and the fkin more vulnerable. We eat of many, the flefh was good, and not. unlike the taste of beef. We fent two of the pilots to the neareft higheft land to try to find a paffage or an opening; but all was ice as far as ever the eye could range. The hip drove bodily with the ice N. W. and S. E. as the tides or winds affected. We altered our foundings from 33 to 23 fathoms of water, though the ground was much the fame. We dispatched now another party of people to the westernmost island, They were gone about twenty hours, being twenty miles diftant from the fhips. They met with nothing on their journey but bears and their cubs, a number of which were killed from the vellels, Our fituation beginning now to grow rather fixed and ferious, a council of officers was affembled, at which the pilots af fifted, to confult about the fate of the fhips; when it was unanimoully agreed, that there was no peffibility of faving them, as the ice prefied them together very much, unless it feparated; which could only be at the gracious interpofition of Providence. The next confideration was felf-prefervation. The feafon being now far advanced, and we at a great diftance from any vefiels, it was refolved to prepare the boats, and fit them, with coverings, fo that we might drag them over the ice, until we obtained clear water, when they were to be lanched; and in them we were to endeavour to obtain the northermoft harbour of Spitioergen, in hopes of joining fome of the late thips which might not be failed to the fouthward. Our people in this dilemma were all in the higheft fpirits; fo we got out our lanches and boats, and prepared them for fkating over the ice, Every man had a canvas bag given him, which contained iwenty pounds of bread, without diftinction of perfons; each man being obliged to prepare for his own fafety. It was now one entire fcene of confufion in all our cabins: for the officers had clothed themselves in fuch things as they best approved; the reft were given to the feamen to fit themselves as they liked bel, and to take any thing which was more acceptable than their own. The failors, who, amidft every diftreis, never lofe their jokes or their fpirits, clad themfelves in what appeared the moft valuable; fo that the two ships companies made up a moft motley masquerade The fhip was found to fhoal her water coutinually to even thirteen fathom: and now no hope was left of safety, bu by trying the chance of an expedition over the ice; for which the people, at 4. p.m. on Sunday Aug. 8. were al prepared, and with uncommon alacrity left their fhips frozen up. In this fituation we remained ten days; all which time we were in the highet fpirits, and promifed ourselves a fur voyage in the boats to the fouthward. Happily, upon the 9th of Auguft, the ice began to break, the people returned, and we forced the fhips through into clear water: in preffing the fhips with fail, one large piece of ice ftruck the thank of the best bower anchor, and broke it fort off. Ap The following day at noon, we difo vered Brandy island, N. E., fix leagues, and foon after we faw a fhip in the S. W quarter. On the 12th of Auguft we ar chored in Smeringburg harbour, wher we found fome Dutch fhips. In this por we erected tents for the conveniency baking our bread; and Capt. Phipps fome of the officers carried on fhore aftronomical inftrument to try tho periments which the climate and our tuation afforded. After a flag of e days, we failed from hence to the w ward, being about N. N. W. de leagues off Hacluit's head-land. We remained amongst the ice, being ab three miles to the fouthward of the ma body; and about two in the morning Aug. 21, we flood for the fouthward, the Carcase in company. From this tic to the 12th of September, we fteered to the fouthward. When in the latitude 56 d. 57 m. we met with a very bea gale of wind, and shipped feveral le which flove our boats, washed away c booms, and many provision-casks, an obliged us to heave fome of our guas verboard. The weather continued ny days variable, blowing very hard times, and being very thick, we loft con pany with the Carcafe. In the mor of Sept. 24. we made Orford-Nels; & four days afterwards arrived izk Woolwich with our confort the Carr having been out three months and two four days; in which time we accompl ed a moft difficult voyage, with the of only one man, and penetrated fart to the northward than any navigator done Lefore. i I cannot conclude this narrative withit doing every juftice to the character Capt. Phipps, who is not lefs diftinifhed as a fea-officer than as a fenator: r to the calmeft temper, the foundeft dgement, and the clearest head, is addthe braveft and moft generous heart. o the principles of a patriot and a hero annexed the milk of human kindness; r with Terence we may fay of him, That he is a man and all calamities hich, touch humanity come home to m.' The intention of this voyage to the orthward, was meant only as a preface a greater undertaking, to try at a difoverty of the North-Weft paffage, and › prove the magnetic attraction of the eedle. The various northern voyages ready written are fo numerous, that it would be endless even to compare them ith that of Capt. Phipps. A contention as long fubfifted between the Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and English navigaors: many attempts have been made by he mariners of thefe countries to excel 1 their difcoveries, and many of them, t confequence of this exertion, to bear he victory from the others, have made alfe reports of their latitudes gained. I annot, however, find out, from all the. maps and, voyages I have perufed, that ny navigators have been farther to the weftward by the land than Capt. Phipps, whofe extreme latitude was 80 d. 35 m. N. the Table inland then bearing N. N. E. four miles; and then they faw land o the N. N. E. twenty leagues. It is difficult to determine whether thefe fhips ould have obtained a higher latitude by ceping more in with the western fhore, Not that I believe they could; for it ems to be one unfrozen continent of ndiffoluble ice. But fuppofing in the eight of the fummer-months, a paffage vas free for a fhort time; even then it is not to be fuppofed that any fhips could ttempt voyages through fo uncertain a lime. Thefe voyages therefore can only produce fatisfaction to the aftronomical mind; they never can be made reful to the merchant. " No officer in his Majefty's fervice was o well calculated for fuch an undertaing as Capt. Phipps; for, added to a obust constitution, he has a moft excelent capacity and education. When men of fuch fortunes and abilities undertake fuch ordeals, the public receive benefit from their obfervations: nor do we doubt, but Capt. Phipps will honour the world with a perufal of his expedition; of which this is but a small sketch, and done with a defign rather to excite the defires of the public than minutely to gratify. Dr Irwine, a moft ingenious philofopher, who attended this expedi tion, made many trials on the falt water. to frefhen it; and from the experiments made, there is no doubt of the fuccefs of his invention. In this expedition, Me Foxon's perpetual logg was tried with great fuccefs in blowing weather, and when a fea followed the fhip; but in light breezes and fmooth water, the old logg was found to be equally accurate: great merit, however, is due to the invention of Foxón; and fo good an artist deferves encouragement at the hands of the admiralty. The man was bred a carpenter, and ferved in that capacity in the India fervice, wherein for three voyages he tried the qualities of his invention; and, upon an average, it was found to correct the fhip's run between ten and feven miles every twenty-four hours. Lord Sandwich has recommended the machine to the navy-board, who have ordered them into the fhips of war. We will now leave thefe Polar Explorers; and for the fake of the anxious public, we folicit from them a more full and circumftantial account of this expedition, particularly of Capt. Phipps, who had fuch fuperior advantages of obfervation, and who poffeffes fuch fuperior abilities to the author of this journal. To take creafes and wrinkles out of parch» ment. Mear lightly over the creafes and wrinkles fome pafte, fuch as is nfed by bookbinders. Then prefs the places that are crumpled and creafed, with a fmooth folding tick, on the blank or back fide of the parchment; placing firft feve ral feets of foft and fiooth paper underneath. Then, with a linen cloth, a little moiftened with water, wipe the paffe all off, and place two or three fheets of the like paper on the fide that was pafted, and pais a hot flat iron, uted for ironing linen, over the whole, prefling it flowly and forcibly. When this is done, prefs the whole in a bookbinder's ftanding-prefs, or a napkin-prefs. Jan. 20. 1774. 700 A catalogue of NEW BOOKS, with remarks and extracts, continned. [6543 A voyage to the Ile of France, the Ife of Bourbon, the Cape of Good Hope, &c. with new obfervations on Nature and Mankind. By an officer in the French fervice. French. 2 vols, 8vo. Amfterdam. THefe volumes confift of a feries of letters written by the author to his friends, during his refidence in the feveral places of which he fpeaks. The obfervations they contain, are natural and moral. The native plants and animals of each ifland, with its prior and its prefent ftate, and the genius and manners of its inhabitants, are refpectively defcribed and what particularly recommends, we had almoft faid, endears the author to his readers, is the tingular humanity with which he protefts against the fufferings of the poor black flaves. "I truft," fays he, "I fhall not be found altogether ufelefs to the interefts of human nature, if the imperfect picture I have drawn of the fufferings of the unfortunate negroes may be a means of faving them a fingle whipping!" He laments that the Europeans, who, in their own country, exclaim against defpotifm, and write fuch fine treatifes on morals, do not "relax in their tyranny and barbarity to the Indians.' This traveller poffeffes one quality, which no writer of travels ought to want, -abilities for defcription. It is in proportion to thefe that a book of travels will always be found good or bad; and from thefe Mr Brydone's account of Etna, and, indeed, his whole book, derives its principal excellence. Our author's account of the ftorm in the Mofambic channel, is moft tremendous! It is horrible, beyond expreffion! We fee it; we are in the form; thunders that more than fun the car,-that ftun the foul! the dark depth of night admitting dreadful avenues of day through the almoft inceffant lightning! the mortal wave, feen advancing through this infernal medium, in fhape and bulk a mondrous mountain, its head in the fkies, fcaled on its heaving fides by fmaller hills,-feen fill advancing; 'tis - death and horror! 'tis upon us! - We want fea-terms to give the minutiae of the voyager's defcription, but fuch are the ideas it excites in us. One would naturally fuppofe that it must be fome very defirable port that horrors of the Mofambic; but the s France is a miferable place. We for need to inform our readers, that itis fame inland which, in the poffefion of Dutch, was called Mauritius; and tim} when they obtained a fettlement a Cape, they left it. France took the fufe, and, in her genuine style, gave ragged portion the name of one of most beautiful domeftic provinces, t Ifle of France, where stands the gla city of Paris, the fountain-head of po nefs, of the Beaux Arts and the Lettres! could induce a man to encounter It is not worth while to detain readers with a minute account of as gion, of which Nature seems to have ken no account; for all her producti here are of the mouvaise Genie: No bird of fong to chear the gloomy dee No animals of gentle loves caliven! Our spirited traveller employs his r letter entirely on the negroes. The terefts of humanity are concerned, n we fhall fuffer him to plead them in l own way : "Among the rest of the people offi inland are the Indians and the nege The former are the Malabars, of a gr and tractable difpofition. Thefe com from Pondicherry, and let themfelver hire for a number of years. They almost all artificers. They live in a fe urb called Blacks Field [Camp des Nr They are of a deeper tinct than t iflanders of Madagascar, who are ther nuine negroes; but their features an: regular as thofe of the Europeans, their hair is not frizzled, They are fober, good economifts, and remarkab fond of the women *. They wear a tr ban on their heads, and long ma gowns, large gold rings in their ears, filver bracelets on their wrifts. Somer them let themfeives to people of fathe in quality of pions, a kind of dom like our running footmen, except thath does all his offices with great gravity fobriety. By way of diftinction, he car By our traveller's leave, we have know in England, fervants from Malabar, who their perfons, indeed, perfectly anfwered defeription he gives, but in manners were the reverfe; for they were neither remarkab for fobriety, economy, nor fondness of w men. a cane in his hand, and a poniard at his girdle. It were to be wished that fome confiderable number of Malabars were fettled on the island, particularly in the labouring department; but I never faw one that would apply himself to agriculture. The blacks that are employed in cultivation are chiefly from Madagascar. You may purchafe a man for a barrel of gunpowder, firelocks, nets, and especially for piaftres. The highest price is never more than fifty crowns. The negroes of Madagascar have neither fuch flat nofes, nor fuch dark complexions, as the Guinea negroes. There are fome of them mere brunets; others, the Balamboos particularly, have long hair. I have feen whites and reds. They are adroit, intelligent, fentible of honour and gratitude. The greateft infult you can exercise upon a black, is to do an injury to his family; they are not very fenfible of personal injuries. In their own country they apply themfelves to many little handicrafts with great industry. Their zagaye, or half-pike, is very well forged, though they have nothing but ftones for their anvil and their hammer. Their linen, which their women weave, is fine, and well coloured. They throw it over their shoulders in a graceful manner. Their heads are in a very orderly and regular frifure, difpofed in curls and treffes with great art; and this is the talk of the women. They are paffionately fond of dancing and mufic, Their inftrument is the tamtam, a kind of bow, to which a calibah is fitted. They draw from it a foft kind of harmony, accompanied with fongs of their own compofition. Love is always the fubject. The girls dance to the fongs. of their lovers. The fpectators beat time, and applaud the performance. Thefe poor people are extremely hofpitable. A black, when on his journey, goes into the first house that fuits his exigency; and, though unknown, the family thare their provifions with him. He is neither asked whence he comes, nor whither he goes. It is the custom of their country. With fuch arts and fuch manners they come to the life of France. They are fet on fhore naked, except a rag that covers their loins. The men are ranged on one fide, and the women on the other, with their little children, who cling aVOL. XXXV. bout the mother through fear, › The planter examines the whole, and purchases fuch as fuit him. Brothers, fifters, friends, lovers, are feparated. They take leave of each other with tears, and depart for the plantation. Sometimes they are feized with defpair, and imagine that the whites are going to eat thein, that they intend to make red wine of their blood, and gunpowder of their bones. In this manner they are treated,: At day-break, three cracks of the whip are the fignal that calls them to work. Each man appears in the plantation with his mattock, where he works ahnoft naked in the heat of the fun. Their food is ground maize boiled in water, or bread of the manioc.. Their cloathing is, a fcrap of linen. For the leaft neglect they are bound hand and foot on a ladder. Their commander, armed with a poftilion's whip, ftands over them, and gives them, on their naked pofteriors, fifty, an hundred, or two hundred lathes. Every lah brings off a portion of the skin. The poor wretch, covered with his blood, is then let loose. An iron chain is put round his neck, and he is dragged back to his work. Some of thefe miferable creatures are not able to fit down for a month after. The women are punished in the fame manner. When they return at evening to their huts, they are made to pray to God for the profperity of their mafters; and, before they go to reft, they wish them a good night. There is a law made in their favour, called the Black Code. This law ordains, that at each punishment they fhall receive no more than thirty lafhes; that they fhall not be obliged to work on Sundays; that they fhall have their provifions weekly, their fhirts yearly. But this law is not obferved. Sometimes, when they grow old, they are turned adrift to get their living as they can. One day I faw one of them, who was nothing but fkin and bone, cutting some flesh from a dead horse to eat. It appeared to be one ikeleton devouring another. When the Europeans feemed affected, the inhabitants told them, that they did not know the blacks; that they were fuch egregious gluttons, they would go out by night to teal provifions from the neighbouring plantations; fo lazy, that they were totally regardlefs of the inte. refts of their matters; and that their wives were the most wretched mothers, 4 U and and fought rather to have abortive than his neck. On a third he is hanged. But -honeft births. this feldom happens, the mafters being unwilling in general, on such a score, to 'lofe their propery. The negroes are naturally of a joyous temper, but after fome years of flavery they grow melancholy. Love alone feems I have feen them hanged and broke zto be the folace of their fufferings, They live. They went to their punishment will do any thing to get a woman. They with pleasure, and fupported it without generally prefer thofe that have paffed complaint. I have feen a woman throw the first stage of female maturity. They herfelf voluntarily from the ladder. They fay, elles font mieux la foupe. They give ery, that in another world they shall find them every thing they have. If their a happier life, and that THE FATHER miftrefs is in the hands of another plant- oF MANKIND IS NOT SO UNJUSTAS er, they will go three or four leagues by MEN ARE. night to vifit her. When they are in love, they regard neither fatigue nor ppnifhment. They have, occafionally, their midnight-rendezvous. They dance beneath the fhelter of fome rock, to the melancholy found of a gourd filled with peafe. But the glimpse of a white man, or the bark of a dog, puts an end to their nocturnal affemblies. They have their dogs too. It is well known that these animals, even in the darkest night, know not only the whites, but even the dogs of the whites. They have the utmoft fear of and averfion to them; and howl as they approach them. Their attachments are exclufively to the blacks and their abettors. On the other hand, the dogs belonging to the whites, adopt the fentiments of their mafters, and, on the leaft fignal, fall with fury on the flaves. In short, when these wretched negroes can no longer fupport their condition, they fink into defpair. Some of them put a period to their lives by poifon or the halter. Others throw themfelves in to fome petty boat, without fails, with out compafs, without provifions. In this manner they hazard a paffage of 200 leagues, to return to Madagascar. I have known them land, be retaken, and returned to their mafters. In general they take refuge in the woods, where they are hunted by detachments of foldiers, negroes, and dogs. Planters there are who make, on fuch occafions, a party of pleasure. They are attacked with the fpear like wild beasts. When they cannot be reached this way, they are shot. Their heads are cut off, and they are carried in triumph to the town on the end of a pole. This is what I have feen almost weekly. When a fugitive negro is taken, he has one ear cut off, and is whipped. On a second defertion, he is whipped, has one ham ftrung, and a chain fastened about They have occafionally the confola tions of religion propofed to them, and are, from time to time, baptized. They are told, that they are made brethren the whites, and fhall go to heaven. Bet they hardly know how to believe, that the Europeans should conduct them to heaven, whilft they are, they fay, the cause of all their fufferings on earth. Before thefe Europeans came amongi us," say they, we fought only with fticks, but they have taught us to kill a a distance with fire and balls; they have introduced war and difcord among us, that they may buy flaves cheap. We followed without fear the inftinct of Ni ture, but they have brought terrible maladies amongst us, which makes it now even dangerous fo to do. They fre quently refufe us neceffary meat and cloaths, and beat us cruelly without a reafon.” -- Of this I have seen many inftances. A flave, almoft white, threw herfelf one day at my feet. Her miflre made her rife early and watch late. If the chanced to fleep, fhe rubbed her mouth with ordure; and if she did not lick her lips, the commanded her to be whipt. She begged of me to folicit her pardon, which I obtained. Sometimes the mafters of these wretches grant fuch requefts, and within two days double their punishment; reckoning in tale of lathes what they had profeffedly forgiven. A countellor, of whom fome blacks had complained to the governor, affured me, that though they were exempted from punishment that day, the next he would have them flea'd from head to foot. I have daily beheld men and women whipt for having broken a pot, or forgotten to fhut a gate, their bloody limbi afterwards rubbed with vinegar and filt to heal them. I have feen them, in the excess of their anguish, unable to cry any longer. I have feen them bite the cannon |