and improves as we approach Candahar. This city, comprised within an ordinary fortification of about three miles in circumference, and of a square form, is populous and flourishing: and lying in the great road which connects India with Persia and Tartary, it has been long a distinguished mart. The city is abundantly supplied with provisions; the fruits are of an excellent quality; and the extensive range of shops occupied by Hindu traders attests the liberty and protection which they enjoy at Candahar. A son of Timur Shah governs the city with a tract of dependent territory, which produces, it is said, a revenue of eighteen lacs of rupees; and it may justly be concluded, from the appearance of all classes of people, that this collection is made without any extraordinary rigor. 'The environs of Candahar occupy an extensive plain, covered with fruit gardens and cultivation, and intersected with numerous streams, of so excellent a quality as to become proverbial; and the climate is happily tempered between the heat of India and the cold of Gazna.

The road from Candahar to Gimmuch leads to the west, or west by north; thence to Herat, Mr. Forster apprehends, it has nearly a northern course. The country is generally open, and interspersed with barren rocky hills, of a moderate height. The soil is light and sandy.

• Herat (the capital of Khorasan) is a smaller city than Candahar, but maintains a respectable trade; and the market place occupying a long street, covered with an arched roof, is filled with shops of various wares. Bread, rice, and flesh meats, with numerous fruits and vegetables, are cheap and abundant. Coarse woollens of a strong texture are manufactured in the adjacent districts; a great part of which, made into garments, are exported into various parts of northern Persia. Surtouts of sheep skins, with the wool in the inside, are seen hanging at almost every shop, and are used by all classes of people in the winter season. A small quantity of European commodities is brought to this city from the gulf of Persia, consisting of French broad cloths, cutlery, small looking-glasses, and prints; but their low prices shew that the demand is very limited. The police of Herat is judiciously régulated, and the administration of justice vi gorous.'

On joining his new associates of the Caravan from Herat, our traveller found it expedient to resume the Mohammedan character. The district of Dochabad forms the western boundary of Timur Shah. Thence to Turshish, extends a barren waste on which is neither an inhabitant nor the least token of vegetation. This space is held by Abdulla, an independent Persian chief. Adjoining to old Furshish, which is of small compass, and surrounded by a wall, Abdulla has built a new town, in an angle of which stands the Caravanserai. This city supports a considerable commerce.

• Shahrût, with its independent districts, including Nasirabad, pertains properly, I believe, to the Khorasan division, though it now holds of Asterabad, which with Mazanderan and Hazar-tirib is governed by Aga Mohammed Khan, one of the most important chiefs now remaining in Persia. The town of Shahrût is small, and surrounded in some parts with a slight earthen wall. The houses from a want of wood are built of unburnt bricks, and covered with a flat arch of the same materials. Many people are seen in this vicinity, whose noses, fingers, and toes, have been destroyed by the frost, which is said to be severer at Shahrût, than any part of Persia.'

A very extensive forest separates Mazanderan from Asterabad: but the country opens in the vicinity of Sari, the capital of Aga Mohammed; where verdant hills and dales, encircled by streams of delicious water, and purified by gentle gales, present a scene that communicates ineffable delight.

• Sari is rather a small town, but crowded with inhabitants, many of whom are merchants of credit, who resort thither for the purpose of supplying the chief and his officers with articles of foreign produce. The walls of the town are kept in good condition, and the ditch though narrow is deep, and sufficiently tenable against any force now existing in this country.'

From Sari, Mr. Forster proceeded to Musgidsir, a small town on the Caspian, where he embarked in a Russian vessel for Bacu. From Bacu he proceeded by a tedious and perilous navigation to Astracan, and thence by land to Petersburgh, taking Moscow in his route.

Such are the outlines of a narrative from which we have derived much amusement, and some information. The peculiarities of national character and eastern manners are amply detailed; and the obstacles which, at every step, impeded the progress of our traveller, evince the misery which the turbulent and rapacious despots of Asia entail on the victims of their ambition. It afforded some relief to turn our attention to the estimable qualities which frequently discovered themselves in very obscure stations; and it is impossible to remark without complacency the conciliating pliability, and the good-humour, with which our author conformed himself to the customs and prejudices of his various associates.

The assistance which geography has derived from Mr. Forster's journey has been very important; history owes him less; and we are frequently surprised at the inaccuracies which he commits in his account of past transactions. In addition to those which we have already pointed out, we will only state the following example: Persia, says Mr. Forster, remained subject to the Khalifat, until conquered by Togrul Beg:-but

at

at that period Persia had long been dismembered from the empire of the Khalifs, and Togrul found the western portion possessed by Malic al Rehim, a Sultan of the race of Buia, while the Sultans of Gazna occupied the east.-The term Saracen, he imagines, is derived from Sehara; which, in Arabic, signifies a desert: but we think that it is manifestly derived from Sherkin, which signifies eastern.

These volumes are extremely defective in having neither Index nor Table of Contents. Such omissions deserve serious reprobation.

ART. II. Mr. Collins's Account of the English Colony in New South Wales.

H

[Article concluded, see Rev. for November.]

AVING noticed that part of Mr. Collins's work which related, in the form of journal, the various transactions which had occurred in the New South Wales colony from its commencement to September 1796, we have now to observe that to this division of the volume Mr. Collins has subjoined an account of the connected colony at Norfolk Island; and an Appendix, in which he treats exclusively of the Religion, Habitations, Customs, and Manners of the Natives of New South Wales.

Many particulars of the state of Norfolk Island had been given in the Journal, by which it appeared that its affairs were generally in a much more prosperous state than those of the parent settlements of South Wales; and the account here given, which is extracted from the papers of Mr. King, the Lieut. Governor of the island, is calculated to make a still more favourable impression of the state and advantages of that insular branch of the colony. There were on the island 240 settlers, exclusively of officers. Of those who, though not settlers, lived independently by their own labour, the number was 130; and of convicts whose term of transportation was not yet expired, there were 136.

The island contains 11,000 acres; the soil varying between a rich brown mould and a light red earth. From the sides of the steep hills, the rain in the winter months washes down the mould, and leaves only a grey marly substance which is incapable, in that state, of cultivation: but these hills, which are of easy ascent, preserve their depth of soil, and in many instances have borne six successive crops of wheat. - Of the 11,000 acres, there are not 200 which might not be cultivated to the greatest advantage; and, in fact, the full half of the island is already cleared of timber for the public use, or marked out in lots for settlers.

The

The cultivation was confined to maize, wheat, potatoes, and other garden vegetables. Wheat, however, from the heat of the climate, occasional droughts, and blighting winds, was but an uncertain crop; nor could it be averaged at more than eighteen bushels per acre, though some yielded twentyfive. Of maize [commonly called Indian wheat] the harvests were constant and plentiful; and two crops were generally procured in a year. The average produce was forty-five bushels per acre.

In those parts which were not cleared of timber, the underwood was covered with a succulent herbage; which, with the fern and other soft roots, afforded the best food for swine. Many settlers availed themselves of this advantage, and inclosed some of the uncleared ground; where individuals kept from 20 to 150 of these animals each. On Phillip Island, too, was to be found the best feed for swine. The Governor kept there an hundred and seventeen. Several large hogs had been brought thence, which weighed, when fattened, from 180 to 306 pounds. Cattle for labour, however, were scarce, and sheep much wanted for a change of food; though it is certain that sheep breed there as well as in any other part of the world, and had not yet felt any of the disorders common to that kind of stock.

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The want of artificers of all descriptions, and the scarcity of labourers at public works, had retarded the construction of a number of necessary buildings; so that not more than ten settlers had been yet able to erect dwellings better than log-huts: but many were beginning to build comfortable framed and weatherboarded habitations, at their own expence.

Provisions were cheaper than at New South Wales, as appears from the following table:

• Average prices of provisions raised on the island, either for sale, for barter, or in payment for labour. PLENTIFUL ARTICLES.

Fresh pork 6d. per lb.

Pickled ditto 8d.

Wheat from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per bushel.

Maize from Is. 6d. to 5s.

Potatoes from Is. to 3s. 6d. per cwt.
Full-grown fowls from 6d. to Is. each.

Ditto ducks 10d. to Is. 3d, each.

Ditto turkeys 7s. 6d. each.

SCARCE ARTICLES.

Geese ros. each.

Female goats 81. each.

Goats' flesh or mutton to government od. per lb.
Ditto to individuals 1s. 6d. ditto.'

The

The price of a labourer's day's work was 3s. with food, and 5s. without it.

The original inducement to settle in this island was the cultivation of the flax-plant. It grows here spontaneously; and though an experiment had been made to cultivate it, the produce was not so much superior to that which grew in a natural state, as to make it advisable to bestow any pains on its culture. There is no more than one loom on the island, and the slay or reed is designed for coarse canvass; nor do they possess a single tool required by flax-dressers or weavers, beyond the poor substitutes which they are obliged to fabricate for themselves. In this defect of necessaries for the manufacture, only eighteen people could be employed in it; and of these the united labour, in a week, produced sixteen yards of canvass, of the size called No. 7.

Such is an outline of the statement given of Norfolk Island by its Governor. Mr. Collins annexes to it some account of New Zealand, as collected from two natives who had been brought thence by Lieut. King. It communicates several curious particulars relating to those people, and their language; for which we must reluctantly refer to the volume.

In the general remarks which form the Appendix to this work, is comprised all that Mr. Collins was able to collect in a six years' residence at New South Wales, respecting the government, religion, and customs of the natives. It is probable that many readers will be more pleased with these particulars than with the body of the work; because the novel and amusing scenes, which must occur in delineating savage life, are more entertaining than a dry journal of daily occurrences.

In contemplating the picture of the Botany Bay savage, as exhibited by Mr. Collins, we see little to distinguish him from the other children of ignorance with whom the Southern hemisphere is peopled. All the vices and all the virtues of men in such a state of nature are found in him; and he has no trait of unusual ferocity, nor any mark of a stronger or weaker intellect to distinguish him from his brethren. Of the mode of government under which he lives, little can be said; for in fact he seems to have no idea of government beyond that which the head of a family exercises over his household. Existing in that state which is supposed to have been common to all men previously to their formal union in a common society, no authority is known among them but that which nature has given to the father over his children, and to the husband over his wife. Accordingly, the epithet of father (Be-anna) is their highest title of honor, and that which they uniformly apply to those who, they perceive, exercise authority over others.

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