صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

tenance of perhaps five hundred of its subjects who are made unlawful prisoners in a foreign country!*

Dr. Maclean obtained his passport in a manner very agreeable to his feelings and very honourable to his character, and proceeded in the diligence to Bourdeaux. They who have never seen a French diligence can form no adequate conception of its clumsiness: its pace is about a league an hour. How should it proceed faster?" Besides the passengers in the cabriolet, and on top, we were seven persons inside," not to mention two children which were on the laps of their mothers, both far gone with child! The diligence carries goodsthat in which Dr. Maclean travelled was overloaded, top-heavy, and broke down. Dr. M. was informed that the government had it in contemplation to make the carriage of goods and the carriage of travellers henceforth two distinct branches of commerce throughout the republic, and that for the latter, eighty diligences upon a new construction were actually building in Paris. We are glad to learn that such an improvement is in

contemplation.

It ought to be mentioned, perhaps, in support of Dr. Maclean's opinion, as to the insecurity of Bonaparte's elevation, that "the consular family did not appear to have a single friend in the country through which our traveller passed; and that a gentleman of Poitiers, who had served in the royal army in Germany, and was a passenger in the diligence, assured Dr. M. that the people at Poitiers "were generally disaffected to the present government, and that the same spirit pervaded all that part of the country." It must be added, however, that many of the ci-devant nobility reside in the town of Poitiers on account of the cheapness of living in that part of the country. The following remark is of importance:

"The people, however, as we approached the sea, began to complain of the effects which the war had already produced.

"This day we met with a great number of waggons loaded with cotton and wool, which upon enquiry we found were destined for the Low Countries. Since navigation had been impeded by the war, the manufacturers of

Brabant have been obliged to get their cotton and wool by land from Bourdeaux. The additional expence of carriage, thus occasioned, if there were no other unfavourable circummanufactures of France from any kind of stance, would be sufficient to preclude the competition with those of Great Britain. It seems even probable that so great an augmentation in the price of raw materials, as must arise from a distant land-carriage, together with the diminished sale for manufactured goods, owing to the circumstances of dence generally prevalent in France, will octhe war, and the want of capital and confi

casion, in no long time, the total ruin of the cotton and woollen manufactures of the country. This is a lamentable consideration: but the people have the ambition of their government and their own blindness entirely to blame."

Bourdeaux is in population the second, and in commercial importance the first city of France: it contains many foreign mer. chants of all nations, but principally English, Germans, and Americans. Dr. Mace lean says, in many an irksome walk along the Chartrons (that quarter of the town which is chiefly inhabited by merchants) the languages which were spoken on all

sides made him sometimes doubtful whe,

ther he was not in Hamburg or London rather than in a town of France. Flags of all nations except those of England, were to be seen flying; and in December 1803, there were not less than

from thirty to forty American vessels in the river.

Theatres, gaming-houses, &c. are pro portionately as numerous in Bourdeaux as at Paris: women frequent them, and for that purpose often dress themselves in men's clothes. In this dress they frequently go to the theatres. Dr Mace lean tells us that a man accustomed to attend the playhouses, upon his entrance generally looks round to see whe ther his neighbours be male or female. To ascertain this, he does not think of looking at the dress, but at the hair, breasts, fingers, and the general shape and air: if there be any doubt he attends also to the voice and manner!

Dr. Maclean gives the same account of the state of religion in France as Mr. Holcroft: Churches are only frequented by old women and children. As the em peror too seems determined to keep the

• Dr. M. supposes that there are at present between 400 and 500 English detained as priť ́ soners within the limits of the republic.

+We have seen women at the gaming-tables in the Palais Royal without the disguise of male appa el.

church in a state of subserviency by keeping it poor, no respectable families now send their sons to be educated for the ministerial function. When the present race of priests, who are chiefly old men, pass away, the vacancies therefore, it is to be feared, must be filled, if filled at all, by low-bred, illiterate, and unworthy persons.

In an appendix to these sketches, which are drawn with considerable strength and spirit, Dr. Maclean has guarded his countrymen against indulging the dangerous idea that Bonaparte has no serious intention to invade this country; but that, by keeping us constantly in a state of alarm and preparation, he will endeavour to exhaust our resources and our patience. This game of draw the well diy, must, it is obvious, be fatal to France: Bonaparte will not play it; he must be sensible, that by protracting the combat, the total ruin must ensue of what still re

mains to France of her manufactures and commerce; "together with the consequent annihilation of almost the very elements of her naval power. How can there be navigation where there is no commerce? How can there be seamen where ships cannot go out of port?"

We are certainly far from being desirous to see any relaxation of vigilance and preparation on this side the water: but what cares Bonaparte for the commerce and manufactures of France? He knows that the thunder of the British cannon would shake, would overthrow the throne he sits on: he has, no doubt, pledged himself to make the attempt, but we are still of opinion that he would be very glad to disengage himself from the shackles of a hasty and rash promise; and that he never will make the attempt until he is compelled to it by the murmurs of a discontented people.

ART. V. An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa. In which is considered, the Importance of the Cape of Good Hope to the different European Powers, as a naval and military Station; as a Point of Security to our Indian Trade and Settlements during a War, and as a territorial Acquisition and commercia Emporium in Time of Peace. By JOHN BARROW, Esq. 4to. pp. 452.

MR. Barrow's former volume was published before the commencement of our labours. It is one of the best books of travels in our own or in any language, and far, very far, the best account of the country which it describes, often as that country has been described. We were therefore as much gratified as surprised at perceiving, after an interval of three years, a second part announced to a work which we had considered as complete. In his first publication the author studiously avoided all political discussions, not only because they might at that time, for many reasons, have been unseasonable or indiscreet; but because he then conceived there was but one opinion with regard to the real value of the Cape of Good Hope, if considered in the single view of its being a barrier and a point of security to our Indian settlements. During the short space of time which has elapsed since that publication, the Cape has been ceded to its former possessors, and with these possessors we are once more at war. The object, therefore, of Mr. Barrow now is to prove what he then took for granted, that the Cape was an acquisition by which

our political and commercial interests in the East Indies had been secured and promoted.

The importance of such local information to the well administration of government he illustrates by the example of France, by the works of Anquetil du Perron, of Olivier, Volney, and Sonnini, the mission of Sebastiani, and the infamous employment of the commercial agents. We rejoice to see this truth enforced in a work published, and perhaps undertaken, under the auspices of lord Melville, in the hope that his colleagues, as well as himself, may be awakened to a sense of its utility. When one of those colleagues was applied to by men, whose high character and peculiar knowledge ought to have ensured the success of such an application, to grant a vessel for the purpose of bringing away certain relics of antiquity from Greece, wherewith our universities might be enriched, and perhaps excited to something of that classical enthusiasm which always tends to raise the national character in itself, as well as in the estimation of Europe; the answer of the minister is said to have been perfectly consistent with the deadness of his heart, and the short-sighted

ness of all his views. If, said he, you have any thing to propose for the advantage of commerce, I shall readily listen to it. But literature may take care of itself. He may be assured that literature will take care of itself, and of him too. Perhaps this volume may be regarded as the omen of a more enlightened and liberal system; perhaps it may have been discovered that parliament, though omnipotent, is not necessarily omniscient also, and that the strength of government must ultimately be in proportion to its knowledge.

In this part of Mr. Barrow's work we are sorry to perceive some disgraceful comments upon a very natural and very praise-worthy passage in the duc de Liancourt's Travels. Indeed, whenever he mentions the French it is in a style neither honourable to his temper or his understanding. If the French have actually translated the Encyclopedie des Con naissances humaines into the language of Cochin China, they have set us an example of doing good, which it would well become us to follow. Nay, even if, as he asserts, they have circulated the doctrines of the Rights of Man in the language of some of the country powers in India, selfish as the motive may have been, the effect will not be the less beneficial. What might be poison for the healthy is medicine for the diseased. If jacobinism were to destroy the system of casts in Hindostan, and atheism to subvert the inquisition in Spain, should we not rejoice that, in the wise order of things, evil had thus been made subservient to good? The idolatry and priestcraft of popery which darkens and degrades the catholic, kingdoms of Eurore, would in Asia or Africa be the best agents of civilization.Methodism, which threatens the existence of the established church in England, would in Ireland prove the best ally of the state. The plan of curing one disease by inoculating for another will not always be confined to medi

cine.

[blocks in formation]

that were taken in collecting the materials, and of the assistance he afterwards received, and the attention that was bestowed, in putting them together. And in order to add force, as he supposes, to the value of his observations, with a pretended zeal for the knew that every line in his chart was false), cause of humanity (pretended, because he he breaks out into the following apostrophe: Had my voyage been productive of no other good than that of preventing a single ship-. wreck, I should have applauded myself during my whole life for undertaking it! The fact is, he has done little more, in the eastern part of his map, than copy from Sparrmann; and the whole to the northward of Saint Helena Bay is a work of fancy. Two instances will be sufficient to shew now very little he is to be trusted. He places Camdeboo, and the beginning of the Snowy Mountains, in the latitude of about 25 south, instead of 32° 15' south, an crior of more than 290 English miles! And he makes the Orange River descend from the which, in fact, takes its rise near the eastern northward, nearly parallel to the coast, coast, and ascends towards the north-west. Messrs. Truter and Somerville, who, two years ago, penetrated far her into the interior of southern Africa than any Europeans had ever done, calculated that they crossed this river in about 29° 0′south, and between 239 and 24° east of Greenwich. I skirted its banks from 29° 40′ to 30° 15' south, and 30' east, which shews, as I said before, that between the longitudes of 23° 43′ and 26° its course is north-westerly. Monsieur le Vaillant cannot be offended at my pointing out his mistakes, as he himself has observed, that a traveller ought to conceal nothing that may lead to error in the sciences."

The first chapter consists of prelimi nary matter, and had it been prefixed to a first volume would probably have appeared in the more appropriate form of a preface. The second contains an account of a military expedition to the Kaffer frontier, to quell the revolted boors. The campaign, if so it may be called, is too insignificant to admit of any detail here; but many interesting particulars occur to elucidate the cha racter of the Boors, the Hottentots and the Kaffers.

Long experience has evinced that nothing is so miserably deteriorated by transplanting as a Dutchman. In his own country he is highly useful and highly respectable, industrious, methodical, honest; our English merchants bear testimony to his good qualities, and look their trade with Holland as upon the safest, so far as relates to the character of those with whom they deal. But what are they abroad? let witness

Amboyna, and the thirty thousand Chinese massacred at Batavia, and the atrocious cruelties perpetrated at Surinam. Spain and Portugal have acted cruelly in their colonies heretofore, and all the instances of fervent and disinterested faith, of individual virtue, and of national heroism wherewith their annals abound, have not been sufficient to counteract the painful and indignant feelings which the history of their tyranny excited against them. It should however be remembered that that system of tyranny has long since ceased. and that in the present time the Spanish colonists are of all slave-holders the most humane. But neither the increase of knowledge and of humanity, which has been its conséquence, nor the general indig nation of enlightened men, recorded in writings to stir up a like indignation in all posterity, have in the slightest degree tempered or abated the cold calculating persevering barbarity of the Asiatic and African and American Dutch.

Of all degenerated Dutchmen the African Boor is the most thoroughly detestable: the breed, indeed, is the most abominable that can be conceived; the greater part are the descendants of soldiers in German regiments; the very scum and outcasts of society; Prussians, Hanoverians, Flemings and Poles, deserters from the armies of their respective countries, or of French refugees: all these engrafted upon a Dutch stock, and naturalized by the adoption of Dutch manners and Dutch language, have produced a precious and peculiar

mixture. The Mohammedans have a

legend that when Noah was embarked upon the waters of the deluge, the litter accumulated so fast in spite of all the exertions of all his family, that nothing but a miracle could have preserved the ark from sinking: that miracle was accordingly wrought, and from the collected filth of his live stock a boar and sow were created, for those unclean beasts had not before existed, who kept the vessel clean during the rest of its voyage by their useful appetite. The tale might serve as a mythological allegory of the origin of these Cape-boors, and of their character.

"The sanguinary character of many of the African colonists may be owing, perhaps, in a certain degree, to the circumstance of their having been soldiers in Gernian regiments serving abroad; where the least relaxation from a rigid system of dis

cipline is followed up by the greatest severity of punishment. The soldier, having served out the time of his engagement, which at most is five years, is at liberty to demand his discharge. If he is able to read and write, however indifferently, he usually finds employment, as school-niaster, in a boor's fa mily; if not qualified for such a situation, he either engages as a sort of servant, or hires himself to some batcher of the town, who sends him to the extremities of the colony to collect sheep and cattle. In all these situations he has the opportunity of boors, which generally leads to his marriage making an intimate acquaintance with the with one of their daughters. The parents of the girl spare him a few sheep and cattle to commence with, on condition of their receiving half the produce as interest, until he can repay the capital; he looks out for a place, as it is called, no matter where, whe ther within or without the limits of the colony, and builds for himself a sort of hut; with his cattle are consigned to him at the supposes, a few little Hottentot children to look after them; and on these little crea tures, in the plenitude of his power, subject to no control, he exercises the same severity of punishment that his own irregularities had incurred when he was in the ranks.

sanic time, and on the same terms, as he

"A very considerable portion of the inhabitants of the town is composed of people by the general prosperity that followed the of this description. Grown into affluence conquest of the settlement, serjeants, and corporals, and trumpeters, are now men of the first consequence, keep their slaves, and horses, and carriages, and wallow in all the luxuries that the colony affords. But though they aspire to the rank of gentlemen, they cannot disguise the cloven foot. They are gross in their manners, and vulgar in their conversation. Their language in the presence of women, is so coarse and indecent,

as would not be tolerated among civilized society."

By indolent habits, excess of food, and fondness for indulging in sleep, they become no less gross in their persons, than vulgar in their manners. A young lady described the Cape and its inhabitants in very few words. moei wit en groen. The people are all nice De menschen zyn moie dik en vet de huizen and plump; the houses are prettily whitewashed and painted green. I believe there is no country in the world that affords so large a proportion of unwieldy and bulky people; and I am certain there is none where the animal appetites are indulged with less restraint, the most predominant of which are eating and drinking, or where the powers of body or mind are capable of less exertion.

When the devil catches a man idle he ge nerally sets him to work,' is a proverb which is every day exemplified at the Cape of Good Hope. They are active only in mischief;

and crimes against morality meet with applause if the end be successful. A man, who in his dealings can cheat his neighbour, is considered as a slim mensch, a clever fellow; even stealing is not regarded as criminal, nor does it materially affect the character of the thief. Truth is not held as a moral virtne, and lying passes for ingenuity."

A Cape-boor never works, his whole year is holiday; shooting is the only active amusement to which he ever rouses himself, and then he always rides out; a Hottentot boy runs after him to carry and charge his gun, and he fires from the saddle. The English had repaired the road through one of the looven or mountain passes, which was scarcely passable for a waggon. Such is the uncouth temper of the people, and so adverse to every thing that tends to public benefit, that, rather than pay the trifling toll levied for this improvement, many chose to make a circuit of two days' journey and pass another kloof still more difficult. The backsettlers have totally lost the characteristic cleanliness which in Europe distinguishes the Hollanders; they equal the lowest race of savages in filth and contented barbarity, and in cruelty surpass the most ferocious.

"A large iron pot serves both to boil and broil their meat. They use no linen for the table; no knives, forks, nor spoons. The boor carries in the pocket of his leather breeches a large knife, with which he carves for the rest of the family, and which stands him in as many and various services as the little dagger of Hudibras.

"Their huts and their persons are equally dirty, and their whole appearance betrays an indolence of body, and a low groveling mind. Their most urgent wants are satisfied in the easiest possible manner; and for this end they employ means nearly as gross as the original natives, whom they affect so much to despise. If necessity did not sometimes set the invention to work, the Cape-boór would feel no spur to assist himself in any thing; if the surface of the country was not covered with sharp pebbles, he would not Even make for himself his skin shoes. The women, as invariably happens in societies that are little advanced in civilization, are much greater drudges than the men, yet are far from being industrious; they make soap and candles, the former to send to Cape Town in exchange for tea and sugar, and the latter for home-consumption. But all the little trifling things that a state of refinement so sensibly feels the want of, are readily dispensed with by the Cape-boor. Thongs cut from skins serve, on all occasions, as a sucedaneum for rope; and the tendons of wild

animals divided into fibres are a substitute for thread. When I wanted ink, equal quantities of brown sugar and soot, moistened with a little water, were brought to me, and soot was substituted for a wafer,

“To add to the uncleanliness of their huts, the folds or kraals in which their cattle remain at nights, are immediately fronting the the total want of wood obliges them to burn door, and, except in the Snewberg, where dung cut out like peat, these kraals are never on any occasion cleaned out; so that in old established places they form mounds from ten to twenty feet high. The lambing season commences before the rains finish; and it sometimes happens that half a dozen or more of these little creatures, that have been lambed over night, are found smothered in the wet dung. The same thing happens to the less is the boor, that rather than yoke his young calves; yet, so indolent and helpteam to the waggon, and go to a little distance for wood to build a shed, he sees his stock destroyed from day to day, and from year to year, without applying the remedy which common sense so clearly points out, and which requires neither much expence nor great exertions to accomplish."

Of their cruelty we will adduce only one instance.

"The next house we halted at upon the road presented us with a still more horrid instance of brutality. We observed a fine Hottentot boy, about eight years of age, sitting at the corner of the house, with a pair of iron rings clenched upon his legs, of the weight of ten or twelve pounds; and they had remained in one situation for such a length of time, that they appeared to be sunk into the leg, the muscle being tumefied both above and below the rings. The poor creature was so benumbed and oppressed with the weight, that being unable to walk with ease, he crawled on the ground. It appeared, on enquiry, that they had been rivetted to his legs more than ten months ago. What was to be done in a case of such wanton and deliberate cruelty? It was scarcely in human nature to behold an innocent boy for ever maimed in so barbarous a manner; and at the same time to look upon the coldblooded perpetrator, without feeling a sentiinent of horror mingled with exasperation, a sentiment that seemed to say it would serve the cause of humanity to rid the world of such a monster. The fellow shrunk from the enquiries of the indignant general; he had nothing to allege against him but that he had always been a worthless boy; he had lost him so many sheep; he had slept when he ought to watch the cattle, and such like frivolous charges of a negative kind, the amount of which, if true, only proved that his own interest had sometimes been neg lected by this child.

"Determined to make an example of the

« السابقةمتابعة »