THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For NOVEMBER, 1785.

Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, towards the Antartic Polar Circle, and round the World: but chiefly into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffres, from the Year 1772 to 1776. By An drew Sparrman, M. D. Tranflated from the Swedish Original. With Plates. In Two Volumes. 4to. 11. 10s. in Boards. Robinson.

THE

HE pleasure of accompanying a fenfible improving traveller is much increased when the objects which he furveys are new; when he can contemplate nature in uncommon fcenes, or examine productions which have hitherto eluded the eyes of the moft enterprifing enquirers. The entertainment, derived from the volumes before us, arifes from all these fources; for where we had acquired fome previous knowlege, it was obfcured by the different relations of contending travellers, and the mind hung in doubt from the marvellous nature of their ftories. Those who are converfant with works of this kind, will perceive that we allude to the Histories of Kolben and de la Caille. The first author is apparently careful and exa&; but credulous and unimportant: the second is more eager to contradict his predeceffor than to establish the truth. In Dr. Spärrman's voyage we find fewer wonders; and, on that account only, we might fuppofe his reprefentation more exact, if his fidelity were not fupported by very numerous opportunities of acquiring information, and an established character of precision and intelligence. In a few inconfiderable circumftances we find him a little inaccurate; but, in general, his remarks are equally just and exact. The tranflator seems to have executed his task with fidelity and neatness: the objects of the plates are well chofen, and the engravings executed with care.

The objects of a traveller, like Dr. Sparrman, are the works of nature, whether in the more inanimate objects, as the geheral appearance of the country, or its inhabitants, confidered VOL. LX. Nov. 1785.

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in the most extenfive fcale. In his defcriptions of the country, he appears a skilful painter: his language is forcible and flrong, and his delineations distinguished by their vivid colouring and just perspective. Of the inhabitants of the country, maa july claims the pre-eminence; and we find the indolent, faithful Hottentot, the more treacherous Bofhie man, and the wilder Caffre, difcriminated from each other. Some peculiar animals are well described; and the indigenous plants of that diftri&t frequently mentioned by their generic and trivial names. In the Supplement of the younger Linnæus, we find many of thefe, but there are fome others which, for fome unknown reason, are not included in that work.

Dr. Sparrman was appointed tutor to the governor's children, at Falfe Bay; but this was an office very different from the intention of his voyage, viz. to examine the natural hiftory of this remote part of the world, and was chiefly calculated to prevent him from being fufpected as a fpy. In this fituation, which employed a great part of his time, in circumftances not the most opulent, furrounded by difficulties, arifing from the indolent difpofition of the natives, and the jealousy of the European inhabitants, we wonder that he has done fo much. Nothing but the ardour which has diftinguished every pupil of the Linnæan fchool; nothing but the example of their mafter in equal difficulties, though less barbarous countries, could have animated their fpirits, or fupported their conftancy. Dr. Sparrman not only examined the natural hiftory of the neighbourhood of Falfe Bay, but travelled, amidst a variety of dangers, from the moft ferocious beafts, the most treacherous inhabitants, the most inconvenient conveyances, and the united oppofition of frightful precipices, and rapid rivers, in a country where roads and bridges are unknown. The great end of this voyage is not, as has been fometimes afferted, to difcover a new plant, or an unknown animal, but to furvey nature in her most retired receffes, and ultimately to give an additional fecurity to the hazards of navigation. The fhipwreck of the Doddington Indiaman, and very lately of another, arofe in a great degree from its not being known that the coast of Africa extended far to the eaft before it began to trend, in any remarkable degree, to the north; fo that fhips failing from India fell in with Caffraria farther eastward than they expected; and those who were far enough to the fouth, ftill contended with the boisterous element, in thefe rough climates, though many harbours are to be found on the fouthern coaft to the caft of Falfe Bay, which were difingenuoufly or treacherously concealed. Thefe

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

A fhort account alfo of captain Cook's voyage to the southern 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 premife, 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 False 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, till 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 coaft of Africa is a very important one, we fhall felect fome of our traveller's obfervations on it.

-It is neceffary to remark, that all the maps and charts of the eastern coaft 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 firft voyage round the globe into the Endeavour, he fell in with this coaft unawares. Moreover, during our ftay near Seacow-river, a fhip was feen one evening under full fail making di rectly 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 the perceived it till just before she had tacked about. My host, who, while the veffel was hovering about the coaft, had rode along with me to a part of the fhore higher than the rest, could diftinguish the ship'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 felect the following fhort description, as a specimen of our author's talents, in this department.

Very late in the evening we arrived at our driver's farm, which was very pleafantly 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 feen, which certainly did not exist from the beginning, but were produced by the viciffitudes 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 fharply-projecting angles, ftretched out and fupported. In the clefts of thefe declivities I obferved the plants, which nature' had produced on these elevated hot-beds, already in bloom, and which, in their pride, might bid defiance to all human approach. A few stones 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 spots 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 Frode 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 reason, that in Africa most of the beasts of burden they, use are oxen; and it is, perhaps, from the fame caufe, that the horfes here are seemingly 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

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higher and lefs parched up than in the former part of our journey, and were befides adorned with feveral pleasant farms. 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. Ail 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 bush, which feemed most 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 easier 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 alfo 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 beafts were near the fpot. Again, when we had an opportunity of taking a night's lodging at a peafant's houfe, 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 these was used for a bed-chamber for the boor himself, with his wife and children. The outer one compofed the kitchen, in a corner of which they fpread 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. ther with a coverlet we brought with us. The Hottentots of either fex, young and old, who were in the boor's service, always chofe to fleep in the chimney. This moftly 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 difagreeable to us. I thought the best way of furnishing my readers with a general idea of the manner in which we were obliged to pafs most of our nights during our expedition, would be to give them an account of my first night's lodging,'

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