Ixiv 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



*' at Sea a fmall bottle well corked np. Impatient 

 *' to know what it might contain, they broke it; 

 " it was a letter, the addrefs of which they could 

 " not read, conceived in the Englith Language. 

 •' They carried it to the Judge of the Admiralty, 

 *' who had it depofited in his regiftry. The in- 

 *' fcription announcing that it belonged to an 



Similar refources might be found among amphibious animals, 

 fuch as tortoifes, which tranfport themfelves to inconceivable 

 diftances, by means of the Currents, I have read fomewhere in 

 the Hifl:ory of China, that one of it's ancient Kings, accompanied 

 by a ciowd of people, one day beheld a tortoife emerge from the 

 Sea, on the back of which were infcribed the Laws which, at this 

 day, conftitute the bafis of the Chinefe government. It is pro- 

 bable that this Legiflator had availed himfclf of the moment, when 

 this tortoife come on fliore, according to cuftom, to look out for a 

 place where to lay her eggs, to write upon her back the Laws which 

 he wiflied to eftablifli ; and that he, in like manner, took advan- 

 tage of the day following this arrangement, when that animal ne- 

 ver fails to return to the fame place, to depofit her eggs, to im- 

 prefs on a fimple People a refpeft for Laws which iflued out of 

 the bofom of the Ocean, and at light of the wonderful tablets on 

 M'hich they were infci ibed. 



Sea-birds might, farther, furnifli more expeditious methods of 

 communication, in as much as their flight is very rapid, and that 

 they were fo familiar on the defert fliores, that you may take them 

 by the hand, as I know from my own experience on the ifland of 

 Afcenfion. There might be affixed to them, together with a let- 

 ter of information, fome remarkable fignal ; and choice might be 

 made, in preference, of fuch birds as arrive regularly at different 

 (eafons, and which frequent particular fliores, nay of the land 

 birds of paflage, fuch as the wood-pigeon. 



Englifll 



