to that of the Chevalier Lorgna, whofe recent and ingenious experiments have afcertained the real effects of congelation on fea water, and have pointed out a method, which is likely to be of great advantage to navigators. To avoid prolixity, we shall fubjoin only the refults of the numerous experiments made by this fagacious perfon, and shall leave to the ingenuity of our readers the application of them to the explanation of the natural phenomena. Sea water required a very great degree of cold in order to become ice. Our author found that a freezing mixture, made by mixing three parts of pounded ice with two parts of common falt, was quite fufficient to freeze it, The cold produced by this mixture is equal to about 4o below nought of Farenheit's thermometer. A quantity of fea water is never entirely congealed; a portion of it always remaining fluid, and, what is very remarkable, this fluid part is in comparably more full of falt and more naufeous than the reft; hence, if this be feparated from the congealed part, the latter on being melted will be found to contain much lefs falt than it did before congelation. This we fhall call the water of the first purifica tion. If the water of the firft purification be again congealed, a part of it will remain fluid as in the first operation. This fluid portion will contain a greater proportion of falt than the reft, which is of courfe more pure, and, being melted, forms the water of the fecond purification. Thus by repeatedly freezing the fame fea water, and, feparating the fluid from the congealed part in every operation, it is at laft perfectly purified, fo as to be entirely divefted of falt, and as fit for drink and other purposes as the pureft water that is ufed. At first the fea water, in order to be congealed, requires a very great degree of cold, as mentioned above, the ice formed in it confifts rather of fcales or filaments than of a compact body, and the quantity of the fluid parts bears a confiderable proportion to the quantity of ice. But as the water by undergoing the fucceffive congelations becomes more and more pure, fo it becomes capable of being congealed by a fmaller and fmaller degree of cold; the ice is at the fame time more compact, and in greater quantity; the fluid part at laft becoming very in confiderable. Six fucceffive congelations are more than fufficient to purify fea-water so as to render it perfectly useful, as will appear from the following experiments, which our author made with sea water purified by means of fix congelations. I. It was perfectly tranfparent, free from any fmell, and as fweet, or even fweeter, than rain-water; though it was rather foft to the tafte, owing to the want of air, which however it may eafily be made to abforb, either by agitation in open veffels, or by leaving it for fome time exposed to the at mofphere. II. The specific gravity of rain water was to the fpecific gravity of the purified fea water as 7800 to 7801. III. Equal quantities of purified fea water, and of rain water having been evaporated upon glaffes, left an equal, though very flight film. IV. The tincture of turnfole was not fenfibly altered by it. V. The folution of filver occafioned no precipitation, which would certainly have happened had the water contained the least quantity of marine acid. Neither the mercurial nitre, nor faccarum faturni occafioned any precipitation, which might indicate the prefence of fea-falt. VI. Soap was readily and perfectly diffolved in it. VII. Laftly, our author, in order to try in a most unequivocal manner whether the fea-water thus purified produced any bad effect in the human body, began by drinking it freely for feveral days; but he did not find that it produced any peculiar effect, different from thofe of other waters, which he had been accustomed to drink, To this we may add, what, though very useful, is not generally known or believed, viz. that the beft and readieft way of purifying water, or feparating mud and moft other impurities that are not chemically combined with it, is to let the water pass thro' a confiderable quantity of fand. This method is by far more efficacious than the filtration through paper or other fubftance. Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, from the battle off La Hogue till the Capture of the French and Spanish Fleets at Vigo. By Sir John Dalrymple, Bart. Baron of Exchequer in Scotland. Vol. II. THIS not producithat he HIS is not the production of a might write, but of one who has written because he understands his fubject. The portion of hiftory which the author has chofen to illustrate, forms an important æra in the annals of this country, and whatever tends to throw light on that period, will always be acceptable to Britons. Sir John Dalrymple poffeffes the art of interefting his reader on whatever fubject he writes, by the information he communicates, and the peculiar energy of his ftyle. Like every man who thinks ftrongly, he has fingular opinions that are liable to objection. His language is not always pure, and is fometimes even negligent; but it is every where forcible and defcriptive. The prefent volume contains much important matter with regard to the hiftory of North Britain; and we are happy to be able thus early to lay part of it before our readers. Account of the Darien Expedition. THE Peace of Ryfwic was fucceeded by an event, which had well nigh created a civil war between Scotland and England. As the writers of no nation are more marked by grandeur and meannefs of compofition in the fame perfon, and the actors in public life by grandeur and meannefs of character in the fame perfon, than thofe of England; fo the proceedings of the national affembly of England, the nobleft Vol VII. No 38. Rome, are often tinctured with a strange that ever was on earth, except that of mixture of the great and the little. Of this truth, an inftance appeared at this time (1698) in the proceedings of Parliament, with regard to the Scots colony of Darien fettled by Mr Paterfon; of which colony I proceed to give an account more authentic than has hitherto met the public eye, because I have had access to the papers of the Company, fome of which are in the Advocates Library, and others in the Exchequer at Edinburgh, and to the family-papers of many who were the chief actors in the Company's affairs. The birth of Paterfon is unknown. It is probable he had education, becaufe he expreffed himself well in writing, and had a good addrefs. He was bred to the church; but having a violent propensity to fee foreign countries, he made his profeffion the inftrument of indulging it, by going to the new western world, under pretence of converting the Indians to the religion of the world. In his courses there, he became acquainted with Captain Dampier and Mr Wafer, who afterwards publifhed, the one his Voyages, and the other his Travels, in the regions where the feparation is narroweft between the Atlantic and the South Seas, and both of whom, particularly the first, appear by their books to have been men of confiderable observation. But he got much more knowledge from men who could acither write nor P read read, by cultivating the acquaintance taneously the fine tropical fruits, and of fome of the old Buccaneers, who, after furviving their glories and their crimes, ftill, in the extremity of age and misfortune, recounted with tranfport the ease with which they had paffed and repaffed from the one fea to the other, fometimes in hundreds together, and driving ftrings of mules before them loaded with the plunder of friends and of foes. Paterfon having examined the places, fatisfied himself, that on the Ifthmus of Darien there was a tract of country running across from the Atlantic to the South Sea, which the Spaniards had never poffeffed, and inhabited by a people continually at war with them; that along the coaft, on the Atlantic fide, there lay a ftring of islands called the Sambaloes, uninhabited, and full of natural ftrengths and forefts, from which last circumftance one of them was called the island of the Pines; that the feas there were filled with turtle, and the manatee, or fea-cow; that midway between Portobello and Carthagena, but near fifty leagues diftant from either, at a place called Ac ta, in the mouth of the river of Dasien, there was a natural harbour, capable of receiving the greatest fleets, and defended from storms by other islands which covered the mouth of it, and from enemies by a promontory which commanded the paffage, and by hidden rocks in the paffage itfelf; that on the other fide of the ifthmus, and in the fame tract of country, there were natural harbours, equally capacious and well defended; that the two feas were connected by a ridge of hills, which, by their height, created a temperate climate in the midft of the most fultry latitudes, and were sheltered by forefts, yet not rendered damp by them, because the trees grew at a diftance from each other, having very little under-wood; that, contrary to the barren nature of hilly countries, the foil was of a black mould two or three feet deep, and producing fpon plants, and roots, and herbs; that roads could be made with eafe along the ridge, by which mules, and even carriages, might pafs from the one fea to the other in the space of a day, and confequently this paffage feemed to be painted out by the finger of nature, as a common centre, to connect together the trade and intercourfe of the uni verfe. By this obfcure Scotsman a project. was formed to settle, on this neglected fpot, a great and powerful colony; not as other colonies have for the moft part been fettled, by chance, and unprotected by the country from whence they went; but by system, upon fore fight, and to receive the ample protection of thofe governments to whom he was to offer his project. And certain- * ly no greater idea has been formed fince the time of Columbus. Paterfon's original intention was to offer his project to England, as the country which had most interest in it, not only from the benefit, common to all nations, of fhortening the length of voyages to the East Indies, but by the effect which it would have had to connect the interefts of her European, Welt Indian, American, African, and Eaft Indian trade. But Paterfon having few acquaintance, and no protection in London, thought of drawing the public eye upon him, and ingratiating himself with monied men, and with great men, by affifting them to model a project, which was at that time in embryo, for erecting the Bank of England. But that happened to him, which has happened to many in his fituation: the perfons to whom he applied made ufe of his ideas, took the honour of them to themselves, were civil to him for a while, and neglected him afterwards. He therefore communicated his project of a colony only to a few perfons in London, and thefe few difcouraged him. He next made offer of his projec The nobi to the Dutch, the Hamburghers, and firm under him, and that he was the Elector of Brandenburgh; because, fupported by almoft all the power and by means of the paffage of the Rhine talents of his country, the character and Elbe thro' their ftates, he thought, of Fletcher, and the fanction of an that the great additional quantities of act of Parliament and Royal Charter, East Indian and American goods,' threw his project boldly upon the pub which his colony would bring into lic, and opened a fubfcription for a Europe, would be diftributed through company. The frenzy of the Scots Germany. The Dutch and Ham- nation to fign the folemn league and burgh merchants, who had moft in- covenant never exceeded the rapiditereft in the fubject of his vifit, heard ty with which they ran to fubfcribe him with indifference: The Ele&or, to the Darien Company. who had very little intereft in it, re- lity, the gentry, the merchants, the ceived him with honour and kindness. people, the royal burghs, without the But court-arts and falfe reports loft exception of one, most of the other him even that prince's favour. public bodies, fubfcribed. Young woIngenious men draw to each other men threw their little fortunes into the like iron and the loadstone: Paterson, ftock, widows fold their jointures to on his return to London, formed a get the command of money for the friendship with Mr Fletcher of Salton, fame purpose. Almost in an instant whofe mind was inflamed with the love L.400,000 were fubfcribed in Scotof public good, and all of whofe ideas land, although it be now known, that to procure it had a fublimity in them. there was not at that time above Fletcher brought Paterfon down to L.800,000 of cath in the kingdom. Scotland with him, prefented him to The famous Mr Law, then a youth, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then Mi- afterwards confeffed, that the facility nifter for Scotland, and then, with with which he faw the paffion of fpethat power which a vehement spirit culation communicate itself from all always poffeffes over a diffident one, to all, fatisfied him of the poflibility of perfuaded the Marquis, by arguments producing the fame effect from the of public good, and the honour which fame caufe, but upon a larger scale, would redound to his administration, when the Duke of Orleans, in the to adopt the project. Lord Stair and year of the Miffifippi, engaged him, aMr Johnston, the two Secretaries of gainst his will, to turn his bank into State, patronifed those abilities in Pa- a bubble. Paterfon's project, which terfon which they poffeffed in them- had been received by ftrangers with felves: and the Lord Advocate, Sir fears when opened to them in private, James Stewart, the fame man who had filled them with hopes when it came adjufted the Prince of Orange's de- to them upon the wings of public claration at the Revolution, whofe fon fame: For Colonel Erfkine, fon to was married to a niece of Lord Stair, Lord Cardross, and Mr Haldane of went naturally along with his connec- Gleneagles, the one a generous branch tions. Thefe perfons, in June 1695, of a generous ftem, and the other a procured a ftatute from Parliament, country gentleman of fortune and chaand afterwards a charter from the racter, having been deputed to receive Crown in terms of it, for creating a fubfcriptions in England and on the trading company to Africa and the continent, the English fubfcribed new world, with power to plant colo- L. 300,000, and the Dutch and Hamnies and build forts, with confent of burghers L. 200,000 more. the inhabitants, in places not poffeffed by other European nations. Paterfon, now finding the ground In the mean time the jealoufy of trade, which has done more mischief to the trade of England than all P 2 other other caufes put together, created an alarm in England; and the Houses of Lords and Commons, without previous inquiry or reflection, on the 13th December of the year 1695, concurred in a joint addrefs to the King, against the establishment of the Darien Company, as detrimental to the intereft of the Eaft India Company. Soon after, the Commons impeached fome of their own countrymen for being inftrumental in erecting the Company; and alfo fome of the Scots nation, one of whom was a Peer, Lord Belhaven; that is to fay, they arraigned the fubjects of another country, for making ufe of the laws of their own. Among fix hundred legiflators, not one had the happy ray of genius to propofe a committee of both Parliaments, to inquire into the principles and confequences of the eitablishment; and if these should, upon inquiry, be found good, that the benefit of it should be communicated, by a participation of rights, to both nations. The King's answer was, That he had been ill advised in "Scotland." He foon after changed his Scottish minifters, and fent orders to his refident at Hamburgh to prefent a memorial to the fenate, in which he disowned the Company, and warned them against all connections with it. The fenate fent the memorial to the affembly of merchants, who returned it with the following fpirited anfwer: We look upon it as a very strange thing, that the King of Britain thould offer to hinder us, who are a free people, to trade with "whom we pleafe; but are amazed to think, that he would hinder us "from joining with his own fubjects in 'Scotland, to whom he had lately given fuch large privileges, by fo folemn an act of Parliament." But merchants, though mighty prone to pallion, are easily intimidated: The Dutch, Hamburgh, and London mer chants withdrew their fubfcript:ons. The Scots, not difcouraged, were rather animated by this oppreffion; for they converted it into a proof of the envy of the English, and of their confcionfnefs of the great advantages which were to flow to Scotland from the colony. The Company proceeded to build fix fhips in Holland, from thirty-fix to fixty guns, and they engaged twelve hundred men for the colony; among whom were younger fons of many of the noble and moft ancient families of Scotland, and fixty officers who had been difbanded at the Peace, who carried with them fuch of their private men, generally raised on their own, or the eftates of their relations, as they knew to be faithful and brave; and most of these were High landers. The Scots Parliament, on the 5th Auguft 1698, unanimously addreffed the King to fupport the Company. The Lord Prefident Sir Hugh Dalrymple, brother to Lord Stair and head of the bench, and the Lord Advocate Sir James Stuart, head of the bar, jointly drew memorials to the King, able in point of argument, information, and arrangement, in which they defended the rights of the company, upon the principles of constitutional and of public law. And neighbouring nations, with a mixture of furprise and refpect, faw the pooreft kingdom of Europe fending forth the moft gallant, and the most numerous colony that had ever gone from the old to the new world. On the 26th day of July of the year 1698, the whole cite of Edin burgh poured down upon Leith, to fee the colony depart, amidst the tears, and prayers, and praises of relations and friends, and of their countrymen. Many feamen and foldiers, whofe fers vices had been refused, becaufe more had offered themselves than were needed, were found hid in the fhips, and, when ordered afhore, clung to the ropes and timbers, imploring to go, without reward, with their compa nions. Twelve hundred men failed in five flout hips, and arrived at Da rien |