The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year

But oft the bitter hour recall,
Which saw thee in life's springtime fall
And wrapp'd thy fatal shroud.

TO THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND

THOMAS BRIGSTOCK.

FROM THE SAME.

EAR lost companion of my earliest joys!

If lingering yet thy spirit haunt the fields,

Where blithesome once we strayed, and young in cars,

Thou see'st me still unchanged; this mindful heart

From all the pomp and turmoil of the world

Still faithful turns to thee; and oft retires
In the dark covert of some aged grove,
To muse with solitude and sad regret:
What time the nightingale in shady brake,
Where the low hazel or the tangled thorn
Veils her from vulgar eye, with querulous note
Warbles, as mindful of a gentle friend.
And soothing is her lay, to one, who grieves
In placid sorrow, at the fall of eve

Marking the ruddy light that fades away,
And the still moonbeam steal upon the leaves.
How oft retiring from the giddy crowd
At sober evening, when the setting sun
Skirted the western clouds with varied light,
We mused unseen upon the goodly forms
Of smiling nature! Sometimes, when the year
Put forth its budding charms, we lov'd to mark
The pale anemone, that softly rear'd
Its modest head beneath the leafless brake,
Delightful herald of returning spring.
Then as we saw the year roll slowly on,
Breathing new sweets, and opening fresh delight
Of shade and pasture, bloom and luscions fruit,
Led by delusive rapture oft we stretch'd

Our anxious thoughts into the view less maze

Of that wide world, through which our journey lay
Doubtful and distant; now with sorrow dark,
Now gilded with bright hopes and fancy gay.
But ever as I mark'd the secret hand

Of baneful sickness, slow and unrestrained,
3 S4

Prey

Prey on thine alter'd form, (which late had glow'd
With beauty and with strength above thy peers)
A bodeful tear would rush into mine eyes;
And a wild thought would beat against my heart
That life's eventful journey must be trod
Without that loved companion, whom my soul
Had chosen in the guileless hour of youth;
Who should with me have stretch'd the towering wing
E'en to ambition's height; and should (if ere
Propitious fortune smiled) have shared the meed
Of that fair fame, we panted to deserve.

Thy lamp soon wasted; it had burnt too bright,
And sunder'd the frail tenement of life,

That shrowded its pure beams. O! thou art gone;
Thy grave has long been strewn ; and those, who erst
Sported with thee in youth or turn'd the page
Of infant learning, have well nigh forgot
That once thou wert, and did'st in all excell.
But never from this breast, this mindful soul,
Shall pass thine image, which is graven there
With friendship's first impression; nor the thought
Of those delightful days, when life was new,
And we together cull'd its budding sweets
Careless of coming woe. But ne'er for thee
Pale sorrow spread her melancholy board;
Thou ne'er didst taste of grief. The tender down
Of manhood scarce had tinged thy blooming cheek,
When the cold hand of all-consuming death
Nipp'd thy fair promise. Thou didst never learn
The treachery of joy, the loss of friends,
The pangs of hapless love: thy glowing heart
Imagin'd days of rapture, fondly dream'd
Of more than mortal charms; nor ever waked
To wipe fell sorrow's tear :-for few are they,
Whose earliest fancy crowns their days with joy;
But oft through woe, and anguish, and despair,
Man wanders t'wards the port of tranquil bliss.
Thou didst not hear the deadly cry of France,
Which, like the crash of an upbreaking world,
Appall'd all Europe, from the utmost bound
Of Finisterre to Moscow's forests hoar,
And shook old ocean's reign; thou didst not see
The impious fiend of democratic war

Let loose its havoc, tearing from their base
The monuments of power, the massive seats

Of ancient empire and religious sway;

Thou didst not mark from every mangled realm pang of horror vibrate to the heart

The

Of thy dear country; else the piteous groan
Of sullied freedom and dismember'd states
Had rung e'en to thy soul. For thou wast kind
In nature, and thy breast would throb to hear
Of high achievements, and the valor old
Of chiefs recorded in historic page,

Who by fair deeds and honourable strife
Upheld our England's fame. Therefore I deem,
Though torn untimely from our fond embrace,
Thee blest above thy peers; whose sleep of death
(Ere fate had dealt one night of restless woe)
Stole unperceiv'd on thy delighted youth.

Account

Account of Books for 1805.

The present State of Peru, &c. drawn from Original Documents, chiefly written in the Peruvian Capital, with Engravings, &c. 4to.

THE

HE war now existing with Spain, and the probability of its operations being extended into the wide spread, but little known regions of South America, induce us to regard the publications which have appeared, in the course of the year, relating, in any degree, to the Spanish empire in that division of the new world, as peculiarly interesting to the British reader, and worthy, in an eminent degree, of our early and most marked attention.

The preface to the work now be fore us, to which is signed the name of "Joseph Skinner," gives us to understand, that it has been wholly compiled from a most valuable body of materials, which originally appeared at Lima, in the form of a periodical work, entitled, "El Mercurio Peruano," and which fell into the editor's hands by the chance of war.

An academica! society, established in the capital of Peru, appears, about the commencement of the year 1791, to have determined upon publishing a series of essays, the

main tendency of which was to elucidate the moral, political, and natural features of that country, and also to lay the foundation of a regular system of future national improvement. The result of their labours were given, at stated times, to the world, and from those essays which appeared during the first sixteen months, Mr. Skinner has cou posed this singular volume, not without, he says, having also eferred himself, in the progress of his undertaking, to various other authentic sources of information.

"Whatever can tend to interest or amuse the British reader, has been selected, and given, in a more or less abridged form, according to the relative importance and curiosity of the objects of inquiry." But an event, which befell Mr. Skinner, in the course of his pursuits, with a view to render the Peruvian Mer. curies intelligible to his country. men, put it in his power to render the work, at once, much more entertaining, iustructive, and ornamental. His stumbling on a painting representing the Indian festival, in the great square of Lima, on the event of the accession of his present Catholic majesty, Charles the fourth, to the throne. ،، The painting in

estion, the production of an unored native,” enabled the editor illustrate many of his subjects th appropriate engravings, in ich the design of the artist has en strictly adhered to; but it must remembered, that as he was aced on an eminence, his picture esents what is termed, by painters, bird's eye view, which will account r the species of perspective pre

rved in them.

We certainly agree with the edir, that such a society as we have scribed, establishing itself under e peculiar circumstances of the ountry, in the capital of Peru, the embers of which, in treating the iversified subjects of literature, hilosophy, history, and ethics, and isplaying a profound knowledge f ancient and modern learning, is a ovelty as welcome as it was unexected. Whether it still exist at Lima, is not accurately known, but he Peruvian Mercury, as may well e supposed, after having met with variety of restraints, was disconinued about five or six years after ts commencement.

We shall now proceed to give our readers such extracts from this sin. gular volume, as appear to us best calculated for their amusement and instruction.

The following general idea of Peru, not determined to any particular either of its history or literature, is well worthy notice, and may be considered a fair specimen of the merit of the work itself.

"This great empire, the foundation

In 1718.

of which by the Incas remains enveloped in the obscurity of a series of fables, and of an uncertain tradition, has lost much of its local grandeur since the time when it was stripped, on the north side, of the provinces which form the kingdom of Quito,* and afterwards of those which, towards the east, constitute the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres. Its present extent in length runs, north and south, over a space of from four hundred and twenty to four hundred and fifty leagues, from two degrees to nearly twentythree degrees of south latitude; and its greatest breadth is from one hundred to one hundred and twenty leagues, east and west, from two hundred and ninety-seven to three hundred and ten degrees of west longitude, the first meridian being taken at the Peak of Teneriffe. The river of Guayaquil divides it from the new kingdom of Granada on the north side. The depopulated territory of Atacama separates it from the kingdom of Chile towards the south. Another horrible desart, of more than five hundred leagues extent, separates it towards the east from the provinces of Paraguay and Buenos Ayres; and lastly, the Pacific Sea washes its western shores.

"A chain of barren and rugged mountains; several sandy plains, which in a manner reach from one extremity of the coast to the other; and several lakes of many leagues in extent, some of which are situated on the summits of the above chain of mountains, occupy a great part of

+ In 1778.

The geographical map of Santa Cruz, and the hydrographical chart of Don Ulloa, inserted in the third volume of his voyage to South America, have been use. ful to us in fixing the longitudes and latitudes, respecting which Busching, Lacroix, and various other geographers, differ most essentially.

the

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