Scene II. Page 58.

"And ye, O Gods! fend us the welcome "Death,

"To fhed our Blood in Field, and leave us not "In lonesome Life to linger out our Lives. Lonesome is a falfe Print. Read Loathfome. So above, p. 45. welcome Death and loathfome Life are oppos'd.

O loathfome Life! O fweet, and welcome "Death.

But what fhall we fay to this--Linger out our Lives in Life? Whofe is this Elegance? The illuftrious Author's, or the Printer's? If the Author's, I wonder he did not chufe rather to write,

"In loathfome Plight to linger out our Lives. "In loathfome Life to linger out our Days. Don't think, Sir, that these are all the Errors I have obferv'd. They are the chief, perhaps; but fall far fhort of the Sum total. I wifh fome curious Person, that hath the old Editions, would, for the Sake of those that have not, collate them with the late Edition, and give us the Variations in your Hiftory. They would be entertaining to fome that love now and then to divert themfelves with Trifles, and amongst the rest to

Your Humble Servant

Dec. 18, 1739.

J. C.

Ifhall be obliged to this ingenious Critic if he will let me know how I may correfpond with him. In the mean Time, if he has any Inclination to undertake a correct Edition of GORBODUC, I believe I can procure him the Ufe of the very Copy, from which that he has remarked on was printed.

ARTICLE IV.

Travels into the inland Parts of Africa; containing a Defcription of the feveral Nations for the Space of fix hundred Miles up the River Gambia; their Trade, Habits, Cuf toms, Language, Manners, Religion and Government; the Power, Difpofition and Characters of fome Negro Princes; with a particular Account of JOB BEN SOLOMON, a Pholey, who in the Year 1733 was in England, and known by the Name of the African. Being the Journal, &c. of FRANCIS MOORE, Factor feveral Years to the Royal African Company of England. To which he bas added, Capt. Stibbs's Voyage up the Gambia in the Year 1723, to make Discoveries; and Obfervations on the Captain's Remarks and Conduct. Also an accurate Map of that River taken on the Spot; and the Soundings for 500 Miles, by Mr. John Leach; with ten more Copper Plates engraved by very. good Hands, viz. Profpects and Plans of the African Company's Fort on James Ifland, and of a Factory; a Draught of the frange Situation of a Pholey Town, Figures of uncommon Birds and Infects, Representation of a Negro Prince on Horfeback, and of the Method of climbing the Palm Tree to extract the Wine. The Author has likewise, to compleat his Subject, given Extracts of the Nubian's Geography, LEO the African, and o ther Authors ancient and modern, concern

ing

ing the Niger Nile, or Gambia, and this Part of Africa, with Obfervations thereon; and a Vocabulary, English and Mundingo, the Language moft ufed by the Negroes. The Work concludes with an Appendix containing, 1. His Contract with the African Company. 2. Several Letters, Papers and Inftructions, relating to the Company's Commerce, particularly the Gum Trade. 3. The Voyage of an Adventurer, who found, and defcribes the Way to, the Gold Sand and Oar up the Gambia. To the Whole is prefixed a Letter to the Publisher, being a learned and critical Introduction to the honeft Factor's plain Narrative. London: Printed by Edward Cave, at St. John's Gate, and Sold by J. Stagg, in Westminster-Hall; and at St. John's Gate aforesaid. 1739. Octavo. Pages 438.

N the Preface, the Author makes an Apology for his want of Invention, Stile, Learning and the Ornaments of Eloquence, laying no Claim to any of those Accomplishments, but valuing himself only upon the Truth of his Relations; adding “that "it is not the Manner of Writing, that is to fay, "the Description of a Country much talk'd of, "little known, which must please in the following "Relation: I therefore, befides my Journal, "thought it my Duty to fpare no Pains in giving "the Reader, from the best Authors, a general "Notion of the Countries from the River Gambia "to the more known ones along the Mediterranean "Sea." This is effectually accomplished in the Book: The Letter to the Publifher gives a very curious Description of the State and Government

of the great Continent of Africa, from the earliest Accounts to the prefent Time: The Author of this Letter is, probably, a Man of great Learning as well as Judgment; this appears by his many Citations from Homer, Ovid, Lucan, Lea the A frican, and feveral other Authors ancient and modern, and by his Manner of treating the Subject. The Translations from Writers, viz. the Nubian Geographer, and Leo the African, are very large, accurate, and well chofen to answer the End propofed by our Author; and there are prefixed to each of them a very good Introduction concerning thofe Writers, their Lives, Means of coming at a due Knowledge of the Matters they treat of, the Times they lived in, and the Editions of their Works, which can't fail to entertain the more curious Readers. To these Translations there are added, an Extract of Ludolphus's Hiftory of Ethiopia, concerning the Source of the Nile; and an Extract from Herodotus. From what is faid in the Letter to the Publisher, and in the feveral Tranflations and Extracts, and in the Journal itself, it will not appear improbable, that this mighty River Gambia, upon which our Author made his Voyages into the inland Parts of Africa, is but one Branch of the Nile; but whether the Nile does really divide, flowing Part into the Mediterranean Sea, and Part to an immense Distance into the Atlantick Ocean, and whether the Gambia be indeed one of the Branches of the Nile, our Author pretends not to decide; but fays, he hath laid all the Discoveries that have yet been made before the Reader.

Concerning the Journal itself, the Author gives this modest Account in the Preface: "I kept the "Journal when in Gambia, not with any Defign of printing it, but to improve myself, and keep in my Mind the Things worth notice. I was "then very young, and had neither Time nor Ca

"pacity

pacity to make thofe Obfervations which the "learned World might defire; but what I have "fet down is true, and is an exact Account of a "wild Country. I have not attempted to embellish "the Work, fince I am perfuaded, that Readers " will make Allowances for the Age of the Jour"nalift, and will rather chufe to read real Facts "told in the plaineft Way, than beautiful Works of "Imagination.

This Journal has, fince its firft Publication, been read by many Perfons, who have been in and up the River Gambia, and by many others, who have long had Business and Correfpondence there'; and, upon much Inquiry, I find it is agreed on all Hands, that what the Author has wrote is true and genuine. Upon which account, I am perfuaded, that whoever reads this Book will be affected with an extraordinary Pleasure and Satisfaction, when he confiders, that the unusual Relations he will meet with, of many furprifing Things, are real Matters of Fact, and not more ftrange than true. And as to the Author's Complaint of want of Time and Capacity to answer the Defires of the Learned, I am of opinion, that the learned World would have had no Reason to complain if all Writers of Travels, and even Hiftories, had laboured under the like Wants, provided fuch Wants would have confined them to the like Truth of Matters of Fact, and have prevented the numberless Fictions, Surmifes, Reflections, Partialities, and Embellishments, with which fo many of them are filled to fuch a Degree, that there are not wanting Numbers of even learned Men, who are ready to pronounce many fuch Books, of the greateft Reputation, and written in the fineft Styles, to be no better than fo many Romances, Satires, or Panegyricks, and worthy of little or no Faith. In a word, it is only from Books of the fame Stamp with our Author's, E 4 where