When the slaves are procured, they are confined in a prison called the Bombe, till they can be transported to the ship. The bombe is situated on the ground-floor of the factory house, and the captain's apartment is immediately over it,

The night of their arrival (says the writer) is with them a night of tears and of despair; and I have often been awakened by the noise of their groans, The miserable victims see themselves on the point of quitting for ever their native country; and wild and confused ideas of the future occupy their imaginations. Their sighs and mournful songs fill me with sorrow and compassion for their anguish. I rise, and endeavour to comfort and encourage them, but often in vain.At length the day of departure arrives; and I shall finish this subject with an account of the manner in which they are treated on board.

As to clothing, they have none, but men and women are entirely naked. In the middle of the vessel, however, a bulk-head is fixed, and secured with strong nails, which makes a barrier to divide the two sexes. Two men are constantly on guard in a gallery formed behind the barricade, in which are two openings for cannon, that are kept ready to quell insurrection. Their nourishment in the ship consists of two meals in a day, composed of boiled beans, seasoned with salt and allspice, with water to drink; and on this frugal diet, which is reckoned wholesome, they are to subsist during the passage. Each has a leaden plate fastened to the neck, on which is engraved his number; and they are allowed a spoon, a pipe, and a small portion of tobacco, which last is given to them as a preventive against the scurvy. They sleep on the bare deck. They are employed in making cordage, hats, baskets, &c. and sometimes receive for their labour a small recompense in biscuit or brandy.-Care is taken to make them dance and sing twice each day; exercise being necessary for their health. I have always employed every means in my power to soften their condition by humane treatment, and I am willing to believe that other captains in the trade act in the same manner: but, after all that can be done, the trade of buying men like beasts of burthen must be always repugnant to a good mind; and it is to be wished that this commerce may cease at length to obtain the sanction of governments. Oh, utinam!

Such reflections from the captain of a slave ship may perhaps at first appear inconsistent: but they are laudable and useful. While the trade is permitted, it is a considerable alleviation to the lot of the sufferers, if persons of compassionate dispositions be the agents. When men who are dead to the feelings of humanity undertake the employment, what language can describe the condition of the unfortunate victims; whose state, under the mildest treatment, cannot be otherwise than. deplorable?

Among the extraordinary effects of climate in Congo, the author remarks that European dogs exported thither lose the

1

sense

J

sense of smelling,even of their food: but they recover it when taken back to Europe. He describes the Termites, which are numerous all over that part of Africa, as being less active and less resolute in the defence of their habitations, than those of other countries; and we find that their perseverance was overcome by that of the author. Some travellers, however, have spoken of these insects with more apprehension. The missionary F. Denis Carli, for instance, relates his escape from them with great thankfulness, and not without reason. As the story is short, we extract it. In a fit of illness, he kept a small monkey at the foot of his bed, to protect him from the rats; and, says he,

"I had just begun to mend, though the fever had not left me, when one night, as I lay asleep, I felt that the monkey had leapt upon my head. I thought that the rats had frightened him, and coaxed him in order to quiet him: but at the same time the Blacks arose, crying, out, out, Father!' Being now thoroughly awake, I asked them what was the matter? The ants,' said they, are broken out, and there is no time to be lost.' There being no possi bility for me to stir, I bade them carry me into the garden, which they did, four of them lifting me on my straw; and their nimbleness stood me in good stead, for the ants began already to run up my legs, and get to my body. After having shaken them off, the negroes took straw, and fired it on the floor of four rooms, where the ants were already above half a foot thick; and there must have been a wonderful quantity, since, besides the chambers, the porch and walking place were full." Voyage to Congo, 1668.

M. DEGRANDPRÉ has given some remarks on the ports and navigation, and also a chart which comprehends the coast from equator to 12 degrees of South latitude.

As we have entered so largely into the author's account of Congo, we shall now give only a brief statement of the remaining contents of his work:-but, first, we must observe that it is become necessary to advert to a maxim which seems to have been adopted by some modern travellers, that ideas of delicacy are not to interrupt the communication of any kind of knowlege; and that, under the guise of philosophical research after truth, nothing is to be esteemed indecent. Those of the French nation, in particular, are liable to the application of this remark; and M. DEGRANDPRÉ has in two or three instances (in no respect happily chosen) indulged himself by following an example, for which, when the object is not to impart really useful knowlege, no adequate excuse can be alleged.

The Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope consists of a description of the fown and Gardens of the bay; the government and military establishment, while the place was in the posses

sion

с

sion of the Dutch; a plan of the citadel, and of the cape itself with the country near it; observations on the means of attack and defence, &c.-These are the principal points of information respecting the Cape. In the account of Table-Bay, he has described the manner in which assistance has been given to people in ships that have been forced on shore there by storms. The most dangerous wind in Table-Bay is from the N. W. which blows directly in from the open sea, When the wind increases so much as to occasion apprehensions that ships will drive from their anchors, a flag is hoisted near that part of the shore on which a ship would be the least liable to receive injury by running aground. Ropes, buoys, and other tackle, are also kept ready. If it be in the night, a fire is kept lighted at the place; and when a ship's cable breaks, if she have not other anchors and cables, her best chance is to endeavour to steer for the marked spot. The vessel being ashore, the business then is to save the crew. The end of a sounding line is fastened to a light cask, which is thrown overboard; and this being cast on shore by the waves, line sufficient being veered from the ship, a communication between. the shore and ship is established, which affords means of passing a hawser, or small cable, from the bowsprit to an anchor on the land. A basket large enough to contain two men is then fastened to two iron rings, which travel along the cable by the help of small ropes both on board and on shore; and the basket being drawn to the ship, two men get in: they are then hauled to the shore, and the basket returns empty to the ship for others till all are saved.-Many ships, however, are wrecked at the Cape of Good Hope, under circumstances which are too unfavourable to admit of profiting by such a mode of conveyance.

To conclude our remarks; it is sufficient to say in general, in addition to the foregoing account, that M. DEGRANDPRÉ'S work affords entertainment and information; that his style is easy; and that his reflections are generally liberal, though some times too speculative. Many parts of his account of Congo are highly interesting.-The plates are engraven from designs by the author, and appear to be good delineations from

nature.

- We have also received a copy of another publication by this author, intitled Voyage dans l'Inde au Bengale, in 2-vots, 8vo.: but we have not yet found time to peruse and analyse it. Capt⋅ B....y.

ART

Art. II. Séances des Écoles Normales, &c. i. e. The Sittings of the Normal Schools, reported by the short-hand Writers, and revised by the Professors. 1st Part, Lectures. 6 Vols. 2d Part, Debates. Vol. I. 8vo. Paris. Imported by De Boffe, London. Price zl. gs. THE National Convention, wishing, according to its own phrase, to give to the French people a system of instruction worthy of its new destinies, ordained in the 3d year of the republic the institution of the Normal Schools. The nature and functions of these seminaries were intended to be of superior dignity and importance: they were instituted to form a sort of precedence over ordinary schools;-not so much to teach the usual branches of human knowlege, as the art and method of teaching them properly,-to point out in each branch the most useful facts,-and, by placing the student (as it were) on a commanding station, to shew him the source of the sciences, their progress, and their probable destination.

The distribution of subjects to be taught was as follows: Mathematics, Physics, Descriptive Geometry. Natural History, Chemistry, Agriculture, Geography, History, Morality, Grammar, Analysis of the Mind, and Literature; and among the professors appointed to these schools, are to be found men to whom even philosophers might have listened with benefit and delight; who would have given sanction to any institution; and whom the highest station cannot make more eminent.

The lectures and conversations at the sittings were minuted by short-hand writers; and hence the present publication claims some indulgence, on account of defective arrangement, inharmonious periods, and repetitions. The preface to the first volume briefly, but ably, states the reasons which induced the professors to deliver their lectures without written preparations they might hesitate and feel aukward in the commencement; but this inconvenience was considered as unimportant, when compared with the advantage of powerfully engaging the pupil's attention. By an excellent regulation in the second sitting, the pupils were allowed publicly to ask questions of the professors, and solutions of any doubts respecting what had been taught in the previous lecture.

Whether the preference was allotted in honour of the science, or of its distinguished professors, La Place and La Grange, we know not, but the subject of the first sitting was Mathematics. An eloquent programma preceded the lecture; in which, however, more was promised than was ever performed. In its contents we recognise its author, and find large parts taken from that admirable performance, Exposition du Système au Monde, The lecture of La Place relates to arithmetic; and, speaking

of

of the binary arithmetic of Leibnitz, he mentions a curious trait in the character of that philosopher, which, though not here recorded for the first time, is still not generally known, and is instructive:

Leibnitz imagined that he saw in the binary arithmetic the image of the creation. He fancied that unity represented the deity, and zero, nothingness; and that the Supreme Being had drawn out of nothing all the creatures of the universe, in the same manner as unity, with zero, expresses all numbers in this system of numeration. The idea so enraptured Leibnitz, that he communicated it to the Jesuit Grimaldi, president of the tribunal of mathematics in China, in hopes that this emblem of the creation would convert the Emperor to Christianity, because he was passionately fond of mathematics. This trait calls to our minds the Commentary of Newton on the Apocalypse.'

In the course of his lecture, M. La Place takes notice of the duodecimal system of notation; and, like other mathematicians who have considered the subject, he prefers it to all other systems. The French, who have ventured on so bold a step as the alteration of weights and measures, would have adopted the duodecimal notation, had not the almost universal use of the decimal opposed the idea.

The subject of discussion in the next sitting is Physics, and the professor is M. Hauy; who first delivers a programma, defining his science, and shewing its object. In his subsequent lecture, he enters into the consideration of certain facts, the forms of crystals, porous bodies, &c.

On Descriptive Geometry, the programma and lecture by the Professor Monge are not to be read without pleasure, nor to be mentioned without commendation. His argumentation is simple, clear, exact, and satisfactory.

Geography is treated by the professors Buache and Mentelle. History has for its professor the well-known Volney: who delivers excellent observations on the necessity of examining historical facts, first, with regard to their proper essence, that is, with regard to their analogy with or opposition to facts of the same kind, still subsisting and known; and secondly, with relation to the testimony of those facts, as depending on the moral faculties, the knowlege, the impartiality, and the means of information possessed by the narrator. As M. Volney has not interwoven his own particular doctrines and opinious with these observations, they may be read with pleasure and without fear of contamination, by those who profess to love impartiality but not scepticism, and freedom of research but not licence of innovation.

The programma and lecture on Natural History are given by M. Daubenton. He shews distinctly the object of this science,

and