Damn'd in Rome's annals to eternal fame, Her brightest funshine, and her gloomieft fhade: As the ftruck bull who ftrives in vain to fhake To his ftern father's hovering fail repairs; Nihil illâ victoria fuiffet crudelius, nifi mox Sullana effet fecuta. VEL. PAT. 1. ii. c. 22. + Quales mugitus, fugit cum faucius aram Taurus, et incertam excuffit cervice fecurim. VIRG. Æn.ii. Marius poft fextum confulatum, annoque feptuagefimo, nudus ac limo obrutus, oculis tantummodo ac narribus eminentibus, extractus arundineto circa paludem Marica, in quam fe, fugiens confectantes Sullæ equites, abdiderat, injectio in collum loro, in carcerem Minturnenfium perductus eft, &c.' VEL. PAT. 1. ii. c. 19. § inopemque vitam in tugurio ruinarum Carthaginenfium toleravit.' VEL. PAT. ut fup. Then Then cheer'd with hopes from Cinna's arms at home, So Cinna's havock his revenge fucceeds: Fate in his nod, the gaunt deftroyer walks Through the thinn'd ftreets, and death before him fstalks: The boaft and terror of furrounding lands,- The claffical scholar will be able to trace many fteps of imitation in these lines; which, however, we do not mean to cenfure. Who, that poffeffes a mind enriched with the stores of antient literature, can avoid making use of them, especially when treading on claffical ground? As the materials of a work. like this must be taken from the hiftorians, orators, and poets of Rome, their language and sentiments will naturally compose and animate the greater part of it. Our readers will probably agree with us in the opinion that Mr. Jephfon is a poet of no mean rank, but is diftinguished by ftrength and animation of ftyle, rather than by correctness of finishing, and perfection of taste. With refpect to the matter which compofes the notes, we think it unneceffary to give it particular confideration. Part confifts of pertinent and claffical citations from antient writers: but a confiderable portion, especially of the additions, is devoted to the author's own opinions and reflexions on the events which he has recorded. He does not deem it requifite to apologize for thofe difcuffions to which an affimilation of antient with recent transactions has led him; and probably, to a large number of readers, the fentiments which he expreffes on thefe occafions will be congenial, and meet with approbation. On the other hand, there are thofe who would certainly prefer reading a chapter of Roman hiftory without fuch a perpetual commentary of French politics, more diftinguished by violence of invective, than by novelty or fagacity of obfervation. To balance his accounts with thefe different claffes of readers, is the author's Mox Caius Marius peftifero civibus fuis reditu intravit menia.' VEL. PAT. 1. ii. c. 22. REV. JAN. 1795. own affair. We fhall, however, take the liberty of clofing with this general remark; that he, who writes a work intended to live, fhould be very careful how he blends, with his proper fubject, matter belonging to the fluctuating topics of the day; fince they not only make an incongruous mixture at the time, but expose the writer's future reputation to unneceffary hazard. This work is very well printed, and is embellished with a number of engravings of heads taken from antique gems and ftatues, which are elegantly executed. A portrait of the author, alfo, is prefixed. ART. III. Obfervations on the Paffage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in two Memoirs on the Straits of Anian, and the Difcoveries of De Fonte. Elucidated by a new and original Map. To which is prefixed an Hiftorical Abridgement of Discoveries in the North of America. By William Goldfon. 4to. pp. 158. 8s. Boards. Jordan. 1793. IT is obferved by Mr. Goldfon that, although a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ceased to be an object of popular animadverfion after the failure of the voyage undertaken in 1746, yet the reward, which has been provided by the legislature for the difcovery of fuch a communication, is a fufficient proof of the importance of it; and it is now rendered more interefting than it was when that reward was offered, by the difcovery of a new and valuable article of commerce, which is found only on the north-west coast of Ame rica. He was induced, he fays, to examine the different accounts which have been publifhed relative to the Straits of Anian, by a memoir read by M. Buache, the French geographer, before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in November 1790. In this memoir, it is faid that M. de Mendoza, a captain in the Spanish navy, had been employed to form a collection for the use of that service; and, having searched various archives, he found in one of them an account of a voyage made in the year 1598, under the command of Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado, from the Atlantic round the north end of America, into the Pacific Ocean. From that journal, it appears that, when Maldonado was in 60° of north latitude, he was in 53° weft longitude from Greenwich. From this fituation he fteered a north-westerly courfe through Hudson's Straits and Bay, leaving Southampton ifland on his left, till, being arrived in 65° of north latitude, be found himself in 81° of weft longitude. Purfuing still a north-westerly courfe, he paffed through ftraits, now unknown, into Baffin's Bay, and thence into the Northern Ocean, finding himself in 76° north latitude, and 100" weft longitude. longitude. He then held a fouth- wefterly courfe, paffing through the traits which feparate Afia from America, and entering the Pacific Ocean in latitude 60° north, and longitude 143° weft. It is added that he called thofe ftraits by which he paffed, north-wefterly, out of the Atlantic into the Northern Ocean, the Straits of Labrador; and those by which he paffed, fouth-westerly, out of the Northern Ocean into the Pacific, the Straits of Anian. This is the fubftance of the narrative, as we have been able to collect it from different parts of Mr. Goldfon's publication. We fhall now proceed to give the best account in our power of this defultory performance. The voyages, of which Mr. Goldfon has given abridged accounts in his introductory memoir, are thofe of-Sebaftian Cabot in 1494: Cortereal in 1500: Frobiffier in 1576, 7, and 8: Davis in 1585, 6, and 7: Weymouth in 1602: Lindenau and Hall in 1605, and 6: Knight in 1606: Richards and Hall in 1607 Hudfon in 1610: Button and Hall, both in 1612: Gibbons in 1614: Bylot and Baffin in 1615, and 16: Monk in 1619: Fox and James, both in 1631: Gillam in 1668: Knight and Barlow in 1719: Scroggs in 1722: Behring and Ifchirikoff in 1741: Middleton, in the fame year: Moore and Smith in 1746: Chriftopher in 1761, and 2: Hearne's Journey over land in 1771: Heceta in 1775: Cook and Pickerfgill, both in 1776: Young in 1777; and Duncan in 1790. With regard to this felection, Mr. G. fays that, finding it neceffary, in the profecution of his fubject, to refer to several voyages which have been made to the northern parts of America, he intended to prefix a fhort abridgement of fuch as were more immediately connected with his work, to fave his readers the trouble of having recourfe to a number of books: but he afterward thought that it would be better to extend the plan, and to give a concife account of the whole, in the order in which they were undertaken. Had this been done, fomething might have been faid for it: but Mr. Goldfon has given extracts from fome voyages, which do not appear to be of the least use in his two fucceeding memoirs, and are not once quoted in them; while, on the contrary, he refers to many voyages in the memoirs, which are not mentioned in his hiftorical abridge ment. His two memoirs, we are forry to obferve, appear to us ftill more exceptionable, whether we regard the fubjects or the execution of them. Speculative geography, though generally amufing, is feldom fatisfactory, and ftill more rarely ufeful: on turning the fubje&t in our minds, we can fcarcely recollect a fingle publication C 2 that that has been useful, if we except Mr. Dalrymple's labours relative to the iflands in the Pacific Ocean. With respect to North America, and to a N. W. paffage through it to the Pacific Ocean, the quantity of paper which has been wafted in conjedures, and in fpeculative inquiries, is immenfe; notwithftanding which, we challenge the world to fhew that they have been useful in a fingle inftance: yet the fubject has produced more ill blood than perhaps any literary conteft whatfoever, excepting thofe which relate to politics and religion, on both of which, authors feem to claim a prefcriptive right to be angry. We did not, however, expect to have feen another quarto volume on this topic, fince his Majefty has had two fhips employed in examining the coafts and inlets which are the fubject of it, ever fince the Spanish convention; and when others are ready to fail for the fame purpofe, in order, if poffible, to fet the matter at reft for ever: but we are not fo fanguine as to expect that this will be done, even if the whole navy of Great Britain were employed in the fearch: for, when the extent and nature of the coaft are confidered, any one may fee that it would take ages to explore the bottom of every creek, and the fource of every river; and unless this be done, Mr. G. has fhewn us, in more inftances than one, that the ingenuity of conjecture is not to be confounded. Captain Cook, after having examined Prince William's Sound, and the river which goes by his own name, (but of this honour Mr. G. thinks he Thould be deprived,) until he had fatisfied himself, (and, as he thought, every other reasonable perfon,) that no paffage through either place could poffibly exift; and reflecting on the lofs of time which this fearch had occafioned *; added that it was nevertheless some fatisfaction to him that he had examined these two places, because, if he had not, it might have been assumed as a fact, by fpeculative fabricators of geography, that they communicated with the fea to the north, or with Baffin's or Hudfon's Bay to the eaft; and, perhaps, fuch communications would have been marked in future maps with greater precifion, and more certain figns of reality, than the Straits of De Fuca, or De Fonte. How little did he know the ingenuity of mankind! His bones are fcarcely cold before an ingenious gentleman has contrived to find a paffage through both these places! The first memoir, on the Straits of Anian, occupies 66 pages but it might, as far as we can fee, have been called, with equal propriety, A Memoir on the Straits of John de * It must be remembered that the time loft by this examination was directly contrary to Capt. Cook's inftructions; and yet Mr. Goldfon has repeatedly cenfured him, and with fome degree of feverity too, for not deviating farther from them than he did. Fuca; |