deputed agents to the different states on the coast of Sumatra with that view. In consequence of these proceedings Mr. Anderson was appointed by the Governor of Prince of Wales Island to visit all the country between Diamond Point and Siack inclusive, for the purpose of anticipating the Netherlands, and keeping the chiefs of that coast faithful to their relations' with the English. He accordingly set out on his mission in the early part of 1823, and we have in the volume now before us the results of his enquiries, which, though they are conveyed in a dry and official manner, are nevertheless possessed of some interest. He has, very unnecessarily we should think, divided his work into two parts. The first contains his journal, in which he notes every thing of importance that occurred to himself or to his companions during his visit to Sumatra. The second part exhibits a summary of his observations on the climate, inhabitants, produce, and manufactures of the country, being in many instances a mere repetition of the matter embraced in the journal of his voyage. That portion of the coast which Mr. Anderson visited is watered by innumerable rivers, possesses a large population, and abounds with the most valuable productions of the East. No general description can convey an accurate notion of the several states which occupy this part of Sumatra. They seem to have been originally formed by emigrants from Menangkabu, by shipwrecked mariners from the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, by settlers from many of the ports on the Malayan peninsula, from Rhio, Lingin, and various other places. The boldest and the most numerous of these settlers were most probably piratical adventurers, and lawless marauders, who seem to have bequeathed their turbulent and ferocious manners to their posterity. It is abundantly clear from Mr. Anderson's account that several of these states, though living under separate rajahs, and many of them differing from each other in their dialects and manners, yet perfectly agree in being all cannibals. This is a point beyond dispute. It is said indeed that their appetite for human flesh arises more from a thirst of vengeance than from their preference for such horrid fare. True it is that they generally devour such of their enemies as fall into their hands; but the opportunity of enjoying this impious feast seems to be in many cases the principal inducement for engaging in the military service. Indeed Mr. Anderson mentions an instance of a rajah of one of the states (Tanah Jawa), who when all his captive enemies and condemned criminals are exhausted, sends out his emissaries on the highway to slay, for his table, the first human victim they encounter. At Delli, he relates, 'The sultan's force consisted of about 400 men, one-third of them at least such savages as I have been describing. Their food consisted of the flesh of tigers, elephants, hogs, snakes, dogs, rats, or whatever offal they could lay their hands upon. Having no religion, they fear neither God nor man. They believe that when they die, they shall become wind. Many of them, however, are converted to Islamism; but the older people, who have been accustomed to feed upon human flesh, and other delicacies of that sort, have an aversion to the Mahometan faith, as they cannot afterwards enjoy themselves, which is their principal consideration.' — p. 35. It is proper to state, however, that this savage propensity is every day declining; and there is no doubt that, in a few years, increased intercourse with the settlements of the East India Company, and the habits of industry which it must produce, will efface the infamous custom altogether. In every part of the country which Mr. Anderson traversed, the musquitoes were so numerous as to cause the most disagreeable annoyance. Besides these insects, there are large red ants, which drop in myriads from the trees upon passengers, and bite severely; and, as if these nuisances were not sufficient, snakes and serpents infest the grass, which swarms also with small leeches, that adhere to the foot of the traveller, and feed upon his blood. The rivers are haunted by alligators of a peculiarly ferocious kind. In the Assahan river, Mr. Anderson had occasion to observe that they were numerous, and particularly bold. Hundreds of people have lost their lives by these devouring animals. About an hour after we anchored, a man was pulled out of a low canoe near us, and devoured in a moment; and a few days before, one of the crew belonging to Che Ismael, my pilot's boat, a powerful, stout, young man, who was sitting at the stern of the boat, steering with a paddle, was snatched off. They raise their heads a foot or two out of the water, and pull the people out of the boats. About a month ago, a boat with three horses and six goats, which the Rajah Muda was sending down the river, to be embarked on board a large prow going to Pinang, was attacked by a whole swarm of these ferocious creatures, which surrounded the boat on all sides. Being low and ricketty, the horses took fright, and began to kick, on which the boat upset. Another small boat in company instantly saved the three or four Malays who were in the boat; but the horses and goats were devoured in an instant. Near the mouth of the river, where there is a fishing-house, there is an alligator of a most prodigious size, his back, when a little out of the water, resembling a large rock. He remains constantly there, and is regularly fed upon the head and entrails of the large pari, or skate fish, which are caught there. I saw him, and the Malays called him to his meal. He appeared full twenty feet long. Being in rather a small boat at the time, I wished to make all haste away; but the Malays assured me he was quite harmless, so much so, that his feeders pat his head with their hands; a dangerous amusement certainly, but showing the wonderful tameness and sagacity of the creature, naturally so ferocious. He will not allow any other alligator to approach the place; and on that account the Malays almost worship him.'-pp, 125, 126. In return, however, for these evils, nature is prodigal in the variety and richness of the vegetable productions which she has scattered over the soil: the earth teems with fruits of the most nutritive and refreshing description, while the atmosphere is scented with the fragrance of flowers and of medicinal herbs, which grow up in profusion. We think it unnecessary to follow Mr. Anderson in the details. of his mission, so far as they relate to the climate, products, the features of the country, and the manners of the people. They do not differ very materially from those which Mr. Marsden has presented, in a much more attractive form, in his description of the more frequented parts of the island. Mr. Anderson has satisfied himself that he has achieved the main object of his mission, by the manner in which he conducted it, and in which it was received by the chiefs and population of the states which he visited. His account of his voyage cannot fail to prove interesting, and eminently serviceable, to those traders who may have occasion to hold intercourse with the eastern coast of Sumatra. In obedience to his instructions, he has collected a numerous list of facts,' and has ' recorded those facts in his diaries in the most simple language:' indeed, so minute and so careful have been his enquiries, that his book is rather an inventory of the different articles which the country has for sale, and of the facilities for trade which it presents, than a description of his tour. This form of his diary may be very useful to the East India Company; but the general reader, desirous of extending his acquaintance with foreign lands and the races who inhabit them, will soon turn away fatigued from a work in which literature, music, and antiquities, are treated in the same dry and summary manner as imports, exports, port-charges, currency, boundaries, and revenues. NOTICES. ART. XII. An Encyclopædia of Agriculture; comprising the Theory and Practice of the Valuation, &c. &c. of Landed Property; and the Cultivation, &c. of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, with the latest Improvements, &c. &c. By J. Loudon. 8vo. pp. 1226. 21. 10s. Boards. London. Longman, Hurst, and Co. 1825. THERE can be now no longer an excuse for the farmer who is ignorant of any branch almost of the arts and sciences. To be skilful in the means of producing heavy crops; to hit the critical turn of a season for ploughing; are matters of every-day knowledge amongst farmers, and it will not be the fault of Mr. Loudon, if they are not henceforth as familiarly conversant with every branch of information which finds the initial of its denomination within the cycle of the alphabet, from anatomy to zoology, both inclusive. And to make sure against such contingencies as the calamity of a dull apprehension amongst his probable readers, Mr. Loudon has cunningly scattered over his pages a vast abundance of choice wood-cuts. The very first graphic specimen presages a strong determination, even at the risk of producing ridicule, to illustrate his subjects sufficiently. The historical fact of a remnant of men and animals saved from the deluge on Mount Ararat being incidentally alluded to, we are treated with an illustration of the scene a cloud-capt mountain-sea in the distance rocks and reposing animals. If this were a solitary instance of misapplied explanation, and if such blemishes were not calculated to raise a laugh against a book, which otherwise contains as little as any volume we are acquainted with, of matter that is not interesting and important in proportion to its extent, it would be a very unworthy labour to point them out. Interesting and important we do not scruple to say we believe this volume to be; for though we do not hope to see our farmers made men of science to any very efficient degree, yet, this book will have a valuable collateral use, in inciting to and gratifying intellectual exertion amongst a class who are but too apt to deem it incompatible, in a great measure, with their business. The history of agriculture from the earliest times, and the account of its present state in the different countries of the world, are replete with curious details. The great object being, in agriculture as well as all other practical pursuits, to perform the most with the smallest amount of means, the farmer is instructed in the knowledge of soils by geology; of their vegetable and animal productions by botany and zoology; which necessarily involves an acquaintance with the means of improvement in those respective branches. He is likewise furnished with explanations of the various implements and operations, scientific and mechanical, which are in any way connected with the economy of agriculture. From treating it in this elementary way, our author descends to a minute investigation of agriculture as it is now practised in Great Britain, in all its various stages, from the crude period of first possession up to the results of its most refined management. We do not believe Mr. Loudon to have entertained the chimerical notion, that either a good botanist or surveyor, a veterinary surgeon or a carpenter, still less that all these combined in the same individual, could be formed by the study of his book. Indeed, we are not sanguine enough even to expect that any great operative information, with reference to their immediate pursuit, is here communicated to the agricultural class. But what we are certain about is, that a vast variety of congenial knowledge is funded for their use in this volume; and if it were to have no more beneficial effect than that of infusing a spirit of enquiry into the minds of a set of men, who are but too apt to seek as it were an indemnification for the activity of the body in the sloth of the intellect, we should esteem it as a work of national utility. ART. XIII. Junius proved to be graphy. 8vo. pp. 64. Burke; with an Outline of his Bio- Or all the various individuals to whom the reputation of Junius has been assigned, there is no one who seems to us less likely to have deserved it than Mr. Burke. It is not that he was without the literary talent capable of producing compositions quite as popular as the Letters to which that famous signature has been subscribed. The Reflections on the French Revolution show the extent to which Burke could, when he pleased, wield the thunders of eloquence. But then his eloquence was of a style essentially different from that of Junius. The latter was concise, Burke was generally diffuse; one was epigrammatic, the other, if we may use the expression, was uniformly epic in every thing which he laboured for the public eye. Junius pursues his adversary with the rage of a vulture; Burke hunts his opponent with the generosity of a lion. In short, every argument, that could be drawn from internal evidence, only goes to confirm beyond all doubt the truth of Burke's positive and repeated denial, that he was Junius. The author of the flimsy publication before us has placed side by side passages from Junius and from Burke, which he is pleased to consider as perfect counterparts of each other. We have compared them, and find that they coincide in no one particular. Not only are the ideas dissimilar, but the tone of expression is as different as it is possible to be. We admire the stupidity of the person who could for a moment have supposed them to be otherwise. It is by no means true, as this pamphleteer has rashly asserted, that Burke was the only writer at first suspected to be Junius. We had occasion to show, in a former Number*, that Lord George Sackville was one of those on whom the suspicion alighted with the greatest degree of certainty; and we have at this day no means of ascertaining whether he ever distinctly denied it. The argu ments put forth by Mr. Coventry, in support of his opinion that Lord George was Junius, seem to us possessed of very great weight. That Junius was deeply versed and interested in military affairs cannot be doubted, from the frequency with which he treated of them, and the copiousness of his metaphors, drawn from the profession of a soldier. All Burke's similes, as well as his topics, were strictly of a civil character. Junius was evidently See Vol. cvii. p. 354. of the former Series of the Monthly Review. |