Weft Indies. Their drink is the palm-wine, which they have two methods of procuring: one way is, to root up an old tree, which they imagine will grow no longer, and to bore a large hole in its ftem, out of which the liquor runs into the pots placed to receive it. In this manner they obtain very little wine during the first four days: but in each of the eight or ten days following, the tree will yield from ten to fifteen quarts. The other method is, to cut off the head of the tree, and to make a longitudinal incifion in the trunk: the wine procured in this way is of a better quality, but much lefs in quantity, than can be obtained in the former process. A father of a family fends either his children or his flaves every morning to the woods, to fetch a quantity of this 1:quor fufficient for the confumption of the day: the author, in his walks, frequently met thefe girls, carrying each a pot of palmwine on her head. With a generous and frank fimplicity, worthy of the golden age, they always preffed him to drink; and would kneel before him, that he might, with a reed, fuck the liquor out of the pot; nay, if feveral of them were together, they would contend for this honour, each afferting that her wine was fweeter and better than that of her companions. It has the appearance and taste of Muft, and, when fresh, is very cooling and pleasant: but, if kept above two days, it be comes acid and heady. In the eleventh letter, the author gives an account of his voyage to St. Cruz, in a flave-fhip. After they had been for two days at fea, thefe miferable wretches rofe on the crew; and Dr. ISERT happening to be in their apartment at the time of their infurrection, was with great difficulty rescued out of their hands, after he had received feveral wounds. He expreffes a juft abhorrence of this inhuman trade, which, we think, every good man must wish to fee abolished:-but alas! men who are accustomed to confider things in a commercial and political view, are too apt to overlook the intereits of humanity, and to confider the mifery and fufferings of their fellowcreatures as of no importance, in comparison with the fplendid advantages which they propofe to themselves. In the beginning of this century, the Danes purchased the ifland of St. Cruz from the French, to whom they paid one hundred and fixty thousand dollars for it. It is the chief of the Danish fettlements in the West Indies, and is faid to contain three thousand white inhabitants, and twenty-four thousand Negroes and Mulattoes. There are two towns, Chriftianstad and Frederickstad; the one on the eaftern, the other on the western fide of the island: the former, which is the capital, is regularly built, and confifts of feveral streets: most of the M m 2 houses houfes are of wood, covered with fhingles; though there are fome of brick two flories high. The English and Dutch have their respective churches as well as the Danes, and there is a large chapel for the Hernhutters or Moravians. The harbour, which is fmall, and of which the entrance is very dangerous without a good pilot, is defended by a fmall fort, with a garrifon of a hundred and twenty men. The country is a plain, with a few little hills interspersed: thefe are left for wood and pafture land, and the remaining part of the island is devoted to the culture of fugar and cotton; for cacao, coffee, and indigo do not thrive here, on account of the great droughts, as the more mountainous islands, which lie to windward, deprive this of rain. The fugar of St. Cruz is deemed much fuperior to that of the French colonies; the export of it is estimated to be, on an average, fixteen millions of pounds annually, exclufively of a confiderable quantity fmuggled to foreign countries: the yearly produce of cotton is fuppofed to be one thousand bales: this commodity is greatly improved fince M. Van Rohn's travels in South America, where he collected above twenty different fpecies: among these, that of Spanish Guiana, and another, with red leaves, are deemed the best kinds, with respect both to fineness and colour. The fugar harvest in general begins in January, and ends in May: but, in fome plantations, they make fugar the whole year round. The foil is chiefly a yellow or red clay, and, in fome places, a rich mould: it is, however, very ftony, and, in moft parts of the island, the folid rock is not more than two feet diftant from the furface; for thefe reafons no plough can be ufed, and the trenching-work must be performed by hand. This laborious bufinefs is the task of the wretched Negroes, of whofe cruel treatment by their barbarous drivers and managers, the author gives an account that must inspire every humane reader with grief and indignation. The twelfth letter contains a fhort account of the other Danish iflands, and of the author's voyage to Guadaloupe and Martinico. On this paffage, he failed in fight of Crab Island, fo called from the abundance of these animals which are there found. This is confiderably larger than St. Cruz: but, from the jealoufy of the European powers, is yet uncultivated. The Spaniards had formerly fome plantations on it: but from an apprehenfion of their government, that thefe planters might carry on a fmuggling trade, they were compelled to leave the ifland, and were removed to Porto Rico. The English fettled there in 1718: but the Spaniards, who, like the dog in the manger, would neither reap the advantage of this country themfelves, nor fuffer others to derive any benefit from it, attacked tacked these new fettlers, murdered fome, and carried others away with them to Porto Rico. Since this, the English, the Danes, and the Spaniards, have made ufe of this ifland in common for the purpofes of wooding, watering, and fishing. The author tells us that his countrymen flattered themselves with the hopes that fome treaty in their favour might take place between the courts of London and Madrid; in which cafe, many of the inhabitants of St. Cruz would remove, with their families and flaves, in order to form plantations in Crab Island, which is remarkably fertile, and has plenty of excellent fresh water. The island of Guadaloupe is fuppofed to contain about twelve thousand Whites, and fixty thoufand Negroes and Mulattoes. Baffeterre, which is the capital, is regularly built, and has fome handfome houfes. Point à Pierre is alfo a neat town, and is remarkable for its harbour, which is faid to be the best in the West Indies: it is large enough to afford fhelter to a thoufand veffels, and merchant fhips can lie close to the quay on which the warehouses are built. Each of these towns had its theatre, or rather opera-house, the performers in which were maintained at the king's expence. The principal article of cultivation here is fugar: but it is of an inferior quality, which is afcribed to the moifture of the foil: there are fome eftates on which coffee and cotton are planted together. On this island is a volcano, which often throws up fmoke, and in its vicinity a great variety of mineral productions are found. St. Pierre, in Martinico, where the author landed, is a town of confiderable trade, very regularly built; the houses are moftly conftructed of a grey pumice ftone, or lava, which is found on the ftrand; and the high-ftreet is, according to Dr. ISERT, above an English mile in length. It is fuppofed to contain nearly two thousand houfes, and thirty thousand inhabitants, the Negroes included. From this town, the Doctor made an excursion to Piton, the highest mountain in the island; which he conjectures, for he had no barometer with him, is about twelve hundred toifes above the level of the fea: it is of a conic form, and its fide makes, with its bafe, an angle of about feventy degrees: but the fummit is almost always invefted with clouds, fo that the furrounding country cannot be feen from it. On his return from this expedition, the author found his ancle very much fwelled and inflamed; and, on examination, difcovered that this was occafioned by a Dracunculus, or Gordius-medinenfis, which he gradually extracted it was about five feet in length, and about the thickness of a ftraw: he imagines that he must have brought this from GuiMm 3 nea; nea; and if fo, he muft have had it for eight months about him, before it produced any inconvenience. In this ifland there are yet fome Caribs, who live in the woods, without having any intercourfe with the Creoles and Negroes, and retain their old customs. The manner in which they celebrate their marriages is fingular, and feems expreffive of forrow rather than of joy; they dance round the bridegroom with a dejected air, and to a melancholy fong, which is more like a funeral dirge than an epithalamium. The air in Martinico is not unhealthy, though remarkably moift this circumftance occafions a perpetual spring, and renders the ifland very fertile. Its population is calculated at fifteen thousand Whites, and eighty thousand Negroes and Mulattoes; among which there are two thoufand free, and five hundred Marons, or runaway Negroes, who live in the mountains, and fubfift chiefly by.theft. The annual exports are said to be thirty millions of pounds of fugar, moft of it fingly refined, three millions of pounds of coffee, eight hundred thoufand pounds of cotton, and forty thousand pounds of cacao. Thefe letters are followed by a Meteorological Journal, kept by the author, from July 2d, 1783, to June 30th, 1785. From this it appears, that, on the Coaft of Guinea, the weather is lefs variable than in higher latitudes. The fky is generally ferene, except in what is called the Harmantan feason, when it is fometimes cloudy. During this part of the year, which is from December to February, there is a fog fo thick, that one cannot fee an object at the diftance of a hundred paces: but the air is at the fame time fo dry, that the mercury, in M. De Luc's hygrometer, rofe to the top of the tube; and on opening this, a quantity ran out, which, had the tube been long enough, would have filled it three inches higher, and would have correfponded with a hundred and feventy degrees of the fcale. In confequence of this drought, together with the exceffive heat, moft people are troubled with a cough; which, however, is of fhort continuance, and may be prevented by frequently fprinkling the apartments with water. The weight of the atmosphere undergoes little or no variation; for the barometer appeared fixed at the height of twenty-nine inches and a half, English meafure. The wind generally blows from the weft, being fouth-west during the day, and north-west in the night when it rains, the wind is moft frequently east: but no fooner does the rain ceafe, than it veers back to its old quarter. The fhowers of rain here are very violent, but feldom continue for above two hours: they are always accompanied with fqualls of wind, and thunder and lightning. It fel dom dom happens that there are more than twelve of these showers in a year. The heat of the atmosphere on the coaft, near the river Volta, the banks of which confift of a white fand, and of marshy grounds, is exceffive. In the month of March 1784, a thermometer, which hung in the fhade, indicated 931 degrees of Fahrenheit's fcale; and, on being expofed to the fun, rofe to one hundred and thirty-four degrees. This heat was much greater than what Adanfon had obferved in Senegal, in the year 1734, when the mercury ftood at one hundred and feven degrees. There is in this volume nothing worth mentioning concerning natural hiftory: but we are informed, in the preface, that this fubject is referved for a feparate work, the first part of which is published under the title of Prodromus Flora Auftralis: but whether it will ever be completed, is uncertain; for we are forry to add, that the ingenious author is no more. Sow. ART. III. Untwerp tot eene algemeene Chara&erkunde, &c. i. e. A Plan for the Study of General Character; or Principles propofed to reduce it to a regular Science. By W. A. OCKERSE, Minister of the Calvanistic Church at Wyk by Duurstede. 2 Vols. Utrecht. 1788 and 1790. THAT 8vo. HAT adage of our poet, The proper Study of Mankind is Man, contains a truth which no one will difpute. This fcience comprehends the knowlege of ourselves, and of others: that is, of all with whom our interefts are intimately connected of all, whom we may either injure or benefit, and from whom we must receive good or evil. Every study, therefore, which leads to this knowlege, is important; and every obfervation which prefents us with a clue to direct us through its intricacies, demands our attention. Thefe confiderations, together with the pleafure and improvement which we have derived from the perufal of the treatife before us, encourage us to recommend it as one of the foremost in this important department of philofophy: but as it would be an unreasonable prefumption in us to wifh or expect, in works of this nature, that the English reader fhould apply himself to the original, fimply from our imprimatur, we will lay before him as competent a view of the plan and execution, as the richness of the materials, and our contracted limits, will permit. The general obfervation of M. OCKERSE, that character confifts in thofe peculiarities which diftinguish man from man, is equally applicable to distinguish authors; we fhall accordingly endea M m 4 vour |
