motion of a new officer, who has purchased the privilege of fleecing or oppreffing them. It is a very remarkable circumftance in, this country, that none are acknowledged as Nobility, but the children of Princesses. The King's children are excluded from this rank, unless their mother be a Princefs, which happens rarely. All the edicts of the King are arbitrary, and generally carry the marks of the most abfolute defpotifm. Abufes and misdemeanours of a light nature, which the smallest penalties would be fufficient to prevent, are confidered as atrocious crimes by the nature of the punishment annexed to them. When the King has enacted a law, be fends it to the governors of the provinces, who have it published by a herald in the markets, which are held in the towns and villages of their jurifdiction. The governors of provinces, cities and villages, are judges both in civil and criminal matters; appeals, however, may be lodged from their tribunals to that of the King, who employs every day, feveral hours, in deciding the contests that arife among his fubjects. Our Author relates fome very fingular cuftoms, that take place in the court of the King of Cacongo. There is, among others, a pofitive law, by which the King is obliged not to touch, with any part of his body, any foreign merchandize, and the obfervation of this law is carried to that degree of rigour, that when the Europeans go to pay their court to this mo narch, they are admonished to take all poffible care, that no part of their cloaths may touch his Majefty. The King is also obliged to drink a glass at the end of each caufe which he decides; and he fometimes decides fifty at a fitting; when his cup-bearer presents the wine, a Ganga, who performs the triple function of phyfician, forcerer and steward to his Majesty, rings the bell and bawls out, with all his power of lungs, tina foua, i. e. fall proftrate, or fly: upon this, all prefent except the Ganga, fall upon their faces, as it is a general notion that the King would die if he was feen while drinking by any of his fubjects. When his Majefty happens to fall fick, his phyficians begin by publishing his indifpofition through all the kingdom, and then every one is obliged to kill his cock, (only one we fuppofe, if he has three or four.) No body knows the origin of this ridiculous cuftom, which is a matter of pleafantry among the more fenfible people of the country. The flave-trade is the only branch of commerce which the French cultivate on these coafts. The English draw from the forefts of Jomba every year, a confiderable quantity of logwood, a good dying ftuff, though inferior in quality to that of Brazil. In these nations, where the crown is elective, the funeral of the monarch is frequently a scene of conteft and battle; but as the the art of war and the military fpirit, have made as little progrefs among these Africans as the other fciences; the battles which happen on the demife of a King are not very bloody. It is true, " every citizen who can carry arms, is a foldier "when he pleafes, but he is a bad foldier.When a battle is "to be fought, the troops advance on each fide, without order ❝or difcipline; and the chiefs who command them, resemble « much more the drivers of a herd, than the generals of an "army." All the travellers, who have given relations concerning these countries, have observed a profound filence with respect to their language; and yet this is an effential object in the hiftorical picture of a people. The plain and ignorant Africans, who are the fubject of this work, fpeak a language, which, according to our Author, is both rich and learned, and bears an analogy to fome ancient languages. "Befide, (fays he) that multipli- . "cation of tenfes, which contributes fo greatly to accuracy "and precision in fpeaking, there is in the language of thefe "Africans, a multiplication of verbs, which tends greatly to "fimplify (if we may use that term) their expreffions. Each fimple verb has appertaining to it feveral other ve.bs, of which it is the root; and which, befides the fundamental " and principal fignification that runs through them all, have "each an acceffory meaning, which we can only explain by "paraphrafes: Thus, for example, Sala fignifies to work: "Salila to facilitate any work: Salifia to work with fome one: "Salifila to cause work to be done for fome one's profit: Sazia "to help one to ork: Salanga to have contracted a habit of "working: Salifiana to work for each other: Salauganu to be "capable of working. All the radical verbs of this language admit of the like modifications; and, by the means of cr tain particles and additions, each of thefe verbs and its progeniture, exprefs, befides the frequency or rarity action or object in queftion, its difficulty, facility, and "other differences. This multiplication of verbs, joined to "the modifications of which they are fufceptible, inexhaustible fund of riches in a language, and unfort ❝ties, which can only be felt and appreciated by those ❝ use it." .he the As to the article of religion, thefe Africans acknowledge the exiftence of two principal deities, the one juft and pericct, and the author of all that is beautiful and good in the waiverie, which they call Zambi: and the other, the author of evils which afflict human nature, and whom they ca! Zambi a-n'hi, i. e. God of wickedness. As they are perioded that the good Deity will be always favourable and propious to them, their only care is employed in appeafing the evil one, and and in averting the effects of his malignity. They are fully convinced, that the Ganga, or Minifters of Religion, have an immediate intercourfe with this latter divinity, and they therefore confult them, in order to come at the knowledge of the fecrets of futurity. They imagine, that by the marvellous virtue of their enchantments, thefe minifters can render themfelves invifible, and pass through doors of the hardest wood, nay even of iron. On the other hand, the Ganga encourage the difpofition of this people to fuperftition and idolatry, and, though far from being uniform in the doctrines they teach, yet all agree in declaring the extreme danger of eating partridge, and maintain that the fingers will infallibly drop off from the hands of those who dare make the experiment. The miffionaries, during their long refidence in this country, have, as they affirm, never met with a fingle perfon, who entertained the fmallest hesitation or doubt concerning the immortality of the foul. Accordingly, thefe Africans pay extraordinary honours to the dead, and are much afraid of ghofts and apparitions. As to the deftination of the foul, after the body is diffolved, they believe that it keeps at a perpetual distance from cities and villages, and hovers in the air above woods and forefts, as it pleafeth the Deity. There is, indeed, nothing more capricious and contradictory than many of their notions and rites, relative to inferior divinities and idols; but these may be feen in the generality of voyage-writers, and alfo in the Modern Univerfal Hiftory, which though circumftantial in the defcription of these matters, is not however always exact. This is no reproach to the learned compilers, as they were obliged to draw their relations from jarring materials. ART. IX. Memoires Concernant l'Hiftorie, les Sciences, les Arts, &c.—Memoirs A See our Appendix to Rev. Vol. liv. p. 539、 2 2 For For the prefent collection of memoirs, the Public is indebted to a correfpondence that has been carried on thefe ten years paft, with the miffionaries in China, and with two young Chinese, whom the defire of being ufeful to their country engaged to leave it for fome time that they might learn, in France, the European languages and fciences. After a refidence of feveral years in France, where they applied themselves with fingular attention to the ftudy of natural philofophy, chemistry, &c. and alfo acquired a confiderable knowledge of trade, manufactures, and the mechanic arts; they returned to China in 1765, carrying with them inftructions and questions, relative to a variety of objects, which the learned and others defired to have elucidated. On their arrival in China, they joined their labours with those of the miffionaries; and thus, fince the year 1766, a variety of pieces hath been annually fent, containing answers to the questions that had been proposed to them. Some of these pieces were communicated to the public fome time ago; and, among others, a Treatife concerning the military Art among the Chinese t. The prefent publication is the first of a series of volumes, which we are allowed to expect from the annual correfpondence of the miffionaries and the two Chinese already mentioned. It contains 1ft, An ample Memoir concerning the Antiquity of the Chinese Nation. 2dly, A letter from Father Amiot, who in anfwer to the questions propofed to him by the Royal Society of London, and in particular, by Mr. Needham, relative to the characters engraven on the famous (fuppofed Egyptian) buft of Turin, gave it as his opinion, that these characters had nothing which refembled the ancient writing of the Chinese. 3dly, The explication of a monumental Chinese poem, compofed by the prefent Emperor (who adorns fovereignty by his genius and talents) to tranfmit to pofterity, and afcertain the conqueft of the nation of the Eleuths, which was made in the year 1757, with the notes of Father Amiot. 4thly, The hiftorical monument compofed by the fame Emperor, to hand down to future ages the memorable emigration of the Tourgouths, who, in the year 1771, left the coalts of the Cafpian fea and the banks of the Volga, in a body of 500,000 men, women, and children, and fubjected themselves to the dominion of the Emperor of China. And 5thly, The tranflation of two books of great antiquity, the one entitled Ta-hio or The King of France granted them an annual penfion, and two members of the academy (Meffrs. Briffon and Cadet) were appointed to inftruct them. + Printed by Didot at Paris, in 1772. See an account of this work in the Appendix to our 49th Vol. p. 554. the the Grand Science; and the other Tjong-yong, or the exa♬ Middle Way, with a preface and notes. Such are the contents of this first volume; we should be glad to learn who are its editors, that we might know the degree of credit due to thefe contents, which, confifting almost entirely of matters of fact, require refpectable witneffes to afcertain their authenticity and truth. In the mean time, it will not be improper to pass in review these memoirs, and to give fome account of the principal matters contained in them. The first Memoir, which treats of the antiquity of the Chinefe empire, is replete with learned researches, and fhews a very extenfive degree of erudition. It is addreffed to Mr. Bertin by one of the two Chinese already mentioned, who speaks of himfelf as its author, and fubfcribes to his fhort dedication the name Ko Jes. In this memoir, the great object is to enquire about what time the Chinese monarchy was founded, and its history began. To prepare the way for this interefting enquiry (which iflues in the refutation of M. de Guigne's Egyptian fyftem, and M. Voltaire's ignorant hiftorical pleasantries) the Author, under four preceding articles, fhews how the learned Chinese are at prefent circumstanced for enquiries into a remote antiquity, gives a fhort account of the ancient monuments and writings, which have efcaped the ruins of time,-makes us acquainted with the more recent hiftorians, who have recorded the events of the earliest periods, and mentions the fabulous and romantic ages, through which writers (fond of the marvellous) have carried up the thread of the Chinese hiftory to the creation of the world. As to the firft of these articles, it appears from the obfervations of our Author or Authors, that the Chinese have fo little curiofity about the events of the first or early periods of their monarchy, that they rarely caft back an eye to a remote antiquity. During the courfe of thirty centuries, the learned have been protected, and the fciences encouraged by the Chinese government, only for the following purposes,-to keep public inftruction on a good footing, to maintain the rules of morality, to regifter the difcoveries of the ufeful arts, to educate the youth in the knowledge and practice of virtue, and to diftinguish in the croud, thofe who have talents for bufinefs, &c.-Again, the fphere, or (what our Author calls) the atmosphere of the fciences is much lefs extenfive in China than in Europe, and the nation in genera! gives little attention to what paffes. The women and children are fhut up in their apartments, and their domeftic circle is their univerfe. The artifts, merchants, and all the citizens, except the literati, or thofe in public pofts, are * Counsellor of State. equally |