"Now each court hobby-horse will wince in customs, calculated to recommend it, not rhymne; Both learn'd and unlearn'd, all write plays. An honest bilboe-smith would make good blades, withstanding its rather cumbrous and unattractive style, to those who take an interest in these branches of knowledge. It was scarcely to be expected that a Government, the western frontier of whose territory borders upon the largest and richest wilderness in the world, should have much attention to bestow upon unknown But the present condition of our poetry rocks and islands at the Antipodes; and it will afford material for another From the Edinburgh Review. paper. WILKES' EXPLORING EXPEDITION. Narrative of the United States' Exploring umes 8vo. London: 1845. was still less probable that a people, whose interest is each succeeding year becoming more completely diverted from maritime affairs, by the vast field of adventure which lies at its very door, should display any general anxiety for information about the coral reefs and sand-banks of the Pacific Archipelagos. Accordingly we find, that the present expedition had been so long and abortively planned, and so repeatedly deferred, as to be regarded, by all who had concerned themselves in its objects, with disgust and disappointment. It was in March 1838 that it was placed under the command of Captain Wilkes; and we preTHE work before us contains a history sume that we are justified in ascribing its of the only expedition hitherto undertaken after rapid and successful organization by the Government of the United States principally to his zeal and ability. The for the purposes of maritime discovery. Its vessels placed under his orders were the principal objects, as stated in the official Vincennes and Peacock sloops of war, the instructions received by its Commander, Porpoise brig, and the Seagull and Flyingwere, to explore the Southern and Pacific fish tenders. It is a somewhat remarkable, Oceans; to ascertain, with as much accura-though not, we believe, an unprecedented cy as possible, the situation of that part of circumstance, that Captain Hudson, the the great Antarctic Continent which was officer in command of the Peacock, was supposed to extend to the southward of superior in rank to his temporary chief, Australia; and to resolve various questions respecting the navigation of the Polynesian seas,-important to all vessels engaged in commerce beyond Cape Horn, and especially to those employed in the Southern whale-fishery. Upon these important ser- tion. vices the Squadron was employed nearly On the 18th of August, 1838, the squadfour years; three of which were passed in ron got under weigh from New-York, and the unknown and perilous seas which sep-proceeded on their voyage. Their first arate Southern Asia from Western Ameri-destination was Madeira, and they afterca; and it completed the entire Circuit of wards recrossed the Atlantic, visited Rio the Globe before its return to the United Janeiro and Buenos Ayres, doubled Cape States. Horn, and touched at Valparaiso and CalWe cannot promise much amusement to lao. We shall not follow Captain Wilkes our readers from the brief account of the through his prolix description of these wellExploring Expedition,' which we are about known scenes; nor through his long, and to lay before them. There is little roman-in our opinion, irrelevant digressions, retic adventure, and still less picturesque de- specting the political history of Brazil and scription, to be found among the technical Peru. Nor do we consider any of the and scientific details which chiefly fill Cap-events which occurred to the squadron, tain Wilkes' pages. But his work contains during the eleven months occupied in this some geographical and nautical informa- part of the voyage, as worthy of particular tion, and some sketches of manners and notice; except the disastrous loss of the and that, with a readiness equally creditable to his own liberality and to the high professional and scientific reputation of Captain Wilkes, he consented to waive his seniority for the purposes of the expedi Seagull, supposed to have foundered in a if any where, nature has been left to hergale off Terra del Fuego. self; and there, if any where, she could On the 13th of July, 1839, the Vin- dispense with interference. A delicious cennes, Peacock, Porpoise, and Flying-fish, climate-a soil so rich as scarcely to resailed from Callao; and on the 10th of quire cultivation-a race of men superior September, after touching at some of the in natural intelligence, and in physical small islands composing the Paumotu comeliness, to most uncivilized nationsgroup, they arrived at Tahiti. every thing, in short, combines to render The dreams of Rousseau and Condorcet, easy the enjoyment of a golden age, if huwhich represent man as weakened and de- man nature is indeed capable of such a praved by the artificial training of civiliza- condition. But no sober-minded man can tion, have been by no means so universally examine any trustworthy account of the forgotten, at least in France, as some of state of society in these Islands, without our readers may imagine. Sentimentalists becoming convinced that these favored reare still to be found, who delight in con- gions present scenes, in comparison with trasting the moral and physical excellence which the most loathsome cellar in St. of some imaginary barbarian, with the fri- Giles's, or the most miserable hovel in volous mind and enervated body of the Connaught, is a temple of virtue and hapmodern European. Some Parisian Novel-piness. It has been said, and we believe ists of the day have eagerly embraced an most truly, that no man, whatever his exopinion so well suited to their liveliness of perience of vice and misery may have been, fancy, to their love of glittering novelty, can form any idea of the brutal depravity and to that incredible ignorance of foreign of which human nature is capable, until he nations, by which they have so frequently has witnessed the habitual life of lawless merited the derisive astonishment of their savages. contemporaries. One of the most popular We leave out of the question all the reof their number-noted alike for the inex-straints imposed by religion and moralityhaustible fertility of his invention, his mer- or by those vague notions of religion and etricious style, his vehement prejudices, morality which the most ignorant can and the grotesque extravagance of his ima- scarcely fail to pick up in a Christian gination has lately been pleased to adopt, country-when we declare our belief, that as one of his favorite characters, a youth- the mere power of self-command, which ful Hindoo Rajah, the patriotic victim of every member of a civilized community is English ambition; and has displayed much compelled by the most vulgar motive-the fantastic eloquence in contrasting the untu- fear of punishment by the law-habitually, tored dignity and simple virtues of the in some degree, to exert, is alone sufficient royal exile, with the inanity and corruption to raise him far above the highest limit of of his polished hosts. It might, perhaps, barbarian virtue. The most violent and be unreasonable to expect from a Parisian vindictive European feels himself under the homme de lettres any knowledge of a fact perpetual (control of a superior authority, familiar to all other educated Europeans, and is well aware that he can only give full that the native Princes of Hindostan are a indulgence to his passions at the imminent race far more artificial in their habits, and peril of his life. This may be insufficient far more enslaved by formal etiquette, than to make him a good man-perhaps insuffiever were the most obsequious courtiers of cient to deter him from the occasional Louis XIV. It might be unreasonable to commission of crimes-but at least it precomplain of the reckless ignorance which serves us from the wretchedness of living has painted the effeminate debauchees of in a society of beings possessing at once the East as Patriarchal Chiefs, presiding the resolution, the physical strength, and over a race of brave and simple Foresters; the deadly weapons of full-grown men, and and substituting the noble pursuits of war the blind and reckless selfishness of misand the chase, for the Asiatic recreations chievous children. To say that the savof chewing bang, and gloating on dancing- age will take life upon the most trifling girls. But if, passing over the ludicrous provocation, is to say but little. He will absurdity of M. Sue's inventions, we look do so in cold blood to save himself from a simply at the theory which he intends them moment's inconvenience. If his child disto illustrate, we know no part of the world turbs him by its cries, he dashes out its in which we could find so strong a proof of brains-if he becomes tired of supporting its fallacy as the Polynesian Isles. There, a sick or aged parent, he murders him or VOL. VIII. No. III. 59 leaves him to starve. In saying this, we still not incapable of the virtues which have are using no exaggerated or figurative lan-adorned the most enlightened of their deguage. We are stating the ordinary cus-scendants. The ties of kindred, of country, toms of the Polynesian Islanders. Captain of brotherhood in arms, were observed by Wilkes has recorded it as a well-known them with a fidelity never surpassed. We fact, that few of these savages, except their do not, we trust, undervalue the powers of Chiefs, ever live to an advanced age; be- religion, and we profess the highest admicause those who reach the decline of life ration for the honest zeal of the many good are almost invariably put to death by their men who are exerting themselves, and in children or relations, in order to rid them- some instances with eminent success, to selves of the burden of their maintenance. extend its influence; but we cannot disWith these vices-the ordinary charac-guise our conviction, that the Polynesiteristics of utter barbarism-the tribes of ans, however improvable in many respects, the Pacific appear to unite much of that are, and are too likely long to continue, a cold and merciless apathy, which is, in very imperfect variety of the human race. general, the worst effect of a corrupt and We are glad to find that the account effeminate semi-civilization. Of natural given by Captain Wilkes of the present affection, beyond the mere animal instincts condition of Tahiti, while confirming in which they share with the beasts of some degree our unfavorable opinion of the the brute creation, they appear to be intellectual capacities of the natives, is still nearly destitute; and of that spirit of na- a strong testimony to the effect produced by tionality which produces such powerful and religious instruction, in removing the more ennobling effects among many savage races, revolting peculiarities of their character. they have not the slightest tincture. In the He speaks of them as a peaceable, honest, numerous cases of parricide and fratricide and trustworthy, though far from a striking mentioned by Captain Wilkes, as having or interesting race; and ascribes their imoccurred among the Polynesian Chiefs, provement to the imperfect civilization alwe are struck-not so much by the atrocity ready introduced among them—a change of the crimes themselves, the most of which some sentimentalists have designated which may unhappily find parallels in every as the irreparable corruption and degradaage and nation-as at the callous indiffer- tion of a harmless and innocent people. ence with which the kinsmen of the parties Still, Captain Wilkes, while admitting the seem to have regarded the catastrophe. We striking improvement of the Tahitian find more than one instance of a family of character, appears to have been by no Island Princes, whose previous history means struck by those amiable and gracemight rival that of the house of Atreus orful peculiarities in their manners and apPelops, living together in apparent insensi-pearance, with which some English voyagers bility to their mutual injuries; and we can have endowed them. He speaks very lightly scarcely avoid the conclusion, that the of the beauty of their females, and can see worst vices of more generous dispositious are virtues far beyond the reach of these insensible and ruthless barbarians. There .would, we are convinced, be great injustice in attributing this absence of natural feeling to any thing but intrinsic levity and feebleness of character. Neither barbarism nor civilization, powerful agents as they are, can develope propensities which do not naturally exist. We find, for instance, in onr nothing in their national songs and dances to redeem the licentiousness which has compelled the Missionaries strictly to prohibit such amusements. And in particular, he is greatly, and we must acknowledge very naturally, scandalized by the eagerness with which the most powerful Tahitian Chiefs contended for the profit of washing linen, and supplying stores for the American ships!-a practice which certainly exhibits a striking contrast to the scrupulous dignity which the North American Indian known to maintain in his intercourse with Europeans. own countrymen, the germs of the most formidable vices indulged in by their Scandinavian ancestors-pride, intemper-is ance, violence of temper, and delight in war; and we see that, when the restraints of social life are removed, these characteristics display themselves as strongly in an English soldier, as in a Norwegian bersekar. On the other hand, these very Scandinavians, ferocious as they were, were Upon the 29th of September the Vincennes sailed from Tahiti; and upon the 7th of October made Rose Island, the most easterly of the Samoan or Navigator group. Until the 8th of November, Captain Wilkes and the officers of the squadron were en gaged in making accurate surveys of this ly before a gale among a shoal of drifting Archipelago; which consists of eight small Icebergs. In no situation, if we may beislands, the principal bearing the names of Savaii, Upolu, and Tutuila. He appears to have found the natives superior to those of Tahiti, both in physical form, and in natural energy of character. They are considerably under the influence of their Missionaries; and, above all, their females are remarkable for modesty, parental affection, and fidelity to their husbands-virtues almost unknown throughout the rest of Polynesia. Departing from Savaii, the American Squadron reached Port Jackson on the 29th of November. Three chapters are occupied by the remarks of Captain Wilkes upon the Australian colony; and by his account of several visits made to the interior by himself and his officers. We pass over a part of his narrative about matters comparatively familiar to most English readers; but we cannot omit to express our gratification at the cordial tone in which he acknowledges the hospitable attention paid him by the colonial authorities, and at the friendly feelings which prevailed between the colonists in general, and the officers and men of his squadron. lieve the hardy voyagers who have returned from these fearful enterprises, is danger so acutely felt by the bravest; because in none is the utter inability of human skill to exert the slightest influence over the event, so overpoweringly manifest. And yet, even the desperate chances of such a struggle, must be a comparatively harmless prospect to the seaman who has beheld his vessel imbedded in a field of ice; while the short summer is rapidly passing away, and every day is diminishing his hope of escape from the horrors of a Polar winter. Few voyagers have experienced more of these formidable encounters within a short period than Captain Wilkes. On New Year's day, 1840, the Flying-fish parted company from the Squadron. The insufficient size and accommodation of the Tender had excited the surprise of her visitors at Sydney; many of whom, with more concern for the safety of their American friends, than consideration for their feelings, had not hesitated to predict the fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby, for her crew. These disadvantages were now severely felt; and her commander was at length On the 26th of December, the Vincennes, compelled, by the failing health of his men, accompanied by the Peacock, Porpoise, to abandon the intention of rejoining his and Flying-fish, sailed from Port Jackson consorts. The Flying-fish altered her course on her Antarctic cruise-a service for to the northward, on the 2d of February, which, as Captain Wilkes more than hints, and reached New Zealand on the 9th of they had been very indifferently provided. March. On the 10th of January, the VinThis want of the special equipments neces- cennes, Peacock, and Porpoise fell in with sary to the safety of the undertaking was in the first iceberg, being then in the 62d dea great measure common to the whole gree of south latitude; and in a few days Squadron; but the Peacock in particular they were constantly surrounded with was in other respects so defective as to be floating pieces of ice. On the 16th, land wholly unfit for any but a short and easy was clearly discovered from all the vessels, voyage; and it was not without the most in the shape of a large round-headed mounserious misgivings that Captain Wilkes tain, altogether different in shape and color yielded to the zealous anxiety of Captain from the intervening Icebergs. They were Hudson to accompany the Squadron, in-now off the coast of the great southern constead of remaining at Sydney to refit. The tinent, at a point nearly to the south-southproceedings of the expedition during the east of Van Diemen's Land. On the 20th, two succeeding months, form perhaps the the Peacock and Porpoise were directed to most interesting portion of the narrative. part company from the Vincennes, and to Among all the perilous and exciting adven- explore to the eastward; and on the 24th, tures of a seaman's life, there are none to the former vessel met with an accident, be compared, either in formidable aspect, which rendered her immediate return to or in actual danger, with those experienced Sydney a measure of absolute necessity. among the floating ice of the Polar regions. After penetrating the tract of floating ice, Neither the iron-bound coasts and devour- which forms a bulwark to every coast in ing whirlpools of the temperate, nor the these latitudes, and enduring several dam thunder-storms and tornados of the torrid gerous collisions, by which her rudder was zone, can equal the terrific situation of the entirely disabled; the ship was at length mariner, who finds himself driving helpless-driven stern foremost against a large Ice berg, with a violence which threatened in- | passed a night of as frightful danger, as we stant destruction. Fortunately she rebound-can remember in the annals of naval advened from the shock without sticking fast; ture. For nearly two months longer, the but scarcely had she moved her own length, Vincennes continued her toilsome progress when a vast mass of ice and snow, which along the coast of the Antarctic Continent, the blow had loosened, fell close to her-constantly surrounded by ice, and liable stern with a crash; which, had it taken at every moment to a renewal of the awful place one second sooner, would have crush-scene from which she had been so wondered her to atoms. A more tremendous in- fully extricated. The weather was, howstance of the risks attending this perilous ever, upon the whole, favorable; but her species of navigation, was probably never crew suffered severely from cold and fawitnessed by any voyager who survived to tigue, and it was not without remonstrance relate it; and such were the injuries inflict- from his medical officers that Captain ed upon the vessel, that it became a doubt-Wilkes completed his cruise. The ship ful question, not whether she could con- was constantly in sight of the land, but in tinue her cruise, but whether she could no instance do any of her people appear to hope to reach a port in safety. She imme- have succeeded in reaching it. Several diately stood to the northward, upon getting views of its appearance are, however, inclear of the floating ice; and on the 21st of February, being favored by the weather, arrived in a very shattered state at Sydney. The Porpoise reached New Zealand on the 20th of March, having continued exploring the coast until the 14th of February. serted in Captain Wilkes' work, and more wild and desolate scenes can scarcely be imagined. It presents a long undulating range of snowy mountains, stretching inland to the horizon-mountains which, in all probability, no living creature has ever trodden since the climate of our globe assumed its present temperature. At length, on the 21st of February, after having explored the coast from east to west, through nearly sixty degrees of longitude, the Vincennes put her head to the northward. Her passage was favorable, and, on the 11th of March, she arrived safe at Sydney, with all her crew restored to health. We now return to the Vincennes. She entered the icy barrier a few days after her separation from her consorts, and commenced exploring the coast to the westward. On the 29th of January she encountered one of the most formidable dangers to which the Polar voyager is liable-a gale of wind among floating Icebergs. For several hours she continued to drive rapidly through a heavy sea, surrounded on all sides by On the 19th, Captain Wilkes took his these fearful companions-now dimly seen final departure from Australia; and, on the through the mist and sleet,-now heard 30th, anchored in the Bay of Islands, at crashing and plunging in the darkness; but New Zealand, where he found the Porpoise always close to the vessel, and threatening and Flying-fish. The New Zealanders, to overwhelm her at every moment. When though always remarkable for their warlike the night closed in, without any diminution and sanguinary habits, have generally borne of the tempest, or dispersion of the ice, the a character higher, in some respects, than situation of the Vincennes became so peril- the other Polynesian tribes. Most voyagers ous as to be nearly desperate. All hands have given them credit for their prowess as were on deck, and Captain Wilkes acknow-resolute and fearless warriors; and for ledges, that he repeatedly gave up every hope some share of the manly dignity and honof escaping destruction. They were often orable pride which usually accompany perwarned of their narrow escape from striking sonal bravery. But Captain Wilkes, while on an Iceberg, by the sudden calm which acknowledging the common opinion of their the invisible monster produced, as the ship merits to be somewhat higher than his own, passed under his lee; and they more than seems inclined to place them among the once, when apparently driving directly upon most degraded and uninteresting of the sava field of ice, escaped through openings so ages whom he has visited. He considers narrow as to have been unperceived in the them as inferior in intelligence, and inhosdarkness. At length, early in the morning pitable in disposition; and seems particuof the 30th, the vessel entered a small open larly struck by their unprepossessing aptract of sea, where she lay to in compara-pearance, and by another defect uncommon tive safely, until the bad weather was over; among the amphibious islanders of that te-having certainly, to judge from the calm pid ocean-their extreme personal slovenand unadorned narrative of Captain Wilkes,liness |