and in France, that these two nations are fo confiderably behind in their agriculture, but becaufe, in the employment of their capitals, they have departed from the natural order in appropriating capitals to external commerce, and he might have added external agriculture, by our cultivating Weft-Indian eftates before they were ripe for fuch enterprises; and in thus neceffarily impeding as much agriculture, as they diminished internal

commerce.

But, continues he, in appropriating their capitals prematurely to external commerce, the nations of Europe have not only diminished, without ceafing, their national induftry, but they have made it participate, continually, in all thofe viciffitudes to which this kind of commerce is naturally fubjected; and it is chiefly in these two circumftances that we ought to look for the reason why these nations have advanced fo flowly, with fo much deficiency, and with fuch irregularity, in their profperity. Hence it is, that the territory of Europe does not produce half the fubfiftence, and does not contain half the men, it was capable of producing or maintaining. In a word, this is the reason why the nations of Europe have hitherto only been able to mount and defcend again, or to stagnate in their degree of profperity, without ever being able to rise above mediocrity. China, he thinks, is the only nation, which, by employing their whole attention in promoting internal commerce, has cultivated every inch of land, and has augmented population, and general profperity, to the higheft poffible degree.

In eftimating the profperity of Britain, he counts for nothing the money the may have accumulated by her gainful balances of trade. Seeing that thefe have done nothing toward augmenting her population (this he affumes on very doubtful data), and fo little for agriculture, they must have performed their functions very improperly; and the true profperity of England, he thinks, cannot have been thereby promoted. To that influx of money, he alleges that the owes her corruption of manners, and by the corruption of manners, her conftitution is endangered. By that fhe has been enabled to contract a monstrous debt; to pay and maintain mercenary armies; to equip formidable fleets; and to brave other nations, in all the feas of the globe.

But the power to do fuch things is not profperity in its true principles, because they do not reft on the foundations of a true profperity. It is. a tree, whofe roots are placed only on the furface of the ground, which crofs accidents may eafily overturn. It is that kind of profperity and power which Venice once had, and poffeffes no more; it is that kind of profperity and power which Holland once had, and no longer enjoys. And thus fhall difappear all that prosperity and power, which has no other bafis than external commerce.'

Our

Our Readers will obferve, from thefe few extracts, that the Author's reafoning is not altogether fo clofe as could be wished on a fubject of so much importance; and though we are convinced of the rectitude of the general principle he wishes to eftablish, we are by no means fatisfied with the validity of many of his arguments. He admits, however, that external trade is ufeful as contributing to the ftrength and defenfive power of the ftate, and in this view only thould be attended to.

In this difcourfe, is introduced a long differtation, very much out of its place, on the circulation of money, which contains many pertinent obfervations [fome of them are inferted in his former work], which we fhall take no farther notice of at prefent, as we chufe to reserve the whole of what we mean to fay on the fubject, till he has published his promised differtation on the circulation of money. We cannot however help remarking that this defultory manner of writing, fubjects the purchafers of his works to more expence than ordinary, in buying the fame thing again and again, as it is repeated in different performances, as well as to a confiderable degree of embarraffment, by announcing a few abftrufe opinions on an intricate fubject, and then abruptly departing from it. Even in this effay, we are referred to another for the principles of internal commerce. We could wish the Author would publish his differtations in a more complete state; for thefe imperfect notices have fomewhat a questionable appearance, which may raife a prejudice against him in the reader's mind. He takes occafion alfo, in this fmall work, ftrongly to difapprove of the treaty of commerce with France, which he imagines must be productive of very ferious bad confequences to Britain.-But we muft not enlarge.

N. B. We have juft feen, by the fame Author, a Difcourfe on Public Credit, which we have not yet had time to review.

ART. VII. Hawkins's Edition of Dr. Samuel Johnson's Works, concluded. See our last, p. 56.

T

HE life of this eminent writer, together with the mifcellaneous compilation of Sir John Hawkins, has already occafioned a series of articles in our Reviews for April, May, and July laft. We now come to Johníon's works. In this edition, we expected to find his tranflation of Father Lobo's Voyage to Abyffinia, from the French of Monfieur Le Grand; and we therefore promifed a review of a piece, upon which Dr. Johnson had laid out part of his time. The work, for reasons good or bad, is with-held by the Editor. We have, however, now before us, in the Literary Magazine, or Hiftory of the Works of the Learned for March 1735, an account of the book, by which it appears to have been published by Bettefworth and Hitch, of Paternofler Row. There can be no doubt but this is

Johnson's

Johnson's tranflation. The substance of it is as follows: Fathe Jerome Lobo, a Portuguese Jefuit, embarked, in 1622, in the fame fleet with the Count Vidigueira, who was then, by the King of Portugal, appointed Viceroy of the Indies. They arrived at Goa; and on January 26th, 1624, Father Lobo set out for Abyffinia. The miffion, he knew, was extremely dangerous, two of the Fathers, appointed at the fame time with himself, having been murdered in their attempt to get into that empire. Lobo had better fuccefs; after undergoing great toils, he got with fafety into that country, fo much talked of, and fo little known. Then follows a defcription of Abyffinia: it formerly extended from the Red Sea to the kingdom of Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian Sea, containing at the time of Lobo's miffion forty provinces. The inhabitants are Moors, Pagans, Jews, and Chriftians. The laft was then the reigning and established religion. This diverfity of people and religion is the reason that the kingdom, in different parts, is under different forms of government, and that their laws and cuftoms are extremely various. Some of the people neither fow their lands nor improve them, living on milk and flesh, and encamping like the Arabs, without any fettled habitation. In fome places they practise no rites of worthip, though they believe that there dwells in the regions; above, a BEING who governs the world. This Deity they call Oul. The Chriftianity profeffed by the Abyffinians is fo corrupted with fuperftitious errors, and fo mingled with ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little befide the name of Chriftianity is to be found among them. They live in tents, or cottages made of ftraw and clay, very rarely building with ftone. Ethiopia produces very near the fame kind of provifions as Portugal, but, by the laziness of the inhabitants, in a much less quantity. What the ancients imagined of the torrid zone is fo far from being true, that the climate is very temperate. The blacks have better features than in other countries. They have two harv efts in the year, one in winter, which begins in May, and lafts, with great rigour, through the months of July, Auguft, and September; and the other in fpring. Lent is kept by the Abyffins with great ftrictnefs.

Among the animals of the country are, the lion, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the unicorn, horfes, and cows. Every man who has a thousand cows faves once a-year a day's milk, and makes a bath for his friends; fo that to give an idea of a man's wealth, their common expreffion is, he bathes fo many times a-year. Their males marry about ten years old, and their females yo unger. Their marriage tie is fo loofe, that they part whenever they find that they cannot live agreeably together. Their morey is an iron coin, and falt is a general barter for other comu nodities.

Of

Of the river Nile, which has furnished fo much controversy, we have a full and clear defcription, on the authority of Father Lobo, who fpeaks from his own knowledge. This mighty river is called by the natives Abavi, the Father of Waters. It rifes in Sacola, a province of the kingdom of Goiana, one of the moft fruitful in all the Abyffinian dominions. On the declivity of a mountain, in the eastern part of this kingdom, the fource of the Nile has been difcovered. It fprings from two holes, each about two feet diameter, and diftant a stone's caft from each other. One of them is about five feet and a half in depth, Lobo not being able to fink his line farther: a line of ten feet did not reach the bottom of the other. Thefe fprings are fuppofed to be the vents of a great fubterraneous lake. As to the courfe of the Nile, its waters, after their firft rife, run to the eaftward, about the length of a mufket-fhot; then turning to the north, they continue hidden in the grafs and weeds for about a quarter of a league, where they again difcover themselves among fome rocks. The Nile receives large increase from other rivers, and in the plain of Boad, which is not above three days journey from its fource, it is fo broad, that a mufket-ball will fcarce fly from one bank to another. Here it begins to run northward, deflecting a little towards the eaft, for the space of nine or ten leagues; it then enters the fo much talked of lake of Dambia, and flows with fo violent a rapidity, that its waters may be dif tinguished through the whole paffage, which is no less than fix leagues. Here begins the greatnefs of the Nile. At a place called Alata, fifteen miles farther, it rufhes precipitately from the top of a rock, and forms one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. Lobo fays, he paffed under it without being wet, and refting himself for the fake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the funbeams painted on the water in all their fhining and lively colours. After this cataract, the Nile collects its fcattered ftream among the rocks. A ftone bridge of one arch was here built over the river by Sultan Segued. At this place the Nile alters its course, and vifits various provinces. To purfue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days. From Abyinia it paffes into the countries of Faculo and Ombarca. Of these vaft regions, Lobo fays, we have little knowledge. In the year 1615, Raffela* Chriftos, Lieutenant General to Sultan Segued, entered these regions with his army, but not being able to get intelligence, returned, without daring to attempt any thing.

From this officer, Johnfon, it is probable, took the name of Rafelas, for his philofophical romance.

As

As Abyffinia terminates at thefe deferts, Lobo adds, that he followed the courfe of the Nile no farther. Here, fays he, I leave it to range over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Egypt, which owes to the annual inundations. of this river its envied fertility. I know not any thing of the reft of its paffage, but that it receives great increase from many other rivers; that it has feveral cataracts like that already defcribed; and that few fish are to be found in it; which fcarcity, doubtless, is to be attributed to the river horfes and crocodiles, that deftroy the weaker inhabitants of these waters. Something, likewife, may be imputed to the cataracts, where fish cannot fall far without being killed.'

As to the causes of the inundation of the Nile, Lobo fays, fome theorists have been of opinion, that they are occafioned by high winds, which ftop the current, and force the water above its banks. Others pretend a fubterraneous communication between the ocean and the Nile, and that the fea, being violently agitated, fwells the river. Many afcribe it to the melting of fnow on the mountains of Ethiopia; but I never faw fnow in Abyffinia, except on mount Semen in the kingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile, and on Namera, which is indeed not far diftant; but there never falls fnow enough to wet the foot of the mountain, when it is melted. To the immenfe Jabours of the Portuguese, mankind is indebted for the knowledge of the real caufe of thefe inundations. Their obfervations inform us, that Abyffinia, where the Nile takes its rife, is full of mountains, and, in its natural fituation, is much higher than Egypt; that all the winter, from June to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives, in its courfe, all the rivers, brooks, and torrents that fall from thofe mountains; these neceffarily fwell the Nile above its banks, and fill the plains of Egypt with inundations. This,' fays Lobo, is all I have to inform the reader of concerning the Nile; which the Egyptians adored as the Deity, in whofe choice it was to bless them with abundance, or deprive them of the neceffaries of life.'

With this curious account of the Nile, and its inundations, we imagine the Reader will not be difpleafed. We find it in the Literary Magazine, or the Works of the Learned, for March 1735. Father Lobo gives a copious account of the progress of the Catholic religion, to the time of the expulsion of the Jefuits, which happened on the death of Sultan Segued. Le Grand, the French tranflator, has added a curious fequel to Lobo's hiftory, wherein we are informed of the many fruitlefs attempts which have been made to introduce again the Jefuit miffionaries into the Abyffinian empire, in order to bring the Emperor and his fubjects under obedience to the See of Rome. There are many

other