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and adorned by succeeding generations. The great masters of history even in our own times have confused themselves and their readers, by referring the important events of the earliest periods, to Osiris and Sesostris, to the Argonauts and Hercules: when at length a sage appeared, who arrested the progtess of fable, and vindicated the cause of truth. The fame of the venerable Bryant needs no eulogium, but enjoys an elevation which succeeding centuries will support. By pointing out a path which all preceding writers had neglected, he recalled his countrymen from the legends of that mythology which had disgraced their writings. Admired and abused, imitated and blamed, Mr. Bryant has preserved the even tenour of his course, and given a new impulse to the literary world."

When the blind lead the blind it is no marvel that they go astray. Mr. Clarke has chosen Jacob Bryant for his guide in antient history; he calls him a judicious sceptic, and says that the scarcity of his valuable work will excuse long and frequent citations. Mr. Maurice is another of the author's oracles, but he seems to be unacquainted with the writings of General Vallancey, the great master of the erudite and the confused. He himself partakes the judicious scepticism of his school, which consists in disbelieving whatever thwarts their own hypotheses, and quoting the most absurd legends of the most suspicious writers with full faith.

"M. Bailli, in his history of astronomy, after describing its connection with agriculture, chronology, geography, and navigation, takes a general view of the inventors and origin of this science; and, in his third book, considers the state of astronomy betore the flood. He scruples not to assign a knowledge of the mariner's compass, and of the clepsydra, to the antediluvians; and also seems inclined to add the use of the pendalum. Mr. Maurice, with considerable ingenuity, supports the same opinion in his valuable history of Hindostan; and after invalidating many of the extravagant and dogmatical assertions of M. Bailli, introduces a sketch of such arts and sciences as may reasonably, and without exaggeration, be presumed to have been cultivated by mankind before the flood. Though Mr. Mau

rice does not particularly contend for the existence of an antediluvian sphere, he expatiates on the probability of many invaluable astronomical records having been preserved by Noah, among the remains of the wisdom of the antient world; and cites the few passages in profane history, from Josephus, Manetho, and Diodorus Siculus, that seem to illustrate this opinion. But the most curious attestation of this occurs in the oriental philosophy of Mr. Stanley, who gleaned it from the old Chaldean and Arabian authors. Kissæus, a Mahomedan writer, asserts that the Sabians possessed not only the books of Seth and Edris, but also others written by Adam himself; for Abraham, after his expulsion from Chaldea by the tyrant Nimrod, going into the country of the Sabians, opened the chest of Adam; and, behold, in it were the books of Adam, as also those of Seth and Edris; and the names of all the prophets that were to succeed Abraham."

Who can doubt the astronomical knowledge of the antediluvians? nay, who does not hope to see an edition of the works of Adam printed from the original manuscript, after this attestation of the learned Kissaus? But Mr. Clarke does not bow in passive obedience to the authority of his worthy predecessors; he cannot believe, notwithstanding the authority of M. Bailli and Mr Maurice, that the magnet was discovered previous to the flood: for "this," says he, "would argue a degree of skill in science among the antediluvians, sufficient to have counteracted, or opposed, the overwhelming chastisement of the deluge."

Mr. Clarke proceeds to a history of the general deluge," the universality of which the Arabians to this day strikingly express by their appropriate term of Al Tufan." Al Tufan! who does not perceive the striking and appropriate beauty of the term?*" the word is well-cull'd, choice, sweet and apt, I do assure you, Sir!" Next come the dimensions of the divine Thebath, that Thebath, commonly, yea vulgarly, not to say pulpitetically, nor yet tea-tabellically, and moreover among the speciallest species of porter-drinking, oxyphonic, puppetshow rhetoricians, called, appellated, as

Yet surely even Al Tufan must yield the palm of expression and appropriate beauty to. the Tomogkog of the Catawbas. Mr. Clarke, we perceive, has a true sense of the sublime in language. How is it that he has overlooked the history of the Tufan or Tomogkog in the impressive diction of that great people? Wame tohkékomuash quogkononogkodtash polquodchuwanash, kah tomogkonne squoantamash kesukqut pohquaemoouk. Here are words worthy to employ the lips, larynx, and lungs of Stentor! what a mouthful for Garagantua! what a gem to have hone among the jewels of Mr. Clarke's Arabian, Hebrew and Sanscritnomenclatur

the saying is, and annominated Noah's Ark. This is followed by a dissertation upon the mount Ararat, a happy subject, which enables Mr. Clarke to transcribe page after page from Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, and from the Asiatic Researches; he carries us not only to Armenia, but to Cashgar, Cashmir, Castwar, C'hasgar and C'hasagar; to Sheybar-Tag or SheybarTau; to Vami-Nagari or Vami-Gram; and to Buddha-Bamiyan, whose venerable title has been maliciously distorted by the Mussulmans into But-Bamiyan; that Bamiyan which is called SharmaBamiyan or Sham-Bamiyan, for in Sanscrit Sharma and Shama are synonimous; as in this volume are Sanscrit and Sham. He travels between Bahlac and Cabul, as far as Bahlac and Badacshan, to Balikh and Balkh Bamiyan, to Cala Roh or the Black Mountain, and to Tuct Suleiman or the throne of Solomon; he astonishes us by the depth and darkness of erudition, we must not say his erudition, and he overpowers us by the authority of the Puranas and the books of the Banddhists, of the Pharangh-Jehangeri, and the Buddha-dharma-charya-sindhuh. Yet more Arkana of Arkaiology, for upon the principles of this great school this must be the true orthography. The historian of maritime discovery returns to the ark, the Thebath or Theba of the learned Theban: the Mundane Egg, the Argo, the Boutus, the Cibotus, the Centaurus, the Archeius, the Amphiprumnais, the Laris, Isis, Rhea and Atargatis of the antients, thus the author informs us; to which we add, from the stores of our own knowledge, the Arkut of the Ohios, the Shawanoes, the Utewas, the Nadovessians, the Messegagues, the Chickasaws, the Cherokees, the Choktaws and Catawbas. He adduces new

proofs of the universality of the deluge, and supports the veracity of Moses by the evidence of Mr. Maurice, who personally examined two teeth of an hippopotamus, and the entire tusk of an elephant, which were found buried thirty feet under ground by some workmen of Mr. Trimmer, at Brentford, six miles from London. He gives us also an account of ships actually built after the proportions of the ark, which proved the most complete and perfect models ever constructed for vessels of burthen,

Surely the admiralty will not permit so valuable a hint as this to be lost We trust they will refer it to general Ben

tham, and that we may soon see a royal Noah in the navy. But we must confess, we doubt the prudence of Mr. Clarke in publishing so important an idea during war; we will not suspect the loyalty of this gentleman, yet the times are serious, we are threatened with invasion, and a fleet of arks would be far more formidable than rafts or gun-boats, especially if it be considered how peculiarly they are adapted for transporting the enemy's cavalry.

Mr. Clarke has got into the labyrinth of fabulous history, and he mistakes every spider's thread for a clue. Here is a great quagmire through which no road has been made; Messrs. Bryant, Maurice and Co. have thrown down waggon loads of rubbish in it, and here comes this labourer and stirs about the dust. will pass over the remainder of his historical memoir, this miserable patchwork of quotations, and examine the body of the work.

We

The first section gives a brief sketch of maritime history to the commencement of the fifteenth century. A more accurate account of the northern pirates might have been obtained from Mr. Turner's history of the Anglo-Saxons, a book, which, notwithstanding its de fects of style, is assuredly the most laborious and praise-worthy historical work which this country has yet produced. A passage is quoted from Ossian, after Dr. Henry, to inform us "of the name of the daring prince who first invented ships and led a colony into Ireland." Surely it is no longer allowable for any, but a Scotchman, to quote Ossian as authority; moreover it interferes with Noah's claim, and we are therefore surprized to find Larthon placed at the head of the antient company of ship-carpenters. Of the naval power of Catalonia Mr. Clarke has gleaned a scanty knowledge from a French history of Genoa, which is like consulting a French historian for the victories of the English. These defects however are of little import: the progress of maritime discovery, not of maritime power, is Mr. Clarke's subject, and whatever preceded the age of the infant Don Henrique should have been condensed as prefatory matter. But some omissions we must notice and censure, Why are we referred to an unpublished appendix for the discovery of the Canaries? Was the volume already so stuffed with transcription that no

room could be found for the extracts from the admirable work of Glas? Beyond a doubt the Canaries were the first discoveries of naval enterprize, and yet in a history of maritime discoveries they are past over! We have to charge Mr. Clarke with a far worse omission: be has made no mention whatever of the state of naval architecture or of nautical

science.

In the second section begins a sketch of the history of Portugal, compiled from compilations; this also is a work of supererogation, if that name can be applied to works which are not good. We can excuse no superfluous matter in a quarto volume, price three pounds eight shillings, which is to be the first of seven. This section is interlarded with the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, John de Plano Carpini, and William de Rubruquis: these travels are thus in<roduced as events which "as they interested the whole attention of modern Europe, could not fail to produce a considerable effect on the minds of the most enterprising and best informed among the Portuguese." This is a curious passage; the journal of a Jew's travels in the year 1173 interèsted the whole attention of modern Europe! "The marvellous narrative of a traveller of Navarre must have soon excited the curiosity of Alphonso." By an easy alteration of mood and tense the conjectures of the historian pass into the perfect indicative affirmation of history; he naturally sought and obtained a copy of the curious manuscript, and Alphonso thus received a new fund of geographical information, which had been hitherto concealed from the general attention of the western world, and the wanderings of a Jew, notwithstanding their eccentricities, may be considered as having opened a path for the enterpris ing spirit of a more distant age. Clarke indeed has through the whole section made vigorous deductions from the potential mood; "the manuscripts of learned travellers must have been a principal object of research to such a monarch as king Dennis," for so after his French authorities he misnames Diniz;" the expedition of count Henry to the Holy Land is a point of much im portance in the progress of maritime discovery: if he actually made such a voyage, he probably obtained some account of the seas and of the geography of India, and might thus have contributed to awaken a spirit of commercial enterprize among

Mr.

his countrymen, which at length effected the developement of the Indian ocean by the Cape of Good Hope:" the fact is, that count Henry's crusade is a mere fiction, of which we could effed the developement if this were the fit place, or if the developement had not been sufficiently effected. To the end of this section is subjoined what the author calls a concise account of the most distinguished Portugueze writers; in this catalogue there is scarcely a Portugueze name spelt aright, or a Portugueze title printed intelligibly.

The second chapter commences with the reign of John I. the father of prince Henry, whom Mr. Clarke every where calls duke of Viseo: duke of Viseu he was, as the prince of Wales is duke of Cornwall, and it is equally absurd to call either by his inferior title. By the duke of Viseu every Portugueze would understand dom Diogo, who was stabbed by John II. We proceed to the commencement of the discoveries, without dwelling longer upon the blunders which precede it: Mr. Clarke may correct them from Neufoille, or La Clede, or the Universal History.

"John the first, of Portugal, was emiently happy in the abilities and amiable disposition of children, who supported and adorned his throne: the spirit which animated their valour, never encroached on either the honour, or the affection, that was due unto a parent. The liberal education enjoyed by their father, rendered him anxious, that his sons should not alone depend this solicitude by a generous emulation of on their rank for respect; and they repaid his fame. Edward, prince of Portugal, was deeply versed in the laws and constitution of his country, under the immediate eye of his parent; the history of the different kingdoms of Europe, taught him at an early age the difficult, though glorious duty of governing a free people. John distinguished himself both in the camp and cabinet, and united in an uncommon degree the talents of the mitility of the statesman.. The fatal expedition litary character, with the keenness or versa. to Tangier, which ended in the perpetual captivity of his noble brother Fredinand, never received his suffrage, but from the first was opposed by every argument he could devise. Pedro, duke of Coimbra, was endowed by nature with a quick, yet solid understanding; in whatever light his character the beholder. His eloquence, the voyages is beheld, its brilliancy attracts and gratifies which he had made, and his travels both in Asia and Africa, induced the historian Castera, with others, to style him the Ulysses of his age. Pedro was admired in all the

courts of Europe; and, under the standards of the emperor Sigismond, the sword of don Pedro had been seen and dreaded in Germany by the Turks. When called to the helm as regent, he gave the whole of his charts and geographical manuscripts to the Duke of Viseo; who to kindred genius and talents, united the most determined and patient resolution. The religion of this prince, who was grand master of the order of Christ, blessed and elevated his designs; the propagation of the gospel was the sublime object of all his enterprizes: the words that were emblazoned on the shield of this illustrious knight, TALENT DE BIEN FAIRE, prove that he had imbibed the generous virtues of christianity.

"Three years before the reduction of Ceuta, the duke of Viseo had sent, in 1412, a vessel to explore the coast of Africa, which was the first voyage of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese. This atteinpt, rude as it now appears, was then pregnant with a series of alarm, particularly adapted to depress the resolution of seamen, who are always well versed in legendary horrors. Africa, from time immemorial, has been the Land of wonder or fairy illusion; and though the industry of the eighteenth century may have removed many of the plausible theories that darkened the beginning of the fifteenth, we still have gained little more than a knowledge of its coasts. The philosophic ideas of Cicero, who collected whatever had been approved by the antients, were now become the errors of the vulgar; the arguments that convinced the reason of Pliny, may be allowed to have possessed some weight on the minds of Portuguese scamen: they believed, therefore, that the middle regions of the earth, in the torrid zone, teemed with scorching vapours; and that the unexplored southern continent of Africa, after extending in breadth towards the west, diverged with an unbroken sweep to the east; and having joined the continent of Asia to the eastward of the Golden Chersonese, the peninsula of Malacca, was not surrounded by sea, but stretched in breadth to the south pole.

This first voyage of the Portuguese was annually followed by others; as the duke sent every year some ships to the coast of Africa, they gradually advanced beyond Cape Nam, which extending itself from the foot of Mount Atlas, had hitherto been the impassable limit of European navigation, and accordingly received its name from a negative term in Portuguese. But the mariners, who sailed with every instruction and encouragement their prince could furnish, were arrested in their course by the sight of a tremendous cape; which, at the distance of sixty leagues from the former, stretched boldly out towards the west, and formed the coast, they had hitherto passed from Cape Nam, into an extensive bay. With considerable alarm and disappointment, they beheld a frightful sea

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raging on the shoals, which agitate its waves for six leagues: the terrors of the torrid zone were not forgot; their imagination presented its fiery flames and scorching vapours, and suggested that they might already have advanced too far. On their return, the dangers of the newly discovered cape were not diminished by narration; and the Spanish term of Bojar was given to the barren and dreary promontory of Bojadore.

"The systems which the narrow faculties of men frame in every age, and substitute for the sublime truths of nature, would here probably have repressed, at least for many years, the daring exploits of navigation, if the unprejudiced and clear mind of the Portuguese prince, had not dared to question the validity of the antient sages, the most enlightened philosophers, and the most accurate geographers, which Greece or Rome had produced. With a judgment matured by the converse of various scientific men, whom his patronage had attracted in Africa; and with a mind enlarged by the perusal of every work, which illustrated the discoveries he had in view, the conqueror of Ceuta returned to Portugal. The high land of Cape St. Vincent, as he approached the coast, displayed the extensive command of an ocean hitherto unexplored; and probably a view of its cliffs, at a time when his mind glowed with future projects of discovery, might suggest the first idea of constructing his romantic town of Sagres, on the promontorium sacrum of the Romans. Here, as Faria says, the view of the ocean inspired his hopes and endeavours: removed from the hurry of a court, from the fatigue or indolence of a military life, the prince indulged that genius for mathematics and navigation, which he had hitherto been obliged to neglect. At Sagres, his arsenals and dock-yards were constructed; whilst the industry or skill of the ship-wrights were improved, by the presence of their royal master. Under such auspices, the mariner's compass was brought into general use; a knowledge of the longitude and latitude, and the means by which they could be ascertained by astronomical observation, increased the skill of his scamen. The sea astrolabe, which derives its name from the armillary sphere, invented by Hipparchus at Alexandria, was improved, and introduced into the Portuguese service. Skilful mariners from all countries found encouragement to settle at Sagres. A public school and observatory was opened by the prince, in which an inhabitant of Majorca presided, of the name of James, whose experience in navigation, and the construction of charts, had reached the ears of this promoter of science."

It would be needless to point out the groundless assertions and mistakes of this most inaccurate writer. There is no sufficient authority for affirming that a public school and observatory were

opened by prince Henry; the astrolabe was not introduced into navigation till long after that prince's death: if Mr. Clarke will refer to Barros, dec. i. liv. iv. cap. 2. he may there see when and by whom. Proceeding to the discovery of Porto Santo, he says, "the inhabitants were described by the discoverers as being in an intermediate state of civilization, that neither their conduct nor disposition betrayed any signs of ferocity." But it cannot be inferred from Barros that the island was peopled, and from the after history of the place it must be inferred, that like Madeira it was uninhabited. The settlers were compelled to abandon it, because the rabbits whom they had carried there, devoured every vegetable which they attempted to raise. What then became of the natives? did they eat the rabbits? or the rabbits eat them?

The discovery of Madeira is narrated with all the exaggerations of romance:

"It was the firm belief both of the inhabitants of Puerto Santo, and of the most enlightened among the Portugueze, that the sea to the westward beyond that island, which had originally been discovered by Juba, was not navigable on account of weeds and mud; that the course of a ship would also be arrested by concealed rocks, and dreadful whirlpools. This idea had originated with the antients, and was supported by a strange appearance in the horizon, that perplexed the minds of our navigators: to the south-west of Puerto Santo, a thick impenetrable cloud continually hovered on the waves, and thence extended to the heavens. Some believed it to be a dreadful abyss; superstition traced amidst the gloom, the inscription and portal of Dante; whilst the learned pronounced that it could only be the island of Cipango, where Spanish and Portugueze bishops had retired, with other Christians, from the persecuting Moors, and that no one could approach under the penalty of death."

The Spanish pilot, with the Portugueze who accompanied Gonzales, were now shewn the dreadful shade, which continued to hover in the horizon to the south-west of Puerto Santo. Morales defied the terrors which appalled the greater part of the company; declaring it as his firm opinion, that what they beheld could only be the land they were in search of. After a consultation, it was determined, that the expedition should at least be delayed until the change of the moon, when probably some alteration might take place in this alarming spectre: its tremendous form however still continued; and the whole design would most likely have been frustrated, had not Morales insisted, that the ground of the concealed island bee ANN. REV. VOL. IT.

ing shaded from the sun by thick and lofty trees, a vapour was continually exhaled, which spread itself throughout the sky: he also added, that according to the information he had received from the English seamen in his Moorish dungeon, and the course they described to have held, the land enveloped in the dark cloud could not be very distant.

"The arguments, and experience of Morales, had little effect on the minds of any of his hearers except Gonzales, who at length yielded to their force; and it was secretly agreed between them, that the first favourable morning they should set sail, withtentions to the rest. Accordingly, when the out any previous communication of their inPortugueze least expected it, the vessels at daybreak, and as Alcaforado relates on St. Eliza. beth's day, were found boldly standing with a press of sail towards the dreaded abyss. If we consider the prevailing credulity and ignorance of the age, and the imperfect state of navigation, we must allow that the attempt required the consummate resolution of a mariner. The firmness of Gonzales, and the pilot, increased the apprehensions of those on board; for as the ship advanced, the high and extended vapour was observed to thicken, until it became horrible to view.

"Towards noon the roaring of the sea reverberated throughout the horizon. The Portugueze could no longer endure the painful suspence, and they called loudly on Gonzales, not to persist in a course which must inevitably terminate in their destruction. Gonzales, and the Spanish pilot, attempted to calm their agitation; they urged every possible argument to convince them, that the whole was an idle alarm; and at length reconciled their trembling companions to abide the event. The weather was for tunately calm; but the rapidity of the current obliged Gonzales to have his ship towed by two shallops along the skirts of the cloud', whilst the dashing of the sea on the breakers served as a guide, by which he either increased or diminished his distance.

"As they proceeded, the tremendous vapour gradually lessened towards the east, but the noise of the waves increased; when on a sudden, something of a deeper shade was feebly discerned through the gloom, the vessels still continuing at a great distance. Some persons, who probably caught a faint glance of the rocks, with which the shore is fined, exclaimed, that they saw giants of an enormous size. A clearness was at length remarked on the sea, the hoarse echo of its waves abated; and, to complete their joy, a little point, which received the name of San Lourenço, opened on the astonished spectators: doubling this, the high land to the southward extended before them, and, the cloud being dispersed, the wood. lands," for a considerable distance up the mountains, were unveiled.”

I have endeavoured, says Mr. Clarke,
C

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