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SELECT REVIEWS.

FOR JANUARY, 1810.

FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt, in the years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806. By George Viscount Valentia. 3 vols. 4to. pp. 1522. London. 1809. Proposed to be republished by E. Bronson, Philadelphia, in 3 vols. octavo.

DURING the seventeenth century, a number of excellent travellers visited the east, and enriched every language of civilized Europe, with their works. In those days literary pursuits were deemed more compatible with other avocations than they are at present, and travels were alike written by men attached to important embassies, by jewellers, merchants, missionaries, physicians, soldiers, sailors, even by buccaneers. In the last century, men no longer journeyed so far for curiosity, and the establishment of our dominion in India, enabled adventurers to pursue their main object then with as much regularity as in Europe. The spirit of enterprise seemed to have disappeared. The means which a long and quiet residence in those countries afforded of obtaining more accurate knowledge concerning them than could possibly be acquired by mere travellers, however diligently inquisitive, served rather to destroy curiosity than to quicken it. Men lived so long among the Hindoos, that they became accustomed to their manners; they appeared to think that what they had acquired so imperceptibly could not be worth imparting, and to imagine that the publick could not be curious about things with which they themselves had so long been Familiar. Thousands of Englishmen VOL. III.

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past the main part of their lives in India with every means of information in their power, commanding the services of the natives and speaking their language, and yet nothing was added to our knowledge of the country farther than such historical details as were provoked by political controversy. Of later years, a few valuable journals, which would else have remained unpublished, have been preserved in the Asiatick Researches; and the very valuable, though unarranged diary of Dr. Buchanan, does honour to its industrious author, and to the governour general who sent him on his useful mission; but lord Valentia is the only English traveller, who, for more than a hundred years has visited India, for the purpose of gratifying his own curiosity, and imparting his observations to the publick.

Lord Valentia left England in 1802, and touched at Madeira. He speaks of the fishermen "rowing their boats in a perfect state of nakedness, and the women looking out of their windows with a nonchalance which nothing but habit could give." Yet fishermen in their boats must certainly be so far from the windows that they may throw off their clothes without offending the most squeamish delicacy; and when it is inferred, that the lower order of males go nas

ked there "as is the custom in hot countries," the inference is certainly erroneous. In no part of the world do men of European extraction cast off their clothing; they let their negroes do so, considering them as inferiour beings. But degraded as they themselves are in tropical climates, they have still pride enough to retain the garments of decency. Least of all, would such a custom be found in Madeira, a place differing less from Portugal in all the circumstances and habits of its inhabitants, than any other colony from its mother country. His lordship's next halting place was at St. Helena. The first person who took up his abode upon the little island was a Portuguese, by name Fernam Lopez, one of the renegadoes, who having deserted from Alboquerque, fell into his power at the capture of Benastarim. The Moorish commander stipulated that the lives of these wretches should be saved, secretly conveyed away one of them who was his favourite, and retired before the fort was yielded, to avoid the shame of being present when they were given up. The unhappy men fell at the feet of Alboquerque, dreading the punishment which they deserved; he did indeed spare their lives according to the letter of the capitulation, but he sentenced them to have the right hand cut off and the thumb of the left, both ears and the nose, that in this state of mutilation they might live to be dreadful examples of the treason which they had committed against their God and their king. Lopez, after the death of this great but merciless commander, embarked for Portugal, the ship touched at St. Helena, which was at that time uninhabited, and there he preferred remaining with a negro slave who was given him by the captain; he built a hut and a chapel, planted fruit trees, and began to cultivate vegetables, and rear pigs, poultry, and goats, to the great advantage of the homeward bound ships for ever after. After some

years he proceeded to Portugal and went to Rome to be reconciled to the church and receive plenary absolution for his apostacy; that done he returned to his hermitage, and passed the remainder of his days there, living to a good old age.

The goats are now become so numerous as totally to prevent planting without the previous expense of enclosing. They are forbidden to be kept on the side of the island where Jamestown stands, because in climbing along the edge of the two craggy ridges, which enclose the valley, they sometimes loosen pieces of rock, which, in their descent dislodge others, till a tremendous shower comes rattling down. This island stands in need of many improvements. It is so scantily supplied with live stock, that no person may kill one of his own sheep without a permission from the governour, and for great part of the year, the inhabitants live upon salt provisions, issued from the stores of the East India Company at an annual loss of six thousand pounds. No kind of grain can be cultivated, so numerous are the rats. During the days of the French republick, the magazines were infested by these vermin, and ten thou sand cats were immediately put in requisition by the National Convention. Were such an army to be landed, what an excellent theatre would St. Helena be for a grand Gatomachia! How is it that the story of Whittington should have been read in the nursery for so many centuries to no purpose?—The evils of monopoly are no where more grievously felt than upon this island.

"I cannot resist," says lord Valentia, "giving the prices of a few articles, as a proof of my assertion. Turkeys, two gui neas each; a goose, one guinea; small ducks, eight shillings each; fowls, from half a crown to five shillings each; live pigs one shilling per pound; potatoes, eight shillings per bushel, cabbages, eighteen-pence each; lemons, one shilling per dozen; and pumpkins half a crown each. Fish, though there are nearly seventy

kinds around the island, and most of them in abundance, is immoderately dear. There cannot be the least doubt, that all sorts of fruit and vegetables at present cultivated, might be brought to market in such abun. dance, as to afford a plentiful supply to the crew of every ship that arrives. At present, the farmers combine to keep up the price, and prefer leaving the fruit and vegetables to decay, to selling them for less than they have hitherto demanded. This evil might easily be obviated, and the combination broken, by a publick garden, to be cultivated by the government slaves, the produce of which might be sold to the ships at a price sufficient to clear all the expences, and allow a handsome profit. In this garden might be raised different kinds of fruit trees, to be afterwards dispersed over the island. The mango, which is now a solitary plant in possession of the governour, would thrive in the different vallies. The loquot, and other Chinese fruits, would probably grow in any part of the island. But private individuals, who think only of present profit, will never undertake the necessary experiments. They must be conducted by government, to answer any good purpose." Vol. I. p. 20.

The ship touched at the Cape, and his lordship took as long an excursion into the country as his stay permitted. How must our barouche drivers envy the superiour attain ments of the Cape slaves who drive eight in hand, and kill a bird on the wing with the lash of their long whip! Lord Valentia agrees with Mr. Barrow, and all other writers, in bearing testimony to the excellent qualities of the Hottentots, who are attached to the English equally by gratitude and interest; and who, he says, since they have been embodied and instructed in European tacticks, have been proved to be intelligent, active, faithful, and brave.

When the ship reached Bengal, marquis Wellesley sent one of his state barges to convey lord Valentia to Calcutta. It was richly ornament ed with green and gold; its head a spread eagle gilt; its stern a tiger's head and body, and it was paddled by twenty natives, in scarlet habits and rose coloured turbans. "The lord Saheb's (Wellesley) sister's son, and

the grandson of Mrs. Company," as the natives called him, travelled in a style little less magnificent by land. They gave him these titles, believing that the India Company is an old woman, and that the governours general are her children; and that as he did not hold that office, and yet was received with almost equal honours, he must needs stand in this degree of relationship. His first journey was to Benares and Lucknow; and as the scenery in Bengal was supposed to be uninteresting from the uniform flatness of the country, his plan was to travel always during the night and halt in the day. Time may have been saved by this mode of travelling, and some fatigue avoided, but much information must be lost. It is not thus that any country can be seen to ad

vantage.

Two Europeans have seen India to the best advantage by travelling through it for the most part on foot. Poor Tom Coriat, the Odcombian, was one; a man, says the old writer, who has most fairly appreciated his character, "of a coveting eye, that could never be satisfied with seeing, though he had seen very much, and who took as much content in seeing, as many others in the enjoying of great and rare things. His travels, had he lived to publish them, would have been of great value, for he acquired with wonderful facility, the languages of all the countries which he visited, and "as he was a very particular, so was he without question, a very faithful relater of things he saw; he ever disclaiming that bold liberty which divers travellers do take, by speaking and writing any thing they please of remote parts, when they cannot casily be contradicted." Had Coriat reached his home, he would no longer have been an object of ridicule. His inordinate and simple vanity would have been forgotten, in justice to his acquirements; and his book would probably have been the best that has ever yet appeared concerning India. The

other traveller, whose indefatigable and most honourable ambition led him to the east, even under worse circumstances than the poor Odcombian, was Anquetil du Perron, and yet his journal is, perhaps, of all that have been written, the most meagre and worthless. The real treasures which he brought back atone for this. Yet it is impossible not to regret that he did not possess the eye of a traveller, as well as the zeal and perseverance of a scholar. They who travel most at their ease see least of what is before them. The Savoyard who has walked over England leading a dancing bear, could give a better account of its real state to his countrymen, than any ambassadour that ever resided at our court.

Our present writer travelled like a lord, that is to say, in the most convenient and least profitable way; and yet his Indian Diary, though the least valuable part of the work, contains sufficient matter of interesting remark. The company have began to make war upon the tigers; a wiser warfare than has ever been waged by any former masters of Bengal. Ten rupees are paid for the head of a full grown one, five for a leopard or tiger's cub. A lack and half has been already paid for this service. No publick money could be better employed; in the island of Cossimbusar, these tremendous animals are completely exterminated, and they have been greatly thinned in other parts. This island is one of the chief places where silk is raised. What is meant by saying that there are two kinds of silk worm, which produce eight harvests each, in the year? Is it that eight generations are produced and consumed? It cannot be that the same worm should spin more than one coccoon. The roads in Bengal are complained of; they are laid waste by the rains, and a large allowance is made to the Zemindar for repairing them, and reerecting the wooden bridges; but he, generally, pockets the mo ney, and most of the highways re

main impassable. In the best days of the house of Timour, they made magnificent causeys from one end of their dominions to the other, and planted trees along them, to shelter travellers from the sun. (6 Surely," says lord Valentia, "we ought to follow so good an example, now that we are in tranquil possession of the same empire. But, alas, its sovereigns are too apt to confine their views to a large investment, and an increase of dividend, and have usually opposed every plan for the improvement of the country which has been brought forward by the different governours general."

Upon entering the province of Babar, he found convicts working on the publick road, which was then formed on a noble scale, raised above the reach of inundations, and with good stone arches to let the torrents pass. The convicts are permitted to have their families with them during the day. About a mile from Bhaugulpore is the monument of Mr. Cleveland, erected to his memory by the chiefs of the hills near Rajamahall, whom he pacified and attached to the British government, by winning their confidence, and treating them with kindness and liberality. Of these people, there is an ample account by lieutenant Thomas Shaw in the Asiatick Researches. They appear to be some of those earlier inhabitants of the country, whom their hilly situation secured from the successive tribes of conquerours, and who have retained their old manners, without acquiring either the arts or superstition of the Hindoos or Moors. Their form and physiognomy mark them for a different race; five feet three is their average stature, and they have the flat nose and thick lips of the Mogul Tartars. About a mile from Bhaugulpore are two round towers, so much resembling those in Ireland, as to place it beyond a doubt that they were constructed for the same purpose, whatever they may have been. It is remarka

ble that in neither country is there any tradition concerning them.

Opium is the chief produce of the country about Patna, it is now become a most important article from the great demand in China, where government prohibit it, but connive at smuggling it in, so strongly are the people attached to this most pernicious mode of intoxication. The plant which produces castor oil, is raised in this neighbourhood; and of this the company were so ignorant that, till lately, they sent that medicine from Europe. It is curious that this oil is, in some parts of Hindostan, used as food. Lord Valentia questions the policy of destroying the small forts, which might be kept in order at a very trifling expense, which would serve as depôts for ammunition, and within which a handful of men might resist a great native force. There is not, at present, a single fortified place between Calcutta and Alahabad, a distance of eight hundred miles. A custom similar to the strange one of making April fools, prevails during Huli, a festival, celebrated both by Hindoos and Moors, in honour of the vernal season. "This," says his lordship, "seems to point out a remarkable connexion between the ancient religion of Europe and that of this peninsula, especially as the Huli is always in March." This is going a long way for a foolish custom. All nations have their saturnalia, and such follies grow out of the wantonness of mirth. The custom of throwing pellets of yellow or red powder at this festival, with which their dresses are so completely covered as to appear ridiculous, resembles a practice at the Entrudo, or Carnival of the Portuguese.

The Brahmans believe that Benares is not a part of this sinful earth, but that it is on the outside of it, as it were a jewel, studding it. An earthquake, however, say the Baptist missionaries, which was lately felt there, has rather nonplussed

them, as it proves that what shakes the earth, shakes Benares too. It is so holy a city that many rajahs have their vakeels, or ambassadours, residing there for the sole purpose of performing for them the requisite sacrifices and ablutions. Yet in this holy city, there appear to be above fifteen hundred persons who are known to support themselves by dishonest means, without including prostitutes, theirs being considered a lawful calling. Here lord Valentia examined the staircase which Mr. Davis defended, with a spear, for upwards of an hour and half, during the insurrection of Vizir Ali, till the troops came to his relief. It is built on a base of about four feet, consequently, the ascent is so winding that only one person can go up at a time; the last turn, before it reaches the terrace, faces the wall; it was, therefore, impossible for the people below to take aim at him, and he saved the settlement by maintaining his post. Mr. Cherry was less fortunate; the assassins who murdered him, carried with them their winding sheets, which had been dipt in the holy well of Zemzem. A letter of Vizir Ali's found among his papers, proves sufficiently, what no wise man ever could have doubted, that no dependence is to be placed on the gratitude or attachment of the highest Moslem. "Owing," he says, " to the imbecility of the house of Timour, and the contempt into which it has fallen of late years, the powerful have been weakened, and the weak become powerful. Worthless unbelievers and ambitious villains have started up from every corner, boldly conquered all these countries and established themselves here: as the poet observes,' when the lions leave the plain, the jackals become bold." For these reasons, religion, which should be so highly prized, is here lost and of no value; nothing of Islamism remains but the mere name. They have so stript and reduced the principal Moşlem, that they have ne

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