taken prifoners in war, generally killing themselves rather than fubmit to the indignity of fervitude. The fecond Part of this work relates to the Voyages and Adventures of the Mariners and others, who, by order of Peter the Great, and his fucceffors, have been fent by the Ruffian Government, to difcover whether Afia and America were connected; and, if not, how wide a distance there might be between them? This illuftrious Prince was fo earnest to know this particular, that he gave inftructions for that purpose in his own hand writing, and ordered Admiral Apraxin to see them carried into execution. After his decease, the Emprefs Catherine began her reign with an order for the expedition to Kamtschatka. This was undertaken by Captain Bering, with the two Lieutenants Spanberg and Tichirikow, as affiftants. They fet out from Petersburgh in the year. 1725, and, after combating numberlefs difficulties, effected the purpose of their errand; the Captain returning to Peters-: burgh in the year 1730. The following anecdote may ferve to fhew how far, at this time, the police of the Ruffian government was improved, eyen to the most distant parts of its dominions. "While Captain Bering made the last Voyage from the river Kamtfchatka towards the Eaft, a Japannefe. veffel was again driven to the coaft of Kamtfchatka, where itftranded in July, 1729, fouth of the bay of Awatfcha. A chief. of 50 Coffacks, named Andreas Schtinnikow, came hither with fome Kamtfchedales, when the Japannese had just brought their goods afhore from the fhip. Schtinnikow received fome, prefents from them, but this did not fatisfy him; for, after fpending two days among the Japannefe, he left them in the night time, and concealed himself with his company in the neighbourhood, in order to see how they would proceed. The Japannefe, afflicted at Schtinnikow's departure, wanted to feek for other inhabitants, for which purpose they took a boat and steered along the coaft; upon which Schtinnikow ordered the Kamtschedales to follow them, and to shoot them all except two, which they did: fo that out of 17 Japannese there remained alive only an old man, and a boy of eleven years old. Schtinnikow, having taken poffeffion of all their effects, and caufed their fhip to be broken to pieces in order to make ufe of the iron, he took the two Japannefe as prifoners of war, or rather as flaves, to Werchnei Kamtfchatfkoi Oftrog. This barbarity fhewn to fhipwrecked strangers could not remain unpunished. Schtinnikow having taken his trial, received the halter for his reward; but the Japannefe REV. June, 1762. Ff were were fent to Jakutzk in 1731, and from thence to Tobolfk: after which, in 1732, they were brought to Petersburgh." In the beginning of the year 1733 a fecond expedition to Kamtfchatka was undertaken by the fame perfons, three gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences accompanying them, by order of Government, to render their Ditcoveries more accurate and compleat. Thefe were Mr. T. Gmelin, Profeffor of Chemistry and Natural History; Mr. L. de Lifle de la Croyiere, Profeffor of Aftronomy; and Mr. S. Muller, the Writer of these Voyages. The firft undertook the observation of what might occur, with regard to animals, plants, minerals, and other objects worth notice in Natural History. It was the bufinefs of the fecond to afcertain, by aftronomical obfervations, the fituation of the countries that might be difcovered; and that of the last, to give the civil hiftory of Siberia and its antiquities, with a defcription of the manners aud customs of the people, as alfo to draw up a relation of the occurrences of the voyage. How thefe academical Gentlemen acquitted themselves in their feveral departments, it is not our business here paricularly to enquire. Let it fuffice to obferve that want of health, and other accidents, prevented their executing many things they intended. The world, however, is greatly obliged to Profeffor Gmelin, and our Author, for fome curious particulars relative to the natural and civil hiftory of Siberia. We could wifh, in honour to the memory of De la Croyiere, that he had done any thing of confequence, as his life was made a facrifice to the hardfhips he met with, or the intemperance he fell into, during the voyage. To fay the truth, his talk was by much the most adventurous and difficult; Mr. Muller refiding in Siberia, and Mr. Gmelin, obtaining a coadjutor, to ease him of the most dangerous part of the expedition. This was Mr. Steller, who acquitted himself with reputation, and indeed acquired fome profit by the voyage*. As to the Marine Officers, and particularly the Commander in Chief, Captain *This Gentleman has given very particular defcriptions of feveral fea-animals they met with on the unknown coafts they vifited, which descriptions are inferted in the Commentaries of the Academy of Sciences. He brought alfo no less than 300 beaver-skins with him back to Kamtfchatka and Siberia. However, by ftaying at Kamtfchatka after his fellow travellers, he embroiled himself in matters foreign to his department; and, though honourably acquitted, and allowed to return to Petersburgh, lived not to arrive there, but died of a fever at Tumen. Berings Bering, the hardships they met with were extreme; the Commander himself expiring, on an uninhabited island, in a most deplorable fituation. Of the life and death of this gallant and enterprizing officer, Mr. Muller gives the following concife account: He was a Dane by birth, and had, in his youth, made Voyages to the Eaft and West Indies, when the glorious example of the immortal Emperor, Peter the Great, for the marine*, tempted him to feek his fortune in Ruffia In the year 1707 he was a Lieutenant, and in 1710 CaptainLieutenant in the Ruffian feet. Having ferved in the Cronftadt fleet from its beginning, and been in all the expeditions by fea, in the war with the Swedes, he joined to the capacity requifite for his office a long experience. It is a pity that it was his fate to end his life in fuch an unfortunate manner. He may be faid to have been buried half alive; for the fand rolling down continually from the fide of the ditch in which he lay t, and covering his feet, he at last would not fuffer it to be removed, and faid, that he felt fome warmth from it, which otherwife he fhould want in the remaining parts of his body; and thus the fand increased: fo that after his decease they were obliged to scrape him out of the ground, in order to inter him in a proper manner." Meffrs. Ginelin and Muller returned to Petersburgh in the beginning of the year 1743; Captain Tfchirikow, in 1745; and the furviving Mariners, in 1749: fo that this fecond expedition to Kamtschatka may be said to have lasted near fixteen years. As to the three additional Maps comprized in this English Edition, the two firft are fmall indiftinét things; the one, a copy of part of the Japannese Map of the World, and the other a like copy of de Lifle's and Buache's fictitious Map, founded on the pretended Difcoveries of De Fonte, De Fuca, and others. The third additional Map is a pretty large and correct one of Canada and the northern part of Louisiana, extending weftward to the coast which the Ruffians discovered in 1741. As we fee no table of errata to this work, it will be very proper for the Publifher to add one, or to cancel the pages 29 and 30, where the Pacific ocean is twice called the Atlantic This paffage is not very intelligible, but it is extracted verbatim from the book. + The Captain and his crew being fhipwrecked, and obliged to lodge themselves in the hollows between the fand-hills, for want of better convenience. Ocean. We imagine this to be a mistake of the Tranflator, into which he might be led by its being called in the original the Western ocean, which undoubtedly it is to the Americans, who were the people that called it fo. Miftakes of this kind ferve to fhew how neceflary it is, that Tranflators should know fomething of the fubjects they take in hand, as well as of the language in which they are treated. It had not been amifs alfo if the very incompetent Translator had looked into a Latin dictionary, or got fomebody to tell him the meaning of the word Adjunctus, as the English Reader may probably not know what to make of Mr. Adjun&tus Steller, any more than of the names of fome Writers of our own country, with Latin terminations. HA K-n-k Conclufion of the Account of Busching's Geography. Aving, in our Review for February, given a fummary of the plan of this work, we fhall now present our Readers with an extract, that they may be enabled to form fome idea of the manner in which it is executed. In our Author's Introduction to Germany, we have a more diftinct and accurate account of what deferves notice in that country, whether confidered in a physical or political view, than we have ever met with in fo narrow a compaís. "Germany, (fays our Author, who seems determined to draw the panegyric of his native foil) taken in general, is a bleffed and happy country, being either richly or fufficiently provided with all the neceffaries and conveniencies of life. Its foil, indeed, is not every where equally fertile; what is wanting, however, in one place, is made up by the fuperfluity of another. Its agriculture is every day improving; it yields all kinds of grain in plenty. The Germans cultivate hemp, flax, hops, anife, cummin, tobacco, madder, woad, faffron, &c. It produces alfo a variety of excellent garden-ftuff; likewife all forts of common French and Italian fruits. "Germany produces wine which vies with,' nay furpaffes the French and Hungarian wines. In Auftria, in the circle of Bavaria, and the electorate of Mentz, in Hefle, the Wetterau, in Suabia, in the circles of Upper and Lower Saxony, and in the circle of Weftphalia, are falt fprings and boiling fountains. The bringing up cattle is alfo very confiderable and of great benefit to the Germans, infomuch that the num ber ber of horses, oxen, cows, fheep, goats, and fwine, is here incredibly great. The marfh lands in the dutchy of Holstein, the principality of Eaft Friefland, and the dutchy of Bremen, &c. afford cheese and butter of the best kind, and in the greatest plenty. Of tame foul we have poultry, turkies, pigeons, geefe, and ducks. Exclufive of thefe we have the ftork, fpoon-bill, wild goofe, wild duck, fwans, buftards, pheasants, wood-cocks, partridges, groufe, fnipes, larks, fieldfares, ortolans, quails; as alfo the falcon, heron, hawk, &c. The chace and hunting grounds in Germany are numerous and fine, abounding in deer, boars, hares, and rabbits; also bears, wolves, lynxes, foxes, badgers, martens, &c. In Moravia a fpecies of leopards and beavers are found, and the numerous rivers, lakes, and ponds in Germany abound in various and fine forts of fish, &c. &c." After giving a fhort account of the minerals to be found in Germany, its ancient inhabitants, &c. the Author goes on to obferve that the German language has not only undergone great alterations, infomach that but few of the Learned underftand the Writers of the middle age, as Ottfried, for inftance, but that even at prefent the pronunciation, phrafeology, and acceptation of words, are fo very different, that one German frequently cannot understand another. There are but very few who write and fpeak the language with purity and correctnefs; and even the Grammarians themselves are of different opinions with refpect to the principles and rules on which it is formed. From the beginning of the laft century, indeed, feveral focieties have gradually been formed in Germany, which have given room to hope for 'an improvement of the language; but they confine themfelves folely, we are told, to the province of eloquence, neglecting critical enquiries into the phrafeology, &c. "With respect to Learning, (fays our Author) the Germans at prefent difpute the palm with all other nations. Not only their natural vivacity and ftrong itch of imitation, but also the variety of governments in Germany, their mutual emulation, and the freedom Proteftants enjoy there of writing according to their own judgment, has procured the greateft improvement of the fciences among them. Nor is there any place in the world where more books are written and printed than among the Germans; and though this itch of writing gives rife to many ordinary and mean performances, yet have The vivacity of Germans! Kijum teneatis! Ff3 many |