art fhould become, as it was formerly, a part of the mafter's care, as well as the diverfion of the young people under this general term I comprehend young ladies alfo, whofe fedentary life often difturbs their health, and I may even venture to fay, the happiness of fociety.'

The remaining parts of this work are taken up in giving precautions concerning exercife; directions about dict; obfervations on water, wine, tea, coffee, chocolate, tobacco; the bad effects of drinking warm liquors; the ufes of the bark, coldbath, frictions, and mineral-waters.-Here the Reader will meet with many ufeful and well-known obfervations; in fome few places, however, Dr. Tiflot's arguments are rather ingenious than conclufive.

As to the tranflation, it is, upon the whole, tolerably well executed; and the additional notes, by Dr. Kirkpatrick, are, in general, pertinent and judicious.

Travels of a Philofopher or Obfervations on the Manners and Arts of the various Nations in Africa and Afia. Tranflated from the French of M. Le Poivre, late Envoy to the King of Cochin China, and now Intendant of the Ifles of Bourbon and Mauritius. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Becket. 1769.

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THE travels of a philofopher are certainly the only travels which furnish information of any importance; but a reader may perhaps receive more gratification in discovering a writer to be a true philofopher, than in attending to one who fets out with declaring, I am a philofopher. However, though this claim may not altogether fuit the tafte of an English reader, it may be overlooked in a French writer.

In our last Appendix, we briefly fpoke of this book, as a foreign publication. Its appearance in our language now entitles it to farther notice.

The two following fhort paragraphs contain part of what the Author (M. le Poivre) has himself said of his work:

The ftate of agriculture has ever been the principal object. of my refearches among the various people I have feen in the courfe of my voyages. It is almoft impoffible for a traveller, who perhaps only paffes through a country, to make such remarks as are neceffary to convey a juft idea of the government, police, and manners of the inhabitants. In fuch a cafe, the criterion which beft marks the internal state of a nation, is to obferve the public markets, and the face of the country. If the markets abound in provifions, if the fields are well cultivated, and covered with rich crops, then in general you may conclude that the country is well peopled, that the inhabitants are civi

lized and happy, that their manners are polished, and their government agreeable to the principles of reafon.-You may then fay to yourself, I am amongst men.

When, on the contrary, I have arrived amongst a people, whom it was neceffary to fearch for amidft forefts, whofe neglected lands were overgrown with brambles; when I have traverfed large tracts of uncultivated defarts, and then at laft ftumbled on a grubb'd-up wretchedly cultivated field; when arrived at length at fome canton, I have obferved nothing in the public market but a few forry roots, I no longer hesitated to determine the inhabitants to be wretched favages, or groaning under themoft oppreffive flavery.'

The almoft total neglect of cultivation on the western coafts of Africa occafions the Author to execrate both the country and its inhabitants; while the far different appearance of the fouthern extremity, about the Cape of Good Hope, affords him an opportunity, in the exultation of his heart, to make the following liberal reflection, the effufion of philanthropy:

The countries around the Cape were condemned to the fame fterility before the Dutch took poffeffion of them; but fince their eftablishment on this point of Africa, the lands produce in abundance wheat and grain of every kind, wines of different qualities, and a confiderable quantity of excellent fruits, collected from every quarter of the world. There you fee extenfive paftures covered with horses, black cattle, and sheepthefe herds and flocks thrive exceedingly well. The abundance which this colony enjoys, compared to the barrennefs of the furrounding countrics, evidently demonftrates that the earth denies her favours only to the tyrant and the flave; but becomes prodigal of her treasures, beyond the most fanguine hope, fo foon as fhe is free, and cultivated by men of difcernment, whom wife and invariable laws protect."

This remark indicates a generous mind, but it may neverthelefs lead a perfon to a wrong general conclufion from partial premiffes. It is not every part of England or France, that fhews the fame degree of fertility and cultivation; for though the influence of laws is general, local difadvantages cannot always be counteracted and there are fome diftricts in either of them, from which, if a traveller's view was confined to them, he might, without careful infpection, and correct information, be induced to draw very romantic conclufions.

A writer animated with fo warm a love of liberty, is an honour to any country: but fuch principles as the following were hardly to be expected from the foil which has produced them:

Liberty and property form the bafis of abundance, and good agriculture: I never obferved it to flourish where thofe rights of inankind were not firmly cítablished. The earth, which mul

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tiplies her productions with a kind of profufion, under the hands of the free-born labourer, feems to fhrink into barrennefs under the sweat of the flave. Such is the will of the great author of our nature, who has created man free, and affigned to him the earth, that he might cultivate his poffeffion with the fweat of his brow; but ftill fhould enjoy his liberty.'

Alas poor Corfica! this Frenchman would never have ftained thy fhores with the blood of one half of thy valiant fons, to enable him to impofe chains on the other!

One of the fulleft defcriptions in this work, in which we have hardly any thing but mere fketches and outlines, only causes us to regret that it was not fuller:

Beyond the kingdom of Siam is the peninfula of Malacca ; a country formerly well peopled, and, confequently, well cultivated. This nation was once one of the greatest powers, and made a very confiderable figure on the theatre of Afia. The fea was covered with their fhips, and they carried on a most extenfive commerce. Their laws, however, were apparently_very different from those which fubfift among them at prefent. From time to time they fent out numbers of colonies, which, one after another, peopled the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Celebes or Macaffor, the Moluccas, the Philippines, and those innumerable iflands of the Archipelago, which bound Afia on the east, and which occupy an extent of feven hundred leagues, in longitude, from eaft to weft, by about fix hundred of latitude, from north to fouth. The inhabitants of all these islands, thofe at least upon the coafts, are the fame people; they fpeak almoft the fame language, have the fame laws, the fame manners. Is it not fomewhat fingular, that this nation, whofe poffeffions are fo extenfive, fhould fcarce be known in Europe?I fhall endeavour to give you an idea of thofe laws, and thofe manners; you will, from thence, eafily judge of their agriculture.

Travellers, who make obfervations on the Malais, are aftonifhed to find, in the center of Afia, under the fcorching climate of the line, the laws, the manners, the customs, and the prejudices of the ancient inhabitants of the north of Europe. The Malais are governed by feudal laws, that capricious fyftem, conceived for the defence of the liberty of a few against the tyranny of one, whilft the multitude is fubjected to flavery and oppreffion.

A chief, who has the title of king, or fultan, iffues his commands to his great vaffals, who obey when they think proThefe have inferior vaffals, who often act in the fame manner with regard to them. A fmall part of the nation live independent, under the title of Oramçai, or noble, and fell their

fervices

fervices to those who pay them beft; whilft the body of the nation is compofed of flaves, and live in perpetual fervitude.

• With thefe laws the Malais are reftlefs, fond of navigation, war, plunder, emigrations, colonies, defperate enterprizes, adventures, and gallantry. They talk inceffantly of their honour, and their bravery, whilft they are univerfally confidered, by those with whom they have intercourfe, as the most treacherous, ferocious people on the face of the globe; and yet, which appeared to me extremely fingular, they fpeak the fofteft language of Afia. That which the Count de Forbin has faid, in his Memoirs, of the ferocity of the Macaffars, is exactly true, and is the reigning characteristic of the whole Malay nations. More attached to the abfurd laws of their pretended honour, than to thofe of juftice or humanity, you always obferve, that amongst them, the ftrong opprefs and deftroy the weak: their treaties of peace and friendship never fubfifting beyond that felf-intereft which induced them to make them, they are almost always armed, and either at war amongst themselves, or employed in pillaging their neighbours.

This ferocity, which the Malais qualify under the name of courage, is fo well known to the European companies, who have fettlements in the Indies, that they have universally agreed in prohibiting the captains of their fhips, who may put into the Malay islands, from taking on board any feamen of that nation, except in the greatest diftrefs, and then, on no account, to exceed two or three.

It is nothing uncommon for a handful of these horrid favages fuddenly to embark, attack a veffel by surprize, poignard in hand, maflacre the people, and make themselves masters of her. Malay batteaus, with twenty-five or thirty men, have been known to board European fhips of thirty or forty guns, in order to take poffeffion of them, and murder, with their poignards, great part of the crew. The Malay history is full of fuch enterprizes, which mark the defperate ferocity of thefe barbarians.

The Malais, who are not flaves, go always armed: they would think themfelves difgraced, if they went abroad without their poignards, which they call Crit. The induftry of this nation even furpaffes itfelf, in the fabrick of this deftructive weapon.

As their lives are a perpetual round of agitation and tumult, they could never endure the long flowing habits, which prevail amongst the other Afiatics. The habits of the Malais are exactly adapted to their fhapes, and loaded with a multitude of buttons, which fasten them close to their bodies in every part. -I relate these feemingly trifling obfervations, in order to prove, that, in climates the moft oppofite, the fame laws pro

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duce fimilar manners, cuftoms, and prejudices. Their effect is the fame too with refpect to agriculture.'

We have alfo fome general remarks on the natives of China, and Cochin China, with their agriculture; but the most extraordinary relation in the work is the origin of the kingdom of Ponthiamas; which, if we had not conceived a favourable impreffion of the Author, might be fuppofed to owe fome embellifhment to his imagination:

Departing from the peninfula of Malacca, and the islands of the Malais, towards the north, I fell in with a fmall territory called Cancar, but known, on the marine charts, under the name of Ponthiamas. Surrounded by the kingdom of Siam, where defpotifm and depopulation go hand in hand; the dominions of Camboya, where no idea of eftablished government fubfifts; and the territories of the Malais, whofe genius, perpetually agitated by their feudal laws, can endure peace neither at home nor abroad: this charming country, about fifty years ago, was uncultivated, and almoft deftitute of inhabitants.

A Chinese merchant, commander of a veffel which he employed in commerce, frequented thefe coafts. Being a man of that intelligent reflective genius, which fo characteristically marks his nation, he could not, without pain, behold immenfe tracts of ground condemned to fterility, though naturally more. fertile than thofe which formed the riches of his own country: he formed, therefore, a plan for their improvement. With this view, having first of all hired a number of labourers, fome Chinefe, others from the neighbouring nations, he with great addrefs, infinuated himself into the favour of the most powerful princes, who, for a certain fubfidy, afligned him a guard for his protection.

In the courfe of his voyage to Batavia, and the Philippine iflands, he borrowed from the Europeans their most useful difcoveries and improvements, particularly the art of fortification and defence with regard to internal police, he gave the preference to the Chinefe. The profits of his commerce foon enabled him to raise ramparts, fink ditches, and provide artillery. Thefe preliminary precautions fecured him from a coup de main, and protected him from the enterprizes of the furrounding nations of barbarians.

He diftributed the lands to his labourers, without the leaft refervation of any of thofe duties or taxes known by the names of fervice or fines of alienation; duties which by allowing no real property, become the moft fatal fcourge to agriculture, and is an idea which revolts against the common fenfe of every wife nation. He provided his colonifts, at the fame time, with all forts of inftruments proper for the labour and improvement of their grounds.