of Fonthill-Houfe; a great portion of which has been entirely new fitted up and furnished fince Mr. Beckford came to age; and the whole, before long, will have undergone the like change and improvements. It remains now only to notice one particular, which certainly claims regard in this Memoir. All thefe fplencid works are not merely effected in confequence of Mr. Beckford's orders, and by means of his fortune; but his own genius, whofe comprehenfion and activity appear equal to any undertaking, has been the informing fpirit of the whole; every one of the above mentioned projects, whether of use or of ornament, having originated from himself, and their plans, of whatever kind, having been affifted or corrected by his own pure and claffic tafte. One of his principal amufements at Fonthill confifts in attending and frequently directing the fuperior workmen in the execution of his fchemes; and fuch is the ardour with which he is carrying forward his favourite building, the Abbey, that the froft and fnow of the prefent winter were never fuffered to itop any part of the work which could ftill go on, nor to prevent his own daily excursions to the spot. Quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non. New Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa, by the Way of the Cape of Good Hope, in the Years 1783, 1784, and 1785. Translated from the French of Le Vaillant, illuftrated with a Map, delineating the Route of his prefent and former Travels; and with Twenty-Two other Copper-Plates. In Three Volumes, Octavo. l. 18.-Robinfons. time. ac ONE of the most pleasurable occur. rences is meeting a friend occafionally after a feparation for any length of It generally calls into exercife fome of our best affections, and is grateful in proportion as unexpected. We regard our prefent Traveller in this endearing light, and re-commence our quaintance with fimilar emotions. His former ingenious narrations charmed us in no inferior degree, and fenfibly enlivened our Journal (fee Vol. XVIII. p. 106.285. 440.); and we now join him in his fecond route, in perfect confidence of receiving from his fcientific labours and well-digefted obfervations equal inftruction and amufement. No man ever had the means of both more completely at his command, was better qualified to communicate the stores derived from induftry and experience, or more liberally inclined to gratify the utmost curiofity of his readers and with whatever avidity and eagerness he may be again perufed by fuch as have already participated in his purfuits, or ranfacked the refources he opens of honeft intelligence, we venture to infure them high fatisfaction, Whoever looks in thefe Volumes for an arbitrary folution of inexplicable phenomena, chimeras, and moniters of human creation, or any confirmation of all thofe marvellous improbabilities, lies, and dreams, which speculative men fabricate in their clofets for the credulous multitude to fwallow implicitly, will affuredly be difappointed. Our very intelligent adventurer, no abetter of impofture, embraces, with a zeal truly honourable to the liberal purfuit of fcience, every opportunity that occurs of detecting it, diffipating the clouds of ignorance, in which genuine nature is ftill so much enveloped, and, by adhering rigidly to fact, effectually counteracts the prevalence of fiction and faliehood. The refult, indeed, of long and fevere exertion and inveftigation are here exhibited in fuch genuine and explicit characters, as cannot fail to intereft, in an eminent degree, all the real admirers of rural fcenery in its naked and fimple state. The want of a copious Table of Contents is a detriment to the popularity of the work, by giving it fuch an abruptnefs, as renders it rather repulfive and D forbidding than inviting to the generality of readers. Sloth often finds an excufe in this deficiency by declining a talk not previously defined, and thus the favings of avarice furnish a cloak for ignorance. It is where we expect the greateft variety of entertainment that we are moft folicitous to fee the bill of fare; and our appetites are never blunted by know. ing before-hand the specific nature of our provifion. The most useful account we can give of thefe Travels is, therefore, to fupply, as well as we can, this unpardonable neglect, by laying before our Readers, as our manner has lately been, a brief fummary of what they contain. By fuch an analyfis, however imperfect,we may become, in fome measure, the Author's allociates in all his excurfions; learn the object on which he fets out; appreciate his means of realizing it; follow him in his route; contemplate the fatigues and dangers he encounters; and calculate the acquifitions he makes; noting, as we proceed in whatever may ftrike us as defective in his plan, or, the execution of it. Our Traveller does not ftate fpecifi. cally what the exclufive aim of his laborious and expenfive undertaking is; but he feems to be every where ftimulated by an irrefiftible defire of improving natural history, and especially of examining with his own eyes fuch particular branches of it as are moft to his tafte. Few objects of any value or novelty, in any fituation, or on any occafion, efcape his refearch. Oftener than once we find him regretting his want of botanical knowledge, which prevented his collecting the variety of curious vegetables which furrounded him, and that he had neither the kill nor apparatus of a chymift for analyzing the different fubftances or bodies which occurred to him, and excited his attention. His great paffion, which directed and concentered all his ftudies and purfuits, was to range through animated nature, and felect from the infinite fwarms of creatures who people the African territories, such as are least known to the naturalifts of Europe. He abandons himself entirely to whatever he deems most effential and conducive to this acquifition. The fupreme and prevailing end of all his ambition and labours is such an assemblage of animated forms as has been hitherto produced by no former naturalift. Two objects feem to occupy his attention equally, in all circumstances; the knowledge of the country, and fuch materials as could be found and amaffed for this depofitum. Thefe, however, prove occafionally fo incompatible, and interfere fo effentially with each other, as to put him fometimes to the greatest inconvenience. But the ultimate refult of all his ingenuity and difcoveries are referved for his ornithology, which he repeatedly promifes the public, and to which his further details and traits of all the non-defcripts which fall in his way, are in general referred. for accomplishing thefe ends, he fomeOf the means he poffeffed and prepared times prefents us with very copious and minute details. The caravan he equipped confifted of three carriages, accompanied with relays of cattle for relieving each other in the draught, fome Hottentot negroes who ferved him on his preceding journey, and feveral new ones; but no other European was fuffered to be of the party but himself. His train was likewife furnished with fome faddle-horses, and a fmall flock of theep, goats, and milkcows. He had alfo a few poultry, a monkey, his old companion, and seventeen dogs. The merchandize by which he meant to traffic with the natives were trinkets of different kinds, tobacco, brandy, nails, and knives. Thefe, with fire-arms, powder, lead, provisions of tools and iron, and ftores of fuch neceffaries 2s were not likely to be found very plen tifully, at least in districts without culture, civility, or perhaps inhabitants, kitchen utenfils, and inftruments for hunting and preparing the materials_of his cabinet, compofed his luggage. For the confidence and fatisfaction of his readers in what may be expected from his diligence and exertions, he delineates very particularly all the apparatus he thought indifpenfible both to fafety and fuccefs. He even condefcends to characterize the individuals who compofe his suite, and a certain the feveral departments they filled. He ftates the nature of their fervices, the ufes to which his animais are feparately appropriated, and, in proportion as they anfwered his purpose, omits no occafion of celebrating their merit in the fond language of an indulgent mafter. The very ftructure and conformation of his waggons, the node of his encampments, and the invariable care and precautions effential to his fecurity, are correctly stated for the information and convenience of future travellers. The arts by which he fecured the game in most request, his means of obtaining the specific objects of his curiofity with leat damage, damage, of beft preparing, keeping, and flowing them for carriage, and a great variety of ingenious devices to which he had occafionally recourfe, where experience failed, and he depended folely on the refources of his own mind, are all fpecified and explained. It were needlefs to add the talents and addrefs by which this complicated machine is fabricated, put in motion, conducted, and rendered in every respect efficient. Of thefe every reader must be left to form his own julginent, by an impartial eftimate of the werk, on carefully perufing its contents. The first Volume of the le Travels defcribes the tour of the colony, which includes a confiderable tract of country behind and round the Cape. His meteorological remarks on the adjacent mountains, fome of which overlook an immenfe extent, both of fea and land, are curious and new. Some of thefe altitudes, the very defcription of which renders us giddy, helped him to a partial anticipation of the difficulties he had to furmount in the journey he meditated: but his ardour only increafed in proportion as the wilds under view appered impailable. He enumerates, in this introduction to the travels before him, various incidents, occafioned by his triendships both in town and among the planters on their farms, at a distance which confiderably impeded his fetting out. Of all the captivating spots in this rich and romantic colony, a place called the Twenty-four Rivers ieems to have charmed him most. He mentions it as peculiarly calculated for the feite of a town, which, with very little attention, might toon be made to rival that on the Lape; and from the vicinity of a capacouts harbour, and a conftant fupply of the best and cheapest provifions, with every commercial accommodation, eafily furpass it both in trade, population, and magnificence. He traveried the whole of what is called Hottentot Holland, Swelbach, Draaken Steyn, Rockeveld, Rooge-zant, and by Swartland; every Foint as far as this enchanting retreat. The respective productions of the feveral cantons, their state of cultivation, and bocal peculiarities, are defcribed in his former work. They furnished him few articles for his collection on this occafion; and what obfervations they fuggeft, are chiefly confined to the characters of the Paters, and their mode of living. Thete he divides into three claffes: The hr tre a kind of grandees of enormous wealth, poffefed of fumptuous establish, ments, and marked from others by a diftant, fupercilious, and haughty deportment: The next owe every thing to their own indultry, enjoy an high degree of independence, live in a moderate state of competence, and emulate each other in practising the amiable virtues of kindness and hofpitality: The third are a fpecies of drovers, who keep their flocks in the recelles of the country, and expofe them to fale in the different cantons, lead a wandering and pastoral life, and have no means of fubfiftence, but what is derived from this ambulatory traffic. The two first Volumes of this Work, published fix years ago, had no chart by which the eye could furnish the least help to the understanding, in tracing the courfe of our traveller through a defert hitherto fo little known. This defect is in part at least fupplied by the present publication, to which is prefixed a map explanatory of beth tours; the former by a red line, and this by a yellow. Thefe extentive routes lie i oppofite directions, on a bale in the fhape of an angle, the vertex of which jets out into the fea, and forms one of the most extraordinary capes or promontories in the world, which is washed by the Southern Ocean in front, by the Indian on one fide, and by the Atlantic on the other. Our traveller reached along both thores very far up the country to a diftrict of Caffraria in one voyage, and mountains inhabited by the Howjuanas, under the tropic of Capricorn, in the other. But this ketch only expofes the vastnefs of the latitudes ftill unexplored, and the immenie fwarms of unknown favages buried in their deep impenetrable receffès; and it must leave on the mind of every judicious reader fentiments of real concern, that one fo competent to the task had it not in his power to vifit the whole. This map, like many others, is on too finall a fcale to be of much use; and ill confults the convenience of readers by a rigid adherence to the technical language of geography, which so few understand. Had the feveral tribes of favages reconnoitered, and their different hordes or kraals, been diftin&tly named in large ftrong characters, and the most important pafles emphatically marked, every resting-place, place of adventure, or place noted by whatever accident or circumftance, in the whole courfe might have become equally perfpicuous to every rea der. Little do men in affluence and ease and and poffeffed of many invaluable advantages from science and industry peculiar to a polished state of fcciety, think of the expence to which they owe their enjoyments. The pain of much thinking, the drudgery of fevere investigation, and all thote namelets circumitances of folicitude and labour, which render a ftudious life fo wearifome both to the fleth and the fpirits, are seldom fufficiently confidered by thofe to whofe indulgence and luxury it chiefly contributes. The force of this remark must be acknowledged by all who perufe these travels. They exhibit a feries of experiments carried on for the advancement of knowledge, at the rifque of whatever is valuable to human comfort. Every confideration, however interefting and important, is abruptly abandoned, for. whatever promites the least acceffion to our stock of intelligence. We have here a man poffefied of eate and independence, ifiuing from the bofom of taite and luxury; and, for the purfuit of fcience, relinquithing all the endearments of demeftic felicity'; committing himself to the perils of the ocean in a tedious and dilaftrous voyage; iweltering under the petent rays of a vertical fun, plunging amidft the storms which agitate the tropical climates with fo much violence; almoft fuffocated by clouds of faline duft and acrid vapours conftantly inhaled from a foil every where impregnated by falt and fulphur; alternately parched with thirt and devoured by hunger, without prospect of water or food; experiencing the narrowelt efcapes from cifoned arrows, and poifoned fountains, and the moft ferious depredations both of robbers and fire; exploring the hordes of unknown barbarians, far from the counsel and countenance of regular fociety; embracing as affociates and friends tribes of men as wild as the fummmits that harbour them, and uncultivated as the game they purite; dathing into the boems of forefts infed by beats of prey, cruffing on rafts or funips of trees the molt impetuous torrents; tumbling on a kraal of milerable wretches, blockaded in their huts by a peftilence fo deadly, that it feemed impollible either to recede or continue, without embracing inevitable deftruction, encountering elephants, who are nearly treading him down, rhinocerofes whole itrength is enormous, and mode of defence peculiarly fierce and dreadtul; geraffes, buffaloes, lions, tigers, hyenas, vultures, and almost every other carnivorous animal! Such a feries of hazards as diftinguith this bold adven turer cannot be read or recited without confiderable pain; but they give peculiar intereft to the narration, and fentibly enhance the value of the refult. The Author has no where laid before his readers a regular catalogue of his acquifitions in natural hiftory. They can beft judge of thefe who have access to the cabinet he muft by this time have digested and arranged. The following are a few fpecimens of the advantages we owe to his new Travels: 1. Though no botanist him!elf, he diclofes the most fertile fources for enriching that delicious fcience to fuch as ftudy and purfue it. He promiles to publifh with all convenient fpeed several engravings of fome fingularly beautitul plants. He explains the nature of v vegetation in theie acrid climates, characte rizes the foil, and directs the florist how to cherish and preferve this exquilite talle with inoft pleature and fucce's. An uncommon plant often and infenfibly rivets him to the fpot. In a fweet thicket on the bank of the Fifh River, he is filled with rapture at the fight of a lily fhedding its beauties to the defert air, and wav. ing majestically on a flexible ftem, teven feet high and fix inches round the bul, more than one foot in length, and nearly two and a half in circumference. 2. His claffification of animals was here confiderably augmented, as theie fert.le banks furnished him with eighty different fpccies of birds, ten of which were entirely new: their novelty was the more pleating as it was what he principally lought. He added likewife to his collec tion many quadrupeds both great and fmail: but what is of the highett confequence to the knowledge of genuine nature, the habits and manners of every independent kind he was chiefly careful to examine and display; and from the inftances produced in thefe Volumes of his acutenes and difcrimination, we are heartily difpofed to with him all poffibie fuccefs in the feveral publications announced, and which are probably now in train. 3. He endeavours to purge natural history of all the misshapen tables which have hitherto disfigured and disguised it. Several facts doubted or disbelieved, he authenticates; afferts the practicability of taming the fierceft animals from his own experience and example in the cafe of a zebra; and eltablishes the fafcinating power of certain reptiles from the tettimony of his own fenfes, and that of other feientific gentlemen of indifputable tralibility and honour and these things are the more likely to be true, that this publication mult reach the Cape, where many witneffes are alive and to be fourd, and infallible means of detecting fiétitious ftatements are at hand. 4. Nothing recommends the Work mere to our attention, than the many amiable and interesting traits it affords of our common nature in its moft artless and fimple condition. All the Author's futering and expence of time, talent and property, would have been amply repayed by only quashing that calumny and averton, which unfortunately configned fuch multitudes of our fellow-creatures to the hatred and injury of others, not much better than themselves. But he refcues all numberleis hordes of mild and harmlets individuals from prejudice and obfcurity; makes them known and refpect ed by each other; and inftru&ts the goverament of thele remote fettlements how the numerous tribes who occupy the back grounds may be trained and made fer; viceable and nothing can be more plea fing than the rapture and enthufiafim with which he dwells and expatiates on their wann unfufpicious tempers, the mildness and freedom of their manners, the hofpitality they fhew to ftrangers, the contide ce they excrcife on all occafions, and the very exquisite pleasure they unitorily take in doing generous and good natured things. 5. The predeceffors of our traveller in lome part of the fame route are every where handfomely treated. Of fome who evidently had the improvement of fcience exclufively at heart, he fpeaks in terms of high refpect, and rectifies their miftakes with delicacy and liberality; but cthers who take every thing on truft, and are fond of exaggerating the traditions of the populace, and even repeat with approbation the romantic fables of the planters, he induftriouily expoles to the infamy they merit. 6. On the fuppofition that we shall be able to retain this ineftimable fettlement of which we are now in poffeffion, we earneftly recommend thefe Travels to the attention of Government: they bring forward objects of great public importance: various high commercial ad vantages in which this country abounds are fuggefted, fome of the finest bays for fhipping in the known world are pointed out, and feveral rich fources of naval ftores laid open. New fituations peculiarly inviting to fresh colonization are diiclofed, where the foil is fertile, the climate gentle, water plenty, game abundant, ample communication with the fea and with Europe open, and the whole fcenery for an immenfe fweep of the mot beautiful lying grounds exquisitely rich and romantic. The practicability of travering the whole of thefe unknown regions is frequently and fully afcertained; and the best guide to fuch an undertaking are, doubtlefs, the adventures and experience here detailed. Notwithstanding the fingular degree of pleafure we have derived from the perufal of thefe Travels, we do not think them altogether faultlefs. Many of his details might be profitably compreffed. His defcriptions both of animals, vegetables, and occurrences, are also very often tedioufly prolix. Among all the monsters he faw, he accounts for none of their carcafes when dead; he does not once mention feeing any of their bones, or hazard a fingle conjecture on this phenomenon. How age is accommodated among favages, the state both of men and women during that interefting period; and how, where, and with what folemnity their dead are interred, he leaves us wholly in the dark. All the fpeculations he throws out on the various fhades of the human character in this uncultivated and undepraved ftage, are equally fuperficial and unfatisfactory. Frem the inhabitants of thefe high remote latitudes, where the wonders of nature are in perpetual exhibition, and an extreme fermentation of the elements diverfifies her entire organization, who dicever in other refpects no weakness of intellect, it feems odd no traces of reflection were difcerned, concerning either the origin of things, or their own destination; but this key,though the beft for unlocking all the latent excellencies and mysteries of our nature, did not accord with the philofophy of the new ichool. It is at leaft not from a difciple of materialilm that we can expect fuch intelligence. The Monk. A Romance. By M. G. Lewis, Efq. M. P. In Three Volumes. The Second Edition. London. J. Bell, Oxford-street. THIS fingular compofition, which has neither originally, morals, nor probability to recommend it, has excited, and will fill continue to excite, the curiofity of the public. Such is the irrefatible energy of genius. The |