China) and thefe he formed into an army, headed by valiant chiefs, who fubdued the rebellious hords of the Eleuths, and compleated the entire conqueft of that people. When tranquillity was thus restored, Amourfana, who had been the principal of the rebellious chiefs, fubmitted to the Emperor, and became not only the object of his clemency, but was placed by him at the head of the Eleuths. He could not, however, long bear the yoke of fubjection: his proud fpirit fowed anew the feeds of rebellion; borrid fcenes of cruelty and perfidy were again exhibited; the war was renewed, and inteftine divifions reigned in both the armies. The imperial Poet defcribes these scenes with warmth and eloquence, the flight of Amourfana into Siberia, the triumphant exploits of the Chinese generals, the total reduction of the Eleuths, and the wife regulations he employed to preferve their liberties without augmenting their power, to render their fubjection agreeable, and to make them inftruments of chaftifement to each other, in cafe of any future rebellion. The narration is long, and circumftantial; in many places, however, It is curious and interefting; but it is impoffible to read, withcut horror, of the torrents of blood that were fhed in the field, and on the fcaffold, during this terrible war. All the tribes of the Eleuths did not remain in their allegiance: of the four Viceroys or Han, which he placed at the head of that people, divided into fo many clafies, the Han of the Tourbet alone continued loyal. The rebellious princes, with their tribes, were maffacred, or difperfed into foreign countries; and it was in these new and dreadful commotions, that twenty-thoufand families of the revolted Eleuths went and fettled in the Ruffian territories. We fhall fee, neverthelefs, in the following Article, thefe fame families return to their allegiance to the Emperor of China.

That Article, the fourth in this collection, contains the rela tion of one of the most fingular events in modern hiftory, and which deferves a place among thofe ftriking emigrations in ancient times, that have made fo much noife, and occafioned fo much fpeculation. It is extraordinary that this event should have paffed, almost before our eyes, and that but about five or fix years ago, and yet excited fo little attention. The fummary of this relation, as we take it from the authentic poetical monument, which the prefent Emperor of China has compofed to tranfmit the memory of it to future times, is as follows:

In the thirty-fixth year of the reign of Kien-lang, i, e. in the year of Chrift 1771, all the Tartars which compofe the nation of the Tourgouths, arrived, after having furmounted innumerable difficulties and dangers, in the plains that lie in the frontier of Carapen, not far from the banks of the river Ily. They left the fettlements which the Ruffians had given them on the banks

banks of the Volga and the laick, at a fall diftance from the Cafpian fea, and in a vast body of fifty thousand families (which confifted of no less than 300,000 fouls,) they marched thro' the country of the Hafacks, coafted the lake Palkaché nor*, and, after a march of eight months, they arrived, in the most diftreffed and deftitute condition, at the place of their deftination, and offered themfelves as fubjects to the Emperor of China; who received them graciously, furnifhed them with provifions, cloaths, and money, and allotted to each family a portion of land for agriculture and pafturage. Thefe Tourgouths were the firft branch of the Eleuths, that renounced their allegiance to the Chinese Emperor, and, under the reign of one of the ancestors of Kien long, had fettled in Ruffia, under their chief Ayouki. It was under Qubaché, the great grandfon of this chief, that they refolved to throw off the Ruffian yoke, under which they were obliged perpetually to furnish foldiers for the imperial armies, and did not enjoy the degree of liberty after which they afpired.The year after their arrival at the frontiers of China (that is, in 1772) thofe of the Eleuths, mentioned above, who had renounced their allegiance, and were difperfed in the vast regions of Tartary, came voluntarily, with fome hords of Porouths and the remainder of the Tourgouth nation, and fubmitted to the Chinese scepter. This fecond emigration confifted of thirty thoufand families; and thefe two events form, no doubt, a remarkable epocha in the Chinese annals. Accordingly, the Emperor has caufed the hiftory of this emigration to be engraven upon ftone, in four different languages; and a grandee of the Empire has publifhed it apart, in white letters upon a black ground. Father Amiot gives an account of this publi cation, in a letter to M. Bertin, fecretary of flate, which contains nothing more than a repetition of the Emperor's narrative, and is therefore a very needlefs augmentation of the bulk of this Volume.

The two pieces of morality, entitled the Grand Science and the Exact midale Way, which conclude this Volume, contain the most excellent precepts of wildom and virtue, expreffed with the greatest eloquence and force, elegance and precifion. In the preface to them we are told that they were compofed by the grandfon of Confucius, and one of his difciples, from the leflons of that great philofopher. If fo, they are, indeed, uncommonly curious, and are equal to the noblet philofophical remains of Grecian antiquity, of which they bear, in feveral places, a very strong refemblance. But one of the paffages, which ftrikes us moft, and which far exceeds in clearness the prophecy of Socrates, is that which follows: "How fublime

This is called Balkath nour in the map given by Abbé Chappe.

are the ways of the Holy One! his virtue fhall fill the universe, fhall vivify all things, and rife to the Tien or fupreme deity. What a noble courfe is opening to our view! what new laws and obligations! what auguft rites and facred folemnities! But how fhall mortals obferve them, if HE does not first give the example? his coming alone can prepare us for the performance of thefe fublime duties. Hence that faying, known and repeated in all ages, the paths of perfection will never be frequented, until the Holy One, by way of eminence, fhall have confecrated them by the traces of his footsteps." This is certainly a remarkable paffage, especially if it has been tranflated with precifion and fidelity, from an authentic production of so early a date as the time of Confucius.

ART. X.

Journal Hiftorique du Voyage fait au Cap de Bonne Esperance, &c. An Hiftorical Journal of the Voyage of the (late) Abbe de la Caille to the Cape of Good Hope, &c. Paris. 8vo. 1776.

IN this valuable publication, we have a collection composed of the following articles: 1. An hiftorical difcourfe concerning the life and writings of the late Abbe de la Caille: 2. The journal of his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope: 3. Remarks on the foil and territory of the Cape, and the manners of the Hottentots: 4. A refutation of the principal errors contained in the book which was published, under the name of Kolben, concerning the Hottentots and the Cape.

The Hiftorical Difcourfe concerning the life and writings of that great and good man the Abbe de la Caille, (who endeavoured in vain to conceal his excellent talents and virtues under the veil of uncommon modefty) is one of the most mafterly pieces of biography that we have lately met with.

The order obferved in this excellent difcourfe is chronological. It begins with the birth of the eminent man, who is the fubject of it; marks his early and rapid progrefs in the sciences; the course of study which he followed; his growing merit and reputation; his discoveries, travels, acquifitions, and projects; in a word, his great usefulness to fociety, to which he rendered the most important fervices by his immenfe labours, and which he inftructed and edified by a rare example of generofity, integrity, and fanctity of manners.-We shall extract from this difcourfe fome of the literary and moral anecdotes in the life of this great aftronomer, which will give an idea of his undoubted title to the veneration of fucceeding ages.

He was born in the year 1713, and, having finished his academical education, of which our biographer gives a circumflantial and interefting account, he turned his views from the

theological

theological profeffion, for which he was defigned, to the study of mathematics and aftronomy. His first connections in this career were formed with the late M. Caffini, who was astonished at his genius, his talents, and his progress, and delighted with his virtues. While he was engaged in the obfervatory of this great man, he acquired the efteem and friendship of M. Maraldi, and undertook to verify the operation of Meffrs. Dominic Caffini, de la Ayre and Sharaldi, the elder, who, in the year 1690, undertook to draw a meridian line from the south to the north of France. M. de Thury affifted him in rectifying fome errors, in that operation, which were owing to the imperfection of the inftruments then in ufe. This new undertaking was defigned to facilitate a geometrical defcription of the kingdom of France, with the execution of which M. Caffini was entrufted in the year 1733; the new meridian line was to be drawn from Perpignan to Dunkirk, and the labours, dangers, and fatigues, which the Abbé de la Caille went thro' on this ' occafion, were aftonishing. They were followed by an amazing number of obfervations on the heavenly bodies, which made this excellent man pass, in the esteem of the learned, for one of the moft confummate aftronomers of his age, or of any .other. The greatest part of these observations are inferted in the registers of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris; they are circumftantially recited in this difcourfe, but are too numerous to be particularly mentioned in an extract. When we confider thefe obfervations, together with the works that have been published by the Abbe de la Caille in the various branches of natural fcience, and particularly in aftronomy, geometry, mechanics, and optics, and reflect that he died in his forty-ninth year, we cannot but entertain the highest idea of his amazing genius and activity. The truth is, all the ardour of his foul was employed in the improvement of science and the practice of virtue, while he difcovered the utmost difinterestedness and apathy about his perfonal interefts. His laborious activity, and his perfect difinterestedness, will appear abundantly by the two following anecdotes.

The authors of the art of aftertaining or verifying dates had compiled, from ancient and modern writers, a chronological feries of the eclipfes which had happened during a course of 1800 years; and they laid this immenfe compilation before the Abbe de la Caille. The Abbe, perceiving from what tources they had drawn their information, and knowing that these compilers were no aftronomers, and could not, confequently, verify the obfervations which they had inferted in their work, imagined that these fources were not exempt from error. The utility of fuch a compilation, if exact, determined him to ascertain,

by an exact calculation, the feries of eclipfes from the year 1 of the Chriftian æra, to 1800; and he employed, during five whole weeks, fifteen hours a day in that laborious operation. When he fhewed the learned compilers the work he had gone through, they fuppofed that our aftronomer had, by him, his tables, drawn up many years before, and that these five weeks were employed in looking them over. The truth was, that he had compofed a chronological table of eclipfes in that time, by calculating all the eclipfes of the fun and the moon, whether total or partial, which had been seen in Europe, from the birth' of Chrift to the year 1746, and foretold those which were to happen, fo far down as the year 1800. When he had given this ineftimable fruit of his labour to the authors above-mentioned, he had fo little thoughts of their being obliged to him, that he took it much amifs that they mentioned his name in the preface to their work.

The other anecdote which exhibits an inftance of the difintereftedness of this illuftricus philofopher, is as follows: when he was to return to France from the Eaft Indies, he had obtained, from government, the permiffion of fending home his baggage and coffers, without their being vifited by the excifeofficers. This favour gave him an occafion of gaining prodigiously by commercial fchemes: but the people, about him were much furprized, when they faw him filling a large trunk with ftraw, in which he placed fome aftronomical inftruments, inftead of Indian goods. It has been also known, fince his death, that he refufed an offer of 100,000 livres (5030 pounds fterling) made him with the moft folemn engagements to fecrefy, on condition that he would allow a merchant of his acquaintance to fend, under his name, certain merchandifes to Europe. He declared that neither his character as an ecclefiaftic, nor as an honeft man, would allow him to confent to this propofal.

The Abbé de la Caille's Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope railed his reputation, as an aftronomer, to the highest degree of Juftre. His principal defign in this voyage was to acquire a Complete knowledge of the fouthern hemisphere, which was, before him, known but imperfectly. How he fucceeded in this, may be feen from one circumstance, that Halley, who went to St. Helena to draw a celeftial chart of the fouthern hemiSphere, obferved only 350 ftars in that new world, whereas the Abbé obferved 9450 beyond that number. He began his obfervation of the southern ftars on the 6th of Auguft 1751, and continued it until August 1752, during which time he paffed feventeen whole nights, befide an hundred and ten of which he employed eight hours of each, in contemplating the front of the fouthern hemifphere. Here he acquired that

precious