named the Islands of Solomon, rather cafually and fancifully, than for any particular reafon." In fpeaking of the charts inferted in his work, Witfliet informs us that, for the known parts of the globe, he has followed the common maps, but for every thing elfe he has had recourfe to the newest charts and narratives. Such are the principal authorities which can be cited to establish the pofition of Solomon's Iflands. We find enormous differences in thefe, as well as on the maps, in the diftance of thefe islands from the coaft of Peru. There are even contradictions in the molt refpectable authors, as Acoita and Herrera; but by bringing thefe opinions together and comparing them with each other, it is eafy to perceive which are the best founded and moft deferving of confidence.. It is evident that the distance of 800 leagues, marked by Acosta, and adopted without examination by Herrera and Lopez Vaz, is a grofs error, by which we cannot fuffer ourfeives to be mfled. Acofta publifhed his work in 1590, five years before Mendana's fecond voyage, and feems to be the first who mentioned the Islands of Solomon. The arrival of Admiral Drake in the South Sea, after the frit voyage of Mendana, occafioned the establishment of a colony in thefe iflands to be fufpended for 28 years, leit the English fhould gain informa tion of them. It is therefore probable that when Acofta fpoke of them, he had but a very vague idea of their fi tuation and it is worthy of remark, that he makes no mention of their la titude, which all the other authors have reported uniformly. In a letter from Quiros to Don Antonio Morga, Lieutenant General of the Philippine Islands, it appears that, after having given him an account of Mendana's fecond voyage, be begged him to keep it fecret: "It is defireable fays Quiros, that thefe ilands fhould remain unknown, be caufe, as they lie betweem Peru, New Spain, and the Philippines,the English, if they were informed of them, might make fettlements there of dangerous confequence to Spain." It is therefore further probable that Mendana's journals would be kept fecret a long time after his expeditions; and we may hence conclude that all the authors, except Quiros and Figueroa, poke of the lands of Solomon on very vague information or heariay; which accounts for the differences and contradictions in their reports. Herrera, in particular, feems to have been ill informed, if we may judge by the immenfe extent he attributes to most of thefe iflands. The fame may be faid of Lopez Vaz, who places Guadalcanar in 18 degrees fouth latitude, and of the author confulted by Robert Dudley, who fays that these islands were discovered in 1580, inflead of 1567. Quiros reckons 1500 leagues from the coaft of Peru to Solomon's Islands : Figueroa, from the firit of Mendana's voyages, makes it 1610, and 1580 to the land of Santa-Cruz, from the fecond voyage. We may now perceive the reason of these different refults. M. de B ugainville has obferved, in the narrative of his voyage round the world, that all the naviga tors who have croffed the South Sea have fallen in with New Guinea, much fooner than they ought by their reckoning; and that, confequently, they have given this fea a much smaller extent from east to west than in truth it has this error he attributes to the effect of favourable winds and currents in that ocean, not taken into their account. Thus Mendana, in his firt voyage, being as yet unacquainted with this effect of curents and winds, which bore him away perpetually to the weft, mult have estimated his way at much less than the truth; and his diftance, computed at 1610 leagues, muft be much less than it really was. The fume may be be faid of the distance given by Qui ros, who had croffed this fea but once when he drew up his memorials. The distance of 1850 leagues reckoned in Mendana's fecond voyage feems to be preferable, because the navigator was inore experienced, his course was more direct, and the distance, moreover, perfectly agrees with that reported by Richard Hawkins, from a manufcript of the Viceroy of Peru. Thefe 1850 leagues, reckoned at the proportion of 15 to a degree, as we find them in the memoirs of the early Spanish navigators, anfwer exactly to 2500 English leagues of 20 to a degree. By adopting this diftance, Solomon's Iflands recover the place near New Guinea affigned to them by Acofta, Herrera, Wi-fiet, and all the old charts; and this new agreement is a ftrong prefumption in favour of the exactness of this pofition. If we confider next the tracks of the the navigators who fought for thefe iflands, we fhall perceive that they must have been to the west of the island SantaCruz, and confequently near New Guinea. Figueroa informs us, that when Mendana was returning to thefe islands, in 1595, to found a colony, he failed on exactly between the parallels wherein he knew them to be fituated; that he carefully reconnoitred every land that he found in his way and that he arrived at the island of Santa Cruz without having fallen in with thofe which were the objea of his voyage. Having put in at Santa-Cruz, he declared, from the colour of the natives, that thefe were of the nation he was feeking; and his widow, when the left this ifland, fleered W. S W. to feek for that of St. Chriftopher. Thus, in the opinion of Mendana, the Archipelago difcovered by him in his firft voyage, was weft of Santa-Cruz. This was alfo the idea of Quiros, who, in 1606, when he fet out in fearch of the fame Archipelago, appointed Santa-Cruz as the place of rendezvous for hisTM veffels, in cafe of feparation. The fame confequence is deducible from the tracks of Byron and Carteret, who fought these islands in vain to the eaft of Santa Cruz; the latter explored the 10th and 11th parallels for more than 700 leagues, and arrived at the island of Santa-Cruz without having discovered them. From Carteret's route, the ifland of Santa-Cruz may be fixed at the longitude of 162 20' eaft of the meridian of Paris; and the extreme point of New Guinea was determined, by M. de Bougainville, to be 149° 52'. There remain, therefore, about 12 degrees and a half, or 247 leagues, between the island of Santa-Cruz and New Guinea; and as the Islands of Solomon form rather an extensive Ar. chipelago, we may take the middle of this space, and fix 156 degrees of longitude for the middle of this Archipelago. In this fituation we shall find that we are juft 2400 French marine leagues from the coaft of Peru, the exact distance affigned by Richard Hawkins and Figueroa. In this fpace, and at this longitude, there is actually a group of islands, feen by MM. de Bougainville, in 1768, and Surville, in 1769, which appear to have all the characters of thofe of Solomon. M. de Bougainville faw the western part of them, in seven degrees fouth latitude; and what he reports of the inhabitants of Choifeu! Bay, agrees with the defcription given by Mendana of the natives of the Archipelago difcovered by him. M. de Surville was in fight of these lands for the space of 130 leagues, and from the 7th to the 11th degree of latitude: not finding them fet down in any chart, he named them "The Lands of the Arfacides," from the barbarous character of the people in Port Praflin, where he had put in and what he relates of them is equally conformable to the recital of Mendana. In the fame fea, Carteret, in 1767, had dif covered covered two fmall islands, which he I think I can with confidence affert named Gower's and Simpfon's Islands, that the Lands of the Arfacides, but was far from imagining that they and Choifeul Bay, are parts of the belonged to the Islands of Solomon, Archipelago difcovered by Mendana; which he had fought fo long, and and, confequently, that the Iflands of therefore gave himself no trouble to Solomon are actually about 1850 Spaexamine them. nish leagues diftant from the coaft of Peru, and in the vicinity of New Guinea, as the early charts had indicated. Till our navigators fhall complete their discoveries in this interefting and little known portion of the globe, Extracts from a Picturefque Defcription of Switzerland: By the Marquis de BUBENDORFF, PASIL, AND ITS P RONS. Langle. ENVI HYSICIANS extol the baths of Bubendorff: I myfelf think that these baths are falutary, when one receives pleasure from ufing them. Cheerfulness may be accounted a Phyfician, on account of its excellence: it may be termed the efflorefcence of the mind; and is as neceffary to it as the bloffoms and leaves are to trees and plants. Cheerfulness is a fpecies of cofmetic-of virgin-milk, which wards off the ravages of age, and which preferves to the features, the fkin, and the complexion, an air of freshness and juvenility. Bafil has been fortified. Its ramparts are decayed, and they ftill alfaw them to decay. So much the better. Drawbridges, baftions, red coats, aud fierce cocked hats *, infpire the mind with a certain degree of melancholy, tighten the breaft, obftruct the perfpiration, and tint every idea that arifes with the colour of blood. The heart contracts itself, and occupies lefs fpace, on entering a fortified place. I love to fee ramparts nodding towards their fall -1 lave open cities, drawbridges and baftions always portend misfortunes. The Rhine runs through the middle of this place. It is at Bafil that the Rhine becomes a river-be comes beautiful becomes nobleand perhaps, even fuperior to its repu tation. In the circumference of a terrible. long mile, Bafil contains no more than twelve thousand inhabitants and yet it is termed a capital! its ftreets resemble a defert, and the grafs with which they are incumbered is a difgrace to the people. The neighbourhood of this place is delightful in the fummer, and more efpecially during the morning. It is in the morning that thofe fcenes ought always to be vifited; it is in the morning alone that they can be enjoyed; it is in the morning that nature is young-is frefa;-I had almoft faid, is a Virgin! At ten or eleven o'clock, at noon, the noife, the bustle, the rays of the fun, have already pol luted her; the flowers no longer emitting fweet odors, by this time be gin to hang down their heads: the youthful hours of the day are vanished. complain, and do not How few are the pleasures of life! little portion of them How delightful it is We murmur, to contemplate the dawn of day! How Des habits courts, de grands bonnets--has been thus familiarly tranflated. Trans How pleafant to enjoy the fweet perfumes of the morning! To rife early is productive of one of the most exquifite fenfations in life; and yet the Sun generally appears above the horizon, without finding any one to admire his glory. THE VIEW FROM THE VILLAGE OF WILD TAVERNIER. BUT if in all the univerfe there is an enchanted fpot-a fpot in which nature moft delights to fport, it is furely that in the midst of which Wild is erected. From this town, two miles distant from Bafil, one may perceive every object in the univerfe that is worthy of admiration. From the windows of its little church, you may, with a fingle glance of your eye, view Lorraine, Alface, part of Switzerland, almost all the Marquifate of Baden, the Rhine, the Birs, the Bufeck, vallies, bilis, a number of villages; in fine, a horizon fo adorned and fo immenfe, that the most warm and picturefque imagination, can never be able to conceive fuch charming landfcapes, or fuch a jovous perfpective. What a pity, that a gibbet, erected at about three thoufand paces from the place where I food, fhould have deformed this fuperb picture with its ghalily fhadow ! "How proud I fhould be," fays Cicero," how much glory fhould I not atchieve, and how much my former affociates would envy me, if the gods were to decree, that my confulship fhould become the epoch, when Rome was to fee the croffes, the wheels, the pillory, and the other fignals of execution, which difgrace our public places. difap appear from within its walls!" What would the Roman Orator have faid, if he had feen in the neighbourhood of Wild, a fcaffold that ftains and disfigures as it were, the richest and most ornamented spot on the whole furface of the globe? Switzerland, in general, may be termed the country of fine profpects. After having for twenty years inha 4 bited the moft delicious climates it Afia; after having inhaled all the perfumes of Timor, Aden and Surat ; after having trampled under his feet, the turquoife, the emerald, and the opal;-after having been cloyed with the delicate fruits and exquifite fpices of the Moluccas, of the ifland of Cey lon, and of Arabia the Happy ;-attracted and feduced by the recollec tion of the fweetness and variety of thefe fcenes, Tavernier abandoned Perfia, left the Indies, bid adieu to the Indus and the Ganges, and returned to end his days in Switzerland. We are in great want of a general map of Switzerland:-We are in great want of a topographical defcrip. tion of an original of an univerfal country of a country, that in the fpace of feventy-five leagues, unites all the features—all the fituations—all the peculiarities all the varieties, fcattered up and down, from one pole to the other. Rocks, glacieres, torrents, rivers, lakes, caverns-Nature, in all her forms, is to be found in Switzerland and Switzerland, if one may hazard the expreffion, contains the whole world in miniature. And for whom is this fuperb and magic gallery defigned? For whom are thefe grand and lubline pictures of nature intended? forwhom this aftonishing and rich creation?-For a cold, an infenfible, phlegmatic people-for a people who do not feel for any thing, who do not imagine any thing, who never weep, and who are never affected-for a people incapable of lively emotions and ftrong pallions-for a people who never were acquainted with the delirium, the enthufiafm of poetry and of painting; nor the tranfports, the delights, the agreeableneffes, the furies, the frantic and the fiery accents of an impaffioned attachment. We fhall, no doubt, wait a long time for this chart, which we fo much ftand in need of. Befides, the difficulty of meafuring a country interfected with chafms, mountains, and defiles, whoever whoever undertakes this tafk, wil. alfo have to fubdue the fufpicious tmper of the natives.-The Swits always look upon draughfines and farveyors, as fo many fpes in the pay of foreign countries. It has often happened that painters and other travellers have been topped in the midst of their labours, and have with great difficulty efcaped from the puniliment due to traito.s. MANUFACTURES OF SWITZERLAND THE INHABITANTS DETEST AGRI CULTURE. THE Swifs carry on fuch an immenfe trade in printed callico.s and ribbands, that they may be faid to furnish half the world with top knots, beaus, cloaks and petticoats. Sully, the minister of Henry IV. looked on thofe men as fools, who pretended to an uncommon fhare of intrepidity, by having doubled the Cape of Good Hope; Sully, who aligned to manufartures the last rank in political economy, who preferred the moft common fruit and puife to all the fcarce and coftly productions that the Indies could boat of, has advised the Swils to ab ndon their looms, and betake them.elves to the plough. For want of labourers, one half of their country remains uncultivated; th y, however, defpife the earth, difdain its productions, and think that agriculture would dishonour them! From thence proceeds the neceflity of importing, at a great expence, from the Mila rete, from France, from Alface, from the circle of Swabia, and the marquifate of Baden, corn, eatabies, and provifious of all kinds, which the delicate hands of the inhabitants difdain to procure for themselves. From thence proceed thofe heaths, which feem to have no en-from thence those putrid and extenfive marlhes (among others, that of Anet, n the canton of Berre) which, by Bb VOL. XIV. No. 81. means of their peftilential vapours and unhealthy togs, deftroy a number of children anneally, while yet in their cradle, and boys and girls in the flower of their age. Thus lately pe-, rihed a charming young lady, whom I faw in patling through Anet; whom I felicitated myflf with the hopes of. feeing again; but who, alas! was a corple on my return ! The Economical Society of Earne have been occupied on this fubject; the members have already laid a cat number of plans before the council;, but thefe are ftill to be confidered as fo many plans, for they remain as yet. unexecuted. The cultivation of the earth has not always been defpiled in Switzerland; for their Hiftorians recite the following anecdote with no fmall fhare of pride : A Duke of Auftria, while travelling on horfeback from Rappelwyl to. Wintherthur, happening to crois the fertile country of Kibourg, in the can, ton of Zurich, faw rear to the ligh road four noble hotfes harneffed to a plough; a youth, who poffeffed a charming perfon, directed their mo tions, while an old man, whofe hair was whitened by age, opened the furrows. Surprifed at the fuperiour air of the two labourers, no les than thẹ beauty of the cattle, the Duke flopped, and turning towards the grand mafter of the hou hold, faid, " I have never feen fuch reflectable peafants, or fuch fine hortes before." not aftomfhed, my Lord," replies this officer, thefe are the Baron du Lugi and his fon: behold, at the foot of yonder hill is the ancient cattle belonging to their family; and if you are fit in doubt, to-morrow you will fee them come to do homage to you." "Be Accordingly, on the next day, the Duke perceives the lame labourers arrive on horfeback a. his court, attended by a numerous retinue of their vassals. After the Baron had paid the ufual homage to his fovereign, he prefented his |