At the opening

bottled in Virginia, to be fent to London. of one of the bottles, at the house of a friend where I was, three drowned flies fell into the glafs which was filled. Having heard it remarked that drowned flies were capable of being revived by the rays of the fun, I propofed making the experiment upon these. They were therefore exposed to the fun, upon a feive which had been employed to train them out of the wine. In less than three hours two of them began by degrees to recover life. They commenced by fome convulfive motions in the thighs, and at length they raised themselves upon their legs, wiped their eyes with their fore feet, beat and brushed their wings with their hind feet and foon after began to fly, finding themselves in Old England, without knowing how they came thither. The third continued lifelefs until fun-fet, when, lofing all hopes of him, he was thrown away.

I wish it were poffible, from this inftance, to invent a method of embalming drowned perfons, in fuch a manner that they may be recalled to life at any period, however diftant; for having a very ardent defire to fee and obferve the state of America an hundred years hence, I fhould prefer an ordinary death, the being immerfed in a cafk of Madeira wine, with a few friends, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the folar warmth of my dear country! But fince in all probability, we live in an age too early, and too near the infancy of fcience, to fee fuch an art brought in our time to its perfection, I muft, for the prefent, content myself with the treat, which you are so kind as to promife me, of the refurrection of a fowl or a turkey-cock.

PRECAUTIONS TO BE USED BY THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO UNDERTAKE A SEA VOYAGE.

WHEN you intend to take a long voyage, nothing is

better than to keep it a fecret till the moment of your departure. Without this you will be continually interrupted and tormented by vifits from friends and acquaintances, who not only make you lose your valuable time, but make you forget a thousand things which you wish to remember;

fo that when you are embarked, and fairly at fea, you recollect, with much uneafinefs affairs which you have not terminated, accounts that you have not fettled, and a number of things which you proposed to carry with you, and which you find the want of every moment. Would it not be attended with the best confequences to reform fuch a custom, and to fuffer a traveller, without deranging him, to make his preparations in quietnefs, to fet apart a few days, when these are finished, to take leave of his friends, and to receive their good wishes for his happy return?

It is not always in one's power to choose a captain; though great part of the pleasure and happiness of the paffage depends upon this choice, and though one must for a time be confined to his company, and be in fome measure under his command. If he is a focial fenfible man, obliging, and of a good difpofition, you will be fo much the happier. One fometimes meets with people of this defcription, but they are not common; however, if yours be not of this number, if he be a good feaman, attentive, carefull, and active in the management of his veffel, you may difpenfe with the reft, for these are the most effential qualities.

Whatever right you may have by your agreement with him, to the provifions he has taken on board for the use of the paffengers, it is always proper to have fome private ftore, which you may make use of occafionally. You ought, therefore, to provide good water, that of the ship being often bad; but you must put it into bottles, without which you cannot expect to preferve it sweet. You ought alfo to carry with you good tea, ground coffee, chocolate, wine of the fort you like beft, cyder, dried raisons, almonds, fugar, capillaire, citrons, rum eggs dipped in oil, portable foup, bread twice baked. With regard to poultry, it is almost useless to carry any with you, unless you refolve to undertake the office of feeding and fattening them yourself. With the little care which is taken of them on board fhip, they are almost all fickly, and their flesh is as tough as leather.

All failors entertain an opinion, which has undoubtedly originated formerly from a want of water, and when it has been found neceffary to be fparing of it, that poultry

never know when they have drank enough; and that when water is given them at discretion, they generally kill themfelves by drinking beyond measure. In confequence of this opinion, they gave them water only once in two days, and even then in fmall quantities: but as they pour this water into troughs inclining on one fide, which occafions it to run to the lower part, it thence happens that they are obliged to mount one upon the back of another in order to reach it; and there are fome which cannot even dip their beaks in it. Thus continually tantalized and tormented by thurst, they are unable to digeft their food, which is very dry, and they foon fall fick and die. Some of them are found thus every morning, and are thrown into the fea; whilft those which are killed for the table are scarcely fit to be eaten. To remedy this inconvenience, it will be neceffary to divide their troughs into fmall compartments, in fuch a manner that each of them may be capable of containing water; but this is feldom or never done. On this account, fheep and hogs are to be confidered as the best fresh provision that one can have at fea; mutton there being in general very good, and pork excellent.

It may happen that fome of the provifions and flores which I have recommended may become almost useless, by the care which the captain has taken to lay in a proper flock; but in fuch a cafe you may dispose of it to relieve the poor paffengers, who, paying lefs for their paffage, are flowed among the common failors, and have no right to the captain's provifions, except fuch part of them' as is ufed for feeding the crew. Thefe paffengers are fometimes fick, melancholy, and dejected; and there are often woman and children among them neither of whom have any opportunity of procuring thofe things which I have mentioned, and of which, perhaps, they have the greatest need. By diftributing amongst them a part of your fuperduity, you may be of the greatest affiftance to them. You may restore their health, fave their lives, and in fhort render them hap py; which always affords the livelieft fenfation to a feeling mind.

The most disagreeable thing at fea is the 'cookery; for there is not, properly fpeaking, any profeffed cook on board. The wort failor is generally chofen for that pur

pofe, who for the most part is equally dirty. Hence comes the proverb used among the English failors, that God fends meat, and the devil fends cooks. Those, however, who have a better opinion of providence, will think otherwise. Knowing that fea air, and the exercife or motion which they receive from the rolling of the ship, have a wonderful effect in whetting the appetite, they will fay that Providence has given failors bad cooks to prevent them from eating too much; or that knowing they would have bad cooks, he has given them a good appetite to prevent them from dying with hungar. However, if you have no confidence in thefe fuccours of Providence, you may yourself, with a lamp and a boiler, by the help of a little spirits of wine, prepare fome food, fuch as foup, hash, &c. A small oven made of tinplate is not a bad piece of furniture; your fervant may roaft in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever tempted to eat falt beef, which is often very good, you will find that cider is the best liquor to quench the thirst generally caufed by falt meat or falt fifh. Sea-biscuit which is too hard for the teeth of fome people, may be foftened by fteeping it; but bread double-baked is the beft, for being made of good loaf-bread cut into flices, and baked a fecond time, it readily imbibes water, becomes foft, and is easily digefted; it confequently forms excellent nourishment, much fuperior to that of bifcuit, which has not been fermented.

I must here obferve, that this double-baked bread was originally the real bifcuit prepared to keep at fea; for the word bifcuit, in French, fignifies twice baked*. Pease often boil badly, and do not become foft; in such a cafe, by putting a two-pound fhot into the kettle, the rolling of the veffel, by means of this bullet will convert the peale into a kind of porrige, like mustard.

Having often feen foup, when put upon the table at fea in broad flat dishes, thrown out on every fide by the rolling of the veffel, I have wifhed that our tinmen would make our foup-bafons with divifions or compartments forming mall plates, proper for containing foup for one perfon only By this difpofition, the foup, in an extraor

*It is derived from bis again, and crit baked.

dinary roll, would not be thrown out of the plate, and would not fall into the breafts of those who are at table, and fcald them.-Having entertained you with these things of little importance, permit me now to conclude with some general reflections upon navigation.

When navigation is employed only for transporting neceffary provifions from one country, where they abound, to ano ther where they are wanting; when by this it prevents famines which where so frequent and so fatal before it was invented and became fo common; we cannot help confidering it as one of those arts which contribute moft to the happiness of mankind. But when it is employed to tranfport things of no utility, or articles merely of luxury, it is then uncertain whether the advantages refulting from it are fufficient to counterbalance the misfortunes it occafions, by expofing the lives of fo many individuals upon the vast ocean And when it is used to plunder veffels and transport slaves, it is evi« dently only the dreadful means of increasing those calamities which affli& human nature.

One is aftonished to think on the number of veffels and men who are daily expofed in going to bring tea from China, coffee from Arabia, and fugar and tobacco from America; all commodities which our ancestors lived very well without. The fugar-trade employs nearly a thousand veffels; and that of tobacco almoft the same number. With regard to the utility of tobacco, little can be faid; and with regard to fugar, how much more meritorious would it be to facrifice the momentary plea fure which we receive from drinking it once or twice a-day in our tea, than to encourage the numberless cruelties that are continually exercised in order to procure it us?

A celebrated French maralift faid, that when he confidered the wars which we foment in Africa to get negroes, the great number who of course perish in these wars; the multitude of those wretches who die in their passage, by disease, bad air, and bad provisions; and laftly, how maay perish by the cruel treatment they meet with in a state of flavery; when he saw a bit of fugar, he could not help imagining it to be covered with fpots of human blood. But, had he added to thefe confiderations the wars which we carry on against one another, to take and retake the in