are difcoveries which make the prefent volumes not only very entertaining, but highly ufeful.

A fhort account also of captain Cook's voyage to the fouthern hemisphere, is given in the first volume. It is well known, that Dr. Sparrman accompanied this able navigator from the Cape, and returned to it. The relation is remarkable only for a few circumstances, not inferted in the English narratives; but which are not of fufficient confequence to detain us.

It may be neceffary to premise, fince the term may occur in the following quotations, that an uur, viz. an hour, when it is employed to denote a given space, means fix miles; and that a fkoft or four uurs, viz. twenty-four miles, is equal to one day, or the space ufually travelled in twelve common hours. There is a little contradiction relating to the distance between the Cape and Falfe Bay; in one place, it is faid to be equal to eighteen, and in another to fixteen miles. There is an apparent contradiction too, which should have been prevented by the tranflator, where the author, in April, fpeaks of the preceding January as the January of the preceding year. It is indeed the preceding year according to the old ftyle, ftill employed by the northern nations, but the fame in our method of reckoning. But to return.

The country is the first object of the traveller's attention; and, as the extent of the eastern coast of Africa is a very important one, we shall felect fome of our traveller's obfervations on it.

-It is neceffary to remark, that all the maps and charts of the eastern coast of Africa hitherto known, are faulty in making the extent of it to the eastward much less than it really is, and than I found it to be in my journey over land, I am likewife fenfible, that many navigators have, in the courfe of their voyages, taken notice of the fame error; and among them captain Cook, at the time when, being on his return from his first voyage round the globe into the Endeavour, he fell in with this coaft unawares. Moreover, during our stay near Seacow-river, a fhip was feen one evening under full fail making directly for the fhore, and did not tack about till fhe was almoft too near. I afterwards learnt at the Cape, that this was a Dutch veffel; and that from the chart fhe carried with her, the had not expected to come upon the coaft nearly fo foon, nor had she perceived it till just before the had tacked about. My hoft, who, while the veffel was hovering about the coaft, had rode along with me to a part of the fhore higher than the reft, could diftinguish the fhip's crew from thence; but it feems that none of them faw us, probably on account of fome mift or exhalation proceeding from the land."

We shall select the following fhort defcription, as a fpeci men of our author's talents, in this department.

Very late in the evening we arrived at our driver's farm, which was very pleasantly fituated on the other fide of Bott Rivier. This river was befet at fmall intervals with pretty high mountains, the peaks and ridges of which delightfully varied the scene. In the declivities of fome of them caverns and grottos were seen, which certainly did not exist from the beginning, but were produced by the vicifhtudes and changes to which all natural objects are fubject. Even the hard and steep rocky precipices, which one would imagine to be doomed to everlasting nakednefs, were, on their black walls, teeming with iron-ore, adorned with feveral climbing plants, the branches and tendrils of which they gratefully in return with their harply-projecting angles, ftretched out and fupported., In the elefts of thefe declivities I obferved the plants, which nature had produced on thefe elevated hot-beds, already in bloom, and which, in their pride, might bid defiance to all human approach. A few ftones throw from this farm there was a mineral water of confiderable ftrength, which nobody in this quarter had had the fenfe to make ufe of. The ftones and rocks in feveral fpots hereabouts contained a great deal of iron."

The spirit and animation of our author's description are the more remarkable, fince his conveniencies were fo few. A fhort account of the manner of travelling in Africa is very entertaining.

On the morning of the 25th of July I rode from the Cape. My waggon was driven by the boor who had fold me five pair of oxen. But this I was not to have till I got to this fame man's farm near Bott Rivier, which is in the way to the warm bath, whither I was going. There are no houses of entertainment established in the inland part of this country; fo that every one is obliged to travel with their own horfes and carriages, as well as their own provifion. Our road Jay through the low country over dry fand and heaths. In the middle, or the warm part of the day, like other travellers in this country, we let our oxen go to water and look out for pafturage. These animals are eafily fatisfied with the poor nourifhment of the dry fhrubs and grafs, which are most common about the Cape, but the horfes are under a greater difficulty to find provifion fufficiently fine and nourishing. It is chiefly for this reafon, that in Africa most of the beaits of burden they ufe are oxen; and it is, perhaps, from the fame caufe, that the horfes here are feemingly lefs ftrong and hardy than they are in Europe.

As foon as the cool of the evening came on, we continued our journey over Eerste Rivier to the foot of a high mountain, called Hottentot Holland's Kloof. The environs here were

higher

It

higher and lefs parched up than in the former part of our journey, and were befides adorned with feveral pleasant farins. was already night, and as dark as pitch, when we alighted; we made a little fire, by which, after we had finished a moderate fupper, we went to fleep. All the conveniencies I had for fleeping were at prefent, as well as during the major part of my journey, reduced to the bare ground for a bed, a faddle for my pillow, and a great coat to cover me from the cold of the night; for a place to lie in we looked out for the fide of fome bufh, which feemed moft likely to fhelter us from the fouth-east, or any other wind that might chance to blow at that time. When it rained, we lay in the tilt-waggon itself. Here, on account of our baggage, we were still worfe off. The best place I could find for myself was my cheft, though even that had a round top; Mr. Immelman, being flender and lefs than me, was able, though not without great difficulty, to fqueeze himself in between my cheft and the body of the waggon, where he lay on feveral bundles of paper: he had, however, no reason to boast of a much eafier bed. Sometimes we made our bed under the waggon, where, being under cover, we were fomewhat sheltered indeed from the rain and the dew; but on the other hand, had rather too near, and not quite fo agreeable neighbours in our oxen, which were tied up to the wheels and poles, and also to the rails of the waggon, and were fo obftreperous, that we could only venture to creep among the gentleft of them. These companions of ours were moreover very reftlefs, when any wild beasts were near the spot. Again, when we had an opportunity of taking a night's lodging at a peafant's house, we were for the most part rather worfe lodged. In moft places the house confifted of two rooms only, with the floor of earth or loam. The interior one of thefe was used for a bed-chamber for the boor himself, with his wife and children. The outer one composed the kitchen, in a corner of which they spread a mat for us on the floor; and in this generally confifted all the conveniencies the good folks could afford us. As for the rest we were obliged to make our beds of our faddles and great coats. together with a coverlet we brought with us. The Hottentots of either fex, young and old, who were in the boor's fervice, always chose to fleep in the chimney. This mostly took up a whole gabel of the house, and at the fame time had no other hearth than the floor, on which confequently we all lay pigging together. An hoft of fleas and other inconveniencies, to which we were by this means fubjected, made us frequently rather chufe to fleep in the open air; in cafe the coldness of the air, high winds and rainy weather, did not make it more disagreeable to us. I thought the best way of furnishing my readers with a general idea of the manner in which we were obliged to pals most of our nights during our expedition, would be to give them an account of my first night's lodging.'

In this way our author proceeded to the warm baths, which contain iron, fufpended by fixed air, with perhaps an earthy falt of the vitriolic acid and lime. The water was quite hot, without fcalding; but it produced deliquium in about ten minutes. Probably its heat was about 105° of Farenheit.

The land, by the colonists, is chiefly distinguished into two kinds, the carrow and the four fields; and, in this narrative, we frequently find the country defcribed only by these terms. The carrows are quite dry, parched, and bare of grass. The earth, in this part of Africa, generally dry, and frequently unadorned with the lively verdure of vegetables in the carrows, looks unufually naked, and is full of clefts and chinks. They are alfo generally furrounded by high cold mountains of granite, feemingly rich in iron ore. Here the fun scorches the traveller with its reflected rays; and the relief from rain is fcarcely a lefs evil than the burning fun; for, inftead of falling in refreshing fhowers, it deluges in vaft fheets of water, feldom unaccompanied by bursts of thunder. But this gives a temporary verdure to thefe dreary spots, and, as ufual, order rifes out of confufion. Thefe ftorms furnish in the winter, the most fruitful feafon in this defart fpot, a temporary and precarious fuftenance for the cattle, who, at other times, browfe on the fhrubs and bushes, or feek for the reeds in the neighbouring rivers.

The four fields lie higher and cooler than the fhore: they are generally covered with a coarse grafs, as they are frequently fprinkled by gentle rain; but the fheep, fed in them, gnaw bones, harneffes, or, when fhut up together, even each other's horns. This appetite, which feems to point out an acid in the ftomach, is the occafion of the term. All land, not fimilar to the carrow and four fields, are denominated fweet. The four fields yield less milk, but more, and better butter, than the sweet. Sheep are fed beft in the carrows, next in the fweet fields, and leaft profitably in the four ones.

If we examine the whole country, in its vast extent, we find a wildness, arifing from craggy rocks of an amazing height, feparated by confiderable plains, and fometimes by impaffible woods. This angle of the old world feems the part of a vaft continent, where we trace no veftiges of a former fea, whose mountains are not compofed of marine productions, but confift of that primæval ftone, whofe existence is anterior to a deluge; or whofe texture is fo firm, as to be incapable of any admixture with the contents of its deftructive waters. Yet thefe hills feem to be yielding to the continued action of a boisterous element; and, inftead of rifing from the fea, the

land at the Cape is rather falling into it. We fhall conclude this account of the country, by a meteorological history of the weather, during the fummer months of this fouthern hemifphere.

During the first half of May the thermometer kept fluctu ating between 53 and 63 degrees; and during the latter half, between 50 and 58, excepting on the 27th of this month, when it was at the loweft, or 49, although the day was clear and the fun fhone. The rainy days in this month were the 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 30th; and among these the three first named were the worst, and accompanied with tempeftuous north-west winds; fo that when I paffed Zout Rivier on the 11th, the water was no higher than my horfe's knees; but when I repaffed it on the 15th, the water had rifen fo high, in confequence of the rain and tide, as to reach up to my faddle.

In the month of June the thermometer was between 54 and 60. There was a fall either of rain or fnow on the 1t, 2d, 3d, 4th, 14th, 27th, and fo on to the 31ft inclufively. Befides. thefe, there were a few other cloudy days, attended with a high wind; but the remainder resembled our fine fummer days in Sweden. On the 3d, it rained very violently, when it happened that a quantity of water which, in the preceding days, had been collected on the mountain, burft its way down to the town, and filled the canals there, at the fame time overflowing fome of the streets; fo that for feveral minutes, it rofe to the height of two or three feet against the houses. It likewise washed away a fmall wall belonging to a stone house, and carried it under the building, at the fame time rufhing into divers cellars.'

In July, by reafon of fome intervening affairs that hindered me, I observed the state of the weather only till the 19th; during that time, the thermometer kept between 54 and 59 degrees. The rainy days were the 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th; clouds without rain on the 3d, 9th, 10th, 13th, and 14th.'

There are fome fubfequent obfervations refpecting the weather; but, as this is the moft connected account, and the inftrument by which it was observed was afterwards lost, we have the greatest dependence on what we have felected.

If we advance to the animated inhabitants of this district, we shall find many curious remarks, and entertaining relations. Africa is the native dominion of the lion; and, in its defarts, he reigns with an uncontroled tyranny. It is infefted by the leopard, the tyger, the more fubtile hyena, and the devouring wolf. Where man, the more artful defpot, has extended his dominions, thefe native ravagers gradually disappear, and retire to thick woods, or inacceffible caves. Yet thefe deftructive enemies are not wholly ufelelefs: the vegetable world would be devoured, and the earth become one vaft fruitless defart, if the herbivorous animals, the deftined food of man,

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