had ever felt a moment's anxiety: so are we constituted. I was alarmed, but not dismayed; and perhaps, as a stranger, I was in some small degree relieved, from not having any connexions in the city, and from watching the movements of others in such perilous moments. I saw some of the places from which it is said the flames issued at certain periods of the alarm. The governor was constantly in the streets, on horseback, and saw that no confusion took place; and the priests did not take occasion to alarm the sinner, but soothed him by teaching him to trust in his merciful Creator.

Mrs. Morrell interested herself at Manilla in making inquiries respecting the fate of La Perouse, but she confesses her inability to add anything, even in the shape of conjecture, to what is already known and concluded on the subject. From the case of La Perouse she is led into some general observations on the progress of discovery, and pays a just tribute to England for the spirit, enterprise, and disinterestedness which she has shown, and by which she has deserved the first rank among nations, as having done more than any of them to obtain a knowledge of the size, shape, &c. of the globe. Her summary of our naval achievements on the mighty ocean of discovery, are at once a testimony of the liberality of her principles, and of her historical acquirements. For more than two centuries, she tells us, the marine of England has been the most active and successful. Her great navigator, Sir Francis Drake, circumnavigated the world, and did it in the ordinary discharge of his duty. He destroyed the armada, and attacked Spain in her new world with energy and success; but with what national right, the history of his sovereign must vindicate. The laws of nations were not then very accurately defined. Dampier next followed, but shared little of the glory of a great discoverer. He was among the rovers who harrassed the coasts of Chili and Peru. This was, as we should now judge, piracy; but not so then, for both France and England winked at or protected the freebooters of that day. One great object of his adventuring on the Pacific was to find and capture the yearly galleon of Manilla, which was generally very rich; but in this he did not succeed, she escaped his vigilance. He again visited his native country, and was employed in some affairs of maritime enterprise; and changed his character from pilot to captain, always having some enterprise on foot. His voyages are written with great spirit and accuracy: whatever he said of the South Seas has more graphic spirit in it than that of any other voyager I have ever read. His description of a storm, in an open boat, has no equal in print. He was a man of honest principles, notwithstanding he has been called a pirate by Spanish historians. Some of the Bucaniers were splendid men, although their actions could not be justified. cumstances give a direction to the pursuits of men more than principle. The greatest name, however, among discoverers, is that of Captain Cook. Mrs. Morrell proceeds to recapitulate the voyages and services of this distinguished sailor, and concludes with an ac

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count of John Ledyard, the American, who followed Cook as a corporal of marines, and who afterwards rose to reputation as a traveller. Mrs. Morrell is by no means a bad authority upon which we might receive entire the assertion made by her, to the effect that the present commercial world is much indebted to, for important information respecting the Pacific Ocean, to the American whaling ships, as it can be to any other source. The masters and crews have been indefatigable in noting accurately all their discoveries, and these have been many. The education of these whalers is excellent in mathematics, and they are indisputable in navigation. From the accounts given of whalers from Nantucket, New-Bedford, Stonington, and other places where this trade is carried on, a considerable part of the whole crew are capable of navigating a ship in any seas. A crew of whalers is a singular anomaly in the maritime government-a head, with prerogatives distinctly understood, and the crew who are sharers in all the profits of the voyage. They are not embarrassed with a multiplicity of orders, but have a plain course of duty set before them, and they proceed to discharge it. From these people the secretary of the navy has gained much information. The whaling ships are numerous; probably fifty or sixty of them, from different ports, are in the Western and Southern Pacific Ocean the whole year. It is not a particular object with them to explore new islands, but they must necessarily find them in their course; and, being capable of forming just opinions upon the appearances before them, the sealers have been careful of divulging their discoveries, if there was a chance of future profit from them; but they have gone farther south than any other navigators, not excepting the explorers themselves.

At the city of Sincapore, Mrs. Morrell was quite charmed at the rapidity with which one of the most beautiful of Eastern cities has been piled up, chiefly through the agency of its English inhabitants. The spot on which it is seated, she says, has been resorted to by European families, as the place best adapted for the rearing of children. We give her remarks on this city, as a specimen of the grace as well as energy of her style:

'From the earliest dawn the dewdrops are seen trembling on tree, shrub, and flower, and shining all glorious with rosy light. These dewdrops do something more than reflect the rays of light; they distil the sweet essences of all they fall upon, and the sense of smelling is as much regaled as the sight. The odour is not like any thing I ever remember to have enjoyed; it comes not from aromatic plant, but is the perfume of all"Araby the Blest." As we rode through some of these delightful groves the smell was so ecstatic that it was near overpowering the senses. We inet on our way a great number of gentlemen and ladies on horseback, who seemed to have parted with their native silence and gravity, so often remarked upon by other nations of Europe; they were as joyous as the morning, and seemed overflowing with happiness. They gave us a most courteous salute, knowing who we were. The English women are truly

beautiful. If they have lost some of their roseate complexion in these tropical suns, which in their native land gives some of them the appearance of almost rude health, they are compensated by fine forms and more interesting looks. They feed more delicately in these climates, eating more vegetables and less solid food than in England. Their being at such a distance from their native land, too, makes them kinder and less aristocratical; they have a sort of fellow-feeling for strangers, for they recollect how lately it was that they came from home themselves. The ladies of Sincapore are excellent horse-women; they have a fine breed of English horses, and they ride with great spirit and fearlessness. When the sun rides high in the heavens, these English people return to their houses, and keep quiet until the shades of the evening are extended across the pathway; but the dew begins to fall so soon that the after-part of the day is not so healthy as the morning. How wondrously kind are the laws of nature, that the tree and plant should drink up the poisonous part of the air in the night, and breathe it out a balmy restorative in the morning.' -pp. 106, 107.

To the extreme salubrity of the climate Mrs. Morrell bears unconditional testimony, and she declares that in all her intercourse with society in Sincapore, she never met with a consumptive or dyspeptic female. During the voyage subsequently, by the Straits of Rio, and as far as the Straits of Seneda, through the Java Sea, Mrs. Morrell took notice of the numerous coral reefs which are so well calculated to obstruct the navigation. She adds, however, that Horsburgh's Directory was of the most precious use to them in the passage. This author was a cool and intrepid navigator, who was sent out by the East India Company to explore these seas. With respect to the company itself, she declares that whatever politicians may say about monopoly and exclusive privileges, the East India Company has done more to make safe the navigation of those seas, than all the world besides. She confesses with great candour, but not without a slight twinge of mortification, that in every country to which the ship bore her, the charts by which they were guided were furnished by foreign nations, and it is a fact curious and pregnant with interesting conclusions, that the chart to which her party trusted for the indications of even their own sublime port of New York, was an English chart!

At the Cape of Good Hope, Mrs. Morrell found in the natural productions which distinguish this part of the African continent, much that interested her. She gives a very scientific account of the mammology and ornithology of this colony, and speaks particularly of the lion of the Cape, which is the largest and fiercest in the world. The ostrich forms also one of the principal subjects of her observations. She informs us that modern writers have stated that the ostrich incubates her eggs, and has as great a regard for them as any other bird; now this assertion appears to me unfounded. The ostrich cannot set upon her eggs; there is no joint in her legs that will allow her to bring her body upon

her nest. Job is worth a hundred philosophers upon the subject: "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacock, or wings and feathers unto the ostrich ?" "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust; and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers. An observing philosopher, who had spent the better part of his life in Asia, an officer, once gave this solution of the subject: The ostrich starts from the forest to the desert to deposit her eggs. She lays two eggs, which are deeply covered with the sand; then seven or eight more, which are but partially covered. The first produce young ones, who, as soon as they have broken the shell, begin to feed upon the roasted eggs which have been deposited there for food, until they get strong enough to set out on their journey to the wilderness. This is full of wisdom, and resembles all the accounts which have been given of the ostrich. St. Helena was visited by the Antarctic, and a very full account of its peculiarities is given by Mrs. Morrell. The house in which Napoleon resided is converted, she says, into a granary or barn, and she believes that a portion is also used as a stable. From her description of this island we learn that Charles II. gave it to the East India Company. Its vegetable productions are of the most precious kind: the fig, orange, date, and pomegranate trees grow in great beauty here, and the usual kitchen vegetables flourish abundantly. The water is good, and can be made to irrigate every part of the cultivated plains. The gum-tree is still common on the island, although many of them have been destroyed; and the lofty cabbage-trees grow in great luxuriance, while the willows seem to hang on the high grounds as though they were clinging to the lowland brooks. A great number of water-fowls hover around the mountains, or coast near the walls in the sea. The inhabitants once tried to cultivate wheat and barley, but at length found it more profitable to raise such articles as would more readily supply the shipping which frequently call there on their return from the Indian seas. The place is as wonderful in its history as in its situation, and was once nearly stocked by a colony of those who were burnt out in London in 1666, who, in their desperation sought an asylum at St. Helena. James's Valley takes its name from James II., after whom, also, the fort was named. The town is in this valley, and has quite a picturesque appearance. The churches, for there are two, but only one parish, and the snug-built houses perched so high in the air, and yet low compared with heights still higher, give a fine effect to the whole view. An elevated chain of mountains divides the island into two unequal parts; but there are numerous ridges and valleys of greater or less extent among these mountains. Diana's Peak is the highest part of the island, and commands a most superb prospect, for from it you can see every thing on or

about the island. The ships look like small craft floating at the base of this tremendous castle, and the albatrosses, gulls, and other sea-birds, skimming half-way from the sea to the height of Diana's Mountain, make the whole a fine panorama; one that nature does not often in such vastness and magnificence afford. Mrs. Morrell's visit to the tomb of Napoleon is thus described by her: "I sought the tomb of Napoleon. There was an iron railing around a flat, dingy-coloured stone, which was raised a few inches only above the surface of the ground. A wooden railing encloses the iron one, and within the former three large willows overshadow the grave. We marched up to the spot, took a twig of willow, and ordered one of our attendants to bring us some water from the spring whence the mighty emperor drank daily. It was sweet water, and, as I drank, I thought of what old Cotton Mather said in his works:-all the great virtues of cold water will not be made known to us for a thousand years to come. It tasted sweeter to his fevered lips than royal Tokay, or the still scantier drops of the grapes of Shiraz."

From St. Helena the Antarctic proceeded to Terceira, so distinguished of late amongst the Azores. This island appeared to Mrs. Morrell as merely an exhausted volcano. The Antarctic successively called at Cadiz and Bordeaux, and descriptions of each of these cities are given by Mrs. Morrell. These accounts are followed by some reflections on the moral condition of sailors in general. She is astonished that an attempt to reform their minds should be delayed to so late a period as it has been. The superstition of sailors is a certain proof of their ignorance, and the continuance of their disposition to this evidently forms one of the strongest motives which can operate upon a government or a people to remove the cause of it. Up to this hour it would appear that there is not a sailor who doubles the Cape of Good Hope, come from what country he may, but who is deeply convinced of the truth of the legend which represents the existence of the Flying Dutchman. The tradition amongst the sailors respecting this famous vessel is, that her crew were wicked enough to deny the Christian religion, and to trample the cross under their feet for gain, with imprecations upon their heads if they did not despise it: such a wish as that if they were not sincere in their renunciation, they might never return again to their native land. For this unpardonable sin, this vessel and its crew were doomed to fly from place to place until the world should be destroyed. This very prejudice, however, was on the side of virtue, and has been made use of to keep seamen from denying their faith, even in the midst of their blasphemy; and although it is known that the Mahommedans make strenuous efforts to induce a Christian to profess their faith, yet but few even of the most profligate of the sailors of Christian nations have been known to change their religion, even when the temptations held out were