when he was killed at Madagascar, sought an asylum in this island, where she terminated her eventful career.

He next visits the romantic and beautiful Isle of Bourbon, which, at times, is rendered a real place of exile, by a tremendous surf. He does not omit to notice its volcano, which is still active, and inferior only to Ætna in height and character.

Again departing, after a passage of forty-five days they approach the north-western coast of New Holland, where nothing meets their eyes but sterility and desolation. Here, for the first time, they encounter a wandering party of savages; as black as ebony, small in stature, uncouth in aspect, and noisy in speech. Fear and suspicion, however, shorten the interview; and our navigators, finding nothing to excite or gratify curiosity, gladly direct their course for Coupang, in the Isle of Timor, which, after being twice captured by the British arms in the late war, was restored to the Dutch in 1816. Here M. Arago had an opportunity of contemplating the characters and habits of the Malays, and conversing with two of their chiefs. From them he learnt that the priests are soothsayers and consulted on all important affairs. They are permitted to marry, and their functions are hereditary. In every town is a "sacred house," where the augur resides, and is intrusted with the custody of the royal treasure. Thither are brought the heads of all prisoners taken in war, and after the brains are extracted, they are hung on the neighbouring trees, as trophies. Marriages are not accompanied with any religious ceremony; but the bride is purchased with presents, equal to her supposed value. Infants are carried to the "sacred house" to be named. Funerals are celebrated with singing; and the corpse, after being exposed on a mat, is thrown into a pit, with the valuables most prized by the deceased during life. The dignity of Rajah, or King, is hereditary, but the succession is vested in the brothers before the sons. From Timor they repaired to the neighbouring island, Omboy, where they had farther opportunities of observing the genuine Malay character, unchanged by foreign restraint. They were at first sullenly received by the natives, but gradually

won on their haughtiness and reserve, and were gratified with the inspection of their arms and habitations, and a representation of their combats, which are marked by activity, energy, and ferocity. The offensive weapons of these people are kresses, bows, and arrows; and their defensive, a buckler of leather, ornamented with shells, and a species of cuirass formed of the same material. All attempts to procure a sight of their women were entirely fruitless.

After a passage, rendered extremely irksome, by calms and oppressive heat, they reached Diely, where they were received with the most friendly attentions by the Portuguese governor. Having given a description of this place, M. Arago takes a general view of the Molucca Islands; ands; which, though forming a striking contrast with the sterile coast of New Holland, are as little desirable for an abode. Under the general luxuriance, with which they are clothed, lurk danger and death, from venomous reptiles, and unhealthy exhalations; while the scathed and scattered trunks of trees display the ravages of the tempest; and the natives, sunk to the lowest state of brutal ferocity, persecute each other with all the fury and inveteracy of wild beasts.

Passing Amboyna, they enter a strait, formed by a cluster of small islands, where they are followed by a fleet of piratical canoes. At the dawn, they find themselves in the midst of a cluster of pointed rocks, rising from the water like steeples, and rendered the more dangerous by rapid currents. They anchor in shallow water, and at length, by the aid of a favourable wind, succeed in extricating themselves from their peril. Soon afterwards they have an opportunity of contemplating savage life in its lowest stage of degradation, at the islands of Rawack and Waigooe, on the coast of New Guinea. Here they find another sable race; short in person and ill-formed, stupid in countenance, repulsive in manners, and rendered loathsome by leprosy. Fishing seems their sole occupation, and chief means of subsistence, and in this they show all the dexterity of habit, descrying their prey at a com siderable distance in the water, and striking it with a bamboo lance.

Their canoes and habitations are equally rude; and their cookery as rude as either.

From hence a pleasing transition is made to the Archipelago of the Caroline islands, through which the Inavigators pass. They are visited by the natives, who appear familiar, docile, and inoffensive, and differ in every respect from those of New Guinea. Pursuing their course they -reach Guam, one of the Marianne islands, and are welcomed at Agag na by the Spanish governor. This miserable place scarcely deserves the name of a town, for nine-tenths of the habitations are covered with the mid-ribs of the cocoa. The palace of the governor was newly whitewashed, and decorated for their reception; but the guards of his excellency presented the most ludicrous burlesque on military parade which it is possible to conceive. The of ficers appeared with swords of the days of Charlemagne; spatterdashes, in which the legs were left at their ease; coats, trailing on the ground; and an opera hat, of which the corners descended to the shoulders. The condition of the natives is in every way deplorable. Huddled together, with their domestic animals, in their confined and wretched habitations, they are almost universally tainted with leprosy, which here assumes its most disgusting aspect. They sleep two-thirds of the day, and work the other third by constraint; so that the country bears, even in the very vicinity of the town, the cheerless garb of neglect. Nor are their moral better than their physical habits. Immersed in the grossest superstition and ignorance, they have little notion of religion, beyond its processions and ceremonies; while the character of both sexes is exceeding ly licentious. Foundations are instituted bearing the titles of a col lege, and secondary schools; but nothing appears to be taught, except reading and singing. The value attached to education is shown by the mode in which its labours are rewarded. The superior of the college receives six dollars a month, with a shirt, and an allowance of provisions; and the stipend of the masters, attached to the secondary schools, amounts only to two dollars monthly. Still, however, before they were de

household and menial offices. If in equal circumstances, these toils are divided. In domestic life also, disputes between the men are settled by the women; but in disputes between the women, no man presumes to interfere. The same superiority is shown in their various sports and dances.

Returning to Guam, he witnesses the songs and dances of the natives of the Caroline Islands. The first are marked by harmony and simplicity; the latter by voluptuousness, grace, variety, and a dexterity truly astonishing. As this interesting people are drawn hither in great numbers by traffic, he availed himself of the opportunity to study their character, and obtain information on their manners and customs. He describes them as amiable, unaffected, and sincere; and bearing in their countenances the calm of innocence and cheerfulness. Their skill and hardihood as navigators are worthy of admiration. In their frail proas, which are only four feet wide and forty long, they make voyages of 600 leagues, guided only by the stars and experience. On the water, no perils appear to repress their enterprising spirit; no difficulties to baffle their perseverance. So much importance do they attach to an art, which their situation renders of the first necessity, that schools of navigation are established in the different islands, under the superintendance of their ablest pilots; and the young men are not permitted to marry till they have given undeniable proofs of dexterity in the management of their proas. Our author conversed with one of these pilots, who manifested a superior degree of sagacity and intelligence. By means of grains of Indian corn, he indicated the isles of the Archipelago, and their relative positions. He named them, pointed out those which were easy or difficult of access, and described their productions. To explain how his country men guide their vessels, he formed a kind of rude compass, with pieces of bamboo, showed the general course of the winds, and the situation of the stars and constellations; and said, that when deprived of these guides, they regulated their course by the currents, with which they were accurately acquainted. He answered

Soon afterwards they received an invitation to visit O Riou Riou, the reigning sovereign, who had established his residence at Toyai. They repaired thither, and found him a fat, heavy, dirty man, and a prey to unsightly disease. His dwelling was a poor straw-built hut, 25 or 30 feet long, and half as many wide; and the roof covered with cocoa leaves and sea-weed. The same military indications prevailed here as at Kayerooa: guns were mounted to command the shore, and abundance of soldiers paraded in every direction, At a subsequent interview his ma jesty appeared in the uniform of a colonel of hussars, with a hat like those worn by the marshals of France. From Mr. Young, an Englishman, long domiciliated here, as well as from a talkative, conceited Gascon, who assumed the character of a physician, they obtained much information on the politics of the island; and from the indolent and inefficient character of the reigning sovereign, were led to anticipate an approaching convulsion and change of govern

ment.

The period of their arrival was, indeed, peculiarly critical; for it was soon after the death of Tamahaamah, who was long before known to Eu rope by the narrative of Vancouver. The character of this chief excites at once surprise and admiration. By native energy of mind he raised himself and his country from barbarism and ignorance-judiciously turned to advantage the example and assistance of Europeans and Americans-curbed the turbulent spirit of his chiefsestablished a police, and put a stop to the sanguinary rites of his subjects. He laid also the foundation of a naval power, and formed an army, which he reduced to the most rigorous discipline. His very virtues, however, were tinctured with the savage character. He was severe in his punishments; and actuated with a spirit of conquest, which was not bounded to the Sandwich islands, for he meditated the invasion of the more distant groupes of the Friendly and Society Isles, when death put a period to his career. His memory is cherished with a degree of respect amounting almost to adoration, and his name is

never mentioned without awakening the most lively emotions of grief and regret. This feeling is heightened by the contrast between his heroic character and that of his indolent and inefficient son. He purchased a brig and two fine schooners from the Americans, increased the number of his double or war canoes, built forts, and collected magazines of arms and ammunition; and, at his death, left the sum of 500,000 dollars in his treasury,

It would be unreasonable to expect, from voyagers of the present day, any important addition to that knowledge of these islands which we have derived from Cook, Vancouver, and others. The want of chastity among the women is, however, strongly marked; and, from the account of M. Arago, this failing pervades every rank of society, not excepting the wives of the chiefs, who appeared by no means disposed to repel any degree of familiarity. Their system of domestic polity is yet ill understood; but it appears, that the most severe and frequent punishments are inflicted for breaches of the taboo. Their modes of execution are, by dashing out the brains of the offender with a club, or fastening him to a tree and strangling him with a cord passed round the neck. As if to add to the poignancy of suffering, the criminal is previously subjected to a fast of forty-eight hours. Women are punished with death for eating of bananas, hogs, or cocoa nuts for tasting food dressed at a fire kindled by a man, or even for smoking a pipe which a man has lighted.

From the Sandwich isles the crew of the Uranie expected to proceed to Otaheite; and they had scarcely put to sea before they revelled in imagination in the delights of that abode of licentious pleasure, but, to their regret and disappointment, their course was directed to New South Wales. On reaching Sydney, our author was surprised to discover the arts and refinements of Europe in a country which, a few years ago, was a mere wilderness, and brought into cultivation by the hands of felons. He speaks in the warmest terms of the attention which he and his fellowvoyagers experienced, but his descriptions offer no novelty to the English reader. We shall therefore merely observe, that they sailed for Cape Horn; but, on approaching that point, they were shipwrecked on one of the Malouine, or Falkland, islands. Here their voyage of discovery may be said to terminate. After struggling some time with the difficulties of their situation, they were enabled to hire an American vessel, which was employed in the seal fishery at a neighbouring island. They proceeded to Monte Video, where they made a short stay-then

to Rio Janeiro-and, finally, disembarking at Havre, had again the satisfaction of breathing their native air.

We have only to add, that the narrative is illustrated with a series of plates, in the lithographic style, which appear to be spirited and accurate representations; and that the translation, in general, is well executed, though the diction of the original is occasionally deformed with a little national affectation.

FROM the last of these lines, which we have selected as our motto, some of our readers will perhaps conclude that this book is a jocular performance, or, as it has been termed of late years, a hoax. But it was put into our hands very seriously, with a desire that we should review it; and it is our intention to treat it with all due gravity. The writer tells us in his preface that he has lived in Italy many years, and (to use his own phrase) that "he is likely to continue;" that "he has attached himself entirely unto the chief of the celebrated Tuscan triumvirate," and "proposes an historical, philosophical, critical elucidation of his author's sentiments and intentions, because the different works, historical or literary, to which the reader may recur, have too lengthened a way before them to allow of their delaying on the same topics more than more or less cursorily." "The variety, shortness, and independence of the articles" of his work, " would," he says, "render it as fit to be taken up and thrown down, and taken up again, as Montaigne's Essays; not that he supposes any one will be so ungenerous as to suspect him of presuming to compare himself to Montaigne, except merely as to the unconnected nature of the parts of their compositions." In a short

Commentator's Translation, p. 430. account of Dante's writings, he enumerates his "Historical Tracts, in Italian, of which very little now remains" (we believe so, having never before heard of any), and omits the Vita Nuova; which is of the less importance, as all other biographers have noticed it. He then gives us some information, touching Dante himself, which is equally novel and curious; that "of the various remarkable men of his day, whether Italians, French, Germans, Spaniards, or Saracens, there was scarcely one with whom he was not personally acquainted." The writer does not tell us how he found out this; but it is sufficient that he says so. His reasons for concluding that Dante was intimate with Marco Polo are so strongly put, that it would be vain to dispute them: "With Marco Polo, the earliest modern who performed a famous voyage of discovery, Dante must have been intimately acquainted, and learned from him many things about the countries beyond the Line, which are not to be found in Polo's book." Nothing indeed is easier to show, if we admit this proof (and who will question it?), that Dante must have been intimately acquainted with all the authors of his own time, and learned from them many things not to be found in their books.

*. London,