6

These poor fellows were thus obliged to pass the long winternight in the open air; which, Campbell says, was a most unfortunate circumstance for me, for had I reached the hut and got my feet dried, they would in all likelihood have recovered. It blew hard, and the night was piercingly cold. We returned to the valley, where there was some shelter from the wind.' The next day, Campbell followed his companions as well as the state of his feet would permit: but a craggy rock, nearly perpendicular, was to be passed; and, as he says, my feet were of no use in climbing, and I was obliged to drag myself up by my hands, in doing which they also were frozen. Still he was able to reach a hut which was a few miles farther on, but after that day he never again walked on his feet.

All possible care was taken of Campbell at Karlouski: but, from the want of medical assistance, his feet and hands began to mortify, on which account he was put into a whaleskin boat which was bound to Alexandria. The frame of this boat was so slight that when between the waves she was bent into a deep curve, and whilst on the top of the wave the two ends were as much depressed.' On arriving at Alexandria, he was immediately carried to the hospital; on the next day, the surgeon cut off one finger, and a joint of another was afterward removed: but the rest recovered.

At

• Finding no favourable symptoms in my feet, the surgeon informed me I must submit to lose them in order to save my life. I had no idea that the case was so hopeless, and was not prepared for such an alternative. I requested three days to consider. the end of that time I told him I had made up my mind, and would submit to the operations. Accordingly, he amputated one of them on the 15th March, and the other on the 17th April following. Unfortunately for me he cut them off below the ancle joint, from a wish to take as little away as possible; the sores extended above the place, and have never completely healed. By the month of August I could creep about on my hands and knees.'

The case of Campbell excited great compassion, and he was treated with the utmost humanity. In the small remote settlement of Alexandria, and which cannot be supposed to be very rich, the Russian governor, M. Baranoff, and the officers of the garrison and of the ships in the harbour, entered into a subscription for his relief, which amounted to 180 rubles, or 451., the ruble being about 4s. in value.

When poor Campbell was tolerably recovered, he was employed to teach eight young natives the English language, in order to qualify them to act as interpreters between the Russians and the Americans or English, whose ships, the former especially, frequently touch at the Russian settlements. Many Russians, in both their Kamtschatkan and their American

1

settlements, are married to native women; a very general custom in settlements founded on usurpation or conquest. The Dutch seem to have followed this practice the least of any people, the Portuguese the most, and they were chiefly enabled by it to maintain their dominion so long in the East Indies. A school was now established at Alexandria for instructing the children of the natives in the Russian language, writing, and arithmetic; and, as far as I may judge from the children which were under my care,' says Campbell, there is little difficulty in teaching them these acquirements.'

The Russian ship Neva, in which Captain Lisianski had sailed round the world, had been again sent to the north-west coast of America, and came at this time to Kodiak: where she was ordered to prepare for a voyage to the Sandwich islands. "It would appear that the Russians had determined to form a settlement upon these islands; at least, preparations were made for the purpose; and I was informed by the commandant, that, if I chose, I might get a situation as interpreter. The ship had a house in frame on board, and intimation was given that volunteers would be received; none, however, offered; and I never observed that any other steps were taken in this affair.' Thinking that he might find opportunities of going from the Sandwich islands to either Europe or America, Campbell asked to be taken as a passenger in the Neva, which was granted; and in January 1809 he was landed at the island of Wahoo, and was received into the protection of Tamena, one of the two wives of Tamaahmaah, the King of the Sandwich islands. Here he remained thirteen months; and the rest of his book is almost wholly occupied with descriptions of the manners, customs, and language of these islanders, and of events relative to them. As we have spoken rather at length of the adventures related in the former part, we must content ourselves with saying very little more of this than, generally, that we find in it some new and entertaining information. Campbell was in much favour, being useful as a sail-maker; a business which he understood, but by which he cannot maintain himself in his native country, being unable to hold a bolt-rope with his mutilated hand. Before, however, he had adopted a sea-life, he had been bound apprentice to a weaver; and he had now the ingenuity to make himself a loom, with which he produced to Tamaahmaah a piece of canvas of his own weaving, the threads being the fibres of a plant of which the natives make fishing-lines. The King consequently gave him land, the produce of which supported him; and he lived with one of his countrymen, a North Briton named Stevenson, who had been a convict and had escaped from New South Wales, it should seem unfortunately

for

for the Sandwich islanders, as he introduced among them the art of distilling a spirit from a root which is here called the tee-root. The natives have great readiness of apprehension; and Campbell says, it is astonishing how soon they learn any useful art from their visitors. Many are employed as carpenters, coopers, and blacksmiths, and do their work as well as Europeans. In the King's forge there were none but native blacksmiths: they had been taught by the armourer of a ship who quitted the island while I was there.'

In February 1809, a South-sea whaler, named the Duke of Portland, commanded by Captain Spence, bound for England, put in at the Sandwich islands; and Campbell asked permission of Tamaahmaah to take passage in her, which was not refused: indeed, it seems that, though this chief has always been desirous of having Europeans with him, he never detained any one contrary to his inclination. Tamaahmaah sent by Captain Spence a present for the King of England, consisting of a handsome cloak of feathers; accompanied by a letter, the purport of which was, the author says, to remind the King of Captain Vancouver's promise that a man of war, with brass guns, and loaded with European articles, should be sent to him; and we have heard that directions have been given for a small vessel to be sent from New South Wales to Tamaahmaah. Campbell takes leave of the Sandwich islands with expressions of gratitude creditable to the dignity of Tamaahmaah and to his own feelings. It will be believed,' he says, that I did not leave Wahoo without deep regret. I had been thirteen months upon the island, and had experienced nothing but kindness and friendship from all ranks from my much honoured master, the King, down to the lowest native.'

Our unfortunate voyager sailed in the Duke of Portland round Cape Horne, and to Rio Janeiro; where, on account of his legs getting into a bad state, he was obliged to stay. The American consul procured for him admission into the Portuguese hospital, and the Captain and crew of the ship made a subscription for him to the amount of fifty dollars: they did not,' he says, leave me unprovided in a strange country. He remained during twenty-two months at Brasil, whence he sailed in a vessel bound to Scotland, and arrived in the Clyde in April 1812.

An appendix contains a small vocabulary of the Sandwichisland-language; together with other papers deserving notice. No. 2. is a statement of the case of Campbell, in the manner of a certificate, which was given to him by the surgeon under whose care he was placed at Kodiak, with the benevolent intention that it might conduce to his future support. It is with much satisfaction that we find so worthy a testimonial of the

care,

care, attention, and humanity, with which his patient was treated in the hospital at Alexandria, since it fully obviates any impression of an opposite nature which might have arisen from an inadvertent expression used by the editor in another part of the book. No. 3. of the Appendix is a short historical account of the Sandwich islands; and No. 4. is a relation of the dispute which happened between the English at Canton and the Chinese, in 1807, extracted from the news-papers.

In conclusion, we have to remark that the whole conduct of this young seaman displays resignation, and a disposition to be contented under the most heavy calamities; which doubtless has contributed, and probably as much as the misery of his condition, to interest in his behalf all who have seen him. Considering his situation, as well as the information and entertainment contained in his account, we scruple not to say that the purchase of it will be no unprofitable act of charity.

ART. VIII. Comic Dramas, in Three Acts. By Maria Edgeworth, Author of "Tales of Fashionable Life," &c. &c. 12mo. pp. 381. 78. Boards. Hunter. 1817.

WH

WHEN a traveller is acquainted with his way, and knows the path before him to be pleasant, he shews a want of policy if he wanders into unexplored tracts on the speculation of arriving at his journey's end by a shorter progress. That expectation is generally disappointed; and he has often to retrace his steps, and to return to the main road, which he perhaps finds it difficult to regain. Such is a frequent result, whether the journey be in search of pleasure, of health, of riches, or of fame; and the adventurer in either of these pursuits, particularly in the last, if he fails in his new attempt, too often dissipates that which he has already acquired. We do not, therefore, agree with those who have recommended Miss Edgeworth to deviate from the path in which she has trodden so well, and to venture on one to the intricacies of which she has been unaccustomed. If she had been guided solely by her own good sense and good taste, we are inclined to conjecture that the little volume before us would have been superseded by a production similar to those by which she has before obtained the applause and esteem of her country; and we are glad that it has already been followed by another publication of that nature. Miss Edgeworth's talents are not strictly dramatic; because, though her dialogue is frequently excellent, and her wit always ready, she has not the necessary art of compressing within a small compass incidents sufficiently important and attractive to form the plot of a play; nor characters marked with sufficient strength and distinctness

to

to support its interest. Her fable and her fabulæ persona require a more gradual developement than the extent of a comedy will allow.

The dramas before us exemplify the truth of these remarks. They would form good underplots of a play: but their texture is too fragile, their materials are too simple, and their interest is too slight, to support a complete drama. We are presented with three, of which two are entirely Irish, and contain many humourous, and, we doubt not, correct illustrations of national peculiarities. We therefore felt more strongly our regret that they should be wasted here instead of adorning one of Miss E.'s tales, in which they would have appeared with so much more effect, and been read with so much more pleasure.

'Love and Law' is the title of the first drama; and it is devoted to the loves of Randal Rooney and Honor McBride, the Romeo and Juliet of Ballynavogue and Ballynascraw, being the son and daughter of the rival factions of those villages. Nothing more tragic occurs, however, than a few broken heads in a fight at a fair. The Paris of the play is a roguish distiller, who is a sort of Irish counshillor; and the other characters are Pat Coxe his clerk, - Catty Rooney, a litigious scold, but warm hearted, a consequential magistrate, and some others of less importance. The second drama. is founded on the choice made by a minor between The two Guardians,' named in his father's will, and would make a fair companion to the little dramas in "the Children's Friend."-The last is called The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock, and is by far the best; although the plot is perhaps more simple, and the characters are principally of the lower class. An English gentleman, desirous of providing for Gilbert a faithful servant, undertakes to use his interest with his late ward, an Irish heiress just of age, to obtain. for him a new inn just built on her estate. Gilbert is in love with a young and poor damsel, whose brother has written a song in praise of the heiress. This song is unfortunately procured by Christy Gallagher, the drunken landlord of the old inn; who, being a candidate for the new inn, attaches it as his own to his memorial to the lady, and she in consequence promises to grant the poet's petition: but the fraud is exposed in the end, and the favourites of course become tenants of the inn. The other characters introduced are the bashful English servant, a modest Irish lass, the drunken and cunning landlord, with his conceited and idle daughter, who has been to the dancing-school of Ferrinafad, and an honest Scotch drum-major. Several very entertaining scenes occur, from which, for the amusement of our readers, we shall select a part of one. It will be perceived, however, that its excellence is not altogether dramatic,