers must be a band selected for extraordinary hardihood, both physical and mental ; must set out prepared to prosecute their project through all the changes of difficulty opposed by all the seasons of the year, with the addition of the evils incident to a variety of climates ; and must take leave of their friends as persons whom they may see no more. They must boldly leave behind them the last faint traces of the operations and excursions of what is called civilized man, and stretch away into regions in which their adventures and fortunes will be a long time unknown, and where they might perish, and the period, the exact locality, the circumstances, and the causes of their fate, for ever remain a secret. This is, at least, a very moderate description of the" character of the grand adventure, recently conducted by Captains Lewis and Clarke, across the continent to the Pacific Ocean ; of which we have yet received no more satisfactory account than the meagre Journal of Patrick Gass. And though the expedition under Major Pike was appointed for a shorter reach, both of space and time, and was not directed through regions so absolutely unknown, yet it appears to have been accompanied by still greater sufiierings and perils than were encountered by the other daring set of adventurers, and to have been executed with a . quite equal degree of perseverng energy. The party consisted of twenty-one persons, besides the 116 FOSTDBIANA. commander ; and they set off, in high spirits, " in a keel boat seventy feet long, provisioned for four months." A large share of the narrative is, necessarily, occupied in recounting the succfession of sand-bars and islands, the rivers falling into the main stream, the "prairies " and woodlands, the latter of vphich appear to form the larger proportion of the country, the accidents to the boat, and the hunting excursions made by individuals or small detachments, at the hazard of (what sometimes happened) being lost for several days. In one instance, two of the party were lost moie than a waek, during six days of which they had scarcely anything to eat. The Major made it a rule, that the main party should be constantly advancing, so that no detached individual could voluntarily straggle or linger. Game of the larger kind, such as elk and buffalo, was extremely rare in the earlier stages of their progress. They soon came to Some samples of those formidable rapids and shoals which, in quick succession, were to impede and exhaust them throughout their whole course. The land presents no stupendous rocks, or caverns, or mountains; no Elysian vales, no aromatic groves. The author does indeed celebrate one, or perhaps two positions, in so long a traverse, as commanding a magnificent view ; but, having never enjoyed, or never improved, the benefit of learning the rhetoric of description, he is honest enough to let almost a whole thousand miles of country appear, for the most part, a dreary, murky wilderness. To a reflective and imaginative mind, amusing itself at its ease in raising certain fine exhalations of sentiment and fancy from the collective mass of the traveller's slowly accumulated notices, thus placed before it at one view, there is something greatly sublime in the ideas of almost boundless forests and savannahs, and almost endless streams. But this visionary aspect of the scene, these rainbow-coloured vapours, could have no existence to the traveller himself, while toiling for life under the pressure of the most ordinary, but urgent kind of wants, and the most unromantic kind of dangers. To him the real desert features were prominent in all their truth and dreariness, while his attention was fixed down to the currents and shf als of a troublesome river, and to a succession of long dead tracts of wood, swamp, and AMERICAN INDIANS. 117 "Coarse flat meadow-land ; to the animal products of wMch he had to look for his precarious subsistence. The party soon ascended to the site of various encamp- ments of the Indians, with whom it ^as part of Major P.'s commission to take all opportunities of political rather than of commercial intercourse. And this he could do with very- great advantage by aid of the impression which he states — and which indeed many of the facts he details prove — the Indians to have received of the formidiible and commanding character of the Americans of the United' States. He does not however pretend they are solely magnanimous qualities that the savages have learnt to attribute. The present work will completely coalesce, in its effect with such former representations of sensible, honest tra- vellers as have brought into utter contempt the ravings of French philosophers, and the romancings of certain recent described historians of America among ourselves. To think what stuff we have read about the lofty virtues, the magnanimity, the generosity, the heroic patriotism, and the tender and ardent friendships of the American savages ! of beings whose first grand business, the obtaining of a subsis- tence from the animal spoils of the wilderness, can admit but of a second, that of destroying one another in a perpe- tual contest respecting the extent to which the several tribes may range after their prey. It is curious', especially, and has struck us very forcibly, to observe how much the aboriginal character, when we are compelled to forego the advantage of beholding it through the medium of philosophical theory, of infidelity, or of poetry, is denuded of that sort of investing shade of gloomy sublimity, which used at once to darken and enlarge its features; to observe what plain, coarse, vulgar things, an Indian's selfish policy, his flattery, roguery, debauchery, or cruelty, come to appear when described by an honest straightforward story-toller like our author. A number of what are called fine writers had contrived to bring the American character to our view, as a kind of portentous spectral form, seen in the twilight a little way backward from the_ opening of a cavern, — so seen as to give the imagination more power than the eyes. A man like the Major makes the spectre come out at the word 118 FOSTEKIANA. of command, as he would one of his soldiers from a sentry- box, and we see the figure with benefit of sunshine, reduced to the vulgar dimensions and attributes of mau, and only in a certain assignable degree more ignorant, more revengeful, and more abhorrent of control, than the men of our English shops, farms, and colleges. It is true, at the same time, that the intercourse which the Indians have now for so long a time held, with the Europeans, and the European Americans, has somewhat modified the cast, though not the elements ot the Indian character, through the partial adoption of some European arts, implements, wants, notions, and vices ; and thus has contributed to that vulgarisation, so to call it, of which we speak. If a camp on the Mississippi could be repossessed by the identical band that encamped on the spot three hundred years since, a somewhat more discriminated and striking character would be presented to our contempla- tion ; but still the incitements and acts of hunting, juggling, and massacre, whatever wild and fearful circumstances might then have given them a striking peculiarity of mode, since lost, must have been in substance hugely similar to what they are now. Our officer held several grand talks, in fnU. diplomatic formality, with the chiefs of several tribes, in -which he briefly, frankly, and boldly (herein deviating most unwar- rantably from European precedent) explained the objects of his mission, and the wishes and intentions of his govern- ment ; and was answered, in several instances, in a style of much dignity and complaisance. One of the most important of these negociations was at the Falls of St. Anthony, where, in an interview with a number of Sioux chiefs, he urged them to a peace with their great rivals the Chippeways. They answered doubtfully, like accomplished statesmen ; but readily acceded to his request of a grant of land to the amount of about 100,000 acres, for an establish- ment for the United States. When their signatures were requested to his grant, they demurred, on a principle of honour, as thinking their word ought to be enough ; till our author convinced them " it was not on their account but hig own that he wished their signatures." The second journey or voyage (it was partly one and partly the other) was among the imperfectly known tracts AMERICAN INDIANS. 119 B,nd rivers of the extensive territory denominated Louisiana, lyiag between the lower part of the Mississippi and Mexico, and recently acquired by the United States. The first thing in his commission was to convey home about fifty Osage and Pa,wnee Indians, most of whom had been recently redeemed, by the Americans, from captivity among the Potowatomies. In the execution of this charge, he was sometimes considerably incommoded by perverse dispositions and movements among those gentlefolk, who could not indeed be expected, under any circumstances, to be com- pletely divested of the Indian characteristics — insubordina- tion, fickleness, quarrelsomeness, suspicion, and a propensity to theft. The further objects to which our author had been ordered to direct his attention, were to effect something towards a permanent peace between the Osages and the Kanses, a small but exceedingly brave and warlike tribe in their vicinity ; to advance forward to the west, endeavouring to establish a good understanding between these and other tribes ; to proceed even as far as the country of the letans or Oamanehes, a powerful nation not far from the confines of New Spain ; to open, if possible, a communication between this tribe and the government of the United States ; to explore the tracts about the head branches of the Arkansaw and Eed rivers ; and, in short, to make all kinds of observa- tions on all parts of the traversed country. It is exceedingly striking to contemplate the confir- mations, supplied by this volume, to the observation, that human nature is everywhere the same. These American tribes are kept by their mutual spirit of hostility in continual and most anxious alarm for their lives and families, and some of them are perishing down very near to extinction ; and yet any measures for establishing and consolidating peace seem the very last thing to occur to their thoughts. To destroy, is a luxury worth retaining at the price of being in constant danger of being destroyed. The Osages have made that one remove from the purely savage life, which places them morally in a worse state, while it shall last, than the purely savage state itself. They make their women raise considerable quantities of corn, beans, and pumpkins. Corn is cultivated also by some of 120 FOBTSUIAUA. the Indians of the Mississippi ; but many of the tribes remain merely hunters. On the 14th of November, they came in sight of one of the snowy mountains of Mexico, so high that it remained in sight during all their marches, except when in valleys, till the 27.th of January. Eeaching at length a river, which they judged to be the head stream of the Eed river, and therefore still within the territones claimed by the United States, the Major determined to erect a temporary fort, and remain there part of the winter. While thus employed, they received a visit from a Spanish officer, with a strong military party, who surprised our author by the information that the river on which he had erected his fort and set up the American flag, was no other than the Eio del Norte, confessedly within the Spanish territories. He was informed too, but with the greatest politeness, that it was desirable for him and his party to proceed to the capital of the province, and he knew it was useless to decline the invitation. We only need to add, that he was conducted a long journey from the subordinate station of Santa Fe, to the superior one of Chihuahua ; that he underwent many formal, and not a few insidious examinations ; that he was obliged to sui'render some of his papers ; that he maintained a high, rather a haughty, style of deportment ; tht^t he and his associates experienced on the whole a very great share of politeness and respect ; and that, finally, he was con- ducted by a southern route, under the escort of a military party commanded by officers with whose manners he had great reason to be pleased, to the neighbourhood of th^ American station of JSatchitoches. 121 NEPAUL AND THE CHINESE* It seems tliis " kingdom " (the ■whole annual revenue of which may be a sum equal to that which th^ royal quarto accounts of it now published, and to be published within a few years, will cost us here in England) had been detected in a valley, or rather plain, surrounded by hills, between Bengal and Tibet ; and indeed bordering so nearly on this latter country, now no better than a dependency of China, that the emperor, or at least the governor of the nearest province, had cast a look towards it as an article which there could be no harm in picking up, to make a trifling addition to the imperial dominions. As this, however, was a kind of amusement for which another great empire in Asia had acquired a very particular taste, it was natural that any outcry, however feeble, that might be made by the state about to be absorbed, would be listened to with all due interest at Calcutta. It was certainly very undesirable that our worthy neighbour Kien-Long, or whatever was his name, should pre-occupy a neat piece of ground, which otherwise, might at some not very distant future time become (consistently, we mean, with all proper regard had to justice and moderation) a commodious outlet and exten- sion to our too confined frontier. And besides, it was apprehended that that frontier might be in danger of becoming still more confined, if the redoubtable Kien-Long should be allowed to extend his royal domain to the foot of those hills, from the top of which his martial mandarins might almost see the sparkling of the sunshine on the^ Granges. Yet the Indian Government felt considerable embarrassment in deliberating on the proper reply to the application made from the royal court of Nepaul, for nothing less than military aid against a Chinese army ; an army which, commanded by a kinsman of the emperor, had ad- vanced near the capital, under pretence of vindicating the emperor's friend, or rather subject, the Lama of Tibet, whose rights were alleged to have been violated by the government of Nepaul. There was no doubt that the ap- * An Account of the Kingdom of Nepava in 1793. By Col. Kiik- patiick. Royal 4to. 1811. 122 rOSTEKIANA. pcaranco of two or three dozen English with firelocks, or even sticks, would drive back these formidable legions five times faster than they came ; but it would also have the effect of demolishing the frail, the truly porcelain commercial arrange- ments, between the Chinese and the East India Company. Any interference of this kind was therefore steadily re- fused ; while an offer was made, and, as better than nothing, accepted, of a deputation to proceed to Nepaul, to mediate between its government and the representative of the greatest of monarchs. The opportunity of getting a look at this shy people, in this secluded and well-protected valley, which no Englishman had ever yet entered, or at least returned to describe, was gladly seized by the masters of Bengal, who had for a good while been desirous of accom- plishing some such survey, and turning it to some good account. It was, therefore, no doubt, with the most exem- plary despatch that Captain Kirkpatrick, with a proper suite, was forwarded to Patna, there to be met, in order to be conducted to the place of destination, by a deputation from Nepaul. The deputation, arrived in proper place and time, ioformed him that the business had been compromised with his imperial highness the Chinese general, on terms which implied no small fear either of his invincible arms, or of British authoritative interference. For the sake of politeness, however, the envoy was invited to proceed, and finish as a matter of ceremony what had been undertaken as a matter of importance. Under this royal and flattering sanction, the party advanced through a wild country, inter- sected by numerous streams, and often broken into hills, precipices, and glens, with here and there an insignificani village or fort, and a patch of cultivation, till they came to the great forest, which forms a deep frontier to a very large proportion of the Nepaul territory, and which would evi- dently be capable of the most important service in its defence. The chief actual benefit it affords is from a traffic in timber, of which large quantities are sent down by the rivers to the more southern country, under a heavy duty to the Nepaul government. At the foot of the Cheesapany mountain, they passed so close as to hear (for it does not seem they had the privilege of seeing) a cataract of fifty feet perpendicular ; and pro- NEPAUL AND THIS CHINESE. 123 ceeded througli a remarkable glen, without enjoying a luxury reserved for more lucky travellers. " I am assured," says Colonel Kirkpatrick, " that this spot is extremely subject to violent gusts of wind, which, rushing from the intervals of the mountains, and carrying with them innumerable pebbles, render it a very unpleasant stage for travellers, on whom these scattered fragments sometimes descend with the im- petuosity of a hailstorm." Through whatever perversity of our nature it may happen, it certainly is a fact, that, to the reader, it is much more agreeable that the traveller should have been in pains and perils, than that he should have gone on altogether commodiously. We acknowledge we had a very strong sensation of disappointment at seeing him get all the way through' the border forest without any obstruction from the wild elephants, and vnthout so much as once seeing a tiger, or any other formidable animal. And here, in this glen, we should have been gratified to have found the winds in proper action for a moderate pebble- shower. This deficiency of stimulus, however, is a little compensated in seeing him, a few stages farther on, in a situation in which it would evidently have been difficult to fall asleep in the softest hammock : " The path winds round the east face of the hill of Ekdunta, at no great distance fi-om its brow, and is the most alarming, if not the most dangerous passage, that ocouiTed in our whole journey. The breadth of it nowhere exceeds two feet, and it is in some places not so much. On one hand is the side of the hill, which, contrary to the general nature of these mountains, is here quite bare, affording neither shrub nor stone capable of sastaining the stumbling traveller, on "whose other hand is a perpendicular precipice some hundred feet deep, at the bottom of which the Mai-koo-kola rushes impetuously over its rocky bed. When I perceived the situation I was in, I should have been veiy well pleased to have got on my legs : though proba- bly, so sure-footed are the bearers, I was better in my hammock, where, at all events, I was under the necessity of remaining, as the narrowness of the road did not allow of my quitting it with safety." As a great proportion of the surface of this country neces- sarily confines cultivation to the sides of the hills, it is also necessary that the cultivated ground should be laid out in 124 FOSTEKIASTA. terraces, which being Been on all sides, fonn a striking fea- ture in the landscape of the country. The Purbutties, or peasantry of the mountainous country, are divided into four classes, distinguished by denominations denoting first, secoud, third, and fourth. " The Owals (or first class) are those who possess five ploughs and upwards ; the Doems such as have from one to five ; the Seooms are those who, without being proprietors of ploughs, are con- sidered to be at the head of a few or more labourers ; the Chaurems are the mere labourers." The other peasantry, the Eyots, are of two classes, the one liable to a few specified, and the other to many arbitrary, claims of extra service from the prince and the Jaghiredar. V The expenses of the military establishments are, for the most part, discharged by assignments on land ; though, in some instances, the soldier receives his pay from the treasury or from the granary. Portions of land are much preferred by the troops. The government, in assigning lands to its civil and military servants, considerately takes account of the respective numbers of their families ; and is '" particularly indulgent to the widows, orphans, and other destitute branches of them." The persons to whom villages are assigned, receive part of their revenue in fines for several classes of crimes ; and can hardly fail to take the most laudable pains for the enlargement of this source of their income. In the progress towards the metropolis, our author passed sundry temples of Bliowani, to whom, he says, " in her cha- racter of universal mother, or, in other words, Nature," many buffaloes are offered, on which the priests make no scruple to gormiandize ; having, a few years ago, received the god- dess's permission to do so, by a " special revelation of her divine will," in contradiction to the established Brahminical law. There are several considerable towns in the valley of Nepaul. Ehatmanda is computed or guessed to contain 50,000 inhabitants. The houses are mean almost universally, not excepting that of the rajah ; the streets are filthy and excessively narrow. Fatna, the town of next importance, is a neater place. Bhatgong is more respectable than either of them, and is the favourite residence of the Brahmins. These places were the capitals of small distinct states previously to HINDOO MSTHOLOGY. 125 the conquest of the whole valley by Purthi Nerain, the grandfather of the present rajah. A fourth town is mentioned as having cost this great hero so much trouble to reduce it, that when the place at last surrendered, he, in revenge, cut off the noses of all the males. Our author saw a great number of the persons who had been the subjects of this violence. A peaceable, industrious, and even ingenious race of people, called Newars, constitute a considerable minority of the inhabitants of the valley, and are its only artisans. They are of a character very distinct from that of the Hindoos, appear to entertain the superstition of Buddha, had once their dynasty, and bear with a tolerably good grace their present state of subjection, which indeed the government does not render very oppressive or degrading. As to the Hindoos, considering how great, a degree they have always, in this valley, been secluded from intercourse with the rest of India, and also that this is almost the only part of the country that has never felt the effects of Mahometan power, he was surprised to find so strong a similarity between these people and the inhabitants of Hindostan. HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.* The poem has a fair proportion oi picturesque description, and sprightly, sometimes elegant, versification ; in which considerable dexterity is shown, in making a good number of Indian names glide down in tolerable amity with our vulgar English, with which their high and sacred caste makes them generally so reluctant to mingle. Whether this un- wonted complaisance of the Brahminical terms be through any favour and inspiration of the heathen gods, gratified to have their names celebrated by a Christian divine, is more than we ought to pretend to know, but certainly it would ill comport with any of our ideas of condescension, or even justice, that * The Metamorphosis of Sona, a Hindoo Tale. With a Glossary dei-oriptive of the Mythology of the Shastias. By the Bev. John Uudley. 12mo. IglO. 126 FOSTERIANA. tliey should refuse their assistance to a clergyman, who, having performed due praise to Jehovah and Jesus Christ on a Sunday, is so delighted to join the work, of Ganesa, Bhavani, &c., on the Monday. "Honour to thee, Ganeaa, sapient lord — But next be tbou, Bhavani, most ador'd. Or if Nerbudda'.-i name thou dei; incapable. We have seen that the destructive sentiment by which it acts is so variously applicable, that it can operate on every part of the whole moral system of this world; can dissolve all cements, dis- turb all harmonies, reverse all relations, and in short con- found all order: insomuch that there is no crime which it may not sanction and even enjoin, — no notion too futile or too monstrous for it to proclaim as a solemn truth, — and scarcely any portion of dead or living matter which it may not denominate a deity, and actually cause to be adored. It is not now, therefore, any matter of surprise, when we find, among the results of any recent inquiry into the state of a distant heathen nation, evidence of the existence among them, in former or even the present times, of the practice of human sacrifice; whether the victims are the captives taken in war, or unoffending mature individuals of their own people, or some of their own infant offspring. It was nothing strange, eveu after all we had been told of the gentle virtues of the people of India, to hear that they would sometimes throw their children to the alligators in the Ganges, as a sacrifice to the goddess of that river. For keeping a great national goddess, this would by no means be counted an extravagant expense; and seldom perhaps have the favourite deities of any mythology cost less. A very long extract, inserted in the work before us, from Bryant's Analysis, is enough to show that, where- ever the demon crew of gods and goddesses have obtained an establishment — that is, all over the world — they have demanded to be adored in sanctuaries consecrated by the blood of some that have even been their adorers, and that in many places they exacted as victims, by a marked choice, the persons that might be supposed the dearest to the sacrificers; as if they would take hostages for the per- SUPEESTITION AND ITS EFFECTS 197 petual and still more prostrate submission of their nations of slaves. It is really most striking to consider the terms of compact consented to with deities of their own creation, or accepted from pandemonium, by a race that would univer- sally" renounce, as too hard, the service of the supreme and beneficent Governor of the world. MORAL EFFECTS OF IDOLATET. Illustrations, from former ages, of the aptitude of the human nature to yield itself in alliance and servitude to a diabolical power, and of the rites performed in recognition and celebration of that league and devotement, have left to the explorers of lands lately or still but imperfectly known, very slender means, either from fact or invention, of trying the strength of our faith. Tell us that there are idols there, and then they may tell us just whatever they please besides, that is odious and hideous. We know per- fectly that is an established law of the Divine justice that what was harmless metal, or wood, or stone before, can no sooner be shaped and promoted into an object of worship than it becomes, in effect, a dreadful repository of malignant power, an emitter of diffusive and blasting curses, as if it were actually inhabited by a mighty fiend. Mankind will most certainly be made to suffer the effectual agency of hell from that in which they shall choose to recognise the arrogated attributes of heaven. The moral effect of idolatry, indeed, is so infallibly evinced, and is so intensely impious, that the imagination of a good man, would with diificulty avoid associating, literally, the presence of an unseen malignant intelligence with the insensible idol; insomuch that we are persuaded it would have required, in such a man, no ordinary firmness of nerves to have passed, without some oppressive sensations, a day oi; a night alone in the temple, and the immediate presence of the hideous god of the Mexicans, and would now require it to maintain a perfect composure in such a retired interview even with Juggernaut — an entire security the while from any mischievous human agency being supposed. HINDOO INFANTICIDE, Much fewer words, we confess, might have sufliced on this obvious point, that superstition has shown itself of 198 rOSTERIANA. Bufficient power for any imaginable atrocity, and that, there- fore, the destruction of Indian children by their parents, has nothing at all of the marvellous in it, when the gods are concerned. But the view of this ready obedience to the demands of the gods, would not have prepared us to hear of whole tribes or nations destroying, systematically, almost all their female children, without any direct inter- vention of superstition, and merely as a matter of conveni- ence and custom; and this, too, without any of that difficulty of procuring subsistence which is, among the savages of North America and New Holland, and also among the Chinese, the cause, and the plea alleged, for the frequent destruction of their offspring. Such, however, is the infanticide which the present work exposes. This practice was found prevailing among the Eaj-kumar and other tribes, in and near the province of Benares, and in the peninsula of G-uzerat, and the country of Kutch, forming a considerable portion of territory toward the mouths of the Indus. The first part of the work is a report made in 1789 by the late Mr. Duncan, then resident at Benares, the first person who gave clear information of the existence of the custom. On ascertaining the pre- valence of the crime among the Eaj-kumars, he lost no time in making representations to them on the subject; and not without hopes of effecting its abolition; since, he says, "All the Raj-kumars with whom I conversed did, wlule they admitted the fact, fully acknowledge its atrocity; in extenuation of which, they pleaded the great expense oj procuring suitable matches for their daughters, if allowed to grow up." The tribe were admpnished that one of their own sacred books condemns the practice, threatening the destroyers of females with the punishments of one Of the hells, during a period of prodigious length. The Brehma, Bywant Furana, with its prohibitions, and its threatenings of " the Naraka, or Hell, called Kat Shutala," had been in the hands of their Brahmins, and its contents properly reported to the other principal persons of the tribe, a sufficient number of cen- turies, without having the smallest efficacy against the crime. It was the quality of the preacher, rather than the text, that now at last effected the reformation. The good niNDOO INFANTICIDE. 190 doctrine was inculcated on' their consciences by the agent and representative of a power, the sound of whose cannon had been heard over India, and whose battalions- they knew to have dispersed, wherever they had encountered, the greatest armed crowds of the believers both of the Puranas and of the Koran. Not that they could have any direct apprehension of being subjected to the operation of violence in case of refusing to discontinue the practice; but it is a well-known fact in human nature, that great physical power in the instructor, mightily assists the intellectual faculties of the instructed, even when there are no eminent signs of the coercive or vindictive exertion of that power. It is not exactly stated in what force this pacific logical emanation of our cast iron and combustible ammunition passed the limit of our own territory, to convey persuasive influence into the minds of that more numerous proportion of the tribe of Raj-kumars that were under the government of the Nawaub Vizier of Oude, at that time a sort of independent sovereign; but it could not fail with that division of them that knew themselves to be directly subjects of the English government. At the same time, we really may wonder that the innovation was accomplished so speedily. For it appears to have been at most but very few weeks between Mr. Duncan's first conversing and remonstrating with them on the barbarous practice, and his obtaining the signature of all the principal persons among them to a solemn written covenant, in which, in consideration of the wickedness of the custom, the futarj punishment threatened in the sacred books, and the dis- pleasure of the British government, they bound themselves to renounce the practice of infanticide, and to expel from their tribe any one who should in future be guilty of it. The question anticipated and answered by LordTeign- mouth, in adverting to this tribe and this monstrous barbarity, will have suggested itself to every reader :^- " By what mode a race of men could be continued \mder the existence of the horrid custom arises partly from the exceptions to the general custom, which were occasionally admitted by the more wealthy Eaj-kumars; more particularly those who happened to have no male issue ; but chiefly by intermarriages, With other Raj-put families, to which the Eaj-kumars were com- pelled by necessity." 200 FOSTERIANA. INFANTICIDB IN KUTCH. The second chapter contains a much more ample account of this practice as prevailing in Kutch, a maritime tract near the eastern mouths of the Indus, and in Kattywar, which is the country name for the peninsula of Guzerat., The full evidence of its existence then was first obtained by Mr. Duncan, when at Surat and Bombay, in 1800, and several following years. . The first unquestionable testimony from natives was given by a man of consequence in Guzerat; and the fact was confirmed in communications from Capt. Seton, who was on a political mission at the principal port of Kutch, and afterwards, with still more ample statements, by Major Walker, the Eesident at the court of the Gaikawar, in Guzerat. Captain Seton wrote, in answer to Mr. Duncan's inquiries, that in the family of the Rajah of Kutch: "Every female infant born of a ranni, or lawful wife, was im- mediately dropped into a hole dug in the earth, and fiUed with milk, where it was drowned." The law was not extended to those of the Rajah's female children whose mothers were slaves. Captain Seton added, that the whole tribe or caste to which the Rajah belonged, also destroyed- their daughters, except two persons, who saved each a daughter, through fear of not having "heirs of any sex." He then enumerated other tribes who were in the same practice, but specified one tribe, the Soda Raj -puts, who turned its- prevalence among the rest to most excellent account, by rearing their daughters to sell for wives to these other tribes. When these preserved females become mothers, "it might be supposed," says he, "that they would be averse to the destruction of their daughters ; but from all accounts it is the reverse, as they not only assist in destroying them, but when the Mussulman prejudices occasionally preserve them, they hold their daughters in the greatest contempt, calling them majen, thereby insinuating that their fathers have derogated from their military caste, and become pedlers." This last part of the statement he confirms in a communica- tion made after a progress through Kutch, in 1808. " Such," he says, " is the barbarous inveteracy of these women " (the daughters of the Soda tribe), " that when married to Maho- metans, they continue the same practice, against the inclina- tion and religion of their husbands ; destroying their owa HINDOO INFANTICIDE. 201 progeny without remorse, in view of the advantage of the tribe from which they are descended, whose riches are their daughters." INFANTICIDE IN KATTYWAE. The chiefs of Kattywar are tributary to the Gaikawar, the chief personage in Guzerat, with which personage the Honourable Company is on such terms of alliance as to have a military resident at his court. Major Walker was the resident at the time to which this work chiefly relates ; and as he was to be at the head of a detachment of English troops, in a grand military progress which was going to be made through the whole peninsula of Guzerat, in the name and behalf of the said Gaikawar and his ally, the Lord Company, in order to settle, once for all, the rate of tribute to be paid by the would-be independent chiefs, he was instructed to combine with the leading purpose a, prudent effort to obtain the abolition of infanticide. It was to be prudent, for, as the Supreme Government observes: — "The speculative success even of that benevolent project, cannot be considered to justify the prosecution of measures which may expose to hazard the essential interests of the state ; although, as a collateral object, the pursuit of it would be worthy of the benevolence and humanity of the British Government." Major (since Colonel) Walker accomplished the projected expedition in 1807; and from Baroda, in the eastern part of Guzerat, despatched to Mr. Duncan, Governor of Bombay, a long report, dated in March, 1808, of the measures which he had employed for the suppression of infanticide in Kattywar. Mr. Moor has given paragraphs to the amount of more than three hundred. MODES OF INFANTICIDE. The Jarejahs "spoke freely of the custom of putting their daughters to death, and without delicacy or pain, but were more reserved on the mode of their execution. They appeared at first unwilling .to be questioned on the subject ; and usually replied, ' it was an affair of the women ; ' — ' it belonged to the nursery, and made no part of the business of men.' They at last, however, threw off this reserve." Several acknowledged methods of committing the crime are 803 FOSTBEIANA. enumerated; but especially two, — that of putting opium in the infant's mouth, and that of drawing the umbilical cord over its face to prevent respiration. The use of the before mentioned expedient of drowning in milk was not confirmed to Colonel Walker. Sometimes the victim is laid down, and left to perish without any application of violence. In short, the mode of perpetration is not subjected to any invariable and indispensable rule. " To render the deed, if possible, more horrible, the mother is commonly the executioner of her own oflFspring. Women of rank may have their slaves and attendants who perform this office, but the far greater liumber execute it with their own hands. TJiey have been known to pride themselves on the destruction of their daughters, and to consider their murder as an act of duty." With very rare exceptions, the murder is perpetrated immediately after the birth; and "it would be considered," says the Resident, " a cruel and barbarous action to deprive the infant of life after it had been allowed to live a day or two." Yet he had ground to believe that this Still greater atrocity does sometimes take place. The extinction of such a life is regarded by a Jarejah as an event of the utmost possible insignificance. "The occurrence excites neither surprise". nor inquiry, and is not made a subject even of conversation." It would be quite certain beforehand, that no nation could have a prevailing crime of which the priests of a false reli- gion would not know how to make their advantage. In the present instance, the wonder is how the Raj-Gurs* can have been content to make so little. " The infant, after it is destroyed, is placed naked in a small basket, and carried out and interred. In Kattywar, any of the female attendants of the family perform this office; but in Kutoh it is done by the domestic Baj-Gur. The Eaj-Gurs, who bury the infants that perish, receive a fee of one kori, which is a coin equivalent in value to one-third of a rupee, or about ten pence sterling; and a meal." "In Kutch, the female Eaj-Gurs are sometimes the executioners of the infant instead of the mother." * The Raj-Qw, otherwise called Raj-Qwm, is literally the priest, tutor, or preceptor of a Rajah ; but the term ia applied to the domestic Brahman of any family in this country. HINDOO INFANTICIDE. 303 OEIGIN OP INFANTICIDE. A number of observations relative to the origin of the detestable custom are dispersed here and there in this Report. A current tradition among the Jarejahs is, that in some ancient time, a "powerful Eajah of their caste," having a daughter of eminent beauty and accomplishments, to whom, after a most anxious search far and near, he could find no man of sufficient rank and merit to be a husband, — ^while yet it would be a grievous calamity and disgrace for her to remain in celibacy, — consulted, in this distress, his Eaj-Gur. who advised him to put her to death. He was long averse to this savage, expedient, both on the ground of affection and religion; and he cited those denunciations in the Sastras, or sacred books, which affix enormous guilt to the murder of a woman. The Rajah's repugnance and fear, however, were, in the end, overcome by a general offer of the priest to "load himself with the guilt, and become in his own person responsible for all the consequences of the sin." Ever since that time the daughters have been destroyed. This legend is of no authority with Colonel Walker; but he says some- thing that seems to imply, that this story of the transfer of the guilt has had an effect, even down to the present time, as a salvo, if such a thing were wanted, for any small remainder of conscience that could serve amidst a general and inveterate custom; and that it has had this effect through a notion that the transfer was representative and virtually perpetual, — ^removing the guilt from the infanticide parents to the Raj-Gurs through all generations downward. He ascribes to the Jarejahs a sufficient degree of credulity to be entirely confident of the efficacy of such an adjustment. Having dismissed this story, he suggests that the abomi- nable custom may have originated at the time when these Hindoos are recorded to have inhabited the country of Sinde, a tract lying on the Indus, between the country they now inhabit and Persia. The Mahometans, in the early period of the progress- of their religion and empire, con- quered this territory, and converted, after their manner, a large proportion of its Raj -put inhabitants. Colonel Walker conjectures that the Jarejahs, resisting this conversion, and at the same time becoming surrounded by tribes who had embraced a new faith (and so rendered themselves unworthy 204 FQSTERIANA. to obtain, as they had been accustomed, the daughters of the Jarejahs for wives), determined rather to destroy their female offspring than either, on the one hand, submit to the debasement of such affiances, or, on the other, incur the disgrace, and perhaps guilt, of bringing them up to remain unmarried. The Colonel omits to notice, however, that on this plan, they must very soon have resolved to quit the country; since they would be as much deprived of all resource for wives for their sons, as for husbands for their daughters. At a more advanced period of his inquiries, he mentions another tradition, to which he is inclined to attribute much probability; namely, that — "Some of the early Mussulman invaders of the Jarejahs' country, experienced the determination with which they defended their liberties, united policy to their arma, and sought to consolidate their interests in the country, by demanding the daughters of the Eajaha in marriage. The high-spirited Jarejahs would not brook the disgrace, and pre- tended they did not preserve their daughters; but fearful of consequences, and apprehensive that force would be resorted to, in order to obtain what was refused to entreaty, they in their extremity listened to the advice of their Baj-Gurs; and, deluded by the fictitious responsibility which they accepted, the practice of infanticide originated, and has since been confirmed. REVERSAL OF MORAL SENTIMENTS. Whatever was the period or the inmiediate cause of the commencement of the practice, it had attained such inveteracy and general sanction as to effect, throughout a whole people, a clear positive reversal of that system of moral sentiments which has often been pronounced, by the admirers of human nature, to be substantially inseparable from the human mind, in its sane state. We say reversal, rather than merely suspension or abolition. Tor several passages in these multifarious documents assert, and others clearly imply, that the Jarejahs have somewhat piqued themselves on this custom, as an honourable distinction of their tribe. They felt it as a mode of proclaiming to the neighbouring nations that they were too dignified a race to set any value on so trivial a produce as human females, and yet. also that their very daughters would be beings too respectable to be HINDOO INFANTICIDE. 205 put in subjection to even the best of the superior sex of any other tribe. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INFANTICIDE. Eut the more ordinary influential motives combined with the powerful influence of general custom, were stated to be, an aversion to the trouble of rearing and disposing of the children, and a mixture of pride that would not affiance a daughter without giving her such a portion as would show from what an illustrious tribe she came, with the avarice that refuses to charge itself with such an expense. In some few instances this pride may have overborne this avarice, and a daughter has been spared. Affection, or humamity, or a sense of duty, were found by the Colonel not to have been the inducements to the saving of the extremely few females that had been permitted to escape the common fate. He met with only two instances that could be imputed to such principles. It should be observed, that the law of destruction takes effect much less generally on the illegitimate female offspring; whose mothers are held by the Jarejahs in a capacity between wives and slaves, and are taken, with little care of selection, from any of the neighbouring tribes, whereas they show the utmost nicety of pride in selecting their wives from the most honourable Raj-put families; " even the poorest and lowest Jarejah feeling the utmost solicitude not to taint his blood by an improper alliance." It is not, as may easily be supposed, from humanity, that these infants of meaner quality are frequently spared, " but rather," says Colonel Walker, " from a contemptuous opinion of their inferiority. These children are not considered to belong to the caste, and their future situation in life is of little con- sequence, though the pride and prejudices of a Jarejah make him occasionally also destroy his spurious offspring." These daughters are "bestowed on Mussulmans, or on Hindoos of an inferior caste; and their settlement is attended with little expense or publicity; the motives, therefore, which lead the Jarejahs to destroy their legitimate daughters, do not exist with equal force with respect to those by the rachilas, or mistresses." Colonel Walker acknowledges his want of any good data 206 FOSTERIANA. for a calculation of the number of female infants that annually thus perish by violence, though he has luade many inquiries, and received several loose estimates on the subject, from persons considerably acquainted with the country. A number between fifteen and twenty thousand would pro- bably be the mean of these calculations of the yearly destruc- tion in Gruzerat and Kutch. MEASUKES FOB THE StTPPEESSION OF INFANTICIDE, It would be gratifying to abridge the narrative of Colonel Walker's indefatigable and most meritorious exertions for the suppression of this unequalled enormity, if our limits now allowed room for anything more than an animated congratulation to him and to the very cause of virtue itself, on the complete success of those exertions, throughout one wide portion of the country in which they were so judiciously and so resolutely prosecuted. In the remoter part of it, the territory of Kutch, the fear of the English had not yet grown to a sufficient strength to second effectually the force of persuasion; and the Colonel's repeated and earnest appeals to their humanity,, and what they call their religion, had thus far failed, though the time is very likely not far distant, when they also wiU begin to feel the illuminations of that logic which has so mighty a power over Asiatic under- standings — and indeed those of all other nations. But in Guzerat the great object of Colonel Walker's exertions is accomplished. He persevered in spite of all the obstructions which would have reduced a less determined spirit to despondency and inaction; and finally persuaded almost all the Jarejahs of any consequence in the country to subscribe such an engagement to renounce the abominable custom, as expressly subjects them, hy their own consent, to a punish- ment from the British and Gaikawar governments in every subsequent instance of infanticide. At the date of the latest notices here inserted, the Colonel had remained long enough at Baroda to ascertain that the measure was proving effectual, and to receive the most gratifying demonstrations of gratitude and joy from both the mothers and fathers whose offspring he had thus reduced them to a kind of necessity of preserving. He is one of that privileged and enviable class of men whom Providence has employed, each IMPOETANOE OF ENGLISH INFLUENCE IN INDIA. 207 to accomplish smne one grand distinct operation in the great process of reforming the world. mPOKTANCE OF ENGLISH INFLUENCE IN INDIA. It is in a train of happy moral revolutions, corresponding to this, that we earnestly hope we see the intention of Pro- vidence in facilitating what appears so^ strange an irregu- larity in the economy of the world, as the acquisition of a vast empire in Asia by the people of this island. "We do not know in what way those persons among us who do not care for such revolutions, or who deprecate and hate the projects for effecting them, maintain their complacency on the subject of India, amidst the evidence, growing every year more glaring, that in any other view our Indian successes are a great and almost unmixed calamity. We know not in what way, — unless they are expecting the state of the case to be reversed in consequence of a miracle of moral transforma- tion, speedily to be wrought upon the managers of power in this ill-fated world. Unless this shall come to pass, we must expect that India —which used to be dreamed and ranted about as. an exhaustless source of wealth to the nation — will continue to be, no one can conjecture how long, a most destructive drain on our domestic resources, absolutely a pit to throw the hard earnings of the English people into, and at the same time a pernicious vent for an influence that is poisoning our morals. But the period must sometime arrive when either wisdom or necessity will change this condition of things ; and in the meanwhile, it will be a consolation, and partly even a compensation, to the benevo- lent and religious part of the community^ that the English power in India is operating as the cause of most important innovations among the people, — in some particular instances by a direct authoritative interference, and more generally by that indirect and even involuntary sanction and weight, which the supreme power in the country necessarily gives to whatever benevolent and pious undertakings it; protects. For how many wasted millions (no apology, however, for the men, and the system that have wasted them) will it be a moral compensation, that, twenty years hence, there will be very many thousands of human beings of an age to reflect with gratitude, that it has been owing to English inter- 203 FOSTERIANA. ference that they were not all murdered in their natal hour ; and who will, therefore, have a most powerful motive to receive with favour, and consent to promote, the measures by which the English may at that time be solicitous to dif- fuse among them civilization and Christianity. And if at length a general civilization and Christianity in India shall be the result of such measures as could not have been pro- secuted so effectually hut ■ under advantage of the ascendancy of the English power, what a triumphant balance of good will this be against that grievous pecuniary burden which the possession of, India imposes on us, and will impose for a long time yet to come. BISHOP WAYNFLETE .• The bishop was a very faithful member of the Bomish church, and behaved himself with a dutiful consistency when appointed, with several other high ecclesiastics, on a com- mission to sit in judgment on the writings of Reginald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, who had received holy orders at the same time, and from the same bishop, as Waynflete ; but had at length adopted the tenets of Wickliffe, and preached zealously against the corruption of the higher clergy. The sentence had, however, rather less of vengeance in it than might have been expected from the spirit of the church,, the ferocity of the times, the formidable tendency of the offensive novelties, and the rank and character of the class of persons most directly aggrieved. Those persons were such as, hap- pily, we shall never see again. " The spiritual lords were then served on the knee, and had pompous retinues ; some, it is related, appearing abroad with as many as fourscore attendants, their horses all bedecked with silver trappings. So splendid was the mitre when conferred on • Tbe Life of William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, Lord High Chancellor of England in the Reign of Henry VI., and Founder of Magdalen College, Oxford. By Richard Chandler, D.D., formerly Fellow of that College. Royal 8to. 1811. BISHOP WAYNFLETE. 209 "Waynflete ; whose approved moderation, -with the worthy uses to ■schieh he destined his revenue, was well adapted to conciliate the temper of his adversaries. He persevered in his wonted and unaffected humility." When a man dared to attack a most firmly compacted and powei-fully armed body of men like these, and to " render, by his eloquence, the grandeur annexed to episcopacy a sub- ject of public clamour and indignation," we think he really should have been too much prepared for consequences to " die of chagrin " when " he was sentenced to sit in his pon- tificals, as Bishop of Chichester, at the feet of the archbishop, and to see his books delivered to the flames, in St. Paul's church-yard ; besides undergoing other disgrace, and retiring to an abbey on a pension." FOUNDATION OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE. But "Waynflete is represented as having done perhaps as much mischief to the Popish cause by his zeal in the pro- motion of learning, as all his other labours did it good ; and the society of the college (Magdalen) founded and endowed by him at Oxford, was conspicuous for producing zealous abettors of the Reformation. This college was sincerely intended as a service to learning, perhaps nearly as much as to Popery, If there was an additional object, the perpetuating of the fame of the founder, that was, of course, according to the principles of human nature, a motive of far inferior force. This institution was the grand and favourite work of his life, and it Avill be the main preserver of whatever reputation has become connected with his name. This institution was cherished, watched over, and provided for, with the most affectionate solicitude to almost the last day of the founder's life, which was the 11th of August, 1486. His will " bequeaths his soul to Almighty God, the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, and the patron-saints of his cathedral," and among sundry other arrangements, enjoins on "his executors to cause five thousand masses in honour of the five wounds of Christ, and the five joys of the Virgin Mary, to be celebrated on the day of his burial, the trental of his obit, and oth,er days^as soqn as possible, for ^is soul, and the souls pf his parents and friends." A jmagiyficent chapel, for his tomb, had been prepared in Wischester Cathedral d,uring p 210 FOSTERIANA. his life-time, with a waste of expense very strongly illus- trating the prevalence of superstition, or vanity, or both, in the mind of a man so really desirous of promoting more public and liberal objects. Our quota of dues to his character will have been fully paid, when we have added Dr. Chandler's finishing eulogium : — " Humane and benevolent in an uncommon degree, he appears to have had no enemies but from party, and to have disarmed even these of their malice. His devotion was fervent without hypocrisy ; his bounty unlimited except by his income. As a bishop, he was a kind father revered by his children; as a founder, he was magnificent and munificent. He was ever intent on allevi- ating disti-eas and misery. He dispensed largely by his almoner to the poor. He enfranchised several of his vassals from the legal bondage to which they were consigned by the feudal system. He abounded in works of charity and mercy. Amiable and affable in his whole deportment, he was as generally beloved as respected. The prudence, fidelity, and innocence, which prt- ~ served him when tossed about on the variable waves of incon- stant fortune, during the long and mighty tempest of the civil war, was justly a subject of wonder. He conciliated the favour of successive sovereigns of opposite principles and characters ; and the kings his benefactors were, by his address in conferring obligations on them, convei'ted from being creditors- into debtors." EXQUISITE NONSENSE.* Mr. Gaisfokd's diction will excite a good deal of curiosity and wonder. We are much against the practice of going on all occasions into superlatives ; but we think that even after deliberation, we should be inclined to say, it is the strangest lingo we ever read or heard. In the utter want of order and logical dependence in the train of thoughts, the composition is not so very dissimilar to that of many works of which we have occasion to "tread the crude consistence." But the * An Essay on the good Effects which may be derived in the British West Indies, in Consequence of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. By Stephen Qaisford, Esq. 8vo. 1811. EXQUISITE KONSENSE. 21 J anomalous construction of sentences, the uncouth collocation of words, and the samples of new coinage introduced here and there, place it almost out of all parallel or competition. It is not, however, unamusing to have an opportunity of seeing the two opposite extremes of anything that declines from its best to its worst, by a very long gradation ; and the curious reader may form his conjecture at the number of differences of English style, in the descending degrees of merit, that may find room between, for instance, the com- position of Junius, and- such as that in the following pas- sages: — "Colonial fidelity under all changes, and the protection of mother countries, are reciprocal obligations ; and with these advantages the functions of society are not difficult to preserve in colonial communities. This is, however, alluding to the pos- sibility of an event confessedly more agreeable cursorily to notice, than formally to anticipate. A crisis the drift of this essay is unexceptionably to caution against rather than accele- rate ; as the occurrence of it ought in no way or shape to be indispensable to the happiness or safety of any colonial class or colour, and is to be deprecated from an apprehension enter- tained, not indeed of the loss of these colonies by the change, but of the possibility of their connexions with the parent state, being thereby weakened in the expedient support of a national zeal, a natural allegiance and attachment so useful in colonial relations. An epoch certainly rendered far from being impro- bable, by a continuance of the protracted policy of the past, instead of a new order of things -which West Indian colonial affairs immediately called for." "Barbarous customs, which have disgraced polite nations capable of instructing the world by their wisdom, and fastening 'to the memory of their existence the meed of celebrity, for the most profound truths and enlightened philosophy." " It would be choking reason to disbelieve the existence of the abuses of power in ancient slavery." " Not, however, to dwell upon the principles of an institution at the beginnings of the same, let us trace the origin of slavery as far as reason and the evidence of nations assimilate with our design, and furnish our sources of conjecture." " The individual unable to provide for himself, is not likely to provide for, nor indeed to be the possessor of a family, con- sequently his generation very soon passeth away, agreeably to evangelical denunciation." " Having laid the origin of slavery at the threshold of society, P -2 212 rOSTERIANA. I must reconcile this hypothesis with the theory of facts deduced from the ingress of man into the social temple, the sole repository of human wisdom, yet, of all its other systematical efforts, the least able to elucidate the mystery of itself." " Equally difficult it is also, for the enslaved exile to under- stand our language and ideas, and being destitute of a formation of mind or soul, to repose imperfect conceptions of either, or fasten the recollection of instruction, confidence beyond perpetual superintendence is unattached to their slavery." " The fields of this country (the West Indies) are, however, the golden staff of its renown, to trace their rural policy, one must wade througli the Augean mire of slavery, I would spare the reader and myself the unpleasing task, if I knew the way of exposing an unprofitable law and deleterious system, by keeping aloof in clean paths." " Behold an expedience founded on the basis of right I an expedience- unlike that of our slave-trade, established in one century, and falling to pieces in the next ; but an expedience able to keep pace with perpetuity, and exist until invisible time, freighted with the annals of moral transactions, shall have run its incomprehensible circuit ; and the mysterious fiat of human existence being revoked, mortal affairs can be no more." It is irksome enough to have the task of bringing out such a quantity of rubbish to public notice ; but we have heard it intimated that the presumption is always against the equity of men of our craft, when they pronounce a book to be ill written, and omit to justify the sentence by formal proof. The excessive wretchedness of the composition of this volume is the more strange and the less tolerable, as the author demands to be regarded as a man of literary attain- ments. For he quotes the Latin of Horace, even that Horace who wrote in the Augustan age ; and tells us how the Greek term corresponding to our word " industry " is compounded, and what it therefore signifies. INFLUENCE OF SCENERY ON THE MIND.* It has been ascertained, we suppose, by the experience of many self- observant men, that, in a mind partakinf * Journal of a Tour in Iceland, in the Summer of 1809. By William Jackson Hooker, P.L.S. 8vo. 1811. INFLUENCE OF SCENERY ON THE MIND. 213 of that kind of sensibility which is akin to genius, some degree of correspondence takes place between the habitual state of the imagination, and the character of that scene of external nature which is most constantly presented to the senses. Let two persons, endowed with an equal share of sensibility of this external scenery, be allotted to pass seven or ten years of life, especially during its more susceptible periods ; the one on the sea-coast, the other generally out of sight of all water but that of the draw-well ; the one in a dreary, the other in a cultivated and beautiful part of the country ; the one amidst a scene of mountains, rocks, and cataracts, the other on a dead flat, with a heavy regularity of horizon ; the one in a deep confined valley, the other on a commanding eminence with a vast and diversified landscape ; and at the end of the term, the state of the imagination, con- sidered as an active power, will be exceedingly different in the two persons ; and the quality of the figures, and of the colours, which it will supply to accompany and illustrate the communicated thoughts of the one and the other, will speedily indicate in which of the contrasted scenes each of them has resided. The man whose view shall have been habitually confined to a dull level tract, will perhaps have the most cause to complain of the effect on his imagination. This tract may be extremely rich, and, by a plentiful supply Oi provisions to the markets, and to the farmers' and cottagers' families, may render- to the community a much more im- portant service than that of giving a picturesque cast to the imagination of a musing and susceptible mind ; and it must, doubtless, be a man of no ordinary enthusiasm for mental perfections and ideal possessions, that would forego the good things of a dull but plentiful territory, and be willing, during ' a course of years, to fare like the High- landers, merely in order to acquire, by means of habitually viewing bold and magnificent scenes, a greater vigour and a richer furniture of imagination. But let the importance of the matter be estimated as it may, the fact will be, that the man of sensibility and genius, who shall have lived a series of years in such scenes, will display in his discourse and writing a more vivid character and power of imagery, than the other man, of equal capability, who shall have spent the 'same number of years in a dull flat region, where, after 214 FOSTBEIANA. residing some considerable time, he will become sensible of a certain tameness stealing over his fancy, correspondent to the monotony of nature around him. By the very con- stitution of the mind, we are compelled to think in images, — the severest efforts of intellectual abstraction not being able to carry the mind beyond the sphere of ideas of material forms. The images of objects that are the most constantly presented to us, will the most promptly offer themselves to us in the train of thinking, to lend as it were their shape and colour to our ideas, and to furnish endless analogies ; and the more that any man possesses the faculty of imagination, the more in proportion, will the series of his thoughts be embodied and clothed in images, and accompanied by analogies. Now it is obvious, what a difference there will be between a series of thought which takes into its train, as it proceeds, the images that have been assembled in the mind from habitually beholding varied, romantic, and sublime scenes, and that series which passes through a mind in which the habitual set of images is chiefly derived from an uninteresting and monotonous scene of the world. GRANDEUR OF ICELAHDIO SCENERY. And what has all this to do with Iceland ? Why only thus much, — that we meant to say, any man of genius who may feel his imagination tamed and sunk in consequence of his having resided a long period in some dull, flat, and (if such an epithet may be applied to any part of the kingdom of nature) vulgar province of our country, may do well, if there is nothing arising from the consideration of time, or money, or health, to forbid him, to make a little expedition to Iceland, where everything will strike him as new, and strange, and marvellous ; where the dull tranquillity of his mind will be broken up as by a volcanic commotion ; and where such an assemblage of phenomena will rush on his senses, as might almost create an imagination though nature had given him none. The voyage thither will, indeed, by bringing him in view of some of the mountains, coasts, and islands of Scotland, so rouse his faculties and change the state of his ideas, that he will not be suffered to feel, in absolute perfection, the con- GEANDEUE OP ICELANDIC SCENERY. 21a trast between a homely but fertile English country — with its meadows and corn-fields, its hedges, high roads, and villages, and here and there a hill or a stone, barely worth half an hour's walk after dinner — and the wild and dreary magnificence of these dominions of alternate frost and fire. Were so sudden or so unconscious a transition possible as to prevent any gradation of ideas, he might well be content to accept this contrast instead of a visit which he, like many other imaginative persons, may have sometimes wished to make to another planet. EEIKEVIG, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND. After several days of rough weather and tiresome beat- ing about, and one instance of imminent danger from a sunken rock, our travellers got fairly into the direction of the bay of Eeikevig, the capital of the island, and were carried in by some pilots, whose appearance and manners, as presenting the first moral sample of the country, engaged our author's utmost curiosity. The novelty, the grotesque character of countenance and dress, and the social, and, as it should seem, friendly disposition, prevented that unmingled disgust which would otherwise have been excited by their extreme filthiness, of which the several ofiensive marks and circumstances are recounted. They evinced a prodigious power of execution on the ship's eatable stores ; and they appeared to recognise, with intuitive sagacity, that great principle of European wisdom, that there is no enduring existence on this side the Atlantic, without the leave and the assistance of planters on the other side ; for they testified the liveliest satisfaction at the sight of snuff and tobacco, even the boys of fourteen making interest for a share of the latter. The humblest class of the inhabitants cannot but with extreme difiiculty command a little of this luxury ; but snuff is in general use, and is employed witli so little neat- ness as to give a disgusting appearance to the visages of the people. • • ICELANDIC HOSPITALITY. It was, however, in a style widely different from this, that our author and two of his companions were received and entertained by the old ex-governor Stephensen, in the little 816 FOSTBEIANA. island of Vidoe, four mile from Reikevig. The dinner con- sisted of a number of plentiful and well-prepared courses, which, followed one another, without any warning to the guests to provide for their reception. Consequently, being tolerably saturated with the first, they were forced to a con- siderable exertion by the second ; they were alarmed and distressed when a third came in upon them ; and the reader may guess what plight they were in, while fighting their way through a fourth and a fifth, which were followed by sundry fluid and solid addenda. They were forced to per- form, and in no slender way, quite through to the conclusion. They shrunk, as much as they could, from so arduous a service ; they represented, petitioned, entreated, remon- strated, protested, did everything that has ever been done against tyranny, short of absolute rebellion ; but all in vain. The old governor was peremptory and relentless. "Tou are my guests," said he, " and this is the first time you have done me the honour of a visit ; therefore, you must do as / would have you ; in future, when you come to see me, you may do as you like." He excused himself from sharing their toils and perils on the plea of his age. Unwilling to end their mortal existence in this formidable island, they pro- cured that their boat should be brought to for them ; and they were carried off, like wounded soldiers, in a state of distress from which they were a considerable time in recovering. INCONVENIENCES OF TEAVELLINa IN ICELAND. On being supplied with horses, tents, and a guide, Mr. Hooker set out on a journey to the Geysers, or great boiling jets. Seven horses were barely sufficient for himself, the guide, a German from the ship, who was to be interpreter by means of his speaking Danish, and the tents and pro- visions. They advanced, through a country consisting either of a dreary moor, over which large masses of rock were every where scattered, or of a disagreeable morass, in which their horses every now and then sunk up to their bellies. The first day they passed a " perpendicular side of a hill, com- posed of basaltic columns, joined here and there, like those in Staffa, but not more than eight or ten inches in diameter, INCONVENIENCES OF TRAVELLING IN ICELAND. 217 and less regularly columnar." After a miserable night's lodging, on the moist and swampy ground, they went to breakfast at the house of a priest : — "The only part of it to which we were admitted, was that in which the fish, tallow, wool, mUk, &c., were kept ; for this being the best part of an Icelandic building, it is used for the reception of strangers. It had walls of alternate layers of turf and stone, without either cement to unite them, or plaster to conceal their nakedness, and the floor was the bare earth. One chair was all our host could fufnish, and, indeed, there would not have been room for more, so completely was the. place lumbered up with old chests, old clothes, &e. What little provision there was in the house was most willingly ofiered." " At noon our friend was obliged to take leave of us, as he was under the necessity of setting off for Eeikevig, where he was to preach a sermon before the bishop on the following morning. As there was every appearance of the rain, which fell in torrents the whole day, continuing, and of our being con- sequently detained, the priest assured us he would, if possible, be home the following day, that he might accompany us to Thingevalle. We hardly expected him ; for, in addition to his own weight, his horse had to carry two large chests, containing tallow, wool, and worsted stockings, which were to be bartered for iron, and other articles of necessity, at Beikevig." The thing was, however, accomplished, the wet clothea having never been taken off, not even for the display before the bishop. THE GEYSEE SPRINGS. After witnessing, at Middalr, another station in the pro- gress, a special scene of poverty, distress, and ingenuous kindness, at the house of the priest, our traveller diligently prosecuted his way towards the Geysers, and very reasonably exulted to find himself at length arrived in a tract where numerous boiling springs, and columns of steam, gave him warning of what he might soon behold. The principal and most distant of these columns of steam, soon drew him aw^y from examining a beautiful sulphuric efflorescence on the heated ground, and admiring springs that were throwing up their boiling water several feet : — "A vast circular mound was elevated a considerable height. It was of a brownish grey colour, made rugged on its exterior, 218 FOSTEEIANA. but more especially near the margin of the basin, by numerous small hillocks of some silioeoua substance, rough with minute tubercles, and covered with a bjautiful efflorescence. On reaching the top of this mound, I looked into the perfectly cir- cular basin, which gradually shelved down to the mouth of the pipe or crater in the centre, whence the water issued. It was not possible to enter the basin, for it was filled nearly to the edge with water the most pellucid I ever beheld, in the centre of which was observable a slight ebullition, and a large, but not dense body of steam. At nine o'clock, I heard a hollow subterraneous noise, which was thrice repeated in the course of a few moments ; the two last reports, following each other more quickly than the first and second. It exactly resembled the distant firing of cannon, and was accompanied each time with a perceptible, though very slight shaking of the earth." " I was standing at the time on the brink of the basin, but was soon obliged to retire by the heaving of the water in the middle, and the consequent flowing of its agitated surface over the margin, which happened three separate times in about as many minutes. I had waited but a few seconds when the first jet took place, and this had scarcely subsided before it was suc- ceeded by a second, and then by a third, which last was by far the most magnificent, rising in a column that appeared at least ninety feet in height, and to be in its lower part nearly as wide as the basin itself, which is fifty-one feet in diameter. The . bottom of it was a prodigious body of white foam ; higher up, amidst the vast clouds of steam that had burst from the pipe, the water was seen mounting in a compact column, which, at a stiU greater elevation, burst into innumerable long and narrow streamlets of spray, that were either shot to a vast height in the air, in a perpendicular direction, or thrown out from the side, diagonally, to a prodigious distance. The excessive transparency of the water, and the brilliancy of the drops as the sun shone through them, considerably added to the beauty of the spectacle. As soon as the fourth jet was thrown out, which was much less than the former, and scarcely at the interval of two minutes from the first, the water sunk rapidly in the basin, with a rush- ing noise, and nothing was to be seen but the column of steam, which had been continually increasing from the commencement o^the eruption, and was now ascending perpendicularly to an amazing height, as there was scarcely any wind, expanding in bulk as it arose, but decreasing in density." During the several days that Mr. Hooker remained in this much more than enchanted region, in which there are more than a hundred boiling springs with their columns of steam, there were many eruptions of the great Geyser, some of THE GEYSERS. 2J9> them, at least one of them, to a considerably greater height than that of which we have extracted the description. The heat of the water was uniformly 212° of Fahrenheit. At the distance of a few hundred yards from the great Geyser, there was another crater of very considerable dimensions, which was reported to Mr. Hooker as some- times exhibiting phenomena of no contemptible order. The tents had, therefore, been pitched near it to afford the better station for watching its operations. It did not seem to make any extraordinary pretensions for some time, the water only boiling, and gently flowing over the side. The sensations which, therefore, came upon him in a moment may be conjectured, and must be envied by all his readers : — " Whilst I was examining some plants gathered the day before, I was surprised by a tremendously loud and rushing noise, like that arising from the fall of a great cascade. On putting aside the canvas of my tent, I saw, within a hundred yards of me, a column of water rising to a perpendicular height of full one hundred and fifty feet, which continued for an hour and half, with but little variation, in a body of seventeen feet in its widest diameter ; and this was thrown up with such force and rapidity, that the column continued to the very summit as com- pact in body, and as regular in width and shape, as when it first issued from the pipe. Standing with our backs to the sun, we enjoyed the sight of a most brilliant assemblage of all the colours of the rainbow, caused by the decomposition of the solar rays passing through the shower of drops that was falling between us and the crater. Stones of the largest size that I could find, and great masses of the silicious rock, which we threw into the crater, were instantly ejected by the force of the water; and, by the violence of the explosion, shivered into small pieces, and carried Up to the full height of, and frequently higher than, the suinmit of the spout. One piece of a light porous stone was cast at least twice as high as the water, and falling in the direction of the column, was met by it, and a second time forced up to a great height in the air." AN ICELANDIC CHURCH. * On one of the latter days of Mr. Hooker's encampment on this unequalled spot, he was reminded of its being Sunday, by seeing a number of people passing on horseback toward a church at some distance ; and he determined to attend tlie service ; calling, by the way, at the house of an old lady, 220 FOSTERIANA, who was celebrated as rich by the Icelanders, for she was the proprietor of "ten cows, five rams, and a hundred sheep." The account of the manners of the people as dis- played in the church-yard previously to the service, and of their seriousness during its performance, is a curious picture of friendly simplicity, and, to all appearance, of sincere - interest about their religion : — " This spot (the churchyard), previous to the arrival of the minister on a sabbath, affords a most interesting spectacle. Numerous parties of men, women, and children, who had come on horseback, and in their beisfc apparel, were continually saluting each other ; and any person who had been absent from the place of worship for a more than usual length of time, either through illness or any other cause, was kissed by the whole congregation. As they were little accustomed to see strangers, they aU nocked around us, presenting ua with milk and cream from the neigh- bouring farm, and asking us a hundred questions. Many were surprised at our having come so far to see the Geysers, which they are accustomed to look at with the utmost indifference." WONDERS FAMILIARIZED BECOME INDIFFERENT. There will be some little reluctance to admit, what is pro- bably the truth nevertheless, that if these amazing objects were in England, they would be regarded with similar indif- ference by the generality of the people after being long familiarized to the sight. It would be a very curious, and perhaps a very mortifying experiment, for even men of taste and philosophers to try, whether, and how soon, -and by what perceptible degrees, their feelings also would decline from amazement, and inquisitive wonder, down to a com- parative general indifference. CHUECHES USED AS WAREHOUSES. The churches are often made the places of temporary entertainment for strangers, as being larger than the apart- ments of the dwellings. . In many instances, the inhabitants use them also as depositaries for their better clothes, which are lodged in chests that serve also as seats. They are, for the most part, miserable structures, with respect to con- venience of any kind, but especially in the article of light, the small allowance of which must, we should think, reduce CHURCHES USED AS WAEEHOUSES. 221 the priest, on a misty day, to depend on his memory in per- forming the service. The established religion is Lutheran, from which, it seems, there are no dissentients. EXTRiOKDINAKY SALMON FISHING. He saw much that was grand and inexpressibly dreary in the country, and much that was wretched in the physical condition of the people,^ on his way back to Reikevig. Thence he made an excursion to be present at an annual salmon-fishing, in the river Lax Elbe, where he saw two thousand two hundred caught in one day. Two-thirds were cured for exportation, and the other given to the persons who had been employed in the fishery. This annual day presents a scene of extraordinary festivity and sociality j as most of the people from a great distance round assemble at the spot, in their best dress, and all classes mix and converse on terms of kindness and equality. FIRE AT SEA. Our author set sail to return to England near the end of August, and when the ship was twenty leagues distant from any shore it was found to be on fire, from the malicious con- trivance, as it was afterwards proved, of some Danish pri- soners at Keikevig. When they were all in expectation of immediate destruction, they saw a vessel approaching which proved to be an English ship, the Orion, which had quitted the harbour at the same time, but had, by means of superior sailing, been left far behind. The captain of this ship, however, had boldly ventured on a nearer, and reputedly dangerous course, and thus most providentially came up just in time, in time to one moment, to save all the crew. The whole cargo perished however, and all Mx. Hooker's collections and drawings. S22 FOSTEKIANA. LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.* How:evee limited and precarious may be the Liberty of the Press in this country, we are yet^ no doubt, at a considerable distance from the period when the circulation of every book, that may presume to tell a little offensive truth about recent and contemporary public characters, shall become a thing of such extreme difficulty and hazard, as it is now in France and most other parts of the Continent. Our situation in this respect is, perhaps, not entirely what a high-spirited and free people might wish ; but still we do, by means of the press, obtain in one way or another, many pieces of such information concerning our occupiers of power, as the people of France have no chance of gaining with respect to their high political class. So much at least of the truth is suffered to be told, as ought to keep actively alive that necessary suspicion, that incredulity of official virtue, which no nation can dismiss without surrendering itself to im- position, extortion, and despotism. But in France, the great authorities now existing, and even those that have had their day, seem to be a subject as sacred and inter- dicted as the economy of the Grand Turk's seraglio. A book, that in ever so cool and chronicle-like a style under- takes to state plainly why a certain number of persons claim to be more noted for some time to come than the ai'dinary currency of names, is seized upon at the printing-office, or intercepted on its way to the publisher's ; and if by some accident or legerdemain two or three copies escape, and make their way to the extremities of the empire, and this country, it is through such a series of lucky incidents and hair-breadth turns, as to furnish a little romantic history, — as curious as that of Sir Sidney Smith's escape from durance in France, or that of an enslaved captive, who baffles the precautions, the fetters, and the sentinels of the Dey of Algiers. The original of the present work is, it seems, in this catagory, and has had need of all a thief s dexterity. THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONISTS. Excepting the " Annals of Newgate," and two or three * Biographie Modems. Lives of Remarkable Characters, who have distinguished themselves from the Commencement of the French Eevolutiou to the present time. Thi-ee vols. 8to. 1811. LIBERa?Y OP THE PEESS. 323 similar repositories of human renown, there never was a biographical work so miscellaneous, and comprising such a multitude of persons, in which the writers have seemed so uniformly willing for their subjects to be detested or despised. It is obvious, however, that such personal histories, written by we know not whom, and published after a great proportion of them were no longer living to con- tradict erroneous statements, had the work been suffered to circulate, — cannot be accepted as a record on which we can confidently rely, or on the authority of which a future historian can make any one assertion not otherwise to be verified. In attempting to make use of the prodigious con- tradictory mass of memoirs, laudatory, apologetical, oppro- brious, and vindictive, that came out in Paris during both the tumultuous and the declining season of the revolution, we may very well suppose, from the samples that came to this country, that the writers of this work must have found infinite embarrassment. THE FACTIONS OP THE FRENCH EEVOLUTION. A most prominent subject throughout these memoirs, and to which almost every second page unavoidably reverts, is* the dreadful and mortal conflict between the faction denomi- nated the Mduntain, the Jacobins or Terrorists, and the party of the Gironde. There never was a hostility more truly internecine, by intention, on the one side, and by necessity, and even duty, on the other. The progress and termination of this grand contest form one of the most afilictive views in all history. Whatever degree of vision- ary theory, or of personal ambition, might be imputable to the Girodins, among the chiefs of whom we harjlly need to name Brissot, Eoland, Guadet, Gensonne, Louvet, Lanjui- nais, Kersaint, &c. &c., it is most evident that they were the only hope of France, after the monarchy was fallen. Theirs was the fine and cultivated talent, the sincere love of freedom, and the solicitude to preserve substantial justice, humanity, and order, amidst the tumultuous breaking loose of a great and depraved people from an inveterate slavery, to pass, as these eloquent philosophers promised themselves alas! for the melancholy delusion — into the state of a well-ordered and happy republic. However hopeless this mio-ht have been foreseen to be, by less enthusiastic and 234 rOSTEEIANA. more religious speculators on the qualities of nations and of mankind, it is not the less grievous to see these men baffled in all their patriotic schemes and efforts ; insulted, clamoured against, and menanced by a ferocious rabble that usurped and dishonoured the name of the people; losing ground, notwithstanding their faithful co-operation and their prodigious combination of eloquence, at each suc- cessive contest in the hall of what purported to be the national legislature; and finally sinking under the fuiy and the axe of the most dreadful league of demoniacs that the sun ever shone upon in one place. The mind is appalled in attempting to think what they even ought to have done in a situation quite unparalleled, — a situation in which, unless they could have thought it right to adopt prompt and summary measures for the personal destruction of the dreadful murderers with whom they were committed in a con- flict absolutely inevitable, their own fate was but rendered the more certain by every effort they made to save the nation. UNAOTMITT OF THE GIRONDISTS. It is some little relief to a tragedy so much more crowded jmXh. the novelties and the monsters of evil than poetry has ever presumed to feign, to see the spirit of amity and com- pact which prevailed among these patriots in their perilous and unsuccessful warfare, as contrasted with the mutual jealousies and deadly rancours by which their antagonists were tormented amidst their triumphs, and stimulated to destroy one another, in successive detachments of such vic- tims as no man but a Christian could commiserate. CAUSES OF THE FKEHCH EEVOLUTION If the deplorable state of the very nature of man, as illustrated so awfully by events and characters brought forth in this grand commotion, be a matter really too obvious to need a single remark, it is perhaps little less superfluous to make the more specific remark, that bad government, com-_ bined, indeed, with the ignorance and intolerance attendant on superstition, was the great immediate cause that pre- pared and produced this eruption of evil. The people of civilized nations are almost as unapt to insurrection and rebellion as ponderous bodies to fly off from the centre of attraction. They do not detest their courts and their ADVANTAGES OF ANTIQUARIAN BESBAECH. 225 nobility, aad despise their clergy, till the oppression exercised by these governing and enriched classes is become intolerable. When will the other old governments of the world condescend to learn from what has been seen in France, how to prevent revolutions ? ADVANTAGES OP ANTIQUAEIAN EESEAECH.* It is a remarkable circumstance, that the further we are removing from ancient times, the better acquainted we are becoming, in various points, with their condition and opera- i/tions. For instance, in consequence of the labours of a multitude of critical scholars, some of them indefatigable, some of them acute, some of them ingenious, and a propor- tion of them combining all these qualifications, we are now, it is pi'esumed, much less remote from something like a certainty of what were really the words written by the authors of classical antiquity, than any of their former readers have been, since the times immediately subsequent to their appearance. From a comprehensive investigation and comparison of all the known remains of ancient history, and the exercise of a philosophical speculation on the coUeC' tive testimony, we have unquestionably attained both a clearer knowledge of the transactions, and a juster estimate of the characters, of ancient nations than were possessed by our forefathers. Our picturesque view, also, if we may be allowed the expression, of the people of remote ages, has distincter lines and more vivid colours; in consequence of liberal antiquarian research, and of fortunate discoveries, which have made us better acquainted with the structure of their abodes, their fortresses, and their temples, with their weapons, their domestic utensils, their dresses, their ornaments. An immense number and variety of faithful memorials of their living economy have been drawn from masses of ruins, have been dug from the ground, and have been discovered in grand assemblages in subterranean ♦ A Description of the Ancient Terracottas in the British Museum. 4to. 1810. Q 226 FOSTEEIANA. cities. And the long rest of the dead has been disturbed, in almost every quarter of the world, by the curiosity of Europeans to know all the circumstances of ancient inhumation. The venerable tumuli on our own plains and hills have been opened ; and there is one most indefatiga- ble investigator,* who has done more than any other man of the age, to finish the funeral part, but indeed not ex- clusively that part, of the picture, of the ancient inhabitants of this island, the view of whose rude memorials excites an interest hardly less solemn, because mingled with much more of the sense of darkness and mystery, than that inspired by the contemplation of the magnificent monumental ruins of Greece and Rome. "We might even add, that the physical state of the world in ancient times is, by a slow progress of discovery and speculation, becoming more known to us than it was to our ancestors, in consequence of the multiplied perforations of the strata nearest its surface, and the prodigious accumulation of fossil specimens of organic existence brought under the eager inspection of science. There is cause to be pleased at this augmentation of the knowledge of the past world. The greater certainty of history, and the greater weight and precision which will be given to whatever lessons are ordinarily reputed to be taught by history, will not be all the advantage. What would strike us as a higher benefit is, the peculiar and elevated solemnity which a well-disposed mind is made to feel, in beholding the vision of the past world, while the shade that in a great measure veils it, is here and there removing, or becoming more attenuated, to disclose though still in a gloomy and mystical light, some of its awful features. It may be hoped, perhaps, that such subjects of contemplation will somewhat aid the formation of a serious habit in the mind. They should naturally tend to prevent the thoughts from resting in dull and vulgar tranquillity on the little ordinary matters of life, and excite them to a certain earnest expansiveness toward remoteness and sublimity. And we wish it might not be too sanguine to hope, that the solemnity and enlargement of mind, thus favoured by contemplations of the past • Sir Richard C. Hoare. ADVANTAGES OF ANTIQUARIAN EESEAKCH. 227 vrorld, would render it more susceptible of the influences from that other side, — futurity, where views of stiU greater amplitude, solemnity, and sublimity are presented to con- templation, also through a medium partially mysterious and obscure. On moral accounts, therefore, as well as in consideration of the improvement or gratification of taste, we are much pleased with the efforts that are making for the recovery of the relics and almost lost vestiges of antiquity. We are glad that a few exquisite remains of Athenian art have been saved and brought to this country, that we have gained some of the removeable memorials of the ancient Egyptians, that some of the Roman terracottas have been preserved for us so long in a dry well near the Porta Latina, that repositories have been filled from the houses of Herculaneum, that so many interesting monuments of the ancient Britons have been discovered on Salisbury Plain, and that the intelligent researches of future years will doubtless bring to light many more precious relics, in those countries especially where, at present, a barbarous government and state of society preclude, in a great measure the researches of artists and antiquaries. We are glad also that these treasures should be extensively made known to the public by means of accurate and elegant engravings, provided that it is not done in so very sumptuous and exorbitant a style as to preclude all but the decidedly wealthy part of the community from participating in the gratification and the knowledge. ON ALLEGORY.* Perhaps no unpardonable sin against good taste would be committed by a man, who should wish that the method of instructing mankind by protracted and complicated allegory, might be laid aside for ever. Indeed, separately from any judgment dictated by the laws of good taste and literary merit, there is a moral cbnsideration, not entirely ♦ The Pilgrimage of Theophilus.to the City of God. 8vo. 1812. Q 2 a28 FOSTEKIANA. inapplicable to the subject — ^it is, that the period and state of the world in v/hich we are fallen, should have some influence on the choice of modes of written instruction. And if there is any fact in the character of the present times, that peculiarly claims to have such an influence, it is this, that the attention and the time of the community, are engrossed by an extraordinary combination of urgent circumstances, which force people to be, for the most part, very busy and very anxious. We think that, in consideration of this fact, those who write to convey instruction, will do well to adopt the most direftt and perspicuous methods, instead of obliging their readers to expend their efforts in following it through circuitous courses — to toil in pondering and guess- ing the import of visions and allegories — and often to feel that their labour has resulted, after all, in nothing like a clear addition to their knowledge, or beneficial effect on their will. ALLBGOKT AN INFEEIOE MODE OF INSTEUCTION. This view of the matter assumes the inferior merits of extended allegory, as a mode of instruction. And, in truth, we suppose that almost all readers, so far as they reflect, have one conviction on this point. Every one's experience testifies that it is inefiicient and unsatisfactory, whether, in refer- ence to the laws of allegorical writing, it be executed well or ill. And we suppose that a long allegorical work will hardly be deemed well executed on easier conditions than these : that the story shall be mainly constructed of objects and facts, and not be a mere dialogue of qualities personified ; that almost all the constituent matters of it, whether per- son.?, actions, oj- scenery, shall be figurative and emblem- atical, the interior meaning being, to a considerable extent carried, with analogical proportion, into even the rami- fications and minutite of the fable ; and that, at the same time, it shall be quite as complete, taken simply as a story, as if it had no such interior meaning. Now, to say nothing of the vast difficulty of such a performance, and the conse- quent probability of failure in almost every new attempt, it is evident that, supposing the attempt to be successful, iii as high a degree as it is possible to, conceive, the supposed morail purpose will be but slenderly effected. For one thing ON ALLEGORY. 229 it IS a perfectly known fact, that extremely few readers are of a disposition to be at any considerable pains to dis- cover the import of allegorical types, either where it is recondite or where it is obvious. But supposing them ever so intent on ascertaining it, no undertaking on earth can be more hopeless, than that of detecting dis- tinct riioral significances in the indefinite multiplicity of particulars necessarily included in the construction of a complete story, — of getting acquainted with the rational souls supposed to be latent in the endless variety of forms pre- sented in the fictitious creation. By what previous exercises and proofs of his sagacity is any reader to assure himself, in entering on a long allegorical fable, that he shall readily and unerriri^ly apprehend the moral import, for example, of the variety 'of the landscape views in the fabled region — of each of the enumerated kinds of trees, flowers, animals — of every edifice and its respective parts — of the diverse modes and colours of the costumes — and of all the actions of the animate and the rational beings represented ? If it should be said that this is greatly overstating the require- ments on his sagacity, — for that very many of these par- ticulars are not meant to be allegorical, that the author has not pretended to put any moral or speculative soul within a great portion of the sensible objects represented for the sake of the mere completeness and verisimilitude of the story, — the reader's unfortunate situation is not at all mended. He now cannot know, probably in nine instances out of ten, whether the forms presented to him are mere shadows or painted shapes, meant only to amuse, in passing, his eye and fancy, or veritable philosophers and moralists, whom it becomes him to approach, and salute with deference and inquiry. It wiU seem to him hardly a due respect to the genius and wisdom of the writer to assume, without consideration, that this, and the next, and ten successive images, though he cannot discern any glimpse of the interior significance, are the mere play of poetry, or the properties or embellishments of picture. Yet, on the other hand, nothing could be more ridiculous than for him to be gravely detecting a hidden sapience of which the writer himself never dreamed. Think then what an enviable task this reader has on his hands. He has, at one and the same time, to contemplate the fable in its 230 rOSTERIANA. palpable and foremost quality of a complicated scheme of action and scenery ; to ascertain which of the vast multitude of parti- culars, great and small, are allegorical, and which are not ; and to draw out in a precise form the respective moral signifi- cance of each and every one that he has discovered to have an important secret to tell. It is evident that if all this, or something near it, is not done, the pretended purpose of allegorical writing is not accomplished ; it is equally evident that all this, or anything near it, will not be done by one reader in ten thousand ; it is, therefore, evident, finally, that extended allegory, when executed even in the best manner, is, at least comparatively, a wretched misapplication of the writer's talent and labour. Spenser's "fairy queen." The Fairt Queen is beyond all question or comparison^ the grandest work in this department ; and we may appeal to its readers whether they ever think oL studying it as a system of moral philosophy. They would almost all confess that they read it for its marvellous adventures and exquisite descriptions ; pleased, undoubtedly they will say, and perhaps profited, by the moral reflections momentarily presented here and there through an interval of the imagery, but so occupied and satisfied with the obvious and superficial magnificence of the scene, as rarely to think of any attempt at digging into the precious mines reported to be underneath. Now and then perhaps they are visited by a rather ungracious consciousness that they are not obtaining all that the work might yield to them ; that they are even failing to obtain that which grave commentators, if not the author himself, may have professed to regard as the most valuable thing contained. They are perhaps excited to a slight attempt to develope the included wisdom ; but they find that this breaks the fascination of the story^ and that, besides, there is something in every stanaa to baffle this moral inquest. They are uncertain whether the object before them is an emblem or not, or, if it be, what it means ; they reflect, in excuse for their indolence, or in consolation for their dulness, that they can learn morality, with much more precision at all events, elsewhere ; and they then return to the mighty performer in a disposition to give him all due credit as a philosopher, but confessing SPENSER'S "FAIRY QUEEN." 931 that it is not for his lectures but his magic that they attend him. If such be the inefficacy, for moral instruction, of allegory in the most perfect state of execution it is ever likely to attain, it is hardly worth while to say a word about it as exemplified in a numerous tribe of clumsy performances ; excepting indeed that in such performances it is often much more intelligiblef as to its interior import, than it is in the " Fairy Queen," and than it would be in any work of that high rank of genius ; from this plain cause, that men of little genius or none, are not masters of refined analogies and remote relations. A mind of Spenser's kindred perceives so many relations, real while not grossly palpable, between moral truth and the material world, as to be able to invest that truth, when putting it in the form of allegory, with a vast combination of various and unexpected symbols, all having some true relation to the subject, but not a few of them having so refined a relation that their import cannot be obvious to the generality of readers. Inferior allegories, on the contrary, will be likely to take their emblematical figures from the narrow tract of coarse and obvious relations, — with the exception of now and then a far-fetched absurdity, obtained by a desperate eflfbrt for boldness and originality. Thus the reader is saved an immensity of trouble ; he is forced into none of those wanderings of conjecture and exercises of ingenuity to which he would be doomed, in prosecuting the abstract import of a superior work, through its wilderness of visionary fancies, its endless crowds of emblematical forms. But then, he is precluded from that delight of the imagination, by which it is pretended to be the very purpose and value of allegory to recommend the otherwise too austere instructions of truth. He is to receive these instructions under the guise of a few ordinary figures, which, instead of giving those truths the attractions of a new and variegated and animated vehicle, only force them into a less distinct, while it is not at all a more pleasing mode of exhibition than their naked plainness would have been. Indeed, a main device of ordinary allegor- ists,has been to invest doctrines, virtues, and vices, with a personal being, by the great and creative process of giving them a personal denomination, and then without more ado to set them a-talking ; and Spenser, amidst the arduous toils of ^S2 rOSTEEIANA. his ' great performance, might have, enviously fretted, if he could have foreseen with what facility we should be able to work an allegory to any required extent, by means of Mr. Proud- Spirit and Mr. Humble-Mind, Mr. Liberty and Mr. Self-interest, and a countless generation of personages of all dispositions, occupations, sexes, and sizes, created with as much ease as Deucalion and Pyrrha made men by flinging pebbles backward over their heads. ^*' BtTNYAN's "pilgrim's PROGRESS." The Pilgrim's Progress, a work of real though confined genius, partakes somewhat of the higher, and doubtless much of the iflferior, style of allegorical invention. Among religious readers, it has obtained an established favour which no criticism would much contribute either to confli-m or impair. It has acquired so much of a certain venerableness of antiquity and prescription, and is the objfect of a partiality so kind and extensive, among even children, as an amusing story, and among their pious elders, partly from its having been a favourite of their childhood, and partly because it supplies . much religious instruction, that all modern works of similiar object and construction necessarily appear under the greatest disadvantage. They are unavoidably brought in contrast with the old favourite, and the consequence is easily fore- seen ; so easily that we exceedingly wonder it does not deter all attempts at imitation. We think a little reflection would surely have convinced the well-meaniug writer of the work before us, that if he had serious instructions to impart on different topics of religion from those exhibited in so lively a manner in the Pilgrim's Progress, it would be very much better to offer them in a plain didactic form than in an humble imitation of that work. 233 ISAAC D'lSEAELL* Vert considerable credit is due to the author's industry of research, and some praise to that benevolent vivacity which the musty smell of obsolete books, and the rumination on the injustice of mankind to bookmakers, have not been able to reduce to dulness or turn to acidity. He is himself of a liberal temperament in estimating and applauding the merits of authors and excusing their defects. So far as he has to act the critic he seems better pleased with the chari- table part of his calling. As to his workmanship, it displays that freedoni and that cast of reality, which cannot be given but by a writer who is quite at home in his subject, — at home not only in point of knowledge, but of complacency. He fondles his subject, coquettes with it, affects perhaps some- times to reproach it as a thankless and rueful one, mourns over it with intermingled tears and antics, but through all the whimsical variation of feelings and manners, is ever faithfully in love with it. With such advantages, an author must be very slenderly endowed in what may be called the metallic part of the mental constitution, to fail altogether tb please. At the same time we think our author would not be abetted in very high claims, in the superior and severer order of qualifications. Provided he amuses, he is content, we conclude, to be told, that he writes with a very gentle effort of the understanding, with an extremely crude connexion of ideas, with a desultory attentio^j to the given sulgect, with a not unfrequent intervention of quaint fantasies and some- thing very like bombast, and with a general and excessive incorrectness of language. We conclude he would not be offended at being told this, because he appears to us to have made no effort whatever, during the lapse of years and the course of writing, to correct himself in these points. There are in the present work the same flijppancy and frequent extravagance in the spurts or effusions of feeling, the same loose and frisking, and yet not seldom affected diction, and • Calamitiea of Authors ; including some Inquiries respecting their Moral and Literary Characters. By the Author of the " Curiosities of Literature." Two vols. 8vo. 1812. 234 FOSTEEIANA. the same utter abandonment of all the rules of construction. It is to us utterly astonishing how a man of sense and taste can have been so long busy in literature, so long observing how other men have put words on strings to make sentences, and so long doing it himself, without acquiring even mechanically the knack of doing it more correctly. After all, we have here a very entertaining book, — if it be right in moral principle that a feeling which may be expressed by so light an epithet should prevail in the perusal of the memorials of such folly, vice, and wretched- ness, as the author has displayed in humiliating attendance On talents and learning. THE POETICAL WITS. In the section entitled ' The Sufferings of Authors,' the poetical wits, Nash and Greene, are the chief subjects. Of the latter it is said, " Robert Greene, the master-wit, wrote the ' Art of Coney-catching,' or cheatery, in which he was an adept. He died of a surfeit of Rhenish wine and pickled herrings, at a fatal banquet of authors — and left us his legacy among the Authors by Profession, ' a groatsworth of wit bought with a million of repentance.' One died of another kind of surfeit. Another was assassinated in a brothel." Some extracts from the writings of Nash, give a " strong and dark picture of the feelings of a man of genius suffering neglect and penury, and neither governed nor con- soled by principles of piety. " Such men," our author truly observes, " but too often suffer that genius to be perverted and debased. Many who would have composed history, have turned voluminous party wrifers ; many a noble satirist has become a hungry libeller. Men who are starved in society,, hold to it but loosely; They are the children of Nemesis ! They avenge themselves — and with the Satan of Milton they exclaim, * Evil be thou my good ! ' Never were these feelings more vehemently echoed than by this Nash — the creature of genius, of famine, and of despair. He lived indeed in the age of Elizabeth, but writes as if he had lived in our own." ARISTOCRATIC PATRONAGE Or AUTHORS. Another section, under the title of " A Mendicant Author ARISTOCKATIC PATRONAGE OF AUTHORS. 235 and the Patrons of Former Times," supplies some highly curious illustrations of the condition of literary men in those times, by relating the hapless fortunes of the poet Church- yard, of Elizabeth's age, Stowe the antiquary, and a still more pitiable composition of scholarship, simplicity, and wretchedness, under the name of Myles Davies, " whose biography," says he, "is quite unknown,* and who was at first " a Welsh clergyman, a vehement foe to Popery, Arianism, and Socinianism, and of the most fervent loyalty to George I. and the Hanoverian succession." The wanton rudeness of aristocratical patrons, and the meanness, and in some instances downright knavery, of their returns for literary attendance and adulation, which, nevertheless, they were vastly willing to receive, are exhibited in combination with the pitiable and yet detestable toils of servility, and form a lively picture of modes of degradation which litera- ture has now in a good measure outlived. ROYAL ELEEMOSYNARY GRANT TO STOWE. Stowe, in the eightieth year of a life of almost unpa- ralleled antiquarian toils, obtained from the literary monarch James 1. letters - patent under the great seal, permitting him, during the space of one year, " to gather the benevolence of well-disposed people within this realm of England ; to ask, gather, and take the alms of all our loving subjects." These letters - patent were published by the clergy from the pulpits, but produced so little that they were renewed for another twelvemonths. One entire parish in the city contributed seven shillings and sixpence ! Such then was the patronage received by Stowe to be a licensed beggar throughout the kingdom for one twelvemonth ! Such was the public remuneration of a man who had been useful to his nation, but not to himself ! COWLEY, DENNIS, AND OKATOE HENLBT. In a section on " Cowley and his Melancholy," we think there would have been no injustice in censuring much more freely the weakness and foUy of a man of independent for- tune, and immense intellectual resources, in letting his sen- sibilities be so much at the mercy of the tinselled personages for whom he had no respect, and from whom he wanted nothing. 236 FOSTERIANA. A spirited sketch of the character and the forlorn, but almost deserved fate of the noted critic Dennis, forms the substance of the" subsequent section. This is followed by a long chapter under the title of " Disappointed Genuis takes a fatal direction by its abuse ;'' and the subject is the once- famous " Orator Henley," who well deserved — not so much as an actor in civil or literary history, as a specimen in natural history — the labour our author has bestowed in bringing together all the recorded particulars concerning him. It is an extremely curious exhibition, and made in our author's most vivacious style — a style which crackles with innumerable smartnesses, and sometimes, it is but justice to say, hits on real brilliances and felicities, but is apt, like human creatures, to be most unlucky when most ambitious. COMPATIBILITY OF STUDY WITH LONG LIFE. A chapter on the " Maladies of Authors," cites some me- lancholy examples of men, whose too intense and unremitting studies have resulted in oppression of spirits, or premature death, such as Bayne, Cotgrave, Henry Wharton, Kirke White, and Macdiarmid. But the instances, we fancy, of men that really do themselves any great harm by excess of study, are extremely rare. No fact is more conspicuous in literary history than the compatibility of very great and prolonged mental industry with health and long life, as evinced by the multitude of instances of hard students, living to the age of from seventy to eighty, and not a few beyond this latter term prosecuting their labours to the very close of life ! LABORIOUS ATTTHOES. There is a long chapter under the title of 'Laborious Authors,' in which the chief figure is Anthony Wood, whose labours are highly commended, Joshua Barnes, and Cole, the humble friend of Horace Walpole. Cole had passed a long life in the pertinaceous labour of forming an Athence Cantahrigienses, and other literary collections designed as a companion to the work of Anthony Wood. These mighty labours exist in more than fifty folio volumes in his own hand-writing. An extract is given from his manuscripts of the date of more than thirty years after the work was begun, descriptive of the dreary state of his feelings after LABOEIOUS AUTHORS. 2S7 toiling at it so long, and yet declaring it would be still more miserable to abandon it. "We will transcribe a still more melancholy instance : — " Dr. Edmund Castell devoted his life to his Lexicon Hepta- glotton. He laments the seventeen years of incredible pains, during which 'he thought himself idle when he had not devoted sixteen or eighteen hours a day to this labour ; that he had expended all his inheritance — it is said more than twelve thousand pounds ; that it had broken his constitution, and left him blind as well as poor. When this invaluable Polyglot was published, the copies remained unsold in his hands ; for the learned Castell had anticipated the curiosity and knowledge oi the public, by a full century. He had so completely devoted himself to oi-iental studies, that they had a very remarkable consequence, for he had totally forgotten his own language, and could scarcely spell a single word. It appears, that five hundred of these Lexicons, unsold at the time of his death, were placed by Dr. Castell's niece in a room so little regarded, that scarcely one complete copy escaped the rats, and the " whole load of learned rags sold only for seven pounds," about the present value of a single copy." Almost all these sections will be found entertaining, and several of them ought to convey lessons of great utility to sanguine literary aspirants, and to those who fancy, that a little genius, real or self-imputed, will excuse the want of morals, or of common sense. There can, we fear, be no comprehensive and specific cure for the evils peculiarly incident to authors as a class. The literary department will continue always to be attempted by numbers who must fail, and suffer all the attendant and consequent mortifications, or still heavier distresses. But we may hope, that a book like this may serve to deter a few who are in danger of yielding to the flattering temptation. CARDINAL WOLSEY.* AccoEDiNG to Mr. Gait, "Wolsey was not only one of the ablest (for there can be no question or discussion about his talents), but one of the most upright, public-spirited, and * The Life and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey. By Jolin Galt.- 4to. 1812. 238 FOSTBEIANA. wisely munificent men that ever interfered in the manage- ment of national affairs — worthy of all the elevation he attained, and worthy that his fal^ like the sudden prostra- tion of a colossus or a tower, should have crushed aU who were contributing to it or desiring it. And how is this representation m&de out ? Is it by large disclosures of new evidence ? or by denying the facts on which the pre- vailing judgment is founded ? or by original and refined reasonings to show that opposite inferences ought to have been drawn from those facts ? No : the substantial matters of fact are, indeed inevitably, j ust the same in this as in former records ; nor are they subjected to any laborious process of Jesuitical chemistry to make them yield a different result. The business is done for the Cardinal by plain arbitrary assertions in his favour, thrown in here and there throughout the narration, and by a general gilding or varnish of laudatory epithet.*. Nothing can be more dull than the writer's prosing and invective on the vanity of ambition, the folly of depending on the favour of monarchs, and the vices and errors of prosperous men. If Mr. Gait had, amidst his perverseness, betrayed something of the vigour, the originality, the ingenuity of some of the noted lovers of paradox, the Rousseaus and the Warburtons, we might have been amused, while yet regret- ting so unprofitable an employment of talents, to see one more wayward freak of genius (rash however beyond all pre- ceding example), in the attempt to transform so notorious, so firmly and minutely delineated a character of history, as "Wolsey. But such a wantonness of genius must have attempted its object partly at least in the way of invalidating records, or extorting from them a different testimony from what they have been usually understood to give, or quali- fying their evidence into doubtfulness and confusion. As Mr. Gait has forborne such an operation, and, accepting the facts as told by former historians, has consented to repeat the story in a way which proves the profligacy of his hero, it is surely a strangely foolish and ill-supported whim to bedizen with the terms appropriate to excellence, a charac- ter confessedly formed from such ^materials. wolsey's boundless ambition. Wolsey's whole career manifests a boundless ambition as CARDINAL WOLSEY. 289 the reigning quality of his character. It wrought and raged in his mind almost to insanity ; and there was no interest of earth or heaven which he was not ready to sacrifice to it. Now if Mr. Gait could not coincide with the oracles of reli- gion, and with the maxims of the higher schools of moral philosophy, in reprobating, for a leading principle of action, a passion which is essentially a gross and direct mode of selfishness, and is sure to become by indulgence furiously insatiable, and to drive its slave towards all manner of iniquity, vi^ith the unremitting activity of a possessing demon ; and if he could not bring himself to pronounce an emphatical sentence of condemnation on the Cardinal for surrendering himself to be actuated by this evil spirit, — though this sentence is pronounced even by historians not pretending to any high refinements of religious and moral principle ; if Mr. Gait could not do this, he might at least have forborne any thing like applause. He might simply have acknowledged the unquestioned fact of the Cardinal's being immensely ambitious, and let alone the sentence on its merits. But no : our author is too independent and bold for that. He directly declares in favour of ambition as a noble principle of action. He acknowledges, indeed, that it will not sanctify all means that may be employed for the gratification of the passion ; but the general strain of his language assumes that the Cardinal was clear on this ground. The monstrous excess of the Cardinal's vanity and ostenta- tion, his childish passion for parade and tinsel, seem rather to have on him that imposing effect which was felt by the humble gazers at his Eminence's pageantry, than to excite either his contempt or his compassion. Even the wretched impolicy, so like fatuity, of Wolsey's systematically haughty treatment of the English nobility, appears very little to qualify Mr. Gait's admiration of his wisdom. Nor is he reproved for his want of discernment in expecting that a foreigner, an Englishman, of low origin, of arrogant temper, and unlimited ambition, could ascend the papal throne, with all the Italian, the Spanish, the French, and the Imperial churchmen and potentates looking complacently at the feat. The vigour and severity of the ecclesiastical part of his administration are celebrated in a style as if it were impos- sible any meaner sentiment than abhorrence of clerical 240 FOSTERIANA. corruption could be concerned in an inquisition which brought him an ample revenue of fines, compositions, or confiscations. His own gross immorality is treated as gently -as if he had shown his biographer his cards of indulgence, duly signed and paid for, and convinced him of their validity. There is no censure, that we recollect, of the Cardinal's faithful remembrance of all personal offences till the proper moment for effectually repaying them. Few of the common- places, which are not sparingly administered, are wasted in doing justice to that integrity of the minister, which even Cavendish, with all his kind and regretful partiality, has yet described in the remarkable sentence, " Readiest in all the council to advance the king's only will and pleasure, having no respect to the cause." Though Mr. Gait has words of very little indulgence for what he holds contemptible in character, they are not forthcoming at the deplorable mean- ness of the humiliation by which Wolsey, when he found himself falling, endeavoured to propitiate the offended and unfeeling tyrant. Nor is any drawback made from the ample tribute paid to his zeal for. the promotion of know- ledge, his "vast and prospective comprehension," and the " foreseeing faculties of his genius," on account of his last message of advice to Henry, uttered in the very hour of death, exhorting the king to exercise his vigilance and power against the commencing efforts towards a reformation in England. As to his habitual neglect and violation of religion, regarded as a concern distinct from all ecclesiastical institutions ancj ceremonies, a direct concern between the human spirit and its Creator, we are really become so accus- tomed to the utter inattention to any such matter as this in modern historians, that Mr. Gait's taking no serious cog- nizance of it, even in the life of an ecclesiastic, notwith- standing he did himself make a melancholy and most memorable reference to it near his end, almost fails to strike us as a defect in the work. And indeed the subject is quite as well let alone by writers who have no impression of its importance, and do not even care to understand it. It is enough for the present author to observe, after reciting the Cardinal's well-known expression, " Had I served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs." 341 THE VARIETIES OF HUMAN CHAEACTER* Whatevee may be the number of evils in the mundane system, we suppose no man will account it one of them, that in each class of beings that have many general principles of constitution in common, there should be found individuals strikingly contrasted with one another ; that there should be laburnums and woodbines as well as oaks — peacocks as well as eagles — antelopes as well as camels and elephants — and Chateaubriand as well as Paley. There is yet room in the system for them all ; and there are offices and occupations for them all to fiU, and which can be filled by each respec- tively in a far better manner than by the opposite entities. Let them only avoid mixing and exchanging their vocations, and the economy will go on commodiously. CHARACTEE OF M. CHATEAUBEIAND. "We think M. Chateaubriand has fuUy made good his claims to a place in our fine portion of the creation ; that he has fallen into the right district of it ; that his activity in it has been most laudably, indeed almost heroically, zealous ; and that he has transgressed his proper limits only about as much as is commonly incident to the self-deception and ambi- tion of mortals, even when their intentions are the best. He is a singular and interesting man ; so sincere, so tender, so impassioned, so enthusiastic, so imaginative, that we admit him among our friends, with less of the cold inquiry and calculation what good he is likely to do us, and among men of genius, with less disposition to put his judg- ment to any severe proof, than we should entertain in almost any other instance. It is gratifying, too, and excites a strong partiality, that a French infidel of genius should become a Christian almost of any kind, and on any terms. And, provided the simplicity and sincerity of his principles be not injuriously affected by his success, we are pleased that one reward of his honesty and courage has been such a popu- larity, in France, of his services to a good cause, as to out- rival and mortify the base fraternity that he has deserted. * The Beauties of Christianity. By F. A. De Chateaubriand. 8vo. Three vols. 1813. B 242 FOSTERIANA. His own account, however, of this happy separation, will serve to apprise his pupils that they are not to attend him for the acquisition of logic, and his admirers that they must beware of proclaiming him for a philosopher. " My religious opinions have not always been the same they are at present. Offended by the abuses of some institutions, and the vices of some men, I was formerly betrayed into decla- mation and sophistical arguments against Christianity. I might throw the blame upon my youth, upon the madness of the revolutionary times, and upon the company I kept : but I wish rather to condemn myself, for I do not know how to defend what is indefensible. I will only relate simply the manner in which Divine Providence was pleased to call me back to my duty. ' '' My mother, after having been thrown at seventy-two years of age into a dungeon, where she was an eye-witness of the destruction of some of her children, expired at last upon a pallet, to which her misfortunes had reduced her. The remembrance of my errors diffused great bitterness over her last days. In her dying moments, she charged one of my sisters to call me back to that religion in which I had been brought up. My sister, faithful to her solemn trust, communicated to me the last request of my mother. When her letter reached me beyond the seas, far distant from my native country, my sister was no more ; she had died in consequence of the rigours of her imprisonment. These two voices issuing from the tomb, this death which served as the interpreter of death, struck me with irresistible force. I became a Christian. I did not yield, I allow, to great super- natural illuminations, but my conviction of the truth of Chris- tianity sprung from the heart. I wept, and I believed." DESIGN OF "THE BEAUTIES OF CHRISTIANITY." This work was an earlier performance than either his '■ Itinerary," or " The Martyrs," though it comes later into the English language. The author had contemplated with grief the great practical victory gained over Christianity, in his native country, by the philosophic, the lettered, and the unlettered wits, with Voltaire at their head. He had observed the ineflicacy of the vindications of the Christian religion on the ground of historical evidence ; vindications so numerous and so conclusive that the argument appeared to him incapable, on that side, of any material addition. But the infidels had rendered these defences in a great measure unavailing, by withdrawing their attacks from that impregnable side, and occupying and seducing th3 popular DESIGN Of "THE BEAUTIES OF CHRISTIANITY." 243 mind with a misrepresented, degraded character of the religion. They laboriously defamed it as something mean and barbarous, destructively opposed to all the graces, repres- sive of genius, estranged from magnificence and sublimity, and congenial with all the harsher principles of the human nature. Here, then, was the ground for its advocate. He considered all this as the direct reverse of truth, and planned a work to prove that Christianity must be of Divine origin, because it is allied and auspicious to everything that even the wits and geniuses themselves must acknowledge to be graceful, and liberal, and dignified, and grand. "Four parts, each divided into six books, compose the whole work. The first treats of the tenets and doctrines : the second and third comprehend the poetic of Christianity, or the con- nexion of Christianity with literature and the arts: the fourth contains the worship, that is to say, whatever relates to the cere- monies of the church, and to the clergy both secular and regular." DEFECTS IN CHATEAUBRIAND'S SCHEME OP THEOLOGY. From a prospectus indicating such width in the compass of the subject, the reader must indeed begin to apprehend that the Christian religion has many associations not com- monly taken into account by its disciples. If the work were coming among us with some authoritative prescription, appointing it (as might be done in the author's country, if the master so pleased) to be the text-book of divinity in the colleges and academies, enjoining it to be read in schools, and placed on the table of every vestry, and exacting some pledge of coinciding with it from the teachers of religion, there would be an inconceivable alarm throughout the reli- gious portion of our community. That our sober theological course through catechisms, compendiums, a few standard volumes of sermons, with a few treatises on the church, on ordinances, and severally on the few leading topics of reli- gion — crowned possibly with a quarto, or even a folio body of divinity — that this plain quiet progress should be suddenly turned into a vast adventure of what may be denominated intellectual foreign travel; into a rhapsodical, poetical, roman- tic excursion through all science, history, polite literature, and arts ; and that among the temporary residences for study in so many regions, a rather protracted one should be in the K 2 244 FOSTEEIANA. schools of the distinguished painters and statuaries ; this would awaken us with a vengeance ; this would be as capital a rousing almost as that given to the Christian world by Luther. The more aged, austere, and jealously orthodox of our instructed believers, who have long settled their system of opinions, would be moved with an indignation which we hope no sanction of civil or ecclesiastical power would be able to intimidate into silence. And we should suppose that the youngest, the most inquisitive, the most lax, or the most liberal among us, would feel no small degree of hesitation and apprehension at the view of such an innovation. We cannot pretend to give anything like a methodical account of a work so multifarious, and itself so destitute of any real method, though it is cast into books and sections. All we shall attempt will be some very slight notices. PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRIES INTO THE TRINITY. The chapters on the Trinity are singularly crude, fanciful, and ineffective. It is wonderful that a man so learned, and so zealous to reclaim unbelievers, could per- suade himself to demand the submission of their understand- ings to such reasonings. " The Trinity," he says, " opens an immense field for philo- sophic studies, whether we consider it iu the attributes of God, or eoUeet the vestiges of this dogma diffused throughout the ancient East : for so far from being the invention of a modern age, it bears that antique stamp which imparts exquisite beauty to everything upon which it is impressed." He follows the traces of the doctrine, or an analogous doc- trine, among various ancient and modern heathens, and quotes from Bossuet and Tertullian some obscure and unavailing attempts at explaining the mystery ; or at least to show why it may rationally be believed independently of evidence from divine revelation. This, though most honestly intended on the part of our author, is an injudicious, and, in effect, treacherous way of defending the doctrine. When the appeal to the reason and to the taste of unbelievers, in favour of a Christian doctrine, is rested on dogmas and dreams of the Grecian, Persian, or Indian schools of philo- sophy, it will soon be seen how light they will make of the wisdom of those schools, though they might have been PHILOSOPHIC INQUmiES INTO THE TRINITY. 245 talking of it with affected reverence or rapture a moment before. He had better have entirely let the subject alone^ if, while he was bringing so many unexceptional corrobora- tives and illustrations of other Christian doctrines from the scenes of nature and the structure and sentiments of the human mind, he could not venture to demand for one doc- trine a submissive, unspeculating faith, on the pure exclusive ?iuthority of that revelation which he was doing so much to establish as a communication from the Deity. We repeat, however, that there is evidently nothing insidious in his vindication of the doctrine. He adverts to it in other parts of the work with the unquestionable signs of sincere belief. But his belief is accompanied by the fantastic adjunct which has injured its sobriety and simplicity in the writings of some of our own divines, the notion of a certain Trinity to be descried also in the system of nature, and in the constitution of man. The chapter on Redemption asserts, in plain language, the fall and depravity of man ; but this is almost all that'is plain in it, excepting a just and very pointed reproach of the ■ unreasonable and disingenuous conduct of the infidels, who, if you offer them animated images and sentiments, hear them with scorn, and are all- for arguments : and then, if you accordingly begin to argue, are just as loud for something animated, interesting, eloquent. CARELESS EXPRESSIONS IN THEOLOGICAL WRITING. There are the strange expressions, affirmatively used, of "God dying,'' "God expiring for sinners ;" and there is such an unaccountably careless sentence as this, "Without pretend- ing to decide in this place whether God is right or wrong in making us sureties for each other, all that we know is," &e. That it is the language of Massillon is taken as a sufficient warrant for saying, that there were " accumulated upon the head of Christ all the physical torments that might be supposed to attend the punishment of all the sins committed since the beginning of time, and all the moral anguish, all the remorse, which sinners m'usthave experienced for crimes committed." It is said that " Christ was born of a virgin that he might not partake of original sin." In the most monstrous style of French rhetoric, man, as originally created, is actually called the " sovereign of the universe." Death is pronounced 246 FOSTERIANA. to have been a penal "invention"' of God after the fall of man. He becomes lavishly poetical in his celebration, popish, historical, philosophical, and mystical, of the Eucharist. In what we call the philosophical part, there is the proposition that " the Holy Communion constitutes a complete system of legislation." And on such a subject he consents, and surely is the only pious man alive that would do so, to accept the polluted assistance of Voltaire. THE FALL OF MAN. On the subject of the Fall of man, Bossuet is introduced asserting, with the most unceremonious confidence, and with M. Chateaubriand's perfect faith in his knowledge of the fact, that before the Fall, " angels conversed with man under the figure of animals ; Eve, therefore, was not surprised to hear the serpent speak." Our author now gets on ground where even the least confiding of his readers will acknowledge that he is quite at home. The reference to the first fatal temptation leads him into a description of the characlferistics of the ser- pent tribe ; and his descriptions are always something greatly beyond those of a mere natural historian, though the materials are substantially the same. His graphical delinea- tions are animated with a spii;it of poetry. Perhaps, indeed, there is an excess of it in his celebration of this most odious of the earth's inhabitants : — CHAEACTEEISTICS OF THE SERPENT TRIBE. " The serpent has frequently been the subject of our observa- tion, and if we may venture to speak out, we have often imagined that we could discover in him that pernicious sagacity and that subtlety which are ascribed to him by Scripture. Everything is mysterious, secret, astonishing in this incomprehensible reptile. His movements differ from those of all other animals ; it is impos- sible to say where his locomotive principle lies, for he has neither fins, nor feet, nor wings; and yet he flits like a shadow, he vanishes as if by magic, he reappears and is gone acain, like a light azure vapour, or the gleams of a sabre in the dark. Now lie curls himself into a circle, and projects a tongue of fire ; now standing erect on the extremity of his tail, he moves along in a perpendicular attitude as by enchantment. Hs rolls himself into a ball, rises and falls in a spiral line, gives to his rings the CHAKACTERISTIOS OF THE SERPENT TRIBE. 247 undulations of waves, twines round the branches of a tree, glides under the grass of the meadows, or skims along the sur- face of the water. His colours are not more determinate than his activity ; they change with each new point of view, and like his motions, they possess false splendour and deceitful variety. Still more astonishing in the rest of his manners, he knows, like a man polluted with murder, how to throw aside his garment distained with blood, lest it should lead to his detection;". This is followed by a curious specific description of the behaviour of a serpent, with which the author and his com- panions, travelling in company with several families of savages, had an adventure in Upper Canada, in 1791 : — THE POWER OF MUSIC OVFE A SERPENT. '' One day a rattle-snake entered our encampment. Among us was a Canadian who could play on the flute, and who, to divert us, advanced against the serpent with his new species of weapon. On the approach of his enemy, the haughty reptile curls himself into a spiral line, flattens his head, inflates his cheeks, contracts his lips, displays his envenomed fangs and his bloody throat ; his double tongue glows like two flames of fire ; his eyes are burning coals ; his body, swollen with rage, rises and falls like the bellows of a forge ; his dilated skin assumes a dull and scaly appearance ; and his tail, whence proceeds the death-denouncing sound, vibrates with such rapidity as to resemble a light'vapour. The Canadian now begins to play upon his flute ; the serpent starts with surprise and draws back his head. In proportion as he is struck with the magic effect, his eyes lose their fierceness, the oscillations of his tail becomes slower, and the sound which it emits becomes weaker and gradually dies away. Less per- pendicular upon their spiral line, the rings of the charmed serpent are by degrees expanded, and sink one after another upon the ground in concentric circles. The shades of azure, green, white, and gold, recover their brilliancy on his quivering skin ; and slightly turning his head he remains motionless in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this moment the Canadian advanced a few steps, producing with his flute sweet and simple notes. The reptile, inclining his variegated neck, opens a passage with his head through the high grass, and begins to creep after the musician, stopping when he stops, and beginning to follow him again as soon as he moves forward. In this manner he was led out of our camp attended by a great number of spectators, both savages and Europeans, who could scarcely believe their eyes when they witnessed this wonderful effi.->.. of harmony. The assembly unanimously decreed that the serpent which had so highly entertained them, should be per- mitted to escape." 348 AMEEICAN INDIFFERENCE TO TOPOGRAPHY. Ip other indications of the national character would warrant us, we should be willing to impute it to a republican dislike of ostentation, that the Americans have hitherto made so little literary use of their originally immense territory, and of the vast addition to it in the recent acquisition of Louisiana. How different is the case among us, the people of monarchies. We see so much' importance in a little of the earth of our dominions, and in the substances that roughen its surface, that we should deem it a mean-spirited surrender of the honour due to our mundane rank, to leave any considerable district in the humble condition of merely being shone upon by the sun, pastured by the cattle, tilled and reaped by thd men, speckled here and there with houses, ■ and perhaps loaded in some part with a ponderous town. The district is not to be contented with so vulgar a share of the world's fortunes. It cannot be satisfied it has any respectable existence, till it is raised into renown by a costly topographical quarto, or even, if it is a particularly ambitious lot of acres, by the whole graphical and typographical honours of an imperial folio. These tributes of respect to our soil and what it carries, are multiplying so prodigiously, that if any account is to be kept of their number, and any reckoning of their cost, nothing could be more lucky and opportune than that the Americans, not wanting him for any such purpose themselves, have sent us Zerah Qolburn, the youthful prodigy of computing faculties. And if it were possible we could a little extend the homestead of our ter- ritory — if we could get secure possession of a small segment of one of the northern departments of France, or a few parishes in the quarter of Walcheren, or a reasonable piece of New Zealand, what a multiform and crowding accession a few months would bring to the vast accumulation of descriptions, surveys, sketches, and local histories, which have illustrated our present allotment of Europe. All this while, those Americans are leaving hundreds of thousands of their square miles without an adventure of research, a measurement, a map, a Flora, or a set of views ; * Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana. By Major Amos Stoddard, Member of U.S.M P.S. 8vo. 1812. AMEEICAN INDIFFERENCE TO TOPOGRAPHY. '^49 leaving them, with barely or hardly the distinction of a name, to display the various aspects of climates, and the changing aspects of seasons, for the unparticipated and unenvied entertainment of elks and buffaloes, bears, rattle- snakes, bull-frogs, and the constantly diminishing remainder of a genus of animals still wilder. If they are occasionally moved by some commercial prospect, to send a deputation of eyes across a few parallels of the hemisphere, it is marvel- lous to find how little shall at last be brought back besides the implements of sight themselves ; at least, how little shall be reported for the benefit and amusement of the inquisitive multitudes of us that cannot afford to carry our own eyes so far. VERIFIED PROGNOSTICS REGARDING AMERICA Everything that we do here, they in due season will do there. There exists, in unmarked spots, in the neighbourhood of the Atlantic, in that of the Ohio, of the Missouri, of the Columbia, clay that is destined to be one day dignified into bricks, and raised into structures, where royal quarto and folio shall be manufactured, and Paternoster-rows, whence they will issue out in the combined splendour of wisdom, wit, sentiment, and the fine arts. Indefatigable Time has been " progressing " ever since the patriarchs of the plains of the Ohio used to stock their farms with mammoths, and those on the east side of the Alleghany mountains enjoyed, at the foot of these mountains, their inexhaustible beds of oysters, of which the animal portion was as large as a man's foot. The age has come that sees ample regions for repub- lics or kingdoms between that line to which the Atlantic ocean then extended, and the line which bounds it now ; and the age will be sure to come of picturesque journeys, and sentimental tours, with the humbler benefits of statistics and topographies. This class of works, however, must be preceded by one of less pretension, though considerably advanced towards a character of refinement, and a literary execution, beyond the coarse ignorance of the journal of the mere Indian trader or hunter of buffaloes. The works of this previous class must come from men who unite all the hardihood and practical rough-seasoning of men of the woods, with a tolerable share of cultivation, and a natural tendency to inquisitiveness and reflection. Some such men will be found, to undertake toil- some protracted, and hazardous journevs of research — will S50 FOSTERIANA. ascertain positions, distances, practicable routes, and the course of rivers — will describe clearly, though not in the style of either artists or poets, the aspects of the country, and the more obvious circumstances in the character of its productions, and of its brute or human inhabitants — and will make some obser- vations, some comparisons, some conjectures, a little deeper than the absolute surface of the objects they contemplate, some slight openings into speculations, which 'more philoso- phical minds will long afterwards prosecute, with the aid of later, accumulated, and more accurate observations. The Travels of the late Major Pike, to the head of the Mississippi, and across Louisiana, may be regarded as a hopeful begin- ning of this class of works ; and we wish that other such adventurers may be in preparation, and that the American government may deem this a much more ambitious employ- ment for them, than the vulgar occupation of war. The work before us is not a book of travels, though the author professes to have had personal observation of much of what it describes. It is an irregular mixture of natural and civil history with political geography. " It fell to my lot," says the Major, in the month of March, 1804, " to take possession of Upper Louisiana, under the treaty of cession. The United States had suddenly and unexpectedly acquired a territory of which they knew not the extent; and were equally unacquainted with its climate, soil, productions, the magnitude and importance of its numerous rivers, or its commercial advantages. The records and other public docu- ments were open to my inspection ; and, as it was my fortune to be stationed about five years on various parts of the Lower Mississippi, and nearly six months on Red Eiver, my inquiries gradually extended to Louisiana in general." The first adventurer that made an inroad from Florida into the region since named Louisiana, was Ferdinand de Soto. FEKDINAND DE SOTO. " He was one of the most distinguished knight-errants of his age ; and his actions in Florida sufficiently attest his courage, hardihood, and romantic turn of mind. He explored almost all parts of that country with the speed of a courier ; and the long time he remained in it was mostly employed in seeking new dan- gers and encountering them. He attacked the natives every- where, and everywhere committed great slaughter ; destroyed their towns and subsisted his men on the provisions found in them. He even spent some winters among them, paxtictdarly FERDINAND DB SOTO. 23 J One in the Chickasaw nation : the next spring crossed the Mis- sissippi, explored the regions to the westward of it, and in 1542. ended his days on Eed liiver." RIYALEY OF SPAIN AND FRANCE IN CANADA. Everything was most zealously perpetrated by the Spaniards that could make the region still more emphati- cally a wilderness than they found it, and render it more inhospitable and ungainful to themselves against the time when they vrere reduced (after numerous abortive and destructive enterprises,- in sanguine and furious search after the precious metals) to the necessity and humiliation of trying to sustain themselves by cultivating the ground and trafficking with those native tribes whom they had so nearly destroyed. The desolate scene was, for a while, contested with them by the French ; and recipi-ocal acts of revenge and extermination afforded a consolatory spec- tacle to the few barbarian stragglers who were themselves too weak to perform such a sacrifice ; but the French were compelled to quit the shores of the Mexican Gulf, and for a number of years forbore all further attempts on any part of America. FOUNDATION OP QUEBEC. At length, in 1608, the French laid the foundation of Quebec, and formed their first permament settlement iu the New World. This settlement, having maintained a laborious and wretched existence during sixty years of war with the Iroquois, fell upon an expedient of ingenious novelty, which, by singular good luck, occurred to the thoughts of the Indians much about the same time. This expedient was the making of a peace. The few survivors on both sides bethought themselves of substituting a com- merce in the commodities of life to the interchange of the missiles of death. But our author says the French, like the Spaniards, were so incurably infected with the ideas of obtaining wealth in a way independent of all regular and sober industry, that they were never brought to apply them- selves in earnest to the cultivation of the soil, find therefore never attained, even to the very period of the transfer of Canada from the Fr^uch dominion, anything like a state of real prosperity. They were also incommoded in their Indian trade, by the active interference and competition of 253 FOSTERIANA. the English, who had early supplanted the Dutch in the establishment of New York. They had a better position, however, and perhaps a more ambitious restlessness, for extending their inquiries into the interior of the vast con- tinent. Two of their missionaries, JoUiet and Marquette, traversed the lakes, reached the Mississippi, descended it as far as the Arkansas, a distance of nearly a thousand miles, and returned to Canada by way of the Illinois. But an enterprising officer, De la Salle, was the first that descended that vast river to the sea ; though Father Hennepin, whom our author has given very good reason for setting down for an " egregious liar," pretended to have accomplished this great achievement, in a splendid account which he published, in France, of the extensive country he had discovered, and which he named Louisiana, in honour of Louis XIV. THE MISSISSIPPI ADVENTDRERS. De la Salle was appointed to the command of an expe- dition of four ships carrying 170 landsmen, and the other materials for a projected settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. Through some error in the navigation, the landing waf made 300 miles to the westward of the intended point. In the pestilential spot to which they had been lured by golden dreams, almost all manner of calamities combined to fall upon them ; and not the least was the loss of their able and indefatigable chief, who was mur- dered by a party with which he was making his way towards the northern French settlements, to obtain succours for his ill-fated colony, which was entirely broken up in a short time afterwards. But it was not long before the expe- riment was renewed by another set of adventurers, who entered the Mississippi in 1699, and took their position on the extremity of a territory thenceforward distinguished, formally, by the denomination of Louisiana, given it by Hennepin nineteen years before. This colony was destined to live — though no one would have anticipated this fortune from its temperament and early proceedings. It was composed of two descriptions of persons : " the first unaccustomed to manual labour, but possessing enterprise, and expecting to gather fortunes from the mines and Indian trade ; the second, and much the most numerous, poor and idle, and expecting to subsist on the bounty of ffovernment, rather than on the THE MISSISSIPPI ADVENTURERS. 253 avails of their own industry." After the establishment had just begun to take root, it was suddenly pulled up to be transplanted to another situation, by an order from the French government ; which, having heard of dangerous endemics in the part of the country where the settlement had been founded, very reasonably concluded that the other parts of the coast must be salubrious in proportion as this was noxious ; and judged, perhaps, that the most effectual way of stimulating to the industry of local improvement this inert and dispirited assemblage, was thus to annihilate in an instant, by an order issued, in the carelessness of office, and amidst the luxuries of a court, all that had been effected by reluctant, painful effort towards forming a plantation. The adventurers had but just begun to verify their being alive in their new position, when they were attacked and plundered by the English. So wretchedly was the whole concern managed, that the settlement, after receiving 2,500 colonists, and absorbing money to the amount of 689,000 livres, in the first thirteen years, contained at the end of that period only four hundred whites, twenty negro slaves, and three hundred head of cattle. The colony was then assigned over to M. Crozart, a wealthy private gentleman, who prosecuted the experiment five years, and then willingly relinquished his undertaking and his patent to the Mississippi Company, " projected by the celebrated John Law." Placed under a patronage so ^lendid, the colony became an object of extending interest and sanguine expectation. Several thou- sands of settlers were sent out in a few years ; and so provident an economy was adopted for their support, that many hundreds of them perished with hunger and sickness. A war with the Spaniards, in which the colony suffered serious injury at first, resulted, however, ultimately, in an extension of its territorial possessions, and of its means of enterprise, whether in the way of discovery, trade, or con- quest. The rapid accession to its numbers, by emigration from Europe, compelled the formation of new establishments, some of them considerably inland. No extraordinary care was used to maintain amity with the aborigines. So far as contrast, indeed, could be of service towards this object, the Spaniards were generously willing to give their enemies the benefit of it, by acting with a barbarity which no ordinary improvements in depravity could rival. But the Frenchmen, 254 FOSTERIANA. as will be seen, were not to be surpassed even in impolitic wickedness. STOEY OP THE NATCHEZ. The Natchez, a considerable tribe of Indians, had received favourably the French adventurers ; had supplied them with provisions ; assisted them in their tillage, and in build- ing their houses ; had saved them from famine and death ; continued to possess the strongest disposition to oblige ; and would still have been eminently useful to them if they had not been treated with indignity and injustice by the com- mandant of a French fort, They began to take, as might be expected, a severe revenge, but were induced to stop short of its complete execution ; and a treaty of peace restored confidence, apparently, on both sides, and really on the side of the Natchez. But the civilized party, the Chris- tians, were meditating a plan of extermination. A very strong military body concealed its movements so well as to be enabled to fall suddenly on the habitations of the Indians, of whom a large proportion perished in a slaughter prolonged through several days, and not terminated till the surrender, at the requisition of the French, of the head of a peculiarly obnoxious chief. The remainder of the nation, still con- siderable, continued to be treated with the most galling injustice, and about six years afterwards were suddenly ordered to clear away their huts from the site of their ancient residence, in order to make way for the establishing of a French settlement, and to seek some other dwelling place. Stimulated to madness by this outrage, but refraining from premature violence, they devised a plan, which, at the appointed time, they accomplished in the sudden destruction of a great number of the French, and the ravage and demo- lition of the most promising and advancing settlements in the colony. This execution was revenged by measures which compelled the Indians to retire precipitately into a distant part of the wilderness. Thither, however, they were followed by a force which attacked them in such a locality, that their most desperate efforts could not avert their fate. A few escaped and incorporated themselves with other tribes ; while the remainder of those that survived the carnage were taken, enslaved, and at last transported to St. Domingo. " Thus the Natchez, once so useful to the STORY OF THE NATCHEZ. 255 French, and whose villages contained above twelve hundred souls on the first arrival of those strangers among them, became almost extinct." THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. The grand delusion of the Mississippi scheme rendered the greatest service to these colonies, by the very operation which ruined its dupes ; and " from this period," says our author, " may be dated their gradual progress to a more eligible condition, though it was occasionally interrupted by the Indians and Spaniards." The ambition of France, pervading these remote depen- dencies, did not fail to operate with its characteristic energy, in coiopetition with the growing power and continual exten- sion of the English colonies. Its object was no less than the command, and virtually, for all available purposes, the occu- pation of the whole country of the lakes and the Mississippi, from the Alleghany mountains to an undefined distance westward, and from Quebec to New Orleans. All possible exertioa was made for an approximation of forts in advance from the northern and southern settlements, and for a pre- occupation of the commerce and alliance of the Indian tribes. It was intended to confine the English possessions and enterprises as rigidly as possible to the Atlantic coast ; ■ and it seems that the French were abetted by their European government in a series of interferences so hostile and so pertinacious, as to compel their rivals, at last, about the year 1755, into the war which terminated fatally to the French power in America, in the battle on the heights of Abraham, in which both Wolfe and the French commander, Mont- calme, lost their .lives. This and the other disasters experienced by France, in a period of her most signal humiliation, reduced her to treaties which ceded Canada and all her possessions -on the east side of the Mississippi to England, and all her territories on the west side of that river, including the island and city of New Orleans, to Spain. " Prior to this period the whole territory on both sides of the Mississippi, situated between the. lakes and the gulf of Mexico, a,nd between the Mexican and Alleghany mountains, went under the general name of Louisiana. That part of it ceded to the English lost the name ; but the new acquisitions of Spain retained it." 256 FOSTEEIANA. SPANISH SEIZURE OF WEST FLOBIDA. The treaty of cession was dated 1762, but not carried fully into effect till 1769, owing to a considerable repug- nance in the people to submit to what they regarded as a somewhat ignominious transfer. After being quiet in- the new possession a decent number of years, the Spanish government happened to fall on the idea that West Plorida, an estate of "our brother of England," would make a very pretty extension of their pleasure grounds along the shore of the Gulf. The coveting of so good and peaceful a neighbour's property was greatly quickened, while the sin of it, if such a thought ever occurred, would appear to be at least neutralized, by the probability that he could not, at any rate, retain that property long. For by this time there were imminent and portentious signs of a grand com- motion in the English Atlantic colonies, and it was foreseen that, if they should become independent, Florida would not be likely to remain for any long period in the possession of England. It was judged expedient, therefore, to lay, hands on it before it should be in danger of becoming part of a great and, by the Spaniards, exceeding dreaded confedera- tion. Accordingly, a sudden and successful attack was made on the principal forts, the surrender of which involved that of the whole territory. West Florida, thus acquired, was guaranteed, and in addition East Florida was ceded to Spain at the peace of 1783. CESSION OP LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES. The terms of the treaty opened a wide field of dispute between the Spanish government and the American republic concerning boundaries, and the right of navigation on the Mississippi ; and the contest was maintained with eager interest and peremptory claims the greatest part of the ensuing twenty years. It must inevitably soon have come to the ultima ratio, but for the events which ended in the sudden transfer of Louisiana, in 1801, to the French republic, which, about two years afterwards, ceded it, for a pecuniary consideration, to the final possession of the American states. The long series of jealous, evasive, and offensive measures of the Spanish authorities, and of the remonstrant, impatient^ and sometimes violent, movements of the American popula- CESSION OF LOUISIANA. 257 tion, on the west of the Alleghany mountains, are now of no interest further than as leading to the magnificent view of the acquisition, at a stroke and beyond the possibility of any further question or competition, of the vast central region of the continent, by a people occupying so large a portion of it before, and destined to extend their ever-growing multitudes in no very long time into the actual possession of perhaps four-fifths of its habitable space. There is no other section of our race that would not be elated, perhaps almost as much as those ostentatiously self-asserting repub- licans, at being able to draw, in lines of fact and prediction, half such a map of their allotted quantum of earth, and confound their imagination in the immensity of such lakes, such rivers, such forests, and such plains. ADMONITION TO AUTHOKS.* It ought to be among the most obvious of all admonitions to the vanity of authors, that there have been a vast number of their profession in each of the past ages, and yet that but few books of those ages are now read : that the present age has a greater number of authors than the preceding ones, and that the next will, probably, see a greater number than this : that, therefore, each future generation of readers will have still less and less time to look back to the works of the preceding periods, and, consequently, the measure of pro- bability for each author, that his works, and especially that all iiis works, will be read by the subsequent generation, is lessening at every step in the progress of time. All this would seem sufficiently easy of apprehension ; but authors are reluctant to acknowledge it in application each to himself. The reader will perceive in this volume a deficiency of the higher attributes of poetic genius ; the energy, the originality, the power of making ideas start forth like substances. There is no want of ideas, in number and variety ; the author's mind is amply stored with them ; but . * Poetics ; or, a Series of Poems and Disquisitions on Poetry. By George Dyer. 12mo. Two vols. 1812. 258 rOSTERIANA. they are not forcibly, and, if we may so speak, individually, conceived. They' seem as if spread out on a wide flat, where they are indeed many and various, but are pre- sented in such a sameness of view, that nothing strongly seizes the imagination ; nothing rises into boldness, or descends into profundity, or retires into mysterious shade. If it is true that there are many ideas of a magnificent order, they are forms rather of a large bulk, than of sublime colossal contour and of majestic physiognomy. There is a multitude of supernatural personages, in appropriate costume and action, with characteristic symbols, amidst a whole scenery designed to give them effect ; but in vain they look fair, or frightful, or grand ; in vain are they, surrounded with the pomp of strange rites, and attended by their train of earthly or unearthly ministers ; in vain do they seem to make a commotion of all the elements as they pass ; we stand all the while as unconcerned spectators of an idle and unimposing show. ON FRIENDLY OPINIONS IN LITERATURE.* These essays were originally published in the Bristol Mercury. " The approbation expressed of them," says the author, " by a few individuals whose opinion he values, has induced him to submit them to the public in a collected form ; and he now awaits its decision, to ascertain how far their opinion was dictated by the partiality of friendship,." "We think it would not be greatly wrong to lay it down as a general rule of prudence, that no man should publish on the strength of the professed opinions of his friends. Between their partiality that will naturally judge too favourably, and the insincerity — or call it politeness — that will pronounce more favourably even than they judge, how is it possible for him to have a more delusive sanction? unless he imagines that in his friends, just his friends of all mankind, it is quite impossible that kindness should fail to * The Ponderer, a Series of Essays. By the Eev. John Evans 12ino. 1812. ON FEIENDLY OPINIONS IN LITERATURE. 259 be accompanied by the clearest discernment, and the most courageous honesty. If he really has come into possession of such friends, it would not be amiss for him to consider whether his good fortune does not exceed his merits ; for let him question himself whether he would be capable of mani- festing this faithful honesty of friendship towards a person whose feelings, sensitive and irritable to excess from eagerness to shine as an author, he was reluctant to mortify, though decidedly of opinion that it would be a wiser proceeding for this ambitious friend to consign his compositions to the same chest that may contain his first school exercises in writing and grammar, than to - attempt forcing them into notoriety through the press. Would he unequivocally intimate his opinion, at the hazard of losing his friend ? And if he would not himself practise such virtue, he really should examine carefully the foundation of his so charitable con- viction that his friends are so much more conscientious than himself, as that he may be perfectly sure of having -their ■approbation for following their advice. He ought to cast .an inquisitive look round on the natural and moral world, to make himself quite certain that this is the age of prodigies, before he assumes that men ardent for literary fame can have friends that will dissuade them from the press ; — not to notice that it would be another and perhaps still greater prodigy, if the persons so dissuaded should long retain their friendship for the persons so dissuading. If a maker of compositions cannot fully rely on his own judgment, the best expedient would perhaps be to contrive to obtain the opinion of some person known to excel in criticism, and who is either a stranger to the author, or, at least, does not know nor suspect whose work it is of which his opinion is requested. s 2 860- THE MARQUESAS.* The coast of Nukahiwa, one of the north-west portions of the Marquesas, presented a long front of naked, gloomy rooks, connected with a chain of mountains stretching inland, and rising into bare craggy peaks. A number of beautiful cascades were seen falling into the sea from the height of a thousand feet. Our navigators were beginning to be a little disturbed at descrying but very slight signs of the population by which they had expected to be very soon surrounded, when they were surprised by the approach of a white flag, borne at the ■ head of a canoe by a man who, like the rest of the islanders, was divested of all clothing but a girdle round his waist. He proved, however, to be an Englishman, of the name of Roberts, who said he had been seven years on the island, and two years previously in that of Santa Christina, where he had been put on shore out of an English merchant ship, the crew of which had mutinied against their captain, and could not prevail on him to join them. In Nukahiwa he had lately married, he said, a relation of the king's, from which circumstance he acquired great considera- tion, and could therefore be of service to these new visitors, as he showed certificates from two Americans to prove that he had been to former ones, particularly in the way of procuring them wood and water. The captain gladly accepted the offered assistance of a man so capable of being useful in various ways ; among others in the capacity of interpreter, and in imparting the knowledge he must have acquired concerning the inhabitants. The population of the island appears to be divided, by those deep vaUeys, and those steep mountains of bare rocks, by which it is so wildly trenched and dented, into a number of independent sections, with each its king or principal chief, and a due proportion of an inferior aristocracy. There is no ascertaining the precise nature and limits of the power of ' Voyage round the World, in the Years 1803—6, by Order of Alexander I, on board the Ships Nadeshda and Neva, under the com- mand of Captain Krusenstem. 4to. 1813. Voyages and Travels in various Parts of the World durine 1803 7 By G. H. Von Langsdorff. 4to. 1813. THE MARQUESAS. 261 these monarchs and nobles. They have a due share, very likely, of the appropriate ambition and arbitrary temper. But there seems to be at least one good thiijg about them ; they do not cost the people much for the gaudy decorations and equipage of state. Perhaps, however, it is in truth a sign of the deepest barbarism, that these personages can trust for their influence to the mere virtue and efficacy of their birth and personal qualities, vrithout the appendages of an enormous pomp, to be supported by their people as an additional labour and duty to that of providing for themselves. The king of that part of the island nearest to Port Anna Maria, in which the ships anchored, and who was the first, we believe, of the natives that came on bSard, had no mark of distinction from the others, except that of being more completely tattooed. The men are generally strongly built, tall, and of the finest shape. If we may depend on the united testimony of these and several other respectable navigators, the Mar- quesas afford a tribe of human forms, of the male sex, not to be equalled on the whole earth. The forms of the women appeared much less perfect, especially of that degraded and miserable portion of them who frequented the shore and haunted the ship. A few of those of superior rank and less abandoned habits, who were seen in a more retired state of life, at some distance from shore, were acknowledged to be as much more graceful and beautiful as they were more modest. PEOFLIGACY OF THE ISLANDERS. Among the profligate class there were absolute children ; one not more than eight years old. They were violently mirthful, noisy, and obtrusive, and would swim and sport about the ship for hours when not allowed to come on deck, though they had to swim as much as five or six miles in merely coming to the ship and returning. They.are rendered doubly objects of pity by the fact which these writers confidently assert, that they are authoritatively ordered on the vicious service by their fathers and husbands, who were seen regularly to take from them, before they could even reach the shore, the trifles they had obtained in the way of reward. The captain is not disposed to attribute any virtue to the female sex in the island, any more than to the male popula- 262 FOSTEEIANA. tion, who are universally their oppressive tyrants, as in all the savage portions of the human race. FACILITIES OP MARRIAOE AND DIVORCE It appears that there is among them a kind of marriage relation, the contract of which is celebrated with festive and most degrading ceremonies ; but the measure of restraint which it imposes appears to be very small. A complete separation is said to be easily affected ; let either party wish for it, and it is done ; and if there are any children (which are never numerous, I'krely more than two), there can be no difiSeulty in disposing of them, — if there is no other expedient, they may be eaten. GOVERNMENT OF THE MARQUESAS. As to government, a matter of such unlimited controversy, ambition, and expense of both treasure and blood, the source of so much good and evil, in the civilized and half-civilized parts of the world, our authors say that among these islanders there is nothing which can strictly be called by that name. It could not be ascertained in what form of a constitution the personage whom the two resident Europeans denominated the king would have liked to declare and enforce his preroga- tives : but it was evident this his actual authority was very trifling, his person being regarded with indifference, and his orders sometimes with contempt. A certain portion of influence which he did nevertheless enjoy, the voyagers attribute not to any political principle in the social economy, but simply to his being richer in the possession, probably the hereditary possession, of groves of cocoa-nut trees, and the means of keeping hogs, than any other man of the valley, and therefore able to engage and sustain a greater number of dependents. He did actually feed a considerable band of them, which Roberts himself, by stress of famine, had been reduced to join the preceding year. THE TABOO. The only material restraint on the passions of this lawless and savage population is the Taboo, a ceremony conspi- cuous in all the descriptions of the South Sea islands. We need not explain that it is a consecrating interdict, by which certain persons, places, and things may be secured,' as by a THE TABOO. 283 mysterious charm, against being touched or approached by other persons and things. The taboo is as efficacious in its mischievous, as in any of its more serviceable applications : under some circumstances a man can taboo the bread-fruit and cocoa trees of another, and thus deprive him of his property and means of sub- sistence, and consequently drive him an outcast from the country. It is employed in numerous ways of deprivation and degradation against the women, especially in excluding them from all participation in the superior diet (human food) in which the men often indulge themselves, and for the purpose of a perfectly undisturbed enjoyment in which they very commonly have an additional house, which is tabooed to the females. WAR FEASTS OP THE MARQUESANS. There is often war among the different sections of these islanders, but they seem to have little of the heroic sentinaent of that noble game. Notwithstanding the intensity of their rancour, they would greatly prefer eating one another to fighting one another. There is a sort of national "dance- feast," which the captain styles the " Olympic games of these savages." In order to the celebration of this, which custom requires should not be omitted too long, there must be an armistice, which, when demanded by either of the belligerents on the pretence of preparing for the festival, is instantly agreed to by the other. And though any preparations really required or intended would not need to employ more than a few days, they are willing -to take advantage of the pretence to prolong the time for many months, during which time the enemies join the pretended preparations. " Six months had elapsed since the last truce was proclaimed, and eight months longer were to pass before the feast began." " After the termination of the feast they return home, and the war recommences in all its vigour." The truce is announced by planting a branch of a cocoa tree on the top of the mountain, on which the war is instantly suspended. But even during this "hallowed and gracious time," should what the captain denominates a " high 264 FOSTERIANA. priest" happen to die, three persons must be taken, by stratagem or open force, from the opposite tribe, to be sacrificed to him. This, of course, will sometimes instantly rekindle the general war between them. CANNIBALISM OF THE MAEQUESANS. We have already intimated a grand feature in the moral state of these islanders, — their cannibalism. There was no possibility of a doubt as to the fact. It formed a capital part of the concurring testimony of two resident Europeans, and would have been confirmed, had that been at all neces- sary, by the circumstances of human bones being used as decorations of their household furniture, and skulls being repeatedly offered for sale, marked by a perforation apparently adapted to the purpose of sipping out the blood, which was mentioned by the witnesses as a circumstance of their infernal banquets. If the people of Nukahiwa had been found in the practice of devouring their enemies only, there would have been nothing to excite any unusual sensation in those who have read the accounts given by former reporters, of the innocence and felicity of the unsophisticated tribes who inhabit the South Sea Islands. But their relish for human flesh is subject to no such irrational partialfty. By a bold enlargement of taste and liberty in this particular, they are " distinguished," as Krusenstern remarks, " from all other cannibals, and are a singular example among the numerous tribes of savages who inhabit the many islands on the north-west coast of this great ocean." For, — "In times of famine the men butcher their wives and children, and tUeii aged parents ; they bake and stew their flesh, and devour it with the greatest satisfaction. Even the tender- looking female, whose eyes beam nothing but beauty, will join, if permitted, in this horrid repast." WOMEN DENIED THE LUXURY OF BATING THEIR PARENTS. Langsdorff, however, says that this luxury is tabooed to women, as too high and enviable an indulgence to comport with their subordinate rank. As corroborative of this state- ment of their devouring their relatives and friends, it might be mentioned, that -the voyagers saw but very few old CANNIBALISM OF THE MARQUESAS. 265 people among the natives ; and it is as evidence directly in po nt that they notice the fact of an enormous dispropor- tion of numbers between the males and females, with the additional circumstance that there were extremely few children anywhere to be seen. If it were true, according to . the testimony of Cabri, that this surpassing perpetration is confined to seasons of very great scarcity, it is not likely to be therefore of rare occurrence, among a people too indolent for agriculture, infinitely too thoughtless and too fond of feasting to lay up stores on a calculation of distant possi- bilities, and whose whimsical perverseness (unless indeed it were a contrivance to create a fair occasion for domestic cannibalism) has tabooed fish just at the season that it would be of the greatest service. But whether it be true or not that the common people are obliged to wait till a season of scarcity, or a war, to obtain this greatest luxury known to them on earth, it is asserted by Langsdorff, that the destestable Tanas, or priests, put themselves under no such restriction, and the following description exhibits, on a small scale, as pure a piece of infernality, in pretending to be moved to their abominations by superior agents, as any to be found in history. INSPIRED CANNIBALISM. " The Tanas often regale themselves with human flesh merely from the delight they take in it. For this purpose they make a semblance as if they were under the influence of a spirit, and, after various grimaces and contortions, appear to fall into a deep sleep. This they take care shall always be done in such places and on such occasions, as that there Tnay be an abundance of spectators. After sleeping a short time, they wake suddenly, and relate to the people around them what the spirit has dictated to them in their dreams. The command sometimes happens to be, that a woman or man, a tattooed or an uiitattooed person, a fat or a lean one, an old man or a youth, out of the next valley, or from the next river, must be seized and brought to them. The people to whom this is related, immediately post them- selves in some ambush near a footpath, or a river that abounds with fish, and the consequence is, that the first person that comes that way, bearing any resemblance to the description given as seen in the dream, is taken, and brought to the Tana's morai, and eaten in company with his taboo society. It depends also frequently upon the Tana to determine whether any enemies fchaU be taken prisoners, and how many." 366 JUNIUS.* A VERY considerable proportion of the present readers of Junius must, to be eonsisteiit with their political feelings and opinions, detest the- productions of that writer. They must, therefore, be pleased with any circumstance tending to diminish the influence by which they may judge that a • part of the community is liable to be still affected and perverted, from so memorable an example of daring and unpunished hostility to .what a multitude of excellent pre- ceptors of Filmer'sf school have been incessantly exhorting mankind unconditionally to revere. To this effect of diminishing the influence, a little has probably been con- tributed by the recent publication of the enlarged edition. That edition has brought out a large assemblage of the same writer's compositions, many of them so sensibly inferior to the prevailing quality of his more splendid labours, as to have effected some slight modification of the impression which he had made by his, appearance in the lofty and powerful character of Junius. For we are apt, though the rule may be of Very doubtful justice, to depress our estimate of an author as low at least as the average quality of his works; and that average is obviously lowered by a quantity of considerably inferior matter thus brought to be combined with the more admired productions in a general estimate. In beholding this portion of the works, we seem as if we had been taken round to see the sloping, more accessible, and less forbidding side of an eminence which we had been accustomed to contemplate only on that side on which it is beheld as an awful and impending precipice. While this mysterious personage loses somewhat of the • Memoirs of a Celebrated Literary and Political Character (Richard Glover), from the Resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, in 1742, to the Establiahment of Lord Chatham's Second Administration, in 1757; containing Strictures on some of the most distinguished Men of that Time. A New Edition. 8vo. 1814. An Inquiry concerning the Author of the Letters of Junius, with reference to the "Memoirs of a Celebrated Literary and Political Character." 8vo. 1814. t Alluding to Sir Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha; or, the Natural Power of the Kings of England asserted," in which the author derives all power from paternal authority. It occasioned Locke's celebrated "Treatise on Government." — Ed. JUNIUS 267 commanding and over-awing aspect of his talents, by their being displayed in operations not so very much surpassing those of ordinary men, he has been made to confirm every conviction or surmise, which the readers of his letters, as Junius, njight have been forced to entertain against the soundness and refinement of his moral principles. The class of persons we have referred to, as deeming the political influence of his writings to be mischievous, pleased to see him, from the mode of his new appearance, losing somewhat of his power, may very justly be desirous of what would diminish it considerably more, — an absolute identification of his person. IGNOTUS PRO MAGNIFICO, OK THE POWER OF MYSTERY. No fact is more familiar than that there is a strange power in mystery, which confers an imaginary, and, there- fore, excessive magnitude on what it shrouds, and imparts a ghostly significance and preternatural emphasis to the voices heard from its dark and haunted recesses. We may con- fidently appeal to the strongest admirers of that unknown author, whether, though stimulated by their admiration to the keenest curiosity during the renewed and most active research, they have not felt, if, in any instance, the object so eagerly pursued has appeared on the point of being attained, somewhat of a disposition to wish that the proof might fail, an unwillingness that this one individual, or this other, coming forward in palpable substance, and under a plain, ordinary name, should take the place of the mys- terious and formidable "shade." They thought that this person, and still that the next, was not of sufficiently com- manding character to stand in the magnitude of Junius. But so they would have felt whoever might have been pretended or even proved to be the man. Their reluctance to admit a reality, was a kind of instinctive feeling that no real person could be so commanding an object as the one that imagination had imperfectly beheld behind the veil of mystery. For ourselves we will confess that, though Junius is far enough from persdtiating our ideal form of an all-accom- plished censor of bad men and bad times, he has, never- theless, fixed himself as a being of so commanding an aspect 268 FOSTEEIANA. in our imagination, and we are, like all our race, so fond of effect, that we are disposed to be content that the secret should continue to defy investigation, as it has hitherto done ; and we are indifferent whether the promoters of this last of the long series of distinct claims (those of about twenty individuals) shall prosecute the matter any further, with or without additional evidence, or not. glover's claims to the authorship of Junius. The new claimant is Mr. Glover, the writer of the epic poem of "Leonidas," which may, perhaps, obtain a slight temporary renovation of notice in consequence of the man- ner in which its author is now brought forward. And certainly, these publications show so many of the things required in the rightful pretender, actually meeting in the case of Mr. Glover, that we may well wonder how it could happen, that the almost preternatural vigilance of inquisition, excited during the publication of the formidable letters, should not have glanced on him. But, indeed, this very fact, if it was a fact, must be admitted to be, in some degree, a presumption against his being the author, when we consider to how many shrewd and interested persons he was well known. If none of them ever suspected him, while on such communicative terms with him, while perfectly acquainted with his temper and opinions as an active politician, and while apprised of his knowledge of the secrets and cabals of state, it would seem to go far towards proving that he did not, in their estimation, evince the kind or measure of talent displayed by Junius. Still there are a number of concurring presumptions in his favour. His age comported with the severe maturity of mind indicated in the writings of Junius. He was born in 1712, and consequently was fifty-six or fifty- seven, at the time erf the first appearance of the "Letters ;" and ^t that period he might be said to have grown old in public business ; for we are told that being " an ardent politician, in the old Whig interest, he made a conspicuous figure in the city as early as 1739, and by his influence and activity was the means of setting aside the election to the mayoralty of a person who had voted in parliament with the court party." But we will GLOVER'S CLAIMS TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF JUNIUS. S69 transcribe the paragraph in which the writer of the Inquiry- draws into one view the particulars on which the presump- tion is founded in favour of Glover : — " He was an accomplished scholar, and had all the advantages that affluent circumstances and the best company could give. He was ever strongly attached to the principles of the con- stitution; his politics were thosfe of Junius, and he was of the private councils of men in the highest station in the state, throughout the greater part of a long and active life. At the time the Letters of Junius were written, he had attained an age which could allow him, without, vanity, to boast of an ample knowledge and experience of the world ; and during the period of their publication he resided in London, and was engaged in no pursuits incompatible with his devoting his time to their composition; so that, in his letter to Mr. Wilkes, he might justly say: 'I offer you the sincere opinion of a man who perhaps has more leisure to make reflections than you have, and who, though he stands clear of business and intrigue, mixes sufficiently for the purposes of intelligence in the con- versation of the world.' " The editor of the enlarged edition of Junius* has brought together the distinguishing points which must meet in the right claimant to the honours of that author; the writer of the Inquiry has shown that several others, which might have been added, would but strengthen the evidence for Glover. It appears that Junius was '" intimately acquainted with the concerns of the city, with trade, and the language of stock-jobbers: and that he was probably himself a citizen." " Junius also valued himself on his knowledge of finance." "Junius was also, most probably, an author of other works, the printing of which he personally superintended; for his corrections of the press show that he was acquainted with the printer's private marks, and the peculiar manner of writing them: and in his confidential notes, which have been published, he uses the language of a man conversant with printers." "He could write poetry with apparent facility, as appears by arpoem among his MSS., consisting of six stanzas of four lines each, evidently written for Mr. Woodfall's personal gratification." "From reading * Republished, with additions, in 2 vols., post 8vo, Bohn, 1850 ; where Glover's claim to the authorship of Junius is disposed of; — Ed. 370 FOSTERIANA the private notes to Woodfall, it appears that the author had a personal regard for him, and that he knew him thoroughly." Mr. Glover wrote some pieces ' for the stage ; and the inquirer finds indications of a taste for dramatic writing in Junius's letters, under a different signature, to Lord Barrington, which have characters and scenes. • It has very reasonably been wondered how Junius, unless he were a man high in office, or of a rank to have habitual access to the court, could be so well acquainted with the characters, designs, intrigues, and secret quarrels and embarrassments, of the court and ministry; and* supposing him to be of such office or rank, then the wonder was, by what miracle of management or good fortune a man so close under the inspection of so many suspicious and aggrieved observers, an individual of their own privileged and not numerous body, should have not only defied detection, but eluded suspicion. One* part of the difficulty and wonder vanishes on the admission of Glover to be the man; for it is evident, from every part of the memoir, that he had been, as far forward as it reaches, and there is testimony that he was also during the latter part of his life, in habits of easy intercourse with a number of the leading persons in the state, and of^the most confidential communication with several of them. " He lived at this time ' in habits of intimacy with Lord Cobham, Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, George Granville, Lyttleton, Dodington, Waller, and other eminent political characters in opposition to the court party, and his visits were frequent at Leicester house ' (the residence of the Prince of Wales)." Other persons of great note were of his acquaintance, and especially he appears to have been on terms of the greatest kindness with George, afterwards Marquis Townsend, for whose character and talents he expresses very great respect. But here rises one of the strongest reasons to doubt his identity with Junius. For this very nobleman is spoken of with the utmost aversion and contempt in several of the letters which Mr.. "Woodfall has published in his sequel as the unquestionable composition of Junius ; GLOVER'S CLAIMS TO THE ADTHOESHIP OP JUNIUS. 271 though certainly the readers are not put in possession of any decisive proof of their being his. The author of the Inquiry is sensible of this difficulty, and thus endeavours to obviate it : — " It must be borne in mind, that Glover's opinion of men, throughout hia whole life, was governed by the consistency of their political conduct; and even in the character of Lord Townsend in the memoir, he concludes with a gloomy pro- spective view that he may have, at some future time, occasion to alter it. ' May time, which impairs every external grace, produce no such change in his virtues, as may ever throw upon my pen the melancholy obligation of altering this character.' " The contrast of terms, however, is so violent, and the condemnatory representation is so perfectly clear of any indication of regret at the /lecessity of such a reversal of the former estimate, displays so easy a complacency in hostility, and a contempt so satirical, that we really do feel a difficulty of conceiving they could exist in a mind moderately well conditioned toward a person who had been for many years a respected and endeared friend. It is the sort of levity of the enmity that strikes us as so unnatural and improbable in a mind with such recollec- tions. A grave and somewhat pensive indignation might have comported well with the high Catonic principles of Glover. His character, indeed, is marked in a very extraordinary degree by the feature described in the above extract from the Inquiry. The memoir manifests that he alternately approved and disapproved of the same men, with an emphasis amounting almost to personal attachment or aversion, according to the rectitude or obliquity of their conduct. His conviction of their want of integrity very properly went the length of withdrawing him from friendly intercourse with them He had no notion that an honest man could maintain a friendship with politicians who were more intent on power and emolument than on the good of their country. THE CHARAOTEK OF GLOVER CONSIDERED. In the general spirit, of his judgments on statesmen, in his unqualified, unmitigable condemnation of their corrup- 972 rOSTERIANA. tion — a corruption which he had opportunities so extra- ordinary of knowing to be almost general among them — in his contempt of the ordinary currency of monarchs, in his disposition to make efforts and stimulate to efforts in the national service, combined with a despondency approaching to. despair of the national virtue and welfare, the writer of these memoirs will be acknowledged by every reader to be in very striking correspondence to the character of Junius; and there wanted only some portion of that bril- liancy of composition, which distinguishes the best efforts of that writer, to make us willing to be persuaded that at last we have him in his proper person. Of this bril- liancy it must be acknowledged the memoir is so destitute of every trace, that even all the presumptions furnished by so many points of correspondence between, the circum- stances and character of Glover and those of Junius, would not be enough to give plausibility to a claim for the one of being identical with the other, if the public had seen no compositions of the unknown writer, but the celebrated letters with that signature. But some of the letters of Philo-Junius, and a number of those from the same hand, given, under various denominations, in the new edition, have perhaps, in truth, as little of the electrical quality and power, if we may so express it, as the composition of these memoirs. And it is to be considered that it was written as a mere course of memorandums of the matters of the author's political experience, without the least ambition of the oratory of history, and without the smallest inducement for him to put his mind into that state of artificial heat, which was evidently necessary in order to produce from that of Junius those explosions in which he was so fine and so formidable. If among the other papers of Glover, said by the editor, in the preface toi the memoir, to be " in the possession of his immediate descendant," there should be a continuation of this political secret history, it is very possible it may furnish some further evidence on the literary question; and though it should not, it will bfe valuable for what it will be likely to disclose concerning actors and transactions, which ordinary history could do little better than exhibit glover's claims to the authorship of JUNIUS. 278 to us in that prepared and often deceptive form in which ir was intended by those actors that they should be seen by th? public. ' In these publications we do not observe that one word is said respecting the hand- writing of Glover; a silence, when their professed object is considered, not a little strange. We necessarily infer from it, however, that no degree of resem- blance has been found or even fancied between it and that of Junius, whose MSS. the civility of Mr. Woodfall has permitted the editor to inspect. It became, therefore, indispensable to assume, and it is done with far too little ceremony, that the letters of Junius were written in a "disguised hand." We think that any person who looks at the fac-similes, may very reasonably doubt even the possi- bility of preserving so much system, together with an apparent freedom of stroke, in a hand adopted for occasional use. The memoir may be deemed of more worth as an historical document than as contributing to prolong the old, and perhaps, hopeless, literary inquiry. When, however, we speak of its being something " worth," as history, we should not forget the diiference of taste and opinion among readers. The class of persons alluded to at the beginning of this article, as consistently .detesting Junius^ who hold it a part of religion, that governments, contemplated under any of their forms or in any of their parts, monarchs, ministers, or parliaments, have a righteous claim, in virtue of their political capacity, to be held in reverence independently of their real characters, would have done well to buy up this memoir, at each edition, to destroy it; for it is little else than an exposure of the political profligacy of the most distinguished managers of the national concerns during the specified period. It will destroy all respect for the principles of the individuals thus exhibited, and will tend to aggravate, and seem to sanction, that deep, systematic suspicion which a portion of the community has been led to entertain against the whole class of statesmen. For if the public good was hardly so much as even a secondary concern with such men as Lyttleton and Chatham (power and emolument, this Cato says, were the first, and their reputation the second), it will seem quite reasonable to T 874 POSTEKIANA. be somewhat rigorous and somewhat sceptical in judging of the pledges offered for the genuine public virtue of any statesman. With regard to the competence of this witness, so long kept out of court, we suppose no reader of the memoir will be permitted to entertain a doubt. It is quite evident that he was on easy and sometimes confidential terms with a number of persons who were themselves among the first actors on the political stage, and who were perfectly acquainted with the characters of all the rest. He duty of a serious attention to the rapid progress of life. And the author has doubtless hoped to relieve the triteness of this most important topic by the device of the Dial, and the particularity of cast which his observations acquire from the frequency of reference to it. Certainly, this circumstance serves to give a kind of convergency to his ideas, which sometimes makes them strike more vividly, but perhaps, in some small degree, at the expense of that kind of solemn magnitude which seems so peculiarly to belong to the subject of time, contemplated as leading to eternity. The special view in which the subject is intended to be displayed, is that of strongly representing the necessity of a congruity between the respective stages of life, and the employments and the state of feeling pursued and indulged in them. FREE WILL AND ORIGINAL SIN DANGEROUS GROUND. The consideration of the question why the Disposer of all things fixed on the tSrm of seventy years, in preference to all other possible terms, for a general measure of the duration of human life, leads our author a little too near the precincts of the dark and disastrous speculations on free will, and the origin of evil- which all practical USE OF EMBLEMS IN EDUCATION. 2^3 teachers should be warned to shun with a caution par- taking of horror. We cannot wonder to see one more sensible writer utterly failing, as all speculators past have failed, and as all to come will fail, in the attempt to fit out the original human agent in a state of qualities so exquisitely adjusted between absolute and corruptible recti- tude, between perfection and frailty, as to be exactly as liable to adopt evil, as competent to adhere to good. Though he would seem to carry it as if his readers ought to be quite satisfied with his representation, he betrays that he is himself far from satisfied with it, by the emphatic expression in which he remarks the difference of condition between the necessary agents of the Divine will (such as the powers of nature, and the .animal tribes), and the moral, voluntary, and pervertible agents. INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE.* FoEBBs's " Oriental Memoirs" is one of the most splendid works that ever proceeded from the English press. ' It is so multifarious and miscellaneous, as to leave no possibility of making a continuous abstract ; and abounds so much with remarkable and entertaining incidents and descriptions, that were any such abstract possible, it would be far less gratifying than such a series of selections as it will be a much easier task for us to give. Nature has in general so managed the distribution of her exhibitions, that where there is much to admire, there is much to fear. Mr. Forbes might gaze at banian trees, be captivated with the splendid beauty of the birds, be beguiled into a fancy of paradise by the rich profusion of flowers ; and then, returning to his apartments, to muse over the scene, he might find, in one instance four, and in another five, of the cobra-minelle, the most dangerous, though the smallest of the Indian serpents, quietly lodged " in his chamber up stairs ;" and might, therefore, have just cause to shudder at the narrowness of his escape of the speedy and painful death which its bite inflicts. Compared with this, it is hardly worth while to mention • Oriental Memoirs : written during Seventeen'Years' Residence in India, &o. By James Forbes, F.R.S. Four vols. Royal 4to. 1813. 984 rOSTERIANA. the recommendations which the country, " the paradise of nations," possesses on the score of the most curious singulari- ties of vermin, — the black ants, an inch long, that bite according to the style of their bulk ; the white ants, that eat up every thing in the house, and the house itself into the bargain ; or the musk-rats, armed with such aromatic efficiency that " if one of them gets into a chest of wine, every bottle smells so strong of the animal, and acquires such a disagreeable flavour, that it cannot be drunk." THE WHITE ANTS OF INDIA. But without a description of the powers and operations of the white ants, it could not well be comprehended why an agent of such trivial name should be ranked among formid- able enemies : — " It is difficult to guard against'the depredations of these extraordinary insects ; in a few hours they will demolish a large chest of books, paper, sUk, or clothes, perforating them with a thousand holes. A box dare not be left on the floor without placing it on glass bottles, which, if kept free from dust, they cannot ascend. This is trifling when compared with the serious mischief which they sometimes occasion, by penetrating the beams of a house, or destroying the timbers of a ship. These destructive animals advance by myriads to their work, under an arched incrustation of fine sand, tempered with a moisture from their body, which renders the covert-way as hard as burnt clay, and effectually conceals them at their insidious employment. " I could mention many curious instances of depredation by the termites ; one happened to myself I had left Anjengo in the rainy season, to pass a few weeks with the chief at his country-house, at Eddova, in a rural and sheltered situation. On my departure, I locked up a room, containing books, draw- ings, and a few valuables. As I took the key with me the servant could not 'enter to clean the furniture. The walls of the room were white-washed, adorned with prints and drawings in English frames and glasses. Eeturning home in the evening, and taking a cursory view of my cottage by candlelight, I found everything apparently in the same order as I left it ; but on a nearer inspection the next morning, I found a number of advanced works, in various directions, towards my pictures ; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. On attempting to wipe it ofi', I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wail, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants ; who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards, and the greater part of the THE WHITE ANTS OF INDIA. 385 paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustation, or covered-way, which they had formed during their depredations. Prom the flat Dutch bottles, on which the drawers and boxes were placed, not having been wiped during my absence, the ants had ascended the bottles by means of the dust, eat through the bottom of the chest, and made soine progress in perforating the books and linen. " The story of the termites demolishing a chest of dollars, at Beneodlen, is commonly told, if not commonly credited, throughout India. Captain Williamson, in a great degree, cleats up that singular anecdote, by introducing another, of a gentleman who, having charge of a chest of money, unfortunately placed it on the floor in a damp situation ; the chest was speedily attacked by the white ants, who had their burrow just iinder the place where the treasure stood. They soon anni- hilated the bottom, and were not more ceremonious in respect to the bags containing the specie ; which being thus let loose, fell gradually into the hollows in the ants' burrow. When the cash was called for, all were amazed at the powers, both of the teeth andstomachs, of the little marauders. After some years, the house requiring repair, the whole sum was found several feet deep in tiie earth. " When, as a precaution, articles liable to their attack are insulated by means of frames, of which the feet- are placed in vessels full of water, they have been ^inown to ascend to the upper flooring, and thence work downwards in filaments, like the ramifications of the roots of a tree ; and thus descend on their object. In fact, it is scarcely possible to prevent them injuring whatever they take a fancy to." DESTBUCTIVENESS OF PARROTS AND PARROQUETS. With such an irresistible assailant on the contents of the house, and a countless tribe of parrots consuming the pro- duce of the fields, it seems in perfect consistency, indeed in some degree rendered necessary, that there should be larger prowlers to devour now and then the people too. These parrots, we dare say, are much oftener thought of for their powers of eating than their faculty of talking — and indeed in this they are much on a level with many animals of greater name and pretensions. We transcribe a sentence or two from the minutes of their proceedings : — "The parroquets, in the southern part of Malabar, are remarkably handsome. The parrots are not so beautiful, but their number is astonishing : they are as much dreaded at the 286 FOSTEBIANA. time of harvest, as a Mahratta army, or a host of locusts. They darken the air by their numbers ; and alighting on a rioe-fleld, in a few hours carry off every ear of ripe com to their hiding places in the mountains. I have often witnessed these depreda- tions." Our author kept a chameleon several weeks, and observed it with the minutest attention. We shall transcribe part only of his description : — SENSITIVENESS OP THE CHAMELEON. " The general colour of the chameleon so long in my possession was a pleasant green, spotted with pale blue. 'From this it changed to a bright yellow, dark olive, and a dull green ; but never appeared to such advantage as when irritated, or a dog approached it ; the body was then considerably inflated, and the skin clouded like tortoise-shell, in shades of yellow, orange green, and black. A black object always caused an almost instantaneous transformation. The room appropriated for its accommodation was skirted by a board painted black ; this the chameleon care- fully avoided ; but if he accidentally drew near it, or if we placed a black hat in his way, he was reduced to a hideous skeleton, and from the most lively tints became black as jet ; on i-cmoving the cause, the effect as suddenly ceased ; the sable hue was succeeded by a brilliant colouring, and the body was again inflated." THE SWINGING DEVOTEES. At Marre, in the Concan, were found excavated temples and habitations in a rocky hill, resembling, on a smaller scale, the prodigious works of Salsette and Elephanta. And near these " sacred caverns was a spot set apart for swingers,' a sort of devotees, with whose performances we are become familiar of late years, by means of the frequent descriptions of travellers and missionaries. Particular villages, are appropriated for this exhibition of men voluntarily suspended by a hook fixed in the bade, and swinging about in the air : — " The longer the man is capable of this painful exertion, and the more violently he swings himself round, the greater the merit. From the flesh giving way, the performer sometimes falls from his towering height, and breaks a limb ; if he escape that accident, from the usual temperance of the Hindoos, the wound soon heals " INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 287 OENAMENTAX WELLS OF INDIA. The passion of the rich and powerful men of these coun- tries for perpetuating their names by some remarkable work, has, in one of its modes of operation, conferred a most substantial benefit ; as our author finds repeated occasions for testifying, on coming, in a fever of heat and thirst, to some of those large, walled, and decorated wells, without the aid of which some parts of the country would be hardly passable. In trying seasons the reader can easily suppose how Pagans might learn to worship water. The craving for it was sometimes excited almost to madness, and the indul- gence of quaffing and laving, on arriving at a stream or reservoir, parched and almost expiring, was ecstasy. Our author was often struck with the beauty and force of descriptions and benedictions in the Old Testament, in which the importance and beneficent effect of this element are represented in so many forms, and with so many spiritual, consolatory, and sublime associations and analogies. FALSE CHEISTIANITT AT GOA. The delight we were beginning to feel at his description of the ruinous and desolate appearance of Goa, that funnel from the infernal kingdom, was suddenly extinguished by his information that the structures, which are the most truly representative of the character of the place, have so com- pletely maintained themselves against the ravages of time, that the convents, the churches, and the inquisition, those holds of delusion and cruelty, were preserved, at the time of his visit, in repair and splendour. They probably will yet long remain, impiously arrogating to represent, in that region, the character of Christianity ; a pretension which will be most willingly admitted by the Mahometans and Pagans, as adapted to silence any reproaches which that religion might make against them for superstition, bigotry, and malignity. THE SALT-PANS OP MALABAR AND BENGAL. The mention of the salt-p^ns, or rather salt-fields, on the Malabar coast, sends our author's highly transitive, imagina- tion across the peninsula, to the Sunderbunds of the Bay of 988 FOSTERIANA. Bengal ; where, in the condition of the Molungies, or salt- boilers, he unfolds a scene of desperate wretchedness. The Sunderbunds, with their most gloomy appearance, their impervious thickets and swamps, and their unparalleled superabundance of all the noxious animals, especially royal tigers, have often been mentioned, with every due expres- sion of dread. But it has not been so familiarly known, that within the recesses of this frightful region, a consider- able number of human beings, doomed without remedy to the locality and the employment, by the combined force of the law which makes the father's occupation unalienably the son's inheritance, and the guards of revenue officers and militia, " posted at all the places whereby it is possible to escape in boats," that such a forlorn tribe of creatures are denied the possession of arms, and, therefore, appear nearly as much appointed to regale the tigers, as to furnish salt and revenue. At each labouring station a look-out is constantly kept to give the alarm of any approach of these enemies swimming through the rivers ; " and as soon as any appear, the whole take to flight, and conceal themselves in caves excavated for the purpose ; from which it, however, some- times happens, the hungry animal removes every obstacle with his claws, and drags out one or more of the inhabitants already half dead with terror." " This unfortunate race of human beings sometimes obtain an addition to their number, when trespassers attempt to escape from the pursuit of justice, and to wind through the maze of the inland naviga- tion. These are handed over to the salt-pans, whence not one in a million ever returns." CHEAPNESS OF CHILDREN AT MALABAE. He depicts the melancholy eifects of a famine, caused by a real scarcity of rice, or sometimes an artificial one, con- trived by the native government. An ordinary consequence is, to see mothers oifering to sell their children, and fathers both wife and children. But it should seem that the bonds of relationship among these devotees to Seeva, have a slightness that gives way to a much less violent force than that of the last extremities of famine : — " Malabar children are generally a cheap commodity at Anjengo. At the end of the rainy season, when there was no particular scarcity in the interior country, I purchased a boy CHEAPNESS OF CHILDREN AT MALABAR. 289 and girl, of about eight or nine years of age, as a present to a lady at Bombay, for less money than a couple of pigs in England. I bought the young couple, laid in two months' provision of rice and salt-fish for their voyage, and gave each of them four changes of cotton garments, all for the sum of twenty rupees, or fifty shillings. English humanity must not pass a censure on this transaction : it was a happy purchase for the children ; they were relieved from hunger and nakedness, and sent to an amiable mistress, who brought them up tenderly, and, on leav- ing ladia, provided for their future comfort ; whereas, had I refused to buy theai, they would assuredly have been sold to another, and probably have experienced a miserable bondage with some native Poetuguese Christian, whom we do not reckon among the most merciful task-masters. " A circumstance of this kind happened to myself. Sitting one morning in my verandah, a young fish-woman brought a basket of mullets for sale ; while the servant was disposing of Ihem, she asked me to purchase a fine boy, two years of age, then in her arms. On my upbraiding her for want of maternal affection, she replied with a smile, that she expected another in a few weeks, and as she could not manage two, she made me the first offer of her boy, whom she would part with for a rupee. She came a few days afterwards, with a basket of fish, but had just sold her child to Signor Manoel Rodriguez, the Portuguese linguist ; who, though a man of property and a Christian, had thought it necessary to lower the price to half a. rupee. Thus did this young woman, without remorse, dispose of an only child for fifteen pence." LOW ESTIMATE OF THE HINDOO CHARACTER. The infinite number of gods and shrines, the vastly com- plicated ceremonials, the leading distinctions of castes, with all their subordinate varieties, and the diversities exhibited in different localities, are all too little to prevent our feeling the dead sameness at the basis of the Hindoo character and social economy. It is a most insipid, inert, servile portion of the human race, moulded, by scores of millions, and with as lumpish a passiveness as pipe-clay, in the petty fantastic, but uniform shapes of a silly superstition. In their intellectual attainments and in their institutions, they are at best stationary, through ages and millenniums ; incapable of detecting or even questioning the grossest impositions that have come to them with a sanction of religion and antiquity ; incapable, at once, of thinking as individuals, and of social U 290 FOSTEEIANA. co-operation for speculation and improvement ; incapabl'j for an ideflnite time, of making, from their own prompt, ing, one manful effort for any kind of liberty, and all the while quietly entertaining a universal and perfect assurance (the genuine growth from such a stagnation, such a morass of mind) of being the most exalted of the world's inhabitants ; insomuch that the wretched Soodras look down on European nobles, heroes, and philosophers. ON HINDOO CASTES. The Nairs are a class or caste next to the Brahmins, and, it should seem, are to be regarded as a local variety of the Cshatriya, Chuttree, Xetrie, — or whatever is the proper denomination of the second great caste of the general Hindoo arrangement, and of the sacred books. And here we may observe that the business of castes makes infinite confusion in our books about the Hindoos. The varieties are so undefined, so bltnded, and so countlessly numerous, that we are very often quite at a loss to know what sort of people we are got among, excepting, that they iare at any rate our betters. Our only chance for complete certainty is at one or other of the extremes, where we fall in with a class that with impunity insults every body else, or a class that with impunity every body else insults. HINDOO MARRIAGES. There is a strange account of the whimsical, un- natural, and foolish notions and laws relative to the rela- tions of marriage and consanguinity among the Nairs. An essential part of tlie system is that not a man's own children, but those of his sister, are his heirs. As to his own, he is to regard them as creatures he has no sort of interest in ; while for a casualty befalling one of those oi his sister, even should he never have seen it, he is to feel or feign all manner of distress. « A MAHRATTA CAMP. With the Mahrattas, an army is not exactly the kind of thing meant by the term in Europe, a machine constructed specifically for the operation called a battle ; it is a con- trivance to embody, in a moveable form, all the functions A MAHEATTA CAMP. 291 and agencies of society ; and it is adapted to conquer . a country, by main force of infinite eating. Few things in the work are more curious, and what we may call outlandish, than the descriptions of this formidable monster, which makes itself sport by destroying the little which it cannot devour : — " Fond of a wandering life, ths Mahrattaa seem most at home in the camp ; the bazaars being supplied with necessaries for the soldiers, and such luxuries as those in a higher station require, they know no wants, and are subject to few restraints; sur- rounded by their wives and children, they enjoy the pleasures of domestic life ; and many of the principal officers keep oheetas, greyhounds, and hawks, trained to hunting, for their amusement on a march, or when encamped in a sporting country. " Not only the officers and soldiers, but in general the followers of the camp, have their wives and families with them during the march. The women frequently ride astride with one or two children on , a bullock, an ass, or a little tattoo horse, while the men walk by the side. On reaching the encampmeut, the fatigued husband lies down on his mat, and the wife com- mences her duties. She first shampoos her husband, and fans him to repose ; she then shampoos the horse, rubs him down, and gives him provender ; takes some care of the ox which has carried her stores, and drives off the poor ass to provide for himself. She next lights a fire, dresses rice and curry, or kneads dough for cakes, which are prepared and baked in a simple manner. When the husband awakes, his repast is ready ; and having also provided a meal for herself and children, the careful matron occupies the mat, and sleeps till day-break, when all are in motion, and ready for another march. " Of the Mahratta cavalry, those soldiers who have neither female companions nor servants to attend them, on finishing the march immediately shampoo their own horses, by rubbing the limbs, and bending the joints ; which not only refreshes the anirnals, but enables them to bear fatigue with _a smalle;- quantity of food than would be otherwise necessary. " Besides the married women, a number of dancing girls and tolerated courteous attend the camp. Some of the former officiate as choristers in the sacred tents dedicated to the Hindoo gods ; many belong to the officers, and others form a common cyprian corps. Children of both sexes accompany the army in the severest marches ; they know no home but the camp. " The number and variety of cattle necessarily attendant on U 2 292 rOSTEKIANA an Asiatic army is astonishing. There were at least two hundred thousand in the Mahratta camp of every description. The expense of feeding these animals, as also the difficulty of procuring provender, is very grnat, and their distress for water, in a parched country and a sultry climate, often fatal." The Peshwa, having drawn to his camp everything of the nature of soldiery that he had any reason to expect, but relying on the English battalion more than on any part of his army, began a movement toward those whom he regarded as his rebel subjects. The dry season being far advanced, and consequently the water in the wells and tanks greatly reduced, the army seldom remained a night in a place without completely exhausting it, leaving the inhabitants to the resources of a " heaven of brass over them, and an earth of iron under them." In some of the positions, all that was contained in these reservoirs was far from sufficing the army itself. Some of the tanks were reduced to the state of a nauseous puddle, in a very short time, by the foremost of the innumerable quadrupeds crowding impetuously into the water. " Heat and dust pervaded the camp ; fetid smells and swarms of flies, rendered it inconceivably oflfensive. I can easily suppose the plague of flies was not one of the smallest judgments inflicted on Egypt ; few things, not venomous, could be more troublesome than these insects ; they entirely covered our food, filled the drinking vessels, and made it difficult to distinguish the colour of a coat." INDIAN WAEFAEE. On reaching a river, the opposite side of which presented the camp of the enemy, the gallant Ragobah and his Mahrat- tas deemed it much more entertaining to see a detachment of the English sustain and bravely repulse repeated attacks of the enemy's cavalry, than take any part in the action themselves. Several hundreds of the enemy perished, and their army retreated, first cutting down the trees, destroying a village, and burning aU the corn and prov.ender they could not carry off : — ■ " The surrounding plain was covered with putrid carcases and burning ashes. The hot wind wafting from these fetid odours, and dispersing the ashes among the tents, rendered our encamp- ment extremely disagreeable. During the night hysenas, jackals, INDIAN WARFARE. 293 and wild beasts of various kinds, allured by the scent, prowled over the field with a horrid noise ; and the next morning a multitude of vultures and kites were seen asserting their claim to a share of the dead.'' " The dreadful scenes on the field of battle before the sepulture of the dead, and the removal of the wounded, together with the groans of elephants, camels, horses, and oxen, expiring by hundreds, united ' to the noise of vultures, and screams of other ravenous birds hovering over them, realized the sublime invita- tion in sacred writ, for the birds of prey to come to the feast of death : ' Come and gather yourselves together, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains.'" They again came several times in contact with the enemy, and in one of the conflicts the English suffered severely ; a detachment of them being drawn, by the treachery of one of the chieftains in their own Ragobah's army, into a position where they were separated and surrounded. The traitor soon met his deserved fate. THE BHAUTS OF GUZEKAT. The tribe of people called Bhauts, resido chiefly in the province of Guzerat : — " Like the troubadours and minstrels in Europe, in the days of chivalry, they seem chiefly occupied in repeating vorses of their own composition, or selections from the mythological legends of the Hindoos." " Many of them have another mode of living ; they offer themselves as security to the different governments for payment of their revenue, and the good behaviour of the zemindars, patels, and public farmers ; they also become guarantees for treaties between rival princes, and the performance of bonds by indi- viduals. No security is esteemed, so binding or sacred as that of a Bhaut ; because, on failure of the obligation, he proceeds to the house of the offending party, and in his presence destroys either himself or one of his family, imprecating the most dreadful vengeance of the gods on the head of him who had compelled them to shed their blood. This is deemed a dire catastrophe ; as the Jlindoos are taught to believe that the Bhaut's life, to which a superstitious veneration is attached, over and above their common horror of bloodshed, will be demanded from the aggressorby an offended deity; it is, therefore, very uncommon for an obligation to be broken where a Bhaut stands security." " For this responsibility, the Bhauts receive an annual stipend from the district, village, or individual they guarantee. They 994 FOSTEEIANA. sign their name and place of abode to the agreement; but instead of affixing their seal, as customary among other tribes, they draw the figure of the catarra, or dagger, their usual instru- ment of death." " These people claim an exemption from taxes, and are so invincible in their resolution to resist the payment of them, that whole tribes, men, women, and children, will sacrifice their lives rather than submit." INDIAN RECKLESSNESS Or LIFE. The readiness to throw life away, so widely displayed by the Indians, combines with many other facts presented in human society, to suggest the melancholy reflection, what an incomparably more extensive willingness there has always been among mankind, to offer their lives in sacrifice to evil than to good. In the great comprehensive record of aU lives and deaths, what a stupendous and awful disproportion there will be found between the number of those who have consentingly devoted themselves to death for the interests of adventurers, tyrants, and impostors ; in homage to superstition and idolatry ; or in deference to human opinion, under the forms of fame, reputation, laws of honour, and the like ■ — and the number of those who have surrendered life in a simple, enlightened devotement to truth, virtue, and the Almighty. There is inexpressible melancholy in the thought, that life — which there is so much in the constitution of nature to make men regard as the most precious of terrestrial possessions — that life, which it has always required a most rare exertion of faith, and conscience, and courage, to expose or surrender for the pure sake of the true God and heaven, — has been yielded up or flung away with the utmost promptitude, by innumerable multitudes, at the requisition of trifles, delusions, and abominations. How low soever an estimate a Hindoo may entertain of his own life, he is sure to have his brethren adopting his opinion. They will see him lose it, or help him to be rid of it, with all possible coolness of philosophy. The general effect conveyed by our author's very numerous facts, is that there is nothing on earth which the Hindoos regard as of less importance than the lives of their neighbours. The Brahmins especially, with all their pretended and attributed tender solicitudes not to hurt a cow, or even an insect, appeal INDIAN EEGKLESSNESS OF LIFl. 295 to regard the deaths of persons of the infei-ior castes no more than the dropping of withered leaves from a tree ; and would probably feel little more uneasiness in causing their death than in striking a tree to bring its leaves down. Nevertheless, by the very constitution of man, the sense of obligation to something out of himself, in other words of right and wrong, will absolutely haunt him, and adhere to him in some form or other. And the degree which any people holds in the scale of cultivated intelligence as well as of morality and religion, will be strikingly indicated by the things upon which this sense of obligation fixes the mark and the emphasis of duty and guilt. This Indian population, amid such a dissolution and abandonment of what may be called the primary morals, is, notwithstanding, overrun to an inconceivable degree with conscientious scrupulosities, and is constantly seen in that monstrous combination of functions — "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel;'' and the intrinsically narrow, grovelling quality of their minds is glaringly manifested by the circumstance, that a vast propor- tion of their superstitions relate to eating. We may readily judge of the elevation of the man, when the religion is that of rice, and butter, and platters. MUTUAL TOLBBATION BETWEEN THE HINDOOS AND MAHOMOMETANS. It seems that the tolerance which false religions so well deserve from one another, and which none of them can be so undiscerning as to be betrayed to maintain willingly towards the true, prevails now to a somewhat unaccountable extent between the Hindoos and Mahometans. This degree of complaisance is perhaps not surprising in the disciple of Brahma, whose maxim is, that the various modes of worship practised by the different nations of the earth spring alike from the Deity, and are equally acceptable to him. The insufficient cause assigned by the writer for this relaxation on the part of the Mahometans is, their experience of the impossibility of converting the Hindoos ; but we may be sure that no question about that would ever enter into the calculations of a genuine Moslem zealot. 296 FOSTERIAMA. EFFECTS OF TIME AND CLIMATE IN PRODUCING TOLERATION The Hindoos are an evidence that length of ages may do fully as much to impair the features of idols and the structures in which they ai'e adored, as to lessen the tenacity of the superstitious notions, or dissolve the system of rites and conse- crated customs. Perhaps, however, time may do more injury to the activity of a delusive faith than to its tenacity ; it may rest with great weight of authority on the minds of the tribes that inherit it, and yet, by a necessary effect of time, decline in the inspiriting, impelling power which made their ances- tors cheerfully brave death to extend its dominion. Something, in Hindostan, may. reasonably be put to the account of a climate, which, though a great debilitator of physical energy, must necessarily affect the mind with a languor much more favourable to indifference and acquiescence than to the hostile efforts of a propagandist. Long familiarity, besides, lessens repugnance, even in spite, of a disapproving judgment. HINDOO AND MAHOMETAN HATRED OF EUROPEANS. But may not the change be attributed, in a very material degree, to the modern communication between India and north-western Europe ? Not that the faithful have taken any lessons from us on the subject of tole- ration. But, for one thing, the Mahometans, as well as the Hindoos, have been found to regard our progress in India as a most ambitious, and powerful, and formidable invasion. Both parties have been inspired with hatred and fear of us, as foreigners, conquerors, usurpers, and infidels ; and few things have a greater tendency to conciliate hostile parties than a community of hatred and fear, as directed towards some third object. And again, the astonishing military superiority of the invading infidels, their unremit- ting advances in power and acquisition, and the apparent consolidation of their ascendancy, must have somewhat lowered, in spite of oriental fanaticism and pride, the lofty notions of the supremacy on earth of themselves, their prophet, and his cause. 297 THE UNIVERSITIES.* That fond and reverential partiality with which our scholars and authors, and even our statesmen and heroes, of a former age, were accustomed to refer to the Univer- sities where their minds had been trained and enriched, has a very pleasing appearance as combined with that sort of poetical character with which times long past present them- selves to the imagination. In bestowing their homage and their caresses on Alma Mater, they look graceful even when they seem to us to grow almost extravagant and superstitious. A mother who could give the world such sons as some of them were, seems entitled to demand even from us a degree of the same grateful veneration. Their affection and their homage will the less appear to us excessive, the longer we reflect on the grand superiority which, in those times, the Universities possessed over other, situations and other portions of the community, in their comparative monopoly of great proficients in literature, of accomplished teachers, of comprehensive libraries, and of multitudinous literary society and co - operation ; to say nothing of the subsidia afforded to study and to musing by their commodious and magnificent edifices, and by the academic groves. They "had much of the nature and pre- tensions of an intellectual metropolis, where disproportioned accumulations of mind were surrounded by accumulations of the means to qualify it for illuminating and governing the world. PRESTIGE OF TJNIVEESITT EDUCATION ON THE DECLINE. By slow degrees universities have been losing some- what of their proud pre-eminence. The national mind has been roused into exertion, and refuses to bow to the sovereignty of these institutions, on which, from the advancement and free diffusion of knowledge, it no longer feels itself to be dependent. Pursuits, and teachers, and institutions of the intellectual order, have been multiplied through the country. Many things have risen to great * History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge. By Q. I)yer. Two vols., 8vo. 1814. S98 FOSTERIANA. importance as subjects of knowledge, which universities have not been accustomed to teach, and which, from reluc- tance to innovation, they have not condescended to admit into their system. The paramount importance of some of those acquirements on which the universities had founded perhaps the proudest of their honours, has been depressed, by the progress of human affairs, in the general estimation. And the partially antiquated economy of their discipline, together with their indispensable imposition of forms of faith, have provoked an extensive alienation from them. Within the last half century, a college life, college notions, and college formalities have not seldom been the objects of satirical allusion or attack among wicked wits; parts of their system of instruction, and of their routine of observances have incurred the severe reprehension of graver censors; efficient practical men (than whom the most erudite scholastics' cannot have a more assuming self- estimate), have been in the habit of making light of what they have been pleased to denominate the idle study of words; experimental philosophers have been found to join in the hostility; and the distinguished actors in the great national affairs have contributed to the undervaluation of these learned and venerable establishments, by never recollecting or caring to ascribe any part of the honour of their distinguished endowments and successes (as the eminent performers of past ages were glad and proud to do), to those seats of wisdom in which they had sojourned in earlier life. And the effect of all these causes has but been aggravated by the imputed stately, self-idolizing, supercilious, and unreforming character of those venerable institutions, which have been accused of affecting, when the world, by its progress, was threatening to leave them behind, to look on that world as too far below them to deserve that they should accept from it a single suggestion for their improvement, or deign to admit that any such thing was necessary. 299 THE MONARCHY OF ETRURIA.* Of the monarchy of Etruria, history has barely had occa- sion to make a slight memorandum. It will perhaps be just mentioned as one among those many little temporary eminences thrown up in the prodigious combustion and agitation of Europe caused by the French revolution. Its locality was where a dukedom had long existed under the denomination of Tuscany, and may perhaps so exist again, if the House of Austria, so exemplary at all timeSj especially for moderation, should not be compelled by considerations of the public good, to occupy everything in Italy down quite to the sands of the Mediterranean. A princess of the Bourbon family was appointed queen of this suddenly created state, her husband being, doubtless, effectively the king. He lived comparatively but a short time to sustain the dignity; she lived to lose it; and has survived that loss a number of years, to experience a very unenviable succession of fortunes, and to write, so lately as the spring of the present year, this brief but spirited record and vindication. A QUEEN IN ADVERSITY. It would seem not very generous, to say nothing of gallantry, to throw out anything partaking of an unfavour- able sentiment concerning a queen in adversity, if there were any indications that adversity had been salutary to her. Some parts of her narrative will call forth the com- passionate sympathy of every rightly disposed reader; she suffered much of what to a person of any rank would have been very great distress. But this compassionate feeling, so justly due, will not prevent our perception or suspicion that we are beholding a mind but little refined, or mellowed, or subdued, or elevated, by the events it has experienced, and the discipline it has undergone. There are no signs of moral reflectiveness, no glimpses of wisdom, no tinge of pensive sublimity, no devout references to Providence. There is habitually apparent a perfectly 'ordinary tempera- * Memoir of the Queen of Etruria, written by herself: witb an authentic Narrative of the Seizure and Eemoval of Pope Pius VII. on the 6th of July, 1809. Written by one of his Attendants. Translated from the Italian. 8to. 18 14. 300 FOSTERIANA. ment, a mere strong resentment at injustice, a considerab'e share of the unthinking arrogance of high rank, and an unmitigable desire to reign. Her ideas of the style in which it is unhappiness for a princess not to live, betray no dawnings of philosophic dignity. She ought certainly to excite the sympathy of sundry great and royal personages of each of these lands; but the millions who, under the enormous burdens brought upon the community by the ambition and quarrels of great and royal personages, find a distressing diflSculty just to live, would be tempted to think that she sometimes complains too soon. In some of the straits which she describes, the kind-hearted among them would feel for her; but when they hear her, after herself and her whole family had descended to the state, and, therefore, the wants of private life, exclaiming, in a tone of indignant emphasis, " Thus 33,000 francs per month " (between thirteen and fourteen hundred pounds sterling), " were to serve for the support of myself, my children," (that is, two young children), "and my household;" and that, too, in a country where this sum was probably of twice the relative value that it is at present in England, — they must change their compassion into that distant, respectful perhaps, but rather wondering feeling, which regards personages of high descent as endowed, by way of pre- eminence, with a constitution infinitely more voracious of this world's good things than could be permitted in the humble portions of the race. The latter narrative in this volume, which describes the circumstances of the Pope's seizure, and subsequent triumphant progress, — for such, by the account, it soon became — is nerhaps the more entertaining of the two. KIDNAPPING THE POPE. There is a detailed account of the plan and execution of the attack on the Pope in the Quirinal Palace, in which, suspecting the design against him, he had endeavoured to secure himself at least against a sudden surprise. Miollis was the French commandant at Borne; the general dis- positions made by him were carried into effect by General Radet, who "had formerly been penitentiary canon in a French cathedral, and was at this time inspector of the KIDNAPPING THE POPE. 301 Fiench gendarmerie and of police at Rome." But, says the writer : — " Their greatest merit was their having brought ■with them the galley-slave, Trancesco Bossola, who had formerly served in the palace in the quality of porter, and who, having com- mitted a robbery in the apartments of his Holiness's private chaplain, had obtained the pardon of his life from the clemency of the Pope himself; being reserved for the present occasion, to perform the part of guide to the satellites who were destined to the attack of the palace, and the seizure of the person of the venerable Pontiff, Pope Pius VII. For this service he was to receive 100 piastres ; and he accordingly pointed out to them all the doors, stairs, and passages, by which they would have to proceed." The number of French troops in the city was trifling; and even when joined by some hundreds of conscripts from Naples, and a number of " degenerate sons of the capital," and ill-aflfected people from the provinces, the force was still so inconsiderable as to render the commanders ex- tremely anxious to execute the design with a secrecy and rapidity which should prevent any alarm and insurrec- tion of the population of the " beloved city," which the narrator says, would easily have frustrated the enterprise. It is to the credit of the Pope that he does not seem to have been disposed to avail himself of this expedient, which would probably have been, at all events, the cause of great bloodshed. The achievement was performed late in the night. There is much liveliness of description in the account of the' circumstances of the PontiflTs self-possessed and moderate deportment, of the manners of his captors, and of the successive stages of his journey into France, and back again into Italy. We-, cannot fajrly afford more space for the story; we must be content to state in general that, in spite of all the precautions of the French agents, the journey soon came to resemble a procession of some most favourite and popular Pagan idol. The intelligence con- stantly preceded him with inconceivable rapidity, and every- where the roads, the inns, and towns, were beset with innumerable crowds of people, of all classes, and from all distances, who came to pay homage and receive benedictions. His conductors hoped that as soon as he should be once 809 FOSTEEIANA. fairly on French, ground, this offensive enthusiasm would abate; but the inundation became the more formidable the farther he advanced; and in the route through Grenoble and Valence, to Avignon, he involuntarily exercised the supreme sovereignty of the country, — a sovereignty which took hold of the • inmost souls of the people. In vain the appointed directoi's of the journey bustled, and threatened, and raged ; in vain the local magistracies attempted to interfere; in vain was it attempted, in some instances, to keep the idol secluded from the people's sight, to which expedient that idol itself made not the slightest objection. The vast populace collected, and pressed, and demanded, with tumult irresistible. The sound of the most dreaded name in all France (Napoleon), was completely lost on their fears, and some of them were heard to oronounce that name with very irreverent associations: — " It was in vain that the vice-prefect, the military com- mandant of Grenoble, and Boazar himself, employed every possible precaution, by keeping the Holy Father under the strictest watch, to prevent or disperse the assemblage of the populace : for, from the very first day of his arrival iu this city, so vast a multitude ilocked from all the adjacent country, to behold the Supreme Pontiff, and 'kiss his feet, that it became necessai-y to devise means for giving safe vent to this pious ardour. So that, at last, having fixed upon a convenient spot in an adjacent garden, where the general desire might be accomplished without danger, several hours were devoted to the reception of the crowds that poured in from all quarters. The same method was observed during ten succeed- ing days.'' At Avignon the frenzy grew to a still more victorious defiance of all restraint or measure. But it should seem that before this time the august head of the Galilean Church had become alarmed in his palace of the Tuileries; for he immediately issued an order to take the Pontiff back again, by a different route, to Italy. 303 ABYSSINIA/ Foe the last twenty-four years Abyssinia has been regarded, by the greater number of the people among us, who take some little account of the different regioris of the world they inhabit, much in the light of a newly discovered country. Previously to that time it was seldom recollected to -be in existence; the relations of foreign missionaries and histo- rians of a long anterior period, were very little known among us, excepting that of Lobo, translated by Dr. Johnson; and how much of that might be accurate no one presumed to have any confident judgment. The name always con- veyed an idea of utter estrangement ; and the very locality, secluded on all sides by such a breadth of impervious frontier, had to the imagination a certain dark air of vast remoteness, which was no longer retained by the regions of the great Southern Ocean. This character of profound retirement was at length broken in upon, and dissipated by, a most daring and accomplished adventurer from this country. When Bruce published his travels, Abyssinia became, all at once, far more familiar to our imaginations than a great part, of our own island. Its leading personages, the general condition of its population, its institutions, the face of the country, its grand river, its most remarkable animal and vegetable productions, were suddenly displayed before us in one com- prehensive picture of most vigorous delineatiom and glowing colours. So vivid was his representation, and in so natural and interesting a manner was he himself brought forward in it, that he has associated his name, his character, his history, inseparably with the country. Abyssinia may exhibit its long list of emperors, and its ample memorials of wars, revolutions, and missionary enterprises; but in popular recollection, in this country at least, it will, for a long time to come, have no distinction so marked, so instantly and inevitably suggested to thought, as that it is the country that Bruce visited. He had, morally, some- * A Voyage to Abyssinia, and Travels into the interior of that Country, executed under the Orders of the British Government, in the Years 1SU9 and 1»10. B^ Henry Salt. Esq. Royal 4to. 1814. 304 FOSTEKTANA. thing very like that quality, or happy accident of being, which some of our voyagers to the South Sea islands found possessed by the king of a portion of one of them, that whatever ground he' walked upon became thence- forward his own. Bruce's representation has, partly by means of its pri- ority, but not less by the power of mind which inspirits it, taken such effectual occupancy of the general imagin- ation (like Milton's representations of Eden and the infernal world), that it is not without some little reluctance that many of his readers are yielding to the evidence which is accumulating to correct his involuntary errors or intentional impositions. THE INTERIOR OP ABTSSHSTIA INACCESSIBLB. Bruce stands, as yet, above all danger of rivalry in practical achievement in that part of the world. He went where no other of his countrymen has penetrated since, or is likely to penetrate for an indefinite time to come ; and the bi'illiant enterprise was accomplished by his own single energy, aided by none of that influence which now accom- panies, in so many regions of the East, a man belonging to a nation known to have acquired the ascendancy at sea, and the dominion of a considerable portion of Asia. His fame admits no other individual for- a moment in heirship or competition but Mr. Salt; and he, with all the influence and the facilities that accompanied him, has not been able to approach that central region of Abyssinia which Bruce found the means of invading, and traversing with pro- tracted, privileged, and intimate inspection. Having read, with much interest, Mr. Salt's former journal of travels in Abyssinia, forming a part of Lord Valentia's splendid work, we heard, with great pleasure, of his being appointed by our government to make a more formal attempt on that country, in a mission which, with overtures for opening a commercial intercourse as its most palpable object, would necessarily, in such hands, include whatever could be accomplished in the way of general inquiry, vigilant and accurate inspection, and graphical representation. We ventured to hope that at his return we should be enabled to travel once more in imagination ABYSSINIA. 805 to Gondar, for the first time with a guide on whom we could in all respects implicitly rely. It was, therefore, with a strong feeling of disappointment that we learned at length that he had, with still more mortifying disappointment to himself, found insuperable obstacles to his design of pene- trating into the interior province of Amhara; that he had not, indeed, been able to approach very materially nearer to Gondar than Antalo, the capital of the grand eastern province denominated Tigi'e, the same town which formed the limit to his former advance into the country. Still, though all his readers will very sensibly share his own disappointment, and though they are to be informed, besides, that he failed in the specific object of his mission, they will all testify that he has given us a very pleasing book. ^ ABYSSINIAN SLAVE MARKET. Slavery and the slave trade were brought, in various forms, fully before the traveller's view. He saw some Portuguese vessels leave the harbour (of Mesuril) with about five hundred of these unhappy beings on board, ' bought at this place at the price of ten, fifteen, and twenty dollars a-head, that is women and children at about the rate of three and four pounds a piece, and able-bodied men at the price of five pounds ! ' Five ships loaded with slaves had gone that year to the Brazils, each vessel carrying from three to four hundred; and it is considered a lucky voyage if not more than sixty die in each ship." He went to the market where some native traders had just arrived, from a remote part of the interior, 'with a cafila of slaves, chiefly female, together with gold and elephants' teeth for sale.' To amuse the English gentle- men in the evening, the slaves were assembled, . and, according ''to the usual practice for keeping them in health, permitted to dance.'' He adds, " I subsequently saw several dances of the same kind in the slave-yards on the island of Mosambique; but on these occasions it appeared to me that the slaves were compelled to dance." " I shall never forget the expression of one woman's counte- nance, who had lately, I understood, been brought from the interior. She was young, and appeared to have been a mother, X 306 rOSTEEIANA. and when constrained to move in tne circle, the solemn gloom that pervaded her features spoke more forcibly than any language the misery of her forlorn condition. " Tf there be still a sceptic who hesitates to approve of the abolition of the slave-trade, let him visit one of these African slave-yards a short time before a cargo of these wretched beings is exported, and if he have a spark of humanity left, it will surely strike conviction to his mind." EUROPEAN IGNORANCE OF THE INTERIOR OF ABYSSINIA. The Portuguese have very little certain information respecting the regions and the nations of the interior. This ignorance is attributed to the very narrow limits which have always invincibly repelled and confined the extension of their power inland. They have made some desperate efforts to advance their dominion to a considerable distance from the coast; but they have always been immedi- ately or ultimately frustrated by the unconquerable spirit of the inhabitants, aided by those noxious powers of nature commonly found in activity in such a climate. The am- bition of the invaders was reduced, like that of the ocean, to expend itself- along the coast, on which their possessions have extended to great length. " It appears that the consequence and value of this colony has always been greatly overrated; still, during the prosperity of the Portuguese monarchy, it. was of real importance to that nation. It furnished very large supplies of gold and ivory, and afforded a valuable place for the Indian ships to touch at." THE MAKOOA NATION. The Portuguese have just behind them a long array of fierce and irreconcilable enemies, who not only preclude all possibility of their extending their dominion westward, but formidably menace, and have often ravaged, their narrow possessions on the coast. These dangerous neighbours are the Makooa, or Makooana, as they are often called, a people consisting of a number of very powerful tribes lying behind Mosambique, which extend northward as far as Melinda, and southward to the mouth of the river Zambezi, while hordes of the same nation are to be found in a south- west direction, perhaps almost to the neighbourhood of the Kaffers bordering on the Cape of Good Hope. ABYSSINIA. C07 "Tlie Makooa are a strong atnietic race of people, very formidable, and constantly in the habit of making incursions into the small tract of territory which the Portuguese possess on the coast. Their enmity is inveterate, and is confessed to have arisen from the shameful practices of the traders who have gone among them to purchase slaves. They fight chieily with spears, darts, and poisoned arrows ; but they also possess no inconsiderable number of muskets, which they procure in the northern districts from the Arabs, and very frequently, as the Governor assured me, from the Portuguese dealers themselves; who, in the eager pursuit of wealth, are thus content to barter their own security for the gold, slaves, and ivory, which they get in return." ABYSSINIAN LUXURIES. A remarkable singularity was observed in the epicurism of these people — for even they have their epicurism, — they hold in abhorrence the flesh of common fowls, and account that of young eagles a banquet for the gods. "During one of our excursions on the Island of Anto Sukkeer, we met with a party assembled round a fire, enjoying a feast, consisting of about a dozen young eagles of a half-grown size, recently taken from their nests, and about two bushels of shell-fish, all of which, after being broiled, were eaten without either bread or salt; and the natives seemed to consider it as a most delicious repast; while the screams of the parent birds hovering over their heads, furnished very appropriate music to this savage entertainment." Occasionally, and indeed somewhat too frequently, they have an opportunity of feasting on locusts, a luxury which they can enjoy, like the Indians eating their enemies, both as food and revenge. After broiling them, they separate the heads from the bodies, and devour the latter in the same manner as Europeans eat shrimps and prawns. During our author's stay in this quarter, a large flight of these insects came over to one of the islands on the coast, and in a few days destroyed nearly half the vegetation upon it, not refusing even the bitter leaves of the rack-tree. TRIPLE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM OF ABYSSINIA. The kingdom of Abyssinia is in three great divisions, independent of one another, and independent of any central or comprehending power. The limits and the included pro- X 2 308 FOSTEEIAMA. vinces and districts of these three divisions, are indicated in different colours on a most splendid map. The first of them, comprehended under the denomination Tigre, forming the eastern part of Abyssinia, is the most powerful of the three, owing to the natural strength of the country, the warlike disposition of its inhabitants, and its vicinity to the sea coast, an advantage that has secured to it a monopoly of all the muskets imported into the country, and, what is of still more consequence, of all the salt required for the consumption of the interior. The second grand division is called by the natives Amhara, though that is strictly the name of a province which it does not include, and which has been conquered and occupied by the wild southern tribes denominated Galla. This division comprises the main eastern portion of the kingdom or empire, including Dembea, and, of course, the capital, and is governed by an unprincipled barbarian, named Guxo, who is, perhaps, the enemy mos't dangerous to the governor of Tigre. The third, or southern grand division, consists of the united provinces of Shoa and Efat. This is separated from the others by the intervention of those encroaching bar- barous G-alla. This division has acquired the decided form of an independent state, the government having descended, for many generations, in a right line from father to son. This chieftain is reported to be little less powerful than Welled Selasse, his military force consisting principally of horsemen, much celebrated for their courage in battle. His province of Shoa is noted for the richness of its land, and contains many large towns, and an immense number of monasteries. In some parts of this third di eision there is just reason to suppose that Ethiopic literature might be found in a more flourishing condition there than in any other part of Abyssinia. It is evident that the only chance for the restoration of any thing like union and regular government to this distracted country, would be in the augmented preponder- ance of Tigre ; in other words, the ability of Tigre to reduce by arms the other portions of the country, for we can conceive no other way in which its ascendancy could materially avail. There is no imaginable principle of mere policy that would draw them into harmonious combination, ABYSSINIA. 8C9 or even keep them quiet. No deputation of the prime of the world's philosophers, counsellors, orators, and intriguers, bearing the concentrated illuminatism of our cabinets, senates, and colleges, would convince any one of these chiefs of the duty or wisdom of merging a lawless inde- pendent power in one general system of orderly govern- ment. With a view to the desirable ascendancy of Tigre, Mr. Salt is anxious for the removal of the obstructions which interrupt its communications with the coast, and for establishing a free intercourse between it and the English settlements in India. '' Were such a measure to be accom- plished, it might revive the political importance of the country, and ultimately lead to the most desirable results," THE AGOW CHRISTIANS. In passing among a tribe of the people called Agows, once worshippers of the Nile, and converted to Christianity so late as in the seventeenth century, he had occasion to notice that they have not^ like so many Christians nearer home, taken up nominally and nationally this jeligion, as ii on purpose to try with how much neglect and contempt it may with impunity be treated. " Like the people of Dixan, they are very regular in their morning's devotion ; for which purpose the inhabitants of each village assemble before the door of their respective chiefs, at the earliest dawn, and recite their prayers in a kind of rude chorus together." SHOOTING AT THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. The description of this amusement, and of its intended victims, is extremely curious. The channel of the river about this place is an alternation of shallows and very deep pits : it is in these latter that the animal delights. A place was soon found where several of them appeared at intervals, with an action "resembling the rolling of a grampus in the sea." The shooting was, of course, the first thing that could be thought of Accordingly : — "Having soon found a place adapted to the purpose we had in view, we stationed ourselves on a high overhanging rock, and had 310 FOSTEEIANA. not long remained in this spot before we discovered a hippo- potamus, not more than twenty yards distant, rising to the surface. At first it came up very confidently, raising its enormous head out of the water, and snorting violently in a manner somewhat resembling the noise made by a porpus. At this instant three of us discharged our guns, the contents of which appeared to strike on its forehead ; when it turned its head round with an angry scowl, made a sudden plunge, and simk down to the bottom, uttering a kind of noise between a grunt and a roar. We for some minutes entertained very sanguine hopes that we had either killed or seriously wounded the animal, and momentarily expected to see the body float to the surface ; but we soon discovered that a hippopotamus is not so easily killed ; for, shortly afterwards, it again rose up close to the same spot with somewhat more caution than before, but apparently not much concerned at what had hap- pened. Again we discharged our pieces, but with as little eflect as at the first shot ; and though some of the party con- tinued on their posts constantly firing at every hippopotamus that made its appearance, yet I am not sure that we made the slightest impression upon a single one of them. This can only be attributed to our having used leaden balls, which are too soft to enter the impenetrable skulls of these creatures, as we repeatedly observed the balls strike against their heads. Towards the latter part of the day, however, they began to come up with extreme wariness, merely thrusting their nostrils out of the stream, breathing hard, and spouting up the water like a fountain. It appears from what we witnessed, that the hippopotamus cannot remain more than five or six minutes at a time under water, being obliged to come up to the surface in the course of some such intervals for the purpose of respiration. One of the most interesting parts of the amuse- ment was, to observe the ease with which thijse animals quietly dropped down to the bottom ; for the water being very clear, we could distinctly see them so low as twenty feet beneath the surface. I should conceive that the size of those we saw did not exceed s'lXteen feet in length, and their colour was a dusky brown, like that of the elephant." " While we were thus engaged, we occasionally observed several crocodiles, called by the natives agoos, rising at a distance to the surface of the river ; they appeared to be of an enormous size, and of a greenisth colour." LIVING RUMP STEAKS. Among the peculiarities of this Abyssinian warfare, we have evidence of one very remarkable fact, which by its LIVING RUMP STEAKS. 311 perfect correspondence to one of those descriptions in Bruce which contributed to destroy all confidence in his veracity, is available in his vindication. This fact is no other than the cutting of pieces of flesh from a living cow, by soldiers who then proceeded to drive the animal forward on their march. The testimony, now no longer questionable, to the existence of such a practice, is here produced in the terms of the deposition : — " On the seventh of February Mr. Pearce went out with a party of the Lasta soldiers on one of their marauding expedi- tions, and in the course of the day they got possession of several head of cattle. They had fasted for many hours, and still a considerable distance remained for them to travel. Under these circumstances, a soldier attached to the party proposed 'cutting out the shulada' from one of the cows they were driving before them, to which the others having assented, they laid hold of the animal by the horns, threw it down, and pro- ceeded without further ceremony to the operation. This consisted in cntting out two pieces of flesh from the buttock, near the tail, whicA together weighed about a pound : these appeared to be part of the two ' glutei maximi,' or ' larger muscles of the thigh.' They then sewed up the wounds, plastered them over with cow dung, and drove the animal forward, while they divided among their party the still reeking steaks. The animal after this barbarous operation, walked somewhat lame, but nevertheless managed to reach the camp without any apparent injury, and, immediately after their arrival, it was killed by the Worari (the denomination of the soldiers of the marauding parties) and consumed for their supper." AN ABTSSINIAN ELEPHANT HUNT. Among various other curious particulars is a brief notice of a hunt, or rather massacre, of elephants : — " On one occasion a whole herd of these tremendous animals were found feeding in a valley ; and the troops having com- pletely encircled them, no less than sixty-three trunks of these beasts were brought in and laid at the Kas's feet, who sat on a rising ground, which commanded the whole scene, directing his soldiers in the pursuit. During the progress of this dangerous amusement, a considerable number of people were killed, owing to a sudden rush made by these animals through a deflle, where a large party had been assembled to stop their advance.'' 3] 2 FOSTERIANA. MERCANTILE ADVENTUEE. The concluding pai't of this volume gives an account of a most vexatious, perilous, and ably conducted enterprise, into which Mr. Pearce had been drawn by the urgency of the English agent from Mocha, in spite of his own decided conviction of its being a desperate undertaking. It was that of giving effect to a project of a trading experiment in Abyssinia, by conveying a quantity of rather costly merchandize by a direct route from Amphila Bay, through the country overrun by those villanous Arabs. After a series of the most harrassing plagues, and the narrowest possible escape from being murdered, he accomplished the enterprise, to the astonishment of the Ras and all the Abyssinians. A riFTT-TWO DATs' FAST. Our author's visit to the court of Tigre happened to be in Lent, which lasts fifty-two days, with a rigorous and effectual prohibition not only of every kind of meat at all time,", but of aU food till after sunset, so that towards the end of the season " many of the stoutest," he says, " began to look pallid, and to express an anxious desire for its conclusion." The whole party attached to Mr. Salt had teen absolved from the duty by a priest — " a privilege which it appears the priests of the country are entitled to grant to all persons engaged in travelling, or similar pursuits." It is easy to imagine, or rather perhaps not easy to imagine adequately, the ravenous spirit and execution in which the revenge for all this tyranny of their superstition began on the morning of the fifty-third day, the happy hour of their escape from purgatory, to what we should not have wondered to hear that they denominated heaven. Perhaps the mo-~t obvious mischief of the austerities of superstition, is the notion of their high religious merit ; but we question whether it be not a still greater mischief, that they tend to magnify, to an indefinite degree, the estimate of the felicity of sensual indulgence — an estimate always to dangerously excessive without any artificial aggravation. ABYSSINIA ESSENTIALLT CHRISTIAN. This country, surrounded by the immense empire of < ABYSSINIA ESSENTIALLY CHRISTIAN. 313 African barbarism, presents a gratifying and memorable spectacle, — a people equally invulnerable to the two grand aggressions on Christianity; that from Rome, and that from Mecca. As to the latter we quote our author : — "The Mahometan power soon overwhelmed all the countries adjoining Arabia, spread to the remotest parts of East, and penetrated across the unsocial regions of Africa ; while Abys- sinia, unconquered and true to the Christian faith, remained within two hundred miles of the walls of Mecca, a constant and galling opprobrium to the followers of the prophet. On this account, unceasing and implacable war ravaged' her territories ; the native princes on the borders being supplied with arms and money, and occasionally rewarded with splendid presents by the reigning sheriffes, whose constant attention was directed towards the conquest of the country." With respect to the advantage possible to be imparted to a remote nation in the most serious of all its interests, that of religion, it is an extraordinary circumstance, that the first statesman and hero in A yssinia and the first ecclesiastic concur in avowing a conviction that they want our aid in this concern, in words to this effect: " We all say this is right and that is right, but I believe we shall only wander about in the dark until we receive a lesson from you." CONJEVERAM, NEAR VELLORE.* CoNJEVERAM is a place of peculiar sanctity with the Hindoos, situated about forty-seven miles west of Madras, on the road to Vellore. Mr. Wathen and his friend visited this dep6t of shrines and sacred monkeys with merely the ordinary privileges of Englishmen, which of course were insufficient to open to them any of the secrets of the sanc- tuary. The scene, nevertheless, presented enough to fill and elate our author's imagination, and offered plenty of subjects to his pencil. A succession of objects captivated his attention by the way ; among the rest a strolling party of jugglers, who played some frightful tricks with serpents, and one of whom thrust a short sword down his throat to • Journal of a Voyage to Madras and China. By James \Vathen. Ito. 1814. 314 FOSTEEIANA. the hilt, a performance perfectly free from all deception. A school taught by a Brahmin presented a spectacle of order, liveliness, and, as far as could be judged, as much readiness in literary as in manual exercises. The groves of tamarind and banian trees, imparted the most luxurious sensations. The ground on each side of the embowered road, near Con- jeveram, was thickly planted with odoriferous shrubs and the most beautiful flowers ; the air was perfumed by their odour, and the scene altogether realized the description of the groves of Shadaski, in the Tales of the Genii.* MAGNIFICENT PAGODA AND TEMPLE. " Our admiration was extreme when, on entering the gate • way, we saw the great number of buildings, of costly materials, and of more costly workmanship, which glittered before us. One in particular claimed our admiration. It was a monu- mental pillar, erected by a Brahmin, who was at the time of our visit the chief priest of this pagoda, to the memory of his father. The pillar was made of copper, richly gilt with burnished gold, was thirty feet high, and about six in diameter at the base ; it stood on a pedestal twelve feet in height, with steps to the shaft of the pillar. Not far from the golden pillar stood a large, spacious, and beautiful temple, which was the largest of all the numerous buildings within the walls. We ascended into it by a flight of twelve steps. The roof at the entrance is supported by pillars twelve feet higli, each pillar being ornamented by grotesque, and some disgusting figures. The interior of the buildings is disposed into four long aisles, or passages extending from the one end to the other. We were permitted to walk through one of the aisles, and had an opportunity of seeing the vast extent, richness, and beauty of the building. It contained one thousand pillars ; each pillar, highly ornamented, supports six lamps, which are all lighted at some of the festivals cele- brated in honour of Vishnou. These festivals are not permitted to be seen by any but the worshippers of Vishnou." The town appears to consist chiefly of a regular street, nearly a mile long, with verandahs, and fine trees planted in front of the houses, which, being for the most part inhabited by people who have business with the gods, are, as might be expected, more handsome and commodious than the houses of ordinary towns. The Choultry where the Englishmen * A series of oriental fictions, written by the Rev. Jamea Ridley, Bon of Dr. Qloster Ridley, and lately republished in Bohn's Illustrated Library, at 5s. — Ed. TEMPLES TO VISHNOU AND SEEVA. 315 were to lodge, was found in the full occupancy of " white and brown spotted squirrels, and a species of crows, all per- fectly tame and familiar." A little less of this familiarity would sometimes have been more agreeable to their visitors, on whose viands they committed alarming depredations. The extensive garden also was found to be inhabited, but by a tribe whose familiarity would have been considerably less amusing. It was in a neglected state, and over-run with long thick grass of luxuriant growth. "Attempting to explore this enclosure, they were soon obliged to relin- quish their design, perceiving that at every step they dis- turbed large snakes and other noisome reptiles, the curse of this in other respects most happy climate." LOFTY PAGODA DEDICATED TO SEEVA. Much as Vishnou has to show in this consecrated ter- ritory, he is forced to acknowledge himself in the neigh- bourhood of his betters. The loftiest structure attests the superiority of Seeva. From a basis of great extent, this edifice towers up to its summit by fifteen stories or stages, progressively contracting in horizontal dimensions nearly to the top, and each ascended by a ladder of fifteen rounds. No satisfactory inspection, however, was permitted of the form or contents of the interior. But certainly nothing to be seen there would have deserved a look in comparison with what he was so elated in contemplating from the summit, and has really thrown himself into a little extravagance of language in celebrating. "Never had I witnessed so beautiful and so sublime a pros- pect. It so far surpassed every idea which I had or could have formed of its grandeur and effect, that I was almost entranced in its contemplation. I forgot all the world beside, and felt as if I could have continued on this elevated spot for ever. T / whichever point of the compass I turned, the view was equally wonderful, new, and enchanting. The eye of man, I am per- suaded, never could, from any other spot in the universe, survey a scene more grand, beautiful, and interesting. I distinctly saw above forty villages, with their pagodas and temples, embosomed in trees of the most lively verdure, presenting every shade of green according to the distance ; each village having its spacious tank, glistening like a mirror. I could even discern the tombs adorned with drooping cypresses, and distinguish some of the villages at the extreme distance of near forty miles." 3)6 FOSTEEIANA. TEMPLE TO VISHNOU. The secondary style in which Vishnou is obliged to hold his court here, perhaps induces an affectation of peculiar and extraordinary sanctity and mystery. " On approach- ing," says our explorer, "another small temple, we were not permitted to enter. We peeped through the door, and plainly perceived a frightful representation of "Vishnou, with a lamp burning before it, and Brahmins performing some of their rites. This small temple was a kind of sanctum sanc- torum, as we were informed that none but the priests were at any time permitted to enter it." BRAHMIN MODE OF EECOVEEING CASTE. Two young Brahmins, who had for some offence forfeited their privileges and lost their caste, suffered the voluntary punishment of being swung in the air by hooks fastened in their backs, which they endured with the most perfect for- titude. They thus, according to the account given to him, regained tfieir caste. It has been very commonly asserted by writers on the Hindoo institutions, that forfeited caste can never, in any way, be retrieved ; but certainly we have learned, from experience, to place little reliance on the accuracy of any professedly systematic exposition of their " religious " economy. It would appear that the vast rub- bish of their sacred literature and laws, taken together with their practical customs, forms an infinite jumble of all manner of contradictions, from which it is not for mortal man to draw out any consistent and authentic scheme of doctrinal and preceptive institutes. SOUTHERN AFRICA.* In 1798, the London Missionary Society commenced an attempt to communicate the benefits of Christianity and civilization to the heathens of Southern Africa, by the agency of several pious men, of whom Dr. Van der Kemp, a Dutch physician, was the principal. The unremitting labours of these excellent men, for a number of years, had the effect of establishing several stations for regular missionary exertions, under the Doctor's superintendence. After his removal by * Travels in South Africa, undertaken at the request of the Missionary Society. By John Campbell, Minister of Kingsland Chajiel. 8vo. 1815. SOUTHERN AFEICA, 317 death, it was judged necessary that some active and intelli- gent person should be deputed to examine the actual state of these establishments, in order to promote their prosperity by any measures found immediately practicable, and to judge of the best future expedients. Mr. Campbell sailed from England, June 24 1812, and arrived at the Cape on the 24th of October. " He then proceeded to Bethelsdorp, about five hundred miles west of the Ca-pe ; thence northward, to Graaf Eeynet, then to to Griqua Town, and thence to Latakoo, a populous city scarcely known to Europeans. He afterwards visited several tribes of people, some of whom had never before seen a white man ; several of their chiefs expressed their readiness to receive Chris- tian instructors. Mr. Campbell then returned to Griqua Town and travelled southward, parallel with the west coast of Africa, till after a laborious and perilous journey of nine months, he reached Cape Town again in health and safety." At Cape Town Mr. Campbell met Mr. Kicherer, from Graaf Reynet, who was seconded by other friends in stroiigly dissuading Mr. Campbell from commencing his great circuit till the hot season should be past. Hewas advised, and his own judgment coincided with the advice, to stay several months about Stellenbosch, which would commodiously serve as a position from which he might make a number of little excur- sions, which would tend to season him for his enterprise. Three months of this prudent forbearance allowed him to collect a variety of information, and familiarize himself with the African aspects of nature and of human beings, at Cape Town, Groene Kloof, Stellenbosch, Bavian's Kloof, and Caledon. He very soon enters with interest into the dis- tinguishing character of the region, and comes upon us with anecdotes of wild beasts, serpents, -and earthquakes ; and the benevolence he had previously felt for the Hottentots was augmented not a little by the manifestations of piety, grati- tude, and affection, which he had opportunities of witnessing among them, especially at the Moravian settlements of Groene Kloof,- and Genadendal, or Bavian's Kloof His visit to this latter place just fell in with a numerous meeting by which they solemnize the conclusion and beginning of the year. He found their chapel capacious enough for more than a thousand people, and on this occasion every part of it was filled with Hottentots. On the 1 3th of February, 1812, Mr. Campbell and his atten- 318 FOSTERIANA, dants set off on the expedition, in the direction of Bethelsdorp, in two waggons, one drawn by twelve, the other by fourteen oxen. They had a number of supernumerary oxen for occasions. Such a caravan gave full occupation to four men and two women, all Hottentots but one, who was a Gronaqua. * ^ It is long enough since there was need of any additional evidence that the sensibility to the fair and the majestic in the natural world is no endowment of uncultivated man ; it is, nevertheless, curious to observe the exemplification of this truth in the Hottentots. " To find a fountain after dark, one of our people lighted a fire among the tall reeds where it was. Contrary to his inten- tion, the fire spread over the whole plain, and produced one of the grandest objects I ever beheld, like the burning of a city ; but grand as it was, hardly one of our people looked over their shoulders to observe it: there was a reason, however, for they were hungry, and were either eating or expecting soon to eat, with which nothing must interfere ; yet they often fast long without uttering a complaint. Three things, exclusive of reli- gion, comprehend all that engages the attention of South Africans, — money, food, and tobacco. The wonders of God's creating power around them are viewed with the eyes of cattle." STOICISM OP THE HOTTENTOTS. There were innumerable occasions for observing their exemplary stoicism in suffering the greatest inconveniences incident to the expedition. When, for instance, the oxen had sometimes strayed in the night, and the Hottentots had made a wide and toilsome search of many hours, perhaps in heavy rain, to recover them, they would rejoin their company without making the slightest remark on this vexatious and extra labour, nor would the rest take the smallest notice of the matter, or make a single inquiry, or appear to think at all about it. They saw one another to be alive and safe, the oxen were in their place again, and it was all right. Thus passed away in philosophic silence incidents and adventures which, among Englishman (though a race not deemed the most remarkable for loquacity), would have furnished long narratives and conversations, with no little industry on the part of the relators, to expose in full light and merit the courage, the skill, and the perseverance, evinced on the occa- sion. Every frequenter of society will acknowledge that SOUTHERN AFRICA. 319 an exemption from egotism — an exemption not merely exterior and practical, through an effort of caution and self- command, but an absence of the prompting principle itself— is one of the very rarest and most dignified distinctions among civilized men : behold it here in perfection among barbarians. DANGERS OF AN AFRICAN STATION. There was great joy on all sides at the arrival at Bethels- dorp, though he acknowledges a very sensible disagreement between the images fixed and cherished in his mind in Europe, and the actual first appearance of the place and people. Many curious particulars, which we cannot notice, occurred during their residence here. The result of the author's investigations was, on the whole, a favourable judgment of the religious and, moral condition of the settlement ; while his statements tend very much to repress all sanguine expectations of rapid advances in prospei;ity and civilization. There is a grievous combination of hostilities against the welfare and strength of the community ; its miserable local position — the indolent habits in which most of its members have been bred up — the extreme ditficulty of making such an allotment of the land, or of the labour, or of its produce, as should most effectually stimulate individual self-interest against this indolence — the excessive demand upon the men for the military or other service of government — and the constant dangers of attacks from Caffres and wild beasts. As a remarkable exemplification of the last of these evils, Mr. Campbell mentions being visited by three aged Hottentot women, one of whom " has had ten children, but not one, she said, died a natural death, being killed by lions, tigers, or serpents." Our author gradually made quite as much acquaintance as was desirable with the brute possessors of these deserts. With the ostriches, indeed, the spring-boks, and quachas, he would have had no objection to a little more familiarity ; but he was well content to be on terms of ceremonious dis- tance with the buffaloes, the elephants, and the lions. Even the least formidable of these three ranks is not to be treated with a careless presumption. " The buffalo is often extremely furious when wounded and not disabled. Should the person climb a tree in order to escape, 330 FOSTERUNA. he is far from being out of danger, for the buffalo will run with violence and strike the tree with his massy horns, which cover as with a helmet the trown of his head ; the stroke of which will 60 shake the largest trees, as to require a firm hold indeed to prevent the person from falling to the ground, and being conse- quently tossed into the air by the horns of the enraged animaL" Elephants were seen sometimes, but a most marked and respectful deportment was maintained towards them, from a just apprehension -of their power. After crossing Buffalo Elver, he saw the very fresh track of elephants, in the narrow steep path from the bank, where, had they happened to come down at the time, the caravan would have been utterly destroyed. Lions were seen often, sometimes several in company, and the armed men were numerous enough to ven- ture, in a few instances, to wage war on them successfully ; but in some instances straggling individuals had very narrow escapes. Mention is made of a Hottentot, who was sleeping in the flight in a tree, and fell down on a lion that had lain down under it. The startled beast sprang to some distance, and kept there long enough to allow the assailant to recover his position in the tree, who was perfectly content, probably, that there should be but one such exploit recorded in his history. The Bushmen are said to be greatly afraid of lions ; and not without reason, for it is affirmed that these tremen- dous epicures eat more Bushmen than sheep, in consequence of a special partiality to their flesh ; insomuch that were a lion to find a white man and a Bushman asleep together, he would take the Bushman by preference. The Hottentots asserted this special liking to have grown from the practice ' of the Bushmen of " throwing their children to the lions to preserve themselves." DIFFERENT ESTIMATES OP SOLITUDE. Mr. Campbell was kindly welcomed at Graaf Reynet. He had travelled for a considerable time near the border of Caffraria, but he was now leaving it far to the east, and advancinf fast towards the northern limit of a colony as waste and desolate, with respect to human inhabitants, as Death himself could wish to reign over. The view of the bound- less solitudes disagrees violently with our author's cheerful, social disposition. We find him again and again deploring EEFLECTIONS ON SOLITUDE. 331 that SO many fine tracts which he passed over should not be populous with men. We will acknowledge some defect of sympathy here. Unless men were better than they are found to be in any part of the world (excepting, perhaps, the Feroe Islands and Iceland), we do not comprehend how he is to justify his wish for the transformation of this vast stillness, quietness, and silence, — solemn, as bringing the apprehension of an invisible omnipresent Being more directly and simply on the mind, and sublime, by the im- measurable extent of their prevalence — into the dinof populous cities and frequented roads. Let him but reflect a moment. How small in comparison is the portion of moral evil diffused over these silent plains and hills ! From these expanded fields of Nature, no insults, no curses, no blasphemies, are flung at Heaven. Here the physical -elements are not perverted to the endless purposes of wicked ingenuity. Here there are not millions of beings not knowing, or knowing but to neglect and despise, the grand object of their existence, and becoming, through each added year and day of their abode on earth, less fit for a happy removal from it. Where is it that our author would find the scene to which he could wish this vast wilderness to be assimilated ? Where is it that, exulting in the infinity of the human crowd, he would take his stand? At Pekin — at Benares — at the temple of Juggernaut — at Constantinople — at Madrid — on the brow of Montmartre — on the monument of London ? Which of these would be the scene to look upon and deplore the solitude of the African regions ? On which of these awful assemblages could he thoughtfully look, without being overwhelmed with the conviction of the dreadful fact, that the great preponderating proportion of tLem are at war with their Creator, while unnumbered myriads of them ^re burning and raging in deadly competition with one another ? And is it with such 11 race that he could wish to invade the profound quiet of those deserts ? Why did he not rather feel an insuppres- sible elation of spirit to think that there he could look over so ample a region unoccupied by sin ? We do not all this while forget, that even these enormous African wastes are in a small degree defective in that pro- found solitude and stillness indicative of the absence of moral evil. Even they contain what may be called a popu- Y 322 FOSTEEIANf. lation, barbarous and wretched enough, of Caffres and Bush- men, who do what they can towards keeping their country faithfully in the grand relationship of depravity with the otlier divisions of the earth; but this population is so incon- ceivably diminutive, that it gives, if we may so expi-ess it, but a very slight tinge of moral colour to this vast domain of Nature. How diminutive it is may be imagined from the fact, that in completely crossing what is named the Bush- men's Country, by a somewhat winding route of about two hundred miles, the party " did not meet with one human being," excepting one family on the day they entered it, " That even the part where we crossed it," says Mr. Campbell, " has some inhabitants I have no doubt, from the remains ot huts which we discovered in' two or three places ; but their number must be very small. It fills the mind with regret to see so large and beautiful a portion of God'.s earth so destitute of population, and to think of its producing year after year provender to support millions of cattle, whilst only a few wild beasts roam over it. Many of the ways of God seem inscrutable, and the permission of this seems to be one of them." When any fact in the Divine government of the world is pronounced with emphasis to be " inscrutable," there is an implication that had the opposite of that fact existed, it would have been much more within the compass of our understanding. But would there have been less of what defies that understanding, in an appointment of the Divine government, which should have made the regions in question the abode of crowding millions of guilty beings, than there is in the actual appointment which has kept that part of the earth so clear of them ? MINERAL COLOURING POWDERS IN AFRICA. The general features of the country during this long march to the north do not appear to have been romantic, though considerable mountains are sometimes mentioned. There was in one place a hill partly composed of a stone resembling the black lead of which pencils are made. This substance the Bootchuanas and others grind to powder, and use'in the same way as hair powder is used in England. The red stone with which ' the surrounding nations paint their MINERAL COLOUniNG POWDERS IN AFRICA. 323 bodies comes also from this hill.' The widely-extended and permanent fashion of rouge and hair-powder among these gentlefolks, has rendered this Blink or Shining Mountain a place of great resort from time immemorial. The hill is pronounced to be of volcanic origin. THE CITY OF LATTAKOO. The description of the manners and customs of the people of Lattakoo is highly entertaining. The city is divided into a number of districts or wards, to each of which there is a head man. ' Some modification of royalty inheres in one family, of which the chief has very considerable, though it does not appear whether defined, authority. There are some kinds of manufacture among the people, and they supply the deficiency of their resources in cattle and hunting, by sowing and reaping some proportion of their ground. What was least to be expected, there is a good degree of clean- liness about their persons and their town. A great portion of gaiety might be attributed to their character, if the appearance of things at the particular time of Mr. Campbell's visit might be taken as a fair and simple exhibition ; but that appears to have been a period peculiarly devoted to games and frolic, in celebration of an annual circumcision. These games consisted chiefly in dancing in various modes, accom- panied with singing, screaming, and all possible violences of vociferation. The women appear to have been exclusively the performers, the young ones taking the larger share. No rank was held to be degraded by mingling in the tumult, for even queens, and the ladies of the city magistrates, contri- buted personally to the uproar. With respect to labour, it would be too much to expect that a barbarian economy should not assign to them the heavier share : — '' It is the province of the women to build their houses, to dig the fields, to sow and reap ; and that of the men to milk the cows, make their clothes, and go to war." " The women are the farmers. Even the queen digs the ground along with the other females. The instrument they use is a kind of pickaxe. They all sing while at work, and strike the ground with their axes according to time, so that no one gives a stroke more than another ; thus they make labour an amuse- ment." Y 2 324 FOSTERIANA. " The royal family were at dinner, in the corner of their yard, outside of the house. The king's distinction seemed to consist in his sitting next the pot that contained the boiled beans, on which they were dining, and having the only spoon that we saw, with which he helped himself and his friends, by putting a portion into each hand as it was held out to him. One of the princesses was employed in cutting, with an axe, a dried paunch into small pieces, and putting them into a pot to be boiled, either to complete that repast, or to serve for another, soon after. One of the king's sisters was cutting up a filthy-looking piece of flesh and putting it into the same pot. Certainly an Englishman would be dying for want of food before he accepted an invitation to dine with the king of Lattakoo." KELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF THE LATTAKOOS. His Majesty King Mateebe set out on a hunting expe- dition, and continued so a good many days. This interval gave opportunity for a great variety of conversations, of course by means of but moderately qualified interpreters, with many of the principal, as well as other persons, of the city ; in which intercourse it was endeavoured to convey some notion of the nature of the errand on which the tra- vellers were come, as well as to ascertain whether these pagans had any ideas analogous to religion. Some of them sometimes attended the worship of the party, and on being informed that they prayed to the Great Being, one of them said, " they believed there was a Great Being, but they did not know him, for they had never seen him." The same be- nighted confession of faith was afterwards made by Mateebe: " I believe there is a God who made all things, who gives prosperity, sickness, and death ; but I do not know him." On this acknowledgment of the first principle Mr. Campbell observes, without the slightest hesitation, " The knowledge he has undoubtedly came from the missionary station at Klaar Water." It is possible the fact may be so ; but surely it was not to be asserted on mere presumption. We wish the very defective mean's of interchanging ideas had enabled our author to investigate a little way back "the his- tory of this tenet among these people. In a conversation with Mahootoo, the superior of the two queens, he was asked by her, " evidently," he says, " as things she had for- merly thought of, ' Will people who are dead rise up again ?' THE LATTAKOOS. 325 'Is God under the earth, or where is he ?' " Mr. Campbell questioned some of them on the origin of mankind : — "They said they came from some country beyond them, pointing to the north, which is the direction in which Judea lies. That two men came out of the water, the one rich, having plenty of cattle ; the other poor, having only dogs. One lived by oxen, the other by hunting. One of them fell, and the mark of his foot is on a rock to this day." AFEICAN NOTIONS OF MISSIONARY OBJECTS. The king's return was immediately followed by negotia- tions on the subject of his admitting missionaries to instruct his subjects. He made a number of objections, the answers to which were admitted with a facility which appeared to prove he had not any very serious dislike to the proposition. His ultimatum was, " Send instructors, and I will be a father to them." He readily apprehended the avowed object of the proposed residence of missionaries, and must have been convinced that instruction really was intended to be their employment ; but the disinterested motive of the pnject was quite beyond his understanding ; for some time after his gracious act of permission, he said, " Whenever the mission- aries have got enough they shall be at liberty to depart ;" " having no idea," says Mr. Campbell, " that they can have any other view in coming but gain." EMPLOYMENTS AT LATTAKOO. The city was calculated to consist of about fifteen hundred houses, containing at the least seven thousand five hundred people. " It is reported," says Mr. Campbell, who surely could not, however, believe any such thing, " that they have more than a thousand places called outposts, where there are people and cattle." We should think if they had half the number they would find their account in driving thither some of the crowd and mob of stout, healthy, well-made, young people, whom the visitors were so justly and violently scandalized to see passing their whole time in play and idleness. At the same time, a considerable number of men appear to be employed in manufactures ; for each district of the city, of which our author conjectures there may be fifty, has a place enclosed for public resort, where the mea spend the greater part of the day together, 326 FOSTEEIANA. dressing skins, and making knives, and various other arti- cles, such as axes, adzes, &c. But he will have it that this is done only for " amusement in the public place ; as if a London engraver were to carrj a plate of copper to the Royal Exchange, to engrave upon, while conversing with his friends.'' This seems to us a rather strange representa- tion of the chief motive to the manufacturing of articles, many of them of the first necessity, manufactured assuredly because they are so, while, no doubt, the workmen are glad to exhilarate the employment by the social gaiety and rattle. The place where useful work, on a large scale, is done mainly for amusement, is the locality on earth which will remain the very last to be discovered. Geography will be complete when it is found. NATURE OF AFRICAN GLORY. A worse feature than their idleness is their utter insen- sibility to suffering which they behold or inflict. There were several revolting instances, besides the high self-complacency with which a distinguished personage, acting as lieutenant- governor of the city, spoke of a plundering expedition a great way to the eastward, in which he and his associates, having fallen in with a people who had no instruments of defence, had the more easily pillaged them, and murdered great numbers, which he regarded as a fortunate and laudable affair. THE WANKETZENS AND THEIR MURDEROUS PROPENSITIES. Mr. Campbell made, during his sojourn at Lattakoo, every proper effort to collect information concerning the inhabitants still further in the interior ; and he has enumerated many nations or tribes, with brief notices respecting the strength, character, and habits, of several of them. The Wanketzens, whose city Melita is five or six days' journey from Lattakoo, make a very considerable figure, and have an additional prominence from the circumstance of being the murderers of Dr. Cowan and his attendants, who had been sent from the Cape on an expedition of discovery. Mr. Campbell received the most unquestionable evidence, and some of the details of this fact, which appeared to have produced a great THE WANKETZENS. 397 sensation through a wide extent of country. The party dis- covered, on the first day of their residence at Lattakoo, that the visit was very strongly suspected by the inhabitants of being upon some design of revenge, in which even they might be involved, insomuch that it was afterwards learned that numbers had quitted the city under this apprehension. Prompt measures were taken by Mr. Campbell to obviate this suspicion. The Wanketzens and their chief were represented and proved to be systematically treacherous and cruel, the plunder and destruction of foreigners, most especially of whites, being a perfectly established principle of their policy. The plundering and murdering expedition before alluded to as performed, and with such delight related, by one of the highest of the nobility of Lattakoo, was an active career of no less than ten months' duration. AN AFRICAN DESEET. A very large portion of the several hundreds of leagues which our party had yet to travel, lay through tracts of that most perfect kind of desert to which so large a part of Africa is doomed to the end of time, that is, moveable sand. It must truly be dreary almost to horror to labour day after day through this most dread and hideous kind of waste, the pro- gress heavy and slow, no water sometimes for several days together, the draught^cattle toiling painfully on while pining with hunger and thirst, now and then one of them lying down totally exhausted, and left to perish ; and all the while the burning heat of the sky fiercely reflected by the ground, and no one circumstance in all the elements to alleviate the effect of a temperature of more than a hundred degrees of the thermometer — unless a chill night following such a day may be called relief. ADTENTUEE WITH LIONS. Among the remarkable incidents in the journey to Griqua Town, was the falling in with a brace of lions, and two different herds of that strange animal, the giraffe. It was indeed only one of the men, advanced somewhat a-head of the waggons, that saw the lions. He 328 FOSTERIANA. came on them suddenly, and had the fortitude to stand firmly looking at them, till, at the great noise of the approaching waggons, they chose to move away. Our author asserts, we presume much too generally, that "so long as you can steadily look a lion in the face, he will not attack you." The giraffes were in the one instance to the number of eleven in a herd ; in the other their height is noticed, as being probably, at the head, eighteen feet from the ground. They are harmless and timid animals, and flee at the approach of man. ASBESTOS MOUNTAINS. A few stages to the west of Gi'iqua Town, the party found themselves among mountains abounding with asbestos. " Some of us walked after breakfast to examine the asbestos rocks, where we found plenty of that rare mineral, between strata of rocks. That which becomes, by a little beating, soft as cotton, is all of a Prussian blue colour. When ascending a moun- tain alone, I found some of the colour of gold, but not soft, or of a cotton texture like the blue ; some I found white, and brown, and green, &c. Had this land been known to the ancients in the days of imperial Rome, many a mercantile pilgrimage would have been made to the asbestos mountains in Griqua-land. A considerable portion of it is used in making the roads. It is very remarkable that it is called by the Griquas, handkerchief- stone," SnPINENESS OP THE BtFSHMEN. The Bushmen do not neglect to infest, with their positions or incursions, the tracts contiguous, on the south side, to the Great Eiver, very far along its course to the west, indeed even to its mouth ; but the Corannas have a trifle more of something like proprietorship, though they seem far enough from being ambitious of leaving any proud time-defying monuments of their possession, their only structures being the wretched huts which it would amuse a few of our mis- chievous school-boys to beat down vnth sticks. They are of the shape of half an orange, placed with the flat side down, and are, at the highest part, about the height of a man. One of the more considerable of their kraals is thus described : — " They neither sow nor plant, but depend entirely on their BTJSHMBN OF SOUTH AFRICA. 339 cattle for subsistence; of course, having no labour to engage their attention, it is probable they sleep away the greater part of their life. They appear to be a dull, gloomy, and indifferent people. Our arrival seemed to make no impression on any mind, except in producing a little curiosity ; and they were as indifferent about our departure, as if they had said; You may come, or stay, or go ; it is the same to us." MONSIEUR LE VAILLANT DRUBBED BY A LADY. Arrived within the colony of the Cape, they stopped at the house, or " place," of Mrs. Vandervesthuis, who well remembered the noted Frenchman Le Vaillant having taken Ms station at her house, from which she said he was " never more than ten days absent when he went further up the country, and these he spent among the Kamis mountains opposite, seeking birds, stones, and flowers, which appeared to her very idle employment." To all the pretty incidents ill this noted traveller's book, it seems he forgot to add the one which would have made a prettier figure than all the rest: — " Having mentioned to Mrs. Vandervesthuis that Vaillant had published an account of his travels in Africa, and had men- tioned her in it, she inquired very anxiously if he had mentioned in his book that she had given him a good drubbing with a sambuk (a kind of whip made of the skin of the sea-cow), when they were travelling together to the Cape, for speaking im- Eroperly of her daughters ; but, she added, ' had I been alone, e would have given me a drubbing too, but two of my sons were present, both stout young men.' She is a tall, and still a strong woman, though in her seventy-fifth year. While speak- ing of Vaillant I may venture to say thus much, that though his account has much of the romantic in it, yet he gives the best account of the manners and customs of the Hottentots I have INTENSE HEAT, Though at every step still further removed from the peculiar region of the sun's tyranny, they had the ther- mometer at one time at 101, and at another at 102 when " completely shaded from the sun." He says, — "My silver snuff-box in my pocket felt as if lately taken out of the fire, though I sat under covert of the tent ; aJl the water 830 FOSTERIANA. was warm, and our butter turned into oil. Our dogs, though covered from the rays of the sun, lay breathing quick, with their mouths open, and their tongues hanging out, as if in a high fever. My inlj, though mixed with water, got thick in a few minutes. AH was silence around; the crows were walking about our waggons as if we had been all dead." The whole party returned to the Cape, with the exception of one man who perished by a Bushman's poisoned arrow, and in as good health as when they set out, our author indeed in much better; and after several months' stay at the Cape he embarked for England, touched at St. Helena, saw the grandeur of a storm on the ocean, and in due time found himself once more at home. THE SOLITUDES OF AMERICA.* This is one of the grandest of the achievements that have laid open the unknown parts of the globe. To take no account of the immense distance some of the party had to travel, to reach the starting place at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri, they were destined, at setting out from that point, to make a progressive movement to the amount of nearly nine thousand miles before they were to see it again. Add to this, all the lateral excursions and traverses made in hunting, and their examinations, which they prosecuted with a most meritorious and indefatigable industry, of the country to some distance along many of the rivers which fall into the Missouri. It may fairly be assumed as certain, that a very large proportion of this enormous space had never before been marked with the foot- steps, nor beheld by the eyes, of any mortal belonging to the civilized tribes of mankind. H^d it been possible for a man of philosophic and imagina- * Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, and across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. Performed by Order of the Government of the United States, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By Captains Lewis and Clarke. 4to. 1814. THE SOLITUDES OF AMERICA. 331 tive spirit to accompany such an expedition, in such a manner as to have his perceptions and reflections uninter- rupted by its bustle, and by the character of the adventurers, — rather we should say, had it been possible for such a man to travel alone, — he would have felt a certain mysterious and solemn impression in beholding vast regions which no reflective being in a human form had looked upon since the beginning of time. What an originality of expression, in what Nature would have to say for the first time to a being that could comprehend her ! It would have seemed as if all those dictates, those mysterious notices, those sublime illu- sions, those monitions of the shortness of human life, those intimations of a Deity, which there had not been a succes- sion of perceptive intelligences to receive, had been reserved to come with inconceivable augmentation of emphasis on him. How every stream, and rock, and mountain, would seem charged with the accumulated significance of thousands of years ! Or would he rather, with pensive and humbling emotion; feel as if man were unnecessary and of no consequence in these vast regions ; as if the immensity of scene rendered him contemptible in his littleness ; as if the majesty of Nature repelled him from all communion, preferring the gloom of an eternal solitude, scarcely disturbed by wild beasts and a few wild men, to the intrusive impertinence of research and admiration ; as if the grand operation of the elements had no relation to his concerns ; as if, in short, the sublimities of nature had an economy so entirely their own, that the annihilation of him and of all his race would be a circumstance infinitely indifferent to it ? The party ^et out from near St. Louis, May the 14th, 1804, in a bateau or barge, and two perioques or open boats. " They consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the United States army, two French watermen, an interpreter, a hunter, and a black servant ; all these, except the last, were enlisted to serve as privates during the expedition, and three sergeants were appointed from among them by the captains. In addition to these were engaged a corporal and six soldiers, and nine watermen, to accompany the expedition as far as the Mandan nation, in order to assist in carrying the stores, or repelling an attack, which was moat to be apprehended between Wood river and that tribe." 332 FOSTEEIANA. THE OSAGE INDIANS. The first tribe of consequence to whose territories the party advanced were the Osages, whose encampments they reached after about a fortnight's contest with the gigantic stream. Captain Clarke says : — " We ascended a very difficult rapid, called the Devil's Eace- ground, where the current sets for half a mile against some pro- jecting rocks on the south side. We were less fortunate in attempting a second place of equal difficulty. Passing near the southern shore, the bank fell in so fast, as to oblige us to cross the river instantly, between the nortliern side and a sand-bar, which is constantly moving and banking with the violence of the current. The boat stuck on it, and would have upset imme- diately, if the men had not jumped into the water aud held her till the sand washed from under her." The Osages are twelve or thirteen hundred warriors. In person they are among the largest and best formed Indians, and are said to possess fine military capacities ; but residing as they do in villages, and having made considerable "advance in agriculture, they seem less addicted to war than their northern neighbours." Their complacent adherence to the belief, as here stated, concerning their origin, is an illustra- tion of the omnipotence of self-love : they think never the worse of themselves from being all descended from a snail. THE OSAGES LINEALLY DESCENDED EKOM A SNAIL AND A BEATEB. " According to universal belief, the founder of the nation was a snail, passing a quiet existence along the banks of the Osage, till a high ilood swept him down to the Missouri, and left him exposed on the shore. The heat of the sun at length ripened him into a man, but with the change of his nature he had not forgotten his native seats on the Osage, towards which he immediately bent his way. He was, however, soon overtaken by hunger and fatigue, when happily the Great Spirit appeared, and giving him a bow and arrow, showed him how to kill and cook deer, and cover himself with the skin. He then proceeded to his original residence ; but as he approached the river, he was met by abeaver, who inquired haughtily who he was, and by what authority he came to disturb his possession. The Osage answered that the river was his own, for he had once lived on its borders. As they stood disputing, the daughter of the beaver came, and having by her entreaties reconciled her fether to this young stranger, it was proposed that the Osage THE OSAaS INDIANS. 333 should marry the young beaver, and ahare with her family the enjoyment of the river. .The Osage readily consented, and from this happy union, there soon came the village and the nation of the Wasbasha, or Osages, who have ever since preserved a pioui; reverence for their ancestors, abstaining from the chase of the beaver, because in killing that animal they killed the brother of the Osage. Of late years, however, since the trade with the whites has rendered beaver skins more valuable, the sanctity of these maternal relatives has visibly diminished, and the poor animals have nearly lost all the privileges of kindred." THE AMERICAN PRAIRIES. The landscape, for many hundred miles of the progress, was chiefly a succession of extensive "prairies," sometimes on the level of the river ; sometimes a little rising, and widen- ing into an upper plain ; undulated sometimes ; intersected by a prodigious number of streams falling into the Missouri ; often broken by inconsiderable hills, which, when coming to the river, formed the kind of precipice called " bluif." There was generally wood of some kind near the courses of the rivers, and among it various fruit trees, such as plums, and some kinds of cherries : with gooseberry bushes, currants, and vines ; but there was on the whole no very large propor- tion of anything to be called fine timber. It would appear that ^a deficiency of wood is one of the most obvious charac- teristics of this vast western part of the continent. This nakedness would be quite unaccountable but for the Indian modes of employing fire, in consequence of which the country has been overrun with conflagrations, kindled in the long withered grass, devouring copse and underwood, and destroying the largest trees. Such burnings are often intentional, one object being to attract the buffaloes by the young sweet grass by which, at some seasons, the operation is sure to be speedily followed. At several points in the progress towards the station at the Mandans, the party saw ancient burying-gfbunds of the' Indians, mounds of earth of various forms and sizes, some of sand, and some of both earth and sand. Two hundred acres in one place were covered with them. At a spot on a hill (and the Indians affect elevated situations for .sepultures) there was a large recent one, raised over a distinguished chii'f of the Mahas, who had died of the small-pox, a malady which had destroyed a great portion of the tribe, 334 FOSTEEIANA. and which is regarded with the utmost horror by all th& Indians. When the Mahas saw their nation hopelessly perishing, " their frenzy was extreme : " — " They burnt their village, and many of them put to death their wives and children, to save them fifom so cruel an affliction, and that all might go together to some better country." THE SIOUX INDIANS. On reaching the domains of one of the sections of the Sioux, a nation distinguished into ten tribes, it was neces- sary for the party to exhibit conspicuously all the insignia and peremptory qualities of their nation. All went off, to use a very favourite word of our Captains, very " hand- somely." Flags were displayed, councils were held, speeches were made, medals, and decorated dresses, in gradations of value appropriate to ranks, were presented, or rather con- ferred, in the way of condescending recognition of the chiefs, on the part of the United States Government. The " Great Father " was alluded to in terms which could not have displeased, in his proudest times, the Great Mogul. There are, indeed, very few more striking phenomena on earth, than the rapid formation, under the auspices of the President, over a daily increasing extent of a vast continent, of the rudiments of a nation which may require much less than a century from this time, to grow to a number, a strength, and an importance, which may empower it to look down on the inferiority of any European state. THE TANKTONS. The Yanktons are the most numerous branch of the Sioux, though not reckoned in all at more than seven hundred warriors. They were stout in person, and had a certain air of dignity and boldness. They promised to make peace with their enemies, and begged that American traders might be sent among them with powder and ball, and seemed anxious to be supplied with some of " their Great Father's milk," the name by which they distinguish ardent spirits. The most remarkable circumstance in their economy, and which is common to them with the Kite Indians, is ^n institution strikingly contradistinguished from the usual cautious spirit and stealthy mode of savage warfare. THE YANKTONS. 385 "?t is an association of the most active and brave young men, ■who are bound to each other by attachment, secured by a vow, never to retreat before any danger, or to give way to their enemies. In war they go forward without sheltei'ing themselves behind trees, or aiding their natural valour by any artifice. This punctilious determination not to be turned from their course became heroic or ridiculous, a short time since, when the Yanktons were crossing the Missouri on the ice. A hole lay immediately in their course, which might easily' have been avoided, by going round. This the foremost of the band dis- dained to do, but went straight forward, and was lost. The others would have followed his example, but were forcibly pre- vented by the rest of the tribe. These young men sit, and encamp, and dance together, distinct from the rest of the nation ; and such is the deference paid to their courage, that their seats in council are superior to those of the chiefs, and their persons more respected." FOUR ACREH OF LITTLE DOGS. Near this spot they found a space of four acres all worked into narrow deep holes, inhabited by a race of animals called little dogs, which may sometimes be observed sitting and whistling at the top of the holes. These partly resemble a diminutive dog, and partly a squirrel. They were seen in many otlier places. Some curious illustrations are given of the exquisite faculty of smelling, and the prodigious fleetness of the antelope. THE MANDANS. About the end of October the adventurers reached the villages of the Mandans, at the distance of sixteen hundred miles from St. Louis, reckoning by the serpentine course of the river, which they found still a noble one, after the sur- prising number of tributary streams which they had left behind. ,The inclemencies of the season were now coming, upon them with an ominous rapidity. But with a rival rapidity they built and furnished an ample, commodious, and fortified wooden barrack. The station soon became a very frequented and bustling scene. The Mandans are a considerable number, and the place became a rendezvous of parties of Minnetarees, Ahna- haways, Knistenaux, and Aasiniboins ; many of whom were drawn thither by the fame of the expedition. 336 FOSTEEIANA. THE MEDICINE MAN. It is affirmed that they hold the belief of one Great Spirit presiding over their destinies ; and they maintain the beneficial relation with this being by means of mediators : each one selects, perhaps at the suggestion of accident, some object, either a supposed invisible agent, or more commonly some of the animal tribes, to be his protector, and inter- cessor with the Great " Spirit.'' It is a remarkable circnmstance that they apply the term " Medicine " to these intercessors, and also to the Great Spirit. But the application of this term does not decidedly attribute goodness, for it is applied also to whatever strikes them as mysterious ; in fact, the term is applied to some things that are dreaded. This superstition is so sincere and strong, as to extoft great sacrifices. " I was lately owner of seventeen horses," said a Mandan to us one day, '' but I have offered them all up to my medicine, and am now poor." He had in reality taken all his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and turning them loose, committed them to the care of his medicine, and abandoned them for ever. The occasion of a man's making any considerable sacrifice to what he may have adopted as his tutelary genius, or " medicine," is solemnized with a festive ceremony called the " medicine dance." INDIAN FEROCITY. There is a pleasing instance or two of affectionate kindness in these savages, counterpoised by instances of flagrant bar- barity. The mention of a visit from the grand chief of the Minnetarees, introduces a story of one of his wives having eloped with a paramour, whose desertion of her compelled her to take refuge in her father's house. Thither the offended husband went, and found her sitting near the fire. " Without noticing his wife he began to smoke with the father ; when they were joined b^? the old men of the village, who knowing his temper, had followed in hopes of appeasing him. He continued to smolse quietly with them, till rising to return, he took his wife by the hair, led her as far the door, and with a single stroke of his tomahawk put her to death before her father's eyes ; then, turning fiercely upon the spectators, he said that if any of her relations wished to avenge her, they might always find him at his lodge." INDIAN FEEOOITY. 337 This liideous transaction perhaps hardly violated the rule of right as admitted among these spectators ; for among tlie Mandans, at least, according to our authors, the simple fact of a wife's running away from her husband gives him the right to put her to death. Such an infliction, for such a cause, was in one instance only just prevented by the inter- ference of the travellers. But the reader is not to fancy that these severirties indicate the establishment of a high standard of conjugal morality among these rigorous justiciaries. There is nothing they hold in slighter esteem ; they most willingly make a traffic of their wives and sisters, and also make temporary presents of them where they are disposed to oblige. But theirs must be the gain or the merit of the complaisance ; and great is their indignation and sense of wrongs if the females presume of their own authority to dispose of themselves in such a way. Indeed, it is just the old story of lords and slaves, of owners and disposable property. The imposition of drudgery is 'insepa- rable from the degraded estimate ; and we are repeatedly told of one or other chief bringing in a present of meat, sometimes a heavy one, "on the back of his squaw," himself walking much at his ease, and no doubt in all the upright dignity of manhood. INDIAN ENDURANCE OF COLD. The fort was in the forty-eighth degree of latitude. The cold was sometimes quite formidable, the thermometer being in one or two instances at more than seventy degrees below the freezing point. To these, rigours the Indians manifest the most astonishing insensibility. One night, when the cold was of the intensity here mentioned, an Indian who had not been able to reach the fort, slept on the snow, in a slight dress, and without a fire, and was never the worse. A boy, indeed, in the same predicament, had his feet so frost-bitten, that he afterwards lost his toes. We are even still more surprised at the hardihood evinced by the men of the expedition themselves, in sustaining, in their hunting excursions, the nocturnal severities of the climate. VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. On the 7th of April they set off in high spirits, to the ' z 6S8 FOSTEEIANA. number of thirty-two persons, one of these being the Indian wTj of their French interpreter,, with an infant which had be^n born at the fort. Near the place which they note as the remotest point to which any white man had ever been known to ascend the riyer, they observed in the cliffs many thick strata of car- bonated wood ; saw one of these cliffs or bluffs on fire in different parts, and throwing out a sulphureous smoke ; perceived in the neighbouring hills unquestionable marks of a volcanic state in some former age. Many of the streams were impregnated with salt. There were various deserted Indian camps. Near one of these was a scaffold about seven feet high, on which were two sleds with their harness, and under it the body of a female, carefully wrapped in several dressed buffalo skins; near it lay a bag made of buffalo skin, containing a pair of moccasins, some red and blue paint, beaver's nails, scrapers for dressing hides, some dried roots, several plaits of sweet grass, and a small quantity of Mandan tobacca These things, as well as the body itself, had probably fallen down by accident, as the custom is to place them on the scaffold. At a little distance was the body of a dog not yet decayed, who had met this reward for having dragged thus far in the sled the corpse of his mistress, to whom, according to the Indian usage, he had been sacrificed. BEAE-SHOOTING ADVENTURE. Beyond the confluence of the Yellowstone river, a noble stream, with the Missouri, the banks and sandbars were, in one of the stages, covered with a white incrustation of salt- like frost. In this region they found immense quantities of game, and had some perilous rencounters with white and brown bears, whose astonishing tenacity of life renders their ferocity and strength doubly formidable. Our English gentlemen of the field would doubtless be much at their ease in sueh a predicament as the following : — " Towards evening the men in the hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds, about three hundred paces from the river : six of them, all good hunters, immediately went to attack him ; and concealing themselves by a small eminence, came unperceived within forty paces of him. Flour of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in hia BEAR-SHOOTING ADVENT0EE. 3391 body, two of them directly through the lungs. The furious animal sprang up, and ran open-mouthed at them ; as he came near, the two hunters who had reserved their fire gave him two wounds, one of which, breaking his shoulder, retarded his motion for a moment ; but before they could reload he was so near them, that they were obliged to run into the river, and before they reached it he had almost overtaken them ; two jumped into the canoe ; the other four separated, and concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast as each could reload ; they struck him several times, but instead of weakening the monster, each shot seemed only to direct him towards the hunter, till at last he pursued two of them so closely, thai they threw aside their guns and pouches, and lumped down a perpendicular precipice of twenty feet into the river. The bear sprang after them^ and was within a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters on the shore shot him in the head, and finally killed him ; they dragged him to the shore, and found tha^t eight balls had passed through him in difierent directions." In another instance one of these brown bears survived twenty minutes, and swam to a sand-bar in the river, not- withstanding five balls through the lungs, and other wounds. Much about the same time one of the men came running breathless and speechless to the river, having been chased half a mile by a brown bear which he had " shot through the centre of the lungs." A party landed and tracked him by the blood to a place more than a mile from where he had stopped in the pursuit of the man. Two hours, at least after he had received the wound, they found him alive, lying in a kind of bed or grave which he had dug for him- self with his talons, in the earth, two feet deep and five feet long. BUFFALO DECOY.* The notice of the remains of a vast number of the carcases of the- buffaloes lying by the edge of the river, at the foot of a precipice a hundred and twenty feet high, introduces a very curious description of a most murderons contrivance of the Indians, for obtaining in the speediest way, for themselves and the wolves, a grand revel in carnage. An Indian, selected for his swiftness and dexterity, is disguised in a buffalo skin, with the horns and ears disposed in a way to resemble their appearance in the living animal, " See an interesting account of thia ia Catlin's Norti, American Indians, Vol. I., p. 126— 3(L 2. 2. 340 rOSTERIANA. He places himself between the river, where the bank is a precipice, and any herd of buffaloes conveniently near it, the other Indians at the same time contriving to get behind and on both sides of the herd. The buffaloes, suddenly assailed thus on three sides, run of course in the direction of the decoy, who runs before them to the precipice, on reaching which he suddenly betakes himself to some crevice previously fixed on. " The herd being thus. brought to the brink of the precipice,- it is in vain for the foremost to attempt to retreat or even stop ; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who, seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till the whole are precipitated, and the shore is strewn with their dead bodies." Sometimes the treacherous Indian proves mistaken as to the safety of his position, and is involved in the destruction. THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. It was near this spot that an appearance highly interesting to our adventurers presented itself, — the snowy sunmiits of the grand ridge called the Kocky Mountains, in which they were to lose the Missouri, and on the other side of which they were anxiously to look for the streams that should bear them to the Pacific Ocean. A still nearer 9bject of anxiety, however, was, when at the confiuence of two large rivers, to determine which was the true Missouri, or rather, now, the Ahmateahza of the Indians, which they had described as approaching, at its source, very near the great river of the West, the Oregon, or, as the Americans choose to name it, the Columbia. The question cost a laborious investigation of a number of days ; and the two captains must have gained considerably in the respectful estimation of the men, when they proved to be right in the opinion they had decidedly entertained, against the opposite opinion as decidedly enter- tained by all the party. The proof was to be a succession of cataracts ; and in following the more southern stream, Captain Lewis came at length within the sound of falling water, and soon after saw at a distant spot an appearance of spray, rising like a column of smoke, and driven by the wind across the plain. As he advanced the sound became tremendous ; but he had walked seven miles from the point THE KOOKY MOtJNTAIJJS. 84; ■where he first heard it, before he came in sight of th« magnificent scene. AMBEICAN CATAEACTS. The succession of falls, including what are called rapids, amounts to more than twenty, occupying about fifteen miles of the course of the river. Within this length it has a descent of three hundred and fifty-two feet. Though the greater number of falls and rapids are inconsiderable, they would make no mean figure if they were in other situations ; there is one fall of nineteen feet, one of near fifty, and one of eighty-seven. In approaching this tremendous precipita- tion the river descends thirteen feet in two hundred yards, and is compressed by its channel of rock, to th^ breadth of tsv'o hundred and eighty yards. About one-third of this breadth falls in a " smooth even sheet." '•■ The remaining part of the river precipitates itself with a more rapid current, but being received as it falls by the irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below, forms a splendid prospect of perfectly white foam, two hundred yards in length. This spray is dissipated into a thousand shapes, sometimes flying up in columns of fifteen or twenty feet, which are then oppressed by larger masses of the white foam, on all which the sun impresses the brightest colours of the rainbow. As it rises from the fall it beats with fury against a ledge of rocks which extend across the river at one hundred and fifty yards from the precipice." The formidable impression of these cataracts was aggra- vated by the frequent spectacle of buffaloes carried down, sometimes ten or a dozen within a few minutes. They " go in large herds to water about the falls, and as all the passages to the river near that place are narrow and steep, the fore- most are pressed into the river by the impatience of those behind. Their mangled bodies, when cast on the bank, become food for the multitude of bears, wolves, and birds of prey, that frequent this vicinity. The number of buffaloes seen on the adjacent plains was most prodigious ; one of our captains computed those he saw at one view upwards of ten thousand." But an accessory to the scene, more striking than all the rest, was a mysterious sound heard from the mountains to the north-west. It resembled the report of artillery dis- 842 FOSTERIANA. charged at the distance of a few miles. It occurred at any time, indififerently, of the day or night, and was sometimes a single explosion, and sometimes five or six in quick succes- sion. It is a permanent circumstance, for the party had long before been informed by the Indians, that they would have such a sound when at the falls. It is loud and very imposing. No attempt to account for it is hazarded. The only reasonable conjecture is, that among those "Black Mountains," as they are here denominated, there must be a volcano, habitually in action. But this region, so much surpassing the pictures of romance and poetry, was to the party a place of severe hard labour ; for these magnificent cataracts caused them nearly twenty miles of land carriage for their boats, stores, and baggage, excepting what they lodged in a kind of vaults, or caches, under ground. Resuming the voyage, the party soon advanced into what are denominated the " Gates of the Rocky Mountains," a cleft apparently forced and worn, during unknown ages, by the stream, which here has a channel to be matched by few other streams ; for on either hand the rocks rise perpendicu- larly to the height of twelve hundred feet ; and so precisely from the very edges of the water, that for miles there is not a spot nor a ledge where a man could stand. The water is deep at the edges, and the current is strong. " Nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks, which project over the river and menace destruction." THE SNAKE INDIANS. They soon after arrived at what they call the "three forks " of the river, across the mountains to the great River of the West. Here, at the last navigable point of the stream, the band were to find their way across the mountains. In order to this it was absolutely necessary to hunt out the Indians ; and at length they discovered a camp of the tribe denominated Shoshonees, a division of the widely scattered and undefined nation called Snake Indians. The moody fickleness of these wild animals, and the state of excessive suspicion and apprehension in which they were kept by the deadly hostility of a stronger tribe of savages, required a THE SNAKE INDIANS. 343 course of the nicest management to bring them to trust them- selves to meet the white men. It was not that they were in the least afraid of the white men i on the contrary, thpy had manifested an excessive joy on ascertaining that he and his attendants were of that species ; but they were afraid lest they should be inveigled into a very diflferent rencounter. Tliis object naccomplished, all was immediately exultation and confidence. Sacajawea, the Indian woman of the expedition, was almost overwhelmed with affectionate emotion on meeting a young female friend, who had at the same time as herself been carried away captive by the Minnetarees, and on suddenly recognising soon afterwards her brother in the Indian camp. The manners and conditions of this tribe are very inter- esting. As game is scarce in the country, and they have no better weapons -than the bow and arrow, they seem in constant danger of perishing by hunger, notwithstanding the aid afforded them in the chace by'their fine horses, which they ride with consummate skill and daring. It was quite deplorable to see the whole numerous band put into the most eager and tumultuous commotion, by the intelUgerice of one of Captain Lewis's hunters having killed a deer, and to see theta falling upon the offal with more than the ravenousness of wolves. It was very striking, at the same time, to observe the punctilious sense with which they abstained, while their numbers would have made them irresistible, from touching any better portion of the animal, which they regarded as belonging to the white hunter and his companions. There are several other facts concurring to prove a very unusual degree of integrity in these unfortunate people. CKOSSTNG THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS. The travellers had now very great cause to be anxious about the passage to be sought through the mountains. All the geographical knowledge of the Shoshonees was put in requisition, and the. results were in no small degree intimi- dating. An impetuous river, which at no great distance was to be found flowing first to the north-west, and afterwards to the west, among rocks and mountains, was represented as totally unnavigable. There was no resource, therefore, but to cross the mountainous track altogether by land. Having 3 14 FOSTEKIANA. purchased, with considerable difficulty, about thirty horses of the Shophonees, to carry their stores, they commenced the most formidable part of their adventure, and after a month's journey reached the western base of the mountains. The exertion was most severe for both the men and the horses ; and to the men it was aggravated by such a deficiency of sustenance as amounted, during the latter part of the time, to absolute famine. They were consequently reduced to great debility. At every stage numbers of Indians, of various denomina- tions, came to behold the strange spectacle, and to barter provisions, consisting of roots, dried salmon, and dogs, for which last dainty the civilized men had acquired much more courageous stomachs than the savages. The quantity of salmon, in the process of curing, or already prepared and stowed, by the Indians, or lying dead on the banks, or returning down the river to the sea, was incredible. DESCENDING THE RAPIDS. The vast number of rapids the party had descended had well prepared them for the furious currents denominated the Falls, not very far from the sea. Through deep rocky channels the torrent dashes and boils and whirls with inde- scribable tumult and violence. As there was no possibility of taking the canoes on land, to be carried below the falls, the most valuable of the stores were put on shore, with such of the party as could not swim ; the rest addressed themselves to the dreadful career, and in a few moments found themselves riding in safety on the gulfs below. Another impetuous rapid ended in an absolute cataract ; here, of course, the canoes were taken overland. A WINTER CAMP. At a short distance below this, the adventurers per- ceived the tide, and about a week afterwards had a view of the Pacific Ocean. This was an exhilirating triumph ; but of slight and temporary efficacy against the constant and harassing pressure of their situation ; for they had heavy rain every day for a month, were several nights forced to encamp on a confined shore where they were in extreme peril from the waves, slept drenched in rain, had A WINTER CAMP. 345 their' clothes and bedding rotted, and most of their stores damaged or spoiled, and were buffeted about many days before they could find an eligible spot for constructing a fort for the winter. This was at length accomplished, and they remained in the station more than four months. The transactions of the winter, besides numerous adven- tures, bring into view an extensive illustration of the character and condition of the various Indian tribes in the neighbourhood, and of the whole race on the waters of the Columbia. In general, they are sufficiently cunning, self- interested, and inclined to theft ; but are not particularly formidable. AMERICAN INDIAN NOTIONS OF PHRENOLOGY. Their persons are unpleasing to the last degree, a com- bination of repulsive circumstances being crowned by that artificial and superlative ugliness, the flattened head. A little compressing machine is fixed on the head of each infant, and kept on as much as a year, so that it determines the form for life. That form is a broad flat forehead, in a right line from the nose to the top of the head, which top of the head is a thin ridge like the edge of a cake. Both sexes are thus finished off, but the women in a broader and thinner disc than the men. The women and the old people are treated with more consideration by these pacific fishing tribes than among the more dignified and martial hunting nations of the Missouri. The men take a much larger share in the labours necessary for subsistence. The virtue of the women is quite as cheap as in any other part of the continent. All the people of the coast are very sharp and avaricious barterers, taught partly by their intercourse with the American and the English traders, who sometimes appear in these seas. Towards the end of March our adventurers broke up their camp, to return, and, after numerous adventures and perils, they I finally came in triumph to St. Louis, where their friends received them with the greater joy, from having for a long time been convinced that they had perished. 34(5 RUSSIAN CONQUESTS IN ASIA. A great military empire, with boundaries imperfectly, or on some sides not at all defined, may be compared to a monstrous animal, of fearful power and ferocity, ranging loose in a country, — no chain, no high and massive wall, no kind of fence but what he will easily-dash through in the wantonness of enraged strength. No one can say what is the appropriate domain of this monster at large. No one is surprised to hear of his attack and ravage at any point in the widest sweep of country. No one dares indulge in self- felicitation that his own vicinity is beyond the probable excursions of the formidable belligerent. No confidence is felt by the inhabitants of one quarter, that the people of any other will be able to despatch or disable him ; and each person has the impression that there is no manner of certainty he shall not, at one time or other, be one of the victims. This would seem to be a true, though rather feeble image, of what the condition has been, and continues to be, as respecting the Eussian power, of the nations occupying the northern regions of two of the grand divisions of the globe. Perhaps, at the time of the earlier encroachments of this power on adjacent territories and subjugation of their inhabitants, the remoter tribes might scorn the pusillanimity of the conquered, exulting in their own independence and sec;urity. But, in the lapse of one or two score of years, they found themselves brought into an equivocal and formidable kind of neighbourhood to this still advancing and never-receding domination. In spite of their pride, they felt themselves beginning to hesitate in naming as their territory, or even as their boundary, the eminences or -the river-courses on every side of which they had formerly dwelt or encamped or roved, without ever dreaming of interference. But they were not doomed to remain long in uncertainty ; Russian standards and Russian forts were soon to instruct them to whom they and their country belonged. In proportion to the rapidity of the course of acquisition by which a great number of territories and states had been * Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia, in J 807 and 1808, by Com- mand of the Russian QoTernment. By Julius Von Klaproth. 4to. 1814. RUSSIAN CONQUESTS IN ASIA. 347 thus put in doubt, and thus brought to certaintj, the condi- tion of the surrounding regions, to an undefinable distance, was becoming dubious ; and the people might well begin to feel as if the Russian boundary line were already hovering •in the air over the land of their fathers, just ready to attach upon and appropriate it. This irresistible extension has been going on without cessation, till at length this power is, upon a line of many thousands of miles, in formidable con- tiguity, and with a boundary quite as impatiently moveable as ever, to divers tracts, kingdoms, and empires, the people of which, a few generations back, heard of Russia as a distant, obscure state, striving, in a rude and inartificial manner, to raise itself into some importance. No prognos- ticator of the fortunes of states dares draw on the map in advance beyond the present certain or unsettled confine of this empire, the line which shal} not be lost within the con- fine twenty years hence. In the meantime, it is perfectly proper and laudable, that while this vast process of acquisition is advancing uninter- mittingly, there should be in as constant operation a system of exploring and describing, by divisions, the almost immeasurable territory comprehended in the empire, of which far more than a million of square miles is ground nearly as little known by the grand Proprietary, as that at the centre of Africa. EELIGION OP THE CIRCASSIANS. Of the economy of the Circassians — or, as we are required to write and call them, Tscherkessians — the Ingusches, and the Mongols, in their civil, moral, and religious habits, the author gives an extended and elaborate exhibition. Their r'eligion occupies a very conspicuous place in the representation. It is that of the Lamas : in other words that of a Buddha or Fo ; which is the religion of Tibet and of China. Many parts of the frivolous and endless ritual, as observed by the Mongols, are recounted, and with all imaginable seriousness on the part of the philosophic describer. If the representation is accurate, it would appear that the worshippers of Buddha have not much to boast, on the score of liberty or rationality, over those of the Hindoo triad. The system is mainly composed 348 FOSTEEIANA. of ridiculous trifles, and every concern of life almost is- implicated with them. It is marvellous it should have been possible for a race so irregular and .excursive, to become subjected to so Dunctilious and insatiable a ceremonial. CIRCASSIAN PEATING MACHINES. There is nothing in whiqh the human mind has mani- fested more ingenuity, than in relieving itself under the exactions of conscience, by contrivances for the abridgment and facilitation of duty. One of the most admirable things of this kind in the whole world has been fallen upon by these overtasked barbarians. The device in question may be denominated a praying machine, or a prayer-wheel, or a prayer-mill. " Among the most remarkable of the sacred utensils of the temples, is the Kiirda, a cylindrical vessel of wood or metal, either very small or of immense size. The interior of the cylinder, which is quite hollow, is filled with sacred writings, the leaves of which are all stuck one to another at the edge, through- out the whole length. This paper is rolled tightly round the axis of the cylinder, till the whole space is filled up. A close cover is fixed on at each end, and the whole Kiirda is very neatly finished, painted on the outside with allegorical representations, or Indian prayers, and varnished. This cylinder is fastened upright in a frame by the axis ; so that, by means of a wheel attached to it below, it may be set a-going with a string ; and with a slight pull kept in a constant rotatory motion. When this cylinder is large, another, twice as small, and filled with writing, is fixed for ornament on the top of it. The inscriptions on such prayer- wheels commonly consist of masses for sotils, psalms, and the six great general litanies, in which the most moving petitions are presented for the welfare of all creatures. The text. they sometimes repeat a hundred or even a thousand times, attributing from superstition a proportionably augmented effect to this repetition, and believing that by these frequent copies, combined with their thousands of revolutions, they will prove so much the more efficacious. You frequently see, as well on the habitations of the priests as on the whole roof of the temple, small Kiirda placed close to each other, in rows, by way of ornament ; and not only over the gate, but likewise in the fields, frames set up expressly for these praying machines, which instead of being moved by a string, are turned by means of four sails by the wind. CIRCASSIAN PKAYING MACHINES. 849- " Other similar Kiirda are fastened to sticks of moderate thickness ; a leaden weight is then fastened to the cylinder by a. string, which, when it is once set a-going, keeps it with the help of the stick, in constant motion. Such like prayer-wheels, neatly wrought, are fastened upon short sticks to a small wooden pedestal, and stand upon the altars for the use of pious persons. While the prayer-wheel is thus turned round with one hand, the devotee takes the rosary in the other, and at the same time repeats penitential psalms. " A foui-th kind of these Kiirda is adapted to be hung up by a cord in the chimneys, where they are set in motion by the smoke and the current of air. " A fifth kind of Kiirda is erected on a stream, upon a foun- dation like that of a mill, over which a small house is built to protect it irom the weather. These water-Kiirda are maintained at the joint expense of the inhabitants of a whole district. They have a reference t^ all aquatic animals, whether alive or dead, whose temporal and eternal happiness is the aim of the writings contained in them : in like manner as the object of the fire Kiirda is the salvation of all animals suffering by fire." ■WOODEN PEAYEK-BOOKS. The other parts of the apparatus of the superstition are numerous and diversified. A very important and valued portion of it consists in the books. " All the works Oi India and Tibet," says our author, " are not only translated in the Mongol language, but likewise cut in the neatest manner in wood, and printed ; so that these nations, after the example of several Chinese Mongolian provinces, perform the whole of their religious worship in their mother tongue." The devoutest bibliographer could not manifest more reverence for his collections, than all these people seem to do for their sacred literary rubbish, no piece of which must be looked into without previously obtaining its blessing by touching it with folded hands and bowed head. Near large collections of books a small altar is expressly erected, at which offerings are made and incense burned for the works. At a public removal of them, parti- cular ceremonies, accompanied with prayer and music, are observed. All of them, "with regard to the subject- matter, are of Indian origin, and you meet with no altera- tions in religious customs, and the service of the temples." 350 FOSTERIAliA. THE MASTER BOOK OF THE WORLD. They participate with the Chinese the glory of posse3s;rii| the master-book of the whole world, written at the imme- diate dictation of their superhuman prophet Schigimunih, by his disciples. " It is denominated by these people Gandshuhr, or miraculous Pillar of Religion. It consists of 108 prodigious volumes, to which belong twelve more of mythology, called Jomm, and with the exposition entitled Bandskuhr, comprises in the whole 240 volumes. No part of their sacred writings is so highly valued as this. In all Mongolia and Tibet, no person can, under a very severe penalty, procure or keep this work without a written permission from the Dalai Lama, or the Emperor of China. At the reading of these books particular ceremonies must be observed : the rich only can yearly defray the heavy expenses attending it, on account of the great number of ecclesiastics required on the occasion, and that not without the consent and permission of a great Lama." PKIESTCKAFT. Priestcraft is flagrantly manifest in all possible ways. Turn wherever they will, these poor i'dolaters meet the priest. They are to dismount from their horses when they see him coming ; they are to bend down their heads before him ; they must provide his sustenance unpaid ; they must send for him and reward him in capacity of physician, if they are sick. And then, he is not an animal the plague Oi whose omm-voracity is alleviated by the small number of his genus : it is a genus abounding and swarming on all sides, to a degree indeed that would make us wonder how the rest of the community can live. SANOTIFIOATION OF SHADOWS. There is a very curious account of the examination for priests' orders, and of the process of ordination We transcribe a short paragraph. The examination having been gone through, and the candidate's determination being unchanged : — '' At an appointed hour both master and disciple go out into the open air : here in the sun-shine the shadow of the scholar, who sits engaged in prayer, is accurately traced upon the groond, while he repeats the conifession prescribed by the SANCTIFICATION OF SHADOWS. 351 V forma of the examination. To this sketch of the shadow are added some highly mystical a.strological figures, which relate to various problems, by the solution of which all the steps and stages to the demonstration of the formula of this ordination are determined." The more of solemn juggle the better, for the purpose of giving the priests that importance and complete ascendancy v/hich it is the very object and essence of the whole system to secure for them, and which, according to our author, they do actually maintain. " The clergy," says he, " govern all minds, and whether in unity or discord they invariably guide the helm. In all joint undertakings they are very resolute, but at the same time very circumspect." MONGOL SUPERSTITIONS IN THE BUILDING OF TEMPLES. A very particular account is given of the superstitious prescriptions indispensable to be observed in the building of temples, which are constructed after the fashion of Tibet. So many local circumstances must meet to make an approved site for a temple, that we might almost be disposed to thank the gods for exempting ninety-nine hundredths of the surface of the earth from the hazard of being so defiled. These temples could not fail, and have not failed, to be con- stituted as general receiving offices for the tributes of superstition, paid during life, and by bequest after death : for even people of moderate fortune, says our author, at their death bequeath part of their property not only to the clergy, but to the possessions of the temple. THE LAMA RELIGION.' No clear notion is afforded of the dogmas of the Lama religion ; but several of the forms of devotion are translated from the Mongol language, and are sung once a month in the most solemn manner in their temples. These forms appear composed for the most part of unconnected sentences : some of them are pure nonsense, overspread with a glimmer of mysticism ; and some are petitions essentially absurd, to whatever power they were addressed. Of this last descrip- tion are such as these : — " May hailstorms, and stones that wound the feet of the traveller, be henceforth changed into flowers, and showers of flowers ; " " May the voice of death be no more heard," &c., &c., &c. 352 FOSTERIANA. DOMESTIC ALTAES OF THE MONGOLS. The sincerity of the Mongols in their superstition is attested by the extension of its apparatus and rites into all their abodes. " Besides the public temples, and the numerous habitations of the priests in the country, which are in every respect the representatives of temples, all the nomadic tribes professing the Lama religion have in each habitation a holy place and altar, and certain sacred utensils for their domestic worship. This place is invariably on the side of their huts opposite to the entrance, and a little to the left as you go in. Wealthy people keep in their spacious houses large decorated altars and utensils for their service, which are not inferior to those of the temples in value and magnificence. Even the poorest Mongol cannot live without an altar pr consecrated palace in his habitation." ' THE TSCHERKESSIASS, OR CIRCASSIANS. The Tscherkessians, though a race of so much less local extension than the Mongols, are next in importance. They are fierce barbarians, in a state of utter predatory wildness. They are suspicious and revengeful, and will for a mere trifle or punctilio cut a man down. At the same time they fulfil all the laws of hospitality with a proud honour, and inviolable fidelity. Within the last half-century they are become for the most part Mahometans, being previously little other than absolute heathens. Their language is affirmed to be " totally different from every other." There is no writing in it. Their political state is completely feudal There is a class called princes. Each of these is the proprietor of a number of families, by courtesy called nobles ; and these nobles inherit the men-cattle beneath them. There are no regular taxes ; whatever is required by the upper people is furnished by the lower. These requisitions are not seldom as oppressive as they are arbitrary. The highest . value is set on the true ancient quality blood, insomuch that no man is deemed to be of noble blood whose family is ever known to have been ignoble, even though it may have given birth to several kings. A prince commits his son, when only a few days old, to the care of one or other of his THE TSCHERKESSIANS, OB CIRCASSIANS. 353 nobles, and never sees him till the time of the young map's marriage. Hence, says, our author, results the utmost indifference between the nearest relations. A prince reddens with indignation when he is asked concerning the health of his wife and children, makes no reply, and com- monly turns his back on the inquirer in contempt. It would be in vain for us to attempt to enumerate the multitude of tribes that are scattered among the villages, mountains, lakes, and steppes of the wild region of the Caucasus, or to trace the line of the Russian boundary, or to state the precise kind of relation between the frontier authorities of .that empire and such tribes as may not yet be quite swallowed up. By our author's account it should seem that this great monopolist (the emperor) is very cordially hated by these innumerable hordes of wild people ; at the same time that their hostility to one another enables the Russian government to maintain its power among them by means of a military force quite contemptible in point of number and fortresses. CLARKE AND HUMBOLDT.* Db. Clarke's lot, in the great distribution of the business of authorship, is one of the most enviable of the age. Pro- bably he himself, in looking round on his contemporaries, sees scarcely one with whom, if that were possible, he would exchange ; certainly not one among the multitude of travellers, with the single splendid exception of M. Humboldt. The first volume traced him across the Russian empire, from north to south, and left him at the metropolis of the Mohanmiedans. Thence the narration in the second volume carried him to the Troad, to Rhodes, to Egypt, to Cyprus, and to the Holy Land, and left him at Acre on his return towards Egypt. • Travels into various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Part II. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Vols. II. and III. 4to. 1816. A 'A 35.1 rOSTEEIANA. THE PACHA OP ACRE. The. traveller and his companion'quitted Acre for the last time, under the renewed and final benediction of the famous old Djezzar Pasha, who did not long, it seems, survive their visit. He was evidently fast declining at the time, and was sensible of it himself, but with good reason was very careful to conceal it from his subjects, well knowing the advantage that would be taken. In his last moments he felt an amiable concern to secure tranquillity to his successor in the government ; and, not content with a mere idle avowal of this benevolence, he gave it practical effect by an "energetic" act, which very characteristically consummated the glory of his whole life. " The person whom he fixed upon for his successor, was among the number of his prisoners. Having sent for this man, he made known his intentions to him ; telling him at the same time, that he would never enjoy peaceful dominion while certain of the princes of the country existed. These men were then living as hostages in Djezzar's power. ' You wiU not like to begin your reign,' said he, ' by slaughtering them ;' I wUl do that business for you.' Accordingly, ordering them to be brought before him, he had them all put to death in his presence. Soon afterwards he died, leaving, as he had predicted, the undisturbed possession of a very extensive territory to his successor, Ismael Pacha ; described by English travellers, who have since visited Acre, as a very amiable man, and in every- thing the very reverse of this Herod of his time." The notice of the ruins of an ecclesiastical building with pointed arches, at Acre, leads the author into a refutation of the notion, that this mode of architecture had its origin in England. He abounds with proofs to the contrary. THE SERPENT-EATERS Among a variety of curious notices of Rosetta, we have a description of "a most singular exhibition of the Serpent- eaters, or PsyUi, as mentioned by Herodotus, and by many ancient authors. A tumultuous throng, passing beneath the windows of our house, attracted our attention towards the quay ; here we saw a con- course of people following men apparently firantic, who, with every appearajice of convulsive agony, were brandishing live serpents, and then tearing them with their teeth ; snatching them from each other's mouths with loud cries and distorted SERPENT EATEKS. 355 features, and afterwards falling into the arms of the spectators, as if swooning ; the women all the while rending the air with their lamentations. Pliny often mentions these jugglers ; and as their triclis have been noticed by other travellers, it is only now necessary to attest the existence of this extraordinary remnant of a very ancient custom." THE PLAGUES OF EGTPT. In his passage towards Cairo the author was struck with the prodigious fertility of the soil of the Delta, of which the best watered portions produce three crops a year, the first of clover, the second of corn, the third- of rice ; and then there are " never-ending plantations of melons and of all kinds of garden vegetables ; so that, from the abundance of its produce, Egypt may be deemed the richest country in the world." But never was superlative applause more com- pletely neutralized by an account of the other parts of the character, than in this instance : — " To strangers, and particularly to inhabitants of northern countries, where wholesome air and cleanliness are among the necessaries of life, Egypt is the most detestable region upon earth. Upon the retiring of the Nile, the country is one vast swamp. An atmosphere impregnated with every putrid and offensive exhalation, stagnates, like the filthy pools over which it broods. Then the plague regularly begins, nor ceases until the waters return again. The ravages in the French army, caused by the plague during the month of April, at one time amounted to a hundred men in a single day. Throughout the spring, intermitting fevers universally prevail. About the beginning of May certain winds cover even the sands of the desert with the most disgusting vermin. Lice and scorpions abound in all the sandy desert near Alexandria. The latest descendants of Pharaoh are not yet delivered from the evils which fell upon the land when it was smitten by the hand of Moses and Aaron : the ' plague of frogs,' the ' plague of lice,' the 'plague of flies,' the 'murrain, boils, and blains,' prevail, -so that the whole country is ' corrupted,' and ' the diist of the earth becomes lice, upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt! This application of the words of Scripture, affords a literal exposition of existing facts, such a one as the statistics of the country do now warrant. Sir Sydney Smith informed the author, that one night, preferring a bed upon the sand of the desert to a night's lodging in the village of Etko, as thinking to be secure from vermin, he found himself entirely covered with them." AA 2 356 FOSTERIANA. TUMOUBS PKODUCED BT IMPURE 'WATER. Drinking the water of the Nile during the period of ita overflow, is apt to produce a disorder called " prickly heat," which often " terminates in those dreadful wounds alluded to in Scripture by the words ' boils and blains.' " Such an effect will not be wondered at after hearing what are the ingredients of the potion. " The torrent is everywhere dark with mud ; " a ladle or bucket dipped into it will bring up a quantity of animalculas ; " tadpoles and young frogs are so numerous that, rapid as the current flows, there is no part of the Nile where the water does not contain them." Putting, however, the drinking out of the question, and regarding the river as an element to float and journey upon, Dr. Clarke says it affords a most delightful contrast to the heat, the sand, the dirt, and the vermin, which co-operate to plague almost out of his life the traveller by land. THE CITY OP CAIRO AlTD ITS INSALUBRITY. At Cairo, by means of a canal which intersects the city, the Englishmen visited the different quarters of it. There was great superabundance of diseases and plagues, the opthalmia, dysentery, and "boils of the Nile," with all manner of vermin that crawls or flies. " Such a plague of flies covered all things with their swarms, that it was impossible to eat without hiring persons to stand by every table with feathers or flappers, to drive them away." Lizards were crawling about in every apartment equally in the houses of rich and poor, and could fasten themselves on pendent mirrors and the glass of the windows. We have very lively descriptions of the people and customs of Cairo, while liveliness, our author says, is the thing totally wanting in all the inhabitants but the Arabs. Their disposition is " to exist without exertion of any kind ; to pass whole days upon beds and cushions, smoking and counting beads." This dulness generally pervades the habits and families of the residents from Europe. The people of Cairo were suffering much, at the very time the English were in possession of the city, from the barbarity of the Turks. One form in which it was exercised was particularly atrocious. They murdered, without cere- mony or restraint, wherever they met with them, the women THE CITY OF CAIRO AKD ITS INSALUBRITY. 357 who were known or suspected to have been married to, or to have cohabited with, men of the French army. They even accounted this a meritorious sort of religious sacrifice to the sanctity of the true faith. Multitudes were abandoned to this fate at the departure of the French, while some accom- panied the embarkation. Our author and his companions aided the escape of four young women, by dexterously managine; to conceal them in their djerm in descending the Nile SCENES ON BOARD A TURKISH FRIGATE. The Turkish frigate in which our travellers were privileged to pass over to Asia, was one of the most remarkable scenes into which they had ever been thrown, and would have been one of the most amusing if there had been no danger of starvation or of foundering. It was such a medley and hubbub of nations,, and jargons, and customs, and passions, and fooleries, crammed and conflicting together, as might well have obliterated all remembrances and images of any objects less striking than those of Egypt. The sea- manship too was incomparable, as might be guessed from the fact, of which 'they were assured, " that the super- annuated captain of the frigate had never been to sea before his present voyage ; that at the age of seventy he had espoused a relation of the Capudan Pasha, and obtained in consequence his appointment to the frigate : his nephew, a young man, had rather more experience, and held a station similar to that of first-lieutenant in our ships." " At night the spectacle on board was perhaps one of the roost striking which persons unaccustomed to venture with Turkish mariners can possibly witness. The ship seemed to be left ' pretty much to her own discretion ; every officer of the watoh ' being fast asleep, the port-holes all open, an enormous quantity of canvas let loose, and the passengers between decks, with paper lanterns, snoozing over their lighted . pipes ; while the sparks from these pipes, with pieces of ignited fungus, were flying in all directions. Now and then an unexpected roll called forth murmuring ejaculations of 'Allah !' or 'Mahmoud !' and a few were seen squatting singly, counting their prayers by their beads." One anecdote in this unparalleled story of a voyage, is exquisitely characteristic of the true believers. Dr. Clarke 358 FOSTBRIAKA. having casually met with a sextant, which had been taken from a French' prisoner, made an observation to ascertain the ship's position, arjd sent a respectful message to the captain, to inform him of " the latitude, and the probable distance from Rhodes, Finica Bay, Cyprus, &c." He was immediately summoned, and asked how he could pretend to know. The Doctor mentioned the sextant, and the observa- tions daily practised on board English and other ships. The sextant was instantly ordered to make its appearance : — " This instrument being altogether incomprehensible to him, he contented himself with viewing it in every direction, except that in which it might be used ; and stroking his long beard, said to a Eagusan, ' Thus it is always with these poor djours (infidels) ; they can make nothing out without some peeping contrivance of this kind : now we Turks require no sextants — we (pointing with his finger to his forehead) — we have our sextants here: " REFINEMENT OF MOHAMMEDAN JUSTICE. They quitted the ship at the island of Cos, where they stayed long enough to witness the refinement of Mohammedan jurisprudence, in a conviction of homicide by implication. A young man had destroyed himself m consequence of his being unsuccessful in his addresses to a young" woman ; the father of the girl was arrested and prosecuted on the incontrovertible allegation, that " if he had not had a daughter, , the deceased would not have fallen in love ; consequently, he would not have, been disappointed ; consequently, he would not have swallowed poison ; consequently, he would not have died." The father was sentenced to pay, to the state we suppose, eighty piastres, the rated value of the young man's life. GREEK MANUSCRIPTS AT PATMOS At Patmos, our active adventurers eagerly invaded the library of the Monastery of the Apocalypse j and a highly entertaining account is given of their researches and negotiations. The whole collection of books was in a state of extreme neglect and disorder. The printed books indeed had the accommodation of shelves, and some of them were in good^ondition ; and though the visitants soon discovered that the superior could not read, he said those were his favourites. Being asked respecting a pile of parchment GHEEK MANUSCRIPTS AT PATMOS. 359 volumes which were seen on the floor at the end of the apartment, evidently in the manner of rubbish, he said, with an expression of contempt, they were manuscripts : — " It was indeed," says Dr. Clarke, " a moment in which a literary traveller might be supposed to doubt the evidence of his senses, for the whole of this contemned heap consisted of Greek manuscripts, and some of them were of the highest antiquity." Our author fell to digging in this heap with the most avaricious curiosity, and found " the fairest specimen of Grecian calligraphy which has descended to modern times, a copy of the twenty-four first dialogues of Plato, written throughout upon vellum, in the same exquisite character." This and a few others were purchased, and by means of a great deal of management, clandestinely got on board the caique ; the monks were extremely solicitous, and with reason, that the people of the island, and the Turkish authorities, should not know that they had touched a trifle of money. CLASSICAL AND SCKIPTUBAL ASSOCIATIONS. Id passing over Egypt and Greece, imagination itself is baffled in any attempt at a rapid flight ; it is fascinated and brought down to the ground, as birds are said to be by the bright eyes of some serpents ; and then it is surrounded, enthralled, and bemazed, by an infinity of spectres, returned as from Tartarus and Elysium, to haunt every region, track, and ruin. It is no easy matter to make an expeditious pro- gress through such an empire of captivating associations, antique solemnities, mysteries, muses, and splendours of Nature, with any guide ; but the difiiculty is considerably increased in the company of our author. We suffer a- perpetual incubus; the potencies of the Chaldean are so strong upon him, that at will, or even involuntarily, he fixes us to stones, or in caves, or in tombs, or on mountain summits, at the mercy of endless companies and flights of ideal shapes. 860 rOSTEKIANA. THE IDEAL FORMS OF ART * • There is a mixture of gratification and mortification in looking at such human forms as some of those in this work. It is flattering to see what the human lineaments are capable of ; but considerably mortifying to observe the palpable fact, that the human visage has not actually happened, in one instance in millions, if in any instance, to realize the high ideal form of dignity or of grace. It is really a very marvel- lous thing to reflect on, that a beauty and a grandeur of con- formation which human hands have so often worked out o a block of stone, should most rarely or never be found in the living existence of that race whose form is the prototype for all this excellence in art ; that man should be able to make images of himself of far nobler aspect than that which Nature ever makes him, or ever will make him, while the race is mortal. What may be his form on being made a second time from the dust, it is in vain to conjecture. If it were supposed (but we are infinitely far from being-willing to suppose), that the re-created and immortal bodies of good men will be modified to any form and lineaments analogous to the present corporeal frame, it would be somewhat pleasing, as relative to this anticipation, to observe the wonderful capabilities of these general human lineaments, as exemplified in the finest works of art. There can at the same time be no doubt that these ancient artists, while they aspired to and attained something superior to all the real objects around them, did actually behold finer models of the human countenance than are ordinarily to be . found in this part of the world in the later course of time. Among these marbles are several purporting to be, and admitted by the critics in art as probably being, portraits. There are heads of Pericles, Hippocrates, Periander, and Epicurus ; and several of them, especially the last very dignified one, are well adapted to intimate that heads and visages were cast in a finer mould at that time of day than now. There are several Fauns of fine form ; but it requires no * A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the British Museums. Parts I. and II. 1812, 1815. • THE IDEAL FORMS OF ART. 301 small degree of classical perversion of taste, to take any strong impression of human beauty beset with tail, horns, and pointed ears : the whole conception appears to us a very- degraded part of the elegant Pagan imagination. THE CELTIC CONTROVERSY.* Sir R, Hoare commences the volume with a kind of motto with which he also closes it : " We speak from facts, not theory." Notwithstanding this prudent resolution, and the hope- lessness of the controverted questions respecting the Celtic race, as to their origin and the exact extent of the regions which they at any period occupied, he does venture a little on the treacherous ground. In the commencement of his introduction, he derives the Celts, without hesitation, from a Scythian origin ; whereas it is probably impossible to ascertain their origin, either by any attempt to define the extent of countries occupied by them, or by an assumption of the entirely separate and Celtic nationality of people so far in the interior as "Wiltshire, as con- tradistinguished from the Belgse, who were found by Caesar in possession of the south-eastern coast. He is confident that this more interior population was the abso- lutely primary colonization ; and that its original entrance into the island from G-aul was at its south-west extremity. He says: — . " The progress of population may still be traced from this remote comer along the western shores of our island. Numerous remains of stone circles, cromlechs, rocking stones, and tumidi, still exist in the Scilly islands, and are continued along the coasts of Cornwall and Dorset, to the widely extended plains of ^ Wiltshire ; all, from their rudeness, bespeaking a very ancient, { and I may pronounce, a Celtic origin, and corresponding in a very striking degree with those on the opposite shores of our mother country, Gaul." Except as for means of unavailing controversy, we have * The Ancient History of South Wiltshire. By Sir Richard Colt ilop,re, Bart. Eoyal folio. 1812. 363 FOSTERIANA. very small obligations to the Greek and Eoman writers for their careless, ignorant, and confused statements respecting the origin, distinctions, progresses, and localities of the ancient nations. . TRACES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. Our author, however, very wisely ceases to " tread the crude consistence " of written history, and comes on ground of which he is manifestly the master. He observes how uninteresting, how nearly devoid of character, is the general face of the Wiltshire downs, to an uninstructed beholder. But by long and inquisitive and experimental attention a perception is acquired, to which this blank surface presents itself marked with innumerable traces and signs of most striking import; and that exclusive of the tumuli which are so palpable to the most ordinary observation. " In traversing the extensive downs our attention 'is con- tinually arrested by the works of the ancient Britons; strong fortresses, circles, barrows, and other inequalities of the ground. Whoever has studied attentively the formation of our chalk hiUs will observe that all maiden downs, by which I mean all land untouched by the plough, bear a most even and smooth surface ; and wherever we find the appearance of that surface altered by excavations and other irregularities, we may there look, with a prospect of success, for the habitations of the Britons ; and especially if the herbage is of a more verdant hue, and the soil thrown up by the moles of a blacker tint. There, on turning up the soil, will be found convincing proofs of ancient residence, such as animal bones, pottery, brick tiles, and coins of the lower empire. Such are the certain indicia which have led us to the discovery of numerous British towns and settlements." CLASSIFICATION OF BARROWS. Our author's long attention to barrows has enabled him to form a classification, of twelve distinctions. He denomi- nates them: long barrow, of two classes — bowl barrow — bell barrow — druid barrow, of four classes — pond barrow — twin barrow — cone barrow — and broad barrow. It seems there would be an exception or two to the general rule that these exterior forms supply no index of the specific nature of the contents. In the Pond Barrow, indeed, Sir Richard never found any sepulchral remains; and it is as unaccountable, as to CLASSIFICATION OF BARKOWS. 363 its use, as it is singular in form : " It differs totally from all the others, and resembles an excavation made for a pond ; it is circular, and formed with the greatest exactness ; having no protuberance within the area, which is perfectly level." A succession of experiments on the Long Barrows, which surpass all the other classes in magnitude, had so uniform a result, that after awhile he passed them by in his exploring operations : — " They differ very materially from the circular barrows in their contents, for we have never found any brass weapons or trinkets deposited with the dead, nor the primary interment deposited within the funeral urn. With a very few exceptions, we have always found skeletons on the floor of the barrow, and at the broad end, lying in a confused and irregular manner, and near one or more circular cists cut in the native chalk, and generally covered with a pile of stones or flints. In other parts of the tiirfiulus we have found stags' horns, fragments of the rudest British pottery, and interments of burnt bones near the top. These indicia attest the high antiquity of the long barrows." LONG BARROWS OF HIGH ANTIQUITT. We transcribe the account of a second experiment on Corton Long Barrow, which, even after encroachments on both sides by the plough, measures two hundred and sixteen feet long, and twenty-five broad, its highest elevation being nine feet : — " After clearing away the earth, near the eastern extremity, for the depth of two feet, he came to a large stone, which required the strength of three men to lift out. This proved to be the top of a pyramid of loose flints, marl stones, &o., which became wider near the bottom, where the base of the ridge measured more than twenty feet in length, and about ten feet in width. Beneath this ridge were found eight skeletons, lying promiscuously in various directions. Seven of them were adults, the eighth a child; they had been deposited on the floor of the barrow, between two excavations in the native soil, of an oval form, and seven feet apart. These oval cists or pits were about four feet long, and two and a half deep; they were cut in the chalk, and, with the skeletons, were covered with a pyramid of flints and stones." Of the so-called Druid Barrows (a denomination given to them by Dr. Stukeley), his opinion is, that they wera 364 FOSTEEIANA. appropriated to females, "because in most instances they have been found to contain diminutive articles, such as small cups> small lance-heads, amber, jet, and glass beads." BURNING BODIES A KEFINEMENT ON SIMPLE BUEIAI-. The modes and circumstances of the funeral deposits are exceedingly various. The grand difference is that of crema- tion and interment of the body entire. The simpler mode of burying entire was unquestionably man's earliest manner of separating and concealing the dead from the living; but our author found innumerable proofs that both modes were in use at once at a very ancient period of British sepulture. He found the skeletons of some bodies which had been placed with the legs gathered up towards the thighs; these he judges, from a consideration of circumstances, to be examples of the primitive mode of disposing the dead. The interments entire were far exceeded in number by the cremations. The burnt bones were often found simply deposited on the floor, that is, on the original surface of the ground previously to the raising of the tumulus ; sometimes in the cist, that is, the grave dug below that surface, of various forms and depths, often circular and only a foot or two deep. Sometimes they were in an urn of rude earthen- ware, and sometimes placed on the ground with such an urn inverted over them. Quantities of ashes and charred wood were generally near them, and not unfrequently inter- mingled with them. In the minute circumstances attending these deposits, there were many diversities, perhaps caprices. In two instances the ashes were deposited within the urn, and the interment of bones in the cist. In one barrow there was a large urn and a considerable number of cists without interment. " Can we suppose," says Sir Eichard, •" that the Britons entertained the same ideas as the Greeks and Bomans, who erected to the memory of those whose bodies could not be found, a tumulus honorarius, or cenotaphium, from a superstitious notion that the soul could not otherwise rest ? " DEEP GRAVES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. The peculiarity and excess of ancient zeal manifested in very extraordinary instances, to secure a profound and eter- DEEP GRAVES OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 305 nal quiet to a dead friend, was met and rivalled by a pro- portionate excess of excitement in the curiosity of the modern detector ; the inquisitive feeling became every moment more intense, in proportion to the greater remoteness of the concealed object : — " At the depth of eleven feet, after the very laborious removal of an immense quantity of flints, we discovered a skeleton of iMge proportions, lying north-east by south-west, on its left side, with both legs gathered up, according to the most ancient and primitive usage. Near its side was deposited a most beautiful brazen dagger, that had been gilt, and protected by a wooden scabbard, some part of which was still seen adhering to it ; also a large and a small ornament of jet, perforated with two holes for suspension. Near the thigh-bone was another ornament of jet, resembling a pulley, four very perfect arrow-heads of flint, aa well as some pieces of flint chipped and prepared for similar weapons, and a small brass pin. A fine urn, probably the drinking cup, lay broken at the feet of this British hero." The quality of the weapons, in point of material, leaves no doubt of this interment being anterior to the Eoman invasion; but the workmanship of the dagger, by the description, would seem to indicate something superior in art to any probable attainments of the very earliest period. Mr. Bowles, indeed, in a poem on the subject, makes this dagger to be the gift of "kings of distant ocean." TTTMULI or FEMALE. BEITONS 01' BANK. Among the burnt bones in another tumulus — " Were found upwards of forty amber beads of various ibrms and sizes, some of jet, others of the vitrified sort 'called pulley- beads, and two of horn. Besides these articles, was a very curious ornament of amber, consisting of six separate pieces which, when strung together, formed a decorative part of the Briton's dress. There were also the fragments of a small orna- mented cup, and a little brass pin. From the nature and size of the articles found in this barrow, we may rationally conclude it contained the relics of some distinguished female." Sets of 'beads which appeared to have been strung for necklaces, were repeatedly, found : with one interment there were no less than " forty-eight beads, sixteen of which were of green and blue opaque glass, of a long shape, and notdied between, so as to resemble a string of beads ; five were of cannei coal or jet ; and the remaining twenty-seven were of 366 rOSTERIANA. red amber ; the whole forming a most beautiful necklace, and such as a British female \yould not in these modern days of good taste and elegance disdain to wear." One inter- ment combined weapons of war with such trinkets as Sir Richard judges to be indicative of a female ; and he, there- fore, confers on this supposed British fair the denomination of amazon. TDMDLI OF HUNTERS AND WARRIORS. So much of the apparatus of war was found with the human relics in some of the barrows, as to indicate unequi- vocally the resting place of some distinguished inflicter of death, himself possibly the victim of the illustrious trade. The " mighty hunter " was conspicuous by the memorials found in others, of the investigation of one of which we tran- scribe the account : — " The first object that attracted our attention, was the skele- ton of a small dog, deposited in the soil, three feet from the .surface ; at the depth of eight feet ten inches, we came to the bottom of the barrow, and discovered the following very perfect interment collected on a level floor. The body of the deceased had been burned, and the bones and ashes had been piled up in a small heap, which was surrounded by a circular wreath of horns of the red deer, within which, and amidst the ashes, were five beautitul arrow-heads, cut of flint, and a small red pebble. Thus we most clearly see the profession of the Briton here interred. In the flint arrow-heads we recognise his fatal imple- ments of destruction ; in the stags' horns we see the victims ot his skill as a hunter ; and the bones of the dog deposited in the same grave, and above those of his master, commemorate his faithful attendant in the chase, and perhaps his unfortunate victim in death." In digging another — " the workmen threw out the bones of several dogs, and some of deer, and on the floor found a human skeleton, which had been originally interred from north to south ; but displaced by a later interment of burned bones." ANCIENT BRITISH POTTERY. A large proportion of the tumuli contain funeral urns, of baked clay, some of them of rude shape, and unornamented; but many of them ornamented, and of a shape evincing some slight conception of elegance. The embellishments were ANCIENT BEITISH POTTERY. 367 efifected while the clay remained soft, with a sharp instru- ment, with which were cut and dotted round the urn gir- dles of spots, and Vandyke or other patterns, worked with considerable regularity, and some of them requiring so many applications of the tool as to challenge our admiration of the quickness of hand which could finish them before the clay became dry. The sizes are extremely various ; the largest ever found by our author is twenty-two and a half inches high, and fifteen inches diameter at the top ; it has rude embossings round the brim, and in lines from the top to the bottom : — " Though we are informed by Strabo, that pottery was one of the articles of barter between the Britons and the Phoenicians, I cannot persuade myself that any of the vases found in our "Wiltshire tumuli could have been transported thither from so civilized a region. They are composed of very coarse materials, and so imperfectly baked, that some of them taken entire out of a bari'ow, have shivered into a thousand pieces by the mere action of the atmosphere upon it. They were probably baked either in the sun or the fire of the funeral pUe. Such, without exception, have been the urns found in our barrows ; all claiming a rude and remote British origin. After the con- quest, of our island by the Romans, a new species of pottery was introduced among the Britons, beautifully moulded, finely glazed, and richly ornamented ; numerous fragments of which are to be found in the villages of the Bomanized Britons, but not the smallest morsel in any of the Wiltshire tumuli we have opened. The extreme rudeness of our sepulchral urns, as well as the articles deposited within our barrows, evidently prove their very high antiquity, and mark them of an era prior to the Roman invasion." The small vessels, properly called by our author drinking cups, were found in considerable number, and with much variety of form and decoration ; in both of which respects several of them are really beautiful. Many of them are quite diminutive ; and very few are of a capacity at all adapted to the high style of conviviality. They are but very rarely, we think, of equal dimensions with that favourite kind of drinking cups, which awaited the Scandinavian heroes after death, in the Hall of Odin. These vessels were placed indifierently, near the head or the feet of the person entombed. One solitary instance has occurred of a lid to one 008 FOSTEEIANA. of these vessels. The art of turning was unknown to the fabricators of this earthenware ; they are all moulded by the hand, and, of course, have very seldom a perfect and sym- metrical regularity of shape. There is another class of vessels, of shallower and flatter form, with perforations ; these our author has denominated incense cups, as deeming it probable from these perforations, and from the extreme smoky blackness observed on some of them, that they might have been suspended with some substance which was to melt into the funeral fire. A very large proportion of these vessels were found broken, from the superincumbent' weight ; and some of those that remained entire, could not, by any care, be removed whole from their ancient position TUMULUS OP AN ANCIENT WARKIOE. In the sepulchral tumulus of an ancient warrior, the skeleton extended at full length, was found, togethei- with a large cone of iron, which formed the umbo of a shield, and was certainly affixed to wood, some of which .still adhered to it- Near it were found two studs plated with silver, another small piece of the same metal, and a buckle and clasp of brass ; all, most probably, appertaining to the shield. Besides the above articles, this warrior had a variety of iron arms buried with him, viz., a two-edged sword, two feet six inches long, and one and three quarters wide ; a knife three inches long ; a spear head, eleven inches long, and one and a half wide, and another six and a half long, and one and a quarter wide. IRON NOT FOUND IN THE MOST ANCIENT TUMULI. Iron in the funeral deposits, is the decided constant evi- dence of an age subsequent to the highest British antiquity, that metal being never found in those interments which have the most unequivocally primitive signs ; for instance, never by the side of those skeletons which have the lower extremi- ties drawn up. Nevertheless, these interments with iron, if not remote from the coast, may be of an age preceding that of Caesar, since he mentions that the inhabitants of the " maritime regions," had a little of. this metal among them. We should not forget to notice that in several of the inter- IRON NOT FOUND IN THE MOST ANCIENT TtTMULI. 369 merits beiring character of the highest antiquity, shlvU pieces of pure gold were found, constituting ornaments of various forms. Several of them were met with in the grave of a skeleton with the limbs gathered up. SEPULCHRAL ORNAMENTS. Two of the richest deposits that were brought to light in the whole series of researches, were in barrows of the Nor- manton group, in the district of Amesbury. One of them was the funeral accompaniment of a large-built skeleton, whose thigh-bone measured twenty inches. Besides a shield and a variety of weapons, implements, and ornaments, there was a plate of gold, of the dimensions of seven inches by six, lined with wood, placed on the breast of the hero, the same situation which it probably held when he was alive. It was marked with indented lines, cheques, and zig-zags, form- ing lozenge within lozenge, diminishing gradually towards the centre. But even this portion of the panoply was less ornate than another of the articles — the handle of a dagger studded with thousands of gold rivets as minute as the points of ordinary pins would be if cut off at the length of the eighth of an inch. These are driven into the wood perfectly close together, but at the same time in such an arrangement as to form beautiful zig-zag or vandyke patterns. A good portion of the handle retained entire this elegant enchase- ment ; but from spaces of it the pins had fallen off, and were found mixed with the mould. Sir Richard pronounces this refinement of ancient art to excel anything previously ■found, and to be, both in design and execution, such as " could not be surpassed (if indeed equalled) by the ablest workmen of modern times." Among the equipments of gentler order were several times found neatly made' tweezers of ivory, and often rings and bracelets of various materials. A considerable number of articles occurred of which the use could not be even con- jectured. One specimen was met with of the beads called adder-stones, which are recorded to have been held in great value among the Britons, either as objects of superstition, or insignia of distinction. Among a number of little beads lying near the neck of a female skeleton, was a circular clasp of brass on which was B B 370- POSTERIANA. Rut. or stamped a rude imitation of the human face. This is noted as a very remarkable object, being the solitary instaoce of any such attempt having occurred in. the investigation of barrows. Even this, inartificial as it is, was too much for the genius of the primitive age ; for some corroded remains of iron articles in the deposit indicated a later period of antiquity. INDICATIONS OF PEIMEVAL VILLAGES. It has been already stated, that the signs which betray the primeval villages, are slight irregular mounds and cavities ; and aricher appearance of the vegetation, springing from a darker mould : signs which seldom, fail to be confirmed on digging, by quantities of bones not human, broken earthenware of the ancient British kind, the finer Roman pottery, and some Koman coins. Our indefatigable chorographer has noted many of these now solitary seats of ancient society ; but he avails himself of one which he examined on Knock Down, in the district of Heytesbury, and which he describes as exhibit- ing the characteristic.features with peculiar clearness. EUDE HABITATIONS OP ANCIENT BRITONS. "We have undoubted proofs, from history and from existing ifemains, that the earliest habitations were pits or slight excava- tions in the ground, covered and protected from the inclemency of the weather by boughs of trees and sods of turf. The high grounds were pointed out by nature, as the fittest for these early settlements, being less encumbered with wood, and afibrding a better pasture- to -the numerous flocks and herds, from which the erratic tribes of the first colonists drew their means of subsis- tence ; but after the conquest of our island by the Romans, when, by means of their enlightened knowledge, society became more civilized, the Britons began to quit the elevated ridge of chalk hills,, and seek more sheltered and desirable situations. A t first we find them removed into the sandy vales immediately bordering on the chalk liills ; and' at a later period, when the improved state of society under the Eomans ensured them security, the valleys were cleared of wood, and towns and vil- lages were erected ia the plains near rivers, which, after the departure of the Komans,. became the residence of the Saxons. But a considerable period must have elapsed before these im- portant changes took place ; for on our bleakest hills we find the luxuries of the Eomans introduced into the British settlements, flufis, hypooausts, stuccoed and painted walls, &c., &c. Yat not EUDE HABITATIOKS OF ANCIENT BEITONS. 371 a single inscription has ever been discovered in any one of these British villages, that can throw any positive light on the era in which they flourished or were deserted for a less exposed climate." " The site of these villages (two, on Knook Down) is decidedly marked by great cavities and irregularities of the ground, an ,1 by a black soil. When the moles were more abundant, numerous coins were constantly thrown up by them, as well as fragments of pottery of diflferent species. On digging in these excavations we find the coarse British pottery, and almost every species of what has been called Roman pottery, but which I conceive to have been manufactured by the Britons from Roman models ; a\so fibvZce, and rings of brass worn as armillce or bracelets, flat- headed iron nails, hinges of doors, locks, and keys, and a variety of Romam coins, of which the small- brass of the iiower Empir,e- are the most numerous." STONEHBNGE. An ample share of attention is given to that grand bat enigmatical phenomenon, Stonehenge. Sir Richard states fairly and fully the various theories, if they may be so denomi- nated, and the monkish legends, respecting the origin and' design of this mysterious structure And it is really curious- to see with what confidence, and, in some instances, with what palpable deficiency of even the attainable information,, ingenious or learned men have been capable of pronouncing, on the subject. The plan which Sir Richard judges to be the most accurate, was published by Dr. Smith, in 1771, in a work in which Stonehenge is maintained to have "been, erected by the Druids for observing tlie motions of the heavenly bodies." This plan differs but slightly from that of Dr. S-tukeley, for whose discriminating judgment, and industry in research, our author testifies the greatest possible* respect, considering his work as far more valuable than aU others on- the subject. It should seem that Stukeley was the first detector of a cir- cumstance which alone was sufScient to put several of the theories to flight, namely, that in the barrows in the vi«inityr there are chippings of stone of identical qualities with the- stones of the structure (of^ne of which qualities there are no stones found elsewhere in- Wiltshire), and therefore cleady ahowint' whence .they came. Such chippings repeatedly B ;3. 2- 372 FOSTERIANA. occurred in our author's excavations in the neighbourhood. This proof of the priority, in time, of the structure to the tumuli, combined with the proofs supplied by the primitive characteristics of the interments, that the tumuli are more ancient than the Roman period, makes an instant end of no small share of vain speculation, and at one sweep clears the view all the way up to the British period ; but then it closes in utter and final darkness Our author is extremely cautious of speculating on the designs of this mysterious monument. He does not even, with any confidence, associate its origin and uses with Druidism, though he sometimes employs the denomination of Temple. Some of the acutest of our recent investigators of Celtic and Druidical history have shown, that even if Druidism was ever established in the part of Britain where Stonehenge remains, there is no evidence that the horrid solemnities of that superstition were perpetrated in structures of stone. Dark groves are uniformly represented as its temples ; and it is justly remarked that the locality and vicinity of Stonehenge, afford no traces or traditions of having ever been overshadowed with the gloom of deep forests of oak. After all the learning, enthusiasm, ingenuity, and confident opinion, of which this colossal circle, this " Chorea Gigantum " has been the subject, and after the important and interesting process also of excavations in the surrounding tumuli, we must submit to acknowledge, that though this grand array of rocks must have constituted an object and a place of the highest imaginable importance to the Britons, we have absolutely no means of deciding what it was that was done in its adytum or precincts ; no means ,(if knowing whether the scene now so solitary and silent, but once probably animated at some seasons with a vast assem- blage of wild and inspirited countenances, was the grand court of barbarian judicature, or was the central imperial seat of a gloomy superstition, or drew the multitude to the solemni ties of both these national concerns. Our author thinks — and we agree with him — that the two circles of smaller uprights are a later addi'ion, foreign to the primary plan ; they spoil its noble simplicity, and they are of a quite different kind of stone. The matter of taste is made extremely clear in an engraved view which is given STONEHENGE. 373 of the structure as it probably looked when complete in its grand exterior circle, and its exterior oval of still more majestic trilithons. TIMBUCTOO.* All the inquisitive imaginations in Europe were longing, and till lately almost despairing, to have the prospect opened across the vast African deserts as far as Timbuctoo. Con- jecture, speculation, legends, had accumulated through centuries, concerning that city and its precincts, and the formidable intervening tracts. While such are the fancies and wishes of a curious and restless ignorance, and while possibilities are weighing, and enterprises planning, there is thrown on the African coast a common sailor, who can neither write nor read, who had never heard the name of Timbuctoo, and who is nearly stripped of his clothes by barbarians as soon as he comes to land. This man, thus unfurnished with any one terrestrial thing for the purposes of enterprise and geographical dis- covery but the limbs and organs of which his person is composed, accomplishes what no man of the Christian name ever before accomplished, however commissioned or pro- vided — however ardent or brave. He traverses the hideous region very far towards its centre ; resides a number of months, sometimes in royal society, at Timbuctoo ; has the intimate inspection of Mahometan and Pagan manners and character ; and after several years spent at various positions in the fiery desert, comes as a ragged beggar into London, and by the merest chance falls into the company of some of the most learned, philosophic, and powerful persons of that metropolis, to whom he describes what no other individual in the civilized world could have described, authoritatively compelling at length their reluctant belief that the far-famed * The Narrative of Robert Adams, a Sailor, who was wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the year 1810; was detained three years iu Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and resided several months in the City of Timbuctoo (edited by Joseph Dupuis, British Vice-Consul at Mogadore). 4to. 1816. STd rOSTERIANA. Timbuctoo is an accumulation of mud-huts, the royal palace being the mud-hut-in-chief. Nor was the fact that this city is the seat of a Negro, instead of a Mahometan government, the point in which his evidence had the least force of pre- possession to'overcome. ADVENTURES ON THE VTESTERN COAST OF AFRICA. Adams sailed in* June, 1810, from New York, in the Charles, a merchantman, bound to Gibraltar, whence she made a voyage down the western coast of Africa, and was, in October, wrecked, in consequence of the ignorance of the captain, on a low sandy beach, at a spot named El Gazie, judged to be about the 22nd degree of north latitude, or fou. hundred miles north of the Senegal. AH on board, about ten men, escaped to land ; but it was to fall immediately ■into the power of forty or fifty Moors, who were fishing at the place. Without a moment's delay began a series of indignities and hardships which stimulated the captain's rage and despair to a deportment so hostile and {)rovoking to these barbarians, that in less than ten days he became a victim to their resentment, — a fate which he made no efibrt, and «ven appeared to have no wish, to avoid. The prisoners were divided among the captors, one party of whom had for their share Adams and two others, who,. just a fortnight after they had been in the state of free citizens of the only real republic (America) on earth, found themselves constituting a portion of the goods and chattels of a gang of the vilest barbarians, and obsequiously attending them in a march over burning sands, — to what termination or fate they must patiently wait to see. The direction was a little to the south of eastward, and they proceeded thirty days without seeing a human being, or, which was much worse, any such thing as a spring, or pool, or puddle of water. They ended their walk for the present at the village or camp of their owners, con- sisting of thirty or forty tents, at a pool of water. Here they were soon joined by another of their ship's crew, and a Portuguese youth, and they were all set to tend goats and sheep ; but they were soon separated, and two of them taken away by some of the Moors in a northerly direction. Adams and the Portuguese were made to accompany their lords in an expedition to a place named Sondenny, to catch negroes for slaves. Their sufferings from disappointment of finding water at the halting station in this k)ng march, and their patience in lurking, concealed a whole week among the hills and bushes about the Negro village, lying in wait for the inhabitants, were compensated by the lucky opportunity of seizing upon a woman with a child in her arms, and two children (boys) whom they found walking in the evening near the town. They doubtless la,uded the Prophet for this commencement and omen^of their good fortune, and wisely determined to await the sequel. It was at hand ; and may such sequel always follow such beginning : — " During the next four or five days the party remained con- cealed, when one evening, as they were all lying on th« ground, a large party of neigroes, consisting of forty or fifty men, made their appearance, armed witli daggers and bows, who surrounded and took them all prisoners, without the feast resistance being .attempted, and carried them into the town ; tying the hands of some, and driving the whole party before them. During the night, above one hundred negroes kept watch over them. Next day they were taken before the governor, or ehief person, named Mahamoud, a remarkably ugly Negro, who ordered that they should all be imprisoned. The place of confinement was a mere mud wall, about six feet high, from which they might readily have escaped, though strongly guarded, if the Moors had been enterprising ; but they were a cowardly set. Bere they were kept three or four days, for the purpose, as it afterwards appeared, of being sent forward to Timbuctoo, which Adam« concluded to be the residence of the king of the country." Thus our forced adventurer was fairly on the king's high road to Timbuctoo, under the perfect safeguard of a strong escort, little dreaming of the fame of this city in Europe, or of the passionate desire to obtain a sight of it, which had inflamed more enlightened spirits. A great proportion of his late captors and masters had their final earthly reckoning to pay on the road. Several of them attempted to escape : — "In consequence, after a short consultation, fourteen were put to death, by being beheaded at a small village at which they then arrived ; and as a terror to the iiest, the head of one of them was hung round the neck of a camel for three days, until it became so putrid that tbey were obliged to remove it." On the arrival -at the city, the Europeans were imme- diately dis inguished from the Moors, as objects at once of 376 FOSTERIANA. attention and indulgence. The King ordered the Moora into prison, but treated Adams and the Portuguese boy as curiosities, taking them to his house, where they remained during the residence at Timbuetoo. " For some time after their arrival, the Queen and her female attendants use to sit and look at Adams and his companion for hours together. She treated them with great kindness, and at the first interview offered them some bread baked under ashes." " The King and Queen, the former of whom was named WooUo, the latter Fatima, were very old grey-headed people. The Queen was extremely fat. Her dress was of blue nankeen, edged with gold-laoe round the bosom and on the shoulder, and having a belt or stripe of the same material half way down the dress, which came only a few inches below the knees." The dress, Adams says, does not at all suffice for the original purpose of dress ; but that is no reason for neglecting the other purpose, of embellishment, for which it seems to be oftener studied : — " Besides the blue nankeen turban, worn only upon occasions of ceremony, or when she walked out, the Queen had her hair stuck full of bone ornaments of a square shape about the size of dice, extremely white ; she had large gold hoop ear-rings, and many necklaces, some of them of gold, the others of beads, of various colours." There is something remarkably familiar and paternal — something extremely contrasted with the stately and sullen distance of Turkish and other oriental tyrants, in the manner in which the King receives the homage of his subjects : — " When he walked through the town, he was generally a little in advance of his party. His subjects saluted him by inclina- tions of the head and body ; or by touching his head with their hands and then kissing their hands. When he received his subjects in his palace, it was his custom to sit on the ground, and their mode of saluting him on such occasions was by kissing his head." Nor does the style of the royal mansion appear intended to overwhelm the imaginations of the good citizens : — " The King's house, or palace, which is built of clay and grass (not whitewashed), consists of eight or ten small rooms on the ground floor ; and is surrounded by a wall of the same materials, against part of which the house is built. The space ADVENTURES ON THE "WESTERN COAST OK AFRICA. 377 within the wall is about half an acre. Whenever a trader arrives, he is required to bring his merchandise into this space for the inspection of the King, for the purpose, Adams thinks (but it is not certain), of duties being charged upon it. The King's attendants, who are with him all the day, generally con- sist of about thirty persons, several of whom are armed with daggers, and bows and arrows. Adams does not know if he had any family. " In a store-room of the Kin^s house, Adams observed about twenty muskets, apparently of French manufacture, one of them double-barrelled ; but he never saw them made use of." Timbuctoo is on a level plain, with a river, which Adams names La Mar Zarah, running almost close to it on the south-east side. Any river here becomes an object of con- siderable curiosity, from the very great interest which so many causes have concurred to fix on the Niger, which is uniformly reported to pass near this city, in its progress to a region where it has hitherto defied, but we trust will not long be permitted to defy, all European inquiry. The La Mar Zarah flows in a direction from the north-east to the 3outh-west, according to the best of Adams's recollection, and therefore must somewhere, at no very great distance, fall into the Niger, perhaps at the place which, under the name of Kabra, has been spoken of as the port of Timbuctoo, twelve miles from the city. But if the distance be no more than that to the Niger, it appears somewhat unaccountable that Adams should not have heard of so important and magnificent a stream in terms too strong to be easily forgotten. SULPHUR MOUNTAINS. His excursions to the south of the city did not reach beyond some mountains, at two or three miles' distance, to which his curiosity was attracted by an appearance of fire which he sometimes saw there in the night, and where he " found a considerable quantity of sulphur, which the natives collected. The only use to which he has seen them apply this mineral, was to mix it with a substance, which, in black lumps, looked like opium, for the purpose of making a liquid into" which they dipped the heads of their arrows." The editor judges this black poisonous substance to be the same as that described by Park as in us eamong the Mandingoes, a preparation obtained by boiling the leaves of 378 FOSTEEIANA. a shrub called hooma. Adams witnessed the effect of it in the instance of .a huge wild elephant, which being wounded in the shoulder with a slight poisoned arrow, was found three days afterwards lying on the ground in a dying state. But, what a slow power of des-truction is this, in comparison with what has been described of a poison called wourali, prepared by a tribe of the Indians of South America. DESCRIPTION or TIMBUCTOO. Nothing could move our obstinate matter-of-fact vagrant to transform Timbuctoo into a magnificent imperial city. " It appeared to him to cover as much ground as Lisbon. He is unable to give any idea of the number of its inhabitants ; but as the houses are not built in streets, or with any regularity, its population, compared' with that of European towns, is by no means in proportion to its size. It has no walls, nor anything resembling fortification. The houses are square, buUt of sticks, clay, and grass, with flat roofs of the same materials. The rooms are all on the ground floor, and are without any article of furniture, except earthen jara, wooden bowls, and mats made of grass, on which .the people sleep. He did not observe any houses, or any other buildings, constructed of stone." There appear to be no wells in the place ; the people therefore drink the water of the river, which is a little brackish. The chief articles of sustenance are rice and guinea-corn, which latter production grows " five or six feet high, with a bushy head as large as a pint bottle, the grain being of the size of a mustard seed, of which each head contains about a double handful." It makes a fare sufficiently homely, even when, in preparing it for the King and Queen, they sometimes use butter, produced from goats' milk, which though soft, and mixed with hair, appeared ' to be considered a great dainty. In eating it, their Majesties, like their subjects, make use of their fingers, " having neither knives, forks, nor spoons." There are some supple- mentary and more dainty edibles ; severa;! sorts of fish, cocoa-nuts, dates, figs, pine-apples, carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, and cabbages. The principal animal food is goats' flesh ; an agreeable meal is sometimes made on that of ostriches. BUTTERING THE SKIN. " The natives of Timbuctoo are a stout, healthy race, and are BUTTERING THE SKIH. 379 seldom sick, although they expose themselves by lying out in the sun at mid-day, when the heat is almost insupportable to a white man. It is the universal practice of both sexes to grease themselves all over with butter produced from goats' milk, which makes the skin smooth. This is usually renewed every day ; when neglected, the skin becomes rough, greyish, and extremely ugly. They usually sleep under cover at night : but sometimes, in the hottest weather, they will lie exposed to the night air, with little or no covering, notwithstanding that the fog which rises from the river descends like dew, and, in fact, at that season, supplies the want of rain." Adams bears strong testimony, aad it is corroborated by the iaformation acquired by Mr. Dupuis, to the mildness and humanity of the people of this city, and of the Negroes of Soudan in general. In this respect these pagans appear strikingly contrasted with everything that has been poisoned with the detestable superstition of Islam. The criminal law, if the will of the monarch, acting according to a settled usage, may be so denominated, is more lenient perhaps than that of any other nation i — TIMBUCTOO CUSTOM OF SELLING CEIMINALS. "Adams never saw any individual put to death at Tim- buctoo, the punishment for heavy offences being slavery ; for slighter misdemeanours the offenders are punished by being beaten with a stick ; but in no case is this punishment very severe, seldom exceeding two dozen blows with a stick the thickness of a small walking cane." It is very true, as the editor remarks, that some deduction from the attribute of mercy in this legal institution, may justly be made on account of commercial interest, it being more profitable to the government to sell a criminal than to put him to death ; this consideration of gain and loss has a restraining force even upon the ferocious malignity and fanaticism of the Moors and Arabs, insomuch that in several instances it saved Adams's own life. Still it wiU be acknowledged, that the observation does hot altogether neutralize the ascription of leniency to the criminal law of Timbuctoo, when it is stated, that only twelve criminals were condemned to slavery during the six months of Adams's residence there. Their offences were " poisoning, theft, and refusing to join a party sent out to ^ocure slaves in foreign countries." 380 FOSTEniANA. PEEDATOBT EXCUKSIONS POK SLAVES. The capture and barter of slaves seem to form a promi- nent feature in the political economy of this mildest of the African nations : — " About once a month, a party of a hundred or rpore armed men marched out to procure slaves. These armed parties were all on foot except the oflScers ; they were usually absent from one week to a month, and at times brought in considerable numbers. The slaves were generally a different race of people from those of Timbuctoo, and differently clothed, their dress being for the most part of coarse white linen or cotton. He once saw among them a woman who had her teeth filed round, he supposes by way of ornament ; and as they were very long they resembled crow-quills. The greatest number of slaves that he recollects to have been brought in at one time was about twenty, and these he was informed were from the place called Bambarra, lying to the southward and westward of Timbuctoo ; which he understood to be the country whither the aforesaid parties generally went in quest of them. The slaves thus brought in were chiefly women and children, who, after being detained a day or two at the King's house, were sent away to other parts for sale. The returns for them consisted of blue nankeens, blankets, barley, tobacco, and sometimes gunpowder. This latter article appeared to be more valuable than gold, of which double the weight was given in barter for gunpowder. Their manner of preserving it was in skins. It was, however, never used at Timbuctoo except as an article of trade.'' ADAMS EANSOMED BT THE MOOKS. At length a party of Moors arrived to ransom those of their fellow-believers who had been taken as prisoners to Timbuctoo with the sailor. It was accomplished, though ■with difficulty ; and he also, and the Portuguese youth, were ransomed, that is to say, bought as slaves destined to pass through several transfers, and endure a tedious and cruel captivity. A prodigious length of march, for some days to the north-east, afterwards to the north-west, over the sandy desert, in which they all suffered the severest toil and deprivation, brought them (or rather some of them, for several of the Moors, who had been weakened by their imprisonment, perished by the way) to a village named Woled D'leim, inhabited entirely by Moors, who, from their dress, manners, and general appearance, seemed to be ADAMS RANSOMED BY THE MOORS. 381 of the same tribe as those of the encampment to which Adams had been conveyed from El Gazie. Here the two Europeans were employed in tending goats and sheep, suffering much from exposure to the intense heat, and hard usage. The master, named Hamet Laubed, had at first held out the hope that his slave should be taken to Mogadore to be ransomed ; but after nearly a year had been consumed, he frankly answered, to Adams's remonstrances, that he had no such intention. Upon this, Adams, with the resolution of despair, refused, and in spite of merciless castigations persisted to refuse, to take care of the flocks any longer ; and after a time took a camel and attempted his escape towards the coast. He was overtaken just as he had reached El Kabla, another station inhabited by Moors, who were pn no friendly terms with his master's tribe. Hamet demanded him, but was compelled to accept a very trifling equivalent for him, and resign him. With Mahomet, his new proprie- tor, he had a somewhat easier service, till his detection in a commerce with one of his master's wives, compelled him to throw himself into the hands of a new owner, who had given assurances of taking him to Wed Noon, a station near the coast. Here he found three of his former ship-mates, now slaves to the governor's sons ; and here he was sold to one Bel-Cossim-Abdallah, " for seventy dollars in trade, payable in blankets, gunpowder, and dates." ADAMs's FURTHER ADVENTURES. This last stage of his slavery, which continued more than a year, was by far the worst. A complication of toils and cruelties reduced him near despair and death. Two of his companions renounced their religion, and so ceased to be slaves ; he repelled all the overtures to this effect. He gave a perilous demonstration, first of his audacity, and next of invincible constancy. He refused to go to virork, at the order of his master's son, on the Mahometan Sabbath, on which the slaves are exempt. On receiving for this a blow on the forehead with a cutlass, he knocked down the mis- creant Moor with his fist. The other Moors instantly fell upon him with sticks with murderous violence ; and the young man's father and mother insisted he should hunibly kiss their son's hands and feet, on pain of being put in irons. He firmly refused, and suffered all the consequences, for 383 FOSTEEIANA many weeks, in spite of the most savage threatenings, renewed at intervals, and the persuasions and even en- treaties which were resorted to when the owner began to apprehend that, rather than submit, his slave would die, and so he should lose the money which he was worth. Adams declares he would rather have died. When there was evident and near danger of this consequence, he was released from irons ; and not long afterwards was ransomed by Mr. Dupuis, the British Vice-Consul at Mogadore, who soon after brought him to England. LAKOCHEJAQUELEIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.* This volume will excite, ^we should think, in most of its readers, a wish that every memorable war could have had a sensible and accomplished woman involved in its transac- tions, and acquainted with its chiefs in the council and the field, and then prompted, by motives little mingled with vanity, to relate its course of events, and describe its leaders, in a written and permanent memorial. Such a production, coming after the generals had written their niemoirs, and the historians had elaborated their narrations, would have been an invaluable addition. Often it would have afforded a much more genuine moral estimate of the warfare, and a much more vivid picture- of some of its scenes, than those generals and historians had the perceptions or the sincerity requisite for displaying. How much there is in war of what is odious and melancholy, that finds no faculty capable of recognising it ia the hardened veteran soldier by pro- fession, or in the less war-worn and mechanical, but ardent adventurer for glory ! Nothing less than the virtues of a Sidney could preserve an undepraved sensibility through a career of martial achievement. Besides, it is to be recollected, that women constitute half the human race ; and not only having their general share of the evil inflicted on mankind by war, but being exposed also to peculiar and severe aggravations of that evil, they seem to require an historian representative of their sex, that the * Memoirs of the Marchioness de Larochejaqueleini With a. Mao o£ «» Theatre of War in, La Vead^e, 8vo. 1816. LAEOCHEJAQHELEIN AND THE FEENCH EEVOLUTION. S8^ full malignity of war may be manifested, by showing, with, the vividness of the writer's direct sympathy with the sex, its additional malignity as affecting them. In this female historian's account of the war in La Vendee, there are a multitude of striking and affecting circumstances, many of which could not have occurred in the experience of a man ; and which, if they came within his knowledge,, he would not have regarded and related with anything like the true and adequate emphasis of feeling ^ they were, however, the natural occurrences of war as affecting the female sex. Madame de Larochejaquelein (the name of her second hus- band) was the only daughter of the Marquis de Donnissan, gentleman of honour to Monsieur (afterwards Louis XVIII.), her mother being daughter of the Duke de Civrac, and lady- in-waiting to one of the princesses. She was born at Ver- sailles in 1772, and educated in the palace till 1789, amid the most gratifying luxuries and caresses of royal favour. She, therefore, grew up to meet, just at the commencement of mature age, the Revolution,^ with every imaginable pre- disposition to dread and abhor it. She saw in what manner its formidable career was beginning ; for she was in the carriage of the princesses in the train of Louis XVI., when, on the 6th of October, 1789, he made his melancholy removal from Versailles to Paris. She and her mother were permitted to retire to their family and estate, in that western department which became the scene of the most sanguinary civil war of modern times. About two years after this retreat, she was married to the Marquis de Lescure, her cousin, for whom she had been destined by the family from her infancy, — an appointment it is not strange she should, when grown up, very willingly ratify, since, if we may depend on her testimony in his favour (and it has every mark of sincerity), he was eminently estimable and accomplished. When the rage for evincing loyalty by emigration had begun, our author and her husband thought themselves bound to follow the example. But on their reaching Paris on their way out of the kingdom, their intention was arrested by the queen, and abandoned in compliance with her wishes ; a great effort of loyalty on the part of Lescure, as he foresaw, what h^ppened^ imputations, and reproaches frojn the emi- 384 FOSTERIANA. grants. He appears to have been a man fully capable of making the sacrifice of even his reputation to his sense of duty. He and onr author remained in Paris till the memorable 10th of August. She states that the rttack on the Tuileries was quite unexpected at that time by the court, though there was on the 9th a rumour of approaching comitotion ; in consequence of which her husband was, on the evening of that day, preparing to go armed from the hotel where they lodged, to the palace, to be ready among its defenders ; but he was prevented by a visit from one of the king's most con- fidential officers, who informed them that the king had cer- ti'n information that no attempt would be made before the 12th. About midnight, however, there were alarming symptoms which rapidly augmented to dreadful tumult : Lescure hastened towards the palace ; but too late for any possibility of admittance, which he earnestly sought at each of the guarded avenues. The vast and impetuous crowd was pressing on, and he narrowly escaped being so involved in it as to be irresistibly forced forward to the attack, a fate which befell some of the friends of the king. By the time he had regained the hotel, the cannonade was heard, and he felt the severest grief that he could not be at his post in the palace. In the evening he and his wife (who was now within two months of her confinement) were exposed to the utmost peril in seeking a more obscure lodging, in which they remained, in danger every moment, for a fortnight, at the end of which they made their escape, through various diffi- culties and hazards, from Paris, to retire into Poitou. It would have been impracticable but for the kindness of a democratic officer, who from respect to the virtues ol Lescure, came to their aid at the most critical moment, con- trived to create for himself an official occasion for accom- panying them through the most hazardous part of the journey, and displayed throughout a most admirable presence of mind. We cannot resist the temptation to go back to quote an instance of this rare quality in a Parisian grocer, who on the 10th of August saved, by an instantaneous turn of thought, the life of a royalist, M. de Montmorin : — "He (Montmorin) saw himself followed by four of the LAEOCHEJACQUELEIN AND THE FRENCH EE VOLUTION. 385 national guard, drunk with blood, who wanted to fight with him. He went into a grocer's shop and asked for a glass of brandy. The four guards furiously entered with him. The grocer suspected that M. de Montmorin had come from the palace, and, assuming the air of an acquaintance, said to him, ' Ah, well, cousin, I did not expect you to come from the country to see the end of the tyrant ! But, come, let us drink to the health of these brave comrades, and the nation ;' — and thus he was saved by the presence of mind of this good man, who did not even know him ; but it was for a short time, for he was massacred the 2nd of September." LA VENDEE AND THE LOYALISTS. Though the Eevolution had never been favourably re- garded, nor its enactments and institutions fully complied with, by the majority of the inhabitants, the peasantry espe- cially, of the departments where the civil war subsequently raged, there had as yet been no considerable disturbance. Before entering on the melancholy history, the author gives an interesting description of the physical and moral state of the tract known since the civil war, " by the glorious name," she says, " of Vendee" but previously, by that of Le pays dv Socage ; comprehending a part of Poitou, of Anjou, and of the county of Nantes ; a country differing by its aspect, and stiU more by the manners of the inhabitants, from most of the other provinces of France. It is in general almost level, having scarcely any hill sufficiently elevated to serve for a point of observation, or to command the country. It is woody, though without extensive forests. Each field or meadow, generally small, is fenced with a quickset hedge and trees very close together, — not high nor spreading, the branches being lopped off every five years, twelve or fifteen feet above the ground. " It is seldom that a farm yields to the proprietor more than 600 francs a year ; the revenue is principally from grazing. The gentlemen's residences were built and furnished without magnificence, and had neither expensive parks nor fine gardens. Their owners lived without pomp, and even with extreme sim- plicity. When called to the capital on business or -pleasure, they generally did not return to the Bocage with the airs and manners of Paris. Their greatest luxury at home was the table, and their only amusement field sports. At all times the gentle- men of Poitou have been celebrated sportsmen." c c 386 FOSTEEIANA. The feudal state in these provinces forms a more pleasing picture than in most other places where it has prevailed, and probably, than in any other part of France. It should seem that the peasantry were nowhere else so little oppressed and degraded. A certain community of interests, and habits of friendly intercourse, existed between the seigneurs and the vassals : — PEIMITITB STATE OF SOCIETY IN IiA TEKDEE. " The proprietors did not. lease out their land, but divided the produce with the farmer. The farms being small, a seigneur had twenty or thirty such tenants, in the midst of whom he lived paternally, conversing with them about their aflairs, the care of their cattle, and taking an interest in their good or ill fortune, in which he was himself concerned. He went to the weddings of their children, and drank with the guests. Ou Sunday, the tenants danced in the court of the chateau, and the ladies often joined. When there was to be a hunt of the wolf, the boar, or the stag, the information was communicated by tie curate to the parishioners in church after the service. Each took his gun, and went joyfully to the place assigned." The religion, such as it was, had general and strong hold on the people's minds. It is needless to say it appears^ to have been the most humble, ignorant, uninquiring form of the national superstition. It was a religion of the very essence of which they dreaded lest political power should deprive them. The grand object proposed in one of their zealous avowals of a unanimous invincible determination for war, was literally, by our author's statement, to " defend their God!" "Rendez-moi mon Dieu!" — was the dying retort of a peasant, to the summons — "Sends-toi," — from some gendarmes, whom he had resolutely fought with a pitch- fwk and had received twenty-two cuts of the sabre. It was not, however, that the ceremonies of worship did not continue the same as before, if they would have attended them ; it was that the performers were changed. The greatest number of the priests, to whom they were attached by long acquaintance, mutual offices of kindness, and the familiarity of these pastors with thgir dialect and manners, had refuged to take the prescribed oath to the new form of government. Of course, they were suspended from their functions, which devolved on conforming^ ecclesiastics.. But in these new hands the religion was not recognised as the same by the PRIMITIVE STATE OF SOCIETY IN LA VENDEE. 387 peasants, who hated and insulted them to such a degree, that in some places they were not able to perform the public offices, even to the empty walls. Meanwhile, the non-juring priests said mass in retired places in the woods, with doubt- less an additional zeal, both in themselves and their auditors, from the stimulus of what they would feel as persecution. After the 10th of August, severe measures were adopted against them by the Revolutionary government. These pro- voked a determined and indignant reaction : — riEST OTJTBEEAK IN IiA VENDEE. " The harshness and insolence of the new administrators towards a people accustomed to mildness and justice, together with the news of the first successes of the coalesced Powers, influenced the public mind. The peasants assembled armed with guns, scythes, and pitchforks, to hear mass in the fields, and to defend their curate, should there be an attempt to carry him oflF. A particular circumstance set all the people in motion. A man named Delouche, mayor of Bressuire, had a quarrel with some other functionaries, and was driven from the town, in which he had proclaimed martial law. He then went to Mont- coutant, where he excited the peasants to rise, and more than forty parishes united." This may be considered as the commencement of the desperate and sanguinary struggle; audit gave the first full occasion to the Republicans to display an atrocity of disposi- tion which, in whatever country it had been displayed, by a number of men promiscuously brought together, would have given a glaring demonstration of the detestable character ot the political system under which such men had grown up. On this occasion a numerous tumultuary mass of the peasants were brought into military operation ; but they were encoun- tered and soon routed by the Republican national guards, who, having taken a number of prisoners, massacred several of them in cold blood ; and then, some of these national guards, returned to their homes, carrying as trophies, at the point of their bayonets, noses, ears, and shreds of human flesh. CHAKACTEB OF THE PEENCH EEPUBLICANS. Now, the character of these men had not, assuredly, been formed by the few months of the Revolution; no, it had grown to its maturity under that old government which c c 2 388 FOSTERIANA. had ripened unnumbered thousands more of such noxioua beings under its baneful auspices, to be just ready, at the breaking up of the power of that government, to rush out, like rabid wolves, to destroy its once sovereign personages, and the classes of persons sharing its power, favour, and splendour, and its humbler adherents, and then to fall upon and tear one another in pieces. A system under which such a population was formed, deserved to be destroyed, notwith- standing any merits in individuals, which ought in justice to have exempted them personally in the catastrophe. That political stata was, in its time, detested by aU liberal Eng- lishmen, by all friends of justice, liberty, and popular improvement and happiness, in the world. And aU such men would have looked back upon its fall with delight, as a beneficent and glorious event, — but for the dreadful eruption of crimes which the depravity of the old French government itself had prepared, and but for the calamities which have followed, as the mingled result of the enormous depravity thus previously matured in the French nation, and of the spirit of pride and despotism in the surrounding states. THE PEASANTS OE LA VENDiflE AUTHORS OF THE FIRST LOYALIST MOVEMENT. The Marchioness is uniform and decisive in stating that the war did not originate with the aristocracy, but actually with the peasantry. Though in mind disaffected enough towards the new government, the gentry remained quiet till the people were in general commotion, and broke out in particular places in actual insurrection, provoked to the last excess by the addition to all the other grievances, of the demand of their quota of the immense number of men to be raised for the Kepublican armies : — " The insurrection began from the impulse of the moment, without plan, without concert, and almost without hopes ; for what could a handful of men, destitute of means of any sort, effect against the forces of all Trance ? Their first success infi- nitely surpassed their expectations. The minds of the people being universally disposed to resistance, the first example was followed generally without previous concert or understanding. The different chiefs did not at first even know each other. "The war was rather defensive than offensive, wholly without a plan, and had scarcely any object but the immediate security LOYALIST MOVEMENT OF THE PEASA^fTS. 389 of the country. After continued successes, the hope of powerfully contributing to a counter-revolution assuredly presented itself to all the Vendeans, but -without influencing thieir conduct." RECKLESS SELF-DEVOTIOW OF THE LOYALISTS. No doubt there is something fine and generous in the self-devotion and bravery, and uncalculating loyalty of the Vendean chiefs ; and if nothing but their own gallant persons could have been committed to the hazard, the whole affair would have been a very splendid display of chivalry. But there were the women and children, the aged and the sick, the dwellings and i;he gardens; — there was, in short, what- ever had "the breath of life," and whatever was for the sustenance and accommodation of life: all was to be plunged into that horrible wreck and misery, — which was foreseen as an almost inevitable consequence; insomuch, that when the most melancholy presages were realized, these leaders, those of them who survived, felt they had no cause for surprise. But we are amazed that when they actually saw the inexpressible misery and hopeless perdition in which their people were involved, we find none of them deploring, with anguish, that instead of restraining them from the desperate enterprise, they had actively led them on to its fatal consummation. The infatuation was absolutely incura- ble. When myriads of the insurgents had perished, amidst every variety of misery, and the daily perishing remainder were making hopeless forced marches in Brittany, and other tracts to the north of the Loire, encountered at every turn by hostile armies, and in acknowledged expectation of speedy destruction, our author makes some remarks on the peasants of Brittany (who were in their hearts favourable to the Royalist cause), to the effect of reproaching them for not being so insane as the Vendeans. FEMININE TIMIDITY OTEECOME BY NECESSITY. In this Vendean war many of the operations were a kind of personal combats, displaying the character and the valour of individuals, many of whom were well known to the writer. She was immediately involved in a great part, and in the most tragical part, of its operations and perils, being necessitated to accompany military parties, in all manner of 390 1P0STEKIANA. alarming situations, by day and by night, in sunshine or in storm, and under the most distressing personal circumstances, such as required all the benefits of indulgence and repose. She somewhere expresses, but with far less emphasis than che case deserved, her wonder how it was physically possible for her life to be maintained through such a rugged course. She was naturally excessively timid ; and, on various occasions in the course of the narrative, she confesses ingenuously how much she was terrified, among horse- men and cannon, routs, flights, and mangled bodies. At the time of the first breaking out of the insurrection, she cculd not sit on horseback without apprehension, even when there was a man to lead the horse ; but greater causes of emotion will annihilate the less : very early in the warfare, hearing a report of her husband being wounded, at a place nine or ten miles oif, she galloped a bad horse to the spot, over a rough country, in three quarters of an hour, and was never afterwards, she says, in any fear of riding on horse- back. She became inured to hunger and cold, to rags, and sleeping on straw amid noise and tumult, and at last passing v/hole nights in the fields and woods, without the smallest shelter, to escape the searching parties of the furious Republican assassins. Military records of crimes and miseries have often a sort of gloomy monotony, which reduces the mind, after a while, to a stupefied, gloomy loathing, and sameness of con- sciousness. SA.TAGB EEBOCITT OP THE REPUBLICAITS. It is quite melancholy to see almost all the persons whom the author brings prominently forward to notice in the early part of the story, perishing successively in its progress. After herself, the two most conspicuous and interesting person.i, are her husband Lescure, and Henri de Laroche- jacquelin, the brother of the man who afterwards became her second husband, which second husband also fell fighting at the head of another insurrection during the last short reign of Bonaparte. The whole story (and the veracity of it is beyond all doubt), gives a horrible representation of the general conduct of the Republioans. They were a vast pack of blood- SAVAGE FEROCITY OF THE EEPUELICANS, 391 hounds. They rioted ia the massacre of the helpless, the wounded, women, and children,' and even the unoflfending neutral inhabitants who alleviated the sufferings of the Eoyalists in their retreats and wanderings. Most of their leaders were worthy of their followers. Several of them, however, are honourably distinguished ; and it is not less honourable to the Marchioness that she makes the exception with a grateful emphasis. INTLUENCE OF THE PRIESTS. There are many curious instances of the influence of the priests, and the power of superstition. One priest, himself evidently a courageous man, exhorting the overpowered and flying Royalists to return to the combat, boldly and literally assured them of " paradise " if they should fall. He was believed, and they went fiercely back with him, exclaiming that they were "going to paradise." On returning suc- cessful they seem to have literally worshipped both him and his crucifix. The author says, the priests did no.t fight, as that would have been regarded by the whole army as a profanation of the sacred character ; but they often exposed themselves with a daring and generous devotedness in helping the wounded, or performing the last offices for the dying. She says their influence was uniformly and zealously exerted against cruelty and revenge. Some worthy examples are recorded. ECONOMT OP THE ROYALIST CAMPS. Few things in military history will be found more curious than the economy of the Royalist camps. There was very little of tlie subordination essential to an army. Officers and soldiers, seigneurs and peasants, seemed to be all on an equality ; and each man fought from his own individual impulse to defend the country and its social system. After a successful battle, there was no possibility of preventing most of the peasants returning to their homes for a short time ; but they would promptly come again at the circular summons of the chiefs. They were never reduced to a com- plete military organization. They displayed a wonderful bravery ; but, nevertheless, they were liable to panics, which often caused disasters, and exceedingly distressed 392 rOSTERIANA. their leaders. Their system of fighting was formed judi- ciously, but indeed necessarily, upon the peculiar form of their woody and intricate country. GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF THE VENDEANS. - The losses in a long succession of bloody combats (in which, however, their enemies suffered a much greater destruction), and the continual augmentation of the Repub- lican armies, reduced the main body of the Royalists at last to cross the Loire, in hopes of finding co-operation or shelter in the more northern provinces, in which they believed there was a strong disposition to favour the Royal cause. They received, however, no important accessions to their wasting strength ; the Republican armies advanced upon them in mighty mass and continual reinforcement ; and the spirit of the peasants was no longer the same. They had lost their beloved country, for the sake of which they had risen in arms ; and they had no systematic large political view on which to prosecute a war against- the Republic. They fought repeatedly and desperately, and often with temporary success. They came, however, day after day, in still plainer and nearer view of their fate, — a fate inevitable at all events, unless they could re-cross the Loire. In the attempt to do this they failed ; and after some last mournful and desponding efforts, the remainder of their once nume- rous army disbanded and dispersed ; but were for the greater part pursued, hunted out, and destroyed. Nothing in history is more melancholy than the detail of the events subsequent to the passing to the north of the Loire. The personal story of the Marchioness after this period, is as romantic as it is mournful. She took refuge among the peasants ; had a succession of alarms and most narrow escapes j was, disguised in various ways ; was some- times driven from all shelter to pass whole nights in the fields and woods ; was in one of her miserable hiding-places delivered of twins ; obtained, or rather fell into, at last, a more comfortable asylum, harassed, however, still by re- peated and terrifying incidents of danger ; and, finally, received the news of the downfall of Robespierre and the Terrorists, and availed herself of the clemency and amnesty that followed. * 393 MONASTIC AND BARONIAL REMAINS.* Monastic and baronial antiquities please us by their irrepa- rable decay, as monumental of the destruction of feudality and Popish superstition, of which these remains strongly illustrate the savage and slavish character. How grim is tliat vision of a former age, whi^h rises to the view of a reflective spirit, while contemplating one of these dilapidated castles, while looking up at the remains of towers and battlements, while passing through the deep and massive gate-ways, while observing the rocky solidity and thickness of the walls, while winding through the narrow gloomy passages, and while looking down into the dungeons, where, in a dismal twilight, and surrounded closely by an impene- trable construction of stone, so many wretches have pined in protracted despair, or awaited a speedy and violent death. However disparted by time, or worn by the elements, or mantled with ivy, or crowned with wall-flowers, or enlightened now by the wide access of sunshine, the ruins may be, they retain unalterably a frowning and as it were malevolent aspect. The structure has much the same effect on the imagination, as the sight of a skeleton of some gigantic murderer. The idea of merely defensive strength -is quite secondary in the beholder's reflections. The pre- dominant impression is that of a hold of barbarous and turbulent beings, ready to rush out on enterprises of revenge, and slaughter, and devastation ; or returned to riot in " the spoils and the exultation of their destructive success. And when the thought is extended to the rural tracts between several of these fortresses, their condition in that age is presented in all the forms of a disturbed culture and a harassed population. The edifices raised by Popery, and abandoned to the operation of time since the fall of that hateful domination, suggest — by their gloom, by their superstitious uncouth imagery, by their arrangements for the purpose of vain rites, and for the privilege and accommodation of the performers and teachers of them, and by their enormous expense of labour — an impressive idea of the enslaved condition of the * Monastic and Baronial Eemaina in England, Wales, and Scotland. By Or. J. Parkyns, Esq. Two vols., royal 8to. 1816. 394 FOSTERIANA. human mind ; and we may rejoice, with gratitude to Heaven, that in these ruins we behold so many signs of its deliver- ance from what was so little better than Pagan idolatry. It is a mind of very little elevation, that in contemplating the cloisters, and arches, and broken walls, can be more gratified in the way of taste than of philanthropy and religion ; more pleased by picturesque appearance, than sympathetic with the exultation of prophets and confessors, that in thus far, " Babylon is fallen ! " Meanwhile, there is no danger of the resumption of " monastic and baronial " architecture. In this country its characteristic uses being gone irrevocably, together with the very means, in a pecuniary sense, of maintaining it, on any scale comparable to its former magnificence, the style itself, with whatever were its merits, is surrendered to the times to which it belonged. And nothing can appear more impertinent than the raising, in recent times, of some few ecclesiastical edifices, in such imitation as to seem like mockery of the temples of Popish superstition ; — unless it be that wretched caprice of wealth which, in two or three notorious instances, has been building, at an immeasurable expense, abbeys and castles, with all their now unmeaning appurtenances, for mere places of abode. As to the relics of the ambitious labours of the older times, there can be no question whether it be desirable to have accurate delineations of them added to our elegant literature, before they are still further sunk in ruins or quite destroyed. Mr. Parkyns's work will be regarded as a pleasing and valuable addition to the numerous performances of this class. BENJAMIN WEST.* This is one of the most curious and pleasing pieces of bio- graphy that have appeared for many years. While the long- established celebrity, and the singularly amiable character of the distinguished person who is the subject of it, had * The Life and Studies of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Koyal Academy of London By John Gait. 8vo. 1816. BENJAMIN WEST 395 made him an object of interest to a much greater extent than the circle of artists and the disciplined admirers of art, there has been but very little information generally communicated respecting the original unfolding of his talents and the course of his early Ufe. Mr. West's father was descended of a family who, about the year 1667, had embraced the tenets of the Quakers, Colonel James "West, the friend and companion in arms of Hampden, being said to have been the first proselyte. In 1 699, they emigrated to America. " Thomas Pearson, the maternal grandfather of the artist, was the confidential friend of William Penn.'' But there is no interruption of the complacent sentiment in coming down to the imme- diate parentage. FIEST EMANCIPATION OF NEGRO SLAVES. Everything recorded of the character of the artist's mother testifies to its excellence; and a most memorable circumstance puts beyond all question, and beyond all ordi- nary praise, that of his father — he gave the first example of the emancipation of Negro slaves! " As a part of the marriage portion of Mrs. West, he I'eCeived a Negro slave, whose diligence and fidelity very soon obtained his full confidence. Being engaged in trade, he had occasion to make a voyage to the West Indies, and left this young black to superintend the plantation in his absence. During his residence in Barbadoes, his feelings were greatly shocked by the cruelties to which he saw the Negroes subjected in that island; and the debasing efiects were forcibly contrasted in his mind with the morals and intelligence of his own slave. Conversing on this subject with Dr. Gammon, who was then at the head of the community of Friends in Barbadoes, the Doctor convinced him that it was contrary to the laws of God and Nature that any man should retain his fellow-creatures in slavery. This con- viction could not rest long inactive in a character framed like that of Mr. West. On his return to America, he gave the Negro his freedom, and retained him as a hired servant." With the high advantage arising from this noble act of justice, he stood forward eminently as an advocate of good principles, and zealously pressed the subject on the reason and conscience of the other Quakers of the district; whose conferences, held for the special purpose of arguing the 396 FOSTEEIANA. question, terminated in the adoption of his principle, and the imitation of his example. The same effectual conviction soon extended through the community in other parts of the country; and finally, but at a considerably later -period (about the year 1753), the question was " agitated in the annual general assembly at Philadelphia; when it was ultimately established as one of the tenets of the Quakers, that no person could remain a member of their community, who- held a human creature in slavery." BENJAMIN west's EARLY INDICATIONS OP AKT-LOTB. Benjamin West, the youngest of a numerous family, was born near Springfield, in Chester county, in the state of Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. Parental anxiety was not left to wait, long for some indica- tions of genius, and in its earliest recorded disclosure, it took that practical form in which it was destined to shine. We cite, in the biographer's words, the incident, as one of the most pleasing and remarkable among the memorials ot the dawn of talents, and as one of the most notable of the innumerable facts that throw ridicule on that notion of an' affected philosophy, that all men are natively equal in mental capability. "The first six years of Benjamin's life passed away in calm uniformity. In the month of June, 1745, one of his sisters, who had been married some time before, and had a daughter, came with her infant to spend a few days at her father's. When the child was asleep in the cradle, Mrs. West invited her daughter to gather flowers in the garden, and committed the infant to the care of Benjamin during their absence ; giving him a fan to flap away the flies from molesting his little charge. After some time, the child happened to smile in its sleep, and its beauty attracted his attention. He looked at it with a pleasure which he had never before experienced; and observing some paper on a table, together with pens, and red and black ink, he seized them with agitation, and endeavoured to delineate a portrait; although at this period he had never seen an engraving or a picture, and was only in the seventh year of his age. "Hearing the approach of his mother and sister, he en- deavoured to conceal what he had been doing ; but the old lady, observing his confusion, inquired what he was about, WESTS EARLY INDICATIONS OF ART-LOVE. 397 and requested liim to show her the paper. He obeyed, entreating her not to be angry. Mrs. West, after looking some time at the drawing with evident pleasure, said to her daughter, ' I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally,' and kissed him with much fondness and satisfaction. This encouraged him to say, that if it would give her any pleasure, he would make pictures of the flowers which she held in her hand; for the instinct of his genius was now awakened, and he felt that he could imitate the forms of those things that pleased his sight." AETISTIOAL USE Or A CAT. From the moment of this incident painting became the invincible passion of young West. Throughout his early career the power of genius is displayed in the aptitude to perceive and turn to account the capabilities of casualties and trifles; and in the inventiveness of expedients in default of the requisite implements. One of the simplest of these, the camel's-hair pencil, was too outlandish a thing to be known, otherwise than by description, in his part of the country; he was informed of the existence of it after he had worked a good while with no better implement than the pen; and he quickly fell, for a substitute, on the fur of his father's favourite cat, which the frequent repetition of this clandestine pillage reduced to an appearance which excited the worthy elder's regret and inquiries : — " It will often appear," Mr. Gait remarks, " upon a careful study of authentic, biography, that the means of giving body and effect to their conceptions, are rarely withheld from men of genius. If the circumstances of fortune are unfavourable, nature instructs them to draw assistance from herself, by endowing them with a faculty of perceiving a fitness and corre- spondence in things." west's PKIMITITIE CAMEEA OBSCUEA. At a more advanced period, at the age of sixteen, he actually invented the camera in consequence of observing at first with inexpressible surprise, the moving apparitiona of external objects across the ceiling of his chamber, admitted through the fissures of the window shutters, which had been kept closed on account of his weakness in consequence of a fever. 398 FOSTERIAIfA. west's fiest sight of an ENGEATING. In his eighth year he received from a Quaker relative, a merchant of Philadelphia, a box of paints, with six engrav- ings, and a few pieces of prepared canvas : — "This was an era in the history of the painter and his art; He opened it, and in the colours, the oils, and the pencils, found all his wants supplied, even beyond his utmost con- ceptions. But who can describe the surprise with which he beheld the engravings ; he who had never seen any picture but his own drawings, nor knew ttiat such an art as the engraver's existed ! He sat over the box with enamoured eyes ; and could not refrain from constantly touching the different articles to ascertain that they were real. At night he placed the bos on a chair near his bed, and as often as he was overpowered by sleep, he started suddenly, and stretched out his hand to satisfy himself that the possession of such a treasure was not merely a pleasing dream. He rose at the dawn of day, and carried the box to a room in the garret, where he spi-ead a canvas, prepared a pallette, and immediately began to imitate the figures in the engravings," In this garret he painted a compositicm from two of the engravings, — the -first of a series of compositions which has been progressiva through seventy years! Tie biographer says: — " Sixty-seven years afterwards, the writer of these memoirs had the gratification to see this piece in the same room with the sublime painting of ' Christ Rejected,' on which occasion the painter declared to him that there were inventive touches of art in his first and juvenile essay, which, with all his subsequent knowledge and experience, he had not been able to surpass." WEST ENCOrEAGED AT PHILADELPHIA. The Philadelphia merchant, who had given him the fascinating box, took him on a short visit to that city, where his faculties were absorbed in wonder and delight, and where he fell by accident, into acquaintance with a respecta- ble painter, who instructed and animated him, and lent him, to take home, the .treatises of Dr. Fresnoy and Eichardson. His knowledge and understanding were very much improved pj the, discerning and friendly attention of an accomplished English governess in the family of another of his father's wealthy friends. His reading having been entirely con- WEST ENCOURAGED AT PHILADELPHIA. 399i fined to the Bible, anJ the two books on painting, she read to him the most striking and picturesque passages from translations of the ancient historians, and poetry; and it was from this intelligent woman that he heard, for the first time, of the Greeks and Eomans. Some time after- wards he came within the notice, and soon became a subject of the most liberal and assiduous care of Dr. Smith, Provost of the College at Philadelphia; a man whose enlightened mind, attractive disposition, and indefatigable exertions, produced a very great and beneficial effect on the whole state of intellect and conversation in Philadelphia. QUAKEES FORMERLY OPPOSED TO THE PAINTEE's AET. By this time, the youth had come into very high request as a portrait painter, and was venturing, with flattering omens, into the historic department. But he had now attained an age when the adoption of a regular occupation of life was become the subject of paternal solicitude and deliberation; — deliberation, for it was by no means to be taken as a thing of course, that indications even so un- equivocal and extraordinary, should be admitted as decisive in favour of a pursuit which the religious principles of the community had been accustomed to disapprove, as hardly less than criminal, though the censure had been thus far suspended in favour of this most amiable youth. It now became a matter of very serious consideration in the society to which he belonged. A meeting was called for the dis- cussion of the subject; and we have a curious and interesting account of its deliberations. The independent and sensible reasonings of a Friend, of the name of Williamson, decided the question in favour of the young artist's wishes ; and he received the solemn sanction and benediction of the com- munity, accompanied with the most emphatic and affectionate injunction, that he should ever religiously preserve the art, in his practice, clear of those tendencies to vanity and immorality, on account of its liability to which, and evident frequent indulgence of which, the Quakers had on principle disapproved and proscribed it. Nothing can be conceived more liberal and pleasing than the wlijoje transaction. It would have been strange if; the affectionate y-puth had not been deeply affected; and we can well believe that the 400 rOSTERIANA. impression then made, remained indelible through all his long subsequent life. QUAKER SOLDIERS. It was about this period that West became for a short time a soldier in the militia, which even the Quakers felt the necessity of forming, at the perilous crisis which followed the destruction of General Braddock's army by the Indians and French. A patriotic and martial ardour seized the young men of the province; an elder brother of the painter became a captain, and Benjamin was drilled in company with the boy who afterwards became so well known as General Wayne. He much excelled the young general in the manual exercise, and was not behind him in adventurous spirit. Captain West, the elder brother, a particularly bold man, was sent with a party, conducted by Indian guides, to search in the remote forests for the dead bodies of Braddock's army; and it appears that Benjamin accom- panied him. A very striking description is given of the discovery of the skeletons; and especially of the aifecting circumstance of Major Halket, a British officer, ascertaining those of his father and brother. DEATH OF west's mother, AND HIS SUBSEQUENT JOURNEY. In 1 756, he was hastily summoned from a distance to see his mother die; she was only able to express by her look the satisfaction with which she saw him approach the bed, before she expired. He continued four years in America, visiting, and for a while residing in, several of the prin-. cipal cities, supporting himself by portrait painting, making some aspiring essays in history, availing himself of all possibilities of improvement, but becoming, at every stage, more deeply convinced, that it would be impossible to attain anything like the perfection of his art without a view of the great works of the European artists. His conviction and his wishes grew into a determined plan ; and in order to accomplish it, he accumulated all the money which a strict invariable economy could save from his earnings by portrait painting. About the time that the sum approached towards a moderate sufficiency, a very favourable opportunity occurred for a voyage from Phila- BENJAMIN west's JOURNEY TO EOME. 401 delphia to Leghorn, in a merchant vessel. He seized it with a pleasure which was augmented by a signal act of kind and delicate liberality, on the part of a man on whom he had no claims but such as generous spirits feel imposed upon them by merit wherever they find it. At Leghorn, where he arrived about Midsummer of the year 1760, at the age of twenty- two, he experienced the utmost kindness from the merchants to whom the cargo of the ship was consigned; and they gratified his eagerness to reach the ,grand metropolis of the arts (Rome), by presenting him with letters to Cardinal Albani, and several of the most distinguished characters for erudition and taste in Home ; and, as he was unacquainted with French or Italian, they recommended him to the care of a French courier, who had occasion to pass that way. It is not easy to conceive a state of mind more 'perfectly adapted than that of the young American genius, to receive a full and most exquisite impression of the character of art, and nature, and man, in Italy ; except- ing, perhaps, in the circumstance of a deficiency of classical attainment. But even as to this requisite, the assiduous care of Dr. Smith had co-operated with the artist's inquisi- tiveness and quick apprehension, to his attainment of a con- siderable share of what may be called the essence and spirit of ancient history. Probably not even Gibbon felt so powerful an emotion at the first sight of "The Eternal City." west's eeception at bomb. " When the travellers had reached the last stage of their journey, while their horses were baiting, West walked on alone. It was a beautiful morning ; the air was perfectly placid, not a speck of vapour in the sky, and a profound tranquillity seemed almost sensibly diffused over the landscape. The appearance of nature was calculated to lighten and elevate the spirits; but the general silence and nakedness of the scene touched the feelings with solemnity approaching to awe. Filled with the idea of the metropolitan city, the artist hastened on till he reached an elevated part of the high road, which afforded him a view of a spacious champaign country, bounded by hills, and in the midst of it the sublime dome of St. Peter's. The mag- ii/finoncc of this view of the Campagna excited in his imagina- tion an agitated train of reflections that partook more of the nature of feeling than of thought. He looked for a spot to rest D D 403 FOSTEEIANA. on, that he might contemplate at leisure a scene at once so noble and so interesting." The young painter was introduced, almost at the instant of his arrival, into the very centre of the most brilliant assemblage of cognoscenti in Europe, under the auspices of Mr. Robinson, afterwards Lord Grrantham: something of a transition, truly, from a Quakers' Meeting at Springfield. The circumstance of an American, and a Quaker, or a very Indian from the woods, as Cardinal Albani supposed he must be, come to study the fine arts at Home, a,ppeared so extraordinary, that they were all immediately swarming and buzzing about him. Their curiosity, however, was not malignant; they seem to have been all disposed with one accord to caress, and instruct, and patronize him. But they must have the amusement of making some experiments upon him. THE APOLLO BELVEDERE LIKE A MOHAWK 'WAEEIOE. Their first experiment was to show him, suddenly, the Apollo Belvedere : — "At the hour appointed the company assembled; and a procession, consisting of upwards of thirty of the most mag- nificent equipages in the capital of Christendom, and filled with some of the most erudite characters in Europe, conducted the young Quaker to view the master-pieces of art. It was agreed that the Apollo should be first submitted to his view, because it was the most perfect work of all the ornaments of Home, and, consequently, the best calculated to produce the eflFect which the company were anxious to witness. The statue then stood in a case, enclosed with doors, which could be so opened as to disclose it at once to full view. West was placed in the situation where it was seen to the most advantage, and the spectators arranged themselves on each side. When the keeper threw open the doors, the artist felt himself surprised with a sudden recollection altogether different from the gratifi- cation which he expected; and, without being aware of the force of what he said, exclaimed : "My God, how fike it is to a young Mohawk warrior ! " It was not because the terms of this sentence brought the idea of the Almighty God into connexion with a stone idol, that the superfine company present would be offended : it was the profane association of the idol with the idea of an THE APOLLO BELTEDEKE LIKE A MOHAWK WAEKIOR. 403 Indian warrior, that "mortified them exceedingly," we are told, when the speech was translated to them. Robinson signified to West their chagrin, and asked for a distinct explanation: — ""West described to him the education of the Mohawks ; their dexterity with the bow and arrow; the admirable elasticity of their limbs; and how much their active life expands the chest, while the quick breathing of their speed in the chase, dilates their nostrils with that apparent con- sciousness of vigour which is so nobly depicted in the Apollo. ' I have seen them often,' added he, ' standing in that very attitude, and pursuing, .with an intense eye, the arrow which they had just discharged from the bow.' This descrip- tive explanation did not lose by Mr. Eobinson's translation. The Italians were delighted, and allowed that a better criticism had rarely been pronounced on the statue." A PRESBYTERIAN AND THE POPE. West attended several performances of the grand cere- monies of superstition, one in St. Peter's church, where his Holiness presided in person; and he felt inevitably a most powerful impression from the immensity, the magnificence, and the solemn music. A Scotch priest of the name of Grant, an adherent of the Stuart family, was his guide and director. While they were all kneeling at the elevation of the host, they suddenly heard, to the equal astonishment of the priest and the Quaker, a voice exclaiming behind them, in a broad Scottish accent, ' O Lord, cast not the church down on them for this abomination ! ' an exclamation, fortu- nately for the rash and intrepid protester, not understood by the other auditors. It was uttered by a zealous, but not quite right-headed man, who had arrived at the very time at Rome, on a self-appointed mission, to convert the Pope. The notice of the incident is followed by the curious story of his adventures in the resolute prosecution of his purpose at Rome. By the interposition of King James in his behalf, he was saved from incurring any material injury, and ultimately shipped off for England. BENJAMIN WEST COMPARED TO RAPHAEL MENGS. The young American's attainments as a painter were soon disclosed in a manner which very much surprised the D D 2 I 404 rOSTEEIANA. Roman and English dilettanti. Robinson got together a large party of them, on purpose to produce before them a portrait for which he had secretly sat to West. It was known that he had been sitting for his portrait to Mengs, a painter of the very highest reputation; and he gave no hint that the picture produced was by another hand. It was admired by the company as a signal improvement of Mengs's style of colouring; and only one keen inspector could detect some inferiority to Mengs in point of drawing. It was eloquently praised by all; and all were astonished when the real artist, to whom Robinson had been the while interpreting their plausive observations, was pointed out to them. As artists are reputed, in common with poets, a jealous and irritable race, it is highly to the credit of Mengs that he was greatly pleased with the strange Quaker interloper and rival, and gave him the most liberal and beneficial advice, which he has ever since recollected with gratitude. He ingenuously told West that his attainments were above any need of a laborious course of discipline and imitative labour at Rome, and sketched to him a plan for availing himself the most effectually of all the great schools and repositories of Italy. KEFECTS OF EXCITEMENT. It is no wonder that so exquisitely susceptible a mind, suddenly brought from a scene of quiet and humble sim- plicity, and plunged among such a combination of enchant- ments, should have been in a state of excitement little less than feverish. He became sleepless and ill ; and the result of a consultation of the best phy'sicians in Rome, was a formal communication to Mr. Robinson, that his friend must immediately quit the capital, and seek relief from the irritated -state of his sensibility, in quiet and retirement. This relief he obtained by passing a short time at Leghorn. On his returning to Rome, the same vivid unmitigated impressions reduced him again to the same condition; and the fever, from which he once more recovered at Leghorn, left an affection in his ankle, which cost him a painful con- finement of eleven months, to his couch and chamber at Florence, whither he had been conveyed for the benefit of ieonsulting an eminent Surgeon. EFFECTS OP EXCITEMENT. 405 ■west's GEAND tour and AEEIVAL in ENGLAND. After West's perfect recovery, he made, in pursuance of Mengs's suggestions, an extensive tour for the study of the grand works in some of the principal cities of Italy; and finally, he came by Paris to England; having experienced throughout every part of his visit to Italy the most gratifying facilities, and the most marked liberality and kindness. Indeed, the whole narrative of his life is dis- tinguished, almost beyond example, by favourable incidents and concurrences, by happy opportunities, by little auspicious interventions of kindness and patronage. In short, almost all things seemed to arrange themselves into a plan, without his control, to promote the purpose of his solicitude and ambition. RETROSPECT Or THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.* DuKiNG many generations, there has been a powerful excite- ment of mental energy in the pursuit of knowledge of all kinds ; a various and wonderful fertility of literary produc- tions ; and a grand progress in sciences and arts. In several nations, and especially in our own, there has been an earnest speculation, accompanied with a multiplicity of experiments, on everything relating to the social economy, and on the prin- ciples of morals, politics, and legislation. And what has been the result of all this, at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury ? It has been that, for a space of time nearly approaching the average term of human life, the ambitious and malignant passions have raged with an unparalleled intensity, through the civilized and Christian world, and deluged the wide field of Europe with blood. In contempt of all deprecation, remonstrance, prediction, and experience of suffering, the fury for destruction has driven on, accompanied with, and stimulated by, all kinds of crimes, irreligion, and delusion ; and at its suspension at length, by a peace without the spirit * Travels in Brazil. By Henry Koster. 4to. 1816. 406 FOSTEEIANA. or expected benefits of peace, it has left the nations in a state of internal agitation and poverty, and aggravated depravity, which depravity is punished by a continuance of despotism, the establishments of superstition, and the omer of still more miseries to come. ANTICIPATIONS OF AMERICAN PROGEfESS. From the revolutions, counter-revolutions, and present humiliated state of Europe, a large share of inquisitive attention is passing to those parts of America, which are the scene of so much that is strange and stupendous in physical nature, and of so much that is now beginning to be important in the history of mankind. It is a striking and gratifying spectacle, to see a race, or rather a diversity of races, fan- tastically mingled and confused, rising from an inveterate state of oppression, degradation, and insignificance, into energy, and invincibly working their way to independence, even though it be through a wide tumult of disorders and calamities — the only course through which it appears to be the destiny of man, in any part of the world, to attain the ultimate state of freedom and peace. Melancholy as the medium is through which alone we can look forward to the happier condition of these- awakening tribes, there is the stimulating prospect of many great events in the passage through it, of an advancement and unfolding of mind, ot rapid changes, surprising incidents, and signal interpositions of Providence. And if it should be asked — wherein will this course of calamities, changes, and wonders, have any such essential difference from the analogous trains of events resulting, hitherto, in so little good in our own part of the world, as to authorize any pleasure in the prospect ? — we may at least reply, with no small delight, that there are religious grounds for hoping that the series of errors, crimes, and miseries, will be of much shorter duration in this new region, than it has been in Europe. We firmly maintain, in spite of the actual state of things, the hope, that the better age, which inspired men have predictively celebrated, is not very far off; and we may well assure ourselves that when it shall arrive to bless one part of the world, the other portions will not be left to work through a long protracted process of failure and misery. PHYSICAL AND MOEAL HARMONIES OF THE NEW WOELD. 407 Nature has furnished in this New World a theatre in superb correspondence and rivalry with whatever there can be of the great and magnificent in the human drama. The images of its grand scenery will be in a measure associated with the men and their proceedings, in the minds contem- plating their rise to independence and importance ; so that a certain adventitious lustre will seem to be reflected on the transactions of a people, vanquishing tyrants, constituting their politics, extending their plantations, opening their schools of literature and science, and, at length, dashing to the ground their systems and institutions of superstition, amid the magnificence of the most stupendous mountains, volcanoes, and torrents, and the riches of a mighty fertility of vegetable and vital forms. It must be a spirit very little imaginative, and very little prone to enthusiastic and poetic feeling, that would not be sensible of a greater captivation in contemplating such a course of events as displayed on such a field, than if the local scene were like the Netherlands, or the steppes of Tartary. At the same time it is to be acknowledged, that this fine illusion of association will have a greater efiect on contemplative minds in Europe, and on cultivated travellers, than on the people themselves, the mass of whom will not, at least for a long time to come, be refined and elevated into any ambitious sympathy with the sublimity which predominates over their territory. SPANISH AMERICA AND HUMBOLDT. The attention and interest now attracted, and which will be progressively more attracted, to the southern, and to what was till lately the Spanish part of the northern division of the American continent, as the scenes of momentous changes in the state of the nations, and of wonderful phenomena in nature, will ensure a favourable reception to every authentic work which brings from those quarters any considerable share of new information. Within the last few years, a number of travellers have adventured, and have brought us their contributions : far above all others, Humboldt, who has accomplished more than it would be reasonable to expect from any future individual zealot for novelty and knowledge. When we reflect on the extent of the tracts surveyed by him, on their quality, with respect to the difficulty and toil 408 FOSTEEIANA, of traversing them, and the diversity of their appearances, and on the various distinct classes of the traveller's observa- tions and researches, it is truly wonderful to behold such an exemplification of what is practicable to a mind shut up in a frame of heavy matter, slow of movement, soon fatigued, and liable to innumerable maladies and mischiefs.* Our author (Koster) had a pleasant voyage, of thirty-five days, from Liverpool to Pernambuco, at the latter end of the year 1809. At Eecife (for that is the name of the town, Pernambuco being properly the name of the captaincy), he instantly found himself in pleasant society, native and imported, and entered with vivacity into their convivialities. The society he acknowledges was very frivolous. At many of the houses of the Portuguese, he found the card-tables occupied at nine o'clock in the morning ; when one person rose another took his place ; and thus excepting an interval for dinner, the battle would be gallantly fought the livelong day, against the old invading enemy — time. There were other auxiliary resources, "music, dancing, playing at forfeits," dinner parties, and rides to Recife. The habits indeed, he remarks, were very much the same, at this place of summer adjournment, as at the English watering places. GOOD FKIDAT IN THE BRAZILS. There are a multitude of occasions for observing what a mighty power of ingenuity, or we may say genius, is exercised by the depravity of the human mind. The most striking of the exemplifications is, that religion, even the Christian religion, the grand heaven-descended opponent of all evil, can be perverted by this genius, to subserve absolutely every purpose of iniquity and vanity, every passion and taste, from the most frivolous to the most infernal. In the place of our author's Transatlantic sojourn, as indeed in some of the countries of Europe, religion is one of the most stimulant and favourite diversions. He wit- nessed all the gaieties, shows, frolics, and riotous indulgences of the Easter season ; of which the zest was heightened by mummery of a more solemn cast on Good Friday. * Alluding to his Travels, recently republished in 3 vols, post 8vo. 10s. 6d. Bohn. 1852. GOOD FEIDAT IN THE BEAZILS. 409 " On the following day, Good Friday, the decorations of the churches, the dress of the women, and even the manner of both sexes were changed (from the flare of gay finery on Holy Thursday) ; all was dismal. Tn the morning I went to the church of the Sacramento, to witness a representation of our Saviour's descent from the cross. The church was much crowded. An enormous curtain hung from the ceiling, ex- eluding from sight the whole of the principal chapel. An Italian missionary friar of the Penha convent, with a long beard, and dressed in a thick dark brown cloth habit, was io. the pulpit, and about to commence an extempore sermon. After an exordivim of some length, adapted to the day, he cried out, ' Behold Him ! ' the curtain immediately dropped, and discovered an enormous cross, with a full-sized wooden image of our Saviour, exceedingly well carved and painted, and around it a number of angels represented by young persons, all finely decked out, and each bearing a large pair of outstretched wings, made of gauze ; a man dressed in a bob-wig, and a pea-green robe, as St. John, and a female kneeling at the foot of the cross, as the Magdalen ; whose character, as I was informed, seemingly that nothing might be wanting, was not the most pure. The friar continued with much vehemence, and much action, his narrative of the Crucifixion ; and after some minutes again cried out, ' Behold they take Him down ;' when four men, habited in imitation of Eomah soldiers, stepped forward. The countenances of these persons were in part concealed by black crape. Two of them ascended ladders placed on each side against the cross, and one took down the board, bearing the letters I. N. E. I. Then was removed the crown of thorns, and a white cloth was put over, and pressed down upon the head ; which was soon taken off, and shown to the people, stained with the circular mark of the crown in blood. This done, the nails which transfixed the hands, were by degrees knocked out, and this produced a violent beating of breasts among the female part of the congregation. A long white linen bandage was next passed under each arm-pit of the image ; the nail which secured the feet was removed ; the figure was let down very gently, and was carefully wrapped up in a white sheet. All this was done by word of command by the preacher. The sermon was then quickly brought to a con- clusion, and we left the church." IMPOSED DEFEKENCE. He notices two inconveniences which Englishmen had to encounter, at their influx, a few years back, into Pernambuco. The established custom required them to take off the hat in passing a sentinel, or meeting in the streets a military 410 FOSTERIANA. guard ; and to fall on their knees on meeting the procession of the Sacrament, carried to dying persons, and so to remain till it went out of sight. The first was intolerable, and was uniformly and firmly refused, as an improper submission, we suppose, ioT freemen: but as to the religious affair, the act of idolatrous homage, that was far too trifiing a matter to be worth a scruple or an effort of spirit in Protestants : " Here Englishmen (says Mr. Koster), in some degree conformed, in proper deference, to the religion of the country." In plain terms, they repelled the one demand because it was insulting to themselves ; they acquiesced in the other, because it was insulting only to God. Has this unhappy nation, at this late and calamitous period, yet to learn, that the worst of all omens for a people's liberties, is a prevailing contempt of the claims of the Most High ? To a religious man, deeply sharing in the zeal for freedom and political amelioration, it affords but a melancholy presage to see so little hold of reli- gion on the national mind, so little recognition of the Governor of the world, so little perception, that the oppres- sive evils of which bad men 'are the immediate inflictors, are the inflictions of His justice ; and that something more is required for the effectual vindication of rights, than the mere energy of reaction against the instruments of oppression. VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL INCONVENIENCES. Large tracts of the captaincy of Seara are an eternal sand, only not quite so burning and volatile as in the African deserts. Other parts are covered with thickets, completely impervious but by some narrow path which has been cut through the dense substance with billhooks and hatchets. We transcribe the description of one of the vegetable productions which contribute to render them so: — " The dpo is a plant consisting of long and flexible shoots which twist themselves around the trees, and as some of the sprouts which have not yet fixed upon any branch, are moved to and fro by the wind, they catch upon a neighbouring tree, and as the operation continues for many years undisturbed, a kind of net-work is made, of irregular form, but difficult to pass through. Several kinds of cipo are used as cordage in making feuomi and for many other purposes." VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL INCONVENIENCES. 411 Animal nuisances were furnished in due proportion. With one of them he made an early acquaintance : — " I laid down in my clothes, but soon started up, finding my- self uneasy. The guide saw me, and called out, ' O sir, you are covered with carapatos.^ I then perceived them, and felt still more their bites. Instantly throwing off part of my clothes, but with the remainder upon me, I ran into the water, and there began to take them off. The carapato, or tick, is a small flat insect of a dark brown colour, about the size of four pin-heads placed together ; it fastens upon the skin, and wiU in time eat its way into it. It is dangerous to_ puU it out quickly, when already fixed ; for if the head remains, inflammation is not unfrequently the consequence." RAPID VEGETATION IN THE BBAZILS. It was pleasing to observe, in the sudden eflfect of the rain, the wonderfully sensitive state of a soil in all appear- ance utterly burnt up : — "The rapidity of vegetation in Brazil is truly astonishing Bain in the evening upon good soil will by sun-rise have given a greenish tinge to the earth, which is increased, if the rain con- tinues on the second day, to sprouts of grass of an inch in length, and these on the third day are sufSciently long to be picked up by. the half-starved cattle." IGNORANCE AND CEEDTJLITT OF THE SERTANEJOS. The ignorance of Sertanejos is extreme, few of them possessing even the commonest rudiments of knowledge. Their religion is confined to a few ceremonies, relics, and charms ; some of which last are the resource of persons bitten by serpents ; and as all serpents are believed by these people to be venomous, while, in fact, many of them are not, there will be plenty of reputed proofs of the efficacy of the charm. There was an amusing instance of fantastic credu- lity, at a house where the travellers were answered by a man from within the door, but who did not open it, nor in any way venture to look out : — "The guide explained, that the man had been bitten by a snake, and that the bite of this species only became fatal if the man who had received it saw any female animal, and particu- larly a woman, for thirty days after the misfortune," 413 THE MUMMY-PITS OF THEBES.* The long descent from Essouan to the Mediterranean, was performed by the travellers without many diflScuIties or adventures, and with an active attention to the stupendous monuments of the labours and superstition of the ancient inhabitants. The aspirants to a personal acquaintance with the darkest solemnity of antiquity, in the sepulchral retire- ments inhabited now by the forms of those beings that finished their living career several thousands of years since, will be gratified to be assured that many of the remotely interior recesses of the grand excavated cemetery of Thebes, remain yet unprofaned by research. These repositories of the dead are called mummy-pits. The following scene forms a most striking picture : — " Our curiosity induced us, during our stay here " (it was near Thebes), "to descend into one of the mtunmy-pita that abound in this neighbourhood ; but it would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the disgusting scene of horror we had to encounter. The entrance was through a very narrow hole, nearly filled up with rubbish, by which we made our way into a small room about fifteen feet long and sis wide ; beyond, we reached a chamber somewhat larger, and containing two rows of columns. The walls were covered with paintings, and at the farther end stood two full length statues, male and female, dressed in very gay apparel, and having on one side the figures of two boys, and on the other those of two girls. " The whole of this chamber was strewed with pieces of cloth, legs, arms, and heads of mummies, left in this condition by the Arabs who visit these places for the purpose of rifling the bodies, and carrying off the bituminous substances with which they have been embalmed. From the chamber above described, two passages lead into the interior and lower part of the moun- tain, and we penetrated about a hundred yards into that which appeared the longest. Slipping and crawling among the various fragments of these mutilated bodies, we were only able to save ourselves from falling by catching hold of the leg, arm, or skuU of a mummy, some of which were lying on the ground, but many still standing in the niches where they had been originally placed." • Narrative of a Journey in Egypt and the Country beyond the Cataracts. By Thomas Legh, Esq., M.P. 4to. 1816. THE MUMMY-PITS OF THEBES. 413 So that our countrymen obtained a sight which had been permitted to none of the French explorers during their occupation of the country, — that of entire mummies, stand- ing in their ancient position. DANGEROUS ADVENTURE IN THE MUMMY-PITS. We now transcribe the account of an adventure, which we think is one of the most interesting stories to be found in any book of travels. A. Greek, whom the travellers met at Thebes, informed them that, in pursuit of some predatory Arabs, of the village of Amabdi, not far from Manfalout, he had observed several of them disappear by descending into a mummy- pit. He and his soldiers went down in search of them, but in vain. At the bottom they observed fragments of mummies of crocodiles scattered about j and the pit appeared to communicate with lateral galleries of unknown extent, where were probably deposited the crocodile mum- mies from among which these fragments had been rifled. Our author and his companions were determined to see what these caves^did actually contain, and with considerable difficulty induced some Arabs of Amabdi to become their guides. The descent was a circular hole, of ten feet diameter, and about eighteen deep. Our author, Mr. Smelt, and an American named Barthow, descended with three Arabs, leaving one at the top with an Abyssinian mer- chant, and the sailors, who were to take care of the clothes ; for 'the Arabs had recommended them to strip, which they did in part, keeping on their shirts and trow- sers, in the latter of which Mr. Legh concealed a brace of pocket pistols, as he by no means liked the manner, and a previous muttering consultation of the Arabs. Each had a torch, and they found their way from the bottom of this hole into a larger chamber, strewed, as the Greek had described, with fragments of crocodile mummies. From this they passed through the windings of a low gallery, and after proceeding for more than an hour, came out into a large apartment, which they recognised as the same from which they had set out. The conductors at first denied this, but, on the travellers persisting, acknowledged that it was, and said they had lost their way ; but assured the party of being 414 FOSTERIANA. led to the mummies if they would make another attempt. They next approached a chamber " guarded by a trench of unknown depth, and wide enough to require a good leap." " The first Arab jumped the ditch, and we all followed him. The passage we entered was extremely small, and so low in some places as to oblige us to crawl flat on the ground, and almost always on our hands and knees. The intricacies of its windings resembled a labyrinth, and it terminated a* length in a chamber much smaller than that we had left, but, like it, containing nothing to satisfy our curiosity. Our search hitherto had been fruitless, but the mummies might not be far distant ; another effort and we might stUl be successful. "The Arab whom I followed, and who led the way, now entered another gallery, and we all continued to move in the same manner as before, each preceded by a guide. We had not gone far before the heat became excessive ; — for my own part, I found my breathing extremely difficult, my head began to ache most violently, and I had a most distressiog sensation of fulness about the heart. " We felt we had got too far, and yet were almost deprived of the power of returning. At this moment, the torch of the , first Arab went out ; I was close to him, and saw him fall on his side ; he uttered a groan — his legs were strongly convulsed, and I heard a rattling noise in his throat — he was dead. The Arab behind me, seeing the torch of his companion extin- guished, and conceiving he had stumbled, passed me, advanced to his assistance, and stopped. I observed him appear faint, totter, and fall in a moment — he also was dead. The third Arab came forward, and made an effort to approach the bodies, but stopped short. We looked at each other in silent horror. The danger increased every instant ; our torches burnt faintly ; our breathing become more difficult ; our knees tottered under us, and we felt our strength nearly gone. " There was no time to be lost — the American, Barthow, cried to us to ' take courage,' and we began to move back as fast as we could. We heard the remaining Arab shouting after us, calling us Caflres, imploriijg our assistance, and upbraiding us with deserting him. But we were obliged to leave him to his fate, expecting every moment to share it with him. The wind- ings of the passages through which we had come increased the dfficulty of our escape ; we might take a wrong turn, and never reach the great chamber we had first entered. Even supposing we took the shortest road, it was but too probable our strength would fail us before we arrived. We had each of us separately, and unknown to one another, observed attentively the different shapes of the stones -which projected into the •DANGEROUS ADVENTURE IN THE MUMMY-PITS. 415 galleries we had passed, so that each had an imperfect clv.e to the labyrinth we had now to retrace. We compared notes, and only on one occasion had a dispute, the American differing from my friend and myself ; in this dilemma we were deter- mined by the majority, and fortunately were right. Exhausted with fatigue and terror we had reached the edge of the deep trench, which remained to be crossed before we got into the great chamber. Mustering all my strength, I leaped, and was followed by the American. Smelt stood on the brink ready to drop with fatigue. He called out to us " for God's sake to help him over the fosse, or at least to stop, if only for five minutes, to allow him time to recover his strength." It was impossible : to stay was death, and we could not resist the desire to push on and reach the open air. We encouraged him to summon all his force, and he cleared the trench. When we reached the open air it was one o'clock, and the heat in the sun about 160°. Our sailors, who were waiting for us, had luckily a hardak full of water, which they sprinkled upon us ; but though a little refreshed, it was not possible to climb the sides of the pit ; they uhfolded their turbans, and slinging them round our bodies, drew us to the top." The state of debility in which they emerged from this den of death, was stimulated to immediate effort by appre- hensions of another kind. Not venturing to tell the plain truth of a fact of which they were aware it would be of little use to attempt to explain the cause to the barbarians of the place, they replied to the inquiries of the astonished Arab who had remained at the mouth of the pit, that his three friends would soon appear, being " employed in bringing out the mummies which had been found ;" and they hastened away to reach their cangia, moored at Manfai- lout, in order to be gone before there should be time for the rage of the Arabs to be brought upon them by the belief that they had murdered their guides. The stupidity, how- ever, of the master of the vessel detained it many hours from getting it into the stream ; and when that was effected, the wind was so contrary that they had only proceeded a few miles when Turks on horseback and Arabs on foot came to the bank, and, within pistol-shot, summoned them, in the name of the cacheff of the town, to answer for the murder. On a stipulation with the Turks for their protection while walking back to the town, and an allowance to carry their arms, they returned, and were received with a shout of 416 FOSTERIANA. revengeful joy by a large assemblage of armed Arabs of Amabdi, waiting at the house of the cacheff ; and he himself, notwithstanding their explanation, and the firman of the Pasha of Egypt, affected to treat them in an angry and menacing manner. Retiring however, and summoning them into a private apartment, he quite changed his tone, admitted the truth of their story, but told them the best service he could render them, was to assist them to escape secretly, while be amused their enemies ; for that he had no sufficient force to protect them if the numerous armed population of Amabdi should rise on the occasion. It was so managed, therefore, that they got again on board their boat, which they rowed with all their might ; but they were soon again arrested by the appearance of a number of Arabs, who threatened to fire upon them if they did not return. On reaching the town, they met, among their vociferous assailants, the wives and children of the men who had perished, naked and smeared with mud, according to their accustomed fashion of mourning. Among the crowd at the cacheff's house, they recognised the Arab whom they had left alive, but with no doubt of his inevitable fate, in the cavern. " His appearance was most wretched, he was unable to stand, and was supported by two of his friends." This man, on being appealed to, confirmed the charge of murder, and being interrogated as to the mode, said it was by magic The incredulity excited in some of the auditors, by this allegation, combined with the force of some of the circumstances proved in defence, produced a kind of pause of the indignant violence, of which the culprits availed themselves to demand, with a peremptory air, and with threatening references to the alliance of their king with the despot of Egypt, to be instantly sent, together with their accusers to Ibrahim Bey, the son of that despot, and governor of Upper Egypt, whose reputation for cruelty made his very name terrible to the company. At length, a moderate sum of money was suggested in the way of com- promise, to which, after a short politic affectation of haughtily refusing it, the captives gladly agreed ; and they were soon again making the best of their way down the Nile. 4ir SACRED BATH AND FAIR ON THE GANGES.* HuRDTVAE, the boundary of British India in the neigh- bourhood of Delhi is well known to be a place of prodigious resort at a particular time of the year, for the Brahmins, who have to sell the blessings of superstition, and the wretched dupes who have to buy them. Our author speaks of this superstition and of its haughty and its humiliated votaries in appropriate language of exposure and reprobation. The grand object with a great proportion of the crowding myriads, is to bathe in the river, here at its entrance, with aU its celestial purity, into Hindoostan : — " Wretches, loaded with enormities," says the author, " and oppressed by the weight of their sins, bend annually their stept) to this spot of unparalleled superstition and priestcraft. Here, lavishing on the Brahmins a portion of their wealth, they are absolved of their offences, and return to their several homes with congciences pure and unsuUied as the stream in which they have immersed. The Brahmins possessing among the Hindoos the highest spiritual and temporal authority, fatten on the credulity of their worshippers. Eeligion, here, as in the darker ages of Europe, assumes a shape the bane and curse of the people. Its ministers enjoy all the pleasures and luxuries of this lite ; and to the deluded wretch, who, with tears in his eyes, offers the few pice, industriously acquired by the sweat of his brow, they point to the heavens, and in promising future happi- ness, fail not to menace everlasting punishment for the smaUness of the offering." At the fair, at the end of March, 1814, sixty thousand people are supposed to have been collected ; and doubtless the strangeness of the spectacle would be found to warrant the author's superlative terms in describing it : — "The spot on which the fair is held, not exceeding a mile in length, or a third of that in breadth, presented a medley of Persians, Tartars, Seiks, and natives from every part of India. Jats, Eohillas, Goorkas, &c., of the reality of which not a bare idea can be entertained in even the most lively imagina- tion. The astonishing variety of features, dresses, languages, and customs made the scene quite unrivalled." • Sketohea of India, in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814. 8vo. Black & Co. 1816. £ E 418 FOSTEEIANA: HINDOO TOLERANCE OP ENGLISH MISSIONAKY PREACHING. To this re-assemblage of all that was scattered at Babel, waa added, a striking singularity, that of an English " Anabaptist missionary," lecturing on the Bible to this many-featured mass of idolaters. What shall we think of the personal temerity of a man who could thus expose hims'elf to the fanatical rage of so many hundreds of Brahmins, and so many thousands of devotees obsequious to their prompting ? —for the personal danger attending such a provocation is immediate and extreme, as all the world has been made to hear. Nine in ten of our gentlemen from India, would at any time have pronounced that a person who should do this must be a madman, and would tempt and deserve his fate. We transcribe the story as given by our author : — " During the greater part of this fair, which lasted nearly three weeks, an Anabaptist missionary (Mr. Chamberlain) in the service of her Highness the Begum Sumroo, attended, and from a Hindoostanee translation of the Scriptures, read daily a considerable portion. His knowledge of the language was as that of an accomplished native ; his delivery impi-essive, and his whole manner partook much of mUdness and benignity. In fine, he was such as all who undertake the arduous and painful duties of a missionary should be. No abuse, no language which could in any way injure the sacred service he was employed in, escaped his lips. Having finished his allotted portion, on eveiy part of which he commented and explained, he recited a short prayer, and concluded the evening by bestowing his blessing on all assembled. At first, as may be expected, his auditors were few : a pretty convincing proof, when sixty thousand people were collected, that it was not through mere curiosity they subsequently increased. For the first four or five days he was not surrounded by more than as many hundred Hindoos ; in ten days his congregation had increased to as many thousands. iYom this time, to the conclusion of the fair, they varied, but never fell "below eight thousand. They sat around and listened with an attention which would have reflected credit on a Christian audience. On the missionary's retiring, they every evening cheered him home with ' May the Padre live for ever ! ' '' Such was the reception of a missionary at Hurdwar, the Loretto of the Hindoos, at a time when five lacs of people were computed to have been assembled, and whither Brahmins from far and near had considered it their duty to repair. What was not the least singular, many of these Brahmins formed a part of his congregation. They paid the greatest deference to HINDOO TOLERANCE OF ENGLISH MISSIONARY PREACHING. 419 all that fell from him, and when iu doubt requested an explana- tion. Their attendance was regular, and many whose counte- nances were marked, were ever the first in assembling. Thus, instead of exciting a tumult, as was at first apprehended, by attemptmg conversion at one ot the cniet sources ol idolatry. Mr. Chamberlain, by his prudence and moderation, commanded attention ; and I have little doubt, ere the conclusion of the fair, effected hia purpose, by converting to Christianity men of some character and reputation." As to the disadvantages under which the missionaries appear among the natives, without attendants, with the evident signs of being destitute of that wealth which the Hindoo adores, without any specific authority or protection from the government, in short, as we are told, "vagabonds," proposing a religion poor in attractions of external pomp, — they would have been truly as foolish as their bitterest haters, or rudest scoffers have ever called them, if they had entered on their design without a firm presumption that the cause to which they devoted themselves would be accompanied by a power quite different from that of exterior show, and infinitely more than a compensation for its absence. INHUMANITY OF THE HINDOOS. The Hindoos seem devoid of humanity and natural affec- tion. They can with all imaginable composure take their aged parents to the banks of the river, and suffocate them with mud. And when- they can thus treat the living, it is not to be wondered at that they show a contempt totally unparal- leled in other regions of the globe, of all decent attentions to the dead. We transcribe a description of what a voyageir on the Ganges may expect to see in that sacred stream, especially near populous places on its banks : — "Every hour passed on the rivers of Iiiflia presents sights shocking to humanity, and sickening to the most apathetic. Crows and vultures are seen daily floating on half-eaten bodies, and glutting themselves with the entrails, the 'shreds and remnants ' of mortality. Near the holy city of Benares I have had my boats surrounded with dead bodies, in every stage of decay, from those just committed to the water, to others in the most loathsome state of putrefaction. I have seen the oars of the boatman strike against the mangled carcases, and in the act of my servants drawing water to drink, have often cautioned them against the floating fragments of a human body. In extenuation of this disgraceful custom, the natives urge their E E 3 420 FOSTEEIANA. poverty ; and I have not unfreqnently had the happiness of contributing a rupee's -worth of wood to the decent treatment of a parent, a sister; a brother, by reducing the corpse to ashes." THE SUTTEE, OR THE BURNING OP 'WIDOWS. In the Goorka territory, the Suttee, or burning of widows, is actually continued. One day, in a romantic scene, our travel- ler's attention was caught by many rude piles of stones, four and five feet high, erected in the simplest manner, and indi- cating various distances of time by their appearance. He was informed they were the monuments of women so sacrificed, and that in a few days there would be an opportunity for his enjoying, if he pleased, the spectacle of such a transaction. He saw, and thus describes it : — " At ten in the morning the ceremony begati. A pile of wood, about four feet and a half high, being previously erected, the mourner appeared, and having performed her ablutions in th^ Assan, a clear meandering stream which ran near, walked three times round the fatal pile, and .taking a tender farewell of her family and friends, prepared for ■ the last dreadful ceremony. She was a remote descendant of one of the hill princes ; and though too short for a fine form, had a fair and interesting couutenance. Her natural beauty, heightened by her resolution, would have afiected a heart of adamant. Her glossy black hair hung dishevelled on her shoulders ; and attired in a yellow sheet (the garment of despair), this infatuated widow ascended the fatal pile. The noise of drums and other native instruments now became deafening. Placing the head of her husband in her lap, she sat, seemingly unconcerned, and with the continued exclamations of Bam, Ram, witnessed the savage exultations of the Brahmins, as they eagerly applied torches to the pile. Ghee (clarified butter) and other inflammable substances, having been profusely spread on the lower parts of the wood, it ignited in an instant. Still was heard the cry of Bam, Bam : her chief ambition appeared to consist in invoking her god to the last.' The flames had now ascended far above the sufierer, and her agony was very apparent in the agitation of the pile. But the Brahmins immediately threw on more wood, and buried both bodies from our sight. I shall not attempt to paint the spectacle which presented itself on the flames being extinguished : it was truly horrible. Their ashes were collected and thrown into the Assan ; and shortly after, a pile of stones, similar to those before mentioned, was erected on the spot where the suttee had taken place." 421 AERLA.L MONASTERIES OF METEOEA* From the lofty desolation of the snowy Pindus our traveller descended into the beautiful valley of the Salympria, the ancient Peneus ; which soon brought him to one of the most remarkable spectacles seen in all his peregrinations — the rocks of Meteora, . surmounted with monasteries. A number of rocks, insulated and perpendicular, standing up like towers or enormous columns, of the height of from one to three hundred feet, sustain on their summits, ancient monastic structures, built, in some instances, to the very edge of the crown of the rock, so that the wall carries upward the continuity of the face of rock. " Four of the monasteries actually occupy the whole summit of the insulated rocks on which they stand ; a perpendicular precipice descending from every side of the buildings into the deep-wooded hollows. The only access to these aerial prisons is by ropes, or by ladders firmly fixed to the rock, in those places where its surface affords any points of suspension ; and these ladders, in some instances, connected with artificial subterranean tunnels, which give a passage of easier ascent to the buildings above. The monastery, called by distinction, the Meteora, which is the largest of the number, stands in the remarkable situation just described, and is accessible only in this method. Still more extraordinary is the position of another of these buildings. It is situated on a narrow rectangular pillar of rock, apparently about 120 feet in height ; the summit of which is so limited in extent, that the walls of the monastery seem on every side to have the same plane of elevation as the perpen- dicular faces of the rock." " The number of monasteries at Meteora, is said to have been formerly twenty-four ; but at present, owing partly to the wearing away of the rocks on which they stood, partly to the decay of the buildings themselves, only ten of these remain. Aios Stephanos, which we visited, is among the most extraordi- nary of the number ; its height is upwards of 180 feet." " A small wooden shed projected beyond the plane of the cliff, from which a rope, passing over a pulley at the top, descended to the foot of the rock. Our Tartar shouted l(5udly to a man who looked down, ordering him to receive us into the monastery ; but at this time the monks were engaged in their * Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, &c., during the Years 1812 .and 1813 By Henry Holland, M.D. ito. 1815. 422 FOSTEEIANA. ehapel, and it was ten minutes before we could receive an answer to his order, and our request. At length we saw a thicker ropo coming down from the pulley, and attached to the end of it a small rope net. The net reached the ground ; our Tartar and a peasant spread it open, covered the lower part with an Albanese capote, and my friend and I seated ourselves in this slender vehicle. As we began to ascend, our weight drew close the upper aperture of the net, and we lay crouching together, scarcely able, and little willing, to stir either hand or foot. We rose with considerable rapidity ; and the projection of the shed and pulley beyond the line of the cliff, was suflSeient to secure against injury by striking upon the rock. Yet the ascent had something in it that was formidable. We were absolutely suspended in the air, our only support was the thin cordage of a net, and we were even ignorant of the machinery, whether secure or not, which was thus drawing us rapidly upwards. We finished the ascent, however, which is 166 feet, in safety, and in less than three minutes. When opposite the door of the wooden shed, several monks and other people appeared, who dragged the net into the apartment, and released us. We found on looking round us, that these men had been employed in working the windlass ; and in observing some of their feeble and decayed figures, it was impossible to suppose that the danger -of our ascent had been one of appearance only. Our servant, Demetrius, meanwhile, had been making a still more difficult progress upwards, by ladders fitted to the ledges of the rock, conducting to a subterranean passage, which opens out in the middle of the monastery. " The monks received us with civility, and we remained with them more than an hour in their extraordinary habitation. The buildings are spread irregularly over the whole summit of the rock, enclosing two or three small areas ; they have no splendour, either external or internal, and exhibit but the appearances of wretchedness and decay. Nevertheless the monis conducted us through every one of their dark and dilapidated rooms, and seemed to require a tribute of admiration, which, though little due to the objects for which it was sought, might conscientiously be given to the magnificent natural scenery around and beneath their monastery." The two terrestrial visitants were led to each edge of the platform of this seclusion from the earth, after which they made a hasty repast of rice cooked in oil ; a Turkish dish composed of flour, eggs, and oil ; bread, and thin wine. There were only five monks, with a few attendants, resident at that time in the monastery : all of them miserable in AERIAL MONASTERIES OP METEORA. 423 their exterior, and with conceptions as narrow and confined as the rocks on which they live. They were quite ignorant of the age of the foundation of their edifice, and appeared to possess no books of the smallest value. Their almost inac- cessible situation has not availed them against the Albanian soldiers, who have often plundered the village and valleys below, where lies their little property, and whence their supplies are furnished, and sometimes compelled an admission for the same purpose into the monasteries themselves. EXPERIMENTS ON THE GEYSER SPRINGS.* The author saw the column of the Great Geyser rise to a hundred and fifty feet. It was an exceedingly remarkable circumstance, that, by an experiment made in the first instance unthinkingly, he found it possible to provoke the New Geyser to a premature repetition of its thundering explosion, and with such an augmentation of its fury as to throw the boiling element to nearly double the most usual elevation of the column. Certainly, it were desirable there had been time to verify so strange a principle of its agency by a greater number of experiments ; but the fact, taken only to the extent of the evidence afforded to Dr. Henderson, gives a strong presumption of such a law of operation as adds darker mystery to the subterraneous economy. We will give his own relation : — " The morning after my arrival I was awakened by its explo- sion about twenty minutes past four o'clock ; and hastening to the crater, stood nearly half an hour contemplating its jet, and the steady and uninterrupted emission of the column of spray which followed, and which was projected at least a hundred feet into the air. After this, it gradually sunk into the pipe, and I did not expect to see another eruption till the following morning. However, about five o'clock in the afternoon, after a great quantity of the largest stones that could be found about the place had been thrown into the spring, I observed it begin to roar with • Iceland ; or the Journal of a Eesidence in that Island, during tha Years 1814 and 1815. By E. Henderson. 8vo. Two vols. 1818. 424 FOSTERIANA. more violence than usual ; and, approaching the brink of the crater, I had scarcely time to look down to the surface of the water, which was greatly agitated, when the eruption com- menced, and the boiling water rushed up in a moment, within an inch or two of my face, and continued its course with incon- ceivable velocity into the atmosphere. Having made a speedy retreat, I now took my station on the windward side, and was astonished to observe the elevation of the jets, some of them rising higher than two hundred feet ; many of the fragments of stones were thrown much higher, and some of considerable size were raised to an invisible height. For some time eveiy suc- ceeding jet,seemed to surpass t^e preceding, tUl, the quantity of water in the subterraneous caverns being spent, they gave place to the column of steam, which continued to rush up with a deafening roar for nearly an hour. 'The periodical evacuation of this Geyser having been deranged by this violent experiment, no symptoms whatever of a fresh eruption appeared the following morning. As I wished, how- ever, to see it play once more before I bade an everlasting adieu to these wonders of nature, and, especially, being anxious to ascertain the reality of my supposed discovery, I got my servant to assist me, about eight o'clock, in casting all the loose stones we could find into the spring. We had not ceased five minutes when the wished-for phenomena re-commenced, and the jets were carried to a height little inferior to yrhat they had gained the preceding evening." It will be obvious that the experiments -would have been, more decisive, if the intervals had been shorter between the throwing in of the stones and the preceding eruptions. THE GREAT VOLCANO " KRABLA YOKUL." The high and disastrous distinction held in the history of most other countries, by dreadful commotions, wars, and battles, is held and rivalled in that of Iceland by the sub- limer tumults and devastations of volcanic fire. The visible monuments of these events have a magnificence and per- manence-strikingly contrasted with the slight and vanishing traces of most of the tragical events in the human history. The Krabla Yokul is one of the most memorable and for- midable names in the history of Iceland. At a great dis- tance from its position, the traveller was encountered by the signs of its character and memorials of its operations : "Having gained the extremity of the sand, I encountered a THE GREAT VOLCANO " KRABLA TOKUL." 425 prodigious stream of lava, which having insinuated itself into the valleys that open into the plain where it has collected, I had to cross several times before I reached the limit of the day's journey. Of all the lavas I had yet seen, this appeared the freshest and most interesting. It is black as jet ; the blisters and cracks are of an immense size ; and most of the chasms are completely glazed, and present the most beautiful and grotesque stalactitic appearances. In some places it is spread out in large round cakes, the surface of which is covered with round dimi- nutive elevations, resembling the coils in a roll of tobacco. Where the fiery stream has met with some interruption, and got time to cool, a crust has been formed, which, on a fresh vent having been opened below for the egress of the lava, has broken, and, intermingling with the more liquid masses, has been heaved and l^ssed about in every direction,And now exhibits the wildest and most fantastic figures, which the imagination may easily convert into various objects of nature and art." " According to the accounts given by those who " (between.- the years 1724 and 1730) "witnessed the eruption, the stone^ 'flood (SteinS,), as they very emphatically called it, ran slowly along, carrying everything before it, and burning with a blue flame, like that which proceeds from sulphur, yet but partially visible, owing to the dense smoke in which it was everywhere developed. During the night, the whole region appeared to be one blaze ; the atmosphere itself seemed to be on fire ; flashes of lightning darted along the, horizon, and announced to the inhabitants of distant districts the terrific scenes exhibited in , this quarter. Having overflowed the greater part of the low- lands, the lava was at length poured into the lake of Myvatn, which it filled to a considerable distance, forming numerous little islands, and destroying the fish with which it was Stocked." "The lake, which is reckoned to be about forty miles in cir- cumference, has been so filled up with the torrents of lava that, at its extreme depth it does not exceed four fathoms and a half, and in most places is only between two and three fathoms deep." The description of the tract bordering on this lake ; the dark, gloomy appearance of the lake itself, boilitig here and there above the chasms in the lava at the bottom, and throwing up columns of steam ; the volcanic mountains by which it is in part environed ; and " the death-like silence which pervades the whole of the desolated region;" — present a most solemn and impressive picture, strikingly resembling, as Dr. Henderson suggests, but we should presume greatlj Surpassing, the scene of the Dead Sea and its precincts. f26 rOSTBBIANA. THE SU;:PHnE MOUNTAIN. A stage or two more brought our adventurous traveller to the Sulphur Mountain, with its mines, and its boiling and exploding pits of sulphur and mud. The incessant eruptions, and smoke, and roaring of these pits, together with the hot, brimstone, treacherous consistence of the soil in the vicinity, forming but a crust over a vast sulphureous fiery quagmire, are quite terrible. It was a worthy prelude to a spectacle of still more appalling aspect. At the moment of his retreating from the " burning marl," his attention was seized by an immense volume of smoke, ascending with velocity from some chasm or recess about two-thirds up the side of Krabla, which was at no great distance. With great difficulty and protracted exertion he and his guide, (whose unaffected dread of the attempt, it required some promises of remuneration to counteract), made their way to a position whence they suddenly beheld beneath them what Dr. Hen- derson could not doubt to be the crater of this tremendous volcano ; and beheld it in a state which might suggest the image of the imperfect troubled repose of some dreadful monster, retained in a feverish slumber till the time return for him to rise up again in his might to renew the work of destruction : — " At the bottom of a deep gully, lay a circular pool of black liquid matter, at least three hundred feet in circumference, from the middle of which a vast column of the same black liquid was erupted, with a loud, thundering noise ; but, being enveloped in smoke, till within about three feet of the surface of the pool, I could not form any idea of the height to which it rose. " From every circumstance connected with the vast hollow in which this pool is situated, I could not but regard it as the remains of the crater ; which, after having vomited immense quantities of volcanic matter, has loosened the adjacent parts of the mountain, to such a degree, that they have fallen in, and left nothing but the boiling cauldron to mark its site, and perpetuate, in faint adumbrations, the awful terrors of the scene. The sur- face of the pool may be about seven hundred feet below what appeared to be the highest peak of Krabla." He descended to the brink of this dreadful abyss, and, he adds, — "Nearly about the centre of the pool is the aperture, whence THE SULPHUB MOUNTAIN. 42T the vast body of crater, sulphur, and bluish black bolus is thrown up ; and which is equal, iu diameter, to the column of water ejected by the Great Geyser at its strongest eruptions." TERRIFIC PASSES OF ICELAND. The Doctor employs the most emphatic terms to describe the awful impression here made on his mind, " an impres- sion," he says, " which no length of time will ever be able to erase." Another adventure, of no very gentle stimulus, was the passing of men and horses over a mighty torrent, confined within a narrow rocky channel, upon a wooden bridge so slender, decaying, and crazy, that he says, " I have no manner of doubt but a person of powerful muscle could shake the whole structure to pieces in less than a quarter of an hour. Alighting from my horse, I went to the bridge, and, after having looked a minute or two, into the profound chasm, through which the light brown torrent rolled and boiled with the most tremendous fury, I took hold of the ledges, and shook the bridge with the utmost ease." " Some miles further up, there is another mode of crossing this river, called by the natives at fara a Klafa, which is still more terrific. Two ropes are suspended from the edge of the precipice on either side, on which a basket or wooden box is hung, sufficiently large to contain a man and an ordinary horse- burden. Into this box the traveller must descend, and pull hixnself by means of a rope over the yawning abyss while, owing to the looseness of the main ropes, the box sinks with rapidity till it reaches the middle, and threatens, by the sudden stop it there makes, to dislodge its contents into the flood. The prin- cipal danger, however, attends the passage of the horses. They are driven into the river a little higher up ; and, if they do not swim to a certain point, formed by a projection of the rock, they are precipitated over a dreadful cataract, and seen no more. If measures be not soon taken to repair the bridge, the Ell&ta, dangerous as it is, will be the only means of conveyance over the Yokul river." A magnificent cascade, of the depth of 140 yards, aug- mented the sense of danger in a pass which at first sight appeared insuperable. A torrent from the icy mountains, running in thirty channels, several of them a hundred yards broad, and taking the horses up to the middle, was, contrary to the advice of the clergyman in the neighbourhood, forded in haste, for fear that delay should render it quite impass- 428 FOSTERIANA. able. Most of this clergyman's auditory had always this flood to cross to attend Divine service, an adventure of very great management and dexterity when it is crowded with floating masses of ice : — "Sometimes they are so numerous, and follow each other in such close succession, that the river cannot be forded at all on horseback ; it being impossible to turn the horse with the agility requisite in order to elude them. The passenger is then obliged to wade, at the risk of his life. Sira Berg " (the clergjnnan) " informed me that being once called to visit a dying parishioner, he went over in this way, though, at times, the water took him up to the breast. He had provided himself with a long pole, in order to examine the ground at every step ; while he had to look around him, with thg utmost alertness, lest fresh masses of ice should overtake him, bear him down before them, and, forcing bim upon other pieces, cut him asunder." SCABCITY OF THE BIBLE IN ICELAND. This worthy pastor received the present of a Bible, and welcomed the prospect of a larger supply for his people, with a joy proportioned to the fact, that he had been endeavouring to procure a copy for his own use these seventeen years past ; but had at last given up all hope of ever obtaining the treasure. At a short distance from the sea, a mountain consisting wholly of ice, stands across, and blocks up, a wide valley which extends considerably back between the icy mountains. A powerful stream, descending from these m; atains, has to force its way through this enormous bulwark of ice. ENORMOUS FIELDS AND MOUNTAINS OF ICE. " It is not so much a mountain as an immense field of ice, about twenty mUes in length, fifteen in breadth, and rising, at its greatest elevation, to the height of about four hundred feet above the level of the sand. The whole of the space it occupies has originally been a beautiful and fertile plain, which continued to be inhabited for several centuries after the occupation of the island ; but was desolated in the dire catastrophe which hap- pened in the fourteenth century, when not fewer than six vol- canos were in action at the same time, and poured inconceivable destruction to the distance of near a hundred miles along the coast. WhUe the snow-mountains, in the interior, have been discharging their waters through this level tract, vast masses of ice must have been carried down by the floods, some of which. ENORMOUS FIELDS AND MOUNTAINS OF ICE. 429 being arrested in their progress, have settled on the plain, and obstructing the pieces which followed, they have gradually accumulated, till, at last, the fresh masses that were carried to either side by the current, have reached the adjacent mountains, and the water, not having any other passage, has forced its way through the chasms in the ice, and formed channels, which, with more or less variation, it may have filled to the present period." The most marvellous fact of all is, that this enormous mass of ice is actually in motion toward the sea, from which it was, fifty years since, at the distance of five miles, according to the statement, of respectable travellers, whereas the distance did not appear to Dr. Henderson to exceed one mile ; and he observed that at one place it had advanced, ploughing, as it were, its way in the sand, so as to pass beyond the line of one part of a track made but eight days before. It is not improbable that one day, under the pressure of an extraordinary accumulation of water behind, a great chasm will be made, by a portion of this vast barrier being dis- rupted and propelled down to the sea. Or if not, the whole continuous mass will, in no very long time, as Dr. Henderson remarks, advance to the shore, and leave no way of com- munication by land between the tracts adjoining to its two extremities. As the case is, the passage is most perilous. AWFUL ERUPTION OF THE SKAFTAB TOLCANO. A few stages forward brought the adventurer upon tlie region of intermingled lavas and sections of beautiful pasture ground, in front of the Skaftar Yokul, which is at the dis- tance of, perhaps, fifty miles back from the sea. This Skaftar is the most tremendous name, excepting those within the economy of religion, ever pronounced in Iceland. In the year 1783, this mountain shook, and darkened, and devas- tated the island with such a dreadful power of volcanic fire as has no recorded parallel. The agency was on so vast a scale, and of so prolonged a duration, that the subterraneous fires of half the globe might have seemed hardly sufficient for the awful phenomena. Yet the mighty element, in drawing together its forces in preparation, could afibrd, as a slight precursor and omen, a month before, and at the distance of two hundred miles, a submarine explosion, which ejected so immense a quantity of pumice, that the surface of the ocean 430 FOSTERIANA. was covered with it to the distance of a hundred and fifty miles, and the spring ships were considerably impeded in their course. It was in the beginning of July that the operations began, on the predestined ground ; they raged with inconceivable power, in all manner of horrible and destructive phenomena, for several months; and the final eruption is said to have been as late as the following Feb- ruary. The awful sounds and concussions, the intense dark- ness, relieved only, at times, by flames and lightnings, the great rivers transformed into torrents of fire, which were confined but for a short time to these channels, their inun- dation, on all sides, of tract after tract of the cultivated country, and the dismal rain of ashes and other volcanic substances over the whole territory, — must have appeared to the inhabitants as a premature fulfilment of the divine pre- dictions of the destruction of the world. The ashes from the eruption covered the whole island, and spread far beyond it ; " empoisoning," says our author, " whatever could satisfy the hunger, or quench the thirst of man and beast." Famine and pestilence were the conse- quence : a considerable proportion of the people, and a vast number of the cattle and horses, perished ; and the condition of the inhabitants bears, at the present time, melancholy traces of the efiects of the awful visitation. A recent traveller, mentions as one of these efifects, a greater degree of gravity in the character of the people, and a pre- vailing aversion to all gay amusements. We will acknow- ledge that though we cannot wish such a sublime preaching as this, to impress on the people of our own country a sense of the majesty of the Almighty, and a loathing of many of their frivolous pursuits, — we should be delighted to see such a result from gentler modes of divine admonition. THE BOILING SPRINGS AND SBA-PARKOTS OP BKEIDAFIOED. Dr. Henderson was delighted with the fine situation and magnificent prospects of the farm of Eeykiaholar, and with an aquatic excursion among the islands of the Breidafiord, with their boiling springs and infinite assemblages of wild fowl. "As I passed between the islands," he says, "my ears were stunned with the cries of sea-parrots and crees, the latter of which abounded in such numbers that they completely covered the surface of the water, and on rising BOtliTNG SPRINGS AND SBA-PABROTS OP BREIDAFIOED. 431 almost darkened the atmosphere." In the islan'^s, the eider- ducks and their nests were observed and examined with much curiosity. Most of these islands have been thrown up by submarine volcanos, and many of them rest on superb perpendicular pillars of basaltic rock. Some of them are well inhabited. Parts of the mainland coast of this bay display immense walls of basaltic configuration. The mountains exhibit some very extensive strata of the same kind of rock. At one place, where the mountain streams have forced their way through beds of the columnar rock, numerous turrets and spires present themselves amidst the clouds of mist arising from the water-falls. GEOLOGICAL FEATUEKS OF ICELAND. The name has already occurred of surturhrand or mineral- ized wood. It is a most remarkable circumstance in the constitution of the island, that a bed of this substance extends through the whole of the north-western peninsula. At Briamslaek it was presented with great distinctness to our author's view, in a deep cleft cut through a large hill by a torrent from the mountains. The more perpendicular side of this chasm " Consists of ten or twelve strata of surturbrand, lava, basalt, tnfa, and indurated clay, successively piled above each other. The surturbrand is undermost, and occupies four layers, which are separated from each other by intermediate beds of soft sand- stone or clay. These layers are of unequal thickness, from a foot and a half to three feet, and run to the length of about thirty yards, when they disappear in the d6bris. They differ also in quality : the two lowest exhibiting the most perfect specimens of mineralized wood, free from all foreign admixture, of a jet black ; and such pieces as have been exposed toi the sun, shine with great lustre, and are very splintery in their fracture. The numerous knots, roots, &c., and the annual circles observable in the ends of the trunks or branches, removed every doubt of the vegetable origin of this curious substance. The only changes it has undergone are induration and compression ; having been impregnated with bituminous sap, and flattened by the enormous weight of the superincumbent rocks. Some few branches stretch at times across the bed, but in general they all lie parallel with one another, and are frequently pressed together, so as to form a solid mass. The third stratum is not so pure, being mixed with a considerable portion of ferruginous matter ; grey generally, but black in the fracture ; has no lustre, and is much heavier than 433 FOSTEEIANA, tlie former, yet possesses evident traits of its vegetable character. The fourth or uppermost stratum consists of what the Icelanders call steinbrand, or coal, from which it differs only in the absence of the gloss, and its containing a quantity of earthy matter. It still retains some faint marks of wood. " Eemarkable as this appearance of rock-wood undoubtedly is, a still more surprising phenomenon makes its appearance between the second and third strata, viz., a bed of dark grey schistug, about four inches in thickness, that admits of being divided into numerous thin plates, many of which possess the tenuity of the . finest writing paper, and discover on both sides the most beautiful and accurate impressions of leaves, with all their ramifications of ribs and fibres, in the best state of preservation. The whole of the schistose body is, in fact, nothing but an accumulation of leaves closely pressed together, and partially interlaid with a fine alluvial clay. It is also worthy of notice, that when you separate any of the leaves from the mass, they are uniformly of a greyish or brown colour on the surface, and black on the opposite side. Most of those on the specimens now before me are of the common poplar, (j^pv,lv:S tremida), and some of them, in the judgment of an eminent botanical gentleman (Professor Homemann, of Copenhagen), appear to be of the popvliis tahka- makdka. A few birch and willow leaves are also observable, but very small in size: whereas many of the poplar leaves are upwards of three inches in breadth." Dr. Henderson's speculations on these marvellous phe- nomena, are quite satisfactory to the extent of showing that the depositions cannot have been effected by volcanic agency, notwithstanding that lava is always, he says, found in greater or less quantities in the vicinity of these strata, but are to be attributed, in some way or other, to the prevalence of water ; beyond this general conclusion, all appears to us submerged in unfathomable mystery. THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT. The sun at midnight must have been, independently of all circumstances of locality, a very striking spectacle ; but this appearance in such a combination as the following, must have created a scene inexpressibly strange and magical, and of almost ghostly magnificence : — " Close by, toward the west, lay the TroUa-kyrkia, or ' Giant's Church,' an ancient volcano, the walls of whose crater rose in a very fantastic manner into the atmosphere, while the lower regions were entirely covered with snow ; to the south and east stretched an immense impenetrable waste, enlivened on the one THE SUN AT MIDNIGHT. 433 hand by a numlDer of lakes, and in the distance by vast ioe- mountains, whose glass surface, receiving the rays of the mid- night sun, communicated a golden tinge to the surrounding atmosphere ; while, toward the north, the long bay of Hrutafiord gradually opened into the ocean. Here the king of day, like a vast globe of fire, stretched his sceptre over the realms of night, divested indeed of hia splendour, but more interesting, because more subject to view. The singing of swans on the neighbouring lakes added to the novelty of the scene." THE VALLEY OP SMOKE. The account of one situation in the " Valley of Smoke," may be transcribed, to show how much of the inconvenience of magnificent spectacles is saved to persons who can con- template them only in description : — " We proceeded to the Tungu-hvezar. As the wind blew the emoke directly upon us, it was not without some danger that we approached them. Having cautiously leaped over a rivulet of boiling water, I took my station in front of the springs ; but ere I was aware, I was nearly suffocated with hot and dense vapours, which so closely surrounded me, that I could neither see my companion, nor how to make my escape from the spot on which I stood. At the distance of only a few yards before me roared no fewer than sixteen boiling cauldrons, the contents of which, raised in broken columns of various heights, were splash- ing about the margins, and ranwith gi'eat impetuosity in num- berless streamlets, down the precipice on which the springs are situate. What augmented the irksomeness of my situation, was the partial darkness in which the whole tract was enveloped, so that it was impossible for me to form any distinct idea of the terrifying operations that were going on before me. After the wind had somewhat abated, the vapours began to ascend more perpendicularly, and I again discovered Mr. Johnson, who was in no small degree concerned about my safety." A vast body (or shall we rather, from its powerful and incessant agency, call it soul ?) of fire maintains dominion under the whole extent of the valley, keeping the- water everywhere in perpetual agitation, insomuch that even the river is disturbed, in the middle of its channel, by boiling springs throwing up their columns of steam. VrONDEEFtJL MICE. At Husafell, and elsewhere. Dr. Henderson took occasion lo make particular inquiry respecting the famous species of F F 434 FOSTERIANA. nice, of which Olassen and Povelson have reported what Mr. Pennant believed, but Mr. Hooker and other writers have pronounced ridiculously incredible. The story, that these mice, besides other points of extraordinary sagacity, have admirable talents for navigation; going to considerable distances from their lodgements, in small foraging parties, to collect berries for their store, which berries they import, across rivers and lakes, on flat pieces of dried cow-dung, each manned by a crew of six or ten, all standing with their heads toward the centre, and rowing the vessel by means of their tails : — " Having been apprised," says Dr. Henderson, " of the doubts entertained on this subject, I made a point of inquiry as to the reality of the account, and am happy in being able to say, that it is now established as an important fact in natural history, by the testimony of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable veracity, the clergyman of Briamslaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stikesholm, both of whom assured me they had seen the expa- dition performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson in par- ticular, recollected having spent a whole afternoon, in her younger days, at the margin of a small lake on which these skilful navigators had embarked, and amusing herself and her companions by driving them away from the sides of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed that they make use of dried mushrooms as sacks, in which they convey their pro- visions to the river, and thence to their homes." .THE ICY CAVE OF SURTSHALLIE. A number of hours were spent in exploring the grand cavern of Surtshallir, extending about a mile under an enor- mous bed of lava from the Bald Yokul, of the dimensions, through two-thirds of its length, of fifty feet in breadth, and forty in height, and reputed, by the early inhabitants, to be the abode of Surtur, " the black prince of the regions of fire," whose appointed office, according to their mythology, wa^ to burn the world at the conclusion of the present system of things. The description of one part of this cavern will recall that of Antiparos. Its magnificent exhibition is indeed of a more frail material, but it will probably last as long. " The roof and sides of the cave were decorated with the moat superb icicles, crystallized in every possible form, manv of which THE ICY CAVE OF SURTSHALLIK. 435 rivalled in minuteness the finest Zeolites ; while, from the icy floor rose pillars of the same substance, assuming all the curious and fantastic shapes imaginable, mocking the proudest specimens of art, and counterfeiting many well-known objects of animated nature. A more brilliant scene perhaps never presented itself to~the human eye, nor was it easy to divest ourselves of the idea that we actually beheld one of the fairy scenes depicted in eastern fable. The light of the torches rendered it peculiarly enchanting." THE HOT SPRINGS OP HVEEATELLIE. • From this cavern, the route was directed toward the hot springs of Hveravellir, across a trackless desert, of lonely and formidable aspect, shining and frowning with icy and volcanic sublimities. " It was not," says Dr. Henderson, " without sensations of awe, that we beheld the columns of smoke that were issuing from almost innumerable apertures, and heard the thundering noise attending its escape." Among this prodigious and raging assemblage.of cauldrons, most of them, ejecting at intervals, columns of water, there is the grand singularity denominated the "Roaring Mount," — " a circular mount of indurated bolus, about four feet in height frdm an apertiure of which, on the west side, a great quantity of steam makes its escape with a noise louder than that of the most tremendous cataract. The steam issues with such force, that any stones thrown into the aperture are instantly ejected to a considerable height." Exceedingly striking too, is the account of the regulated system manifest throughout the tremendous tumult of ope- rations, to which this singular " Mount " seems appointed to act in quality of a magnificent trumpeter, a part which is performed in a manner which may, without presumption, claim to appropriate the description, " Sonorous as immortal breath can blow." " We could not sufficiently admire the connexion and regu- larity observable in the bursts of steam and jets of water that continued to ascend into the^tmosphere the whole of the evening. The order they maintained can only be compared to that observed in the firing of the different companies of a regiment drawn up in the order of battle. The play commenced on a signal being given by the Eoaring Mount, which was instantaneously followed by an eruntion of the largest jetting fountain at the opposite end F r 3 436 FOSTERIANA. of the tract ; on which the turn went to the rest, vast columns of steam bursting from the surface of the general mound, while the jets rose and fell in irregular beauty. Having continued to play in this manner for the space of four minutes and a half, the springs abated for nearly two minutes ; when the Boaring Mount renewed the signal, and the explosions took place as before." It ia needless to say how many important matters for geo- logical discussion are supplied by the multifarious descriptions of the composition of so strange a territory. THOUGHTS ON THE HISTOEY OF MAN.* Were it possible that a distinct knowledge could be obtained of all the remarkable forms into which human society has been modified, in the long series of ages, and in all parts of the world, a great m^ority of the intelligent and inquiring class would probably be eager for the exhibition to be made. But it might not be altogether absurd to question the wisdom of such a desire. Is anything, it might be asked, really wanting to the means and materials already possessed for forming a satisfactory judgment of the nature of Man ? Do not all his faculties, his passions, his principles, stand perfectly manifest before us ? In entering on a history twenty times more ample than all our present information of the past, could the inquirer, even if possessed of the secret of the elixir vitcB, to assure him of a course of ages to study it through, expect to descry any one feature of the human nature, which is not already familiarly apparent ? Have we not facts enough' to show how man will act in any given circumstance j in other words, how any given causes will act on him ? Does not our pre- sent compass of view display him under all imaginable forms of social institution ; and might we not, from the exhibition of his qualities under half of these modifications, have con- fidently divined how those qualities would appear under all the others ? If the dark empire of superstition has contained more vanities, impostures, and abominations than we have • The Border Antiquities of England and Scotlaud, Bv Walter Scott, Esq. Two vols. 4to. 1814-17. " THOUGHTS ON THE HISTOEY OP MAN. 43> ever heard of, what would be the benefit of their being now- brought to light ? Does any vacancy in the imagination require to be replenished, and illuminated, by loathsome or fantastic shapes of wooden and earthenware gods as yet non- ■ descript and undelineated ? May we not be well content that all these detestable forms of thought and of matter, should be retained exclusively in the memory of those departed beings who were once either agents or dupes of the dire delusion ; and of those long observers of this world, those heavenly spirits, whose wide capacities are so filled with a pure and divine element, that these odious reminis- cences cannot defile them ? — as the atmosphere of our planet maintains its general purity, in spite of all the smoke and mepfiitic exhalations that rise into it. What would be the use, again we might ask, of an indefinitely aggravated evi- dence of facts, that men have hated and destroyed one another through all ages ? Or could the indefatigable reader really flatter himself that, somewhere or other, he should Come upon a delightful historical tract of contrary evidence, and find that the golden age did once actually exist ? But there would be no end to such questions ; we will only ask further, Does any one important moral principle need an ad- dition of facts, either to verify it, or to ascertain the proper rules of its application ? We do not know whether the above paragraph will appear quite pertinently prefixed to a slight notice of the work by which it has been suggested. A state of society forming so very extraordinary a picture, furnishing such strong illustra- tions of some principles in human nature, so conspicuous in our national history, and leaving so many visible monuments and vestiges, cannot be among the things that any man would wish consigned to oblivion. But at the same time, some portions of the present work, taken in conjunction with other works, written and compiled, respectiHg the same tract of territory and' history, would afford, we are apt to think, a fair exemplification of the uaelessness for any pre- sent valuable purpose, of a great deal of what can be reco- vered from the past, and a fair presumption as to the use- lessness, if it could be recovered, of infinitely more that is fortunately beyond the reach of research. The most interesting part of Mr. Scott's work is his rapid, 438 FOSTERIANA. clear, and ively epitome of the Border History, from the earliest times that anything is known of the restless inhabi- tants, down to the period when they were destined to sink in comparative repose and insignificance, under the complete consolidation of the union of the two kingdoms. THE CELTIC TEIBES, OTTADINI, GADENr, AND SEIGOT^. After marking the portions of territory respectively occupied by the three warlike tribes, the Ottadini, the Gadeni, and the Selgovse, he describes their arms in their successive and improving forms, their rude fortifications, and their modes of warfare ; and assigns to the use of their worship, assumed to be Druidical, the circles of detached stones which abound in various places on the Border. Funeral monuments, also, of these Celtic tribes are numerous, and consist of the cairns, or heaps of stones, so frequently piled on remarkable spots. " On opening them, there is usually found in the centre a small square enclosure of stones set on edge, with bones and arms such as we have already described. There is frequently found within this stone chest, or cist-vaen, as it is called by the Welsh, an urn filled with ashes, and small beads made of coal. The manufacture of these urns themselves is singular. The skill of the artist appears not to have been such as to enable him to form his urn completely, before subjecting it to the operation of the fire. He therefore appears to have first shaped the rude vessel of the dimensions which he desired, and then baked it into potter's ware. On the vessel thus formed and hardened, he afterwards seems to have spread a very thin coat of unbaked clay, on which he executed his intended ornaments, and which was left to harden at leisure. The scrolls and mouldings thus hatched on the outside of these urns, are not always void of taste. In these tombs, and elsewhere, have been repeatedly found the Eurdorchawg, the Torques, or chain, formed of twisted gold, worn by the Celtic chiefs of rank. It is not a chain forged into rings, but is formed of thin rods of flexible gold, twisted into hoops, which pass through each other, and form oblong links." MILITABT WOHKS OF THE EOMANS ON THE BOBDEES. The author passes quickly over the tumultuous period of the Roman dominion over the border country ; a dominion maintained at an enormous expense of military works, and so maintained, not because the invaders set any great value on the tract itself, but because they were resolved to make it MILITARY WORKS OF THE ROMANS ON THE BORDERS. 439 such a broad and powerful frontier, as should put out of all hazard their northern English territories, on which they did set a value. The tract thus fortified, and denominated Valentia, was included between the wall of Hadrian, ex tending from the Firth of Solway to the mouth of the Tyne, and a similar wall constructed by Lollius Urbicus, during the reign of Antoninus, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, of course greatly in advance of the first bulwark. These'were ramparts of earth, with ditches, military roads, and forts or stations from point to point. The insufficiency of these works as a security against the fierce tribes of the north, determined Severus to undertake the grand wall, the remains of which are at this day the principal Boman curiosity of the Border, and bear the full character of that magnitude of design and power peculiar to the operations of that empire. It was carried along on the south side of the original rampart of Hadrian, which was left to form a kind of advanced line of defence. But neither these barriers, nor the multitude of strong camps, military roads, and well pro- tected lines of communication, by which the province of Valentia was made to present one vast frowning aspect of defiance, could avert the daring incursions of the Britons, which made it a scene of interminable warfare. It is not wonderful, therefore, that among the numerous Boman anti- quities found, there are no relics of Boman luxury and superstition (excepting sacrificial vessels), neither theatres, baths, nor temples. Of the stupendous wall, the subject of continual dilapidation for fourteen centuries, the least injured fragment is to be found at a place called Glenwhelt, in the neighbourhood of Gilsland Spaw. SAXON AECHITECTFEl. ■* The Saxons on the northern territory appear to have paid very small attention to military architecture. After their conversion to Christianity, they were very zealous in the erection of ecclesiastical edifices ; but even of these Mr. Scott questions whether there are now any genuine remains, a few relics, perfectly in their style, having possibly been the work of later architects, who sometimes practised it after the intro- duction of what has been denominated with more than doubt- ful propriety, the Gothic style 440 FOSTERIANA. INTEODUCTIOTr OF THE FEUBAl SYSTEM INTO SCOTLAND. The feudal system established without ceremony by the Conqueror in England, had made its way more gradually in Scotland, with the great influx of Norman families into that kingdom, and by the strong recommendations which it car- ried in its nature, to the taste of the monarch, and even to that of the ecclesiastics, to whom it assured a firmer tenure, without any addition of burdens. Measures were taken to give it a more formal and complete ascendancy during the temporary usurpation of Edward I. But it could never effect the extinction of 'the more patriarchial Celtic social order of septs, or clanships. In this social constitution the good was infinitely more than countervailed, by the perpetual inexpugnable possession of the fiend of war. It was held the absolute duty of the rival clans, to fight and slaughter one another, in revenge of every trivial wrong or insult, and in revenge, alternately, of the successive and accumulating revenges. The honour and force of each clan was pledged to maintain even a palpable and confessed wrong committed by any of its members on the neighbouring tribe.' The state of highest pride and self-complacency in these clans, appears to have been that which they named deadly feud, a state of ferocious hostility into which any two of them might be plunged at any moment, and in which they fought as if each had deemed itself to be ridding the world of a legion of fiends. For a long period preceding the invasion of Edward I., the Borders appear to have been wonderfully quiet, as rela- tively to the two rival kingdoms, of which the royal families were kept in contented mood by frequent alliances, by oifices, sometimes, of personal friendship between the monarchs, and by the courtesies which an obvious policy dictated to the Scottish kings as holding of the English Crown extensive domains in England. BENEEITS OE MONASTIC INSTITrTIONS. During this period, fruitful of monastic institutions, great benefit is judged to have been conferred on the people of the Scottish Border, by the establishment of the abbeys of Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh, by means of which a large portion of the country most exposed to hostile inroad. BENEFITS OF MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. 441 was secured in possession and cultivation, by bsing placed " under the sacred protection of the church." " In this point of view," says our author, " the foundation completely answered the purpose designed ; for it is well argued by Lord Hales, that, while we are inclined to say with the vulgar that the clergy always chose the best of the land, we forget how much their possession owed their present appearance . to the art and industry of the clergy, and the protection which the ecclesiastical character gave to their tenants and labourers, while the territories of the nobles were burnt and laid waste by the invaders." This is a very fair and true suggestion. But all the good conferred on the country by this beneficial taboo of the Church, and by the long period of substantial tranquillity, was to sink under a very "ordinary fate of early national improvements : — CHAEACTEE AND CONSEQUENCES OE THE BOEDEE "WAES, " The savage and bloody spirit of hostility," says our historian, " which arose from Edward the First's usurpation of the crown of Scotland, destroyed in a few years the improvement of ages, and carried the natives of these countries backward in every art but in those which concerned the destruction of the English and each other. The wars which raged through every part of Scot- land in the thirteenth century, were waged with peculiar fury on the Borders. Castles were surprised and taken ; battles were won and lost ; the country was laid waste on all sides, and by all parties. The patriotic Scots, like the Spaniards of our time, had no escape from usurpation but by sacrificing the bene- fits of civilization, and leading the lives of armed outlaws. The struggle, indeed, terminated in the establishment of national independence pbut the immediate effect of the violence which had distinguished it, was to occasion Scotland retrograding to a state of barbarism, and to convert the borders of both countries into wildernesses, only inhabited by soldiers and robbers." — " The mode of warfare adopted by the Scots themselves, however necessary and prudent, was destructive to property, and tended to retard civilization. They avoided giving pitched battles, and preferred a wasting and protracted war, which might tire out and exhaust the resources of their invaders. They destroyed all the grain and other resources of their own country which might have afforded relief to the Englishmen, and they viewed with great indifference the enemy complete the work of destruction. In the meanwhile, they secured their cattle among the mountains and forests, a.nd either watched an opportunity to attack the 442 FOSTEBIANA. invaders with advantage, or leaving them to work their will in Scotland, burst into England themselves, and retaliated upon the enemy's country the horrors which were exercised in their own. This ferocious, but uncompromising mode of warfare, had been sti'ongly recommended in the rhymes considered a legacy from Eobert Bruce to his successors." One expedient of the defensive system of the Scots, was to destroy the castles on their own border : — " The good Lord James of Douglas surprised his own castle of Douglas three times, it having been as frequently garrisoned by the English ; and upon each occasion he laid waste and demo- lished it. The military system of Wallace was on the same principle. And in fine, with very few exceptions, the strong and extensive fortresses, which had arisen on the Scottish Bor- der in better times, were levelled with the ground during the wars of the thirteenth century. The ruins of the castles of Eoxburgh and Jedburgh, and of several others which were thus destroyed, bear a wonderful disproportion in extent to any which were erected in subsequent times." THE SCOTTISH BORDER STRENGTHS — PEELS AND BASTLB-HOTJSES. As, however, the country was not abandoned to the entire and permanent state of a desert, but occupied again at each recession of the enemy, the barons and gentlemen had for their residence an inferior kind of fortresses, often heard of in border history under the denomination of strengths, con- structed upon a limited and mean scale, usually in some situation of natural strength. Having very thick walls, strongly cemented, they could easily repel the attack of any desultory incursion ; but they were neither victualled nor capable of receiving garrisons sufficient to defend them, except against a sudden assault. The village which almost always adjoined, contained the abodes of the retainers, who, upon the summons of the chieftain, took arms either for the defence of the fortress, or for giving battle in the-field. " The smaller gentlemen, whether heads of branches of clans or of distinct families, inhabited dwellings upon a still smaller scale, called Peels, or Bastle-houses. They were surrounded by an inclosure, or barnkin, the wall whereof was, according to statute, a yard thick, surrounding a space of at least sixty feet square. Within this outer work the laird buUt his towei*. with THE SCOTTISH BORDEE STRENGTHS, ETC. 443 its projecting battlements, and usually secured the entrance by two doors ; the outer of grated iron, the innermost of oak clenched with nails. The apartments were placed directly above each other, accessible only by a narrow ' turnpike ' stair, easily blocked up or defended. Sometimes, and in the more ancient buildings, the construction was still more rude : there was no stair at all, and the inhabitants ascended by a ladder from one story to another." In the hostile inroads on a large scale, these " strengths" were not, nor indeed were they expected to be, of any avail beyond a slight temporary check, to favour the retreat of the inhabitants. The devastations committed in these inva- sions were frightful. ENGLISH REPRISALS ON THE SCOTTISH EORDEEEHS. A brief narrative of the military operations in Tiviotdale, in 1570, of the forces under the Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's commander in the north, in chastisement and revenge of some insults, spoliations, and cruelties committed by the Scottish barons, makes it a matter of wonder how a tract subjected to a repetition of such ravages could maintain its existence as an inhabited country, with considerable towns and villages. This inroad, and that of the Earl of Hertford,' in the end of Henry the Eighth's reign, are stated to be the two most dreadful invasions commemorated in Scottish annals. SITPEEXOEITX 01' THE SOTJTHEEN BOEBEEERS. The extreme border on the English side corresponded to the opposite one in the rudeness of its defences and the utter lawlessness of its inhabitants. But a little further to the south, the country assumed a widely different aspect, in the comparatively flourishing and strongly-defended possessions of the high nobility, and the chains of their magnificent castles, of great extent, and fortified with all the art of the age. The English towns also were much better fortified. Yet all this array of superior strength, though of great efficacy against invasion in a formal and extensive shape, could not guard the country against the desultory war carried on by small parties, who made sudden irruptions into particular districts, laid all waste, and returned loaded with spoil. If the waste committed by the English armies was more widely extended and more generally inflicted, the continual and 444 FOSTEBIAHA. unceasing raids of the Scottish Borderers were scarely less destructive. The greater wealth of the country, also, was a stronger incitement to the Scottish freebooters, than yevenge was to their southern adversaries. These plunder- ing parties were so secret and so active in their movements, and so perfectly acquainted with all local facilities for pas- sage and concealment, in a rough and diversified country, as to render in a great measure unavailing the special and elaborate defensive arrangements of the English warden of the marches. Lord Wharton, who — , " Established a line of communication along the whole line of the Border, from Berwick to Carlisle, from east to west, with setters and searchers, sleuth-hounds, and watchers by day and night. Such fords as could not be conveniently guarded, were, to the number of thirty-nine, directed to be stopped and destroyed, meadows and pastures were ordered to be inclosed, that their fences might oppose some obstacle to the passage of the marauders, and narrow passes by land were appointed to be blocked up, or rendered impassable." CHAEACTEE AlTD ECONOMY 01" THE SCOTTISH BOEDEEEES. Mr. Scott gives an ample and spirited delineation of the character, and the economy, if it may be so called, of these border barbarians : — " Contrary to the custom of the rest of Scotland, they almost always acted as light-horsemen, and used small active horses accustomed to traverse morasses, in which other cavalry would have been swallowed up. Their hardy mode of life made them indifferent to danger, and careless about the ordinary accom- modations of life. The uncertainty of reaping the fruits of their labour, deterred them from all the labours of cultivation ; their mountains and glens .afforded pasturage for their cattle and horses, and when these were driven off by the enemy they sup- plied the loss by reciprocal depredation." It was no uncommon thing for women to share, and sig- nalize themselves in, the daring exploits of these worthy freemen. And " the Borderers," says our author, " merited the devoted attachment of their wives, if, as we learn, one principal use of the wealth they obtained by plunder, was to bestow it in ornamenting the persons of their partners." Everything in the human shape appears to have been kept in willing preparation to kill and slay on all fitting occasions ; to avoid it, in any instance, was matter of policy rather than CHAEACTEE AND ECONOMY OP SCOTTISH BOEDEEEES. 445 of taste. It was an especial dictcate of this policy, to make prisoners rather than victims. These, when.they were per- sons of any account, were worth money, and they were sure to bring it. Nor was it, beyond the consideration ©f expense, any great calamity to be captured. If the prisoner was taken away, he was treated with civility till ransomed. But he was often set at large immediately, on giving his word to be a true prisoner, with an engagement to appear at a certain time and place, to treat of his ransom. " If they were able to agree, a term was usually assigned for tb e payment, and security given ; if not, the prisoner surrendered himself to the discretion of his captor. But where the interest of both parties pointed so strongly to the necessity of mutual accommodation, it rarely happened that they did not agree upon terms. Thus, even in the encounters of these rude warriors on either side, the nations maintained the character of honour, courage, and generosity, assigned to them by "Froissart, who says : "Englishmen on the one party, and Scotchmen on the other party, are good men of war ; for when they meet then is a hard fight without sparing ; there is no hoo (i.e. cessation for parley) between them, as long as spears, swords, axes, or daggers, will endure : but they lay on each upon other, and when they are well beaten, and one party hath obtained the victory, they then glorify so in their deeds of arms, and are so joyful, that such as be taken shall be ransomed ere they go out of the field ; that each is so content with the other, that at their departing courteously, they will say ' God thank you.' But in fighting one with another, there is no play nor sparing.'" SCANTY EELIGIOUS OBSEETANOES OF THE BOEDEEEES. That there should be poetry and legends among such people is not wonderful ; but then, for religion ! That, too, was sure to have a place among their notions and obser- vances ; and it was in a form not much out of harmony with the feeling which could invoke " God" to "thank" men for their gallantry and exultation among swords, daggers, axes, and dead bodies. " They never," says our author, " told their beads, according to Lesley, with such devotion as when they were setting out upon a marauding party, and expected a good booty as the recompence of their devotions." In several Scottish districts which he names, he says there were no resident ecclesiastics to celebrate the rites of the Church. A monk from Melrose, called, from the porteous or breviary which he wore in his breast, a bonk-a-bosom, . 446 F0STEEIA2irA. visited these forlorn regions once a year, and solemnized marriages and baptisms. It was no question for the monk how they came by the means of paying for his services ; nor would he have hesitated to visit them at shorter intervals, if their spoils and wills had allowed an adequate remuneration. TJncanonical customs, some of which are noticed, could not fail to arise, and to acquire an appearance of sanction, under this infrequency of 'the regular offices of the Church. Parts of the English Border were better supplied with really authorized, or self-appointed churchmen, many of whom attending the freebooters as Priar Tuck is said to have done upon Robin Hood, partook in their spoils, and mingled with the relics of barbarism the rites and ceremonies of the Christian Church. These ghostly abettors of theft and rapine are exposed, with emphatic censure, in a pastoral admonition of Fox, IJishop of Durham, dated about the end of the fifteenth century, and cited by our author, as descrip- tive also of the general savage mode of life, which it is charged upon the nobles, and even the king's officers, that they likewise patronized and participated. The bar- barous customs were found remaining in full prevalence, by the venerable Bernard Gilpin, some of the remarkable and romantic anecdotes of whose life are here very properly repeated. OBiaiN OF THE CAMEEONIAWS. Mr. Scott seems to admit, " that non-conforming pres- byterian preachers were the first who brought this rude generation to any sense of the benefits of religion." To this sentence he subjoins, in a note, a curious passage in the life of Richard Cameron, who gave the name to the sect of Cameronians. " After he was licensed, they sent him at first to preach in Annandale. He said, ' How could he go there I He knew not what sort of people they were.' But Mr. Welch said, ' Go your way, Ritchie, and set the fire of hell to their tails.' He went, and the first day he preached upon that text, How shaU I put thee among the children ? (fee. In the application he said, 'Put you among the children ! the offspring of robbers and thieves.' Many have heard of Annandale thieves. Some of them got a merciful cast that day, and told it afterwards, that it was the first field- meeting that ever they attended ; and that they went out of curiosity to see how a minister could preach in a tent, and people sit on the ground." 417 CHAEACTEE OF THE WAEDElf GOTEENMENT. The Scottish monarchs were not sufficiently powerful in their southern territories, to dare confer the office of warden on any but the proud nobles who were already in virtue of their own possessions and influence, a kind of regents in the Border tracts. This was the case also with the English kings till the time of Henry VIII., when the power of the government became sufficiently established to appoint to the office men independent of the northern nobility, and who, sustained by the immediate authority of the Court, could act in defiance of them. It is obvious what mischief must inevitably have resulted from investing with all the weight of a royal and extensive commission, the lords of the Border, who had their own local selfish interests, their ambition, their competitions, their quarrels, and their arrears of revenge, combined -with a feudal ascendancy in their respective districts. It was infallibly certain that they would, as they often in fact did, avail themselves of their commission, and the military and fiscal force assigned to them for its execution, to gratify their rapacity or revenge, by acts of flagrant injustice against their personal rivals and enemies. In the hands of independent, iipright, and intelligent men, such as some of the English wardens in the later reigns, the authority of the office was exerted to a highly beneficial effect ; but among so many fierce wild animals, existing in sections ill affected to one another, and continually coming in hazardous contact with the rival irregularity and fierce- ness of the opposite Borderers, the wardens had often, as our author's account of the rules and expedients of their adminis- tration, and his amusing interspersion of unlucky incidents, may serve to illustrate a most difficult exercise for all their resolution and prudence. Sir Robert Gary, whose memoirs were published a few years since, was an example of this hard exercise of these qualities, and of its general efficacy. There is considerable interest, obsolete as the whole matter is, in reading the lively detail of the formalities, chivalrous, or grotesque, of the administration of the warden's govern- mejit. Curious as some of them were in themselves, they were peculiarly liable, from the character of the people, to 448 rOSTEEIANA. become quite fantastic in the practice, by accompanying incidents, comical, tragical, or both at once. The very phraseology of an oath of purgation seems to speak the wild peculiarity of the popular character. " You shall swear by heaven above you, and by hell beneath you, by your part of paradise, by all that God made in six days and seven nights, and by God himself, you are whart out sackless of art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, having, or recetting of any of the goods and cattefls named in this bill, So help you God." SUMMABT MODE OF PririSHnr& MABATTDEES. With banditti or moss-troopers, when they were caught in the fact, the process of justice was very summary and conclusive ; either hanging or drowning. The next tree, or the deepest pool of the nearest stream, was indif- ferently used on the occasions. " The abodes of the Scottish wardens were generally their own castles on the frontiers ; and the large trees, which are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of these baronial strongholds, served for the ready execution of justicfe or revenge on such malefactors as they chose to doom to death. One of the most brave and renowned of these wardens, occupant of Naworth castle, was Lord William Howard, a man at the same time devoted to books, of whom it is related that, — "While busied deeply with his studies, he was suddenly dis- turbed by an oflB.cer who came to ask his commands concerning the disposal of several moss-troopers who had been just made prisoners. Displeased at the interruption, the warden answered heedless and angrily, ' Hang them, in the devil's name ;' but, when he laid aside his book, his surprise was not a little, to find that his orders had been literally fulfilled." MICKLE-MOtrXHED MEG. The account of Elibank Tower, Peebles-shire, contains a very amusing incident in the history of the ancestors of Mr. Walter Scott :— " William Scott (afterwards Sir William) undertook an expe- dition against the Murrays, of Elibank, whose property lay a few miles distant. He found his enemy upon their guard, was defeated, and made prisoner in the act of driving oS the cattle MICKLE-MOUTHED MEG. 449 ■which he had collected for that purpose. Sir Gideon Murray conducted his prisoner to the castle, where his lady received him with congratulations on hia victory, and inquiries concern- ing the fate to which he destined his prisoner. ' Tlie gallows,' answered Sir Gideon ; ' to the gallows with the marauder.' ' Hout na, Sir Gideon,' answered the considerate matron, in her ver- nacular idiom, 'would you hang the winsome young Laird of Harden, when we have three ill-favoured daughters to marry T ' Eight,' answered the baron, who catched at the idea, ' he shall either marry our daughter, mickle-mouthed Meg, or strap for it.' U'pon this alternative being proposed to the prisoner, he, upon the first view of the case, strongly preferred the gibbet to ' mickle-mouthed Meg,' for such was the nickname of the young lady, whose real name was Agnes. But at length, when he was literally led forth to execution, and saw no other chance of escape, he retracted his ungallant resolution, and preferred the typical noose of matrimony to the literal cord of hemp. Such is the tradition established in both families, and often jocularly referred to upon the Borders. It may be necessary to add, that mickle-mouthed Meg and her husband were a happy and loving pair, and had a yery large family." BliACK AGNES. In the history of Dunbar Castle, another Agnes makes a much more lofty and commanding figure. " We read that, in 1338, the earl being absent, his wife, com- monly called Black Agnes, from the darkness of her complexion, withstood the endeavours of the English army, under the Earl of Salisbury, to get possession of it. The lady performed all the duties of a bold and vigilant commander, animating her soldiers by her exhortations, munificence, and example. When the bat- tering engines of the besiegers hurled stones against the battle- ments, she ordered one of her female attendants to wipe off the dirt with her handkerchief ; and when Salisbury commanded that enormous machine, called the sow, to be advanced to the foot of the walls, she scoffingly advised him to take good care of his sow, for she should soon make her cast her pigs (meaning the men within it), and then ordered a huge rock to be let fall on it, which crushed it to pieces. Salisbury finding his open attempts on the castle thus stoutly resisted, tried to gain it by treachery. Having bribed the person who had the care of the gates, to leave them open ; this he agreed to do, but dis- closed the whole transaction to the countess. Salisbury himself headed the party who were to enter : finding the gates open, he was advancing, when John Copeland, one of his attendants, G G 450 FOSTERIANA. hastily passing before him, the portcullis was let down, and Copeland, mistaken for his lord, remained a prisoner. The countess, who, from a high tower, was observing the event, cried out to Salisbury, jeeringly, ' Farewell, Montague ; I intended that you should have supped with us, and assisted in defending this fortress against the English.' " The siege was changed into a strict blockade, wliicli reduced the heroic commander and her garrison to great extremity ; but reinforced by a gallant band, who secretly entered the castle from the sea, in a dark night, she finally drove off the enemy. THOUGHTS ON AFRICAN DISCOYEEY.* Wht is it so desirable, that the yet unknown parts of our globe should be explored ? It is obvious, that infinitely the greater part of what the explorers must have to behold and describe, could not, for its own sake, possess any manner of interest. They would have to tell us of wide tracts of dead level, covered with grass, or with snow, or with dust and burning sand ; of insignificant hills ; of streams, like those that divide our parishes or counties ; of swamps, forests, or jungles ; of shores, sometimes low and sometimes rising into cliifs ; of islands of sundry shapes, breadths, and heights, and which might all have been, for anything it signifies to us, of other shapes, breadths, and heights. As to inhabi- tants, there may be none, or there may be some hordes or scatterings of filthy and fierce or stupid savages or barba- rians, with utensils and contrivances almost to the amount of the number of their fingers and toes ; or there may be something in more of the form of regulated communities, advanced a tenth of a fifth part toward what we should call by courtesy civilization, with some partial cultivation of the soil, some fixed assemblages of the nature of towns, some conveniences, arts, and manufactures, and a large supply of kings, priests, conjurers, gods, and fantastic ceremonies, each bearing a name in some uncouth and unutterable form of • Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, usually called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816, under the Direction of Captain J. K. Tuckey, R.N. 4to. 1818. THOUGHTS ON AFEIOAN DISCOVERY. 451 orthography. Their dresses shall be, in shape and in the distribution of red, blue, and yellow, like and unlike, in given degrees, the dresses of other tribes and nations already known to us. Their established customs — or call them institutions — of polity, law, and superstition, shall exhibit, perhaps, some little novelty of absurdity and mischief. There shall occur now and then some extraordi- nary effect of the elements, or some remarkable rock, or cavern, or cascade, or striking view of scenery, — which objects and aspects the beholder shall probably describe as much resembling specified remarkable appearances of the same order in our own or in neighbouring countries. The reader, who had waited most impatiently for the publication of the results of the adventure of discovery, as for the lifting of a veil to disclose some grand mysterious spectacle, passes hastily through the series of these exhibi- tions ; and when he comes to the end, is very apt to be sensible of a certain discontented feeling which, in the subsidence of all the interest previously raised by curiosity, suggests the ungracious question of what he has gained by this disclosure of the unknown, and forces his reflection back on the question of what it was that he had really promised himself to gain. In the displacency and mortification attending the reduc- tion of his undefined antieipative imagery to plain matter of fact, and in the extinction of so much ardent feeling, he is reduced to bethink himself of such matters as the advance- ment of science, some added means of safety or facility to navigation, and the benefits of some possible addition to distant commerce. He recalls to mind the lofty terms in which these things have been held forth, and tries to excite in himself a corresponding interest. He perceives that in sober truth something may be made out on these points ; he can conceive that a few persons, earnestly devoted to these objects, respectively, may receive much gratification from the facts and observations available to their service, and he may acknowledge, perhaps, that what has been contributed to these interests by the results of the undertaking, may be almost worth the energy, the toil, the time, the expense, and the disasters, which it shall have cost in the execution. But still (we are excepting the small number of men specifically G G 2 453 FOSTEEIANA. and zealously intent on science, navigation, Sec.) he is irresistiblyjnade Sensible that it was not exactly the con- sideration of these objects that had fired his imagination at the thought of a daring adventure into the unknown regions of the world. While these were not excluded from his contemplation, he feels that the emphasis of his imaginings vi^as in something less technical, something of more poetical and moral element, something more related to magnificence and emotion. INFLUENCE OF MYSTERY ON THE MIND. There is something prodigiously captivating to the human mind in what is veiled, mysterious, unknown ; especially when the subject is at the same time of a nature to admit of con- jecture ; and this is the grand main principle of the interest which the generality of cultivated persons_take in the setting out of enterprises of discovery. Curiosity, sublimed, if we an ay so express it, by mystery, eagerly seeks the more direct gratification of disclosure. Much of what these persons are in the practice of saying of the promotion of science or commerce, is little more than an almost unconscious effort to give an appearance of pointing toward palpable utility, to a passion which they may have some apprehension will seem rather romantic. The information brought back by the explorers, being received at the cost of a complete extinction of the charm of mystery, will generally, even if the, undertaking attained its utmost success, be accompanied, in the recipients, with a certain sense of disappointment, an unpleasant fall of that high-wrought state of mind, in which they had been waiting for it. The exception to this will be in cases where the scenes and objects brought to view are themselves of an extraordinary and magnificent character. Such visions of nature, for instance, as those transferred to us from South America, by Humboldt, are even more striking and enchanting as presented in clear view before us, than as fancied through the magnifying obscurity and mystery of the previous imperfect knowledge or mere conjecture. CONJECTDRES KESPECTINQ CENTRAL AFRICA. It can be J)ut slightly conjectured what would have been CONJECTDEES RESPECTING CENTEAL AFRICA. 453 the fortune of the travellers, who have just terminated their career so far short of their object, had their undertakings been successful. That object, contemplated in prospect, was indeed of a nature to take mighty hold of the imagina- tion, both of those who were to execute the project, and those who were to wait for the result. The greatest part of" the ample scene of the enterprise was absolutely unknown, and an unequalled degree of the captivation of mystery was added to this darkness, by the circumstance of a great and renowned river concealing its termination. But it may be permitted to doubt whether the vast region which, in the event of success, would have been for the first time traversed and revealed, would have supplied to us any very enthusiastic gratifications beyond the delight of seeing over- come at last all that had for so many ages defied the investi- gation. To judge from whatever Park had described and Adams reported, with the addition now of so much as Captain Tuokey was permitted to survey, and all this combined with what we know of many other tracts of Africa, we may be allowed to console ourselves by assuming the probability, that the picture which would have been furnished to us would have been as insignificant as it would have been immense. The determination of the question respecting the river, would indeed have been a great geographical fact gained. It would have been an exchange of so much ignorance for so much knowledge. Some time or other that knowledge might have become available to some practical utility, as perhaps in the way of commerce j though it is perfectly evident from all that has been seen or reasonably guessed of interior Africa, that ages may pass away before such a state of nature and society can become of any material importance in the economy of European arts and traffic. Meanwhile, on the breaking up and dissipating of the profound and solemn darkness which has for thousands of years rested on this vast, retired, mysterious region, the ardent curiosity which had so long looked towards it in vain, might have sunk in some strange undefinable sense of dis- appointment and disenchantment on being permitted to gaze at last on veritable tracts of indifferent earth, and of sand, and of marsh ; and on some tribes of miserable barbarians, here thinly spread over a hundred miles of pestilential wilder- ness, and there more numerously assembled in some city, a dis- 454 FOSTEEIANA. tant rival of that magnificent far-famed imperial metropolis ot golden-roofed palaces and mansions (Timbuctoo), which we have not yet been able to forgive the unlucky stroller Adams for having' most innocently happened to discover to be an accumulation of mud huts. It may well be doubted whether, as a mere matter of feeling, this sense of chill and prostra- tion of what had been a fine romantic imaginativeness, would have been compensated by the demonstration of what is so probably the fact, that the river Niger is no other than the river Zaire. So wayward an essence is this spirit of man ! — But it is quite time to leave these spechlations, and come to the plain official task of giving a brief account of the book before us. THE EITER ZAIEE, CONGO, OE NIGBE. Till the journey of the intrepid and lamented Park, it was a question for debate, like some theme of the schools, whether a great river, known and famous from ancient times, actually flowed to the west, or to the east. The speculation disposed of thus far, instantly acquired an augmented interest in its latter question — What becomes of the river ? After the suggestion of its possibly being, after all, no other than the Nile of Egypt was scientifically set aside, the most plausibility was deemed to attach (perhaps, in- deed, because no other plausible explanation could be thought of,) to the theory of Major Rennell, that the Niger stops, stag- nates, and is evaporated, in some great central lake, north of the line. Nobody, however, cared to let his imagination stop and stagnate there. There was an urgent wish to find this dignified and mysterious stream performing a long ulterior course, and coming out at length from its immense deserts, at some point where we might hail its arrival at the ocean — although we were confounded in attempting to conjecture where so important a point should be to which our extensive knowledge of the African coast had hitherto left us strangers. When, at length, the hitherto little-known river of Congo was described by Mr. Maxwell to Park, with a a suggestion that there might be the object so long sought in vain, he seized the idea with a sanguine eagerness, which soon became a most confident assurance, in spite of the arguments and invincible opinion of so excellent a geogra- pher as Major Rennell. 455 THE MOTTNTAINS OF THE MOON. Respecting the supposed great chain of mountains, denominated the Mountains of the Moon, extending across central Africa, it is represented that even the existence of such a chain has been admitted on very defective evidence, but that if it does exist, a chasm made through it, by the mighty and incessant action of water, would be an eifect easily credible on the strength of a number of grand instances of the same kind in different parts of the globe. The uncertainty whether there is any such ratige of moun- tains to obstruct the course of the Niger to the southward, and the fair assumption, that if there is, it would not necessarily be an invincible obstruction, seem to give free scope for the largest inferences to be made from the fact that the Zaire, or some main branch of it, does actually come from regions north of the line, as proved by that state of what may be called perpetual flood, which shows that, during the dry season on one side of the line, it is receiving the tribute of the rainy season on the other. The demonstrative decision of the question remains for some other adventurer. THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER ZAIRE. Though a very noble stream, the Zaire did not appear, as the explorers advanced, to correspond to the reports and descriptions which had placed it in the very first class of rivers. The profound channel at the outlet is not to be considered as merely the river-course ; « the true mouth of the river being at Fathomless Point, where it is not three miles in breadth ; and allowing the mean depth to be forty fathoms, and the mean velocity of the stream four and a half miles an hour ; it will be evident that the calculated volume of water carried to the sea has been greatly exaggerated." Nor does it perform the last stage of its progress to the ocean, in the form of a magnificent single mass of waters ; on the contrary, the expedition soon entered among a number of islands and sand-banks, where, for a space of many leagues, the river is divided and diverted into a variety of channels and windings. For a considerable way up from the outlet, perhaps ton leagues on the north side, and a greater length on the south, the banks or shores consist of a wide swamp, covered with mangrove trees, and bounded. 456 rOSTERIANA. at the distance of seven or eight miles inland, by a line of high hills. " This mangrove tract is entirely impenetrable, the trees growing in the water, with the exception of a few spots of sandy beach." AFRICAN INDICATIONS. But various circumstances soon occurred, to indicate the difference between the tract of the globe at which the observers had arrived, and that which they had left, to see no more ; as for instance, the fresh traces, on the ground, of elephants and tigers, and, at one spot near the shore, "human skulls and other human bones, close to a place where had been a fire." This last appearance, so much like a sign of cannibalism, was explained some days afterwards. " We were assured that they were the remains of criminals, who had suffered for the crime of poisoning, this spot being the place of execution of a certain district. When a common man is con- victed of this crime, his head is first severed, and his body then burnt ; but the punishment of a culprit of superior rank is much more barbarous ; the members being amputated one by one, so as to preserve life " [that is, for part of an hour], " and one of each sent to the principal towns of the kingdom. The trial is always by a kind of ordeal." AN AFKICAN LEVEE. There is a long account of the ceremonies and negotiations at the Court of Embomma. The Chenoo, or, in civilized phrase, his majesty, had sent, for the conveyance of the captain, a sort of hammock, somewhat resembling the palan- quin of India, but in such dirty plight, that a long walk was preferred, with the vehicle brought in attendance, to be entered, for etiquette's sake, just at the approach to the royal residence, time enough to be set down in form under a great tree, near what must be called the palace, — which tree was adorned with ensigns of state, in the manner following : — " The first objects which called our attention were four human skulls, hung to the tree, which -we were told were those of enemy's chiefs taken in battle, whose heads it was the custom to preserve as trophies ; these victims, however, seemed to have received the cowp de grace previous to the separation of the head, all the skulls presenting compound fractures." Ta3 whole account of the levee is highly curious. There AN AFRICAN LEVEE. 457 was no want of appropriate officers, or dignified ceremonial, though a rather inconvenient absence of understanding ; inasmuch as it was found totally impossible to make any of the assembled personages comprehend the motive and object of the expedition. They were induced, however, to admit, at hazard, a favourable judgment of whatever might be its inexplicable purpose, by what they were enabled to com- prehend of it negatively, namely, that it was not intended to obstruct the slave-trade, nor to make war. The council broke up in a prodigious racket, on the sight of a keg of rum, which the English embassy had brought as a present, — to be re-assembled, however, for more privy consultation, during the time the visitors were at a repast provided for them, after which they were again summoned to audience. The negotiation appeared to end amicably, upon a solemn reiteration, on oath, by the captain, of those negative declar- ations, on which they were forced at last to rest, under the impossibility of understanding anything more of the matter. SOCIAIr CONDITION OF THE CONGOES. "Among many particulars of miscellaneous information respecting the people about this place, it is stated that — "The two prominent features, in their moral character and social state, seem to be the indolence of the men, and the degrada- tion of the women ; the latter being considered as perfect slaves, whose bodies are at the entire disposal of their fathers and hus- bands, and may be transferred by either of them how and when they please. " The cultivation of the ground is entirely the business of slaves and women, the king's daughters and princes' wives being con- stantly thus employed, or in collecting the fallen branches of trees for fuel. The only preparation the ground undergoes is burning the grass, raking the soil into little ridges with a hoe, and drop- ping the Indian corn grains into holes." THE CATAEAOT OF TELLALA. They were now approaching to the cataract of Yellala, deemed by the natives the residence of an evil spirit, so that whoever saw it once would never see it again. Already the river was become contracted and violent, with stupendous overhanging rocks on each side. In viewing from an eminence the mass of hills through which the course of the 458 POSTEPJANA river is cut, for the length of a number of leagues, the captain was instantly convinced of the impossibility of con- veying the boats by land, to resume with them the navigation above the cataract. This cataract itself, which had been represented by the natives as most tremendous, was now an object of ardent curiosity. The captain and four others made their way to it by a long fatiguing wdlk, and were extremely surprised and disappointed at finding, instead oi a second Niagara, which the description of the natives, and their horror of it, had given reason to expect, a comparative brook bubbling over its stony bed. " The south side of the river is here a vast hill of bare rock (sienite), and the north a lower but more precipitous hill of the same substance, between which two the river has forced its course ; but in the middle an island of slate still defies its power, and breaks the current into two narrow channels ; that near the south side gives vent to the great mass of the river, but is obstructed by rocks above and under water, over which the torrent rushes with great fury and noise, as may easily be conceived. The channel on the north side is now nearly dry, and is composed of great masses of slate, with perpendicular fissures. The highest part of the island is fifteen feet above the present level ; but from the marks on it, the water in the rainy season must rise twelve feet, con- sequently covers the whole of the breadth of the channel, with the exception of the summit of the island ; and with the increased velocity, must then produce a fall somewhat more consonant to the description of the natives." SLAVES THE STAPLE OF CONGO The constitution of government in Congo, is a thing nearly as soon described as one of the trees, or one of the people's few habiliments or utensils. It consists of hereditary fiefs, or Chenooships, under a " paramount sovereign named Lindy, or Blindy N'Congo." The civil and domestic economy is also a matter of much simplicity. Slaves seem to form the sinews of the state : — " Slavery is here of two kinds, which may be denominated house- hold or domestic, and trading. When a young man is of age to begin the world, his father or guardian gives him the means of purchasing a number of slaves of each sex, in proportion to his quality, from whom he breeds his domestic slaves, and these (though it does not appear that he is bound by any particular law), he never sells or transfers unless in cases of misbehaviour, when he holds a palaver, at which they are tried and sentenced. SLAVES THE STAPLE OP CONGO. 4 59 These domestic slaves are, however, sometimes pawned for debt, but are always redeemed as soon as possible." CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS. The crimes in such a state of society cannot be of any- great variety. The capital ones punished, in their highest degrees, as we have seen, most barbarously, are " adultery with the wives of the great men, and poisoning :" — " The frequency of the crime of putting poison in victuals, has established the custom of the master invariably making the person who presents him with meat or drink, taste it first ; and in offering either to a visitor, the host performs this ceremony first. This the natives who speak English, call ' taking off the fetiche.' If a man poisons an equal, he is simply decapitated ; but if an inferior com- mits this crime (the only kind of secret murder) on a superior, the whole of his male relations are put to death, even to the infants at the breast." GANGAM KISSET, A CONJUEOE-PEIEST. Another mode of punishment is mentioned under the form of an ordeal, which is quite as reasonable a thing as the magical process by which the Gangam Kissey, a sort of conjuror-priest, fixes the accusation, from malice or at hazard. The person denounced is to chew a poisonous bark, which, if he is guilty, he will retain in his stomach and die ; but if innocent, he will vomit up again immediately. This reverend director of justice has nothing to fear from revenge ; it is believed that his sacred person cannot be hurt ; but it is also believed that ^ he cannot deserve it, for that, be his adjudg- ment ever so unjust, the blame attaches solely to the Kissey, or god, in virtue of whose supposed communication of truth for the conviction of iniquity it is that the worthy Grangam is held sacred and inviolable. Never was there a neater device of fraud in a circle, than this, nor a better exemplification, on a small scale, of that property of superstition, by which, beyond all other things, it has the power of destroying com- mon sense ; as if by a retributive law of the Governor of the world, the belief in a false religion should infuse a fatuity into the understanding in its exercise on the most ordinary matters, HOPELESSNESS AND TERMINATION OF THE KNTEEPKISE. In contemplating the present condition of the kingdom of ongo, our author says, — 450 FOSTEEIANA. "The idea of civilizing Africa by sending out a few negroes educated in England, appears to be utterly useless ; the little knowledge acquired by such persons having the same effect on the universal ignorance and barbarism of their countrymen, that a drop of fresh water would have on the ocean." The river, though not without its inconvenient rocks and rapids, presented to the mortified explorers a grand practi- cable road forward, which they were never to travel. At the highest point which they attained it had assumed a very noble and tantalizing appearance, and the natives said there was no further impediment to its navigation : — "And here," says Captain Tuckey, "we were even under the necessity of turning our back on it, which we -did with great regret, but with the consciousness of having done all we could." " This excursion convinced us of the total impracticability of penetrating with any number of men by land, along the sides of the river, both from the nature of the country, and impossibility of procuring provisions." THE ABOBIGINES OF AUSTRALIA.* In this work several curious notices and descriptions are tntroduced from the accounts of former visitants to this new continent and its islands. Some of the most interesting are from journals of Captain Flinders's own voyages on these coasts, at various periods, before his independent appoint- ment in the Investigator. With Captains Bligh and Port- lock he sailed, in 1792, through Torres' Strait, that is to say, the passage between New Guinea and the northernmost part of Terra Australis, an extremely harassing and perilous course. But nothing, on sea or land, is more treacherous and dangerous than man. The crew of a boat had a most narrow escape from a squadron of large sailing canoes, manned and excellently manoeuvred, Captain Flinders says, by a multitude of quite naked, strong, ferocious savages, * A Voyage to Terra Australia; undertaken for the purpose of completing the Discovery of that vast Country, in 1801, 1802, and 1803. By Matthew Flinders, Commander. Two vols, royal 4to. 1814. THE ABOEIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 461 who had, iii the first instance, made a feint of amicable disposition. Other parties (they were the people of an island denominated Darnley's Island) came to the ship, and are thus described : — " Theae people, in short, appeared to be dexterous sailors and formidable warriors ; and to be as much at ease in the water as in their canoes. Their arms were bows, arrows, and clubs, which they bartered for every kind of ironwork with eagerness ; but appeared to set little value on anything else. The bows are made of split bamboo ; and so strong that no man in the ship could bend one of them. The string is a broad slip of cane, fixed to one end of the bow, and fitted with a noose, to go over the other end, when strung. The arrow is a cane of about four feet long, into which a pointed piece of the hard, heavy, casuarina wood is firmly and neatly fitted ; and some of them were barbed. Their clubs are made of the casuarina, and are powerful weapons. The hand part is indented and has a small knob, by which the firmness of the grasp is much assisted ; and the heavy end is usually carved with some device : one had the form of a parrot's head, and was not ill done." Still more decided experience of the malignant quality of these wild beasts was given, the following year, to Captains Bampton and Alt, who had a boat's crew destroyed by them. It was thought proper to give the unsophisticated children of nature a practical lesson of prudence, by means of a strong armed party, who could not indeed follow them to their places of retreat in the hilly centre of the island, but who destroyed a vast number of huts, canoes, and planta- tions, and whose exertions in the performance of their appointed duty were not likely to be remitted from their finding the habitations furnished as the following extract describes : — HUMAN SKULLS USED AS DOMESTIC ORNAMENTS. " In each of the huts, and usually on the right side going in, were suspended two or three human skulls ; and several strings of hands, five or six on a string. These were hung round a wooden image, rudely carved into the representation of a man, or of some bird ; and painted and decorated in a curious manner : the feathers of the Emu or Cassuary generally formed one of these ornaments. In one hut, containing much- the greater number of skulls, a kind of gum was found burning before one 462 FOSTERIANA. of these images. This hut was adjoining to another, of a different form, and much more capacious than any of the others. The length was thirty feet, by fifteen in breadth ; and the floor was raised six feet from the ground. It was judged to be the residence of the chief of the island, and was the sole hut in which were no skulls or hands ; but the adjoining one had more than a double proportion." A HrifDEED MILLIONS OP PETEELS IS ONE PLIGHT. One of the most remarkable natural objects seen during the voyage, was a flight of sooty petrels, from a place on the coast of Van Diemen's Land, in a stream, which he deemed it not extravagant to calculate at a hundred millions. There are curious descriptions of the habits of seals, alba- trosses, and some other of those creatures, which always suffer by the approach of man. KING George's sound, western Australia. Nothing extraordinary occurred in the run by the Cape of Good Hope, to New Holland, of which they came in sight at Cape Leeuwin, on the 6th of December, 1801. With the whole company in good health and spirits, the ship was put into King George's Sound to refit. Here an amicable but very profitless communication was maintained with the natives, after their suspicion and repugnance had been worn away by experience of the harmlessness of the foreign intruders, to whom in the first interviews they had made strong signs to be off. To excite and gratify their utmost capacity of delight (except, indeed, that which is to be filled by good eating, the supreme felicity of all low savages in poor countries), a party of marines were, on the last day of the visit ordered on shore to be exercised in their sight. " The red coats and white crossed belts were greatly admired, having some resemblance to their own manner of ornamenting themselves ; and the drum, but particularly the fife, excited their astonishment ; but when they saw the beautiful red-and-white men, with their bright muskets, drawn up in a line, they absolutely screamed with delight ; nor were their.wild gestures and vocifera- tions to be silenced, but by commencing the exercise, to which they paid the most earnest and silent attention. Several of them moved their hands, involuntarily, according to the motions ; and the old man placed himself at the end of the rank, with a short staff in his hand, which he shouldered, presented, grounded, as KING GEORUE'S SOUND. 463 did the marines with their muskets, without, I believe, knowing what he did. Before firing they were made acquainted with what was going to take place ; so that the volleys did not excite much terror." From the moment of touching the land, near CapeLeeuwin, though the coast from that point to King George's Sound was not in the instructions for examination, in the first instance, our pertinacious investigator prosecuted the whole course of this inhospitable southern shore of the continent, through all its windings and treacheries, through the spaces already partially explored, and those entirely unknown, almost to the western entrance of Bass's Strait, where he was compelled to remit the rigour of the examination, and hasten toward Port Jackson for supplies and refitment. On certain parts of this vast line of coast he had been preceded, at a remote period, by Nuyts, and recently by Vancouver, Grant, and especially D"Entrecasteaux, to the accuracy of whose survey, as far as it extended, he bears very strong testimony. But one extensive tract of this coast, comprising nearly the space between latitudes 130° and 140° had remained in total darkness, to be disclosed for the first time to Captain Flinders. KANGAEOO ISLAND. In front of two very considerable gulfs, to which the the discoverer gave the names of Spencer's and St. Vincent's, is a considerable island, named by the Captain, Kangaroo Island, from the numbers of that animal upon it, far exceeding anything previously seen. The perfect insensibility to danger on the approach of human beings, here manifested by a creature extremely timid and fugacious where those same beings inhabit, was considered as evidence of the perfect impunity, till now, of these innocent islanders, from all neighbourhood, either habitual or occasional, of that maleficent race. They now paid very dearly for their long preceding privilege. The author seems almost to pity them while he describes the havoc. In accordance with this sentiment, and relating to the same place, is another short passage, which struck us as perhaps the most remarkable in the book. The sea has access into the interior of the 46'1 FOSTEEIANA. island, where it spreads to some breadth, and contains several small islets : — PELICAW ISLANDS. " Upon two of these," says Captain Flinders, " we found many young pelicans, unable to fly. Flocks of the old birds were sitting upon the bdaches of the lagoon, and it appeared that the islands were their breeding places ; not only so, but, from the skeletons and bones there scattered, it should seem that for ages they had been selected for the closing scene of their existence. Certainly none more likely to be free from disturbance of every kind could have been chosen, than these islets of a hidden lagoon of an uninhabited island, situate upon an unknown coast, near the antipodes of Europe ; nor can anything be more consonant to the feelings, if pelicans have any, than quietly to resign their breath, surrounded by their progeny, and in the same spot where they first drew it. Alas, for the pelicans ! Their golden age is past ; but it has much exceeded in duration that of man." THE AUSTRALIAN FLORA. The appendix contains a systematic compendium of the botany of Terra Australis, by Mr. Brown, naturalist to the voyage, who remained in New South Wales, with Mr. Bauer, the natural history painter, eighteen months after the commander's departure for Europe. Mr. Brown says that his materials for a Flora of Terra Australis amount to about 4,200 species. SCANDINAVIAN SCENERY.* The scenery of the noble but almost unknown river Njurunda, would furnish the grandest subjects to the Kiidseape painter. But indeed admiration is excited at almost every change of view along the whole coast of Westro-Bothnia. Its diversi- fication by the intervention of men or the other animals is very small ; but yet something is added to its character, in point of novelty and strangeness, by the iron-foundries that here and there caused a devastation of the forest ; the process of producing tar, by burning the roots of the trees ; the farming establishment, consisting of a cluster of log-houses, * Travels in Varioua Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Ey Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Part the Third, Scandinavia. Section the First. 4to. 1819. SCANDINAVIAN SCENEEY. 465 with the immense rack for exposing the sheaves of corn, reaped before ripe, to the air and sun ; and the costume and manners of the people, especially when brought together in some number on the Sunday, on which day every woman was seen with a bible in her hands. Something was added, too, by the prodigious ant-hills, regarded by our author as much surpassing, according to a scale formed upon a com- parison between the respective builders, the pyramids of Egypt, and by the legions of insects, named Brumsa, and resembling bees, or hornets, from which the travellers and their horses sustained a sanguinary attack. THE REGIONS OF PERPETUAL UGHT^. The strangest circumstance, to the feelings of these wan- derers toward the north, must have been that they were sensibly escaping very fast from Nature's great phenomenon of Night. They could read or write as well at midnight as at noon. The disappearance of the sun became so brief, that they beheld and admired at the same instant the beautiful effects of his setting and of his rising, on the clouds of the horizon. This new state of the physical world had, however, its inconvenience to our southerns : — " We began to perceive, what we had never felt before, that darkness is one of the benevolent gifts of Providence, the value of which, as conducive to repose, we only become sensible of when it ceases altogether to return. There were no shutters to the windows ; and the continued blaze which surrounded us we would gladly ha"ve dispensed with, if it were possible.- When we closed our eyes, they seemed to be still open : we even bound over them our handkerchiefs ; but a remaining impression of brightness, like a shining light, wearied and oppressed them." A EEIN-DEEE CARAVAN. Tornea is a very fair subject for some extent of description, even though there should not be many more circumstances so remarkable as that of the grass growing up in the streets to be mown, as a regular part of the hay harvest. It is nevertheless a place of considerable business, according to the scale of the numbers, wants, and possessions, of an Arctic population, of which it forms the humble emporium, con- taining six or seven hundred inhabitants. In February, H H 4bb FOSTEEIANA. travelling merchants set out thence to the north, for the pur- chase of the skins of rein -deer, bears, white foxes, and wild cats. They go in various directions, and some as far as the North Cape: — " It is said that the march upon this grand expedition consti- tutes one of the most remarkable sights that can be imagined. Each merchant has in his service from five to six hundred rein- deer, besides thirty Laplanders and other servants. One person is able to guide and manage about fifteen rein- deer, with their sledges. They take with them merchandise to the' amount of three thousand rix-doUars (about £450 sterling). This consists of silver plate, in the form of drinking- vessels, spoons, &c. They also carry cloth, linen, butter, brandy, and tobacco, all of which they take to Norway. Upon this occasion, they display as much magnificence as possible. The rein-deer are set ofi with bells and costly trappings. We saw some of their collars made of buff ker- seymere, embroidered with flowers. The procession formed by a single merchant's train will extend two or three English miles. Provisions of every kind are carried with them. Their dealing with the Lapps is not transacted by means of money, but in the way of barter." SOMETHING ABOUT MEETING-HOUSES. Though it is an unusual thing to see anybody in the streets, the two churches, one for service in the Swedish, the other in the Finnish language, have congregations in such multitude, that they astonish the stranger. " The duty of the Sabbath," says our author, "seems never to be neglected." It appears to be in the tone of great com- placency that he adds, " The Church of Sweden knowing neither heresy nor schism, there are no such places as Meeting-houses, either to excite fanaticism, or to cherish religious dissensions among the people." Besides the rigours of its winter, the country is indeed infested with mosquitos, bugs, brumsas, furix infernales, and wolves; but happily not with meeting-houses. When a place is fortunately clear of any particular nuisance with which other places are plagued, it is worth while to consider how to keep it so. Now, then, as to this plague of meeting- houses, what is to be done in such a case as this,— that in any part of this Arctic tract of immunity from schism, that at Tornea, for instance, some minority of the accustomed SOMETHING ABOUT MEETING-HOUSES. 467 worshippers in the churches should come, by reading and rational thought, to be convinced of the absurdity and superstition of the doctrine of the Swedish Church, that the real person of Christ is eaten and drunken in the sacramental bread and wine, and should therefore feel it a matter of conscience and honesty, to avow their dissent from this gross error, and adopt correspondently in practice a religious service purified from it, — a service which would require a meeting - house ? It is evident enough how desirable it would be to stop such an incipient mischief, but still the question is, by what means ? Might not some little coercive interference of the magistrate be war- ranted, on so good a plea as the prevention of schism and religious dissension among the people ? And the enlightened Protestant looker-on might surely account the harmony, which had been preserved by ignorance and error, unfortunately exchanged for a state of dissension which proved that in part the people were obtaining a xjlear riddance at last of one of the gross relics of Popish delusion and absurdity. SALMON SPEAKING. The complete want, for hundreds of miles, of whatever mountains can contribute to the interest of scenery, was in a measure compensated by the varying forms of the course of the fine rivers, Tornea and Muonio, sometimes spread into a succession of lakes with verdant islands ; by the riches and magnificence of flowering plants on the banks ; by the fishery by means of floating fires, in which the mode of killing salmon with harpoons is described as. "beautiful;" and by falling in here and there with the good-natured pigmy inhabitants. PEE8ECUTI0N BY THE M0SQUIT08- But in default of all other means of stimulation, the mos- quitos had been enough to preserve a state of attention, and consciousness of existence. They maintained an unrelenting persecution, which would have rendered life sometimes almost intolerable, even to a person less oppressed by ill health than our author. A room could not be cleared of them without being filled with a thick, suffocating smoke, H H !i 468 FOSTERIANA, which was to be carefully retained as its atmosphere, to prevent their return in legions. No veils or clothing for the face, neck, or hands, could defend against their stings. So powerful is the little flexible proboscis with which they make their punctures, that it will penetrate very thick leather ; the doe-skin gloves upon the hands of the travellers not being a suflB.cient protection from their attacks. The English blood had a great preference with them to that of the natives. The travellers were at last compelled to adopt the disgusting expedient employed by the natives, of besmearing the face, neck, hands, and legs, with a compost of tar and cream, by which they obtained a delightful relief that made them ashamed of the daintiness which they had so long kept at such a cost. . These insects are so very heavy a plague on sensitive existence during the finer part of the year, that " we cannot wonder," says our author, " that the poor Esquimaux, who are nearly allied to the Laplanders, should consider them as personifications of the evil principle, and always speak of them as the winged ministers of hell." But, he adds, from the Sagacious suggestion of Linnsus, that they have their utility to the people whom they tor- ment, since the legions of larvce, which fill the lakes ol Lapland, form a delicious and tempting repast to innu- merable multitudes of aquatic birds ; and thereby provi- dentially contribute to the support of the very nations which they so strangely infest. THE NOMADE LAPLANDERS. Many curious scenes took place with the natives, of whom Dr. Clarke has given the most lively and graphical descrip- tions, in all their national and local characteristics. One of the most entertaining is in the account of a visit to the tugurium of a nomade Laplander, not far from Muonioniska, into whose conical summer tent the travellers suddenly intro- duced, themselves, without a moment's warning, contrary to the wishes of the Laplander's son, by whom they were con- ducted to this residence of the family. It was to behold a specimen of this state of life, that the travellers diverted to some distance from their regular route, in the present instance. For the rude intrusion, an apology was made in the form of a present of tobacco and brandy. THE NOMADE LAPLANDERS. 469 for which elixir all the men and women in Lapland are equally furious. " They will almost part with life itself, for the gratification of dram-drinking." An extra quantity having been swallowed by the old man of the little horde, he began to sing, and was prompted and requested by the strangers to give a regular sample of the national music. The favour, unequalled, it should seem, by any similar one ever conferred in any other place, was conceded : — " With both his fists clenched, and thrusting his face close to that of the interpreter, as if threatening to bite him, he uttered a most fearful yell. It was the usual howl of the Laplanders, con- sisting of five or six words, repeated over and over, which when translated, occur in this order : ' Let us drive the wolves ! Let us drive the wolves ! See, they run ! The wolves run !' The boy, also, our former guide, sang the same ditty. During their singing they strained their lungs so as to cause a kind of spasmodic convulsion of the chest, which produced a noise like the braying of an ass. In all this noise there was not a single note that could be called musical ; and it is very remarkable that the Laplanders have not the smallest notion of music. Neither have they any national dance, being entirely strangers to an exercise, which, with the exception of this singular people, seems to be common to the whole human race." HIDDEN TEEASDEES OF THE LAPPS. It is said, that some of the Lapps possess one cwt. of silver, and those who enjoy a property of 1500 or 1000 rein- deer have much more. As they keep it always buried, it does not happen to the owner to be gratified even with the sight of his hidden treasure more than once or twice a year. It is to be observed that these migratory families, one of which, consisting of seven or eight persons, may be thus found crammed into a tent of six feet diameter on the ground, greatly surpass, by the possession of a thousand or more rein -deer, the wealth of the settled occupiers. But they are subject to severe disasters, by the ravages of wild beasts, the bears, and especially the wolves. There had recently been a formidable accession to the numbers of these rapacious sharers of the territory. In the district of 470 FOSTERIANA. Enontekis, in which is the source of the Muonio, one-half of the rein-deer had perished by them. THE CLOUDBEERY CUKE. During the short sojourn at Enontekis, chiefly in the house of the minister, a sensible and learned man, our author recovered his health in a sudden and surprising manner, from eating largely of the fruit of the ruhus chama- morus, or cloudberry. THE ATTEACTIONS OF A BALLOON AND A SERMON. At this place he contrived to bring the people together from a very great distance round, and at once to amuse and frighten them when assembled, by announcing, exhibiting, and launching a very large paper balloon. The scene must have been inexpressibly strange and grotesque, especially at the time of the terror and wild tumult caused by the ascent of the balloon. It was at the minister's own suggestion that the day fixed for the exhibition was the sabbath, and the one appointed for the communion service. It does not appear whether any part of his motive was to bring a greater number of persons within the reach of religious instruction. They were addressed, however, in an extemporaneous sermon of an hour and twenty minutes. It was " delivered in a tone of voice so elevated, that the worthy pastor seemed to labour as if he would burst a blood-vessel." He exerted himself " as if his audience had been stationed on the top of a distant mountain. Afterwards, he was so hoarse, he could hardly articulate another syllable." " As we accompanied him to his house, we ventured to ask the reason of the very loud tone of voice he had used in preaching. He said he was aware it must appear extraordinary to a stranger ; but that if he were to address the Laplanders in a lower key, they would consider him as a feeble andlmpotent missionary, wholly unfit for his office, and would never come to church : that the merit and abilities of the preacher are always estimated, both among the Colonists and Lapps, by the strength and power of his voice." A HINT ON CHDECH DISCIPLINE. The somnolent part of the congregation were kept under a very rough discipline by the sexton, with his long stout pole, which, if its frequent stroke on the floor was not effectual, was unceremoniously " driven against their ribs, or suffered to fall with all its weight upon their skulls." 471 RELIGION IN HARMONY WITH A TASTE FOR THE FINE ARTS.* If among the pleasures of taste, in the mental sense of that term, a man were required to specify the one most simple, most innocent, least liable to corruption, and most readily harmonizing with religion, he could not hesitate to name that which is imparted by the beauty and sublimity of Nature. With these qualities in its favour, this mode of the exercise and pleasure of taste will inevitably become more prevalent as the genuine improvement of mankind advances. And, therefore, it is probable it may prevail most of all in the last, highest state of improvement which we are permitted to anticipate for our race on this earth, that state of which the essence and the glory will be the universal prevalence of religion. That state will necessarily involve a high improvement of all the faculties of the soul, which cannot be without an increased sensibility to sublimity and beauty, of which sensibility the preferred subjects of exercise and indulgence will be those forms and phenomena which are the least related or liable to moral evil, which are the most independent of man, and which most illustrate the glory of the Creator. There is then some reason to be pleased at observing, what has been obvious of late years, a more prevailing taste for the beautiful and grand in landscape scenery, as viewed both in the reality of nature and in the representations of art. Let it not be imagined, that because we think such a taste must exist in a high degree in the most improved and religious state of the human race, we are allowing our- selves to fancy we see in its present increase any sign of the progress of t-eligion. We are not quite so simple. We do not even need be told, that some considerable proportion of the show of this taste is mere affectation ; while yet there must be some reality to make the affectation worth while. We are aware, too, that some of the influences under * Peak Scenery ; or, Excursions in Derbyshire, for the Purpose of Picturesque Observation. Engravings by Messrs. W. B. and George Cooke, from Drawings by F. L. Chantrey, Esq., Sculptor, R.A. By E. Rhodes. 4to. 1818. 473 POSTERIANA. which it has grown, have amounted, in their operation, to somewhat less than a radical intellectual cultivation of taste. The restlessness of spirits, seeking amusement in frequent change of place, but seeking to make out a respectable motive in the fine natural circumstances of the scene of the sojourn ; a sort of headlong admiration of recent and contemporary descriptive poetry ; the acquisition, by a much greater number of young persons than formerly of a little skill in the art of sketching ; the prodigious number of travels and tours with graphic decorations ; and the very signal excellence attained in this country, beyond every other, in landscape-engraving, so that without any technical knowledge of the art, the eye and imagination of a person in the smallest degree sensible to the beauty of nature, are irresistibly attracted by such exquisite representations ot that beauty ; all these have contributed to the eifect which we have asserted to be visible, and some parts of the contri- bution will partake but little of real cultivation of taste. Yet, after all deductions, we think there is a great increase, if we may not say of the sensibility to the charms and majesty of nature, at least of understanding and acknow- ledgment that there is a vast deal in the scenery of nature of what justly claims to be admired. And this we regard as a pleasing circumstance, since it will be favourable to the cultivation of taste in general, will be conducive to habits of observation, will be counteractive, in some degree, to that wretchedly artificial state into which the economy of life among us is perverted, and will encourage those arts which not only are directly of very high utility, and afibrd a very fine and legitimate field for genius and industry, but may contribute to give to luxury itself a much more refined and intellectual direction than it would otherwise be apt to take. We may add, that where there is religion, this perception of beauty and grandeur in the works of God, will diversify its exercise, and sometimes augment its emphasis. AETISTIC MISEEPEESENTATIONS DEPEECATED. We wish it could be efiectually inculcated on the con- ductors of all works, having for their object picturesque delineations, that they should not admit into them any insignificant subjects. Some of the finest of them are not AUTISTIC MISREPRESENTATIONS DEPRECATED. 473 quite clear of this fault. Now and then the admiring inspector, after his eye recovers from the imposing effect of brilliant lights, and of clouds, and shadows, and trees, managed with most painter-like taste and skill, is vexed to find that these are all he has to admire, for that what pur- ports to be the subject, is nothing better than some miserable shred of flat ground, or of sand, or a heap of rubbish with some venerable denomination of antiquity and ruin, or perhaps some paltry hamlet, with an uncouth piece of old masonry in the nature of a church. And this may occur in an elaborate and costly series of prints, professedly intended to represent, and many of them really representing most beautifully, a selection of the most striking scenes in a province or a country, which the inspector knows to contain far more striking views than could be comprehended in a much longer series of prints, though not a single insignificant subject were admitted. It seems as if the draughtsman having chosen to delineate such a trifling subject, the public must pay for it, at all events ; it is therefore intruded into a work which, for its many finer subjects, the lovers of graphical excellence are not willing to forego. THE PEOPEIETT OF DISCRIMINATION IN SELECTION. Draughtsmen ought to exercise a discrimination and forbearance similar to what is demanded of authors, who are required to understand that the public does not want ewry paragraph they may have happened to write, and that they are not, on the strength of some credit which they may have deservedly gained, to tax their readers for any thing, indifferently and without selection, which they may have thought on the subject. He should understand, that many things it might be worth while, in an indolent hour, to put into his sketch-book, are not worth transferring thence. We would entreat Mr. Rhodes to revise the drawings intended for the continuation of his elegant work, and rather shorten the series, than admit one more subject of inferior rank into so high a situation. "We question the claims Oi " Stoney Middleton," and the " View in the Village of Eyam." By means of trees, pieces of water, and ducks, they are made to have a very pretty look, especially the latter ; but innumerable things of the same class are to 474 rOSTEEIANA. be found in England, and we wonder how, in the district of the Peak of Derbyshire, a place proverbially celebrated for its " wonders," an artist could have thought it, comparatively, worth the trouble to make finished drawings of them. THE BEAUTIES OF SMOKE IN SCENEEr. The three views in Middleton Dale are just what they ought to be ; they exhibit striking characteristic appearances, instead of familiar images of common rural scenery. They give us, not excluding the vegetable softenings and adorn- ments, the wild magnificence of precipices, and, we were going to say, the beauties of smoke, — and whoever should see these plates, would, we are confident, acknowledge the propriety of the phrase. Indeed, in real scenes, the smoke from great furnaces and lime-kilns often has very remarkable beauty, and we doubt whether we have ever before seen it so finely expressed in engraving. Such engraving is capable of giving beauty even to what in its plain reality has none. INDIAN AFFAIKS IN 1817.* Toward the end of the year 1817, when the military force of the Indian Grovernment was in motion for the extermina- tion of the Pindarries, and while an infatuation hardly paralleled in history, was betraying some of the Mahratta princes into one- more defiance of the power which had hitherto trampled on every opponent in every conflict, Scindiah, the most martial of those princes, was intimidated by the approach of the Governor-General, with some of the legions so often victorious, into what was denominated, with all proper courtesy, a treaty, of which the terms were humiliating to him in the same proportion in which they were indispensable to the tranquillity of the provinces on that side of the empire. This treaty, gained without an absolute war, and at a juncture when the state of the rela- tions with some other of the native powers was so precarious and ominous, was deemed of consequence enough to be, * Journal of a Route across India, through Egypt to England, in 1817. By Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence. 4to. 1819. INDIAN AFFAIBS IN 1817. 475 without waiting for the important events which even a week at such a. crisis might bring to pass, transmitted to England, in two sets of despatches, the one by the usual naval course, and the other by a messenger, by the more direct route of • the Red Sea and Egypt, to secure the advantage of two chances for both safety and expedition. The latter service was allotted to Colonel Fitzclarence, who in consequence set off instantly, and worked, and pushed his way, day and night, ' sick or well, through amicable territories, and hostile, over- cultivated tracts, and through wood, jungle, fen, defile, burning sand, and every hazard of the sea lightly thrown into the account. More resolute to get on, more enterprising, «nduring, or indefatigable, he could not -have been required to b^, if the intelligence he conveyed had been that the English were in imminent danger of losing kingdoms in Asia, instead of being secure of gaining them. As it always appears to us a very paltry spectacle when we see the man, with aU his faculties, sentiments, and opinions, sunk in the soldier by profession, we are not altogether displeased to see our lieutenant-colonel sometimes taking upon him considerably in the way of statesman, as to Indian affairs. Assuredly, the politician has no little yet to learn, who approves of almost everything done by the English in India ; but it does at any rate please one to see a military man really able to comprehend that the world was made for some other small purposes besides that of being a field to fight upon. There is very considerable importance and interest in his descriptions, interspersed in different parts of the narrative, of the constitution, habits, efficiency, and progressive alteration of quality of the native troops in the English service. MILITARY AUTHOESHIP. Perhaps the hands accustomed to wield the sword, are apt to be more daring than others in the exercise of the pen. We think we have noticed instances enough of this to warrant us in calling it a professional characteristic. Courage has been said to be a soldier's religion ; and, analogously to that of a Christian, which is required to pervade everything in life, it may be felt an obligation on military conscience, that writing should be executed in the 476 FOSTERIANA. same style as fighting. To be deliberate and slow in j udging, to hesitate in opinion, to acknowledge there are doubts and difficulties on all sides, not to be ashamed that more daring men should pronounce more promptly and decisively, would be held to betray a defect of gallantry. Why, indeed, should a man who would readily brave whatever can be brought, from camps and arsenals, be afraid of anything in the forces and magazines of logic ? What should there be in any possible array of opponent ideas, to appal him who would not hesitate, with a stout regiment of horse, to attack a whole Mahratta army ? And what should he care for the width, and intricacy, and obscurities of a question, when he knows he should not have asked more than an hour's warning to dash into the thickest forest or jungle in Asia, in pursuit of Pindarry murderers, and without caring what might be their number ? How unreasonable it were to expect him to submit to show, on any ground, of politics, morals, or even theology, an indecision which, if betrayed in giving orders, in camp, or march, or field, would expose him to contempt. JUSTIFICATION OF THE WAE IN INDIA. The substantial justice of the recent war in India can admit of no denial, except from those who hold war altogether, under any possible circumstances, to be wrong. And really the persons maintaining that opinion would be put to their extreme resources of argument, on reading our author's and other authentic descriptions of the character and operations of the Pindarries, whose irruptions into some of the provinces of the British empire kindled the war. We have the greatest respect for that Christian class of the community among whom it is an established principle, that a case justifying a recourse to arms is impossible ; but we should really be curious to hear what they would have counselled the govern- ment to do, when many thousands of robbers and murderers, literally such, burst in, suddenly and unprovoked, on the country, traversing to a vast extent the peaceful tracts of agriculture ; perpetrating, not incidentally, but systemati- cally and generally, every possible abomination compatible with the rapidity of their march ; torturing and killing, with every wantonness of infernal barbarity, men, women, and children ; with eager activity destroying everything JUSTIFICATION OF THE WAR IN INBIA. 477 that could not be carried away as plunder ; resolved to continue thus ravaging and desolating the provinces, till gorged to the utmost with slaughter and spoil, and then to retire to the territory of their dens, to digest amid their plunder, at their leisure, new schemes of similar destruction. Abhorring, as intensely as ever disciple of Robert Barclay did, the war-spirit with which almost all the nations and their governors have run mad, and believing a justifiable, that is, a purely defensive war, to be one of the rarest things in the history of the world, we should nevertheless feel it impossible to conceive a more desperate intellectual under- taking, than that of a man attempting to make out to the conscience of the Governor- General, a plain, sound, satis- factory proof that his duty was to remain perfectly still, while messengers from a province apprehending the horrible invasion, were in his presence, accompanied with persons escaped from a province overspread with devastation and murder. TREACHERY OF THE NATIVE POWERS. We can hardly think there is any hazard in sajdng that there is not one, supposing him to have had his family and property in the province menaced, who would not have been secretly gratified to see the Governor- General actuated by a quite different judgment and conscience. Let any person read the accounts of these miscreant bands, and say whether against such incorrigible ruffians it would have been possible to wage any other war than one of extermination. There could be no doubt that some of the chief native powers took an interest in the continued existence of the Pindarries, because, though sometimes suffering from their predatory violence, they could on occasions reinforce their armies from these lawless bands. It was worthy of the accustomed wisdom of these native despots and courts to meditate a quarrel, and to betray that they were meditating it, by unequivocal signs, in vain contradicted by worthless profes- sions of amity, just at the time when the English were putting their whole immense military force in readiness for action. It would seem as if they were desirous to take this intruding and detested power in its strongest attitude, from the consideration that if they could upset it then they were 478 FOSTEEIAVA. likely to have no more trouble with it. This judicious pro- ceeding cost Scindiah the degradation of admitting a "subsidiary force," flung the Peishwah, the nominal head of the Mahratta confederacy, from his throne, reduced Holkar to a shadow, and the Rajah of Nagpoor and other of the legitimate holders of power to nothing. INFATUATION OP THE NATIVE PRINCES. The fatuity manifested by most of these princes and their courts is perfectly astonishing. So many years of experience seem to have done nothing towards teaching them either dif- fidence or caution. It would be very curious if we could know what were the reasons on which they found their confi- dent presumptions of the sudden reversal of an order of events which had been steadily progressive during the whole length of the lives of the oldest of these prognosticators. This madness of presumption was just what was requisite to com- plete their ruin, and within a very few weeks to carry on the" course of events one grand stage further in the same direc- tion. THE DESIGNS OS PEOTIDENCE IN EEEBRENCE TO THE BEITISH OONQrESTS IN INDIA. We must continue to think there is something more in all this than our merely military or political commentators can explain ; and that a train of events without parallel, or at least without equal in history, is passing on under the Divine superintendence, toward a result of which the moral glory will correspond to such s prodigy of the destruction and creation of power. FIDELITY OF THE SEPOTS. One of the remarkable circumstances of this war, as well as of the preceding wars, was the almost invariable fidelity of the native troops, in fighting against their own country- men. It seems the Peishwah or his ministers had enter- tained a vague expectation of some possible failure of it in some of the native corps, contrary to all former experience. But this new occasion made no difference in either their allegiance or their bravery. They all did as they were ordered, and fired, and hacked away with perfect good-will at figures of their own complexion, lan- guage, and religion. The triumphant success with which riDELITT OF THE SEPOYS. 479 they did this, will have put an additional security on their allegiance for the next trial, as, doubtless, their firm adher- ence to their foreign masters in the present instance was fortified by their recollection of past victories gained under the same command. STJPEEIOEITT OP THE SEPOTS OTEE THE NATIVE TEOOPS. The prodigious disparity, in point of military efficiency, between these troops and the very same kind of men in the service of the native powers, is by our author attributed chiefly to discipline, and a perfect army me- chanism on the one side, and incurable irregularity, disarray, and defective manual exercise on the other. In this Mahratta war a great deal of valour was evinced by portions of the native armies, especially those composed of Arabs ; but it was all in vain. " It is discipline, together with a quick firing of the flint-lock and field-pieces, which has given us the striking superiority over the natives. It is the steady fire of these that the troops of the native princes cannot face: that regularity of movement, quickness of evolution, and strict and unerring obedience in action, giving union and combination, opposed by confusion, clamour, distraction, and insubordination, must ever secure a commanding ascendancy. The natives have no idea of the value of time in military operations ; the most frivolous excuses or causes preventing the movements of their armies ; which will always make an active and regular force superior to them. They express their astonishment and the utmost dread at the steady and continued fire of our Sepoys, which they liken to a wall vomiting forth fire and flames. The firm and regular pace, the first and most necessary part of a soldier's instructions, is quite incomprehensible to them ; and in this we again see the almost total change requisite to complete a soldier, as he is not allowed even to use his legs but in a prescribed manner." PEOGEESS OE THE ETJEOPEAIT MILITAET SYSTEM IN INDIA. In tracing the progress of the European military system in India, as the instrument of the progess of our dominion there, the Colonel thus marks the contrast between the situation of the English as at the period just preceding their beginning to form the natives into regular soldiers, and as in 1817. " It is curious to take a retrospective view of an English factor at his desk in 1746, with a pen behind his ear, trembling at the nod of the meanest of the Mogul's officers, and treated with the 480 rOSTERIANA. greatest insolence and oppreseion ; with no higher military character under his direction than a peon stationed near a bale of goods ; with a jurisdiction not exten(Ung beyond a court-yard of a warehouse connected with it ; and contrast this picture with the situation of the GJtapany's army in 1817, when 150,000 men, disciplined by British officers, presented the spectacle of al fine an army as any in the world, receiving its impetus of action from a great statesman and general, who held the person of the Mogul as a pensioner on the bounty of his government, wielding the political and military resources of the empire over a theatre of operations in the present campaign, extending from Loudheanah to Guzaraut, in a segment of a circle of nearly 1200 miles. Such are the minimum and maximum of our Eastern empire." INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS NOT INStTPEKABLE . It seems it is not purely and exclusively a military altera- tion that the native troops in the English service have undergone. In contempt of all the Anglo-Indian oracles that have pronounced the thing impossible, we have the Colonel here deposing that their punctiliousness in matters of superstition has considerably worn away. The numerous assertors that everything of this kind was to be eternal, omitted to say, — " What time next week eternity should end." Our author specifies various facts in evidence of this modification of their superstitious feelings. For instance : " There is not at this day a man of the highest caste, who will not be grateful for European medical assistance, if the medicine be taken from his own vessel, and given him from the hand of one of his own caste ; a compliance which would formerly have been considered as the highest pollution." The native costume, which is not independent of the ordi- nances of their superstition, has been in a great measure relinquished for the European military dress. The horror of leather, lest it should be the skin of a cow, has given place to the use of boots, saddlery, and, in the Bengal cavalry, of leather breeches. It is an act of impurity " to touch the feathers of our domestic fowl ; " yet in one of the battalions many of the Brahmins, with the rest of the soldiers, wear them with pride, as having been conferred as a mark of honour for their military conduct. In the Bengal presidency INDIAN SUPEESTITIONS NOT INSUPERABLE. i8l there is no difiEiculty in getting rid of the mark of caste on the face, which is not permitted on parade. " The very touch of a dead body, or anything deprived of life, would be to a Brahmin the greatest stain of impurity which could befall him. But in more than one instance, the native officers and soldiers, many of whom were Brahmins, have insisted, from a sense of gratitude, on carrying an European officer to his grave. The lips of an European defile, beyond recovery, a vessel out of which he may drink ; but the Brahmins in action have allowed their European officers, and even requested them, to drink in this manner from their vessels." INDIAN CASTES MEKGED IN MILITARY DUTIES. The sepoys in the French service, about sixty years since, were attempted to be compelled, by M. Lally, to work in the trenches, and carry such burdens as belong to the koolies. If they could not have escaped from such dishonour to the dignity and sanctity of caste, by desertion, many of them would probably have rather suffered death. But says our author, — "So great a change has taken place by allowing time and forbear- ance to work their own way in the British service, that the highest caste man looks upon it to he as much his duty, and will fill a gabion with as much readiness as a grenadier in a king's regiment." It is pleasing to hear of such instances of accommodation and forbearance on the part of the English soldiers as the following : — " The 76th regiment served under Lord Lake for so long a period with the Sepoys, that they had become attached to each other ; and the former being aware of the prejudices of the latter, have been known, when they happened to arrive the first iA;; camp, to wait tUl Jack Sepoy (as they call him) had drawn the water from the tank or well." THE QUESTION 01' TOLERATION OR CONTERSION IN INDIA. If, instead of being a matter of perfect indifference, it were ever so desirable, that Christianity might prevail in place of what are now the religions of India, this substitu- tion could not be effected or attempted, according to the Colonel's account, but at the hazard of our empire there. " I do not see," he says, "' any cause which at present exists in India, from the Mahometans, or Hindoos, or any native power, I I 482 FOSTEEIANA. to shake our government over this part of the world, that is to say, if we respect the prejudices of the natives, do not attempt to subvert their rdigion by the initroduction of ow own, and if our military force is kept up, To submit or not to submit is no question with the heresiarch. But in what way to escape the instant peril is a most distressing perplexity, which excites an earnest ejacula- tion of prayer that some decisive counsel may, in some manner, be brought to him. He composes' himself to wait and think, while the tempest is roaring with redoubled violence, followed by a partial calm. At this moment entrance is obtained by another visitor, unknown, and of strange and striking appearance ; of dignified demeanour ; extreme age marked on the lineaments of his countenance ; but with more, far more, of a spirit's glance than the fire of youth, gleaming in his eyes ; and tones of voice which thrill through the soul. In the fewest words, be dictates an immediate journey into the Wilderness ; names a circum- stance which shall occur to signify to the wanderer where to take his ultimate position j and departs, leaving Williams in amazement and doubt as to the quality of the mysterious stranger ; but perfectly decided to obey h^s injunction, as an indication of the will of heaven. After a short restless slumber he rises to make his preparations ; and with a tender reluctance awakes his wife to assist him, she having sunk, from a fainting fit caused by the deacon's message and spite, into a sleep which had not been disturbed by the second visitation. A few travelling necessaries got ready, including provisions for several days ; a sorrowful adieu ; and we have the adventurer setting off at the earliest dawn, to traverse, with the guidance of a pocket compass, a boundless solitude of forest and snow ; a solitude which was only relieved at the approach of night by sounds which, distinguishable amidst the blasts that roared tlirough the woods, told him that wolves were not far off. S27 TEEEOES Oi' THE TOEEST. Williams presently hears the growl of the American panther, so evidently near that he is expecting, every moment, the deadly spring. Coming darkness and exhausted strength make it necessary to sit up for the night; and fortunately lie finds himself at the entrance of a narrow valley, protected in some degree from the" tempest by rocky steeps on both sides, and offering the shelter of a close growth of trees, intermingling their branches so as to form a thick shade overhead. He plies his hatchet for fuel, kindles a fire, and sits down to his evening meal, fortified by conscience and a sense of the protective presence of divine power, against hardship and peril, and against all access of repentance for having maintained his integrity at such a cost. His fire is the signal to bring a pack of wolves to seek after their evening repast, on somebody that they know must be there to have lighted it. While heaping on additional fuel he is surprised to perceive the assailants becoming mute and slinking off, but is at the same moment startled at the cause, — the whine of the panther, which, after a fearful interval of silence, breaks out into " a long-drawn yell," He is stand- ing in a, posture to receive the attack, not forgetting even in so critical a moment Daniel and the lions, when a human voice calls to him from the thicket, in words intelligible and friendly ; and an armed red man darts to the spot, greeting him as brother ; promptly lighting the calumet ; * express- ing his surprise at a white man's having so venturously exposed himself ; and quelling his terror by explaining that it was his (Waban's) mimic cry of the panther that sent off the wolves. THE EED man's FEIENDLT EECEETION OE WIHIAMS. As plain an account as could be given in Indian lan- guage, and to Indian faculties, of the cause of the self- banishment, puts the intelligent savage in a thoughtful mood of wonder that white men should hate and persecute one another about differences, even slight differences, of * A large Indian tobacco pipe, uaed as an emblem of peace. 528 FOSTBRIANA. religion. He strongly surmises that Chepian (the Indian's devil) must be their god. He insists that the wanderer shall partake the shelter and fare of his not distant wig- wam, where it is pretty certain the " deacon " will not intrude, and very doubtful how he would get oiF if he did. This humble dwelling, with its wild hunter's furniture and accoutrements, becomes dignified by the generous hospitality and sedulous and perceptible care of the pro- prietor; and additionally so by his pensive, reflective, and inquiring temper of mind. The loss of Waban's affectionately remembered wife has left him lonely and meditative ; and he is restlessly desirous to know- something, if he might, of that invisible world to which she is gone. THE FIllST SABBATH IN THE WILDEENESS. From a profound repose our exile awakes to his Sabbath orisons, performed under the wondering but quiet observation of his host, who is an especial^ subject of them, in prayers that his benighted spirit may be " visited by heaven's fair light ;" and that he may be made, through his knowledge of the tribes, chiefs, and localities of the great desert, an agent to assist towards finding the land of promise for planting religious liberty. The prayers are followed by an endeavour to unfold before him the leading facts of revealed religion, to which the savage gives the most serious attention. He shows a philosophic candour ; there is no venom of the odium theologicum in his savage blood ; the term heresy has not found its way into his language. THE KED man's COSMOGONY AND SCHEME OF FAITH. He requests the bringer " of strange things to his ears '' to listen in turn, while he shall exhibit the system . of religious faith devoutly held by the red men on the authority of their ancestors. Waban describes in highly picturesque language the genesis of the world by the great spirit Cawtantowit, existent through all space, but till then in a profound slumber, from which he awoke at last to survey a dead boundless waste of waters, which were put in commotion by the great eveit. Next the earth emerged, and was speedily furnished with its appropriate inhabitants — all but Man. At the creative voice a man came forth formed from a rock ; but betr"- ' THE EED MAN'S COSMOGONY AND SCHEME OF FAITH. 62& SO hard and cruel a nature that the Great Spirit dashed him in shivers, to be replaced by a man and woman made from an oak and a pine, the original red pair. By the time that to these, creations, with that of deities (Manittoos) and the celestial luminaries, had been added, all the good materials were worked up. But through some principle of fate, the worth- less and noxious refuse also felt the formative energy, and sprang to life in the shape of a horrible demon, the Chepian of the mythology. A controversy arises between our two friends about the propriety of worshipping this malignant power through fear ; in which an argument addressed to the Indian's pride of courage decides him never more to render a coward's homage. He gives Williams all the required information respecting the tribes and chiefs, their relations and dispositions ; under- takes to convey intelligence to his wife, with a savage's address and caution ; and indicates to him the proper direction for an excursion in the mean time, through a scenery depicted in vivid images, towards the border tract of a powerful tribe, on speculation whether to seek refuge there for himself and family. EETrEN 01' WABAJf. Meditating in his lonely cabin on the past and the dark future of his strange destiny, and growing impatient at the protracted absence of his friend, Williams is at length startled by the entrance of a savage so formidably set off in all the plumed, painted, and armed array of battle, that even a packet he silently delivers to him from his wife leaves him un- recognised for Waban, till revealed by the tones of his voice, uttering a fierce exclamation of "war !" It announces that a deadly feud between his and a powerful neighbouring tribe is on the point of exploding ; and that that there is coming a band of chiefs to demand Awanux's (the white man's) military co-operation. They arrive soon after with the regent, Massasoit,* at their head, an ancient warrior, whose undi- minished valour has, nevertheless, been tempered by time and reflection. After the grave ceremonial of the calumet, follows a long, animated, and eloquent discussion between • The greatest commander among the American savages. Sea Young's "Pilgrim Fathers," June, 1621, page 202. M M 5130 FOSTERIANA. the old chief and the Puritan, whose single aid in martial enterprise could not be of any account but from some notion, we may suppose, that in each individual of the " pale-faced " nation there must reside a certain portion of that power which has proved so irresistible in its progress of usurp- ation on the Indian realms. WILLIAMS BECOMES A PACIFICATOB BETWEEN MASSASOIT AND THE NABEAGANSETS. The Puritan, though not less intrepid than those of his order were found to be at a later period, declares he will have nothing to do with the slaughter ; but, earnestly remon- strating against the war, surprises the chiefs by offering him- self for the desperate adventure, as they deem it, of bearing overtures of peace to the ferocious Narragansets, already in arms. After an interval of solemn silence, to consider so un- expected a turn, the wise old Sagamore accedes, and by a very politic representation to his chiefs, on fire for battle, obtains the acquiescence of all but one, a sort of Moloch of the council, under whose sullen half submission there appears to lurk a malignant treachery, which draws from the presiding chief a " stern denunciation of death against any one who shall way- lay the messenger of peace. Waban is appointed to accom- pany him, bearing the calumet. An alarming scene opens on their view, in their near approach to the central station of the Narragansets — the' war dance, in all its fantastic, rampant, and yelling furies. It required our ambassador's strongest efforts to repress his own apprehensions, and the kindling fierceness of his com- panion, while they advanced with the emblem of peace through the frowning and menacing multitude, whose hands were observed going instinctively into contact with their tomahawks and arrows ; the very children's precocious ferocity being darted at them in looks, gestures, and curses. But the laws of truce must not be violated ; and the mes- senger is conducted by Miantonomi, a young warrior of noble, but formidable aspect and loftiest bearing, into the presence of the venerable head of the tribe, under whose dig- nified austerity his courage somewhat quails ; especially when the Sagamore, in reply to the pacific proposition, goes, into a train of severe and just comments on the ill WILLIAMS BECOMES A PACIFICATOE. 531 faith and insatiable rapacity of the pale-faced race. But, for- tunately, the Sagamore is a person whose martial spirit has been tempered to moderation by reason, experience, and policy ; he discourses with a judgment and equity which might shame almost any statesman ; is willing to entertain the overture of the enemy ; and for the purpose of delibe- ration issues a command to delay the march of his fiery troop. Williams improves the interval to make acquaint- ance with the most influential chiefs, whom he brings to a favourable temper by his frank deportment, his representa- tions of the very palpable and solid benefits of peace, and a distribution of trifling presents. THE PAWAW OE WIZAED-PMEST OE CHEPIAlf. There is, however, one individual who repels and scorns his advances, a pawaw, or wizard, the priest of Chepian ; a man abhorred, but still more dreaded, as being firmly believed to wield the powers of the terrible demon. This malignant has all that can be conceived of the infernal in his disposition ; denounces destruction ; challenges to a trial of power ; and on an appointed day comes forth, with all the appalling insignia and ceremonial of his oflBce, in the view of the whole tribe assembled to witness the experiment, with an awe that held them as if petrified, in expectation of some terrible event. He tells the assembled nation that he has received from his god an imperative command to rouse them with the alarm of the destruction that is darkening over them by the continual advance of the invading aliens from beyond__the ocean, on whom he pronounces execrations, and ends his address with a challenge of defiance and scorn to the wretch of a white man now before them ; — a defiance intrepidly hurled back on the "Priest of Beelzebub." THE MANITTOO, OR OHAEMED EATTLESNAKE. An assemblage of beings who could heroically brave torture and death, here shrinking under the dire spell of superstition, are intent with shuddering breathless expectation on the opening of a casket, believed to contain a potent Manittoo, which comes . forth in the shape of a rattlesnake. It swells, and glides, and spires, splendid in preternatural colours; and after several evo- M M 2 533 rOSTERIANA. lutions, fixes its glance on Williams, moving toward him ■with elevated crest ; while some magical fascination, of odours, colours, and musical sounds, diffused through the air, trances his senses and prostrates his strength ; the mul- titude shouting, " The manittoo ! the manittoo ! " Williams recovers at the critical moment, just as the snake is coiled to make a spring, and strikes off its head. Enraged at the sight, the human monster poises an envenomed lance, and is prevented from darting it only by Waban's arresting his arm. The brave and indignant Miantonomi, veith a violent blow of the haft of his lance, drives the miscreant away yelling and howling into the woods. SUCOESS or THE NEGOTIATION. There is a short suspense of amazement and Stupe- faction in the multitude, and then a shout of exultation. The ancient chief congratulates the victor and his own people ; assures him of unlimited privilege on their territories, at the same time enjoining him to use his good offices for them with his white brethren ; and sends him back with the joyful news of peace to the tribe from which he has been commissioned. Welcomed on his return, he receives the free grant of what- ever place within their domain he shall choose for the church in the wilderness. ROGER Williams's first settlement. Now follows his surveying tour, his selection, the wooden construction of his lodge ; the enclosure and commencing cultivation of. a portion of ground, with indefatigable toil, and able assistance in every operation from the faithful and equally indefatigable Waban. His imagination has begun to expand around this nucleus of a Free State, arranging over the tract the future dwellings, gardens, plantations, schools, places of worship, all the charities of life and religion ; with a total and endless exclusion of crabbed deacons and ecclesiastical tribunals. What a disturbance to his flattering visions to find this incipient Eden invaded by, almost literally, the infernal serpent — "the fell Pawaw !" Certain signs of some malignant presence preceded his being descried, with an assistant fit companion, by Waban, in the edge of a gloomy forest, on the opposite side of a river, across, ROGER WILLIAMS'S FIEST SETTLEMENT. 533 which there takes place a mutual demonstration of hatred and defiance, by furious shouts and shot of arrows. But a sudden and somewhat protracted cessation of hostilities allows the patriarch of freedom to recover confidence enough to commission his brave and wary associate to fetch Mary and the cliildren, by a journey which must be of several days. Such is, however, his impatience, that he follows his messenger all the way to a spot within view of Salem ; whence he sees the hasty transactions at the cottage, the loading of two horses, lent by one of his secret friends, and the setting out of the family on foot. WILLIAMS AND HIS EAMILT TEACKED BX THE PAWAW. There is a first moment of unmingled delight at the re-union; but as they proceed, Williams is alarmed at the manner of Waban, alternately accompanying and preceding the little band, in silence, and with a restless, starting, glancing vigilance ; explained after a while, in words not intelligible to Mary, by the information that in his way to Salem he had been tracked by the hell-hound ; at the end of it had perceived him watching the family's dwelling ; and is certain, from indications unequivocal to Indian sagacity, that he is now lurking near at hand in the forest, to dog them with deadly purpose in their progress. Whatever, for the frustration of that purpose, is possible to a wild hunter, and to no other man, is done by the quick senses, and searching and daring activity of Waban, as guide and protector of the slow and toilsome march, till the approach of evening ; when the anxiety and fear which had harassed them at every step through the day are aggravated to extreme distress at the almost hopeless prospect for the night. The nearest Indian village is named ; but it is much too far off to be reached by the wearied females and children. To complete the dismay of the situation, an arrow from the dark forest passes and grazes Waban's head. He plunges into the thicket to find the unseen foe, but only hears him breaking away to a distance through the under- wood. He then recollects, as the only possible resource, and not very far off, a cave, in which he and other hunters had sometimes found shelter in tempest or the night. 534 FOSTEEIANA. THET TAKE REFUGE IN A DATE. The terror which hastens their movement toward the dreary refuge is but partially allayed by their entrance into it ; for it is quite certain that the demoniac pursuer will soon be in their neighbourhood. The mother and children are bestowed in the rude but sufficiently capacious hold. At some distance down an open avenue, by which alone it is accessible, Waban makes a great fire of the dry wood of the brake, to the sur- prise of Williams at a proceeding just only fitted, as he should think, to betray their hiding place. The sagacious Indian promptly sets him right, by explaining that the deadly enemy knows their retreat perfectly well ;' and that the fire is for the purpose of exposing him in his approach, as a mark for the arrow. There is a disconsolate yet thank- ful short repast ; and then the two guardians take their posts : "Williams in the entrance, behind a partial curtain made by shrubs ; "Waban concealed on a jutting rock outside. THE PAWAW AND HIS ELOODHOrND. Dark night ; distant bowlings; a fierce beast leaping from the thicket toward the fire, baying and howling, but recalled by a whistle before "Waban 's arrow could strike it. He exclaims, " The Pawaw ! his dog !" and shrinks back so close in his covert as to raise an apprehensive suspicion that his courage is failing. A mass of branches, moving out from the wood, tells who, though not discernible, must be there. The fixed horror of a few moments is broken up by a fearful growl. It is the precursory bloodhound, believed by the savages, and even by Waban, to be the Pawaw's manittoo. William's hatchet cleaves its head. But immediately there is a stirring of the vine, by some hand forcing it aside. An earnest call, "Waban, where art thou!" is repeated as in doubt and reproach. But Waban is just where he should be ; and an arrow from his obscure position lays " a giant savage " on the earth, howling in death. . Presently there is " another and more fearful yell ;" and the reviving blaze of the fire shows a figure advancing, not doubted to be. the incarnate fiend himself. Williams springs out to share the peril. The brave Waban's hand and eye are on another shaft, when the bow-string breaks. Instantly he leaps from his rock, darts down the avenue, evades a hatchet hurled with THE PAWAW AND HIS BLOODHOUND. 535 impetuous force at his head, and closes in mortal conflict. The combat soon passes out of view into the wood, where it is protracted through every variety of ardent, agonistic ferocity ; the family listen to the sounds in an ecstasy of terror ; Williams runs toward the spot with his axe, pre- pared to meet what might too possibly be the last extremity for them all. The signs of desperate struggle subside into silence, followed, after an interval, by the wild cry of victory ; of which the expression, so intensely demoniac, conveys a fearful presage ; he is held in a suspense almost intolerable, till a form issuing from the shade proves to be his champion, bearing a head into the light of the fire, in order to recognise the hideous features. All the savage flames up in his visage and action while, holding it by the long hair, he whirls it round and round, till he sends it bounding into the wood. WILLIAMS ESTABLISHED IN HIS SETTLEMENT. "Sire Williams," with his family and brave defender, is re-established in his plantation ; where they cheerfully labour ; converse over all the trials and perils through which a merciful Providence has conducted them ; have an amiable sympathy with all animate and inanimate nature around them ; and exult by anticipation in that republic of religious freedom of which they are the hopeful germ. No fell pawaw, now, to break in on their peace. NEW TEOITBLES. — A DEACON AGAIN. But to his dismay Williams soon found that the same spirit had taken another form, no other than that of " a Plymouth elder." A deacon again comes to announce from authority, with sanctimonious formality, that the recusant shall not stay there to plant and sow his heretical mischief. Even now, if he will repent, recant, and perform penance due, the outcast's doom may be reversed or mitigated. But all in vain ; after an animated declamation on the prerogatives of reason and freedom of thought, he represents, indignantly, that the tract he is occupying has been formally and freely conveyed to him in full right of possession, by the chief of the tribe. The deputy of church and state will have him to know, that the domain of that chief is included within the limits of the territory granted in absolute right to the colony, 636 rOSTERIANA. by the king of England. He will, therefore, continue at his peril on this side the boundary river Seekonk. Beyond that he may betake himself to the Narragansets, or whatever pagan realm he pleases, so that the Holy Land be rid of him. That this tool of intolerance can ever again sit in synod to anathematize schismatics, he owes to Williams's stem repression of the wrath of Waban, who is burning to administer the same quietus as he had to the " black priest." Williams's second pilgbimage. Certain that the mandate will be enforced, our ultra-Sxile prepares to abandon, with poignant regret, the scene of his labours, where his plants, his hopes, and his family, are all smiling and flourishing around him, and where he has con- tracted an almost affectionate relation with every object. But he resumes his fortitude to console Mary and the young ones, whose distress at this breaking up of what was to have been their delightful home, and the apparently interminable doom to destitutioti and wandering, is described in a touching manner. His reliance on Providence here receives a con- firmation, by a more express recurrence to his memory of a circumstance of which he has sometimes been transiently reminded, but without due reflection ; namely, that the mysterious and perhaps superhuman visitant, at whose dictate he made an instant flight from Salem, intimated hia probable reappearance to the refugee at the place appointed for his ultimate asylum ; and told him that the sign of his having attained it should be the greeting, " Whatcheer ! WhatcheerJ" from a tribe of Indians. No such tokens have been given him in his present situation. Human injustice therefore is only the unwitting signification of the Divine will. The particulars of the departure ; the adieu to the scene so much loved by both parents and children ; Mary's pious but sorrowful endeavour to respond to her husband's faith in Providence ; the last sight of the forsaken dwelling, as they are rowed and steered by Waban in his slight canoe jround a projection of the land ; the stern aspect of the desert solitude as they coasted along ; the appearance of wild animals dis- turbed or attracted by their passage ; are traced in pic- turesque description. 537 AEEITAIi AHD SETTLEMENT AT A SPOT OE EELIGIOUS " LIBEETT. _ It is not a very prolonged voyage that brings them in sight of wreaths of smoke,, rising from behind a cape. A little further, and they hear sounds which betray the pre- sence of a multitude in a state of excitement ; too probably, surmises our adventurer, some grand assembling in pre- paration for war. But he is soon undeceived by Waban's information, obtained from incidental intelligence, that it is a joyous celebration of peace, that very peace which had been effected by his intermediation. A short labour more of the vigorous rower presents to the assembly the unknown pale-faces, Mary's complexion additionally blanched at the formidable spectacle. The sudden appearance arrests their games, and brings them, all but the haughty chiefs, to the strand, gazing in silence, and not without menacing glances and gestures. There is a somewhat critical pause before their white brother has the resolution to stand up and bare his "manly forehead ;" when he is recognised by some of the chiefs, who instantly hail him with the exclamation, " Whatcheer ! " which is speedily repeated in shouts by the universal multitude. This wild chorus is to our exile the voice of heaven. Here at last he obtains the reward of his constancy to his principles. Here is the destined spot for planting, under the auspices of a savage nation, the religious liberty which cannot grow on Christian ground, on one side of the Atlantic or the other. Our heroic exile is welcomed, privileged, and revered by the Indian tribe ; adores the Providence that has conducted .and guarded him through so many perils ; and looks with faith and exultation to the future ever-growing prosperity of that establishment of religious freedom of which he is to be honoured as the patriarch. In conclusion we will only observe that the narration is consecutive, and is kept in a direct forward progress toward the ultimate event, without violent transgressions of pro- bability. Indeed the author assures us he has adhered in a great measure to historical documents, including one written by Williams himself. [On the subject of the preceding graphic and very interesting sketch, see Mr. Foster's Letter to Dr. Price, lAfe, vol. ii. pp. 156—7.] 538 FOSTBRIANA. GENERAL DEPRAVITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.* It would seem a little strange that our curiosity to know more of the human race, whether historically or geographi- cally, should not be at all repressed by the certainty before hand, and the often renewed experience of the fact, of our finding in the acquirement just so much additional mani- festation of the depravity and wretchedness of that race. Let a previously unknown, or very imperfectly known, section of it be clearly brought into view, and though it should appear under the most degraded aspect of human existence, exhibiting the most odious moral and intellectual deformities, accompanied by physical and economical cir- cumstances the most repulsive to our taste, we nevertheless gladly receive the information, and thank the man whose adventures and researches have supplied it as a kind of benefactor. CTJEIOSITT INHEEEITT HT MAK. If there were to come to us a slight rumour of a tribe or nation, existing perhaps in the hitherto absolute terra incognita of Africa under or near the line, reported as more hideous in barbarism and turpitude than any yet known, we should be so much the more, for that peculiarity, eager to have them brought into our acquaintance. If an explorer had dared the peril of such a scene, and escaped to tell us what he had beheld, we should demand from him a most full and particular report ; and nothing would fret us more than if he should say, that there were some things which, for the credit of humanity, or even to save himself a probable imputation on his veracity, he judged it best to pass over in silence. We should want, of all things, to have a confidential personal communication with him, in order to get at those concealed treasures of knowledge. IMPBOEABILITT OF DISCOTEEING Alf TTOPIA. In the indulgence of that passion for geographical dis- covery which has distinguished the age, we never dream * New Zealand : being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures during a Residence in that Counti-y between the Years 1881 and 1837. By .7. S. Polack, Esq., Member of the Colonial Society of London. Two vols. 8vo. 1838. IMPROBABILITY OF DISCOVERING AN UTOPIA. 539 of finding any such thing as a region adorned and blessed with a decided prevalence of the virtues, and their accompaniments and consequences. We never expect to hear of man in anything better than his old and general character — the ascendancy of evil over good. Whether the region heretofore unvisited be described to us as favoured with all the beauty and fertility that a benignant nature can lavish on it, or as rugged, frowning, and inhospitable, — if the describer should go on to say, that there is a moral beauty which rivals the one, or compensates for the other, he would instantly be told that he has miscalculated our credulity ; and that, without advancing one league toward the distant scene of his investigation, we can virtually go thither and survey it in the strength of a principle which authorizes us to contradict him. The human race, we should tell him, has been too uniform in the manifestation of one great, sad, radical property of its nature, through all time, and all the known world, to allow our belief of any such exception as a tribe from whose happy domain the vices and miseries are excluded or departing — unless, indeed, he means his report to testify that somewhere the millen- nium has commenced ; and then we shall be apt to think -that felicitous visitation can hardly have so missed its way as to alight on central Africa, perhaps, when it is so lament- ably wanted in England. Still we are inquisitive how this creature, man, is acting out his qualities in another, and another tract of the earth. The novelties in the manner will most likely be found to be but different modes of what is bad. We ai-e philosophically content to expect no other- wise ; but want to know them notwithstanding. GENEEAIi EIDELITY OF MODEEN TEATELLEES. The age is past when the adventurers into distant and imperfectly known regions could presume to impose delusive representations on the people at home. Those of the present and recent times, a surprising number, and in rapid succession, have maintained, for the most part, a substantial adherence to truth. So that we have now the means of a real and accurate knowledge of what sort of people there are, and what they are doing, in tracts and corners of the world which, but a few generations 840 FOSTEEIANA. since, lay under a cloud of mingled ignorance and fiction. Perhaps the ascertainment of the reality has struck a kind of balance between the opposite licenses of fiction. If some fine romantics have faded from sight on the one hand, some huge monstrosities have vanished on the other. The physical enormities, at least, are gone ofi"; there are no more stories of human creatures shaped in fantastic and anomalous outrage on the authentic type ; the men with tails, or dogs' heads, or the visage planted into the chest instead of being mounted on a neck, have long since been swept into the vast rubbish of the past. EEFLKCTIONS ON THE PEEVALENCE OF MOEAL DEFOEMITY. In the moral and intellectual part of the exhibition, it is to be acknowledged that the change has left, or brought into view, some phenomena which it did require testimony of well-tried validity to establish as an unques- tioned part of our knowledge of the human species. That knowledge is now so comprehensive, and includes so ample a variety of manifestations of the evil principle, that we may doubt whether there can remain anything yet to be brought to light that will much surprise us. Be almost whatever it may, in the way of error, perversity, degrada- tion, iniquity, we are quite prepared to admit the proba- bility that it may belong to human nature. If there be one more feature of mental or moral deformity, it will be sure to be found associating consistently with some of the facts which have long ceased to be novelties. THE ADAPTABILITT OF MAN TO HIS LOCATION. In observing what sort of people possess what portions of the earth, a curious speculator might find some amusement in raising the questions — what relation or fitness there is, respectively, between them ? ivhether the right of continued occupancy have any dependence on such fitness ? what obligations, greater or less, they may be supposed to be laid under according to the quality of their local allotments? how far it is better or worse for them that they are so located ? whether those to whom the less agreeable tracts of the world have been assigned have an adequate or partial compensation afforded by any of the circumstances or influ- THE ADAPTABILITY OF MAN TO HIS LOCATION. 541 ences of those regions ? what would be the effect of a mutual exchange of habitations between tribes occupying domains widely different in physical character ? Setting out of view the iact of how the various tribes actually obtained their present abodes in the natural progress of emigration, and considering their claims to portions of the globe as according to their qualities, we might be at a loss to discover the principle of equity in their distribution. Some barbarous tribes find a precarious subsistence in dreary deserts ; and others, not less barbarous, an easy one in domains of fertility, beauty, and luxury. We feel an uneasy sympathy with certain portions of the race, less vitiated than the general mass, whose lot is cast in climates where nature maintains a frowning austerity, and life is rather endured than enjoyed, on a tenure of hardship, an economy of toil, privation, and hazard — for instance, Green- land, Iceland, Lapland, the Isles of Scotland, and some parts of Switzerland. Some of the temperate and salubrious regions, as China, are condemned to sustain an immense multitude of human creatures mentally dwarfed, cramped, bent down, and fixed, in stupified conformity to an irrational, inveterate, obdurate prescription, corroborated by supersti- tion. Or a fine realm elsewhere, as Spain, may be appro- priated by a people whose semi-barbarous fanaticism is virulent and sanguinary. PHYSICAL VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. If we might give license to our imagination in apportion- ing the field of terrestrial nature to orders of inhabitants according to some rule of supposed worthiness, to what sort of people should we assign New Zealand ? It appears to be an eminently fine and valuable fraction of the earth. By its extent in length, of nearly nine hundred miles, from north to south, it has a great variety of climates, distant enough at both extremities from latitudes unfavourable to activity, alacrity, and enjoyment. By its much smaller breadth the greater part is favoured with the mild influences of the vast ocean. It has harbours, streams, fertile tracts, beautiful valleys and hills, innumerable. Its variegated surface exhibits a splendid picture, where the sublimities have their share, in a range of snow-capped mountains, and 843 FOSTKRUNA, grand precipices and promontories of the coast. It is a region which our fancied law of distribution would appro- priate to some highly improved section of the human race, such a one as would most fully and worthily avail itself of a territory so favourable at once to the economical purposes of agriculture, arts, and commerce, and, as we should imagine, to the general development of the mental faculties. MQRAL AND SOCIAL VIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. Imagine, then, this splendid piece of terra firma, proudly rising above the boundless waste of waters — imagine it so occupied, so adorned, so honoured ; and then turn to the exhibition before us. A region surrendered to the principle of evil ; where every spot bears a blasted mark ; where the presence of man is a dreadful infestation ; where, as if they themselves thought so, the inhabitants have seemed intent on restoring the land to the solitude of its natural beauty by incessant mutual destruction ; where a reversal of wbat would be the qualities of undepraved humanity glares forth in deceit, treachery, rapacity, cruelty, revenge, cannibalism ; blended with whatever is disgusting in gluttony and fllthi- ness, whatever is despicable in fickleness and cowardice, and whatever is ridiculous and absurd in conventional cus- toms, and notions and mummery of superstition. Before bringing us acquainted with his own experience and observations, our author, in a notice of the suc- cessive navigators who have made surveys or visits, recalls a series of characteristic facts and anecdotes, illustrative of New Zealand human nature ; the circumstances most con- spicuous in the record being the murderous collisions between the natives and the crews of European ships — the fault, indeed, not always being wholly with the former. He relates divers tragical affairs as consequent on a dis- regard of the warning, '' Never trust a New Zealander," pronounced by Captain Cook, whose right judgment of the pcQple Mr. Polack strongly affirms. polaok's personal experience of the new zealanders. It is but justice, however, to say, that the present adven- turer had not, for himself, any violent cause to reproach them. In his first recorded journey of local investigation he was ac- companied by a considerable band of their young men, mostly THE NEW ZEALANDERS. 543 sons of chiefs, who served him very effectually as guides, carriers, woodcutters, and cooks, proud to form the suite of an European personage. There was an eager competition for the honour of bearing him, horsed on the back, through a stream or swamp, while every one of them would have dis- dained to perform this or any other servile office for an indigenous squire. He was generally received with marks of respect ; had seldom any serious cause for apprehending danger ;' and on the whole, seems to have been much at his ease among them. He made all good-humoured allowance for attempts at imposition, in cajoling promises not meant to.be fulfilled, in protestations of disinterested friendship, or in overrating the value of articles trafficked, or services rendered, or to be rendered. It is curious to see, some- times, what they thought they could make the European gentleman believe ; or at least thought it worth the trial. He had accepted the dirty hand of a celebrated old " priest of Araitehuru, the Taniwoa, or aquatic deity of the head- lands of a harbour ;" who solemnly assured him that if the compliment had been declined, he would have raised such storms that the beach on which he was then travelling would have been impassable, the means of conveyance dashed in pieces, and a bitter repentance inflicted. And he pointed to a heavy surf, breaking on a bar two miles off, and declared it was by his potent restraint that it. was kept raging at that safe distance, in spite of its being furiously actuated by the Taniwoa. The sham gravity with which our author returned thanks for this important service, would seem to have made the old rogue believe that his pretensions were admitted, for he capered with delight. But " nothing for nothing," the reckoning came, and there was great difficulty to settle the account for so mighty a benefit with " a head of tobacco." THE "ATUA" STJPEESTITION OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. How the generic sentiment of religion has been perverted to all uses of cupidity, mischief, and farce ! And in its depraved forms what a much more general and active inter- ference it may have than is, for the most part, seen where the right notion of it is admitted, and where it^ claims the authority and influence of truth. The superstition of 544 FOSTERIANA, these islandejs would seem as intrusively to interfere with and pervade the economy of life as that of the comparatively refined and intellectual Hindoos. They are infested with an ever-growing swarm of demons, denominated Atuas. These are supposed to be the souls of dead chiefs, haunting the places where they lived or died, as- suming occasionally a temporary incarnation in birds, lizards, and what not ; and with as much disposition and power to do mischief as when they had been the owners as well as inhabitants of bodies. And it is a striking illustration of what the people actually experience of power in their fellow- mottals, that they deem it always combined with malignity in its defunct possessors. The Atua is always ready to wreak some spite. Fail to do what he exacts, or do anything to offend him in the slightest degree, even though uninten- tionally or inadvertently, and he is sure to play the very devil. If he but wants a little amusement, you are likely to know of it by some mischance that shall befall you. Distempers, pains, unlucky accidents, losses, frights, bad weather, storms — it is the Atua that has been at work. The case is mentioned of a young man suffering a severe pain of the bowels ; the cause was obvious ; the Atua had taken possession of his interior, and was gnawing and devouring it. A priest was had to eject him by a ceremony of alter- nate coaxing and threatening. ,They acknowledge the white man's Atua to be more powerful than any of their own ; and say, that to him they owe the introduction of certain malignant diseases. As these noxious agents can work their purposes out of reach of revenge, and with greater facility and power than when in the mortal state, it may be supposed that the Atuas- that-are-to-be should feel the less repugnance to the thought of death. The case, it seems, is so, but with a whimsical and rather inconvenient circumstance of exception : — " The chiefs suppose that their left eye after death ascends to heaven and becomes a star. They are fearfvZ of being killed in war : as it is supposed, in that case, their titular divinityship forsakes them, and they become serviceable only to add efful- gence to the star of their conqueror." Notwithstanding a fantasy so little congenial with the THE "ATtJA" SUPERSTITION OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. 545 brave nobility of heroism, they have anticipations which enable them to settle a somewhat advantageous account, prospectively, with death: — "The apotheosis of a chief takes place immediately on his decease ; the feeling of pride which elates him on his supposed divine exaltation, and that of the exhumation of his bones in after years, when his prowess and deeds of valour will be sung by hundreds of his affectionate followers, cause him rather to welcome death than shun it." NEW ZEALAND BELIEF IN JVTETEMPSTCHOSIS. The notion of the untoward fate of a chief slain in battlej will, indeed, be a stimulus to eager and desperate violence when he comes into actual conflict ; but it must be a strong incitement to the practice of destroying an enemy in the way of treachery and surprise. This degrading doom must admit of exceptions ; for, on passing a rotten memorial of a great warrior chief who had fallen in battle, and whose head had been secured, dried, and preserved as a trophy by the hostile party, our author was assured that the demolished champion was become a formidable river-god, active in the proper business of his station, that is to say, upsetting canoes, and playing divers feats of a similar nature, such as causing the river at times to be impassable, by raising heavy swells, as some satisfaction for the detention of his head. A bird, of a common species, that happened to be perched and uttering his monotonous note on the monumental post, was instantly recognised and dreaded by' the party as the vehicle of the Atua ; and caused, after its disappearance, a very serious consultation as to the purport of the threaten- ings, presumed to have been pronounced by him in the person of this poor flutterer. THE KEINGA, A NEW ZEALAND WALHALLA. Under the denomination of Reinga, they believe there is, somewhere aloft, a city or region of the dead, where " the spirits are as numerous as the sand ;" where they enjoy, as the greatest happiness of spirits, excellent good cheer ; and all is pleasant, except that no fighting is allowed. We know not what authority it can be that keeps the peace ; for the chiefs feel so strongly the necessity of some such N N 546 FOSTBRIANA. pleasurable excitement, that ever and auon they are descend- ing for a while to the earth, to haunt the scenes of their former earthly exploits, to perpetrate such mischiefs as may well raise among the unprivileged mortals the envy of such power combined with such impunity. One spot on the, coast is mentioned as being reputed in a peculiar manner the place of exit of spirits passing to the Reinga. The only vegetation on the acclivity is a long spear grass, and a kind of creeping plant which runs in strong fibres up the sand-hills. This serves as a ladder for the spirits to climb by. "The wrath of the natives would be unbounded were these steps cut away by the wantonness of Europeans." " If the spirit belonged to a village in the interior, it is sup- posed to carry with it some tufts or leaves, of such shrubs or branches of trees as flourish most in the place where they had their residence on earth. These tufts are called wakaous, or remembrancers ; and the spirits, it is said, leave one of the ' cards' in every place where they may have rested, according to custom, on the way to the Eeinga." NEW ZEALAND PRIESTCRAFT. There is a plentiful nuisance of priests, with a sprinkling of priestesses. They manage what business is to be done with and about the Atuas, including the trade of doctors, conjurors, and /ortune-tellers. They are ultra -privileged ; for they seem to lose nothing of their credit by the failure of their incantations and predictions; having always plausible explanations, in the alleged caprices or spite of the Atuas ; and these explanations go down with the gulled populace. It is the gods that are at fault for whatever comes amiss. " Priests possess the gift of prescience, and are supposed to foretell to an hour what is likely to happen ; and should the contrary to the prediction take place, it is accounted for that the Atua is in an ill humour, thus venting his bile on the priest ; whose flock observe, ' Nu Tilani,' man no fool ; so they return the supposed anger of the Atua, with double applause on the priest, and a proportionate contempt on the faulty divinity, who is unable to know his own mind — which is a national feature." Since, according to our author, the sacerdotal profession, supplied most commonly fr> m the families of the chiefs, is NEW ZEALAND PRIESTCRAFT 547 taken up as a convenient, respectable, and profitable resource, without any special qualification for its employments, we might wonder how these personages can have acquired such a hold on the minds of the people. There are some, indeed, who venture, in words, to make light of the priestly charac- ter and claims ; but their infidelity is apt to shrink when put Xo the trial. There is, virtually, a spiritual court to deal with them. "The younger relations, who possess but little in worldly goods in respectable families, generally take to this profession. There are many sensible natives who laugh at this class of men ; but these free-thinkers, by the force of habit or example, suc- cumb to the crafty old men on being taken ill ; but no sooner recover than they become again faithless. The priests do not fail to notice these independents, and they are doubly mulcted when taken unwell." These sages are the oracles consulted respecting the com- mencement, the continuance, or the cessation of war. A victory brings them double work, that of soothsaying, and that of privileged eating. When the body of a principal enemy is to be cut up, partly roasted, and tasted by these people, auguries are elicited by the appearance of the intestines ; and on their position and taste depends the renewal or the cessation of the contest. The priests alone eat of the first body slain in battle ; the chiefs and people partake of all that may be slain after. Thanks and offerings are presented to Ttt, the native Mars, and to JViro, the evil spint. A female chief when slain, is cut up and sacrificed by priestesses ; that is, if the men have sufficient subjects in hand of their own sex. These feminine incarnations of Satan are treated with much respect, are believed and trusted with the same implicit faith as the priests. EXTENSIVE CANNIBALISM. The victors sometimes killed themselves by gluttony in devouring human flesh. No wonder at this fatal effect in one of the instances ; since of a thousand men slain of the defeated army, one fourth part were devoured on the same day, on the spot, by the conquerors, who were to the num- ber of three thousand at the commencement of the battle. But the practice is not confined to formal war. It is a 1 gratification additional to that of revenge in treacherous ■® N N 2 540 FOSTEKIANA. murders. Slaves are sometimes less valued for their ser- vices, than as materials for gluttonous debauch. We can recollect to have seen an affectation of scepticism as to the existence, anywhere, of such a practice; any doubt pre- tended with respect to the New Zealanders would be simply ridiculous. THE NEW ZEALAND CHIEF b'oNGI, ONCE RESIDENT IN ENGLAND. In the savage conflict just referred to, the commander of the victorious party killed the leading chief of the opposite tribes, and drank the blood as it gushed from the decollated head. The left eye was hastily scooped out, and swallowed by the demoniac leader, that it might add to the refulgence j£ his own eye, when at his death it would be translated as a star in heaven. This chief was no other than the noted E'Ongi (usually written Shungie), who had made, pre- viously to these hostilities, a visit to England, where he conducted himself with a manly, easy decorum ; was intro- duced to George IV. ; received much attention from a reli- gious body with a view to engage his favour to missionaries ; manifested a sagacious policy for the purposes of his ambi- tion, in sedulously procuring useful implements, decidedly preferred by him to showy trifles ; but was especially intent, above' all, to supply himself with fire-arms and ammunition — a new aliment to his unmitigable ferocity. It was even believed that his eagerness, after his return to New Zealand, to prove the irresistible efiioacy of these means of destruc- tion in the hands of his warriors, was the real instigation to the war; while the pretext was, that one of his relations had been murdered and devoured by a neighbouring tribe. The leader of that tribe offered him any payment or satis- faction he should require ; but he vowed extermination ; and only a forlorn relic of the tribe was left alive, and this in slavery or dispersion'. He was by far the most renowned and dreaded warrior iu the island, or in the memory of its inhabitants. It was believed that he aspired to make him- self master of them all — all that his ferocious massacres might leave in existence. But his own horrid life was pre- maturely brought to a close after a tedious decline, in con- sequence of a bullet-wound received fifteen months before. THE NEW ZEALAND CHIEF E'ONGI. 549 Pursuing some retreating enemies to where they made a stand among bushfes, — " E'Ongi, who fought after the native fashion, namely, by lurking behind the trunks of trees, stepped on one side to dis- charge his musket, when a ball struck him, supposed to have been discharged by one of his own party. It broke his collar bone, passed by an oblique direction through his right breast, and came out a little below his shoulder-blade, close to the spine. The wound stopped his career. Most of the surgeons in the dif- ferent whale-ships that entered the Bay of Islands, examined it, but found his case past all remedy. The wound never closed. " His last moments were employed in strenuously exhorting his followers to be valiant, and defend themselves against the uumerous enemies they had provoked, and who would take advantage of his departure to the Rdnga, or world of spirits ; adding, he wanted no other payment after his death. He besought them to allow the Church Missionaries to subsist in peace, for they had ever acted for the best. His dying lips were employed in repeating the words 'Kid to4 ! kid tod !' be courageous, be valiant. The demise of this indomitable warrior was awaited in fear and trembling by many of his nearest friends, who were fearful that the Hokianga chiefs would, according to custom, kill them as sacrifices to accompany their master's spirit ; but the chief of the place bade them dismiss their fears." He died- in March, 1828. Eiend as he was in war and victory, he is described as of very mild and inoffensive habits in time of peace ; liking to play with little children ; extremely affectionate to his relations ; and almost over- whelmed by the loss of several sons, and of a favourite wife, whom, though blind, he regarded as his best friend and wisest counsellor. IMPROVED CHAEACTEE OP THE NATIVES. It is pleasing to be informed that the scene of E'Ongi's de- structive exploits has become like an extinct volcano by his death. There has been no inheritor of his predominant power and ambition, and the chiefs of that northern territory have •agreed in the policy of settling their differences in other ways than by mutual slaughter. The improvement is partly ascribed to the location of many Europeans among them. It was quite time to consider whether they should be will- ing to perish wholly from the earth. The face of the land 550 FOSTERIAXA. is like the fine scenery of the tragic theatre ; an enchanting imagery to set oflf the horror of crime and death ; tracts smiling and glowing in natural beauty, but frowning with the memorial of exterminating murder. Our author sur- veyed one fair and fertile tract after another ; which, within memory, or according to tradition, had once been occupied by a living multitude, but are now desolate ; marked here and there with some traces and relics of the works of tribes extinct. We may wonder how the population should ever have been numerous, if their temper and habits were, the same in past ages as within the period of our acquaintance with them. And when we take into view the wars, the treachery, the cannibalism, the infanticide, the suicides, in honour of deceased relations, and the diseases imported from Europe, we may and do wonder that their numbers have been kept up to even the present amount. FICKLE COURAGE OF THE NATIVES. It is remarkable how much cowardice lurks in a tempera- ment which blazes up into rage and madness in actual con- flict. In the course of an exploring journey, our author was amused at the evident terror of his band of stout young chieftains, on occasion of the sudden appearance, or reported approach, of some two or three strange men, till they were recognised as a tribe not hostile. Even when such heroes are confronted in battle array, they are shy of commencing the fray, till some provocation fires their blood into reckless fury. The explosive suddenness of anger was often shown in the ordinary affairs of life. At some trifle of offence they would leap up, and caper, and rage about in frantic violence, with frightful gesticulations and grimaces. The English- man would laugh at them, and by some adroit turn speedily reduce this outbreak to quietness or even good humour. Their flckleness and caprice were often an annoyance to him when he had to depend on their co-operation. His manage- ment was sometimes by humouring and bribing them, and sometimes by assuming the resolute tone of a master. PARENTAL AFFECTION OF THE NEW ZEALANDEKS. We have mentioned their affection for their relations. Parents show a doating fondness for their children, who do PAEENTAL AFFECTION OF THE NEW ZEALANDEES. 551 whatever they like without fear of chastisement ; and, of course, are often impertinent and insolent in return. Meet- ings after ahsence make what we are in the fashion of denomi- nating a scene : — ' " One of the females who had accompanied us met with her father : whom she had no sooner beheld, not having expected to see him in this village, than she fell on his neck, and embraced him with such marks of filial piety and tenderness as prevented me from being an unmoved spectator. The parent' who was quite gray, and bowed down with old age, appUed his nose to hers, large tear-trops rolling in quick succession down his aged face, which the duteous daughter wiped away with her mat, that was soon saturated with their united tears." This was genuine, no doubt ; and such was the warmth of parental affection in a man who would, very likely, have luxuriated in a feast on the roasted body of another parent's daughter, if obtained among the spoils of victory. Is it that in the savage, in the absence of all moral culture of the affections, the attachment of near relationship is, therefore, the stronger in the simple unmodified nature of an instinct, like that of the lower animals ? THE CEREMONX OP THE ' TANGI.' We wonder whether there be a philosophy that can assign the principle from whioh human beings should, equally on joyous and mournful occasions, affect a violent sorrow, and inflict on themselves frightful wounds, as in the ceremony denominated fangi, at once the most ludicrous and the most serious etiquette we have ever read of. On a meeting, from a distance, of parties who are friends, or whose policy it is to appear so, they burst out into loud wailings, and lacerate their own flesh with the muscle-shell, till they stream with blood, to the dismay of an European spectator. On the arrival of the author's party at the village of a chief who gave them a friendly reception, — "The abomination of the ianffi commenced, in which the early sobs rose to shrieks and outcries that were truly dismal to hear ; it reminded me of those unhappy people whose pros- trate imagination conceives no hope. This howling lasted an hour ; and as we had passed through many adventures (in the ideas of a native), it took some time to chant over. The women, as usual, were most outrageous in the lament ; and cut gashes 583 ■ FOSTEEIANA. in their flesh with such ferocity, that I was fain glad to quit their vicinity." THE UNIVERSAL EELATIONSHTP OF, MAN. We must reconcile ourselves, as well as we can, to the fact of our standing in the relationship of humanity with whatever is the most degraded portion of it. The declara- tion that " of one blood are made all nations, to dwell on all the face of the earth," brings something of rebuke and humi- liation to the pride of civilization and refinement, when we read of a section of our general kindred having at this day such a taste and notion of luxury as that exhibited in the following paragraph : — " I was introduced to that part of the enclosure, where the heads of the enemy that had been captured during the week were placed on poles, in front of the house of the chief. I counted nine. These heads had chanted the war-song but four days previously ; the bodies which had appertained to them danced the wild hakd, and had since been consigned to the oven, and nearly wholly devoured by the natives. Curious to see this abhorrent food, after it had undergone a culinary pro- cess, I requested a minor chief to show me some. He accord- ingly mounted a wdtd, where the provisions are always kept, and brought down a small flax basket, containing the human viand. At first view I should have t^ken it for fresh pork in a boiled state, having the same pale cadaverous colour. My informant stated it was a piece of the lower part of the thigh, grasping with his hand that part of my body, illustrative of what he advanced. It appeared very much shrunk ; and on my observing it must have appertained to a boy, the head of its possessor when alive was pointed out to me, apparently a man of forty-five years of age. " The sight of this piece of mortality afinrded the chief some pleasure ; for he stretched out his tongue, pretending to lick the food, and gave other significant signs, indicative of the excessive delight he felt in partaking of human flesh. He entered largely on the subject, pointing to many parts of my body, such as the palm of my hand, shoulders, and lower extremities, as being particularly delicate, even to the most fastidious." VIRTUES OF THE NEW ZEALAND VP'OMEN. We wish we had been distinctly told that the women stand aloof from such abominations. In other respects our author VIRTUES OF THE NEW ZEALAND WOMEN. 553 has much to say in their favour. Here, as everywhere el^, the all-pervading depravity of the human race has a mitiga- tion of its virulence in the female sex. There are in the work repeated strong testimonies to a degree of modesty, in the young females especially, which, amidst such habits and spectacles as they are accustomed to witness, could have been preserved only by an innate principle. Such of them as become the wives of Europeans, especially if they have been under the tuition, or become the converts, of the missionaries, accommodate themselves with admirable facility to the dress, good order, and all the decorums of civilized life. In the savage state they are remarkable for a devoted attachment to their husbands, much greater than, we dare say, any of those husbands deserve. It appears to be no uncommon occurrence for a wife to destroy herself on the death of her husband ; and that not in servility to any dictate of super- stition, as among the Hindoos, but from the impulse o: genuine and desolate affection. It happened several times to Mr. Polack to witness the funeral rites for such a self- immolated widow. The .women share the common lot of their sex among all barbarous nations in being undervaluec and doomed to all the hardship in the economy of life. AEISTOCRACY AMONG SAVAGES. The aristocratic principle has found its way (for it inheres in human nature) to this far-off fragment of the earth, where ancient patricians and modern peerage had never been heard of But here it is remarkable, that the thing is not a con- trivance for exemption from being useful ; for the chiefs work in the plantations, gardens, and manual employments, as hard as, and along with, the commonalty and serfs. How such an anomaly can have happened is rather wonderful. Is it that they have been less arrogant than their "order" elsewhere, on the strength of rank, or that the plebeians have been able and had the sense to keep them down ? It is not that little value is set on noble descent ; it affects materially the regulations of society, especially in the affair of marriage. A chief may take a wife of inferior condition without damage to his station ; but when a lady of quality- accepts a man of the lower order she raises him, indeed, but! 554 FOSTEEIANA. i* the same degree herself descends. The son of such a marriage appears to inherit the mother's original rank, for ■vfrith all freedom of speech and manner, he will remind his father that he is of finer quality. Though the chieftain rank is principally by descent, a man who is natively " nobody," may attain it by distinguished military exploits. There is a slave-class, consisting chiefly of captives and their descendants. Numerous runaways of this class have collected themselves into a sort of tribe, in an out-of-the-way district, to which the debasement peculiarly incident to their condi- tion has accompanied their liberty. VALUABLE QUALITIES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. Hideously savage and repulsive as the character of these islanders stands out in our author's representation, verified by numerous narratives and anecdotes, he is, nevertheless, confidently sanguine as to what may come to be at no distant time. He is strong in the opinion of both their capability of a renovated condition, and their aptitude for it. They are far from that lumpish impregnable grossness which fixes down, as by^a law of gravitation, the state of some of the outcasts of humanity, to remain' the same from generation to "generation. They are naturally intelligent, inquisitive, observant, of ready apprehension and flexible temper. They are quick to perceive the advantage of European arts, imple- ments, and modes of operation, which they have a facility in imitating and adopting. Their spirit of traffic, knavish and thievish, no doubt, and specially intent on obtaining the means of efi'ective warfare, will gradually conduce, by their trade with Europeans, to a multiplication of their wants and tastes, and tend to transfer their passion for guns and powder to objects more akin to peace and civilization. Their present care and neatness in the cultivation of their garden-grounds, affiDrd some assurance they can be industrious. The vast nuisance of their superstition is not, we think, of a nature the most difficult to be abated. It is of a coarse consistence, by what we may call its poverty of dogmas. It exists in one rude fallacy of the imagination, instead of being radicated in intellectual and abstract principles ; it cannot, therefore, have anything like the tenacity of the Asiatic paganisms, VALUABLE QUALITIES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. 555 with their systematic order of speculative doctrines, to be complicated with and pervert all thinking on all subjects. It is a superstition which, when begun to be thrown off, may soon be wholly thrown off ; since, though it does maintain a comprehensive tyranny over the people's feelings and actions, it is by one bare tangible form of delusion that it does so. A few notorious instances of evident impunity in defying and scorning the Atuas and their priests, will do much toward a riddance of the imposition and the bondage ; as in the case of the heroic native female in the Sandwich Islands, who descended, alone, in the sight of an anxious mul- titude " halting between two opinions," into the great volcano, to challenge with insult the dreaded god of fire in his own domain, on the very edge of his glowing lava. The emancipa- tion wiU be assisted by the conviction, acknowledged by these pagans, of the superior power of the Englishmen's God, who makes them invulnerable to the power and malice of theirs. All power sinks in estimation when seen in the presence and in awe of a greater power, PKOSPECTIVE COLONIZATION OF NEW ZEALAND. Already considerable numbers of English have found their way into these fine islands ; some to be located, many to traverse, trade,_or play the villain, among the natives. The consequence is a balance of good and evil, with a very decided tendency to the latter ; a certainty that it will and must predominate, unless prompt measures be adopted by this country to prevent it. Our author asserts pointedly and repeatedly, that the character of the natives, especially of the females, has become much vitiated (vitiated from that of the savage state !) by communication with the English. The country is becoming infested with deserters from ships and miscreants escaped from the convict colony. There are fast creating a pestilent compost of the vices of civilization, preposterously so called, with indigenous ones of the savages. Some of the masters and crews of trading ships have com- mitted the most abominable iniquities. It is but little that, on the wide scale, the mischiefs done by the numerous English reprobates can be countervailed by the missionaries, judicious and zealous as their exertions are testified to be. Mr. Polack insists, urgently, on the neces- 550 FOSTEEIANA. sity of a formal enterprise of colonization, armed with a strong official power, to exercise a coercion over the English propagators of vice and ruin ; to protect the natives while endeavouring to civilize them ; and to promote cultivation and commerce on a large regular plan ; having, in the first instance, obtained by purchase an extensive portion of land. He asserts that such an occupancy would be very acceptable to many of the natives : who can understand that it would be a great benefit to have European improvements introduced among them ; to have a traffic secured on equitable regula- tions , and even to have put over them, or at least to have among them, a foreign authority, able to interpose for the repression of the disorders which are rapidly working their destruction. Under the auspices of such an establishment, to some extent lords of the soil, with great maritime resources and facilities, and gradually diffusing a mitigating and pacifying influence among the barbarous population, our author thinks the country would be a fine field for emigrants. He expatiates on its fertility, the adaptation of its various climates to all the vegetable productions of necessity or luxury ; its noble forests, its thickets of fiax growing without cultivation ; its beautiful scenery ; and its commodious harbours. It is placed in strongly advantageous contrast with all but a very minor portion of the Australian continent ; of which it is mortify- ing to find so vast a proportion doomed to perpetual sterility for want of water ; while certain tracts warn off all but the moveable scantling of human existence, by a liability to transient deluges. It is mentioned in favour of New Zealand that it is fitted to be an advantageous point or centre of connexion between our already established colonies and the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Polack does not take any pains to obviate the fearful apprehensions that might arise in the minds of persons looking to emigration, at the thought of seeking a home in the midst of such a ferocious race. But he assumes, with a facility and confidence, that these formidable neighbours will speedily divest themselves of their infamous habits ; will renounce their favourite amusement of wholesale and retail assassination ; will addict themselves with a ready good will to agriculture, the mechanic arts, and traffic ; will gene- PEOSPECTIVE COLONIZATION OP NEW ZEALAND. 557 rally, within a generation or two, learn the English language ; and will sweep away their trumpery of Atuas, priests, conjurers, and that vexatious annoyance of the taboo, which is encountering every poor mortal at every turn. They are ambitious of acquiring something of what gives the Europeans so evident a superiority. And our author has seen some of the performances in the nicer parts of car- pentry-work, which excelled those they imitated, and greatly elated the vanity of the workmen. Numbers of them are employed in the South Sea whaling and trading vessels ; and soon become as competent to the service, in aU its parts, as any other hands on board. It is highly satisfactory to see in forward preparation, on a respectable scale, and under liberal and powerful patronage, such a scheme as our author recommends. To be sure, we have already colonies more than enough for the purposes of exhibiting bad government, draining the national treasury, instituting episcopal sees, and rendering us vulnerable at so many points to any enemy" hereafter powerful at sea. But one really cannot help being sorry that so fine a tract of earth should be worse than useless on the planet, so capable and reclaimable a race of creatures abandoned to destruction, and a large portion of our own population, the while, in desperate competition for bits of ground to subsist upon. We ought to have noticed more expressly that our autho* always speaks of the missionaries in strong terms of appro- bation and applause. Besides the general salutary tendency of their 'labours (although within a sphere necessarily very limited), he mentions various instances of their beneficial interference to prevent deeds of violence, and allay the passions of hostile parties. 856 THE IMPEOVEMENT OF TIME, AN ESSAY. ON THE WASTE OF INTERVALS.'!' The total loss of time in pure contented idleness, needless sleep, and painful listlessness, is to be condemned without mercy as the most unqualified guilt. There is another loss of time on which the censure may be pronounced with conside- rable mitigation, and that is, the neglect of many short periods which occur in the intervals of our serious engage- ments, and are impossible to be prevented, and difficult to be improved. They, however, form, when all added together, so material a portion of our life, that the loss of them is to be regarded as a very serious evil. If a man even of consider- able assiduity could have a complete account at the end of the year of the whole measure of time lost in short intervals — by passing inactively from one employment to another, by indecision, by having forgotten to furnish himself with some inconsiderable but yet indispensable information, by wait- ing for the co-operation of other "persons during a delay, perhaps, occasioned merely by their want of punctuality, or of losing that co-operation by failure of punctuality himself — he would be confounded to see this account placed in figures opposite to the number of hours which he had spent in real industry. And if the time consumed in use- less intervals were added to what had- been expended in sleep, in the other indispensably refreshments of nature, and in the relaxation indulged after the fatiguing part of his employments, what would be his sensations in contrasting this collective account with the comparatively small space of time which had been filled with industrious exertion ? It is true tliat intervals of perfect inaction and mental vacancy may be allowed to follow some of the severe and protracted exertions of physical or intellectual strength ; but it will be admitted that such intervals, in addition to the space unavoidably surrendered to sleep and the several seasons of refreshment within the day, ought to be very short, and cannot need to * This fragment is selected from Chap. VI. of an unpublished Essay by Mr. Foster, entitled ' The Improvement of Time,' and which it is proposed to include in our next volume. ON THE WASTE OF INTERVALS. 559 recur very often. The corporeal and mental machine is not so extremely weak a thing as that every thought should be anxiously in quest of occasions for giving it repose. In looking for the means of lessening this evil, it will be suggested as one useful direction that the changes from one employment to another should not be unnecessarily multi- plied. If, for example, it is in a man's choice to change the nature of his employment, whether study or any other occupation, six times in the day, or to employ the whole time in three kinds, it would, perhaps, be better for the saving of time to adopt tbis latter plan, which would preclude three of the intervals involved in the former. He vxnj devote the whole of the next day, with a similar avoidance of intervals, to the other three pursuits. And I am persuaded that of two men, of equal ability and industry, and whose employments equally admitted this choice of a slower or quicker vicissitude, the one who devoted the first day to half the six kinds of employment, and the second day to the other half, would accomplish more than he that divided each of the days among all the six. Besides the absolute space of vacancy, however small, between the laying aside of one occupation and the entrance on another, it is impossible that even the hand, but incomparably more the mind, where the employments are intellectual, should not require some little time to adapt itself to the new mode of operation. And in mental employments, the obvious advan- tage in point of time gained by avoiding many intervals of transition, is perhaps much less than that which is gained in the habit of the mind. Prolonged application to one thing will tend to improve the power and produce the habit of thinking in a continued train, which is one of the highest endowments of intellect. The habit of patient reasoning and invincible perseverance will never be matured in a plan of diverting the attention, howevei- vivid it might be during the allotted time, from one thing to another in that quick succes- sion of change which is injudiciously intended to turn the labour into amusement. We are all quite enough aware of the advantage of relieving the physical and mental powers by change of the mode of exertion ; but we are not sufficiently warned, on the other hand, of the danger of acquiring from this continual shifting of the object of attention, the fickle- 560 FOSTERIANA. ness of thought which is fatal to all systematic energy of mind. The importance of Method, as another means of pre- venting loss of time in small intervals, will already have occurred to every reader. The importance of method extends throughout the whole system of the improvement of time ; .since the application of its principles alone can produce that arrangement and comhination which cause the diversified activity of life to be a system instead of a confused multipli- city of efforts without mutual dependence or connexion, and perhaps counteracting one another ; but I mention it here only for the advantage which it gives in making a man certain, when he is dismissing one kind of employment, what _is to be the next. The life of an adventurer or traveller will necessarily include so many occasions of action which are dependent on circumstances and persons beyond his control, that a large portion of his activity can be subjected to no methodical rules, and the choice of what he shall do at any particular time must be determined by what he could not know till that time arrives. A large proportion of mankind, on the other hand, are so rigidly bound down by the necessities of life to occupy almost all their time in one unvaried employment, as to have little room for arrangement and choice. But there are a considerable number whose situations, whose plans, or whose duties, include several definable occupations, which they can dispose, if they exert consideration enough, into an order which will best combine the effect and advantage of them all. This order, appointing the several parts of the day or the week to their respective employments, will at the end of each bring to hand the next in succession, as regularly as the numerical names of the hours of the day foUow one another, and by thus precluding the delay of hesitation considerably reduce the interval. At the close of his solitary pursuits, the man is not compelled to waste half an hour or a full hour ir> considering to which of his social offices or public employ ments he shall devote the ensuing portion of the day. LOKDOH : PRINTJil> BY WILLIAM CLOWES AKD SONS, STAMFOBD SIBEET ASD CUABIKQ CBOSS. Sm/^A,'"' %feM mmi.