even there, fashion has established her empire. In the voyage, only one seaman died, and this from the dysentery; some sailors deserted, but they were seduced by the allurements of a climate so delicious. In the route from the Sandwich Islands to Bourdeaux, the ship only touched at the port of Canton, and at the island of Mauritius. One fact appears truly singular, that of the flesh meat substances embarked at Bourdeaux, in 1816, whatever returned, was in a state perfectly sound and well preserved; this arose from making use of the process of M. Balguerie, which consists in placing the meat in three successive sprinklings of salt, and afterwards, in carbonised brine. Mutton dried in the oven, has been well kept in pulverised charcoal. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, 66 N your Magazine for March last, under the head of « Literary and Philosophical Intelligence," it is noticed, that "the enterprising traveller Mr. Ritchie, who proceeded some time since with an expedition from Tripoli, for the purpose of exploring the interior of Africa," has communicated an account he received from one of his friends of what he knew respecting "the Petrified City," of which Dr. Shaw (in his Travels or Observations relating to several Parts of Barbary and the Levant), gives the following particulars, which perhaps some of the readers of your widely circulated Miscellany who may not have that, now scarce, book to refer to, will be pleased with having the opportunity of perusing; I have therefore transcribed it, if you think it worth the trouble of inserting, and am, yours, &c. Of RAS SEM, or the PETRIFIED VILLAGE in the CYRENAICA. "I shall conclude this branch of the natural history of Barbary with some remarks upon the pretended Petrified City at Ras Sem, in the province of Dacka, in the kingdom of Tripoli. "This place, then, which lies six days' journey to the S. of Binguze, the ancient Berenice, in the greater Syrtis, has been occasionally taken notice of in the former edition, where it was observed that nothing was to be seen there, besides some petrifactions, as might well be accounted for from the Deluge; which likewise had been already discovered in other parts of the world.' In treating likewise of the violent heat which attends the Deserts of Libya and Arabia, I took notice that, at Saibah, a few days' journey beyond Ras Sem, towards Egypt, there is a whole caravan, consisting of men, asses, and camels, which, from time immemorial, has been preserved at that place. The greatest part of these bodies still continue perfect and entire, from the heat of the Sun and dryness of the climate; and the tradition is, that they were all of them originally surprised, suffocated, and dried up, by the hot scorching winds, that sometimes frequent these deserts.' "The Arabs, who are as little conversant in geography and natural history as they are artful and ingenious enough in fable and romance, had here a very favourable and lucky opportunity, by jumbling and connecting together the petrifactions of Ras Sem, with these preserved bodies at Saibah, to project and invent the plan of the Petrified City, in all the wild and extravagant dress, wherein it is commonly described. This, I believe, is the true matter of fact; and all that may be depended upon in this story. into whilst Cassam Aga, the Tripoly ambas"It was, however, a subject much enquired from a thousand persons, as he said, and parsador, resided lately in London. He reported ticularly from a friend of his of great veracity, who had been upon the spot, that this scene of petrifactions consisted of a large town, in a circular figure, which had several streets, shops, and a magnificent castle belonging to it. That this friend of his saw there different sorts of trees, but mostly the olive and the palm; all of them turned into there were men also to be seen in different a blueish or cinder-coloured stone. That cising their trades and occupations; others postures and attitudes; some of them exerholding staffs, others bread, &c. in their hands. The women, likewise, were, some of them, giving suck to their children; others were sitting at their kneading troughs, &c. That, in entering the castle, there was a man lying on a magnificent bed of stone, with the guards standing at the doors, armed with pikes and spears. That he saw different sorts of animals, such as camels, oxen, asses, horses, sheep, and birds, (nay, the very dogs, cats, and mice are enumerated in other accounts:) all of them converted into stone, and of the above-mentioned colour. In one of these histories, some of these bodies are said to want their heads, others a leg or an preserved (not petrified) bodies above recited. arm; and so far agree with the caravan of petrified money had been brought from It is further related, that several pieces of thence; some of which were of the bigness of an English shilling, charged with a horse's head on one side, and with some unknown characters on the other.' This is the substance of that variety of reports, which have been given and related of this place, at different times, and by differens persons." April 10, 1820. NORVICENSIS, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, I [N the 25th Number of the Quarterly Review, (article Park's Travels;) the hypothesis there laid down, as almost indisputable, is the noncontiguity of the two Niles of Africa, or (according to the European phraseology of the day) of the Niger and the Nile. This hypothesis, founded on the theory of Major Rennel, carries with it no evidence whatever, but the speculative geography of that learned geologist. The identity or connexion of the two Niles, and the consequent water communication between Cairo and Timbuctoo receives, (supposing the Quarterly Review to be correct,) as our intelligence respecting Africa increases, additional confirmation; and even the Quarterly Reviewer, who denominated the opinion recorded by me, the gossipping stories of Negroes, (vide Quarterly Review, No. 25, p. 140,) now favors this opinion! The Quarterly Reviewer appreciates Burkhardt's information on this subject, and depreciates mine, although both are derived from the same sources of intelligence, and confirm one another; the Reviewer says, Mr. Burkhardt has revived a question of older date, viz. that "The Niger of Sudan and the Nile of Egypt are one and the same river: this general testimony to a physical fact can be shaken only, by direct proof to the contrary.” This is all very well. I do not object to the Quarterly Reviewer giving up an opinion, which he finds no longer tenable, but when I see in the same Review, (No. 44, p. 481,) the following words, We give no credit whatever to the report, received by Mr. Jackson, of a person, (several Negroes it should be.) having performed a voyage by water, from Timbuctoo to Cairo." I cannot but observe with astonishment, that the Reviewer believes Burkhardt's report, that they are the same river, when at the same time, he does not believe mine. Is there not an inconsistency here, somewhat incomparable with the impartiality, which ought to regulate the works of criticism?-I will not for a moment suppose it to have proceeded from a spirit of animosity, which I feel myself unconscious of deserving. But Vide Jackson's Account of Morocco, &c. Chap. 13. MONTHLY MAG. No. 339. the Reviewer further says, the objection to the identity of the Niger and the Nile, is grounded on the incongruity of their periodical inundations, or on the rise and fall of the former river not corresponding with that of the latter. I do not comprehend whence the Quarterly Reviewer has derived this information; I have always under. stood the direct contrary, which I have declared in the last editions of my account of Marocco, page 304, which has been confirmed by a most intelligent African traveller, Aly Bey, (for which, see his Travels, page 220.) I may be allowed to observe, that although the Quarterly Reviewer has changed his opinion on this matter, I have invariably maintained mine, founded as it is on the concurrent testimony of the best informed and most intelligent native African travellers, and I still assert, on the same foundation, the identity of the two Niles and their contiguity of waters. I have further to remark, what will most probably, ere long prove correct, viz. that thet Babar Abiad, that is to say, the river that passes through the country of Negroes, between the Senaar and Douga, is an erroneous appellation, originating in the general ignorance among European travellers, of the African Arabic, and that the proper name of this river is Bahar Abeed, which is another term for the river, called the Nile-el Abeed, which passes south of Timbuctoo towards the east, (called by Europeans the Niger.) It therefore appears to me, and I really think it must appear to every unbiassed investigator of African geography, that every iota of African discovery, made successively by Hornemann, Burkhardt, and others, tends to confirm my water communication between Timbuctoo and Cairo; and the theorists, and speculators in African geography, who have heaped hypothesis upon hypothesis, error upon error, who have raised splendid fabrics upon pillars of ice, will e'er long close their book, and be compelled by the force of truth and experience, to admit the fact stated about twelve years ago by me, in my Account of Marocco, &c. viz. that the Nile of Sudan and the † Babar Abiad signifies White River; Babar, Abeed signifies River of Negroes. Vide my letter in Monthly Magazine on this subject for March 1817, p. 124. 2.T tinuity Nile of Egypt are identified by a continuity of waters, and that a water communication is provided by these two great rivers, from Timbuctoo to Cairo; and moreover that the general African opinion, that the Nile El Abeed (Niger) discharges itself in the Salt Sea, El Babar Mâleb, signifies neither more nor less, than that it discharges itself at the Delta in Egypt, into the Mediterranean Sea. JAMES GREY JACKSON. London, April 7, 1820. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, FIND that I am accused of having improperly attributed to M. Riche de Prony a want of candour and attention to truth, in publishing a history of the improved Steam Engine, without once mentioning the name of Mr. James Watt, the real inventor, but giving the credit to M. M. Perriers of Paris. In answer to that accusation, I have to say, First," that the truth may be ascertained by inspecting Prony's History of the Steam Engine at Taylor's Architectural library in Holborn, which is my authority.". Second," that in 1810, or 1811, I saw Mr. Watt in London, in presence of Mrs. Watt, when on mentioning the injustice that Prony had done him, he said it was true, but that he had seen Prony in Paris since, when he promised to remedy the mistake.Third, I have in my possession a letter of Mr. Watt's son, in which he says, that it would be better not to attack Prony, but he does not say that it was not justifiable to do so." Now, Sir, I think I have answered my accuser in a way that admits of no reply; but the fact is, I not only accuse Prony of the mis-statement, but I said, and shall say, that it could not arise from mistake or error; for the Perriers themselves, whom I know, never pretended to be the inventors, and Prony was nearly on the spot when the first steam engine manufactured in parts in England, was erected at Chaillot, by one of the Perriers of Paris. As I drew by Mr. Watt's directions, the plans from which that engine was made, and know well the disposition of the French to monopolize the merit of all inventions to themselves, I confess I had a particular desire to set this matter right. I did so first on the account of Mr. Watt, in Public Characters 16 or 18 years ago. I did so again in 1818, in Galignani's Guide to Paris; and lastly in the Memoir published on the death of Mr. Watt in your Monthly Magazine. Your inserting this will be an act of justice, and oblige your obedient servant, WILLIAM PLAYFAIR. London, April 5, 1820. WALLER'S VOYAGE in the WEST INDIES.-(Journal of Voyages, p. 93.) To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, TH HIS is in many material points, an erroneous statement, originating, it would seem, in a desire of the author to excite an unfavourable prejudice against the general treatment of slaves in the Island of Barbadoes; arising also from a misrepresentation to him, and the consequent blending of two circumstances, wholly unconnected with each other.-The fact is, that, the colonial law, making the killing of a slave murder in the Island of Barbadoes, did not pass the legislature, until two or three years after the murder referred to, nor was the murderer a rich planter, but a coloured man, of the name of Mason, a sheriff's officer, who was intrusted with a writ to execute on another coloured man, towards whom, it appeared in evidence, he had long entertained great enmity. The debtor, having for some time eluded the vigilance of the officer, was at last discovered; and the officer to make surety double sure, of his own accord, took a corporal's guard for his assistants. The debtor fled up a court in Bridgetown, where his person might have been secured, without the possibility of resistance; but Mason, availing himself of this, to him favourable opportunity, of gratifying his malice, ordered the guard to fire; and the man was killed. For this offence, he was tried by the then existing laws of Barbadoes, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged.— The execution, which was witnessed by the person who gives this information, took place about the end of Dec. 1802, or early inJan. 1803, at which period Lord Seaforth, (not Lord Seymour,) was governor, whose manly and decided conduct upon the occasion, was, as it merited, the theme of universal admiration.-The conclusion of the anecdote is correct, with this addition, that after the breaking of the rope, Lord Seaforth requested General Grenfield, then commanding the forces at Barbadoes, to attend with a detachment under arms, (the only troops called out out upon the occasion) to support his authority. This detachment was halted out of sight of the place of execution, and the governor attended only by two aidde-camps, rode up, and issued his mandate in the following terms, "Prisoner, you have been legally tried for the crime of murder, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged:-officer, do your duty," and drawing his sword, "Now let me see who dares to prevent it." The man was instantly hanged without further opposition. This is a plain and correct statement in regard to Mason.The other transaction, with which Mr. Waller's account is blended, refers no doubt to the case of Mr. Hodges of Tortola, an opulent planter, who had long been notorious for cruelty, and was about four years ago executed on that Island, after considerable opposition, for the murder of his slaves under circumstances of unprecedented bar barity. Q. It is laid down by Euclid, B. 13. Prop. I. that "If a right line be cut into extreme and mean ratio, the square of the greater segment plus half the original line (taken as one line) is five times the square of the half of the original line.” Again, Prop. IV. "If a right line be divided into mean and extreme ratio; then the squares of the whole and lesser part together are three times the square of the greater part." Can any of your mathematical correspondents inform me what numbers will produce the above results? IV. Q. Can any of your readers apprize an enquirer after truth, where a full and impartial account can be met with in the English language of the physical philosophy of Descartes? ORIGINAL POETRY. SONNET. FEELING. BY JOHN DILLON. Brief as the lightning's passing flame. This This is not feeling;-'tis the play And men may mock him, and deride His wandering words that, light and vain, All his dark, lowering thoughts, and brood And should the laugh of human kind He views them with an unchanged eye;— Content within himself to live, } TOLERANCE. By the Author of the EMPIRE OF THE NAIRS. Have heard one voice protest against them all. Not to a sceptre that such powers belong, But ere ten millions in a truth believe, Can fickle France, of guilty triumphs vain, Or France still pure, as when she burst her chain, Still full of visions of Utopian bliss, In all her annals show a day like this, Abjured each heresy of reason's school, This creed is found too short, and that too long. We call Religion what ourselves believe, But charity on earth and reason groaned, * Mr. Owen, who avowed his religious tenets, at the meeting convened in 1817, to consider his system for the support of the poor. Such |