The north-weft port, which leads to a large, regularlybuilt city, is the only one frequented by veffels. Its entry is ftraight, and defended by forts to the right and left. The height of the neighbouring mountains would feemingly protect it from hurricanes; but this is by no means the cafe. They are always preceded by a remarkable fall of the barometer, and violence of the waves on the reefs, even though there is not the flighteft wind., Rice, maize, manioc, and three valuable kinds of potatoes, with almost every fruit, and every different kind of pulfe, from India, China, Madagafcar, and Europe, grow there luxuriantly. The fagoutier, or the bread-fruit tree, where the farina is found in the interftices of the wood, is a most valuable production of this ifland, though we believe not an indigenous one. Another valuable tree of the fame kind, called the mallora, a variety of the voakoa, another palm-tree of Madagafcar, grows here alfo, whofe farina is contained in the fruit. The means of procuring the farina of thefe trees, its management and ufeful qualities, are distinctly defcribed. The flaves, their mode of living, and their management, is noticed with equal care. The great nuifances of this ifland were the whirlwinds, which they ftill experience, and the beetles, which the martins, introduced from India, and which have greatly multiplied, deftroy, and will foon extirpate. It is faid that, in Siam, a large fpecies of rats have been introduced, which feed on the bamboo only: thefe are in conftant hoftility with the other rats, which they have almoft wholly deftroyed. It will be lucky if their new allies are not more injurious; for, with us, the prefent rat, which is of Norway, has destroyed the black English rat, without leffening the evil. The game and fish, in thefe regions, abound; but a numerous tribe of predatory birds are highly injurious.

In general, as a place of refreshment for worn-out navigators, our author thinks it excellent; as a port, it abounds with every convenience. In a commercial view, it can furnith various objects of trade, fuch as fugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, fpices, &c in a military light, it may be a depôt, which will fupply an army and a navy for any attempt. A plan for promoting its profperity is fubjoined: we know that our government is in poffeffion of a plan for its conqueft, but we know not why it is not executed.

The Ifle of Bourbon (the Isle of Reunion) was colonifed more early than the Mauritius, which was fettled only in 1722; its air is more wholesome, and its population more confiderable. Its mountains are more numerous and lofty; and it has ftill a volcano, which occafionally difcharges, without injury, as there are no habitations in the neighbourhood, or in the courfe of the lava. It has however no port, and the

Jinding is always dangerous. The productions of the Isle of Reunion are the fame as thofe of Mauritius.

We fhall not follow our author to Java, Sumatra, &c. but reft with him again at Canton, omitting the navigation of the river Tigris, which affords nothing new. We will ftop, however, to tranfcribe the following ideas, wholly French, though introduced with fomewhat of an apology. The paffage is not long.

The customs of a people fo widely different from Europeans cannot be cafily appreciated, becaufe men in general Icter their opinions to their cuftoms; and what differs from thefe they think ftrange,-what oppofes them abfurd. The Chinese are in the fame fituation when they judge of us. How many Parifians will be furprifed to learn, that, even in the capital cities of Nankin and Pekin, there are no public-walks, no regular entertainments, concerts, or balls; no idlers, who with only to attract obfervation, and introduce new fashions no annuitants, no landlords who confume the products of their lands without tilling them. Every individual is conftantly employed. The women are confined; fo that there are no opportunities of captivating, by the variety, the grace, the elegance, and richness of drefs. Thefe caufes produce a fimplicity of attire, without grace, elegance, or manners. The Chinefe are nearly the fame at prefent as formerly; I fay nearly, for the hat is of the Tartar fashion. They once had long hair, but were ordered to cut it; and they obeyed without re

monflrance.'

The account of tea is full, and we believe accurate, but not new. If the Englith were to attempt to cultivate the plant in Bengal, it must be, he thinks, in the northern parts. In the lile of France it has failed. In our author's opinion, the cultivation may fucceed on the mountains, in the fouth of Madagafcar, and ftill better on those of the Cape of Good Hope; but the plants must be carefully brought from the interior of China. We fhall however add, once for all, that in philofophy our author appears but an indifferent proficient, in natural hiftory his knowledge is imperfect, and in his medical receipts he difplays the unbounded credulity of a weak mind. We can beft depend on his decifions in political economy. It has been the object of his studies: he is there at home.

A modern author has obferved, that the festival, when the emperor defcends from the throne to guide the plough, is as frivolous as the Grecian worthip of Ceres, and does not prevent millions of the Chinefe from dying of hunger. This author has not feen,' adds M. Coffigni, that this feftival, repeated the fame day through the whole empire by every governor, every general, and every prieft, is a religious cere

mony only, and that its object is to implore the benevolent. protection of the Divinity on agriculture. The emperor, and every one who affifts at it, prepare themfelves by a fast of three days. It is preceded by a folemn facrifice. The harveft of the field, thus tilled, is preferved with respect, and employed only in great facrifices to Chang-ti, or the Sovereign Lord.'

The homage paid to the Divine Being is pure. Each individual, of every different religion, may join in it, and the priest has little fhare. The Chinese are fubject to famines. True; but where,' adds M. Coffigni, can they be fupplied. A thousand fhips, of a thousand tons each, would afford only fix pounds of rice to each individual, where the population. amounts to 350,000,000 of inhabitants. All the countries of the Eaft could not produce fuch an immenfe refource; fo that the Chinese muft depend on themselves. It is in vain,' he obferves, to think that commerce can afford subsistence to a numerous nation; and the English, mafters of the fea, whose population is not equal to that of one of the smallest provinces of China, not one-fortieth part of the whole empire, have experienced the truth of this doctrine.' We may add, that the fact is not true in the fenfe thus ftated. England wanted affiftance from commerce, and has obtained it.

M. Coffigni attempts to be their panegyrift, for not having improved in the fine arts. If any thing can be drawn from his apology, it is, that these will not make men happier, or a nation more profperous; that the Chinese had them before us, and might ftill have them, if they thought their advantages would repay their labour. They are our rivals, he remarks, in fpeculative and practical morality, in agriculture and legiflation. In this affertion there is nothing folid. China is, on the whole, an infertile foil,-its inhabitants temperate and laborious. Hence fuch a foil, without any fpeculative or practical morality, without any legiflative excellence, will feed, in general, numerous inhabitants; and, in fuch circumftances, inhabitants will neceffarily increase. It is a trait of fingular humanity, that the emperor alone can pronounce fentence of death, and that, the warrant must be figned three times, in three different councils, before it can be put in execution. Their other punithments, however, are highly cruel, though the late emperor, Kien Long, prohibited mutilation. Slavery is ftill common. Yet for every custom our author has a reason, an apology, or a panegyric.

Our traveller gives but a fhort account of the porcelain manufacture, and mentions chiefly the painting, the only part which the Europeans are permitted, we believe, to fec. They have many methods of mending broken china. They rivet the pieces, fomewhat like our manufacturers, but the ri APP. VOL. XXX. NEW ARR.

2 M

vets do not pass through: fecondly, they cement the parts; and this feems the best method. They take the animal part of corn (the bran), made into a pafte, and well washed; this they mix with the white of an egg, and fuffer the whole to ferment. It is then used as a cement, and the pieces kept in clofe contact for fome days. The Malays have another method: they dry the cheefy part of curdled milk, and keep it for the fame purpofe. This they fcrape, and mix it with powdered lime and milk.'-This laft method we know to be very effectual.

In fome flight excurfions, which were permitted, into the interior, our author obferved a Tartar village; and at the foot of the walls were many bones, which were said to be the remains of criminals thrown from the top, and left as the prey of rapacious birds. The privation of burial is the greateft punishment to a Chinefe, as the tombs of their anceftors are objects of regard and veneration. It was added, that adulterers were tied together, face to face, between two planks, and thus thrown into the fea. This is alfo probably true, as the Chinese are fcrupulous about fhedding blood. On the commerce of the Chinese we need not enlarge: our author alone, we believe, ever spoke with refpect of their commercial knowledge or integrity; but he feems to feel it a tender fubject. On their difeafes, or rather the diseases of Canton, and their remedies, he is not very inftructive. The Chinefe agriculture is now fufficiently known. They manure their lands by watering, and cultivate the bottoms of ponds which are occafionally dry, and even plant the bulbous aquatic plants in thofe which are not fo. In this we fee only patient industry, excited by frequently-returning famine: our author furveys it with admiration, as arifing from a knowledge almoft fupernatural.

The Chinese make paper with filk, with the bamboo, with the ftalks of vegetables, and with the bark of the tchu-kou, a kind of fig-tree, which he thinks would grow in France, and of the cultivation of which he gives a full and interesting account. He faw no uncommon animals in China, and adds nothing to our knowledge of its religion, its mufic, or its arts. The literary mandarins fuppofe that China was peopled by a race from the heights of Tartary. This does not feem to our author, on the whole, probable; and the Miao-tfe, a hardy race of mountaineers inhabiting the internal parts of China, fubdued by Kien Long, are probably the aborigines of this nation, driven into inacceffible faftneffes by the Tartarian: horfe. Some farther particulars of this interefting race would be highly valuable-interefting, we mean, with respect to the great queftion of early population, rather than any thing peculiar to themfelves. Our author's return offers nothing particularly worthy of notice.

The fecond part of this work contains obfervations on

lord Macartney's embaffy;' in which, as we have already obferved, many of the remarks are rather captious than folid; and fome of the criticifins, we perceive, arife from the errors of the French tranflator. Thus we find many complaints why the accounts were not more particular:-in one or two inftances, why plants were not more fcientifically described, when we are informed they were not in bloom. He muft know, that to be inquifitive was not the way to learn, as it would lead to fufpicion, and confequently to more cautious vigilance. It cannot have escaped even an inattentive reader, that the embaffadors were not in a much better fituation than ftate-prisoners, and that guards of honour had alfo a fecond and lefs honourable office. We cannot, however, follow these remarks particularly. We fhall notice a few, where the author's obfervations feem to merit fome attention, confining ourselves to China. Previous, however, to his criticifms on fir George Staunton's narrative, he combats the afsertions of the French tranflator, and particularly those which relate to the early and extenfive navigation of the Chinese.

The first remark of importance, in a national view, is on the inftructions given to captain Gower of the Lion. When I compare,' fays he, the extenfive views of the British cabinet with the contracted ones of our former government, I am jealous of the one, though compelled to admire them, and indignant at the other.' From the route, and other circumftances, M. Coffigni feems to be convinced that one of the objects of this embaffy was to procure the port of Taron, in Cochin-China, to form an eftablifhment. It went afterwards, he thinks, to Canton, to demand the ceffion of the ifland Wampon, in the river of Canton, or of Macao; perhaps to obtain the exclufive privilege of the commerce of China; offering, in return, to clear the coaft of pirates. The English nation carried its views farther. Its object was to reconnoitre fome of the principal iflands in the Chinese feas, to discover where it could form an advantageous eftablishment, from whence it might give laws to the Chinese, by cruifing on their coafts, and feizing their veffels: after that, to attempt to open the ports of Japan exclufively to itfelf. The Lion was alfo directed to go to Mindanao, which is independent of the Spaniards, and in open hoftility to Gillolo, one of the Moluccas not under the dominion of Holland,' &c.-Though much of this is conjectural, yet the whole may have fome degree of truth; and it may be equally true, that the ultimate object was to fhare the fpice-trade with Holland, then one of the allies of England; for to take it away (the author's expreffion) would be impoffible. Is there in all this any thing criminal, any thing dishonourable? for, as to giving law to China, by