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Having thus briefly attended the author to the period when the revolution commenced, we fhall, for the prefent, take our leave of him; referving the examination of his relation of that great event, with its confequences, to a distinct article.

[To be continued.]

ART. X. A Journal of a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope, undertaken in 1792, by Jacob Van Reenen and others of his Countrymen, in fearch of the Wreck of the Hon. the Eaft India Company's Ship the Grosvenor; to discover if there remained alive any of the unfortunate Sufferers. With additional Notes, and a Map. By Capt. Edward Riou. 4to. pp. 51. 45. fewed. Nicol. Elegantly printed. 1792.

CAPTAIN Riou informs his readers, that the journey, of

which an account is here given, was undertaken during the time of his refidence at the Cape, whither he had proceeded, after the extraordinary difafter which had happened to his fhip [the Guardian;]with the particulars of which the public are already well acquainted. The Captain fays, that it was his wifh to have made one of the party, would the duties of his ftation have permitted fo long an abfence; that it was, however, a fatisfaction, that he had not left that part of the world at the time when the travellers returned; that though exceedingly rejoiced, he was not in the least surprized that they had discovered the wreck of

given with the knowledge, or by the direction, of William. In the feries of political intrigues the prince of Orange was carrying on in Scotland, juftifiable by a regard to his own intereft, and alfo by a zeal for the cause of liberty, he must of neceffity have left a difcretionary power to his principal agents, both with respect to the concerting of meafures, and the beftowing of money. Mr. Carftairs might approve of Argyle's expedition, though William was ignorant of it; and might pay Wishart money upon that very account, out of the fund which was put into his hands for the fervice of the prince and his friends in general, without any specification of the articles to which it was to be applied. Intrusted with a difcretionary power, the agents of the prince, from motives of delicacy, in the cafe alluded to, might conceal both the measures and difbursements which they authorised. Confidering the needy condition of William's friends in Scotland, and the expence of their political negotiations, it is probable, that the master of every ship failing from Holland to Scotland, whom they could truft, would receive money from William's agents, to tranfmit to their friends, in repayment of fums which had been advanced, or were to be advanced in carrying on the patriotic caufe. Unless the purposes for which this fum was paid had been mentioned, or the privity of William to it afferted, his character contracts no ftain from this discovery.'

the

the Grosvenor: yet that he could hardly credit the friends of Van Reenen, when they told him through what an extent of country he and his companions had paffed; fo great did the diftance and difficulties appear! The extent of their journey could not have been less than thirteen hundred miles! Being favoured with the perufal of the journal kept by M. Van Reenen, of which Capt R. affures us, this work is a literal translation, he thought it a duty incumbent on him to publifh it, for the fake of the friends and relations of the unfortunate people who were shipwrecked in the Grofvenor; and whofe ultimate fate, after they got on fhore, remained unknown, till this journey of inquiry after them put it out of doubt, that they all † perifhed, fooner or later, by the merciless hands of the favage inhabitants of the country, or by the effects of hunger, and other hardships which befel them, in the dreadful journey which they unfortunately undertook, in that vaft inhofpitable region,-in the forlorn hope of exploring their way to the Cape.

M. Van Reenen's journal evidently contains a fimple and honest detail of every day's occurrences, during the expedition; which may truly be called The Travels of Benevolence. In this remark, we must not omit to mention, that the journey was planned with the approbation of the Governor, Mynheer Van de Graaf. We are forry to add, that two of the party perifhed, in the courfe of this adventurous and hazardous undertaking: ane of the Dutch travellers [for they were attended by fome Hottentots, Caffrees, or Caffers |, as they are here called,] loft his life in the following remarkable manner :

In the course of this long and dreary excurfion, the party killed a confiderable number of elephants §, for the fake, as we fuppofe, of obtaining their teeth. One of these noble animals fold his life at a dear rate; bravely revenging himself for his own death, and for that of his flaughtered kindred.

* Of the wreck, however, little was found remaining, except fome cannon, and a large quantity of iron ballaft.-The place where the difafter happened is here fixed, by computation, to have been fomewhere between lat. 27° and 28°.

+ Except about 12 mariners, who happily reached the Cape. See Monthly Review for April 1792, P. 470.

It is fuppofed that means of efcaping by fea were not impracticable.

The Dutch travellers confifted of twelve perfons, befide M. Van Reenen.

Alfo many deer, of the Elk kind, named Eelands. They likewife shot abundance of fea-cows, (the hippopotamus,) and buffaloes. The poor tenants of the foreft were great fufferers from this invafion of their retreats!

• A large

A large male elephant came (one day) up to the waggons. We inftantly pursued and attacked him; when after he had received feveral hot, and that he had twice fallen, he crept into a very thick thorny underwood. Thinking that we had fully done for him, Tjaart Van der Waldt, Lodewyk Prins, and Ignatius Mulder, advanced to the fpot where he was hid; when he rushed out, in a furious manner, from the thicket, and with his trunk catching hold of Lodewyk Prins, who was on horfeback, trod him to death; and driving one of his tasks through the man's body, threw him into the air, to the distance of 30 feet. The others perceiving that there was no poffibility of efcaping on horfeback, difmounted, and crept into the thicket, to hide themfelves. The elephant having nothing now in view, but the horse of Van der Waldt, followed it for fome time; but turned about, and came to the spot near to where the dead body lay, looking about for it. At this inftant our whole party renewed the attack, in order to drive him from the spot; when, after he had received several shots, he again escaped into the thickest of the wood. We now thought that he was far enough off, and had already begun to dig a grave for our unfortunate companion; at which we were bufily employed, when the elephant rushed out again, and driving us all away, remained by himself there on the fpot. Tjaart Van der Waldt got another fhot at him, at the diftance of an hundred paces. We every one of us then made another attack upon him; and, having now received feveral more bullets, he began to ftagger; then falling, the Hottentots, with a fhot or two more, killed him, as he lay on the ground.

The fury of this animal is indefcribable. Those of our party who knew any thing of elephant-hunting, declared, that it [the one now killed] was the fleetest and most furious they had ever beheld. The Hottentots told us, that the elephant's custom is, whenever attacked, never to leave a dead body till they have swallowed the whole carcafs; and that they themselves had feen a Hottentot killed, (much in the fame manner as our friend,) of whose body they never could find the leaft remains. This, probably, would have been the fate of our companion, had we not made fo fevere an attack on the elephant.-We now fet about finishing the grave, in which we interred the body of the unfortunate Lodewyk Prins.'

The death of another of the party was occafioned by his falling into one of those pits which the Caffrees dig to catch, and at the fame time to kill, the elephant; the bottom of the pit being fortified with fharpened ftakes, the points of which are hardened in the fire. The pits are concealed from view, by branches of trees, and grafs laid over them.

To illuftrate this narrative, Capt. Riou has added to it a map of the eaftern part of the fouthern extremity of Africa. This map, which, no doubt, may prove ufeful to the feaman, is compiled by the Captain himself, from authorities and materials, which he specifies, in his very proper and fatisfactory Introduction, prefixed to the Journal.

ART.

ART. XI. A Voyage from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago. Alfo an Account of the flands Jan Sylan, Pulo Pinang, and the Port of Queda; the prefent State of Atcheen, and Directions for failing from thence to Fort Marlborough, down the South-weft Coaft of Sumatra: to which are added, an Account of the Island Celebes; a Treatife on the Monfoons in India; a Propofal for making Ships and Veffels more convenient for the Accommodation of Paffengers; and Thoughts on a new Mode of preferving Ships Provifions: alfo, an Idea of making a Map of the World on a large Scale. By Thomas Forreft, Efq. Senior Captain of the Company's Marine at Fort Marlborough in 1770. The whole illuftrated with Maps, Views of Land, and other Engravings. Large 4to. pp. 141. 11. 1s. Boards. Robfon. 1792.

THE

HE chain of iflands, here called the Mergui Archipelago, extends along the eastern fhore of the Bay of Bengal, from about the latitude of 9 degrees to 11 degrees and 20 minutes north; forming a ftrait between them and the main, or coast of Mergui, of about 125 miles in length, and from 20 to 30 miles wide. Though many fmall islands were scattered along the eastern fhore of the Bay of Bengal, in most of the maps which were extant heretofore; yet the manner in which this was done, and their fize as there reprefented, rendered them rather objects of terror than of curiofity to the navigator; who, of course, when he fell in with any of them, instead of examining them, turned his fhip's head another way to avoid them; and it seems highly probable that they might still have remained without notice, if Captain Forreft had not undefignedly (as well as unexpectedly,) met with them, by falling to leeward of the Andaman islands, which he was fent from Calcutta to furvey, in the year 1783.

Captain Forrest traced the ftrait which is formed between these islands and the main, from north to fouth, keeping chiefly the western fhore, or that formed by the islands, on board. He found it in general clear, the fhores of the islands, bold, and the foundings uniform, with good anchorage and regular tides all the way through. Thefe circumstances in-. duce Captain Forreft to think, that when a fhip happens to be caught in the Bay of Bengal by the fouth-weft monfoon, then, by making the island of Clara, which he confiders as the key to this ftrait from the northward, and by entering the ftrait that way, fhe will be sheltered from the violence of the monfoon, and may tide it up from that ifland to the Aladine islands, which form the fouth-west boundary of the ftrait; where the may anchor, and take advantage of the firft fpirt of wind that blows from the northward of weft, and which frequently happens in the months of July and Auguft, to get round Atcheen-head, and fo proceed for Europe; efcaping, by thefe means, the disagreeable cir

cumftance

cumftance of being embayed, and locked up in an harbour, as many hips have hitherto been, for the whole time that the fouth-west monfoon blows.

Notwithstanding the diminutive fize which these islands affume in all former maps of thofe parts, Captain Forrest found fome of them very confiderable; particularly those which he called St. Matthew's and Sullivan's iflands.

Some of them are rocky, fome hilly, tome flat; but, in general, they are covered with trees, on a good foil, in a climate always cool, and favourable to vegetation. The channels between them produce great plenty of fish; and the rocks which border the fmaller iflands are generally incrufted with a small, but delicate oyfter, between the high and low water marks, with which a boat may presently be loaded: there are alfo larger oyfters found in the mud at low water, and a particular clam-fort with red roes. highest rife of the fpring-tide is 12 feet.'

The

What we have given above is a very concife abftract of Captain Forreft's account of thefe islands, and of the ftrait by which he paffed them. His defcription of them is fufficiently minute: but it must be allowed, however interesting the account of this voyage may be to geographers, or however ufeful it may be to feamen who may navigate this part of the world after him, nautical details of bearings and distances of land, foundings, and anchorage, do not afford much entertainment to the generality of readers; and therefore Captain Forrest muft not be furprized if he should find the work before us lefs fought than the account of his voyage to New Guinea has been.

Befide the relation of his voyage to the Mergui Archipelago, Captain Forrest gives us defcriptions of the islands of Jan Sylan and Pinang, with the port of Queda, on the fame coaft; the present state of Atcheen, and directions for failing thence to Fort Marlborough, down the weft coaft of Sumatra; and an account of the island Celebes, one of the Moluccas. He has alfo reprinted his treatise on the monfoons in India, of which an account was given in our Review, vol. lxx. p. 192.: fome few notes feem to be added to it in this edition. He gives allo a propofal for making fhips and veffels more convenient for the accommodation of paffengers ;' thoughts on a new mode of preserving ships' provifions; and an idea of making a map of the world on a large fcale: the laft of which being fhort, quite original, and at the fame time fufficiently characteristic of the author's manner of thinking and writing, we shall give it entire :

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In the account of my voyage to New Guinea, I forgot to mention that, at my leifure at Mindano, during the fouth-west monREV, AUG 1792. Gg

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