The flax, from the description, seems to approach that of New Zealand; other products are, sugar canes, cocoa nuts, bananas, tobacco, indigo, pepper, gum lacca, benzoin, amber, ambergris, &c. and the variety of valuable plants is prodigious. Cattle, buffaloes, and sheep abound. There are no lions, tygers, elephants, nor horses. Many of the most valuable minerals occur, among which are beds of pure rock crystal, often used for optical purposes, and erroneously styled Brazil pebble, and it is said three kinds of gold ore, with topazes, sapphires, emeralds, and spotted iaspers, commonly called blood stones. The natives are rather above the middle stature, and are of various origins; some being negroes, others tawny or copper coloured; but the complexion of the greater part is olive; and it would seem that the Arabs, in very early times, penetrated very far into Africa, especially if the Koussis or Kaffers above the Cape of Good Hope be of Arabian Extract, as Mr. Barrow insinuates; a topic of curious inquiry, which might lead to new views of African population and manners. Rochon shews that propensity for savages which has recently disgraced French writers, and of which it is to be presumed the nation is radically cured, the bleeding having been proportioned to the fever. His ar guments prove that savages are happy, because they have no care, nor forethought, which is very true, and so it every brute animal. The French settlement of Fort Dauphin is in the south-east extremity of the island, and the French are chiefly acquainted with the southern part. Almost all the villages are built upon eminences, and surrounded by two rows of strong palisades, within which there is a parapet of earth, four feet in height; and sometimes there is a ditch, ten feet in breadth and six in depth. Their chiefs are only known by their red caps, worn by the common Moors; and of which there is a noted manufacture at Tunis. Their authority is inconsiderable, yet they are sometimes regarded as proprietors of the land, and receive a small quit-rent. Writing is not unknown, and there are some historical books in the native tongues; but their learned men whom they call ombiaaea use only the Arabic characters. In the province of Matatan are many magicians, greatly dreaded by the ignorant natives. The paper is made of papyrus, which the Madagasses call sangasanga; and the ink is the decoction of a certain bark. The whole island is •aid to have been conquered by the Arabs about three hundred years ago but their first settlements here and in southern Africa, may be nearly as ancient as those in Abyssinia, and of Mahometanism there are only faint traces. From the account of Rochon the traditions of many tribes point to a very early Arabian origin. The nobles are styled Roandrians and the Anacandri are descended from those and black women. The native blacks are classed as descendants of the ancient chiefs, and preserve their right of killing animals, usurped in other cases by the Roandrians, who regard the profession of a butcher as the most honourable. The next class cannot kill animals, but have some privileges unknown to the Ontzoa or third cast. The Ondeves, or lust men, are slaves by extraction. They suppose that seven women ori

It is quarried in huge blocks near the bay of Antongil, and also in the mountains of Ambotismenes in the northern part of the isle. Hochon, p. 347.

ginally created, were the mothers of the different casts; and there is a faint but singular resemblance of Hindoo traditions. Are the tawny -tribes from Hindostan, or have these notions arisen from commerce or intercourse? Ideas of equality are unknown; and the lower casts never aspire to be butchers. Polygamy seems confined to the chiefs; the women are lively and cheerful, and form the chief delight of their husbands. The achievements of the French in Madagascar have been detailed by many of their writers, from Flacourt to Rochon. The most singular perhaps is that of the Polish adventurer Benyowsky, who, pretending to establish an independent power among the natives, was attacked by a detachment sent from the Isle of France, and slain on the 23d of May, 1786.* Few countries in the world are more deserving to be the seats of a powerful independent monarchy.

The knowledge that we have of the plants of Madagascar is chiefly derived from a few French authors; of these Flacourt is the principal, having given a list of three or four hundred. Unfortunately however he mentions only their native names, and describes them by fancied resemblances in their forms or medical properties to those of Europe. Hence the greater part are wholly unintelligible, nor is it without some hesitation that we give the few following Linnxan species, as probably included in the catalogue of the abovementioned author.

Botany. Of esculent plants there are the rice, banana, yam, nymphxa lotos, several kinds of dolichos or kidney bean, gourds or water-melons, and cocoa nuts. The fruits are pine apples, tamarinds oranges, and pomegranates. The spices and other condiments are common and betel pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and sugar. The Indian fig grows here, as also does the ebony, the bamboo, the cotton and indigo.

A few Madagascar plants have been obtained of late years, of which the only species interesting to the general reader are the Mauritanian mulberry with green fruit, and the gummiphora Madagascariensis, whose juice concretes into an elastic gum exactly similar to the caoutchouc of Cayenne.

See his Memoirs, London, 1790, two vols. 4to, v. ii. p. 93, &c. and Rochon's Madagascar, p. 253. The last author, p. 164, gives a curious account of the Kimos, a nation of dwarfs, living amidst inaccessible rocks.

THE SMALLER AFRICAN ISLANDS.

PEMBA. COMORO.—MAURITIUS AND BOURBON.—KERGUELEN's LAND. ST. HELENA. ASCENSION. CAPE VERD ISLANDS.CANARIES. MADEIRA.

THESE shall be traced from the eastern coast towards the west. Those in the Red Sea are too minute for general geography; and the isle of Socotra has already been described under Arabia, to which it belongs.

PEMBA, &C. The islands of Pemba, Zanzibar, and Monfia, are opposite to the coast of Zanguebar. Pemba is said to be about 100 miles in circumference, governed by a king, who pays tribute to Portugal, to which power the two others are also said to be subservient. At a considerable distance to the east are the isles of Mahe and Almiranti, interspersed with many rocks, and of small account.

Comoro. The islands of Comoro are four in number, of considerable size, particularly Angaziza, or the greater Comoro. That of Anzoan* has a convenient harbour, sometimes visited by ships passing to India. These isles are governed by Pagan or Mahometan chieftains, tributary to the Portuguese; and are reported to be very fertile in rice, oranges, lemons, sugar, cocoa, and ginger, the natives carrying on some trade with the Portuguese ol Mozambico. The domestic animals resemble the European.

Mauritius Ann Bourbon.

To the east of Madagascar are

the Islands of Mauritius or Prance and Bourbon, French settlements well known in the commercial world. The Isle of Prance has a tolerable port, the centre of the oriental force and commerce of the French. The Isle of Bourbon, colonized in 1654, is about fifty leagues in circumference, of a circular form, rising to high mountains in the centre; and there is a noted volcano, difficult of access, at the summit of a mountain a league from the sea: the eruptions are frequent and continual. Mauritius, or the Isle of France was first possessed by the

This isle, also called Henzuan, Juhanna, is elegantly described by Sir William Junes in a paper inserted in the Asiatic Researches. It is peopled by Arabs.

A prolix history of Mauritius was published in 1801, by Charles Grant Viscount de Vaux. The Isle of Bourbon has been lately called-Reunion.

Dutch, who abandoned it in 1712, and the French settlement began to acquire some stability under Bourdonnais in 1734. There are two crops every year of wheat and Indian corn, but manioc was the food of the negroes. The Isle of Bourbon produces sugar-canes; and in both the cattle are numerous. In 1766, M. Poivre, author of the Voyage of a Philosopher, was governor of these isles, and the advantages of appointing men of science to such stations was evident from his introduction of the bread fruit-tree, and also of the nutmeg and cinnamon.*

Kerguelen's Lann. Far to the south lies Kerguelen's Land, so called from a recent French navigator; but by Captain Cook the Isle of Desolation. This region must be classed among the African islands, as it approaches nearer to that continent than to Australasia, which may however claim the small islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, only frequented on account of the seal fishery. Kerguelen's Land is described and delineated in the last voyage of Cook, to which the curious reader is referred. In wildness, and iron-bound sterility, it rivals New Georgia, and the southern Thule. Proceeding towards the west are several other desert islands surrounded with the floating ice of the antarctic ocean, and chiefly discovered by Marion in 1772. That of Tristan da Cunha is unknown to recent accounts.

St. Helena. The south is here the region of cold and desolation, and on proceeding towards the north the scene improves. St. Helena is a beautiful island, possessed by about three hundred English families, the governor residing in a fort with a small garrison. There is a village, with a church, in Chapel valley. The planters are occupied with their cattle, hogs, and poultry; but when East India ships arrive each house becomes a little tavern. This interesting isle was discovered by the Portuguese, who stocked it with animals and fruit trees: but there was no settlement when the English took possession about the year 1600. There is only one harbour, which is difficult of access. The isle of Ascension, between Africa and Brazil, was discovered in 1508; and has an excellent harbour, frequented by homeward bound ships, who here find turtle and sea-fowl. This island is of considerable size, but mountainous, and the soil a barren sand.

St. Thomas. On approaching the African shore, to the north of Congo, and passing the neglected isle of St. Matthew, where the Portuguese have a small settlement, first appears the isle of Annabon, followed by St. Thomas, Prince's Isle, and that of Fernando Po. The Isle of St. Thomas was discovered by the Portuguese about 1460, and' settled by them in despite of the climate, which is foggy and singularly unhealthy. But the soil is remarkably strong and fertile, domestic animals abound, and the produce of sugar is prodigious. There is a

See Rochon's Introduction to his Voyage to Madagascar, in which he pretends to point out some mistakes of M. n'Apres, the celebrated hydrographer of the Kastern shores. To the north of these isles are several shoals. The isle of Seychelle, one of the Almirantes, is well wooded, but only inhabited by tortoises and alligators: the French formed there a small establishment for the cultivation of nutmegs and cloves. The remote isle of Diego Garcia is, by our author's account, in the form of a horse shoe; and there is a good kaven. Ib. liii.

bishop, who is a suffragan of Lisbon. The town Pavoacan is on the eastern side of the island. Prince's Island is also fertile, with a good harbour, and a town of about two hundred houses on the northern shore it is inhabited by about forty Portuguese and 3000 negro slaves. Fernando Po seems destitute of any good harbour, and abandoned to the goats and seals: but the Spaniards retain the nominal possession.

Several other small isles arise on the African shore*; and it is probable that in ancient periods these were still more numerous, but the sand which has blocked up many of the rivers, must have united the islands, particularly at their mouths, with the continent. The first distinguished group in this quarter is that opposite to Cape Verd, whence it has received its name.

Cape Vern Islanns. These isles were discovered by the Portuguese in 1446. They are ten in number, the two largest being that of St. Jago in the south-east and St. Anthony in the north-west. The air is hot and unhealthy; and most of the isles stony and barren; the chief trade being in salt and goat skins. Some produce rice, maiz, bananas, lemons, oranges, citrons, with cotton, and sugar-canes; and there is abundance of poultry. Rlbira, the chief town and bishopric, is in St. Jago.

Canary Islanns. Far to the north the Canary Islands, or Fortunate Islands of the ancients, form an interesting range from west to east. They were conquered by the French in 1402 under the celebrated Jean de Bethencourt, afterwards styled king of the Canariesf. The isle strictly called Canary is smaller than Fuerta Ventura, and Tenerif. The latter is the most remarkable, deriving its name, according to Glas, from thener, a mountain, and if, white.

Peak Of Tenerif. In the recent astronomical voyage of Verdun de la Crenne there is an accurate account of the Peak of Tenerif, which was found 1742 toises above the level of the sea, or about 5000 feet lower than Mont Blanc. It is said to be visible at the distance of eighty leaguesf. This celebrated mountain cannot be ascended, on account of the snows, except from the middle of July to the end of August. First occur pumices, interspersed with obsidian of beautiful and various colours, followed by broken lava. The summit resembles a cone placed on a table, or rather small base; and can only be ascended by a zig-zag path on the south. The cold is extreme; the nails become black, and the hands and feet swell. In the middle of the summit is a deep reversed cone, called the cauldron, about fifty fathoms in diameter, and bordered with hideous calcined rocks, mostly red or white, the perpendicular depth being about 150 feet: at the bottom

Among these may be mentioned the Bissagos, and the little isle of Goree, a settlement sheltered by the bold prominence of Cape Verd.

† Histoire de la premiere decouverte et conqueste des Canaries: faite des l'an 1402 par Messire Jean de Bethencourt, Chambellan du Roy Charles VI. Escrite du temps mesme par F. Pierre Bontier Religieux de S. Francois, et Jean le Verrier, Prestre, domestiques dudit Sieur de Bethencourt. Paris 1630, 8vo. See also Glas's History of the Canary Islands; London, 1764, 4to.

Tome i. p. 121; supposing the height to be 1742 toises, the summit might be visible at sea at the distance of thirty-five leagues.