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THIS BOOK
FORMS PART OF THE
ORICINAL LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHICAN
BOUGHT IN EUROPE
[838 TO 1839
BY
ASA GRAY
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A
V O Y A. G. E.
TO
C O C H I M C H I AV A.
IN THE YEARs 1792 AND 1793:
#
CONTAINING A GENERAL VIEW OF
THE VALUABLE PRODUCTIONS AND THE POLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF
THIS FLOURISHING KINGDOM ; AND ALSO OF SUCH EUROPEAN
SETTLEMENTS As were VISITED ON THE voyages
W IT H S K E T C H E S OF TH R
MANNERS, CHARACTER, AND CONDITION
OF THEIR SE WERAL INHABITANTS.
TO WPHICH IS ANNEXED
AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY,
MADE IN THE YEARS I 80 I AND I 8o 2,
TO THE RESIDENCE OF THE CHIEF OF THE
BOOSHUANA NATION,
BE ING THE REMOTEST POINT IN THE IN TERIOR OF SOUT H E R N AFRICA To w HICH
E U R OP EAN S HAV E H IT H E R TO P E N E TRATED.
THE FACTS AND DESCRIPTIONS TAKEN FROM A MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL.
WITH A CHART OF THE ROUTE,
—sº cº-
By JOHN BARROW, Esq., F.R.S.
AUTHoR of “TRAVELS IN souTHERN AFRICA,” AND “TRAVELS IN chINA.”
—sºme-
& & Haec olim meminisse juvabit
“ Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum
“ Tendimus in Latium.”
--—mºſ º-
1 LL U STRATED AND E M B E L L is H ED WITH SEVER AL ENGRAVINGS BY MEDLAND,
c O LOUR ED AFTER T H E OR 1 GINAL D R A WINGS BY MR. ALEXAND E R AND M R. DAN i E L L.
L O N D O N :
PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES IN THE STRAND.
18o0.
Strahan and Preston,
New-Street Square, London.
T. O
SER GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON, BARoNET,
F. R. S. & F. L. S.
&c. &c. &c.
WHO, AS COMPANION OF
“THE VOYAGE TO COCHINCHINA,”
AND PARTAKER OF MOST OF THE OCCURRENCES AND
OBSERVATIONS RELATED THEREIN,
Is WELL & UALIFIED TO APPRECIATE THEIR FIDELIrr,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED,
IN TESTIMONY OF THE SINCERE REGARD AND FRIENDSHIP
OF HIS MOST OBLIGED
AND FAITH FUL SERVANT,
JOIIN BARROJW.
P R E F A C E.
-º-
Tre Voyage which is here presented to the public has no pretensions to
new discoveries, and can boast but little of its collection of new and im-
portant facts. It will conduct the reader precisely over the same ground
which a much abler writer has previously occupied in “ The Authentic
Account of an Embassy to China ;” and in whose hands were placed, in
fact, a great part of the materials of which it is composed. The expecta-
tion, therefore, of new discoveries and extraordinary occurrences, which
in books of voyages and travels is alone sufficient to keep the attention
constantly on the stretch, should only be indulged to a moderate degree in
the perusal of the present work. Yet although the ground may already have
been trodden, the range is so extensive, the prospects so various, and the
objects so numerous, that new scenes are not difficult to be exhibited, nor
those before observed to be sketched in different positions, as seen from
different points of view. The lapse of ten or twelve years, having ma-
terially changed the aspect of the political horizon in every part of the
world, has also given scope for new suggestions and reflections which
could not exist when the voyage was made, but which are particularly ap-
plicable to the present time. Besides, every foreign country, though it
may have been visited by fifty different voyagers, will still present something
new for the observation of the fifty-first. Such a variety of objects pass before
the view of an attentive traveller, affording so wide a range for observa-
tion and reflection, that there is little danger of the materials being speedily
a
vi P R E F A C E.
exhausted. It may be observed, likewise, that the same objects are
capable of exciting a greater or less degree of interest according to the
manner in which they are viewed and represented, and the colouring that
is given to them. The Poyage d'un Philosophe, by Monsieur Le Poivre,
contains in point of fact no new discoveries, very little information, and
that little not always correct, and abounds in declamation; yet it is a book
that always has been and must continue to be read with pleasure, and
one from which some instruction may be derived.
The Author is not unaware of an objection that may be urged against the
present work, on account of the shortness of the stay made at each of the
places which were visited on the voyage. He certainly does not mean to set
up pretensions to ample and accurate information on every subject which
he has introduced : a book of voyages or travels does not indeed imply it;
but, at the same time, he has no hesitation in saying that, by him who makes
a proper use of his cyes and his ears, much knowledge may be collected
within the sphere of his observations, in the course of a very few days. It
has justly been remarked, that a person will obtain a more correct notion of
a city or town from walking the length of one of its principal streets, than
from the most detailed description. The truth of the observation will be
felt by every one who may have passed up one side and down the other
of the High Street in Oxford. In like manner the natural historian, in
skimming over the surface of a country, will be able to seize and to com-
municate a more distinct and comprehensive view of its productions, and
their value, than one who, ignorant of natural history, shall have passed his
whole life upon the spot. And here the Author cannot but lament his own
want of knowledge, and consequently the deficiency of his materials, in this
part of his subject. It was in the progress of the voyage he was first made
sensible of the high and important advantages which a competent knowledge
of natural history is capable of imparting. To him thus instructed, every
living creature, however contemptible it may appear to common eyes;
every plant that grows, from the stately tree of the forest down to the
humble moss; every stone, from the sparkling diamond to the dull
P R E F A C E. vii
pebble that strews his path; in short, every objećt in the creation, how-
ever insignificant in ordinary estimation, is capable of exciting in the
naturalist a lively degree of interest. Whether he may chance to stroll
the flowery fields, or climb the mountain’s brow, or walk the street, or
sail upon the Ocean, he has at all times and on all occasions the means
within himself of deriving from the surrounding objects a pleasure and an
advantage denied to those who have neglected the study of this valuable
branch of science. Such will only meet with dreary wastes, and feel no
other sensation than that of weariness, where the observer of nature
“ Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
“Sermons in stones, and good in cvery thing.”
But not to himself alone are confined the superior advantages which ne-
cessarily result from the knowledge of natural history. Without a
systematic classification, it is next to impossible to communicate to others
distinct ideas of any particular object among the almost endless variety
that occurs in the universe. To say that an unknown plant resembles such
a plant that is known, when perhaps in point of fact they are totally un-
like, except in the shape of a leaf, is conveying not only vague but faulty
information. The Author would, therefore, most earnestiy recommend
to every young person, and more particularly to such as may be designed
for travel, the study of natural history ; by which he will contribute
largely to the stock of his own pleasures, as well as to the real information
of those to whom he may afterwards communicate his observations.
The moral and physical advancement or retardation of Furopeans in their
foreign settlements; the influence of their conduct on that of the natives, and
its effect in promoting the happiness or increasing the misery of the latter, in
accelerating or retarding their progress towards civilization; their endea-
vours to extend the cultivation of such articles of colonial produce as are
valuable for local consumption or for commerce, arc subjects of the highest
importance to the concerns of humanity, but such as can only be ac-
curately represented after long and patient investigation, conducted with-
Al 2
viii P. R. E. F. A. C. E.
\
out partiality and without prejudice. On those subjects, therefore, more
will not be expected in the present work than what the time afforded the
means of acquiring.
So little is known to Europeans of the kingdom of Cochinchina, that
every piece of authentic information respecting it may be considered as
valuable. The historical sketch of the affairs of this country for the last
thirty years, the rapid progress made by the extraordinary talents and
exertions of the present King in the recovery of the ancient domains of
that country out of the hands of usurpers, the treaty concluded between
him and Louis XVI. of France, and the causes which annulled that treaty,
will be found important in a national and political point of view. The
substance of this sketch is taken from a manuscript memoir drawn up by
Captain Barissy, a French naval officer who, having several years com-
manded a frigate in the service of the King of Cochinchina and being an
able and intelligent man, had the means and the opportunity of collecting
accurate information. That the English East India Company know so
very little of a country of such extent and importance as Cochinchina is,
though situated nearly in the direct track of their China fleets, and sup-
plying many valuable articles for the China market, is not a little sur-
prising. It is to be feared, however, that the growing influence of the
French, already too powerful in that country, will only draw their serious
attention towards it when it is too late to take advantage of those favour-
able circumstances which have long presented themselves. Were the
enemy to renew this treaty and employ actively against us the force that
was intended for the purpose, just when the French revolution put an end
to all the plans of the old government, it is exceedingly doubtful whether
the East India Company could any longer be able to maintain their valuable
commerce with China.
The Journey into the Interior of Southern Africa, inserted as a sup-
plementary article at the end of the Voyage, was undertaken by the order
and at the expense of the Cape Government, for the purpose of discover-
P. R. E. F. A C E. ix
2-
ing whether any and what tribes of native inhabitants, dwelling to the
north-eastward of the colony, might possess a sufficient stock of horned
cattle, beyond the supply of their own wants, to replace the vast numbers
which had perished in the settlement in the course of a dry and sickly
season. Mr. Truter member of the Court of Justice and Mr. Somerville
the garrison surgeon were appointed Commissioners of the expedition.
The manuscript journal, of which the Author has availed himself, was
written in Dutch by Mr. Truter. It contains a plain and detailed narrative
of all their proceedings, as for instance the exact time they travelled on
each day, the names of the places where they halted, the number of sheep
bought and consumed, the quantity of knives, beads, flints and steels
given in exchange for every ox they procured, of tobacco distributed
among the Hottentots, and a variety of other matters which Mr. Truter,
in his official capacity, thought it his duty to notice, but which the trans-
lator conceived might very properly be omitted without diminishing the
interest. He thinks it right at the same time to observe, that Mr. Truter
is responsible only for the facts and descriptions; and that, from his own
knowledge of the country, the Author has taken the liberty to introduce
many of his own remarks and observations. From this journal he has also
laid down, on his own reduced chart, a route of the journey, which,
though probably not strictly accurate, will be found sufficiently so for the
assistance of future travellers.
This article might perhaps, with more propriety, have formed an ap-
pendix to the Author’s “Travels in Southern Africa,” being intimately
connected with the same subject. At the time, however, when his Second
Volume of that work was put to the press, he understood it was the intention
of Mr. Somerville to publish an account of the expedition of which he bore a
part, and for which he was consequently better qualified than any other per-
son; he therefore forebore, on this account, making use of the materials then
in his hands. But as the Cape of Good Hope is once again a British settle-
ment, and as Mr. Somerville seems to have wholly abandoned the idea
of favouring the public with whatever information he may have col-
4.
Y. - P R E iſ A C E.
lected, the Author deems it of sufficient importance to make known to the
public the extent to which discoveries have already been pushed into the
southern part of the continent of Africa; and from the intelligence which
is herein contained respecting the civilized Barroloos, he cannot suppress
a hope that the African Association will be induced to prosecute their dis-
coveries in Southern as well as Northern Africa, especially as the pos-
session of the Cape holds out such great facilities for the undertaking.
Here there are no inhuman and unrelenting Moors to oppose and harass
the progress of the traveller ; he can here proceed without molestation
over wide trackless plains as secure as they are solitary, and pass with equal
security through a succession of mild and harmless inhabitants. And
though Southern Africa boasts not of a Niger, it has its Gariep or Orange
River, whose magnitude and known length of course are sufficiently re-
markable to make the source of the one an object of interest as well as
the vent of the other. But, what is of much greater importance to hu-
manity, the traveller will here have the satisfaction to find that, in the
interior and central parts of the southern continent, a state of slavery is
not the predestined and inevitable lot of the native African. He may here
likewise promise to himself a constant succession of new objects, in every
branch of natural history. It was a common observation among the
Romans, which they borrowed from the Greeks, that “Africa always
“ affords something new ;” the justness of which, as the late journey suffi-
ciently proves, holds good in our own times. In fact, the geography, the na-
tural productions, and the various tribes of natives inhabiting the interior
parts of this great continent may yet be considered as unknown; and con-
sequently a wide field is here presented for the researches of the inquisitive
and philosophical traveller. Little was it suspected that at no greater
distance from the southern angle of Africa (which has now been colonized
near two hundred years) than seven hundred miles, and not more than
three hundred miles from the skirts of the Cape settlement, a tribe of
natives should for the first time have been discovered (for nothing was
known of them but from vague report) within the last five years:—a
people living together in large societies, in peace, security, and happiness ;
P R E F A C E. xi
whose chief place of residence formed a town, embracing a population of
nearly fifteen thousand souls Still less did our travellers expect to hear
of other societies dwelling in towns many times the extent of that which
they saw with their own eyes, at the distance only of a few days’ journey
beyond the spot to which they themselves had proceeded. These facts
being now established, the Author cannot forbear repeating how strongly
he entertains a hope that the African Association will feel an irresistible
impulse to open an intercourse with the Barroloos, and not lose the fa-
vourable opportunity which now presents itself of extending our knowledge
of Southern Africa.
The Author deems it unnecessary to say any thing respecting the En-
gravings which illustrate and embellish his book. As works of art they
speak for themselves; and he has only to observe, that they are faithful
representations of those objects which they profess to describe.
c o N T E N T S.
C H A P. I.
THE IS LAN ID OF MAD EIR. A.
e º g Page
T.HE Bay of Biscay–Current setting into the Mediterranean explained
by an Experiment—Remarkable Appearance of Madeira–Town of
Funchal–Cathedral—Franciscan Convent, and Chamber of Skull—
Nunneries—Climate and Diseases—Condition of the Inhabitants—
Portugueze Beggarſ—Clergy—English Inhabitants—Discovery of the
Island–Its Defence—Productions—Wines—How and to what
4mount exported—Fiery Meteor - - - - - - I
C. H. A. P. II.
THE IS LAND OF TE N E R IFFE.
Conduct of the Captain of a French Frigate—Bay of Santa Cruz, its
Defences and Defects—Attacks of Blake and Nelson—Appearance of
the Island, and Town of Santa Cruz—City of Laguna—Vegetable
Productions—City and Sea-Port Town of Oratava—Teneriffs
Wine—journey up the Peak—Caverns for burying the Dead—The
Guanches or Aborigines of Teneriffe—Condition of the present In-
habitants—The Clergy—Royal Monopolies—Improvement of which
the Island is capable—Climate—Remarkable Instance of Longevity—
Description of the Fortunate Islands by Homer and Plutarch - 27
b
xiv C O N T E N T S.
C. H. A. P. III.
T H E L S L A ND OF ST. J A G O.
Page
Critical Situation in an open Boat—The dying Dolphin—The Shark,
the Bonetta, and the Albecor—The Swordfish, Instances of the
Velocity and Strength of The Flying Fish, Observation of a Mis-
sionary concerning it—Experiment of the Cork being forced into a
Bottle sunk in the Sea—Reflections on the Ship of Captain Cooke
being transformed into a Smuggler—The Attention shewn by Queen
Elizabeth to Drake's Ship—Town and Bay of Praya—Appearance
of the Inhabitants—Of the Surface of the Island—Neglect of the
Mother Country—Produce of St. jago—Situation of the Governor,
and Condition of the Inhabitants tº - - tº tº º - 57
C H A P. IV.
RIO DE J A N E I R.O.
Singular Entrance into, and Description of, the magnificent Harbour of
Rio de janeiro—The City of St. Sebastian—The Aqueduct—The
public Gardens—Streets and Shops of St. Sebastian—jealous Con-
duct of the Portugueze—Climate and troublesome Insects—Indolence
and improper Conduct of the Priesthood—Singular Custom of the
Ladies of Rio—Of those of the Convent of Santa Clara—Of the
Ladies of Liverpool—Dress and Character—Religious Ceremonies
and Processions—Neglected State of the Country in the Neighbourhood
of the Capital gºs t-º º sº ſº ſº tº ºr ſº - 72
C. H. A. P. V.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE BRAZILs.
Discovery of the Brazil—Mode of colonizing the Country—Failure in
the Attempt to convert the Natives to Christianity, and to Slavery—
C O N T E N T S. XV
Negroes imported from the Coast of Africa—A Frenchman’s Hº- Page
manity to a Cargo of Slaves—Treatment and Condition of Slaves in
the Brazil—Advantages of this Country over the West India
Islands—Reflexions on Slavery–Discouraging System of the Portu.
gueze with regard to the Brazil—Valuable Productions of—Treaty
of Commerce between England and Portugal—Deplorable State of
the Spanish Colonies—Dangerous Doctrine of revolutionizing South
America—Bahia, Rio de janeiro, and St. Catharine's, three im-
portant Points on the Coast of Brazil—Strength of Rio, and military
Force tº tº a º & sº º A ºn º º - Iog
C H A. P. VI.
THE IS LAND'S OF TR IS TAN D A CUN HA AND A MISTE R D A M.
Advantageous Situation of Tristan da Cunha—Description and Di-
mensions of the Island of Amsterdam–Crater—Other volcanic
Appearances—Thermal Springs--Boiling Fish in them—Sharks—
Observations on the digestive Powers of the Stomachs of Animals—
Bird; taken on the Island—Plants—Proof; of its being a new
Island—Examples of new Creations—Theories of the Earth—Seal-
Catchers found on the Island º - º º tº a - I37
C H A P. VII.
TIH E S T R A IT OF SUN D A A N D IS I, A N D OF J A W. A.
Comparison between the Harbour of Rio de janeiro and the Strait of
Sunda—Swallows’ Nests—Anjerie Point—Number of Sharks—
Tomb of Colonel Cathcart—The Thousand Islands—The Fabrics of
marine Worms—Coral Islands more favourable for Plants than thoſe
of volcanic Origin—Bay of Batavia—Site of Batavia—Bad Taste
of the Dutch—Description of Batavia—Population—Great Mor-
tality—Temperature—Diseases—Productions of java in the mineral
and vegetable Kingdoms—Cocoa, Mangostan, Mango, Ramboolan,
b 2
xvi. C O N T E N T S.
Page
Poojosang, $5'c.—Curious, useful, or beautiful Plants—The Ne- 8
penthes, or Pitcher Plant—The Upas—Effect of poisonous Sub-
stances—Hydrophobia, curious Case of Animals tºº. - - 158
C H A P. VIII.
B AT AVI A.
Reception by the Dutch Governor—Van Weegerman’s Villa and Dinner—
The Governor's Ball and Supper—Dutch Mode of Living—Conse-
quences of it—The Chinese—Their Industry and Prosperity—
jealousy of the Dutch, and horrid Consequences of it—javanese, their
Habits of Life, and Condition—Their spare Diet—Their apparent
Origin from the Hindus—Their Religion—Inconsistencies of Trans-
migration—Of Animal Life being produced by a fortuitous Concur-
rence of Circumstances—The Malays—Their Character and vin-
dictive Spirit—Attachment to Gaming—Instance of the ferocious
Conduct of the Malays—Slaves of different Nations, their Diſposition,
Condition, and Employment - - -> tº º- ºn - 2 O2
C. H. A. P. IX.
COC III N C H IN A.
Geographical Outline—Bays and Rivers—Suspicious Conduct of the
Natives, and Cause of it—Historical Sketch relating to Cochinchina—
A Rebellion, and the Murder of the King—Conquest of Tung-quin—
Conduct of a Chinese General—Safety of the young Prince of Cochin-
china—His Adventures—Bishop d’Adran carries the King’s Son to
Paris—Treaty between him and Lewis XVI—Preparations for
carrying the Treaty into Effect—Defeated by Madame de Vienne—
Return of the legitimate King to Cochinchina—His various Successes
over the Usurpers—His Character—His Attachment to the Bishop
d'Adran—Extraordinary Energy of his bodily and mental Faculties—
His land and marine Forces - - - - - - - 243
co N T E N T S. xvii.
C H A P. X.
GENERAL SKETCH OF THE MANNERS, CHARACTER, AND
CONDITION OF THE N AT IV ES OF TU R O N.
Page
Cochinchinese Dinners—Communication with the young King of Tung-
quin—Presents sent by him to the Ambassador—Entertainment given
at Turon on the King of England's Birth-Day—Plays and other
Amusements—Activity of the Cochinchinese—How they agree and
disagree with the Chinese—Treatment of their Women—Consequences
of it—Easy Terms on which Women are transferred to Strangers—
Instances of it—Dress—Buildings—Diet and Means of Subsistence—
Extensive Use of marine Productions as Articles of Food—Low
State of the Arts and Manufactures—Excel most in naval Archi.
tecture–Language—Religion—Laws the same as those of China—
Punishments not so frequent cº- -- gº- º- º º - 286
C H A P. XI.
ADV A NTAGES OF A COMIMERCIAL INTER COURSE W IT II
C O C III N C III.N.A.
Peninsula and Harbour of Turon—Views of France in desiring the
Cession of it—Importance of to Great Britain, particularly in its
Commerce with China—Cochinchinese Productions for Export—
Mode of establishing an Intercourse with this Nation—Objections
against entrusting diplomatic Agency to mercantile Men—Ancient
Commerce with Cochinchina—Reason of its Decline owing to the ill.
Conduct of Europeans—An extraordinary Instance of Cruelty—
Chinese Trade to New Holland—Superior Advantages resulting
from their early Knowledge of the Compass—An Objection to its
Antiquity answered—An Opening for Great Britain to revive the
Trade of Cochinchina - - - - - - - - 33
+
xviii C O N T E N T S.
A N A C COUNT OF A J O U R N E Y TO LEET A KOO.
Page
After passing the Boundary of the Colony, the Strength of the Ex-
pedition is mustered—They meet with two Bojesmans on the Desert–
With a Dutch Boor and his Family—Pass the Karree-bergen, and
meet a Party of armed Bojesmans—Salt Lakes—The Gariep or
Orange River—Horde of Kora Hottentots—Missionary Kicherer's
Kraal–Contrast between the Gospel and the Moravian Mission-
aries—Bojesmans—Several new Characters join the Party—The
Iron Mountain—Effect produced on the Compass—Wild Buffalos—
Giraffè or Camelopardalis—Source of the Kourmanna River—
Arrival of a Party of Booshuanas from the King—Mimosa or
Umbrella Tree—Arrival at Leetakoo-Interview with the Chief—
Situation, Size, and Population of Lcetakoo—Some Account of the
Booshuanas, their Character, Possessions, Resources, Amusements,
frce and happy Condition, Origin, &c.—The Barroloos—Slavery
unknown in the interior Parts of Southern Africa—The Palla
Antelope—Face of the Country—Mimosas loaded with Nests of
the gregarious Loxia—The Kokoon apparently a Species of Gnoo—
A new Species of Quacha—Opinion of the Ancients respecting
mcºv Animals incorrect—Return to the Kourmanna River—A Lion
shot while striding over a Hottentot—Booshuana Villages—Patanie—
Abundance of large Game—The Takhcilsé, a new Species of
Antelope or Cow—Buffalo hunting—This Creature and the Elephant
resent Injuries—The latter supposed to bury their Dead–Giraffe
hunting—A large Rhinosceros killed—Arrive at the Orange River,
and skirt it; Banks to the North-Westward—Pass several Kora
Villages—Kok’s Kraal—Extraordinary Character and Adventures
of one Stephanos, a Polish Greek—Expedition against a famous
Robber of the Name of Africaaner—Extraordinary Flight of
Locusts—Critical Situation of the two Secretaries–Pithing of
Cattle—Decisive Experiments to prove the Fallacy of its being the
most expeditious and least painful Mode of slaughtering Cattle—
Return of the Expedition to the Colony gº º ſº ſº - 36.3
4.
DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES.
I. View of Funchal in Madeira º - - to face Page 5
II. Chamber of Skulls in the Franciscan Convent º ſº 8
III. View of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe . U i. gº - 32
IV. View of Porta Praya in St. Jago - - - - - 65
V. View of the Aqueduct in Rio de Janeiro . tºº º 8o
VI. Views of the Land surrounding the Harbour of Rio de Janeiro 135
VII. Plan of the Harbour and Shores º wº tº ib.
VIII. The Javanese and wounded Shark wº tº tº tº 162
IX. Tomb of Colonel Cathcart tº tº tº º º 164
X. View of the great Church in Batavia ſº tº ſº 176
XI. The Mangoostan tº a wº gº tº i. ſº iº 185
XII. The Rambootan and Poolasang wº gº tºº º - 186
XIII. Portrait of a Cochinchinese Soldier * † * > gº º 284
XIV. A Scene in the Cochinchinese Opera tºº tºº gº - 296
XV. A Groupe of Cochinchinese at play tºº º ſº tºº 309
XVI. View of the Entrance of the River Fai-ſoo tºº gº - 32O
XVII. Offering to Fo in the Banyan Tree º gº tº tº 328
XVIII. A Kora Hottentot Woman ſº gº * *…* * 373
XIX. Booshuana Village - tº tºº iº wº tºº - 392
XX. Booshuana Man and Woman - - - tº i. 394
XXI. Chart to face the Title Page of the journey in Southern Africa.
A
V O Y A. G. E.
TO
C O C H I W C H I W A,
&c. &c. &c.
C. H. A. P. I.
THE ISLAND OF MAD EIR. A.
The Bay of Biscay—Current setting into the Mediterranean explained by an
Experiment—Remarkable Appearance of Madeira—Town of Funchal–
Cathedral—Franciscan Convent, and Chamber of Skulls—Nunneries-
Climate and Diseases—Condition of the Inhabitants—Portugueze Beggars-
Clergy—English Inhabitants—Discovery of the Island—its Defences—
Productions—Wines—how and to what Amount exported—Fiery Meteor.
ON the 26th of September 1792, our little squadron, con-
sisting of the Lion ship of war of sixty-four guns, the Hin-
dostan Indiaman, and the Jackal Brig, sailed from Spithead
with a fair and fresh breeze, which, as we proceeded down
the British Channel, increased to an equinoctial gale from
the south-west, and compelled us to seek for shelter in Torbay.
Here we remained two days, when, the wind becoming mo-
derate and favourable, we again put to sea and rolled ra-
pidly across the bay of Biscay, which, like the “Wavering
Nation,” as Shakspeare aptly calls it, whose shores it laves, is
B
2 - M A D F I R. A.
*
ever in a state of restlessness, even in the midst of a calm.
There are few scenes in nature so terrific and sublime, so well
calculated to impress the mind with wonder and admiration,
as a storm at sea ; and tremendously awful must such a scene
have appeared to him,
“ Who first to the wild Ocean's rage
Launch'd the frail bark, and heard the winds engage
Tempestuous.” -,
As we approached Cape Finisterre the water became
much smoother, but at the same time the effects of the well-
known current, which flows incessantly towards the Mediter-
ranean, began to be sensibly felt—a current which, in the
strait of Gibraltar, is so strong as to prevent ships from pass-
ing into the Atlantic with a westerly breeze, however mode-
rate. This phenomenon has in part been explained by the
hypothesis of the learned and ingenious Doctor Halley, which
supposes the quantity of water evaporated from the surface
of the Mediterranean to be greater than the quantity thrown
into it by the rains and rivers, and consequently that, in
order to preserve the level by supplying the deficiency, there
must necessarily be a constant tendency of the Atlantic to
rush into the Mediterranean. It has since, however, been
supposed, though as far as my knowledge extends not
proved, that an under-current sets as constantly out of
the Mediterranean into the Atlantic. It is always plea-
sant to find ingenious theory corroborated by simple facts :
and as the following experiment, communicated to me by
Admiral Patton, applies so directly to the point, and accounts
for the two currents in a manner so satisfactory, I shall tran-
M A D E I R A. 3
scribe it without making any comment. The Admiral took
up a small flask of salt water in the Atlantic Ocean, near Cape
Saint Vincent, which weighed 220z. 5drs. The same quan-
tity, in bulk, of salt water taken up by him in the Mediter-
ranean near Minorca, was found to be 13 grains heavier.
Two decanters were afterwards filled, one with fresh, the other
with salt water, their specific gravities differing in the above
proportion, and the fresh water tinged with red colouring
matter. The decanters being piaced horizontally, and their
necks closely luted, a gradual interchange of their contents
was observed to take place, the fresh and coloured water
making its way through the upper, and the salt water in a
contrary direction through the lower, part of the necks; being
a just representation of the upper and under currents, which
are supposed to flow in contrary directions through the
strait of Gibraltar.
Welcome as the sight of land must always be after a sea-
voyage, it will be doubly so to the passenger who, for the
first time, has been buffetted by the billows of the Bay of
Biscay. Yet the appearance of the mountainous island of
Madeira, enveloped, as it usually is, in the obscurity of a
dense cloud, is far from being inviting. So rarely indeed is
its gloomy mantle drawn aside, that when Gonsalez Zarco
discovered the island of Porto Santo, though at the distance
only of 40 miles from Madeira, he remained at the former
for a length of time, without even conjecturing that the latter
might be habitable land. He and his people had observed
with marked attention the thick black cloud hovering con-
stantly over the same spot of the horizon; an appearance
D 2
4. M A D E I R A.
which inspired them with a superstitious and reverential awe,
being firmly persuaded, as men were in those days, that
& &
'Tis not vain or fabulous
(Though so esteem’d by shallow ignorance)
What the sage poets, taught by th’ heavenly muse,
Story'd of old in high immortal verse,
Of dire chimeras and inchanted isles,
And riftcd rocks, whose entrance leads to hell.”
ln fact, it was the popular conjecture, that this settled
gloom might be suspended over one of the mouths of hell.
The point of elevation, at which this cloud rests on the
brow of the mountain, is said to be regulated generally by the
course of the sun ; floating at his meridian altitude as a thin
fleece on the aërial summit, and descending as he sinks into the
western horizon in dense volumes to the skirts of the town,
over which it remains suspended during the whole night. As
the next rising sun gradually dissipates this heavy vapour, a
succession of objects, full at least of novelty to the stranger, and
of great variety, is unfolded to the eye. On the sweeping shore
of a spacious bay, whose extreme points are high and rugged
volcanic rocks, is situated the town of Funchal, the white build-
ings of which, contrasted with the surrounding rocks of black
java, and the lively verdure of the plantations on the brow of the
mountain, convey neither an unpleasing nor an unpicturesque
effect. Interspersed among these plantations are numerous
delightful villas, churches, chapels, and convents, various in
point of form and situation, and mounting one above the
other on the steep acclivity, till they are lost in the obscurity
of the hanging cloud. The highest visible object that parti-
7
/////'^/.
_- i
-----
！， ：， ：， ：， ’：’， ：，：

M A D E I R. A. 5
cularly catches the eye is the convent of Nossa Senhora do
Monte, our Lady of the Mountain, which, being surrounded by
gardens and groves and avenues of chesnut-trees, appears
as if buried in the midst of a forest. The wide open bay
with the shipping at anchor, the numerous craft on the beach,
the Ilheo or Loo rock, a huge insulated mass of black lava,
surmounted with batteries, constitute a foreground that is
well suited to the grandeur of the scenery on shore. But the
annexed view of that part of the island immediately over the
town, reduced from a drawing taken by Mr. Daniell, on
board a ship at anchor in the bay, will recal to the recollec-
tion of those, who may have viewed it from the same situation,
its general features as they appear from thence, better than
any description which I can pretend to give.
The bay of Funchal, at all times indifferent as a place of
anchorage for shipping, is considered as extremely dangerous
from the autumnal to the vernal equinox, when the strong
southerly winds cause a high and rolling swell of the sea to
be thrown in upon the shore. Poor Mackintosh, who com-
manded the Hindostan, was in a state of constant alarm and
uneasiness while we remained here, having on a former visit
to this place lost his ship, when every soul on board perished;
he and his cook escaped the melancholy fate of their compa-
nions by being Qn shore.
How deceitful are oftimes the fairest appearances; and
how frequently is the beauty of objects, when viewed from a
distance, converted into real deformity on a nearer approach
After a difficult and disagreeable landing, on account of the
{) M A D F I R A.
*
surge, which breaks with violence on a rough pebbled beach,
the passenger enters directly into the irregular and meanly
built town of Funchal, whose streets are narrow, crooked, and
dirty, some paved with small pointed pebbles, that seem to
pierce through the soles of the shoes at every step, and others
without any pavement but the ridges of schistose lava breaking
through the surface, whose points are not less sharp than the for-
mer. The mountain rills trickle through some of the streets in
their passage to the bay; but, instead of contributing to the
cleanliness of the town, these little streamlets are productive
of every kind of nuisance. Here the inhabitants wash their
clothes, clean their fish, deposit the offals of butchers’ shops,
empty the contents of their night-machines, and, in short,
bring together all the filthy and offensive materials that are
collected or generated in the town. The number of hogs that
are attracted by this plentiful supply of provender, and that
are suffered to run loose about the streets, is another source
of annoyance to the passenger; for these four-legged gentry
are so familiar, that he who happens to walk the length of a
street without being gently brushed by some of them may
consider himself as being in great luck.
The few good dwelling-houses that are found in the town
are those which are occupied by the British merchants, who
have established themselves here in the wine trade; these
houses are in general sufficiently spacious, but neither com-
modious nor comfortable. These and a few others ex-
cepted, all the rest have rather a mean appearance. Their roofs
are chiefly covered with tiles, on which large loose stoncs are
laid to prevent their being carried away by the blasts of
M A D E I R. A. 7
wind that occasionally blow with great violence from the
mountains behind the town. The extent of Funchal may be
nearly a mile in a line parallel with the beach, and rather
more than half a mile in depth. It is said to contain two
thousand houses, occupied by about twelve thousand inha-
bitants. There are besides six other small towns or villages
on the island, the whole population of which, including
Funchal, is estimated to amount to about ninety thousand
persons.
At a little distance behind the government-house, which
stands within the fort Lorenço, and overlooks the bay, is the
Passao Publico, the public mall, a short but very pretty walk,
well shaded with orange or lime trees, willows and poplars.
On one side of the entrance stands the theatre, which is sel-
dom opened, and on the other the hospital. Funchal, like
other towns and cities of Roman Catholic countries, has no
scarcity of churches and convents ; but we met with little in
any of them that could be considered as deserving of parti-
cular notice. The beams and the roof of the cathedral are
pointed out to strangers as being of cedar, a species of tree
with which it is said the island was at its discovery nearly
covered. Another curiosity which is shewn in the town is a
chamber in one of the wings of the Franciscan convent, the
walls and ceiling of which are completely covered with rows
of human skulls and human thigh bones, so arranged that
in the obtuse angle made by every pair of the latter, cross-
ing each other obliquely, is placed a skull. The only vacant
space that appears is in the centre of the side opposite to
the door, on which there is an extraordinary painting above
8 M A D E I R. A.
a kind of altar, but what the subject is intended to represent
I am really at a loss to decide. A figure in the picture,
intended probably for St. Francis, the patron saint, seems to
be intent on trying in a balance the comparative weight of a
sinner and a saint. But the very accurate drawing from
which the annexed print was taken, and with which I have
been favoured by Mr. Daniell, will perhaps best explain
the subject. A dirty lamp suspended from the ceiling, and
just glimmering in the socket, served dimly to light up this
dismal den of skulls. The old monk who attended as shew-
man was very careful to impress us with the idea that they
were all relics of holy men who had died on the island; but
I suspect they must occasionally have robbed the church-
yard of a few lay-brethren, and perhaps now and then of a
heretic, (as strangers are interred in their burying ground,) in
order to accumulate such a prodigious number which, on a
rough computation, I should suppose to amount to at least
three thousand. The skull of one of the holy brotherhood
was pointed out as having a lock-jaw, which occasioned his
death ; and, from the garrulity of our attendant, I have no
doubt we might have heard the history of many more equally
important, which, though thrown away upon us who had no
taste for craniology, would, in all probability, have been
highly interesting to Doctor Gall, the famous lecturer on
skulls in Vienna. On taking leave we deposited our mite
on the altar, as charity to the convent, which seems to be
the principal object in view of collecting and exhibiting this
memento mori of the monastic and mendicant order of St.
Prancis. s
，
|-
，， ， ， ， ，//// ±//|-！，//
， ,| // // ‚//
----
-------

M A D E I R. A. 9
There are other convents, to which young women are some-
times sent for the purpose of completing their education ; but
not a single instance of the veil having been taken occurs for
many years past. Married women also, who are particularly
tenacious of their character, and who wish to be considered as
models of chastity and virtue, sometimes retire into a convent
during the absence of their husbands. In those which were
visited by our party, we saw only a few antiquated virgins,
who affected a considerable degree of shyness; and though
their air and general appearance were not ill calculated to
inspire feelings of pity, it was not, however, of that kind
which “melts the soul to love,” but whose less powerful in-
fluence pleads rather to the purse than to the heart; and
accordingly we gave them, what was considered to be the most
acceptable, a few dollars in exchange for pieces of paper cut
into representations of the virgin, and saints, and crucifixes.
A general languor, occasioned by confinement and the unvaried
insipidity of a monastic life, frequently passes in the nun as
the token of patient resignation ; and we are apt to attach a
lively interest to young females, who are thus so cruelly, as
we suppose, separated for ever from all society except that
of each other: but it is by no means clear that we do not
often ascribe to persons under such circumstances notions of
purity and delicacy, which are more romantic than just. It
is extremely doubtful if they possess those exalted sentiments,
nice feelings, and sound understandings, which prevail among
females of those countries where they are allowed to enjoy
unrestrained freedom. The education of the former is suited to
prepare them for their future condition : they are held in such
little consideration in their own family, that they are fully
C
I Q M A D F I R. A.
aware they cannot be less esteemed in a convent ; and they
make the sacrifice of their liberty under the consoling reflec-
tion that, by so doing, they shall secure everlasting happiness
in the world to come.
The residence of a few days among a foreign people cannot
be supposed to furnish much information of their manners,
character, and condition. It requires no little time to get
rid of our own prejudices ; and, while labouring under the in-
fluence of those, we are apt to forget the making of a due
allowance for the prejudices of others. It does not require,
however, any very long stay at Madeira to perceive that the
great bulk of the people of Funchal, as in most other cities,
is doomed to encounter the ills of poverty :
ills that, in this
country, however, on which Nature has bestowed so fine a
climate, would seem to be rather owing to some mismanage-
ment on their own part, than to any system of oppression in
the government, deficiency in the means of subsistence, or
other moral or physical causes. The steady and moderate
temperature which this island enjoys is scarcely excelled in
any part of the world. In the winter months, the mercury in
Fahrenheit's thermometer seldom descends below 55°, or rises
higher than 65°; and the usual range in summer is from 66°
to 76°. It is visited, however, occasionally, but very rarely,
by a kind of Sirocco wind from the eastward, that scorches
vegetation, and renders the air suffocating and insupportable :
at such time, the thermometer rises to 90° or 9.5°. It
cannot be the climate, therefore, that occasions the meagre,
sallow, and sickly appearance which the inhabitants of Fun-
chal generally wear, but may rather be attributed to the
M A D E I R. A. I I
poverty of their food, which chiefly consists of fish, pumpkins,
and sour wine, or pernicious spirits ; to a life of drudgery and
exposure to great vicissitude of climate, by daily ascending
the steep and lofty mountains in search of fuel; and, above
all, to a total disregard of cleanliness. As a corroborative
proof of this being the case it may be mentioned, that almost
all the natives are infected with what they consider an in-
curable cutaneous disease, a species of itch, which is attended
with an extraordinary degree of virulence and inflammation.
I do not remember to have seen or heard of any remarkable
instance of longevity; and the chances are, that Dr. Price,
in speaking of the mortality of this island as one in fifty only
of the population, while that of London he considers as one
in twenty, is not less inaccurate in these instances than in
many other of his calculations.
The peasantry, however, like all other mountaineers, are a
strong, healthy, hardy race of men, whose chief employment
consists in the various occupations of agriculture, but more
particularly in the cultivation of the vine. When the vintage
is over, and the labours of the vineyard suspended for the
season, several hundreds may daily be seen descending the
mountain paths, in their way to the town, with their borrachas,
or goat-skin bags of wine, slung on a stick across the
shoulder.
In all countries where little progress has been made in the
refinements of civilization, the drudgery of labour is unfairly
thrown on the weaker sex. In our excursions among the
mountains of Madeira, we observed great numbers of women,
C 2
I 2 M A D E I R A.
*
both old and young, cutting down broom and cytisus, and
other frutescent plants, as fuel to be used in the town, which
they afterwards bear in large bundles on the head; travelling
barefooted on sharp stoney roads, and down frightful pre-
cipices, over a distance of at least ten or twelve miles every
day. The men, who are employed in the same business, go
out at two or three o'clock in the morning, in order that they
may return to Funchal before the heat of the day, when it is
usual to see them basking at full length in the streets before
their doors, conveying to a stranger an idea of their extreme
indolence, which, however, is far from being the case with
this class of men, whose chief occupation is that of sup-
plying the town with firewood. Those who may prefer
a life of ease, with scanty meals, to the comfort of a decent
livelihood to be procured by moderate labour, are such as are
occasionally employed in fishing, in shipping wines, which are
usually slipped to the beach on sledges drawn by oxen, in smug-
gling, or in furnishing seamen with wine and spirits. Such
employments occupy only a small portion of the day, and
not many days in the week. Some few are engaged in the
preparation of a sort of white leather for boots, coarse woollens
for caps and jackets, and striped linens for trowsers. A linen
or calico shirt, a pair of canvas or checked linen trowsers,
and a red or blue woollen cap, mostly of the latter colour
and not unlike the late sacred emblem of Gallic liberty, con-
stitute their usual dress, which, with their sallow and meagre
looks and long black hair, gives them a ferocious appearance,
that an unprotected stranger would not be desirous of en-
countering in a lonely place; yet they are in fact a civil,
harmless, and well-disposed people.
M A D E I R. A. r &
The dress of the female mountain wood-cutters consists of
a shift, a petticoat, and a thick cap or coarse handkerchief
tied about the head. The middle class of people, who earn
a livelihood by keeping shops, by carrying on a petty traffic, or
by practising some of the handicraft trades, are distinguished
in their dress from the vulgar by the addition of a hat, shoes
and stockings, and a long black cloak, which frequently con-
ceals beneath its covering a multitude of rents and patches.
Their wives and daughters are almost invariably habited in
black cloth petticoats, and a jacket of the same material,
with a large hood drawn over the head. It would be unrea-
sonable to expect that the women of this place should exhibit
the most perfect models of purity and delicacy; but we were
not exactly prepared to observe these hooded matrons and
damsels stepping aside, with perfect composure, to the creeks
and corners of the streets and, like Madame Rambouillet,
“plucking their roses,” in open day, and in full view of every
passenger.
Nor do the men, who affect to rank among the upper
classes of society, appear to feel those elevated notions of in-
dependence which attach to their condition in other countries:
for instance, they are not ashamed of begging in the public
streets. The monks of St. Francis profess it por amor de
Deos ; and the laity beg for the love of themselves. Contrary
to the custom of our beggars, who assume at least the out-
ward appearance of being objects of compassion, and fre-
quently of disgust, a Portugueze puts on his best coat when
he goes a begging. This may not be so much the case in Ma-
7
I 4 M A D E I R A.
deira as in some of their commercial stations in the East,
once flourishing, now sunk into ruin and wretchedness. I
recollect distinctly, when we were at Macao, to have observed
one of the inhabitants asking charity at the English factory,
dressed in his bag-wig and sword. Indeed the miserable
people of that settlement are half supported from the money
that is either spent, or given in charity, by the English and
other European houses which are established there for the
conveniency of their commerce with China.
It would seem that the clergy of Madeira are not very rigid
in exacting from others the duties of religion, nor in setting an
example of pious conduct in their own persons. On the con-
trary, the loose manners, the intemperate mode of life and the
free conversation of many of the monks are a disgrace to the
sacred office which they hold ; yet these men assume to them-
selves the character of guardians of public morals, and, under
this cover, sometimes make use of the most extraordinary and
unwarrantable liberties. We observed, with astonishment, at
the Governor's table, the impertinent, indecent, and de-
bauched conduct of a drunken fat friar ; and were equally
surprized at the little pains that were taken to check his
career. These men carry about with them evident marks of
good living; and if the general appearance of the inhabitants
indicates few symptoms of plenty or comfort, that of the
clergy at least is such as even Caesar might not have objected
to, they being
( & Men that are fat;
“Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights.”
M A D E I R. A. I 5
The penurious and solitary life of the Portugueze forms a
striking contrast with the splendid and convivial manner in
which the houses of the English merchants are constantly kept
open for the accommodation of strangers who may call at the
island. If the English at home be represented by foreigners
as a cold, formal, and distant people, they have at least a
very different character abroad. Their hospitality at Madeira
is unbounded ; and the state of society, the delightful climate,
and the variety with which the island abounds, are such that
he, who could not spend here a few months with pleasure and
satisfaction, must be possessed of a very fastidious taste. The
Portugueze Governor, however, was a social, well-bred, and
respectable man. He entered into all the parties of the
English, during our stay on the island. He gave, also, a
most sumptuous entertainment at the government-house :
and, as few nations, beside our own, exhibit on their tables
whole animals, as pigs grinning with oranges in their mouths,
hares squatting as if about to leap down the throats of the
hungry guests, and pheasants with their feathers ready to fly
after them, the Portugueze Governor, in compliment to the
English taste, had employed English cooks for the occasion :
a mark of consideration which I very much doubt if any of
the British merchants would have condescended to pay to the
Portugueze Governor; as a due respect for the customs and
prejudices of other nations is certainly not to be found in the
catalogue of an Englishman's good qualities.
The Governor of this settlement, which is the case in few
belonging to Portugal, has a sufficient allowance to enable
him to support the dignity of his station, and his powers are
16 M A D E I R. A.
still greater than his appointments are liberal ; yet his whole
income is barely 2000l. a year, about 200 l. of which is in the
shape of a present from the English merchants.
The accidental discovery of Madeira is attributed, by most
of the early voyagers and historians of Portugal, to an Eng-
lishman ; and the subject is said to be painted on the walls of
a room in the government-house. Whether the fact be really
so or not, the adventures of Robert Macham and the lovely
Anna d'Arſet furnish an interesting and an affecting story, the
incidents of which are extremely natural, and not improbable.
Gonçalvez, indeed, who, after Macham, may be considered
as the discoverer of Madeira, was so much convinced of the
truth of the story which was then prevalent, that he named
the place of his first anchorage Porto dos Inglesos ; and, on
his second voyage, changed it to that of Porto de Machino,
in honour of the unfortunate discoverer, which at this day is
corrupted into Porto Machio or Machico. At this place are
still shewn the remains of a cross, that was supposed to have
been erected over the grave of the beautiful and amiable
Anna d'Arfet, and which they pretend to have been cut out
of the very tree under which she died and was buried.
Whoever might have been the discoverer, it is certain the
Portugueze were the first to take possession of it; and in
doing this they are not chargeable with any injustice or
violence, for there was not found a single inhabitant of the
human species upon it. Since that period it has not been
out of their possession ; nor could it perhaps be better placed
for the commerce and convenience of all nations, than in the
M A D E I R A. 17
hands of a power which has neither the means nor the inclina-
tion to go to war. In the possession of a great maritime state,
it might be made instrumental, in time of war, in materially
interrupting the commerce of the East and West Indies, as al-
most all the outward bound ships to both countries pass within
sight of Madeira or Porto Santo. For the mere improvement
of the island, and of the condition of the people, the English
ought to be the masters ; whilst misery and ruin would be the
inevitable consequence of its falling into the possession of the
French. The defences of the island are by no means con-
temptible, nor neglected. The Peak castle which commands
the town on the west, the fort and wall extending along the
beach, the works on the Loo rock, and the fort of St. Jago
on the east point of the bay, with proper ordnance and a
garrison of two or three thousand men, might oppose a very
obstinate resistance to a much superior force. The best and
perhaps, indeed, the only practicable landing-place is at
Funchal, where the shot from the castle striking the pebbly
beach, which is from sixty to eighty yards in width and
flanked by batteries at each extremity, would occasion a
dreadful havoc among the invading party, in the attempt of
making good their landing. On the whole island there are
said to be from twelve to fifteen the usand well-appointed and
regularly trained militia, of which four or five thousand could
be brought, in the course of a few hours, to act at any given
point.
In order to pick up a few native plants, and to gain some
little information as to the produce and the rural economy of
the island, we determined to make a long day's excursion
D
18 M A D F I R. A.
across the mountains. For this purpose we engaged a number
of mules and as many muleteers, each beast having its
driver who, with his long staff armed with a pike, goads the
animal in the flank, or checks his career by a blow on the
face, to regulate the pace of the beast with his own, without
regard to the feelings of the rider. There being very little
level ground on the island, our road was either up steep ac-
clivities, along the edges of frightful precipices, across deep
ravines, or through swampy thickets of brushwood. The
island, however, abounds with grand and picturesque land-
scapes; and many of the deep vallies exhibit magnificent
and romantic scenery. In the vicinity of the town, and along
the sea-coast, the rocks and stones are mostly formed of com-
pact bluish lava ; but in proportion as we advanced in height,
the volcanic products disappeared, and quartz and close-
grained schistus became more abundant. In crossing the
summit of a mountain, towards the east end of the island, we
met with the crater of an extinct volcano, which appeared to
be about three hundred yards in diameter ; the bottom was
nearly covered with a species of penny-wort.
We saw only a few trees, and these were generally growing
in the decp glens, none of which were remarkable for their
size or their beauty, except the tall and elegant Ardisia earcelsa.
Some large trees of a species of cedar, with which the island
is supposed to have once been covered, are said to be still
growing in the ravines annong the higher mountains; but we
did not meet with any of them. The general scarcity of soil,
indecd, which prevails in every part of the island, except in
particular situations, where rills of water may have carried
M A D E I R. A. I Q
down, in the course of ages, an accumulation of loose earthy
particles, would seem to contradict the common opinion that
its name was given in consequence of the vast forests with
which it originally abounded. There certainly is not the least
appearance that such has over been the case : thickets of
underwood might have covered several parts of the brow of
the mountain, and such patches of ground in the glens as are
now converted into vineyards and orchards ; but there never
could have been such forests and thickets as to justify the
idea of the conflagration having lasted for seven years, as we
are told by Portugueze historians. The native shrubby plants
that chiefly prevail are broom, cytisus, whortleberry, laurel,
myrtle, brambles, euphorbia, cactus, a fine scented jessamine,
and wild olives. It was those which, viewing them from the
ship, our imaginations had transformed into groves of oranges,
lemons, citrons, and other fruit trees that are congenial with
such a climate. A species of lavender, a stock, and several
of our cultivated plants, are found in their natural state.
The common fern is abundant, so likewise is polypody,
maiden-hair, and other cryptogamous plants. Wormwood,
trefoil, nightshade, bugloss, fox-glove, Saint John's wort,
convolvulus, plaintain, and many of our grasses grow on the
sides of the hills, wherever there happens to be the smallest
quantity of soil to fix their roots.
The cultivated plants are vines, oranges, lemons, citrons,
ſigs, bananas, guavas, apricots, peaches, and European fruits,
besides good walnuts and chesnuts. The island produces
wheat, barley, and rye; but more than two-thirds of the grain
consumed is imported from the Azores or Western Islands,
D 9
2 O f - M A D F I R A.
and from America. For more than a century Madeira was
considered as valuable chiefly for the quantity of sugar it
produced ; but since this aromatic reed has been spread over
the continent and islands of the new world, little is now in
cultivation here ; and the sugar extracted from it is of a coarse
quality, used only among the lower class of inhabitants, com-
monly as an inspissated brown juice, not unlike molasses.
The arid soil seems much better suited for the growth of the
vine than the sugar-cane. Wine, indeed, may be considered
as the principal product of the island, of which the quantity
made varies, in different years, from fifteen to twenty-five
thousand pipes. The greatest quantity exported in any one
year appears to have been fifteen thousand pipes, in the fol-
lowing manner:
To the East Indies - sº Pipes 5500
"To England - tº º - 4500
To the West Indies tºº *-> - 3OOO
"To America, and taken away by Americans 2000
15000
*
The value of which, with a little fruit and other articles ex-
ported, may be estimated at 500,000l., of which more than
400,000l. is taken by Great Britain and its colonies, in ex-
change for various manufactures and provisions, amounting
in value to about 300,000l., making thus a balance against
us of 100,000l. America supplies the island with lumber,
staves, salt provisions, and grain, to the amount of 80,000/.
annually, which is more than is imported into the island by
M A D E I R. A. 2 I
Portugal from Europe, Drazil, and the Azores; and the whole
amount of produce taken by the mother-country from Ma-
deira docs not exceed 10,000 l. The total revenues of the
island, consisting of one-tenth of the produce and duties on
import and export, are said to amount to about 100,000l.,
Out of which, after paying the expences of the civil, military,
and ecclesiastical establishments, the Crown is supposed to
receive about 30,000l., although the old Governor assured
Lord Macartney that the net sum received by the Crown
of Portugal seldom exceeded eight or ten thousand pounds.
It will appear extraordinary, and I should not have ven-
tured to mention it had I not the authority for so doing of
a gentleman who has been thirty years on the island, that so
large a quantity of wine should annually be sent to India,
and consumed there, (for of this not 300 pipes a year are re-
turned to Europe,) and so little imported into England. The
latter would appear to be of less difficult explanation than the
former ; for although it is supposed that the quantity con-
sumed in Great Britain, under the name of Madeira, is, on
the least calculation, equal to the whole quantity that is ex-
ported from the island, or more than three times what is
actually imported, yet it is well known that a variety of mix-
tures pass for Madeira, some of which are compounded of
wines that never grew on the island, as those of Tenerifle,
Lisbon, and Xeros. And with regard to India it may be ob-
served, that although the number of English there is very
limited, and few of any other nation drink Madeira wine,
yet this and claret are the only wines in general consumption
2 3 M A D E I R A.
at both the Presidencies and in the army, the former of which
is freely used during dinner.
This wine is known to possess many extraordinary qualities.
I have heard it asserted, that if pure genuine Madeira be ex-
posed to frost until it is congealed into a solid mass of ice,
and again thawed by the fire ; if heated to the boiling point,
and then left to cool; if exposed to the sun for weeks together
in open casks, or placed in damp cellars ; it will not suffer
the least injury by such great and violent changes. That part,
however, which is consumed on the island is a raw meagre
beverage, which, if compared with London particular, is as
bad as small beer to fine ale. $
The usual mode of training the vines is by basket-work
fixed to espaliers, about five feet high ; but in some vineyards
they are led up trees, or high poles; and in others, cut down
to the height of two or three feet, as at the Cape of Good
Hope. In some places the hills are terraced, in order to re-
tain the soil, by stone walls. The process of making the
wine is very simple. The grapes are picked from the stalk,
thrown into a vat, pressed first with the feet and afterwards
by a weighted wooden lever. The proprietor of the land and
the collector of the taxes for the Crown both attend at the
press; the latter takes out of the tub his tenth of the whole
must, after which the remainder is equally divided between
the land-owner and the tenant. Each takes with him a suf-
ficient number of porters to carry away their respective shares,
sometimes in barrels, and sometimes in goat-skin borrachas,
7
M A D E I R. A. § 23
to the cellars in Funchal. The English merchants usually
supply the farmers beforehand with money, to enable them
to make a more extensive tillage.
In the course of our journey we did not observe a single
wild quadruped, and very few birds of any kind appeared.
Hogs are said to be turned loose among the thickets to fatten
on roots, and especially on those of fern, by which they ac-
quire a flavour of game. Goats are pretty numerous, and
rabbits are not scarce in the mountains. The island affords but
a scanty supply of food for a few cows, and milk and fresh
butter are consequently accounted among the luxuries in
diet. A few oxen are used in the town for drawing sledges;
small saddle horses are kept by some, but the common animal
of burden is the mule. Among the birds are hawks, kites,
partridges, pigeons, quails, woodcocks, swallows, Sparrows,
grey canaries, finches, and linnets.
There are few insects of any kind to annoy the stranger,
as usually happens in warm weather countries ; and not a
venomous reptile has ever been known to exist on the island.
The honey bee, however, is not uncommon ; and in certain
sheltered valleys, where the surrounding hills abound in
heathy plants, the honey is said to be unusually fine, and is
frequently sent as a valuable present to Portugal. Such
myriads of lizards I never beheld in any country. On a warm
sunny day, overy rock and stone-wall are literally covered
with them. They are perfectly harmless, except that, creep-
ing along the branches of the vine, they pierce the ripe
grapes, and suck out their juice. In doing this they fre-
24 M A D F I R. A.
quently tumble off and are caught in small glazed pots, that
are purposely placed underneath to receive and prevent them
from doing further mischief. This contrivance, however, must
be too expensive to be general.
We had scarcely descended the heights and reached the
village of Santa Cruz, which is situated on the eastern point
of the island, before it became dark ; and we had still ten
miles to travel, along the edges of rocky precipices overhang-
ing the sea-shore, where we had little to trust to beyond the
cautious steps of the mules. In this part of the journey, one
of the most brilliant and beautiful meteors I ever beheld
passed over our heads, from the body of the island, with a
rustling noise like that of a sky-rocket, appearing to fall in a
curvilinear direction into the sea. The duration of its light
we conjectured to be from eight to ten seconds. The first
impression, made by a light so exceedingly brilliant, sug-
gested the idea of a fresh eruption from the volcanic moun-
tains we had just descended, and all eyes were turned towards
that quarter. Our troublesome journey, as I observe by my
notes, was much shortened in philosophizing on this pheno-
menon. On the principles of the old-fashioned doctrine which
then (now thirteen years ago) prevailed, it was concluded
that the electric fluid, passing through contiguous or blended
volumes of oxygen and hydrogen gasses floating in the upper
regions of the atmosphere, might effect that chemical com-
bination which is known to produce water; and that, not-
withstanding the clear starry hemisphere, we might be caught
in rain before we reached Funchal. This did not exactly
happen, but several smart showers fell in the course of the
M A D F 1 R A. 25
night. The signs and prognostics of the weather become
more than usually interesting to him who has to travel over
desert wastes, where he has no expectation of meeting with
even a hovel to hide him from the storm. Such having been my
case since the period on which I am now writing, it may readily
be supposed I was not wholly inattentive to these circum-
stances; and I can safely say that, as far as my observations
go, either a clouded atmosphere or rain has invariably suc-
ceeded the appearance of fiery meteors, or, as they are some-
times called, falling stars. Perhaps, indeed, the same effect of
combining the airs might take place, whether these meteors be
considered as mere electric sparks, or heated masses of stone
formed under circumstances and ejected from situations equally
unknown. The modern conjecture, that the latter might be
hurled from lunar volcanoes, seems to be the most plausible,
as, under favourable positions of the Sun and moon, calculators
have assured us, that the force required to send a stone from
the latter planet within the attractive spliere of the former
would be little more than three times that of a cannon ball.
Thus the various accounts we meet with, in ancient history,
of stones descending from the heavens, and supposed to have
been ejected from the sun or the moon, are not quite so fabulous
as they were long held to be. Even modern philosophers dis-
believed the fact, and ridiculed the hypothesis ; but they
have at length condescended to concede that the ancients
might be correct as to the fact, and possibly not wrong in
their conclusions. Pliny, who in his natural history has
given us a compilation of every thing he had read, heard, or
seen, records an instance, among others of a similar kind.
JE
26 M A D F I R A.
of a large stone which, in the days of Anaxagoras the astro-
nomer, is supposed to have fallen from the sun in a district
of Thrace, near the river AFgos; which stone, he tells us,
was shewn in his own time. To this passage the very in-
genious author of Hudibras has thus humourously alluded:
“ For Anaxagoras, long agone,
“ Saw hills, as well as you, i' th' moon,
• And held the sun was but a piece
“Of red hot iron, as big as Greece;
( &
(,
Believ'd the heavens were made of stone,
* Because the sun had voided one.”
[.
But this meteor, I perceive, like an ignis fatuus, has led
me astray from my subject, which, not being sufficiently in-
teresting to resume, I shall here conclude, and proceed with-
out further delay on our voyage.
'I' E N E R IFF E. º
ſ*
C. H. A. P. II.
‘T H E IS LA N O O F 'T E N E R H F FE.
Conduct of the Captain of a French Frigate—Bay of Santa Cruz, its Defences
and Defects—Attacks of Blake and Nelson—Appearance of the Island, and
Town of Santa Cruz—City of Laguna—Jegetable Productions—City and
Sea-Port Town of Orafava–Teneriffe Wine—journey iſp the Peak—Ca-
verns for burying the Dead—The Guanches or Aborigines of Tancriff —
Condition of the present Inhabitants—The Clergy—Royal Monopolics—
Improvement of which the Island is capable—Climate—Remarkable Instance
of Longevity—Description of the Fortunate Island; by Homer and Plutarch.
Tre passage from Madeira to the Canary Islands is, in
most cases, as smooth and pleasant as that between Eng-
land and Madeira is boisterous and disagreeable ; and, in the
present instance, we made the run in less than four days;
having discovered, on the third of our departure, the pointed
summit of the celebrated peak of Teneriffe, though at the
distance of about sixty miles ; an object which, indeed, in
clear weather, is visible nearly as many leagues.
The Spaniards in their foreign settlements are not accus-
tomed, and indeed generally refuse, to return the salutes of
ships belonging to other nations ; but whether their declining
the compliment of mutual civility may he ascribed to the
haughty and reserved temper of the government, to an aſ-
* { }
| “..
/*
§
'I' E N E R IFF E.
fected superiority, or to a parsimonious saving of gunpowder,
I cannot pretend to determine. Sir Erasmus Gower, know-
ing it to be the case, sent an officer on shore, conformably to
his instructions, to make an offer of the compliment on the
ground of reciprocation, which the Governor, however, with
great politeness, declined ; observing that his orders would
not allow him to make any return ; and intimating, at the
same time, that it would be more agreeable if the usual cus-
tom was dispensed with of firing the morning and evening.
guns. When the wishes of a friendly power could be acceded
to on such moderate terms, a refusal would have indicated
more of pride than policy. From Sir Erasmus Gower the
desire of the Governor met with a ready compliance. There
was a Frenchman, however, commanding a frigate at anchor
in the bay, who, in the true spirit of Gallic liberty, disdain-
ing the restraint of orders and port regulations, saluted and
fired his morning and evening guns, in defiance of the rules
laid down by the Spanish government. Like a true Gascon.
he had boasted, as we afterwards heard, that, concluding
from the sight of our squadron war must have broken out
between England and France, he had prepared to receive us.
with one broadside at least, in order to do all the mischief he
could, pour l'honneur de la Grande Nation, before he struck
his colours. Yet these are the people who are loudest in
complaining of the tyranny of the English in exercising the
sovereignty of the seas; but, were the exercise of that so-
vereignty placed, unluckily for the world, in the hands of the
French, their conduct on the continent is a sufficient test to
evince with what degree of moderation they would hold the
dominion of the Ocean.
T E N E R I FF E. 29
On entering the bay of Santa Cruz, situated on the eastern
side of Teneriffe, and casting an eye round the shores, such,
a lengthened barrier presents itself of bold rocky projections.
connected in some parts by lines of masonry, and strengthened
in others by so many batteries, that, concluding from appear-
ances, one would not hesitate to pronounce that a small but
well-disciplined garrison must render this part at least of
the island impregnable. There seems to be but one landing-
place that can be considered as tolerably good, in the whole
compass of the surrounding shore ; and this is within a well-
built mole, projecting obliquely into the bay, and forming a
shallow bason of considerable extent for the protection of the
numerous small craft against the heavy swell of the sea,
which occasionally, indeed almost continually, rolls in during
the winter months. This mole is defended by a work of some
strength at its extremity, and by several forts on each side
of it, which are connected by lines for musquetry running
close along the shore. The anchoring ground in the bay is
so foul and rocky that, unless the cables are floated up with
buoys, they are liable to be fretted and worn in pieces in no
great length of time. The Hindostan, after losing two an-
chors, had nearly been dashed on the lava rocks. To reuder
it even a tolerable port for the safety of large ships, the first
thing that appears to be necessary is the laying down of
mooring chains, fastencCl to cast-iron sinkers ; after which it
would still be expedient to float the cables with buoys. The
winds, indeed, are so unsteady, and particularly in the win-
ter months, rushing down in violent gusts, and nearly at the
same time from every point of the surrounding high land,
unless when they blow directly into the bay from the east-
7
3o T E N E R IFF E.
ward, that large ships will always be exposed to considerable
risk, and more particularly so from the months of October
to March inclusive.
Under such disadvantages, it was considered as a bold
measure of Admiral Jºlake to run in with a fair wind, in order
to take or destroy a fleet of Spanish galleons, which, however,
he completely effected and, by a fortunate shift of the wind,
escaped with his own fleet ; but it is far from certain what
the consequences might have been to his ships, had not this
sudden, and by no means to be expected, change of wind in
his favour taken place at the moment he had finished his
work of destruction, and carried him out of the bay ; leaving
the Spaniards in astonishment (as Hume expresses it) at the
happy tomerity of their audacious visitors. Blake was a ,
brave officer but not a good seaman, a profession of which
a competent knowledge can scarcely be attained by one who
like him first engages in it at the meridian of life. Still more
daring than Blake's, though less successful, was the attempt
of the late Lord Nelson to take the place by surprise, in the
year 1797, by embarking about one thousand brave fellows
in the boats of his squadron, and entoring the bay in the
middle of the night. Being unfortunately discovered on ap-
proaching the moie, the alarm was instantly communicated
to the town, the bells were rung, the drums beat to arms,
and the lines and the batterics began to open upon the in-
Yading party. The night was so dark that a great number
of the boats never reached the pier, on which a considerable
force was drawn up to oppose their landing. It was here that
the immortal hero, always the first in every perilous enter-
T E N E R I FF E. 31
prise, lost his arm, and had almost the whole of his party
killed or wounded by grape and musquetry from the citadel
on the left; not, however, before they had completely dis-
persed the enemy, and driven them from the mole. Another
division landed to the southward of the mole, among rocks
and breakers, where all the boats were dashed in pieces.
From this place, however, under the command of Captain
(now Rear-Admiral) Sir Thomas Troubridge, the party forced
their way into the great square, where they formed about
four hundred strong. Here they were informed that eight or
ten thousand Spaniards, with a considerable artillery, were
preparing to attack them ; which, although not strictly true
as to numbers, they had no reason to disbelieve. Yet, in
this situation, cool and collected as a British officer is gene-
rally found to be in the most critical moments, Sir Thomas
sent to the Governor a spirited message to say that, on con-
dition of his immediately supplying a sufficient number of
boats to reimbark his people, the squadron would forbear to
bombard the town ; otherwise, that he could not answer for
the consequences. The Governor required them to surrender
as prisoners of war; in reply to which, Captain T roubridge
declared, in the most pereniptory manner, that if the terms
he proposed were not instantly accepted he would be under
the mecessity of setting fire to the town ; having kindled a
blaze on the windward side of the square, to shew them that
they had it in their power to put their threat in execution.
On this being reported, the Governor not only complied, but
performed the conditions of the treaty in a manner that was
highly honourable to his character.
3
2
‘H’ E N E R I FF E.
Should it be considered expedient, on some future occa-
sion, to get possession of Teneriffe, though I confess its utility
does not appear to me to be very important to this country,
a more eligible plan would seem to be the landing of a body
of men at Oratava, the port at which the greater part of the
wines are shipped, and where the works of defence are so
trifling as to afford little if any resistance, which indeed is
the case along the whole western shore between the point
de Nago on the north and Garrichecă on the south, where,
in any of the small bays or inlets, an easy landing might be
effected in the summer months. From any part of this coast,
a single day's march, over an open and plentiful country,
completely in the possession of the invading party when once
landed, would bring them to the city of Laguna, the capital
of the island, which is entirely without defence It is scarcely
probable they would meet with any opposition in the field,
especially if a division of the ships employed in the attack
should make its appearance at the entrance of the bay. This
force would confine the feeble garrison to their forts; and, as
the distance from Laguna to Santa Cruz is only about five
miles, down a considerable descent, every point of which
commands the town and the bay, the fate of the place must
instantly be decided. At all events, the extreme difficulty of
landing in the bay of Santa Cruz seems to require both day-
light and fine weather, in order to insure a successful issue.
The prospect, on entering the bay, is by no means so in-
viting as that of Madeira, as will readily be perceived by the
annexed view. The town of Santa Cruz has pretty much the
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34 T E N E R I FF E.
*
the quay. So large a town, with a population so apparently
scanty, is apt to impress a stranger with an idea of some
dreadful calamity having swept away a great proportion of the
inhabitants. The fact is, the Spaniards seldom stir abroad
except to attend matins and vespers; and the British mer-
chants, who here as well as at Madeira may be said to mono-
polize the wine trade, are few in number ; and those few
reside chiefly at the port of Oratava, from whence the greater
part of the wines are shipped.
The many little conveniences and comforts to which an
Englishman is accustomed at home but ill prepare him for
the awkward shifts he is obliged to make, the bad accommo-
dations he is sure to meet with, and the endless difficulties
he must necessarily encounter, in every country where Eng-
lishmen do not form a considerable portion of the inhabit-
ants. We were told, however, that in Santa Cruz there was
an excellent inn ; but the expectations we had formed, from
our experience in Madeira, suffered little disappointment on
finding it just the reverse of what it had been represented.
The bare walls, scarcely covered with lime, the miserable
ſurniture and, above all, the dirty appearance of every thing
within, if not a criterion of absolute poverty, were at least
sufficient indications of the indolence of the owners and the
little sense they entertained of the comforts arising from clean-
liness. It afforded nothing but a few grapes and brown
bread, and wine that was scarcely drinkable. Having sc-
cured, as we thought, a sufficient number of horses and mules
for an expedition to the Peak the following morning, and
taken a view of the town, we were glad to return to dinner
7
T E N E R J FF E. an
J }.
on board our respective ships. And as a journey of twenty
miles is considered to be a great day's work, in a hilly coun-
try, where the roads are not the best, nor the beasts of burden
the strongest, we determined to start at break of day. On
Our landing, however, not a mule was in readiness at this
early hour, nor could we collect inore than nine in the whole
place. We started with as many as we could get, and, after
jogging on for two hours at a slow rate, over a rocky road,
mostly up hill and in some places very steep, we reached
Laguna, which is about five miles distant from the port.
This city is considered as the capital of the island ; but its size
does not appear to entitle it to that distinction, being little, and
perhaps not at all, more extensive than the town of Santa
Cruz. The houses are in general built on a larger scale, and
the streets are wider. There are two churches, five of six
convents for nuns and friars, several hospitals, a large jail,
a court of judicature, and many other buildings and offices
of a public nature, appropriated for the civil and ecclesiastical
departments of government; but it appeared to us to be still
more gloomy and desolate than Santa Cruz. A few jºly
looking friars were the only persons who enlivened the streets,
7
Y.
#
*
\ , " : *
* A \
i
many of which were literally overgrown with grass.
and there we observed a solitary figure, muffled up in a bia &
f
hooded cloak, and gliding along as if afraid to be seen. The
jail was by far the most lively part of Laguna. it seened
..!
{ { }
be crowded by disorderly females, who were laughing and
singing at the iron gratings, and whose joyful countenances
wore no indications of their suffering in confinement any very
severe punishment for their offences, whatever the nature of
them might have been.
36 T E N E R I FF E.
*-
Here we procured, with some difficulty, a pair of fresh
mules for two of our servants, who had proceeded thus far on
foot; and whilst the others were refreshing we looked into one
of the churches, where we observed a few tolerably good
paintings, and a piece of sculpture in marble that had lately
been sent over from Spain. All the ornaments and decora-
tions of the church were splendid and costly, and were so
well designed and arranged as to produce a grand and solemn
effect. Our time was too pressing, and our curiosity not suf-
ficiently strong, to look over, as We might have done, their
collection of relics. The coagulated blood of St. Januarius,
the milk of the Virgin, the vermin of St. Anthony, and the
parings of St. Peter's toe nails, might be just as genuine in the
Canary Islands as on the continent of Europe, and just as well
worth seeing; but the wonders of nature were more the ob-
jects of our journey than the miraculous remains of the
saints.
1Iaving finished our visit to the church and eaten a hearty
breakfast of grapes and brown bread, we were just about to
remount, when a strange cavalcade made its appearance in
the great street. It proved to be a party of our fellow
voyagers from the Ilindostan, respectably mounted on asses
and driving before them a large, raw-boned, white horse,
Jaden with provisions. Our increased cavalcade now began to
attract some notice ; and as we continued our route through
the streets of Laguna, the curiosity of the inhabitants was in
some degree awakened, and the young women in particular
smiled on us most graciously through the lattices as we
passed along,
T E N E R IF F E. 3
7
Leaving the city behind us, we entered upon an extensive
and fertile plain, whose surface was intersected by several rills
of limpid water which, being collected in wooden troughs,
was conveyed to the town and discharged in jets from obelisks
of stone placed in all the principal streets. The harvest was
already gathered in, but we could plainly perceive that a
considerable portion of the land had been under tillage, of
which, as we understood from the peasantry, the chief pro-
duce was wheat, holcus, maize or Indian corn, sweet pota-
toes, and calavances. On our right, towards the sea-coast,
appeared a succession of pleasant villas and considerable
hamlets, situated in the midst of orchards and vineyards;
and on our left were ridges of hills well covered with coppice
wood, and their summits crowned with pines. The middle
part, over which we had to travel, was an open tract of
arable land, without any kind of fences or other apparent
divisions to mark the boundaries of property ; but the great
Agave Americana was plentifully planted by the sides of the
road for several miles. Our botanists collected, on the brow
of the hills, specimens of a great number of plants, among
which were a species of Sempervivum, a quadrangular leaved
Euphorbia, the Rhamnus crenulatus, Cacalia clinea, Cactus
opuntia, Datura, Convolvulus, Brionea, Hypericum, fox
gloves, trefoil, grasses of different kinds and various other
plants, few, however, of which were considered as rare or
curious; and these are here mentioned with the view only to
mark some of the general productions of the country.
We had descended nearly to the skirts of the fertile and
extensive vale on which are situated the city and the sea-port
•S T E N E R I FF E.
*-
town of Oratava, without having obtained a single glimpse
of the grand object of our journey, the Peak of Teneriffe :
when, by the clouds suddenly dissipating, its lofty and stu-
pendous summit burst at once upon the view, far above the
thinnest vapour that floated in the air: these clouds again
collecting into different masses, either by the difference of
their specific gravity, or by the attractive power of electricity,
remained in suspension on the bosom of the mountain, in
successive strata, like so many belts. Nothing could be more
majestic than the huge cone tapering to a point, and backed
by the azure blue ; and nothing could exceed in picturesque
beauty the lower part of this grand mountain melting into the
plain, which, with an almost imperceptible slope, stretched
away to the sea-coast. At the foot of its base stands the
pleasant city La Tilla d'Orafava; and three miles to the
right the sea-port town El Puerta d'Oratava. In the
former reside most of the grandees of the island, to whose
families were originally given grants of land and who affect
to set no small value on their true Castilian blood. It abounds
with churches, monasteries and convents, and is surrounded
with gardens, vineyards and fruit groves. Six British mer-
cantile houses contribute in no small degree to the flourishing
state of the sea-port town, which appears to be fully as large
as the city, and to support quite as many churches, monas-
teries and convents.
The quantity of wine produced on the island varies from
ten to twenty thousand pipes a year, the greater part of which
is exported to the London market at the prime cost of about
ten to twelve pounds a pipe, where it is said to be convertel
T E N E RIFF E. 39
into Madeira, to which indeed, in its original state, it seems
to be little if at all inferior. This and similar conversions of
Sherry and certain other Spanish wines will account for the
great consumption of what is called Madeira in England be-
yond what is actually exported from the island. The grape
of Teneriffe is the same as that of Madeira and the soil vol-
canic; but the higher and more steady temperature of the
former communicates to the fruit a greater portion of sac-
charine matter, in consequence of which the wines, like those
of the Cape, grow sweeter with age. Much, however, of the
quality of wines, I am inclined to think, depends on the care
and attention that are bestowed in the selection and the
pressing of the grapes. The high price that real good Ma-
deira bears on the spot of its growth encourages the culti-
vator to bestow a greater portion of labour on his vineyard
than the grower on Teneriffe could possibly afford to do. It
answers his purpose to assort the sound and ripe fruit, grape
by grape, and to press them with the nicest care; and there
can be no doubt that the singular qualities which this wine is
known to possess are, in a great degree, owing to the must
being more pure, and Öf a more homogeneous nature, than that
of almost any other wine.
In the dusk of the evening we entered the port of Oratava,
on full gallop, as the etiquette seemed to require; for as to
ourselves we had no choice of our own ; all we had to do
was to keep our seats as well as we could and in every other
respect to remain passive. To remonstrate with the mule-
teers would have been in vain: they goaded the little animals
49 T E N E R IFF E.
on the flanks and sides with their long pikes, hollooing, and
shouting, and scampering in such a manner that all the lat-
ticed windows flew open as we passed along the streets;
whilst some of the party were in little better plight than pool
Johnny Gilpin when he rode farther than he intended. And
that no part of the town might be deprived of having a peep
at our respectable cavalcade, the rascals separated us, as if
by design, some taking one street, some another, whilst we
were under the necessity of remaining perfectly unconscious
whither they meant to drive us. At length Dr. Gillan, Mr.
Maxwell, and myself arrived at a large decent looking build-
ing, with a quadrangular court, surrounded by galleries, not
unlike some of the inns in England, and which indeed we
concluded to be a house of this description. The Doctor
marched into a room without ceremony and began to call
Justily for the landlord, when a gentleman shewed himself,
whose appearance and manner excited some doubts in his
mind whether lie might not have committed a mistake; and
accordingly was beginning a suitable apology in French, but
was immediately relieved from his embarrassment by the gen-
tleman taking his hand and interrupting him with—“ No
“ apologies, my dear Sir, I pray you ; every Englishman is
“ welcome to my house and to what it can afford.” Mr.
Little happened to be the very person to whom our letters
were addressed ; and we afterwards found that the muleteers
had severally becn instructed by Mr. Runy, the British con-
sul in Santa Cruz, to what houses they should conduct us,
which circumstance explained to us the reason of our separa-
tion on entering the town,
T E N E R IF F E. 4 I
One of the first objects of our inquiries was the mode of
ascending the peak; but we had the mortification to hear
that the season was too far advanced, as the snow had begun
to lie upon the summit. Mr. Little, however, very obligingly
sent for several guides from the city that very evening, in
order that we might obtain full information on the subject.
They gave us but little encouragement; and some of them re-
presented the undertaking to be attended with such disagreeable
and even dangerous circumstances, at this season of the year, as
compelled them positively to decline engaging in it. Deter-
mined, however, to make the attempt, we prevailed on two of
them to accompany us, one of whom was a regular descendant
of the original inhabitants of the island, called the Guanches.
He was a tall muscular figure, perfectly upright, active and
vigorous, though more than sixty years of age, of a sallow
complexion, with high cheek bones, nose rather flattened, lips
somewhat thick, and long black hair. As a journey to the
Peak is always considered to employ two full days, some pro-
vision must necessarily be made for passing the night on the
mountain. A tent was not to be had in all Oratava, but
the master of a brig then taking in wine furnished us with an
old sail; and we mustered as many great coats, boat cloaks
and blankets, as appeared to be necessary. Mr. Little pro-
cured for us fresh mules, and provided a most abundant sup-
ply of cold fowls, hams, mutton, wine, and other good things
for our refreshment.
About 12 o'clock the following day we set off upon our
expedition, to the great surprize of the inhabitants who be-
stowed on us very liberally the epithet of mad Englishmen.
( ;
42 T ENER IF FE.
Our cavalcade consisted of nineteen mules and ponies, an equal
number of drivers and two guides. Leaving the city of Oratava
on the left, we began to ascend the mountains by a stoney path,
winding along the upper edge of a deep ravine, which was
choaked nearly with a forest of large chesnut trees. The moun-
tains on each side were well clothed with underwood, which in
some parts had been cleared away for the sake of firewood,
and in others for the purpose of cultivation. The little cot-
tages, interspersed in the coppice, served materially to en-
liven the scene. The summit of the first mountain was a
plain of so considerable an extent that it took us an hour to
cross, through an uninterrupted thicket, composed of tall and
luxuriant evergreens, among which were a species of laurel,
two of the Rhamnus or buck-thorn, a Cactus, Euphorbia,
shrubby hypericum, two or three species of convolvulus,
briony and other creeping plants; but the most common was
a species of heath and the vaccinium migrum or black
whortleberry. This surface of perpetual verdure has obtained,
not undeservedly, the name of the Green mountain,
The next part of the road was up a steep ascent of a very
different aspect, chiefly composed of scattered fragments of
lava, among which was little vegetation except the humble
class of cryptogamous plants. Here we saw a number of wild
goats, which we fired at without success. The shadow of the
Peak, which threw a dark and lengthened gloom along the
rugged ridge of hills stretching to the eastward, whilst the
whole of the opposite coast from Oratava nearly to Santa
Cruz. with its numerous villages, was strongly illumined by
the rays of the western sun, afforded a landscape that was
T E N E R IF F E. 43
singularly beautiful and interesting. We continued to ascend
by a sort of steps from rock to rock, and along the brink of
frightful precipices, till 7 o'clock, when we perceived the cloud
that enveloped the bosom of the peak rolling down the sides of
the mountain with great velocity. The thermometer, at noon
when we left Oratava, stood at 76"; and it was now down
to 45°. The guides began to be alarmed, and said we should
be overwhelmed by the storm that was brewing above, if we
attempted to proceed much higher. We therefore concluded
to halt for the night under the lee of a large rock, near
which was growing a quantity of the Cytisus foliosus, and of
the Spartium nubigena, the cloud-born broom ; the former of
which was no bad fuel, though green, and the latter served
for our beds. The old sail was our general coverlid, but it
soon became dripping wet, and Fahrenheit's thermometer
sunk to 40°. Just below us there happened to be a verdant
valley, choaked with shrubby plants, to which the muleteers
set fire ; and the crackling blaze in the midst of the storm and
darkness produced a sublime and solemn scene, which was
heightened to a more romantic pitch by the guides and
muleteers singing in full chorus the midnight hymn to the
Virgin.
The following morning brought with it but little hope of a
favourable change in the weather. The guides still con-
tinued to shew a reluctance to proceed; and the greater part
of our company, cold, wet, fatigued, and heartily sick of the
expedition, seemed to encourage the unwillingness of the
Spaniards. Four of us, however, determined not so readily
G 2
44 T E N E R IF F E.
to give up the point; and having prevailed on one of the
guides and muleteers to accompany us, we proceeded up the
mountain. As we advanced in height, the wind and the rain
became more violent. We reached a plain, of which we
could perceive no limit, whose surface was strewed over with
huge unshapen masses of lava, which had probably been
hurled from the crater on the summit of the peak. The mule-
teers, after having endeavoured in vain to induce us, first by
persuasion and then by threats, to turn the heads of the
mules down the hill, thought fit to desert us. The thermo-
meter was now down to 30° ; and the mules became as obsti-
nate and refractory as their drivers, who had just left us. It
blew indeed so very strong, that they were literally unable to
proceed. Dr. Gillan and his mule were carried to the brink
of a precipice, where the beast luckily fell, or both must
inevitably have perished. We now dismounted and, tying
our mules together, endeavoured to walk along the bottom of
a valley that seemed to lead to the foot of the great cone;
but the surface being entirely strewed over with pumice
stones, we sunk to the ankle at every step ; and the dust and
sulphureous smell were equally obnoxious and intolerably
suffocating. We now perceived that every hope must be
abandoned of making farther progress. The thermometer
was down to 30°. The storm continued to increase, and to
such a degree of violence, as to oblige us to return to the spot
where we had passed the night. Having here dried our
clothes and taken some refreshment, we remounted and in
the course of five hours, in the midst of the heaviest rain I
ever experienced, reached Oratava where not a drop of
7
T E N E R I FF E. 45
rain had fallen. In the evening one of the English merchants
entertained us with a ball, to console us in some degree for
our recent disappointment.
The descent of the mercury in the barometer indicated the
height of that part of the mountain where we passed the night
to be 6030 feet, and the valley of pumice stone and ashes
might perhaps be 2500 feet higher. The whole height of the
peak from the plain of Oratava, according to the best ob-
servations, is from 13,000 to 14,000 feet. Though this ele-
vation in the latitude of the peak is greater than what is re-
quired on continental situations, under the same parallel, to
produce perpetual congelation, yet as it rises immediately
from the plain and is closely surrounded by the sea, the
snow remains on its summit only from November to April in-
clusive. At the base of the uppermost cone are large caverns,
into which, at the spring of the year, the peasantry roll
masses of ice and snow ; and from hence the island is supplied
with ice the whole summer.
We were not more successful in gratifying curiosity on
another point, which was one of the objects of our journey.
namely, that of visiting some of the caverns in which the
original inhabitants of the island were accustomed to deposit
their dead. Most of the English gentlemen assured us that
they had seen such bodies, but we were not fortunate enough
to meet with any who could point out the exact situation of
the caverns ; and all our inquiries of the natives ended only
in a string of contradictions: not that they meant to deceive
us, but the traveller who asks much of simple and uninformed
46 T E N E R I FF E.
men will be apt to conclude with the same remark that Dr.
Johnson made with regard to the Highlanders, “ that the
“ inquirer, by a kind of intellectual retrogradation, knows
“ less as he hears more.” It is better, however, to be amused
with the absurdities of simplicity than to be led astray by de-
signing ingenuity. Denon could never be deceived by the
old sheik, who, as he was taking a view of some massy ruins
of Upper Egypt, asked him whether the English or the
French had erected those gigantic monuments 2 The sim-
plicity of a shepherd of Salisbury plain, with which I was
once greatly amused on a visit to Stonehenge, was pretty
much of the same cast with that of Denon's sheik. “ This is
“ a very old building, friend,” said I. “ Aye, Master, it is
“ very old : I have known it these twenty years, and it looks
“ just the same for all the world as it did when first I came
“ into this part of the country.”
The bodies of the Guanches that are found in caverns are
said not to have undergone any preparation, but merely to
have been wrapped round with goat skins. The dryness of the
atmosphere on this island is such that, by a gradual and spon-
taneous evaporation of the juices, animal substances are reduced
to a state of complete rigidity and desiccation. This seems to
have been the common mode of interinent. The number still
remaining of this race of men is very few, perhaps not more
than a dozen on the whole island. The imperfect and partial
accounts that have been handed down by their conquerors
all agree that they were a bold, generous, faithful, and good-
humoured people ; that they acknowledged onc supreme
Power, to whom they offered on high mountains the most
T E N E R 1 FF E. 47
valuable gift they had to bestow, the milk of their sheep and
of their goats. They registered events by the changes of the
moon. They were entirely ignorant of the use of iron, and
had no other hostile weapons to oppose to the arms of their
invaders than sticks and stones, which, however, they are
said to have hurled with great force and dexterity. They
lived in stone houses, nea'iy built without the assistance of lime,
clay, or any other sukº . . . . . for mortar. They had a systematic
government and 3 gºal ion of rank in society ; established
laws and a egular administration of justice. They led a
pastoral life, but were not wholly unacquainted with agricul-
ture. Their flocks were composed of sheep and goats and
they had also plenty of hogs. Their clothing consisted of
the skins of goats, sown together with the tendons of the same
animal divided into threads. The women wore caps made of
these skins, ornamented with small univalve shells, and shoes
of the same material. Like the Kaffers and the Hottentots
they found great amusement in dancing in a ring on moon-
light nights, singing and beating time by clapping their
hands and stamping with their feet. Like these people, too,
they kindled fire by twirling the point of a small stick upon
another with great velocity. They had vessels of clay to con-
tain their milk, in which also they roasted their grain, pro-
bably the maize or Guinea corn, though in most of the early
voyages it is called barley. The roots of the polypody, dried
in the sun and bruised between two stones, were made use of
to thicken their milk ; and they had plenty of honey, sweet
potatoes and vetches. The stone pine on the brow of the
hills, and the chesnut in the deep glens, furnished them with
nuts; the wild olive, the buck-thorn, the whortleberry shrub,
48 T E N E R IF F E.
and the arbutus, with berries; whilst the native fig tree and
prickly pear supplied them with cooling and agreeable fruits.
So innocent and so unsuspecting of wrong were those happy
natives of the Fortunate Islands, that they assisted their plum-
derers to land on their shores. And when the famous robber
of those days, (for he deserves no better appellation,) Jean de
Betancour, a Frenchman, formed the project of subduing the
Canaries, for the charitable purpose of converting the infidels
to Christianity, they laboured at those very fortifications which
were the means of reducing them and their offspring to slavery
and wretchedness, and finally effected their complete exter-
mination as a people. The descendants of the few who might
have blended with the invaders have lost all distinctive fea-
tures of their origin ; and it may be doubted if their mixture
with another mation has tended to improve the race.
The condition of the great bulk of the islanders appears to
be pretty much the same as those of the inhabitants of Ma-
deira, which, notwithstanding the little encouragement held
out by the proprietors of estates and cultivators of the land,
ought to be considerably better, were they less averse to
labour. It is true, the mere necessaries of life are neither so
numerous nor so urgent as in regions of a colder temperature,
where clothing and fuel are so indispensable as to be ranked
among the articles of the first necessity. Here, a jacket of
coarse woollen cloth and drawers of canvas, with a handker-
chief bound round the head, or a coarse hat, constitute the
usual dress of the majority of the peasantry. The ambition
of most of the petty dealers and mechanics prompts them to
add skirts to their coats, by which they are entitled to the
T E N E R IF F. E. 49
honour of wearing a sword. The dress of the lower class of
women is pretty nearly the same as that which is worn in
Madeira. We saw little of those in the higher ranks, who in-
deed rarely stir abroad; and who at such times are generally
veiled or, more correctly speaking, half-veiled, as they always
take care to shew one of their pretty black eyes and, accident-
ally as it were, sometimes the whole of the countenance, espe-
cially if they perceive that they are observed by strangers.
Their complexions by confinement become pale and sickly,
but they have almost invariably fine dark eyes and good
tecth. When full dressed for some particular occasion, they
wear long flowing veils of thin white silk, and Spanish cloaks
of scarlet cloth, richly embroidered and edged with gold lace.
The undress consists of a short jacket and petticoat, when their
long black hair bound with a fillet falls straight down behind.
The hooded cloaks of the middle class are of fine English flan-
nel dyed black, a very considerable manufacture of which is
carried on in the city of Salisbury, and exported through Lisbon
and Cadiz to the Portugueze and Spanish colonies. Num-
bers of females are condemned to pass their days in nunneries,
with which every town and village in the island abounds ; and
the younger sons of the great land-holders are usually brought
up for the church, in order that the family name and estate
may be transmitted to posterity through the eldest son.
The influence of the clergy in Tenerife is paramount. It
extends to all the concerns of domestic life, and its authority
is backed and confirmed by the terrors of the Holy Inquisi-
tion. The existence of this tribunal must, whº rever its bane-
ful influence extends, be incompatible with a free and unre-
II
5O T E N E R [FF E.
served communication of sentiments, even among the nearest
friends. The life, indeed, which a Spanish colonist leads is
nearly as secluded as that of a Turk. He seldom associates
with his neighbours except at vespers, at matins, or at high
mass. The greater part of the day is consumed in idleness at
home. He reads little beyond his bible, his missal, and per-
haps the miracles of our Lady of Candelaria, the protectress
of the island, whose statue is placed in a chapel about ten
miles to the southward of Santa Cruz, said to be ornamented
with a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. It is
built over a cavern by the sea-shore, in which her Ladyship
had placed herself to direct the Spaniards into the harbour
with a lighted candle in her hand. To the help of this pious
fraud they were indebted for their success in converting the
simple natives to Christianity.
We inquired for books, but could find nothing in the shape
of one for sale either in Santa Cruz, Laguna, or the two
Oratavas. We were told, indeed, that not a book was suf-
fered to be landed until it had been inspected by the proper
officer of the Inquisition. Yet with every precaution taken
by these pure and holy men, and under all the rigours of ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction, the morals of the people were found
to be extremely corrupt, and instances of unhallowed connec-
tions between the sexes so numerous, that it became neces-
sary to pass a law, obliging every young couple to marry
who could be proved at any time to have been alone to-
gether—a law which, it was shrewdly suspected, was a con-
trivance of the father confessors, with a view to answer their
private accommodation. It is a common opinion among the
T E N E R IFF E. 5 i
inhabitants, that the ill effects arising from promiscuous love
have become habitual to their constitution and hereditary.
so that few families either are or can be free from their in-
fluence. There are equally few who are not troubled with
the itch ; the leprosy is not uncommon, and scorbutic affec-
tions almost universal. These cutaneous diseases are attri-
buted by them to the copious use of fish ; but the real cause
may perhaps be more satisfactorily accounted for by suppos-
ing them, like the first, to be transmitted from father to son,
and their action on the system kept alive by indolent habits,
by want of exercise and, above all, by a total disregard to
cleanliness. Under the idea, however, that the frequent and
abundant use of fish may contribute to the continuance of
these disorders, the good Bishop of the Canaries was induced
to grant a dispensation with the strict observance of Lent
and other fast days, so far at least as to commute the
usual restrictions and privations for a certain number of
Pater nosters and Ave Marias, to be repeated publicly in the
middle of the great square, by all such as were desirous of
availing themselves of this indulgence. This worthy prelate,
whose revenues are not much less than 10,000l. a year, and
who usually resides at Palmas on Grand Canaria, is said to
distribute a great part of them in acts of charity; for enabling
him to do which, he is frequently under the necessity of ap-
plying to his domestics for temporary supplies of money till
his rents become due,
The maintenance of a numerous body of ecclesiastics he-
comes a heavy charge on, the colonists. In addition to the
ordinary alms, individual donations, legacies, and extraordi-
II 2
52 T E N E R i FF E.
nary contributions, they are entitled to the tenth of the pro-
duce of the land, out of which, however, the Crown demands
the royal thirds that were granted by the Pope. All exports
and imports are also taxed for the benefit of the Crown;
and the luxuries of Snuff and tobacco are royal monopolies
prohibited, on very heavy penalties, from being imported
by individuals or cultivated on the island. A little weed that
grows on the rocks, the Lichen Rochella, usually called Or-
chella, used as a purple dye for silks, is also a royal mono-
poly. As an extraordinary indulgence on the part of the
Crown, the small quantity of silk produced in Teneriffe is al-
lowed to be manufactured into gloves and stockings; and the
growth of the sugar-cane is not absolutely prohibited, because
the cultivation of this article is not attended with any profit
to the planter; but the culture and the manufacture of all
such articles, as the mother-country or her more favoured co-
lonies can supply, are directly prohibited on this island. Yet
with all these restrictions, the whole amount of the taxes,
imposts and vexatious monopolics on the Seven Islands, is
scarcely equal, after the expences are deducted, to the annual
profits of a London brewer. And, with so many discouraging
drawbacks on industry, it is hardly to be wondered that they
should have no great abundance of surplus produce to dispose
of except their wines. The quadrupeds on the island consist
in a few horses, mules, asses, and horned cattle, besides
sheep, goats, hogs, and rabbits ; and we found all kinds of
poultry dear and difficult to procure. The market is equally
ill supplied with fruit and vegetables. Their bread is very
indifferent. Such are the permicious effects of a bad govern-
ment on one of the finest islands probably on the surface of
T E N E R I FF E. 53
the globe—an island which, if inhabited by an industrious
and intelligent race of men, and governed by just and salutary
laws, would not only afford the means of subsistence for
eighteen or twenty thousand families, which may be some-
where about its present population, but might be made to
produce an abundant supply of valuable commodities for the
markets of Europe; such as, for instance, in addition to its
wines, silk, cotton, olive oil, and dried fruits. All the hilly
country is said to be well adapted for the growth of almonds,
and the deep ravines for that of chesnuts. Its fisheries on the
opposite coast of Africa might be carried on to almost any
extent, and a very considerable source of trade created by the
article of salted fish alone. But although on commercial con-
siderations the Canary Islands are capable of much im-
provement, and the condition of their inhabitants of being
greatly meliorated and the population extended ; and al-
though they are situated in the direct track of all the outward-
bound fleets for India and the Southern Whale Fishery, they
do not appear of much importance to any power either in a
naval or political point of view. Their situation is too near
the coasts of Europe to break the length of an Indian voyage
with any advantage; and there is neither a secure bay nor
any harbour for large ships in the whole groupe. The soil,
however, on most of them is good, and extremely well suited
for the cultivation of the vine, and of various kinds of grain
and pulse ; and the climate is delightful beyond that perhaps
of any other country on the surface of the globe. During
our stay on the island, which was certainly but short, the
thermometer of Fahrenheit never descended below 70°, nor
rose beyond 76°, generally remaining about 72° ; and we
54 T E N E R I FF E.
Were told that on the hottest days it seldom exceeds 80°, and
as seldom on the coldest falls below 66°, making thus the
extremes of heat and cold to differ only 14 degrees in twelve
months; whereas on our island we have sometimes near twice
the variation in the course of twelve hours. The temperature,
it is true, in the town of Santa Cruz, which is surrounded by
bare volcanic rocks, is sometimes as high as 88°, owing en-
tirely to its confined situation and the reflected rays of the
Sun. The moderate and steady temperature of the island in
general, added to a dry and clastic atmosphere, might be
expected to produce the most happy effects on the constitu-
tion, which no doubt would be the case were they not coun-
teracted by the peculiar habits of the people. We observed,
indeed, among the peasantry, several persons of an advanced
age. The mortality was stated to be something less than
three in the hundred ; and as infectious diseases attended
with great mortality are scarcely known on the Canary
Islands, the population of course would rapidly increase, were
it not kept down by a regular drain to the Spanish colonies in
South America. The number of inhabitants on Teneriffe was
considered to be about one hundred thousand. An instance of
longevity was mentioned to us, which appeared to be the
more astonishing on account of the intemperate life which the
individual was accustomed to lead. James Meny, a native
of Ireland, and British Consul for many years on Teneriffe,
was stated to have lately left the island, in his 112th year,
in a kind of pet, because he could no longer get a little good
Imandy for his own use. Like Falstaff complaining that they
put line into his sack, he swore “there was nothing but roguery
“ to be found in villainous man.” This veteran son of Bacchus
T E N E R IFF E. 55
is said to have generally finished a bottle of his favourite
liquor every evening before he went to bed.
Little as the ancients might have known of the real state and
situation of the Canary Islands, they had no doubt sufficient
information of their happy temperature before they bestowed
on them the name of the Fortunate Islands. Conceiving them
to be what they were represented, it is the less surprizing that
the Roman General Sertorius should have expressed a strong
desire to pass the remainder of his days in such a retreat,
removed from the horrors and calamities of war, and placed
beyond the tyrant's grasp. “Rain,” says Plutarch, “ seldom
“ falls on the Fortunate Islands, and when it does it falls
‘ moderately; but they have soft breezes scattering such rich
“ dews, that the soil not only becomes fit for sowing and
“ planting, but spontaneously produces the most excellent
“ fruits in such abundance, that the inhabitants have only to
* indulge themselves in the full enjoyment of ease. The air
“ is always pleasant and salubrious, through the happy tem-
“ perature and their insensible transition into each other.”
And he concludes his account of them by observing, that
“ these are generally believed to be the Elysian Fields and
“ the seats of the blessed, which Homer has described in all
4
G
“ the charms of verse.”
This description of Homer, to which Plutarch alludes,
however beautiful in the original, has probably not suffered
much by translation, in the hands of our English bard.
T E N E R IF FE.
“But oh, belov’d by heav'n reserv'd to thee
“ A happier lot the smiling fates decree:
“Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
“ Matter is chang'd and varying forms decay;
“ Elysium shall be thine; the blissful plains
“Of utmost earth, where Radamanthus reigns.
“ Joys ever young, unmix’d with pain or fear,
“ Fill the wide circle of th’ eternal year;
“Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime;
* The fields are florid with unfading prime;
* From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
‘ Mould the round hail or flake the fleecy snow;
• But from the breezy deep the blest inhale
“ The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.”
{
(;
{
&
S T. J A G O. 57
C H A P. III.
THE IS LAND OF ST. J A Go.
Critical Situation in an open Boat—The dying Dolphin—The Shark, the
Bonetta, and the Albecor—The Swordfish, Instances of the Velocity and
Strength oft-The Flying Fish, Observation of a Missionary concerning it—
Experiment of the Cork being forced into a Bottle sunk in the Sea—Reflec-
tions on the Ship of Captain Cooke being transformed into a Smuggler—The
Attention shewn by Queen Elizabeth to Drake's Ship—Town and Bay of
Praya—Appearance of the Inhabitants—Of the Surface of the Island—
Neglect of the Mother Country—Produce of St. jago—Situation of the
Governor, and Condition of the Inhabitants. y
Tur storm which we encountered on the Peak of Teneriffe
had extended with nearly the same degree of violence to
Santa Cruz. Several of the small vessels lying in the bay
were driven on shore, others blown out to sea, and the Hin-
dostan, after breaking one anchor and losing another, had a
narrow escape from being dashed in pieces among the rocks.
This ship, on our return to Santa Cruz, was already under
easy sail nearly out of the bay, waiting for her passengers;
and as the weather was almost calm, we hired a fishing boat
to take us on board. Those of our company which belonged
to the Lion man of war embarked on board that vessel, still
remaining at anchor in the bay. The commander of the
Hindostan, having concluded that the whole party would for
I
58 S T. J A G O.
that night at least remain in the Lion, continued the ship
under sail. Our Spaniards tugged away pretty lustily at the
oars for about two hours; but, perceiving we were already
out in the open sea, without appearing to advance in the least
upon the ship, they at length began to talk of returning. By
way of encouragement, some of us took a spell at the oar,
while others chinked the dollars; and in this manner we kept
jogging on for about an hour longer, when one of them, looking
stedfastly at the moon, declared it was going to blow a hur-
ricane, and that they must immediately make the best of
their way to the shore. Nothing could be more embarrassing
than our present situation. The Lion was now also under
way, and fully as distant from us as the Ilindostan. The
portentous appearance of the moon seemed completely to
have dissolved the charm which the music of the dollars for a
time produced. It was now near midnight; the sky became
murky, and the sea much agitated. Under such circum-
stances, we were just on the point of concluding with the
Spaniards that it would not be very adviseable to encounter a
storm in an open boat, in the middle of the night, at the dis-
tance of ten or twelve miles from the nearest shore, when the
only thing happened that could possibly have relieved us from
the awkward dilemma in which we were placed :-a dead
calm ensued. Still we were at a considerable distance from
the ship ; but shaking the dollars had now its proper effect,
and the exertions they procured brought us at length safely
on board.
Within the limits of the trade winds, which on the northern
side of the line extend sometimes to the 28th parallel of lati-
S T. J A G O. 5)
tude, the smoothness of the sea places the passenger so much
at his case, that he now finds himself compelled to seek for
some kind of employment to pass away the time. Among
the few active pursuits of which the situation admits, that of
Tº
g
fishing naturally presents itself. The motion communicated
to the water by so huge a body as a ship never fails to bring
around it a great number and variety of the inhabitants of the
deep, who accompany it night and day with unwearied per-
Severance, sometimes far beyond their accustomed climate.
The most beautiful fish that swims the ocean is the dol phin,
(the Coryphaena hippurus,) of which we caught several in this
part of the voyage, both with the hook and with the fork;
not so much for the sake of feasting the appetite, for they are
but indifferent food, as of indulging the eye in the cruel de-
light of observing the exquisitely beautiful but evanescent
tints of colour that pass in succession over the surface of their
bodies, in the agonies of dying. The golden hue of its back,
when first drawn out of the water, which obtained it the
name of Dorado, changing into all the colours of the rainbow,
infinitely combined and varied, and seen differently from dif-
ferent points of view, may be reckoned among the first of those
brilliant but fleeting appearances with which the economy of
nature sometimes gratifics the eye, but which no pen can ac-
curately describe, nor pencil delineate. The ravenous shark,
the tyger of the ocean, is, like this beast of prey, generally
observed prowling alone. He seldom refuses the bait, and is
not therefore difficult to be taken ; but as the stench from his
body is so intolerable, his carcase is rarely hoisted upon deck.
But the most common of the voracious fish, that in shoals
accompany ships through this part of the ocean, are two
( )
6o S T. J A G O.
species of mackerel (the Scomber pelamis, known to sailors
by the Portugueze name of Bonetta, and the Thynnus or
tunny, usually called Albecor). These are both considered
as esculent, but they have a strong and disagreeable flavour,
are very dry and black, and dangerous effects are sometimes
said to have been produced from eating too freely of them.
The tunny caught in the Mediterranean was commonly used
at the feasts of the Romans ; yet they entertained an idea
that, under certain circumstances, it was poisonous. The
Velocity with which the bonetta and albecor dart across the
bows of a ship, when sailing at the rate of eight or nine miles
an hour, is almost incredible; it is so rapid that the eye is
no more able to follow them than it can trace a flash of
lightning.
The astonishing velocity, which fishes are capable of exert-
ing in so dense a medium as water, seems to be owing rather
to their muscular power than to any assistance they derive
from their fins, beyond that of directing their course. A strong
instance of this fact may be remarked in the amazing height to
which a salmon will leap through the midst of a water-fall, and
which he accomplishes more by an effort of muscular strength,
than by the action of his pectoral fins, the spreading of
which indeed would tend to retard rather than accelerate his
progress. But there are instances, still more extraordinary
than thc Salmon-leap, of the astonishing power which the
muscles of fishes are capable of exerting; so very extraordinary
indeed, that were they not authenticated in such a manner
as not to leave the possibility of a doubt, they would cer-
tainly be considered as the inventions of voyagers. Ships'
7
S T. J A G O. 61
sides of thick oak plank have been completely perforated by
the snout of the Sword-fish, not of the common species the
Xiphias gladius, of which we struck one at the entrance of
Porta Praya bay, but another or at least a variety, of greater
dimensions, being sometimes from twenty to thirty feet in
length, and distinguished by a large spotted back fin, and by
the rounded extremity of the snout or boney process. Van
Schouten of Horne, in his very entertaining voyage round the
world, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, states
that “a great fish or a sea monster, having a horn like a
“ common elephant's tooth, not hollow but full, struck the
“ ship with such great strength that it entered into three
“ planks of the ship, two of green and one of Oaken wood,
“ and into a rib, where it turned upward to their great good
“ fortune.” In the year 1801, a Danish ship came into the
Cape of Good Hope, in consequence of springing a leak off
the Brazil coast. On examination it was found that she had
been struck by a sword-fish, the snout of which had pene-
trated the bottom, where it still remained, laving snapt close
to the plank on the exterior side of the vessel. In the same
year a small English ship came into Table bay, having re-
ceived in the Southern Atlantic a stroke from a sword-fish,
which buried part of the boney snout so deep in the stern-
post as to impede the action of the rudder. These two facts
consist with my own knowledge, which, together with the
piece of plank from the bottom of an East Indiaman, now in
the British Museum, transfixed by the sword of this fish, may
satisfy the doubts of the most sceptical on a subject which
was known to the ancients perhaps more than two thousand
62 S T. J A G O.
years ago, as it is mentioned by Pliny to be a fact indisput-
ably established long before his time.
For wise and good purposes, and no doubt with a beneficial
design, though not comprehended and on that account too
often arraigned by weak presumptuous man, the same system
of mutual destruction prevails among the animals of the deep
as among those of the land. The dorado, the bonetta, and
the albecor, are prey for the all-devouring shark; and these,
in their turn, are the determined enemies of the flying fish;
and though nature has bountifully supplied the latter with a
pair of wing-like fins, which, by enabling it to spring into the
air, sometimes assist its escape from its hungry pursuers,
yet there are so many enemies among the feathered race
ready to souse upon it in its new element, as the phaeton,
the pelican, the procellaria, diomedea, and a number of
others, that in taking this flight it may justly be said
“ Incidit in Syllam cupiens vitare Charybdim.”
The flying fish seems not to be endued with the discretion-
ary power of altering the direction of its flight from that of a
straight line, nor of continuing many seconds of time out of
the water. Sometimes a whole shoal will fly against a ship,
and many of them drop upon the deck; which led a pious
missionary to observe, that Providence had created flying fish
for the support of those of the holy brotherhood who might
have occasion to cross the ocean during Lent
S T. J A G O. 63
The fine weather and smooth water in this part of the voyage
gave us an opportunity of ascertaining a fact, which, though
well known to philosophers and to most seamen and satis-
factorily explained on natural principles, is not by any means
in general belief. I allude to the experiment of sinking, to a
certain depth, an empty bottle corked as tightly as possible :
when the cork, on drawing up the bottle, will invariably be
found to have been forced into the inside. We let down, to
the depth of forty fathoms or 240 feet, a large earthen bottle
firmly stopped with a tapering cork, so that the diameter of
that part of it out of the bottle greatly exceeded the widest
part of the neck; round this was laid a coating of melted
pitch, and the whole covered with canvas. On drawing up
the bottle the cork was in the inside. In tropical chimates
the dinninution of temperature, at so considerable a depth be-
low the surface, condensing the inclosed air, takes off all
reaction against the weight of the superincumbent column of
water pressing on the cork, and thus aids the experiment;
but in high latitudes, where the air when corked up is pro-
bably at the freezing temperature, whilst that below the sur-
face of the sea is warmer by eight, ten, or twelve degrees, the
increased elasticity, acting against the cork within, must re-
quire the bottle to be sunk to a greater depth than in the
former case, before the experiment can succeed.
We were followed into Praya bay on the island of St. Jago
by four ships which had sailed from Dunkirk under French
colours, and an American from Nantucket, all bound for the
Southern Whale Fishery on the coasts of Lima and Peru ;
having also cargoes of clothing and other articles on board,
64 S T. J A G O.
for carrying on a contraband trade with the natives of this
part of South America, whom the mother country is not only
either unable or unwilling to supply but, like the dog in the
manger, endeavours to prevent all other nations from doing
it. The Dunkirk ships were chiefly manned with English
seamen, and were strongly suspected to be fitted out on
English capitals. One of them was the old Resolution of
Captain Cooke, now transformed to a smuggling whaler under
the French name of La Liberté, and, what was still worse,
bearing the French republican flag. I am not ashamed to
confess that my feelings were considerably hurt in witnessing
this degradation of an object so intimately connected with
that great man. Such a feeling, though excited by an inani-
mate object, is not, I trust, either uncommon or unnatural.
“There is not,” says Pope, when describing his sensations on
revisiting the place of his birth, “an old post by the road-
“ side which does not awaken the recollection of some pleas-
“ing scene in my childish days ; and it gives me pain to see
“ even one of these old remembrancers destroyed.” Few, I
believe, will envy that man's feelings, who can see without
emotion the house in which he was born, and in which he
spent his happiest years, either wholly demolished or degraded
to some unworthy purpose. The Resolution was the house of
our immortal Cooke and, out of respect to his memory, I
would have laid her up in a dock, till she had wasted away
plank by plank. It was thus that Queen Elizabeth shewed
her veneration for the object that carried her favourite Drake
round the world. His ship was preserved with great care, for
many years, in the dock-yard of Deptford ; and when time
had gradually reduced her to such a state of decay that she
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////|×///// ºº ¿?// ±//
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S T. J A G O. 65
could no longer be held together, a chair was constructed
from some of the soundest parts and presented to the Univer-
sity of Oxford, as a relic that was still worthy of further pre-
servation.
There is nothing inviting in the aspect of the island of St.
Jago, when seen from Praya bay, as will readily be perceived
from the annexed view ; and it requires only to set foot on
shore to be convinced that poverty, and sickness, and pining
want, are the constant companions of the greater part of its
wretched inhabitants. On an elevated plain at the head of
the bay, which is accessible only by a winding path made
among the rocks near the left angle, is situated the town, as
it is unworthily called, of Praya. It consists of two rows of
mean straggling cottages, one on each side of the plain, in-
terspersed with still meaner hovels. On that end of the plain
which overlooks the bay is placed the church, without a spire,
or tower, or any kind of steeple or mark to indicate the use
for which it is designed, or to distinguish it from the other
buildings in the town, except a large wooden cross erected
upon the roof. Here also is a kind of fort in ruins, with a
few old guns so corroded as scarcely to be trusted for firing a
salute with safety, some mounted on old crazy carriages, and
others lying on the ground. The jail is behind the church,
and by much the better building. The government house is
a wooden hut, situated on the edge of the plain to the right,
and overlooking a valley planted chiefly with cocoa nut trees.
There was a sort of tavern kept by a military officer of colour.
The only Europeans we saw were the Governor, his secretary,
IR
66 S T. J A G O.
the commanding officer of the troops, a raw-boned Scotch
serjeant, six feet high, who had served in the American army,
and his wife, a slender diminutive Irish woman. All these
wore an aspect so sickly and so wan, so full of misery and
woe, that, with all the rank and importance which they
held on the island, we could not help considering them as the
most deplorable objects of compassion ; as creatures that, as
the poet observes,
“ Meagre and lank with fasting grown,
“And nothing left but skin and bone,
“ They just keep life and soul together.”
The clergy were people of colour, and some of them per-
tectly black. The officers of justice, of the customs, and
other departments in the civil and military services, the troops,
the peasantry, and the traders, were all blacks, or at least so
very dark that they would scarcely be supposed to have any
mixture of European blood in their veins. Yet most of them
aspire to the honour of Portugueze extraction, and are proud
of tracing their origin to a race of heroes who, disdaining the
restraint of laws at home, contrived to get theniselves trans-
ported abroad, where their free and ungoverfiable spirits
could exert themselves without controul. The Cape de Verd
islands were to Portugal what Botany Bay is to England, an
asylum for convicted criminals.
Whether this cluster of eighteen or twenty islands, of which
St. Jago is the principal, be the Gorgades, the Gorgones, or
the Hesperides, of the ancients, or none of them (which is
S T. J A G O. 67
perhaps the most probable), is a point which I most willingly
resign for the learned to settle. It is very certain, however,
that they produced no golden apples until the trees had been
transplanted thither by the Portugueze, unless, indeed, the
mala aurea of the ancients were quinces instead of oranges,
as some philosophers, and among others Linnaeus, have en-
deavoured to prove ; in which case they may have been the
gardens of the Hesperides, as the quince, I imagine, is here
a plant of native growth. They are supposed, by some
writers, to have been totally uninhabited when they were first
discovered ; though others maintain that a race of negroes,
similar to those on the continent, was thinly scattered over
one or two of the largest. The names of Ilhas Perdas the
Green Islands, and Cabo Verde the Green Cape, which is op-
posite to them, were not assigned on account of any peculiar
verdure of luxuriant vegetation that enlivened their surface,
but because the sea, near the coast of the latter, after a series
of calm weather, was generally covered over with a vegetable
substance like the Conferva, which float on stagnant pools of
fresh water. Every part of St. Jago, which we had an op-
portunity of visiting, wore so parched and sterile an appear-
ance, that Churchill might have observed of this place with
more truth than of Scotland,
“ Earth clad in russet scorns the lively green.”
In fact, a drought of three years continuance, and consequent
famine for almost the same period, had nearly desolated the
island. While we remained here, daily accounts were received
K 2
68 S T. J A G O.
by government of persons on this and all the other islands
perishing for want of the common necessaries of life. On ex-
pressing my surprize to the secretary, that the mother country,
so far from employing precautions, had taken no steps to pro-
cure succours, against a calamity so dreadful and of such
long continuance, he observed that the Court of Lisbon con-
sidered these poor islands, and the few black subjects scat-
tered over them, of too little importance to demand any part
of its care or attention ; that they produced very little
revenue to the Crown, which arose chiefly from a monopoly
of the slave trade on the coast, and from the sale of an ex-
clusive privilege for supplying the Brazils with salt.
Deplorable as the state of the island certainly was, I sus-
pect, however, that the inhabitants were not without design
in representing it in the worst point of view. They endeavour
to excite your pity, as the surest way to obtain your charity;
for they are all beggars from the highest to the lowest. To
the Governor, the commandant of the forces, and the priests,
a pair of black silk stockings is an acceptable present; and
all kinds of old clothing, as jackets, breeches, pantaloons,
shirts, trowsers, drawers, hats, and in short every article of
cotton and linen, they strive to procure with infinitely more
avidity than money, which indeed is of little use where little
or nothing is to be purchased with it. Bread, biscuit, or
flour, were also anxiously sought after. One of the whalers,
in the island of Buonavista, had exchanged one sack of wheat
against fifteen of salt. Yet, notwithstanding the famine, there
did not appear to be any deficiency of a considerable variety
7
S T. J A G O. 69
of delicious fruits. The finest oranges I ever tasted were
those of St. Jago; citrons equally good; guavas, figs, bananas,
cocoa nuts, and annonas or custard apples, all very fine and
sufficiently abundant. We procured also some culinary roots
and vegetables, but not in great plenty ; and they consisted
chiefly of sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and water melons. The
trees and shrubs in the vallies seemed to have suffered little
from the long drought. The stem of an Adamsonia or monkey
bread-fruit tree measured fifty-six feet in circumference and,
with the branches, eighty feet in height. The tamarind trees
were large and spreading. The cocoa nut and papaya trees
were loaded with fruit; and the indigo and cotton shrubs,
though of spontaneous growth, were larger and more luxuriant
than I remember to have seen them elsewhere except in Rio
de Janeiro. The asclepias gigantea was a common shrub
that flourished with vigour; and another species produced, in
its large cylindrical pods, a beautiful silky down used for
stuffing mattresses and pillows. But we observed no kind of
grain. Rice and Guinea corn used to be the common food
of the people, but the surface of the ground was said to have
long been impenetrable by the spade. In a temperature, in-
deed, in which the thermometer of Fahrenheit rarely descends
below 80°, and frequently rises beyond 90°, it will readily be
conceived that such must necessarily be the case, without fre-
quent and copious showers of rain. The mercury stood
generally at 84°, and once rose to 88°, during our stay.
In more favourable seasons, this island alone has been able
to furnish refreshments for very considerable fleets of ship-
7o S T. J A G O.
ping. The mountains abounded with small bullocks and
goats ; the peasantry brought down poultry and Guinea
fowls, pigeons and turtle doves without number ; and the
gardens near the hamlet afforded an overflow of fruits and
vegetables. A species of mullet is the only tolerable fish that
is usually caught in the bay ; but a vast quantity of land crabs
are found in the vallies, which are an excellent article of
food. The fresh water is thick and full of animalcules; and
there is but one well at the foot of the elevated plain, on
which the town is situated, furnishing barely a supply of this
indispensable article for the use of the inhabitants.
The Governor General of all the islands formerly resided at
the town of St. Jago, which is about six miles from Port
Praya, where he came occasionally whenever a fleet resorted
to the bay for refreshments, out of the purchase money of
which he reserved to himself a certain proportion. Each of
the other islands has its black governor, who is solely de-
pendent on the Governor General. The power and situation
of the latter are little to be envied. Disease and want sur-
round his habitation, and misery is for ever before his eyes;
and he must either submit to pass the remainder of his days
in a destructive climate, debarred from all Society, and sup-
porting a kind of penurious pomp by mean and unbecoming
practices, or return to his own country as poor as when he
left it. A traveller, among the vast variety of objects that
pass in succession before his eyes, must not expect to find
them all of an agreeable nature. Human life, in every so-
ciety, is made up of a mixture of good and evil, and the
S T. J A G O. 71
latter will probably in most societies be found to predominate:
but here evil seems to reign alone. In short, the whole place
is so miserable that I shall forbear any further description,
and hasten to another region to which nature, in the distribu-
tion of her favours, has been more liberal than to the Cape
de Verde Islands.
7: RIO DE JANEIR O.
C H A P. IV,
R. I O DE J A N E I R O .
Singular Entrance into, and Description of, the magnificent Harbour of Rio de
janeiro—The City of St. Sebastian—The Aqueduct—The public Gardens—
Streets and Shops of St. Sebastian—jealous Conduct of the Portugueze—
Climate and troublesome Insects—Indolence and improper Conduct of the Priest-
hood—Singular Custom of the Ladies of Rio—Of those of the Convent of
Santa Clara—Of the Ladies of Liverpool—Dress and Character—Reli-
gious Ceremonies and Processions—Neglected State of the Country in the
Neighbourhood of the Capital.
Tire island of St. Jago, in the miserable state in which we
found it in the year 1792, affording little else than a few fruits
and a scanty supply of muddy water, held out no induce-
ment for the prolonging of our stay beyond the time that was
absolutely necessary to prepare for the continuance of the
voyage. Accordingly we weighed anchor on the 7th of Oc-
tober and, stretching to the south-westward with a brisk
trade wind, just skirted the southern limit of the Mar do Sar-
gasso (or sea of sea-weeds) of the Portugueze, sometimes
called the Grassy Sea. We now saw only a few scattered
plants; but on the return voyage, by keeping farther to the
westward, the surface of the sea for several days was literally
covered with them. The extent of this surface varies accord-
RIO DE JAN EIR. O. 73
ing to the strength and direction of the prevailing winds and
currents; but what may properly be called the Grass sea is
comprehended between the 18th and 32d parallels of northern
latitude, and between the 25th and 40th meridians of west-
ern longitude. The common opinion that the myriads of
plants floating on this expanse are torn from the shores of the
gulf of Mexico, and wafted by the stream which incessantly
flows out of it to the northward, would seen to be one of
those vulgar errors that has obtained general currency by
gratuitous assent. If this species of Fucus be a native of the
gulf, which I am not competent to decide, it would be found
rather on the banks of Newfoundland and the coast of North
America, towards which the stream flows, than on the Sea of
Sargasso, a situation to which it could not have been brought
either by wind or current. In fact, the plant has neither
roots nor fibrils of any kind to indicate that it ever was at-
tached to rocks or shores, but its central stem buried in the
midst of its leafy branches makes it sufficiently evident that
it vegetates while floating on the surface of the fathomless
deep. Some of the plants are many feet in diameter, others
only a few inches ; all appear in a growing state ; the globose
berries are in some plants green, in others red. If taken out
of the water the plant becomes flaccid, and in the course of
twenty-four hours turns brown or black. -
In returning home, the curious passenger cannot fail to
derive great amusement in examining the bushes of fucus,
when crossing the sea of Sargasso. The naturalist in every plant
will find a great variety of marine insects and worms, some
naked, and others with testaceous coverings. A minute crab,
I.
'4. RIO DE JANEIR O.
very beautifully spotted, seems to be the ruler and the
scourge of these little floating worlds, devouring and tearing
in pieces with his claws the soft and gelatinous worms, even
after the plant is drawn out of its element.
We were fortunate enough to pass the Line without ex-
periencing any of those baffling calms and harassing squalls,
which occur so frequently in this part of the globe, and on the
29th of the above-mentioned month we came in sight of that
point of the coast of South America which is called Cape
Frio ; and having doubled this high promontory in the course
of the night, we entered, on the following day, the magnifi-
cent harbour of Rio de Janeiro.
Although I shall endeavour to sketch a general outline of
the features of this part of the Brazilian coast, yet I am fully
aware that any description which I can employ will convey
but an inadequate idea of the grandeur and beauty of the
country to those who have not had an opportunity of seeing
it. The first remarkable object that catches the attention,
after passing Cape Frio, is a gap or rent in the verdant ridge
of mountains which skirts the sea-coast. This chasm appears,
from a distance, like a narrow portal between two cheeks of
solid stone, which being perfectly naked are the more re-
markable, as every other prominent part of the ridge of
mountains is clothed with luxuriant vegetation. On ap-
proaching this chasm, which is in fact the entrance into the
grand harbour of Rio de Janeiro, the cheek on the left or
western side is discovered to be a single solid stone of a comi-
cal shape or, in nautical language, a sugar-loaf, entirely de-
7
RIO DE JANEIR O. 75
tached, not quite perpendicular, but leaning a little towards
the entrance. We took an opportunity, during our stay at
Rio, of ascertaining its height by means of a line measured
on a little sandy beach which skirts its base on the side
next to the harbour, and the angles which it extended
from the extremities of this line. From the result of our
operations it appeared that this solid mass of hard sparkling
granite is 680 feet high above the surface out of which it rises.
The eastern or opposite cheek of the chasm is a naked moun-
tain, composed of the same material, but with this difference
in point of form that it has an easy and regular slope from
the water's edge to the summit, which is about the same
height as that of the cone. The whole of this side is occu-
pied by forts, lines, and batteries, for an account of which I
must refer the reader to the two plates in the following
chapter.
A little island strongly fortified, just within the entrance,
contracts the passage to the width of about three-fourths of a
mile. Having cleared this channel, one of the most magni-
ficent scenes in nature bursts upon the enraptured eye. Let
any one imagine to himself an immense sheet of water running
back into the heart of a beautiful country, to the distance of
about thirty miles, where it is bounded by a skreen of lofty
mountains, always majestic, whether their rugged and shape-
less summits are tinged with azure and purple, or buried in
the clouds—Let him imagine this sheet of water gradually
to expand, from the narrow portal through which it com-
municates with the sea, to the width of twelve or fourteen
miles, to be every where studded with innumerable little
L 2
76 RIO DE JANE IRO.
islands, scattered over its surface in every diversity of shape,
and exhibiting every variety of tint that an exuberant and
incessant vegetation is capable of affording—Let him con-
ceive the shores of these islands to be so fringed with fragrant
and beautiful shrubs, not planted by man but scattered by
the easy and liberal hand of nature, as completely to be con-
cealed in their verdant covering—Let him figure to himself
this beautiful sheet of water, with its numerous islands, to be
encompassed on every side by hills of a moderate height, ris-
ing in gradual succession above each other, all profusely clad
in lively green, and crowned with groupes of the noblest trees,
while their shores are indented with numberless inlets, shoot-
ing their arms across the most delightful vallies, to meet the
murmuring rills, and bear their waters into the vast and com-
mon reservoir of all–In short, let him imagine to himself a
succession of Mount Edgecombes to be continued along the
shores of a magnificent lake, not less in circuit than a hundred
miles; and having placed these in a climate where spring for
ever resides, in all the glow of youthful vigour, he will still
possess only a very imperfect idea of the magnificent scenery
displayed within the capacious harbour of Rio de Janeiro :
which, as an harbour, whether it be considered in the light
of affording security and convenience for shipping, for its
locality of position, or fertility of the adjacent country, may
justly be ranked among the first of naval stations. '
If then the natural beauties of Rio de Janeiro are, in its
present state, so very enchanting, how much more so must
they have appeared at a time when this arm of the sea was a
lake of pure transparent water That such it once was,
RIO DE JAN E I R O. > f -º
f
little doubt can be entertained. Its ancient barrier having
given way to the pressure of the water within, the more solid
parts of the fragments, in being forced into the sea, still re-
main as a bar before the entrance of the harbour, on which
the depth of water does not exceed from seven to ten fathoms,
whilst close to both the inner and the outer margin the depth
is not less than eighteen fathoms. Part of the foundation,
indeed, appears in pointed rocks above the surface of the sea,
towards the western extremity of the bar.
If the Portugueze of Rio have done but little towards im-
proving nature, they are entitled at least to the negative
merit of not having much disfigured her. The point of situa-
tion for building the town is well chosen out of a great number
of good ones that presented themselves. The principal build-
ings which have been erected, though not elegant, are free
at least from extravagant whims, and are by no means ill
suited to their respective situations. A fortress, however re-
gular, is far from being an unpleasant object in a landscape;
but when its lines are carried over the inequalities of a broken
mount, whose sides are fringed with wood, it frequently
unites to grandeur no inconsiderable share of picturesque
beauty. Almost every eminence in the vicinity of the town
of Rio is crowned with a castle or a fort, a church or a con-
vent; and many of the islands on the expansive harbour are
enlivened and ornamented by buildings of a similar nature.
Not one of the numerous islets were disgraced by such ridi-
culous and uncouth edifices, the whimsies of a sickly taste,
as distort and disfigure those once lovely spots on the beauti-
ful lake of Keswick, and which are now a reproach to
78 RIO DE JANEIR O.
the grand and sublime scenery with which they are sur-
rounded.
The town of Rio or, to speak with becoming dignity of
the capital of the Brazils, the city of St. Sebastian is charm-
ingly situated on a projecting quadrangular promontory of an
irregular form, three of whose sides are opposed to the har-
bour, and the fourth sheltered from the prevailing westerly
blasts by a skreen of high hills well covered with wood. The
side of the town, which is next to that part of the harbour
where the shipping usually lie at anchor, is nearly a mile and
half in length ; and the depth inwards about three-fourths of a
mile. The northerm angle of the promontory is a bold broken
eminence, on one point of which there is a regular fortifica-
tion, and on the other a convent of Benedictine monks,
which, being also surrounded with lines of defence, is actually
as well as metaphorically a church militant. These heights
completely command the town and the anchorage; and they
appear to command also, at least they are on a level with,
the strongest work in the harbour, on which the defence of
the place is thought principally to depend. This is the Ilha
dos Cobras, or Snake Island, a rock about 80 feet high at the
point on which the citadel stands, and slanting to eight at the
opposite end ; its length is 300 yards; and it is detached by a
narrow but very deep channel from the eminence on which the
Benedictine convent is situated. Round every side of this
strongly fortified island, and close to its shores, ships of the great-
est draught of water may lie in perfect security. Here also are
a commodious dock-yard, an arsenal of naval stores, a sheer
hulk, and a wharf for heaving down and careening shipping.
RIO DE JAN E I R O. 79
The largest fleets, however, may anchor in this capacious
harbour, entirely out of the reach of any of the guns that are
mounted on the forts.
On landing from the harbour, the first object in the town
that catches the attention is a handsome square, surrounded
on three of its sides with buildings, and the fourth open to
the water. Along this side is erected a noble stone quay,
with flights of steps at each extremity and in the centre, the
last of which is the common landing-place. When this line
of masonry shall be extended the whole length of the town,
which was intended to be done, it will serve not merely as an
ornament and convenience, but as a considerable defence
against the attempt of an enemy to land. Near the central
flight of stairs is a quadrangular obelisk throwing, from each
of its four fronts, a constant stream of pure limpid water for
the use of the lower part of the town and of the shipping in
the harbour. The upper side of the square, facing the har-
bour, is entirely occupied by the palace of the Viceroy, a
long plain building, neither remarkable for elegance of design
nor peculiarity of construction.
The palace, the obelisk, and the pier, are all built with
hewn blocks of granite ; and the surface of the square is a
solid floor of the same material, sprinkled over with quartzose
sand. The granite being of that kind which contains a large
proportion of glistening mica is highly injurious to the eye,
which is scarcely able to bear the dazzling rays of the sun
playing throughout the whole day on one side or other of this
8o RIO DE JANEIR O.
open area—glaring emblem of the brilliant exploits of the
Portugueze nation in earlier times
In accomplishing a plan for affording a convenient and
ample supply of water to every part of the town, an article of
the first necessity in all situations, but more especially so in a
warm climate, the government has shewn a laudable atten-
tion ; and the name of Vasconcellas, the Viceroy under whose
administration the works were constructed, is very properly
recorded in an appropriate Latin inscription, engraven on one
of the sides of the obelisk in the great square. All the foun-
tains derive their supply of water from a large reservoir,
which is constructed on the summit of a hill just above the
town. This reservoir is fed by means of an aqueduct, raised
on arches across a deep valley, on the opposite side of which
the water is received into it from a succession of stone
troughs, laid under an arched covering of brick-work to the
spring-heads in the mountains. That part of this great work
which crosses the valley, and communicates immediately with
the reservoir, seems to be as unnecessary as it must have been
expensive; it is supported on a double tier of lofty arches,
consisting of more than forty in each row, and is no incon-
siderable ornament to the city, as will readily be perceived by
the annexed view. A series of pipes laid along or under the
surface would unquestionably have answered the purpose of
conducting the water equally well; but, as Sir George
Staunton has justly observed, “ shew and magnificence,
“ as well as utility, are sometimes the objects of public
“works."
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RIO DE JAN EIR O. 8 :
Another object of utility, in which the health and the
amusement of the public have been consulted, is the Passco
Publico, or garden for public promenade. This piece of
ground is laid out in shrubberies, lawns, walks, and parterres.
Bowers are erected here and there, round which the jasmine,
the clematis, and the passion flower intertwine their creep-
ing branches. We observed several native plants of great
beauty ; but a vehement desire seemed to prevail of cultivat-
ing, in preference, those of Europe, notwithstanding their
sickly and diminutive appearance, contracted in a climate so
unsuitable to their constitution. But the most contemptible
object in the garden was a miserable representation of the
papaya tree in copper, of its natural size and painted green,
whilst the real plant, growing close beside it in all the ox-
uberance of tropical vegetation, laughed to scorn its stiff and
deformed mock brother. A broad terrace walk at the lower
end of the garden, overlooking an arm of the harbour, com-
mands a delightful view of its rising shores, which are every
where fringed with coppice. At each end of the terrace is a
neat square building, whose walls within are covered with
paintings. As specimens of art, they are not entitled to much
notice, but the subjects are far from being uninteresting.
The views, in one of these buildings, are entirely confined to
detached parts of the harbour; the ceiling is covered with
devices in shell-work; and round the cornices are representa-
tions of fish, peculiar to the country, worked in small shells.
The ceiling of the other building contains similar devices
wrought in feathers; and figures of many of the native birds
are arranged round the cornice, each clothed in its proper
plumage. On the walls of the latter are eight paintings, de-
Al
82 RIO DE JANEIR O.
scriptive of what were then considered as the eight most im-
portant productions of the Brazils. They consist of
1st. A view of the diamond and gold mines, which were first
discovered about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and
the most productive of which are at Villa Rica, about 200
miles behind Rio de Janeiro.
2d. View of a sugar plantation and mill for bruizing the
canes; an article which is not much cultivated in the neigh-
bourhood of Rio, being considered as more suitable for those
districts lying nearer to the equator. The few mills which we
saw were of a rude construction, turned generally by a pair
of small horses, and the canes passed between three wooden
rollers; and such they appeared in the painting.
3d. The culture and preparation of indigo. Although this
plant grows well and thrives without much attention, the
preparation of the dye simple, and requiring no great ex-
pence of labour, yet the small quantity that is produced will
scarcely entitle it to be considered as an important article of
("Onll]]Cl’CC.
4th. A plantation of the Cactus Opuntia, with the mode of
preparing cochinille from the insect. There can be no ques-
tion that this article, so valuable in the arts and manufac-
tures, might be cultivated in the Brazils to as great an extent
as in Mexico, whereas the quantity raised at present is ex-
ceedingly trifling.
RIO DE JANE IR O. 83
5th. The different preparations of manhiot. This plant is
cultivated chiefly for the subsistence of the slaves. The cas-
sava bread so common in the West India islands, and the
substance which is sold in the shops of London under the
name of tapioca, are the produce of its long tuberous roots;
and they make from it a hair-powder as white as snow. It is
propagated from cuttings, and the root is rasped into a
powder by wheels that are covered with dentated metallic
plates.
6th. I'iew of a coffee plantation. The cultivation of this
article seemed to be on the increase ; and there can be no
doubt that the loss of St. Domingo to France will con-
tribute greatly to the encouragement of its propagation in
the Brazils.
7th. View of a rice plantation ; which, as the most pro-
ductive of all grain, is abundantly cultivated in all the northern
provinces.
8th. View of a plantation of hemp, and its manufacture into
cordage. This article is chiefly cultivated in the southern
districts near the island of St. Catharine, but hitherto has met
with little encouragement.
Of other productions equally or more important I shall
give a brief account in the next chapter.
There is another garden belonging to the Crown, which is
chiefly intended for the cultivation of that species of cactus
M Q
84 RIO DE JANEIR O.
on which the cochinille insect feeds, and for the reception of
curious or useful native plants; but we found it greatly ne-
glected, and the collection very limited, containing but few
native plants which have not already been cultivated in the
hot-houses of England. The superintendant had not the least
knowledge of botany. The common fruits of the country
were sufficiently abundant, and to these were added a few
other plants among which, as I find by my notes, were
different species of Yucca, Agave, Euphorbia, and Cactus ;
the Laurus Persea, a Mimosa, a species of Cassia, and the
Theobroma Cacao or chocolate tree; the Jatropha Curcas or
physic nut, and the Ricinus Palma Christi ; the common
pepper, a species of Capsicum or Cayenne pepper, and a
species of Physalis or winter cherry. Several very fine passion
flowers and different species of convolvulus were among the
creeping plants. The Queen of Portugal had sent out a col-
lector of birds and insects; but he possessed only a very
limited knowledge of natural history, being a mere setter-up.
In this branch, however, he was tolerably perfect, and had
procured a number of very beautiful and brilliant specimens.
Many of the houses in St. Sebastian are far from being
contemptible ; they are mostly two stories high, covered with
tiles, and have wooden balconies cxtending in front of the
upper stories; but the best of them wear that dull and
gloomy appearance, which all buildings must necessarily have
whose latticed windows supply the want of glass. The streets
are in general tolerably straight, some of considerable width,
though mostly narrow. The principal ones are paved on both
sides with broad flag stones of granite. The refinement of a
7
RIO DE JANEIR O. 85
irottoir, so rarely met with out of England, was not expected
to be found in a foreign settlement of Portugal. The shops
are large and commodious, generally well stocked with the
manufactures of Europe, chiefly those of Great Britain, which
after being exhibited in the windows of the capital and the
principal cities and towns of the empire, till their fashion is
out of date, are shipped off to the trading nations on the con-
tinent, and from thence to their foreign settlements. In the
catalogue of wares exhibited in the shops of Rio de Janeiro,
English quack medicines and caricature prints were not the
least esteemed nor the least abundant.
The city of Rio is in its extent so considerable, that it is
said to contain at least sixty thousand souls, including slaves;
yet there is neither inn, nor hotel, nor any kind of lodging or
accommodation for the reception of strangers. There was,
indced, a sort of tavern, on the right of the great square,
kept by a Frenchman, a Monsieur Phillipe, who, on the ar-
rival of foreign ships, attends at the main landing-stairs to
offer his services as agent, broker, interpreter, quack doctor,
traiteur or, in short, in any other capacity which strangers
may be disposed to employ him ; and in the nature of the
service they may wish to engage him there is no necessity to
be apprehensive of offending his delicacy, for he is a true
Frenchman. A house of accommodation is, however, scarcely
necessary, as this weak and therefore perhaps jealous govern-
ment is so inhospitable as not to allow any stranger to remain
on shore after sunset ; and so suspicious as not even to suffer
him to walk the streets in the daytime, without a soldier at
his heels. In this respect their caution seems to be fully as
S6 RIO DE JANEIR O.
needless, and quite as inconvenient, as that of the Chinese.
Previous to the landing of the Ambassador, Dr. G. and myself
went on shore, and on stepping out of the boat we were ac-
costed by the officer on guard, who requested we would
follow him to the palace. “Pray, gentlemen, what is the
“ object of your landing f" was the first question that was
put to us. We replied, “To catch butterflies;” which was
really the case. To convince them, however, that we were
in earnest, and to avoid the appearance of levity or imper-
tinence, we unfolded our gauze nets, forcipes, and chip-
boxes, with the rest of the apparatus necessary for fly-catch-
ing. Comprehending the nature of this occupation better
than the transit of Venus, which we are told by Captain
Cooke the Viceroy conceived to be the passing of the north
star through the south pole, they seemed to be satisfied in
this respect, and next inquired as to the situations we held in
the embassy, which having also ascertained to their satisfac-
tion, an officer was immediately appointed to accompany us.
We proceeded to the skirts of the town, where myriads of
beautiful insects were fluttering in the air. Such swarms of
butterflies, particularly one species marked with black and
yellow bars, were hovering about the tops of the trees and
the tall shrubbery, that in certain places they filled the air
like the flights of locusts in Southern Africa. Our pursuit
continued so long, that the officer, having no relish for the
chace, took an opportunity of slipping away and, to our
great satisfaction, leaving us at full liberty to follow our
amusement. It was pretended that the only reason for plac-
ing a guard on every stranger was to protect him from being
robbed or insulted by the blacks or vagrants that might be
RIO DE JANEIR O. 87
lurking about the skirts of the town ; but on its being signi-
fied, after the suite of the Ambassador had landed, that we
should very willingly dispense with such protection, we had
the pleasure to find that the spies on our conduct were
withdrawn.
The house provided for the Ambassador was sufficiently
large, but not very clean ; and although it was represented as
being completely furnished, there was, in reality, little in it
beside some clumsy old fashioned chairs of heavy wood, a
few tables, and wooden frames with cane bottoms, intended
for bedsteads, but without either posts or curtains. For-
tunately we took on shore our own bedding, by doing which
we soon discovered that we had lost nothing in point of com-
fort, the Portugueze not being over nice in this respect.
Behind our dwelling-house was a long strip of ground, which
had formerly been a garden, but which was now in a state of
total neglect, and entirely overrun with weeds. To most of
the better sort of houses in St. Sebastian are annexed pieces
of ground, planted with fruith, flowers, and fragrant shrubs.
We had little reason to complain of the climate of Rio
during 'our stay. Though the sun was just on the southern
tropic, and consequently nearly vertical, during our residence
here, yet we seldom suffered any inconvenience from heat,
or were prevented from taking our usual quantity of exercise.
The general temperature of the air in the day was from 76°
to 84° of l'ahrenheit. The nights were by far the most dis-
agreeable. If we attempted to walk in the open air, the bats
or the fire flies (Tampyrus) were every moment threaten-
$8 RIO DE JANEIR O.
ing to dart against our faces; if we remained in the house,
scorpions, and centipedes, and scolopendras were constantly
crawling over the floor; and a disagreeable, disgusting, but
perfectly harmless insect, a species of cricket (Gryllus Gryl-
totalpa), as constantly skipped about the plates and into the
glasses during supper. Dut of all the torments I ever ex-
perienced, in any part of the world, none in my opinion can
be put in comparison with those produced by the stings of the
musquitoes of Rio de Janeiro. I have felt the venom of
their little pointed beaks in many parts of the world, but
never suffered from its virulence any thing like the degree of
pain which their puncture occasioned at this place ; nor could
the exquisite torment which we suffered be owing to any
extraordinary degree of irritability in the habit of body at the
time, because the whole party, without a single exception,
laboured under the same severity of pain. The eyes, the lips,
the forehead, and the cheeks of every individual who slept
on shore were inflamed and swollen in such a manner as com-
pletely to disfigure the face. Those who had taken the pre-
caution to furnish themselves with curtains of net-work,
though they might not suffer in an equal degree with the
rest, were not, however, entirely protected. If a single mus-
quito, by any accident, found itself within the net, the per-
petual humming noise with which it assailed the face, and the
constant expectation of feeling its sting, were nearly as teas-
ing and as preventive of sleep to those who lay enclosed in
net—work as to those who were exposed to their open attack.
The swarms of these insects and other kinds of vermin may
be attributed rather to the extreme filthiness of the people
º
RIO DE J A N E I R O. Sg
than to the heat of the climate. The ground floors of the
houses are rarely swept : they serve as repositories for fire-
wood, for lumber, and for the lodgings of their numerous slaves.
The same want of cleanliness is visible in their dress and in
their persons. Few, if any, are free from a certain cutaneous
disorder, which is supposed in our country to be the joint
effect of poverty of food and filth ; many have confirmed le-
prosy ; and the elephantiasis is by no means uncommon. A
great part of their diet consists of fish, fruit, and vegetables,
with the never-failing dish of farinha de pao, or flour of the
maniota root; all their substantial food, whatever it may
be, is first dipped in oil or grease, and then rolled in this
flour and made up into little balls in the palm of the hand.
Milk, butter and cheese are rarely used. With the utmost
difficulty we procured a little of the first for our tea, and it
was miserably bad. Their beef is lean and very indifferent,
and mutton is scarcely to be had at any rate. Fowls and
turkies are abundant, and tolerably good ; and the market is
well supplied with a great variety of very excellent fish. The
bread which is made of wheaten flour, the produce of the
southern provinces, is exceedingly good. The fruits in gene-
ral are not excelled in any part of the world.
One of the first objects of inquiry to an inquisitive traveller,
on his entering a city or large town, is a bookseller's shop.
An Englishman in particular is so accustomed to the con-
venience of a printed guide, wherever he moves about in his
own country, that he is very apt to run into the mistake of
expecting to be accommodated with a similar fund of inform-
ation abroad. After a long search, and many inquiries, we
N
90 RIO DE JAN E I R O.
at last discovered that there were two booksellers' shops in
St. Sebastian ; but it required less time to find out that they
contained nothing that was likely to be useful or interesting
to us. Many old volumes on medicine and alchemy, still
more on church history and theological disputations, and
some few on the exploits of the house of Bragança, swelled
their catalogues; nothing that related to the country was to
be found. This portion of South America, one of the most
fertile regions of the globe, had scarcely supplied from the
pen of the Portugueze a single page of natural history, eco-
nomics or statics, beyond what appears in the general ac-
counts of the conquest of the Brazils. A Franciscan friar
informed us that he had long been amassing materials for a
Flora fluminensis, as he meant to call it in allusion to the
name of Rio, which he hoped soon to publish ; but I have
not heard that it has yet made its appearance. A small work
has lately been published on the importance of the commerce
of Portugal and its colonies, by Coutinho Bishop of Fernam-
buco ; but the little it contains with regard to the Brazils is
of a very general nature, and not at all descriptive. It is
pretended indeed, that both in this town and at St. Salva-
dor the government is in possession of very voluminous
manuscripts, which were compiled by the Jesuit missionaries.
If the fact be so, it is more than probable they contain little
more than journals of their transactions, and copies of their
correspondence with their superiors in Europe. If the greater
part of the time of the priests and monks of Rio, where they
are very numerous, was not employed in luxury and indo-
lence, or in meddling with the private concerns and domestic
arrangements of every family, and in bearing about from one
7
| RIO DE JANE IR O. 9 I
º
house to another the little tales of scandal that may be afloat,
what an excellent opportunity would these men have of fa-
vouring the world with a descriptive account of a country so
very interesting, and yet so little known
The curiosity of these sacred characters to discover the na-
ture and the scope of the embassy to China was sufficiently
excited not to require much formality of introduction on
their part. A constant intercourse was kept up between the
convents and our hotel. Whenever their curiosity was satis-
fied, as far as regarded our own concerns, the chief topics of
their conversation turned on the obstinate character of the
native Indians, whom they abused most profusely for not
embracing Christianity, (to which, by the way, they had used
little endeavours to convert them,) on reports of large dia-
monds being found at the mines of such and such a weight, the
roguish tricks of the slaves and, what in them was the most
reprehensible, on the disposition to gallantry of the ladies of
St. Sebastian. The lady abbess of a convent, not far from our
lodgings, was complaining one day to Dr. G. of being subject
to violent headaches, for which he promised to give her a few
pills. In the hurry of embarkation he entrusted the box to
a jolly fat friar of the order of St. Benedict, requesting he
would take an early opportunity of delivering it to the abbess.
The curiosity of this son of the church, getting the better of
good manners, impelled him to open the box : and, applying
it to his nose, he observed to the Doctor, with a significant
leer, “ Aha, Domine, mercurialia 1 ista sunt mercitriglia f"
The Doctor expressing a degree of displeasure, mixed with
astonishment, that he should suppose the lady abbess to have
N (2
92 RIO DE J A N F I R O.
any occasion to use a medicine for such a purpose as he
meant to insinuate, “The lady abbess,” he exclaimed with a
loud laugh, “the lady abbess and all the ladies of Rio
“ pronae sunt omnes ac dedifaſ, l eneri ;” and he concluded
by observing, in unequivocal terms, that most of them were
labouring under the ill effects arising from a free and uncon-
strained indulgence of a licentious and promiscuous inter-
course with strangers. On the men he passed a still more
severe censure. Whether these sarcastical observations of the
reverend gentleman were or were not true, they were not the
less indecorous and unbecoming in the character of the person
by whom they were uttered. If not an impious it is at least an
unmanly proceeding first to extort, under the sacred garb of
religion, a confession of the failings and faults of those whom
we, mighty lords of the creation are pleased to call the
weaker sex, and then to expose them to the ridicule, the ob-
loquy, and detraction of the world.
The familiarity which the ladies of Rio are apt to use to
strangers may not perhaps be quite consistent with our no-
tions of female modesty, but I am far from being convinced
of its implying that degree of criminality which has been im-
puted to it in the most valuable voyages of Captain Cooke.
It is herein stated to be a common trick of the ladies of Rio
to make assignations with strangers, by tossing flowers to
them as they pass along the streets. That the throwing or
exchanging of flowers by the ladies of Rio is a very common
practice cannot be denied ; but I am inclined to believe,
what, however, I will not take upon me positively to assert,
that it arises more from a custom which they imbibe at the
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tº Jolge ‘Util stroA lion to audio Jo uompUIo (IMA (IoMo ‘uotuutoo
os seA StoAOH 5unuosold Jo tuosno oil, ‘Āſtep popsiA Knied
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put: : o Anotu [BiotſIuu Kub tuoſ, utún ‘oji Kºtto uſ sold ºuttuos
94. RIO DE JAN EIR O.
With regard to those of Rio de Janeiro I own that,
however strongly prejudice might operate against them, I
never could perceive in their conduct any thing that could
warrant the opinion of their being more licentious, or more
immorally inclined, than females are in other countries. Nor
do I believe that their good humour, signified by smiling,
nodding, and throwing flowers from their balconies to passing
strangers, after having repeatedly seen the same thing done
when the fathers or the husbands were standing by their side,
could justly or candidly be construed into any assignation,
to convey any particular meaning, or bear any other explana-
tion than that of its being a mere local custom, practised
without design : much less could it afford sufficient grounds
for the very heavy censure that has been passed upon them.
It is scarcely fair to decide on the disposition and moral
character of a whole nation from the occasional occurrences
and observations of a few hours in the day, during a week's
residence ; and where the character of the fair sex is at stake,
we ought at least to incline to the favourable side, especially
as, in Cvery country, the female part of society owes, in a
great degree, its good and bad qualities, and more particu-
larly the latter, to the conduct of the men.
The manners are so different in different countries, and
local customs sometimes so extraordinary, that ocular ob-
servation alone may easily be deceived. In France it was
the common custom for the gentlemen to kiss every lady they
might meet in the streets on new year's day; and he who
should omit this ceremony would have been considered as a
RIO DE JANE IR O. 95
rude and ill-bred man. I remember once, in passing the
streets of Liverpool, in the middle of the day, to have met
half a dozen very Smart looking girls, who stopped me, and
from their manner secnned to be inclined to handle me rather
rouglly. I soon discovered that an ancient custom was still
observed in this town, which granted a privilege to the ladies
of seizing any gentleman they might chuse to encounter in the
streets on . Easter Tuesday, to lift him into the air and, if he
should refuse to make such concessions as were demanded,
to drop him into the kennel ; and this day is significantly
called the lifting day. Now if the commander of a Portu-
gueze ship should happen to be walking the streets of Liver-
pool, for the first time on Easter Tuesday, and be treated in
the manner here described, and be sent on board his ship
immediately after, as the Portugueze of Rio send all stran-
gers on board their respective ships at sunset, it may readily
be conceived what kind of character he would be apt to give
of the women of Liverpool, which nevertheless might, and
certainly would, be no less erroneous than unjust,
That the ladies of Rio have a great deal of vivacity and
little reserve I am free to admit, which indeed is not greatly
to be wondered at. The whole day is spent at home in
gloomy confinement; and they rarely see a human creature
beside their own family, except in the evenings, when they
appear in their balconies or go to vespers. At these moments
they may be compared to birds that have escaped from the
confinement of the cage. At the same time, I have not the
smallest doubt that this city has its full proportion of ladies,
90 *
RIO DE JANEIR O.
whose virtue sits lightly enough upon them. And indeed if
there are a few who, passing for virtuous characters, are yet
so indiscreet as to make unbecoming advances to strangers, I
am afraid they have but too good an excuse to plead in the
aboniinable conduct of some of the men, of which the accusa-
tion of the friars seems to be but too well corroborated.
Most of the women of Rio, from constant confinement and
inactivity, are inclined to become corpulent at an early
period of life. Their countenances are in general pale and
rather sallow, but they have almost invariably dark expres-
sive eyes and fine teeth. Their long black hair is generally
tied in tresses with white or coloured ribbands, and adorned
with chaplets of flowers, chiefly such as give out a powerful
and agreeable odour, as the Plumeria, the Polianthes or
fuberose, and the jasmine.
The elderly dames, however, and such as would be thought
to imitate the fashions of Europe, load their black locks with
a profusion of oil and farinha. Their dress in the house con-
sists of a thin muslin or calico jacket trimmed with lace, and
a flounced petticoat; sometimes with but more frequently
without stockings. They scloom walk in the streets, but are
carried about in sedan chairs Open at the two sides, borne by
slaves in the same manner as the Chinese carry theirs by poles
on the shoulders. The men who can afford it usually ride in
a clumsey kind of cabriolet, drawn by two horses. Their
dress is the same as in Europe. They rarely go abroad with-
out their swords and cocked hats, and a pair of enormous
RIO DE JAN E I R O. 97
gold or silver buckles in their shoes and at the knees, set
with diamonds or Brazilian topazes; and they are generally
muffled up in a great cloak in the hottest weather.
We had few opportunities of judging what was the state of
society in St. Sebastian, but one may form a tolerable con-
jecture from what it is in their other settlements. The in-
habitants are said to go sometimes in small parties to the
Passeo Publico, where they sup and walk and enjoy them-
selves with music and fireworks to a late hour of the night;
but during our stay we saw nothing of the kind. Balls and
concerts are said also to be given occasionally at the govern-
ment house; but the Viceroy was considered as a close penu-
rious man, who had no other aim than that of amassing a
princely fortune. There is likewise an opera house, but it
had been shut up for some time on account of the indisposi-
tion of the Queen of Portugal. We were, therefore, unlucky
enough not to see any of their assemblies, or amusements,
or convivial meetings. They are very indolent, very jealous
of each other, and very superstitious. The day is divided
between sleep and ceremony, and mutual distrust is but ill
suited for the pleasures of social intercourse. In fact, the
minds of the mass of the people are not sufficiently cultivated
to feel any relish for them ; for it is a certain truth, as a great
moralist has observed, that “without intelligence man is not
“ social, he is only gregarious.”
As the avowed object, in conquering the Brazils, was the
conversion of the native Indians to the Christian faith, all the
- O
98 RIO DE JAN EIR O.
churches and convents are amply endowcd; but whatever
the zeal of the clergy might once have been to accomplish
this object, it has long given way to the more preferable ease
and luxury of a moriastic life; and though these holy men
may find it prudent to keep up a shew of devotion, by a more
than ordinary observance of ceremonies that are calculated
to strike the senses, they are loose in their own morals and
conversation, and not much disposed to throw any restraint
on those of the laity. Their influence, however, is very
great, but they are less the objects of fear, as no office of the
Holy Inquisition has been established in the Brazils. The
perpetual tolling of bells for matins, for vespers, for high
mass, or for announcing the performance of a solemn requiem
to some departed soul who may have left a liberal legacy to
the church, and the frequent firing of rockets and crackers,
keep up such a constant din that, as the French satyrist
has observed,
“ Pour honorer les morts, font mourir les vivans.”
Not a day scarcely passed in which we did not see some
funeral procession, accompanied by priests bearing flambeaux,
and chaunting their solemn dirges in passing along the streets ;
and scarcely an evening occurred without some Saint in the
calendar, or the holy Virgin, whose image is stuck in a
wooden box at the corner of every street, being marched
about the town, with the parade of soldiers and priests and
musicians. The ragged finery in which this lady in particular
is usually clothed, her powdered locks, and the tinsel and
tawdry with which she is bedaubcd, really put one in mind
RIO DE JANE I R O. 99
of the chimncy sweepers' girls, or rather boys dressed in girls'
clothes, on the first of May ; and few of the saints carried
about in their processions have a much more respectable ap-
pearance than Guy Fawkes, on the fifth of November. Yet
these wretched figures, thus borne about in procession, are
Sometimes loaded with real diamonds, topazes, and other
precious stones, beside gold and silver lace and tassels, fur-
\nished in some instances by the church to which they belong,
and borrowed in others for the occasion from the wealthier
inhabitants, few of whom are so wanting in piety as to refuse
her ladyship the loan of their jewels, whenever she may con-
descend to make her appearance in public. Little as such
objects may appear, to rational beings, to be calculated
for inspiring that veneration which they are intended to
produce, they serve at least as so many contrivances to divert
the mind from any train of thinking. Indeed the long con-
tinued habit of daily witnessing such scenes does not seem to
have in the loast diminished the attention. When the bell
tolls every person in the street takes off his hat, and he ob-
serves the same ceremony when he passes one of the cages in
which is contained the image of the holy Virgin ; and when
the rockets, squibs, and crackers are let off, the eye naturally
turns towards the eminences on which the churches and con-
vents are generally situated. The effect produced on the
mind by these noisy appendages of religion may be the same
as that which, if my recollection serves me rightly, Dr.
Johnson ascribed to music, namely, “that it takes away the
“ ideas we have, and gives us no new ones.”
O 2
| OC RIO DE JANEIR O.
It will not be expected that I should be able to give any
account of the state of the country, as to the mode and the
extent of its cultivation, or the condition of its inhabitants.
Our short excursion to the vale of Tejeuca, about twenty miles
to the south-westward of St. Sebastian, furnished us, how-
ever, with an opportunity of observing how wretchedly ne-
glected was this most beautiful and fertile country, even in the
vicinity of its most populous city. From the outlets of the
town, none of the roads, admitting of wheel carriages, are
carried beyond ten miles ; in our present excursion we were
obliged to alight at the end of about six, where horses were pre-
pared for the further prosecution of our journey. We presently
entered a large forest, in passing through which we were fre-
quently obliged to dismount, in order to scramble over huge
trunks of trees that had fallen across the path, where they
were suffered to lie and rot without molestation. We had no
objection to loiter under the cool shade which the venerable
evergreens of some centuries' growth afforded, and to listen
to the wild notes of birds that were totally new and unknown
to any of us ; yet the frequent obstructions we met with from
trees, and rocks, and bogs, were tedious and tiresome. From
our quitting the town till we came to the verge of the forest
little cultivation had appeared ; beyond it, still less. The
lower part of the hills were skirted with forests, the glens
were choaked up with trees of a majestic size, and the tops
of the hills and knolls were covered with coppice. Not an
inch of the surface appeared to be naked.
RIO DE JANE IR O. 3 J &
Ascending the heights to the westward we passed a most
magnificent cascade, which, from the number of names that
were cut on the sides of a cavern, and a long table within it
that was hewn out of the solid rock, seemed to have once
been the resort of numerous visitors. The stream of water
fell into a rich and romantic valley, through which it flowed
into a small arm of the sea. We observed only two planta-
tions in the whole valley, at the dwelling house of one of
which we took up our lodging for the night. It had little or
no furniture, was exceedingly dirty, and we had to endure
almost insufferable torments from the swarms of mosquitoes,
that attacked us as we lay exposed on wooden frames with
cane bottoms, without bedding, mattras, or curtains. The
plantations were worked entirely by slaves, and abounded with
cotton, coffee, cocoa, sugar, fruits and other valuable pro-
ductions. The proprietor had a hundred slaves on his plant-
ation, was a considerable merchant in Rio, and esteemed to
be a very rich man ; but his manner of living, as far as we
were capable of judging, was destitute of every kind of com-
fort. Surrounded with the greatest abundance of the neces-
saries and even luxuries of life, he was a total stranger to any
of its conveniencies. He complained most grievously of the
oppression which the inhabitants of South America suffered
from the mother country ; that the monopolies, the prohibi-
tions, and the taxes, had checked commerce, impeded agri-
culture, and destroyed the spirit of enterprise: and he repre-
sented the dissatisfaction to have become SO general at the
burdens imposed on them, and the restrictions they were
obliged to submit to, that he should not be surprized, he
I O2 RIO DE JANEIR O.
said, if they were driven at last, like their brethren in the
northern part of the same continent, to shake off the yoke of
Portugal, and assert their independence.—But a general view
of the system followed by Portugal with regard to the Brazils
I shall reserve for another chapter.
T H E B R A Z I L S. 103
C. H. A. P. V.
C E N E R A L O B SIE R V ATIONS O N T II E B R A Z I L S.
Discovery of the Brazil—Mode of colonizing the Country—Failure in the
Attempt to convert the Natives to Christianity, and to Slavery—Negroes
imported from the Coast of Africa—A Frenchman’s Humanity to a Cargo of
Slaves—Treatment and Condition of Slaves in the Brazils—Advantages of
this Country over the West India Islands—Reflexions on Slavery—Discour-
aging System of the Portugueze with regard to the Brazil—Taluable Pro-
ductions of Treaty of Commerce between England and Portugal—Deplorable
State of the Spanish Colonies—Dangerous Doctrine of revolutionizing South
America—Bahia, Rio de janeiro, and St. Catharine’s, three important
Points on the Coast of Brazil—Strength of Rio, and military Force.
Tur discovery of the American islands seems to have been
the result of a preconcerted enterprise, but that of the coast
of Brazil was merely accidental. The Portugueze Admiral
Cabral, when conducting an expedition round the Cape of
Good Hope, resolved, in consequence of the calms and baf-
fling winds which his predecessors had invariably experienced
near the coast of Africa, to try a different though circuitous
route, by crossing the equinoctial line many degrees to the
westward of that part of it where hitherto it had been cus-
tomary. Having accomplished this point, and keeping his
sails full with a brisk south-east trade to the southward of the
I O4 T H E B R A Z I L S.
line, he unexpectedly fell in with the coast of South America,
about the sixteenth parallel of latitude, where, after expe-
riencing much squally weather, he discovered a tolerably
good bay, on which, finding a safe anchorage for his ships,
he conferred the name of Porto Seguro ; and, conformably
to the custom of those days, he called this part of the newly
discovered continent Santa Cruz, or the Holy Cross. But
his government afterwards changed it to that of Brazil, on
account of the valuable wood so called which, for a consider-
able time after the discovery, was the only important article
of produce exported from thence to Europe.
In those days, indeed, the accession of territory, merely as
such, was held to be only a secondary consideration; the
conversion of the natives to Christianity was the grand and
ostensible object: and all conquests were avowedly under-
taken under this sacred banner. How far the Portugueze
were sincere in their views of enlarging, by the addition of
Brazil, the dominion of Christendom, may partly be inferred
from the description of people which they selected to be the
settlers of this newly acquired country. All persons con-
victed of crimes not immediately punishable with death, all
such as were accused of witchcraft and heresy, all kinds of
vagrants who had no ostensible means of gaining their sub-
sistence, all persons who were in any way obnoxious to the
church, but particularly such of the Jewish and Mahomedan
persuasions as were not in circumstances to pay for protection
against persecution; in short all those, whom at any time it
was deemed expedient to get rid of, were banished to the
7
T H E B R A Z I L S. 1 O ş
Brazils. The Jews, against whom a pretext was seldom
wanting when the object was to get at their property, and
who, on all occasions, were the devoted victims of the Holy
Inquisition, had not much reason to regret the adoption of
a measure which was to remove them out of the reach of a
systematic persecution, and to confer on them the exercise of
their liberty in a new country, where industry and skill could
not fail to raise them to prosperity. Banishment was to thent
a sanctuary from injustice and rapacity. Immediately on
their landing, they began to consider of the most likely
means of ingratiating themselves with the natives. These un-
suspecting creatures, on finding themselves kindly treated,
made no objection to the strangers occupying lands wherever
they might chuse to fix. They even diverted themselves at
the folly of the white men, who could leave their own coun-
try and their friends for the purpose of digging the ground in
a strange land, and of rearing a few sickly plants, whose seeds
they had brought with them for the purpose, when the
native forests of the 13razils yielded spontaneously an inex-
haustible supply of delicious fruits.
All these people, however, who had been considered at
home in no other light than as the dregs of society, found
their condition in their new country infinitely improved.
They had taken the precaution of carrying with them a few
cuttings of the sugar-cane from the island of Madeira, to
which place the Portugueze had already transplanted it from
the Mediterranean ; and this valuable plant was cultivated in
the Brazils with so much success that, from an article of
medicine, it became, in the course of a few years, an object
P
I oë T H E B R A Z I L S.
of luxury. It seems indeed that the increased demand for
this valuable product, in the markets of Europe, first con-
vinced the Court of Lisbon of a truth to which it had hitherto
paid little attention, namely, that a colony might become
useful to the mother country, though it had neither gold,
silver, nor diamonds in the soil.
So much, indeed, had the importance of the Brazils in-
creased in the eyes of government that, in about fifty years
after the discovery, it was considered to be worthy of the su-
perintending care of a Governor-General. This great man
had scarcely set foot in the country before he contrived to
quarrel with the native Indians. From his own observations
of the gentle and tractable disposition of these savages, which
were corroborated by the accounts he received from the colo-
mists, he conceived, as he thought, the laudable design of
reducing some of them to the condition of slavery, and of
compelling others to cultivate the ground on such terms as
he should prescribe. The Governor no doubt acted in con-
formity to the spirit of his instructions; for, it may be ob-
served that, in all the discoveries and conquests of Spain and
Portugal, the population of a country was never considered
as any criterion of its wealth. To reduce their numbers, by
making them slaves, and to search for gold dust, were the
first objects of their consideration. By the partial successes
of the Portugueze on the coast of Africa they were no doubt
encouraged to pursue a similar plan in South America : but
the Brazilians, taking the alarm at such an unexpected out-
rage, determined to repel injustice by force. Their numbers
and their courage were greater than was necessary to crush
7
T H E B R A Z I L S. I of
at once this infant colony ; and this would inevitably have
happened, had not the interference of some Jesuit mission-
aries, who by their persuasive and winning conduct had
gained the esteem of the natives, warded off the blow. These
enterprising men prevailed on that part of the insulted na-
tives, which inhabited the sea coast, to accede to terms of re-
conciliation with the colonists; but many retired into the
interior, and, notwithstanding all the exertions of these holy
men, could never be induced to put further confidence in
their European intruders.
It is a reproach but too well founded that, wherever
Europeans have extended their conquests in foreign countries,
the numbers of the natives have gradually diminished, new
and destructive diseasos have been introduced, their physical
powers have been diminished by the copious use of poisonous
spirits, their minds corrupted by theft and lying, their primi-
tive simplicity destroyed, their means of subsistence rendered
more precarious and difficult, whilst they have rarely made a
single step in the progress towards civil polity, or the least ad-
vancement in arts, manufactures, or morality. If the human
mind, in every variety of the species, was not known to be
capable of progressive improvement, the fault might be sup-
posed to rest with the rough and stubborn temper of the un-
polished natives ; but it demands only a slight inquiry into the
modes of treatment, which in some colonists are cruel and
outrageous, and in others zealous and intolerant, fully to ac-
count for this melancholy truth. As an instance of the
former mode of proceeding I have had occasion to represent
the conduct of the Dutch boors towards the Hottentots; and
P ‘2
1 c3 T H E B R A Z I L S.
the Portugueze in the Brazils afford but too striking an ex-
ample of the latter. For although the Jesuits, in their govern-
ment of Paraguay, united such a degree of prudence, skill,
and perseverance, to the most consummate knowledge of
human nature, as would no doubt have completed the civil-
ization of South America ; yet, other missionaries of different
orders, by an intemperate zeal in the same cause, destroyed
the fair prospect of fruit by blighting the tree in its blossomi.
It was an invariable principle of the Jesuits to give way to
the prevailing superstitions of the natives, to study and to
encourage their most rooted prejudices, so as to be able, by
meeting them on their own ground when proper occasions
occurred, to employ the few they might have converted, as
active instruments for bringing about a general turn in
favour of the grand object of their mission. The Dominicans,
the Franciscans, and the 13enedictines aimed, on the contrary,
to overturn at once every sacred superstition in the religious
creed of the natives, and to force upon them an unconditional
compliance with the novel doctrines of their own –doctrines
which in their purest and most simple dress could not pos-
sibly be understood, because they did not apply to the con-
dition of savage life ; much less so, when involved in mystery
and disguised in ceremony. That man who thinks to convert
a savage to Christianity, by preaching the doctrine of a
future state of rewards and punishments, and by endeavour-
ing to convince him that all his time, and attention, and
faith, must be employed to secure the salvation of his soul in
another world, whilst his body is pining and perishing for
want in this, betrays a most woful ignorance of the human
mind, and is not likely to be of much use in forwarding the
T H E B R A Z E L S. Io9
cause he is sent to promote. To commence a discourse with
a savage on the bliss of his soul, of which he has no con-
scious existence, whilst hunger, disease, and pain torment
his body, would be absurd and preposterous. Those have
the better cause in hand who endeavour to render pleasure
and profit compatible with religion, and to give the savage
a taste of happiness in this world, as the surest means of
awakening in him the desire of extending it to the next. To
direct his mind to objects of which he can comprehend the
utility ; to convince him, by example, that his quantity of
happiness is capable of being extended ; to give him notions
of property, and the comforts it is capable of procuring;-
these are the more effectual means
“ To make man mild and sociable to man,
“To cultivate the wild licentious savage
“With wisdom, discipline, and liberal arts;”
than by compelling his assent to doctrines, of which he
can neither comprehend the reasoning, nor feel the benefit.
This is beginning entirely at the wrong end ; and the ob-
stinate adherence to such a system, by the more rigid orders
of Catholics in the Brazils, obliged them, after the destruc-
tion of the Jesuits, to abandon the cause altogether. The
consequence of which was, that the greater part of the na-
tives are at this moment as uncivilized as, and perhaps more
so than, when the country was first discovered.
The antipathy of the Brazilians to the Portugueze is so
great, that the Viceroy is not able, without some difficulty,
to keep up an establishment of twelve rowers of the state
I I C) T H E B R A 7, I L S.
barge. These were the only real natives we had an oppor:
tunity of seeing during our stay of three weeks. Their fea-
tures were not much difierent from those of the Malays,
Tartars and Chinese. Their stature was short. They ap-
peared to be of a grave and serious disposition, seldom speak-
ing to each other, and indicating an aversion to communicate
with strangers. They had long black hair, and the beard
was visible only on the upper lip and under the chin. Those
who engage in this service are said to be so much detested by
their countrymen, as to prevent them from ever returning
to their horde, apprehensive that if once in their possession
they would certainly be put to death.
When the Portuguoze were sufficiently convinced of the
inefficacy of the attempt to reduce the Brazilians to slavery,
or to compel them to submit to the labours of agriculture,
their next recourse was to the settlements they had already
acquired on the coast of Africa for a supply of negroes.
Whole cargoes of these ill-fated people were annually trans-
ported from their native country and their connections, cut
off from every hope of returning, and doomed to toil for the
remainder of their days in the foreign fields of South America.
The number which at present is said to be annually imported
amounts, on an average, to twenty thousand ; and as this
demand is constant, whilst the quantity of produce is sup-
posed to be little if at all increased for several years past,
there are strong grounds to suspect that at least an equal
number to those imported must be destroyed every year.
Yet these people make a boast of treating their slaves better
than any other nation. The French and the Dutch do the
THE BRAZILs. I I I
same ; and they all unite in asserting that the English are
the most cruel to their slaves. People, however, are apt to
differ in their motions of humanity, as well as on less import-
ant points; and, where the whole system is bad, the degrees
of atrocity may perhaps be the less discernible. Bad as our
countrymen are, I am still inclined to hope that few are to
be found among them who would act, on a similar occasion,
in the same manner as I am about to relate. An officer in
the French army, having discovered that dealing in slaves
was a more lucrative profession than fighting, was transport-
ing a cargo, consisting of about three hundred, from Mosam-
bique to the Isle of France. They had scarcely put to sea
when the small-pox broke out among them. On three or
four the pustules appeared in such a manner as to leave no
doubt as to the nature of the discase ; and about a dozen of
the rest were considered to be infected. As it was pretty
evident that none of the cargo had gone through the disease,
and equally so that they could not escape infection ; and as
the chances were, in this event, that the mortality would
greatly exceed seven per cent., the slave merchant resolved to
throw the fifteen or sixteen infected persons immediately
overboard. This man afterwards wrote an account of his
voyage to the East Indies, in which he talks a great deal
about humanity, but carefully avoids the mention of this
transaction. At the Cape of Good Hope, however, he made
no secret of, but assumed a degree of merit in, what he had
done. He knew well enough that the good people of this
settlement had proper notions on the value of blacks. By
the French part of the inhabitants he was applauded for his
I I 2 T II E B R A Z I L S.
great humanity, in sacrificing a few for the safety of the
whole ; and the Dutch admired the prudent step he had
taken to secure the greater part of so valuable a property.
Every body applauded the conduct of the Frenchman, but
none seemed to pity the fate of the poor blacks.
Whatever the pretensions of other nations may be, in re-
gard to the good treatment of their slaves, I am inclined to
think that the method pursued by the Portugueze planters of
the Brazils is far from being the worst. The master expects
from the slave a certain quantity of labour in the week, which
is calculated to be sufficient to employ four days of moderate
application : the other two are for himself; but out of the pro-
ceeds of the labour of these two days he must clothe and
feed himself for the whole week. By such a system the lash
of the whip is unnecessary; the master is at no expence be-
yond the first cost, which is about twenty pounds; and the
slave, by the surplus produce of the labour bestowed on his
own account, is frequently enabled to lay by a sufficient sum
to purchase his freedom. Those who are doomed to work at
the mines experience worse treatment than such as are em-
ployed in domestic purposes, or in agriculture. The tempta-
tion to secrete small diamonds has sometimes induced the
slaves to swallow them. Whenever the labour of the
day has not been usually productive, or any other cause of
suspicion arises that such may have been the case, they are
put for a certain time in close confinement, and a strong dose
of ipecacuanha is administered. If this should not produce
the desired effect, the next step is to ply them, like the pearl
T H E B R A Z I L S. I I 3
fishers of Ceylon, with powerful cathartics, till the poor
creatures are nearly exhausted ; and this happens very often
when they are perfectly innocent.
The condition of the field slaves in the Brazils is preferable
even to those employed for domestic purposes in the towns:
the latter being ill fed, having one holiday only in the week,
and not capable of earning much by his labour. But I am far
from thinking, with all the advantages of a fine climate and a
productive soil, that the condition even of the field slaves is
equally comfortable to that of the labouring peasantry of Europe,
which some of the advocates for the continuance of slavery
boldly assert to be the case in the West India islands. The
mind of a labouring free man goes with his work, and directs
him both as to the quantity expedient to be done, and the man-
ner of doing it ; if he should be controuled in these respects, he
is at liberty to leave his employer, and engage with another.
But the West India slave is not only compelled as to the quan-
tity of labour to be done, but as to the mode also in which he
must do it. Every action and every moment of his life put him
in mind of his unfortunate condition; he must work, move, speak,
eat, sleep, and exert, in short, every action and energy, both
of body and soul, to the will and caprice of his owner. So,
say the anti-abolitionists, must an English apprentice. This
is not a fair comparison. The apprentice nine times out of
ten makes his choice of, and voluntarily enters into, some
trade or profession, under a consciousness of the advantages
which in all probability he will hereafter derive from it. le
looks forward to the termination of his servitude with sensa-
tions of pleasure, exulting perhaps in the idea that the day is
Q
I I 4 T H E B R A Z I L S.
f
not far distant when he may become the comfort and support*
of his aged parents. But what is the prospect of the unfºr-
tunate African Eternal separation from his dearest frie-ºlds;
endless slavery ; severe labour; treatment more cruel,"...ºd
neglect more pointed, as age and infirmities shall have madé
him less valuable to his owner.
The slave of the Drazils has many advantages over the
slave of the West India islands. The climate of the former
is infinitely superior to that of the latter, and the seasons of
planting and of reaping are of longer duration. The owner
of a sugar plantation in the West Indies has but a short
period allowed him during the rains to get his canes into the
ground. Equally short is the season of reaping them. If
the canes are not cut down when fully ripe, the juice eva-
porates and they turn to wood ; if they are cut down and
not immediately pressed, the juice begins to ferment, and is
fit only to be converted by distillation into rum. At these
seasons, therefore, and particularly in the latter, every hand
that can work, however feebly, is of importance to the
planter; and the urgent demand for labour sometimes makes
him wholly insensible to acts of inhumanity, which, perhaps,
at other times, might appear to him in their true light, and
as odious and atrocious in the extreme. This is not the case
in the Brazils. The season of planting, on account of the
longer continuance of rain, is at least two months longer here
than in the West Indies; and the gradual ripening of the
plants protracted in the same proportion. It is not therefore
found to be necessary here, as is the case in our colonies, to
drive the slaves to work with the crack or the lash of the
T H E B R A Z I L S. 1 I S
whip, or to regulate the stroke of the bill or the hoe by the
measure of a forced Song.
The number, however, of African negroes that are annually
imported into the Brazils affords a presumptive proof that
here, as well as in the West Indies, it suits the interest of the
planter to purchase new slaves in preference to the rearing of
young ones, by allowing that degree of parental attention on
the part of the mother, which a state of helpless infancy ne-
cessarily requires. It is in vain to tell us that the condition
of the African negro is meliorated in the colonies, when a
constant importation is required to keep up their numbers.
But even admitting that their situation was improved by a
passage across the Atlantic, by what rule of right do we as-
Sume to ourselves the power of compelling people to be
happy contrary to their wishes 2 The advocates for the con-
tinuance of the trade, that is to say, the slave merchants and
the planters, being driven from all their former grounds of
argument, have ingeniously called in the negroes themselves
to answer the question, and to oppose the abolition.—Our
master's estate, say the negroes, must produce so much sugar, for
which purpose so many new negroes are annually purchased :
but if the trade be put an end to, and the same quantity of
eanes must be planted, the old negroes will be obliged to do
the whole work themselves: if, therefore, you do not con-
tinue to import, we shall use our endeavour not to continue
any longer your slaves.—It required some ingenuity to in-
vent any new argument in favour of the continuance of the
trade, when the question had been so long and so ably dis-
cussed. Its advocates, however, seem to be driven to the
I 16 T H E B R A Z I L S.
wall, when they find it necessary to call in the aid of slaves to
support the cause of slavery , but drowning men will catch at
Straw S.
It has frequently been contended that the mind of the
negro is neither as susceptible nor as retentive of im-
pressions as that of Europeans ; and that we ought not,
therefore, to measure their feelings by our own. The validity
of such an opiuion may very fairly be called in question, and
the point considered as yet undecided whether, among the
different varieties of the human species, where organization is
equally perfect and circumstances similar, the mental faculties
in each of them may not be capable of exerting an equal de-
gree of energy The sudden emancipation of near half a
million in St. Domingo forms a new aera in the history of man,
which, in the course of a few years, will throw more light on
the true character of the blacks than as many centuries have
hitherto dome. The enormities committed by Dessalines are
not to be considered as a criterion by which that character is
to be estimated. If that Black power which, after suffering
every horrid calamity that perfidy and brutality could inflict,
wrested at length one of the most fertile countries in the
world out of the hands of its inhuman oppressors, and broke
the chains of Gallic tyranny, should have been able to com-
mand its temper and act with moderation, which, had the
virtuous Toussaint cscaped the fangs of Buonaparte, would
probably have been the case;—if, in the progress of its glo-
rious struggle for liberty, it should have been fortunate enough
to avoid those horrors which stained the French subversion,
(I will not call it by the respectable name of revolution,)
T H E B R A Z I L S. t 17
how much superior would they have risen in wisdom and hu-
manity to their late masters, whom they have certainly not ex-
ceeded either in atrocity or in folly Such a conduct, however,
could hardly be expected. The first burst of enthusiasm,
from chains and dark ignorance to the all-cheering ray of
liberty, is a trying moment; it is a change pregnant with in-
finite danger. The civilized French have no excuse for the
many horrid enormities committed by them in the most
wanton and unprovoked manner. The savage blacks, not
insensible of the horrors which have attended their emancipa-
tion, proclaim to all the world the reasons which compelled
them to acts of cruelty. “If,” says Dessalines, “any inno-
“ cent persons have perished, their blood will fall on his
“ (Buonaparte's) head : because, had his barbarous brother-
“ in-law, Le Clerc, never landed in this island, all the white
“ inhabitants would yet have been alive, 60,000 black
“ citizens fewer murdered, and 30,000 of his armed slaves
“ would not have breathed their last in this climate. It was
“ his avarice, ambition, atrocity, and treachery, that aroused
“ our greatly oppressed and injured children, and separated
“ us for ever from the mother country.”
The new character, which the blacks have lately assumed
in St. Domingo, cannot fail of being contemplated with a
lively interest by their brethren in the West India islands,
and of greatly influencing their future conduct. What the
event of it may turn out is at present beyond all human cal-
culation. The danger, however, which threatens to disturb
the peace of our colonies is not less certain, whether they as-
I 18 T H E B R A Z I L S.
sume a regular government, or fall into a state of general
anarchy. in the former case, they will use every endeavour
to set the rest of their brethren free : and, in the latter, the
thirst of plunder, and aversion for labour, will drive them to
predatory excursions on the neighbouring islands, where the
slaves will be but too ready to join them. Whatever the line
of conduct may be which they eventually shall adopt, to
bring them back to slavery would be a task that all the
legions of Buonaparte can never accomplish. The secret
spell, that caused the negro to tremble at the presence of the
white man, is in a great degree dissolved ; the supposed su-
periority, by which a hundred of the former were kept in awe
and submission by one of the latter, is no longer acknow-
ledged ; the mind has broken its ſetters with those of the
body, and freedom of thought has produced energy of action.
If it should unfortunately happen that our colonies in the
West Indies may ultimately be involved in the fate of St.
Domingo, a considerable mass of property will no doubt be
lost to this country ; but, at the same time, it cannot well be
denied that this loss would be productive of a most important
saving to the state, by the number of British subjects who,
in their removal to a better climate, would escape a prema-
ture death. The most valuable productions of the West India
islands were originally transplanted from the East, where the
labour of slaves is not required, nor any cxtraordinary waste
of Europeans occasioned. To this source we may again re-
cur, and India and China may eventually prove the great
sheet anchors of our commercial prosperity.
7
T H E B R A Z I L S. I I 9
The ruin of the West India islands, it is to be feared, would
equally affect the tranquillity of those colonies on the conti-
nent of South America, in the possession of the English and
the Dutch, which would tend in a very material degree to
enhance the value of the possessions of Spain and Portugal
on the same continent. But the restrictions, the exactions,
and the monopolies, under which the settlements of these two
powers are oppressed, and the total want of energy in the
inhabitants, which necessarily results from such a system, are so
many invincible barriers against any improvement which favour-
able circumstances might otherwise suggest. Few countries af-
ford so great a number or so great a variety of valuable pro-
ductions as the Brazils. Beside the articles described in the
eight paintings, which I took notice of in a former chapter, the
country produces an inexhaustible supply of the finest timber,
suitable for all the purposes of civil and naval architecture :
but the cutting and disposing of it is a monopoly of the
Crown. The first object of every man, who obſtains a grant
of woodland, is to destroy the best trees as fast as he can :
because he is not only forbidden to send them to market, but
may have the additional mortification of being obliged to en-
tertain the King's surveyor, whenever he thinks fit to pay him
a visit, with a numerous retinue, for the purpose of felling the
timber, which he as owner of the estate has not the power to
prevent. Yet, not withstanding this discouraging monopoly,
together with the difficulty of transport, on account of the
badness of the roads, and the searcity of shipwrights, very
fine vessels, equal in size to an English 74 gun ship, have
been constructed at Tahia or St. Salvador, and sent afloat,
at the expence of about fifteen or sixteen pounds a ton, which
| 2 ||Y T H E B R A Z I L S.
in Fingland would have cost from twenty-four to thirty-four
pounds a lon.
Wheat, barley, Guinea corn, millet and all the European
and tropical grains are produced in the greatest abundance;
and all species of provisions and supplies for victualling and
storing ships, and fitting them out for actual service at sea,
are procurable at moderate rates in almost all the ports of the
Brazils. At Rio de Janeiro alone a navy might be built,
equipped, and fitted with every necessary for a sea voyage,
sufficient to command the navigation of the Southern Atlantic ;
and the fisheries, by proper encouragement, would create a
never-failing supply of scannen. Both the black whale and
the spermaceti are plentiful on every part of the coast.
in addition to the timber for naval purposes, which every
where abounds, the forests of the Brazils supply a number of
valuable woods for dyeing, as the Casalpinea Brasiliensis or
Brasilletta, the Hacmatorylum Campechianum or logwood, and
the lIorus timetoria or fustic wood, all of which, however,
are royal monopolics. Of medicinal plants they have the
bark, the jalap, the ipecacuanha root, the palma Christi,
and many others too numerous to mention, with a great
variety of odoriferous plants, and trees that yield turpentine,
gums, and resins. Tobacco and pepper may be cultivated
to any extent, and the ficlas and the forests afford an inex-
haustible supply of wax and honey. The tropical fruits of
every description, whether of the eastern or western hemi-
sphere, are good in quality and abundantly plentiful. The
oranges, pine apples, and mangoes are exquisite. All kinds
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I 2.2 T H E B R A Z I L S.
pitiful a sum, thousands of cattle are suffered to perish, the
carcases of such as are slaughtered, for the sake of the hides
only, to be thrown away, the fisheries on the coast are
checked, and in a great degree rendered useless, and one
great source of commerce and navigation entirely dried up.
At Rio the price of a moderate sized ox is not more than
twenty shillings, and in the interior only from five to ten
shillings. In fact, the hide is considered as the only valuable
part, and the carcase is left to the tyger or the panther, the
eagle, the condor, and such other birds and beasts of prey as
abound in the country. The condition of the graziers in the
Brazils appears to be pretty much the same as that of the
Dutch boors at the Cape of Good Hope. Rich in the
possession of thousands of cattle, they are deficient in
every comfort of life; without society, without clothing,
and without decent habitations. They are even worse
than the Dutch boors, for these can move about in their
covered waggons over their barren heaths, but in the fer-
tile and well-wooded regions of South America there are
yet no roads that will admit the convenience of a wheel
carriage.
In all the measures adopted by the Portugueze govern-
ment, with regard to its colonies, there scems to be a system
of discouragement which cannot be explained on any prin-
ciple of policy, except that which is founded on an appre-
hension lest, by too much prosperity, they might feel dis-
posed to make an attempt at independence, which sooner or
later will certainly be the case with the Brazilians. The
Court of Lisbon, for instance, no sooner discovered that
sugars could be raised in any quantity, and afforded in the
7
T H E B R A 7, I L S. 1 2 3
markets of Europe at reasonable prices, than it thought pro-
per to impose on them an export duty of 20 per cent., which
operated as an immediate check on the growth of this article
When the cultivation of the Indigo plant had been consider-
ably extended, and the preparation sufficiently understood,
so as to enable the colonists to meet their competitors in the
markets of Europe, this article was assumed as a royal mono-
poly. Among the valuable plants, whose cultivation if not
much encouraged was at least allowed, is the cotton shrub.
Large cargoes of raw cotton wool, consigned to the merchants
of Lisbon, found their way into the manufacturing markets
of Europe. Unluckily for the colonists, the warehouses of
Lisbon were filled with this article at the very moment when
Portugal submitted to negociate with France for the price of
its neutrality. Not having money to offer, the rapacious
agent of France proposed to take merchandize. The cotton
from the Brazils was pointed out for this purpose ; and the
Portugueze government directed it to be delivered to the order
of the French, without any stipulation as to the price or time
of payment. The growers in the Brazils were of course dis-
gusted with such a proceeding, and will be cautious in future
how they consign any more of this article to the merchants
of Lisbon. The exclusive privilege of collecting gold dust
and diamonds is farmed out as a monopoly of the Crown,
which gains, however, quite as little by this assumed right as
the colonists lose by the restriction.
The same spirit of discouragement which refuses them the
free use of salt, though a spontaneous product of nature, has
positively forbidden them to make any wine eyen for their
T 2
! ~ + T H E B R A 7, I L S.
ºn consumption. It has indeed been pretended by some,
and believed by many, that the grapes which are produced
in North or South America are totally unfit for the making
of Wile ; but the reople of Rio de Janeiro are sufficiently
convinced of the contrary, and consider the prohibition as
not one of the least grievances under which they labour. The
grapes i.ere are remarkably large and juicy, and it is too ab-
surd to suppose for a moment that good grapes will not make
good wine. A mºtch better reason may be assigned for the
cause of this restriction. The Portugal Company, as it is
usually called, pays to the Crown an annual sum for the
privilege of the monopoly ; and the consequence of this is
that a bottle of good port wine costs in the sea-port towns of
the T3razils a dollar, and in the interior not less than two
dollars. That the fat soils of America are too heavy for a
succulent plant, which will vegetate freely in dry sand or
rubbish, may be casily conceived ; but that the vine should
not grow as well in America as in the bºrron soils of the
island of Madeira or the Cape of Good Hºpe, if planted in
proper situations, is too absurd to be nontyoned. I shall be
told, perhaps, on high authority, that not only plants but
men and brute animals have been ſound to degenerate, on
being transplanted to America. If the fact
VCTC true, which
may fairly be questioned, even this will admit of an explana-
tion on very simple and natural principles. The most un-
healthy countries are those where cultivation has been least
extended, and where the cruberant products of a fertile soil
and a warm climate have been left to a spontaneous decomi-
position on the surface by the putrefactive fermentation.
The mephitic vapour, or hydro-carbonous gas, perpetually
tº X




T H E B R A Z E L S. I 25
forming under such circumstances, is not only noxious to
animal life, but in many instances destructive of it. The
myriads of insects that are engendered in the woods and
marshes of a warm climate are a constant torment. In fact,
the life of man, in such situations, is so much occupied in
providing against annoyances, that he has little time or in-
clination to exert his faculties. If then energy of mind may
be allowed to have any relation to ease of body, and the con-
nection will hardly be disputed, it is not a matter of surprize
that men of genius have hitherto rarely appeared in America.
I have no notion, for my own part, ridiculous as it may ap-
pear to those who have never travelled beyond the temperate
regions of Europe, how any man can think to the purpose,
even while a little mosquito, insignificant as it is, shall be
humming in his ear.
Neither man nor quadrupeds can be said to thrive well, or
to enjoy an apparent vigour of health, in the neighbourhood
of Rio de Janeiro. During the season of rains, and for a
month or six weeks afterwards, dysenteries and intermittent
fevers are almost universal. All the hills behind the town,
the numerous islands in the harbour, and every part of its
shores, are covered with forests, interspersed with uncultivated
plains and tracts of marshy ground, where a constant process
of decay, and the reproduction of rank grass and sedges, fur-
nish the materials of a constant fermentation.
Notwithstanding the vexations, restrictions, and monopo-
lies, which the Portugueze government has imposed on the
trade and productions of its colonies in South America, so
$ 2.6 T II E B R A Z I L S.
considerable has of late years been the value of their exports,
and so niggardly are the European supplies furnished by the
mother country, that they draw an annual balance in hard
specie of at least half a million sterling, by means of a clan-
destine trade with English whalers, Americans, and the ships
of other nations, which find it convenient to take off their
hands their surplus produce. This money is mostly sunk in
the purchase of slaves, twenty thousand of whom, as I have
already stated, are annually imported, of which, at the mo-
derate rate of twenty pounds a-head, the cost is 400,000l.
Most of the woollen, linen, and cotton cloths, consumed
in the Brazils, are of British manufacture ; and the greater
part of coarse Indian goods used by them have also been sup-
plied from London, through Lisbon, except such as are
thrown in direct from the former by clandestine means. For
all these supplies, however, they have valuable products to
give in return, if their government would only allow them the
benefit of a free trade. In many of the Spanish dominions
on the same continent this is not the case. On the western
coast they have little produce to part with except specie,
which they liberally exchange with our adventurers in return
for the necessaries of life. In this manner a small portion of
the silver dug out of the mines of Potosi finds its way direct to
the Thames. And in addition to the balance which the Por-
tugueze settlements in the Brazils draw in specie from Europe
and North America, they receive perhaps an equal sum from
stipplying the Spanish settlements, through Rio de la Plata, not
only with various articles of their own production, but a con-
siderable quantity of Furopean manufactures, all of which
T H E B R A Z 1 L S. 1 27
are conveyed by Smugglers from IBahia, Rio de Janeiro and
St. Catharine's to Monte Video. It is not easy to calculate
what the price, to the real consumer, would be of English
broad cloth, sent from London to Lisbon, from Lisbon to the
Brazils, and thence to the Spanish colonies; but high as it
must necessarily be, the inhabitants of thicse colonies would
be exceedingly glad to obtain ten times the quantity at the
same rate.
Few of the Brazilian colonists entertain the idea of over
returning to Portugal. Their condition in South America is
very different from that of our countrymen in foreign settle-
ments. These exert their utmost energy to amass a fortune,
in the hope of enjoying it at home ; while those see as little
prospect of returning to Europe with the means of a comfort-
able subsistence as a convict can expect to return with a for-
tune from Botany Bay. Even the military officers, whose
turn of duty requires their being sent to the i3razils, seldom
if ever return. Being kept beyond their time of service,
they are induced to marry, beget a progeny, and settle
in the country ; thus losing sight in a great degree of the
mother country, and naturally becoming less indisposed to
separate from it. Some of the leading men spoke very freely
on this subject when we were there, and I should conclude
that circumstances have not changed much in favour of the
government since that time. There is little doubt that a man
of skill, of spirit and reputation, might at this moment easily
spur them on to declare their independence. Still, however,
I am inclined to believe that one of their own countrymen
from Europe would be more acceptable as a chief than either
*
1 28 T II E B R A Z I L S.
a colonist or a foreigner. The bulk of the people are at-
tached to the name of their country, their religion, and their
language ; and I am persuaded that if the Court of Portugal
had sufficient energy and activity to transplant itself to the
J3razils, as was once intended when the Spaniards invaded
them, a mighty and brilliant empire might speedily be created
in South America, to counterpoise the growing power of the
United States in the northern part of that continent. The
former possesses many advantages over the latter : in fertility
of soil, in the value of its productions, in climate, and in geo-
graphical position, eminently favourable for communication
and commerce with cycry nation of the civilized world.
A change in the government of the Brazils, whether ef.
fected by themselves or by a foreign power, necessarily implies
a change in the present condition of Portugal, against which,
indeed, she has little security, whenever it may suit the
caprice or the convenience of that despotic power which has
so long been suffered to overawe the petty states of Europe.
Such an event, it cannot be denied, would be attended with
a temporary check to certain branches of the commerce and
manufactures of England, but not perhaps with that serious
injury which mercantile men seem to apprehend. There is a
prejudice in favour of the trade with Portugal. The treaty
between this country and lºngland has stood the test of seve-
ral reigns, and is so far entitled to"respect; but, in these days
of superior knowledge and improvement, I have heard its
wisdom and its policy strongly called in question. By the
terms of the treaty we are to admit the wines of Portugal to
an entry in our ports at two-thirds of the duties levied on the
T H E B R A Z I L S. I 29
importation of other wines, in consideration of Portugal ad-
mitting our woollen cloths, not as we do their wines at a
reduced duty, but just on the same terms as woollen cloths
are admitted by them from any other Country. It is con-
tended, therefore, that by this treaty we have conceded to
Portugal a decided advantage, without receiving the least con-
sideration in return ; and that too in taking off her hands an
article which no nation on earth would consent to take except
England, whilst our manufactures are saleable in, and ac-
ceptable to, all nations. Viewing it in this light it would
certainly appear that, notwithstanding the boasted wisdom
of our ancestors, the Portugueze had the advantage in the
framing of this treaty.
The trade, however, though every way against us, is never-
theless of great importance to England, on account of its de-
mand for our manufactures and produce, of the number of
shipping it employs, and of the very considerable sum which
it brings in aid of the revenue. The following sketch is not
offered as an accurate statement, but it may be considered as
pretty nearly the truth.
The quantity of wine shipped at Oporto for Great
Britain and her colonies is estimated at 60,000
pipes, which at 25 l, average price amounts to £. 1,500,000
From Lisbon and other ports, 12,000 at 121. 144,000
From Madeira, 12,000 at 30l. per pipe sº 360,000
Fruit, preserves, &c. * º pºe 46,000
*=ºgº
Amount ſ. 2,050,000
I 3 o T H E B R A Z I L S.
Amount brought forward ſ. 2,050,000
Woollens, linens, India and Scotch muslins, iron
Ware, and other articles, the growth and manu-
facture of Great Britain and her colonies, ex- -
ported to Portugal * * sº 1,550,000
sºmeºmºsºm-ºr-
Balance against England ſ. 500,000
And if we suppose that of the 84,000 pipes of wine ex-
ported from Portugal and Madeira 60,000 only pay duties
and excise in Great Britain, which is making an ample al-
lowance for the colonies, the sum raised as revenue at 50l.
per pipe, which is less than it actually is, will amount to
3,000,000l. sterling.
Admitting then that Portugal may eventually share the
same fate as Spain, this source of commerce will necessarily
be dried up ; and it may be asked, in what new channels will
it then flow P Would the whole Brazils, if even in our posses-
sion, take in manufactures and produce an equivalent for
what we should lose by the loss of our trade with Portugal,
and afford us return cargoes of equal value, and which would
contribute an equal sum to the revenue of the state 2 In
their present condition, I have no hesitation in saying, they
certainly would not ; but, at the same time, I have little
doubt that by removing the obstacles that have impeded cul-
tivation, abolishing monopolics, reducing the impolitic duties
on exports, and opening a communication by good roads
between the principal ports and the interior Scttlements, they
would not only in a few years consume more than Portugal
T H E B R A Z I L S. I 3 I
now takes from us, but would be able to meet the value of
supplies sent out to them in the important articles of coffee,
cocoa, cotton, indigo, Sugar, drugs, timber, and other com-
modities, which by proper encouragement might be produced
to any extent. Nor would the revenue be any great sufferer.
The deficit in duties would be more than made up by the
wines of Portugal, which, like those of France, would still
find their way into England, and the more readily since no
other nation would take them off her hands on any terms.
Commerce, like water, will always find its own level. The
stream may flow in different channels with different degrees of
rapidity, and may be diverted by various obstacles from a
direct course, but it will ultimately succeed in working out
a passage, and find its way to the great reservoir which is
destined to receive it. That nation which commands the
ocean can at all times direct the commerce of the world.
If any material change should be effected in the govern-
ment of the Portugueze possessions in South America, the
Spanish colonies would soon be induced to follow the ex-
ample. These, in fact, are still more oppressed than the
other, or at least more effectually debarred from the means of
procuring the comforts of life, in the midst of all their gold
and silver. It may be true, what I have heard asserted, that
eight hundred London built carriages roll the streets of
Mexico, but it is also true that eight millions of people, which
is the least calculation the Spanish colonies are supposed to
contain, may almost be literally said to go naked for want of
clothing. Our South Sea whalers are well aware of the value
of this article, and few of them, which are intended to double
S Q
1 32 T H E B R A Z I L S.
Cape Horn, leave this country without taking on board a
supply of Monmouth-Street clothing, on which the least
profit they calculate is 800 per cent. In fact, as I before
observed, they have little or nothing but money, and as the
government of Spain will neither supply them itself with the
conveniencies of life, nor suffer other powers to do it, they
must either pay extravagantly for what they can obtain clan-
destinely, or quietly submit to the scanty provision which a
country without agriculture and without manufactures is
capable of affording. If the gold and silver mines of South
America have contributed so little to the comfort and happi-
ness of the colonist, there is but too good reason for believing
they have been equally detrimental to the Court of Spain,
and injurious to the Spanish character. The advice which
the Latin poet has put into the mouth of Juno, with regard
to Rome, is but too applicable to Spain and its colonies in
South America.
“ Aurum irrepertum, et sic melius situm,
“ Quum terra celat, spernere fortior,
“ Quâm cogere humanos in usus
“ Omne sacrum rapiente dexträ.”
“Let her the golden mine despise;
“ For deep in earth it better lies,
“Than when by hands profane, from nature’s store,
“To human use compell’d, flames forth the sacred ore.”
Whatever step the Court of Portugal may be compelled to
take in the present critical juncture, it will behove England
to keep a watchful eye on its colonies, and especially those
of the Brazils. Were the French once suffered to get posses-
T H E B R A Z I L S. 1.33
sion of Rio de Janeiro, the natural strength of the country is
so commanding, and thc advantages it possesses so import-
ant, that it would be no easy matter to drive them out of it
by force, or prevail on them to quit it by treaty. I am not
sure also that, next to one of the royal family of Portugal,
French interest might not preponderate in the interior of the
country, where the descendants of the French Jesuits are not
unmindful of their origin, and with whom the restoration of
the order would be attended with no small degree of influence.
And although in the sea-port towns the trading part of the na-
tion might feel it their interest to throw themselves under the
protection of the English flag, thinking by such a change to
acquire a free and unrestrained commerce : yet such is the
sway which the priesthood possesses over the laity, that the
difficulties are immense which a Protestant government would
have to encounter. It is probable also that the present im-
becile government of Portugal may be compelled to court an
alliance with France, though the result must inevitably be
ruinous to her present declining trade and to her colonies.
It has been a sort of popular speculation, that the present
war would be the means of revolutionizing South America.
Those whose expectations are sanguine on this point have not
perhaps sufficiently examined the situation of the colonists.
Revolutions in states, where each individual has some interest
in their welfare, are not effected without the most serious
calamities; what them must the consequences be in a country
where the number of slaves exceeds the proprietors of the soil
in at least a tenfold proportion, the former of wi.om would desire
nothing more earnestly than an opportunity of geºis'ſ rid of
I 34 T H E B R A Z I L S.
their masters : The horrors attending such a revolution would
most infalliby not be less enormous than those which dis-
graced the revolution of St. Domingo. In promoting such
revolutions I trust England will never be concerned, being
fully convinced that however much South America might
gain by a quiet change of masters, she would very soon be
thrown back into a state of barbarism by revolutions.
Por the security and convenience of the Indian trade the
situation of Rio de Janeiro is eminently advantageous, and
the harbour is well suited for every naval purpose ; and
though it seems to be capable of an easy defence, yet it
scarcely can be considered as perfectly secure, unless the
same power has possession also of the windward port of
Bahia or St. Salvador to the northward. This port is said
to afford superior advantages for a naval arsenal and dock-
yards even to those of Rio. The island of St. Catharine to
the southward is likewise an important station, so situated
that Rio de la l’lata will always be entirely at the mercy of
that power who is in the possession of it. We know little
more of this island than what the elegant writer of Anson's
voyage has said of it. “ The soil of the island is truly lux-
“ uriant, producing fruits of most kinds spontaneously ; and
“ the ground is covered over with one continued forest of
“ trees of a perpetual verdure, which, from the exuberance
“ of the soil, are so entangled with briars, thorns, and under-
“ wood, as to form a thicket absolutely impenetrable, except
by some narrow footpaths which the inhabitants have made
“ for their own convenience. The woods are extremely
fragant, from the many aromatic trees and shrubs with
• ‘
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T H E B R A Z I L S. I 35
“ which they abound ; and the fruits and vegetables of all
“ climates thrive here almost without culture, and are to be
“ procured in great plenty.” The water he represents as ex-
cellent, both on the island and the opposite continent. It
has a good harbour; and the province of Rio Grande, which
is fertile in products of grain and fruit, and abundant in
cattle, has a direct and immediate communication with it.
Rio de Janeiro must, however, be considered as the grand
central point on the coast of the Brazils, from which every
other part of it may at any time be overawed. And as little
seems to have been published of its military strength and de-
fences, and every piece of intelligence, however scanty, may
in the course of the present contest be found of some use, I
have annexed to this chapter a military sketch of that part
of the harbour which is fortified, with references to a cor-
responding plate of views of the coast and town, with the
various forts, lines, and works by which they are defended.
The exact strength of these we had not the means of ascer-
taining accurately ; but we observed that, on the anniversary
of the Queen of Portugal's birth-day, seven different forts,
between the passage into the harbour and the town, fired each
a royal salute from very heavy metal. Captain Parish was
informed by some of the officers of the garrison that the re-
gular force consisted of two squadrons of cavalry, two regi-
ments of artillery, six regiments of infantry, two battalions of
disciplined militia, and two hundred disciplined free negroes,
making, in the whole, a body exceeding ten thousand men,
I have no doubt, however, of this account being greatly ex-
F-7
(
136 T H E B R A Z I L S.
aggerated ; for, in the course of a three weeks’ residence, in
which we visited every quarter of the town and its neighbour-
hood, we saw nothing that could warrant any such conclu-
sion; and I should rather be inclined to think that the whole
force of the Brazils, from one extremity to the other, did
not amount in regular troops to more than ten thousand
II].62I].
T R IS T A N D A C U N H A. 137
C. H. A. P. VI.
THE IS LAN D S OF T R IST A N D A C U N H A A N D A M S T E R D A M.
Advantageous Situation of Tristan da Cunha—Description and Dimensions of
the Island of Amsterdam—Crater—Other volcanic Appearances—Thermal
Springs—Boiling Fish in them—Sharks—Observations on the digestive
Powers of the Stomachs of Animals—Birds taken on the Island—Plants—
Proof of its being a new Island—Examples of new Creations—Theori: , of
the Earth—Seal-Catchers found on the Island.
As the three uninhabited islands of Tristan Aſa ("a whº are
situated nearly in the track of ships on their out wºid-bound
passage to the Indian Ocean, we steered directly for them ;
and on the 31st of December we anchored on the north side
of the principal island, in 32 fathoms, at the distance of
about half a mile only from the shore. As it was late in the
day when the ships anchored, littie communication was had
with the shore; but the evening was spent in laying our plan
for accomplishing a complete tour of the island, by setting
out from the ship at an early hour the following morning.
This plan was, however, frustrated by a sudden gust of wind
driving the Lion from her anchorage, so that I can give only
a very general idea of the nature and extent of this island.
Its situation is in latitude 37° 7' south, and longitude, accord-
ing to our chronometers, 12° 10' west. It does not appear to
be more than ten or twelve miles in circuit. In the centre of
T
138 TRISTAN D A CUN H.A.
the island is a high pointed cone, resembling the peak of
Tenerifle in miniature, from the base of which the land seems
to slope gradually to the sea, where being abruptly broken
off, a steep precipice of solid rock and of considerable height
marks the line of the coast on every part except that which is
opposite to the place where we came to anchor. Here a
plain, covered with soft verdure, rises a few feet only above
a sandy beach, upon which a copious stream of pure water
falls from the perpendicular side of the former in a sort of
cascade. Peyond the plain we could perceive several swells
and vallies covered with thickets, the latter of which seemed
to close in deep gullies as they receded towards the centre of
the island. Every other part of the coast, as far as we could
perceive, rises out of the sea almost perpendicularly, like an
old gigantic wall, whose height I should suppose cannot be
loss than 1000 feet. This abrupt and columnar appearance
of the coast, together with the cone-shaped mountain in the
centre, seem to indicate that the whole mass has been thrown
up by the agency of subterraneous fire.
The officer who went on shore reported that the water was
a mountain-rill of excellent quality, and that it fell so con-
veniently on the beach as to be brought with great case into
casks, without removing them out of the boats. It is by no
means unimportant for the officers of our navy to be ac-
quainted with this circumstance. The largest ships of war
are capable of taking on board a supply of every article no-
cessary for the longest voyage except that of water, which is
no less indispensable for the health and comfort of the people
than other species of provisions. Should we, therefore, at any
69 I v H N ſlo v Q. Niv LSIXIL
-)sto ou ol opini e ‘cos 5uIIIol sºul uſ jol ou, Kol (lius out, Jo
uni ou L 'our oùA osoul Ka populào othil sl ‘ll on poulousno
-or lou ate ou A osotſ) on snobuotuoll to AoAou ‘ooutº.nzoddu
osopa ‘cos 5uillol doop jut:1suoo e poshuo tolu A Jollumb nsuo
-II]nos oth utopſ put \\ Jo soluğ KAbou put luonboſ, pooutoniod
-Xo oA ºut: : loots put ult, ull w popuo ‘ploo Aloutol, No
sº Iſe oth ‘Lotuuns Jo oppſul oth ul Aou ultinou) ‘olou A
‘.07 put .69 Jo slolºſt d oun uoo whod odo I poor) Jo Oduo ou?
poiqnop ow equino up uthsil I, tuoſ oju AoA ino jumunuoo
‘onſe A Shi Saoutzuuo olllll tº You Upolu A ooutºsuno.Iſo tº
‘oſquujolduſ 11 Jopual pino A ‘uoul Aaj e Ill A ‘oluos pollutil
Alex tº uo obuajop Jo HIOA tº put: ; ple.Aoulou oul uo Soop
tuoſoph S. Su adu.No.4 punoq-pu? Wino oth Uo solius S. Kuudutoo
tºpuſ 1st CI aul Joj osodind outs on to Asue lujiul aſ ‘opulu
olo A nuouaillos tº Ions ‘huoutu.I.O.AOS Jo O'Ko outpouluſ oup
topum ‘JI odounºſ Ioſ Ojibo IIInnot tº se oudd put to omoold
on topio (II ‘Alous!...I all:LAA U.toulanoS oup uſ 5uddius Iſoul
“ourn outes oth he ‘jul Aodulo put ‘oloods Io, oautuoxo uſ spooj
utºpuſ os Iboo put Jolsoilout: IV hººl thrºw so Antºu ou juſtisſuing
Kq “uſeds Jo osoth Kºrenon.It'd “boilout V Hnos Jo Shuauoulos
oth play open juljāntus juaſuo Auoo tº uo Kuuo on Japlo uſ
“puest sitſ, UO Juotu (ISIIqb)so up tutor ol “slo.Inluo Apu Jo 19s tº
Aq ‘posodoid oolio poopui st:A\ , I 'ootoutiloo Jo put leM. Jo
sdius Imo IOJ Utone poultuooor put ſhamoos Jo Shulod Kutul oo)
9Atºll to you tito O.A jetſ) ovajº pºol ye snut popuoſ No Knueſoy
-jus Kiptºo.IIb ate solio] Ltion leſtiołoo Ino hull, puoluoo Keui OUAA
oSO(E) tie ºf sojouantiouoo Kuettſ SSossod O, punoj od plnoA
Tipu I on puppº AeA-Hull sill, “odo[I poor) Jo Odeo oun pue
S|[ZPKI alſº utoly populoxo od O] so on bun).ſojun os oſſ ottiſh orn)ng
3 J.
I - O A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
Ward of the Cape, was 245 miles in 24 hours, or 10; nearly
it, each hour. The prevailing southerly winds in these lati-
tudes, during the summer months, are no doubt occasioned
by a strong current of condensed air rushing from regions of
ice towards the more rarefied atmosphere of Southern Africa;
where the vapour with which it is loaded, by a change of
temperature, and by concussion against the high mountainous
promontory of the Cape, is discharged ; and subsides in that
singular fleecy cloud which envelopes the summit of the
Table mountain, continuing for several days together when-
ever the south-easterly wind prevails.
On the 1st of February we discovered the two islands of
St. Paul and Amsterdam, and on the evening of the same
day anchored on the eastern side of the latter, at the distance
of about a mile from the shore. The volumes of smoke
which we had perceived at a distance to ascend from the
island, and the flames which, when dark, were seen dis-
tinctly to issue from it, excited in us a strong desire to get
on shore; and accordingly before it was well light the next
morning we quitted the vessel, elate with the hope of gratify-
ing curiosity by some novel spectacle. Of the result of our
observations the following is a brief sketch. The island of
Amsterdam, which lies in latitude 38° 42 south, and longi-
tude 76° 51' east, is, in its greatest extent, about four miles
and a quarter from north to south, and two and a quarter
from east to west, containing seven or eight square miles of
surface, exclusive of a large volcanic crater, into which the
sca has forced a passage on the castern side, by the incessant
action of its waves rolling with an uninterrupted current from
A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D. I4 I
that quarter. The whole width of this breach is about a
thousand feet, but the channel, or that part of it through
which the tide ebbs and flows, does not exceed two hundred
feet. From the margins of this channel two rising banks,
composed of volcanic fragments, are connected with the two
cheeks of the breach, whose height, by a rough trigonometri-
cal measurement, we found to be somewhere about seven
hundred feet, which may be considered as the general height
of the surrounding sides of the crater above the surface of
the water within it. The original form, as distinctly appears
by looking down from the upper edge, was that of an ellipsis ;
but the materials of the side, where the breach was made,
by being forced inwards by the sea, have caused on that side
of the crater a considerable compression or concavity. The
longest diameter across the surface of the water is somewhat
more than 1000 yards, and the shortest about 850; the cir-
cumference a mile and three quarters nearly ; and as the
sides rise in an angle with the horizon of about 65 degrees,
the circuit of the upper edge or brim of the bason, supposing
it complete and that no breach had been made, would have
been rather more than two miles. We sounded about the
centre of the crater, and found the depth of water 174 feet,
which being added to the mean height of the sides above
water, gives 874 feet for the whole depth of the crater.
Every other part of the coast rises abruptly out of the sea,
like the wall-sided island of Tristan da Cunha, exhibiting the
successive strata of lava that have flowed down from the
upper ridge of the great crater; and the rugged and blistered
appearance sufficiently indicates the severe conflict that the
I + 2 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
two discordant elements must have sustained, when the liquid
lava encountered the waves of the ocean. The effects of
such a struggle are still more distinctly seen on an extraordi-
nary insulated rock of a pyramidal form, which rises out of
the sea a little to the right of the entrance into the crater. ,
The height of this rock is from two to three hundred feet, and
it is composed of forty or fifty horizontal layers piled very
regularly on each other ; and these are again cracked and
divided by a number of perpendicular fissures, the whole ex-
hibiting a huge mass of basaltic columns. The marks of fusion
are evident on every part of its surface, which has the appear-
ance of scoria from an iron furnace. Many of the perpendicu-
lar fissures were filled with veins of obsidian or volcanic glass,
which we could perceive to be extended several feet below
the surface of the sea. In other clefts we found some curious
specimens of zeolite, but looked for this substance in vain in
the fragments of solid lava. We were the more desirous of
establishing this fact, as it is one of the contested points be-
tween the Plutonists and the Neptunists. Zeolite being fre-
quently found in the midst of basalt, and being well known
to contain a considerable quantity of water, has furnished
one of the strongest arguments in favour of the Neptunists;
in so far at least as it militates against the doctrine of basaltic
columns being produced by the agency of subterranean heat.
Zeolite and volcanic glasses, such as obsidian and pumice
stone, we found abundantly on every part of the coast of
the island. {
On the two causeways in the breach made by the sea into
the crater, and in many places on its slanting sides, we found
º
A M S T E R D A M I S L A N ID. I 43
sº
Scveral thermal springs, some running freely, and others oozing
out in a mere paste or mud. In some of these springs Fahren-
heit's thermometer ascended from 62°, in the open air, to 196°;
in some to 204°; and in others to 212°, or the boiling point.
The spots where they are to be found are easily discoverable,
* before sunrise or after sunset, by a thin vapour which may be
seen distinctly on applying the eye to the ground. In several
places we observed patches of soft verdure, composed of a
fine delicate moss, blended with a species of Lycopodium
and another of Marchantia. These green patches were
found to be floating on a hot paste, whose temperature, at
eight or ten inches below the surface, upon which the roots
of the plants spread, was 186°. This was the more remark-
able, as the same species of Lycopodium or club-moss, for
such it was thought to be, grows with great luxuriance, even
in the winter season, on the bleak heaths of North Britain.
On every part of the sloping surface of the island we met with
swamps and stagnant pools of hot water, varying in tempera-
ture from 80° to 130°. The soil is of a spongy porous tex-
ture, and the ground feels tremulous under the feet. Where-
ever the ear is applied to the surface, a bubbling noise may
be heard like the boiling of water. Most of the springs are
rather brackish, but one in particular on the side of the great
crater is strongly chalybeate, and the temperature only 119°.
From the perusal of a paper in the 20th volume of the Philo-
sophical Transactions, we were prepared to meet with springs
of boiling water; and on the strength of the information con-
tained in the said paper, “ that the fish caught in the cold
“ water might instantly be boiled in the hot,” we took care
to provide ourselves with plenty of fishing-tackle. We caught
º
*
1 44. • AMSTER DAM IS LAN D.
great numbers of a red coloured perch, from six inches to a
foot in length, of most excellent flavour, which, with true
Epicurean want of feeling, we had the cruelty to drop living
of the hook into the boiling springs, where it required just
fifteen minutes to cook them in perfection. Whether it was
owing to the novelty of the mode of preparation, or to long
abstinence from good fish, or to the real intrinsic excellence
of this species of perch, I am not able to decide, but the re-
past was universally pronounced to be delicious. We caught
here also another species of perch in great abundance, which
in my opinion was still superior to the red one. It measured
from three to four feet in length, the back fin undivided, and
the body marked with three brown and three white alternate
longitudinal stripes. The quantity of eray-fish that were
crawling on the bar of the entrance into the crater, at low
water, is incredible ; and their voracity for dead carcases was
so great, that if a seal, plenty of which were lying on the
causeways, was thrown in, they swarmed to it in such mul-
titudes that a boat load might be picked up by the hand in a
very short space of time. Nor were these marine insects less
plentiful in the open sea where the ships were lying at anchor.
Baskets let down into the sea, with morsels of bacon within
them, or pieces of shark's flesh, were immediately drawn up
again full of cray-fish. These and the large perch, rock-cod,
and bream, were caught in such abundance that, I believe,
a provision of fish for six days was laid in for the two ships'
companies, consisting nearly of six hundred men. A whole
shark, near eleven feet in length, was cut up as bait for cray-
fish. Four young sharks were found alive in the stomach of
this voracious animal; but whether they had been devoured
7
A M S T E R D A M L S L A N D. I 45
by the old one, or had voluntarily fled thither for protection,
was a contested point among our medical gentlemen. One
declared that he had more than once seen their own young
egorged from the stomach of the old ones when taken ; and that
once in particular he had observed a dozen Saw fish (a species
of shark, the Squalus Pristis) springing alive out of the
mother's mouth, after it had been hoisted out of the sea upon
the deck of the ship. Doctor Moseley, who has written on
the subject and ought to be considered as good authority, has
observed that the young sharks always retreat into the sto-
mach of the old ones in time of danger; an observation, in-
deed, that was made two centuries before his time. Sir
Richard Hawkins, who sailed on a voyage to South America
in the year 1593, expressly says that he has frequently seen
the young sharks go into, and out of, the mouth of the dam,
and that he has found them in the stomach ; so that Linnaeus
is probably mistaken in supposing that this fish devours its
own young. John Hunter decidedly proved that the living
principle, in particular classes of land animals, is endued with
the power of resisting the action of the gastric juice; but
the difficulty of making experiments on the digestive faculties
of the stomachs of fishes leaves it undetermined whether the
same principle is capable of exerting a greater or less degree
of power in this class of animals. The nature indeed of di-
gestion, with all the experiments of Hunter and Spallanzani,
seems to be yet but imperfectly understood ; but facts have
sufficiently proved that it is exceedingly different in different
animals. The shark gulps indiscriminately into its voracious
maw the bones and shells of animals, large iron hooks, tarred
ropes, and the clothing of such human creatures as unfortunately
U
146 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D,
become its victims. Sticks and stones and pieces of iron are
digested by the ostrich. The secretary bird (the Falco Serpent-
arius) will take into his stomach whole living snakes of the
most venomous kind, toads, and scorpions, without suffering
from such an assemblage the least inconvenience. That such is
the fact, with regard to the food of this bird, I can speak with
confidence. I have seen their young in the nest surrounded with
wounded but living snakes : and the following circumstance
puts the matter beyond all doubt.—An English gentleman who
held an official situation at the Cape of Good Hope, being out
on a shooting party, killed one of these birds, which he carried
home with the intention of having an accurate drawing
made from it. He threw it on the floor of the balcony before
the house, where, after it had remained some time and been
examined and tossed about, one of the company observed
the head of a large snake pushing open the bill, out of which
it speedily crawled, in perfect vigour, and free from any in-
jury. On the supposition that others might still be in the
stomach, the bird was suspended by the legs, and presently
a second snake made its appearance, as large and as lively
as the first. The bird was afterwards opened, when the sto-
mach was found to contain several dead snakes, with a half
digestcq mass of lizards and scorpions, scolopendras, centi-
pedes, and beetles.
Except on the coast of Spitsbergen, I never saw so vast an
assemblage of whales, grampusses, porpoises, sea-lions, and
seals, as were constantly either playing their gambols, or
fighting and devouring each other, between the ships' an-
chorage and the entrance of the crater. A fish, apparently
A M S T E R D A M H S L A N D. I 47
a species of delphinus or porpoise, probably that which is
usually called the Thrasher, was observed to attack the
whale with great violence, whenever the latter ventured to
heave his huge back out of the surface of the sea, lashing it
with its tail and fins, the strokes of which the great monster
seemed to have no means of repelling but by rolling round in
the water. It was dangerous even for the boats to row
among these large animals, which it would seem were
still more numerous on the first discovery of the island, as in
the paper above alluded to it is observed, “That the people
“ of Van Vlaming's ship found the sea so full of seals and sea-
“lions, that they were obliged to kill them to get a passage
“ through, when they steered for the shore; there was also
“ an astonishing number of fish.” Not only the sea but the
whole coast, in the mornings and evenings, swarmed with
seals and sea-lions.
The number of birds was likewise astonishing, and the two
causeways were strewed with their eggs. During our short
stay on shore we obtained the following birds:
Diomedea Demersa, The White and the Brown Al-
*—- Earulans, } batross.
Aptenodyta Chrysocome, Crested Penguin.
Procellaria Equinoctialis, Black Petrel.
—- Puffinus, Puffin.
——- Grisea, Grey Petrel.
Assº- Pelagica, Stormy Petrel.
———- Forsteri, Blue Petrel.
U 2
148 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
Sterna Hirundo, Silver Bird, or Sea Swallow.
Angs, A small brown Duck, not much
larger than a thrush, and ap-
parently not described by
naturalists.
Not a single land bird, nor a quadruped of any sort, nor
even an insect, except flies, was met with on the island.
The number of plants was very limited as to genus and
species, though there was no want of verdure. They con-
sisted chiefly of mosses and other genera of the cryptogamous
class, and a few species of grasses; but we did not observe a
frutescent plant on the whole island. The following were
the only specimens we brought on board, but we had col-
lected several others which were unfortunately left be-
bind :
Somchus Oleracea,
Apium Petroselinum,
Marchantia Polymorpha,
Sagina Procumbens,
Polypodium,
Arundo Arenaria,
Arundo Altera,
Asplenium,
Blechmum,
Lycopodium.
Beside several species of the marine plants, Ulvae, Fuci, &c.
A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D. # 4 (;
It was curious enough to observe that the greator part of thi.
plants found on this new island were products of Europe ; and
the question was equally difficult of solution, how any plants,
European or Indian, should first have been brought upon two
little specks of land, situated in the middle of the ocean, half way
between the coasts of New Holland and Madagascar, at the dis-
tance of two thousand English miles from the nearest shore.
Were they borne on the wind, wafted by the waves, or carried
by the fowls of the air; or were their rudiments, after lying fo
ages dormant in the bowels of the earth, thrown up, by the
agency of subterranean fire, into a situation favourable for
vegetable life to burst forth The mind of man, over active
in its inquiries, may be prompted to ask such questions,
though without the hope of ever being furnished with a satis-
factory solution. The natural historian, in contemplating
facts like these, cannot fail, however, to be most forcibly
impressed with the wise and benevolent designs of the great
Author of the universe, which to him are so apparent in all
the works of the creation, and in mone more so than in the
providential means he has thought fit to employ for the wide
dissemination of plants. Some he will perceive to be supplied
with such multitudes of seeds, others so completely protected
against injuries, some so amply provided with hooks to hold
with, and others with feathers to bear them through the air,
that, by the assistance of the wind, rain, rivers, birds and
insects, a single pair of plants of every species, according to
the opinion of Linnaeus, growing on the first little island that
may be supposed to have peeped out of the universe of wa-
ters, will be deemed sufficient, without human aid, to stock
the whole surface of the globe. This great naturalist tells us
that a single sced of poppy will in one year yield 32,000 seeds ;
I 5o A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
*s
and that 40,000 plants of tobacco have been produced from
one individual. And as an instance of the actual dispersion
of vegetables, this accurate observer asserts that an American
plant, of the genus Erigeron, which was first brought into
Europe scarcely a century ago, and cultivated in the bo-
tanical garden at Paris, had, in his time, spontaneously
spread itself over all France, Italy, Sicily, Flanders, and
Germany. *s.
The neighbouring island of St. Paul is wholly covered with
an impenetrable thicket of coppice wood. Like Amsterdam
it is also of volcanic origin, and the shore is said to be sur-
rounded with pumice stone. It may, therefore, be reason-
ably conjectured that of the two islands St. Paul is consider-
ably the earlier creation.
It is observed by Valentyn that, when William de Vlaming
visited this island in 1696, the pond (meaning the crater) was
separated by a ridge of rocks from the sea about twenty
paces, over which the seals clambered ; that it was shaped
like a half moon, and about a pistol-shot in length. From
the description which I have just given it will readily be per-
ceived that a very material change has been effected in the
course of one hundred years, probably by some fresh erup-
tion having taken place. The same writer mentions like-
wise a recſ of rocks near the crater that jutted into the sea to
the distance of about a gun-shot, which at that time were
observed to be in a burning state. These were no doubt the
same as that of which the basaltic rock I have described
forms a part. This is still perfectly naked ; and Vlaming
found only on the great island a few reeds, and here and
A M S T E R D A M IS LAN D. I 5.1
there among the rocks a very few plants that were not unlike
parsley. The whole island, indeed, wears every indication
of having been a very recent production of subterraneous fire,
which is still burning at no great distance from the surface.
Such at least appears to have been the case. But geological
science is yet in its infancy. With all the various systems that
have been written to explain the structure, the constitution,
and the external appearances of the earth, and with all the
aid which modern chemistry has lent to such investigations,
our real knowledge extends only to a very shallow depth be-
low the surface. One melts the globe by fire, and throws
its most prominent features out of the ocean by the expansive
force of steam ; another supposes that the regular and uni-
form strata, observed in what has been called secondary
countries, could only have been effected by the agency of
water. Both may perhaps be right : and I dare say if Dr.
Hutton and Mr. Kirwan could examine the island of Amster-
dam, they would each of them produce it as an admirable
elucidation, one of the Plutonic and the other of the Nep-
tunian theory ; for the materials have evidently undergone
complete fusion, and they are laid in regular and horizontal
strata.
Whether, indeed, it be admitted that stratified mountains
have been melted by heat or deposited by water, many of
them bear the most unequivocal proofs of having once been
immersed under the ocean ; and the grand question seems to
be reduced to this single point, whether the sea has retired
from them, or they have been raised out of the sea If,
laying hypothesis aside, we are satisfied to rest on the analogy
I 52 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
of facts, we shall perhaps conclude in favour of the latter
opinion. The expansive force of steam, under certain cir-
cumstances, is beyond calculation ; and steam is unquestion-
ably formed in all volcanic explosions, as the presence of a
vast body of water seems to be indispensably necessary in
these operations of nature: for the greater part of, if not all,
real volcanoes are either islands, or are situated so near the
sea as to have received a supply of water from it. It is well
known that a torrent of boiling water rolled down the sides
of mount Etna about the middle of last century, and the
same circumstance has happened more than once in Vesuvius.
It is also now understood that the earth contains a variety of
substances, and those in large quantities, which, in contact
with water, will cause ignition, and others that will support
it without the presence of air. If then, by means of a rent
or chasm in the bottom of the sea, a sufficient quantity of
water be brought to act on a proportionate mass of materials
capable of supporting ignition, the steam generated in con-
sequence must heave up the superincumbent earth, and pro-
bably, on some occasions, without disturbing the arrangement
of its parts as they existed at the bottom of the sea previous
to the eruption, except immediately in those places where
the explosion burst out. Thus we see in many islands of vol-
canic origin, as Teneriffe and Madeira, large portions of the
surface where the action of fire is not in the least discernible.
That new islands are produced from time to time, and pro-
bably in this manner, history affords us various instances.
One of the most considerable of the Lipari islands, called
Vulcano, was created in the time of the Roman republic.
Since the seventh century of the Christian aera three distinct
7
A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D. I 53
|
islands have been thrown up in the Archipelago. In 1638,
an island about the size of Amsterdam was thrown up
among the Azores or Western Islands; and in 1757, in the
same cluster near that called St. George, eighteen small
islands appeared above the surface of the sea, after a tre-
mendous and destructive earthquake which continued eight
days; but they gradually subsided, and at last altogether dis-
appeared ; that part of the sca where they rose being, how-
ever, very materially decreased in the depth of water,
Since then it admits of proof that islands and mountains do
spring up from time to time, and no grounds can be produced
to shew that the smallest hill has been left uncovered by the
retreat of the Ocean, an ingenious theorist might employ this
argument with success to prove that the sea, in the lapse of
ages, may totally disappear within the crust of the earth,
which would thus revert to the egg of the ancient philo-
sophers; whose shell again bursting might cause a new deluse
and a new creation. What changes may happen in eternity
of duration and infinity of space, equally incomprehensible
to the mind of man, are hidden, no doubt for wise and good
purposes, from finite beings ; but reason and observation, in-
dependent of sacred or profane listory, clearly point out that
the earth we inhabit has undergone, and is continually under-
going, a great variety of changes ; but when or in what manner
the most important of them have been brought about, we must
either be content with what the sacred writings have com-
municated on the subject, attributing them to an omnipotent
and preternatural cause, or continue to amuse ourselves with
vague conjectures; for Leither the theory of the Neptunists
X
I 54 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
nor of the Plutonists, though both may serve to explain many
of the inferior phenomena, will by any means solve the
most difficult and important that present themselves to the
researches of the natural philosopher. Thus, difficult as it
may seem to account for the traces of the sea on secondary
mountains, it is not less so to explain from whence proceeded
the multitude of bones of elephants, rhinosceroses, buffalos,
and the huge mammoth, with others not existing in any part
of the creation at the present day, which occur in Siberia, and
even on islands in the midst of the icy sea, where, according
to modern travellers, the soil is almost wholly composed of
them. These and many other organic remains of the old
world, found in climates where they could not possibly have
supported life, give some colour of argument in favour of the
ingenious and well-told theory of Mr. Bailly, contained in his
letters on the Atlantic island of Plato, where he supposes
that these northern regions, now condemned to everlasting
frost and snows, were not always
“ Dark Cimmerian deserts;”
but that they might once have enjoyed a happy temperature of
climate, a productive soil furnishing a supply of food for those
animals whose remains are found in such abundance buried in
the earth, their form remaining but their nature totally changed.
A different inclination of the earth's axis to its orbit, being
quite sufficient to explain the phenomenon, has generally
been resorted to for this purpose; but I am rather surprized
that, among the various causes which have been assigned for
altering the position of the axis with regard to the plane of
the earth's orbit, the reactive force of volcanic eruptions has
A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D. I 55
never been called in aid (at least I do not recollect it has) of
such an hypothesis. The power that was required to heave
up Heckla and the volcanic mountains near Kamskatka, and
which can hurl rocks some thousand feet into the air, may be
supposed to produce, by its reactive force, a very consider-
able impression on the globe of the earth, especially when
exerted near the poles, and if it can be supposed to act in a
direction, not to the centre, but perpendicular to its axis.-
But I am rambling into the wilds of theory, whilst my business
at present is only with facts.
If the smoke and the fires of Amsterdam had excited our
curiosity, the discovery of two or three human beings running
along the shore, as our ships approached it, on so miserable
a spot, and so distant from any other land except the little
neighbouring island of St. Paul, caused a still greater degree of
astonishment. On landing we found five men, very ill dressed
and squalid in their appearance, three of whom were French,
and two English. Their chief was a Frenchman, of the name
of Perron, who informed us that they had been landed,
about five months before, from a small vessel fitted out of
the Isle of France, for the purpose of preparing a cargo of
seal-skins for the China market ; that the weather when they
landed was bad, and continued incessantly so very boisterous
for forty days as to prevent all communication with their
vessel, which at the end of that time put to sea and con-
timucd her voyage to Nootka Sound ; and that they did
not expect her back for twelve months to come. That, by
her being thus so unexpectedly driven away, they were left
destitute of every kind of provision, except a little hard bis-
X ''
1 50 A M S T E R D A M I S L A N D.
cuit and rice ; but that, luckily for them, they had hitherto
found an abundant supply in the different kinds of fish, birds,
and eggs, which they dressed with the fresh oil of seals
instead of butter. They all lived in one small miserable hut,
as dirty and offensive as that of an Hottentot ; and it was
surrounded on every side by the dead carcases of seals and
sea-lions. The birds, they observed, had a strong fishy
taste, to which, however, long habit had reconciled them :
those that were the least so were the blue petrol and the
little brown duck. They laboured under constant apprehen-
Sions of the scurvy making its appearance, for want of some
vegetable food to correct the humours which they supposed a
fishy and oily diet must necessarily occasion ; and, indeed, it
seems to furnish no weak proof of the healthiness of the
climate, that five men, living together for five months under
such circumstances, should have escaped every kind of dis-
ease. They had prepared already about eight thousand skins,
and expected before the return of the vessel to procure about
twenty thousand more ; and as each person had a consider-
able interest in the adventure, they expressed no desire to leave
the island till the accomplishment of their undertaking. We
left them a little vinegar and a few potatoes; and our gar-
doners planted some of the latter in those spots where there
was the greatest depth of soil.
These poor adventurers, as we have since been informed,
met with a hard return for the great sacrifices they had been
induced to make in the hope of gain. While we were in the
northern parts of China, the Lion, in her passage to Canton,
fell in with their little vessel; and the report of hostilities be-
A M S T E R D A M IS 1, A N D. 1 57
tween England and France having reached Canton, she was
captured as French property, and sold upon the spot.
Twelve months after the time fixed on for her return to Am-
sterdam, the poor fellows, hearing nothing of their vessel,
concluded she must have been lost, and therefore resolved to
embark on the first ship that should call at the island. It hap-
pened to be an American, the master of which took them and
their cargo of skins on board, in consideration of his sharing a
certain proportion of the money they should sell for. The
ship steered for New Holland, where the men were landed,
after which she set sail for the China market with her cargo
of skins, leaving the proprietors behind to shift for themselves.
Such, at least, is the story we were told at the Cape of Good
Hope.
158 T H E S T R A IT OF SUNDA.
C H A P. VII.
T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A A N D ISL AND OF JAVA.
Comparison between the Harbour of Rio de janeiro and the Strait of Sunda–
Swallows’ Nests—Anjerie Point—Number of Sharks—Tomb of Colonel
Cathcart—The Thousand Islands—The Fabrics of marine Worms—Coral
Islands more favourable for Plants than those of volcanic Origin—Bay of
Batavia—Site of Batavia—Bad Taste of the Dutch—Description of Ba-
tavia— Population—Great Mortality—Temperature—Diseases—Produc-
tions of java in the mineral and vegetable Kingdoms—Cocoa, Mangostan,
Mango, Rambootan, Poolosang, $5c.—Curious, useful, or beautiful Plants—
The Nepenthes, or Pitcher Plant—The Upas—Effect of poisonous Sub-
stances—Hydrophobia, curious Case of Animals.
We took our departure from the burning island of Am-
sterdam on the 2d of February, and on the 26th of the same
month entered the strait of Sunda ; the passage of which to
the usual anchorage of the East India Company's ships, near
North Island, (so called from its position in the northern
mouth of the strait,) occupied three days. The features of
the two grand islands of Sumatra and Java, between which
this strait is formed, and indeed of all the smaller ones which
are interspersed around them, are distinguished in a very pe-
culiar manner by the luxuriance, softness, and amenity of
their native tints of verdure. In sailing up the magnificent
harbour of Rio de Janeiro, the varied hues of rude and un-
T H E S T R A IT OF S UN D A. I 59
cultivated nature, mingled with the still more varied shades
produced by human industry, and heightened and rendered
more prominent by the contrast of rugged and naked moun-
tains, imparted to the surrounding prospect an infinite diver-
sity, which the eye could not behold, nor the mind con-
template, without experiencing that succession of new delight
which variety seldom fails to communicate; but here, in the
strait of Sunda, and particularly on the island of Sumatra,
which forms its left or western boundary, all is vegetation
and verdure—all repose, and yet not a single marked point
for the eye to rest on. The colour of the picture is one mass
of soft and luxuriant green, which, though the most agreeable
and delightful of tints, is particularly heavy unless relieved
by variety. The eye of the painter, whether it wanders in
search of scenery whose character is softness, or rudeness, or
picturesqueness, still requires variety; like the taste of the
epicure, it is seldom contented to feast on simple food, or to
sit down to a single dish, however richly it may be seasoned.
To a moral philosopher the appearance of an unbounded and
unbroken forest, like that on Sumatra, is productive of few
consoling reflections, being the sure indication of a paucity
of human inhabitants, and of the little progress made by
those few in the arts of civilization. On the opposite shore
of Java the forests are considerably broken, and the inter-
mediate patches of cleared ground exhibit evident marks of
cultivation.
Of the many little islands scattered over the surface of
the strait we visited only two, that are situated at no great
distance from the shore of Java. They are known to seannen
16o T H E S T R A IT OF SUN ID A.
by the names of the Cap and the Button. In a deep cavern,
washed by the sea into the side of the former, we disturbed
such a multitude of bats and swallows, that we were literall y
driven back by the successive vollies in which they assailed
us. The bats in particular were excessively troublesome, by
flying entirely at random, owing to their imperfect vision on
encountering the light at the mouth of the cave. The swal-
lows were of that species which, in the Systema Natura, is
called Esculenta, from the abundant use made of their nests
in Chinese cookery. We found some thousands of these nests
attached to the sides of the cavern, some containing young
birds, and others eggs. The nests were of an oval shape,
slightly joined to each other at the extremities of the longest
diameter, and placed in regular and continued rows. Their
external coating appeared to be the filaments of some species
of sea-weed, cenented together by a viscous substance, which
was collected probably on the sea-shore: stripped of this coat-
ing they were about an eighth of an inch in thickness, had much
the appearance of a piece of hard glue, semi-transparent, and
evidently composed of the same kind of gelatinous matter
which kept together the exterior fibres, and with which the
stones and marine plants on the shores of the island were
covered. On the Button island we shot an iguana, which
measured four fect in length, and the flesh of which, when
roasted, was as white and delicate as that of a chicken.
Half way up the strait, on the Java shore, there is a con-
siderable village called Anjerie, where ships may conveniently
be supplied with water, and overy kind of refreshment
which the island affords in great abundance, and on terms
7
T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A. 161
sufficiently reasonable. For instance, we purchased from
fifteen to twenty common fowls for a dollar, five fine capons
for the same sum, and the price of a moderate sized buffalo
was not more than ten or twelve dollars. The natives usually
come off in their canoes, to ships which may anchor here,
with plentiful supplies of the fruits peculiar to the island,
and other vegetables that may be in season. The air is dry
and pleasant; and a cool refreshing breeze descends from the
high lands of Java, spreading its fragrance to a distance
much beyond the anchorage of the ships. Yet because this
side of the strait is occasionally subject to calms, which may
sometimes have caused the delay of two or three days at the
utmost, few of the outward-bound China ships touch at
Anjerie, preferring to take in a fresh supply of wood and
water at North Island, or rather on the Sumatra shore op-
posite to this island, where only wood and water are pro-
curable, and where numbers of seamen yearly fall a sacrifice
either to Malay treachery, from the plunderers who are al-
ways lurking among the forests on this part of the coast, or
to the unhealthiness of the place, occasioned by the heavy
nightly fogs that hang over this low swampy shore, and the
noxious vapours arising from the putrefactive fermentation of
vegetable matter; an operation which, in this region of the
world, is incessantly carrying on. We had full experience of
the conveniencies of the one place and the disadvantages of
the other, both on the outward-bound passage and on our
return, to induce us on every consideration to give a decided
preference to Anjerie point: and Surely the delay of a few
days, or even a week, in a voyage of such long duration, is
Y
162 T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A.
an object of small importance, when compared with the
health, the safety, and the comfort, of a ship's company.
In no other part of the world do I recollect to have ob-
served such shoals of sharks as are constantly prowling near
the shore at Anjerie, attracted no doubt by the offals that
float down the river or are thrown upon the beach. When
on board the Hindostan, at this anchorage, I hooked one of
these voracious animals from the stern gallery, in doing
which, however, I had a very narrow escape from being
dragged by it into the sea. No sooner did the fish feel the
hook in its jaw than, plunging towards the bottom, he drew
the line to its full stretch, which, being entangled in the rail-
ing of the gallery, swept away at once a great part of the
balustrade. In the rapidity with which the rope ran out, a
coil of it got round my arm, but just as I was forced among
the wreck, the shark, by darting back to the surface, slack-
ened the rope sufficiently to enable me to disengage my arm
and to get clear, Greatly as I was alarmed at this accident,
a poor Javanese appeared to be still more so, who happened
at that moment to be astern of the ship, paddling his canoe
with a load of fruit and vegetables. His apprehension lest
the wounded shark, in rolling and plunging and lashing the
water with its fins and tail, should overturn his little skiff,
which was not much larger than the animal itself, his exer-
tions to get out of its reach, and the marks of terror that
were visible on his countenance, struck our fellow traveller,
Alexander, so forcibly that, though of momentary duration,
he caught with his pencil a spirited sketch ; which, having
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THE S T R A IT OF SUNDA. 163
the merit at least of being a true representation of a Javanese
canoe, with its paddle and bannboo outrigger, was considered
as not unworthy of being put into the engraver's hands. The
shark being killed with a harpoon, was then hoisted upon
deck and opened. The contents of its stomach formed a
mass of such magnitude and variety as can scarcely be con-
ceived. It consisted, among other articles, of the complete
head of a female buffalo, a whole calf, a quantity of entrails
and of bones, and large fragments of the upper and under
shells of a considerable sized turtle. The length of the shark
was ten feet eight inches.
The Dutch have established a small fort at Anjerie point,
consisting of a low earthen embankment, surrounded with a
palisade of bamboo, and mounted with half a dozen four-
pounder guns, some of them without carriages, but others
preserved apparently with so much care from the weather as
to be surrounded with a roof of thatch. The whole garrison
was composed of a serjeant, a corporal, and six privates :
and was intended as a protection to the village against Malay
pirates, and, at the same time, as a post to receive and con-
vey dispatches or intelligence to and from Batavia across the
country, when any of their own ships or those of an enemy
might make their appearance in the strait. This little fort,
however insignificant in itself, was nevertheless not wholly
uninteresting to us, from the circumstance of its containing,
within the palisade, the remains of the late Colonel Cathcart,
who died in the strait of Banca, when on his mission as Am-
bassador from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of
China. The companions of his voyage erected in this fort a
Y 2
164 T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A.
wooden monument to his memory bearing a suitable inscrip-
tion, of which, being a perishable material, the friends and
relatives of the deceased may not be displeased to see an
accurate representation.
On entering the strait we fell in with an homeward-bound
Indiaman, which had left at Batavia a dispatch from China,
addressed to Lord Macartney. This circumstance, added to
other considerations, made it expedient for the squadron to
proceed thither as soon as we should have completed the ne-
cessary supply of wood, water, and refreshments. Nothing
could possibly be more delightful than the short passage be-
tween North Island and Batavia, along the northcru coast of
Java. The distance is about ninety miles; the sea is rarely
ruffled with a gust of wind, but is smooth as the serpentine
river in Hyde Park; and the crowd of little islands rising out
of its surface is so immensely great, that even the indefati-
gable Dutch, who are accustomed to deal in detail, despair-
ing in this instance of being able to assign to each a distinct
name, have given to the whole groupe the general appella-
tion of the Thousand Islands. Every one of these numerous
islets is completely clothed with an unvarying tint of the
more lively verdure; and though their surfaces are flat and
little elevated above that of the sea, yet the tali trees which
grow on most of them appear, from a distance, just like so
many fleets of ships. Some of them are skirted by smooth
sandy beaches, where turtles in abundance resort ; but on
the greater part, the branches and the roots of the trees
strike into the salt water.
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T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A. 165
The whole groupe of the Thousand Islands, and indeed the
greater part of all those whose surfaces are flat in the neigh-
bourhood of the equator, owe their origin to the labours of
that order of marine worms which Linnaeus has arranged
under the name of Zoophyta. These little animals, in a most
surprizing manner, construct their calcareous habitations un-
der an infinite variety of forms, yet with that order and
regularity, each after its own manner, which, to the minute
inquirer, is so discernible in every part of the creation. But
although the eye may be convinced of the fact, it is difficult
for the human mind to conceive the possibility of insects so
small being endued with the power, much less of being fur-
nished in their own bodies with the materials, of constructing
the immense fabrics which, in almost every part of the
Eastern and Pacific Oceans lying between the tropics, are met
with in the shape of detached rocks, or reefs of great extent
just even with the surface, or islands already clothed with
plants, whose bases are fixed at the bottom of the sea
several hundred feet in depth, where light and heat, so
very essential to animal life, if not excluded, are sparingly
received and feebly felt. Thousands of such rocks and reefs
and islands are known to exist in the Eastern Ocean, within,
and even beyond, the limits of the tropics. The castern
coast of New Holland is almost wholly girt with reefs and
islands of coral rock, rising perpendicularly from the bottom
of the abyss. Captain Kent of the Buffalo, speaking of a
coral recſ of many miles in extent, on the south-west coast
of New Caledonia, observes that “it is level with the water's
“ edge, and, towards the sea, as steep to as the wall of a
“ house; that he sounded frequently within twice the ship's
166 T H E S T R A IT OF SU N D A.
“ length of it with a line of one hundred and fifty fathoms,
“ or nine hundred feet, without being able to reach the
“ bottom.” How wonderful, how inconceivable, that such
stupendous fabrics should rise into existence from the silent,
but incessant and almost imperceptible, labours of such insig-
nificant worms
From the soft and leather-like consistence of the tubulated
surfaces of the coral fabrics, it would appear that as the old
animals die and their calcareous cells become rigid, succeed-
ing generations continue their operations on the upper and
lateral surfaces, each according to the particular form which
nature has prescribed ; for the texture and construction of the
rocks are very different in different parts of them ; and though
they have received the general denomination of coral, few of
them are of that description which, from their ramifications
resembling the roots and branches of trees, led the ancient
naturalists to conclude that they might form an inter-
mediate class of organized beings, partaking of the double
nature of plants and animals. It is true, the fragile branches
of corals and corallines being easily broken, their materials
may, by some process, be cemented together, and contribute
to the formation of the amorphous bases of coral islands; but
the great masses of rock appear to be composed chiefly of
madrepores, cellipores, and tubipores. In order to ascertain
whether the central part, as well as the shore, of North
Island consisted of these substances, we removed the soil,
and at the depth of about three feet found large blocks of
madrepores, and various cellular masses of calcareous forma-
tion ; and, among other articles, we dug up a very large shell
7
T H E S T R A IT OF S UN D A. 167
of the Chama gigas, supposed to be the largest species of
shell-fish that exists in the universe. One of the old Dutch
navigators observes, that thirty of his people made a very
comfortable supper of a single cockle, for the relation of which
it may readily be supposed he obtained very little credit.
The gigantic Chama, which was the Dutchman's cockle, is,
however, sufficiently large for the purpose ; near the shores
of the island we found several of these shells, some of which
could not be of less weight than four hundred pounds the
pair.
It is sufficiently remarkable that, although different kinds
of what are usually called corals or corallines are found on the
shores of the West India islands, no huge masses of rock, nor
reefs, nor islands wholly composed of this material, have
been discovered. A process of creation, carried on by such
minute and imperceptible gradation, may probably require a
pacific ocean, and be liable to too much interruption from the
hurricanes of the Atlantic, or from the stream which, sweep-
ing round the Cape of Good Hope, sets with rapidity through
the gulf of Mexico and beyond the banks of Newfoundland.
When we reflect, however, that a very large proportion of
the multitude of islands which are found between the tropics,
in the opposite hemisphere, have been created by the meanest
and most insignificant of animated beings, so very insignifi-
cant indeed that many of the species have not yet been dis-
covered by man, “it is impossible,” as Sir George Staunton
has well observed, “ not to be struck with the diversified
“ operations of nature for obtaining the same end, whether
“ employed in originally fixing the granite foundation of the
168 T H E S T R A IT OF SUN D A.
“ Brazils ; or in throwing up, by some sudden and subse-
“ quent convulsion, the island of Amsterdam ; or in con-
“ tinuing to this hour, through the means of animated beings,
“ the formation of new islands in the strait of Sunda.”
The number and the magnitude of those wonderful fabrics,
dispersed over the Eastern ocean, and daily increasing in .
bulk and extent, furnish no weak support to that theory
which supposes all marbles, limestones, and every species of
calcareous rock, to have been the production of animated
beings; a theory that is rendered still more plausible from the
myriads of minute shells found in many of them, and of
which some of the most beautiful of the marbles are almost
wholly composed.
It cannot escape observation that no sooner have the points
of the coral rocks reached the surface, so as to form a barrier
for the accretion of adventitious matter floating on the waves,
and by its accumulation rise into an islet, than the seeds of
the vegetable world burst into life : for all the islands of coral
formation, perhaps without a single exception, are covered
with plants. If then it really be the fact that new islands are
thus continually forming, we shall be borne out in the con-
clusion that a combination of animal and calcareous matter
is more favourable to the production and growth of vegetables
than the materials of such newly created islands as owe
their origin to subterraneous fires. It would be incon-
sistent to suppose that, where new surfaces are continually
arising and yet no makedness appears, the same slow progress
had gradually taken place from the humble and almost un-
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. 169
organized lichen to the tall tree of the forest, which is con-
sidered to be the ordinary and gradual process of vegetation
in volcanic countries.
In no port nor harbour, since our departure from l?orts-
mouth, had we met with so great a number of shipping as
were collected in the bay of Batavia. Large Dutch India-
men, mostly dismantled for want of men ; English trading
vessels from Bengal, Madras, and Bombay ; immense Chinese
junks, whose singular forms seemed to bespeak an antiquity
as remote as that of Noah's ark ; Malay proas, and Javanese
canoes; with three or four French ships carrying into the
Eastern world, in addition to the natural products of their
country, the monstrous doctrines of the Rights of Man, were
promiscuously riding at anchor in the road of Batavia. The
practical part of these novel doctrines was grievously com-
plained of by the officers of one of the French ships. The
crew, it seems, had one day taken it into their heads that,
by virtue of the sacred and inalienable principle of all men
being equal, they had a right to enjoy as good a dinner as
their officers, no matter who should pay for it; and accord-
ingly, having followed the dishes into the cabin, they seated
themselves at table, inviting, in the most obliging manner,
the Captain and other officers to partake of their own dinner
with them. These gentlemen, however, finding their autho-
rity and their property at stake, thought it prudent to make
application to the government of Batavia for a few German
troops to instruct their crew in the rights of discipline, and
in the duties of obedience and subordination.
|
Z
170 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
The bay of Batavia is circumscribed on the south by the
coast of Java, and by fifteen or sixteen small islands inter-
spersed in every direction from the east round by the north
to the west. Its capacity is perhaps sufficiently great to
contain the whole navy of England; it is perfectly secure at
all seasons, and the water is rarely disturbed in any violent
degree by the winds. The principal islands that surround it
are those which bear the names of Onrust, Purmerent, Kuiper,
and Edam. On the first is the naval arsenal, store-houses,
saw-mills, and work-shops of the artificers. It is encompassed
with batteries, a fleur d'eau, which, however, afford only a
feeble protection to the island, and none to the shipping in
the bay, nor indeed to any of the passages leading into it.
On Purmerent, which appears to be a very pleasant island, is
situated an extensive naval hospital.
The coast of Java, on this side of the island, is so very flat,
and so thickly covered with tamarind, cocoa mut, canary, and a
variety of other trees, that no part of the city of Batavia, except
the cupola of the great church, is visible from the ships in the
bay, although the distance is little more than an English mile.
The great plain on which this city stands seems indeed to be
of alluvious production, and appears to be extending in such
rapid progression that, with the assistance of the coral-making
insects, it may not require the lapse of many centuries before
the whole bay, together with the sweep of islands that en-
compass it, will become united with the Java continent.
The mouth of the river, which empties its waters into the
bay, has obviously travelled downwards more than a hun-
THE ISLAND OF JA v. A. 171
dred yards in the short space of time which the Dutch have
held the settlement. To prevent inundations, and to keep
open a free communication with the bay, they found it ne-
cessary to run out two stone piers five hundred yards in
length ; and the land has now advanced nearly to their ex-
treme points; so that it may again be expedient, before the
expiration of half a century to come, to extend the work still
farther into the bay. The Jater Castle with its four bas-
tions, so called from its being once insulated, has long been
left on the western bank of the river, in seamen's language,
high and dry ; where, however, it still appears to be no less
useful than before, as a work of defence to the entrance of
the river.
In making choice of the present site of the city of Batavia,
the predilection of the Dutch for a low swampy situaticº,
evidently got the better of their prudence; and the fatal con-
sequences that have invariably attended this choice, from its
first establishment to the present period, irrefragably demon-
strated by the many thousands who have fallen a sacrifice to
it, have nevertheless been hitherto unavailing to induce the
government either altogether to abandon the spot for another
more healthy, or to remove the local and immediate causes
of a more than ordinary mortality. Never were national pre-
judices and national taste so injudiciously misapplied, as in
the attempt to assimilate those of Holland to the climate and
the soil of Batavia. Yet such has been the aim of the set-
tlers, which they have endeavoured to accomplish with inde-
fatigable industry. An extended plain of rich alluvious land.
7, 2
172 T H E ISL AND OF JAVA.
t
with a copious river serpentizing through it, in a stream of so
easy and gentle a current that the water with great facility
was capable of being conducted at pleasure; a tract of
country holding out such easy means of being intersected by
canals and ditches, and embellished with fish ponds; of being
converted into gardens and villas, where draw-bridges for
ornament and trek-schuyts for pleasure and convenience could
be adopted, presented temptations too strong for Dutch taste
to resist. Nothing, however, can possibly be more gratify-
ing to the eye than the general appearance of the country
which surrounds Batavia. Here no aridity, no sterility, no
nakedness even partially intervene between the plantations
of coffee, sugar, pepper, rice, and other valuable products,
which are enclosed and divided by trees of the choicest
fruits. In the immediate vicinity of the city, the extensive
§ardens of the Dutch, embellished with villas in the Oriental
style, furnished with every convenience that a luxurious and
voluptuous taste can suggest, are charming to behold from a
little distance, but do not improve by a nearer acquaintance.
The vitiated taste of Holland, delighting in straight avenues,
trimmed hedges, myrtles and other evergreens cut into the
walls of Troy, and flower-beds laid out in circles, squares,
and polygons, are no less offensive to the eye than the mu-
merous ditches and fish-ponds, from their stench and exhala-
tions, are injurious to the health, besides being the nurseries
of an innumerable host of frogs and mosquitoes.
In carrying into execution the plan of their new city, the
first operation of the Dutch was to divide the river into two
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. 173
branches, in such manner as to insulate a quadrangular space
of ground ; and just within these new channels, which served
as a wet ditch, to erect a wall of the height of about twenty
feet, chiefly of coral rock. This wall they flanked with
twenty redoubts or irregular projections, some of them mount-
ing three guns, some two, and others none. Four great
gates, with as many draw-bridges, communicated with the
four suburbs. The citadel or the castle stands on the north
side, or that next to the bay, without the walls of the city,
being surrounded with its own wall from twenty-five to thirty
feet high ; and its four bastions, to denote the wealth and
magnificence of the settlement, bear the splendid names of
the Diamond, the Pearl, the Sapphire, and the Ruby: their
materials, however, like those of the city wall, are chiefly
composed of calcareous coral rock. The government house,
a neat chapel, and nearly all the public offices, are within the
enclosure of the castle. The different canals that surround
and intersect the town, uniting just below the citadel, form a
wide navigable river that flows in a gentle current into the
bay. Across this river is thrown a wooden boom, a little be-
low the castle, and opposite to the custom-house ; and at a
short distance farther down, on the west side, is the Loo fort,
mounting seven or eight guns, all pointing down the river.
On the opposite or eastern side there is also a battery as well
as an extensive line, flanked with several redoubts, intended to
cover the various magazines and stores, the gunpowder mills,
saw-mills, timber-yard, foundery for casting cannon, with all
the work-shops of the different artificers belonging to this once
splendid establishment. *
I 74. THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
All these works have evidently been planned with the view
rather of keeping the natives in awe, than as adequate de-
fences against the attack of European troops. The best
defence, indeed, which may be reckoned upon against such
an enemy, is that which the ravages of this destructive climate
would almost immediately occasion among unseasoned troops;
and it is to be hoped that this consideration will always
operate with the British government as a sufficient reason for
not attempting to wrest it out of the hands of the Dutch.
For as the shipping may at any time be taken out of the bay
by a superior naval force, their possession of the town and
garrison cannot be of material injury to the interests of Great
Britain, provided we have a strong and active squadron in
the Indian seas. *
Batavia, though not of an extraordinary size, nor embel-
lished with buildings that are worthy of particular notice for
elegance of design or magnificence of dimensions, may never-
theless be considered to rank among the neatest and the
handsomest cities in the world. The ground plan is in the
shape of a parallelogram, whose length from north to south is
4200 feet, and breadth 3000 feet. The streets are laid out
in straight lines, and cross each other at right angles. Each
street has its canal in the middle, cased with stone walls,
which rise into a low parapet on the two margins. At the dis-
tance of six fect from this parapet wall is a row of evergreen
trees, under the shade of which, on this intermediate space,
are erected little open pavilions of wood, surrounded with
seats, where the Dutch part of the inhabitants smoke their
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I75
pipes and drink their beer in the cool of the evening. Be-
yond the trees is a gravelled road from thirty to sixty feet in
width, terminated also on the opposite side by a second row
of evergreens. This road is appropriated for the use of car-
riages, horses, cattle, and, as particularly pointed out by
proclamation, for all slaves, who are strictly prohibited from
walking on the flagged causeway in front of the houses, as
they are also from wearing stockings and shoes, in order that
their naked feet may be the means of making their condition
notorious. This trottoir or footway is at least six feet wide ; and
as the breadth of the canals is generally the same as that of
the carriage road, the whole width of the Batavian streets may
be considered to run from 114 to 204 feet ; and the city is
said to contain twenty of such streets, with canals in the
middle, over which they reckon about thirty stone bridges.
The trees that embolish the streets are of different kinds, but
the most common are two species of Callophyllum, called by
botanists the Inophyllum, and the Calaba, the Canarium Com-
mune, or canary-nut tree, the Guettarda Speciosa, with its
odoriferous flowers, and the free, elegant, and spreading
tamarind tree.
In the style and architecture of the public buildings there
is little to praise and much to condemn. The Dutch, both
at home and abroad, have hitherto resisted, with an obstimacy
which indecd on most occasions influences the conduct of
this nation, the introduction of the Greek and Roman models
of architecture. The large octagon church is considered by
the inhabitants as a master-piece of elegance in its design,
176 THE ISLAND OF JAVA.
and of neatness in the execution; and is carefully pointed out
to the notice of visitors. The annexed engraving will enable
the reader, in some measure, to form a judgment how far its
merits are correspondent to the high notions they bestow on
it. The inside, however, is fitted up with great neatness,
and a magnificent and fine-toned organ occupies completely
a side of the octagon. The pulpit of teak wood is a la-
borious piece of workmanship, which is executed in a good
style of carving. The expence of finishing this church is
calculated to have amounted to eighty thousand pounds.
The other public buildings consist in a Lutheran and a
Portugueze church, a Mahomedan mosque and a Chinese
temple ; the stadt-house, the spin-house, the infirmary,
the chamber of orphans, and some other institutions of
inferior note; beside a very convenient and extensive market
for butchers' meat, poultry, fish, grain and vegetables.
The private houses of the inhabitants, and particularly of
those in the service of the East India Company, are gene-
rally of great dimensions; the rooms are lofty, the doors and
windows large. Most of the wood work and the furniture
within are painted of a light chocolate brown, and all the
mouldings are gilt. The ground floors are flagged with
smooth blue stones or square brown tiles which, being frc-
quently washed in the course of the day, communicate a
refreshing and an agreeable coolness to the lower apartments.
From a register that is kept of the taxable dwelling
houses in the city and suburbs of Batavia, it appears that
there are 7
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THE ISL AND OF JAVA. 177
Houses.
Within the walls º º tºº *º- 1993
In the south suburbs t_º º *-*. 4 ºn 508
In the suburbs near the Rotterdam gate *º tº 732
In the suburbs near the Utrecht gate, chiefly inhabited
by Javanese and free Malays *º sº *- 760
In the Chinese town on the western side tº wº 1277
Making in the whole 5270
Which, together with the villages and villas within a circuit
of ten miles round Batavia, contain a population of about
116,000 souls, consisting of
East India Company's servants of every descrip-
tion 800, and with their families tºº *- 3,300
Burghers or free citizens 1138, and with their
families * tº-º i º º wº 5,000
Javanese and free Malays º - * 68,000
Chinese +ºm * t- sº º sº 22,000
Slaves º tº- * tº tº- 17,000
Total 115,960
But the total population within the extent of the govern-
ment of Batavia is reckoned at 150,000 souls; that of all the
other Dutch settlements on Java collectively at 230,000;
and of the whole island, which, however, is little better
than a guess, at 2,000,000,
178 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
The mortality of Europeans in Batavia is far beyond what
is known in any other settlement, exceeding, in the best of
times, that in the most fatal of the West India islands. Of
persons newly arrived the usual calculation is that three in
five will die the first year; and, of the remaining survivors, the
mortality is never considered to be less than from nine to twelve
in the hundred, which is the usual proportion of seasoned Euro-
peans, exclusive of infants. Among these, likewise, are notin-
cluded either troops or seamen. The havock which this perni-
cious climate, added to their debaucheries and irregular conduct,
occasion among these thoughtless people, is truly deplorable.
The register of deaths in the military hospital in 62 years
announted to 78,000 persons, or 1258 every year; and as the
establishment of European troops Sclaom exceeded 1500, and
was generally less than half that number, it may fairly be con-
cluded that every soldier who has been sent out to Batavia has
perished there, which is I believe literally the fact. In 1791 a
detachment of troops, hired by the Dutch from the Duke of
Wirtomberg, was sent from the Cape of Good Hope to this place,
contrary to the express terms on which they agreed to enter. It
consisted of six officers and 270 men. The following year five of
the officers and 150 privates had fallen a sacrifice to the climate.
The condition of a German soldier, thus lent out by his mer-
cenary master to fight the battles of a foreign power in the
most destructive of all climates, is equally deplorable with
that of a negro slave ; and the petty princes who raise a re-
venue, for the support of their splendour, by such unwar-
rantable and inhuman means, descrve to be considered, in
this respect, in a point of view not more favourable than the
common traffickers in negro slaves.
º
Aft
THE ISLAND OF JAVA. I 79
But the great mortality of Europeans in Batavia is by no
means confined to the troops and the seamen. An extra-
ordinary instance of the fatal effects of the climate, even
among the seasoned Europeans, is related by Mr. Thunberg.
Towards the end of the year 1775, he dimed at the table of
his friend Dr. Hoffman, in company with thirteen persons,
all of whom, on his return from Japan in the month of January
1777, had paid the debt of nature, except the doctor and
himself. I heard a young lady say that, in the course of ten
months after their arrival, out of eleven persons of which her
family consisted, her father, brother, and six sisters had fallen
a sacrifice to the noxious air of Batavia. We had indeed, in our
own instance, a fatal proof of the malignancy of this climate.
Notwithstanding every precaution that was taken for pre-
serving the health of the crew, a dysentery accompanied with
typhous fever was here brought on board, which continued with
more or less severity during the remaining part of the Voyage.
We had not lost a man on our arrival at this place, but from
hence to the end of the voyage there died not fewer than
fifty men.
Of the 115,960 inhabitants of Batavia and its neighbour-
hood the mortality is rarely less than 4000 souls. The account
is probably not kept with much accuracy, but the following
numbers of the several classes of inhabitants may be consi-
dered as pretty nearly the truth.
Deaths.
Dutch, half-cast and families * > * 790 being 9 per cent.
Chinese * tººk gº 700 3.
Natives and Malays gº tºº 1485 — 2;
Slaves - * {º 1396 7 :
Deaths in one year 4376 in 115,900
A A 2
i8O THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
Exclusive of the military, seamen, and slave children
who are not registered. So that the effects of the cli-
mate, or, perhaps more strictly speaking, the circumstances
under which the different descriptions of people live in
this climate, are most destructive to the European settlers
and their families, and to their slaves—to those who are
most intemperate in their living, and to those who are at
the complete mercy of the intemperate. The degree of heat
is not, indeed, by any means so high as might be expected
in a large tract of land so little removed from under the
equinoctial line, and in a portion of it at a considerable dis-
tance from mountains or high grounds. The usual tempera-
ture, in the middle of the day, is from 84° to 86°; but it
fluctuates from 76° to 96. During night the thermometer sel-
dom sinks below 72”, or rises higher than 76°. It is not, there-
fore, the great heat to which must be ascribed the destructive
effects to the human race, so much as other circumstances
connected with the local situation and the imprudent manner
of living. Patavia is built on the midst of a swampy plain,
out of which is constantly engendered a foul and contami-
nated atmosphere, stagnating over it ill calm weather, and
circulating through it from whatever quarter the wind may
happen to blow. On that side of the city which is inland
the industrious Chinese carry on their various manufactures,
such as tanning leather, burning shells into lime, baking
earthen ware, boiling sugar, and distilling arrack. Their
rice grounds, their sugar plantations, and their gardens well
stocked with all kinds of vegetables, surround the city. In
these gardens, as in their own country, they sink large tubs
or earthen vessels, into which are collected all sorts of animal
and vegetable matte‘, to be converted by putrefactive fer-
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I 3 I
mentation into manure. Nor do the sea breezes, which in
most of the tropical situations are cool and refreshing, afford
any relief to Batavia. It is true they set in pretty regularly
about ten in the morning, and continue till four or five in the
afternoon ; and the land breeze comes from the mountains
towards nine or ten in the evening, continuing at intervals till
day-break: but, as I have already observed, both the one
and the other, in passing over the intermediate marshy
ground, are equally impregnated with contagious vapours.
The ditches within the city are many of them stagnant, and
highly offensive ; and the Dutch have the imprudent custom
of burying their dead not only within the city walls but also
in the churches. It is not, therefore, in the least surprizing
that diseases of a fatal nature should prevail in such a
country. The most common of these are dysenteries and
putrid and inflammatory fevers, which in the course of a very
few days, and sometimes in a few hours, prove fatal ; or they
terminate in a regular intermittent, which, settling in a
quotidian or tertian ague, is afterwards with difficulty got
rid of. The predisposition of the body for disease is such,
that very slight wounds are frequently attended with gangrene
or lock-jaw. Very few survive the age which is considered in
Europe as the middle point of life.
The usual way of dividing the year, as in most tropical
climates, is into the rainy and the dry seasons, the first set-
ting in about November and continuing through April; but
the Dutch, absurdly enough, both in speaking and writing,
give names to the months as having some reference to their
productions, or other circumstances which distinguish them, in
182 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
:
º
Europe: thus, they have their Hay month, their Wine month,
their Flower month ; and, unluckily for their nomenclature,
as used in this place, their j} inter month happens when the sun
is nearly vertical. Who would have suspected that the
Brumaire, the Germinal, the Floreal, and almost the whole of
the French republican calendar, were stolen from their Dutch
friends, who have been in the constant use of it for cen-
turies past It is doubtful if the French will retain it so long,
and whether, in their thirst for novelty, they may not pro-
pose to compliment the present august family on the throne
by a transfer of their names to the calendar months, or, which
would be more convenient for themselves and the rest of
Europe, revert to the old ones which have stood the test of
So many ages.
It has been observed that metals and other valuable pro-
ductions of the mineral kingdom are usually found in the
greatest abundance under poor and barren soils. Admitting
the converse of this observation to be true, the surface of the
island of Java, covered with a fertile soil and clothed with a
redundant vegetation, holds out little encouragement for the
researches of the mineralogist. There are, it is true, high
and naked mountains in the central parts of the island,
whose summits are occasionally wrapt in Snow, and some-
times involved in the smoke of volcanic fires ; but little is
known of their structuro and materials. Various eruptions
are said to have happened since the Dutch first settled on the
island, and slight shocks of earthquakes have frequently
been felt ; and in several places near the feet of the moun-
tains are thermal springs, whose waters are impregnated with
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. 18
3
iron. Beyond these facts little if any thing is known to the
Dutch. The soil of the island may generally be considered
as pure vegetable mould, resting on clay, or argillaceous irou
stone, or coarse lime-stone of a loose and porous texture, the
remains, perhaps, of coral rocks crumbled into amorphous
masses by the all-destroying hand of time. The northern
coast is almost wholly girt by coral fabrics.
There are not, probably, many spots on the globe which,
on the same space, can boast of so rich and varied a fund
of vegetable productions as are to be found on the island of
Java; of trees so remarkable for the grandeur and elegance
of their appearance, the beauty and fragrance of their
flowers, and the richness and variety of their fruits. To
enumerate the valuable articles it produces towards supply-
ing the necessities, the conveniencies, and the luxuries of
mankind is a task for which I am not prepared, nor, if I
were, would it be consistent with the plan of the present
work, which professes only general description and observa-
tion ; I shall mention, therefore, such only as are most re-
makable for their beauty, utility, or some peculiar quality,
in the neighbourhood of Batavia.
Among the grand and numerous tribe of palms, the cocoa
claims the first distinction. This tall and majestic tree, so
abundantly spread over the low coasts of most of the Oriental
islands, appears to be in Java of more luxuriant growth than
I remember to have seen it elsewhere, towering sometimes to
the astonishing height of 150 feet. The nut, when young,
contains a milky fluid, of which the natives are excessively
i 84 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
fond, and which they collect into pots suspended at the ex-
tremity of the branches. To fix these vessels is an operation
which appears to be attended with no small degree of dan-
ger: rather than to take the trouble of ascending the high
stem of each individual tree, the usual method is to lay poles
horizontally from one to the other, and to crawl along these
poles. The liquid that exudes through the footstalk of the
young nut, or rather the germ out of which the nut is pro-
duced, is called by the Dutch, after passing the first stage of
fermentation, palm wine ; but it is seldom used by them,
having a strong and disagreeable flavour. In the second
stage, it becomes a pleasant vinegar. The uses, indeed, to
which this liquid is applied are very various: it is a material
ingredient in the distillation of arrack; if slowly evaporated
over the fire, or in the open air, the residue is a coarse brown
sugar. The pulpy substance of the nut, when ripe, is sweet
and nutritive, the liquid it then contains agreeable and re-
freshing, and an oil of very extensive use is expressed from
the kernel. This tree is, in fact, to the natives of Java what
the bamboo is to those of China. Their humble dwellings are
almost entirely constructed from the materials which it sup-
plies. The principal posts or standards, the poles of the
roof, the rafters and the laths, are hewn out of its stem ; and
its leaves are used for thatch. It furnishes them with various
implements, utensils, and domestic furniture. The shell of
the nutt is converted into cups, whose surfaces are carved
with great skill and neatness into a variety of figures and
devices, exhibiting curious specimens of what may very pro-
perly be called “ the laborious effects of idleness.” The
fibres of the husk, which covers the nut, are manufactured
7

THE ISL AND OF J A V A. 18.5
*
into mats, into a coarse kind of cloth, ropes, and small
cordage. Among the many just observations which mark the
authenticity of the accounts of two Mahomedan travellers,
who visited China in the ninth century, that of the variety of
uses to which the cocoa tree is applied is not the least curious.
“ The people of Oman,” says one of these travellers, “go to
“ the Cocoa islands, and, having felled the tree, with the
“ bark spin a yarn, with which they sew the planks together,
“ and so build a ship ; of the same wood they cut and round
“ away a mast; of the leaves they weave the sails, and the
“ bark they convert into cordage: having thus completed
“ their vessel, they load her with cocoa nuts, which they
“ carry back to sell at Oman.” i
Of all the delicious fruits that are produced in the East,
perhaps I may venture to say in the whole world, the man-
goostan may fairly set up its claim to the preference. The
tree on which it grows, though not magnificent, is extremely
beautiful, bearing, like the orange, both fruit and flowers at
the same time on the extremities of the branches. This fruit
is no less fascinating to the eye than it is gratifying to the taste.
Its form is round, generally a perfect sphere; the colour a
bright or dark purple, according to the degree of its ripeness;
it rests in a permanent green calyx, and the upper part is
surmounted by a corona, which is generally divided into as
many rays as the fruit within consists of lobes, which are of
a delicate white pulpy substance, covering each a small nut.
The husk or shell contains a brown astringent juice, which,
with oxyd of iron, makes a clear shining ink of a deep
purple. The annexed plate will convey a tolerably correct
Tº B
\
186 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
idea of the leaves, flower, and fruit of the mangoostan. The
mango is another fruit of exquisite flavour, when of a good
sort, but of that peculiar taste which is not relished by every
palate. It grows on a large spreading tree, not unlike the
walnut. The Rambootan or hairy fruit (the Nephelium Echi-
natum) and the Poolasang (a larger species of the same genus)
are cool and agreeable fruits, of a delicate subacid flavour,
highly refreshing in a warm climate. The trees on which
they grow are shewy, free, and elegant. The annexed is a
branch of the rambootan : the leaves of the poolosang are
much narrower; the fruit is larger and wants those hairy
spines which cover the former. Oranges, lemons, citrons, and
shaddocks, are plentiful in the gardens about Batavia; so
also is the Eugenia or rose apple, of which there are two
species; the Averhoa, consisting likewise of two species (the
/Carambola which is used for tarts, and the Belimbing as a
pickle), guavas, annonas, dates, and bananas. The Atro-
carpus or Jack fruit grows wild in great plenty, as does also
a large fruit called the Doorian, whose smell is extremely
disgusting, and flavour somewhat like what one might sup-
pose the taste to be of a custard seasoned with garlic; but
both the tasté and the smell are said not only to lose their offen-
sive qualities by frequent use, but to become extremely fascinat-
ing. The fragments, however, of this fruit are strictly prohibited
from being thrown into the streets ; nor are they suffered to
remain about the stalls in the market, on account of the fetid
smell, which, when in a state of putrefaction, is supposed to
taint the air and render it highly injurious to health. A fruit
called the Boa Lansa is in great estimation among the several
classes of inhabitants. It grows in clusters like grapes, upon
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T H E ISL AND OF J A V A. 187
a tree of moderate size. Each individual fruit bears a resen-
blance to the famous Li-tchi of China, being a pulpy sub-
stance of a delicate subacid taste, comprehended within a
thin crustaceous covering. Pine apples are produced in such
abundance that they are sent into the city, like turnips to
Covent Garden, piled up in carts. As a fruit they are not
much esteemed, except for preserving in sugar. Their acid
juices are employed for removing rust from sword blades,
knives, and other articles of polished iron. Most of the fruits
of Europe have been transplanted hither, but, as might be
expected, they dwindle and degenerate in an equinoctial
climate.
Among the trees that are remarkable for singularity or
beauty may be noticed the Casuarina Equisetifolia, so named
from the general resemblance of its small pendent branches
to the hair of the casuary and the plant Equisetum or Horse-
tail : the Mitchelia Tchampaca, one variety bearing white,
and the other yellow, flowers of exquisite fragrance, yielding
by distillation a spirit more powerful, but not less delicate,
than the perfume which is extracted from roses; the Termi-
malia Catappa, a grand and beautiful tree, which bears a nut
usually known by the name of the Indian almond ; and which,
with the Bombat and the Erythrina Corallodendrum, are per-
haps the only instances in this country of trees whose leaves
are deciduous. The Bombar bears a long pod, which con-
tains a silky substance like the pod of the Asclepias ; but its
short staple renders it unfit for other purposes than the stuffing
of cushions or mattresses. Thousands of variegated loories
B B 2
I 88 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
visit the coral trees, when they push forth their large clusters
of scarlet flowers, in the same manner as the little paroquets
frequent the same species of tree in Southern Africa. The
Lyriodendrum Tulipiferum, the Magnolia, the Melia, and
Bignonia, are all of them shewy and elegant trees.
The trees, the shrubs, and the herbaceous plants, that are
cultivated in the gardens of Batavia for their beauty or their
fragrance, are very numerous. Among them we observed
the Gardenia Florida, and another species called Catjepering,
the Caryophyllum or clove, the Laurus Cinnamoma or cinnamon
tree, the Myristica or nutmeg, the Nyctanthes or Arabian jasmine,
the Polianthesortuberose, which is here called the Soondal Mallam,
the Wanton of the might ; the Plumeria, which is usually planted
near the graves, the Ocymum Basilicum, the Seree or lemon grass,
which is used as an ingredient in the favourite dish of Currie.
Among the aromatic plants those held in most esteem are the
three species of pepper, the common black pepper, the betel,
and the Seriboo or long pepper, which is used by the several
natives either alone or with the betel leaf; the different species
of Capsicum, the common ginger, and that species produc-
ing what the Dutch call Cardomums, which are the silicles
or pods of the Amomum Compactum. These seeds are eaten
by the ladies to sweeten the breath, and to remove any
offensive smell that might remain after the daily use of garlic
and onions, which always enter into the standing dish of
Currie. Every lady carries about with her a box of cardo-
mums, which she presents to her friends or strangers in the
same manner as the snuff-box is presented in Europº.
7
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. 189
Among the plants which were considered to be rare and
curious we saw, in one of the gentlemen's gardens, the
Elastic Gum tree, the Convolvulus Jalappa, the Styrar
Liquida, the Bread Fruit, and the Areca Oleracea or moun-
tain cabbage tree of the West Indies. But the most extra-
ordinary plant that occurred, and which is said to be very
common in most of the Eastern islands, was the Nepenthes
Distillatoria or pitcher plant. There is not, perhaps, among
the numerous examples that occur of the provident economy
of nature, in the vegetable part of the creation, a more re-
markable instance of contrivance adapted to circumstances.
of means suited to the end, than what is evidently displayed
in this wonderful plant. Being the inhabitant of a tropical
climate, and found on the most stoney and arid situations,
nature has furnished it with the means of an ample supply of
moisture, without which it would have withered and perished.
To the footstalk of each leaf, and near the base, is attached
a small bag, shaped like a pitcher, of the same consistence
and colour of the leaf in the early stage of its growth, but
changing with age to a reddish purple ; it is girt round with
an oblique band or hoop, and covered with a lid neatly
fitted, and moveable on a kind of hinge or strong fibre which,
passing over the handle, connects the vessel with the leaf.
By the contraction of this fibre the lid is drawn open when-
ever the weather is showery, or dew's fall, which would ap-
pear to be just the contrary of what usually happens in na-
ture, though the contraction probably is occasioned by the
hot and dry atmosphere, and the expansion of the fibre does
not take place till the moisture has fallen and saturated the
pitcher. When this is the case the cover falls down, and it
I 9o T H E IS LAND OF J A V A.
closes so firmly as to prevent any evaporation from taking
place. The water, being gradually absorbed through the
handle into the footstalk, gives vigour to the leaf and suste-
nance to the plant. As soon as the pitchers are exhausted,
the lids again open to admit whatever moisture may fall;
and when the plant has produced its seed, and the dry season
fairly sets in, it withers, with all the covers of the pitchers
standing open. Why the name of Homer's grief-dispelling
plant should have been transferred to the pitcher plant I am
unable to explain ; but it does not appear to be possessed of
any sedative or marcotic quality like
& C
that Nepenthes which the wife of Thonc
“ In Egypt gave to Jove born Helena.”
Many of the products of Java are not less valuable in a
commercial point of view, than those which I have enume-
rated are useful to the natives, curious to the traveller, or
ornamental to the face of the country. Of such may be men-
tioned, among the most important, sugar, coffee, cocoa,
spices, sago, cotton, and indigo. The Catjang is cultivated
by the Chinese for the sake of the oil expressed from the
seed, which is not only used abundantly among themselves
and by other natives, but is also exported to China. Several
hundred acres, at no great distance from Batavia, are an-
nually covered with this plant, which appears to be a species
of Dolichos, of low growth and very prolific in long pods
which rest upon, and even grow into, the earth. The Caja-
putta oil, expressed from the Melaleuca Leucadendrum, is
greatly esteemed as a specific for removing rheumatic com-
plaints, both in the eastern and the western world. The
THE IS LAND OF J A V A. I'91
Nardus or spikenard, Sandal wood, and Calambac or aloes
wood, are products of Java, and form a part of the trade
with China. The Cassia Fistula, with its long pendent seed
pods filled with a medullary substance in which the beans are
embedded, was once considered as one of the most approved
laxatives, and great quantities of it were sent to Europe, but
modern practitioners have expelled this drug, among a whole
host of former, remedies, from the pages of the Pharmacopoeia.
The roots of the Caladi Ayer or Water Caladi (the Arum Es-
culentum) furnish, when boiled, an article of food ; and the
broad leaves, as a topical application, are considered to be
efficacious in dispelling the pains of the gout. The Calamus
Rotang is a very useful creeper, and is worked into chair
bottoms, mats, and sofas.
After the notoriety which the baneful Upas has obtained
from the republication, in a popular work, of a most extraordi-
nary account of this poisonous tree that first appeared several
years ago in the Gentleman's Magazine, it would have been
an unpardonable neglect in us not to make very particular in-
quiry into the degree of credibility which is attached by the
inhabitants of the island to its existence ; and, if such tree
did exist, to endeavour to learn how far its deleterious quali-
ties might correspond with those which had been ascribed to
it. Accordingly we seldom entered a garden or plantation
without interrogating the people cmployed in them as to the
Upas. The result of our inquiries was little favourable to the
truth of Foersch's relation, which carries with it, indeed, in-
ternal marks of absurdity. It required some ingenuity to con-
ceive the existence of a single tree, the sole individual of its
I
92 T H E IS L AND OF JAVA.
species, standing on the middle of a naked plain, of a nature
so baneful that not only birds, beasts, and every living crea-
ture which come within the circle of the atmosphere con-
taminated by its poisonous effluvia, instantly perish, but so
deleterious as to wither up and destroy all other plants, and
to devour, like Saturn, its own offspring as they pullulate
from its roots. Such a monster in nature, with “its thousand
“ tongues steeped in fell poison,” is almost too much for the
page of romance, or the wildest fiction of poetry. Yet the
relation was not wholly discredited. “ That which is
“ strange,” says Dr. Johnson, “is delightful, and a pleasing
“ error is not willingly detected.” The magic pen of Dr.
Darwin, by celebrating the wonders of this wonderful tree
“ In sweet tetrandrian monogynian strains,”
made the error still more pleasing, and consecrated, as it
were, the fiction of the Upas.
As fabulous stories have sometimes, however, their origin
in truth, so that of the Upas may probably not be wholly
groundless, but admit of some explanation. In tropical cli-
mates, plants possessing noxious qualities are very common.
Java is considered to abound with them. The first of this
kind that was discovered might probably have the name of
Upas conferred on it, which name, being afterwards adjunc-
tively applied to all other plants possessing the same quali-
ties, became the appellative for every poisonous tree. That
this was the common acceptation of the word Upas, I in-
ferred from its being connected with the trivial name of all
such plants as were either known, or supposed, to contain
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I93
poisonous qualities. Thus, for instance, the Dioscorea Dele-
teria was called the Ubi Upas, which may be translated the
poisonous potatoe. The seed of a tree bearing a papilionaceous
flower, and apparently a species of Sophora, was called the
Upas Bidjie, the poisomous seed. Thus, also, a triangular-
stemmed Euphorbia, a species of Solanum, a Datura, and seve-
ral other plants of real or supposed noxious qualities, had all
of them the word Upas joined to their proper names. In this
sense, the Bohun or Boon Upas of Foersch would imply neither
more nor less than a poisonous tree, and not any particular
species of tree, much less an unconnected individual sui
generis, bearing the name of Upas.
It is generally believed in Batavia, that both the Malays
and Javanese wear crisses or daggers that have been steeped
in vegetable poison. So was it generally believed in Athens,
two thousand years ago, that Demosthenes carried poison
about with him, lodged under the gem of his ring. The one
appears to be just as probable as the other; but, whether
true or false, the Dutch are not less credulous than the
Athenians were in this respect. We were told by the old
governor of Bantam fort, that when the king of that dis-
trict is desirous of proving the virtues of a new cris, he calls
before him one of his slaves, and pricks his arm with its
point. The value of the instrument is estimated according to
the length of time which elapses before the poison begins to
operate and the rapidity with which the victim is dispatched,
which is stated to take place sometimes in the course of a
few minutes. I have read somewhere (I think in Tavernier)
of an instance of this kind, which, if a fact, evinces a very
C C
194 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
extraordinary power in some of their poisons. An English
sailor at Madura was condemned, for some high crime, to
suffer death by a poisoned dart. The executioner, who was
the Prince himself, agreed to deliver up the culprit to the
T]utch and English surgeons immediately after being struck,
and allowed them also to name the spot where he should hit
him. The fleshy part of the great toe was pointed out for
this purpose, which was accordingly pierced by the dart of
the Prince. Every preparation being made for immediate
amputation, the toe was instantly taken off, notwithstanding
which a mortification ensued, and the man died. Admitting,
however, the fact to have been as here stated, the climate
and the general relaxation of the habit might also have
operated, in conjunction with the poison, in producing this
speedy dissolution.
To this relaxed state of the body may certainly be attri-
buted the fatality attending many disorders which in Europe
are not considered to be dangerous. The prick of a pin or a
needle will sometimes oceasion a lock-jaw. The Dutch doc-
tors are also of opinion, that certain cases of hydrophobia
which have occurred, notwithstanding no instance of canine
madness was ever known on the island, may be attributed
to climate, and the state of the constitution as effected by it.
The bite of the large Indian rat, commonly called the Ban-
dicoot, is supposed to occasion hydrophobia and certain
death ; an opinion which, I understand, is also entertained
on the coast of Malabar. The bite of an enraged man is said
to be as certain of producing hydrophobia as that of a mad
dog, two cases of which had happened not long before our
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I 9 5
arrival.
One of them being stated by Dr. Le Dulx, in the
5th volume of the Transactions of the Batavian Society, a
work little known in Europe, I shall use no apology for in-
serting a translation of it.
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“ On the 17th March, 1789, information was laid before
the Court of Justice that the Writer, Bal/hasar I am Ilief,
in a fit of madness, had plunged a kºiſe into his bowels.
The Court proceeded to the place without delay, attended
by the town surgeon, Lombart, where they found the pa.
tient, by direction of the surgeon attending him, bound
and in strong convulsions, particularly of the eyes. The
family being interrogated as to the origin of his complaint
related that, four or five days previous to the act, the pa-
tient had a quarrel with a friend, which proceeded to a
furious scuffle, when his antagonist, finding himself not a
match for the patient, in the moment of rage bit him in the
arm. The wound was bound up in the usual way, with-
out the least idea being entertained of the dreadful conse-
quences which a bite thus made in the heat of passion was
capable of producing. Three days after this happened the
patient was attacked with fever, but still no particular
regard was had to the wound. The surgeon who attended
him observed that he was in a state of continued delirium ;
that he had a great antipathy to every kind of medicine
and, in particular, a strong aversion to water. On
the fourth day the surgeon, on entering the apartment,
found him stabbing himself repeatedly with a knife. With
some difficulty they seized and bound him down on a sofa.
On the town surgeon being sent for, he offered him a
C C 2
I 96 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
{ {
spoonful of water which he refused, but, on being told it
was gin, he endeavoured with great difficulty to swallow
“ it. When a glass of water was presented to him, the most
“ ghastly spasmodic convulsions were observable in his face,
and over his whole body, accompanied with such a degree
of terror that he exclaimed, Water / Oh Jesus, have mercy
on me! His terror increased on wiping his bloody hands
with a wet napkin, when, in convulsive agonies, he called
out, Oh God, water 1 Perceiving clearly that hydrophobia
had supervened from the bite received in anger, we re-
solved to treat him accordingly, but he died in the after-
noon of the same day.”
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That the bite of a man is attended with very malignant
symptoms was a doctrine which prevailed in ancient times.
Pliny classes it among the very worst of wounds given in this
manner. Morsus hominum inter asperrimos quoque numeratur.
And it appears to be a well authoriticated fact, that many ami-
mals, beside dogs, when highly enraged, become morbid and ac-
quire the power of communicating the infection by their bite.
Dr. Le Dulx mentions in the same paper several instances of
hydrophobia succeeding to the bite of enraged animals, as
the case of a boy bit by a duck which he had disturbed in
its amours, and of a feeder of cocks who, being pecked in
the hand by one of these animals in separating it from its
antagonist, died under every symptom of hydrophobia and
madness. The bite of the common domestic cat, rendered
furious by provocation, is well known to produce hydro-
phobia. In what manner this extraordinary state of mor-
bidity in the animal body is generatcd remains yet an ar-
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I 97
canum in animal pathology; but it is pretty evident that
the poison is secreted by the salivary glands, and conveyed
into the circulation with the spittle of the morbid animal.
Most of the wild quadrupeds of Java, from the huge rhino-
sceros and the fierce buffalo to the least of all known four footed
beasts with the hoofs divided, the Moschus Pigmaus or pigmy
deer, are sufficiently well known to naturalists. Large crocodiles
abound in the rivers and creeks, which the Javanese, from their
being objects of terror, have raised to those of adoration. The
ancient story, first recorded by Herodotus, and after his day
repeated by Plutarch and Pliny, and quoted in modern
times by Montaigne and many others, concerning the Tro-
chilus or humming bird picking the teeth of the crocodile, is
firmly believed both by the Dutch and the natives. There is
not, in fact, any thing marvellous in the story. This huge
animal, fond of rolling in muddy waters, crawls on shore,
having his rough hide bedaubed with slime swarming with
worms and other animated beings. By these are attracted
numbers of little birds, perching on various parts of the
monster's carcase, whilst he is basking and sleeping in the
sun with his jaws yawning wide open. The Boa snake,
found in the forests of Java, is no less formidable than, and
not inferior in magnitude to, the crocodile. Some of these
are thirty feet long, and are said to be able to gorge the
calves of buffalos whole, and the largest hogs ; after which,
attaching themselves to trees by the tail, they remain in a
state of torpidity till the animals they have swallowed are
digested or dissolved. These woods abound in that species
of wild hedge-hog, the Erinaceus Malaccensis, in the gall-
! *
08 THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
bladder of which is sometimes found a stone, called by
the Portugueze the Pedra da Porco. To this stone the
Tutch ascribe many wonderful properties. When put into
a glass of wine for about an hour it communicates its virtues
to the liquor, which them becomes an infallible remedy for all
kinds of poison, for obstructions, fevers, agues, and a variety
of diseases. Iike the littimonial Cup, the Pedra da Porco is
a standing family medicine.
Another species of wild hog, the Sus Babyroussa, is also
common in the woods of Java. Philosophers had long
puzzled themselves in conjecturing what the design of nature
could be (as she does nothing without design) in giving to
this animal a pair of large curved tusks, pointing inwards to
the face in such a manner, as made it sufficiently clear they
could not be used either for attack or defence, for procuring
food, or for assisting the mastication of it when procured.
But as mature has made nothing in vain, it was necessary to
assign some purpose for the tusks of the Babyroussa. At
length it occurred, or was discovered, but by whom I do not
recollect, that the animal is fond of sleeping in a standing
posture and that, having a large ponderous head, it finds a
conveniency in hanging it upon the branch of a tree or shrub
within the reach of its tusks, which serve on such occasions
for books. This is at least an ingenious discovery, and may
be true; but if so, the habits of the animal must vary ac-
cording to local circumstances. The same species, or one so
like it that the difference is not distinguishable by any de-
scription or drawing that I have seen, is common among the
rocks on the deserts of Southern Africa, where, within the
7
THE ISL AND OF JAVA. I 99
distance of a hundred miles, there is neither tree nor shrub,
except a few stunted heaths or shrivelled Everlastings thinly
scattered over the barren surface. In such situations where
I have hunted and taken them, it would certainly be no easy
matter for the Babyroussa to find a peg to hang its head upon.
It would be endless to attempt an enumeration of the wild
animals with which this island abounds; of the leopards, and
wild cats, and squirrels, and monkies innumerable from the
Ourang-Outang to the little flying Lemur. For one species
of the monkey genus, called the ſlow-ſows the Javanese
pretend to have a kind of fellow feeling; there being a
tradition among them, that their ancestors originally sprung
from this species of ape.
The insect tribes, as in all warm climates, are here very
numerous, and the multitude of snakes, centipedes, scolo-
pendras, scorpions, and spiders, with white ants, mosquitoes,
fire flies, and a thousand other dangerous, disgusting, and
troublesome vermin, swarm in the streets and in the houses,
infesting even the sleeping rooms. The sting of the scorpion
is considered to be very dangerous, and sometimes fatal; but
the Javanese are persuaded, like the Hottentots in Africa
and the Romans of old, that the topical application of the
same animal which gave the wound will heal it. A
venomous spider is very common in the thickets of Java.
The diameter of the body is near two inches, and the length
of the fore legs or claws near four inches, covered with hair,
the colour black, and the mouth red. The webs spun by
this animal gave us considerable trouble, as we traversed the
woods about Anjeric point. Birds are said to be frequently
2 CO THE ISL AND OF JAVA.
entangled and caught in them, as in artificial nets. A
grave gentleman in London observed to me one day how
much he was surprized to find so marvellous an account of
the strength of spider-webs inserted in so valuable a book as
the Authentic Account of an Embassy to China. On being
told that I could inform him of something not less marvellous
respecting the spiders who made them, which was that the
mails of their fore claws were so large and strong, that it was
a common practice in Batavia to have them mounted on gold
or silver handles, and to use them as tooth-picks, I have little
doubt he was ready to exclaim with Gay,
“ The man who with undaunted toils
“ Sails unknown seas to unknown soils,
“What various wonders feast his sight,
“What stranger wonders does he write ſ”
It is scarcely necessary to add that the forests and the
mountains of Java produce an immense number and variety
of the feathered race, from the large cassowary or emeu to
the minute humming bird little larger than the common bee:
and though the plumage of the birds of Java may not perhaps
be put in competition with that of the feathered race of South
America, which taken collectively are unquestionably the most
splendid in the world, yet many of the loories and paroquets
are here singularly beautiful. Of that clegant bird the Argus
pheasant we procured a number of perfect specimens, but it is
said to be rarely brought alive out of the woods. The fire-
backed pheasant, the crowned pigeon, the Fulica Porphyrio,
the several birds of Paradise, the various species of Oriolus
or golden thrush, and of the Alcedo or kingfisher, and, to de-
scend to the smaller kinds, as the Java sparrows or rice
THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 2O I
birds and the avadavat, are sufficiently beautiful to deserve
a distinguished place in the class of the animal kingdom to
which they belong.
Having thus taken a very superficial view of the most
striking productions of Java, I shall, in the next chapter,
attempt to pencil out a few general outlines of the character
and features of the various nations by which the city of
Batavia is inhabited.
2O2 B A T A V I A,
C H A P. VIII.
BAT AVI A.
Reception by the Dutch Governor—Van Weegerman's Villa and Dinner—The
Governor’s Ball and Supper—Dutch Mode of Living—Consequences of it—
The Chinese—Their Industry and Prosperity—jealousy of the Dutch, and
horrid Consequences of it—javanese, their Habits of Life, and Condition—
Their spare Dict—Their apparent Origin from the Hindus—Their Re-
ligion—Inconsistencies of Transmigration—Of Animal Life being produced
by a fortuitous Concurrence of Circumstances—The Malays—Their Cha-
racter and vindictive Spirit—Attachment to Gaming—Instance of the fero-
cious Conduct of the Malays—Slaves of different Nations, their Disposition,
Condition, and Employment.
If a stranger should happen to make his first entrance into
the city of Batavia about the middle of the day, he would be
apt to conclude it deserted by the inhabitants. At this time
the doors and windows are all shut, and not a creature, ex-
cept perhaps a few slaves, is stirring in the streets. But if
he should enter the city in the morning or the evening, his
eye will not be less attracted by the vast crowds of people
moving about in the principal streets, than by the very great
variety of dress and complexion which these crowds exhibit.
Here he will at once behold every tint of colour, except that
of rosy health, from the pallid hue of the sickly European,
through the endless shades of brown and yellow, to the jetty
B A T A W I A. 203
black of the Malabar; and the dresses of the several nations,
both as to fashion and materials, are as various as their
colour and cast of countenance. That class of men which
bears a complete sway over the island is by much the least
numerous; it is even rare to see a single wel edele hoog ge-
booren Hollander, a right honourable high-born Dutchman,
condescending to walk the streets. “ Nothing from
“ Europe,” he observes, “but Englishmen and dogs walk
“ in Batavia.” Whenever he has occasion to take this
kind of exercise, he puts on his full dress suit of velvet,
and is attended by a suitable retinue of slaves: sensible
how very necessary it is, where power is but ideal, to put
on an imposing appearance. But the Armenians, the
Persians, and the Arabs, always grave and intent on busi-
ness; the half-cast merchants from the different ports of
Hindostan ; and, above all, the Chinese, some in long sattin
gowns and plaited tails reaching almost to their heels, and
others crying their wares to sell, or seeking employment in
their several professions, dressed in large umbrella hats, short
jackets, and long wide trowsers; the Javanese loitering care-
lessly along, as if indifferent to every thing around them :
the free Malays, with half-averted eye, looking with suspi-
cion on all who come across them; and slaves, from every
nation and country of the East, condemned to trudge in the
same path with the carriages:–all these, in the early and
latter parts of the day, may be seen bustling in crowds in the
streets of Batavia.
It would far exceed the limits I have prescribed, were I to
enter at full length into the manners and peculiar customs of
D D 2
2O4. B A T A V I A.
all or any of these people; but I shall endeavour to give such
a general sketch or outline of the character and situation of
the Dutch, the Chinese, the Javanese, the Malays, and the
Slaves, as may serve to throw some light upon their respec-
tive conditions in this great and once wealthy city, which,
from a miserable village of thatched hovels, rose into splendour
and Opulence, by the adventurous and successful commerce
of the Dutch, in the happy days of their freedom and indc-
pendence. --
On our first visit to Batavia, we were received with great
ceremony at the gates of the castle by the old Governor Van
Alting, accompanied with the wel edele heeren, composing
the Council of India. On this occasion we all suffered
greatly from the heat of the climate. It happened to be
about the middle of the day, when the sun was vertical, and
not a breath of wind stirring ; the mercury in Fahrenheit's
thermometer at 89° in the shade ; when, after abundant
ceremony in the open air, we were introduced into a close
narrow room, with a couple of windows at one end, nearly
filled with fat “ sleek-headed men,” dressed in suits of velvet
stiffened with buckram. In this narrow room, and mixed among
these warmly clad gentlemen, we were seated round a table
covered with crimson velvet, on chairs whose corresponding
cushions were stuffed with feathers. And though the very ap-
pearance of the furniture alone was enough to induce a fever,
two or three little chafing-dishes with live coals were set on
the table, for the accommodation of those who were inclined
to Smoke a pipe of tobacco, which, with wine, spirits, and
cakes, were handed round to the company.
B A T A V I A. 2O5
The ceremony of our introduction being ended, we pro-
ceeded from the castle to the country-house of ſ an IWeeger-
man, the second in council, to which we were conveyed in
small carriages, each drawn by a pair of ponies, and driven
by a black coachman, who, mounted on a high box, with a
large three-cornered hat and an enormously long whip, formed
no unimportant part of the equipage. The distance we had
to travel was only about a mile beyond the city gate. We
entered his villa by a draw-bridge thrown across a moat, with
which it was surrounded, and which was intended as well for
ornament as defence. Behind the house was a considerable
piece of ground laid out with much formality into a sort of
pleasure garden intersected, rather injudiciously it would
seem in such a climate, with fish ponds and canals or, more
correctly speaking, with puddles and ditches of dirty water.
The ground was well stocked with all kinds of tropical fruits,
and many rare plants peculiar to the island. Orange trees
of a large size, shaddocks and mangoes were loaded with
fruit; and every individual of the vegetable world seemed to
flourish with a vigorous luxuriance, except a few sickly
European plants, which were here and there seen drooping
in pots. On observing to our host how very bountiful nature
had been to this island in the distribution of some of her
choicest stores, he replied, “Ya mynheer het is wel waiir.”
“You are very right, Sir, we have abundance of every
“ thing ; and yet,” continued he, “ het is een vervlockſ land,”
“ it is an accursed country, to say the best of it, where we
“ eat poison and drink pestilence at every meal.” in what
this poison and pestilence consisted will best appear by a
short description of Van JWeegerman's dinner.
206 B A T A V I A.
We had scarcely set foot in the house when a procession
of slaves made its appearance, with wine and gin, cordials,
cakes and sweetmeats; a ceremony that was repeated to
every new guest who arrived. After waiting a couple of
hours the signal for dinner was given by the entrance of three
female slaves, one with a large silver bason, the second with
a jar of the same metal filled with rose water for washing the
hands, and the third with towels for wiping them. The com-
pany was very numerous and, the weather being remarkably
close, the velvet coats and powdered wigs were now thrown
aside, and their places supplied with short dimity jackets
and muslim night-caps. I certainly do not remember ever to
have seen an European table so completely loaded with what
Van Weegerman was pleased to call poison and pestilence.
Fish boiled and broiled, fowls in curries and pillaws, turkies
and large capons, joints of beef boiled and roasted and
stewed, soups, puddings, custards, and all kinds of pastry,
were so crowded and jumbled together that there was scarcely
any room for plates. Of the several kinds of dishes there was
generally a pair: a turkey on one side had its brother turkey
on the other, and capon stared at capon. A slave was
placed behind the chair of each guest, besides those who
handed round wine, gin, cordials, aird Dutch or Đanish
beer, all of which are used profusely by the Dutch under an
idea that, by promoting perspiration, they carry off in some
degree the effects of the poison and pestilence. After dinner
an elegant desert was served up of Chinese pastry, fruits in
great variety, and sweetmeats. There were not any ladies in
company. Van Weegerman being a bachelor had no
females in his house, except his haram of slaves amounting to
about fifty in number, assorted from the different nations of
the East, and combining every tinge of complexion from the
sickly faded hue of a dried tobacco leaf to the shining polish
of black marble. A band of Malay musicians played in the
viranda during dinner.
From table the Dutch part of the company retired to their
beds, in order to recover, by a few hours sleep, the fatigues
of eating and drinking, and to prepare for those of a far
more serious meal which was to follow. The dinner, in fact,
is considered only as a whetter of the appetite for supper.
The day of our landing happened to be, at the time when we
visited Batavia, a day of general festivity. It was the 8th of
March, the anniversary of the birth of the Prince of Orange,
and a most magnificent entertainment was prepared on the
occasion at the Governor's country-house. Here we had an
opportunity of witnessing as grand a display of splendour
and luxury as the wealth and the productions of the East
could supply or suggest. The amusements out of doors con-
sisted of a brilliant exhibition of fire-works, partly Furopean
and partly Chinese, which were let off in the midst of a large
garden, whose avenues were fancifully lighted up by thousands
of Chinese painted lanterns, hanging in festoons from the
branches of the trees, and connected with wreaths of natural
and artificial flowers. To those who had never had an op-
portunity of visiting Vauxhall, these illuminations were gazed
on with rapture; but, dazzling and splendid as they certainly
were, their brilliancy could not be put in competition with
that which lights up and enlivens the joyful scene of pleasure
on the banks of the Thames. In different parts of the Bata-
vian garden were stationed bands of musicians, some of
which were Malays, and others Germans belonging to the
298 BAT AVI A.
garrison. In front of the house a long row of booths was
erected, in which were exhibited the humours of a Dutch
fair; and, what to us was then more interesting, among these
booths were two or three temporary theatres, on which
Chinese comedians were entertaining the crowd on our first
arrival, and they continued to act without intermission the
whole night.
Having satisfied our curiosity as to the fair and the fire-
works, we repaired to the ball room, where the ladies were
already assembled ; and here we were struck with a very un-
usual display of finery, the singularity of which at least, if
not the beauty, very forcibly attracted our attention. Let
the reader imagine to himself about eighty or ninety ladies
seated round the sides of a long narrow room, superbly
dressed in the finest muslims that India affords, spangled with
gold and silver, and glittering with rubies and diamonds—Let
him figure to himself an equal number of little female slaves,
cach sitting at the feet of her mistress, and, except as to the
ornamental parts, nearly as well dressed as herself—Let him
imagine about half as many, as there were ladies, of tall,
bright, brazen candlesticks, like those that are sometimes
seen on the altars of Romish churches, arranged in a row on
the floor immediately before these splendid beauties, and
reflecting, like so many mirrors, the brilliant objects to
which they were opposed—Let him, morcover, figure to him-
self at least an equal number of gentlemen, all full dressed
in coats of cut velvet, shag breeches, bag wigs, and long
swords, besides the T3ritish officers both naval and military
in their respective uniforms, to say nothing of the Corps
diplomatiques—And having disposed this assemblage of objects
B A T A V I A, 209
in a long narrow room plainly furnished, he will then have a
tolerably correct notion of the appearance of the Governor's
ball-room at Batavia. But here, out of tenderness to the
Eastern beauties, I ought perhaps to stop short as, by en-
tering into a more detailed description, I shall be compelled
to throw a shade on the brilliant scene. Their dingy com-
plexions sufficiently indicated their kindred connexion to
some of the Oriental nations. Like those of the Chinese and
Malays, their black shining locks, glistening with a profusion
of cocoa nut oil, were smoothed up all round, and fixed in a
knot by golden bodkins on the crown of the head. Like the
Malays, also, the greater part of these dingy beauties were in
the delicate habit of chewing the areca nut and betel, the ne-
cessary consequence of which soon discovered the mistake we
had committed with regard to the Roman candlesticks: they
were, in fact, the ladies' spitting-boxes, to which the genteel
part of the Dutch give the name of Quispedoors, (probably
from the Spanish word Escupedero, a spitting-dish ;) but the
delicate name in vulgar use among the Dutch is Speuw-potjies.
Whatever real or pretended advantages the Batavian fair may
derive from the use of her favourite masticatory, the appear-
ance of her mouth, and the effect it produces, are to a stranger
shocking and nauseous, and, one would suppose, an invincible
antidote against inspiring the tender passion.
The pearls and the diamonds, spread in profusion over the
black shining locks of the ladies, appeared to great advantage
on such a ground ; and those whose circumstances did not allow
of so grand a display of jewels as their wealthier neighbours,
contrived, however, to make amends by the less glittering.
but not the less agreeable, ornament of chaplets of fragrant
F. E.
2 1 O B A T A V I A.
flowers, such as the Nyctanthes or Arabian jasmine (called
here Sambac), the Plumeria, the Michelia Tchampaca, and
the Polianthes or tuberose. The whole room was scented
with the powerful fragrance of these and other odoriferous
plants, whose perfumes were not, however, unmixed with the
less agreeable smell of cocoa nut oil. The Governor's daugh-
ter, who by the mother's side was of a dingy breed, was so
bespangled with jewels that, according to the Dutchmen's
valuation, she was whispered to be worth twenty thousand
rixdollars, or about four thousand pounds, as she then stood.
These ladics, thus splendidly adorned to appear in com-
pany, are dressed, when at home, just like their slaves, in
long loose printed or chequered cotton gowns, bare headed,
|)are necked, bare logged, and bare footed. Their only ob-
ject at home is to keep themselves cool, and at their perfect
case ; and by so doing, and living a more temperate life,
the mortality is by no moans so great among the women as in
the other sex.
*
A little after midnight a magnificent supper was served up
in the great hall which, it is almost unnecessary to add, con-
sisted of overy luxury and delicacy that the united stores of
Asia and Europe could supply. The company amounted at
|cast to one hundred and fifty persons. The old Governor
who, with the rest of the Dutchmen, had hitherto kept on
his full dressed suit of velvet, now threw off his coat and wig,
and took his seat at table in a light muslin jacket and a night-
cap. Many of the ladies, following his example, laid aside
their spangled gowns, and appeared in their dimity jackets.
These jolly dames took especial care that the strangers should
B. A. T A V I A. 2 I I
be well plied with wine, to which, at the same time, they
were by no means backward in helping themselves. Some of
the elder sort sat at table to a late hour, while the younger
part returned to the ball-room, where reels and jigs and horn-
pipes now took place of country dances. A Scoto-Batavian
officer displayed his raw-boned activity in a saraband, to
the great amusement of the native dames, who had seldom
witnessed such nimble capering. So fascinating was the en-
tertainment that it was near four in the morning before the
company dispersed.
It is almost superfluous to remark how very ill suited is the
mode of life I have here described to an equinoxial climate.
But the Dutchman, whose predominant vice in Europe is
avarice, rising into affluence in an unhealthy foreign settlement,
almost invariably changes this part of his character and, with a
thorough contempt of the frugal maxim of Moliere's L'Avare,
lives to eat rather than eats to live. His motto is, “ Let us
“ eat and drink, for to morrow we die.” He observes, it is
true, the old maxim of rising at an early hour in the morning,
not however for the sake of enjoying the cool breeze, and
of taking moderate exercise, but rather to begin the day's
career of eating and drinking. His first essay is usually a
sopie or glass of gin, to which succeed a cup of coffee and a
pipe. His stomach thus fortified, he lounges about the great
hall of the house, or the viranda if in the country, with a
loose night-gown carelessly thrown over his shoulders, a
night-cap and slippers, till about eight o'clock, which is the
usual hour of breakfast. This is generally a solid meal of
dried meat, fish and poultry made into curries, eggs, rice,
strong beer and spirits. Currie and rice is a standing dish
* E F 2
2 I 2 B A T A W I A.
\
at all meals and at all seasons of the year, being considered
as an excellent stimulus to the stomach. The business of the day
occupies little more than a couple of hours, from ten to twelve,
when he again sits down to dinner, a meal that is some-
what more solid than the breakfast. From table he retires to
sleep and remains invisible till about five in the evening, when
he rises and prepares for taking a ride or a walk, but generally
the former. In the open doors of the little covered carriages
male or female slaves, or both, sit on the steps, according as
they may happen to be occupied by gentlemen or ladies.
w *g * & g I
From seven to nine are the usual hours for receiving, and
returning visits, when they play cards, drink wine, and
smoke tobacco. In the dry season these evening parties
generally meet in the little summer-houses which, as I have
already noticed, are built on the margin of the canals, snuff-
ing the nauseous effluvia which abundantly evaporate from
the nearly stagnant water, and tormented by myriads of
mosquitoes and other insects, for the propagation of which
1 he climate, the dirty water, and the evergreen trees, are so
remarkably favourable. The inhabitants, however, are so
passionately attached to their canals and their trees, that a
proposal in the Council to fill up the one and cut down the
other had almost produced an insurrection in the city. But
neither these insects, troublesome as they are, nor the stench
of the water, can be considered as the most offensive
nuisances to which those evening parties are liable to be ex-
posed. The lower class of the inhabitants, the Javanese, the
Malays, the Chinese, and the slaves of every nation, descend
the steps of wooden ladders placed down the sides of the
canals, and there, without any ceremony, perform the rites
B A T A V I A, 2 I
3
of the goddess who, in our country at least, is usually wor-
shipped in retirement. Both men and women are constantly
meeting on the same step, without being in the least discon-
certed with themselves, or molested by the presence of the
parties in the summer-houses or bye-standers in the street.
The man turns his back to the water, and the woman faces
it. At this time of the day the canals are all alive with the
numbers of men, women, and children, that promiscuously
plunge into the water. The women are considered as the
best swimmers, paddling with their hands in the same manner
as quadrupeds do, and not striking out as is the common
practice among Europeans.
But these conveniencies and amusements which the canals
afford, and which are carried on under the eyes of the parties
of pleasure assembled on their banks, gross as they are, may
be considered as still less disgusting than a general usage in
the city, by which they are immediately succeeded. I have
somewhere met with an observation, that an Englishman in
building a house first plans out the kitchen, and a Dutchman
the necessary. But the Dutch in Batavia, like the good
people of Edinburgh, have contrived to dispense with con-
veniencies of this kind, for which I have heard two different
reasons assigned : one is, that the heat of the climate would
operate so as to create a putrid fever in the city ; and the other,
that the great bandicoot rat, of which I have spoken in the last
chapter, would infest the temple in such a manner as to render
the resort to it unsafe, especially for the male sex : the first
is absurd, the last ridiculous. Instead, however, of such
places of retirement they substitute large jars, manufactured
C 14 B A T A V I A,
for the occasion in China, narrow at top, low, and bulging
out in the middle to a great width. These jars remain un-
disturbed, in a certain corner of the house, for twenty-four
hours; at the end of which time, that is to say at nine in
the evening, the hour when all the parties usually break up
and return to their respective homes, the Chinese sampans or
dirt boats begin to traverse the canals of the city. At the well
known cry of these industrious collectors of dirt, the slaves
from the opposite houses dart out with their loaded jars, and
empty their contents in bulk into the boats. In this manner the
Chinese scavengers, paddling in their sampans along the several
canals, collect from house to house, for the use of their country-
men who are the only gardeners, “the golden store.” Such a
custom, in such a climate, can be no less injurious to health
than it is indecent and disgusting. But the Dutch appear to
be as insensible of the one as they are reconciled to the other.
If they happen to catch a passing breeze charged with the
perfume of these jars, they coolly observe, “Daar bloeit de
“foola monas horas"—the mine o'clock flower is just in blossom.”
The blooming of the nine o'clock flower is the signal for all
parties to disperse and betake themselves to their respective
homes, where, after a smoking hot supper, which is always
ready to receive them, they immediately retire to rest. The
ill effects that must necessarily result from such an intem-
perate life as I have here described are, indeed, not less per-
nicious than “poison and pestilence.” The natives are de-
stroyed at an early period of life, and the new comers rarely
get over what is called “the seasoning.” Those few that
cscape grow unwieldy and corpulent, but are soft, lax, and
B A T A V I A. I. I
S
weak, affording no bad illustration of an ancient doctrine re-
corded by Pliny, “Somno concoquere corpulentiac quam firm:-
“ tati utilius.”—“Digestion in sleep is more conducive to
“ corpulency than strength.'. In fact, such habits of life, in
such a climate, could not fail to exhaust the strength and cn-
feeble the constitution. The functions of life are fatigued,
the powers of the body are worn out by luxury, indolence.
and voluptuousness; and when disease attacks them, the
feeble victim, without nerves or stamina to resist it, falls a
speedy sacrifice, and sinks into the grave. Deaths of this
kind' are so frequent at Batavia, that they scarcely make any
impression upon the minds of the inhabitants. The fre-
quency of the event has rendered it familiar ; and they shew
no signs of emotion or surprize, beyond the shrug of the
shoulder, when they hear in the morning of the death of the
}
person with whom they supped in seemingly good health the
evening before,
Unexpected promotions and extraordinary removes to
situations, different from what the successful candidates were
originally designed, are not unfrequently the consequences of
the great and rapid mortality of Batavia. Our friend Wee-
german left his native country in the humble capacity of sail-
maker to one of the Company's ships. The barber has more
than once quitted the shaving profession for the pulpit. The
physicians have almost invariably emerged out of that class
of men whose original occupation was the handling of a razor,
and who, in their native country,
“ — shav’d, drew tecth, and breath'd a vein.”
2 16 B A T A V I A.
In both professions, however, there have been occasionally
at Batavia men of talent and character. But an equinoxial
climate is not more favourable for the growth of the arts and
sciences than a polar one. To give elasticity to the expan-
sion of the mind, and vigour to those energies of which it is
capable, the body requires to be placed in that state of ease
which no art nor pampering luxuries can possibly place it in
the extremes of heat or cold. Yet with every inconvenience
attending the worst of climates the Batavian society has
printed six octavo volumes, which, if they do not display
much depth of learning, evince at least a laudable desire of
extending the sphere of useful knowledge. *
The next description of the inhabitants of Batavia, who in
numbers and in Opulence exceed the former, is the Chinese.
These people, as appears from their records, first obtained a
settlement on Java about the year 1412. As intruders, but
not conquerors, it is probable they have at all times been
subject to harsh and oppressive treatment; but the restrictions
and extortions under which they at present labour seem to be
as unnecessary and impolitic as they are unjust. That they
should consent to the Mahomedan Malays and Javanese
exercising their devotions in the same temple which they built
at their own expence, and consecrated to the god of their
own worship, is by no means an unfavourable feature in their
character; but on the part of the Dutch, who enforce the
measure, it is one of the greatest insults that could well be
offered. The Chinese hospital or infirmary, which was
erected by voluntary contributions from their own community,
7
BAT A v I.A. 2 17
and is supported by legacies, by profits arising from theatri-
cal exhibitions and fire-works, and by a small tax on mar-
riages, funerals, and celebrations of public festivals, is equally
open for the benefit and reception of those who have not
contributed towards the establishment, and who do not be-
long to their society. Into this admirable institution are in-
discriminately admitted the infirm and the aged, the friend-
less and the indigent, of all nations. Towards the support of
those institutions, the temple and the infirmary, their contri-
butions are voluntary ; but, exclusive of these, their industry
is severely taxed by the Dutch government. Every religious
festival and public ceremony, every popular amusement, as
well as every branch of individual industry, are subject to
taxation. They are even obliged to pay for a licence to
wear their hair in a long plaited tail, according to the custom
of their country : for permission to bring their greens fo
market, and to sell their produce and manufactures in
the streets. Yet to the industry and the exertions of these
people are the Dutch wholly indebted for the means of
existing with any tolerable degree of comfort in Ba-
tavia. Every species of vegetable for the table is raised
by them in all seasons of the year, and at times when
the most indefatigable attention and labour are required.
They are masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, up-
holsterers, tailors, and shoemakers ; they are employed
in the arts of distilling, sugar-refining, pottery, line-burn-
ing, and every other trade and profession that are indis-
pensably necessary for making the state of civilized so-
ciety tolerably comfortable. They are, moreover, the con-
tractors for supplying the various demands of the civil,
F F
2 18 B A T A V I A.
military, and marine establishments in the settlement; they
are the collectors of the rents, the customs, and the taxes;
and, in short, are the monopolizers of the interior commerce
of the island, and, with the Malays, carry on the principal
part of the coasting trade.
That influence which would naturally follow from the
management of concerns so very important and extensive,
could not long be regarded by a weak and luxurious govern-
ment without jealousy. Those arts which Europeans have
usually employed with success in establishing themselves in
foreign countries, and which the Dutch have not been back-
ward in carefully studying and effectually carrying into prac-
tice, with regard to the natives of Java, could not be applied
with the least hope of success to the Chinese settlers. These
people had no sovereign to dethrone, by opposing to him the
claims of an usurper; nor did the separate interests of any
petty chiefs allow them, by exciting jealousy, to put in exe-
cution the old adage of divide et impera, divide and com-
mand. With as little hope of success could the masters of
the island venture to seduce an industrious and abstemious
people from their temperate habits, by the temptation of
foreign luxuries; and their general disposition to sobriety
held out no encouragement for the importation of spirituous
liquors and intoxicating drugs. For though the Chinese, who
are in circumstances to afford it, make use of opium to ex-
CeSS, yet this is a luxury in which the common people of this
nation rarely think of indulging. The Dutch, therefore, who
were weak in point of numbers, had recourse to a more de-
cisive and speedy measure of getting rid of a redundancy of
7
B. A. T A V I A. c 1 tº
population, which had begun to create suspicion and alavni,
They put them to the sword.
The horrible scenes that were exhibited in this abominable
transaction, which took place in the year 1740, have fre-
quently been mentioned, but the subject was never fairly
investigated. The cause has been ascribed solely to the
Dutch Governor Valkanier, who, disappointed in not being
able to extort a large sum of money from the Chinese chiefs
for permission to celebrate some particular feast, accused
them of a plot against the government. Many others, how-
ever, are supposed to have been implicated in this affair;
and it is strongly suspected that, in order to get rid of farther
inquiry, the coadjutors found it expedient to put an end to
the Governor by poison. The causes assigned on the public
records of Batavia are too absurd to deserve the least degree
of credit. By these it would appear that a man, assuming
the character of a descendant of the Emperor of China,
formed a conspiracy with some of the Princes of Java, the
object of which was to exterminate the Dutch ; that, with
this view, they had provided themselves with a quantity of
wooden cannon to batter down the walls of the city ; that
their plan was to seize the persons of the Governor General
and the Council, whose destiny was to be that of umbrella-
bearers to the Chinese chief; but the wives of these noble
personages were to be cut into minced meat, in order to he
eaten by the Chinese at one of their solemn feasts ; that a
general auto da fe was to be held in the early part of
the day for all Dutchmen that should be taken, and in
F F 9
22 O B A T A V I A.
the evening that all the women were to suffer the same
death. Their children were to be slaves to the imperial
family.
On such ridiculous surmises was the Chinese chief dragged
to the stadt-house, where the most horrid tortures were em-
ployed for the purpose of extorting from him the confession
of a crime which it had never entered into his mind to com-
mit; and, at the same time, about five hundred of this na-
tion were thrown into prison. The Dutch guards were
doubled ; and, while the work of torture was going on, a
fire, unluckily for the Chinese, broke out in that quarter of
the suburbs which was particularly inhabited by them. This
accident, occurring at the distance of half a mile without the
walls, was nevertheless construed into a malicious intention
to set fire to the whole city. The gates were doubly guarded,
the half-cast burghers were armed, the soldiers drawn out,
and the sailors landed from the ships in the road. The
Chinese were ordered, by proclamation, to confine themselves
to their houscs; but terror overcoming their discretion, and
fearful of being murdered within doors, they rushed forth to
meet their fate in the streets. The horrid tragedy now be-
gan, and neither age nor sex could avail in preserving the
victims from assassination. About four hundred who had
fled to their hospital, and five hundred who had been in-
prisoned, were speedily put to death. Numbers without the
city, who had hastened to the gates to learn what was doing
within, were set upon by the soldiers and put to death.
Within, the streets ran with blood.
B A T A V I A. 22. I
No sooner had the work of destruction ended than that of
plunder began. The soldiers and sailors were seen scrambling
among the dead bodies, their hats and pockets loaded with
dollars, quarrelling for the spoil, fighting, maiming, and
murdering one another. This extraordinary affair took place
on the 9th of October ; the whole of the 10th was a day of
plunder; and on the 11th they began to remove out of the
streets the dead bodies, the interment of which employed them
eight days. The number said to have perished, according
to the Dutch account, amounts to more than twelve thousand
souls. Having thus completed one of the most inhuman and
apparently causeless transactions that ever disgraced a
civilized people, they had the audacity to proclaim a public
thanksgiving to the God of mercy for their happy deliverance
from the hands of the heathen.
While the Dutch, in their public records, endeavour to
justify this atrocious act on the plea of necessity, they make
the following memorable observation : “It is remarkable that
“ this people, notwithstanding their great numbers, offered
“ not the least resistance, but suffered themselves to be led
“ as sheep to the slaughter.” For my own part, when I re-
flect on the timid character of the Chinese, their want of
confidence in each other, and their strong aversion to the
shedding of human blood ; and when I compare their situa-
tion in Batavia with that of the Hottentots in the colony of
the Cape of Good Hope, where every little irregularity is
magnified into a plot against the government, I cannot for-
bear giving a decided opinion that these people were in-
nocently murdered. The consequences to the Dutch proved
Q 2 º' B A T A V I A.
much more serious than at first they scened to have been
aware of. The terrified Chinese who escaped the massacre fled
into the interior of the island; a scarcity of rice and every
kind of vegetables succeeded ; and the apprehensions of a
famine induced them to offer terms to the fugitives, and to
entreat their return.
On another occasion of a supposed conspiracy against the
government, the Dutch acted with a rigour that could
scarcely be justified on any emergency. The chief, with
twenty of the conspirators, were condemned to suffer death,
“ by being stretched on a cross ; the flesh of their legs, arms,
“ and breast torn away with red hot pincers; their bellies
“ ripped up, and their hearts thrown in their faces; their
“ heads cut off and stuck upon poles, and their mangled
“ carcases exposed to be devoured by the fowls of the
“ air,” &c. &c. And after this sentence was put in execu-
tion, a solemn thanksgiving was proclaimed ; and the follow-
ing day thirty more were broken on the wheel. To perpe-
tuate this conspiracy, a skreen or blank wall is erected, with
a death's head stuck on the top, on the spot where the house
of the rebel chief stood ; and on the skreen is written,
in the Dutch, French, Portugueze, Malay, and Chinese
languages, the following sentence: “Here once stood the
“ house of the abominable wretch Peter Erberfeldt, where a
“ house shall never again stand to the end of time. Batavia,
“ 22d April 1722.”
This last conspirator was a native of Batavia, and nearly con-
nected with some of the principal families of the Javanese. The
B A T A W I A. 223
resistance which the Dutch have experienced from this people
has, at all times, been trifling. Their spirit, if ever they had
any, seems to have been completely subdued by their Ma-
homedan conquerors, some centuries before their island was
discovered by Europeans. What they might have been in
early ages history does not inform us ; but, at the present
day, their state and condition are by no means enviable.
Sunk into the lowest stage of apathy, they seem to be utterly
incapable of any great exertions. Their Princes are prisoners
to a handful of Dutchmen, and the landholders are slaves to
the Princes. We endeavoured to pay a visit to the King of
Bantam, but were prevented by a Dutch officer, who com-
manded the fort in which he resided, and who, as in Trin-
culo's government, appeared to be Viceroy over the King.
But a state of imprisonment can scarcely be considered as
any hardship to one who has no care for the welfare of his
subjects, who consults only bodily ease, and who lives in the
firm persuasion of the profound wisdom in which the old
Oriental maxim is founded, “ that it is better to stand than
“ to walk, to lie down than to sit, to sleep than to be awake,
“ and that death is the best of all.” Agreeably to such sen-
timents, the life of a Javanese of condition is an invariable
round of indefatigable and persevering indolence. To him the
supreme blessings of life consist in stretching himself at full
length, or sitting cross-legged on a carpet, the whole day long
surrounded by women; or, in his more lively hours, attended
by musicians with drums and squalling flutes, by dancing
men and dancing women, whilst, with placid indifference
and unshaken tranquillity, he draws the smoke through the
2 24 BAT AVI A.
tube of his hookar, takes his dose of opium, or chews his
preparation of betel-pepper, areca nut and chunam.
In the dances of the women, however pleasing to a Java-
mese eye, an European will not find any thing interesting or
elegant. They consist, as in India, of certain lascivious mo-
tions of the body, head, and arms, whilst the feet remain as
it were rivetted to the floor. The contortions of the body
that are practised by the men may with more propriety be
called posture-making than dancing. *
The private hours of a Javanese Prince are mostly passed
in the society, or at least in the presence, of women. He
feels himself, probably, more secure in their attendance than
he would do in that of his own sex. He inlists as many into the
number of his wives as he chuses. Polygamy is allowable to
any extent, and the ladies take rank according to the priority of
their introduction into the haram. The comparative estimation
in which the sex is held is sufficiently declared in one of their
laws, by which it is ordained that if a man, either by accident
or design, shall kill his wife, he must pay to her relations the
full value ; but if the wife kill her husband, she must suffer
death. Pecuniary compensations are fixed for theft and mur-
der and almost every other crime, except treason against
the Prince ; and when the criminal is unable to pay the fine,
*le is usually sold as a slave. The power of a Javanese Prince
'over his subjects is very limited in some respects, in others it
is absolute. By a sort of feudal right they are liable to be-
come his slaves, in which situation he exercises over them an
B A T A V I A, ~ 2.5
uncontrolled Sway. When a man, for instance, dies and
leaves behind him children that are either under age or un-
married, his wives, his children and property fall to the
Prince, and are considered to be taken by him in lieu of the
military service of the deceased, to which he had a claim.
This right is not, however, generally exercised. The chief
being considered as the sole proprietary of the soil, all lands
are held of him under the tenure of military service, and a pro-
portion of their produce ; but since the settlement of the Butch
on Java, the several Princes not only oblige the peasantry to
cultivate particular articles suitable for exportation, but take
from them such proportion of the produce as will meet the
terms on which they may have concluded their agreement
with the Dutch. Formerly they exacted one half of the pro-
duce by way of rent, but they are now said to demand at
least two thirds of the crop. Pepper and coffee are the two
principal articles that are required to be cultivated, as best
suiting the purpose of the Dutch, to whom they are delivered
by the Javanese Princes at the low rate of about one penny
&l pound.
The Javanese are, in general, about the middle size of
Europeans, straight and well made ; all their joints, their
hands and their feet, remarkably small ; the colour of their
skin a deep brown, approaching to black; their eyes are
black and prominent; the nose rather broad and somewhat
flattened ; the upper lip a little projecting, not much thick-
ened, but highly arched. They have a firm steady gait, and
seem to feel, or at least to affect, a superiority over the other
inhabitants of the island. They rub the head, the face and
G G
226 B A T A V I A.
other parts of the body that are not covered with clothing,
with a composition of cocoa nut oil and sandal wood dust,
as a preventive against a too copious perspiration, and the
biting of mosquitoes and other annoying insects.
They are remarkably temperate in their diet, but neither
their temperance nor their moderate labour seem to have the
effect of promoting longevity. Females usually marry at ten
or twelve years of age, till which time they go, nearly naked,
wearing only a belt round their loins, with a broad metal
plate in front, of an oval or circular form, and sometimes
shaped like a heart; and this is the only imperfect covering
of what decency requires to be concealed. Sometimes they
wear rings or bracelets round the wrist, chains about the
neck, and chaplets of flowers in the hair. When a girl is
espoused, she is clad in a loose flowing robe, variously orna-
mented according to the circumstances of her parents, her
hair is more than usually decorated with flowers, and
smoothed with a profusion of paste and cocoa nut oil. In
this dress she rides about the town or village, mounted on
horseback and, as emblematic of her chastity, the animal is
always a white one, when such is to be had ; and she is ac-
companied by all the fricnds, the relations and the slaves
of both families, and a band of music. But this is often her
last public exhibition; for, if she marries into a family of
condition, she is then shut up for the remainder of her
life.
The diet of the Javanese forms a great contrast with that
of the Dutch. A considerable part of it consists in rice,
B A T A V I A. 227
sometimes fryed in oil and sometimes boiled in plain water,
with which are used a few capsules or heads of Capsicum or
Cayenne pepper, and a little salt, to render more palatable
this insipid grain. With the use of animal food a true Java-
nese is wholly unacquainted, and of milk he is very sparing,
except indeed of that liquid substance, sometimes though
improperly so called, which abounds in the young cocoa
nut, and which affords a cool and refreshing draught. This
tree, and indeed most of the palm tribe as the date, the
sago and the areca, all supply him with solid food. The
chief use of the areca, however, is only as an ingredient in a
compound masticatory, consisting, besides this nut, of chunam
or lime of shells and seriboo or seeds of long pepper, made
into a paste and rolled up in the green leaf of betel pepper.
This composition, when moistened in the mouth, communi-
cates to the tongue and lips a deep red colour, which turns
afterwards to a dark mahogany brown. The teeth of a
Javanese being painted black (because monkies, he observes,
have white ones) give to the countenance rather a hideous
appearance.
The areca nut, especially when fresh from the tree, is
powerfully narcotic, and a small portion will cause intoxica-
tion in those who are not accustomed to the use of it. The
feculae of this nut is the Catechu or red earth of the old Phar-
macopoeia, and is obtained by boiling it with unslacked
lime ; but the Terra Japonica or Catechu, which is now in use
and said to be an excellent tooth powder, is the ashes of a
particular species of mimosa, found in Japan and on most of
the Eastern islands. The charcoal of the areca nut is, how-
G G 2
228 B A T A V I A.
ever, considered in India as the best and most agreeable
powder that can be used for the teeth.
The sedative and soporific qualities of opium are well
adapted to the character and habits of the Javanese. This
inspissated juice of the poppy is the greatest blessing and the
greatest curse that the ingenuity of man ever devised the means
of extracting from the vegetable part of the creation. When
taken in moderation, it softens the anguish of bodily pain,
tranquillizes the mind and, like the waters of Lethe, draws
the veil of oblivion over corroding care; a larger dose pro-
duces a temporary exhilaration of the spirits which
subsides into lowness and languor; and when used to
excess, it irritates even to madness and to death. Opium,
however, is too expensive a luxury to become of general use,
and can be taken only occasionally by the bulk of the people ;
but other though less agreeable substitutes, possessing similar
Qualities, have been resorted to for producing the same
effects, as the common tobacco and the seeds and leaflets of
bangue or hemp. But the seeds of the Datura Indica are
said to be more powerfully marcotic than either opium, to-
bacco, or hemp ; and that, if taken only in a moderate
quantity, they will affect the brain and produce the most
violent paroxysms of madness. A Leyden doctor, having
probably heard of their efficacy in this way, was induced to
try their effect as a remedy in cascs of mental derangement;
and he published an account of several instances in which he
pretends this medicine was administered with complete suc-
cess.--" Sanat quem sauciat ipsa.” On the same principle,
Dr. Storke of Vienna administered large doses of IIyoscyamus
Niger, the black henbane, in cases of madness. IIe con-
ceived, probably, that as, according to public opinion, a
small quantity of the extract of this plant would cause a de-
rangement of the intellects, a copious dose might be attended
with the same salutary effects as drinking deeply of the
Pierian spring,
“Where shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
“And drinking largely sobers us again.”
Not only the features, the manners, and the remains of the
civil and religious institutions of the Hindoos are still ap-
parent among the Javanese, but they have preserved the
fragments of a history, according to which they derive their
origin from Vishmoo. This history terminates with the account
of a dreadful deluge, which swept away the great bulk of
mankind. In the inland parts of the island they still observe
a scrupulous abstinence from every kind of animal food, un-
der the notion of a transmigration of souls. However amiable
that religion may seem which forbids the taking away of
animal life, it may fairly be doubted whether an aversion to
the shedding of blood, or a tender feeling for animal suffering,
had any share in the origin of such an institution. A sup-
position to this effect would involve with it a multitude of
contradictions and inconsistencies. The same people who,
in their precepts strenuously inculcate and in practice en-
courage, by assisting and gazing at, the inhuman and un-
natural sacrifice of a beautiful and innocent woman expiring
in the flames of a funeral pile, cannot consistently be sup-
posed to feel any horror at the slaughtering of an ox. The
same remark will with equal force apply to the Javanese.
23 o B A. T A V I A.
What pretensions can these people have to delicate feeling
and sensations of horror for animal suffering, whose great de-
light is to witness, like the barbarous Romans, a miserable
criminal, perhaps for a very slight offence, torn in pieces by
tygers and buffalos ? Neither is it more likely that, in a
country where animal existence is so abundantly pro-
duced and abundantly destroyed, the forbearance should
have originated in any peculiar degree of respect and value
for animal life. It is scarcity that in general constitutes
value.
The torrid zone indeed is probably not the country in
which such a system had its origin—where all nature is in a
state of visible animation—where the naked earth, the woods,
the waters, and even the rocks under the waters, are teeming
with animal life—where every step that a man takes, every
time that he opens his mouth, whether to inhale the atmo-
spheric air, to quench his thirst with pure water, or to eat
his lifeless vegetables (as he is willing to suppose them), he
necessarily destroys myriads of living and sentient beings.
With as little propriety ean such a system, so misplaced, be
referred to any refined notions of mercy and benevolence,
but may, perhaps, more properly be considered as one
of those unaccountable institutions which are sometimes
found to militate against local consistency, and which af-
ford no slight argument in favour of their foreign origin. On
the same ground of reasoning we might venture, perhaps, to
infer that the consecration of the cow is more likely to have
had its origin on the bleak, and barren heights of Tartary than
on the warm and fertile plains of Hindostan.
7
B. A. T A V I A. 23
In Java every object seems to be impregnated with life.
A glass of water taken out of the canal of Batavia becomes,
in the course of a few hours, a mass of animated matter, the
minute portions of which, multiplying by division and sub-
division, move about with astonishing rapidity. The bay,
swarming with myriads of living creatures, exhibits, in the
night time, a phosphorescent light like a sheet of fire. The
stream of fresh water which falls into it, being more highly
charged with animal life, is distinctly traced in the bay by a
train more luminous and brilliant than the rest of the surface,
appearing like another milky way in the midst of a firma-
ment of stars.
Whether the Hindoos framed the strange doctrine of trans-
migration of the vital principle into different animals, or bor-
rowed it from other countries where animal life was less
abundant, and therefore of more value, than in India, their
absurdities are, in either case, fully as defensible as those
of some of our modern philosophers who, in a glare of fine
phrases, have assiduously endeavoured to propagate the un-
founded doctrine of a fortuitous and spontaneous vivification
of inanimate matter. If, in any single instance, it could be
shewn that animal life had been produced under a fortuitous
concurrence of favourable circumstances, one would be the
less surprized at the adoption of such preposterous notions as
“ faculties being obtained simply by wishing for them.”—that
“ from organic particles accumulated, originate animal ap-
“ petencies”—that
“ Hence without parent, by spontaneous birth,
“Rise the first specks of animated earth.”
232 B A 'T A V I A.
And that this earthy matter of spontaneous animation has
been aggregated into all the shapes and sizes of living crea-
tures on the face of the globe, merely by volition, by
forming
“ A potent wish in the productive hour.”
Such sublime nonsense, though in contradiction to every
known fact, is yet plausible enough to mislead the judgment
of many of those to whom it is particularly addressed ;
though, like the transmigration of souls, it is ushered into the
western world in an age too enlightened to suffer it to pass
into a religious creed. When the object of talents, so miser-
ably misapplied, appears to be that of degrading man to a
level with the lowest reptile that crawls on the earth, and of
allowing him no other pre-eminence in the scale of creation
than the accidental conception of a more “potent wish in
“ the productive hour ;”—when the most disgusting com-
parisons are drawn, with an obvious design to debase the
“ noblest work of God” down to
“ His brother-emmets and his sister-worms;”
one cannot avoid feeling the mingled sentiments of pity, con-
tempt, and indignation, which even the seducing garb of
harmonious verse has not the power of suppressing. In com-
paring the writings of Paley with those of Darwin, how simple,
how noble, how consolatory, are the design and contrivance
of a benevolent Being demonstrated in the one ; how wretch-
edly obscure, how mean, how hopeless, is the doctrine of a
fortuitous concurrence of fortunate circumstances so pomp-
B A T A V I A. 233
ously and perversely displayed in the fascinating verse of
the other
The next class of the inhabitants of Batavia, which I have
briefly to notice, is the Malays; a race of men which is found
to inhabit the coasts of most of the numerous islands that are
scattered over the great Eastern Ocean ; while the inland
parts of the same islands are inhabited by a distinct class of
people bearing, on every island, certain marks of a common
origin, and an affinity more or less with the Hindoo character
These circumstances not only prove that the Malays were
not the original possessors of the islands on which they are
found, but that the Hindoos must have been considerable
navigators at a period antecedent to all history. Indeed all
the Oriental nations seem to have sprung from two grand
stocks, the Hindoos and the Tartars. The Javanese evi-
dently derive their origin from the former, and the Malays as
obviously from the latter. The change in the character of
this people, now so different from that of the Tartars, has
most probably been occasioned by change of situation and
local circumstances. The religion of Mahomet, forced upon
them by the Arabs, may in itself be considered perhaps as suf-
ficient, without any other cause, to have operated this change.
Added, however, to this, they may have been driven by ne-
cessity to become pirates, and to seek that subsistence on
the sea, which the more numerous and powerful owners of
the islands denied them on shore. At all events, their situa-
tion and their circumstances seem still to compel them to
retort on modern navigators those cruelties and oppressive
J H H
234 B A T A V I A.
measures, which their Mahomedan and succeeding European
visitors were by no means sparing in inflicting on them,
The present cast of the Malay character is of a very extra-
ordinary nature. In the pursuit of plunder they are as active,
restless, and courageous, as in their conquests they are fero-
cious and vindictive. To their enemies they are remorseless,
to their friends capricious, and to strangers treacherous.
Ready at one moment to sacrifice his life in the defence of his
friend, the Malay, in the heat of passion, will not hesitate to
murder him the next. Like a beast of prey, he raves and
foams when beset with dangers ; but his courage may rather be
considered of that ferocious and désperate kind which acts on
the impulse of the moment, a sort of mental frenzy, than that
steady and deliberate conduct which preserves its character
under all circumstances. It is equally dangerous to offend
or to punish a Malay: in the one case he will stab privately,
in the other in the heat of his rage. A blow is an indignity
which makes him lose at once all value for his own existence,
and to set death at defiance. IIe never forgives the author
of such disgrace, but seeks how he may best glut his re-
venge, however certain that an ignominious death will be the
consequence. vº.
By the same impetuous temper, which renders him impa-
tient of injuries, he is driven to desperation by misfortunes,
whether they arise from unavoidable circumstances, or from
his own misconduct. In either case he rarely submits to his
fate with coolness, but flies to his favourite opium, whose
7
B A Ti A V I A. 2.35
powerful effect on the brain is necessary to prepare him for
the commission of the desperate acts he may have pre-
meditated. Intoxicated with this drug, he tears loose his
long black hair, and rushing infuriated through the streets,
with a dagger in his hand, as if bent on doing all the mis-
chief in his power the little while he has to live,
“ He runs a muck, and tilts at all he meets.”
An unconquerable propensity for gambling is one of the
chief causes which drives the Malay to this state of despera-
tion. So passionately attached is he to every species of
gaming, and more particularly so to cock-fighting, that his
last morsel, the covering of his body, his wife and children,
are frequently staked on the issue of a battle to be fought by
his favourite cock. This bird, on the island of Java, grows
to a prodigious size, especially about Bantam, where, instead
of those little feathery-legged fowls, usually supposed to be
natives of this place from whence they take the name, they
are nearly as large as the Norfolk bustard. “I have seen
“ one of these cocks,” says Mr. Marsden, “peck off a com-
“ mon dining table ; when fatigued they sit down on the
“ first joint of the leg, and are then taller than the common
• fowls.” This animal is the inseparable companion of the
Malay; but his affection, though apparently approaching to
infatuation, does not prevent him from exposing it to the risk
of a battle which, from the nature of the weapons, must
prove fatal to one of the combatants. Instead of spurs or
heels, he fixes on the bottom of his foot a piece of sharpened
iron, about the size of the blade of a large penknife, and of
G
II H 2
236 B A T A V [ A.
the shape of a scythe. A single stroke of this weapon will
sometimes completely lay open the body of his antagonist.
But whether thus hacking down with cutlasses, or pricking
each other like gentlemen with small swords, will be con-
sidered as the more humane and the more genteel practice,
is a point I must leave to be determined by the Malays, and
those refined gentlemen of our own country who can derive
amusement from the destruction of so noble-spirited an
animal. But while we condemn the ignorant and but half-
civilized Malays for their eagerness in the pursuit of this fa-
vourite and inhuman sport, we cannot too much reprobate
the same barbarous practice so sedulously encouraged, as an
amusing relaxation, in many of our seminaries of education,
where it is usually preceded by the elegant exercise of foot-
ball, as a suitable preparatory for the cock-pit, which on
such occasions is generally graced by a few black eyes and
broken shins. Thus are scenes of quarrelling and cruelty
made familiar to youth, as the proper accompaniments of
gaming and idleness in riper years. The education of Malay
children is not less attended to in their way. While too
young to manage so large an animal as the cock, they in-
dulge their propensity to this species of gaming by carrying
about in little cages, like the Chinese, quails trained to fight,
and different species of grasshoppers.
The ferocious conduct of the Malays would appear to be
sometimes the result rather of a wanton cruelty of disposition,
or an implacable hatred of strangers, than of mental distress,
insult, or injury. On the coast of Sumatra we had the mis-
B A T A V I A. 237
fortune to lose a very valuable man by the daggers of these
people. Finding him alone and defenceless, employed at the
watering-place in washing his foul Hinen, they had rushed
upon him unawares, plunged their weapons into his back,
and thrown him into the pool of water. His companion, who
had strayed to a little distance along the beach, met the
murderous party who, perceiving he carried a musquet,
passed him without the least molestation. He dragged the
body of his friend out of the water, but poor Leighton had
already expired. It could not have happened for the sake
of robbing him of a little dirty linen, for in this case it was
not necessary to commit a murder ; neither was he likely to
have given them any provocation. He was, on all occasions,
a man of thorough good humour. A circumstance was recol-
lected, after the accident had happened, to which perhaps
it might have been owing. One day a Malay came on board
the Lion, with monkies, birds, fruits and vegetables for
sale. Leighton, among his various pursuits, had a turn for
portrait-painting, in which he was flattered with being suc-
cessful. The Malay being a new character, he was desirous
of obtaining his features. The man not understanding what
he wanted, and suspecting that he might be practising some
incantation, of which this nation is extremely apprehensive,
springing from the deck of the ship, plunged at once into the
sea and, scrambling into his canoe as well as he could,
paddled off. Calling to recollection this circumstance, it was
supposed by many that this same man might have instigated
the party to put him to death.
238 B A T A V I A.
"The last class of people of which I am to take notice is that
of the slaves. If at any one place this unhappy race of men
has been more unnecessarily introduced than at another, that
place is certainly Batavia, where thousands of free Chinese,
the best and most handy servants perhaps in the whole world,
presented themselves in readiness to serve on the most no-
derate terms. I confine the observation to those slaves who
are in servitude to the Dutch ; as the Javanese, though in
fact little better than slaves to the Princes, are not, however,
disposable by sale, nor in any way transferable from hand to
hand, like other property. The slaves of the Dutch are em-
ployed chiefly as artificers, or for domestic purposes. By
the number that are kept, the wealth and importance of the
owner are in some degree indicated. Like a stud of horses
in England, the slaves of Batavia are kept more for parade
than for real use. While in this condition, as I before ob-
served, they are not allowed to wear shoes and stockings, in
Order that they may be known in the streets ; for a freeman,
however poor, will take care to supply himself with at least
a covering for his legs and feet, in preference even to a coat,
to avoid carrying about with him the odious badge of slavery.
Few as the Dutch are, when compared with their slaves,
they are less cautious than the Roman people were, who
would not suffer a proposition to be carried, which was made
in the Senate, to distinguish the slaves by a particular dress
from the citizens, lest the number of the former, being
thus easily ascertainable, might become dangerous to the
state.
B A T A V I A. 239
f
The slaves of both sexes are lightly worked and well fed;
and though they are occasionally punished with great se-
verity, their punishment is rarely inflicted by the hands, or
under the direction, of their owners. The usual way is to
send them to the Fiscal, who is paid some trifling sum for
each correction ; but when a man possesses a considerable
number of slaves, he generally bargains with the Fiscal to
flog them in the lump by the year. The members of the
Council and of the Court of Justice have the privilege of de-
manding the exercise of this magistrate's authority, free of
expence. The usual punishment consists of a certain number
of stripes, according to the nature of the offence, with
laths of bamboo ; and the wounds are generally pickled
with a preparation of pepper and salt, to prevent morti-
fication.
The number of slaves annually imported into Batavia
alone, for the use of the Dutch and half-cast burghers, is
computed at one thousand. However extraordinary it may
appear, it is not the less certain, that, in order to keep up the
establishment of slaves in this declining settlement, it is
found to be absolutely necessary to continue this large im-
portation. If any explanation were required for a fact,
which unfortunately is established in all countries where
slavery exists, it may perhaps be here attributed to the excess
of females above the males, and the little care that is taken
of children where there is no connubial tie, and a restrained
intercourse between the parents. -
24e B A T A V I A.
The most numerous and indeed the most useful are the
Malay slaves, brought from the different islands in the
Eastern Sea. Like the Chinese, they are prompt at imita-
tion, and expert in learning all handicraft trades. A great
part of the female slaves are imported from Pulo Nias, a
small island on the west side of Sumatra, being esteemed for
the elegance of their shapes, their vivacity, and their smooth
skins. They are, however, said to be subject to a cutaneous
disorder which, like the leprosy, withers the skin, and
changes its colour. The price of a Nias maid, when all her
points are good, is seldom less than one thousand dollars.
The Malabar is a mild and passive creature, willing to
learn, but slow of apprehension. His slender form is ill
adapted for hard labour, and he is therefore generally pur-
chased as a personal servant; and the women of this nation
are mostly employed to wait on their mistresses. The black
slaves from the island of Timor are not unlike the Malabars,
and in their features evidently betray their Hindoo origin.
The slaves from Madagascar and the Mosambique are a
harmless race of men, of a pliant and willing disposition,
but extremely stupid ; tall, muscular, and athletic, but their
strength is seldom employed with advantage to themselves
or their owners, or their labour conducted with judgment.
Their artless simplicity leads to the easy detection of their
crimes. We had an instance of this at the hotel where we
lodged. Some articles were missing from one of the rooms.
B A T A W H A, 24 tº
* -
The slaves were summoned to undergo the trial by rice.
Each slave was directed to open his mouth, into which was
to be thrown a certain quantity of dry rice. The actual
thief, impressed with the idea that the rice would certainly
choak him, and that a flogging was better than suffocation,
pertinaciously refused to open his mouth. Another mode of
detecting a culprit is by giving him at night a small stick,
notched at a certain distance from the end, whilst the master
keeps another notched exactly in the same manner. Being
persuaded that, if guilty, the notch will be farther removed
from the end, or that the stick will grow longer before the
next morning, the slave, in the simplicity of his heart, takes
good care that this shall not be the case, by cutting from it
a slice to keep it down to its proper length.
As none of the Dutch inhabitants are holders of land, be-
yond the gardens usually annexed to their country villas, and
the Chinese are incomparably the best gardeners, there are
no field slaves in the neighbourhood of Batavia ; the whole
that are imported being either employed for domestic pur-
poses, or brought up to some useful trade, by working at
which they earn, for the use of their masters, a higher in-
terest for the money expended in their purchase and sub-
sistence than they would be able to procure by employing the
same capital in any other way. Many of the Malay slaves,
by industry in their profession, are enabled in a few years to
purchase their emancipation ; sometimes they are manumitted
for their long and faithful services ; but most frequently at
the death of their master, who usually bequeaths to one or
I I
242 B A T A W I A,
more of his slaves the legacy of their freedom, which the
Governor and Council are compelled to confirm, on the ap-
plication of the slave for letters of manumission, for which,
however, he is obliged to pay the sum of twenty-five dollars,
or remain in servitude till he has earned by his labour what
may be deemed an equivalent to that amount,
C O C H IN C H IN A. 2.43
C. H. A. P. IX.
C O C IH IN C IH IN A.
Geographical Outline—Bays and Rivers—Suspicious Conduct of the Natives,
and Cauſe of it—Hirtorical Sketch relating to Cochinchina—A Rebellion, and
the Murder of the King—Conquest of Tung-Quin–Conduct of a Chinese
General—Safety of the young Prince of Cochinchina—His Adventurcº-
Bishop d’Adran carries the King’s Son to Paris–Treaty between him and
Lewis XVI—Preparations for carrying the Treaty into Effºct—Defeated
by Madame de Vienne–Return of the legitimate King to Cochinchina—Hi,
various Successes over the Usurpers—His Character—His Attachment to
the Bishop d’Adran—Extraordinary Energy of his bodily and mental
Faculties—His land and marine Forcer.
Having remained a much longer time in the neighbour-
hood of the equator than we had intended, or indeed than
was advisable for the health of the crews, if it could have
been avoided, we quitted with pleasure the low swampy
coast of Sumatra, and at the same time the strait of Banca :
and after a fruitless attempt to stand into a bay on the island
of Pulo Lingin, situated in mediately under the equinoctial,
we were not sorry to leave it behind, few of us caring to
encounter that extraordinary degree of heat which, on this
island, the learned Bayer says, but on whose authority I
forget, is quite sufficient for the propagation of the human
species, without the usual intercourse of the sexes; under
I I 2
244 C O C H IN C H IN A.
this provision, however, I suppose, that the spontaneous em-
bryo shall be lucky enough to form
“A potent wish in the productive hour.”
As the favourable monsoon was scarcely yet set in, and the
state of the sick required the refreshments of the shore, we
came to anchor in an open bay before one of the small
islands of Pulo Condore, with a view to that effect; but the
appearance of our large ships occasioned so great an alarm to
the few poor natives, as to drive them into the mountains,
leaving behind them their scanty stock of provisions ex-
posed at the doors of their huts, and praying us, in a billet
written in the Chinese character, to be satisfied by taking
their little all, and to spare their humble dwellings. Such
being the state of the island, we hastened our departure from
thence, and steered direct towards a part of the Asiatic con-
timent which is less known than it descrves to be and, I may
venture to predict, less than it will be to some of the
Furopean nations, before many years shall have elapsed.
In the latest and perhaps the best arranged system of
geography which has been offered to the public, a consider-
able portion of Asia, containing full twenty millions of
people, and from three to four hundred thousand square
miles, extraordinary as it may appear, is passed over with a
mere dash of the pen. “ The kingdoms of Laos, Cambodia,
“ Siampa, Cochinchina, and Tung-quin,” says Mr. Pinkerton,
“ are countries unimportant in themselves, and concerning
“ which the materials are imperfect.” To the latter, part of
this sweeping and unqualified assertion I most freely and
7 *
\
t
C O C H IN C H IN A. 245
fully subscribe, but cannot by any means assent to the
former ; being vain enough to hope that the small stock of
well-authenticated materials, which I am about to lay before
the publick, will be sufficient to shew that these countries, or
a portion of them only, held thus so very cheap, are not only
important within themselves, but highly so to the present
and future concerns of British India. And for the better
illustration of the historical sketch, which will be the subject
of this chapter, it may not be amiss to prefix a concise out-
line of the geographical situation and divisions of that part
of the Asiatic continent which is usually known by the name
of Cochinchina.
The extensive empire of China terminates, on the south,
at the twenty-second degree of latitude ; but a tongue of
land connected with it continues on its western side as far as
to the ninth parallel of northern latitude. This prolongation
of thirteen degrees in extent has a ridge of high mountains
which, running down the middle from north to south, divides
the Birman empire, on the west, from the kingdoms of Tung-
quin, Cochinchina, Tsiompa, and Cambodia, on the east.
These names, thus usually marked on our charts, are, how.
ever, utterly unknown to the natives, except Tung-quin.
The other three collectively are called An-nan, and are dis-
tinguished by three grand divisions. The first, contained be-
tween the southernmost point which forms the extremity of
the gulph of Siam and which lies in about the ninth degree
of latitude, as far as to the twelfth degree, is called Don-nai :
the second, extending from hence to the fifteenth degree.
Chang ; and the third, between this and the seventeenth de-
246 C O C H IN C H IN A.
gree, where the kingdom of Tung-quin commences, is called
Hué. On the sea coast of all these divisions are safe and
commodious bays and harbours. The great river of Don-nai
(Cambodia of the charts) is described as navigable by ships
of the largest size to the distance of forty miles up the coun-
try, where the city of Sai-gong is situated, having a capa-
cious and commodious port, and an extensive naval arsenal.
An English gentleman, who sailed up this river in a large
Portugueze vessel, on his passage from China to India, re-
presented it to me as one of the grandest scenes that could
be imagined. It has several large branches, but the width
of that up which they sailed seldom exceeded two miles, and,
in many places was less than one ; but the water was so deep
in every part, that the rigging of their vessel was sometimes
entangled in the branches of the stately forest trees which
shaded its banks, and her sides frequently grazed against
the verdant shores.
In the division of Chang, in latitude 13° 50' N. is Chin-chew
bay and harbour; the latter spacious and completely site:
tered from all winds, but only accessible by large vessels at
high water, on account of a bar that runs across the narrow
entrance or gullet between it and the outer bay. At the head
of this harbour is situated the city of Quin-nong.
The principal city in the division of Hué, which bears the
same name, is situated on the banks of a large river navi-
gable by ships of considerable burden; but a bar of sand
runs across the mouth. A little to the southward of this river
is the bay of Han-san, or, as it is usually marked in the
C O C H IN CH IN A. 2.47
charts, Turon, which, for the security and conveniencies it
affords, is equalled by few in the Eastern world, and certainly
surpassed by none. It is situated in latitude 16° 7' N.
It was for this bay we shaped our course from Pulo Con-
dore, and we arrived before it on the 24th May. Not having
any chart that could be depended on, and perceiving a mul-
titude of fishing craft between our ships and the shore, we
sent out a boat with the view of getting a pilot ; but the
fishermen, on observing it, immediately hoisted their sails
and scudded away before the wind. At last, however, a
small boat without any sail was overtaken, from which a
miserable old wretch was brought away, than whom I never
beheld a more pitcous object. His eyes were deeply sunk in
his head, his face was the colour of an old oaken wainscot,
haggard, and wrinkled ; and a few clotted locks of grey hair
started from under a dirty handkerchief which was bound
round his head. Iſis whole dress consisted of a short frock
patched with pieces of twenty different sorts and colours,
and a pair of ragged trowsers of the petticoat kind. Such a
specimen of the people we were about to visit was not cal-
culated to raise very high expectations in their favour. On
stepping into the ship he seemed to be greatly agitated, cast-
ing his eyes first round the spacious deck, then at the large
guns, and not a little disturbed at the appearance of so
many people ; but, above all, the great height of the masts
seemed to attract his attention. I le frequently fell on his
knees, and burst into tears. With some difficulty he was at
last sufficiently pacificq to be made, by signs, to comprehend
the purpose for which he had been brought on board ; and
248 C O C H IN CH IN A-,
he pointed out the entrance into the bay, which does not
readily discover itself to those who are strangers to it. The
weather being squally, we did not succeed in getting in till
the latter part of the following day.
The deplorable state to which our sick were now reduced
by the typhous fever and dysentery, which had been caught
at Batavia, and had spread nearly through the whole of
the ship's company, was the principal reason of our going
to Turon, after the disappointment we met with at Pulo
Condore. It may be imagined then how great and grievous
was the mortification we all felt on being told, by the Cap-
tain of a Portugueze vessel which was lying in the bay, that
an existing rebellion, having plunged the whole of Cochin-
china into a state of civil war, had reduced the country to
such a wretched situation as to preclude every hope of our
procuring the refreshments of which we stood so much in
need ; and that it would be more advisable for us to proceed
to Macao without a moment's delay, than to wait there in
fruitless expectation of getting those supplies, which might/
perhaps be promised, but which, he knew very well, could
not be provided. The miserable condition of our old fisher-
man, and the general appearance of the place, and every
thing we saw, seemed to confirm the unwelcome intelligence
of Manuel Duomé. Few natives came near the ships; those
that did come were shy and suspicious in their conduct, and
when we went on shore they seemed to avoid us. No provi-
sions nor any kind of refreshments were brought off to the
ships, and it was not without difficulty we could procure on
shore a few fowls and a trifling quantity of fruit and roots.
C O C H IN C H IN A. 249
The second day, however, the market was rather better
stocked ; and, in a few days more, when they found that
their articles were saleable at their own prices, and money
plentiful, it was abundantly supplied with live stock, fruit,
and vegetables. The leading men of the place, who now
began to come forward, shewed an inclination to be civil,
and to pay some attention to our requisitions. They even
visited us on board ; and on the fourth or fifth day it was an-
nounced that, for the sake of convenience, a public dinner
would be daily prepared on shore, for such of the gentlemen
and officers of the squadron as might chuse to partake of it.
Our intercourse with the people was now become constant
and unrestrained, and mutual confidence was established
between us; and this brought to light a discovery not very
creditable to our friend Manuel Duomé. This Portugueze
trader, in the true spirit of commercial jealousy, had availed
himself of the suspicions of the Cochinchinese, and insinuated
that nothing was more probable than the English squadron
having come thither with hostile views. And it seemed he
was at no little pains to convince them that such was really
the case, in the hope that, by their shutting the markets
against us, we should be induced to take a speedy departure,
and leave the coast clear to himself. To explain the circum-
stances which gave colour to these suspicions will require a
brief statement of the affairs of this distracted country for the
last thirty years; and I am unwilling to think that the his-
torical sketch I am about to give will be considered, even by
Mr. Pinkerton, as unimportant or uninteresting.
K K
2
5
O
C O C H IN C H IN A,
H IS TO RIC A. L S K ET C H OF MOD E R N COC III N C IIIN A.
IN the 35th year of the reign of Caung-shung, King of
Cochinchina, and the 50th of his age, (1774 of the Christian
aera,) a sudden and overwhelming insurrection broke out in
his capital, the city of Quin-mong. This rebellion was headed
by three brothers. The eldest, whose name was Yin-yac,
was a wealthy merchant who carried on an extensive com-.
merce with China and Japan ; the name of the second was
Long-niang, a general officer of high rank and great com-
mand ; and the third was a priest. Such a dangerous com-
bination of wealth, of military power, and of influence over
the minds of the people, was but feebly resisted on the part
of the King, who, from a sickly constitution and an indolent
habit of body, had for many years surrendered, in a great
degree, the reins of government into the hands of his generals,
who were mostly eunuchs. Other circumstances at the moment
tended to forward the views of the rebel chiefs. The imposition
of a poll tax had created a general discontent among the people.
The first step they took, which is the usual proceeding on
such occasions, was to get possession of the person of the
King, and to secure every part of the royal family that came
within their reach ; and all who fell into their hands were
immediately put to death. The city of Sai-gong was sup-
posed to be favourable to the cause of the deposed sovereign.
An army was therefore marched against it, the walls were
levelled with the ground, and 20,000 of its inhabitants put
to the sword. Trials and executions were daily exhibited
}
º
C O C H IN C H IN A. 251
in every part of the country, under pretence of plots and con-
spiracies against the sacred persons of the usurpers. These,
on their part, left no measures untried, nor suffered any oc-
casion to pass by, which might be the means of acquiring
them popularity. The merchant gave sumptuous entertain-
ments, fetes, and fire-works ; the general cajoled the army ;
and the priest prevailed on the clergy to announce to the
careless multitude the decree of Tien, which had ordained
these three worthies to be their future rulers.
In their arrangements for the future government of this
extensive country, it was determined that Yin-yac should
possess the two divisions of Chang and Don-nai; Long-niang
that of Hué, bordering on Tung-quin ; and that the youngest
brother should be high priest of all Cochinchina. By this
disposition, Yin-ſac cunningly placed his brother between
himself and the Tung-quinese, who were at this time considered
as a powerful nation. Long-niang had scarcely set foot in
his capital Hué-foo, before he took occasion to quarrel with
the King of Tung-quin, who was a tributary vassal to the
Emperor of China. The Tung-quinese, being in fact of the
same character and disposition as the Chinese, were little able
to cope with the hardy and disciplined troops of a bold and
adventurous usurper. Their King, abandoning his army
after the first engagement, fled to Pekin to demand the as-
sistance of the Emperor of China. Kien-Lung who, from his
successes in every part of Tartary and on the great island of
Formosa, had been led to believe that his troops were in-
vincible, conceived there would be little difficulty in driving
the usurper from Tung-quin, and in restoring the lawful
K K 2
252 C O C H IN C H IN A.
sovereign to his throne. With this view he ordered the Vice-
roy of Canton to march immediately at the head of an army
of 100,000 men. Long-niang, by means of his spies, was
fully apprized of all the movements of this immense army.
Having ascertained their line of march, he sent out detach-
ments to plunder and destroy the towns and villages through
which it had to pass; and the country being thus laid waste,
the Chinese army, long before it had even reached the
frontier of Tung-quin, was distressed by want of provisions,
and obliged to fall back.
The usurper, who was a much better general than our
friend Foo-chang-tong, (whom we met at the court of Pekin,)
the commander of this army, continually kept harassing the
rcar of the Chinese troops, as they retreated ; and so much did
they suffer in this ill-conducted expedition, by fatigue, by fa-
mine and the sword, that not less than fifty thousand men are
said to have perished, without a general battle having been
fought. Driven back with the remains of his army within a hun-
dred miles of Canton, the Viceroy, in order to prevent a further
loss of men and, what to him was of more importance, loss of
character and certain disgrace, concluded that the most pru-
dent step he could now take would be that of opening a
negociation with the usurper. Long-niang, assuming the tone
of a conqueror, boldly declared that, having been called to
the throne of T'ung-quin by the will of heaven and the voice
of the people, he was resolved to maintain his right to the
last extremity ; that he had 200,000 men in Tung-quin, and
as many in Cochinchina, ready to lose the last drop of their
blood in his support; and that he was now no longer Long-
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. 253,
niang the usurper, for that he had caused himself to be
crowned, by the name of Quang-tung, King of the united
kingdoms of Tung-quin and Cochinchina.
The Viceroy of Canton was but ill prepared for this high
and decided tone of the usurper; yet no time was to be lost
in deliberation. Foo-chang-tong was a poor soldier; but, for
what he was deficient in courage and military skill, he amply
made up in cunning. His fortunes and his character were at
stake, and he saw that he was reduced to the necessity of
playing a desperate game. He dispatched a courier to the
Court of Pekin, to give an account to the Emperor of the
unparalleled success of his expedition : and, after some detail
of engagements which never happened, but in which the
arms of the Emperor were always represented as victorious,
bore testimony to the bravery of the enemy; to the justice
and reasonableness of his pretensions to a crown, which the
former possessor had relinquished ; the fair character of his
antagonist, and the universal esteem in which he was held by
the people; and, in short, delivered it as his opinion that
Quang-tung should be invited to the Court of Pekin to do the
usual homage, and to receive the sanction of the Emperor
for holding the throne of Tung-quin ; suggesting, at the same
time, that a degree of mandarinate in one of the provinces
of China, conferred on the late sovereign of that country,
would be an ample indemnification for what he had lost in
Tung-quin.
The Court approved of the Viceroy's proposal. The fugi-
tive King of Tung-quin, like Federigo of Naples when
254 C O C H IN C H IN A.
created Duke of Anjou by Louis XII., relinquished his pre-
tensions to a crown, and accepted the degraded title of a
Chinese Mandarin : after which an invitation in due form
was sent down for Quang-tung to proceed to Pekin. This
wary general, however, thinking it might be a trick of the
Viceroy to get possession of his person ; and naturally dis-
trusting the man whom he had so shamefully defeated, re-
mained in doubt as to the course he ought to pursue : but,
on consulting one of his confidential generals, it was con-
cluded between them that this officer should proceed to the
capital of China as his representative, and as the new King
of Tung-quin and Cochinchina. He was received at the
court of Pekin with all due honours, loaded with the usual
presents, and confirmed in his title to the united kingdoms,
which were in future to be considered as tributary to the Em-
peror of China. On the return of this mock king to Hué,
Quang-tung was greatly puzzled how he should act; but
seeing that the affair could not long remain a secret with so
many living witnesses, he caused his friend and the whole of
his suite to be put to death, as the surest and perhaps the
only means of preventing the trick, which he had so success-
fully played on the Emperor of China, from being discovered.
This event happened in the year 1779.
To those who are acquainted with the Chinese character,
and the nature of that government, it will appear the less
surprizing that the commanding officer of an army should
transmit to the supreme tribunal in Pekin a false report of his
proceedings. Where the chances are in favour of falsehood
escaping detection ; where military merit has no other mea-
C O C H IN C H IN A. 25.5
sure than that of success; and where the consequence of a
single reverse, when once ascertained, is the bow-string,
truth can hardly be expected to flow from the pen of the very
man who has to tell the tale of his own disasters. In vain
have Kien-Lung and Kia-king issued their proclamations,
from time to time, denouncing vengeance on those generals
who should transmit reports of battles that were never fought,
and of victories that were never gained ; the military tribunal
of Pekin is, at this day, just as remote from receiving a true
statement of facts as their predecessors were two thousand
years ago. No wonder then that Foo-chang-tong, at the dis-
tance of 2000 miles, and in a wild and but little frequented
country, should be tempted to impose on the court, and that
the trick should remain undiscovered.
At the time of the rebellion in Cochinchina, when the
three brothers caused the King, and that part of the royal
family and its adherents which fell into their hands, to be put to
death, there happened to reside at Court a French missionary
of the name of Adran, who, in his various communications
which are published in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses,
calls himself the Apostolic Vicar of Cochinchina. This mis-
sionary was strongly attached to the royal family which, on
its part, seems to have held him in great consideration and
esteem. Instead of persecuting the little colony of Christians
which he had raised in the country, the King afforded them
his protection ; and so little danger did he apprehend from a
man who professed a different religion from that of his own,
that he had no scruples in placing under his particular tuition
his only son and heir to the throne. Adran, on the first burst
256 C O C H IN C H IN A.
of the revolt, saw that the only hope of safety for himself
and his flock was in flight. The King was already in the
power of the rebels ; but the Queen, the young Prince, with
his wife and infant son, and one sister, by the ready assist-
ance of Adran, effected their escape. Under favour of the
night they fled to a considerable distance from the capital,
and took refuge in a forest. Here, for several months, the
young King of Cochinchina, like another Charles, concealed
himself and the remnant of his unfortunate family in the
shady branches, not of an oak, but of a banyan or fig tree,
whose sacred character rendered it, perhaps, in their estima-
tion the more secure. In this situation they received their
daily sustenance from the hands of a Christian priest, of the
name of Paul, who carried them supplies at the hazard of his
own life, till all further search was discontinued, and the
parties of troops sent out for the purpose recalled.
As soon as the enemy had retired, the unfortunate fugitives
made the best of their way to Sai-gong, where the people
flocked to the standard of their legitimate Sovereign, whom
they crowned as King of Cochinchina under the name of his
late father Caung-shung. There happened, at this time, to be
lying at Sai-gong an armed vessel commanded by one Manuel,
a Frenchman, seven Portugueze merchantmen and a con-
siderable number of junks and row-boats. By the advice of
Adran, this fleet was purchased, manned and equipped at
the shortest notice, for the purpose of making an unexpected
attack on the usurper's fleet, unprepared for such an event,
in the harbour of Quin-nong. The monsoon was favourable
for the project. They entered the bay where the enemy's
C O C H IN C H IN A. 257
fleet was lying quietly at anchor. The alarm, however, being
given, the troops were soon embarked. The fate of the day
was doubtful till the Frenchman's ship, which in a French-
man's narrative is said to have done wonders, got aground ;
when the commanders of the seven Portugueze vessels im-
mediately ran away, and carried off their ships to Macao
The young King displayed the greatest coolness and intre-
pidity but, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged to
effect his escape by a precipitate retreat.
By this attack a considerable part of Yin-yac's fleet was
disabled or destroyed ; but it answered no other purpose than
to rouse his attention towards the southern parts of the country.
Caung-shung, indeed, had scarcely returned to Don-nai,
which he reached with difficulty on account of the monsoon
being adverse to his return, when intelligence was received of
a large army being on its march against him. It was soon
discovered that any resistance which he could oppose would
be nugatory; and, therefore, he determined at once to aban-
don the country. Having collected the remains of his family
and a few faithful followers, he embarked in the river of Sai-
gong ; and, putting to sea, arrived safely on a small unin-
'habited island in the gulph of Siam called Pulo Jai. Here
he was joined, from time to time, by about twelve hundred
of his subjects fit to carry arms. The usurper, having dis-
covered the place of his retreat, resolved to send out an ex-
pedition against him ; but Caung-shung, apprized of his in-
tention, deemed it more prudent to embark for Siam, and to
throw himself on the protection of the King of that country,
I, I,
258 C O C H IN C H IN A.
than to remain on a defenceless island, where certain destruc-
tion must follow to himself and to his people.
His Siamese Majesty happened to be at war with the Braa-
mans (the Birmans), who had hitherto been constantly vic-
torious, and made considerable encroachments on his terri-
tories. Caung-shung, whose mind was of too lofty a cast to
brook the idea of remaining a humble and inactive dependent
on the munificence of the King of Siam, made an offer of his
services to proceed against the enemy at the head of his little
army of followers, amounting, at that time, to about one
thousand effective men. The King accepted his offer. Hav-
ing acquired, under the instructions of the French missionary,
a considerable knowledge of European tactics, he had now,
for the first time, an opportunity of putting them in practice.
Instead of hazarding a general engagement with the enemy,
he attacked him only from certain commanding positions,
threw obstacles in the way of his march, harassed him con-
\
... -
A
tinually by detachments and, in short, made use of so many
manoeuvres unknown to the Birmans, that he obliged them
to sue for a peace on his own terms. After this he returned
in triumph to the capital of Siam, where he was received with
universal joy and every demonstration of kindness, on the
part of the King, who loaded him with presents of gold,
silver and precious stones. y
The King of Siam, it seems, had made overtures to Quang-
shung's mother, during his absence in the war, to obtain his
^
sister as one of his concubines; a proposal which she had N.
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. 259
rejected with disdain. But being desperately smitten with
her beauty, he was determined to possess her at any rate,
and, for this purpose, made an offer to share with her his
throne, which was also refused. His Siamese Majesty began
now to be offended in his turn, and to upbraid the emigrant
IPrince as an abandoned outcast, who ought not to hold himself
and his family in such high estimation. On this subject the
two sovereigns are said to have quarrelled : but other accounts
state, what indeed is more probable, that the Siamese
generals, jealous of the emigrant Prince, had plotted against
his life. The same jealousy might also have found its way
into the breast of the King of Siam. Aware of the storm that
was rising against him, he communicated his apprehensions
to some of his faithful followers, who advised him immediately
to quit a Court where the delay of a night might prove fatal
to him. It was therefore determined that they should force
their way that very evening, with sword in hand, to the
nearest port, seize on the shipping which might be there,
and, being embarked, steer a direct course for their old soli-
tary island of Pulo Wai. The number of those who had foll
lowed his fortunes from Cochinchina, and who had since joined
him in Siam, amounted to about fifteen hundred persons. Plac-
ing himself, with his family, at the head of this small force, he
sallied forth from the capital of Siam, cut ifis way through all
that opposed him, embarked his friends in a sufficient num-
ber of Siamese vessels and Malay proas that were lying in
the harbour and, putting to sea, arrived safely on Pulo Hai,
which he now took care to fortify in such a manner, with the
guns and arms found on the ships he had seized, as to be se-
LL C
26o C O C H IN C H IN A.
cure against any attack that either the King of Siam or the
rebels of Cochinchina might be disposed to make against it.
Adran, some time before this, had made his way from
Siam to the southern province of Cochinchina, in order to
sound the sentiments of the people with regard to their legiti-
mate sovereign ; and, finding them still faithful to his interest,
and a general dissatisfaction prevailing against the usurper,
he conceived the plan of applying to Louis XVI. of France
for succours, in order to replace the lawful heir on the throne,
on such terms as would not be objectionable to himself, and
might eventually be highly advantageous to France. With
this view he set sail in search of the emigrant King. “I met
“ with the unfortunate Monarch,” says he, in a letter dated
from Pondicherry, “in a very wretched situation, accom-
“ panied by a few faithful friends, on one of the small islands
“ in the gulph of Siam, near the junction of this kingdom
“ with Cambodia. His soldiers were subsisting on roots
“ which they dug out of the earth.” Here, it seems, the
King committted to the care of the missionary his eldest son,
earnestly entreating him, in the event of any accident befall-
ing himself, to continue his advice and assistance to him as
tº de º tº . . .
a father and a friend ; and to instruct him never to lose sight
of his lawful dominions, of which his father was deprived º
violence and usurpation
|
\
Adran, having satisfied the King on this subject, took his
leave, and embarked with his young charge for Pondicherry ;
and, having procured a passage from thence in an European
C O C H IN C H IN A. 261
vessel, they arrived in Paris in the year 1787. The young
Prince was presented at court, and treated with every mark
of attention and respect; and the project of the missionary
was so highly approved that, in the course of a few months,
a treaty was drawn up and concluded between Louis XVI.
and the King of Cochinchina, signed at Versailles on the part
of the former by the Comptes de l'ergennes and Montmorin,
and of the latter by the young Prince. The principal articles
of this extraordinary treaty, which I believe is now for the
first time made public, were as follows:
I. There shall be an offensive and defensive alliance between
the Kings of France and Cochinchina; they do hereby
agree mutually to afford assistance to each other against
all those who may make war upon either of the two con-
tracting parties.
II. To accomplish this purpose, there shall be put under the
orders of the King of Cochinchina a squadron of twenty
French ships of war, of such size and force as shall be
deemed sufficient for the demands of his service.
III. Five complete European regiments, and two regiments
of native colonial troops, shall be embarked without delay
for Cochinchina.
IV. His Majesty Louis XVI. shall engage to furnish, within
four months, the sum of one million dollars; five hun-
dred thousand of which shall be in specie, the remainder
262 C O C H IN C H IN A.
in salt petre, cannon, musquets, and other military
Stores.
W. From the moment the French troops shall have entered
the dominions of the King of Cochinchina, they and their
generals, both by sea and land, shall receive their orders
from the King of Cochinchina. To this effect the com-
manding officers shall be furnished with instructions from
his Catholic Majesty to obey in all things, and in all places,
the will of his new ally.
On the other hand,
I. The King of Cochinchina, as soon as tranquillity shall be
re-established in his dominions, shall engage to furnish, for
fourteen ships of the line, such a quantity of stores and
provisions as will enable them to put to sea without delay,
on the requisition of the ambassador from the King of
France ; and for the better effecting this purpose, there
shall be sent out from Europe a corps of officers and petty
officers of the marine, to be put upon a permanent esta-
blishment in Cochinchina.
II. His Majesty Louis XVI. shall have resident consuls on
every part of the coast of Cochinchina, wherever he may
think fit to place them. These consuls shall be allowed
the privilege of building, or causing to be built, ships, fri-
gates, and other vessels, without molestation, under any
pretence, from the Cochinchinese government.
C O C H IN C H IN A. 263
III. The ambassador of his Majesty Louis XVI. to the Court
of Cochinchina shall be allowed to fell such timber, in any
of the forests, as may be found convenient and suitable for
building ships, frigates, or other vessels.
IV. The King of Cochinchina and the Council of State shall
cede in perpetuity to his most Christian Majesty, his heirs,
and successors, the port and territory of Han-san (bay of
Turon and the peninsula), and the adjacent islands from
Faifo on the south to Hai-wen on the north.
V. The King of Cochinchina engages to furnish men and
materials necessary for the construction of forts, bridges,
high-roads, tanks, &c. as far as may be judged necessary
for the protection and defence of the cessions made to his
faithful ally the King of France.
VI. In case that the natives shall at any time be unwilling to
remain in the ceded territory, they will be at liberty to
leave it, and will be reimbursed the value of the property
they may leave upon it. The civil and criminal juris-
prudence shall remain unaltered ; all religious opinions
shall be free ; the taxes shall be collected by the French in
the usual mode of the country, and the eollectors shall be
appointed jointly by the ambassador of France and the
King of Cochinchina; but the latter shall not claim any
part of those taxes, which will belong properly to his
most Christian Majesty for the support of his terri-
tories.
264 C O C H IN C H IN A.
VII. In the event of his most Christian Majesty being re-
solved to wage war in any part of India, it shall be al-
lowed to the Commander in Chief of the French forces to
raise a levy of 14,000 men, whom he shall cause to be
trained in the same manner as they are in France, and to
be put under French discipline.
VIII. In the event of any power whatsoever attacking the
French in their Cochinchinese territory, the King of Cochin-
china shall furnish 60,000 men or more in land forces,
whom he shall clothe, victual, &c. &c.
Beside these articles, the treaty contained some others of
inferior importance, but all of them, as might be expected,
greatly in favour of the French. Adran was promoted to the
episcopal see under the title of Bishop of Cochinchina, and
honoured with the appointment of Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to that Court. The command of the troops
intended to be embarked on the expedition, which was put
under the sole management and direction of the Bishop,
was meant to be conferred either on M. Custin or M. de
Frêne. The Bishop was desirous that Conway, the Governor
of Pondicherry, should have the command ; but Louis XVI.,
it seems, had taken a strong aversion to this officer, as being,
in his opinion, an immoral, unprincipled character, and a
proud, haughty and restless man. “ Mons. d’Adran,” ob-
served this good Monarch, “you suffer yourself to be led
“ away in favour of Conway : believe me, he would occasion
“ you much uneasiness, and probably frustrate the views of
C O C H IN C H 1 N A. 265
“ the expedition. If I have made him Governor General in
“ India, it is with the view solely of preventing his intrigues
“ here, and his attempts to throw matters into confusion ;
“ for I well know that his brother, himself, and Dillon, can-
“ not remain one moment at rest. He may be a good soldier,
“ and will do well enough while stationary at Pondicherry;
“ but I would not trust him at the head of an army. How-
“ ever, for your sake, he shall have the red ribband (cordon
“ rouge), and the rank of Lieutenant General.”
Matters being thus far concluded in Paris, the Bishop,
with the young Prince under his charge and the treaty in his
pocket, set sail for Pondicherry, in the Meduse frigate, as
Ambassador Plenipotentiary from Louis XVI. of France to
the King of Cochinchina. He called on his passage at the
Isle of France, where he found lying a ship of fifty guns, seven
frigates, and some transports. He found also that the num-
ber of disposeable troops in this island and Bourbon amounted
to between four and five thousand men. The ships were
ordered to be equipped with all possible dispatch, and the
troops to hold themselves in readiness for embarkation, the
moment that an advice boat should arrive from Pondicherry,
which he meant to dispatch, on his arrival there, with orders
to that effect.
There happened to be in Pondicherry, at the time of his
arrival in 1789, a celebrated beauty of the name of Ma-
dame de Vienne, the wife of Conway's Aid-de-camp, and
mistress to the General. As the Bishop had paid his respects
to all the women of distinction in the settlement, it was
M M
266 C O C H IN C H IN A.
hinted to him that he ought to make a visit to this lady.
This piece of civility he not only refused to perform, but was
exceedingly indignant on the intimation being made to him,
using many gross epithets on the occasion, and reprobating,
in the severest terms, the scandalous conduct both of the
General and his mistress; all of which was faithfully com-
municated to the latter by some of her confidential friends.
Enraged on hearing the in pertinent observations, as she con-
sidered them, on the part of the priest, she was determined
to lose no time in practising her revenge. Madame de
Vienne had obtained an absolute sway over Conway. In a
large company she took an occasion to ridicule his red rib-
band, which she represented as a bauble sent out rather for
his amusement, and to keep him in good humour, than as an
honourable testimonial of his services. She treated with great
contempt the rank to which he had been promoted in what
she called the Pope's army, under the command of a Bishop.
In short, this enraged beauty knew so well how to work on
the feelings of Conway, that she completely succeeded in all
her views, and prevailed on him to create a temporary delay
to the progress of the expedition. For this purpose he dis-
patched a fast-sailing vessel to the Mauritius, with directions
to suspend the armament until further orders should be re-
ceived from the Court of Versailles; and the revolution, in
the mean time breaking out in France, put a final stop to
all their proceedings. &
Had this event not taken place, it is difficult to say what
the consequences of such a treaty might have been to our
possessions in India, and to the trade of the East India Com-
C O C H IN C H IN A. 267
pany with China; but it is sufficiently evident that it had for
its object the destruction of both.
The untoward circumstances that had put an end to the
expedition did not, however, deter the Bishop from the pro-
secution of his original plan of re-establishing the lawful
Sovereign of Cochinchina, if still living, or the young Prince,
if his father should be dead, on the throne of their ancestors.
He had carried with him from France several officers, who
were to have held appointments in the new settlements
With some of these, as volunteers, the Bishop and the young
Prince embarked in a merchant ship for Cape St. Jacques,
at the mouth of the river leading to Sai-gong, where they
hoped to receive intelligence of the King. Here they learned
that, after their departure for Pondicherry, the unfortinate
monarch had remained on the island of Pulo J'ai for nearly
two years, feeding on roots with the rest of his people,
when the two usurpers were so much exhausted by perpetual
broils and skirmishes, and his faithful subjects so very de-
sirous of his presence in Don-mai, that he was induced once
more to venture a landing in his own dominions; that all
ranks flocked with ardour to his standard ; that he marched
without interruption to Sai-gong, whose works of defence
were immediately strengthened and put into good order;
that the moment of his landing had been particularly favour-
able, as the two rebel brothers were then shut up in their
respective capitals, each expecting to be attacked by the
other. This favourable intelligence gave a spur to the exer-
tions of the Bishop and his son, who joined the King at Sai-
gong, in the year 1790; and they were followed by a
small vessel which had been taken up to convey arms and
M M º
268 C O C H IN C H IN A.
ammunition ; but the commander (Richerie) was accused of
having sold the greater part of his cargo, for his own use, at
Malacca.
The meeting of the King, his son, and his instructor, may
be more easily conceived than described. No time was lost
in concerting their plans for carrying on a vigorous war
against the usurper. The greater part of the first year was
occupied in fortifying Sai-gong, in recruiting and disciplining
the army, and in collecting and equipping a fleet.
In the year 1791, the rebel Quang-Hung died at Hué,
leaving behind him a son of about 12 years of age to succeed
to the government of Tung-quin and the northern part of
Cochinchina. This event seemed to make it the more neces-
sary for the legitimate sovereign, Caung-shung, to commence
his operations against Yin-yac who, much as he hated his late
brother, might probably not be indisposed to offer his young
nephew at Hué terms of accommodation. The ratification of
his father's title to the kingdom of Tung-quin, by the Em-
peror of China, had been the first cause of hostilities between
the two brothers. In all their skirmishes Yin-ſac was
worsted, and the limits of his country contracted. Nothing,
therefore, was more probable than his offering to make peace
with the young King of Tung-quin. Under this idea the
I3ishop strongly urged the expediency of making an im-
mediate attack upon the fleet of Yin-ſac, in the harbour of
Quin-mong ; especially as the land forces were now considered,
both as to numbers and discipline, to be capable of opposing
any army that might be marched against them through the
interior. The King had only a few ships, and the usurper's
C O C H IN C H IN A. 269
fleet was very numerous; but whilst the latter was shut up
in port by the adverse monsoon, the same wind was favour-
able for carrying the former directly into the midst of theni.
He therefore embarked in the spring of the year 1792, and
putting the whole of his fleet under the direction of two
French officers, who commanded two European vessels, pro-
ceeded to Quin-nong. A Monsieur d'Ayot is said to have
made a dreadful havock among the Cochinchinese junks,
burning, sinking and destroying all that fell in his way :
but, pursuing his successes too far, his vessel took the ground.
The King, having observed this accident, is said to have re-
marked that, although it might prove the cause of his losing
the day, yet that he could not forbear rejoicing at the oppor-
tunity it afforded him of performing his part as well as d'Ayot.
“ He has done his share,” said he, “ and I would not wish
“ he should do mine also.”
The attack was so wholly unexpected on the part of Yin-
yac, that he and his Court had gone about thirty miles into
the country to enjoy the pleasure of hunting. On such occa-
sions the sovereign is not merely attended by a few of his
courtiers ; the numbers of which the party is composed form
a little army. The greater part consists, in fact, of soldiers :
they surround the thickets, and having sprung their game,
which is generally the huge elephant, the ferocious tyger, or
the wild buffalo, they narrow the diameter of the circle till,
fixing the animal to a spot, they either kill him with their
spears or take him prisoner. The alarm of the enemy was
soon communicated to the party of pleasure, and the beach
was presently lined with troops; but they were of little as-
7
27e C O C H IN C H IN A.
sistance to the fleet, which was now almost completely de-
stroyed. The King, therefore, made the signal to retreat
the moment that d'Ayot's ship, on the rising of the tide, was
again afloat. The grand yacht of the usurper, with a few
others that were lying at the upper corner of the harbour, had
not been brought into action. They were pointed out to the
King who, however, objected to their being destroyed, ob-
serving, “ that when Yin-yac was tired of hunting he might
“ wish to amuse himself with fishing, and that it would be
“ cruel to deprive him of the means of pursuing so innocent
“ an occupation.”
It was in the spring of the following year, 1793, when the
British squadron, in its way to China, came to anchor in
Turon bay. At that time the whole of Don-nai was in the
possession of the lawful sovereign. Chang, the middle part
of the country, was held by the usurper Yin-yac ; and Hué,
including the country and islands adjacent to Turon bay,
was governed by the son of Quang-tung, the youth above-
mentioned, who then held his court at Hué. It was not,
therefore, in the least surprizing that our ships should have
created an alarm and a degree of distrust which, I have ob-
served, our Portugueze friend Manuel Duomé had endea-
voured to improve to his own advantage, in order that he
might not be interrupted in the exclusive and lucrative trade
which he had for some time been carrying on with the natives.
These, as it afterwards appeared, had immediately concluded
us to be in the service of the legitimate monarch, and that
we had come from Sai-gong with the intention of getting pos-
session of Turon ; and, under this idea, they had actually
C O C H IN C H IN A. 271
assembled a considerable body of troops and war elephants
in the vicinity of the town : nor was it till some days had ex-
pired before this impression was done away.
But before I proceed to give any account of our own trans-
actions in this country, or of the manners and appearance of
the people, I shall continue my narrative of the progress made
by Caung-shung in the recovery of his kingdom; and select from
a my materials the leading features of the character of this extra-
ordinary man, who may justly be ranked among those few who
are born with talents to rule in the world ; who now and then
appear, in all countries, with a splendour which outshines the
rest of their fellow mortals. It may be right to apprize the
reader that a considerable part of the sketch which I have
here given, as well as that which follows, is the substance of
a manuscript memoir drawn up by Monsieur Barissy, an in-
telligent French officer, who commanded a frigate in the
service of this monarch. And as the former part agrees so
well with what we learned in Turon bay, through our inter-
preter, from a Chinese secretary to the government at that
place, and with the different relations of the missionaries who
have resided there, I have no hesitation in giving to the
sequel the most implicit belief. The material facts have, in-
deed, been corroborated by the testimony of two English
gentlemen, who visited Sai-gong in the years 1799 and
18()().
-- a * * | º +
The rebel Y in-yac did not long survive the destruction of
his fleet. He died a few months after we left Turon bay, in
the year 1793, of a disease of the brain, as one account states,
272 C O C H IN C H IN A.
supposed to have been brought on by rage and despair at t
success of the lawful King; but another report says, that
phrenzy was so ungovernable that it was found expediens ,
get rid of him by poison. His son succeeded to the gºvern-
ment, who possessed all the vices without the talents of his
father. Cruel, deceitful, and vindictive, he was hated by
every one. Caung-shung, in the year 1796, resolved to attack
his capital by land. The young usurper was enabled to bring
against him an army of 100,000 men; but the King com-
pletely routed it with a very inferior force, and took posses-
sion of Quin-mong. On this occasion an extraordinary in-
stance of magnanimity is related of Caung-shung. When the
garrison had surrendered, the King, having been engaged in
person the whole day sword in hand and worn out with fatigue,
threw himself into a sedan chair, in order to be conveyed into
the citadel. On passing the inner gate he was fired at by a
person on the rampart. His guards advancing immediately
seized the culprit, whom they brought before the King with
his hands bound behind him. It was discovered that he was
a general officer, and a relation of the usurper. The King,
according to the custom of the Chinese when they mean to
mitigate the sentence of death passed on a criminal, told him.
that instead of ordering his head to be struck off, which he so
well merited, he would allow - him, in consideration of his
rank, to chuse his own punishment, being presented at the
same time with a bowl of poison, a cord of silk, and a dagger.
“ If you are not afraid of me,” said the rebel chief, “you
“ will instantly order my release; and, as I have sworn never
“ to live under your protection, or to be obedient to your
“ laws, if you dare to comply with what I ask, I shall im-
C O C H IN CHIN A. 273
“ mediately repair to Hué, where my rank and character will
“ procure me the command of an army, at the head of which
“I shall hereafter be proud to meet you.” The King,
struck with his bold and open conduct, ordered him to be
untied, directed a guard of soldiers to escort him to the
northern frontier; and the following year this very man was
the second in command at the siege of Quin-nong, where he
lost his life. The son of Yin-yac was completely subdued,
and the whole country, as far as Turon bay, submitted to the
arms of its lawful sovereign. The other young usurper at
Hué still, however, kept possession of the kingdom of T'ung-
quin, against which Caung-shung was preparing a formidable
armament in the year 1800. Though no authentic accounts
since this period have reached England, there are grounds
for believing that he has reconquered the whole of that
country.
From the year 1790, in which Caung-shung returned to
Cochinchina, to 1800, he was allowed to enjoy only two
years of peace, 1797 and 1798: and these two years were,
in all probability, the most important of his hitherto trouble-
some reign. Under the auspices of the Bishop Adran, who
in every important undertaking was his oracle, he turned his
attention to the improvement of his country. He established
a manufactory of saltpetre in Fen-tan (Tsiompa of the charts),
opened roads of communication between important posts and
considerable towns, and planted them on each side with trees
for shade. He encouraged the cultivation of the areca nut
and the betel pepper, the plantations of which had been de-
stroyed by the army of the usurper. He held out rewards
N N
274 C O C H IN CHIN A.
for the propagation of the silk-worm ; caused large tracts of
land to be prepared for the culture of the sugar-cane; and
established manufactories for the preparation of pitch, tar,
and resin. He caused several thousand matchlocks to be
fabricated; he opened a mine of iron ore, and constructed
smelting furnaces. He distributed his land forces into regular
regiments, established military schools, where officers were in-
structed in the doctrine of projectiles and gunnery by European
masters. Adran had translated into the Chinese language a
system of military tactics, for the use of his army. In the course
of these two years he constructed at least 300 large gun-boats
or row-gallies, five luggers, and a frigate on the model of
an European vessel. He caused a system of naval tactics to
be introduced, and had his naval officers instructed in the
use of signals. One of the English gentlemen, whom I men-
tioned to have been at Sai-gong in the year 1800, saw a fleet
of ships consisting of 1200 sail, under the immediate com-
mand of this Prince, weigh their anchors and drop down the
river in the highest order, in three separate divisions, forming
into lines of battle, in close and open order, and going
through a variety of manoeuvres by signals as they proceeded
along.
During this interval of peace he likewise undertook to re-
form the system of jurisprudence, in which he was no doubt
very ably assisted by the Bishop. He abolished several
species of torture, which the law of the country had hitherto
prescribed ; and he mitigated punishments that appeared to
be disproportionate to the crimes of which they were the
consequence. He established public schools, to which pa-
C O C H IN C H IN A. 275
rents were compelled to send their children at the age of four
years, under certain pains and penalties. He drew up a
system of rules and regulations for the commercial interests of
his kingdom ; caused bridges to be built over rivers ; buoys
and sea-marks to be laid down in all the dangerous parts of
the coast; and surveys to be made of the principal bays and
harbours. He sent missions into the mountainous districts on
the west of his kingdom, inhabited by the Laos and the
Miaotsé, barbarous nations whom he wished to bring into a
state of civilization and good government. These moun-
taineers are the people whom the Chinese designate by the
degrading appellation of “Men with tails :” though, in all
probability, they are the regular descendants of the true ori-
ginal inhabitants of this long civilized empire. In short, this
Monarch, by his own indefatigable application to the arts
and manufactures, like Peter of Russia, without his brutality,
aroused by his individual example the energies of his people,
and, like our immortal Alfred, spared no pains to regenerate
his country. His activity and exertions' will readily be con-
ceived from the circumstance of his having, in less than ten
years, from a single vessel, accumulated a fleet of twelve
hundred ships, of which three were of European construc-
tion ; about twenty were large junks, similar to those of
China, but completely manned and armed ; and the rest were
large gun-vessels and transports.
Caung-shung is represented to be, in the strictest sense of
the word, a complete soldier. He is said to hold the name
of General far more dear and estimable than that of So-
vereign. He is described as being brave without rashness;
N N 2
276 C O C H IN C H IN A.
and fertile in expedients, when difficulties are to be sur-
mounted. His conceptions are generally just; his conduct
firm ; he is neither discouraged by difficulties, nor turned
aside by obstacles. Cautious in deciding, when once re-
Solved, he is prompt and vigorous to execute. In battle he
is always eminently distinguishable. At the head of his army
he is cheerful and good humoured ; polite and attentive to
all the officers under his command, he studiously avoids to
mark out any individual as a favourite beyond the rest. His
memory is so correct, that he is said to know by name the
greater part of his army. He takes uncommon pleasure in
conversing with his soldiers, and in talking over their adven-
tures and exploits; he makes particular inquiries after their
wives and children ; if the latter go regularly to school; how
they mean to dispose of them when grown up ; and, in short,
enters with a degree of interest into a minute detail of their
domestic concerns. -
His conduct to foreigners is affable and condescending.
'To the French officers in his service he pays the most marked
attention, and treats them with the greatest politeness, fa-
miliarity, and good humour. On all his hunting excursions,
and other parties of pleasure, one of these officers is always
invited to attend. He openly declares his great veneration for
the doctrines of Christianity, and tolerates this religion and
indeed all others in his dominions. He observes a most scru-
pulous regard to the maxims of filial piety, as laid down in
the works of Confucius, and humbles himself in the presence
of his mother (who is still living) as a child before its master.
With the works of the most enminent Chinese authors he is
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. 277
well acquainted; and, through the translations into the
Chinese character of the Encyclopedie by the Bishop Adran,
he has acquired no inconsiderable knowledge of European
arts and sciences, among which he is most attached to such
as relate to navigation and ship-building. It is stated, on
what appears to be good authority, that, in order to obtain
a thorough knowledge of the practice as well as theory of
European naval architecture, he purchased a Portugueze
vessel, for the sole purpose of taking in pieces, plank by
plank, with his own hands, fitting in a new piece of similar
shape and dimensions as the old one he removed, till every
beam, timber, knee and plank had been replaced by new
ones of his own construction, and the ship thus completely
renovated.
The energy of his mind is not less vigorous than the activity
of his corporeal faculties. He is represented, in fact, as the
main spring of every movement that takes place in his ex-
tensive and flourishing kingdom. Intendant of the ports and
arsenals, master shipwright of the dock-yard, and chief en-
gineer of all the works, nothing is attempted to be under-
taken without his advice and instructions. In the former,
not a nail is driven without first consulting him ; nor a gun
mounted on the latter but by his orders. He not only enters
into the most minute detail in drawing up instructions, but
actually sees them executed himself.
To enable him the better to attend to the concerns of his
government, his mode of life is regulated by a fixed plan.
At six in the morning he rises from his couch, and goes into
278 C O C H IN C H IN A.
the cold bath. At seven he has his levee of Mandarins: all
the letters are read which have been received in the course of
the preceding day, on which his orders are minuted by the
respective secretaries. He then proceeds to the naval ar-
senal, examines the works that have been performed in his
absence, rows in his barge round the harbour, inspecting his
ships of war. He pays particular attention to the ordnance
department : and in the foundery, which is erected within the
arsenal, cannon are cast of all dimensions.
About twelve or one he takes his breakfast in the dock-
yard, which consists of a little boiled rice and dried fish. At
two he retires to his apartment and sleeps till five, when he
again rises; gives audience to the naval and military officers,
the heads of tribunals or public departments, and approves,
rºects, or amends whatever they may have to propose.
These affairs of state generally employ his attention till, mid-
might, after which he retires to his private apartments, to
make such notes and memorandums as the occurrences of the
day may have suggested. He then takes a light supper,
passes an hour with his family, and between two and three
in the morning retires to his bed; taking, in this manner, at
two intervals, about six hours of rest in the four-and-
twenty.
He neither makes use of Chinese wine, nor any kind of
spirituous liquors, and contents himself with a very small
portion of animal food. A little fish, rice, vegetables and
fruit, with tea and light pastry, constitute the chief articles of
his diet. Like a true Chinese descended, as he boasts to be,
7
C O’C H IN C H IN A. 279
ſ
from the imperial family of Ming, he always eats alone, not
permitting either his wife or any part of his family to sit
down to the same table with him. On the same principle of
pride, he would not allow some English gentlemen to pay
their respects to him at his palace, in the year 1799, because,
as he observed, the unsettled state of the country did not
permit him to make such preparations as were due to him-
self, and to strangers of respectability. The meaning of such
an excuse, coming from a Chinese, could not be well mis-
taken ; but, on the part of this Monarch, there did not ap-
pear to be any thing like jealousy, or a wish to deprive the
strangers of the means of gratifying their C&iosity : on the
contrary, they had full liberty to visit every part of the naval
arsenal, and to inspect the town and its fortifications. He
had no objection to entertain them as a General, but refused
to see them in his character of Sovereign.
His stature is represented to be somewhat above the middle
size ; his features regular and agreeable ; his complexion .
ruddy, very much sun-burnt by a constant exposure to the
weather. He is at this time (1806) just on the verge of fifty
years of age.
Of the English he has little knowledge but by name : yet
he is said to profess, on all occasions, a great veneration for
their character. When Frenchmen declare this, they may
be believed. He has given, however, frequent proofs of his
good inclinations towards the English. He published an
edict, declaring that all our ships should at all times be ad-
mitted into any of his ports and harbours, free of all duties
28o C O C H IN C H IN A.
and port charges. An instance occurred wherein his generous
conduct shews his character in the fairest point of view.
An English merchant vessel from Canton arrived at Sai-gong,
where the Master and first officer died. To prevent the
frauds and pillage which might be committed, and the losses
which would inevitably ensue to the owners from the death of
those who had been entrusted with the management of their
concerns, he directed Captain Barissy, with a party of sol-
diers, to take possession of her, and carry her under his charge
to Canton, with orders to deliver her safe to her owners, or
their agents, who might be found there or at Macao.
Though no apparent alteration took place in his conduct
with regard to the French officers in his service, yet the
French character is said to have suffered greatly in his estima-
tion from the moment he was made acquainted with the out-
rageous and inhuman treatment which the unfortunate family
on the throne experienced from a licentious and savage
rabble. The feelings of a mind like that of Caung-shung
could not be otherwise than tremblingly alive on such an
occasion. Driven by usurpers from his dominions, and
doomed to wander for many years as an outcast and an exile,
it is no wonder that, in comparing a nation which had ex-
pelled the family of its lawful Sovereign with another nation
which received it with open arms, he should be more de-
sirous to cultivate the friendship of the latter than of the
former. We have not, however, managed affairs with regard to
this extraordinary character, in such a manner as to promote
that kind of friendly intercourse, which could not fail to be
highly advantageous to our commercial concerns. The East
C O C H IN C H IN A. 28 I
India Company, convinced at length of the importance of
standing on friendly terms with the King of Cochinchina,
sent, it is true, one of their servants from Canton on a secret
mission to Sai-gong, in the year 1804; which, however, com-
pletely failed. But more of this hereafter.
In justice to the memory of Adran, who died in 1800, it
ought to be observed, that the character of this Monarch,
the recovery of his kingdom, his successes in war, the im-
provements of his country in the intervals of peace and,
above all, the rapid progress made in various arts, manufac-
tures, and science, are greatly owing to the talents, the in-
struction and faithful attachment of this missionary. The King,
on his part, loved him to adoration, distinguishing him by an
*pithet bestowed on Confucius alone, the Illustrious Master.
And in testimony of his great veneration, after the remains
of the Bishop had been interred by his brother missionaries
according to the rites of the Romish Church, he ordered the
body to be taken up and again buried with all the funeral
pomp and ceremonies prescribed by the Cochinchinese re-
ligion; nor could he be prevailed on to forego this signal
mark of honour to his memory, notwithstanding the intreaties
and expostulations of the French missionaries, who were not
a little scandalized at such unhallowed proceedings. It may
readily be supposed the Bishop had no easy task to perform.
As counsellor of the King and instructor of his son, he na-
turally became the object of jealousy to all the Mandarins.
Combinations were frequently formed against him ; and re-
monstrances were sometimes ventured to be made to the
King against the impolicy as well as indecency of entrusting the
O O
282 * C O C H IN C H IN A.
education of the heir apparent to a foreigner, who neither
respected the laws nor professed the religion of their an-
cestors; and the necessity strongly urged of placing him under
the direction and guidance of the learned men who were versed
in the only true doctrine, as contained in the writings of Con-
fucius. On such occasions the King always repelled their
representations with firmness, and sometimes did not conceal
from them his determination of preferring rather to sacrifice
the friendship of his ministers than to give up that of the
Bishop, who continued indeed to enjoy his implicit confi-
dence to his last moments.
His Queen is represented as a woman of exemplary virtue,
of great firmness, and as the support and comfort of the King
in the midst of his adversity. Of their seven children the
two eldest sons were put under the tuition of Adran. The heir
apparent, the youth whom the Bishop carried with him to Paris,
died shortly after his master. He was of a mild, obliging, and
affable disposition, endued with all the social virtues, but of
talents more suitable for the quiet of domestic retirement than
the bustle of public life. The second brother, the present heir
to the throne, has the character of being a complete soldier. He
served three years as a private in his father's guards, and five
years as a corporal and serjeant, during which servitude he
was engaged in a great deal of active warfare. In 1797 he
was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and the fol-
lowing year he was appointed Governor of the southern pro-
vince. In 1800 he obtained the rank of General, and was
appointed to the command of an army of 35,000 men ; in
which year he gained a most important victory over the rebels
C O C H IN C H IN A. 283
in the north, having slain 9000 of the enemy, and taken all
their elephants of war and artillery.
The strength of the forces of the King of Cochinchina,
as stated by Captain Barissy, was in the year 1800 as
follows:
Army.
Men.
24 squadrons of buffalo cavalry tººk tºº. 0,000
16 battalions of elephants (200 beasts) sº 8,000
30 battalions of artillery tº wº tºº 15,000
25 regiments of 1200 each (trained in the European
manner) * -º $º Rºe rºº 30,000
Infantry with matchlocks, sabres, &c. trained in the
ancient manner of the country tº sº 42,000
Guards, regularly trained in European tactics 12,000
Land forces 113,000
Marine.
Artificers in the naval arsenal tº 8000
Sailors registered and borne on the ships in
the harbour º H. : 8000
Attached to the European built vessels 1200
Attached to the junks sº tº 1600
Attached to 100 row-galleys º 8000
In the sea service 26,800
Total 139,800
o O 2
284 C O C H IN C H IN A.
What the qualities of these troops may be, if measured by
an European standard, I cannot pretend to say: but those
few which fell under our observation were active and vigorous
young men, not much encumbered with dress, nor was that
dress uniform either in point of shape or of colour; except
indeed the holiday dress of those who were on guard on the
day of our public reception, whose pasteboard helmets, and
tassels of cow tails dyed scarlet, quilted jackets and petticoats,
were completely Chinese. In general, a handkerchief tied
about the head, somewhat in the shape of a turban, a loose
smock frock, with a pair of drawers, constitute the dress of a
soldier, as in the annexed figure which is an accurate portrait
taken from the life.
The history of this Prince, of which I have here given a
slight sketch, furnishes a striking example and an useful
lesson to such as may have fallen through misfortunes into
similar circumstances; in shewing how much may be accom-
plished by the union of talent, energy, and Courage, pro-
perly directed. An outcast from his country, forced to fly
from the hand of the usurper and assassin, and to suffer the
keenest pangs of adversity, he has not only been able, in the
course of ten or twelve years, to recover the whole of his
lawful possessions, but has added to them the kingdom of
Tung-quin, which anciently belonged to the Kings of Cochin-
china. It is said that he has even demanded from the Em-
peror of China the cession of the large island of Hai-nan, not
so much for the sake of enlarging the extent of his dominions,
as of leaving behind him the fame of having restored to
7
i
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- I -, -º-
* /- º º
-
- ---

C O C H IN C H IN A. 285
Cochinchina its ancient domains, till the accomplishment of
which he is said to have made a vow to Tien never to sit
down in the quiet enjoyment of his conquests; exemplifying
the poet's observation, that
“ Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
“ (That last infirmity of noble mind)
“To scorn delights, and live laborious days.”
The progress of his exertions suggests likewise other con-
siderations, which are not undeserving of the attention of the
British government in India. If this Monarch, in the midst
of a struggle with powerful rebels for the recovery of his
kingdom, and under the most adverse circumstances, could,
in the short period of ten years, find the means of raising and
equipping a fleet of 1200 armed vessels, how much more for-
midable an armament might the active subjects of Louis XVI.
have prepared in, the same country, had the treaty been
carried into effect? And what may not the present still 'more
active government of France be tempted to try in this only
remaining country in the East where they can entertain
any reasonable hope of acquiring a solid and permanent
establishment P.
286 C O CHIN CHIN A.
C H A P. X.
G ENERAL SKETCH OF THE MANNERS, CHARACTER, AN o
CON DITION OF T H E N AT IV ES OF T U R O N.
Cochinchinese Dinners—Communication with the young King of Tung-quin—
Presents sent by him to the Ambassador—Entertainment given at Turon on
the King of England’s Birth-Day—Plays and other Amusements—
Activity of the Cochinchinese—How they agree and disagree with the
Chinese—Treatment of their Women—Consequences of it—Easy Terms on
which Women are transferred to Strangers—Instances of it—Dress—
Buildings—Diet and Means of Subsistence—Extensive Use of marine
Productions as Articles of Food—Low State of the Arts and Manufac.
tures—Excel most in naval Architecture–Language—Religion—Laws the
same as those of China—Punishments not so frequent. -
Ir was observed in the last chapter, that when the jealousy
and alarm had in some degree subsided, to which the ap-
pearance of our squadron and the unfounded insinuations
thrown out by Manuel Duomé had given rise, the markets
were from day to day better supplied with refreshments, the
officers of government under less restraint, and that some-
thing like mutual confidence as well as an uninterrupted in-
tercourse was established between the inhabitants of the port
and the persons belonging to our squadron ; that the officers
of the ships and the gentlemen attached to the embassy,
whom business or curiosity might induce to spend the day on
C O C H IN C H IN A. 287
shore, were entertained with a public dinner. On their side,
some of the leading men daily visited the ships, where, not-
withstanding the very little relish they seemed to feel for our
cookery, they usually dined. They neither admired our beer
nor our wine; but their avidity for raw rum, brandy, or any
kind of spirituous liquors, was so great that, after their first
visit, it was found expedient not to leave the quantity to
their discretion, as the whole party went out of the ship in a
state of complete intoxication.
As none of the houses in the town were large enough
, for the accommodation of so numerous a party, the Go-
vernor issued his directions for building a spacious shed,
which, by the help of the ever ready and useful bamboo,
was finished in the course of a few hours : the roof and the
sides were covered with thick close mats. Within this shed
was placed a row of little tables, with forms on each side, to
which might sit down conveniently from twenty to twenty-
\ four persons. In China it is the custom to cover their little
square tables so completely with dishes, or rather bowls,
that no part of their surfaces shall be seen ; but the Cochin-
chinese seem to have improved on the liberality of their
highly polished neighbours, by not merely covering the table,
but by piling the bowls in rows upon each other three or four
in depth. I should suppose that we seldom sat down to a
fewer number of bowls than two hundred, exclusive of the
cups of rice which are handed round to the guests in the
place of bread; rice being in this country, as well as in
China and most of the Oriental nations, the staff of life.
Of table linen, knives, forks, bottles and glasses, they make
288 C O C H IN C H IN A.
no use; but before each person is laid a spoon of potter's
ware, and a pair of porcupine quills or small sticks of bam-
boo, of rose or sandal wood, sometimes tipped with silver or
tootanague, of the same kind in every respect as those used
by the Chinese, and known to the English under the name
of chop-sticks. The contents of the bowls are preparations of
beef, pork, fowls, and fish, cut into small pieces, mixed with
vegetables, and dressed in soups and gravies variously sea-
soned and composed of various materials. We had nothing
roasted nor prepared in the dry way. Neither wine nº
spirits, nor fermented liquors of any kind, nor even water,
were served round during the time of eating; but when dinner
was over, Chinese seau-choo was handed about in little por-
Celain cups.
As from our mutual ignorance of each other's language
there could be no exchange of conversation, we found little
inducement for sitting long at table. The Governor or
ſ t
General commanding at Turon did not indeed condescend to
sit down with us, but usually on these occasions lay stretched f
on a mattress spread on a mat at the end of the room, smok-
ing tobacco, or cating his areca nut and betel pepper, while
two tall fellows fanned the air the whole time with large fans
made of the wing feathers of the Argus pheasant. From the
table we usually repaired to the theatre, which was also a
shed of bamboo ; and here, as in China, we invariably found
the actors busily engaged in the performance at all hours of
the day, proceeding apparently with as much ardour when
no spectators were present as when they were. Being hired
for the day, a crowded or a thin audience made little dif-
C O C H IN C H IN A. 289
ference to the performers; all their concern being the receipt
of their pay on the finishing of their work.
The whole of that division of Cochinchina in which Turon bay
is situated was, at this time, in the possession of young Quang-
{ung, the son of the rebel General who defeated the Viceroy
of Canton, and afterwards played the successful trick on the
Emperor of China which I have related in the preceding
chapter. His residence was at the city of Hué, about forty
miles to the northward of Turon. No sooner had the welcome
intelligence of our being friends, or, in the strictest sense of the
word, neutrals, reached that place than a Mandarin of high
rank was dispatched to the Ambassador, with an invitation
to his Excellency to proceed to Court which, however, he
found expedient to decline on many accounts, and parti-
cularly on the score of the delay which would thereby be oc-
casioned. However desirable a journey might have been to
the capital of northern Cochinchina, as furnishing an oppor-
tunity of seeing the state of the country in the interior, it is
probable the loss which curiosity sustained, in not witnessing
the ceremonies and festivities of the Court of Hué, is scarcely
to be regretted, especially as we were about to be present at
those of Pekin which, though of the same kind, must be in-
finitely more splendid than what Cochinchina could exhibit.
It would have been more gratifying had an opportunity pre-
sented itself of passing a few days in the towns, the villages, and
the cottages. “The true state of every nation,” as Dr. Johnson
observes, “is the state of common life. Public happiness is
“ not to be estimated by the assemblies of the gay, or the
“ banquets of the rich. The great mass of nations is neither
P P
29O C O C H IN C H IN A.
“ rich nor gay.” Of Eastern nations this is particularly true,
where there are but two descriptions of men, the governors
and the governed. One amusement, however, would have
proved highly interesting, with which, it seems, the Sove-
reigns of Cochinchina usually entertain foreign ambassadors !
this is an excursion into the forests to hunt the elephant, the
tyger, or the buffalo, on which occasion they usually cele-
brate the royal feast of elephants. Hence it has been said
that the Cochinchinese eat elephants ; but it is probable that
the magnitude of the object marks the peculiarity of the fes-
tival rather than the delicacy of the food, which I imagine
must be extremely coarse. In the forests of Cochinchina and,
neighbouring countries these animals are supposed to be of a
larger size than in any other part of the world. The first I
ever saw were at Turon, and their appearance made a very
strong in pression on my mind. I may safely say that the
elephants of Cochinchina, the peak of Teneriffe, and a storm
at sea, are the only three objects in nature that surpassed the
idea which my imagination had previously formed of them.
f
The letter from the young King was filled with expressions
of the high regard he entertained for the British nation, as a
proof of which, it was observed, he had sent one of his officers.
of state with a small present, as he termed it, for the use of
the ships' companies. It consisted of ten young buffalos,
fifty hogs, and about three hundred ducks and fowls, with
fruit, pumpkins, brinjalls, onions, and other vegetables.
This seasonable supply of refreshments was brought in sailing
eraſt, preceded by a parade of officers in large row-gallies,
gaudily painted and dçcorated with flags and streamers. The
.
*
C O C H IN C H IN A. - tº
Ambassador accompanied his letter in reply with a handsome
double-barrelled gun complete with its apparatus, a pair of
brass pistols fitted with spring bayonets, a steel hilted sword,
and several pieces of camblets and scarlet broad cloth. The
bearer of the letter was dressed in a silken robe, embroidered
JWith figures of tygers and dragons, like those worn in
China ; but on coming on board the Lion, he threw this aside,
and put on two or three long white muslin robes.
The good understanding that now subsisted between the
natives and us met with a momentary interruption by an act
, of indiscretion on our part. Being desirous of obtaining a
correct outline of this excellent bay and harbour, a party of
us one morning took a boat and landed on the eastern shore,
where, by measuring a base line on the sandy beach, and
taking the necessary angles, we might be able to determine
the position of the most material points. From the earliness
' of the hour, and the expeditiop with which we accomplished
" our object, it was concluded we had escaped without notice.
An officer, however, speedily followed on board with a mes-
sage from the Governor, expressing dissatisfaction at our
Jonduct, and desiring that no more measurements might be
taken. Another awkward circumstance occurred, which
served to confirm their suspicions of our having other views
' than those we professed. An officer of the Lion, whose zeal
to explore the river leading up to Fairfoo got the better of
his prudence, was seized in the night, and made prisoner in
a kind of small fort, with the whole boat's crew. Hearing
nothing of what had happened, we conjectured that the boat
had swamped, and every soul in her perished. At length,
P P 2
2 Q 2. C O C H IN C H IN A.
however, information was brought on board the Lion by
some officers of government, with grievous complaints that
We were not dealing fairly with them. The Ambassador dis-
avowed any knowledge of the matter, but desired that the
officer might immediately be released and sent on board to
answer for his conduct to his commanding officer, whosº,
orders he had ventured to disobey. His indiscretion, it
seemed, had been attended with ample punishment. The
Mandarin, into whose hands he fell, was almost constantly
in a state of ebriation, and in this condition he used to give
orders for the officer being brought before him, sometimes
amusing himself with brandishing a large scymitar over his,
head, and sometimes putting round his neck a heavy tablet
of wood and iron, like the cangue of the Chinese. The
affair, however, was satisfactorily explained ; and we had
every reason to believe that, whatever unfavourable suspi-
cions they might once have entertained of our motives for
entering Turon bay, they were soon convinced that we had
not the most distant intention of interfering in the concerns.
of the contending parties. In a second letter from the King,
some indirect overtures were thrown out for establishing a
commercial intercourse with the northern parts of Cochin!
china. The present that accompanied this letter consisted of
a pair of elephant's tusks and ten baskets of pepper for the
Ambassador, and three thousand baskets of rice (each weigh-
ing about seventy pounds, making thus above one hundred
tous) for the use of the seamen.
The Ambassador had not as yet landed at the town of
Turon; and as the principal officers of that place were ex-
7 *
C O C H IN C H IN A. 293
tremely desirous of testifying their respect by a public enter-
tainment to be given on the occasion, his Lordship fixed on
the 4th June for celebrating, with the Cochinchinese on shore,
the anniversary of his Majesty's birth-day. Whether through
accident, or in consequence of former suspicions, or to give
eclat to the entertainment, did not appear, but on the
evening preceding we observed an unusual bustle about the
place, an increased number of troops in and about the town,
besides several huge elephants of war. We therefore, on our
* § Ye * te
part, took the precaution of sending the two armed brigs up
the river opposite to the town, to make a retreat, if neces-
sary, the more secure. The day, however, passed over in
harmony and conviviality. We were conducted from the place
of landing to a temporary building, on a larger scale than that
which we had hitherto occasionally occupied. The two pitches
of its roof were supported by a row of bamboo poles which,
running down the middle, divided the building into two
parts. The sides and the roof were covered with thick double
matts and lined within with coarse Manchester cottons of
various patterns. These prints appeared to be new, but
damaged, and were probably the refuse of the China market,
carried thither by the Portugueze trader. In the first com-
partment of the building was a long table covered with linen,
and laid out with plates, knives and forks, in the manner and
style of Europe. Our Portugueze friend, it seemed, by way
of making some atonement for the injury he had nearly,
though perhaps not maliciously, done us, had prevailed on
the Cochinchinese to allow him to be master of the cere-
monies for the day, concluding in his own mind that, as the
eating and drinking would be considered by us as the best
2.94. C O C H 1 N. C. H IN A.
part of the entertainment, he would be able to suit our taste
in these respects better than the Cochinchinese ; and under
this impression, to do him justice, he had spared neither
trouble nor expence in making his dinner as complete as cir-
cumstances would admit: and thus, by his misplaced zeal, a
good Cochinchinese entertainment was entirely marred by a
bad Portugueze dinner.
A trifling circumstance occurred on our first entering the
building, which was rather embarrassing to the Cochinchinese.
officers. These people who, on most occasions, adopt the
Chinese customs, had prepared a yellow skreen of silk, bear-º
ing in large painted characters the name of the young adven-
turer at Hué. Whether they took it for granted, or were so
told by Manuel Duomé, that the English, as a matter of ,
course, would make the usual prostrations to this shade of
Majesty, we did not inquire, but it was very evident they ex-
pected it; for when the General commanding at Turon, and
who sat cross-legged on a bench as proxy for his master, ob-
served that, having made our bow, we filed off and took our
seats regardless of the yellow skreen, he appeared to be
greatly disconcerted, and could hardly be said to recover him-
self the remainder of the day. His disappointment in missing
the nine prostrations seemed to operate on his mind as if he
had been sunk so many degrees in the estimation of his |
brother officers. He took little notice when the rank and
station were explained, though at his own desire, which each
of us held in the embassy, until the Chinese interpreter an-
nounced Captain Parish of the Artillery as the “overseer of
“ the great guns,” upon which his attention was suddenly
C O C H IN C H IN A. 295
'roused, and he seemed the whole day to regard this officer as
a very formidable and a dangerous man,
In the farther division of the building a party of comedians
was engaged in the midst of an historical drama when we en-
red ; but on our being seated they broke off and, coming
rward, made before us that obeisance of nine genuflexions
and prostrations, which we had been so very uncivil to omit
* the Mandarin and his painted skreen of silk; after which
'hey returned to their labours, keeping up an incessant noise
and bustle during our stay. The heat of the day, the ther-
mometer in the shade standing at 81* in the open air, and
at least ten degrees higher in the building, the crowds that
thronged in to see the strangers, the horrible crash of the
gongs, kettle drums, rattles, trumpets, and squalling flutes,
were so stunning and oppressive, that nothing but the novelty
of the scene could possibly have detained us for a moment.
The most entertaining as well as the least noisy part of the
| theatrical exhibition was a sort of interlude, performed by
three young women, for the amusement, it would seem, of
the principal actress, who sat as a spectator in the dress and
character of some ancient Queen ; whilst an old eunuch, very
, whimsically dressed, played his antic tricks like a scaramouch
or buffoon in a Harlequin entertainment. The dialogue in
this part differed entirely from the querulous and nearly
monotonous recitative of the Chinese, being light and comic,
and occasionally interrupted by cheerful airs, which generally
concluded with a common chorus. These airs, rude and un-
polished as they were, appeared to be regular compositions,
and were sung in exactly measured time. One in particular
296 C O C H IN C H IN A.
attracted our attention, whose slow melancholy movement)
breathed that kind of plaintive softness so peculiar to the
native airs of the Scotch, to which indeed it bore a very close
resemblance. The voices of the women were shrill and,
warbling, but some of their cadences were not without
melody. The instruments at each pause gave a few shoa
flourishes, till gradually overpowered by the swelling and
deafening gong. Knowing nothing of the language, we were
of course as ignorant of the subject as the majority of as
English audience is of an Italian opera. In the shed of
Turon, however, as well as in the theatre of the Haymarket,
the eye was amused as well as the ear. At each repetition
of the chorus the three Cochinchinese graces displayed their
fine slender shapes in the mazy dance, in which, however,
the feet were the least concerned. By different gestures of
the head, body, and arms, they assumed a variety of figures;
and all their motions were exactly adapted to the measure of
the music. The burden of the chorus was not unpleasing,
and was long recollected on the quarter-deck of the Lion,
till the novelty which succeeded in China effaced it from the
memory. In the latter country, however, we saw no dancing
neither by men nor women, which makes it probable that
this part of the Cochinchinese entertainment must be an
amusement of their own invention, or introduced from the
western part of India. A tolerably good notion may be col-
lected of the theatre and the operatic part of the representa-
tion from the annexed cngraving. /
No entrance money is ever expected in the theatres of
China or Cochinchina. The actors are either hired to play at
|
- - - - -， ，
·//
|-·
//|- -
，, ， ， ， ，//， ， ，{|-
·//// （/ſ/|-// ±
， ，·，

co CH IN CH IN A. 297
f
chinese had no ear for the soft and harmonious chords of
SEuropean music. Their IRing-rang and their Song-sang Were
|
{
\
\
|
|
\
private entertainments, at a fixed sum for the day ; or they
exhibit before the public in a temporary shed, entirely ex-
posed in front. On such occasions, instead of cheering the
performers with empty plaudits, the audience throw annong
them pieces of copper money : for this purpose, the Man-
darins brought us some hundred pieces strung on cords, of the
same kind as those which are current in China. By the
Cochinchinese the regular drama is called Troien, or a rela-
tion of histories. To the operatic interlude of recitative, air
and dancing they give the name of Song-sang ; and a grand
chorus accompanied with the gong, the kettle drum, casta-
nets, trumpets and other noisy instruments, is called the Ring-
rang. The Ambassador had ordered his band to attend on
shore, where they played a few light airs; but the Cochin-
infinitely superior in their estimation, and were the more
applauded in proportion as they were the more noisy.
! Leaving the comedians in the midst of their labours, we
walked across the village green, which was also the market-
place, where we were highly entertained with a variety of
sports and gambols. The fourth of June was for once a day
of general festivity in this part of Cochinchina. In one place
we observed about a dozen young fellows playing at foot-ball
with a bladder; in another, they were displaying their agility
in leaping over an horizontal pole ; here a noisy groupe were
amusing themselves in fighting cocks; there young boys, in
imitation of their elders, were training quails and other
small birds, and even grasshoppers, to tear each other in
Q Q
298 C O C H IN C H IN A.
pieces; and in every corner gamesters were playing cards or
throwing dice. But that which most attracted our attention
was a party of young men keeping up a shuttlecock in the air,
by striking it with the soles of the feet. Nothing, indeed,
could exceed the activity and energy of the men of Cochin-
china. A seaman of the Lion, having quarrelled with one
of these people, insisted on making a ring and boxing it
fairly out. While the sailor was squaring his arms and
manoeuvring and looking for the exact spot where he should
hit his antagonist a knock-down blow, the Cochinchinese,
while grinning in his face, very coolly turned up his heel
and, giving him a hard and totally unexpected kick in the
jaw, walked away with great composure, leaving the as
C1 N -
tonished sailor to the laughter and merriment of the crowd.
l,
\
Active as they were in the use of their feet, their manual
dexterity was not less remarkable. Jugglers and Conjurors
and posture-makers were excrcising their respective arts º :
the amusement of the crowd, and for their own advantage; and
we found to our cost that those who did not openly practis'
juggling as a profession were equally as expert in the art 'if
picking pockets. Scarcely a day occurred in which some
the party did not return to the ships with the loss of pocket
handkerchiefs, an article for which they seemed to have a par-
ticular liking. We found them all, from the highest to tº
lowest, most importunate beggars, craving without the least,
ceremony for every thing that might suit their fancy; neither
were they satisfied with a simple denial, nor with obtaining
what they asked, becoming generally more urgent in their
demands in proportion to the liberality of the giver; and


C O C H IN C H IN A. 299
what they could not obtain by begging they usually endea-
voured to procure by stealing. They had not even the
Spartan virtue of blushing at detection ; nor did it appear
that they apprehended any punishment either for the theft or
the discovery of it. This disposition to stealing was so
general, that it was even found necessary to watch nar-
rowly the officers of government who came on board the
ships.
In attempting to draw a very general sketch of the charac-
ter of this nation, I am not unaware of the risk I incur of
being drawn into error. To speak correctly of the manners and
opinions of foreign nations; to trace the motives of their ac-
tions and the grounds of their prejudices; to examine the
effects produced on the temper and disposition of the people
by the civil and religious institutions; and to inquire into
\ their ideas of moral right and wrong, their notions of taste,
|of beauty, of happiness, and many other subjects necessary
to be investigated before a thorough knowledge can be ob-
itained of their true character and real condition, require not
only a long residence in the country, but an intimate ac-
quaintance with all the various classes of society ; and, after
all, an accurate portrait is hardly to be expected. What can
be more ridiculous than a Frenchman attempting to describe
'English manners, or more preposterous than a German
dramatizing the English character There are, however,
certain strongly marked features which, prevailing in the mass
of the people, may safely be set down as national character-
istics; and from such only the few observations I have to
make on the Cochinchinese were derived. Some of them,
Q Q 2
3oo C O C H IN C H IN A.
indeed, might perhaps be entirely local, and applicable only
to that part of the sea-coast on which we handed.
It is scarcely necessary to observe, what I apprehend is
generally known, that Cochinchina, until a few centuries after
the Christian aera, formed a part of the Chinese empire; and
that the general features of the natives, many of the cus-
toms, the written language, the religious opinions and cere-
monies still retained by them, indicate distinctly their
Chinese origin. In the northern provinces, however, they
are more strongly marked than in those to the southward.
The same characteristics are likewise discornible, but in a
fainter degree, in Siam which is properly Se-yang, or the
western country ; in Pe-gu, probably Pe-quo, or the northern,
province ; and in Ava and the rest of the petty states now!"
comprehended under the Birman empire, where, however, \|
from an intermixture with the Malays of Malacca and the
Hindoos of the upper and eastern regions of Hindostan, the y
traces of the Chinese character are in many respects nearly”
obliterated. The Cochinchinese of Turon, notwithstandingſ
the loose manners of the women which I shall presently have
occasion to notice, and the tendency which all revolutions in
governments have to change, in a greater or less degree, the
character of the people, have preserved in most respects a
close resemblance to their original, though in some points
they differ from it very widely. They perfectly agree, for
instance, in the etiquette observed in marriage and funeral
processions and ceremonies, in the greater part of religious
superstitions, in the offerings usually presented to idols, in
the consultation of Oracles, and in the universal propensity of
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. Q O I
J
inquiring into futurity by the casting of lots; in charming
away diseases; in the articles of diet and the mode of prepar-
ing them ; in the nature of most of their public entertainments
and amusements ; in the construction and devices of fire-
works; in instruments of music, games of chance, cock-fight-
ing and quail-fighting. The spoken language of Cochinchina,
though on the same principle, is so much changed from the
original as to be nearly, if not wholly, unintelligible to a
Chinese ; but the written character is precisely the same.
All the temples which fell under our observation were very
humble buildings; and we saw no specimens either of the
heavy curved roofs, or of the towering pagodas, so fre-
quently met with in China ; but it seems there are, in many
parts of the country, monasteries that are amply endowed,
whose buildings are extensive and enclosed with walls for
their better security. The houses in general near Turon bay
consisted only of four mud walls, covered with thatch ; and
such as are situated on low grounds, in the neighbourhood of
º rivers, are usually raised upon four posts of Wood, or pillars
5f stone, to keep out vermin as well as inundations,
- \
The dress of the Cochinchinese has undergone not only ºn
alteration, but a very considerable abridgment They wear
neither thick shoes, nor quilted stockings, nor clumsy sattin
boots, nor petticoats stuffed with wadding ; but always go
barelegged and generally barefooted. Their long black
hair, like that of the Malays, is usually twisted into a knot
and fixed on the crown of the head. This, indeed, is the
ancient mode in which the Chinese wore their hair, until the
3O2 C O C IH IN C H IN A.
Tartars, on the conquest of the country, compelled them to
submit to the ignominy of shaving the whole head except a
little lock of hair behind.
On the precepts of Confucius is grounded the moral system
for the regulation of the conduct in this country as well as in
China. Here, however, to the exterior forms of morality
very little regard seems to be paid. In China these precepts
are gaudily displayed in golden characters in every house, in
the streets and public places ; but here they are seldom seen
and never heard. Were they, indeed, repeated in their ori-
ginal language, (and they will scarcely bear a translation,)
they would not be understood. Their conduct, in general,
seems to be as little influenced by the solemn precepts of re-
ligion as by those of morality. The Cochinchinese are, likeſ\ \
the French, always gay and for ever talking; the cº)
always grave and affect to be thinking: the former are open
and familiar, the latter close and reserved. A Chinese would
consider it as disgraceful to commit any affair of importancé,
to a woman. Women, in the estimation of the Cochinſ
chinese, are best suited for, and are accordingly entrusted
with, the chief concerns of the family. The Chinese code of
politeness forbids a woman to talk unless by way of reply, to
/
laugh beyond a smile, to sing unless desired and, as to
dancing, she labours under a physical restriction which makes
this kind of movement impossible. In Cochinchina the wo-
men are quite as gay and as unrestrained as the men. And
as a tolerably accurate conclusion may be drawn of the state
of their society, from the condition in which the female part
C O C H IN C H IN A. 3O3
of it is placed, and the consideration in which the female
character is held annong them, I shall be more particular in
describing the situation here assigned to them, in so far at
least as our limited means afforded us the opportunity of ob-
serving, than on other points.
In some of the provinces of China women are condemned
to the degrading and laborious task of dragging the plough,
and otherwise employed in various kinds of heavy drudgery.
In Cochinchina it would appear likewise to be the fate of the
weaker sex to be doomed to those occupations which require,
if not the greatest exertions of bodily strength, at least the
most persevering industry. We qbserved them day after day,
and from morning till night, standing in the midst of pools of
water, up to the knees, occupied in the transplanting of rice.
In fact, all the labours of tillage, and the various employ–
ments connected with agriculture, seem to fall to the share of
the female peasantry ; whilst those in Turon, to the manage-
ment of domestic concerns, add the superintendance of all
the details of commerce. They even assist in constructing
and keeping in repair their mud-built cottages; they conduct
the manufacture of coarse earthen ware vessels: they mana ge
the boats on rivers and in harbours ; they bear their articles
of produce to market; they draw the cotton wool from the
pod, free it from the seeds, spin it into thread, weave it into
cloth, dye it of its proper colour, and make it up into dresses
for themselves and their families. Almost all the younger
part of the males are compelled to cnrol themselves in the
army ; and such as are exempt from military service employ
3 & 4 C O C H IN C H IN A.
themselves occasionally in fishing, in collecting swallows'
nests and the Biches de mer among the neighbouring islands,
as luxuries for the use of their own great men, but more
particularly as articles of export for the China market; in
felling timber ; building and repairing ships and boats, and a
few other occupations which, however, they take care shall
not engross their whole time, but contrive to leave a con-
siderable portion of it unemployed, of employed only in the
pursuit of some favourite amusement: for they are not by
any means of an idle disposition. But the activity and the
industry of the women are so unabating, their pursuits so
varied, and the fatigue they undergo so harassing, that the
Cochinchinese apply to them the same proverbial expression
which we confer on a cat, observing that a woman, having
nine lives, bears a great deal of killing. It is evident indeed,
from the whole tenor of their conduct, that the men, even in
the common ranks of life, consider the other sex as destined
for their use; and those in a higher station, as subservient to
their pleasures. The number of wives or of concubines,
which a man may find it expedient to take, is not limited
by any law or rule; but here, as in China, the first in
point of date claims precedence and takes the lead in all
domestic concerns. The terms on which the parties are
united are not more easy than those by which they may be
separated. To break a sixpence between two parting lovers
is considered, among the peasantry of some of the counties
in England, as an avowal and pledge of unalterable fidelity.
In Cochinchina, the breaking of one of their copper coins or
a pair of chop-sticks between man and wife, before proper
C O C H IN C H IN A. 3OS
witnesses, is considered as a dissolution of their former com.
pact, and the act of separation.
In China the men have sedulously and successfully incul-
cated the doctrine, that a well-bred woman should never be
seen abroad ; that she should confine herself constantly to her
own apartments; that in the presence of even her nearest
male relations she should not expose her neck and her hands,
to prevent which her gown is buttoned up close to the chin,
and its sleeves hang down below the knee; and so craftily
have they contrived their precepts to operate, that the silly
women have actually been prevailed on to consider a physical
defect which confines them to the house as a fashionable
accomplishment. Here, in this respect, there is a total dif-
| ference with regard to the sex. So far from the Cochin-
chinese women being deprived of the free use of their limbs
or their liberty, they have the enjoyment of both to the fullest
extent. It certainly was not in Cochinchina where Eudoxus,
in his travels, is said to have observed the feet of the women
'to be so small, that they might with propriety be distinguished
by the name of the “Ostrich-footed ;” faminis plantas adeo
parvas ut Struthopodes appellentur ; as, by their bustling
about with naked feet, they become unusually large and
spreading ; but the name might aptly enough be applied
to the feet of the Chinese ladies, whose undefined and lumpish
form is not unlike the foot of the ostrich.
Extremes often approximate. The same cause which in
China has operated this total seclusion of the sex from so-
R. R.
Scó C O C H IN C H IN A.
ciety and the abridgment of their physical powers, has pro-
duced in Cochinchina a diametrically opposite effect, by
permitting them to revel uncontrolled in every species of
licentiousness. This cause is their being degraded in public
opinion, and considered as beings of an inferior nature to the
men. Thus situated, character becomes of little value cither
to themselves or to others ; and, from all accounts, it appears
they are fully sensible of its unimportance in this respect.
The consequence of which is that women of less scrupulosity,
or men of more accommodating dispositions, are not certainly
to be met with in any part of the world than those in the en-
virons of Turon bay. It is to be hoped, however, that the
general character of the nation may not exactly correspond
with that which prevails at one of the most frequented of its
sea-port towns. The singular indulgence, granted by º
laws of Solon, of permitting young women to dispose of per-
sonal favours, for the purpose of enabling them to procure ſ
articles of the first necessity for themselves or their families,
is sanctioned by the Cochinchinese without any limitation as |
to age, condition, or object. Neither the husband nor the
father seems to have any scruples in abandoning the wife
or the daughter to her gallant. Not Galba, when he po-
litely fell asleep, (as we are told by Plutarch,) for the accom-
modation of Mecanas and rebukcd his scrvant for officiously
rattling the plates in order to awaken him that he might see
what was going on, could possibly have been more at ease
than a Cochinchinese husband, to whom may justly be ap-
plicd the following lines of Horace, wherein he describes the
dissolute manners of the Romans :
C.O C H IN C H IN A.
g
Ö
7
“ Sed jussa coråm non sine conscio
“Surgit marito; seu vocat institor
“Seu navis Hispanae magister
“ Dedecorum pretiosus emptor.”
“ The conscious husband bids her rise,
“ When some rich factor courts her charms,
“ And calls the wanton to his arms.
“ Then prodigal of wealth and fame,
“Profusely buys the costly shame.”
These observations on the indifference, on the part of the
Then, for the honour and chastity of the sex, and the abandoned
and profligate character of the latter which is the necessary
consequence thereof, are by no means confined to the common
people: they apply indeed more forcibly to the first ranks in
society, the officers of government. These men, fully as de-
bauched as the Chinese Mandarins, carry not even that
appearance of decency which those find it expedient to obs
serve. Of the facility with which they are disposed to
transfer their women to strangers our party had several
curious instances. From the following,
a tolerably good notion may be collected of the value put
upon them in a pecuniary point of view. An officer of the
Lion was one day sent on shore to purchase a couple of bul-
locks for the use of the ship's company. As the price had pre-
viously been fixed at ten dollars a-head, the officer had only to
among many others,
count down the money before one of the magistrates of the place,
and receive his bullocks. The Mandarin, taking up the dollars,
dispatched a couple of his attendants, who shortly returned
with a fine young girl, whom the magistrate handed over
to the officer. Whether this gentleman's modesty was too
R. R. 2
308 C O C H IN C H IN A.
much shocked at so barefaced and indecent a transaction, or
whether he had not a sufficient sum of money to make up the
price of the bullocks, is immaterial to the purpose; it is
enough to observe that he preferred his duty to the purchase
of the lady, to the affected astonishment of the Mandarin, of
whom he understood her to be either the wife or the daughter.
Another gentleman, in returning one day from the town to
the river side, was accosted by an elderly woman, who made
signs to him to follow her into her cottage, where she pre-
sented him with, her daughter, very nearly in that state in
which she came out of nature's hands; and the eyes of
the old lady sparkled with joy at the sight of a Spanish
dollar.
|
There was little prepossessing in the general appearance \
and character of the Cochinchinese. The women had but
slender pretensions to beauty; yet the want of personal
charms was in some degree compensated by a lively and
cheerful temper, totally unlike the dull, the morose, and se-
cluded Chinese. An expressive countenance, being as much
the result of education and sentiment as a delicate set of
features and a fine complexion are of health, ease, ex-
emption from drudgery and exposure to the vicissitudes
of the weather, could hardly be expected in Cochinchina.
In point of fact, both sexes are coarse featured, and their
colour nearly as deep as that of the Malay ; and, like
these people, the universal custom of chewing areca and
betel, by reddening the lips and blackening the teeth, gives.
them an appearance still more unseemly than nature in-
tended. The dress of the women was by no means fascinat-
7
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C.O C H IN C H IN A. 309
ing. A loose cotton frock, of a brown or blue colour, reaching
down to the middle of the thigh, and a pair of black mankin
trowsers made very wide, constitute in general their common
clothing. With the use of stockings and shoes they are wholly
unacquainted ; but the upper ranks wear a kind of sandals
or loose slippers. As a holiday dress, on particular occasions,
a lady puts on three or four frocks at once, of different
colours and lengths ; the shortest being uppermost. A wo-
man thus dressed appears in the annexed print, which repre-
sents a groupe of Cochinchinese and may be considered as a
fair specimen of their general appearance. Their long black
hair is sometimes twisted into a knot and fixed on the crown
of the head, and sometimes hangs loose in flowing tresses
down the back, reaching frequently to the very ground.
Short hair is not only considered as a mark of vulgarity, but
an indication of degeneracy. The dress of the men has little
if any thing to distinguish it from that of the other sex, being
| chiefly confined to a jacket and a pair of trowsers. Some
wear handkerchiefs tied round the head in the shape of a
turban ; others have hats or caps of various forms and ma-
terials, but most of them calculated for protecting the face
against the rays of the sun ; for which purpose they also make
use of umbrellas of strong China paper, or skreens of the leaves
of the Borassus or fan-palm and other kinds of the palm tribe,
or fans made of feathers. Consonant with the appearance of
their mean and scanty clothing, as frequently thrown loosely
over their shoulders as fitted to the body, were their lowly
cabins of bamboo. In short, nothing met the eye that could
impress the mind of a stranger with high notions of the happy
condition of this people.


3 Io C O C H IN C H IN A.
^
There is, however, such a vast difference in the circum-
stances under which an European and the inhabitant of a
tropical climate are situated, that the former, who for the
first time finds himself among the latter, will be very apt to
fall into error in attempting to form a comparative estimate
of their respective conditions. To the one, fuel and clothing
and close and compact lodging are essential, not only to his
comfort, but to his existence ; to the other, fire is of no
further use than a few embers to boil his rice, or to prepare
an offering to his god. For splendid and massy fabrics
neither his taste nor necessity incline him ; and close thick
clothing, so far from being a comfort, would be to him the
most inconvenient of all incumbrances. Even the little which
he occasionally finds it expedient to use he frequently throws
aside ; for where nakedness is no disgrace, he can at all !
times, and in all places, accommodate his dress to his feel- |
ings and his circumstances, without offence to others or em- |
barrassment to himself; an advantage which is denied to the \ .
Europcan. ),
Although we had neither expected to meet with an ex-
tensive city nor magnificent palaces in the vicinity of Turon
bay, yet as this spot was known to have been anciently the
chief mart for the trade of this country with China and
Japan, we felt rather disappointed on finding a few villages
only, in the largest of which the number of houses did
not exceed one hundred, and these chiefly thatched cot-
tages. That it had suffered considerably from the late revo-
lutions was evident from the ruins of larger and better build-
ings than any which now appeared, and from the inequalities
C O C H IN C H IN A. 31 I
of surface indicating a former existence of walls and forts,
and which, by our officer's account who was taken prisoner,
were still more visible and extensive at Fairfoo ; from the re-
mains, also, of gardens and plantations of fruit trees and
flowering shrubs, that were now run into wildernesses : but no
traces appeared to indicate former opulence, or convey the
impression of fallen magnificence. It is true, the vestiges of
Oriental cities, when suffered to fall into decay, soon disap-
pear. Their best houses, limited to a single story, constructed
generally of wood or of bricks that have been dried only in
the sun, require an unremitted attention to preserve them
from mouldering into dust. Their city walls, constructed of
light and imperfect materials, soon crumble into heaps of
ruins, and are buried under a rapid and vigorous vegetation,
The system on which their city walls are built is but ill cal-
culated for duration. The mass of loose earth heaped in the
middle has a constant tendency to push out the brick or
stone casing which, tumbling into the ditch, is lost in a few
years in the general surface. If the great and populous city
of Pekin, the greatest and most populous perhaps on the whole
globe, should by any accident be deserved, many centuries
would not be required to blot out every vestige of its situation.
It is, therefore, the less surprizing that, in the days of Alex-
ander, all traces of the supposed magnificent palaces of Troy
had disappeared ; and that the proud city of Babylon, once
the mistress of the world, should for so many ages past have
( )."
\-
been laid prostrate in the dust.
The cottages of Turon were in general snug and clean, and
sufficiently compact to protect the inhabitants from the heat
312 C O C H IN C H IN A.
of the sun at one season, and the heavy rains at the other.
There appeared to be no want in the market of either cotton
or silk stuffs for clothing; and the country produced a great
variety and abundance of articles, which contribute to the
sustenance of the multitude, as well as to the luxuries of the
higher orders of the people. Almost every kind of domestic
animal, except sheep, appeared to be plentiful. They had
small horned cattle, short legged hogs, kids, and great
abundance of ducks and fowls. They eat dogs as in China,
and frogs are a common article of food. The sea as well as
the land is a never-failing source of Sustenance to multitudes
who dwell on the coast. Beside a great variety of good fish,
they eat at least three different species of the Balistes, and as
many of the genus Chaetodon ; one of the latter of which,
with its purple and yellow bandages and ocellated fin, is
a very beautiful fish. The net is in common use, and so are
wicker baskets, made like the wire mouse-trap, into which
fish running to the bait are prevented from getting out again;
and we observed them taking vast quantities of flying fish,
by letting down into the sea deep earthen jars with narrow
necks, baited with pork or the offals of fish. Most of the
genera of marine worms, belonging to that class which by
naturalists is distinguished under the name of Mollusca,
are used as articles of food by the Cochinchinesc ; as, for
instance, various species of the Medusa, Holothuria, Actinia,
Ascidia and Doris ; some of which, as the Biches de Mer,
usually called Trepan, (a species either of Holothuria or Ac-
tinia,) is caught and prepared as an article of luxury and
commerce. All the gelatinous substances derived from the
sea, whether animal or vegetable, are considered by them
C O C H IN C H IN A. sis
|
among the most nutritious of all aliments; and on this prin-
ciple various kinds of Algae or sea-weeds, particularly those
genera which are known by the names of Fuci and Ulvae, are
included in the list of their edible plants.
In the populous islands of Japan the natives of the sea-coasts
derive part of their sustenance from various kinds of sea-weeds,
and from none more than that species of Fucus which is called
Saccharinus. It would appear from Mr. Thunberg's account
of its leaves being used to ornament and embellish packages
of fruit or other presents offered to strangers, that this plant
is there in high estimation, being considered perhaps as the
representative of those resources of sustenance which the sea so
amply supplies to such nations as from choice or necessity may
be led to avail themselves of its various productions. The
Chin-chou jelly of China may probably be made, in part, of
the Fucus Saccharinus; for it would appear, from samples
brought to England, that the leaves from which this jelly is
made are taken from three or four distinct species of this ex-
tensive genus. There is reason indeed to believe that most
of the species both of the Fuci and the Ulvae might be em-
ployed for similar purposes. From the shores of Robben
island, at the Cape of Good Hope, the slaves are accustomed
to bring away baskets of a species of Pucus, whose leaves are
sword-shaped, serrated, and about six inches long. These leaves
being first washed clean and sufficiently dried to resist putre-
faction are then steeped in freshwater for five or six days, chang-
ing it every morning; after which if boiled for a few hours in a
little water they become a clear transparent jelly which, being
mixed with a little sugar and the juice of a lemon or orange,
S S
Q I 4. C O C H IN C H IN A.
is as pleasant and refreshing as any kind of jelly whatsoever.
-\nd as few countries perhaps can boast of a greater num.
ber of species of the Fuci and Ulvae than are found on the
coasts of the British islands, future generations may discover
those nutritive qualities which many of them contain, and
not limit the use of them as articles of food to a few species,
which is the case at present : for excepting the Esculentus or
Tang/e, the Saccharinus, better known in Iceland than in Bri-
tain, the Palmatus or Dulse, which the Scotch say is not only
rich and gelatinous but communicates to other vegetables
with which it may be mixed the fragrant smell of violets, and
that species of Ulva well known on the coast of Wales by the
name of Laver, all the rest seem to be neglected.
But the Chin-chou of China, called more properly IIai-tsai
or sea-vegetable, is not only used as an article of food, but
is employed both in China, Japan and Cochinchina as a
gurninous or gelatinous sºbstance, for giving additional trans-
parency to large sheets of paper or coarse gauze used for
windows or lanterns. The latter, made sometimes of slips
of bamboo crossed diagonally, have frequently their lozenge-
shaped interstices wholly filled with the transparent gluten of
the IIai-tsai.
The Cochinchinese collect likewise many of the small suc-
culent or fleshy plauts, which are usually produced on salt
and sandy marshes, as the Salicornia, Arenaria, Crithmum
Maritimum or samplire, and many others, which they either
boil in their soups or stews, or eat in a raw state to give
Sapidity to rice which, in fact, is with them the grand sup:
C O C H IN C H IN A.
I
5
3
port of existence. Of this grain they have the art of making a
kind of vermicelli, usually called Lock-soy, which is perfectly
transparent, and held on that account in high estimation both
in Japan and China; to the latter of which it is exported in
considerable quantity. It communicates to soup a gelatinous
consistence, but at the same time preserves its form and
transparency, qualities which would lead one to doubt
if rice be the only ingredient in its composition. The
Chinese Lock-soy is opaque.
By the natives of warm climates animal food is seldom
ranked among articles of the first necessity, and is sparingly
used. And though fish is the common sustenance of those
who inhabit the sea-coasts, yet rice made more gustable by a
little salt, a pod of capsicum or pepper, or a leaf of some of
the acidulous maritime vegetables above-mentioned, furnishes
a grateful meal to the great mass of Oriental nations. All
beyond this article and its accompaniments, even the areca nut
and betel leaf, as well as opium and spirituous liquors, may be
considered in the light of luxuries. Of rice, in Cochinchina,
they are almost certain of two plentiful crops every year, one
of which is reaped in April, the other in October. Fruits of
various kinds, as Oranges, bananas, figs, pine apples, guavas,
pomegranates, and others of inferior note, are abundantly pro-
duced in all parts of the country. They have very fine yams,
and plenty of sweet potatoes. Their small breed of cattle does
not appear to furnish them with much milk; but of this article
indeed, like the Chinese, they make but a very sparing use,
not even as food for their young children. These little crea-
tures were very numerous in Turon, and appeared remarkably
S S 2
316 C O C H IN C H IN A.
healthy ; and till the age of seven or eight years were entirely
maked. Their food seemed to consist chiefly of rice, sugar-
cane, and water melons. The mass of people in Cochinchina,
like the common Chinese, have but two meals in the day, one
about mine or ten in the morning, the other about sunset;
and these are usually taken, in the dry season, before the
doors of their cottages, on mats spread in the open air.
Where all fare alike, none feels ashamed to expose his
humble meal.
In the neighbourhood of Turon we observed several planta-
tions of sugar-canes and tobacco. The juice of the former,
having undergone a partial refinement, is exported to the
China market in cakes, which in colour, thickness and
porosity resemble the honeycomb ; the latter is consumed in
the country, as all degrees of every age and sex indulge in
the habit of smoking. The face of the country exhibited,
however, but feeble marks of tillage ; and arts and manufae-
tures were evidently in a languishing state. The cottages
contained little furniture, and that little was rude in its
construction and as if intended only for temporary se.
The matting which covered the floors was ingeniously
woven in different colours; but the art of making mats is so
common in all the nations of the East, that the most beauti-
ful are scarcely subjects of admiration among themselves.
Their domestic utensils consisted chiefly of an earthen stove,
an iron pot to boil their rice, a pan of the shape of a watch
glass to fry their vegetables in oil, and a few porcelain cups or
bowls. Their vessels of cast iron were equal in quality to those
of the Chinese, but their earthen ware was very inferior.
.
H
C O C H IN C H IN A. 3 I 7
They seemed to work in metals with a tolerable degree of
neatness. The handles of the officers' swords were mostly
of silver, and by no means ill finished ; and their articles of
fillagree were equal to those of the Chinese. In fact, both
the one and the other possess quick and comprehensive
talents and, under due encouragement, are already in that
advanced stage to make a very rapid progress in the arts,
sciences, and manufactures. Under every disadvantage of a
bad government, their ingenuity occasionally breaks forth in a
surprizing manner. The man at Canton who could make a watch
at first sight had neither a weak head nor an unskilful hand.
Their arts and manufactures did not, however, appear to
be in a state of progressive improvement. There is in all the
Oriental governments a radical defect, which no advantages
of soil or climate or other favourable circumstances can com-
pensate, and which must for ever operate against their at-
taining the character and the condition of a great and happy
people. This insuperable bar to their grandeur and felicity
is owing to the want of a permanent security to property.
Where the right of inheritance is a weaker claim than the
state of possession ; where the hand of arbitrary power can
at any time, without the forms of legal process, dispossess a
man of the piece of ground on which the support of himself
and his family wholly depends ; where only the law of the
strongest is acknowledged, and where neither person nor
property has any effectual protection against the designs of
the vindictive or the rapacious entrusted with power, what
possible encouragement can the subject have to build an
elegant house, to improve the cultivation of his land, to aim
7
3.18 C O C H IN C H IN A.
at perfection in any branch of the arts, or to extend his in-
genuity or his industry much beyond the mere supplying of
the necessaries of life. An Oriental sage has observed that
“ the proof of a just government and a well-regulated police
“ is, when a beautiful woman covered with jewels can travel
“ abroad in perfect security.” What would this sage have
said of that government and that police, where a helpless and
wealthy old woman, surrounded by a set of lusty and indi-
gent servants, commits herself and her property to them and
to the world with as much composure and confidence, as if
her physical strength was not in the least inferior to theirs;–
or, where the property of a still more helpless infant orphan
is not only secured till he arrives at years of discretion, but
cultivated and improved sometimes to the double of its ori-
ginal value However strange such a relation might appear
to an inhabitant of the eastern hemisphere, we have the satis-
faction of knowing it to be strictly true in many parts of the
western world, and in none more so than on the highly fa-
voured island of Great Britain.
That particular branch of the arts in which the Cochin-
chinese may be said to excel at the present day is naval
architecture, for which, however, they are not a little in-
debted to the size and quality of the timber employed for
that purpose. Their row-gallies for pleasure are remarkably
fine vessels. These boats, from fifty to eighty feet in length,
are sometimes composed of five single planks, each extending
from one extremity to the other, the edges morticed, kept
tight by wooden pins, and bound firm by twisted fibres of
bamboo, without either ribs or any kind of timbers. At the
C O C H IN C H IN A. 3 I 9
stem and stern they are raised to a considerable height, and
are curiously carved into monstrous figures of dragons and
serpents, ornamented with gilding and painting. A number
of poles and spears bearing flags and streamers, pikes orna-
mented with tufts of cows' tails painted red, lanterns and
umbrellas, and other insignia denoting the rank of the pas-
senger, are erected at each end of the boat. And as these
people, like the Chinese, differ in most of their notions from
the greater portion of mankind, the company always sit in
the fore part of the boat ; but as it would be a breach of
good manners for the rowers to turn their backs on the pass-
engers, they stand with their faces towards the bow of the
boat, pushing the oars from them instead of pulling towards
them, as is usually done in the westein world. The servants
and the baggage occupy the stern of the boat. The vessels
that are employed in the coasting trade, the fishing craft,
and those which collect the Trepan and swallows' nests among
the cluster of islands called the Paracels, are of various de-
scriptions: many of them, like the Chinese Sampans, covered
with sheds of matting, under which a whole family constantly
resides; and others, resembling the common proas of the
Malays, both as to their hulls and rigging. Their foreign
traders are built on the same plan as the Chinese junks, the
form and construction of which are certainly not to be held
out as perfect models of naval architecture ; yet, as they
have subsisted some thousands of years unaltered, they are
at least entitled to a little respect from the antiquity of the in-
vention. As these vessels never were intended for ships of war,
extraordinary swiftness for pursuit or escape was not an es-
320 C O C H IN C H IN A.
sential quality: security rather than speed was the object of
the owner. And as no great capitals were individually
employed in trade, and the merchant was both owner and
navigator, a limited tonnage was sufficient for his own mer-
chandize ; the vessel was therefore divided, in order to ob-
viate this inconvenience, into distinct compartments, so that
one ship might separately accommodate many merchants.
The bulk heads by which these divisions were formed con-
sisted of planks of two inches thick, so well caulked and
secured as to be completely water-tight.
Whatever objections may be started against the dividing of
ships' holds, and the interference in the stowage seems to be
the most material one, it cannot be denied that it gives to
large vessels many important advantages. A ship, thus for-
tified with cross bulk-heads, may strike on a rock and yet
sustain no serious injury ; a leak springing in one division of
the hold will not be attended with any damage to the articles
placed in another ; and by the ship being thus so well bound
together, she is firm and strong enough to sustain a more than
ordinary shock. It is well known to seamen, that when a large
ship strikes the ground, the first indication of her falling in pieces
is when the edges of the decks begin to part from the sides; but
this separation can never happen when the sides and the deck
are firmly bound together by cross bulk-heads. In fact, this old
Chinese invention is now on trial in the British navy, as a new
experiment. Other schemes have likewise been proposed in
this country for propelling ships in a calm, by large scullers,
by water wheels placed at the sides or through the bottom,
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C O C H IN C H IN A.
32 I
and by various other modes; all of which, though taking the
name of Inventions, have been in common use among the
Chinese for more than two thousand years.
The annexed print will convoy a tolerably good idea of
such Cochinchinese craft as frequented that branch of the
river Fairfoo which fell into Turon bay.
Although the present King of this country has to a certain
degree broken the fetters of custom, as far as regards the
construction of ships of war, yet, in doing this, he has not
been unmindful of popular prejudice which, in Asiatic
countries in particular where they are wholly guided by
opinion, is stamped with a character too sacred to be torn
up at once by the roots. Out of deference to this pre-
judice, he caused that part only of the hull or body of
the vessel to be altered which is immersed in the water;
all the upper works, the masts, sails and rigging, re-
maining Cochinchinese. Indeed it may be questioned if the
pliant bamboo, which forms so material a part of the upper
works of their vessels, could be displaced with any advantage
by solid timber, than which it is more light and equally
strong. It is impossible not to admire the good sense of this
wise and active Prince who, in steering this middle path, ob-
tained a real advantage without introducing any visible change.
Of tenacity to ancient custom a curious instance ap-
peared on the part of the Emperor of Japan, when the Dutch
carried to this Sovereign from Batavia, a few years ago,
among other presents, the model of a ship of war. The Am-
ºr T
322 C O C H IN C H IN A.
bassador happening to observe the Emperor casting his eye
upon this model, and conceiving the occasion might be
turned to the advantage of his employers, ventured to make
a proposal for sending to Japan a number of proper artificers
from Holland, for the purpose of instructing his subjects in
the art of ship-building, according to the practice of Europe.
The Emperor desired he might be asked how long his coun-
trymen had been acquainted with the art of constructing
ships on the model he had brought. The Ambassador re-
plied, about three hundred years. “Tell him,” says the
Emperor, “ that my people have built such ships as he sees
“ floating in my harbours for as many thousand years, and
“ that I have not yet heard of any complaints against their
“ utility. I shall not, therefore, pay so ill a compliment to
“ myself or to my people, as to lay aside the test of ages for
“ an invention of yesterday. The Dutch ships may suit the
“ Dutch, but not the Japanese. Tell him, therefore, I |
“ would advise him to take back this part of his present,”
The Cochinchinese having effectually preserved the written
characters of the Chinese language, we found no difficulty in
communicating with them on all subjects, through this me-
dium, by our Chinese pricsts. The spoken language, how-
ever, has undergone a very considerable change, which is the
less surprizing, as the inhabitants of the northern and southern
provinces of China are unintelligible to each other; but
though it has been altered, it does not appear to have re-
ceived any improvement, neither from additions of their
own, nor from the introduction of forcign words. By a com-
parison of the short catalogue of Chinese words, which I
C O C H IN C H IN A. 323
have given in another work, with their synonyms in the
Cochinchinese language, an idea may be collected how far
the two spoken languages resemble or differ from each
other.
E N G L TS He C III N E S F, , C O C IH IN C III N E S F. . .
The Earth, tee, dia.
The Air, kee, bloei.
Fire, ho, whoa.
The Sea, hai, bae.
A River, ho, jeang.
A Mountain, shan, noui.
The Sun, jee-to, } mat bloci,
eye of heaven,
The Moon, yué, blang.
The Stars, sing, SãO.
The Clouds, yun, Ill OO.
Thunder, luie, no-sang
Lightning, sham-tein, choap.
The Wind, fung, jeo.
The Day, jee or tien, ngai.
The Night, ye or van-shang, teng.
The Sky or Heaven, tien, tien.
The East, tung, doo.
West, See, tai.
North, pee, pak.
South, 1) all, nang,
Man, jin, dan-ou.
Woman, foo-gin, dan-ba.
T. T. 2.
3
C O C H IN C H IN A.
2
i) N G L IS II.
A Quadruped,
A Bird,
A Fish,
A Tree,
A Fruit,
A Flower,
A Stone,
Gold,
Silver,
Copper,
Lead,
Iron,
The Hoad,
The Hand,
The Heart,
Tlic Foot,
The Face,
The Flyes,
The Ears,
An Ox,
A IIorse,
An ASS,
A Dog.
A Sheep,
A Cat,
A Stag,
A Pigeon,
An Egg
SS2
A Goose,
C III N E S E .
shoo,
kin,
Cul,
shoo,
ko-tse,
wha,
shee,
tehin,
in-tse
tung,
Yuen,
tié,
too,
shoo,
sin,
tehiau,
mien,
yen-shing,
eul-to,
nieu,
Ina,
loo-tse
kioon,
yang,
miau,
sham-loo,
koo-tse,
kee-tan,
goO,
COC H IN C III N Es E.
kang.
ching.
ka.
kai.
blai.
wha.
ta.
whang.
bak.
tow.
chee.
tié.
too.
tai.
blai.
tohen.
mien.
mat.
tai.
bo.
l]la.
looa.
koo. *.
chicn.
miao.
hoo.
bo-kau
te-lung.
ngoo.
C O C H IN C H IN A.
3.25
F N G L IS Iſ.,
Oil,
Rice,
Vinegar,
Salt,
Silk,
Cotton,
Sugar,
A House,
A Temple,
A Bed,
A Door,
A Knife,
A Plough,
An Anchor,
A Ship,
Money,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten,
Eleven,
Twelve,
Twenty,
C H IN E S E .
yeo,
Inee,
tSOO,
yen,
tSOO,
mien-wha,
tung,
shia,
miau,
tehuang,
lmen,
tau,
lee,
Innau,
tehuan,
tsien,
ye,
ul,
Sal),
SOO,
OUl,
leu,
tohee,
pa,
toheu,
shee,
shee-ye,
shee-ul,
ul-shee,
CO C H IN C IH IN E S E.
taw.
gaO.
jing.
muoi.
looa.
baou.
dang.
da.
shooa.
tehuang.
pan.
tiau.
kai.
dan.
tau.
tien.
In Ot.
hai.
teng.
bon.
lang.
lak.
bai.
tang.
chin.
taap.
moei-mot,
moei-hai.
hai-moei.
326 C O C H IN C H IN A.
E N G L T S II. C III N E S E . CO C H IN C H IN E S E.
Thirty, san-shee, teng-moei.
Thirty-one, san-shee-ye, teng-moel-mot.
Thirty-two, San-shee-ul, teng-moei-hai.
One hundred, pe, klang.
One thousand, tsien, ngkin.
Ten thousand, Van, IIl UlOI).
One hundred thousand, shee-van,
It may be observed, that the Cochinchinese have intro-
duced the consonants B, D, and R, which they pronounce
without the least difficulty, but a Chinese cannot, by any ex-
ertion, articulate a syllable into which one of these enters. In
the construction of phrases there is also a considerable difference
between the two languages. Informing the plural of the personal
pronouns, the Chinese make use of the syllable muen, many, as,
790, 716, ta,
I, thou, he.
mgo-muen, me-muen, ta-muen,
We, ye, they.
But the Cochinchinese employ the syllable chung, all, as
*
J Y -
tool, bai, 720,
I, thou, he.
chung-tool, chung-bai, chung-mo,
we, ye, they.
C O C H IN C H IN A. 327
To these people we found less difficulty in making our-
sclves intelligible than we had to encounter in our future inter-
course with the grave and solemn Chinese, whose dignity
would be thought to suffer debasement by their condescending
to employ the pencil in delineating objects, notwithstanding
its alliance with their mode of writing; or by attempt-
ing to indicate, by signs and gestures, such ideas as are
capable of being interchanged without the aid of language.
This was by no means the case with the Cochinchinese, who
always seemed anxious to enter into our views, and to facili-
tate a mutual understanding. Those Chinese, however, who
traffic with or engage as servants to Europeans at Canton,
are as ready, as ingenious, and as fertile in inventions for
making themselves intelligible to their employers, and in
meeting the ideas of those whom it is their interest to please,
as any other people possibly can be. A Captain, for in-
stance, of one of the East India Company's ships pointing
one day at table towards a dish, which he supposed to be
hashed duck, desired his Chinese servant, who had only
learned a little of the jargon which this description of persons
are usually taught by their masters, to get him some of the
quadk-quaak. The servant, having looked at the dish, shook
his head and, by way of correcting his master's mistake, ob-
served significantly that it was not quaak-quaak, but bow-wow,
the dish happening to be a preparation of dog instead of
duck.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that the religion of the
Cochinchinese, like that of almost all the Oriental nations, is
328 C O C H IN C H IN A,
º
a modification of the widely extended doctrine of Budha,
appearing, however, from the little we had an opportunity of
seeing as to the devotional part, more simple and less dis-
guised with the mysteries and machinery of oracular worship
than that which is practised popularly in China. From a
sentiment of gratitude to the benevolent and bountiful spirit,
the Cochinchinese, like the Jews of old, manifest their piety
by offering to the image of the protecting deity the firstlings
of their living flocks and of the fruits of the earth. The first
ears of rice, the first ripe nut of the areca, the first cup of
ugar, or whatever the nature of the produce may be, is
taken to the shrine which contains the sacred image, and is
there deposited with becoming reverence, as an humble
acknowledgment of the divine goodness. I was much
gratificd in the opportunity of being present at an offering of ,
this nature. Landing from our boat one serene evening, in
a little cove on the northern shore of Turon bay, I observed ,
a person in a long yellowish coloured robe reaching to the
ground, his head bare and closely shaved, marching with a
kind of measured step towards a large spreading tree, and
followed by a few of the peasantry. On arriving at the foot
of the tree they all halted. Just at the head of the main
trunk (for it was a species of Ficus Indica or Banyan tree,
called Dea in Cochinchina, whose branches take root and
become stems) I observed a large cage of latticed work, with
a pair of folding doors, fixed between two boughs, and partly
hidden by the foliage. Within was a wooden figure of Budha or
Fo, of the same corpulent shape and in the usual sitting pos-
ture as he is represented in the temples of China. A little
S
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6 : 9, ‘V N J H O N I H O O O
Siboddu Aptºſo || Alonsul palous utoll 'slsolid alſ, Jo Spubtſ ouſ
uſ poiso A udoq ovel on suiods simi] is.III ou Jo Ibsodsip ou?
stonbu It uſ put south Iſu Iw ‘uoſºſtol Jo Sonnp out out:
5uidoos uſ podnooo sl outh osotºw Osotſ, utún soonAIos Iſotſ,
to uonºlountual tº on poſhnuo Jolloq 9.It OUAA UIQUI Jo SSBIO
Aut, squiplad you out olotl) hos ‘Āluodo put: A Huj omp SIU exel
on ‘nsolid oup ſo lied ou, uo ‘pouſufip oiotu uood ovell allºut
II tº not be puty ºf apeut otA unu Jo opnynuilă pub Khord
on Jo (IoMo, e sso “lunoooº tºll, UO “you st: A 5ullouſo ouſ,
Jaq : 5unquop to tuool onlil SI eloul “sóunni.A Teud.V.Ioode
oup uſ polulo. St. ‘pio Jo Souill uſ lagſ [opſ oup Jo S]Solid
oul ox{II ‘osn U.AO SIII on 5uſualſo out, oneſ.Idoiddu put hisod
-op poliot's oth evoluo. On attºo ox{t}] pſno A out out) age]ms tº
qu bû] put ‘solid alſ, Jo Khodoid oul St.M. Joppel oil] tºll, L
‘Nos ouſ,
Jo Junoooe (IO UOI10111sal Wut sew oloup of Tuqoid hou SI 11
‘Antino) sºul uti Uoutuloo od on pſes oſe Sossonsolid su ‘ūjnouſ)
: Iłou Oo) iogo.iddle on uoppiquo Ji se ‘aouensip c 18 poureuoi
Hoſpiſºlo ºtii: Utott:0A [R.I.O.AoS osotiTO oup Jo IIIolsmo oth on
fººpiodot pºol; on to Apoq SIU popunsolid solun ouſu put
sootſ I SI: UO Haj toppeſ oup poſſi.ipo pet OUAA uptu Oul UlotA
‘. .310 A Jo outc., A.O. tº UI juſthautos pejohntu ‘uoAbou sp.IUAO)
poultní $3.5 o pºte popu on No Suiſe (pLA ‘ouſin Utzotti oil, UI solid
Júl, Hús Jo Ouo pug ‘Joãms Jo dino e ‘ooſt Jo SUOseq OAA)
“[op out, alojast of eo out uſ po);sodap 11 §unumou Jouyout:
put: : o3.in aq) suitºe pose[d ou (IoIUA ‘ooqueq Jo Joppe e
poſſipo slºtuseod on Jo ou() “isp uoze.Iq tº to ſtoo fuſu.Inq
tº ſlºw tº Hut of jo osobo poojs solid ou, uo juſpuolje Koq
il
3
3O C O C H IN C H IN A.
to have formed a part of the Jewish dispensation ; and we
are informed by Pliny that no one ever thought of tasting new
fruits or new wine until the priests had first performed the
customary libations—1c me degustabant quidem movas fruges.
aut vina antequam sacerdotes primitias libassent.
On the skirts of every little grove of trees near Turon bay
small boxes of wood or baskets of wicker work were either
suspended from or fixed among the branches, some containing
images made of various materials, and others painted or gilded
paper cut into different shapes, inscriptions on slips of wood
in the Chinese character, and many other indications of their
sacred destination. Trees, in fact, appear to have been
among the first of temples that were consecrated to the
deities. To man, but little advanced beyond a state of na-
ture, the grandest objects that present themselves are those t
most likely to arrest his adoration. Such on the plains are
trees of venorable antiquity, and on the mountains their high
peaked summits of solid rock. But man, more vain and am-
bitious in proportion as he became more civilized, conceived
a Babel whose summit should reach to the skies. The most
sumptuous and magnificent temples were consecrated to the
deity by most of the polished nations of antiquity, and
this practice has universally been adopted by the professors
of Christianity ; but the Chinese and their neighbours differ
in their opinions on this subject, as on most others, from the
rest of mankind. They are content to worship *
{{
that Spirit that does prefer
“ Before all temples the upright heart and purc,”
C O C H IN C H IN A.
33 |
in all places and under all circumstances. A little casket
not larger than a snuff-box frequently enshrines a favourite
divinity. Solitary devotion, it is true, requires not the space
that is necessary for congregational worship. A tutelar deity
may be placed in any corner of the house, or carried about
in the pocket.
The Cochinchinese are extremely superstitious, and their
devotional exercises, like those of the Chinese, are more fre-
quently performed with the view of averting an ideal evil
than with the hope of acquiring a positive good ; or, in other
words, the evil spirit is more dreaded than the good one
revered. In various parts of the country are large wooden
stakes or pillars erected, not only for the purpose of marking
the spot where some great calamity either of a public or a
private nature may have happened, as the loss of a battle,
the murder of an individual, or other unfortunate event,
but as a propitiation to the evil spirit by whose influence it is
supposed to have been occasioned. So also when an infant
dies, the parents are supposed to have incurred the displeasure
of some malignant spirit, which they endeavour to appease by
offerings of rice, oil, tea, money, or whatever they may
imagine to be the most acceptable to the angry divinity.
From such sentiments one may venture to hope that the
the bad customs
horrid practice of infanticide is not aunon
(5'
Sº-
they have retained of the Chinese.
Beside the spontaneous offerings which individuals conceive
it necessary to make on various occasions, it seems that a
i i U Q
332 C O C H IN C H IN A.
Yearly contribution, levied by government, is paid for the
support of a certain number of monasteries, in which the
priests invoke the deity for the public welfare. This contri-
bution consists of produce in kind, as rice, fruits, Sugar,
areca nut, and other articles ; in lieu of which, in towns, are
collected money, metals, clothing, and such like. The
priests here, as in China, are considered to be the best phy-
sicians ; but their art lies more in charms and fascinations
than in the judicious application of sanative drugs.
It may be inferred that the fundamental principles of the
Cochinchinese government are the same as those of China ;
that they have the same laws and the same modes of punish-
ment: but on this subject I am unable to communicate any
information. In the Open building adjoining that where the º
ruling Mandarin resided we saw both the Tcha and the
Pan-tsä (the cangue and the bamboo); but whether the ex-
ecution of the laws are hore less rigidly attended to, or the
morals of the people less corrupt, than in China, I will not
pretend to say: it may be observed, however, that not a
single punishment of any description occurred to our notice,
whereas in China we scarcely ever passed a town or village
in which our eyes were not offended at the sight of the
cangue, or the cars assailed with the cries of persons suffering
under the stroke of the bamboo. There, indeed, the Man-
darins, however corrupt and debauched in private life, assume
in public an austerity of conduct, which gives a sanction to
their corrections ; but a Mandarin of Cochinchina, who
openly violates the rules of decorum, and sets in his own
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. 333
person the example of levity and licentiousness, could but
with a very bad grace direct and superintend the punishment
of another less guilty than himself. At all events, the spirit of
the people of Turon did not appear to suffer any depression
from a too severe exercise of the hand of power.
*-c
3.
4.
C O C H IN C H IN A.
C H A P. XI.
A jº, W A N T A C E S OF A C O M M E R C I A L INTER CO U R S E W IT II
C O C IH IN C III N A.
Peninsula and Harbour of Turon—Views of France in desiring the Cersion
of it—Importance of to Great Britain, particularly in its Commerce with
China—Cochinchinese Productions for Export–Mode of establishing an
Intercourse with this Nation—Objections against entrusting diplomatic Agency
to mercantile Men—Ancient Commerce with Cochinchina—Reason of its De-
cline owing to the ill Conduct of Europeans—An extraordinary Instance of
Cruelty—Chinese Trade to New Holland—Superior Advantages resulting
from their early Knowledge of the Compass—An Objection to its An-
tiquity answered—An Opening for Great Britain to revive the Trade of
Cochinchina.
Tre Bishop Adran, in negociating the treaty between
Louis XVI. and the King of Cochinchina, has clearly shewn
that, however great his attachment might be to the latter, he
was not at the same time by any means unmindful of the in-
terests of the former. The terms of this treaty also prove that,
by fixing on the peninsula of Turon as the cession to be made
to Trance, the good Bishop had not been inattentive to the
comparative merits of the local advantages which the coast
of Cochinchina possessed. He seems to have been well
aware that if France was once permitted to occupy this neck
of land, she would thereby be enabled to ScCurc to hersclf a
\
C O C H IN C H IN A. sis
A.
permanent establishment in the East. In fact, the peninsular
promontory of Turon (or Hansan) is to Cochinchina what
Gibraltar is to Spain; with this difference in favour of the
former that, to its impregnability, it adds the very important
advantage of a convenient port and harbour, securely shel-
tered from all winds and at all seasons of the year, possessing
every requisite for a grand naval station, where ships can at
all times refresh and refit, and where abundant rills of clear
fresh water fertilize the numerous vallies which open upon
the shores of the bay. Near a small island, connected with
the peninsula by a neck of land which is uncovered at low
water, ships of any magnitude might conveniently be hove
down and careened ; and opposite to it, on the peninsula, is
a sufficient extent of level surface for a small town, with a
naval arsenal, and magazines of every description : the whole
capable of being rendered perfectly defensible by a handful
of men.
A small island called Callao, situated at the distance of about
thirty miles to the southward of Turon bay, was also included
in the territory to be ceded. This island completely com-
mands the entrance of the main branch of the river on which
Fai-foo, the ancient mart for foreign commerce, is situated ;
and is completely inaccessible on every side but that which
faces the mouth of this river. Here a small but a fertile and
well-watered valley opens upon a bay, wherein ships of any
size may lie at anchor in perfect security.
The views of France in fixing upon this part of the coast,
which are obvious indeed from the whole tenor of the above-
'V N i II O N | H O O O 99.9
ºlos oſmoſ ojotti e ‘olettuſo oſquinoxuſ Oſotſi e ‘ātū’īnotts AIſº
-oudā squu (od ‘tionumdod shi on toniodoid (II A ſolition loiteſ
| Suſabu ‘out...] 'suonett ſo oppos out uſ spot juosold it:
publjuq loſt|A XIII c. luth Jo SSOI oth Aq powo TOI of Kºſtºliyotiſ
9snut ooloulu too Jo Sso, or I, sºon U.ſoſſms AIFOIA of p[now
‘Ānsnpuſ oxnonpold ano Jo sling oil jo (tonnºiſ.Insp oil!
O) Sompou) 5uippe Jo Koſſod ouſ] put: ‘ootouttſtoo Uno (lū āui
-(loox. Jo Kyissooot out, Utodn Ilo.wp OI, juddius Ino loſ (IOI)
-epotutuoool: put oolioſuo Auo.) Jo soon? (I Aututti oo) wou ‘ootout
-tuoo Ino Joj Kyllmoos Jo shutod Kuºtti oo) ovel tºo to Aoti ow
juq : one)s oth ol [n]osn poliopuo.1 s sº A.IOM Ltd, ºn(II st: pú.
‘ur, Uttu Ilow upo a.M. se soluoroo Autºtu se ssossoti Spºolſ:
s(ſet{od Kutu o AA 'Aoi.A Jo huſod It'ſ ſolition to It: Rioto, tº Utt
uuſuiouſ lood) Jo lied sºul Jo juſºſtoºls st; poojsłoptºn of O.Lºtſ
jou pinOAA I ‘JI uo powolsaq. Ulood JoA Stºti until (IOI)
-biopisuoo Jo Oolfop Louisit tº on 11 opinuo on attou jujuto
p|IOAA out, ſo hird sluſh uſ sisoº) tº [violouluţoo put tº yºu
lmo On ºno spot aſ U.)IIIA ‘putti Lot 10 OUI) uto ‘soºt ºut. A pl; ou
‘lsº oth u sujoontoo uno suit:Fr. Orthºpout on Autºlio o Allou:
UIl-2 of Gºtto yºut oorld sºl jo tions.sossott ji!! || ||A Joltios ſuit
ori) ſo lºoptºdopuſ ºng 'po Voutlu pº polluſtiſ ºf \ſiºn lºo!
-jo 1soul Weſt “bibul UI suoissossodi Ino su low st; ‘rtuºſi,
O) open of [Emp:A Ino UOIrels slui uo.II su All cloods, ºliºſ \tº
ofoul au) built outlooj) Jo ºth option III W Urysopuſ Jo shººtoo
oth utionſ u0 isnio No onoctuſo.) ſoul, (Ionuţiittontoo uſ Kuo
put ooutº, ºption uo IV hutſ w us [dutoo. 3 out Nutti ooutº.ſ.l.
Ibitodu i \tº[] put ‘poweuot of lou III w kittent, où lett) until
*
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ano oAU.lovo Arp ouo pInous luſh odioi tº \ºtt tº Jo Juould inbo
puu Tupºnd ou) or poloo.Up Alltop; \o otoA Altºol) pottonubitt
C O C H IN C H IN A, 337
|
and more varied productions, may be excused when she af.
fects to despise foreign commerce, and to speak with contem pt
of the nation who depends solely on its support. The
miseries, the misfortunes, and the devastations, however oc-
casioned in such a country, may certainly be repaired without
the aid of foreign commerce. But this is not the case with
regard to England. We need only cast a glance at the
articles with which the numerous large and well-stocked shops
and warehouses in the capital are stored, at the multitudes of
shipping which frequent our ports, to make it obvious that the
national industry is more employed, and consequently more
productive, in manufacturing the raw material of foreign growth
than in raising such as are congenial with our own climate and
soil. From Tyburn turnpike or from Hyde Park Corner to
Whitechapel almost every house is a shop or a warehouse,
i
and two thirds at least of these shops and warehouses are
stored with articles of foreign growth. Any check, therefore,
to our commercial prosperity, and to that preponderancy
which we now enjoy in foreign trade, could not fail to
be attended with the most injurious consequences to the
country at large. In fact, having advanced perhaps a little
too far in this career to retreat with safety, every exertion
must now be made to hold our own, to give protection and
permanent security to that commerce which has hitherto en-
abled us to measure our strength with an enemy as implacable
as he is powerful. It may be necessary even that the paws of
the British Lion should yet be extended—that they should
grasp every point which may add to the security of what British
valour and the industrious and adventurous spirit of the
X X
§
‘V N I H O N I H O O J 8%
ol]]|| |n( Sonnb.). AoA Jo III ºf ſetto 11:11 tº Uſ (Ioriºſopisto.)
lſº iſ Jo Aull.low SI 11 Juill ptſ tº : po); tıpt: A Hºsuo Aſtºn ‘o Aoi.
-O(| || “s siliootloo ovisito] No s & 11:41: toº) ot]] Jo Shooj; ; (IEA}}}}
"Soul oth pne lung).toduſ; 1sortſ ºf ºl opt: ) ºr it.) of itſ r
£ 4
*
'Kuq Iloin,I, ſo tº isºtºi º to No. 531
juristiquiso Aq ‘utiliſ) in w stião., too ſº.) jointlºo iſ ºn 1 AH
-op pino A Autºdulo ) ºpuſ st: I on 1911A sºlº Apt. sºli
Jo A\}} \ JOI,IC| tº on ox{tºtil O] ). A tº i stion 1 Atos ( ) A 2) 9|| |
oujutoo luosold Yu Iſets I ºn ºutpoulº) in A ºsſº), Joytiſ
ul; juſtisſºulso Jo (no Atºſ uſ poſſin ( "lºſt stion::ſopisto.)
loſſo Kuuſ N. 'uomisinhoe oſqunº Aun it; o' lºow ‘suodie I
solulotuos loſt|A “utoosttou os.io Api on 1 Aq \tiºn tºo putt; tıosiºs
ou, ui oyul oo) juſoq (lius tº Jo JuJAo oth uſ ‘ol losol on lºod &
(Ions Jo Gul Atºll oth ‘ole ATIto. Aoun utúl snoor.jpgo Sso1 SAolo
oul, Jo (Illuot out, juſAlasaid Jo Suttout out, puu Shodoxop
sso St. A solus buſtli) uno Jo luoulojuttºut oup J1 Auo Aoi A
Jo huſod slu) uſ polopisuo O poleſooiddle od on Antiſ I lott
ote ‘pounoold ocł Kulu luouTulso.IIo. Jo puſh Ado Ao put tolu A
olou A “Inoquet outdos tº plow oth Jo led slip uſ 5uſ Abū
Ád oolouluoo ultipul Ino on Inso, pluo.A UISTu A sadulub Mpu
nuulioduſ out, “Auous Suzudio]uo put a \not uu Jo spurtſ
ou, ui Ji su o Aº, o] [It] hou pluod li ootle Nottur oth ‘touno
oun uo “put open tuitio oup uſ poxoiduro S]90U Oiqbn U.A.
uno on ploglº pino A uolu,I, Jo uphsuittod juolls out, Jo uoissos
-sod oul “pulºu ouo oth uo ‘uoq A Allmoos out opisoq ing
'stoſtºlop
Ibujio Joli on poxouttu put poſinbou o Abū uohuu usûliº
C O C H IN C H IN A. 339
}
proof. It employs direct from England 20,000 tons of shi p-
ping, and nearly three thousand seamen ; it takes off our
woollen manufactures and other productions to a very con-
siderable extent; and it brings into the Exchequer an annual
revenue of about three millions sterling. It is the grand prop
of the East India Company's credit, and the only branch of
their trade from which perhaps they may strictly be said to
derive a real profit. The reason of these superior advantages
is pretty obvious. To India the Company trade as sove-
reigns ; to China as merchants. Yet it is unquestionably true
that the balance of the trade between England and China is
greatly in favour of the latter, and that this balance is drawn
from the former in hard money to the amount of about half a
million sterling annually. The bullion, however, thus sent out
for the purchase of teas is converted into a productive capital,
and has hitherto been replaced with large profit by the con-
tinental nations of Europe. There is besides a very consider-
able trade carried on by British subjects between India and
China, the balance of which is nearly as much against the
latter as in the other case it is in its favour against England.
With Europe in general the balance of trade remains, how-
ever, greatly in favour of China; and the Spanish dollars
which are carried thither to pay this balance are never again
returned into circulation, but, being converted into a new
and totally different shape, remain locked up in the country.
In all despotic governments, where the laws are not sufficient
for the protection and security of property, land and houses
are considered of a nature too tangible to represent wealth.
The object of every one whose revenues exceed his expences
is to secure the greatest possible value in the least possible
X X 3
34O C O C H IN C H IN A.
$
space, which in the evil day can most conveniently be con-
cealed. In such countries the profits upon trade are usually
hoarded up in the precious metals. Such, I believe, is pretty
much the case in India, and still more so in China : the
latter may therefore be considered as a perpetual sinking fund
for European specie.
This annual drain of hard money to China is of the less
consequence to us, so long as, by our supplying the continent
of Europe with a considerable part of the return cargoes, with
our manufactures, and the produce of our colonies, the metals.
which are dug out of the mines of Potosi shall ultimately find
their way up the Thames ; or, in other words, so long as the
general balance of trade of the whole world shall remain in favour
of England. Notwithstanding, however, this may be the case
at present, it would still be a desirable object to accomplish
an equalization of the trade between this country and China,
and thereby put a stop to the annual drain of specie required
by the latter. An intimate connection with Cochinchina
would, in my opinion, go a great way towards effecting this
object. This country furnishes many valuable articles suit-
able for the China market, and would open a new and very
considerable vent for many of Our manufactures ; and its
situation in the direct route from England to China is an un-
exceptionable consideration. The forests of Cochinchina.
produce, for instance, a variety of scented woods, as the
rose wood, eagle wood, and sandal wood ; all of which are
highly acceptable in the China market, and bear most ex-
travagant prices. The Cochinchinese cinnamon, though of
a coarse grain and a strong pungent flavour, is preſerred by
C O C H IN C H IN A. 34 I
the Chinese to that of Ceylon. It is said to be a species of
Cassia, and not of the Laurus. For rice there is a never-
failing demand in the populous city of Canton, and sugar
and pepper are equally acceptable ; all of which are most
abundantly produced in the fertile vallies of Cochinchina.
The price of sugar at Turon was about three dollars for
133 lb., of pepper six or eight dollars for the same quantity,
and of rice only half a dollar. To these productions may be
added the areca nut, cardamoms, ginger, and other spices :
swallows' nests, which are collected in great abundance on
the large cluster of islands running parallel with the coast,
and known in the charts by the name of the Parace/s; the
Bichos do Mar, or sea-snakes, more properly sea-slugs, and
usually called Trepan in commercial language, which with
sharks' fins, Moluscas or sea-blubbers, and other marine pro-
ducts of a gelatinous quality whether animal or vegetable,
are at all times in demand by the Chinese. It furnishes
besides many other valuable products, as gum lac, camboge,
indigo, elephants' teeth, cotton, and raw silk; and there
seemed to be no want in the country of gold, silver, and
copper. The hilts of the officers' swords and the clasps of
their belts were generally made of silver, but we frequently
observed them of solid gold. It is said, indeed, that a very
rich gold mine has lately been discovered near Hué, the
northern capital. Silver is brought to market in bars about
five inches long, in value about eleven Spanish dollars.
All these articles, so well adapted for the China market,
might be taken by us in exchange for fire arms and ammuni-
tion, swords, cutlery and various manufactures in iron and
342 C O C H IN C H IN A.
steel, light woollen cloths, camblets, Manchester cottons,
coarse Bengal muslims, naval stores, Opium, and a few other
drugs. Articles of this nature, when carried to the ports of
Cochinchina, have usually been disposed of at an advance of
from 20 to 30 per cent., and their value paid for in ingots
of silver.
There is another consideration which renders the possession
of a port on the coast of Cochinchina, or at least a factory in
some of them, extremely desirable for the concerns of the
Tast India Company. It is well known that the Chinese
government has more than once intimated a design of ex-
cluding foreign traders altogether from their ports, and very
serious apprehensions have been entertained in consequence
of it. In such an event, the trade might still be carried on,
and perhaps with advantage, by means of Chinese junks
bringing cargoes of tea and silks to Turon bay, or other parts
of the coast; thus avoiding the exorbitant duties levied at
Canton on foreign vessels. But if in such case we should
have no establishment within the limits of Chinese navigation,
the Spaniards at Manilla, the Portuguese at Macao, and the
I)utch at Batavia, would be put into the possession of the
whole commerce carried on by Chinese junks, and England
would become in a great degree dependent on them for the
share they might be disposed to allow her in their respective
ports.
If, however, the Cochinchinese should not be disposed to
cede any part of the coast or adjacent islands to a foreign
power, which, after the fortunate turn of affairs in favour of
C O C H IN C H IN A. - 343
*
the legitimate sovereign, will in all probability be the case,
we might still derive important advantages from a mere com-
mercial intercourse. The timber alone which this country is
capable of supplying, suitable for the purposes of building
ships, is an object highly deserving the consideration of go-
vernment. The docks of Bombay and those intended to be
established on Prince of Wales's Island must rost their de-
pendence on a supply of teak and other timber on very pre-
carious grounds. If in the former it be intended to encourage
the building of ships of the line, it may be doubted whether, in
a few years hence, the whole of the Malabar coast will afford
a sufficient supply to keep a single ship on the stocks of
seventy-four guns. Even now the greater part of what is
valuable is exhausted, and such as would be fit for building
large ships of war is not procurable without very considerable
difficulties and delay. Equally precarious is the supply of
toak timber, which is floated down the river \verwaddy from
the dominions of Ava or, as it has lately been called, the
Birman empire. Yet this is the grand source from whence
the supplies are meant to be drawn for the docks of Prince
of Wales's Island. We have little, however, to trust to or to
hope from the favourable disposition of the government of
Rangoon. The French have obtained here, as well as in
overy other part of Eastern India, a decided superiority of
influence beyond all other Europeans ; and they will not fail
to exert it to the utmost, in order to render nugatory our
grand scheme of increasing our navy by establishing docks
for building at Prince of Wales's Island, which they would
most effectually accomplish by shutting up the Ayerwaddy
344 C O C H IN C H IN A.
against us, and thus cut of the grand supply of that timber
which is best suited for the purpose.
y Ti ... . . * e * * ~, + \s I 4. º
The river Sai-gong, usually called Cambodia, flowing into
the sea at the southern extremity of Cochinchina, runs
through inexhaustible forests of stately trees, possessing every
quality requisite for naval architecture, such as teak, iron-
wood (Sydcronylon), and poon (Callophyllum); the last of
which grows tall and straight as the Norway fir or the larch,
and is extremely well adapted for ships' masts. In the forests
of Cochinchina are also ebony (Diosperos), cedars, mimosas,
walnuts, and indeed most of the timber trees that grow in
India. Down this magnificent river all kinds of timber might
be brought to Prince of Wales's Island, almost as conveniently
as from Rangoon.
Having thus briefly stated some of the important advan-
tages which an intimate connection with Cochinchina might
be expected to produce, the next point to be decided is the
mode in which such a connection would most effectually be
established. With this view it may not be amiss to inquire
whether any, and what, steps have hitherto been taken for the
accomplishment of so desirable a purpose. The first at-
tempt to open a friendly intercourse with this country appears
to have becil inade by Mr. Hastings, in the year 1778, when,
on his receiving some favourable represcntations of the ad-
vantages that would probably result from such a measure, he
was induced to give permission to a mercantile house to send
a couple of ships laden with merchandisc, entrusting, at the
7
C O C H IN C H IN A. 345
same time, a sort of demi-diplomatic commission of a public
nature to a gentleman connected in the firm of the house.
Whatever the motives were which influenced the conduct of
Mr. Hastings in this instance, the result of the mission might
‘asily have been foreseen. The character of merchant is
here, as well as in China, held in very low esteem, and the
government is equally jealous of admitting an indiscriminate
introduction of foreigners into its ports. How much soever,
therefore, the monopolizing system of the East India Com-
pany may be deprecated, and the wisdom of that policy
questioned which prohibits English ships from doubling the
Cape of Good Hope, whilst those under the flags of every
other nation profit by such restriction, I am decidedly of
opinion that the trade to China and to Cochinchina ought
never to be thrown open to individual merchants. The
Chinese, in particular, are so averse to their subjects trading
promiscuously with foreigners, that the government appoints
an united body of merchants who exclusively are allowed
to deal with strangers; and one of whom is obliged to be-
come security for the fair dealing and the good conduct
of the Captain and crew of every ship which visits the
port of Canton. All trade is considered by these nations as
a species of gambling, in which the number of foul players
far exceeds the number of those who play fair. The tempta-
tions indeed of large profits, which commerce sometimes pre-
sents, are difficult to be resisted ; and when individual interest
comes in competition with the public service, the latter is very
apt to give way to the former. Hence, without adopting the
illiberality of the Chinese maxim, the impolicy is obvious of
committing the affairs of government into the hands of those
Y Y
346 C O C H IN C H IN A.
who are in any shape connected with the concerns of trade.
However honourable a merchant may be in his dealings, he
cannot be responsible for the good conduct of a whole ship's
company ; mor, with the cargo which he transfers to the
management of another, can he transfer at the same time
character and principle. But independent of the frauds and
tricks that are too frequently connected with trade, there is
something in a commercial intercourse which is inconsistent
with diplomatic agency. There is every reason to believe
that all those employed on Mr. Hastings' mission con-
ducted theniselves with a proper degree of forbearance and
circumspection ; yet, having called at different ports on the
coast of Cochinchina, and traded with different parties then
struggling for the government of the country, they were sus-
pected by all of them, and were unfortunately drawn into
actual isostilities with the ruling power at Hué, where they
had a narrow escape from having their vessel seized, and
themselves in all probability put to death ; and although they
were obliged to leave behind them unsold a part of their
merchandize, they contrived to bring away a large sum of
specic or bullion in ingots of silver. An intercsting narrative
of the whole transaction is published in the Asiatic Annual
Register for the year 1801.
The second and last attempt to open a public intercourse
with Cochinchina was made about two years ago, when,
from representations communicated to the Directors of the
Fast India Company of the advantages which might be de-
rived from a connection with this country, and of the fa-
vourable disposition of its present Sovereign towards the
C O C H IN C H IN A. 347
English nation, from which reasonable hopes of success
might be entertained, a resolution was taken by the Court
to send back to China one of its servants, who had re-
tired from the factory at Canton, with instructions to pro-
ceed from that port on a secret mission to the King of
Cochinchina. This gentleman, on his arrival at Canton,
finding the state of his health would not permit him to
go through the fatigue of a voyage to Cochinchina, trans-
ferred his instructions to one of the supracargoes in the
Company's employ at that factory, who lost no time in
proceeding to the Court of Cochinchina. The King saw
him, it is true, but received him in so cool and distant a
manner as to point out very clearly that the shorter he made
his visit the more agreeable it would be to the Cochinchinese
government. In fact, he found the Sovereign Caung-shung
completely surrounded by Frenchmen; and as he knew no-
thing himself of the language of the country, nor had any
one with him who did, every proposition he had to offer,
and every explanation regarding his mission, were necessarily
made through the French missionaries. That these men are
but little disposed to be friendly to the English nation might
have been known without sending to Cochinchina for the in-
formation, and the consequence of making overtures through
them to the King easily foreseen. The very reserved, not to
say contemptuous, conduct of every one about the Court to
the Company's Ambassador makes it probable that the pro-
posals he had to offer on the part of his employers were
wholly misrepresented : they might indeed be interpreted by
the French into insults. The conclusion drawn by the East
India Company from the complete failure of this mission, is
Y Y 2
348 C O C H IN C H IN A,
that the King of Cochinchina is not favourably disposed to-
wards the English nation.
The correctness of this conclusion may, however, in my
opinion fairly be called in question. However well qualified
the gentleman might be who was sent on this embassy, in every
respect except in his not knowing a single character of the
written or one syllable of the spoken language, the want of the
indispensable means of communication seems quite sufficient
to have rendered the object of the mission completely abortive.
As far as the joint testimonies of several English gentlemen,
who a few years ago were at the Cochinchinese Court, and
of French officers in the scrvice of that Court, can be allowed
to have weight—as far as any confidence is to be placed in
professions declared in public edicts—as far as actions may
be considered to develope sentiments—and as far as we were
enabled to judge of the disposition of the people during our
stay at Turon, I should be inclined to conclude that the con-
trary is the case, and that neither the King of Cochinchina
nor the people would be in the smallest degree averse
to an intimate connection with the English, provided
suitable overtures were made to them in a direct manner
from the Tritish government, and not through those French-
men to whom the Sovereign owes so many personal obliga-
tions, nor through the medium of the East India Company.
Where the prejudices of the people will not admit of any
honourable distinction being annexed to the profession of
merchant, whilst the utmost deference is paid to a royal
commission, official rank and literary acquirements, it
is neither politic nor expedient to fly in the face of
C O C H IN C H IN A. J
349
opinions so long and so deeply rooted. I have heard it
was once in contemplation, shortly after the truce of Amiens,
to follow up the communication with the Court of Pekin, so
favourably opened by the Earl of Macarincy, with a splendid
embassy to proceed from the Governor-General of Bengal.
Those who flattered themselves with the successful issue of
such a measure must have known little of the temper and
character of the Chinese government. I have no hesitation
in saying, that all the splendour and magnificence of the East,
unless accompanied by a royal commission, would not have
secured for the Ambassador more respect and consideration
than the fine velvet dresses trimmed with broad gold lace
were able to procure for Mynheers Titsing and Ian Braam.
Without such a commission, the great Bahadur from Bengal,
like those two compliant Dutchmen, would infallibly incur
the risk of being lodged in a stable. Whether, therefore, it
may be found advisable to keep up the communication with
the Court of Pekin, or endeavour to establish an intercourse
with the Cochinchinese, it will in either case be politic and
expedient that the Ambassador be furnished with the King's
commission, and that he proceed on his mission in a King's
ship.
The state of the commerce of Cochinchina, in the year 1793,
did not appear to be an object of much importance to any
country. The late revolution and the unsettled state of affairs
that for many years had prevailed in this unfortunate country
could not fail to interrupt the pursuits of agriculture and of com-
merce. A few Chinese junks that annually arrived at Fai-ſoo, an
accidental neutral ship or English under neutral colours from
35 C O C H IN C H IN A.
Jºurope, and one or two country ships from India, with as many
Portugueze from Macao freightcd with the refuse of goods
sent out to the China market, constituted then the extent of
its trade. Put under its present settled government, so fertile
a country, situated in so fine a climate, will speedily re-
cover its once flourishing state. What the extent of its com-
merce was, not many years ago, may partly be collected
from the accounts of the early European navigators. In the
extraordinary piratical voyage of Mendez Pinto, who sailed
for India in 1537, an account is given of the proceedings of
his comrade, Antonio de Faria, along the coast of Cochin-
china. “After passing Pulo Campello, an island in fourteen
“ degrees and twenty minutes, they came,” says he, “to
“ Pulo Capas, where a fleet of forty great junks of two or
&
• three decks a-piece was seen in the river Boralho (Varella
*
‘ in the charts), which Faria had sent to discover; and after
6
• that another fleet, seeming two thousand sail great and
G
• small, and a walled town of some ten thousand houses.”
In fact, just before the late rebellion in Cochinchina, two
hundred Chinese junks are said to have traded annually to
Fai-ſoo, which in all probability was the walled town of
Faria. The decline of the Chinese trade and navigation to
Cochinchina may in part be attributed to the grand change
which was occasioned in the commercial relations of coun-
tries situated in the eastern hemisphere by the discovery of
a passage to them round the Cape of Good Hope; but it is
also probable that the operation of another powerful cause
contributed, in no small degree, to drive the industrious
Chinese from their ancient channels of trade. The com-
mander of every Portugueze, Spanish and Dutch ship,
C O C H IN C H IN A. * J
35 I
-
which doubled the Cape of Good Hope, conceived himself
authorized to capture or to plunder all vessels that came in
his way, whether navigated by Arabs, Malays, or Chinese.
His voyage to the East he eonsidered as a sort of crusade in
which, under his piratical commission, he waged war with
the peaceable natives as infidels and pagans. The Chinese
junks being the most richly laden were, on that account, the
most liable to be pillaged. The master or owner was usually
thrown overboard for a heretic, because he did not im-
mediately fall down before the cross; and though perfectly
innocent of having refused what was required of him, his
ignorance entitled him to no consideration. Such a conduct,
systematically pursued, drove at length the timid Chinese
from their usual trading voyages; and I am sorry to observe
that the early navigators of our own country were not by any
means exempt from disgraceful acts of this nature, and in
some instances were guilty of most unwarrantable and un-
necessary cruelties towards this inoffensive people. There is
in the records of the English factory, which was established
at Bantam in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an account of the
execution of a Chinese after having bech condemned to death in
a summary manner, without any trial, the particulars of which
are marked with features of such horrid barbarity as to render
it almost incredible. The whole transaction, however, is
minutely described in Mr. Scott's narrative, who was chief of
the English factory at the time ; and as he appears to be
ambitious of being thought an able and expert executioner,
it would not be doing justice to the reputation of Mr. Scott
to give it in any words but his own. “We tortured him,”
says he, “ because when we had laid down the iron he denied
352 C O C H IN C H IN A.
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all ; but, being tortured, made a second confession. The
next morning I sent him to execution. As he went out of
our gates the Javans (who do much rejoice when they see
a Chinese go to execution, as also the Chinese do when
they see a Javan go to his death) reviled him ; but he
would answer again, saying, The Englishmen were rich
and the Chinese poor, therefore why should they not steal
from the English if they could The next day the Admiral
(Sir James Lancaster) took another of them, and sent him
to me, who knew there was but one way with him, and
therefore he resolved with himself not to confess any thing
to us. He was found hid in a privy, and this was he that
put fire to our house. He was a goldsmith, and confessed
to the Admiral he had clipped many rials, and also coined
some counterfeits : some things he confessed to him con-
cerning our matter, but not much ; but he would tell us
nothing. Wherefore, because of his sullenness, and that
it was he that fired us, I caused him to be burned under
the nails of his thumbs, fingers, and toes, with sharp hot
irons, and the nails to be tore off; and because he never
blinked at that, wc thought that his hands and legs had
been numbed with tying, wherefore we burned him in the
hands, arms, shoulders, and IncCk, but all was one with
him : then we burned him quite through the hands, and
with rasps of iron tore out the flesh and sinews. After that
I caused them to knock the edges of his shin bones with
hot searing irons; then I caused cold screws of iron to be
screwed into the bones of his arms, and suddenly to be
snatched out ; after that, all the bones of his fingers and
toes to be broken with pincers : yet for all this he never
C O C H IN C H IN A. 353
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shed tear, no nor once turned his head aside, nor stirred
hand nor foot; but when we demanded any question, he
would put his tongue between his teeth, and strike his chin
upon his knees to bite it off. When all the extremity we
could use was but in vain, I caused him to be put fast in
irons again ; when the annits or ants, which do greatly
abound there, got into his wounds and tormented him
worse than we had done, as we might well see by his
gesture. The King's officers desired me he might be shot
to death. I told them that was too good a death for such
a villain ; and said more, that if, in our countries, a gentle-
man or a soldier had committed a fact worthy of death.
then he was shot to death, and yet he was befriended too :
but they held it to be the cruellest and basest death that is.
Wherefore, they being very importunate, in the evening
we led him into the fields and made him fast to a stake.
The first shot carried away a piece of his arm, bone and
, all. The next shot struck him through the breast u p near
to the shoulder; then he, holding down his head, looked
upon the wound. The third shot that was made one of
our men had cut a bullet in three parts, which struck upon
his breast in a triangle, whereat he fell down as low as the
stake would give him leave : but, between our men and
the Flemings, they shot him almost all to pieces before
they left him.”
If then Englishmen, who with all their vices have at al!
times and in all places ostablished their character for hu-
manity, could be guilty of such excessive barbarity towards
unprotected strangers, who among the nations of the East
Z Z.
3.54 C O C H IN C H IN A.
may be compared with the Jews of the West, what may we
not suppose their treatment to have been by those Europeans
who have little claim to such a character P No wonder then
that their ships of commerce have been chased, by the terror
of such outrageous proceedings, from off the occan. Dut
though their trade may, from this and other causes, have
been diverted from its usual channel, and probably much
diminished, yet it has not wholly been annihilated. That
part of it whose object was to seek, among the clusters of
islands which skirt the coast of Cochinchina, an article of
luxury in very high demand in China, the Trepan or Bichos
da lifer of which I have already spoken, soon discovered a
fertile source in another quarter of the East which for
many years has been conducted wholly unknown to Eu-
ropeans, notwithstanding their researches in almost every
part of those seas. Captain Flinders, who was sent out in the
Investigator on a voyage of discovery, in skirting the north-
ern coast of New IIolland with the view of exploring the
gulph of Carpentaria, fell in with, very unexpectedly, at the
bottom of this gulph, six Malay proas from Macassar, whose
object it secmed was to procure cargoes of sea-slugs or, as
Captain Flinders calls them, sea-cucumbers. He learned
from the chief of the squadron that they were a part only of
sixty sail, with which he had made an annual voyage for this
sole purpose regularly for the last twenty years. These
cargoes, it appeared, he carried to the island of Timor,
where he was met by Chinese traders who, after purchasing
the cargoes, transhipped them into their own junks and carried
them to the southern ports of China. The price paid for them
by the Chinese to the Malays was twenty Spanish dollars the
C O C H IN C H IN A. 355
pecul, weighing 1333 pounds English. It was calculated that
One thousand slugs on an average weighed a pecul, and that
one hundred peculs were equal to the cargo of a proa. It ap-
peared also that, for the purpose of navigating the vessels and
collecting the animal, each proa was required to carry from
sixteen to eighteen men. Some are employed in detaching
them from the rocks; some in splitting them open, washing
in fresh water and boiling them ; and others in collectin g green
wood, in the smoke of which they are dried pretty much in
the same manner as our red herrings are usually prepared.
That the Chinese do not themselves proceed to the coast
of New Holland and collect the Trepan is no proof of their
ignorance of the navigation of this coast. It appears, on the
contrary, that they are well acquainted with the disadvan-
tages with which such a voyage would be attended, by the
necessary and unavoidable protraction of a whole monsoon or
six months. It may besides be fairly questioned whether, from
their aversion to cold water which in another work I have
had occasion to notice, they were ever themselves the fishers
for these animals, at the time they resorted for them to the
coast of Cochinchina, as divors not much less expert than
those who, on the coast of Ceylon, descend for the peal
muscle, or oyster as it is usually supposed to be, are equally
required to detach the slugs from the rocks to which they
adhere at the bottom of the sea.
There can be little doubt, indeed, that the Chinese are
and have long been acquainted with every part of the
Fastern World : and that in ancient times, while the greater
Z Z Q
356 C O C H IN C H IN A.
portion of Europe was yet in a state of barbarous ignorance,
this extraordinary people was carrying on an extensive com-
merce in the Eastern hemisphere, and navigating their ships
far beyond the limits within which modern Europeans would
confine their voyages. By their early knowledge of the
peculiar qualities of the magnet, and their application of
those qualities to the purposes of navigation, they possessed
advantages which no other nation that we are acquainted
with on the face of the globe had the good fortune to enjoy,
till in later ages. When Vasco de Gama encountered the
Mahommedans on the coast of Africa, who in those days
were the most enlightened people in many of the sciences,
they had their charts, and their astrolabes, and their astro-
nomical tables; but they had no compass. That the Arabs
had it not at that time, and that it did not originate with
themselves, nor was borrowed by them from any nation in
the East, may almost safely be inferred from the name it still
bears in their language, El Boussola, and from its European
form. It has appeared to many an extraordinary and an unac-
countable circumstance that, if the Chinese, who are known
to have traded with the Arabs, had been in the practice of
using it, the latter should neglect availing themselves of an
instrument which conferred on navigation such incalculable
advantages. It is not, however, by any means impossible
that the Arabians, learned and ingenious as they undoubtedly
were, might have long continued a very intimate connection
with the Chinese, without discovering the virtues of the mag-
netic needle. In the first place, the Chinese are not a com-
municative people : they carry with them their national
contempt of foreigners wherever they go, avoiding all familiar
7
C O C H IN C H IN A.
7
3
5
intercourse beyond what may be necessary for attaining the
object of their pursuit. Secondly, a Chinese navigator not
only considers the magnetic needle as a guide to direct his
track through the ocean, but is persuaded that the spirit by
which its motions are influenced is the guardian deity of his
vessel; and, conformably with this opinion, the sacred instru-
ment is always, when in port, carefully shut up in the little ca-
binet on the stern part of the ship, in which the other sanctified
utensils of his religion are deposited, and from which he is al-
ways anxious to exclude strangers. With equal care is the mag-
netic needle guarded when the vessel is ready to depart from
port, and for a reason still better grounded than on its sacred
character. When a voyage is once determined and the
direct course to the intended port ascertained, the compass
box is placed in sand in such a position that the character
denoting the quarter of the horizon, in which the port lies
may coincide with the direction of the needle. So long as
this coincidence continues, the ship will be on her right
course ; and it is the object of the pilot, under all circum-
stances, to preserve this position as nearly as possible and
to note down the deviations from it, in order, by making the
proper allowances, to bring the ship again into the right
course. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that no
intruders should approach the place in which the compass
box is arranged. In the third place, it may be observed
that such is the nature of the magnetic needle, that the most
scrupulous examination could never enable the most in-
genious mechanic to make another from it, unless he had a
previous knowledge of communicating the magnetic quality
358 , C. O C H IN C H IN A.
to iron ; and independent of the backwardness of the Chinese
to show their inventions to strangers, we may easily imagine
that the Chinese mariner was equally ignorant of the nature and
principles of magnetism with the Arab. Besides, it can scarcely
he supposed that the proud and haughty Arabian, pluming
himself in his superior skill in astronomical science and, by
the use of his charts and his astrolabe, able to find his way
through the pathloss Ocean, would regard with any other
feeling than that of disdain the little insignificant rusty
needle of the Chinese, swinging on its pivot, and surrounded
with circles, signs, and hieroglyphics : and that in all pro-
bability he would consider it only as a part of the religious
lumber which a foolish superstition had rendered sacred, and
with which his little cabin is generally encumbered.
That the use of the magnetic needle among the Chinese is
of a very remote antiquity. I have had occasion to notice
cłsewhere ; and I again repeat, what I consider to be alone
sufficient to establish the fact, that if any other argument
were wanting to prove the originality of the magnetic needle,
as used in China for the purposes of navigation, the circum-
stance of their having engrafted on it their most ancient and
favourite system of mythology, their constellations and cycles
and, in short, the abstract of the elements of their judicial
astrology, goes a great way towards settling that point; that
a people so remarkably tenacious of ancient custom, and
thinking so very meanly of all other nations, would never
have submitted to incorporate their rooted superstitions, by
engraving on its margin the sacred and mystical characters of
C O C H IN C H IN A. 359
Fo-shee, with an instrument of recent introduction and bar-
barian invention.
I have been induced to say thus much on the subject of
the Chinese compass, from knowing that an objection has
been urged against some former remarks I had occasion to
offer with the view of proving, if not its originality, at least
its great antiquity. This objection was taken on the ground,
that if the Chinese had been in the constant use of such
an instrument in or before the ninth century, when they
carried on an extensive trade with the gulph of Persia, it
must necessarily have been known to, and if known would
certainly have been adopted by, the Arabian navigators;
whereas these people were entirely ignorant, as before ob-
served, of the polarity of the magnetic needle, when Vasco
de Gama first led the way into the Oriental Ocean.
I have only farther to observe with regard to the import-
ance of the commerce with Cochinchina, that if the Chinese,
before being chased by Europeans from the ocean, and before
the calamitous state of this country occasioned by rebellion
and usurpation, could employ in it many hundreds of their
largest junks, there is every reason to suppose that Great
Britain, by proper address and management, might succeed
in reviving and conducting this extensive commercial inter-
course which anciently subsisted between the two countries,
and which, under the present vigorous government of Cochin-
china, could not fail to rise to as high a pitch as it ever
reached at any former period.
360 C O CHIN CHIN A.
The beneficial effects produced on the sick in the squadron
by the plentiful supplies of fresh provisions, fruit, good water,
a clear sky and a dry atmosphere, soon enabled us to proceed
on our voyage. Accordingly on the 16th June we set sail
from Turon bay, and on the 19th came in sight of the La-
drome islands and the continent of China. Under one of
these islands we anchored for two days, in order to communi-
cate with the commissioners of the East India Company at
Macao; after which we made sail for the strait of Formosa
and the Yellow Sea. Of the voyage up this sea, navigated
for the first time by European ships, and of our subsequent
travels on the continent of China, I have had occasion to
enter into a detailed account in another volume.
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A N
A C C O U N T
O F A
3OURNEY TO LEETAKOO,
THE REs IDENCE OF THE CHI E F O F THE
B O O S H U A N A N AT I O N,
BEING THE REMOTEST POINT IN THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AFRICA To WHICH
EUROPEANS HAVE HITHERTO PENETRATED.
THE FACTS AND DESCRIPTIONS TAKEN FROM A MAN USCRIPT JOURNAL.
A N
A C C O U N T
O F A
30URNEY TO THE BOOSHUAV_{S.
After passing the Boundary of the Colony, the Strength of the Expedition is
mustered—They meet with two Bosjesmen on the Desert—JFith a Dutch
Boor and his Family—Pass the Karrce-bergen, and mect a Party of armed
Bosjesmen—Salt Lakes—The Gariep or Orange River—Hords of Kora
Hottentots—Missionary Kicherer's Kraal–Contrast between the Gospel and
the Moravian Missionaries—Bosjesmans—Several new Characters join
the Party—The Iron Mountain—Effect produced on the Compass—Wild
Buffalos—Giraffè or Camelopardalis—Source of the Kourmanna River—
Arrival of a Party of Booshuanas from the King—Mimos, or Umbrella
Tree—Arrival at Leetakoo-Interview with the Chief—Situation, Size,
and Population of Leetakoo-Some Account of the Booshuanas, their
Character, Possessions, Resources, Amusements, frce and happy Condition,
Origin, &c.—The Barroſoos—Slavery unknown in the interior Parts of
Southern Africa—The Palla Antclope—Face of the Country—Mimosis
loaded with Nests of the gregarious Loxia—The Kokoon apparently a
Species of Gnoo—A new Species of Quacha—Opinion of the Ancients
respecting new Animals incorrect—Return to the Kourmanna River—A
Lion shot while striding over a Hottentot—Booshua'a Villages—Pitanic—
Abundance of large Game—The Takheitsé, a new Species of Antelºpe or
Cow—Buffalo hunting—This Creature and the Elephant rºº Injuries—
ſ
3 A 2
3
6
4 A J O U R N E Y IN
The latter supposed to bury their Dead—Giraffe hunting—A large
Rhinosceros killed—Arrive at the Orange River, and skirt its Banks to
the North-Westward—Pass several Kora ſillages—Kok’s Kraal—Extra-
ordinary Character and Adventures of one Stephanos, a Polish Greek—
Expedition against a famous Robber of the Name of Africaaner—Extra-
ordinary Flight of Locusts—Critical Situation of the two Secretaries—
Pithing of Cattle—Decisive Experiments to prove the Fallacy of its being
the most capcditious and least painful Mode of slaughtering Cattle—Return
of the Expedition to the Colony.
H., VING received from his Excellency Lieutenant-General
“ Dundas, acting Governor and Commander in Chief of the
“ castle, town, and settlement of the Cape of Good Ilope,
“ our credentials and instructions, examined the invoice of
“ the several articles intended to be given in exchange for
“’ cattle, and arranged the contents of our six Waggons, we
“ this day,” says Mr. Truter, “ the first of October 1801,
“ commenced, under God's good providence, our long and
“ interesting journey." After a minute detail of every par-
ticular circumstance that occurred and a relation of the ordinary
events of such a journey; the names of the several farms and
their occupiers where they halted for the night, or for obtain-
ing refreshment or a change of draught oxen ; the little inter-
ruptions and mortifications they met with, owing to the want of
punctuality in the boors in bringing their fresh relays of oxen,
to the breaking of axle-trees, yokes, and traces; the diſli-
culty of ascending Toode Sand Kloof; the impractica-
hility of passing the Hilsenberg or Mostaert IIvek, which
compelled them to take the circuitous route over the IIew
River Kloof (in their progress through which, Mr. Truter
observes, they crossed the rapid stream of the same name
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 365
J
rushing down its rocky channel no less than seven times):
their passage of the Bokkeveld, and that corner of the Great
Karroo or desert between it and the foggeveld, where the
absence of all human habitations compelled them to sleep for
several nights in their tents and waggons ; their ascent, from
those plains, up the steep and lofty mountains called the
Roggeveld :—after surmounting these and many other diffi-
culties they arrived, on the evening of the 14th, on the south
bank of the Great Riet river, opposite the Bonteberg, where
they pitched their tents for the might, the weather being ex-
tremely cold, boisterous and rainy. In this river they caught
an abundance of a particular species of fish, the flavour of
which was tolerably good ; but the bones being something
of the same kind as in the herring, and the fish small, made
it the less acceptable to hungry travellers. Here also, for
the first time, they observed the fresh prints of the paws of
a lion.
Pursuing their journey from hence, after crossing the river
several times, they halted at a deserted farm house called the
Ganna-Kraal, which place had previously been appointed as
the rendezvous for the escort of boors that were summoned
to attend the expedition, as well as for the relays of fresh
oxen to draw the waggons over the desert. But having
waited here for two days without receiving any intelligence
either of the boors or the oxen, they resolved to proceed
without them ; and accordingly, on the 18th, after crossing
the Karrce river, which is here considered to be the boundary
of the colony, they made a short day's journey and encamped
366 A J O U R N E Y IN
for the night near the Brakke fontein, where they presently
had the great satisfaction to perceive, at some distance, a
party of boors and Hottentots and cattle hastening towards
them over the plain. Their joy, however, was of short dura-
tion, and followed by vexation and disappointment; for, on
examining the oxen, the greater part were found to be very
young, totally unaccustomed to the yoke, and not a single
good team could be selected from the whole drove.
HDetermined, notwithstanding this grievous disappointment,
to prosecute the journey they had undertaken, and being
now advanced beyond the limits of the colony, it was deemed
expedient, in the first place, to muster the party, to ascer-
tain the strength of the expedition, and to prescribe certain
regulations for their conduct, which were rigidly to be ad-
hered to during the journey before them, whose distance and
duration were equally uncertain.
The account of the whole expedition was found to stand
as follows:
Mr. Truter, { tº g
- Commissioners.
Mr. Somerville,
Mr. Daniell, secretary and draughtsman.
Mr. Borcherds, assistant secretary.
Mr. Scholtz, superintendant of the waggons.
Seven Dutch Boors, inhabitants of the Roggeveld.
Making in the whole twelve Christians.
S O U THE R N A FR I C A, 367
24 Hottentots and Bastard Hottentots.
4 Slaves
120 Draught oxen
18 Saddle Horses, and
20 Large muskets.
“With the blessing of God,” observes Mr. Truter, “we
“ considered these our numbers and our means of defence
‘ to be fully sufficient for our protection and preservation ;
“ and, confiding in his goodness, we launched upon the
* Karroo or desert plains on the 20th October.” Little oc-
6
6
curred in their journey over these dreary solitudes to engage
the attention, except their uncommon sterility, and now and
then a few quachas or wild horses, a solitary gemsbok, an eland, a
hartebeest, or a pair of Ostriches, which might perhaps be ob-
served grazing at a distance, or scouring away to avoid the
party, when they happened to approach them unperceived. In
the course of the third day they passed the ruins of an earthen
building of considerable dimensions, surrounded by a number
of demolished huts, which they were informed were the re-
mains of an establishment attempted to be formed by the two
gospel missionaries Kicherer and Edwards, under the direction
of the society for sending missions into Africa and the East.
Proceeding slowly till midnight, they halted on the bank of the
Sack river, near which the next morning they observed an-
other kraal or hamlet in ruins, where these missionaries had
held a temporary residence. At this place two miserable
looking wretches, of the tribe of men usually called Bosies-
IY) Cl] by the colonists, perfectly naked, and apparently perish-
ing with hunger, advanced towards the encampment, and
7
*—
3.68 A J O U R N E Y IN
acrosted the party in a language wholly unintelligible; but
the signs they made use of could not easily be mistaken.
They gave them something to eat, which, with a little to-
bacco, had an instantaneous effect on their spirits, and caused
them to dance for joy. They were just able to make the
party understand that their names were Jacob and Jeptha,
and that they had been disciples of the two missionaries
above-mentioned.
Pursuing their journey over these dreary and desolate
plains, where few living creatures except a quacha, a harte-
heest, or an ostrich were occasionally seen browsing at a
distance, the party arrived on the evening of the 23d at a
brack or saltish river, where they pitched their tents for the
night. Here they were again accosted by a solitary Bosjes-
man, who called himself Wildboy, indicating by signs, for not
a creature could comprehend the meaning of a single syllable
he uttered, that he was extremely hungry. Having ordered
as much food to be given to him as was sufficient to satisfy
the craving of his appetite, he stole away in the course of the
night, and they saw no more of him.
At a little distance from the next halting place, the Lion's
fonfein, one of the party had the good fortune to shoot a
quacha of a larger size than what any of the boors bad ever
recollected to have seen, of which Mr. Daniell made a very
accurate drawing. It was the first wild quadruped they had
procured. In the midst of so extensive and dreary a desert
they were not a little surprized, though by no means an un-
usual thing, to meet with a Dutch boor of the name of Kok,
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 369
who, with a waggon and his whole family, his slaves, his
Hottentots, his cattle and his sheep, was travelling leisurely
from the Orange river towards the skirts of the colony. The
disinclination of these people to establish themselves on a
particular spot, and to live in any sort of comfort, is very
remarkable, and can only be explained on the principle of an
irresistible charm which unbounded liberty and unrestrained
possession exert on the human mind, and which operates
most powerfully on him who has never known the pleasures of
social life. It is a well known fact, that numbers of the French:
officers in America, led by the impulse of this principle.
retired into the Indian settlements, threw aside their clothing,
painted and tatooed their bodies and became, in every
respect, savages of a much worse description than the natives,
by uniting with their new condition all the vices of civilized
life. To rove about the desert wilds of Africa, to harass and
destroy the harmless natives, to feast on game procured by
their Hottentots, and to sleep and loiter away the day while
jolting in his waggon, are to the Dutch boor among the
most exquisite pleasures he is capable of enjoying. By indo-
lence and gluttony, from the effects of a good climate and a
free exposure to air, these people usually grow to a monstrous
size; and if suffered to continue their present uncontrolled
mode of life, they may ultimately give birth to a race of Pata-
gonians on the southern extremity of Africa, not inferior in
stature to their tall brethren on the opposite coast of America.
Continuing their journey on the 28th and 29th over a
rugged country and a constant succession of hills, whose
surfaces were strewed with a greater abundance of stones
* 3 B
37o A J O U R N E Y IN
than of vegetation and on which two or three of their wag-
gons broke down, they were under the necessity of halting
on both nights, without finding the least grass or any kind of
food for the cattle and without a drop of water. This hilly
part of the country was called by the boors the Karree bergen.
From the feet of these hills a plain of vast extent stretched
out to the northward, of a nature altogether different front
the Karroo desert over which they had just passed : the latter
being a solid bed of clay on which little vegetation appears,
except a few straggling weak and sickly succulent plants;
but the former was thickly covered with long withered grass.
On the skirts of this plain our travellers observed at a distance
a party of natives intending apparently to approach them. It
consisted of eight persons, some partially covered with skins,
and others naked; but all of them armed with bows in their hands,
quivers on their backs, and arrows stuck in a fillet bound round
the head forming a kind of coronet. Having advanced pretty
near the waggons they stopped short; and on being beckoned to
come forwards, they made signs, by pointing to the ground, that
somebody should first go to them. Accordingly some of the
party proceeded towards them, on which they betrayed evi-
dent marks of fear. They were presented with some
lacquered brass medallions, a couple of grenadiers' caps, a
few gilt rings, a little tobacco and, as they appeared to be
greatly in want of food, with a whole sheep, which they im-
mediately killed by cutting the throat; and having divided it
among them in shares as nearly equal as they could contrive,
including both the skin and the entrails, they walked off with
great satisfaction. Shortly after this three others of the same
tribe made their appearance ; but all the endeavours of the
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 37 I
party to bring them to a conversation were unavailing. Two
of them retired, and the third, after much persuasion by
signs, advanced near enough to receive a ration of tobacco
for himself and two for his companions, when he also in-
stantly vanished.
On the midst of this grassy plain our travellers came to an
extensive lake, the water of which was so very salt as to be
wholly unfit for use either by man or beast. At the distance
of five miles beyond this lake they came to a second, and
farther on to a third, all of the same description. Rising by a
gentle ascent from this plain to one of much greater elevation,
they arrived on the 1st November at the entrance of a poort or
chasm in a ridge of high hills where, for the first time since leav-
ing the mountain of the Roggeveld, a distance not much short
of two hundred miles, they had met with any species of plant
which could be said to bear the resemblance of a tree. From
these lonely wastes of Africa, “ where,” as Dr. Johnson ob-
serves of part of Scotland, “the traveller has nothing to con-
“ template but grounds that have no visible boundaries,”
nature seems to have withheld her bounteous hand, and
doomed them to cheerless, irremediable, and consequently
perpetual, sterility. On the spot, however, where the tra-
vellers were now arrived the sides of the hills were enlivened
by shrubby plants and straggling trees, and whole forests ap-
peared in many of the vallies. The face of the country began
now to assume a pleasing and an interesting aspect, and still
more so towards the middle of the same day, when the party
arrived on the southern bank of a river of very considerable
magnitude, called by the natives the Gariep, but by the
3 B 2
37.2 A J O U R N E Y IN
*.
colonists the Orangeriver. Numbers of Hottentots came forward
to meet them ; and on the opposite bank they could perceive
an extensive village, composed of decent looking huts. After
passing the long and dreary Karroo desert, it was an interest-
ing and a cheerful event to mix with a very considerable po-
pulation, apparently of a much superior class of beings,
though probably of the same race, to those few miserable
wretches which had hitherto occasionally shewn themselves
in the course of the journey.
A river of such unusual magnitude in this quarter of the
globe was also a subject which afforded them no small degree
of pleasure. At this spot it was divided into two branches
by an island in the middle, each of which was not less than
six hundred yards in width. The water, by sounding, was
found to be deeper than the height of the bottom of the
waggons; it became necessary, therefore, to raise their con-
tents, by means of billets of wood, in order to keep them
dry. The whole cavalcade got safely over the two streams,
except one waggon, the oxen of which, having by some acci-
dent turned their heads down the stream, got into deeper
water, where they soon lost their legs; and the whole ma-
chine being swept away with great violence, both oxen and
waggon would inevitably have been lost, but for the active
exertions of the native Hottentots who, by cutting the yokes
and traces, freed the oxen and brought all except one safe
to the shore ; and afterwards succeeded in dragging out the
waggon, which was overturned by the stream. “The Dutch
“ boors,” observes Mr. Truter, “were as helpless as children,
“ and of no manner of assistance whatever.”
- - - - - -
- ---
- º -
-
-
/ …, % º
º yº, º -º-º-º-º-º-º-




S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 373
The native inhabitants which are settled on the banks of
the Orange river, where our travellers crossed it, (namely in
latitude 29° N. and longitude between 23° and 24° E.) are a va-
riety of the Hottentot race, whose particular horde, in their own
language, is called the Koras. In estimating their compara-
tive condition with the different tribes of this nation, they may
fairly be reckoned to rank much higher than any of the others
that are known on the southern extremity of Africa. The
wide desert Karroo between them and the colony has hitherto
protected them in a considerable degree, though not alto-
gether, from the oppression of the Dutch boors, under whose
lash their brethren less remote from the colony have so
severely suffered. Their abode being stationary on the
banks of the Orange river, their huts were constructed
with greater care, and with a view of being more durable;
in their persons they were more cleanly, and in their dress
and domestic utensils neater, than the Hottentots usually are.
This superiority may probably be owing, in a certain degree,
to the advantages of local situation. A running stream in
South Africa is a great rarity. To the want of water may
probably be attributed the origin of the custom of greasing
the skin, which this grand river renders unnecessary. The
Koras accordingly exhibit none of that filthy and squalid ap-
pearance which characterizes the Hottentots on the skirts of
the colony. Their features are also of a superior cast. What
the Gonaquas were on the eastern coast the Koras seem to
be to the northward, a mixed breed between the Hottentot
and the Kaffer. The annexed figure of a Kora woman,
drawn from nature, may serve to convey a better idea than
can be given by verbal description.
374 A J O U R N E Y IN
Their dwellings, in the shape of hemispheres, generally
about six feet high and eight in diameter, are constructed on
the same principle as those of the Namaqua Hottentots, and
covered with several folds of meat matting made of rushes or
coarse grass. They used vessels of wood, hollowed out from
blocks of willow, for containing milk and water. They seemed
to have no knowledge of agriculture, but had considerable
possessions of horned cattle, sheep, and goats. They had
also plenty of dogs. Like the Kaffers they live in a great
measure on curdled milk, on berries and roots, and like
those also are particularly attentive to their cattle, which they
train in habits of strict subordination and command. When
a cow is supposed to withhold her milk, they practise the
method which the ancient Scythians, as we are told by Hero-
dotus, made use of to force the milk out of the udders of
their mares. Indeed both the Kaffers and Hottentots have
recourse to this method, when the animal is stubborn and
supposed to refuse giving her milk. One of the old writers on
South Africa, by way of convincing his readers of the truth
of the practice, has embellished his work with a print on this
elegant subject, exhibiting a Hottentot in the act of blowing
up a cow.
Their dress consisted of skin cloaks, like the other Hotten-
tot tribes; and the women wore square ornamented aprons
suspended from the waist, with copper chains and beads of
glass round the neck, the wrists, and legs. These chains
were probably procured from the Damaras, a nation of Kaf-
fers to the north-westward, dwelling at the foot of the copper
mountains. This metal, indeed, is said to be found in many
7
SOUTHE R N AFRIC A. 375
J
places near the banks of the Orange river, and the party
pieked up what appeared to be a specimen of native gold :
but mines are of little value in a country where there are no
materials necessary for working them, no navigable rivers nor
passable roads, by which their produce can at any reasonable
expence be transported to a market. Those who set any
value on this part of Southern Africa for the mines it con-
tains know very little of the nature of the country.
Some of the men among the Koras were observed to be
Monorchides ; but whether the defect was in consequence of
some operation submitted to while young on superstitious
grounds, or occasioned by accident, or the sport of nature,
does not appear to have been ascertained.
In swimming across this wide and rapid river, and trans-
porting at the same time their sheep or other articles, the
Horas make use of a curious contrivance. They take a log
of wood from six to eight feet in length, and at the distance
of a few inches from one of its ends fix a wooden peg. On
this log the person intending to cross the river stretches him.
self at full length, and holding fast by the peg with one hand,
whilst with the other and occasionally with his feet he
strikes to keep the end of the log in a certain direction (which
is that of an angle of about 45 degrees with the stream) the
obliquity of the log opposed to the current causes it, in float-
ing down the stream, to push gradually over to the opposite
side in the hypothenusal line of a triangle, whose base is the
width of the river.
376 A J O U R N E Y IN
Both the banks of the Orange river were at this part of it
thickly covered with minosas and willows and a great
variety of other trees, whose names and descriptions are not
mentioned. A little beyond the right bank the great quan-
tity of a species of shrubby mimosa, seldom higher than seven
or eight feet, with a small white leaf, was very remarkable.
It was the prevailing feature on the surface of the country
for twenty or thirty miles, though not a single plant of the
kind had appeared on the Cape side of the river. Here also
they found, growing in great abundance, a species of wild
onion, of a taste as strong and pungent nearly as that of
garlic; notwithstanding which it was so highly acceptable to
the travellers, that they laid in an ample supply for future
use on the journey. The leaves, flowers and seeds re-
sembled those of the common cultivated species. On the
margin of the river they found, in great plenty, a small and
delicate orange-coloured poppy ; and, creeping over a great
extent of surface, a very fragrant species of Clematis or Vir-
gin's bower. The agate, onyx, sardonyx and chalcedony
abounded on the pebbled bed of the river, of which they col-
lected some very beautiful specimens. Several hippopotami
were observed rolling about, blowing and snorting in the
deep parts of the river, at a little distance below the ford ;
and one was severely wounded by a musket ball, but it
escaped.
Leaving the river on the 6th, they travelled till the 8th
before they met with any water when, after pushing their
way where neither traces of waggons nor tracks of any kind
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 377
appeared, and in constant anxiety and doubtful Suspense
whether they might not be entangled and finally stopped by
mountains, deep chasms, or thickets, they came to a village of
Kora Hottentots, situated in a deep defile of the mountains;
and a little farther on, to a second horde of Bastaards and Bos-
jesmans, under a chief of the former description whose name was
Kok. This man was a kind of volunteer missionary who, to the
great astonishment of our travellers, delivered a very able dis-
course to his people in their presence, from a text out of the gos-
pel of St. John, on the subject of regeneration, which was pre-
ceded and followed by an extemporary prayer and by singing
of hymns. The missionary Edwards and his wife and a boor
of the name of Kruger had joined the party on the right
bank of the Orange river; and a little beyond the kraal of
Kok was the Aakaap or Rietfonteyn, the then residence of
Mr. Kicherer. On their arrival at this place on the 8th,
being Sunday, they found this zealous teacher of the gospel
engaged in the duties of his office. His church was a tem-
porary building of poles, wattled with twigs, plaistered over
with clay and cow dung both within and without, and covered
with a thatch of reeds. A smaller hut of the same construc-
tion scrved for a school, and a third for his habitation. A
number of other huts of an inferior kind, shaped like bee-
hives and consisting chiefly of grass matting, were scattered
over the plain ; but on the strangers approaching towards
them, their inhabitants, men, women and children all fled
and hid themselves in the bushes. Mr. Kicherer received the
travellers with great kindness and affability. Ile was assisted
in the labours of his mission by two other missionaries of the
names of Anderson and Cramer, all of them sent out by the
3 C
38o A J O U R N E Y IN
civilized Chinese to the commission of infanticide on their own
offspring, it is the less surprizing that a similar or a still
more hopeless condition should operate similar effects on
the savage Bosjesman. Human nature is every where the
same. When the Moravian missionaries first landed in La-
brador, the same inhuman practice, though with the most
benevolent intention, prevailed among the natives of putting
to death the widows and the Orphans; not because it was an
ancient custom, or that the shedding of human blood was
agreeable to their nature, but for a much stronger reason:
improvident of their own families, they could not be Sup-
posed to supply the means of support for the helpless orphan
or the desolate widow of another. And here the Superior
advantages resulting from the system of the Moravians over
that of the Gospel missionaries are most forcibly demonstrated.
Instead of encouraging the natives in their rambling dis-
position from place to place, they laboured to fix them to.
one spot; instead of preaching to them the mysterious parts.
of the gospel, they instructed them in useful and industrious
habits ; instead of building a church, they erected a store-
house. They caused this common store to be divided into
as many compartments as there were families, leaving one at
each end larger than the rest to be appropriated solely to
the use of the widows and the orphans; and having taught
them the process of salting and drying the fish caught in vast
multitudes in the summer months, the produce was collected
into this general depository of their industry, to serve as a
provision for the long and dismal winter which reigns in this
inclement climate ; deducting, however, from the compart-
ment of every family a tenth of the produce, to be deposited
4.
SOUTHE R N A FRIC A. . 381
in those of the widows and the Orphans. Their labours
were crowned with complete success. From this time a pro-
vision was made sufficient for the preservation of these de-
solate and helpless creatures. Thus the Moravian Society
has been the means of converting the inhabitants of La-
brador into useful citizens as well as good Christians, whilst
the African Society has not reclaimed a single Bosiesman
from the wild and Savage state in which its zealous mis-
sionaries first discovered him.
If zeal alone was sufficient for the conversion of these
miserable creatures to Christianity, and consequently to a
state of civilization, no man has more merit nor better de-
serves success than the missionary Kicherer. He is in every
respect a truly worthy character, but he is an enthusiast;
and he feels and assumes to himself more merit in being able
to relate some little anecdote of a savage applying or quoting
a scripture passage, than if he had accomplished all that the
Moravians have done for the Hottentots (and they have done
much) at Bavian's Kloof. He observes, for instance, in one
of his reports to the Society, that the Bosjesmans make a fire
by twirling the point of a stick on the surface of another :
that one of his people in a rainy night, not being able to suc-
ceed, bethought himself of calling on Jesus, when he was
immediately answered, and struck up a good fire notwith-
standing the rain.
Every account that has been given of the Bosjesmans tends
to confirm the opinion of their being among the most miser-
able of the human race, and in their present condition wholly.
382 A J O U R N E Y IN
incapable of profiting by the doctrines of Christianity. Their
number is, however, very inconsiderable. In travelling
through the heart of the desert occupied by them, the present
party did not in the whole journey see fifty persons, and of
course had but little opportunity of making and comparing
their observations on their character and condition. Of the few
- they saw it was remarked that several had attained a very
considerable age ; that the oldest had not lost a single tooth,
but that in many instances they were worn down in a remark-
able manner to mere stumps ; that out of the number seen
at least half a dozen were blind in one eye, which they pre-
tended to have been occasioned while young by accidents
from fire; that the greater part wanted the first joint of the
little finger, which they said had been taken off as a charm
against misfortunes, or to stop an incipient disorder; that the
sting of a scorpion, which to Europeans or colonists is always
attended with dangerous consequences, and by which
one of the present party suffered severely, has no ill effect
on this people, which they endeavoured to explain by saying
that while children being accustomed to be stung by these
insects, the poison in time ceases to have any effect on them,
as the small-pox virus loses its action on a person who has
had the discase.
In their persons they were all diminutive, but well made :
of the colour of a faded leaf; the joints and prominent parts
of the body almost black with a thick coating of hardened
dirt ; their hair clotted, which with the face was smeared
over with red ochre and fat; their little eyes, scarcely
visible, were always in motion, and ever on the Watch.
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 383
Their whole property was very portable, consisting generally
of a bow and quiver of arrows, a belt of skin, and sometimes
half a cloak, two or three thin grass mats which, when fixed
between two sticks over a round hole dug in the ground, serve
for a dwelling, and a wild gourd or an ostrich egg-shell to
carry a little water. Sometimes they are accompanied by
little dogs not unlike a species of jackall, having a ruff
of long hair round the lower part of the neck. Two or three
of these people were also, like the Koras, monorchides; and
the women had those peculiar conformations of certain parts
of the body, which are so general in the Hottentot race, to a
very remarkable degree. It appeared indeed that the elonga-
tion of one part and the protuberance of the other were
generally in the inverse proportion of the stature of the in-
dividual.
In this mixed society the party had the good fortune to
meet with two persons who had it in their power to render
them essential services. The one was a native Booshuana,
of the name of Miklango, who spoke a little Dutch, and who
willingly engaged to accompany them as interpreter ; but he
was wholly unacquainted with the road which led to his own
country. The other was his comrade Makauta, who was well
acquainted with the country, and readily undertook to be
their guide. A Dutch boot of the name of Kruger also
joined the expedition at this place: he had been pointed out
to them as a man of great resource, and likely to be of use.
At an early period of life his brother and himself, having ex-
ercised their ingenuity in forging the paper currency of the
colony, were banished for life to Robben Island in the mouth
384 A J O U R N E Y IN
of Table bay ; but before they had remained long they con-
trived, by means of a boat made of dried skins, to escape to
the continent, and to fly into the country of the Booshuanas,
where the elder brother was trodden to death by an elephant;
and the present man had been living among the savages on
the skirts of the colony, an outlaw and a vagabond, for
nearly twenty years. Informed of his situation, the party
had carried with them a conditional pardon from the Court
of Justice at the Cape, to which his long sufferings and his
willing services on the present occasion amply entitled
him.
Having at this place, beside the above-mentioned persons,
added twelve Kora Hottentots to the strength of the expedi-
tion, and procured forty-eight head of draught oxen in lieu
of seventy-six already worn out with fatigue, the party pro-
ceeded on the 12th ; and, after separating in the dark and
losing their way on the desert, the whole fortunately rejoined
at a spring of water on the evening of the 15th. The next
day they were accosted by six naked Bosjesmans craving, as
usual, a little food. This night they halted at the Makatanie
or Duck-spring, near which their attention was attracted by
a singular cone-shaped hill, where they discovered a deep
cavern occupied by whole flocks of turtle doves, whose nests
loaded the bushcs that nearly choaked up its mouth. The
bottom of the cavern was strewed over with a reddish brown
ochraceous earth, ibounding with mica, which is used both
by the Koras who are brown, and the Booshuanas who are
black, for painting their bodies, after which the skin has a
lossy appearance not unlike the surface of a bronze statue.
{r
8-,
S O U T H E R N A FR I. C. A. 385
A little beyond this hill they came to the Magaaga fontein or
the Spring of the Iron Mountain, the name of which induced
some of the party to ascend the heights and examine the
rocks and stones on the surface, taking with them a pocket
compass. The masses of rock were composed generally of a
ponderous stone, which evidently abounded with iron ; and
they found that the compass was very materially affected.
By placing the needle on some of the iron-stones it appeared
completely to have lost its polarity, pointing differently on
different stones, sometimes in an opposite direction, vibrat-
ing at one time with great violence, and again whirling en-
tirely round ; from which they concluded that the mountain
contained native iron, or other substances that were impreg-
nated with magnetic matter. It does not appear, however,
that they discovered any specimens which could be considered
as containing iron in its native state.
After chasing in these mountains, and in the passes through
which their route led them, a variety of the larger kind of
game, as hartebeests, springboks, and Ostriches, the tra-
vellers came in the dusk of the cvening to the banks of a lake
called the Koussie, whose extent was several thousand feet in
circumference. A belt of tall reeds surrounded its margin.
in several parts of which were growing very beautiful knots
of the Karroo mimosa. Near the brink of the water they
observed a number of holes that had been made by the 330s-
jesmans, with a view to entrap the wild beasts of the desert
coming thither to quench their thirst and in one of then
they found a dead steenbok, which had apparently faſhii in
3 D
386 A J O U R N E Y IN
not many hours before. Just as they were leaving the lake
a herd of wild buffaloes were observed at a distance, advancing
towards the place where they were posted, on which prepara-
tions were immediately made to receive them. When these
huge animals had approached sufficiently near, the party
fired a volley among them, and had the satisfaction to see three
of them fall to the ground, of so large a size that the carcase
of one was found to be more than sufficient to feast the whole
company. Continuing the journey till night without finding any
water, they were nevertheless compelled to halt from the
fatigued state of the oxen. In the morning before day-break
they resumed their journey over a wide and desert plain, on
which, however, a few trees were thinly scattered. In the
course of this day our travellers, it seems, were highly grati-
fied with the sight of a novel and interesting object. It was
a giraffe or camelopardalis trotting before them, at no great
distance, in a very singular and awkward manner, apparently
at a slow pace ; but on being chased, it was found to clear
the ground with such celerity as to leave its pursuers far be-
hind. Presently after this a herd, consisting of nine full
grown animals and two young foals, made its appearance:
upon which the whole party immediately gave chase, in the
hope of being able to take at least the foals; but their speed
was so great that they presently outstripped the fleetest horse
and vanished out of sight.
Having now travelled cighteen hours without halting, and
more than thirty hours without the cattle having tasted water,
they at length arrived, to their inexpressible joy, at the most
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 387
copious, transparent, and delightful spring of water that had
occurred in the whole journey; and two miles beyond this
they discovered another still superior, which indeed is pro-
bably not to be matched in the whole of Southern Africa, as
far as it is hitherto known. It not only gushed from a cavern
of rocks as from the sluice of a mill-dam, but in innume-
rable springs spouted up out of an extensive bed of white
crystallized pebbles and quartzose sand, forming, at not more
than a hundred paces from its source, a stream of at leas
thirty feet wide and two feet deep, called the Kourºnanza or
Booshuana river, whose direction was to the northward.
Being now arrived on the confines of the Bricq ta country,
the commissioners conceived it would be proper to send for-
ward the guide Macauta to the first village, to apprize them
of the approach of the expedition, and to desire them to send
forward notice thereof to the chief of the nation. Before it
was dark he returned to the waggons, bringing back with him
four of his countrymen who passed the night in the camp
very contentedly. Prom these our travellers were informed
that though their tribe was by the Koras usually called Brie-
quas, yet that the name which they bore among themselves
was Booshuamas. In the course of the morning four more
advanced, one of which was pointed out as a chief and
brother to the King. His name was Serakotie. The party
having entertained them with a sheep and plenty of tobacco,
for which they seemed to have a high relish, they became so
exhilarated that they sung and shouted and danced the whole
night long.
3 D 9
388 A J O U R N E Y IN
IIaving remained some time for the purpose of refreshing
their almost exhausted cattle on the delightful banks of the
Kourmanna river, they again set forwards on the 23d, and,
having passed through straggling thickets of a new species of
Mimosa, which was the only tree that appeared in this part
of the country, and said to be that on which the camelopar-
dalis is particularly fond of browsing, they halted in the even-
ing at another clear and copious spring called Mapoolie.
Here they were met by a deputation from the King, to say
that he was anxiously expecting their arrival. The face of
the country now began to assume a very different appearance
to what it had hitherto done. It was tolerably well clothed
with grass, and with thickets of shrubby plants; and the Mimosa
Camelopardalis, spreading its branches like a large umbrella,
was a remarkable and a distinguished feature. Game of all
kinds was very abundant, and every hour brought in sight
considerable herds of gnoos and quachas.
A short skaff or day's journey carried the expedition; on
the 25th, to another copious spring called the Gataikamma,
the country still improving as they proceeded, and abounding
with every sort of wild beast peculiar to this part of Southern
Africa. Being now informed by the guides that the distance
to the residence of their Chief was only a short day's journey,
it was considered expedient to halt the waggons, while the
two commissioners should proceed on horseback. Accord-
ingly having selected a present for the Chief, which they
carried in knapsacks and their pistol holsters, they set out
with an interpreter ; and about the middle of the day, after
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 38.9
passing through open fields that for a very considerable ex-
tent were under a rude sort of cultivation, they entered a
large town composed of cottages or huts, not laid out in
streets, but placed in an irregular manner, and each hut
enclosed within a sort of palisade. The sight of so great an
assemblage of human habitations, after so long and dreary a
journey, was equally as unexpected as it was agreeable. In
a country so, desolate as Southern Africa, where so few human
beings are met with, and these few in the last stage of misery,
the pleasure must be doubly felt of encountering a large
society of mankind whose condition has the appearance of
something like comfort. Riding at a quick pace among the
houses, preceded by the interpreter and those which had
becn sent to invite them, the commissioners soon came to the
spot where the Chief had assembled the elders of the people
to receive them. This venerable man, whose name is Moo-
łiahaban, was sitting in the midst of his council in a circular
space, surrounded with wooden paling. He received the
commissioners without the least embarrassment, and in the
most friendly manner ; accepted their present, which excited
the curiosity of the elders, and of the crowd that by this time
had assembled in vast numbers round the enclosure. They
examined every article with minute attention, and were de.
sirous of being made acquainted with their respective uses.
In return they presented the commissioners with thick
curdled milk. The ceremony of introduction being ended,
the Chief invited the commissioners to his own house, where
he presented them to his two wives and twelve children
Great crowds of people pressed after them, but the Women
390 A J O U R N E Y IN
appeared to be the most eager to satisfy their curiosity.
They examined their hair with the closest scrutiny, scarcely
being able to persuade themselves that it was of natural growth,
but supposing it rather to be the tail of some animal fixed
close to the head.
On the arrival of the waggons towards the close of the day,
they pitched their tents at six hundred paces to the south-
ward of the town, on the bank of the river which runs
through it. IIere they were visited by several hundreds of
people, who all seemed to be highly delighted in getting a
Sight of the strangers; many of them were extremely curious,
but without being troublesome, and all of them perfectly good
humoured. The women brought milk in leathern bags, in
wooden bowls, and in earthen pots, sufficient for the use of
the whole expedition. As the night approached the people
gradually left the encampment, and our travellers retired to
rest with as much composure, and as free from any anxiety
as to their personal safety, as when in the midst of the
deserts to which they had so long been accustomed.
The town of Leefakoo, according to the direction and the
distance travelled by the expedition from the Roggeveld, is
situated in latitude 26° 30' south, and longitude 27° east.
A river, which from the width of the channel must occa-
sionally be of considerable size, runs through the midst of it.
The town, in its circumference, was estimated to be fully as
large as Cape Town, including all the gardens of Table
Valley; but from the irregularity of the streets, and the low-
4.
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 391
ness of the buildings, it was impossible to ascertain, with ally
degree of accuracy, the number of houses; it was concluded,
however, that they could not be less tilan two nor more
than three thousand, all nearly of the same size and con-
struction, and differing in nothing from that of the Chief ex-
cept that his was a little larger than the others. The whole
population, including men, women and children, they con-
sidered to be from ten to fifteen thousand persons. Round
numbers are rarely exact. The two commissioners, it seems,
at the end of fifteen days, on comparing notes, found that
the estimate of one was ten, of the other fifteen thousand.
The truth may probably lie in the middle. The ground plan
of every house was a complete circle, from twelve to fifteen
feet in diameter; the floor of hard beaten clay, raised about
four inches above the general surface of the enclosure. About
one fourth part of the circle, which was the front of the
house and observed generally to face the east, was entirely
open ; the other three fourths were walled up with clay and
stones, to the height of about five feet. Iły an inner circular
wall passing through the centre, and described with the same
radius as that of the first circle, and consequently cutting off
one third of the circumference, an apartment is formed for
the depositing of their valuables, as skin clothing, ivory orna-
ments, hassagais, knives and other articles which to them
arc of essential use. In this apartment, also, the elder part
of the family take their mightly rest. The children sleep in
the half-closed viranda, which comprehends two-thirds of the
circumference of the circle.
*...A
392 A J O U R N E Y IN
The annexed print will convey a tolerably good idea of
a Booshuana's establishment, and the ground-plan of the
cabin will be understood from the following sketch.
Outer Apartment
Open Front
The whole is covered with a tent-shaped roof, supported
on poles built into the wall, and forming in front an Open
colonnade. The roof is carefully and compactly thatched with
reeds, or the straw of the holcus, and bound together with
leathern thongs. All the houses were enclosed by a fence
made of strong reeds, of the straw of holcus, or twigs of wood ;
and within this enclosure, contiguous to the dwelling-house,
there stood a large clay vessel erected upon a raised floor of
the same material, which served as a store for containing
their grain and pulse. These granaries had the appearance
of large oil jars, the capacity of some of them being not less
than 200 gallons. They are raised from the ground on
three legs, are from six to nine feet high and, like the
dwelling-houses, are covered with a pointed roof of thatch.




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ool, si juſto Ap oth Jo opisuſ oth ‘eo.It uddo sºul uſ uo politto
juſoq Ato:IOoo Iſau, Jo afou A oth put : AeAoyed oul Uſónolul
IIo (Ini Kºu done. A oup help poſedoid os sſ ornsopouo olotl A ou!
Jo puno.15 oth jaq ‘5uſ.IOOH Reſo port: Aoto Uſe uodn posſed ATUto
jou si pupniſsooq & Jo Anti otſ,I, ,Long w Jo solppnd tâno.III]
[\tº[0 on poinqo Sotunjo on, K.I]ttestiod oſquiosul oup (IoIIIA
olin ‘strictbo IIs... I alſ, ſo soul on hiojūoo uſ pue UOI]on.Insuoo
S}. Itſ loſiodus jºiodso. KIOAo uſ paropisuoo od Kutu put “outoRI
[PIIoduſ (II Iſhq adow help sosnou suj Jo 9spo oun su pooj st:
opmb ol KIQeq0.1d Ketu 11 Å, Ipſos put ooueñoſo uſ ajuuul)
o'I) IQ) poºl'ſ noſeo III hou si pupn/sooq e Jo 5ułIIoAp on I,
SI C.
394 A J O U R N E Y IN
quacha : and all these they contrive to take by exertion or
by stratagem. In their choice of animal food they are not
remarkably nice. They will eat the wolf, the hyaena, and
the myrmecophaga or ant-eater; the leopard, the tyger-cat,
and the camelopardalis ; and the country abounds with os-
triches, bustards, grous, Guinea fowls, and partridges. But
all these, plentiful as they are, would furnish but a precarious
supply for so considerable a population ; and necessity has
therefore, in all probability, compelled them to call in aid
the never-failing source of plenty and provision which agri-
culture affords. The grain chiefly cultivated, as appeared by
the samples brought back by the commissioners, consisted of
the holcus sorghum, a smaller species of the same genus
which from the reddish coloured seed appeared to be the
Saccharatus, a Dolichos not unlike the cadjan, and a small
spotted Phaseolus or kidney bean. These different kinds of
grain and pulse appear to be sown promiscuously and, when
reaped, to be thrown indiscriminately into their earthen
granaries; from whence they are taken and used without
selection, sometimes by broiling, but more generally boiling
in milk. It will readily be supposed that the art of agricul-
ture among this people is yet in its lowest stage. In fact,
the only labour bestowed on the ground is performed by the
women, and with a rude instrument something like the
hoe. It is a flat piece of iron fixed into the knob of the
Kaffer keerie. When its horizontal edge is so fitted that it
stands at right angles with the handle, it serves as a hoe;
when turned round so as to be parallel with the handle, it is
then a hatchet. One of these instruments appears lying on
the ground, in the print of the two annexed figures.
-
)
/ º
-
-
-
-
-
- . /
-
- - -
y
-
y
- -

S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 395
But the Booshuamas are arrived at that stage of civilization
which is not satisfied with the mere necessaries of life Supplied
to them abundantly from the three sources of agriculture,
grazing, and hunting; they are by no means insensible of
its conveniencies and its luxuries. Their skin cloaks for the
winter are pliant, soft and warm, being frequently lined
with the fur-skins of tyger-cats, viverras and other small
animals; and when in summer they go without clothing, they
rarely expose their bodies to the rays of the sun, but carry
umbrellas made of the broad feathers of the ostrich fixed to
the end of a stick. They vary their mode of dressing both
animal food and grain, occasionally boiling, broiling, or
roasting the former, and simply broiling the latter, or bruising
it into flour and boiling it up with milk. Among the luxuries
of the appetite tobacco seems to hold the highest estimation.
Both men and women are passionately fond of draw-
ing the smoke of this narcotic herb through water, poured
usually into the horn of the cow or the eland, through the
side of which the tube of the tobacco-pipe is inserted. Of
snuff they are equally fond. This article is composed of a
variety of stimulant plants dried and rubbed into dust, which
is usually mixed with wood ashes; of this mixture they
take a quantity in the palm of the hand, and draw it into
the nostrils through a quill or reed till the tears trickle down
their cheeks. Children even of four or five years of age may
be observed taking snuff in this manner. Their bodies they care-
fully ornament with devices painted with white pipe-clay and
red ochre; their hair they sometimes cut in a peculiar manner,
leaving a high tuft on the crown of the head, not unlike the
3 E 2
396 A J O U R N E Y IN
fashionable crops of the present day, to which is frequently
appended the tail of a hare, or a distended bladder of this or
some other small animal ; or the wings of the Numidian crane
are fixed erect on each side of the head. A triangular plate of
copper is almost invariably suspended from one ear, and the
teeth and the claws of lions and leopards are worn as necklaces.
To these spoils of the chase the men add rings of ivory, cut from
the elephant's tusk, round the upper part of the arm ; and the
women use thongs of leather, sometimes plain and sometimes
decorated with beads and bits of copper, round the legs and
arms. Every man had a knife slung about the neck by a leather
thong, and fitted into a scabbard. The blade is generally about
six inches long, an inch broad, rounded at the end, and brought
to an edge on each side ; the handle sometimes of wood, and
sometimes of ivory ; in the latter case, it is usually carved into
the shape of the elephant's proboscis. The party had with
them a quantity of common knives intended for barter, but
the Booshuanas held them very cheap, observing that their
own were at least twice as good, because they were made to
cut with two edges, whereas those of the white people only
cut with one. The knife, in fact, is so useful an instrument to
such as live by the chase and on roots, that it may almost be
considered as an article of the first necessity, and is valued
accordingly. A Booshuana is accountcd wealthy according to
the number of cattle, knives and beads he may possess : these
are the money and the currency of Leelakoo.
The Booshuana women not only performed the task of
hoeing the ground, reaping the grain, clearing it from the
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. J
397
husk, and bearing it into the granaries, which with all the
other inferior earthen vessels were the work of their own
hands, but they collected most of the materials, and in a
great measure prepared them for the construction of the
dwelling-houses. The men employ a considerable portion of
their time in hunting,
and shoes; and they have the sole care of the cattle and of
in preparing skins and hides for cloaks
the dairy.
A few days after their arrival the party had an opportunity
of being present, by invitation, at a marriage ceremony, and
of witnessing the festivities that took place on the occasion.
At the time appointed they were conducted to a spacious
enclosure of a circular form, surrounded by a palisade of
wood. Here the venerable Chief received them with great
kindness, in the midst of the elders of the place. On their
right stood a group of young women, and on the left about
an equal number of men, dressed in a very fantastical man-
ner. A crowd of spectators stood in a ring round the circle,
leaving the central space free. The men who had been se-
lected for the performance of the ceremonies on the occasion
advanced into the area, and began to display their feats of
agility. The effect of their dancing was singular enough.
Some of them were dressed in a kind of petticoat which
reached from the waist to the knee, composed of black and
white ostrich feathers arranged in alternate rows ; and others
had several belts of leather fixed round the body, from the
neck to the calf of the leg, to which were stitched by one end
the tails of the jackal, the tyger-cat, and a species of ºverra,
398 A J O U R N E Y IN
Their bodies were painted with white, red and yellow clay.
As the dancers whirled round, their tails and the ostrich
feathers flew out at right angles with the body, and their
great object seemed to be that of preventing them from col-
lapsing, and of keeping them extended horizontally in
every attitude and motion of the body. Their movements
were accompanied with a rude and boisterous song, which
ceased at intervals, when the women who did not dance
responded in a softer kind of antistrophe, which was not by
any means void of melody. The same women bestowed
also on the dancers frequent marks of applause, by the clap-
ping of hands. The dancing being ended, a refreshment
consisting of boiled beef and Kaffer corn (holcus) boiled in
milk was served round to the guests; after which the bride-
groom, who was one of the dancers, led home his bride, and
the company retired to their respective dwellings, apparently
well satisfied with the diversions of the day.
The regularity and decorum with which they conducted
themselves at this ceremony, and indeed on all occasions,
impressed the commissioners with a very favourable opinion
of the character of the Booshuanas, which was not diminished
by the uninterrupted harmony that seemed to prevail in this
happy society. Moolihaban and the elders of the town oc-
casionally met to settle any little disputes that might sometimes
happen, and which are unavoidable in so large a community.
The system on which their government is founded appears
to be completely patriarchal, and the Chief must of course
7
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 399
be a man idolized by the people ; and the consequence is,
that he has the nomination of a successor. From the elders
of the Society he is informed of the general sentiments of the
people; and with their advice such rules and regulations are
framed or altered as are best calculated to give general satis-
faction, and consequently to make himself popular. No
young man can be admitted into the King's council, which is
established on the principles of true primitive simplicity,
when, in almost every nation and language, age and authority
were synonymous terms. If any man in the society feels
himself aggrieved, and is not satisfied with the decision of the
council, he is at full liberty to settle his affairs and leave the
horde with his whole property.
It does not appear that they have any particular form of
religious worship, in the strict sense of the term as applied
by Europeans, though, as a custom handed down from their
forefathers, they religiously observe the practising of circum-
cision on all male children, and of dancing in a circle the
whole night of the full moon. Few nations are so savage as
not to be conscious that there is a power which directs the
operations of nature, which is infinitely superior to them-
selves, and to whose influence they are subject. Some na-
tions have ascribed to this power a variety of attributes in the
same individual, and others have supposed a distinct person
presiding over each attribute. Most have acknowledged a
good and an evil spirit: the one recognised in the cheering
warmth of the sun, in the soft silvery light of the moon, and
in fertilizing showers; the other in the terrific roar of thunder,
4oo A J O U R N E Y IN
and the destructive shafts of lightning, in storms of wind and
torrents of rain. And as fear is the parent of superstition, the
evil spirit is usually found to be venerated in preference to the
good one. This appears to be the case with the Booshuanas,
and was in all probability the same in the early stages of all
nations. The vices of Jupiter and his evil actions were most
likely recorded before his virtues; just as his thunder terrified
before his paternal protection inspired confidence.
"The Booshuanas may, in every respect, be considered to
have passed the boundary which divides the savage from the
civilized state of society, and to have arrived at that stage of
moral refinement which is not incompetent to the reception
of the sublime yet simple precepts of the Christian religion.
It is here the missionary might employ his zeal to some ad-
vantage; here a plentiful harvest is offered to the first reapers
who may present themselves.
The friendly and peaceable disposition which generally pre-
vails among this people may perhaps be attributed in a great de-
gree to the almost perfecteduality of their condition. The houses
of Leetakoo are nearly all alike, differing only in the degree of
labour and of neatness which each individual owner is dis-
posed to bestow on the shed that protects him. Every man
has as much land as he may chuse to cultivate. The number
of his cattle will chiefly depend on his attention and manage-
ment, and the quantity of clothing he provides for the use of
his family in winter on his skill and activity in hunting. To
the condition of this happy race of Kaffers in Southern Africa
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 4O I
the beautiful lines of the poet will equally apply as to that of
the once happy peasantry of Switzerland :
“ Though poor the Kaffer's hut, his feasts though small,
“ He feels his little lot the lot of all,
“Sees no contiguous palace rear its head
“ To shame the meanness of his humble shed.”
That the Booshuanas are of the same race of people as the
Kaffers on the sea-coast is a position that will scarcely admit of
a doubt; but though they are not by any means so fine a body
of men in point of personal qualifications, they seem to have
stepped beyond them in the arts and habits of civilized life,
They are not, like the eastern Kaffers, invariably black ; some
being of a bronze colour, and others of nearly as light a brown
as the Hottentot. Their hair grows to a greater length and is
more inclined to be straight; some of the women wore their
locks combed over the forehead. Their houses are totally different
from those of any other tribe yet discovered in Southern Africa;
and the pointed tent-shaped roof may perhaps be considered as
an additional argument in favour of their Arabic origin. Their
pastoral life, their feeding principally on milk, their hospitality
to strangers, their practice of circumcising male children, and
the general cast of he countenance, are all Arabic. Little stress,
however, is to be laid on the features of a single horde on a vast
continent, abounding with natives of every tint of colour. When
a party of Dutch boors, in the year 1790, undertook a jour-
ney to the eastward for the purpose of discovering the spot
where the Grosvenor Indiaman was supposed to have been
lost, they met with a tribe of people situated on the sea-coast.
in the very same parallel of latitude with some of the
3 F
4O2 A J O U R N E Y IN
Booshuanas, of a light yellow complexion, with long coarse
hair, which they frizzled on the top of the head in the shape
of a turban. It appeared that this horde, to the amount of
about four hundred persons, was the offspring of three
European women, who had been wrecked when infants on
this part of the coast, whom the boors saw and conversed
with through an interpreter, but who could neither inform
them of what nation they were, nor how or when the accident
happened. In the opinion of the travellers they were French.
Had these three old women died before this journey was
undertaken, the origin of the Hamboomas would have been
as unsatisfactorily conjectured as that of the Hottentots, and
their descent from the French deemed fully as improbable as
that of the latter from the Chinese.
From whence the Booshuanas originally sprang, or for
what length of time they had occupied their present situation
in Southern Africa, they themselves were wholly incapable
of communicating the least information to the inquiries of the
commissioners. They were not even able to give any satis-
factory account of the ruins of a town as large as that of
Leetakoo, which at no very remote distance of time had stood
on the heights commanding the valley. The foundations of
the houses were of stone, and of the same circular plan as
those of the Booshuanas. Having no written language, the
tradition of these ruins once being lost, their real history can
never be revived.
The commissioners having remained fifteen days among this
peaceable and happy people, and finding that, although the
4.
S O U T H E R N A F RIC A. 403
aggregate number of their cattle was very considerable, and
no unwillingness appeared on their part to transfer them in
exchange for such trinkets and baubles, and such proportion
of each, as the Chief and his council should determine, they
must very seriously distress the individuals were they to
take the number they wanted ; and having understood from
Moolihaban that his people had scarcely recruited the losses
by the plunder and devastation which a man of the name of
Bloom a half-cast, with his horde, had committed after
setting fire to the town and murdering the inhabitants, they
determined to proceed to the northward to the chief resi-
dence of another tribe of natives of the same description,
called the Barroloos. On communicating this intention to
Moolihaban, and requesting him to furnish them with pro-
per guides, he was evidently much disturbed, and put them
off for the time with an evasive answer. The next morning
he sent for the commissioners and, after assuring them that
he had not been able to rest the whole night since they had
communicated their design of proceeding to the Barroloos, ad-
vised them by no means to think of visiting these people; ob-
serving that they were of a suspicious and ferocious disposition;
and that if any accident should befal them, the English govern-
ment at the Cape would certainly attribute it to him and his
horde ; that none of his people knew the way thither, there
being between them an impassable desert entirely destitute of
water. Although this friendly communication did not probably
develope the real motive of Moolihaban for discouraging the
further progress of the expedition, yet there can be little
doubt he had sufficient grounds for wishing to prevent its
3 F Q
4C 4 A J O U R N E Y IN
continuance in that line. His more powerful neighbours
might feel disposed to quarrel with him for having suffered so
small a party of white men, which he might have prevented,
to pass through his territory into theirs. Whatever the motive
might have been, the Chief was so earnest in his remonstrances
that the commissioners considered it prudent to desist from
their original design; and although they had obtained little more
than 100 head of cattle, at the rate of two and three pounds in
weight of coloured porcelaine and glass beads for each, they re-
solved to prepare for their return. It was not without extreme
regret that they afterwards discovered, when they had returned
as far as to the Orange river, that the Barroloos were in fact a
numerous, wealthy, and friendly people. A bastaard Hotten-
tot, who had travelled into that country, assured Mr. Truter
that there was not in all Africa. So perfectly good-humoured
and so well-disposed a people as the Barroloos ; that they had
many towns, the largest of which was so extensive that it
required a whole day to walk from one extremity to the
other ; that their houses were of the same kind as, but much
better built than, those of the Booshuanas ; their gardens and
grain lands better cultivated ; that the whole surface of the
country was covered with trees and shrubs; water and rivers
abundant, and the soil every where productive ; that the
Barroloos were a very ingenious nation, and skilful in carving
wood and ivory; that he had seen their furnaces for melting
iron from a brown earth and stone, and copper from a grey
earth ; that the distance from Leetakoo did not exceed ten
days’ journey of the common rate of travelling. This inform-
ation was, however, obtained too late ; and the country of
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 405
the Barroloos is still untrodden ground for the European
traveller, who may in future be inclined to prosecute further
discoveries in Southern Africa.
To know that such societies exist in this miserable quarter
of the globe, as those above described, must be peculiarly
interesting to those who have long been exerting their clo-
quence and their influence to meliorate the condition of the
suffering African. They furnish a complete refutation of an
opinion that has industriously been inculcated, and which
unfortunately is but too prevalent, that slavery is his unalter-
able lot; and that it would still exist, as it always had existed,
were Europeans to discontinue their abominable traffic in these
unhappy creatures. Such an opinion, in justification of a
crime against humanity, is just on a level with that of a
Dutch boor who told Governor Jansen, on remonstrating
with him on his cruelty towards the Hottentots, that there
could be no harm in maltreating those heathens, as the
women evidently carried about with them the mark which
God set upon Cain. Not one of the tribes of natives be-
tween the Cape of Good Hope and the extreme point that
has hitherto been discovered in the interior of Southern
Africa—not a single creature, from the needy and savage
Bosjesman to the more civilized Booshuana, has the most
distant idea of a state of slavery. On the contrary, they have
all been found in the full enjoyment of unbounded freedom,
There is no compulsion used annong these people to oblige an
individual to remain even in the horde to which he belongs, .
contrary to his inclination ; being always at liberty to depart
with his property, and join another society that may suit him
4O6 A J O U R N E Y IN
better. Even in war the only booty is the cattle of the
enemy.
How far to the northward the country continues to be in-
habited by free Kaffer tribes remains yet to be determined ;
but the extent, it is to be feared, is not very great. It ap-
pears that the Portugueze slave-merchants have at length
effected a communication across the continent, from Mosam-
bique to their settlements of Congo and Loango on the
opposite coast; from which it may be inferred that the line
of slavery extends at least as far to the southward as the
twentieth degree on the eastern, and to the fifteenth or six-
teenth on the western coast. It is probable, however, that
in the central parts of Southern Africa the land of freedom
may stretch much beyond the parallels where slavery prevails
on the coast. The Barroloos, from the above account, cannot
be placed to the southward of the tropic of Capricorn; and it
is not very probable that a nation having made such progress
as they are represented to have done, should border im-
mediately on a nation of slaves. Thus though Sofala, Mo-
sambique, Quiloa, and Melinda, on the eastern coast, and
Congo, Loango, Benguela, and Angola, on the western, have
long been doomed to all the evils and horrors of slavery, yet
it is possible that the Biri and Baroras of the Charts, in the
heart of the continent, may be a continuation of the same
free and happy people as the Booshuamas and Barroloos, the
former of whom extend easterly even to the bay of De la Goa,
where the Portugueze have in vain endeavoured to introduce
among them a traffic in slaves. Luckily for the Kaffer nation,
neither the Portugueze on one side, nor the Cape boors on the
SOUTHE R N A FR I C A. 407
other, have yet been able to convince them that one set of
men were created to be sold like cattle, for the pleasure and
the profit of another.
The boors, who found little amusement in passing the time
among the Booshuanas, went out daily in parties to shoot
game. Among other species of antelopes which were well
known to them, they one day brought home a pair of animals
belonging to this genus, which were perfectly new to the
whole party. This species of deer was called by the Booshu-
amas the Palla. In its general shape and appearance it bore
some resemblance to the springbok, but was considerably
larger. Its height was three feet three inches, and the length
of the body from the head to the root of the tail four feet
three inches; horns sixteen inches long, lyre-shaped, and an-
nulated nearly to the points; ears eight inches, edged and
tipped with black hairs; lips white; a black stripe down the
middle of the face, and a white spot over each eye; tail six-
teen inches, of a brownish colour, with a brush of white hairs
at the extremity ; feet white, and on the hind legs a remark-
able callous spot surrounded with a tuft of black hair just
above the fetlock joint: the colour of the body of a deep
glossy brown, passing into a brighter tint on the sides, and
the belly and interior parts of the legs clear white. This
beautiful antelope is nearly as Swift as the springbok, but its
gait is altogether different. Its habits are extremely mild,
and it is easily rendered as tame and tractable as any do-
mestic animal. The party brought with them to the Cape
a young female, but it died soon after its arrival from the
fatigues of the journey. The Palla may be said to be gre-
408 A J O U R N E Y IN
garious ; but, although abundant in every part of the Boo-
shuana country, it rarely happens that more than three or
four are seen grazing together in one herd.
On the 12th December the expedition took its departure
from Leetakoo, not without feeling some regret in bidding
adieu to this friendly and hospitable people, numbers of
whom accompanied the waggons to a considerable distance,
and many thousands were collected on the occasion upon the
neighbouring heights. On the second day of their departure
they were overtaken by two messengers from Leetakoo,
bringing with them a present of two fat oxen from Mooſi-
haban, and two stray oxen belonging to the commission,
which had been left behind. They were charged, at the
same time, with a message from the Chief, expressive of the
great satisfaction he should feel on receiving another visit the
following year, when, he observed, the yearlings of their
cattle would be grown up, and they would be able to spare
them a greater number than they had now the power of
doing.
Returning by the same route, and being in no particular
haste, the party had now more leisure to observe the face of
the country. It was well clothed with grass and shrubs and
trees of various kinds, particularly of the spreading mimosa,
on which the camelopardalis delights to feed. Some of these
trees were completely disfigurcd by the nests of a certain
small bird of the genus Lovia or Grossbeak, which in large
bodies dwell together, constituting a sort of commonwealth.
Under one common roof, consisting of the dry stems of a harsh
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 4O9
£errated grass, are compactly arranged some hundreds of
nests, to each of which is a small tube by way of entrance
on the underside; and those narrow passages are so well pro-
tected by the sharp points of the dricq stems as to make
it difficult to introduce the hand without injury.
The plains abounded with Ostriches, springboks, harte-
beests, and quachas; and a party of the Dutch boors had
the good fortune to shoot an animal that was totally unknown
to any person in the expedition, and hitherto apparently un-
described by any naturalist. It was called by the Booshuanas
the Kokoon. In its general appearance it bore a resenblance
to the gnoo, but was of a much larger size. It measured in
height four feet eleven inches; in length from the head to the
rump five feet; the head was one foot ten inches long; ears
ten inches; tail of long black hair three feet three inches, re-
sembling that of a horse; neck uncommonly thick in pro-
portion to the body. It had a mane very unlike that of the
gnoo, flowing over its shoulders, and continuing to the middle
of the back. The forehead, like that of the buffalo, was
covered with an osseous excrescence, being in fact the roots of
the horns, which were terminated in fine pointed extremities like
those of the gnoo. From the centre of the forehead to the nose
was an arched or convex protuberance, covered with a ridge
of long black hair; and on each cheek, a little below the
eye, was a remarkable spot of a circular form, rather more
than an inch in diameter, naked, and apparently glandulous,
the surface being made up of bundles of fine vessels, out of
the orifices of which oozed a white viscous maſter. Close
under these glands grew tufts of black hair : a long black
X G
4 IO A J O U R N E Y IN
beard, like that of the gnoo, covered the throat from the chin
to the breast. The nose and mouth were like those of an ox,
but more broad and flat. The general hue of the body was
that of an ash-coloured grey. It had neither the speed, the
activity, nor the spirit of the gnoo. Of this extraordinary
animal Mr. Daniell made an accurate drawing. Several
beautiful gnoos of the common kind were shot by the party in
the course of their excursions; and the above-mentioned
gentleman made an observation in more than one instance,
that when this animal was wounded, and while holding its
pursuers at bay, it generally snorted from its nostrils a con-
siderable quantity of small white maggots, of the size and
appearance of such as are sometimes found in hazel nuts.
The same shooting party had also killed a curious cream-
coloured quacha, the whole body of which was completely
covered with dark brown stripes. At first this individual was
considered only as an accidental variety of the common
quacha : but several of the same kind being afterwards ob-
tained, and in one day a stallion and a mare both fully
striped, there remained little doubt of their being individuals
of a new and distinct species. Under this idea they endea-
voured to take one alive, for the purpose of bringing it up to
the Cape, but were not fortunate enough to succeed. The
boors on the skirts of the colony sometimes take the common
quacha in the same manner as the Spaniards of Buonas Ayres
catch the wild horscs, by galloping after them and throwing
pver their heads a ream or thong of leather, with a running
noose at the end.
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 4 IF
The near resemblance of some species of the animals of
Africa to others, the participation of the same qualities or
the same external form and appearance, the frequent intro-
duction to Greece and Rome of animals that were unknown
before, gave rise to the maxim that “Africa was always pro-
“ ducing something now.” And the reasoning employed for
explaining this fertile source of novelty is recorded by
Pliny in his Natural History. “Africa hatc marime spectat,
“ inopia aquarum ad paucos amnes congregantibus se feris.
“Ideo multiformes ibi animalium partus, varić faminis cujus-
“ que generis mares aut vi aut voluptate miscentes. Unde
“ etiam vulgare Gracia dictum, semper aliquid movi Africa
“ afferre.” Thus the leopard was supposed to be the mixed
breed of a lion and a panther; the giraffe, of the camel and
the leopard ; the quacha, of the cebra and the ass. And
although this opinion has long been set aside, and the fact
fully established, that animals in a state of nature will never
violate the laws of nature, and that, although hybrids are
sometimes produced, no new race can be propagated even
by the arts of domestication, the opinion was at least en-
titled to as much respect as the conjecture of a celebrated
French naturalist, that the branching horns of the stag might
originally have been produced by the new moulding of the
branches of trees on which he feeds. Ilad this whimsical
theory, worthy the adoption of the Darwinian doctrine, (stolen
in fact chiefly from Buffon,) been actually realized, the scarcity
of trees in Africa might be offered as a satisfactory explanation
of the want of stags on this continent; not a single deer with
branched horns being known to exist between the Mediter-
3 G 2
4. I 2 A J O U R N E Y IN
ranean and the Cape of Good Hope, a tract of country
embracing both the torrid and the temperate climates.
On the 14th the party struck off to the north-westward,
travelling over a country tolerably well clothed with grass and
frutescent plants, and abounding with quachas, pallas, harte-
beests, and a great number of wild buffalos ; and in the even-
ing they arrived at a village of Booshuamas, consisting of
about forty houses, situated upon the banks of the Kour-
mamma river, which as far as the eye could reach were beauti-
fully skirted with large trees, the most remarkable and the
most abundant of which was the mimosa of the camelopar-
dalis. The following day they fell in with the missionary
Edwards who, with his wife and family accompanied by his
half-cast companion and assistant Jan Kok and a few Hot-
tentot attendants, were rambling about the country, ap-
parently without any determinate object. One of the Hot-
tentots was still smarting under the recent wounds received
from a lion, which he had the misfortune to encounter, and
from whose voracious fangs his escape was little less than
miraculous. Having observed the fresh traces of a lion's paws
leading into the kraal where his master's sheep were pent up
by night, the Hottentot had placed what the Dutch call a
stell-roor or trap-gun in the passage leading into the kraal,
with a view to destroy this nightly despoiler. The following
morning, on going to the spot, he found the gun discharged
and, from the quantity of blood sprinkled on the ground,
concluded that the contents must have been lodged in the
body of the animal. Following the traces of blood on the
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 413
ground, he incautiously approached too near to a neighbour-
ing thicket, out of which, before he had time to present his
musket, the wounded lion burst forth and, pouncing upon
the poor Hottentot, laid him flat on the ground with a single
pat of his paw. The royal brute bestrode the Hottentot with
great composure and, as if conscious of having obtained his
enemy within his clutches, seemed to be determined to pro-
long the sweet delight of revelling in his revenge. According
to the poor fellow's statement, he pawed him just as a kitten
is wont to play with a mouse ; and that whenever he at-
tempted to stir, he was sure to receive what the lion might
consider a gentle tap, but which, however, generally carried
away with it a piece of flesh. Both his arms, indeed, had
been lacerated in a shocking manner by this lion's play, with
which he continued to amuse himself and to torment his
vanquished enemy for a considerable length of time, without
the least apparent intention of speedily making a meal of
him. The master of the Hottentot, having by accident dis-
covered the traces of blood, followed them to the scene of
action and, casting his eyes to the spot, saw with terror the
critical situation of his Hottentot. He possessed, however,
sufficient presence of mind to level his piece and, taking a
cool and steady aim, he shot the lion dead upon the Hot-
tentot; the skin of which he carried with him as a trophy of
one of the most fortunate but critical shots that perhaps was
ever made as, had he missed his aim, his own fate was in-
volved in that of the flottentot.
Continuing their journey along the banks of the Kourmann&
river, they passed a succession of Booshuana villages, plea-
4 I 4 A J O U R N E Y IN
santly situated among groves of the umbrella-like mimosa.
On every side was abundance of large game, as pallas,
springboks, and ostriches whose eggs occasionally supplied
them with an agreeable repast. On the 17th they arrived at
the large village of Patamie, the residence of the Booshuana
chief Serakootie, brother of Moolihaban. Having approached
too near the town before they perceived that the waggons
were passing over garden grounds and fields planted with
corn, which was at this time a considerable height above the
surface, they turned back and pitched their tents on the bank
of the river. Serakootie presently came down to welcome
their arrival ; but while he endeavoured to express the pleasure
he felt on the occasion, he could not forbear remarking that
their having first advanced to the town and then retired to
cncamp at a distance from it seemed to betray a suspicion on
their part, which was by no means favourable to the good
opinion and confidence which he had hoped his brother's
conduct would have inspired towards him. Their motive,
however, was soon explained to his perfect satisfaction.
He introduced the party to his family, which consisted of
four wives and five children, loaded them with civilities
during their stay, supplying the whole expedition with as
much milk as it could make use of. The village was plea-
santly situated on the rising banks of the Kourmanna river,
which they now discovered to be a branch of the Gariep or
Orange river. It consisted of about fifty houses, of the same
kind, but not quite so well built, as those of Leetakoo.
A remarkable change of temperature took place during one
of the days the party remained at this village. At three
S O U THE R N A FRIC A. 4 I 5
o'clock in the afternoon the mercury of Fahrenheit stood at
97° in the shade ; and the same evening, at eight, it was
down to 62°. The weather was now generally too hot for the
exposure and the exertion which hunting requires; but the
larger kinds of game are at such times proportionably tamer,
and they were not therefore prevented from continuing this
diversion. In the neighbourhood of Patanie a party of
sportsmen killed an old stallion and a mare of the large yel-
lowish-coloured quacha, striped over the whole body, and
precisely the same as that above described ; which may be
considered as a corroborative proof of this animal being a
distinct species of the horse kind, and not merely a variety
of the common quacha. The same party brought home also
a couple of the palla antelopes.
On the 21st, as they proceeded on the journey, a large bull
buffalo was shot near the waggons. The face of the country
was now literally covered with game, among which a new
and remarkable animal presented itself. The head resembled
that of a cow, but the body and legs were those of an an-
telope. The Booshuanas called it the Takheitsſ, or, as the
IIottontots interpreted the name, the Hicked Creature. Bo-
ing remarkably swift, they did not succeed in obtaining an
individual of this species; but Mr. Daniell, it seems, took
great pains to get near enough to one of them to unake a
drawing, of which he has given a representation in his
valuable and interesting publication of African scenery and
animals. It seems this creature is very dangerous to ap-
proach when wounded, and particularly so in the rutting
season, when the Booshuanas are extremely careful not to
4.
416 A J O U R N E Y IN
come too near them. They are represented indeed to be so
wild and ferocious, that this people seldom venture to attack
them like other deer with the hassagai, but take them gene-
rally by digging pits in the ground and covering them over
with sticks and earth. This animal appeared to be near five
feet high, the colour a cinereous blue, and shape not unlike
that of the Nil-ghau of India, the Antelope picta. Its mane
is black, long, and flowing over each shoulder; its beard is
long and pointed ; the tail short and naked ; the horns from
fifteen to eighteen inches long, pointing backwards, and bent
into a circular curve, embracing about a fifth part of a whole
circumference, annulated from the root to about two thirds of
the length. Several of these horns were brought by the party
to the Cape. The Takheitsé is generally found in pairs, and
when disturbed they usually take to the wooded heights, which
were here very finely covered with the common minnosa and
that on which the camelopardalis feeds. Numbers of both
kinds were loaded with the nests of the gregarious finch.
The woods and thickets being well stocked with buffalos,
whose flesh is savoury and good and hide particularly valuable
to the boors, as being the best and toughest for traces and
other waggon furniture, a party went out with a determination to
spend the day in the chase after these huge animals. They
presently started a whole herd, and at the first volley suc-
ceeded in bringing down a large cow. The herd dispersing
in cycry direction, three of an enormous size with a young calf
were observed to rush into a thicket close to the spot where
the waggons and the tents were placed. Daniell the secretary
and Schultz the overseer of the waggons having marked the
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 4 I 7
exact spot where they had retreated for shelter and, thinking
the opportunity too favourable to allow them to escape,
crept close to the thickct with their dogs and their mus-
kets. Schultz having the same day shot an ostrich had
ornamented his hat with its waving plumes. Elate with
the hope of success, he hastened without stopping towards
the opening into which the animals had retired, when
suddenly, and quite unexpectedly to him, a huge bull buf.
falo came rushing out of the thicket and, eying for a mo-
ment the white plume waving in his hat, bolted directly
towards him. Schultz petrified with fear remained motion-
less on the spot; and the buffalo, taking him up on the
points of his horns, tossed him over his head many feet
into the air, from whence he fell among the branches of a
thorny mimosa. Daniell, having observed the fate of his
companion, had just time enough to escape a similar en-
counter by climbing into a tree. The buffalo being baited
by the dogs, and observing the whole party coming up,
thought fit to retire. Poor Schultz returned to the waggons,
bloody, pale, and almost lifeless with terror; persisting,
however, that he was not in the least hurt nor intimidated at
what had happened ; but while he was speaking he fainted,
and it was several days before he recovered from the effects
of his wounds and his fright. This, says Mr. Truter, was the
last attempt he made to be thought a sportsman, having now
learned by experience that it was not the province of every
one to turn buffalo hunter.
On this occasion the buffalo, as well as the lion which
bestrode the J lottentot, seems to have been actuated by a
sense of injury and a spirit of retaliation. The elephant.
3 II .
4.18 A J O U R N E Y IN
which is perhaps the mildest of all large animals, appears
likewise, when provoked, to be more prone to resentment
than those of the most ferocious disposition. Of the great
sagacity and reasoning powers of this animal very extraordi-
nary stories have been related, from the time of Pliny down
to Buffon ; some of which may perhaps be true, but many of
them are motoriously false. An instance, however, of the
vindictive spirit of the elephant occurred to some Dutch
boors, who travelled to the eastward in search of the place
where the Grosvenor Indiaman was cast away, which is re-
markable in this respect, and the authenticity of which can-
not be called in question. This animal, after having received
into his body several large musket balls, and twice fallen on
the ground, crept with difficulty into a thick thorny coppice.
“Conceiving him to be done for,” says Jacob Van Reenen,
“Tjaart Vander Walt, Lodewyk Prins, and Ignatius Mulder,
“ rode up to the thicket; when, rushing furiously out from
“ his hiding-place, he lashed his proboscis round the body of
“ Prins who was on horseback, dragged him off to the
“ ground, and trod him to death ; then driving one of his
“ tusks into his body, he threw him to the height of thirty
“ feet into the air. The other two dismounting hid them-
“ selves in the thicket. The elephant looking round him
“ and perceiving only the horse of Vander Walt began to
“ follow it, but, presently turning about, walked up to the
“ spot where the corpse of Prins was lying. At this instant
“ our whole party renewed the attack, when, after receiving
“ several bullets, he again escaped into the thicket. Think-
“ing that we should now see no more of him, we began to
“ dig a grave for our unfortunate companion, when the
“ elephant, again rushing furiously upon us, drove the whole
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 4J 9
“ party away, and remained triumphant over the dead body.
“At the distance of an hundred paces Tjaart Vander Walt
“ put a bullet into his carcase, after which we all fired, when,
“ having staggered for some time, he fell to the ground and
“ was put to death by the Hottentots.” These natives pretend
to say that whenever an elephant is provoked to kill his
enemy, he tears the carcase in pieces and devours it : at
least, such is their conclusion, as no vestige of the remains is
ever found on the spot. Perhaps, however, it is more con-
sistent to suppose that he carries it away to some place of
concealment. It is a common observation that, numerous as
these animals are in many parts of Southern Africa, neither
the tusks nor any part of their skeletons are ever found
above ground, which has led to the conclusion that the ele-
phants must bury their dead. Vander Kemp is inclined to
believe the fact to be true. One of his party having shot an
elephant, they went the following morning with a view of
taking out its tusks, when they found from fifteen to twenty
of these animals busily employed in removing the dead corpse
with their snouts.
On the 25th the expedition fell in with a party of Bosjes-
mans, accompanied by their women and children, who drove
along with them a few small spotted goats. These were the
first party of this wretched race of men they had met with
who possessed any living property. They gave them, as usual,
a little food and tobacco, when they proceeded quietly on their
journey. As the part of the country they were now in was
better covered than is commonly the case with good sweet
grass, they determined to halt for twenty-four hours, in order to
3 H '2
42O A J O U R N E Y IN
refresh their way-worn cattle. And as the plains abounded
With the camelopardalis, almost the whole party resolved to
make a day's sport, in order to procure, if possible, one or
more of these extraordinary creatures. In the course of the
day they saw and chased a great number, some alone and
others in herds of five or six ; but all their exertions were in
vain, and they were obliged to quit the field without killing
a single beast, though several were supposed to be wounded.
One of the party, however, shot a rhinosceros of an extra-
ordinary size. It measured from the head to the root of the
tail ten feet seven inches, and its height exceeded five feet six
inches. But its size was less the subject of remark than the
peculiarity of its horns, which were pretty nearly of the same
length ; whereas in the common rhinosceros of Southern
Africa the upper horn is a mere stump of about six inches in
length. This variety of the two-horned rhinosceros is called
by the Booshuanas the Jeckloa, and the common kind, of
which the party killed one the following day on the Magaaga
or Iron Mountain, the Mogoué. Here also they fell in with
several of the Kokoon, the palla, and the commongmoo, beside
a number of hartebeests and springboks. Quachas and elands
were equally plentiful in this part of the country, of the latter
of which three large bulls were shot by one of the Hottentots
in the course of the day.
Keeping to the westward of their former track, and tra-
veling over a country abundantly rich in almost cvery species
of wild quadruped that frequents the plains of Africa, but
almost destitute of a human being, except a few miserable
Bosjesmen, who in parties of three or four, but never exceed-
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 42 I
ing eight, occasionally approached the waggons, and always
with great timidity, they arrived on the 7th at a Kora village,
on the northern bank of the Orange river, where they found
these civil creatures, who had been apprized of their return,
all collected and prepared with their pack oxen to give the
expedition every assistance in its passage across the river.
Here they again fell in with the missionary Kicherer, from
whose opinion, corroborated by that of the Koras, they were
induced to believe that by making a journey to the north-
westward, along the banks of the river, of twelve or fourteen
days, to the horde of a well-known character of the Bastaard
race named Kok, they had a fair prospect of collecting a
very considerable number of cattle. They therefore deter-
mined to make this deviation from the direct route and, if
practicable, to return by the Namaaqua country, along the
western coast of Africa. In order, however, to lessen the
consumption of provisions, and at the same time to get rid
of a real incumbrance, they resolved to discharge from the
service of the expedition all the Dutch boors which had
joined them in the Roggeveld, and to depend in future en-
tirely on the Hottentots. These boors had not been of the
least service in any respect, from the first day they joined the
expedition ; but, on the contrary, were the cause of per-
petual vexations. They were indolent, disobedient, refrac-
tory, and discontented ; and so cowardly that, in the event
of meeting with hostile tribes, they never could be looked on
as any protection. They shewed even an aversion to their
favourite occupation of shooting game, for no other reason
but because they perceived it would be a gratification to the
commissioners. As the absence of such people could neither
422 A J O U R N E Y IN
be attended with regret nor disadvantage, a sufficient portion
of provisions to carry them across the Karroo desert into the
Roggeveld was allotted to them, and they were finally dis-
missed from the employ of the commission.
It was not till the 28th January that the river had sufficiently
subsided to allow the waggons to pass with safety; and they
had scarcely reached the opposite shore till it again swelled
several feet in depth, though not a shower of rain had fallen;
and the current continued to flow with such violence that
they had very little prospect of again speedily crossing it,
which, however, was necessary to be done at this place, to
enable them to proceed on their intended journey. The Kora
Hottentots, therefore, set to work in felling down trees, for
the purpose of constructing rafts to float over the waggons;
and they were proceeding with great activity and consider-
able skill in forwarding these rafts, when a ford was dis-
covered a little lower down the river. Here they effected a
passage without accident; and before they reached the place
of their destination, they were under the necessity of crossing
this broad and rapid river not less than six times; the last of
which they were in considerable danger of being swept away,
by a sudden rise of the waters to the height of five or six
fect.
A considerable variety of surface presented itself in the
course of this journey, which was sometimes along the banks
of the river, and at other times at a distance from it. The
common mimosa was every where abundant; and some of
these trees were so much loaded with the straw-built edifices
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 423
of the gregarious grossbeak, that at a distance they appeared
like so many hay-ricks. Several species of large beautiful
aloes and tall euphorbias appeared on the heights; and great
abundance of that particular species of the latter, with which
it is pretended the Hottentots poison the springs of water, in
order to distress their enemies; but of which the commis-
sioners met with no instance in the course of their long
journey. Several Kora villages were situated in the route,
the inhabitants of which appeared to be every where happy
and contented with their few flocks and herds and humble
sheds; always cheerful and in good humour; and from the
first to the last quarter of the moon never failing to pass the
greater portion of the night in dancing and singing.
On the 11th February the party arrived at the place of its
destination, where they found a considerable village inhabited
by a mixed society, consisting of Kaffers, Hottentots, and half-
casts of a variety of kinds, under a chief of the name of Kok,
who was one of those people usually distinguished in the colony
by the appellation of Bastaard, that is to say, the offspring of a
connection between a colonist and a Hottentot. To every ap-
pearance this horde was abundantly rich in cattle ; but they
complained that they had latcly suffered to a very considerable
extent, from the predatory attack of a certain free-booter of
the name of Africaaner, of whose future visits they were under
great apprehension, and the more so on account of his having
lately enlisted into his gang a number of vagabonds of various
descriptions, who had found the means of escaping out of
the hands of justice from different parts of the colony. To
424 A J O U R N E Y IN
this desperate gang of robbers had recently been added a
person of so extraordinary a character, that a sketch of his
history may not be uninteresting. The name of this man was
Stephanos, by birth a Pole, but of Greek extraction. From
the ranks in some of the German hired regiments, in which
he completed the time of his enlistment, he had procured a
situation in the Cape as an assistant to a shopkeeper, where
he was tempted to exercise his ingenuity in forging the paper
currency of the government, the accomplishing of which required
no moderate share of skill. The card, in the first instance, is
stamped in Holland, is there covered with painted paper of
a particular pattern, the numbers and value are filled in by
a public officer at the Cape, and each card is signed by three
members of the Court of Justice, every one of whom has a
particular flourish at the end of his name which is well known
throughout the colony ; yet all this was so closely imitated by
Stephanos as to pass current for a length of time. At last,
however, the forgery was detected. Stephanos was tried for
his life, condemned, and cast into solitary imprisonment till
the day of his execution should arrive. In this deplorable
situation his genius, however, did not forsake him. By the
help of a rusty nail which he found in the wall, and a little
deal table on which he mounted, he worked out gradually a
square hole through a three-inch plank of teak wood, which
with a little plaster was the only cover to the room ; and
through this hole he effected his escape. In order to elude
the suspicion of his keeper, it was supposed that he swal-
Howed every morning the dust of the wood which he had
worked out in the course of the night, and filled up the holes
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 42.5
in the plank with crumbs of bread. H aving passed the
limits of the colony without being detected, or at least mo-
lested, he came to the establishment of Kicherer on the Sack
river; and having made out some plausible story of an ir-
resistible call of grace, by which he was in pelled to preach
the gospel among the heathen, he was received with Open arms
by this worthy but credulous missionary, who, however, as
appears by his own statement, had soon sufficient reason to
repent of his misplaced hospitality. The Greek, it seems,
conceived the horrid design of murdering his host, for the
sake of his little property ; and for this purpose had one
night stolen into his chamber, and was approaching his bed,
when the missionary, being fortunately awake and not without
some suspicion of the ill intentions of his guest, instantly
sprung upon him in the dark, reproached him for his ingrati-
tude and, with true Christian fortitude and forgiveness, sent
him away unhurt when, at a single word, his faithful follow-
ers would have torn him in pieces. He furnished him with
meat and tobacco for the journey, a flint and steel to strike a
fire, a little gunpowder, and a bible, the perusal of which he
strongly recommended to his serious attention. But the good
intentions of the missionary were strangely perverted by this
vagabond, whose character was not less remarkable for its de-
pravity than ingenuity. He read the Bible, it would seem, but
the information he obtained therein was employed for no good
purpose. On his arrival annong the Kords, he announced him-
self as a prophet, assuring them that he had been sent many
thousand miles expressly to promote their future consolation
and happiness. He built a tem ple under the edge of a thick
& Y
j I
42ö A J O U R N E Y IN
grove of mimosas ; erected an altar on which he encou-
raged these silly people to make their offerings selected from
the best of their flocks and herds; with solemn mummery he
burned part of the victim, and appropriated the rest to him-
self; sometimes taking the advantage of a thunder-storm, or
of the overflowing of the river, he was more exorbitant in,
his demands, and even found it expedient to require the
young dansels to be brought to the temple. He carried this.
religious mockery still farther. At a little distance behind the
wood there was a mountain of a considerable height, which
this high priest of his own constituted religion regularly
ascended every morning quite alone, on the summit of which
he was generally seen wrapped in a volume of smoke, occa-
sioned by his sctting fire to the dry grass, or making a blaze
with gunpowder. He ascended this mountain, as he pre-
tended to the ignorant Hottentots, in order to receive his
instructions from heaven; but the real fact was that, inde-
pendent of the view he had of imposing on the simple
Koras, he marched to the summit of this hill, commanding
an extensive view over the plains to the Southward, to ascer-
tain whether the officers of justice were in pursuit of him, an
event of which the appearance of waggons at a distance
would have given him timely notice to effect his escape.
These impious proceedings being at length communicated
to the missionaries of the gospel, they resolved, if possible, to
seize the culprit, and to deliver him into the hands of justice;
but this sly impostor being apprized of their design, aban-
doned his temple and his flock, and fled towards the Western
4.
S O U T H E R N A FRIC A. 427
coast of the continent, where, on the confines of the colony,
he was recognized by a Dutch boor and taken prisoner; to
whom, indeed, he pretended to surrender himself, as being
desirous to give himself up at the Cape. The boor allowed
him to sleep in his own waggon, whose kindness he one night
repaid by cutting the throat of his host with a razor, and
stole away to the lower part of the Orange river, where he
joined the noted marauder Africaaner.
Thus in all probability, had not the zeal and the exortions
of the missionaries defeated his purpose, would this impious
wretch have succeeded in establishing a new and motley re-
ligion, partly Hebrew and partly Greek, at the head of
which, as the pater Deorum, the name of Stephanos might
in after ages have been rendered eminent among the ignorant
Hottentots: and to what learned speculations on the Origin
of this society might not the future discovery of so hetero-
geneous a mixture of religions have given rise Such is the
danger of being led astray, to which the unthinking multitude
of all nations is exposed, if once they forsake the customs
and opinions of their forefathers, and commit themselves to
the impostures of artful and designing men.
At Kok's kraal the complaints and the execrations were so
general against the two robbers, that the commissioners were
induced to afford this society whatever assistance they were
able to give in conducting an expedition against such no-
torious offenders, with a view, if possible, to get hold of them
either dead or alive. Mr. Somerville and Mr. Daniell ac-
* Y
S I C
A 28 A J O U R N E Y IN
companied this armed party for a short distance down the
river, but returned at the end of three days. Two days after
this the armed party of Hottentots and Bastaards also re-
furned, with the booty of a few oxen, cows, and sheep; but
the two robbers with their gang had escaped into the woods.
Among other things they brought back with them a quantity
of red copper balls, found among the ammunition of the
enemy, which he had been under the necessity of leaving
behind,
Having remained at this spot a whole month, and collected
what few cattle the inhabitants had to spare without distressing
their families, the commissioners began to prepare for their
return to the Cape ; and as, from their present position on
the river, the nearest route appeared to be that through the
Namaaqua country, they engaged two Bosjesmans to proceed in
that direction over the Karroo plains, who, having ascertained
whether it was practicable to undertake the journey by that
route with their numerous cattle, were directed to return and
report for their information. After some days these people
returned, bringing back the unpleasant intelligence that all
the springs and rivers were completely dried up ; that they
had themselves nearly perished for want of water; and that
it was utterly impracticable for man alone, much more so for
cattle, to proceed over the plains that intervened between
their present situation and the western coast. They were,
therefore, reduced to the necessity of measuring back the
road to the spot where they had first crossed the Orange
river, in order to get into the old track of the Waggons.
S O U T H E R N A FR I CA. 429
And having satisfied the whole horde, the Koras, the IBas-
taards, and the Bosjesmans, who had so willingly and so es-
sentially assisted them on all occasions, they took their leave
on the 11th March, returning up the river and crossing it
occasionally at the same places as in their journey down-
wards. Nothing particular occurred till the 19th, when they
encountered a swarm of locusts so immensely great that, on
all sides as far as the eye could reach, the whole surface of
the ground, the trees, the bushes, and the smaller plants
were entirely covered with them. Numbers of Bosjesmen
were observed to be busily employed in collecting these
insects, which, after being dried in the sun, serve them for
food when other resources fail them,
In various parts of the Orange river they had met with the huge
hippopotamus, but had not hitherto been fortunate enough to
kill one of these creatures. The two secretaries Daniell and Bor-
cherds, determined on having at least a fair chance, left the
waggons and proceeded along the banks of the river at an
early hour in the morning, taking with them a Hottentot
and a pack or saddle ox. Towards the close of the day they
thought of striking off from the river, in order to fall in with
the waggons; but the weather suddenly became so bad, the
wind blew so violently, the rain descended in such torrents,
and the thunder and the lightning were so severe, that they
found it utterly in possible to proceed. The night was ex-
cessively dark, and they were on the midst of a barren plain,
without a bush or even a rock to afford them the smallest
degree of shelter. To those who have never experienced a
thunder-storm on the deserts of Africa it is impossible to con-
43O A J O U R N E Y IN
vey a just idea of its awful and terrific appearances. On this
uniform surface of perpetual sterility, on which nor tree nor
bush nor building nor any prominent point rises above the
dreary level to catch and conduct silently into the earth the
electric fluid, the flashes of lightning dart from cloud to cloud
in constant succession, filling the whole horizon with a blaze of
vivid fire, whilst the thunder, not deep but constant, hisses
and rattles without intermission. At the Cape of Good Hope
it is just the reverse. There lightning is rarely seen and thun-
der scarcely heard ; the lofty and nearly perpendicular mass
of rock, the Table mountain, carries off the electric shock
silently and almost imperceptibly to those who dwell on the
plain at the foot of its base. After this stormy and comfortless
night passed on the naked earth, wet, hungry, and dejected,
the two travellers fell in with a small horde of Bosjesmans
feasting on locusts, which they broiled in a square hole made
in the ground, heated with hot ashes of wood. They were
not, however, sufficiently hungry to be induced to partake of
the repast, and these poor creatures had nothing in the world
besides to offer them. They therefore proceeded on their
march. The Hottentot who attended them had departed
in the night, in order to find out the waggons. Having
travelled the whole day, weary and fatigued and fainting
with hunger, they at night again laid down on the bare clayey
surface, without the least shelter, exposed to heavy and in-
cossant rain. In the morning, being the third day in which
they had not tasted food, the gnawing pains of hunger be-
came so severe that they bethought themselves of killing the
beast of burden for their support. Their muskets, however,
would not give fire, nor could they draw them on account of
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 43 i
the wetness of the powder. They had no other instru-
ment but a small penknife which, though useless to them,
would have been quite sufficient for the purpose had the
Hottentot been present, as these natives are well ac-
quainted with the palsicci state into which an animal falls
by having the spinal marrow pierced with a pointed instru-
ment. The two secretaries happened, however, to be ig-
norant of this operation; and the delay occasioned by sug-
gestions as to the best mode of accomplishing their point led
to many grievous and melancholy reflections: as the tor-
ment that must necessayily ensue to the poor animal which
had so frequently carried them and their baggage —the
inefficacy of the expedient, as they were unable to carry
much of the flesh with them —and the great danger of their
remaining near a dead carcase on a desert abounding with
wild beasts as hungry as themselves. They therefore deter-
mined to give up the attempt ; and tying their handkerchiefs
tight round the belly, after the manner of the Hottentots, in
order to allay in some degree the guawing pain of hunger,
they wandered hopeless and disconsolate over a wide and
desolate plain, surrounded on all sides by dreary solitude and
cheerless sterility, without a trace to guide their steps, or
distant point to direct their course. While thus they were
silently and slowly marching along entirely at random, young
Borchords fancied he heard a distant noise produced by
the cracking of a whip. They directed their steps towards
the quarter from whence he supposed it to proceed ; and
having travelled about a mile, they both distinctly heard a
second crack. It was in fact a signal made by their com-
panions, who fortunately had remained stationary the whole
4.32 A J O U R N E Y IN
of this day in the greatest anxiety at the long absence of
their fellow travellers. By degrees they recovered the effects
of fasting and fatigue ; but it required some caution in re-
gulating the appetite, after not having tasted food for three
days and two nights.
It was observed that had the Hottentot not forsaken them
they would easily have succeeded even with so small an in-
strument as a penknife, these people being well acquainted
with the mode of slaughtering cattle by what is technically
called pithing. This mode is indeed in universal use among
the Dutch in the colony, which they pretend to say was first
received from the Hottentots ; but as the practice is common
on the continent of Europe, it is more probable the first
settlers carried it with them to the Cape. The circumstance,
however, to which they ascribe its origin is sufficiently
plausible. A buffalo having rushed upon a Hottentot and
fixed him between his horns against a large tree, the man in
the midst of his terror, and unconscious of what he did,
struck the animal a violent blow directly between the horns
with an iron hassagai or spear which he happened to have in
his hand; when, to his equal joy and amazement, the huge
beast dropped instantaneously on its knees, completely
paralysed. And it is remarkable enough that the tool made
use of in the Cape for pithing cattle is precisely of the same
shape and size as the iron part of a hassagai.
As the most expeditious and least painful method of taking
away the life of animals destined for the food of man is a
subject on which humanity is very intimately concerned, and
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 433
as an opinion said to be founded on facts is circulated in
many parts of England, that a pointed instrument thrust
into the spinal marrow at the nape of the neck produces in-
stantaneous death, it may not be amiss to mention here the
substance of a report of several experiments made at the
slaughtering-house at Deptford, under the direction of the
Victualling Board, in consequence of an application to that
effect from the Bishop of Durham to the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty.
In this report the chief clerk of the cutting-house states that,
having requested the attendance of Mr. Mellish, his foreman,
and a gentleman of the faculty, “on the knife being thrust
“ into the spine up to the hilt, it was evident the creature
“ suffered very considerably ; and so far from its producing
“ instant death, on the contrary, it continued alive and ap-
“ parently in great pain. Two out of ten thus treated were,
“ after their throats were cut, not less than ten minutes in
“ dying ; and all of them, it was evident, retained their
“ senses, sight, breathing, and feeling to the last : two
“ groaned most piteously, from which and their violent
& 6 plunging it was but too obvious to what degree the animals
“ suffered. The people usually employed in slaughtering
“ oxen were so distressed that they could not help exclaiming,
“ This is butchering indeed 1 This is downright murder For
“ the purpose of making a comparison between this and our
“ present practice, three beasts were slaughtered in the usual
“ way. The first fell with a single blow, the second with
“ two, and the third with one only ; in all the breathing in-
3 K
434 A J O U R N E Y IN
“ stantly ceased, the eyes became fixed, and the animals
“ appeared to be perfectly devoid of sensibility. In oxen
“ that are knocked down the blood flows with great rapidity,
“ and in a few seconds is totally discharged ; the reverse of
“ which appears to be the case in pithing, owing, perhaps,
“ to the convulsive contraction of the whole muscular sys-
“ tem.” After some other experiments of driving an iron
punch into the brain, the reporter observes, “that the general
“ mode of slaughtering cattle, for any thing that has yet
“ appeared to the contrary, is decidedly the most expe-
“ ditious and the most merciful of any that is known or
25
º
(.6 practised
As, however, the practice of pithing has very generally been
supposed to be employed both in this and other countries, so
as to be less painful to the animal and less injurious in its con-
sequences, the Lords of the Admiralty conceiving that the ex-
periment made at Deptford might have failed from some mis-
management in the mode of operation, thought proper to direct
that, after obtaining the best information on the subject, the
experiment should be repeated. Accordingly the Chairman
of the Victualling Office with two Commissioners, and the
first Commmissioner of the Sick and Wounded Department,
procceded to the premises of Mr. Mcllish, and there witnessed
the killing of four oxen : two of them after the ordinary mode
of knocking down with a pole-axe ; and the other two after
the new method of pithing, by the means of an iron instrument
thrust into the spinal marrow at the nape of the neck. These
gentlemen report “that the different operations of pithing
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 435
4, 6
66
& 4
C &
& 4
& Cº.
& 4
66
& 4
6 º'
& 4
& 4
66
66
& 6
66
* &
C 9.
46
© 6
$6
£ 6
46
and knocking down appeared to be dextrously performed :
and that in both instances the throats of the oxen were
instantly cut, to the end that the blood might be properly
discharged. The oxen which were pithed fell upon their
knees the moment the knife was thrust into them, but
from their violent struggles and convulsive contortions they
seemed to experience excruciating torture: their eyes re-
mained in an animated and susceptible state ; their breath-
ing was retained ; and they continued apparently in great
agony for upwards of ten minutes before they expired :
whereas the oxen which were slaughtered in the ordinary
practice of knocking down fell at the first stroke of the axe
upon their foreheads; and the moment they were down,
they were struck two or three more blows on the same part
of the head with the same instrument, when their eyes
immediately became fixed, they appeared insensible of
further pain, and in the space of three minutes from the
time of their being first struck all animation was com-
pletely extinct. So far, therefore, as this experiment ex-
tended it appeared evident that the common method of
knocking down was preferable to the new mode of pithing,
not only as it was more merciful to the animal, but because
the blood flowed more freely from the throats of the oxen,
and the flesh was thereby rendered in a better state.”
The above oxperiments so ably conducted, and reported
without prejudice or partiality, must set the question for ever
at rest; and it is to be hoped, therefore, that while Britons
have firmness of nerve to face an ox, and strength of muscle
3 K 2
436 A J O U R N E Y IN
to grasp the pole-axe, a method will not be resorted to whose
only recommendation is that of reducing an animal by in-
tense pain into a helpless condition, for the greater con-
venience of taking away its life which, in fact, is all they
pretend to accomplish by this method at the Cape of Good
Hope ; for though all slaughtered oxen there are brought to
the ground by dividing the spinal marrow, yet none are
killed by it.
The party having travelled sixteen days along the river,
sometimes close to its bank, and at other times several miles
distant from it, over a rough and almost impassable country,
on the 27th they struck off to the southward, and on the 29th
fell into their old track at the Komatoo spring, situated on
the edge of the great Karroo which extends from hence to
the skirts of the Roggeveld. On these desert plains few sup-
plies of provisions are to be expected, not even of the most
common and plentiful sort of game peculiar to Southern
Africa; and a few straggling Bosjesmans which may chance
to be crossing it, roving about in quest of food, are the only
human creatures likely to be met with. About half a dozen
of those wretches wore seen in the whole journey, from two of
whom the party received a very seasonable supply of delicious
honey in exchange for some tobacco. It was contained in a
bag made of thc skin of a small antelope.
Little that is worthy of remark occurred on these dreary
plains of Africa where, to use the words of Dr. Johnson, “the
“ night and the day are equally solitary and equally safe.” The
4.
S O U T H E R N A FR I C A. 437
time employed in crossing them was thirteen days, at the end
of which, on the 12th April, they arrived within the confines
of the colony, not sorry to have brought so near to a con-
clusion a long and fatiguing journey, the novelty of which
must necessarily have been purchased at the expence of
much of the ordinary comforts and conveniencies of life.
“We praised God,” says Mr. Truter, “for his gracious
“ assistance and protection through our long and dangerous
“journey over deserts wide and unfrequented, rivers deep
“ and rapid, into the midst of a strange nation inhabiting a
“ region hitherto unexplored.”
END of THE JOURNEY.
I N D F. X.
A.
P A C E.
4-ray saves the life of the young King
of Cochinchina - - - 255
carries the Prince to Paris * - 26 I
returns to Pondicherry º - - 265
offends Madame de Vienne - - 266
prosecutes his design º sº - 267
advises the King - - - - 274
respect paid to the memory of - - 281
Albecor, an esculent fish ſº- tº - 60
Amsterdam Tsland tº - - 14o—I 57
Amusements, Cochinchinese º - 297
Animals used as food by the Cochin-
chinese tº-e º º - 3 12
Anjerie Point, advantageous situation of 160
An-nan, the proper name of Cochinchina 245
Anniversary of the Prince of Orange's
birth-day º dº -> - 207
of the King of England's º - 293
Appearance, external, of orientals falla-
cious sºm tºº º - 3 IO
Aqueduct in Rio de Janeiro tº- - So
Architecture, naval, of Cochinchina - 3 18
Aris not progressive in the East - 3 17
B
P A G E
Babyroussa, use of the tusks of - . 198
Bahia, an important station - - I 34
Ball-room at Batavia * * - 208
Barbers turn physicians in Batavia - 2 I 5
Basalt, observations on º - - 142
Batavia -- * tº ſº 2O2–242
shipping in the bay of -* - - 169
ill-judged site of - - - - 171
castle and fortifications of e- - I 73
population of * wº- --> - 177
mortality of tº- tº - - 178
temperature of º wº º - 18O
causes of unhealthiness of - - 1 So
Bay of Funchal tºº º - - 5
Santa Cruz & ſº º - 29
Batavia - - - +- - 17 I
Chin-cheu tº- - - - - 246
Turon º tº º tºº - 247
advantages of - º - - 335
Beggars of Madeira º- º - - I 3
Bichos do mar wº- - - - - 3.54
Birds of Amsterdam island - - 147
of Java lº tºº a- • 2 OO
44 O I N D E X.
P A G R P A G E
Bishop of the Canaries * -: - 51 China trade, importance of tºº - 338
Bite of a man produces hydrophobia - 196 Chinese, condition of, in Batavia - - 216
Blake, Admiral, bold attempt of - 3 O massacre of, in 1740 -> - 2 I 9
Bonetta, an esculent fish tº: sº
- Öo
Books scarce in Rio de Janeiro - - 9o
Boors, Dutch, rambling disposition of - 369
Boothuanas U-> - - - – 387
Borrachas or goat-skin bags tºº. - I 1
Bojesmans - cº - 381
are monorchides - º º - 383
Bottle, experiment with one * - 63
Brazilian coast º- º - 74
Brazil: gºe sº º Ioj—I 36
Budha, religion of, in Cochinchina - 328
C
Calcareous stones, products of animated
beings * -> tº a - 168
Callao, island of º tº- - 335
Camelopardalis, great speed of - - 386
Candelaria, St., protectress of the island
of Teneriffe * - - 50
Canary islands, probably the Fortunate
Islands tº- & • 55
Canals of Batavia tº -> - 213
Cape de Perd islands, whence so called - 67
Cape Frio cº- * * - 64
Cape of Good Hope, winds and weather
off the t- º - I 4o
Cascade near Rio de Janeiro * • I O I
Catechu º * - - 227
Cathcart, Colonel, tomb of in Anjerie
fort is - gºs - 163
Ceremonier, religious, in Rio tºs - 98
Chamber of skulls * wº- - 7
manners and customs of, compared
with Cochinchinese º - 3 OO
driven from their usual channels of
trade * (- - • 35o
horrid torture of one - tº - 352
trade of to New Holland wº - 354
ancient navigation of dº º – 356
Christendom not much extended by the
labours of missionaries - - IoS
Churcheſ of Laguna º wº - 36
Clergy of Madeira g- º - I 4
of Teneriffe * tº º - 49
of Porta Praya º º - 66
of Rio * tº * * - 9 I
Climate of Madeira º sº • I O
Cloud, remarkable, over the mountains of
Madeira * tº - 3
Cochinchina tº ºw 243—360
Cock-fighting, favourite amusement of the
Malays cº 1- - 235
Colonists, European, destroy the natives to 7
Commerce, general observations on - I 3 I
Commercial productions of Cochinchina - 34o
Compass affected by the Iron Mountain - 385
antiquity of in China - tº – 356
objections against answered - 357
Convent of Nossa Senhora do Monté - 5
of Franciscans cº tº * 7
of Santa Clara º gº gº - 93
Conway, Governor of Pondicherry, cha-
racter of, by Lewis XVI. - 264
Cotton of the Brazils tº sº - I 23
Coral islands, observations on - - I 65
not found in the Atlantic tº - 167
I IN T) E X.
44 I
P A G E
Cruelty, extraordinary instance of - - 351
Cultivation of land neglected near Rio - Ioo
Current in the Strait of Gibraltar - - 2
Custom, curious instance of tenacity to
ancient º- tº- - - 32 I
D
Dance of the Booshuanas sº - - 397
Darwin, Dr., absurdity of his doctrines 23 I
Dead, how anciently interred in Teneriffe 46
Defences of Madeira e- gº - I 7
Digestion different in different animals - 146
Dinner of Van Weegerman - - 205
Dinners, public, of the Cochinchinese - 287
Discovery of Madeira º tº- - 16
of the Brazils - º - IO4.
Dolphin, beautiful colours of, when dying 59
Drake, ship of, preserved with great
Care * tº * - 64
Dress of inhabitants of Madeira - I 2
of those of Teneriffe sº - 49
of the women of Rio iº - 96
of the Dutch in Batavia º - 204
of the Cochinchinese º - 3 OI
Dutchman’s cockle - tº- - 167
Dutch, attempt of, to assimilate Java to
Holland tº- tº - I 72
architecture of º º - I 75
mode of living in Batavia - - 2 ſ I
Dwelling-houses in Batavia, number of - 177
E.
Earth,changes happening on the surface of 154
Egg of the ancient philosophers - I53
P A G E
Elephants of Cochinchina *- - 29O
vindictive spirit of º - 418
supposed to bury their dead • 4 19
Elysian Fields, supposed by Plutarch the
Fortunate Islands - - 56
Emperor of China, trick played on him - 254
Employment of inhabitants of Madeira - 12
English, inconveniencies felt by, in foreign
COll IntriCS º *- - 34
Entertainment given by the Governor of
Madeira --> sº - I 5
by the Governor of Batavia - 207
by the Cochinchinese † - - 293
by the Chief of the Booshuanas - 397
Entrance of the harbour of Rio de Janeiro 74
Equality of condition among the Booshu-
a ſlalS +- tº - 4oo
Experiment explaining the current in the
Strait of Gibraltar -> - 3
of sinking an empty bottle * - 63
on the pithing of cattle º - 43.3
F
Feast of elephants wº º - 290
Features of the Cochinchinese º - 368
Fertility of the land near Rio - IO I
Fish boiled alive in hot springs - 144
abundant near Amsterdam island - 146
Fishes, remarkable velocity of - 6o
flying tº sº - 62
Fisherman, Cochinchinese - - 248
Fishing, the usual amusement of pas-
sengers by sea tº- - 59
Flowers worn by the ladies of Rio de
Janeiro tºs tº - 2 IO
custom of exchanging them - 93
3 L
44.2
I N D E X.
*A. P A G E
Fortunate Islands of the ancients • 55
*rance, an ancient custom in •º - 94.
probable views of, towards Cochin-
china ſºr dº - 336
Franciscan convent in Funchal - 7
French Captain, conduct of, at Tene-
riffe {ºr &º - 28
republican calendar of wº - 182
influence of, in Cochinchina - 347
Fruits of Java tº wº - 185
Fucus, extensive use of, in eastern coun-
tries tº º tº-e • 3 I3
Funchal, situation of º - 4
description of * = * > - 6
Franciscan convent in tº • 7
G
Garden public, of Rio de Janeiro - 81
Gariep or Orange river tºº - 372
Geographical sketch of Cochinchina - 245
Geology only in its infancy gº - I 5 I
Gibraltar, current in the Strait of - 2
Gnoo, observations regarding the - 4 Io
Gold found near the Orange river - 377
Gospel missionaries, conduct of - 378
Governor of Madeira, entertainment given
by dº ſº - I5
appointments of * sº - 16
of St. Jago, condition of º - 68
of Batavia, reception by 4 º' - 204
Government of the Booshuanas - 398
Granaries, curious, of the Booshuanas - 392
Granite of Brazil gº - 79
Grassy Sea wº º - 72
Graziers of South America • I 2 2
Guanches, some account of * - 46
H
PAGE
Halley, Dr., theory of the current setting
into the Mediterranean - = 2.
Hamboonas, tribe of *º - 4oz
Harbour of Rio de Janeiro $º - 74
Hasting, mission sent by, to Cochinchina 344
Hawkinſ, Sir Richard, observation of,
• I
Henbane prescribed as a cure for madness :
Historical sketch of Cochinchina - 250
Hogs in the streets of Funchal -- 6
Homer's description of the Elysian Fields 56
Hospitality of British merchants in Ma-
deira * * º - 15
- 4 13
Hottentots, the Koras, some account of - 373
practise the Scythian method of forcing
respecting sharks sº
Hottentot wounded by a lion º
milk from their cattle
• 374.
opinion of a boor respecting the - 405
Houses of the Booshuanas, plan of - 392
Hunting, Cochinchinese mode of - 269
Hydrophobia, curious case of sº - 195
Japan, Emperor of, rejects a present from
the Dutch gº ſº
2 I
Jarr, porcelain, use of in Batavia tº : I4.
Java, island of tº gº - 169
Javanese, condition of in Batavia - 223
description of «º gº - 225
diet of sº sº - 226
addicted to opium and other sedatives 228
religion of iº tºe - 229
Jealousy of a Portuguese trader - 249
I N D E X.
443
Portuguese by *
jews, banishment of, to the Brazils
Ilha dos Cobras sº
Inhabitants, original, of Teneriffe
present, condition of tº º
of Porta Praya tº-
Indians of South America dº
Inquisition, effects of, in Teneriffs
Insects of Madeira wº sº
of Java gº * -->
journey to the peak of Teneriffe
in Southern Africa & ºn
Islands, creation of new ſº
of coral rock, observations on
Itch, virulent nature of, in Madeira
K
A affers, slavery unknown to º
King of Tunquin made a mandarin of
China º *
of Cochinchina, life of,
Adran wº º.
takes refuge in a tree iº
flies to Pulo l'ay i.e.
seeks protection in Siam * *
returns to Pulo IWay ſº
treaty of, with Louis XVI.
destroys Yin-yac's fleet tº
recovers his kingdom ſº tº
improvements, undertakings -
character and mode of living of
generosity of º ſº
veneration of, for Adran gº
family of *-i-. tº
military and naval forces of -
P A G E
jesuits, preservation of the Brazils to the
saved by
Io?
IoS
78
46
48
66
I [O
49
23
I 99
35
364
I 52
165
I L
4O6
King— PAGE
of Tun-quin, present of to the ambas-
sador iſ e sº - 290
of England, birth-day of, celebrated
in Cochinchina sº - 293
Ånives of the Booshuanas º - 396
Rokoon, a new species of antelope - 499
Kora Hottentots, some account of • 373
mode of crossing a river wº - 375
Kourmanna river, source of - - 387
L
Ladies, Batavian * - sº * * • 209
Laguna, city of sº gº - 35
Language of Cochinchina tº - 323
Laws of Cochinchina tº - 332
Leetakoo, situation and size of - 39C
ruins of a town near * - 402
Leyden, Dr., his cure for madness - 228
Lifting day, what ſº sº - 95
Linnaeus, opinion of, concerning the dis-
semination of plants tº. - I49
Lion shot by a boor upon a Hottentot - 413
Liverpool, custom of the women of - 95
Lizards, abundant in Madeira • 23
Locuits, immense swarms of * * - 429
Longevity on Teneriffe, remarkable in-
stance of * tº e - 54
Long-niang, a Cochinchinese rebel - 25 I
crow ſucci King of Tun-quin ſº - 243
Louis XVI., treaty of, with the King of
Cochinchina * * * iº - 264
M’
Macham, discovery of Madeira by - I 6
3 L 2.
444 I N D E X.
PAGE
Madagascar and Mosambique, character
of the slaves of tº , - 24O N
Madeira wº łº • I PAGE
ZMadners, cure of, by the datura and hen- Navies capable of being built at Rio de
bane tº $ººl - 228 Janeiro * wº • I 2 O
*Zagaaga, or Iron Mountain - 385 Negro, new character assumed by, in St.
AMaggots snorted from the nostrils of the Domingo tº - 1 16
gnoo * - i.e. - 41 o Nelson, daring attack of, upon Tene-
Malabar, character of the slaves of - 24O riffe tº * - 30
Malays, extraordinary character of - 233 Nests, esculent tº gº - 16o
addicted to gaming wº - 235 of the gregarious loxia & tº - 408
atrocious murder by tº - 237 Nine o’clock flower, what gº • 2 I4.
Mandarin of Cochinchina wº - 289 Nossa Senhora do Monte, convent of - 5
Mar do Sargasso ſº - 72 Wuns, reflections on the condition of - 9
Marriage, ceremony of, among the Boo-
shuanas º * - 397
Mediterranean, water of, salter than that O
of the Atlantic tº • 3
Meny, James, anecdote of wº - 54 Offering made to Fo tº iſ - 329
Merchants, British, hospitality of, in Officer, British, seized by the Cochin-
Madeira º º - I 5 chinese º tº - 292
Meteor seen in Madeira * * - 24 Opera, Cochinchinese tº - 296
Militia of Madeira tº ‘. . - 17 Orange river dº º - 372
Minerals of Java ſº tº - 182 plants and minerals in the vicinity of - 376
Missionaries of little use to the cause of Oratava, city and port of iº - 38
Christianity tº - 108 Oriental cities, traces of, soon obliterated 31 I
in Southern Africa tº - 377 Overseer of the waggons wounded by a
Moravian and Gospel compared - 38o buffalo ſº tº- - 417
Monopolies in Teneriffe * - 52
Monorchides among the Koras - 375
Moolihaban, chief of the Booshuanas - 389 P
Moravian missionaries, wice proceedings of 38o
Mortality of Batavia ſº - 178 Paintings describing the productions of
Mosquitoes of Rio de Janeiro unusually the Brazils º * - 82
troublesome tºº - 88 Palla, new species of antclope - 4O7
Mountains of Madeira gº - 3 Passeo Publico of Rio tº a - 97
Mountaineerſ of Madeira sº - 11 Patagonians of South Africa tº - 369
Music, Dr. Johnson's opinion of - 99 Patanie, a Booshuana town * - 4 I4.
4.
I N D E X.
445
PAGE
Patton, Admiral, experiment made by,
for explaining the current in the
Strait of Gibraltar º º
Peak of Teneriffe, journey up º
height of º - tº-
Peasantry of Europe compared with slaves
of the West Indies sº º
Phosphorescent light in the bay of Batavia
Pitcher plant º - º
Pithing of cattle, experiments on -.
Plants of Madeira - sº
of Teneriffe º º tº-
on the peak of - ' -
of the Brazils wº - º
of Amsterdam island *- tº
remarkable dissemination of tºº
of Java - e º
near the Orange river * *
42
45
I 13
23 I
189
433
19
37
42
I48
I 49
)
183
376
394
3 I 3
cultivated by the Booshuanas º
used as food by the Cochinchinese -
maritime, extensive use of º *
Pliny, stones falling from heaven men-
tioned by - º
bite of a man considered dangerous by
doctrine of, concerning new animals -
Plutarch’s description of the Fortunate
Islands º º º
Poisons, efficacy of, in warm climates -
Population of Batavia tº º
of Leetakoo es -> º
Port in Cochinchina a desirable object
Portuguese dress themselves to go a beg-
ging fº º ſº
jealousy of, at Rio de Janeiro º
impolitic system of, respecting their
colonies º sº sº
traders, jealousy of º º
Praya, town and bay of * *
3I4.
25
196
4 II
55
I93
177
39 I
342
I 3
86
I IQ
2.49
65
P A G E
Processions in Rio de Jacº, 4 ºt - 93
Productions of Tenºr A dº - 52
of St. Jago •, - ... - 69
of the Brazás * - ro
of Java sº º - I tº *
of Cochinchina º º - 349
Pulo Lingin, extraorénary lºat of - 243
Pulo Wai, the retrea of the Ring of
Cochinchina -: º - 257
Q_
Quacha, new species of - - 4 Io
Quadrupeds of Madeira º wº - 23
of Java tº wº - 197
Queen Elizabeth, veneration shewn by, to
the memory of Drake tº - 64
R
Rebellion in Cochinchina º - 25o
Religion of the Booshuanas º - 399
of the Cochinchinese * - 328
Resolution, the ship of Captain Cook - 64
Revenues of Madeira º - 2 1
Revolution in South America, the dan.
gerous consequences of - I 33
Rhinosceros, two species of tº- - 42O
Rice, trial by, what tº - 24 I
the chief support of Oriental nations - 315
Rio de Janeiro tº º - 72
strength and defences of * - 135
harbour of, compared with the Strait of
Sunda tº- * - I jS
River of lyonnai º- tº º * > sº
Ruins of a town in South Africa 49 2
446
I N ID E X.
* P A G E
Saigong, a city ofºichinchina - - 246
Salt, monopoly of, in the Brazils • I 2 I
Salmon, muscular power of tº - Go
Santa Cruz, bay of tº tº - 29
town of gº tº. iº - 33
St. jago * = • * sº - 57
St. Sebastian, city of * - 7
Santa Clara, convent of sº - 93
St. Catharine, island of rº - I 34
Sargasso, sea of º ſº - 7.3
Sea, storm at, awful º - 2,
employment of passengers by - 59
Seal-catchers on Amsterdam island - I 55
Secretary bird, digestive power of the
stomach of tº tº º ſº
Sharks, observations on the stomachs of -
Shark-fishing, danger of gºe sº
Shipping in the bay of Batavia gº º
of Cochinchina tº gº sº
Ships’ holds, advantages of dividing tº
Ships perforated by the snout of the
sword-fish gº tº .
Skulls, chamber of wº gº iº
Slavery resisted by the South Americans
not known in the central parts of South
Africa - £º tº
Slaves, conduct of a French officer to-
wards gº sº sº
condition of, in the Brazils gº *
compared with those of the West India
islands * , - º
of St. Domingo tº gº ſº
character and condition of, in Batavia
how emancipated in Batavia ſº
Snuff, how taken by the Booshuanas -
P45
I62
3 I 9
32O
6 I
IoG
4Q5
I [ {
I I 2
1 I 4
16
238
24 I
395
P A G P.
South America saved by the Jesuits - I of
South Africa, a journey in sº - 364
Spanish colonies in South America - I 32
Spiders’ claws converted into tooth-picks 200
j y g tº q. * * *
Stags' hornſ, whimsical opinion respecting 41 I
Stags not found in all Africa tº a - 4 I 2
Stephanos, a Polish Greek, extraordinary
character of ſº iº - 424.
Stoner falling from heaven º - 26
Storke, Dr., receipt of, for the cure of
madness & sº *g,
229
Storm on the deserts of Africa - 430
Strait of Sunda * tº - 158
Strictures on Darwin's doctrine - 232
Subsistence, articles of, in Cochinchina - 312
Sugar-cane transplanted to the Brazils - to 5
Supper of the governor of Batavia ~ 2 IO
Sword-fish, muscular power of - GI
T
Takheitsé, a new and curious animal - 415
Taxes and monopolies in Teneriffe - 52
Tejeuca, excursion to jºr gº • 1 OO
Temperature of Madeira gº - I O
on the peak of Teneriffe º - 43
of Teneriffe tºº tº a - 53
of Batavia tº gº - 180
Teneriffe tº tºº ſº - 27
Theatre of Cochinchina - - 295
Theft, Cochinchinese addicted to - 298
Thermal springs on Amsterdam island - 143
Thousand Islands * > º - 164
Timber of Cochinchina zºº - 3.43
Tobacco, mode of smoking by the Boo-
shuanas & º - 395
Tooth-picks of spiders’ claws • = 2 OC)
I N D E X.
447
PAGE
Trade to South America & - 126
between Portugal and England - 128
to China and Cochinchina not to be
thrown open - - 345
ancient of Cochinchina º – 35o
how to be renewed *- º - 359
Transmigration of souls - * - 229
Treaty with Portugal º - 129
between Louis XVI. and King of
Cochinchina - º - 26 I
Trees of Madeira tº º º - 18
of Java º Gºr - - 187
held sacred by the Cochinchinese - 3 3 O
Tristan da Cunha º iº tº- - I37
Trial by rice, what wº º - 24 I
Tropical climates, condition of the na-
tives of º wº - 3 Io
PAGE
Volcanoes, observations on wº - I 52
Upas tree of Java º wº - 19 I
Utensils, domestic, of the Cochinchinese 316
W
Trottoirs in the streets of Rio - - 85
Trowbridge, Sir Thomas, spirited con-
IWine made at and exported from Ma-
deira --> -> * tº • 2 O
extraordinary qualities of that of Ma-
deira º º º- • 22
of Teneriffe sº sº tº- - 39
why not made in America tº • I 24.
Women, drudgery of, in Madeira • I 2.
want of delicacy in - º - I 3
of Rio de Janeiro º º - 92
of Batavia - * * º - 2 og
dancing, of Java ſº - - 224
of Cochinchina º - 296
duct of t- & - - 3 I Cochinchinese, condition and character
Turon, bay and harbour of tº - 247 of tºº. º g- - 303
advantages of wº * º; - 335 transferred on easy terms tº - 307
Booshuana, occupation of *sº • 395
U
Y
Pan Weegerman's style of living - 205
Pelocity of fishes remarkable ºp - Öo 1 in-yac, the Cochinchinese usurper - 25
Piceroy of Canton, unfortunate expedi- fleet of, destroyed sº º - 269
tion of, against the King of Tung-
quin -> tºt - 25 2.
Vienne, Madame de º * - 265 Z
Wine, treatment of, in Madeira • 2 2.
Polcanic crater on Amsterdam island - 14o Zeolite found on Amsterdam island - 142
T H E E N D.
St ahan and Preston,
New-Sucet Square, London.
Q
#
Bou ND
JUN 19 1935
UNtv OF MICH,
L1BRARY *



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