the head, rather as an ornament, planks, and are better furnished. than a defence, either against the cold or the sun. "Like the lower classes of the Chinese, they have all a girdle round the loins, from which they suspend their dagger, as a defence against bears, and several small pockets for their flint and steel, their pipe and tobacco-box, smoking among them being a general practice. "Their buts are a sufficient shelter from the rain and inclemencies of the weather, but are very small, in proportion to the number of inhabitants who reside in them. The roof forms two inclined planes, ten or twelve feet high at the point of junction, and three or four on the sides, and its breadth is about fifteen feet, and length eighteen. These huts are constructed of frame-work, strongly joined together, flanked with the bark of trees, and covered on the top with dry grass, disposed in the same manner as the thatch on the cottages of our peasants. "In the inside of these houses a square of earth, raised six inches above the ground, and supported on the sides by strong planks, serves as a fire-place. Along the sides, and at the end of the apartment, are benches, twelve or fifteen inches high, and covered with mats, on which they sleep. "The utensils employed in cooking consist of an iron pot, porringers made of wood, and of the bark of the birch, of various shapes and workmanship, and they eat their food with small sticks, like the Chinese. They have generally two meals a day, one at noon, and the other in the evening. We observed in some of them vessels of Japan porcelain, which the great value set on them by the owners led me to believe were not to be procured without considerable trouble and expence. They cultivate no vegetable productions, but live on dried or smoked fish, and a little game, the produce of the chace. Each family has its own canoe, and its separate implements for hunting and fishing. Their arms are bows, javelins, and a kind of lance, which they use chiefly in bear-hunting. By the side of their huts are store-houses, in which they prepare and collect, during summer, their provision for the winter. It consists of dried fish, a large quantity of garlic and wild celery, angelica, a bulbous root, which they call apè, but known also under the name of the yellow lily of Kamtschatka, together with fish oil, which they preserve in the stomachs of the large animals they have killed in the chace. These storehouses are constructed of planks, strongly and closely joined together, and raised upon stakes about four feet from the ground. "Dogs are the only domestic animals which we saw among the natives of Tchoka. They are of a middling size, have shaggy hair, ears that stand erect, and a long muzzle: their cry is loud but not savage. "These islanders, of all the uncivilised tribes that we visited, if indeed they can with propriety be called uncivilized, are the only people among whom we observed weaving looms. Those which they employ, though so small as to be easily portable, are very complete in their construction. "The babitations on the south of the island are built with more They use also a spindle to precare, the flooring being generally of pare thread with the hair of animals, D2 mals, the bark of the willow, and the great nettle, of which they manufacture their stuffs.' "These people, who are of an extremely mild and unsuspicious character, appear to have commercial intercourse with the Chinese, by means of the Mantchou Tartars; with the Russians, from the northern part of their island; and with the Japanese from the southern part; but the articles of this commerce are of little importance, consisting merely of a few furs and some whale oil. This fish is caught only at the southern extremity of the island, and their method of extracting the oil is by no means economical: they drag the whale on shore where the ground is sloping, and, having suffered it to putrefy, receive in a trench at the bottom of the declivity, the oil which distils from the body, and which runs along small channels made for the purpose. "This island, called Tchoka by its inhabitants, Oku-Jesso by the Japanese, and by the Russians, who are acquainted only with the northern part of it, Sagaleen Island, comprehends, in its longest diameter, the whole space between the 46th and 54th parallels. ever, have an appearance of health and strength, which they enjoy even to a very advanced period of life; and I observed no signs among them of a defective conformation, nor the least trace of contagious, eruptive, or indeed any disease. "It is every where covered with wood, and mountainous towards the centre; but is flat towards the sea-coast, where the soil appears to be well adapted for agriculture. The vegetation is extremely luxu riant, and the forests abound with a variety of trees, such as the pine, willow, oak, and birch. The sea around supplies it with plenty of fish; and the rivers and brooks teem with salmon and trout of an excellent quality. "During our stay at this island, the weather was mild, but extremely foggy: all the inhabitants, how "After paying several visits to the natives of this island, which is separated from the coast of Tartaiy by a channel forming, as we supposed, a communication between the seas of Japan and Okhotsk, we continued our course to the north; but the water having gradually diminished in depth, through the whole breadth of the channel, till we had no more than six fathoms, M. de la Pérouse thought it expedient, for the safety of the ships, to return to the southward, since to reach Kamtschatka through this channel was evidently impossible. The continuance of the fogs, how. ever, and the obstinacy of the southerly winds, which, for four months, had almost constantly prevailed,rendered our situation critical in the extreme, and this enterprise both tedious and painful. "The wood and water with which we had provided ourselves at Manilla, being nearly consumed, our commodore sought for an opportunity to procure a fresh supply of these articles, before he attempted any thing new. "The weather having cleared up, on the 27th of July, 1787, we were enabled to explore a large bay, in which we anchored, as it seem-ed likely to afford us a safe retreat from storms, and the means of providing ourselves with the necessaries of which we stood in need, in order to continue our voyage. This bay is situated on theTartarian coast, in 51° 29′ of latitude north, and 139° 41' of longitude east; and we gave it the name of Baie de Castries. "The "The country is mountainous, and so closely covered with wood, from the luxuriance of vegetation, that the whole coast appears to form an immence forest. "Its inhabitants, the only people we bad met with on this coast, since our departure from Corea, were esta blished at the bottom of the bay, near the mouth of a small river, abounding in fish. "They are mild, affable, and, like the islanders of Tchoka, have no distrust of strangers: they are also scrupulously honest, and show little curiosity or desire to obtain even those articles which would be of the greatest advantage to them. "In saluting they bend the body forward, and when desirous of paying more than ordinary respect, they kneel, and bow the head so low as nearly to touch the ground. "The external organisation of these people exhibits little regularity; and seems to have no analogy with that of their neighbours of the island of Tchoka, who are separated from them only by a channel, in this part ten or twelve leagues in breadth. "These Tartars are inferior to the natives of Tchoka in height as well as strength, and their features are less regular and agreeable. Their complexion is not so dark, and those parts of the skin usually covered are even tolerably white. The hair of the head too is less thick, and on the chin and upper lip they have very little beard, whereas the islanders of Tchoka, as we observed before, are of a strong muscular make, and have more hair on their bodies than even Europeans. These differences in the constitution of the two people seem to indicate an essential difference of species; though they live under the same climate, and their manners and modes of life are analogous, or at least nearly so. "The women are ugly, and pos❤ sess very little of that characteristic mildness of features, which in general distinguishes the sex. They have a flat face, small round eyes, broad and high cheeks, a large head, well-shaped neck, and the extremities of the body small, but finely proportioned. "The general height of the men is about four feet nine or ten inches. The head is uncommonly large in proportion to the rest of the body; the face flat and almost square; the forehead small, round, and a little depressed backwards; the eyebrows, which are faintly marked, are of a black or chesnut colour, as is also the hair; the eyes are small and level with the face; the eye-lids are so little divided, that when open they are stretched at the corners; the nose is short, and so flat at the root as to be hardly perceptible; the cheeks are large and swelled out, the mouth wide, the lips thick and of a dull red, the teeth small and even, but very subject to decay, the chin nearly flat, the extremities of the body small, and the muscles scarcely apparent. This disproportion of parts excludes elegance of form, as well as delicacy of features, and these people therefore are the ugliest and most mean-looking race I have seen in either hemisphere. "Although these Tartars, and the natives of Tchoka, have both arrived at a tolerable degree of civilisation and politeness, they are unacquainted with agriculture, and live in a most filthy manner. Dur ing the season of summer their principal food is fresh fish, and in winter, fish that has been smoked, or dried on wooden frames, not unlike those of our tenter-grounds. D 3 The The method in which they prepare their fish is as follows: they first cut off the head, then gut them, take out the bones, hang the fish up to dry, and afterwards collect them into heaps, and preserve them in store-houses, similar to those of the island of Tchoka. "Their implements for fishing are the hook and line, nets, and a kind of spear headed with iron. 66 They have two regular meals a day, of which the whole family partake in common, one about noon, and the other at sun-set. Their domestic utensils, and method of cooking, are similar to those of the natives of Tchoka; and they procure these utensils, with other articles, from Mantchou Tartary and Japan. The avidity with which they devoured the raw skin of fresh fish, as well as the cartilaginous parts of the head, particularly astonished us. These, with train oil, appear to be considered by them as their greatest dainties. "Both the men and women have a kind of loose dress, nearly similar to a carter's frock, reaching to, the calf of the leg, and fastened before with copper buttons. This garment is in no respect different from that of the inhabitants of Tchoka: it is made sometimes of fish-skin, sometimes of nankeen, and in winter of fur: and those of the women are ornamented at the bottom with regular rows of flat pieces of copper. They all wear alike a kind of drawers or breeches, made in the Chinese manner, and short boots like those of the inhabitants of Tchoka; and have beside a ring either of horn or metal on the thumb, and trinkets suspended from the ears and nostrils. "I observed among them no chiefs, but the heads of families. Their only domestic animals are dogs, of the same kind as those of Tchoka, which they employ in winter to draw their sledges. "The custom so prevalent among other tribes of this hemisphere, of offering to strangers the use of their women, is not practised by these people. On the contrary, they appear to be held in great estimation by their husbands, and their occupations are confined to the management of their domestic concerns, of which the care of the children, and cooking, constitute the principal objects. "The umbilical cord is tied in the same manner as with us, immediately upon the birth of the child; and the child is then swathed, according to the mode practised by the Americans. When disposed to sleep, it is placed in a basket, or sort of cradle, made of wood, or the bark of the birch. "From the severity of the climate these Tartars are obliged to have both summer and winter habitations, the form and internal arrangements of which are scarcely different from those already described in the island of Tchoka. Their winter habitations are remarkable only for being sunk about four feet in the earth, and for having a kind of porch before the entrance. Hard and wretched as is their manner of living, these Tartars appeared, notwithstanding, to enjoy while young a tolerable share of health; but as they advance in life they are subject to inflammations of the tunica conjunctiva, which are common among them, as well as to blindness. That these disor ders are so frequent, is owing probably to general causes, such as the dazzling whiteness of the snow, which covers the ground for more than half the year, and the constant irritation produced in the organs of sight by the smoke, with which which their huts are continually filled, and to which they are obliged to retire in winter from the cold, and in summer from the moschet toes, that in these northern regions are extremely numerous. "Though their manner of life is filthy in the extre me cutaneous disorders are very rare among these people. I saw only two or three slight instances of rash, and child must render them incapable of supporting the same labour and fatigue as the latter, who are a people far more robust. "All these different tribes appear to have the utmost veneration for their dead, and employ their whole industry to bestow on them an honourable sepulture. They are interred with their clothes on, and the arms and implements which they used when alive are buried with them. The body is deposited in a coffin, made of boards, and of the same form as ours, the extremities of which are ornamented "The occupations of both sex- small pieces of silk stuff, either es, their implements for fishing and plain, or embroidered in gold and hunting, and their canoes, are very silver. The coffin is then enclosed little different from those of the in a tomb, raised about four feet inhabitants of Tchoka; but the from the ground, and constructed weakness of their physical faculties of strong planks or boards." six years of age who had the tinea: and as to bodily conformation, I observed among them no defect, nor any trace either of the smallpox or of the venereal disease. with INTERESTING ACCOUNT of the CHARACTER and POLITICAL STATE of the MODERN GREEKS. " [From a SURVEY of the TURKISH EMPIRE, &c. by W. ETON, Esq.] YONQUERED Greece polish ved Rome, but the conquerors were Romans. Conquered Greece did not polish Turkey, for the conquerors were Turks. The insensibility of these barbarians is asto nishing living amid the effulgence of genius, they have not caught one spark; they gaze with unfeeling stupidity on the wonder and boast of art, on their glorious monuments, on their temples, and conclude they were built by genii, and then destroy them, to burn the marble for lime to make stucco for their own tasteless houses, whence the fine arts are banished; where ignorance, tyranny, superstition, and gross sensuality only dwell in sad and stupidly-solemn pomp, or issuing out with savage fury, lay waste the country round, and imbrue their hands in the blood of the helpless, murdering without remorse those they have conquered. Thus the finest countries in the world are become deserts; part inhabited by savage beasts, and part by more savage men: the poor aborigines skulking in hiding-places like the timid hare (which epithet the Turks give them in derision), while those beasts of prey roam abroad. "Every object moral and physical, the fair face of nature and the intellectual energies of the inhabitants, have alike been blasted and defiled by the harpy-touch of Turkish tyranny. As an instance of those changes which the country has undergone we need only consider the island of Cyprus, now an almost uninhabited desert, which was, not only in ancient times, but D 4 when |