TO THE

FORTY-FIFTH VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Voyage dans les quatre principales Isles, &c.; i. e. Travels in the four principal Islands of the African Seas, performed by Order of the Government, during the Years nine and ten of the Republic (1801 and 1802), with a Narrative of the Passage of Captain Baudin to Port Louis in the Mauritius. By J. B. G. M. BORY DE ST. VINCENT, Officer of the Staff, and Chief Naturalist on board Le Naturaliste Sloop of War, in the Expedition of Discovery commanded by Captain Baudin. With a Series of 58 Plates, large Quarto, engraved from Drawings taken on the Spot, by the Au thor. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1804. Imported by De Boffe. Price 41. 48. sewed.

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would be happy for the world, if most Governments were as ambitious of describing as of subjugating the various portions of our habitable globe;—if they were as solicitous to acquire and propagate those principles of knowlege and humanity, which are so eminently conducive to the welfare of the species, as they are in general ready to engage in baneful competition for the extension of territory, or the preservation of usurped dominion. Impressed as we are with these sentiments, it would have afforded us sincere pleasure to have reported M. Baudin's expedition among the few which have been undertaken from the pure motives of enlarging science, and benefiting mankind: but the narrative before us warrants no such favourable interpretation. The objects of the undertaking are not previously stated, nor are the commander's instructions laid before the public. M. BORY DE ST. VINCENT even affects an air of mystery with respect to his own mission, APP. REV. VOL. XLV.

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and arraigns the ignorance and misconduct of the gentleman under whom he served. We pretend not to unveil the arcana of the French Government, nor to conjecture what designs might be concealed under the mask of a voyage of discovery. Neither is it our province to criticize personal character: but, if it were, we could wish to be guided by the trite but equitable maxim, so congenial to the honest feelings of an Englishman, Hear both parties. Referring, therefore, the author's charges, and M. Baudin's defence, to the rightful tribunal, we shall proceed to notice the present publication merely as a literary and scientific production; only premising that the multiplicity and variety of the details cannot be pressed within our narrow limits.

The gentlemen of the expedition, eighteen of whom were attached to the Naturaliste, and fifteen to the Geographe, in the capacity of officers or men of science, rendezvoused at Havre de Grace. There the author joined them, and soon became delighted with the amiable manners and solid acquirements of his associates. The books provided for their use were neither numerous nor properly selected; and M. DE ST. VINCENT unfortunately never received an appropriate collection, which M. de Lacepède had, the goodness to address to him. These untoward circumstances, however, seem not to have excited immoderate regret. With the view of gratifying his enthusiastic desire of visiting remote countries, the author had, through the mediation of a friend, procured his nomination to the place of first zoologist to the expedition; and he manifested a laudable anxiety to see rather than to read. The luxury of quotation,' says he, should be reserved for works of a different complexion, in which I have seen is an expression that amounts not to evidence.'

The two corvettes sailed about the month of October 1801. In fifteen days, they reached Teneriffe, without having observed a single fish. Commodore Byron, (says the writer,) in his voyage round the world, likewise remarks that, in the course of the same track, he saw none, and he ascribes the circumstance to the copper sheathing of his vessel. This opinion has obtained some credit among sea-faring people; yet, as several of the finny tribe made their appearance between Teneriffe and the Isle of France, I doubt much whether the copper of our bottom kept them at a distance on our passage from Havre to the Canaries.'

A residence of eleven days at Teneriffe enabled the natu ralists to extend and multiply their researches in various directions. Urgent reasons, however, which the author is unwilling to disclose, prevented their ascent to the peak: but their various excursions, and their frequent interviews with the celebrated

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Broussonet, who is stationed on the island in the office of commissary of commercial relations, furnish us with many interesting notices. For several ad fitional particulars, at which the author only glances, he refers to another work of his own, intitled Essays on the Fortunate Islands. From the statements inserted in his journal, it appears that the soil of Teneriffe is wholly composed of volcanic matter, or of some of its modifications; presenting in certain districts the most unequivocal traces of a series of eruptions, which must have taken place at long intervals; in others displaying basalts and lavas, from the hardest and most compact, to the most porous and friable. The very sand and cultivated ground consist of the lavas of the island reduced to extreme minuteness by friction. • Of an ounce of coarse black sand, taken up in the road of Sainte-Croix, eight-tenths were basaltic fragments, like the grains of coarse gun-powder; one-tenth and a half consisted of reddish particles, apparently the debris of puzzolana; and the remaining half-tenth, of small crystals, which, I presume, were of the nature of chrysolite.' The arable land abounds in volcanic rocks, and presents, in almost every direction, little else than lava reduced to powder, more or less attenuated.'

The bare and arid aspect of the rocky country is well con trasted with the more favoured spots, which smile in all the luxury of a Southern vegetation, and in all the freshness of perpetual spring. On entering the forest of Laguna, the au thor avows his inability to delineate the impressions which this rich woodland-scene stamped on his mind:

What a precious service should I render to my readers, could I transfuse into their bosoms the delightful sensations which I experi enced, when reposing under those beautiful tufted trees, which were never stripped of their foliage !-trees interwoven with fragrant vegetables, whose gay attire is respected even by winter, and that shade a surface covered with verdant mosses and elegant ferns, which a burning sun cannot parch! Fresh flowers, glowing in their prime at the end of October, and the peace and silence of this enchanting spot interrupted only by the warbling of Canary birds, and the cooing of ring-doves, transported me with admiration. I saw, for the first time, abandoned to themselves, those plants of warm countries, which languish in the artificial temperature of our hot houses. One would suppose that Tasso had in his eye the peaceful forest of Laguna, when he speaks of the Fortunate Islands, in which he places the Palace of Armida. "A delicious atmosphere," says he, "perfumed with flowers, is there refreshed by the zephyrs, whose constant and uniform breath receives not from the sun either agitation or repose. There summer darts no fiery beams, winter is not armed in ice, nor do the clouds ever break the serenity of the sky. Flowers, ever new, gracefully

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gracefully wave on turf of a lasting green, and the trees preserve an eternal foliage."

Some of the prevailing trees and plants of this forest are, Laurus Indica, L. nobilis, Myrica Faya, Prunus Lusitanica, Ilex Perado, Digitalis Canariensis, Dracocephalum Canariense, Cacalia albifrons, Convolvulus Canariensis, &c. Here the author properly adverts to the botanical prejudice which would banish the cryptogamic plants to the colder latitudes. Mosses and ferns abound in the Isles of France and Bourbon, which are situated in the torrid zone; and besides two non-descript hypna and several jungermanniæ, Teneriffe produces Blechnum radicans, Trichomanes Canariensis, Asplenium adiantum nigrum, Asplenium latifolium, A. trichomanes, Polypodium filix mas, and P. aculeatum.

We must leave these and other scientific particulars, however, that we may notice the history of the Guanches, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, this simple and virtuous people lived under the salutary restraints of a few equitable and respected laws. Teneriffe, which had long composed a separate state, acknowleged the authority of nine of their kings, or petty princes; who were clothed like their subjects, and distinguished from them only by a laurel crown, and the thigh-bone of one of their most renowned ancestors, which they bore at once as a sceptre and as a remembrancer of virtues that had secured the love and the regret of the people. Though they had a priest, who presided at certain ritual ceremonies, they appear to have had very imperfect notions of religion. Their mystical usages, of which baptism was one, were supposed to have been derived from some more enlightened people, whose memory had perished. The state in which several of their mummies have been found in their respective grottos, or catacombs, attests their rude attempts to embalm their dead. They expressed numerical signs by small pieces of baked clay; and they were ignorant of the use of metals. Though legitimate and peaceful possessors of the island, and though they bravely resisted the oppression of the invaders, they were cruelly put to death in detail, and at length exterminated. Their pretended descendants, who live about Guimar, and who make a procession on Candlemas-day, in the old national costume, are supposed to be a spurious race; or a tribe of impostors, who are countenanced by government, to favour the popular belief that they are a remnant snatched from the error of their ways.-The eventful story of the once happy Guanches is amply related in the author's former work; to which, accordingly, he refers kis readers.

In the trip from Teneriffe to the Isle of France, the Natuvaliste encountered some heavy gales, which greatly injured her rigging, and incommoded the crew: but the journalist declines describing a storm; which, as he justly observes, has become a common theme in every book of voyages, and in almost every romance. We may add that, if he really possesses the powers of bold and general painting, he very rarely employs them. He delineates, on the contrary, detached parcels of sea or land with apparent accuracy and precision, and fondly dwells on their numerous specific productions. Hence arises. our embarrassment in attempting to convey any adequate notions of the substance and manner of his relation, otherwise than by a partial sketch of the contents, and occasional extracts from a few of the prominent passages. They who are desirous of more satisfactory information must have recourse to the work, which is highly worthy of the considerate perusal of every naturalist. The author's circumstantial recitals bear ample testimony to the closeness and constancy of his observation. Even when at sea, he collected many curious and lively remarks on the appearance and habits of the flying fish, porpoise, dolphin, pilot-fish, &c. and beguiled his leisure by watching the movements of the more humble and sluggish mollusca.

On the 6th, during the calm of the morning, we observed to pass alongside that creature which the sailors call galley fish, and which Linné has very improperly denominated Holoturia physalis. It consists of a sort of transparent bladder, of a considerable size, and of a fine rose-colour, inclining to purple, with a keel (if we may so call it,) formed in festoons, and plaited like a ruff, on the upper part. By raising this appendage above water, it makes it serve the purpose of a sail. A multitude of feelers proceed from the under side, and enable it either to seize and devour its prey, or to cast anchor, and fix itself on the moving surface of the waves. This animal is extremely venomous. At this moment, we could not lay hold of a single specimen : but another beautiful mollusca, which I fished alongside, consoled me for the disappointment. The extreme delicacy of this creature's tentacula is, doubtless, the cause of the defective manner in which it has been hitherto known and figured. Linné had already described a part of a species of the same genus, under the designation of Medusa porpites. I deem it incumbent on me to add to the history of the porpites, all my observations which relate to them, together with an accurate plate.

In general, during calm weather, the smooth and transparent sea, to a considerable depth, is filled with innumerable animals, which are visible to a person who has acquired the habit of looking for them, but which are not, at first, easily distinguished, on account of their transparency. Most of these vermes are scarcely known to naturalists, Bosc, in his passage from Bourdeaux' to North America, observed a

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