me, we took leave and returned on board." We shall enlarge and conclude this article, with our author's review of another war squadron, and his computation of the naval strength of the island. "We had no sooner dispatched our friends, than we saw a number of war canoes coming round the point of Oparree. Being desirous of having a nearer view of them, accompanied by some of the officers and gentiemen, I hastened down to Oparree, which we reached before all the canoes were landed, and had an opportunity of seeing in what manner they approached the shore. When they got before the place where they intended to land, they formed themselves into divisions, consisting of three or four, or perhaps more, lashed square and close along-side of each other; and then each division, one after the other, paddled in for the shore with all their might, and conducted in so judicious a manner, that they formed, and closed a line, along the shore, to an inch. The rowers were encouraged to excite their strength by their leaders on the stages, and directed by a man who stood with a wand in his hand in the fore part of the middlemost vessel. This man, by words and actions, directed the paddlers when all should paddle, when either the one side or the other should cease, &c. for the steering paddies alone were not sufficient to direct them. All these motions they observed with such quickness as clearly shewed them to be expert in their business. After Mr. Hodges had made a drawing of them, as they lay ranged along the shore, we landed, and took a nearer view of them by going on board several.This fleet consisted of forty sail, equipped in the same manner as those we had seen before, belonged to the little district of Tettaha, and were come to Oparree to be reviewed before the king, as the former fleet had been. There were attending on this fleet some small double canoes, which they called Marais, having on their fore-part a kind of double bedplace laid over with green leaves, each just sufficient to hold one man. These, they told us, were to lay their dead upon; their chiefs, I suppose they meant, otherwise their slain must be few. Otoo, who was present, caused, at my request, some of their troops to go through their exercise on shore. Two parties first began with clubs, but this was over almost as soon as begun; so that I had no time to make my observations upon it. They then went to single combat, and exhibited the various methods of fighting with great alertness; parrying off the blows and pushes, which each combatant aimed at the other, with great dexterity. Their arms were clubs and spears; the latter they also use as darts. In fighting with the club, all blows intended to be given the legs, were evaded by leaping over it; and those intended for the head, by couching a little, and leaping on one side ; thus the blow would fail to the ground. The spear or dart was parried, by fixing the point of a spear in the ground right before them, holding it in an inclined position, more or less elevated according to the part of the body they saw their antagonist intending to make a push, or throw his dart at, and by moving the hand R 2 a little a little to the right or left, either Warou, warou, warou, te Tata, that the one or the other was turned off with great ease. I thought that when one combatant had parried off the blows, &c. of the other, he did not use the advantage which seemed to me to accrue. As, for instance; after he had parried off a dart, he still stood on the defensive, and suffered his antagonist to take up another, when I thought there was time to run him through the body. These combatants had no superfluous dress upon them; an unnecessary piece of cloth or two, which they had on when they began, were presently torn off by the by-standers, and given to some of our gentlemen present. This being over, the fleet departed; not in any order, but as fast as they could be got afloat; and we went with Otoo to one of his dockyards, where the two large pakies or cances were building, each of which was an hundred and eight feet long. They were almost ready to launch, and were intended to make one joint double pahie or canoe. The king begged of me a grappling and rope, to which I added an English jack and pendant, (with the use of which he was well acquainted), and desired the pahie might be called Britannia. This he very readily agreed to; and she was named accordingly. "I never could learn what number of vessels were to go on this expedition. We knew of no more than two hundred and ten, besides smaller canoes to serve as transports, &c. and the fleet of Tiarabou, the strength of which we never learnt. Nor could I ever learn the number of men necessary to man this fleet; and whenever I asked the question, the answer was, is many, many, many men; as if the number far exceeded their arithmetic. If we allow forty men to each war canoe, and four to each of the others, which is thought a moderate computation, the number will amount to nine thousand. An astonishing number to be raised in four districts; and one of them, viz. Matavai, did not equip a fourth part of its fleet. The fleet of Tiarabou is not included in this account; and many other districts might be arming, which we knew nothing of. I, however, believe, that the whole isle did not arm on this occasion; for we saw not the least preparations making in Oparsee. From what we saw and could learn, I am clearly of opinion that the chief, or chiefs, of each district superintended the equipping of the fleet belonging to that district; but, after they are equipped, they must pass in review before the king, and be approved of by him. By this means, he knows the state of the whole, before they assemble to go on service. It hath been already observed, that the number of war cances belonging to Attahourou and Abopata was an hundred and sixty, to Pettaha forty, and to Matavai ten, and that this district did not equip one fourth-part of their number. If we suppose every district in the island, of which there are forty-three, to raise and equip the same number of war canoes as Tettaha, we shall find, by this estimate, that the whole island can raise and equip one thousand seven hundred and twenty war canoes, and sixty-eight thousand able men, allowing forty men to each canoe. And, as these cannot amount to above one-third part of the number of both sexes, children included, the whole island cannot contain less than two hundred and four thousand inhabitants; a number which, at first sight, exceeded my belief. But, when I came to reflect on the vast swarms which appeared wherever we came, I was convinced that this estimate was Bot much, if at all, too great. There cannot be a greater proof of the richness and fertility of Otaheite (not forty leagues in circuit) than its supporting such a number of inhabitants." A Code of Gentoo Laws or Ordinations of the Pundits. From a Persian Translation, made from the Original, written in the Shanscrit Language. HE extent and population of querors established, as far as their ravages extended, both the religion and laws of Mahomet."Hence," as the Pundits express themselves in the prefatory discourse, a contrariety of customs arose, and all affairs were transacted according to the principles of faith in the conquering party; upon which, perpetual oppositions were engendered, and continual differences in the decrees of justice; so that in every place the immediate magistrate decided all causes according to his own religion; and the laws of Mahomed were the standard of judgment for the Hindoos: hence terror and confusion found a way to all the people, and justice was not impartially administered." The settlement of European nations in India did not contibute to lessen these disorders. On the contrary, as they too were desirous of introducing their several Tour extent and acquisitions in systems of jurisprudence, the disor the East Indies far exceed every thing that in Europe has been hitherto generally conceived of them. The provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa, are said to contain near ten millions of inhabitants, and the other settlements are supposed to contain two millions more. But it is not the magnitude alone of this great branch of our empire that deserves our attention.-The manners, the history, the religion, of the natives, are all of them objects worthy the most minute investigation. The Hindoos are of a timorous, mild, and peaceable disposition. Before the invasion of the Mahomedans, they were governed by laws, to which they uniformly ascribe the most remote and divine rigin. Their Mahomedan con der has been augmented, and the confusion worse confounded. Such has been one class of hard ships under which that unhappy country has laboured. We are, however, glad to find, that it has at length been thought an object worthy of the most serious attention of the company, to adopt some mode of conciliating the af fections, by paying a proper regard to the institutions, the customs, and prejudices of the natives. With a view of forwarding so laudable an intention, a thought suggested itself to Mr. Hastings, of procuring a code of the laws and customs of the Gentoos. For this purpose, bramins, learned in the Shaster, were invited from all parts of the kingdom to FortWilliam in Calcutta, which is the R 3 capital capital of Bengal and Bahar; and the most authentic books, both ancient and modern, (a list of which is given in the work) were collected, and the original text, delivered in the Hindoo language, was faithfully translated into the Persian idiom. They began their work May 1773, and finished it by the end of February 1775. Such is the account given us of the rise and execution of this curious and interesting volume, from which, to use the translator's words, "a precise idea may be formed of the customs and manners of these people, which, to their great injury, have been long misrepresented in the western world." From hence also materials may be collected towards the legal accomplishment of a new system of government in Bengal, wherein the British laws may in some degree be softened and tempered by a moderate attention to the peculiar and national prejudices of the Hindoo; some of whose institutes, however fanciful and unaccountable, may perhaps be preferable to any which could be substituted in their room. They are interwoven with the religion of the country, and are therefore revered as of the highest authority they are conditions by which they hold their rank in society: long usage has persuaded them of their equity, and they will always gladly embrace the permission to obey them; to be obliged to renounce their obedience would probably be esteemed mongst them a real hardship." a. In the preliminary discourse, after a few general and introductory observations upon the mythology of the Geftoos, the translator has given a short account of the Shanscrit language, and an explanation of such passages in the body of the code as might appear, by their peculiarity or repugnance to our sentiments, to lie most open to objection. Amongst these, we could have wished, as we should be sorry to entertain, in any respect, a less favourable opinion of the author's understanding, than his great ingenuity seems to deserve, that be had not professed himself so serious an advocate for the wild and extravagant chronology of the bra. mins. The Hindoos, he says, reckon the duration of the world by four joques or distinct ages. The 1st is said to have lasted 3,200,000 years, and they hold, that the life of man was in that age extended to 100,000 years, and that his stature was 21 cubits. Of this last or present age 5000 years are supposed to be past. Computation, as the author justly observes, is lost, and conjecture overwhelmed in the attempt to adjust such astonishing spaces of time to our own confined notions of the world's epoch. And yet, extravagant as this may appear, the translator seems inclined to think that it comes recommended to us with at least equal marks of authenticity with any other history of the creation. We are afterwards told of one Munnoo, an author who flourished early in the suttee joque, or first age, and of Jage Bulk, who lived at the beginning of the tirtal, or second age, whose works are still extant, and from which a considerable part of the present compilation has been made. It does not fall in with our design to attempt to ! to convince Mr. Halhed of the extravagancy of these assertions. Had he given himself but a little time to reflect upon the absurdities of their geography (Vid. page civ.) with regard to which I apprehend he would not be thought to entertain any doubts, it might have led him at least to have suspected that a people who could be so grossly ignorant in things which lay perpetually before them, and which were palpable to their senses, might be equally extravagant in a science, the object of which is fleeting and transient. The code is divided into twentyone chapters, the heads of which are as follows. 1. Lending and borrowing. 2. The division of inheritable property. 3. Justice. 4. Trust or deposit. 5. Selling a stranger's property. 6. Shares. 7. Gift. 8. Servitude. 9. Wages. 10. Rent. 11. Purchase. 12. Boundaries. 13. Shares in the cultivation of lands. 14. Cities and towns. 15. Scandal. 16. As sault. 17. Theft. 18. Violence. 19. Adultery. 20. Women. 21. Sundry articles. Amongst many other curious particulars, the reader, no doubt, will be astonished to meet with a prohibition of the use of fire-arms, in records, which lay a claim to such unfathomable antiquity. It certainly gives some colour to the conjectures of those commentators, who have supposed, from a wellknown passage in Quintus Curtius, that Alexander absolutely met with some weapons of that kind in India: and the extraordinary accounts which are given of the Feu Gregeois of the Crusades, will also gain some degree of probability from the description given of the Indian Agnee-Aster. We might transcribe the whole book, were we to attempt to give an account of all the peculiarities contained in this code of braminical jurisprudence. The laws, as might be imagined, are for the most part local and characteristic. They frequently bear strong marks of the remotest antiquity, and seem in many instances calculated for the crude conceptions of an almost illiterate people, upon their first civilization. We must, therefore, be content with laying before our readers, as a specimen of the ingenious translator's abilities, his observations upon some of the most remarkable passages in the work. "The rights of inheritance, in the second chapter, are laid down with the utmost precision, and with the strictest attention to the natural claim of the inheritor in the several degrees of affinity. A man is herein considered but as tenant for life in his own property; and, as all opportunity of distributing his effects by will, after his death, is precluded, hardly any mention is made of such kind of bequest. By these ordinances also, he is hindered from dispossessing his children of his property, in favour of aliens, and from making a blind and partial allotment in behalf of a favourite child, to the prejudice of the rest; by which the weakness of parental affection, or of a misguided mind in its dotage, is admirably remedied. These laws also strongly elucidate the story of the prodigal son in the Scriptures, since it appears from hence to have been an immemorial custom in the east for sons to demand their portion of inheritance during their father's life-time, and that the parent, however aware of the dissipated inclinations of his child, |