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the meeting of a widowed father and his daughter, which would move the heart of a warrior, an African merchant, or a minister of state, though professionally obliged, by public spirit, to steel their nature against the emotions of humanity.

Unspeakable were the hardships to which good M. PAGES was reduced, and indeed willing to suffer, in his passage through the vast and uncultivated country of these sons of nature; a bearskin was his bed, a bear-skin his roof, and a bear-skin his wardrobe and kitchen. Hunger, thirst, fever, and fatigue, were his constant companions, from Nachitoches to San Antonio, to which he travelled through Adaisses and Naquadoch, where he found a great number of Spaniards, half savage, hunting on horseback for their subsistence, but (as they had either fallen back from civilization, or had not arrived at it) brave, humane, compassionate, and hofpitable. In his passage from San Antonio to New Mexico, he found great errors in the accounts that have been given of the Spanish posts in that vast region; and he has composed a map of New Mexico, which (according to the report of the Commissaries of the Academy) contains several things entirely new with respect to the geography of that country. In this voyage our Author observed, that malignity and perfidy were in a visible progreffive proportion to rank and birth, and that morals diminished in the fame proportion; so that of the savage, the Indian, the Creole, and the Spaniard, the latter was always the least sociable and virtuous. His description of the opulence, luxury, and magnificence, that reign in the city of Mexico, coincides with the reports of other travellers, which are generally known.

From Mexico M. PAGES proceeded to the port of Acapulco, where he set sail for Manilla, and made, during his patlage, several observations on the winds and seasons. He vifited the Phillippine and Marianne Islands, the latter of which, though highty worthy of the curiofity of travellers, are too much neglected. He refided some time among the islanders of Guam and Samar, whom the Spanish missionaries have converted, and govern by the whip, and such like wholesome severities, and hold in the most servile and fawning fubmiffion. He found the inhabitants of Manilla chearful, lively, witty, and dextrous, charitable alfo, and remarkable for their hofpitality. The members of the same family, and even the strangers who lodge with them, fleep in the fame apartment, on matts spread on the ground, men, women, and children promifcuously, without the least instance of indecency. They are also remarkable for conjugal fidelity and domeftic union. Their children, until the age of ten or twelve, have no other clothing than a shirt, that defcends no lower than the waift, and think, that when their shoulders are covered, all the demands of modesty are answered. It is only when

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when certain tender emotions determine the heart in favour of a particular object, that fimplicity yields to a fenfe of shame: with respect to all indifferent perfons, nakedness seeks no cover ing but confcious innocence.

From Manilla our Traveller passed to Batavia, one of the fineft cities in the East Indies, often described, and well known. He obferves, that the Dutch fettlements in that region are less' folid than those of the Spaniards in the Philippines, because the Dutch leave the Indian chiefs in the poffeffion of their sovereignty, and are almost always at war with one or other of them, whereas the Spaniards are incorporated with the people of the Islands they poflefs, and thus keep them effectually in tranquillity and fubordination. We shall not examine the folidity of this obfervation, but we are furprised that'a man of our Author's humanity, should propose the conduct of the Spaniards in the Philippines as a model to any civilized nation, after the accounts he gives us, in this very work, of their defpotifm, cruelty, and injustice. "Take the following story for a fample:

"An Indian Prince, named Ifrael, fovereign of Holo, and "other adjacent Islands, having been unsuccessful in a war with " one of his relations, came to seek an asylum and affistance " from the Spaniards at Manilla. He brought with him a con" fiderable treafure, sent two large and precious pearls in a pre

fent to the king of Spain, received baptifm, with his whole "family, and put away his wives (for he was a Mahometan.") All this did not move the Spanish Colonists, however adapted it was to flatter their superstition, and excite compaffion. "They "employed every artifice successfully to rob the Prince of his "treafures, reduced his relations and retinue, in a great mea""fure,' to the condition of slaves, and after having stripped "him of every thing, concluded by putting him in prifon: "where he remained until the arrival of the English at Manilla, "who took him under their protection, and restored him to his "liberty and his dominions."

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From Batavia our Traveller went to Bombay and Surat. His description of the Guebres and the Yoguis is curious. The penitential abfurdities of the latter are still beyond those of Simeon the Stylite, but some of them precisely of the fame kind. Whether are we to laugh or weep, when we fee a poor wretch, who is classed in the rank of reasonable beings, creeping round" a whole kingdom like a snail, on his belly, or remaining on one spot during the whole course of his life, with one arm in the air? M. Pages speaks amply of the Mahrattas; he lived among them, adopted their dress, their customs, and manners, and thus ftudied their characters and their policy at his leifure. He praises them much;-but, in reality, no creature that bears the human form seems barbarous or favage in his eye, except

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the civilized and polished part of the human species. A long navigation from Surat to Bafsora in the Perfian Gulph, and a voyage of 600 leagues by land, through the defarts of Arabia, in company with tribes of wandering Arabs, with whom he lived in the strictest amity, gave him full opportunity of obferving the characters, policy, and territories of that nation. But is it not furprizing to hear him say, that these tribes never plunder but in war, and always treat, both with humanity and generofity, fuch as have recourse to their protection for a safe pafsage through these howling defarts? On his arrival at Damas, he was well received by the Jesuits, passed through the country of Quefrouan, which is full of Roman Catholics, and led for fome time the life of a shepherd, tending his flocks on the mountains of Libarius. He then embarked at Baruth, and arrived at Marseilles in December 1771. - Here ends the first voyage of M. PAGES.

The second voyage, towards the South Pole, was undertaken in 1773 and 1774, by order of Government. An armed ship ar.l a frigate were granted to our Traveller for that expedition. He was to take the Cape of Good Hope in his way, and to put in at the Hle of France, where he was to chuse as affociates of his labours, fuch of the officers of that garrison as were fit for his purpose. On his arrival at the Cape, he fought for every kind of information that might direct his course into the interior parts of the African Continent, and facilitate his acquaintance with the Hottentots, of the wilder and freer kind, that have little or no communication with the Europeans. He even entertained the thoughts of travelling as far as Tunis. But this design was not executed. M. Pages, however, is firmly perfuaded of one thing, which we do not remember to have seen advanced by any writer, viz. that there is a communication of commerce and intercourse between the inhabitants of Africa, from the Cape to the Mediterranean, and from the oriental to the occidental coaff's of that great Continent. The immense and arid defarts that lie under the equator, the mountains of fand, which often roll, like the waves of the ocean, under the fury of tempests, and threaten the traveller with unavoidable deftruction, the lions, tigers, and other wild beasts that abound in thefe deferts, have always been confidered as unfurmountable obstacles to the communication and intercourse, of which our Author speaks with fuch confidence. His informations, however, from the Negroes, and a variety of other arguments, which really seem decisive, render him tenacious of this opinion.

His account of the Cape, though entertaining and accurate, exhibits nothing hitherto unknown. But the time may not be far off, when important discoveries, relative both to the natural and moral hiftory of that country, and of the interior of Africa, will be communicated by a most ingenious and inquifitive observer, who has spent a great number of years in investigations of this kind, and is still upon the spot.

In our Author's account of the manners and characters of the inhabitants of the Cape, we find the relation of a bold and magnanimous act of humanity, which we were acquainted with before, but which deserves to be mentioned here, were there but one of our Readers to whom it is yet unknown. The hero that performed it was a native of Holland, who had lived, from his early youth, a rural life in the Colony. He happened to be on horseback on the coast, at the very point of time that a vessel was shipwrecked by a dreadful tempest: the greatest part of the crew perished in the waves: the remainder were struggling with death on the shattered planks, that still floated on the furface of the water: no boat could be sent out in such a dreadful storm, for the deliverance of these poor people: the humane and intrepid Hollander undertakes to save them; he blows brandy into the nostrils of his horse, and fixing himself firmly in his stirrups, he plunges into the sea, and gaining the wreck, brings back to the thore two men of the crew, each of whom held by one of his boots. In this manner he went and returned seven times, and thus saved fourteen of the passengers. But the eighth time (and here the generous heart will almost fail) on his return, a rapid and immense surge overset his horse, the heroic rider loft his feat, and was swallowed up with the two unfortunate victims he was endeavouring to snatch from death. What exit could be more glorious than that of this generous man l We celebrate the chiefs who expire in the field of battle, among the victims they had been facrificing; and if their motives were juft and publ c fpirited, let them have their glory! but we cannot help contemplating with a more pleasing kind of admiration this intrepid man, dying in an attempt to save his fel." low-creatures from destruction. The story is true: the man's name, which our Author does not mention, was Altemade; and, if we are not mistaken, the Dutch East-India Company paid a just tribute of veneration to his memory.

We pass over in filence our Author's account of the Hottentots, with respect to whom he obtained much information, though he had not the pleasure of contracting with them that intimate and personal acquaintance he so ardently defired, nor of adopting their manners and way of life. During his stay at the Cape he made several observations on birds, fishes, and other objects of Natural History, which the Reader will with pleasure find in his work. He proceeded from the Cape to the Iles of France and Bourbon: the latter of these settlements is in a much more flourishing state than the former, and the reasons he assigns for it may thus be shortly expressed, that the inhabitants

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of the one island are intriguing coxcombs, while those of the other (the Bourbons) are industrious husbandmen.

And now he fets out for the grand object, the discovery of unknown lands in the southern regions: but to very little, indeed, do these discoveries amount. He saw at a certain distance some ifles in the 49th and 50th degree of south latitude, to which he gave names; he landed on a coaft, which he called Cape-François, where he faw some Penguins and fea-lions, but neither trees, nor any thing that announced inhabitants; he difcovered a point of land that separated two bays; he made experiments on the fea-water, its weight, and the quantity of falt which it contains in different latitudes, and then he returned to Madagascar.

This great ifsland, though often mentioned by travellers, is yet but imperfectly known, and every new comer may find something to relate that has not fallen under the observation of his predeceffors. Our Traveller represents the inhabitants as goodnatured and sprightly, but destitute of genius, vain, selfish, fantastical, and inconfiftent in their actions. They have no religious worship, but believe, nevertheless, the existence of a a fupreme Being, who is just and good, and who will judge, after death, all men. It is odd enough that this belief should not have produced some external act of religion. But things Aill more odd are recorded of these Islanders by our Traveller; for they circumcise their male children in their seventh or eighth year, nay sometimes wait longer, that they may have a greater number for the operation, and thus render the festival more brilliant." Nor is this all: for they charge their guns with the Aeshy superfluities that have been lopped off in this ceremony, and fire them with the greatest demonstrations of joy.-We wish our Author had enquired into the meaning and origin of this festivity: we can well conceive that circumcifion may be practifed for phyfical reasons, but it is probable that these exceffive demonstrations of joy, with which it is attended, originate from some superftitious principles

M. PAGES thinks that very useful fettlements might be formed at Madagascar; and he points out the methods of forming them with fuccess. These are followed by judicious observations on the regimen that is neceffary to preserve the health of feamen in unhealthy climates, and many other interesting remarks and relations, which give this work a very diftinguished rank among modern voyages.

From Madagascar our Traveller returned to the Cape, where he continued his observations on that colony and the adjacent countries. From thence he fet fail for Europe the 26th of Juns 1774, and arrived at Brest on the 8th of September following.

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