For the NEW-YORK MAGAZINE. HUMANE ANECDOTE of Lord CORNWALLIS, fent us by a gentleman whe D URING the memorable fiege of York-Town, in Virginia, various were the fhocking fpectacles which daily prefented themselves to the view of thofe perfons who were neceffarily confined within the contracted limits of the British lines. In the course of that tremendous and inceffant cannonade and bombardment, which was kept up by the befiegers for nearly two weeks, fcarcely a fingle incident occurred which was better calculated to fill the mind with horror and anguifh, than that which gave rife to the following anecdote. One of the fhells thrown from a battery of the allied army, in its defcent pierced the roof and penetrated the floors of a dwelling-houfe fituated on the beach in a few moments it burft in the cellar with a great explofion, by which circumftance the house was materially injured, and an unfortunate woman, who was fitting in a front room, with her infant of about ten months old fondly clafped in her arms, were together propelled several yards into the ftreet. Some little time afterwards, Lord Cornwallis, (the commander of the poft) taking one of his ufual walks around the lines, attended by feveral officers of the garrison, happened to pafs that way he observed the mother extended, void of life, upon the ground, whilft the infant, unhurt and igno rant of the lofs which it had fuftained, appeared drawing from the breaft of the lifelefs corfe, its wonted nourifhment. Shocked to an extreme with fo uncommon an inftance of the direful effects of war, his Lordship, after ordering the deceased to be decently interred at his expence, difpatched a messenger to a poor widow who was the mother of feveral children, and who was remarkable for On her prefenting herself, he related her kind and affectionate difpofitions. to her the accident which had hapfhe would take the unfortunate orpened, and expreffed his defire that phan in charge, nurse it with the tenderness, and educate it with all the care of a parent. To this he readily agreed; when his Lordship took from his purfe and gave her twenty guineas, and ordered her feveral neceffary articles, as well for her own ufe as for the use of her adopted fon. This example of munificence in the Earl was foon imitated by numbers who heard re melancholy tale; by whofe united liberal contribution, the woman with her family were enabled, with pru. dence and economy, to live in a very comfortable ftile in Virginia, after the furrender of the British army to America. the combined forces of France and B. Coryate, in an account of his travels have been fpoken of before in dif- I ⚫lian cities and townes thro' which I paffed, that is not used in any other country that I faw in my travels, 'neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian, and also most strangers that are commo-feeding, and for no other caufe.' rant in Italy, doe alwaies at their meales use a little forke, when they cut their meate. For while with their knife, which they hold in one hand, they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten the forke, which they hold in their other hand, upon the fame difh; fo that whatsoever ⚫ he be that, fetting in companie of any others at meale, fhould unadvifedly touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which all the table • doe cut, he will give occafion of ⚫ offence to the companie, as having ⚫ tranfgreffed the lawes of good man⚫ners, infomuch that for his error he ⚫ fhall be at least brow-beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. This forme ⚫ of feeding I understand is generally ufed in all places of Italy; their ⚫ forkes being for the moft part made of yron or fteele, and fome of filver, but thefe are ufed only by gentlemen. The reafon of this their curiofity is, because the Italian cannot by any meanes indure to have his dish touched with fingers, feeing all men's fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon I my felfe thought good to imitate the Italian fashion, by this forked manner of cutting meate, not only while I was in Italy, but alfo in Germany, and oftentimes in England, fince I came home, being once equipped for that frequent ufing of my forke, by a certaine learned gentleman, a familiar friend ⚫ of mine, one Mr. Lawrence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me at table 'furcifer, only for ufing a forke at Note. Thomas Coryate received a good education at the univerfity of Oxford, but being without any particular employment, and of a fingular turn of mind, undertook the tour of Europe on foot: he travelled thro' part of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, in fomewhat less than five months: the length of his journey was 1975 miles, more than half of which he performed with only one pair of shoes, which, we are told, were only once mended: these memorable fhoes he caused to be hung up in the parish church where he was born. He published (1611) an account of his travels, under the title of "Coryate's cruditiès gobbled up in a five months tour," which, tho' far from being well written, is efteemed for its fidelity. He (A. D. 1612) fet out on a more extenfive voyage, thro' many parts of Afia, to Jerufalem, from whence he penetrated to Afmere, then the feat of the Great Mogul, where he remained more than a year, and learned the languages of that country, viz. Arabic, Turkish, Perfian, and Indoftan. He, by dint of refolution, obtained an audience of the Mogul, who made him a fmall prefent. He died on his return home, at Surat, in the month of December, 1617. D. Account of the Greenlanders, their Habitations, &c. From Crantz's Hiftory of Greenland. TT is hard to form a true judgment termixed with fomething phlegmatic; of their temperament, becaufe I fay principally, for there is a diftheir mental qualities are fo blended, ference among Greenlanders, as well that one cannot take a diftinct furvey as among other nations, and there of them. Yet they feem to be prin- are alfo cholerick, and melancholy eipally of a fanguine difpofition, in- complexions. They are not very I I principally, lively, lively, much less jovial and extravagant, yet they are good-humoured, amicable, fociable, and unconcerned about the future. Confequently they are not covetous to fcrape a heap of stuff together, but are liberal in giving. It is true, one cannot perceive any peculiar high spirit in them, but yet they have, out of ignorance, a good fhare of what we may call ruftic or peafant's pride, fet themfelves far above the Europeans, or Kablunat as they call them, and make a mock of them among themfelves. For though they are obliged to yield them the pre-eminence both in understanding and manual performances, yet they don't know how to fet any value on these. Whereas on the other hand their own inimitable skill in the catching feals, which is their staff of life, and befides which nothing is indifpenfibly neceflary with them, affords fufficient food for their good conceit of themselves. And 'tis certain they are not fo foolifh and ftupid as the favages are commonly thought to be, for in their ways and employments they are wife and fharp enough. But yet they are But yet they are not fo ingenious and polished neither as many report them to be. Their reflexion or invention displays itself in the employments neceffary to their fubfiftence, and what is not infeparably connected with that, has not a thought of theirs beftowed on it. Therefore we may attribute to them a fimplicity without fillinefs, and good fenfe without the art of reasoning. They count themselves to be the only civilized and well-bred people, becaufe many unfeemly things which they fee too often among the Europeans, feldom or never occur among them. Therefore they use to fay, when they fee a quiet modeft ftranger: He is almoft as well-bred 'as we;' or,' He begins to be a man, that is, to be a Greenlander.' They are not litigious but patient, and recede when any one encroaches upon them; but if they are pushed to that degree that they can go no further, they become fo defperate, that they regard neither fire nor water. They are not idle, but always employed about fomething; yet they are very variable or fickle, fo that if they begin a thing, and any unexpected difficulty thwarts them, they throw it by directly. In the fummer they fleep 5 or 6 hours, and in the winter 8. But if they have worked hard, and waked all night, they will fleep the whole day. In the morning, when they ftand with penfive filence upon fome eminence, and *What Gmelin writes of the Tungufes, Part II. p. 216, is very well adapted to the Greenlanders: They are plain and upright,' fays he, yet more because they have no opportunity to exercise their understanding about any other affair but their hunting, than any particular principle or bent towards fincerity. The common report is, that they are flupid, because they may easily be cheated; but for my part I believe, that others are equally as ftupid; and according to this procedure, we must call every man a fool, who has no great ⚫acuteness in things that he has had but little opportunity to hear and see much of. We difcover the natural understanding of moft nations beft in their common • employments and inflitutions. Therefore it is no wonder that the Tungufes • have not exercifed their understandings in things that never lay in their way. They are as fkarp-witted in their matter, as the greatest sharper, on the other hand, may perhaps be aukward in hunting.' We may fee that the Greenlanders poffefs a competent fhare of understanding, and the art of imitation, by this, that the baptifed children eafily learn to read, and also to write very prettily, and that one of our Greenlanders is the common gun-flock maker, and another is the barber for the Europeans. and take a furvey of the ocean and the weather, they are commonly thoughtful and dejected, because the burdens and the dangers of the day ftand in profpect before them. But when no labours demand their application, or they return home from a fuccessful fishery, they are cheerful and converfable. They are fuch adepts in difguifing or fuppreffing their paffions, that we might take them for Stoics in appear ance. They affect alfo to be very refigned in calamitous accidents. They are not foon irritated to anger, or can easily bridle their animofity; but in fuch cafes they are quite dumb and fullen, and don't forget to revenge themfelves when an opportunity prefents itself. But I fhall have a better opportunity to fpeak further of their morals hereafter. (To be continued.). A Work bas appeared toward the clofe of the last year in Europe, and has been reprinted in this country, entitled, An Historical Difquifition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India; and the Progrefs of Trade with that Country prior to the Discovery of the Paffage to it by the Cape of Good Hope.' It is the production of the Pen of the celebrated Dottor ROBERTSON.-While the active genius of our countrymen is leading them to expand the fail of commerce in every clime, it cannot but be pleafing to our readers to be prefented with extracts from a work which treats of that great branch of trade which in every age has contributed fo confpicuously towards raifing the people who carried it on, to wealth and power-As a part which we prefume will be moft generally agreeable, we ball felect what the Doctor has thrown into the Appendix, containing obfervations on the civil policy, the laws and judicial proceedings, the arts, the fciences, and religious inflitutions, of the Indians. I SHALL now endeavour to fulfil an engagement which I came under, to make fome observations upon the genius, the manners, and inftitutions of the people of India, as far as they can be traced from the earliest ages to which our knowledge of them extends. Were I to enter upon this wide field with an intention of furveying its whole extent; were I to view each object which it prefents to a philofophical inquirer, under all its different afpects, it would lead me into researches and fpeculations, not only of immenfe length, but altogether foreign from the fubject of this Difquifition. My inquiries and reflections fhall therefore be confined to what is intimately connected with the defign of this work. I fhall collect the facts which the ancients have tranfmitted to us concerning the inftitutions peculiar to the natives of Ed. India, and, by comparing them with what we know of that country, endeavour to deduce fuch conclufions as tend to point out the circumftances which have induced the rest of mankind, in every age, to carry on commercial intercourfe to fo great an extent with that country. . Of this intercourfe there are confpicuous proofs in the earliest periods concerning which hiftory affords information. Not only the people contiguous to India, but remote nations, seem to have been acquainted, from time immemorial, with its commodities, and to have valued them fo highly, that in order to procure them they undertook fatiguing, expenfive, and dangerous journeys.. Whenever men give a decided preference to the commodities of any particular country, this must be owing either to its poffeffing fome valuable natural pro ductions ductions peculiar to its foil and climate, or to fome fuperior progrefs which its inhabitants have made in industry, art, and elegance. It is not to any peculiar excellence in the natural productions of India, that we muft afcribe entirely the predilection of ancient nations for its commodi ties; for, pepper excepted, an article, it must be allowed, of great importance, they are little different from thofe of other tropical countries; and Ethiopia or Arabia might have fully fupplied the Phenicians, and other trading people of antiquity, with the fpices, the perfumes, the precious ftones, the gold and filver, which formed the principal articles of their commerce. Whoever then wishes to trace the commerce with India to its fource, muft fearch for it, not fo much in any peculiarity of the natural productions of that country, as in the fuperior improvement of its inhabitants. Many facts have been tranf mitted to us, which, if they are examined with proper attention, clearly demonftrate, that the natives of India were not only more early civilized, but had made greater progrefs in civilization than any other people. These I fhall endeavour to enumerate, and to place them in fuch a point of view as may ferve both to throw light upon the inftitutions, manners, and arts of the Indians, and to account for the eagerness of all nations to obtain the productions of their ingenious induftry. By the ancient Heathen writers, the Indians were reckoned among those races of men which they denominated Autochthones or Aborigens, whom they confidered as natives of the foil, whofe origin could not be traced. By the infpired writers, the wildom of the Eaft (an expreffion which is to be understood as a defcription of their extraordinary pro grefs in fcience and arts) was early celebrated. In order to illuftrate and confirm thefe explicit teftimonies concerning the ancient and high civilization of the inhabitants of India, I fhall take a view of their rank and condition as individuals; of their civil policy; of their laws and judicial proceedings; of their ufeful and elegant arts; of their fciences; and of their religious inftitutions; as far as information can be gathered from the accounts of the Greek and Roman writers, compared with what ftill remains of their ancient acquirements and inftitutions. I. From the most ancient accounts of India, we learn, that the diftinction of ranks and feparation of profeffions were completely established there. This is one of the most undoubted proofs of a fociety confiderably advanced in its progrefs. Arts in the early ftages of focial life are fo few, and fo fimple, that each man is fufficiently mafter of them all, to gratify every demand of his own limited defires. A favage can form his bow, point his arrows, rear his hut, and hollow his canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand more fkilful than his own. But when time has augmented the wants of men, the productions of art become fo complicated in their structure, or fo curious in their fabric, that a particular courfe of education is requifite towards forming the artift to ingenuity in contrivance and expertnefs in execution. In proportion as refinement Ipreads, the diftinction of profeffions increases, and they branch out into more numerous and minute fubdivifions. Prior to the records of authentic history, and even before the most remote æra to which their own traditions pretend to reach, this feparation of profeffions had not only taken place among the natives of India, but the perpetuity of it was fecured * Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 151.—† 1 Kings, iv. 31.- Hift. of Amer. vol.iii.165. |