exceed the proprietors in a tenfold proportion, it would be nefarious and unwarrantable. After his dissertation on the Brazils, Mr. Barrow proceeds with the narration of his voyage. The islands of Tristan da Cunha and Amsterdam are visited and described; and the description may be useful to those who next approach these islands, though to us it appeared very uninteresting. The avidity of our merchants may however be excited, when they learn that at Tristan da Cunha the largest ships can ride in safety, and can take in water with the greatest ease; and that the place may easily be made impregnable, requiring only a few men for its defence, &c. Should we, therefore, (says Mr. B.) at any future time be so unfortunate as to be excluded from the Brazils and the Cape of Good Hope, this half-way island to India would be found to possess many conveniences. Even those who may contend that our colonial territories are already sufficiently extended must at least agree that we can never have too many points of security and accommodation for our ships of war and of commerce.' Mercy, Mercy, good Mr. Barrow : these speculations and projects may be sport to you, but, should they be realised, to us who stay at home and must pay the cost, they will be death. In the island of Amsterdam, our travellers found Thermal springs in some, the temperature was that of boiling water, 212° in others, which were adjacent, they angled, and caught red coloured perch from six inches to a foot in length, of a most excellent flavor; which, (says Mr. B.), with true epicurean want of feeling, we had the cruelty to drop living off the hook into the boiling springs, where it required just fifteen minutes to cook them in perfection.' We cannot introduce the reader to Cochin China before we have delayed him a short time at Batavia. island of Java, its productions, &c. Mr. B. has communicated several valuable particulars; and respecting the city of Ba tavia, its pestilence, feasting, and inhabitants, much information and many amusing anecdotes. In his narration on this subject, moreover, he does not disturb our serenity with his foible he does not recommend, nor even does he wish, the English to attempt the conquest of Batavia. Now what is it that forbids us to attempt the conquest of Batavia? Principally, the unhealthiness of the climate, for the island is extremely productive, and the whole Navy of England might ride in the bay, secure from winds. Several remarkable instances of mortality are mentioned. In the military Hospi-tal, the register of deaths for 62 years amounted to 78,000 persons, 7 persons, or 1258 annually, and the military establishment includes only 1500 soldiers. In 1791 the Duke of Wirtemberg, (at present his Majesty the King of Wirtemberg,) let out to the Dutch some of his troops, amounting to 270 men, with six officers; and in the following year 150 privates and five officers fell victims to the climate. The mortality, no doubt, is increased by the intemperance of the resident Europeans, since of 115,000 inhabitants the annual loss is about 4000: but then the Dutch, in proportion to their numbers, contribute most largely to this list of death; and Mr. B. presents, in a short table, the relative proportions of the several people of Batavia: thus; Dutch, half-cast and families Natives and Malays Slaves Mortality. 9 per cent. The mortality among European females is not nearly so great as among the males; and this fact, joined with the plain inference from the preceding table, proves that intemperance is a principal cause of the evil; or, to speak more correctly, that temperance would be a great preservative against contagion and disease: but temperance is a mere name in Batavia. Of the virtue they have indeed heard, and some of their books have ventured to praise it: but of its existence they afford no example. Addison, in one of his papers, indulges his fancy in conceiving the tribe of diseases to be concealed within the highly seasoned viands of a sumptuous table : whether the Batavian Deputy Governor, Van Weigerman, unbent to the playfulness of a similar allegory when he said that • Batavia was an accursed country, in which he ate poison and drank pestilence at every meal,' we cannot positively determine; but Mr. B.'s account of his profuse dinner seems to decide. the question in the affirmative. If it be urged that the cha racter of a people is not to be appreciated from their occasional feasts of hospitality, and that in order to form a right judgment on this subject we ought to view them in the usual routine of a day's occupation, still the author's delineation confirms the former opinion. We cannot find room for the passages which we had here designed to quote. Among the most useful inhabitants in Batavia, are the Chinese, who are carpenters, gardeners, &c. but they are very heavily taxed by the Dutch, and in the year 1740, on unjust and foul pretences, they were inhumanly massacred.-Mr. B.'s description pays just tribute to the peaceable virtues and industrious industrious habits of the Chinese; and it shews that a government, which does not aim at conquest, and is not endangered by invasion, cannot have better subjects. He also describes the Javanese and Malaya, and refers the former to a Hindoo, and the latter to a Tartar origin. We must, however, leave Dutchmen, Javanese, and Malays, to pursue our voyage to Cochin China, at which place the reader does not arrive till he has passed over 240 pages of the volume. The kingdom of Cochin China is laid down on ordinary maps it is situated between the 18th and 10th degrees of latitude, with its eastern side bounded by the sea, and its western by a ridge of high mountains, which separate it from the kingdom of Cambodia; and two or three degrees to the north, the empire of China begins. Very little is known concerning Cochin China and the adjacent countries; and Mr. Barrow, in a tone of reproach, observes that, in the best arranged modern systems of geography, a considerable portion of modern Asia, containing twenty millions of inhabitants, is passed over with a mere dash of the pen. Its history is here commenced in the year 1774; when an insurrection, headed by three Brothers, a Merchant (Yin-yac), a Priest, and a General Officer (Long-niang), deprived Caung-shung of the throne of Cochin China. It was divided between the three, and Long-niang soon made war on the king of Tungquin, a vassal of China, and obliged him to fly to Pekin for the purpose of demanding assistance. Kien-lung, the emperor, ordered his Invincible army, under the viceroy of Canton, to march and reinstate the king of Tung-quin: but the politic Long-niang (who had assumed the title of Quangtung,) laid waste the country, and soon obliged them to retreat, from want of provisions, the army having lost by famine and the sword nearly 50,cco men. The viceroy Foo-chang-tong was obliged to negociate: but his antagonist refused to yield the title to the kingdom of Tung-quin. Foochang tong, more fitted for the cabinet than the field, was reduced to employ finesse; and he represented to the emperor that his invincible army had performed most wonderful feats, but that the supposed usurper was much beloved by the Tung quinese, had a fair title to the abdicated throne, and that it would be politic to invite him to the court of Pekin to perform the accustomed ceremonies and duties of vassalage. Instead of making his personal appearance, however, the wary Long niang imposed on the court of Pkin, as his representative, one of his Generals. The mock king was favourably received and sent back but Long-niang, puzzled by this unexpected issue, rewarded the faithful service of the Generat 3 General by putting him and the whole of his suite to death, in order to prevent a discovery of the trick. At the time of the insurrection, a French missionary, Adran, resided at the court as tutor to the son of the king; and from the general wreck and slaughter, he rescued the queen, the prince, his wife, and their infant son: their first concealment was in a wood, under the branches of a royal banyan tree; and after the ardor of search had subsided, the fugitives proceeded to Sai-gong, where the prince was crowned as king under the name of Caung-shung. A large army, however, sent by Yin-yac the merchant king, compelled the royal party again to flee; and they embarked on the river of Sai-gong, and landed on a small uninhabited island in the gulph of Siam. Here the king was joined by about 1200 of his adherents: but, the usurper preparing an expedition against him, Caung-shung resolved to throw himself on the protection of the king of Siam. This monarch granted an asylum to the exiled prince; and, being at war with the Birmans, he accepted of his profered assistance: which, by the aid of the European tactics, taught to Caung-shung by Adran, was so effectual that, in a short time, the Birmans were compelled to sue for peace. Jealousy of his talents, however, and suspicion of ambitious views, raised in Siam a party against poor Caung-shung; and he was obliged, at the head of his faithful followers in arms, to force his way out of the capital of Siam, to reimbark on some Siamese vessels and Malay proas seized in the harbour, and again to occupy his old island; which, with the guns taken from the vessels, he fortified so as to be secure equally against the king of Siam and his own subjects. In the mean time, Adran had been visiting the southern provinces of Cochin China; and finding the sentiments of the people hostile to the usurper, he resolved to sail for France, and to apply to its court for effectual assistance, in re-instating the king on his throne. He took with him from Pondicherry the son of Caung-shung, and arrived at Paris in 1787. His project was presented, and adopted; and in the course of a few months a treaty was signed at Versailles between Louis XVI. and the king of Cochin China. The prin cipal articles of this extraordinary Compact are: I. There shall be an offensive and defensive alliance between the Kings of France and Cochinchina: they do hereby agree mutually to afford assistance to each other against all those who may make war upon either of the two contracting parties. II. To accomplish this purpose, there shall be put under the orders of the King of Cochinchina a squadron of twenty French ships of war, of such size and force as shall be deemed sufficient for the demands of his service. III. Five complete European regiments, and two regiments of native colonial troops, shall be embarked without delay for Cochin china. IV. His Majesty Louis XVI. shall engage to furnish, within four months, the sum of one million dollars; five hundred thousand of which shall be in specie, the remainder in salt petre, cannon, musquets, and other military stores. V. From the moment the French troops shall have entered the dominions of the King of Cochinchipa, they and their generals, both by sea and land, shall receive their orders from the King of Cochinchina. To this effect the commanding officers shall be furnished with instructions from his Catholic Majesty to obey in all things, and in all places, the will of his new ally. On the other hand, I. The King of Cochinchina, as soon as tranquillity shall be reestablished in his dominions, shall engage to furnish, for fourteen ships of the line, such a quantity of stores and provisions as will en able them to put to sea without delay, on the requisition of the ambassador from the King of France; and for the better effecting this purpose, there shall be sent out from Europe a corps of officers and petty officers of the marine, to be put upon a permanent establishment in Cochinchina. II. His Majesty Louis XVI. shall have resident consuls on every part of the coast of Cochinchina, wherever he may think fit to place them. These consuls shall be allowed the privilege of building, or causing to be built, ships, frigates, and other vessels, without moles tation, under any pretence, from the Cochin-chinese government. III. The ambassador of his Majesty Louis XVI. to the Court of Chinchina shall be allowed to fell such timber, in any of the forests, as may be found convenient and suitable for building ships, frigates, or other vessels. IV. The King of Cochinchina and the Council of State shall cede in perpetuity to his most Christian Majesty, his heirs, and successors, the port and territory of Han-san (bay of Turon and the peninsula), and the adjacent islands from Faifo on the south to Hai-wen on the north. V. The King of Cochinchina engages to furnish men and ma terials necessary for the construction of forts, bridges, high-roads, tanks, &c. as far as may be judged necessary for the protection and defence of the cessions made to his faithful ally the King of France. VI. In case that the natives shall at any time be unwilling to remain in the ceded territory, they will be at liberty to leave it, and will be reimbursed the value of the property they may leave upon it. The civil and criminal jurisprudence shall remain unaltered; all religious opinions shall be free; the taxes shall be collected by the French in the usual mode of the country, and the collectors shall be appointed jointly by the ambassador of France and the King of Cochinchina; but the latter shall not claim any part of those taxes, which |