the altar in the attitude of prayer. The prayer was a fort of litany, pronounced by a young man in a loud and distinct voice; the people joining, at certain periods, in a general refponfe. This prayer was followed by a fhort bleffing from the old man, and an invitation to the affembly to partake of a friendly feaft. A fhare was offered to Mr. Wilkins, who was too polite to refufe it. It was a kind of fweet-meat composed of sugar and flour mixed up with clarified butter. They were next ferved with a few fugar plums; and thus ended the feast and ceremony.

The founder of this fect was Naneek Sah, who lived about four hundred years ago; he left behind. him a book, of his own compofition, in verfe, containing the doctrines he had established: this book teaches, that there is but one God, filling all space, and pervading all matter; that there will be a day of retribution, when virtue will be rewarded, and vice punished. [In what manner, is not fpecified!] It forbids murder, theft, and fuch other deeds as are by the majority of mankind efteemed crimes, and inculcates the practice of all the virtues; but particularly, an univerfal philanthropy and hospitality to ftrangers and trayellers. It not only commands univerfal toleration, (blush! Christians, blush!) but forbids difputes with thofe of another perfuafion. If any one fhew a fincere inclination to be admitted among them, any five or more Seeks being affembled in any place, even on the highway, they fend to the first fhop where fweetmeats are fold, and procure a very finall quantity of a particular kind called Batafa, which having diluted in pure water, they fprinkle fome of it on the body and eyes of the profelyte, whilst one of the best inftructed repeats to him the chief

canons of their faith, and exacts from him a folemn promife to abide by them the rest of his life. They offered to admit Mr. Wilkins into their fociety, but he declined the honour, contenting himself with their alphabet, which they told him to guard as the apple of his eye, it being a facred character: it is but little different from the Dewanagari. The language, itself is a mixture of Perfian, Arabic, and Sanscreet, grafted upon the provincial dialect of Punjah, which is a kind of Hindowee, or, as we commonly call it, Moors,

SINGULAR CUSTOMS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD.

IN the ifland of Ceylon the people bestow no title on their king; but when they fpeak to him they diveftthemfelves, through refpect, of the quality of man: for example, if the prince afks any of them whence he comes, they will fay, Your majefty's' dog comes from fuch a place. And if he asks how many children he has, he will reply, Your majesty's bitch has produced fo many children to your majefty's dog.

White among the Japanese is the mark of mourning, and black that of joy. They mount their horfes on the right fide. They falute neither with the head nor the hand, but with the foot. In the house they wear their finest cloaths, and lay them afide when they go abroad. A Japanese nobleman, when aceufed and convicted of any crime, would think he difgraced himfelf did he beg for a pardon; he only endeavours to obtain permiffion to destroy himfelf, or to make fome one of his friends, who is a gentleman, like himfelf, perform the part of the executioner.

So great was the ignorance into which Europe was plunged for fe

veral

veral centuries, that noblemen of the first rank could not fign their own names. In England, that the mation might be infpired with a tafte for study, a criminal who could read and write was pardoned. "Nobody," faid fathers to their children, "can foresee what will happen in life; one day, perhaps, it may be your fate to be condemned to the gallows: it is therefore of the highest importance to learn to read and write."

In Languedoc, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, when a man or a woman was caught in the act of adultery, the criminal was condemned to run naked, in the middle of the day, from one end of the town to the other.

In public calamities, the Ethiopians fometimes made a general maffacre of their priests, faying, 66 gio, and pray to the gods a little

nearer!"

We read in the feventeenth vofume of the General History of Voyages and Travels, that a Dutch clergyman having made a prefent of a bottle of gin to an Indian prince, the latter, in order that he might fhew his gratitude, and do honour to his benefactor, ordered a battle to be fought by his fubjects, fo that the earth was foon covered with wounded or dying people, and with dead bodies; and that, notwithstanding the prayers and entreaties of the clergyman, the combat continued for fome time. "These are my fubjects," faid the prince; "the lofs of them is of very little importance; and I am exceedingly happy in making this small facrifice, as a proof of the esteem which I enter tain for you."

The weakneffes of the human mind are fometimes fo ridiculous, that one can scarcely give credit to them. In Egypt, the mafter of a house in which a cat died, fhaved

his left brow, as a fign of mourn, ing. Not above two hundred years ago, the law proceeded against rats, in the fame manner as it would have proceeded against men. The cele• brated Chaffeneux*, who was afterwards first prefident of the parliament of Provence, being as yet only advo cate for the king in the bailiwick of Autun in Burgundy, undertook the defence of the rats, in oppofition to a fentence of excommunication pronounced against them by the bifhop of Autun. He remonftrated," fays M. de Thou," that the time which had been allowed them to appear in was too fhort, especially as it was very dangerous for them to fet out, because all the cats in the neighbouring villages were lying in wait to feize them." He obtained, therefore, that they fhould be again fummoned, and that a longer time fhould be granted them to appear.

Formerly in Poland, thofe who were accufed and convicted of eating meat in Lent, had their teeth plucked out. A flanderer was con demned to walk on all fours, and to bark like a dog for a quarter of an hour. It is pretended that Charles V. king of France, introduced this punishment at his court, and that on certain days nothing was heard but barking for whole mornings.

Among the ancient Arabs, when a new king was crowned, a lift of the names of all the women eight or nine months gone with child was made out; thefe females were all fhut up in the palace, where every poffible care was bestowed upon them, and the child first born, if a boy, was declared prefumptive heir to the crown." Royalty," faid they, "ought not to be confined to one family, it belongs to the whole nation."

* Born in 1480, died in 1542.

SELECT

T

HE fhips being to touch at Otaheite and the Society Ifles, it had been determined to fend back Omai, a native of that country, whom captain Furneaux brought to England with him the former voy age. On the 24th of June 1776, Omai left London, in company with the captain; and, every preparation being completed, they failed for Plymouth, where they were joined by the Discovery. From Plymouth captain Cook directed his courfe to Teneriff, to procure a fresh fupply of corn and hay, for the fubfiftence of the live stock. They next proceeded to the Cape, where they continued from the 18th of October till the 30th of November; and, having touched at Kerguelen's Ifland, and Van Diemen's Land, difcovered by Tafman in 1642, they arrived on the 12th of February 1777, at Queen Charlotte's Sound, in New Zealand.

Continuing at New Zealand about a fortnight, they acquired much new information as to its productions, and the manners and cuftoms of its inhabitants. After this, they paid a vifit to the Friendly Ifles, where remaining fome time, captain Cook took every opportunity of making fuch obfervations as might be ferviceable to navigation and aftronomy. From the information which he then received, it appears, that, this Archipelago is very extenfive; above one hundred and fifty islands were enumerated by the natives, who made ufe of bits of leaves to afcertain their number• and Mr.

The 17th of July, captain Cook took his final leave of the Friendly Iffes; and reached Otaheite on the 12th of Auguft. From thence he proceeded to fome other of the Society Ifles; and, having properly difpofed of Omai, and judiciously diftributed part of his live ftock, he determined on purfuing his course to the northward. He fet fail, therefore, from Bolabola, on the 8th of December, and, croffed the line about the 24th: on the 18th of January 1778, he difcovered an ifland, which, however, he could not reach. Soon after another appearing, he went on fhore; and in the course of a few days, a whole group was observed, which the captain, in honour of lord Sandwich, diftinguished by the name of the Sandwich Ilands. Those which he faw, were fituated between the latitude of 20°. 30′, and 22° 15′. north, and between the longitude of 199°. 29. and 201o. 30'. east.

Quitting thefe iflands, captain Cook ranged along the western fide of America; and after giving names to feveral capes and headlands, which appeared in fight, came to anchor in an inlet, where the country prefented a very different afpect from what he had previously feen. The fummits of the mountains were clothed in' fheets of fnow, while the valleys between them and the grounds on the sea coast, both high and low, were covered to a confiderable breadth, with tall ftreight trees, which formed a most beautiful profpect, as of one immense foreft. On his firft arrival in this

name of King George's Sound; but he afterwards found that it was called Nootka by the natives.

This place is at prefent the caufe of an impending war between Great Britain and the Spaniards; who, although they never took poffeffion of the ifland, and never attempted, probably never thought of, forming a fettlement there; nevertheless, have watched with a jealous eye, the astonishing progrefs made in this fcheme by Mr. Meares, an English gentleman at China; in order to fupply that market with furs, and the fkins of bears, wolves, foxes, deer, and fea-otters. Befides this, the fishery on every part of this coaft is extremely valuable; from the trials made of the oil, it is fuppofed to be the finest in the whole world. However, in the months of June and July laft, the Spaniards thought proper to feize the English veffels; and the lofs in confequence, without confidering the immenfe advantages which the traffic, and the fituation of the place, was likely to afford, is estimated at upwards of one hundred thousand pounds.

After ftaying nearly a month at Nootka, to complete the neceffary repairs, our navigators on the 26th of April proceeded northward, and entered another inlet, from which great things were expected, as they entertained the strongest hopes that it would be found to communicate either with the fea to the north, or with Baffin's or Hudson's Bay to the caft. On this account it was traced as high as the latitude of 60°. 30'. and the longitude of 210°. feventy leagues from its entrance, but with out fuccefs; captain Cook, therefore, named it River Turnagain. It has fince been distinguished by the appellation of Cook's River, by lord Sandwich.

Captain Cook, however, continued his researches; and on the 27th of June 1778, arrived at the island

of Oonalafka, the inhabitants of which place behaved with a degree of friendship and politeness rarely to be met with among favage tribes. He next fteered towards the American coaft; and, having advanced as far as the latitude of 70°. 44′. found his progrefs impeded by ice, which he found as compact as a wall, and at least ten or twelve feet in height; farther north it ftill appeared to be much loftier; its furface was extremely rugged, and in different places it was covered with pools of water. On it lay a prodigious number of fea-horfes, fome of which were procured for food; and as at this time there was a great want of fresh provifions, (though many of the failors were difappointed, having at firft concluded that these animals were fea-cows) the general anxiety for a change of diet, induced the crews to confider the difference be tween horfes and cows as an object of no ferious objection.

From the time captain Cook left Nootka, to the 29th of July, many important difcoveries were made: which form a valuable addition to those of his two former voyages; and, in point of extent, furpafs all that the Ruffians accomplished in a long feries of years, though, in parts, contiguous to their own empire. Previous to the last mentioned period, he had traverfed the icy fea beyond Beering's Strait, in various directions, and through numberless difficulties and obftructions; but he never once abandoned the pursuit of his favourite object till the great increase of the ice precluded all hopes of fuccefs, at least during that year.

The feafon being now far advanced, and the time of the froft being faft approaching, our great navigator thought it imprudent to make any farther attempts to find a paffage into the Atlantic, till the enfuing fummer. He therefore be

gan

gan to look out for a place where he might, befides procuring wood and water, conveniently pafs the winter; and none seeming better adapted for that purpose than fome of the Sandwich Ifles, he directed his courfe thither.

This expedition hitherto, though attended with many dangers and difficulties, had been marked with no peculiar difafter; and captain Cook was no doubt flattering himself with the hopes of being yet more fuccefsful; but little did he think that the Sandwich Isles, which he confidered as the most important difcovery of all that had been made by Europeans in the Pacific Ocean*, would in the refult prove fatal, and that he fhould there fall by the murdering dagger of a barbarian; a victim to his own humanity.

Captain Cook in his former vifit to this group of islands, had observed five of them fituated between the latitude of 20°. 30. and 22°. 15'. north, and between the longitude of 1990. 20. and 2010. 30. caft, the names of which were Woahoo, Atooi, Onceheow, Orechoua, and Tahoora; but on his return fouth ward, with an intent of paffing the winter, he discovered, on the 26th of November, when he came to the latitude of 20°. 55'. a fixth, named Mowee; and on the 30th, another, which the natives diftinguifhed by the appellation of Owhyhee. This ifland appearing to be of greater extent and importance than any of the reft, the captain fpent nearly feven weeks in failing round it, and in examining its coaft. Whilft he was employed in this bufinefs, the inhabitants came off from time to time in great numbers with their canoes, and readily engaged in traffic. Their

The laft words which captain Cook wrote in his journal were, " To this difappointment," alluding to his unfuccefsful endeavours to get home by a northern paffage, "we owed our having it in our power to revifit the Sandwich Isles, and to enrich VOL. II.

behaviour on this occafion was open and unreferved, and afforded little caufe for fufpicion. It was indeed remarked, that even the people of Otaheite had never difplayed fuch unbounded confidence in the integrity of the English.

January the 17th, 1779, our navigators came to anchor in the Bay of Karakakooa, fituated on the west fide of the island of Owhyhee, and extending about a mile in depth. It is bounded by two points of land, bearing fouth-east and north-west from each other, at the distance of half a league; on the northernmost of which is fituated a village called Kowrowa. A more confiderable village ftands in the bottom of the bay, near a stately grove of cocoa nut trees; and a high rocky cliff, inacceffible from the fea fhore, runs between them.

The iflanders behaved with the greatest friendship to captain Cook, and feemed difpofed to render him every poffible affiftance. Several of their chiefs paid him a vifit, and when he went on fhore, he was received with ceremonies which fell little fhort of adoration. He had an interview with Terreeoboo, the king of the island, whom he carried on board the Refolution, and treated with every mark of refpect; and in return for a beautiful feathered cloak which he had given our navigator, the captain put a linen fhirt on his majesty, and girt his own hanger round him. The iflanders began at length to be very inquifitive about the time of their departure; but thefe enquiries were made with no other view than that they might provide a fufficient quantity of provifions for them when they quitted the ifland, notwithstanding their preour voyage with a discovery, which, though the laft, feemed in many refpects to be the moft important that had hitherto been made by Europeans, throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean,"