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in the country to dine at now and then; he immediately gave them a place, 4 miles out of town, called Hawt du Cap, an excellent house, beautiful garden, and 100 acres of fine land for pasture or any use they chose to put them to. One of his courtiers, some time afterwards, wanted to buy it, and he said, it was no longer his, he had given it to the strangers. I told the strangers that the King ought to take it from them they kept it in such bad order.

He is now building a college at Sans-Souci, where it is his intention to have professors of the different sciences from England. They, like all beginners, were too sanguine, and thought that nothing else was necessary than to have out all kinds of learned doctors. They were going to teach their boys Latin, Greek; in short, they were at once to rival our colleges. However, as this mania wore off, Baron Vastey, who has the management, began to see that he was all wrong, and that they must creep and walk be fore they could run, and now they are proceeding on rationally, until the college is built. He has established four schools under Englishmen on the Lancasterian system--one at Cape Henry, Sans-Souci, Gonaives, and Port-au-Paix.

Mr Gulliver, at Cape Henry, came out two years ago-he was a monitor at one of the establishments on the city road-he is a very clever fine young man, and deserving the good opinion the king has of him-his school has 177 boys. I was much astonished at the wonderful progress that was made by many in spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic-they did sums in addition in the most perfect manner above 400 millions. It is from this school he takes his masters for the small towns and villages, and the cleverest of those, of good connections, are sent to learn Latin and Mathematics with Mr the clergyman, who is, I believe, a good teacher. It will be as well to mention to you how the opinions of the professor of anatomy, Dr Stuart (a man in whose judgment I should place the most perfect reliance, and who is really a truly public benefit to the whole kingdom), and Mr Gulliver, upon the natural capacities of the blacks. "There is no doubt that they are quick at learning

the early rudiments of education, and have wonderful memories, but the grand question, it appears, still remains to be solved, viz. how far they have powers of reasoning, &c." You will understand what they mean. Many mulattoes are found very able menboth Barons Dupuey and Vastey are so; also Count Limonade, the secretary. I was delighted to see a little flat nosed beetle-browed black boy, about 11 years old, get above all the big fellows at the first going off, and keep the head of the class throughout the whole trial; from his accuracy and perfection in every change of subject, he deserved it. Mr Gulliver has them in great order, and, I am sorry to say, they require it; for they are brought up, notwithstanding every thing, very loose in their principles. The king, if he wishes thoroughly to succeed, must form the girls into schools, and so try to mend them. He has, in his late journey through his dominions, married them wherever he went by ranks, carrying a clergyman with him. This is what may be called a rough commencement of his moral system.

Sans-Souci is the next school,-this is more select, the schoolmaster, a young Aberdeen collegian, is said to be of very considerable talents, and to have got regular college education. He is also tutor to the prince royal. This youth's character is so differently represented that I do not know what to think of him-he is not yet 15 years old, very large they say, quite as large as his father -not wanting in talent, but prefers being on horseback to studying Euclid-liberal of his money when he has any-in short he may turn out any think yet for what people know.

Gonaives-the master at this place is dead, and an excellent riddance, by all accounts of those that knew him, it is. He was a most detestable canting hypocrite, but possessing considerable talents. He was secretary to one of the missionary societies. I was told by an English gentleman from Gonaives, that people are not very sorry for him.

Port-au-Paix-this is another bad bargain. The king found him drunk at 12

o'clock in the day amongst his scholars. He is certain of dying, I think, this season, from all accounts. The king has paid each of these teachers monthly, 100 dollars, but the two good

ones he has said shall go home independent. Mr the clergyman, was usher at a school at Plymouth. He was ordained about a week before he left England, and makes up in zeal, &c. &c. what he wants in sense. I believe he is not a bad schoolmaster, but to bring about a reformation in religion, it requires something very different, he has so well managed his matters in three months, that none of the merchants or indeed any one visit him, and even the ladies have given up going to hear him preach. Mrs instructs the young ladies.

Dr Stuart, the professor of anatomy, is come out with Mrs Stuart-he appears a man about 28, and very clever-he has taken charge of the hospitals, and no one, not even the governor, dare ask him a question-he orders what he takes, and it is immediately given him-in short, he says, that there is nowhere in Europe a more liberally endowed hospital-if a common soldier requires two bottles of wine a day, he has it, and good. The king went round the hospital when I was there. I saw Dr Stuart just after it; he was perfectly astonished. He said there was not an individual that he did not know by name, his character, his regimen, disease, and every thing about him; and whenever he came to a blackguard (and the Doctor said every one he singled out had been a troublesome patient), he gave him a confounded crack on the head with his cane, saying,there were above 300 in-the soldiers were all delighted to see him, and cut jokes-not so the officers, they looked frightened -the wards for the officers are really elegantly fitted up, and he sends them of all ranks there, from a Duke, downwards.

When I arrived here, I sent to him at his palace at Sans-Souci to beg an audience. I wished very much to have gone out there. I am wrong. He first sent to know if I had any particular business with him; if I had, he would see me, but he had not recovered from the fatigue of his journey; at the same time an order came in to ask for every attention as his friend. I sent out to say I wished to see him very particularly-an answer to this brought an excuse, at which I was very much vexed-however, two of his principal officers came in imme

diately afterwards from him with a fine message, that if I was going to stay till Wednesday the king would be in town; of course, I staid, and on Thursday morning had a long audience. He was in high good humour, and received me as an old friend-we were obliged to speak through Baron Dupuey, as I cannot speak French well enough, and he wont speak English. We conversed a great deal upon the changes that had taken place since my last visit. In answer to something complimentary which I had said of his schools, he said, " my wish is that my fellow-citizens may be made capable, by education, of enjoying the constitution I intend for them; and if I live long enough, the world will see that this has always been nearest my heart, and occupied all my thoughts; but I must have time; we require it." He has offered, through England, twenty millions of dollars to France to make an independent peace, guaranteed by England, but without the guarantee, he would not give 20 dollars, and till that is done, all his towns and the country will be kept in the present ruinous state; for if they make the trial, the hour they land they will find themselves in a wilderness, without a house to cover them, or a morsel of food but what they bring with them. When I mentioned to him the talent which I thought I saw in the boys, he said, with a smile, I think we shall be able to prove that we are capable of thinking and acting for ourselves. He certainly is bringing that great question to a fair trial, whether the negroes possess sufficient reasoning powers to govern themselves, or, in short, whether they have the same capacities as white men. And he is the only man, I think, in the world who could have given it so bold a trial.

In conversation one day with Baron Dupuey upon his treasures, he said, "it is true I do possess immense treasures, and I know men think I am hording it for the mere pleasure of hording; but they are mistaken; and whenever that treasure can be of use to my fellow-citizens, in procuring them liberty and independence, it is ready to come down from the citadel." What a pity that such grand plans should depend upon the life of one individual, but I hope he will live long enough to give stability to his government and sys

tem, but should any thing happen to him now, all would go in a minority to perfect ruin and barbarism.

On my taking leave, I said I had only one think to regret, not seeing Sans-Souci and Citadel d'Henry: he said, when you come back you shall come out to me at Sans-Souci, and I will go with you myself to the Citadel, but I have been putting down a great deal, and making alterations and enlargements, and I dont like to show things in an unfinished state.

Sans-Souci, which, in my last visit, was merely his country palace, is now become, I am told, a handsome town, with a larger population than Cape Henry. The palace, they say, has undergone great alterations and improvements, and you may guess his magnificence when I tell you that the furniture for his grand hall of audience and state is expected daily from Paris, agreed for at one million of francs, and a German (for he will not allow a Frenchman to come) is to have 5000 dollars to fit it up.

The Citadel is hardly to be described. It appears from the sea at the distance of 15 miles, when clear of clouds, like one of those enchanted castles in old romances. It is built on the rocky pinnacle of the highest hill, said to be 1,500 feet above the level of the sea. He is now enlarging it, and I was told, but I do not believe it, that it will contain 20,000 men. I should guess 8000. He has a very handsome palace in it. Here are all his treasures. He is is now building strong martello towers on the adjoining hills, which will give him a great command of hill country for raising food for his army. Except by treachery, I think it impregnable. There is no want of water, for it is always in the clouds.

The governor of Cape Henry, the Duke of Marmalade, a regular old black fellow, but an excellent and upright man, gave the officers and me a grand dinner. I took 12 of them, and we sat down 36. We had two Dukes, three Counts, and four Barons, and all the strangers who had asked me to dinner. He gave us a most gentlemanlike dinner, with an elegant desert and good wine, and we drank all our toasts standing with three times three. They were very moderate, but this is not natural; they like a glass of wine. But the king might VOL. IV.

send for any of them, as they were all of his staff,

By the time you have got this far, I think you will be as tired of reading as my fingers are of writing. I send this through Mr And be lieve me, very truly, yours,

P. S. Did I mention that the king is determined to change the language from bad French to English? In consequence of the schools, those who do speak English speak it most correctly. They wish to annihilate every trace of a Frenchman.

AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL
ESSAY ON THE TRADE AND COM-
MUNICATION OF THE ARABIANS
AND PERSIANS WITH RUSSIA AND

SCANDINAVIA, DURING THE MID-
DLE AGES.

Introduction.

AMONG the great monarchies which conquerors have founded in the world, scarcely any was more remarkable in its origin, or more extensive in its comprehension, than that empire which

The following essay, translated from the Danish of J. L. Rasmussen, prælector of the oriental languages in the University of Copenhagen (Copenh. 1815), will, it is presumed, be considered as affording a great deal of information, hitherto but very little known, respecting the state of Russia, and the northern countries of Europe, during the middle ages, drawn from sources which have hitherto been in a great measure inaccessible. The learned author has been at the trouble of collecting most that is to be found in the best Arabian geographers, relating to those countries. Their accounts are indeed, on the whole, very unsatisfactory, inaccurate, and sometimes entirely fabulous; yet they, at the same time, contain and frequently surprise us by indications of a great deal of truth and curious matter, a much more extensive acquaintance with the north of Europe than we could have expected in a people so far to the south. The principal argument by which it is proved that a commercial communication must have existed between the Arabians and Persians and the Scandinavians, through the medium of the Russians, during the middle ages, is bic coins, from the countries lying near thei Caspian Sea, have frequently been found in various parts of Russia, and on the shores, of the Baltic Sea, and appear to have found S

the circumstance, that Cufic, or ancient Ara

was established by the successors of Mahommed, and called the Chalifat. The Arabians, who had long before been celebrated for their bravery and invincible spirit, but lived mutually separated, and without any regular connexion between the different tribes, wanted only a man, who could, by religion and political ambition, unite their separate races into one people, rouse their latent power, and communicate to them a high character, proportionable to the vivid imagination of the nation. Such a man was Mahommed. The noble inspiration, the firm conviction of the truth and divine origin of the new religion, the consequent extraordinary courage and immoveable firmness in all undertakings which animated the Prophet, and his successors the Chalifs, the deficiency of good governments among unwarlike neighbours, the native propensity of the Arabians to war and adventurous undertakings; to which may be added, the command to propagate religion by the sword, enjoined by the koran, that highest ideal of poetry and eloquence: all these circumstances are sufficient to shew us how it was possible, that the empire of the Arabians, together with their religion and language, was, in less than a century after the death of the Prophet, extended from the Atlantic Ocean to India, and from the deserts of Africa and the Indian Ocean to France, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor, Georgia and the Caspian Sea. Under the Abbasside the sciences began to flourish among the Arabians, especially from the zeal of Harun Alrashid and his son Almamun, and their zealous exertions for their advancement. The learned were now no longer satisfied, like their forefathers, with cultivating poetry and language, but devoted themselves to the mathematical, philosophical, historical, and geographical sciences. Their immense conquests, which comprehended the largest and best part of the inhabited world, must have greatly contributed to extend their knowledge of the earth, which was certainly but limited

their way thither in such vast quantities, that they are hardly ever found any where else; which can only be explained by the supposition, that commerce was the channel by which they were brought. Almost all the notes given by the author have been omitted by the translator, having been judg. ed to be here unnecessary.

before; and the same effect must have been continued even after some of the conquered countries had delivered themselves from the yoke of the Chalifs, and had become independent kingdoms, since their mutual intercourse was very seldom entirely interrupted.

It need not, therefore, be matter of astonishment, that we owe almost entirely to the Arabians our more accurate acquaintance with these countries during the middle ages. But the Arabians did not continue to be conquerors alone; greater power and wealth, and the natural consequences of these, a change of life, the desire and want of more numerous and refined enjoyments, created of course a great many wants, which were unknown to them in a Nomadic state, and rendered commerce necessary, of which the different conquered nations, that were for the most part civilized, presented them with examples, and which the Prophet himself promoted by the injunction of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean (for they seldom or never ventured upon the Atlantic, but sailed along the coasts only), gave their maritime commerce a considerable compass, although that was never any thing more than of a secondary consequence compared with the usual trade, which was carried on from their own country, by means of caravans, a method rendered necessary in consequence of the immense plains of their country. This trade was divided into three great branches, not to mention the innumerable inferior channels, and One the great pilgrimage to Mecca. of these passed, and is still continued, towards the south from Barbary (the country of the Berbers), the country of Dates and Egypt, through the desert of Sahara, which abounds in salt, to Nigritia, whence they fetched gold, slaves, and ivory. The other was directed to the east from Persia, through Cashmere to India and China, or, from the northern provinces of Persia, through the wastes of Tartary to Chi

na.

The direction of the third, of which alone we shall treat, was to the north from Armenia, Derbend (Babel-abwab), and the northern provinces of Persia over the Caspian Sea to Chazaria (now Astracan), and thence farther to the countries of the Bulgarians, Russians and Slavi, and our northern regions.

Although the Byzantine historians have given us considerable information, especially concerning a part of southern Russia, the accounts of the Arabian geographers, derived from more or less credible authorities, respecting these immense regions, are nevertheless of no inconsiderable importance. From these we shall see, that the acquaintance which the Arabians had with the countries to the north of the Caspian Sea, reached, if not so far as the Baltic Sea (which we have no sufficient proofs for believing they knew by name), at least very near it, and was therefore very extensive, and much greater than could have been expected from a people, who, as inhabiting the south, could have no very favourable ideas of the north, and besides, as true believers, must have considered all those of a different religion, and particularly heathens and idolaters, as an abomination. It will finally also be seen, that Scandinavia was not altogether unknown to the Arabians in the middle ages, although their knowledge of it was, in consequence of the distance, but very imperfect; that the accounts they received of it, as they passed through several reporters, and as no Arabians ever proceeded so far north, must have been extremely falsified and mixed up with fables; and lastly, that the names of places and countries, on account of the vast difference between the language and pronunciation of the ancient Danes and those of the Arabians, and the great number of intermediate peoples, each of which pronounced the words in their own manner, are to us, at present, in a great degree unintelligible.

The printed and manuscript Arabic geographers which have been made use of in this inquiry stand thus in chronological order. Alfraganii elementa astronomica, ed. Golius. Alfragani wrote about the year of the Hegira 230, A. D. 800, under the Chalifat of Almamun. What he says on these countries, however, as well as the whole of his description of the world, is very short. Ibn Haucal wrote, in the tenth century, a geographical work, which, according to a Persian version, has been translated and published in English by Ouseley. Abulhasan Ali, surnamed Masudi, a writer of the tenth century, wrote an universal history, called, "Golden Pastures and Mines rich in Pearls." Of this work

66

Deguignes has given a short description in the Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliotheque du Roi, tom i. The geography of Edrisi, the Nubian geographer, called "The Recreation of a curious Mind." He wrote in the twelfth century in Sicily, under the government of Roger I. This work was printed in Rome in Arabic only, and a Latin version by two Maronites at Paris in 1619. Abdallah Yacuti wrote a geographical dictionary in alphabetical order, called Mojamel Boldan." Nothing is said of this author in D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale, but it appears from the beginning of his work, which he says he commenced on the 11th night of the month of Moharram, in the year (of the Hegira) 625, that he is to be referred to the 13th century. Nasiriddin's Tables of Latitude and Longitude. He lived in the thirteenth century, Ulug Beg, the son-in-law of Tamerlane, and lord of Samarcand, wrote his Tables, A. H. 841, A. D. 1437. Zecharia Ben Mohammed, surnamed Cazwini (from Cazwin, a city of Persian Irak), a writer of the thirteenth century, has written, besides several other works, one, called " The Wonders of Countries.' This work, being the best of all, has been chiefly here made use of. Serajiddin Abu Giafar Omar ben Modhaffer Ibn Mohammed ben Omar Ibn Alvarai, an author of the thirteenth century, wrote a work, entitled "The Unperforated Pearl of Wonders and the Precious Stone of Rarities." The time in which he lived is not exactly known, but he appears to have been contemporary with Cazwini, who, according to the testimony of Deguignes, speaks of him. frequently. This being the case, Cazwini must have copied from Ibn Alvardi, for their respective works resemble one another so much, that he who has read that of the former will find it scarcely necessary to read that of the latter. Deguignes has given an extract of this in the Notices et Extraits des MSS., &c. tom ii. Abderrashid ben Saleh ben Nuri, surnamed Yacuti, or Bakui, who lived in the fifteenth century, is the author of a geographical work, called " An Explanation of what is most remarkable among the Wonderful Works of the Almighty King." According to Deguignes, he lived about A. H. 806, A, D. 1403, and followed Cazwini.

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