From the Sandwich Islands Lieut. Kotzebue sailed for Radack; and, on the 1st of January, 1817, discovered a new island, to which he gave the name of New Year's Island. It is situated in 10 8' N. latitude, and in longitude 189° 4' West. The inhabitants approached the ship and bartered some goods, but would not afterwards permit the boat's crew to make a landing. In another island, in the same neighbourhood, they met with no opposition, but, on the contrary, they were well received by the inhabitants. Their leader bore a large shell horn; he was a tall well-made man, of thirty; his black hair, which was elegantly bound together upon his head, was ornamented with a wreath of white flowers, in the form of a crown.

M. Chamisso has given an ingenious disquisition on the language or dialects of the islands in the Great Ocean, with an extensive vocabulary of those of Chamori, Eap, Ulea, and Radack. He does not confine his remarks to the

When at St. Lawrence Island, Lieut. who caused it, by poison. At his death, Kotzebue found his hopes of penetrating the enterprise which had been undertaken Beering's Straits blasted, on account at his birth, was abolished. The old lanof the ice, which extended as far as the guage was again adopted, and the new eye could see to N. E. and then to the one forgotten. N. covering the whole surface of the ocean; he, therefore, determined to return, and on the 3rd of August, 1818, cast anchor in the Neva, opposite to the palace of Count Romanzoff. Here the journal of Lieut. Kotzebue terminates, in the middle of the second volume; the remainder of the work consists of the remarks of the naturalist who accompanied the expedition, on the places visited, and an Appendix, by other authors, which we shall briefly notice.

We

new discoveries, but extends them to
Teneriffe, Brazil, Chili, California, the
Phillippine and Sandwich Islands,
Kamtschatka, &c. &c.

Of the inhabitants of Radack, we are told, that they are slender but well built, and healthy, and of a darker colour than the people of Owhyee. Both sexes wear their long beautiful black hair neatly and elegantly tied up be

hind :

We cannot here avoid remarking, In his ear-holes, that of all voyages round the world, this which were remarkably large, he wore of Lieut. Kotzebue appears to have been rolls of tortoise-shell, ornamented with the least fruitful in disco-very. flowers; round his neck hung various say this without meaning the slightest ed ear-lappets, a rolled pandamus leaf. 'Men and women wear, in their piercgay movements; he was differently imputation on the talents of the en- The roll for the men is three inches in tattooed, and much more than the terprising voyager, which were striking-diameter, and for women, only half. It others. This man was called Rarick;ly displayed in his navigating so suc- is sometimes covered by a very thin plate and a portrait was taken of him, from cessfully in the great ocean, among of tortoise-shell. Some older people which Lieut. Kotzebue has given a low coral islands and reefs, which ren- had, besides, pierced the upper edge of coloured engraving. der it extremely difficult. To us it the ear, to put flowers through. appears that Lieut. Kotzebue was more anxious to discover new islands, however unimportant, which he might honour with the harsh names of his adopted countrymen, than to verify former discoveries. It has even been denied that he has made any new discoveries, and said that the islands which he claims as such, have been known and mentioned under other names by preceding naviintitled to all the honour he claims, gators; we think him, however, clearly and as he has evinced the necessary qualifications for the task, we hope he may again be sent to explore the great ocean so often traversed during the last half century.

From Radack, Lient. Kotzebue sailed to St. Lawrence Islands, and had free intercourse with the inhabitants; one of whom, called Kadu, accompanied him in his visit to several of the islands. A connected history of this native we shall give in our next number. On the island of Georgia several sealions were seen, to which they approached within a distance of twenty

paces:

The lions were engaged in a continual warfare about their mates, as they always try to appropriate several, which they commonly conquer from their neighbours by their valour. The heroes are known by the number of their females; they often lic, from eight to ten, close to each other, that their defender may the goes raging and roaring around them, more easily-protect them, and he always ready at every instant, in case of an attack, as the number of lions seems to exceed that of the lionesses. They combat so furiously, that blood is seen gushing out; pieces of flesh fly about, and not seldom one of them falls down dead; in which case the victor immediately enters on the rights of the vanquished, and possesses himself of the widowed seraglio. The combat, however, lasts longer when seve ral attack one hero; for, as soon as he is vanquished, the allies begin to quarrel among themselves, and do not cease till the most valiant has gained the victory, The roaring of these animals is beyond description; it is heard at sea during a calm, and when the wind blows from the shore, at the distance of six miles.'

The skilful elegant tattooing differs according to the sex; in each it is uniform. For the men, it forms over the to the navel, which consists of several va. shoulder and breast, a triangle, pointing riously combined stripes; similar well disposed horizontal stripes occupy the back and the stomach. With the women, only the arms and the shoulders are tattooed. Besides this regular designing, which is only executed when they grow stripes tattooed over their hips and arms, up, and is wanting in very few, they have all, when children, groups of designs or but more seldom in the face. Amongst these drawings, we sometimes observed the figure of the Roman cross. place tattooed is very dark, drawn sharply and raised above the skin.

The

We have hitherto confined our reThe dress of the men consists in a we now turn to other matters connect-mat as an apron; boys go quite naked till view to the journal of the voyage, and girdle, with bast straps hanging down, to which is often added, a smaller square ed with it. In the Remarks and Opi- they have arrived at manhood. The wonions' of M. Chamisso, the naturalist men wear two longer mats, fastened with of the expedition, we meet with the fol- a string over the hips; the girls wear, very lowing singular anecdote:early, a small apron.

About the year 1800, Tamaalimaah,
(King of the Sandwich Islands) on occa-
sion of the birth of a son, invented quite
a new language, and began to introduce
it. The newly invented words were not
related to any roots of the current lan-
guage, nor derived from any of them;
even the particles, which supply the
grammatical forms, and are the connec-
tives of the discourse, were transformed
in a similar manner.
powerful chiefs, who were displeased at
It is said, that some
this metamorphosis, destroyed the child

The frus or Chiefs are frequently distinguished by their large stature, never by immoderate corpulency. The tattooing in them generally extends over those parts of the body which are not tattooed in common people, the sides, the hips, the necks, and the arms.

The houses of the Radackers consist only of a roof, supported on four posts, with a hanging floor. They are only der them. You climb through a square high enough to admit a person to sit unopening into the upper room," which con

tains all their little property. They sleep on this floor or in the open space below; and several open huts, of the forur of a tent, round about, serve as separate sleeping apartments. The roofs are of cocoa or pandanus leaves; the floor is strewed with very fine fragments of coral and shells, which are found on shore. Only a coarse mat serves for a bed, and a block of wood for a pillow.'

The fruit of the wild pandanus forms the chief food of the Radackers, who are described as an amiable people, that treat strangers with hospitality, and never become importunate or troublesome :

place, under palms, on the inner shore.
They treat in the same manner their ene-
mies fallen in battle, according to their
rank. A staff fixed in the ground, with
annular incisions, marks the grave of the
children who were not allowed to live.
We have ourselves seen both kinds of
graves.'

Every where,' says M. Chamisso, we met the picture of peace among an infant people; we saw new plantations, ading up, with a small population; the af-lief to an open north polar sea. vancing cultivation, many children grow-Asia;

fectionate attention of the fathers for their offspring, pleasing unaffected manners, equality in the intercourse between chiefs and other men, no servility to the more powerful, and with greater poverty and Jess self-assurance, none of those vices which disgrace the people of the more eastern Polynesia.'

The inhabitants of Radack adore an invisible God in Heaven, and offer him a simple tribute of fruits, without temples and without priests.'

Marriages depend on a free convention, and may be dissolved as they are concluded. A man may have several wives. The woman is the companion of the man, and seems freely and voluntarily to submit to him, in a just relation to the head of the family. In their wanderings, the men go on before as protectors, and the women follow. When any subject is discussed, the men speak first; the women, when called upon, take a share in the conversation, and attention is paid to them.'

The bond of exclusive friendship between two inen, which is found in all the islands of the first province in Radack, obliges the friend to give his wife to his friend, but does not bind him to seek for revenge by blood:

'We mention with hesitation, a law which Kadu ascribed to urgent want, and the sterility of the niggardly earth. Every mother is allowed to bring up only three children; her fourth and every succeeding one she is obliged to bury alive, herself. The families of the chiefs are not subjected to Natural children this barbarity. brought up in the same manner as the legitimate. When they are able to walk, the father takes them to himself. When no father recognizes the child, the mother keeps it; when the mother dies, another

woman takes care of the child.

are

The corpses of the deceased are entirely wound round with strings, in a sitting posture. The chiefs are buried on the islands: A large square space, surrounded with large stones, marks the

(To be concluded in our next.)

691

Mr. Hunt, who published a transla tion of the Jerusalem Delivered' about three years ago, far surpassed all who had preceded him in the same track. It is to be regretted that this gentleman has written in couplets instead of stanzas, so well adapted to an heroic poem, and that he has been somewhat diffusive; these may by some be deemed venial faults, or no faults at all, but they are, we believe, the only ones to be attributed to his translation, which is faithful, vigorous, and elegant.

with the

The same customs with regard to the burial of the dead, are observed at Ulea and the islands lying more east. M. Chamisso, in an examination of the disputed geographical problems, relative to these parts, is of opinion, that Mr. Wiffen, who although a young the two continents of Asia and America are separated; and he considers the bard, occupies no unimportant niche north-east cape not to be an isthmus in the temple of poetic fame, and of which unites both quarters of the whom we have more than once spoken globe, but merely a promontory of very highly, had commenced his transbut he does not attach any be-lation of Tasso before Mr. Hunt's work appeared; and we are glad that he had He has the courage to pursue it. adopted the Spenserian stanza as the Jerusalem Delivered. Book the happiest measure and the best adapted Fourth. From the Italian of Tasso; to the romantic spirit that pervades being the Specimen of an intended the Jerusalem Delivered.' In this, we New Translation in English Spen-doubt not, most readers will agree serian Verse; with a Prefatory him, particularly when they see Dissertation on existing Transla- success with which he has applied it in the fourth book, which is now pub8vo. By J. H. Wiffen. lished as a specimen. Avoiding equalpp. 96. London, 1821. It has long been a subject of regret ly a slavish and verbal fidelity, and among the admirers of Tasso, that he that license which often loses all simihas never possessed a translator worthy larity to the prototype, Mr. Wiffen of him, and that the English reader lost has endeavoured to make his work less the principal beauties of the bard of a copy than a twin.' He has transfused Mantua, frittered away as they were in much of the genius and spirit of the the insipid version of Hoole. It is true original in his own elegant and harmo-, that Fairfax's translation was much su- nious version; and that it is neither They perior, but, until its recent republica- deficient in vigour or dignity, let the tion, it was by no means frequently following stanzas bear witness. Fair-are descriptive of Lucifer, and his pasmet with even in good libraries. fax's is, however, a very unequal per- sionate harangue to his synod of fallen formance; and he passes from the sub-angels:lime to the ridiculous at a single step. This is partly owing to the age in which he lived, when a fondness for proverbial conceits was general. Carew's Godfrey of Bulloigne, written nearly at the same time as Fairfax's translation, is Several other aumuch inferior to it.

tions.

lt, as

thors commenced versions of this great
poem, among whom was Gray, whose
translation of a fragment of the four-
teenth book displays great felicity of
language and purity of taste.
Mr. Wiffen elegantly observes in his
Dissertation, like some solitary mar-
ble column, beautified with immortal
ivy, speaks eloquently to the imagina-
tion, attesting what the finished struc-
ture would have been in magnificence
and grace.'

It remained for the present age,
however, to do Tasso that justice
which his admirable poem demanded.

'There was a majesty in his fierce face
That deepening others' fears, increased his
pride;

His eyes were bloodshot, and instinct with

rays,

That like a baleful comet, far and wide, Diffused a venomous splendour, which outvied

The fascinating spake's; barbarous and hoar His grand beard swept his breast, and, gaping wide

As deep Charybdis on the Sicil shore, Yawned his terrific jaws, besmeared with foam

ing gore.

His breath was like those sulphurous vapours born

In thunder, stench, and the live shot-star's light,

When red Vesuvius showers, by earthquakes
torn,

O'er sleeping Naples in the dead of night,
Funereal ashes! whilst he spoke, affright
Hushed howling Cerberus, Celœno's shriek ;-
Cocytus paused in his lamenting flight;
The abysses trembled; hortor chilled each
cheek;

Towards her in deepest love when she appears

most stern.'

'Through all these shifting tempers whilst each knight

Fluctuates disturbed, uncertain of her choice,
Through fire and frost, smiles, tears, fear,
hope, delight,

The beauteous witch their agony enjoys:
If any e'er presumes with trembling voice
To tell his secret pain, her guilefulness
The glorious vision of his soul destroys;
She nor perceives his meaning, nor
guess,

can

The very fool of Love and girlish simpleness.
'Or sliding down her eyes, the blood's warm
brightness

In rushing crimson o'er her features flowed,
Irradiating with fire their ivory whiteness,
That all her visage like Aurora's showed,
When in the fresh dawn on her eastern road

She flies the' embrace of Titan, and in shame
Extinguishes the stars,—whilst anger glowed
Yet deeper on her cheek, a flower of flame,

Beside whose rosy hue, all rosiness looks tame,

'If she perceives one hastening to avow

His mournful flame, she stops her charmed
Now shuns his converse, grants an audience

ears;

now,

our readers as pay attention to the proposed? for the puny salary which, at his
ceedings of Parliament, that, among onset, scarcely allows of his putting food
into his mouth?-impossible. For what
the various plans of economy and re-
then? I demand; for the certainty of the
trenchment talked of during the last
employment; for the certainty of finding,
session, one was a reduction in the sa-
in due time, an increase of revenue; for
laries of government clerks. Indeed, the certainty of that increase being to a
one of the ministers stated, that a re-
certain extent; for the certainty, should
duction of salaries in all the depart- life be spared, of being able to retire, in
ments of the public service, was under age or sickness, on a certain allowance;
the consideration of government. This for the advantages, it is true, of the pre-
avowal called forth remarks in favour sent, but more, as it is seen, for those in
the womb of time. These are the in-
of the measure from several members, ducements which prompt a man to dis-
particularly Lord Milton, Mr. Hume,pose of his talents and labour to govern-
Mr. W. Burrell, and Mr. Creevey, who
urged it on several grounds,-as, that
clerks should make sacrifices as well as
provisions
landholders,-that
cheaper, and, therefore, less salary ne-
cessary,-that clerks were better paid
than military officers,-that govern-
ment did not require gentlemen for
clerks, and, lastly, that if the clerks
felt themselves aggrieved, they might
give up their places.

were

It is in reply to these several argu

ment; and, for the due execution of the contract on the part of government, he relies on the good faith of the country, on acts of Parliament, on that inward feeling, which tells him, that the solemn, the deliberate, the prudent determinations of one set of ministers, will not be wantonly kicked down by another set, and, still less, kicked down by those very ministers themselves; that the decision of to-day will be the decision of to-morrow; that the rule of the Monday will stand good for the Saturday; that ex post facto laws are not of the soil of England. These have hitherto formed the clerks' sheet anchor; in opposition to the measure generally, and is his hold at once to be shivered to that the pamphlet before us is written. atoms, because a short-sighted policy The author combats with much force, points him out, at the present hour, for all that has been said in favour of re-destruction? If, after having conferred ducing the salaries of clerks, first de- rights on certain offices, rights, let it not nying the right of government to do so, be forgotten, which probably induced most of those persons, who are now in and then showing, that if they possess having legislatively conferred rights, them, to engage themselves; if, after those rights are, with impunity, to be torn in tatters; where, I beg to know, is the security which any man in the kingdom

Then flies, returns, smiles, frowns, and dis-ments, (if they deserve the name,) and

"These wers the arts by which Armida took
A thousand spirits captive to her sleight,
Or rather these the arms, with which she the right, justice and policy would

strook,

And made them bondslaves in their own
despite.

What marvel elder Love subdued the might
Of Theseus fierce, and Hercules the strong,
When those who drew the sword in Jesu's

right,

Thrall to a wanton's tears-a syren's song,

Wore his enfeebling chains, and gloried in the

wrong!'

Should this specimen of a new translation of Tasso's work be as well received as we anticipate, Mr. Wiffen will publish the whole very shortly. We look forward to it with some degree of confidence; and although he has selected the fourth book as best suited for a specimen, on accouut of its singleness of action, yet we must wait for some of the later books, which are equal in poetic merit and superior in interest, before we give that decided opinion of Mr. Wiffen's success which the beauty of the sample before us has almost seduced us to anticipate.

equally forbid the exercise of it. Some
of his arguments are of great force, and
well worthy the consideration of the
legislature, and particularly such mem-
bers of it as labour to save 2000l. out
of an expenditure of fifty millions, and
that, too, by decreasing the comforts or
encroaching on the necessities of a few
junior clerks. This able advocate of
the clerks, in denying the right of the
government to reduce their salaries,
thus reasons:-

can have for the value of one obole of his

property. Does not the right to an estate rest on the same right as that right which has been conferred by act of the legisla ture on the clerks? And will not the same power which destroys the one lay its iron grasp, if it pleases, on the other?

Is this the tenor by which property in England is henceforward to be held. Whenever any of the princely sinecures enjoyed by certain great and potent lords, have come under the consideration of Parliament, has it not been an acknowledged principle, that not even the frac tional part of a farthing could be taken from the present possessors, and that, were the sinecures entailed on a hundred

These persons, [government clerks] on entering upon their several duties, have, for the greater number, found, that by the settled, positive, and determinate rule of their respective offices, they were entitled to certain salaries, subject to an addition in proportion to the length of service spent by them in those offices, as well lives, the same due regard to justice would as to certain allowances, guaranteed by be adopted towards them all. If it be 50 George 3, cap. 117, in case, after fixed desirous to remunerate the clerks emperiods, they were desirous of retiring ployed in the offices of government, diffrom their stations. Now, have we not ferently from the rate at present followed, here a vested interest,-as clear and de- there could assuredly be neither improfined a vested interest as it is possible to priety nor illiberality in legislating for the Observations, chiefly in Reply to Re-possess? How then, I ask, can such a future; but, for the individuals, who, at marks made in Parliament during the property, with fairness, be knocked on this day, find themselves in the service of the head? When a person enters a go-the state; men who have devoted their last Session, on the Subject of Government office, he resolves on sacrificing time under different ideas, under other vernment Clerks. By a Clerk. the first and best years of his existence, to bargains, (whether profitable or not for the Svo. pp. 78. London, 1821. fore go every other possible chance of country it was the government's business, IT will be in the recollection of such of rising in fortune-for what, can it be sup- at the time of concluding them, to deter

mine:) surely such men, however hum-ries. Thus much for the abstract right
ble they may be, ought no more to find which government has to withdraw from
their rights invaded than the high and the clerks any portion of those salaries
mighty sinecurist, or any other holder of which the government itself decreed to
property in the kingdom. Had the them.'
clerks been in receipt of large emolu-
ments, arising from fines or fees of any
description, the growth of the war and of
the war alone, there would, indeed, be
some semblance of justice in withdraw-
ing, during the peace, that which but for
the war would not have existed; but this
supposition is no wise the case with the
clerks, and there remains, consequently,
in reality, no better reason for squeezing
them than that their poverty and naked-
ness court the attack of the hungry and
the powerful.

Much has been urged of late respecting the distresses of the country; they may be great: can, however, the evils of which we complain, be got rid of or lessened by the commission of any signal act of severity, on the very persons who so largely participate in the privations to which those distresses give rise, as do the clerks; yet much, generally speaking, as the little comforts of the clerks have, of late years, been abridged, I am willing to allow, that even they could, with justice, be called on to surrender a portion of their property. Yes, the case does exist in which, were it under operation, the present race of clerks, notwithstanding their rights, ought to be made to experience a reduction in their salaries,-I'alJude to the case of shipwreck.

We confess ourselves friends of economy and retrenchment, but it is not to the salaries of clerks that we should look for either; and we would barely hint to some of our most busy members, that the money spent in printing useless papers, which they frequently call for, amounts to treble the sum they could obtain by any reduction in the salaries of clerks.

Memoirs of the History of Scotland,
from the Restoration of King Charles
the Second, A. D. 1660.
By Sir
George Mackenzie, of Rosehaugh,
Kut. 4to. pp. 332. Edinburgh,

1821.

should not be diregarded. We shall make two desultory extracts to shew its style and character. The first relates to the acts of the first session of the Scottish Parliament after the restoration :—

The Protector had, to maintain his tyit, with much art and expense; one in ranny over Scotland, built four citadels in Air, a second at Leith, a third at Perth, a fourth at Inverness; and had planted them with English garrisons. These had till now been continued, by the mediation of Chancellor Hyde, who retained some fear that Scotland was yet too fanatic to be trusted to their own loyalty; and with him Duke Albemarle concurred, to gratify the officers and soldiers who had serv'd under him, and were yet under his Command; and these two had led Middletoun, then Commissioner, into the have them as a guard to his authority here. same belief, who likewise thought fit to But at the constant intreaties of the Earl of Lauderdale, who represented that THE MS. from which these Memoirs Scotland had now manifested their averare printed, is said to have been rescued sion from these former rebellious princifrom the hands of one of those foes to ples, they were removed; and the citaliterature, a retail shop-keeper, in dels themselves dismantl'd, seeing his maEdinburgh. jesty had no revenues to maintain garriFortunately, the grocer dipped into the bundle of papers he empty, they might have proved so many sons in them; and, if they had been kept purchased before he consigned them defences for such as intended to rebel. to the base purposes of wrapping up The materials and ground whereupon his soap and sugar, and finding a small they were built, were bestowed in this quarto MS. bound in vellum, handed manner:-Air was disposed to the Earl it to Dr. M'Cree, who transferred it of Eglingtoun, who, thereafter, employto Mr. Thomson, of the Register Of-ed the same to the manufactory of cloth, fice, Edinburgh, who has now given it newly erected there; Perth, to the magis to the public. trates of the town; Inverness, to the Earl of Murray; and Leith, to the Earl of Lauderdale, with the privilege of erecting it in a burgh of regality; which he did, to force the magistrates of Edinburgh to buy it from him; for he boasted to settle a trade there which would break their's:

If England can no longer satisfy the just demands of her creditors, her creditors, like all other creditors, must be content with a composition, and, in case of that event, I know of no reason why Singular as this story appears, yet clerks should be paid in full, whilst their we have no doubt of the genuineness of equals are compelled to give for a part a the work, which contains a narrative of complete and perfect quittance; if that events relating to Scotland, from 1660 black day of reckoning has, indeed, ar- to 1663, and then, after a lapse of six rived, or is to arrive, the clerks ought and years, it is resumed again, and contimust suffer in common with every class nued from 1669 to 1679. of people, for bankruptcies admit not of preferences; but, until government has declared itself insolvent; until the country has been positively and decidedly told that it can no longer afford to be honour able, that it can no longer afford to pay twenty shillings in the pound to fair claimants, I take it to be as clear as the sun at noon-day, that impartial justice can never assimilate with that principle which goes to deprive the labourer of his hire, and, by silencing the clamour of one party, work the downfall of another;principle which, happily for England, has -never yet been openly avowed or acted upon within the limit of her empire; a principle which, whatever may be the clerks' fate, would, if once recognized, annihilate, at a blow, the very contract which binds society together, and which would cause, in ten seconds, ten million fold more of real mischief and misery to

-a

to prevent which, Sir Andrew Ramsay, provost of Edinburgh, did thereafter induce the town to buy it at the rate of dation of his court with Lauderdale, who 5000 lib. sterling; and this was the founhated him formerly as one who waited entirely on the Earl of Middletoun.

Thus Scotland was entirely freed from the English soldiers and garrisons; served well of his country, and magnified and Lauderdale, upon this accompt, dehimself in it as a great testimony of his love for Scotland; and to evidence his affection the more, he did, in presence of his majesty, sit down and kiss the warrant with great deinonstrations of joy. But this excessive boasting, that he had prevail'd in this over Hyde, Middletoun, and all the English, did somewhat contribute

Sir George Mackenzie, who was Lord Advocate in 1677, was the author of several works on the laws and antiquities of Scotland, some elegant Latin compositions, particularly the tract intitled Idea eloquentiæ forensis,' and Characteres quorundam apud Scotos advocatorum.' He also wrote a volume of Moral Essays. Of his qualifications for an historian, Sir George seems to have been fully sensible, as he declares that no man hath writ an history who knew more intimately the designs, and observed more narrowly all the circumstances of those actions he sets down, than myself; having being either actor in or witness to all the transactions which I mention.' Although this work does not ensue, than ever the dirty parings of a bring forward any new facts of much few score scribblers' salaries could effec-importance, yet we consider it as one tuate of good in the course of ten centus of those collateral aids to history, whichlege of shipping.

merly been entertained betwixt the nations; and occasioned the making of those severe acts, whereby the Parliament of England debarr'd the Scots from freedom of trade in their plantations, and from enjoying the benefit of natives in the privi

to renew the old discords which had for