ner circle; and again, within them, all the young men and girls. In this manner they dance till about twelve o'clock, when they take their suppers on the ground where they had danced, the place being illuminated by a large fire, and if it is not windy, also by copper or brass lamps.After supper they return to dancing for a short time, and soon after, all hands fall to stripping the tree of the rice; and when the scramble is over, which is the principal part of the diversion, the feast is finished.

At the Dungally feasts I got a very good share; but at the harvest feast at Travalla, where I saw them dress up a tree with Indian corn in the same manner as they employed the rice at Dungally, they gave us nothing.

When the rajah is ill, or going a journey, he sends to the priest for a bill of health; this is drawn on a bit of paper, about eight inches square, for which he receives a handsome present. It is not granted for a longer time than six months, and when presented to the rajah, it is closed up, and not opened until the time is expired. If he have any inclination for another bill of health, it is granted for six months more.

The Malays set a great value on all coined money. They keep it in store, and do not part with it, even when they want to purchase every thing Their chief trade is for gold dust and barter. The children, where it can be afforded, wear dol lars strung round their necks, with holes through them.

A man possessed of a swivel or great gun, is reckoned a great man, and is much valued and respected. When he returns from a voyage, he makes it to his house, and is so care

ful of it that he frequently places it in his bedchamber.

The natives, when they buy cloth, measure it by the fathom, which is done by their arms stretched out, and measuring from finger to finger. I have often observed their hands as far behind them as possible, in order to make a longer fathom.

The Malays manufacture very good and strong cloth with ariged colours. Their cotton is remarkably fine and well picked, and they clear it by a kind of jenny. They under. stand the art of dying, and are very fond of gaudy colours.

Their proas are from about five to thirty tons in size, are sharp at both ends, and much resemble OB whale-boats. At the after part of the proa, they build a kind of house or cabin. They use wooden anchors. which are large and strong. Their cables are made of braided rattan, which are strong, but not very pli able. Their sails are peculiarly light and strong, and made from the skin of a certain leaf, which is cured in the sun, knotted together, and wo ven. The rope for the sail is made from the bark of a tree, and is pliable and strong, but not equal to what the sails are made of. The proas are constructed for rowing as well as sailing; are used for fishing, trading, carrying provisions, or for privateering, and are fitted-out and managed accordingly. The proa be longs to the captain, and, if a merchantman, is managed with about twelve hands, which consist of the captain, who is called an accorder; the mate, jere mode; the boatswain, jere bottoo; and nine sailors, ourart. The men have no wages, bring their own provisions, and divide their earnings.

The

The proas are strong, and neatly built, with a keel, ribs, and boards. The boards are made with great labour, by working down a tree into two planks, to the size of a board of two inches thick. They have plenty of gum, of which they make what they call dama, to pay the seams of their proas with instead of pitch.

The canoes are navigated by three or four hands, and sometimes up to twenty. They differ in size, are long and narrow, and have out-riggers, which are cross bars, at right angles with the canoes, and then by bars parallel with the canoe, so as to keep it stiff, and prevent it from oversetting.

The Malays reck on time by the moons, and twelve moons make a year: they distinguish morning, mid-day, and night, but do not count time by the hours as we do: the time of the day they describe by the height of the sun.

I kepta regular account of the time of our captivity, by means of notches , on a stick, for sixteen months: then I obtained from my good friend, the old priest, a black lead pencil, and a bit of their paper, which served me to keep time with, until I was unfortunately overset in the canoe, when I lost diary and pencil. Remembering, however, the time and the day, I again kept my reckoning by notches; and when I arrived at Macassai, (as stated before), I was but one day short in my reckoning, from the time of my losing my ship, to the day of my deliverance, which was two years and five months. Their sabbath on the Friday, served as a good check on my reckoning.

The diversions of the Mays are cock-fighting, foot-ball, cards, dice, and draughts. My men often played Vol. XLVIL

at cards with the natives, but their games are unlike ours.

It is a general rule every afternoon to fight cocks, at which the men of the whole town collect. They have a convenient pit made for the purpose, and perfectly understand the business. They cut off the spurs of the cocks, and tie a steel spur or gaff to the bottom of the foot, in such a manner that they stand firm and strong: they only put it on one foot, which is commonly the right. After this sport is over, which usually lasts until sun-set, every man returns to his house to supper; after which he goes to the longar, or large house, where they execute their public business; and here they spend half the night in gambling, either at dice or at cards.

During this time the women are employed in spinning cotton, which is in great plenty and very fine in many parts.

The Malays ride on horseback, and their saddles are made of cloth, stuffed with cotton, like our pillions. They ride fast, but never make use of horses in battle.

They tether or confine their horses with a rope of several fathoms: one end of this, with a running noose, is put round the neck, and the other staked to the ground. These animals have soon the sagacity to disentangle themselves from the rope, whenever the noose hurts them. When horses get loose, the Malays catch them with some address, by putting a noose on the end of a pole, and slipping it over the animals' heads. The breed is small and active, but not fleshy. The natives, however, eat them.

They hunt deer with dogs, some◄ times on horseback, and sometimes 3 E

on

on foot; they go out in parties, and the men, stationing themselves, strike at the deer as they pass, or shoot at them with guns.

Manners, Customs, and Character of the Natives of Brasil. (From the sume.)

The entrance of the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, is narrow for about a quarter of a mile; it thence widens into a secure bason, which at the town is five miles in breadth, and extends inland beyond the reach of the eye; several fruitful islets are scattered on each side, which, covered with loaded orange trees, almost realize the fiction of the gardens of the Hesperides.

The shores which surround the harbour are vastly mountainous, forming abrupt and craggy precipices, of the most wild and extraordinary shapes; Nature seems to have sported in the formation of this her last work, and to have combined all the fanciful forms, which she scattered more sparingly over the old continent. The entrance of the harbour is pointed out by a towering cliff, on the south side rising perpendicularly from the sea; while at the head of the port, the mountains rise into higher elevations, and present forms more strikingly singular;

Rocks rich with gems, and mountains big

á

with mines, Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays,

are here seen, now faintly peeping from behind the intervening clouds, and now presenting their dark blue summit above the flaky vapours that roll along their sides.

1

These mountains consist entirely of granite, forming an adamantine barrier to the waters of the Ocean; they are clothed, in every part where the least soil can remain, with trees and shrubs of various kinds; and even to the naked rock vegetables are seen to adhere, which appear to derive their nourishment from the moisture of the air alone; hers are many picturesque vallies, nar. the mountains, from the shores of row, but winding along the base of the harbour, to some distance inland.

These glens are super-emi nently fruitful, from the combined causes of superior heat and moisture; reflected heat of the sun, confined the first proceeding from the in a narrow space, and the latter the vapours attracted by that heat, produced by the condensation of or driven by the winds against the mountains' sides. The numerous little coves at the entrance of these the finest sand, where fishermen glens are bordered with beaches of have erected their dwellings, and which, viewing them from without, have all the apparent neatness of our best English villages; but, too this is the mere effect of white-wash, soon we find, on entering them, that and that within they are the habitations of sloth and nastiness. The town of St. Sebastian is built entirely of granite, which appears to be the only stone found here, except a species of black and white marble. From the bay the appearance of the town is not inclegant, but the deception vanishes on a nearer approach; the streets, though straight and regular, are narrow and dirty, the projecting balconies sometimes nearly meeting each other; the houses are commonly two stories high, independent of the ground

floors,

Eoors, which are occupied as shops or cellars; they are dirty, hot, and inconvenient; the stair-cases are perpendicular, and without any light; and in the arrangement of the rooms no regard is paid, either to a free circulation of air, or to the beauty of prospect. The furniture of the houses, though costly, disgusts the eye used to elegant plainness, by its clumsiness and tawdry decorations; while the spider weaves her web, and pursues her sanguinary trade in uninterrupted security, upon the walls and ceiling. In the houses of the rich the windows are glazed, which only serves to increase the reflected power of the sun, and render them intolerably hot; but the generality of houses are furnished with shutters of close lattice-work, behind which the women assemble in the evening; and, while their own persons are concealed, enjoy the passing breeze, which is not, however, always very aromatic. In the English settlements, within the tropics, art is exhausted to correct or mitigate the ardour of the climate, and to render a burning atmosphere not only supportable, but pleasant, to a north. ern constitution. In the Brasils, the defects of climate are increased by the slothful and dirty customs of the inhabitants, the cause of this difference is to be ascribed to the climates of the mother countries: the climate of Portugal approaching to that of Brasil, the Europeans who emigrate hither, feel little inconvenience from the change. In our tropical settlements, the climate of their old differing so much from that of their new residence, the emigrants leave no means unemployed to mitigate the fervour of the sun, whose ardent blaze is found to de

range the nervous system, enervate the body, and render the mind a prey to listlessness and nanity.

There are eighteen parish churches, four monasteries, and three convents, in the town of St. Sebastian, besides several smaller religious buildings on the islands, aud in the suburbs. Upon these edifices no expence is spared to attract the imagination of the weak and ignorant, by a profusion of gilding, and other tawdry decorations. The Hospital de Miserecordie is also a religious institution, which receives patients of every denomination, and is principally supported by private benefactions. To these may be added a penitentiary-house, where the incontinent fair are secluded from the world, to weep for and atone their faults in solitude and silence; hither jealous husbands, or cross parents, send their too amorous wives and daughters, and, doubtless, often upon no better foundation than "trifles light as air." The admission to the nunneries is expensiĝe, and I have heard a fond mother regret her want of fortune, only because it prevented her dedicating some of her beloved daughters to God. The clergy possess immense property in land, houses, and specie. When it was proposed to lay an impost of 10 per cent. upon the income of the church, the Benedictine monks offered to commute their part of the tax, by paying 40,000 crowns annually. Their pious desire for the conversion of heretics still glows with all the ardour of bigotry, and the recantation of one protestant is considered of more value than the conversion of 100 pagans; as in heaven there is more joy over one sin ner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons. An unfor3 E 2

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tunate foreigner of this persuasion, who, by sickness or other causes, is obliged to remain here, after his ship sails, is continually plagued by the impertinent intrusion of a dozen of these pious fathers, who, if he can find no means of leaving the country, in general tire his patience out in a few months, and, for quietness sake, he consents to be saved according to their receipt *.

No foreigner is allowed to reside here, unless he subsists by some mechanical trade, or is in the service of the state; and, if it appear that any idlers are inclined to remain in the colony by stealth, after sufficient warning and opportunities to get away, they are arrested and confined on Cobras Island, and either put on board their own country ships, that may touch here, or sent to Lisbon as prisoners.

Besides the religious buildings, the other public edifices are, the viceroy's palace, which forms one side of a flagged square, fronting the landing-place: contiguous to

this, and nearly adjoining each other, are the opera-house, the royal stables, the prison +, and the mint. The opera-house, which holds about 600 persons, is open on Thursdays, Sundays, and most holidays; the pieces performed are, indifferently, tragedies, comedies, or operas, with interludes and after-pieces: the dialogue is in Portuguese, but the words and music of the songs are Italian. The honse is wretchedly fitted up, the scenes miserably daubed, and, where foliage is required, branches of real trees are introduced, so that while the artificial scenery wears the gay livery of summer, the natural sometimes presents the appearance of autumnal decay. The viceroy is expected, by the populace, to shew himself at the theatre every night on his en tering the house, the audience rise, turn their faces towards his box, and again sit down. In private companies, no person sits while he stands, unless at his request; thus, unsocial formality is the price that

greatness