his presenting himself in an unresisting posture for that purpose, he was told that they were now masters of the ship, and that he would not be hurt. He was carried before several chiefs, and at length to Finow, the How or king of the island, who being a man of an active and curious mind, took much pleasure in the conversation of the stranger. He was ordered, however, to deliver up his books and papers, as no witchcraft was allowed to be practised in the island. This led to an explanation of the fate which had overtaken the missionaries left there by Captain Wilson, from the ship Duff. It had been from the first observed, that they built a house, in which they shut themselves up to sing and perform ceremonies. This, however, would not have led to any serious consequence, had there not been on the island one Morgan, a convict escaped from Botany Bay. The missionaries having represented this person in unfavourable, and doubtless true colours, excited his resentment, which he gratified in the most criminal manner. He informed the natives, that these strangers had come among them with the sole view of introducing the pestilential dis. ease, which was then raging; that their books were instruments of magic; and their secret assemblies held for the purpose of carrying on incantations to produce this effect. The chiefs took these statements into serious consideration, and became more and more persuaded of their truth, from the loud noise which took place at these ceremonies, and from the care taken, we know not why, to exclude the natives. At length it was represented, that if the strangers continued singing in this manner, the whole island would soon be depopulated. Inflamed with fury, they at length rushed in and made a general massacre.

In the course of the communication between Mariner and the king, the cu

riosity of the latter was strongly exerted on the subject of writing, parti cularly after he had seen Mariner write a letter for any European captain who might touch at Tonga.

"This mode of communicating sen. timents was an inexplicable puzzle to Finow; he took the letter again and examined it, but it afforded him no information. He thought a little with in himself; but his thoughts reflected no light upon the subject. At length he sent for Mr Mariner, and desired him to write down something: The latter asked what he would choose to have written; he replied, put down me. He accordingly wrote,Feenow,' (spelling it according to the strict English orthography); the chief then sent for another Englishman, who had not been present, and commanding Mr Mariner to turn his back, and look another way, he gave the man the paper, and desired him to tell what that was he accordingly pronounced aloud the name of the king, upon which Fi now snatched the paper from his hand, and, with astonishment. looked at it, turned it round, and examined it in all directions. At length he exclaimed,

:

This is neither like myself nor any body else!-where are my eyes?— where is my head?-where are my legs?--How can you possibly know it to be I?'—And then, without stopping for any attempt at an explanation, he impatiently ordered Mr Mariner to write something else; and thus employed him for three or four hours in putting down the names of different persons, places, and things, and making the other man read them. This afforded extraordinary diversion to Finow, and to all the men and women present, particularly as he now and then whispered a little love anecdote, which was strictly written down, and audibly read by the other, not a little to the confusion of one or other of the ladies present; but it was all taken in

good humour, for curiosity and astonishment were the prevailing passions. How their names and circumstances could be communicated through so mysterious a channel, was altogether past their comprehension. Finow had long ago formed his opinion of books and papers, and this as much resembled witchcraft as any thing he had ever seen or heard of. Mr Mariner in vain attempted to explain. He had yet too slender a knowledge of their language to make himself clearly understood; and, indeed, it would not have been an easy matter to have explained the composition of elementary sounds, and of arbitrary signs expressive of them, to a people whose minds were already formed to other modes of thinking, and whose language had few expressions but what concerned the ordinary affairs of life. The only rational mode would have been, to have invented a system of spelling, and to have gone through the usual routine of teaching it. Finow, at length, thought he had got a notion of it, and explained to those about him that it was very possible to put down a mark or sign of something that had been seen both by the writer and reader, and which should be mutually understood by them; but Mr Mariner immediately informed him, that he could write down any thing that he had never seen. The king directly whispered to him to put Toogoo Ahoo (the king of Tonga, whom he and Toobo Nieuha had assassinated many years before Mr Mariner's arrival). This was accordingly done, and the other read it; when Finow was yet more astonished, and declared it to be the most wonderful thing he had ever heard of. He then desired him to write Tarky,' the chief of the garri. son of Bea, whom Mr Mariner and his companions had not yet seen; (this chief was blind in one eye). When Tarky' was read, Finow inquired

6

whether he was blind or not; this was putting writing to an unfair test! and Mr Mariner told him that he had only written down the sign standing for the sound of his name, and not for the description of his person. He was then ordered to write, Tarky, blind in his left eye,' which was done, and read to the increased astonishment of every body. Mr Mariner then told him, that, in several parts of the world, messages were sent to great distances through the same medium, and, being folded and fastened up, the bearer could know nothing of the contents; and that the histories of whole nations were thus handed down to posterity, without spoiling by being kept (as he chose to express himself). Finow acknowledged this to be a most noble invention, but added, that it would not at all do for the Tonga islands; that there would be nothing but disturbances and conspiracies, and he should not be sure of his life, perhaps, another month."

The discourse on the subject of money appears also very characteristic.

"Mr Mariner was going on to shew the convenience of money as a medium of exchange, when Filimoeatoo interrupted him, saying to Finow, I understand how it is; money is less cumbersome than goods, and it is very convenient for a man to exchange away his goods for money; which, at any other time, he could exchange again for the same or any other goods that he might want; whereas the goods themselves might have spoilt by keeping (particularly if provisions) but the money he supposed would not spoil; and although it was of no true value itself, yet being scarce and difficult to be got without giving something useful and really valuable for it, it was imagined to be of value; and if every body considered it so, and would readily give their goods for it, he did not see but what it was of a sort of real

value to all who possessed it, as long as their neighbours chose to take it in the same way. Mr Mariner found he could not give a better explanation, he therefore told Filimoeatoo that his notion of the nature of money was a just one. After a pause of some length, Finow replied that the explanation did not satisfy him; he still thought it a foolish thing that people should place a value on money, when they either could not or would not apply it to any useful (physical) purpose. If,' said he, it were made of iron, and could be converted into knives, axes, and chisels, there would be some sense in placing a value on it; but as it was, he saw none. If a man,' he added, has more yams than he wants, let him exchange some of them away for pork or gnatoo; certainly money was much handier, and more convenient, but then as it would not spoil by being kept, people would store it up, instead of sharing it out, as a chief ought to do, and thus become selfish; whereas, if provision was the principal property of a man, and it ought to be, as being both the most useful and the most necessary, he could not store it up, for it would spoil, and so he would be obliged either to exchange it away for something less useful, or share it out to his neighbours, and inferior chiefs and dependents, for nothing.' He concluded by saying, I understand now very well what it is that makes the Papalangis (English) so selfish ;-it is this money!'

"When Mr Mariner informed Finow that dollars were money, he was greatly surprised, having always taken them for playing-counters, and things of little value; and he was exceeding ly sorry he had not secured all the dollars out of the Port-au-Prince, before

he had ordered her to be burnt —' I had always thought,' said he, that your ship belonged to some poor fellow, perhaps to King George's cook;* for Captain Cook's ship, which belong. ed to the king, had plenty of beads, axes, and looking-glasses on board, whilst yours had nothing but ironhoops, oil, skins, and twelve thousand playing-counters, as I thought them; but if every one of these were money, your ship must have belonged to a very great chief indeed.'"

After some years' residence, Mr Mariner was enabled to make his escape on board the Favourite, Captain Fish, from Port Jackson, who was coming to take up a cargo of sandal-wood at the Feejee islands. Finow, the old king, was dead; but his successor was so delighted with the view of the ship, that he petitioned to be conveyed to England, a request which the Captain, unluckily we think, refused.

At the commencement of the present year, the attention of the public had been almost exclusively fixed upon central Africa. In proportion as repeated disappointment damped the hopes which that quarter had excited, their eyes were attracted towards another region and element. In the early periods of naval discovery, the Polar Seas had afforded a grand theatre for the display of British courage. It was there that the Hudsons, the Frobishers, and the Baffins, acquired a fame scarcely surpassed by that of any modern navigators. For more than two centuries, however, the spirit of exploration had withdrawn itself in a great measure from that field. All attempts to proceed to the north and to the east, had been stopped by barriers of impenetrable ice; and the sea,

into which Davis's Straits affords an entrance, was supposed to be established by Baffin as a bay, shut in on every side by land. About fifty years ago, however, Mr Daines Barington collected, and laid before the Royal Society, a number of facts tending to prove the possibility of approaching, or even reaching, the pole. These made so great an impression, that Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, was despatched upon an attempt to penetrate to that farthest boundary of the world. He was stop. ped, however, by the ice in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen, and the enterprize was never resumed. The public attention was now called afresh to this subject; and Mr Barrow set on foot that series of expeditions which have issued in such important discoveries, and promise others still more important. This, however, belongs to the following year. At present we shall only introduce the observations on the polar regions submitted by Mr Scoresby to the Wernerian Society. These, made by an intelligent and scientific navigator in the course of many years experience in the whalefishery, convey much more accurate ideas, than can be derived from the hasty and superficial remarks of former navigators. His account of the formation of ice, and the varied forms and aspects under which it presents itself, is so extremely interesting, that we shall take the liberty of extracting entire a large portion of it.

"Greenland is a country where every object is strikingly singular, or highly magnificent. The atmosphere, the land, and the ocean, each exhibit remarkable or sublime appearances.

"With regard to the atmosphere several peculiarities may be noticed, viz. its darkness of colour and density; its frequent production of crystallised snow in a wonderful perfec

tion and variety of form and texture; and its astonishing sudden changes from calm to storm,-from fair weather to foul, and vice versa.

"The land is of itself a sublime object; its stupendous mountains rising by steep acclivities from the very margin of the ocean to an immense height, terminating in rigid, conical, or pyramidal, summits; its surface, contrasting its native protruding dark-coloured rocks, with its burthen of purest snow; the whole viewed under the density of a gloomy sky, forms a picture impressive and grand. Its most remarkable inhabitant is the White or Polar Bear, which indeed also occurs on the ice. This ferocious animal seems to be the natural lord of those regions. He preys indiscriminately on quadruped, fowl, reptile, and fish; all behold him with dread, and flee his presence. The seals signify their fear of him by their constant watching, and betake themselves precipitately to the water on his approach. Carrion, therefore, (of which the carcase of the whale is at a certain season the most plentiful,) affords him a passive, sure, and favourite food. His sense of smelling is peculiarly acute.-In his march, he is frequently observed to face the breeze, to rear his head, and snuff the passing scent, whereby he can discover the nearest route to his odorous banquet, though the distance be incredibly great.

"The water of the ocean is not the least interesting of the elements, particularly as affording the bed, and partly the materials for the most prodigious masses of ice. Its colour is peculiar. Its products are numerous, and of particular importance. It is here that the huge Mysticetus, or Whalebone Whale, takes up his residence, and collects his food;-it is here that he sports and astonishes, by his vast bulk and proportionate strength;and it is here that he becomes the ob

ject of maritime adventure, and a source

of commercial riches.

"Of the inanimate productions of Greenland, none perhaps excites so much interest and astonishment in a stranger, as the ice in its great abundance and variety The stupendous masses, known by the name of iceislands, floating mountains or icebergs, common to Davis' Straits, and sometimes met with here, from their height, various forms, and the depth of water in which they ground, are calculated to strike the beholder with wonder: yet the fields of ice, more peculiar to Greenland, are not less astonishing. Their deficiency in elevation, is sufficiently compensated by their amazing -extent of surface. Some of them have been observed near a hundred miles in length, and more than half that breadth; each consisting of a single sheet of ice, having its surface raised in general four or six feet above the level of the wawater, and its base depressed to the depth of near twenty feet beneath.

"The ice in general is designated by a variety of appellations, distinguishing it according to the size or number of pieces, their form of aggregation, thickness, transparency, &c. I perhaps cannot better explain the terms in common acceptation amongst the whale-fishers, than by marking the disruption of a field. The thickest and strongest field cannot resist the power of a heavy swell; indeed, such are much less capable of bending without being dissevered, than the thinner ice, which is more pliable. When a field, by the set of the current, drives to the southward, and being deserted by the loose ice, becomes exposed to the effects of a grown swell, it presently breaks into a great many pieces, few of which will exceed forty or fifty yards in diameter. Now, such a number of these pieces collected together in close contact, so that they cannot, from the top

of the ship's mast, be seen over, are termed a pack.

"When the collection of pieces can be seen across, if it assume a circular or polygonal form, the name of patch is applied; and it is called a stream when its shape is more of an oblong, how narrow soever it may be, provided the continuity of the pieces is preserved.

"Pieces of very large dimensions, but smaller than fields, are called floes, thus, a field may be compared to a pack, and a floe to a patch, as regards their size and external form.

"Small pieces which break off, and are separated from the larger masses by the effect of attrition, are called brash-ice, and may be collected into streams or patches.

"Ice is said to be loose or open, when the pieces are so far separated as to allow a ship to sail freely amongst them; this has likewise been called drift-ice.

"A hummock is a protuberance raised upon any plane of ice above the common level. It is frequently produced by pressure, where one piece is squeezed upon another, often set upon its edge, and in that position cemented by the frost. Hummocks are likewise formed, by pieces of ice mutually crushing each other, the wreck being coacervated upon one or both of them. To hummocks, the ice is indebted for its variety of fanciful shapes, and its picturesque appearance. They occur in great numbers in heavy packs, on the edges and occasionally in the middle of fields and floes. They often attain the height of thirty feet or upwards.

"A calf is a portion of ice which has been depressed by the same means as a hummock is elevated. It is kept down by some larger mass; from beneath which it shews itself on one side. I have seen a calf so deep and broad,