Bowles, efq. is diftinguished by extenfive pleasure grounds. But thefe are all eclipsed by Wanftead House, the feat of the late earl Tylney, and now of his nephew fir James Tylney Long. For an accurate account of this magnificent ftructure, we must refer our readers to a new edition, just published, of Ambulator, or a Tour twenty-five miles round London.' Deferiptive Obfervations on HINZUAN or JOHANNA, an Island between the North End of Madagafcar and the Continent of Africa: By Sir WILLIAM JONES: Continued from Page 115. IN the afternoon I walked a long way up the mountains in a winding path amid plants and trees no lefs new than beautiful, and regretted exceedingly that very few of them were in bloffom, as I fhould then have had leifure to examine them. Curiofity led me from hill to hill; and I came at laft to the fources of a rivulet, which we had paffed near the fhore, and from which the fhip was to be fupplied with excellent water. I faw no birds on the mountains but Guinea fowl, which might have been easily caught: no infects were troublefome to me but mofquitos; and I had no fear of ve nomous reptiles, having been affured that the air was too pure for any to exift in it; but I was often unwillingly the cause of fear to the gentle and harmless lizard, who ran among the fhrubs. On my return I miffed the path by which I had afcended; but having met fome blacks laden with yams and plantains, I was by them directed to another, which led me round, through a charming grove of cocoa-trees, to the governor's country-feat, where our entertainment was clofed by a fillabub, which the Englih had taught the Mufelmans to make for them. We received no answer from Salim; nor, indeed, expected one, fince we Look for granted that he could not but approve our intention of vifiting his father; and we went on thore before fun-rife, in full expectation of a pleafant excurfion to Domoni, but we were happily disappointed. The fervants at the prince's door told us coolly, that their mater was indifpofed, and, as they believed, afleep; that he had given them no orders concerning his palanquins, and that they durft not disturb him. Alwi foon came to pay us his compliments, and was followed by his eldeft fon Ahmed, with whom we walked to the gardens of the two princes Salim and Hamdullah; the fituation was naturaliy good, but wild and defolate; and in Salim's garden, which we entered through a miferable hovel, we faw a convenient bathing-place, well built with ftone, but then in great diforder and a fhed by way of fummer-house, like that under which we dined at the governor's, but fmaller, and less neat. On the ground lay a kind of cradle, about fix feet long, and little more than one foot in breadth, made of cords twifted in a fort of clumfy network, with a long thick bamboo fixed to each fide of it: this we heard with furprize was a royal palanquin, and one of the vehicles in which we were to have been rocked on men's fhoulders over the mountains. I had much converfation with Ahmed, whom I found intelligent and communicative. He told me, that several of his countrymen compofed fongs and tunes ; that he was himself a paffionate lover of poetry and mufic, and that if we would dine at his house he wou'd play and, fing to us. We declined his invitation to dinner, as we had made a conditional promife if ever we paffed a day at Matfamudo to eat our curry with Bana Gibu, an honeft man, of whom we purchased eggs and vegetables, and to whom fome Englishmen had given the title of lord, which made him extremely vain; we could therefore make Sayyad Ahmed only a morn a morning vifit. He fung a hymn or two in Arabic, and accompanied his drawling though pathetic pfalmody with a kind of mandoline, which he touched with an awkward quill: the inftrument was very imperfect, but feemed to give him delight. The names of the strings were written on it in Arabian or Indian figures, fimple and compounded; but I could not think them worth copying. He gave captain Williamfon, who wished to prefent fome literary curiofities to the library at Dublin, a fmall roll, containing a hymn in Arabic letters, but in the language of Mombaza, which was mixed with Arabic; but it hardly deserved examination, fince the ftudy of languages has little intrinfic value, and is only useful as the inftrument of real knowledge, which we can fcarce expect from the poets of Mozambique. Ahmed would, I believe, have heard our European airs, (I always except French melody) with rapture; for his favourite tune was a common Irish jig, with which he seemed wonderfully affected. On our return to the beach I thought of visiting old Alwi, according to my promife, and prince Selim, whofe character I had not then discovered. I refolved for that purpose to stay on fhore alone, our dinner with Gibu having been fixed at an early hour. Alwi fhewed me his manufcripts, which chiefly related to the ceremonies and ordinances of his religion; and one of them, which I had formerly feen in Europe, was a collection of fublime and elegant hymns in praise of Mohammed, with explanatory notes in the margin. I requested him to read one of them after the manner of the Arabs, and he chanted it in a ftrain by no means unpleafing; but I am perfuaded that he understood it very imperfectly. The room, which was open to the ftreet, was prefently crowded with visitors, moft of whom were Mufti's, or expounders of the law; and Alwi, defirous, perhaps, to * Rom. viii. 29. See 1. John, difplay his zeal before them at the expence of good-breeding, directed my attention to a paffage in a commentary on the Koran, which I four d levelled at the Chriftians. The commentator, having related with fome additions (but, on the whole, not inaccurately) the circumftances of the temptation, puts this fpeech into the mouth of the tempter: Though I am unable to delude thee, yet I will mislead by thy means more human creatures than thou wilt fet right. Nor was this menace vain,' fays the Mohammedan writer, for the inha bitants of a region many thoufand leagues in extent, are still fo deluded by the devil, that they impiously call fa the fon of God. Heaven preferve us.' he adds, from blafpheming Chriftians, as well as blafpheming Jews!' Although a religious difpute with those obftinate zealots would have been unfeasonable and fruitless, yet they deferved, I thought, a flight reprehenfion, as the attack feemed to be concerted among them. The commentator,' faid I, was -much to blame for paffing fo indifcriminate and hafty a cenfure: the title which gave your legiflator, and gives you fuch offence, was often applied in Judea, by a bold figure, agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, though unusual in Arabic, to angels, to holy men, and even to all mankind, who are commanded to call God their father; and in this large fenfe the apofile to the Romans calls the elect the children of God, and the Meffiah the first-born among many brethren; but the words only-begotten are applied tranfcendently and incomparably to him alone * and as for me, who believe the fcriptures, which you also profeís to believe, though you affert without proof that we have altered them, I cannot refuse him an appellation, though far furpaffing our reafon, by which he is diftinguished in the gofpel; and the believers in Mohamined, who exprefsly names him the Meffiah, and iii. 1. 2. Barrow, 231, 332, 251. Z z prc pronounces him to have been born of a virgin, which alone might fully juftify the phrafe condemned by this author, are themselves condemnable for cavilling at words, when they cannot object to the fubftance of our faith confitently with their own.' The Mufelmans had nothing to fay in reply; and the converfation was changed. I was aftonished at the queftions which Alwi put to me concerning the late peace and the independence of America; the feveral powers and refources of Britain and France, Spain and Holland; the character and fuppofed views of the emperor; the comparative ftrength of the Ruffian, Imperial, and Othman armies, and their respective modes of bringing their forces to action. I answered him without referve, except on the state of our poffeffions in India; nor were my anfwers loft; for I obferved that all the company were variously affected by them, generally with amazement, often with concern; especially when I defcribed to them the great force and admirable difcipline of the Auftrian army, and the ftupid prejudices of the Turks, whom nothing can induce to abandon their old Tartarian habits, and expofed the weakness of their empire in Africa, and even in the more diflant provinces of Afia. In return he gave me clear but general information concerning the government and commerce of this ifland: his country,' he faid, was poor, and produced few articles of trade; but if they could get money, which they now preferred to playthings,' thefe were his words, they might eafily,' he added, procure foreign commodities, and exchange them advantageously with their neighbours in the islands and on the continent: thus with a little money,' faid he, ‘we purchase muskets, powder, balls, cutlaffes, knives, cloth, raw cotton, and other articles brought from Bombay, and with those we trade to Madagaf car for the natural produce of the country or for dollars, with which the French buy cattle, honey, butter, 6 and fo forth, in that island. With gold, which we receive from your hips, we can procure elephant's teeth from the natives of Mozambique, who barter them alfo for ammunition and bars of iron; and the Portuguese in that country give us cloths of various kinds in exchange for our commodities: thofe cloths we difpofe of lucratively in the three neighbouring iflands; whence we bring rice, cattle, a kind of bread-fruit which grows in Comara, and flaves, which we buy also at other places to which we trade; and we carry on this traffic in our own veffels.' Here I could not help expreffing my abhorrence of their flave trade, and asked him by what law they claimed a property in rational beings, fince our Creator had given our fpecies a dominion to be moderately exercised, over the beafts of the field and the fowls of the air, but none to man over man. By no law,' answered he, ‹ unlefs neceflity be a law. There are nations in Madagascar and in Africa who know neither God nor his Prophet, nor Mofes, nor David, nor the Meffiah: thofe nations are in perpetual war, and take many captives, whom, if they could not fell, they would certainly kill. Individuals among them are in extreme poverty, and have numbers of children, who, if they cannot be difpofed of, must perish through hunger, together with their miferable parents. By purchafing thefe wretches we preferve their lives, and, perhaps, thofe of many others, whom our money relieves. The fum of the argument is this: If we buy them, they will live-if they become valuable fervants, they will live comfortably; but if they are not fold, they muft die miferably.'— 'There may be,' faid I, fuch cases, but you fallaciously draw a general conclufion from a few particular inftances; and this is the very fallacy which, on a thousand other occafions, deludes mankind. It is not to be doubted that a conftant and gainful traffic in human creatures foments war, in which captives captives are always made, and keeps up that perpetual enmity which you pretend to be the cause of a practice in itself reprehenfible, while in truth it is its effect. The fame traffic ençourages lazinefs in fome parents, who might in general fupport their families by proper industry, and feduces others to ftifle their natural feelings. At moft, your redemption of thofe unhappy children can amount only to a perfonal contract, implied between you, for gratitude and reasonable fervice on their part-for kindness and humanity on your's; but can you think your part performed by difpofing of them against their wills, with as much in difference as if you were felling cattle; efpecially as they might become readers of the Koran, and pillars of your faith?' The law,' faid he, forbids our felling them, when they are believers in the prophet; and little children only are fold, nor they often, or by all mafters.'You who believe in Mohammed,' faid I, are bound by the spirit and letter of his laws to take pains that they also may believe in him; and if you neglect to important a duty for fordid gain, I do not fee how you can hope for profperity in this world, or for happiness in the next.' My old friend and the mufti's affented, and muttered a few prayers, but probably forgot my preaching before many minutes had paffed. 6 So much time had flipped away in this converfation, that I could make but a fhort vifit to prince Salim; my view in vifiting him was to fix the time of our journey to Domoni as early as poffible on the next morning. His appearance was more favage than ever, and I found him in a difpofition to complain bitterly of the English. No acknowledgement,' he faid, had been made for the kind attentions of himself and the chief men in his country to the officers and people of the Brilliant, though a whole year had elafped fince the wreck,' I really wondered at the forgetfulness to which alone fuch a neglect could be imputed; and affured him that I would exprefs my opinion both in Bengal and in letters to England. We have little,' faid he, to hope from letters, for when we have been paid with them instead of money, and have fhewn them on board your fhips, we have commonly been treated with difdain, and often with imprecations.' I af fured him, that either those letters muft have been written coldly and by very obfcure perfons, or fhewn to very ill bred men, of whom there were too many in all nations, but that a few inftances of rudeness ought not to give him a general prejudice against our national character. But you,' faid he, are a wealthy nation, and we are indigent; yet though all our groves of cocoa-trees, our fruits, and our cattle are ever at your fervice, you always try to make hard bargains with us for what you chufe to difpofe of, and frequently will neither fell nor give thofe things which we principally want. To form,' faid I, 'a juft opinion of Englishmen, you muft vifit us in our own ifland, or at least in India; here we are strangers and travellers: many of us have no defign to trade in any country, and none of us think of trading in Hinzuan, where we ftop only for refreshment. The clothes, arms, or inftruments which you may want are commonly neceffary or convenient to us; but if Sayyad Alwi or his fons were to be strangers in our country, you should have no reafon to boaft of fuperior hofpitality.' He then fhewed me a fecond time a part of an old filk veft, with the ftar of the order of the Thistle, and begged me to explain the motto; exprefling a wish that the order might be conferred on him by the king of England in return for his good offices to the English. I reprefented to him the impoflibility of his being gratified, and took occafion to fay, that there was more true dignity, in their own native titles than in thofe of prince, duke and lord, which had been idly given them, but had no conformity to their manners or the conftitution of their government. This converfation being agreeable to to neither of us, I changed it by defiring that the palanquins and bearers might be ready next morning as early as poffible: he answered, that his palanquins were at our fervice for nothing, but that we must pay him ten dollars for each fet of bearers, that it was the lated price, and that Mr. Haitings had paid it when he went to vifit the king. This, as I learned afterward, was falfe; but in all events I knew that he would keep the dollars himfelf, and give nothing to the bearers, who deferved them better, and whom he would compel to leave their cottages and toil for his profit. Can you imagine, I replied, that we would employ four and twenty men to bear us fo far on their shoulders without rewarding them amply? But fince they are free men (fo he had affured me) and not your flaves, we will pay them in proportion to their diligence and good behaviour; and it becomes neither your dignity nor ours to make a previous bargain." I fhewed him an elegant copy of the Koran, which I deftined for his father, and defcribed the reft of my prefent; but he coldly asked, if that was all. Had he been king, a purfe of dry dollars would have given him more pleasure than the finest or holiest manufcript. Finding him, in converfing on a variety of fubjects, utterly void of intelligence or principle, I took my leave, and faw him no more, but promised to let him know for certain whether we should make our intended excurfion. We dined in tolerable comfort, and had occafion, in the courfe of the day, to obferve the manners of the natives in the middle rank, who are called Banas, and all of whom have flaves constantly at work for them. We vifited the mother of Combomade, who seemed in a ftation bat little raised above indigence; and her husband, who was a mariner, bartered an Arabic Treatife on Aftronomy and Navigation, which he had read, for a fea-compafs, of which he well knew the ufe. In the morning, I had converfed with two very old Arabs of Yemen, who had brought fome articles of trade to Hinzuan; and in the afternoon I met another who had come from Makat (where at that time there was a civil war) to purchase, if he could, an hundred ftand of arms. I told them all, that I loved their nation, and they returned my compliments with great warmth, especially the two old men, who were near fourscore, and reminded me of Zohair and Hareth. So bad an account had been given me of the road over the mountains, that I diffuaded my companions from thinking of the journey, to which the captain became rather difinclined; but as I wished to be fully acquainted with a country which I might never fee again, I wrote the next day to Salim, requesting him to lend me one palanquin, and to order a fufficient number of men; he fent me no written anfwer, which I afcribed rather to his incapacity than to rudeness: but the governor, with Alwi and two of his fons, came on board in the evening, and faid, that they had feen my letters; that all fhould be ready; but that I could not pay less for the men than ten dollars. I faid, I would pay more, but it should be to the men themfelves, according to their behaviour. They returned fomewhat diffatisfied, after I had played at chefs with Alwi's younger fon, in whofe manner and addrefs there was fomething remarkably pleasing. Before fun-rife, on the 2d of Auguft, I went alone on fhore, with a fmall basket of such provisions as I might want in the courfe of the day, and with fome cushions to make the prince's palanquin at least a tolerable vehicle; but the prince was refolved to receive the dollars to which his men were entitled; and he knew that, as I was eager for the journey, he could preferibe his own terms. Alwi met me on the beach, and brought excufes from Salim, who, he fail, was indifpofed. He conducted Old me |