tunity, consume neither their days nor their nights in lean and wasteful learning their occupation consists of tittle-tattle, interference with the domestic concerns of private citizens, and the collection and distribution of scandal. They learn curious and piquant anecdotes by officiating as confessors, and are not, according to Mr. B.'s representation, very honourably retentive of information so obtained. The ladies of Rio have been accused of easy gallantry: but Mr. B. consigns two or three pages to the vindication of their chastity, and of the playful custom of tossing flowers at strangers. It is a vindication, however, which might well have been omitted, since it is by no means satisfactory. Chapter V. contains general observations on the Brazils.What New Holland is to us now, Brazil was formerly to the Portuguese thither they sent all persons accused of witchcraft and heresy, Mohammedans, and Jews. The latter were glad to escape tyranny and persecution in Europe, and, fleeing from oppression, they found riches in South America. Their first object was to gain the favour of the natives; and they were readily permitted to put into the earth both seeds and the cuttings of plants. The sugar cane was raised in Brazil, from cuttings brought from Madeira; it was first cultivated and used as a medicine, then as a luxury, and in a short time it was exported to Europe in such abundance that the court of Lisbon really began to think that a colony might be useful to the mother country, even if it did not produce gold and diamonds. The question of the Slave. Trade is now, we hope, decided for ever, and to the eternal honour of the British Parliament of 1807. It is superfluous, then, to say any more on that subject but it would be unfair not to notice that the present volume contains several arguments and representations, all urging the abolition. It is worth the while, on the grounds of laudable curiosity, to know what Brazil produces and is capable of producing, even if we do not attempt to annex it to the British Empire: The fertile and extensive plains (says Mr. B.) of South America abound with innumerable herds of horses and horned cattle; but the richness of the soil, and its total want of culture, produce only such grasses as are too coarse, and their juices too acrid, for the sustenance of sheep. Oxen even do not thrive upon them, without the oc casional use of salt; and as the exclusive privilege of importing this article, essential for the preservation both of man and beast, from the islands of Sal and Mayo, is farmed out as a monopoly of the Crown, it is necessarily sold at an extravagant price, and is frequently not to be purchased on any terms. The salt that would be required to preserve the carcase of an ox costs in general about thrice as much as the whole animal. Yet there is no want of salt on the coast of Brazil, Brazil, if the inhabitants were permitted to manufacture it. Wherever it is made with facility, or deposited by spontaneous evapora tion, it is immediately claimed as the exclusive right of the Crown; which, however, has condescended to bestow a remarkable indul. gence to the inhabitants of certain parts of the sea-coast, by allowing them to collect, for their own use, what nature has spontaneously thrown in their way; but they are forbidden, in the most positive terms, to carry a single grain of it either to St. Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, or any of the principal governments of the Brazils. The monopoly of salt is estimated to produce to the Crown of Portugal about 15,000l. a year. Thus, for the sake of realizing so pitiful a sum, thousands of cattle are suffered to perish, the carcases of such as are slaughtered, for the sake of the hides only, to be thrown away, the fisheries on the coast are checked, and in a great degree rendered useless, and one great source of commerce and navigation entirely dried up. At Rio the price of a moderate sized ox is not more than twenty shillings, and in the interior only from five to ten shillings. In fact, the hide is considered as the only valuable part, and the carcase is left to the tyger or the panther, the eagle, the condor, and such other birds and beasts of prey as abound in the country. The condition of the graziers in the Brazils appears to be pretty much the same as that of the Dutch boors at the Cape of Good Hope. Rich in the possession of thousands of cattle, they are deficient in every comfort of life; without society, without clothing, and without decent habitations. They are even worse than the Dutch boors, for these can move about in their covered waggons over their barren heaths, but in the fertile and well-wooded regions of South America there are yet no roads that will admit the conveni ence of a wheel carriage.' Mr. B. confirms the statement which has been frequently made, and from various quarters, that a smuggling trade to a very considerable extent is carried on between the Portuguese in Brazil and English Whalers and Americans. The latter, according to the present writer, take off the surplus produce of the colonies, and pay an annual balance of half a million in hard specie. The colonists employ this cash to purchase slaves: our manufactories, by means of the Whalers and Americans, find an entrance into Brazil; and from the Brazils they are smuggled into the Spanish settlements, by the way of the Rio de la Plata. Considering the colonizing temperament of the author, we were not surprized to find him ogling and holding dalliance with the Brazils and the Spanish colonies: yet he properly admits that a Protestant Government would have immense difficulties to encounter, if it attempted to control the former; and that the project of revolutionizing the latter is not only unsafe in regard to policy, but that in point of humanity, since the slaves exceed exceed the proprietors in a tenfold proportion, it would be nefarious and unwarrantable. ་ After his dissertation on the Brazils, Mr. Barrow proceeds with the narration of his voyage. The islands of Tristan da Cunha and Amsterdam are visited and described; and the description may be useful to those who next approach these islands, though to us it appeared very uninteresting. The avidity of our merchants may however be excited, when they learn that at Tristan da Cunha the largest ships can ride in safety, and can take in water with the greatest ease; and that the place may easily be made impregnable, requiring only a few men for its defence, &c. Should we, therefore, (says Mr. B.) at any future time be so unfortunate as to be excluded from the Brazils and the Cape of Good Hope, this half-way island to India would be found to possess many conveniences. Even those who may contend that our colonial territories are already sufficiently extended must at least agree that we can never have too many points of security and accommodation for our ships of war and of commerce.' Mercy, Mercy, good Mr. Barrow: these speculations and projects may be sport to you, but, should they be realised, to us who stay at home and must pay the cost, they will be death. In the island of Amsterdam, our travellers found Thermal springs in some, the temperature was that of boiling water, 212° in others, which were adjacent, they angled, and caught red coloured perch from six inches to a foot in length, of a most excellent flavor; which, (says Mr. B.), with true epicurean want of feeling, we had the cruelty to drop living off the hook into the boiling springs, where it required just fifteen minutes to cook them in perfection." We cannot introduce the reader to Cochin China before we have delayed him a short time at Batavia. Of the island of Java, its productions, &c. Mr. B. has communicated several valuable particulars; and respecting the city of Batavia, its pestilence, feasting, and inhabitants, much informa tion and many amusing anecdotes. In his narration on this subject, moreover, he does not disturb our serenity with his foible he does not recommend, nor even does he wish, the English to attempt the conquest of Batavia. Now what is it that forbids us to attempt the conquest of Batavia? Principally, the unhealthiness of the climate, for the island is extremely productive, and the whole Navy of England might ride in the bay, secure from winds. Several remarkable instances of mortality are mentioned. In the military Hospi tal, the register of deaths for 62 years amounted to 78,000 persons 7 persons, or 1258 annually, and the military establishment includes only 1500 soldiers. In 1791 the Duke of Wirtemberg, (at present his Majesty the King of Wirtemberg,) let out to the Dutch some of his troops, amounting to 270 men, with six officers; and in the following year 150 privates and five officers fell victims to the climate. The mortality, no doubt, is increased by the intemperance of the resident Europeans, since of 115,000 inhabitants the annual loss is about 4000: but then the Dutch, in proportion to their numbers, contribute most largely to this list of death; and Mr. B. presents, in a short table, the relative proportions of the several people of Batavia: thus; Dutch, half-cast and families Natives and Malays Slaves Mortality. The mortality among European females is not nearly so great as among the males; and this fact, joined with the plain. inference from the preceding table, proves that intemperance is a principal cause of the evil; or, to speak more correctly, that temperance would be a great preservative against contagion and disease: but temperance is a mere name in Batavia. Of the virtue they have indeed heard, and some of their books have ventured to praise it: but of its existence they afford no example. Addison, in one of his papers, indulges his fancy in conceiving the tribe of diseases to be concealed within the highly seasoned viands of a sumptuous table: whether the Batavian Deputy Governor, Van Weigerman, unbent to the playfulness of a similar allegory when he said that Batavia was an accursed country, in which he ate poison and drank pestilence at every meal,' we cannot positively determine; but Mr. B.'s account of his profuse dinner seems to decide the question in the affirmative. If it be urged that the character of a people is not to be appreciated from their occasional feasts of hospitality, and that in order to form a right judgment on this subject we ought to view them in the usual routine of a day's occupation, still the author's delineation confirms the former opinion. We cannot find room for the passages which we had here designed to quote. Among the most useful inhabitants in Batavia, are the Chinese, who are carpenters, gardeners, &c. but they are very heavily taxed by the Dutch, and in the year 1740, on unjust and foul pretences, they were inhumanly massacred.-Mr. B.'s description pays just tribute to the peaceable virtues and industrious industrious habits of the Chinese; and it shews that a government, which does not aim at conquest, and is not endangered by invasion, cannot have better subjects. He also describes the Javanese and Malays, and refers the former to a Hindoo, and the latter to a Tartar origin. We must, however, leave Dutchmen, Javanese, and Malays, to pursue our voyage to Cochin China, at which place the reader does not arrive till he has passed over 240 pages of the volume. The kingdom of Cochin China is laid down on ordinary maps: it is situated between the 18th and 10th degrees of latitude, with its eastern side bounded by the sea, and its western by a ridge of high mountains, which separate it from the kingdom of Cambodia; and two or three degrees to the north, the empire of China begins. Very little is known Concerning Cochin China and the adjacent countries; and Mr. Barrow, in a tone of reproach, observes that, in the best arranged modern systems of geography, a considerable portion of modern Asia, containing twenty millions of inhabitants, is passed over with a mere dash of the pen. Its history is here commenced in the year 1774; when an insurrection, headed by three Brothers, a Merchant (Yin-yac), a Priest, and a General Officer (Long-niang), deprived Caung-shung of the throne of Cochin China. It was divided between the three, and Long-niang soon made war on the king of Tungquin, a vassal of China, and obliged him to fly to Pekin for the purpose of demanding assistance. Kien-lung, the emperor, ordered his Invincible army, under the viceroy of Canton, to march and reinstate the king of Tung-quin: but the politic Long-niang (who had assumed the title of Quangsung,) laid waste the country, and soon obliged them to retreat, from want of provisions, the army having lost by famine and the sword nearly 50,000 men. The viceroy Foo-chang-tong was obliged to negociate: but his antagonist refused to yield the title to the kingdom of Tung-quin. Foochang tong, more fitted for the cabinet than the field, was reduced to employ finesse; and he represented to the emperor that his invincible army had performed most wonderful feats, but that the supposed usurper was much beloved by the Tung quinese, had a fair title to the abdicated throne, and that it would be politic to invite him to the court of Pekin to perform the accustomed ceremonies and duties of vassalage. Instead of making his personal appearance, however, the wary Long niang imposed on the court of Pekin, as his representative, one of his Generals. The mock king was favourably received and sent back but Long-niang, puzzled by this unexpected issue, rewarded the faithful service of the General 3 |