The favourable account which Mr. Wilfon brought, joined to the meffage the King had fent to the Captain by his brother and fon, put all our people into great fpirits; fo that they applied to their feveral avocations with redoubled vigour, and particularly to getting every thing they could from the wreck.

On the 15th, the English were informed that the King was coming; and foon after they faw a great number of canoes turning the point which formed the harbour; but the King ftopped as foon as he got within the bay, and directed one fquadron of the canoes, which were all armed, to retire to the back of the island; thinking, probably, that fo great a number of armed people would create an alarm among the ftrangers He then came forward with the reft, in great form, and with much parade, as far as the tide, which was then law, would permit them; and it was fignified to Capt. W. by the King's brothers, that he fhould then go and meet him. Accordingly two of his own people took him on their fhoulders, and carried him through the water to the King's canoe, which he was requefted to enter; and he and the King, whofe name was Abba Thulle, embraced one another. The Captain then related the nature of their misfortune to Abba Thulle, by means of the two Malays, and repeated his request to be permitted to build a veffel to carry them home; and the King again gave his permiffion for them to build it, either where they were, or at the ifland where he refided; but recommended the latter, adding, that the island on which they had landed was unhealthy, which was the reafon it was not inhabited; and that he apprehended they would be ill when another wind began to blow. The Captain informed him, that they had a perfon with them whose business it was to cure difeafes; and that it would be very inconvenient to them if they removed farther from the wreck of their veffel, because they could not then procure from her fuch things as they might want, without much trouble and lofs of time. To there reafons the King affented; and making figns that he wished to land, the Captain was carried on fhore by his people, and Abba Thulle, ftepping into the water, followed him. He viewed all the tents, and the ftores and arms which they had got on fhore, with great attention, as his two brothers had done before. He accepted of fuch refreshments as they had to give him as well as the presents which were offered to him; and, toward evening, he went away to the back of the ifland, with all his attendants, feemingly much gratified with what he had received and feen; but his two brothers, with their attendants, remained with the English.

The next morning they began laying down the blocks and ways for building their intended veffel; and in the afternoon the King again came round to the cove where the English were.

Capt.

Capt. W. and his people had obferved a gloom on the faces of the King's two brothers all that morning, and now perceived the fame thoughtfulness, or, as they interpreted it, coolness, on that of the King, which gave them much uneafinefs, because they could neither tell how they had given offence, nor how to remove it. Capt. W. was again requested to go to the King in his canoe, with which he readily complied; and there, after much apparent ftruggle within himself, Abba Thulle told him, that he was then at war with fome of his neighbours, who had injured him; and that having learnt, from what his brothers had seen, and the Malay had told them, of the effects of their fire-arms, he wished him to lend him four or five of his people, to go with them in a few days to battle against their enemies; not doubting but that they would give them the most decided victory. Capt. W. not knowing what might be the confequence of a refufal, inftantly replied, that the English were as his own people; that the enemies of the King were their enemies; and that the people he asked for fhould be ready when they were wanted. The countenance of the King, his brothers, and all their attendants, inftantly brightened up; and it fully appeared to Capt. W. and his people, that the gloom which had been seen on the faces of Abba Thulle and his attendants, had arifen from their fear of asking a favour which it might be inconvenient or difagreeable to their new friends to grant Abba Thulle then told Capt. W. that they were to fight in four days; that he would call for the people to-morrow, and take them with him to Pelew, the island where he refided; and that he would bring them back as foon after the engagement as poffible: in the mean time, he faid, he would leave with him the fame number of his own people, fuch as might be trufted; and affured him that all imaginable care fhould be taken that the men who went to his affiflance, fhould receive no hurt.

The next day, the 17th, the King came for the men; and five ftout young fellows begged of their comrades to fuffer them to go without cafting lots (as every man was eager to go), which was agreed to. The King, his brothers, and fon, took each one in his canoe; and the English giving their comrades three cheers at parting, Abba Thulle and all his people, as foon as the meaning of it was explained to them, got up and joined in returning the falute.

Those who were left behind now fet themselves earnestly to the conftruction of their veffel: but the five men not returning until the afternoon of the 25th, and this being fo much longer than the time mentioned by Abba Thulle, Capt. W. and his people began to be under very difagreeeable apprehenfions on their account; and, in order to render themfelves more independent on their neighbours for the future, in cafe any thing bad

I 4

fhould

fhould have happened, they raised a barricade round their tents, and got one of the great guns and two fwivels from the ship: the former they mounted on its carriage, fo as to command the whole entrance into the harbour; and the two fwivels were fixed on the ftumps of two trees cut down for the purpose, in fuch a manner, and in fuch pofitions, as would permit them to be pointed in every neceffary direction; and when these works were completed, they began to think themselves almoft independent of Abba Thulle and his people. However, the appearance of their companions, in the afternoon of the 25th, in good health and fpirits, and accompanied by their old friend Raa Kook, difperfed their fears, but did not abate their fatisfaction at finding themselves enabled to be their own protectors.

The account given by Mr. Cummins, the third mate of the Antelope, who was one of the five men that went on this expedition,, was in fubftance as follows:

They lay on the 17th, at night, on a fmall island, about fix leagues to the eastward of the Englifhmen's cove, and three or four miles from Pelew, the King's refidence, where they were received with great kindness, and treated with much hofpitality; and next morning went to Pelew, where they remained until the 21ft, the King being not able to get all his canoes together before that time. At break of day, however, on that morning, they all mustered before the King's houfe, with their arms, which confifted of bamboo darts, from five to eight feet long, and pointed with the wood of the betle-nut tree, bearded. These they ufe for clofe fighting; but they had also fhort ones, which they threw, by means of a stick of about two feet long, to a great diftance. The English embarked in five different canoes, in which they went about ten or twelve leagues ftill farther to the eastward, calling at feveral villages which belonged to Abba Thulle, to refrefh, and collect reinforcements; and about half paft two o'clock they arrived in fight of the enemy. They had now with them a fleet of about 150 canoes, on board of which there were above 1000 men; but of the enemy's force our people could form no very probable conjecture. Before the action, Raa Kook went in his canoe close to the town, and talked to the enemy fome time, having one of our men, named Thomas Dutton, with him; but who had orders not to fire until a fignal, which had been agreed on, fhould be given. What the general faid being received by the enemy with great indifference, he threw a spear at them (the fignal for battle), which was inftantly returned by a volley from the enemy, and Dutton fired at the fame time. One man fell directly; and this threw them into fuch confu fion, that the people on fhore ran away with great precipitation, while thofe who were in the canoes leaped into the water,

and made for land as faft as they could: a few more mufquets were fired, which difperfed the enemy entirely; and Abba Thulle and his people feemed perfectly fatisfied with this mark of their victory, as they never offered to purfue them, nor to make any use of it, but to land, and ftrip a few cocoa-nut trees of their fruit, and carry off a few yams, and other provifion. They immediately returned homeward, the King being highly pleased. with his triumph; and ftopped at feveral places in their way, where the women brought out fweet liquor for the people to drink; but it being too far to get home that night, the fleet difperfed up feveral creeks, about eight o'clock in the evening, and flept there. The next day, feafts were prepared in all the neighbouring houses, and about three o'clock in the afternoon the people re embarked, and arrived at Pelew the fame evening. Here there was nothing but feafting and rejoicing all the next day, and on the following morning the King difmiffed the English, with great marks of fatisfaction, and high encomiums on their behaviour and valour. He accompanied them to the water-fide, and fent two large canoes, laden with yams, and other provifions, to their companions; and the General, Raa Kook, would accompany them back: they, however, got no farther that day than the fmall ifland where they lay the firft night; for their old friends received them, if poffible, with greater hofpitality than before, and were eager to exprefs to them, by figns, that they knew how much they had contributed to defeat the King's enemies. The next morning, they fuffered the English to depart, and rejoin their fhip-mates; and Raa Kook faw them fafe to the end of their journey.

The warriors now joined their companions in labouring at their new veffel, which went on with as much expedition as could be expected, when the circumftances and the inconveniences which they laboured under, are confidered.

[To be concluded in our next. ] ·

ART. IV. Gibbon's Roman Hiftory, continued: Vol. V. See our last, p. 20.

F hiftorical compofition and economy, two different modes

have been adopted, each of which is juftified by great ex-amples. Among the writers of antiquity, Thucydides, Xenophon*, and Diodorus Siculus, follow the order of time, and adjust the tranfactions which they relate, according to the precife dates when they happened. Herodotus and Polybius, on the other hand, regard chiefly the order of events, and relate the

*This is meant of his Grecian hiftory; for his Inftitution of Cyrus, and his Expedition of the Ten thoufand, are arranged on other principles.

rife,

rife, progrefs, and conclufion of one important action, before they proceed to other actions, depending at the fame period of time. By this means, the thread of the narrative remains unbroken; the attention of the reader is kept awake; his affections are engaged: he fees the dependance of events on each other; and when he has finished his perufal of the work, he can look back with pleasure, recollect the order and connection of the several parts, and contemplate the fymmetry and beauty of the whole. To this latter mode of hiftorical compofition, the ancient critics univerfally gave the preference; and it is this mode which Mr. Gibbon has followed, with uncommon induftry, and fingular fuccefs. Without regulating his hiftory by the course of the year, or obferving the exact order of time, he has not however neglected chronology. In this particular, he is minutely accurate; well knowing that it is the duty of an historian to preserve, diftinatly, the date of each event; but that to crowd all events together which happen at the fame date, is totally incompatible with that duty, fince it muft inevitably diftract the attention of his reader, and deftroy the unity and beauty

of his work.

We judged these observations neceffary, to obviate an objection, which has been made to this elaborate hiftory, and which must have a confiderable influence on the minds of those who, being accustomed to read the hiftories of particular kingdoms, will imagine that Mr. Gibbon's work is irregular and deferving of cenfure, in that very particular in which it is most regular, and merits moft praife. In the hiftory of particular kingdoms, an author can feldom look beyond the reign, or point of time, to which his narrative relates; but in a history of such extent and compafs as that of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in which the transactions of diftant ages and remote countries verge to one point, and conspire to one end +, he is often obliged to look back, and to anticipate, to combine in one view wide intervals of time and space, and to harmonize into one general fyftem a variety of detached and feemingly dif cordant particulars. This part of the hiftorian's duty, which Mr. Gibbon has fulfilled with equal ingenuity and judgment, is fo finely illuftrated by a Greek writer, that we cannot forbear exhibiting the paffage in a literal tranflation.

*See particularly Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, in his letter to Pompey; and Lucian on the compofition of history.

+ Polybius employs the fame words in fpeaking of bis fubject, the "Formation of the Roman greatnefs." Fortune, he faid, had brought the affairs of the world to have, all of them, one fingle tendency, νεύειν προς ένα και τον αυτον σκοπον.