28 
his declamations in verse, but this may 
suffice to give an idea of his intellectual 
system, which has many features of 
the ancient pantheism. We will re- 
turn to his dramatic works on some 
future occasion. 
—>—_—_ 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
TRANSLATION of a REPORT, presented 
to the KING, by BARON PORTAL, on 
FRENCH GUIANA, Judy 1, 1821. 
OUBTS having arisen as to the 
possibility of introducing labour- 
ers, and forming agricultural settle- 
ments in French Guiana, a more ex- 
tensive and formal examination be- 
came, in some measure, necessary, as 
a prelude to the establishing of any 
colony. Accordingly, in obedience to 
the king’s orders, three commissaries 
set out from Havre, September 3, 1820, 
and arrived at Cayenne on the 20th of 
October. There three commissioners, 
selected from the local residents, were 
to share in their labours. 
On the 29th the commissioners em- 
barked for the Mana, distant about fifty 
leagues, and on the 5th of November 
the Isere, a king’s brig, on board of 
which they were, reached the entrance 
of that river. 
The company composing the com- 
mission, with a military detachment, 
consisting chiefly of workmen and Ga- 
liois Indians, ‘hired at Tracoubo, and on 
the Maroni, sailed in the Isere Sagolette, 
to the height of eleven leagues. 
From this point, which is on this 
side of the first Waterfall, and where the 
principal post was established, eleven 
detachments were sent out in different 
directions to reconnoitre the Organabo, 
the Iracoubo, and the Maroni. 
The Mana was ascended to about fifty 
leagues from its mouth, and the lands 
on both sides were explored toa consi- 
derable depth. Besides other of its 
tributary streams, the Tracoubo, the 
Couanama were navigated, either up- 
wards or downwards, with the sounding 
lead in hand. 
Seventeen journals or reports, and 
three charts in four folios, delineate 
the operations. heth of the commis- 
sioners and of the officers of the royal 
marine, and other persons who assisied 
in the survey. 
The region of the Lowlanils. or the 
Alluvial Districts, as they are termed, 
do not stretch above three leagues 
and a half fromthe mouth of the Mana. 
At the same distance the insects of 
the marshes disappear. In advancing 
Baron Portal’s Report on French Guiana. 
[ feb. 1, 
further the lauds eho alternately 
level, and slightly undnlated ; the soil, 
on approaching the high lands, gra- 
duates from indifferent to good, and 
becomes excellent, especially in the 
whole length of the left bauk, and still. 
more in proceeding towards the Ma- 
rodi. 
The lands are covered with trees of 
different kinds, well adapted in general 
for all the purposes of timber. Harri- 
canes and the yellow fever are un- 
known in Guiana, The country is in- 
tersected with rivers that disembogue 
into the Mana and the Maroni, and 
either already navigable, or capable of 
being easily made so. 
The thirteen falls in the Mana, in the 
distance between eleven leagues above 
its mouth fo an advance of about fifty 
more, may he passed over at all times 
by canoes and flat-bottomed boats. In 
the rainy season the falls disappear, and 
there is a sufficiently strong current of 
water. 
From observations made during forty- 
five successive days at the principal 
post, the average of the greatest heat is 
22 degrees ofReaumur. The tempera- 
ture more moderate in the higher 
parts. a3 
Two posts have been fixed on the 
Mana, the principal one distant about 
eleven leagues, and another about seven 
from its mouth. The former is the 
highest point that barges and other 
vessels can reach, under the present 
circumstances; the second, in all ap- 
pearance, would be as far as any Euro- 
pean vessel could penetrate. Should a 
colony be established, its situation 
would render it the seat of government 
and business in general. 
The operations on the Mana termi- 
nated Dec. 25, 1820. 
One part of their instructions the 
conunissioners were unable to execute, 
penetrating further into the interior, 
and by surmounting the heights, to get 
at the source of the Oyapock ; but the 
rainy season approaching, and with it 
the rise of the rivers, these were obsta- 
eles which, in an unknown country, 
could not be overcome. It is, however, 
intended, by. means of the establish- 
ments already fixed on the Mana, to 
accomplish the whole object of the com- 
mission. 
The principal aim has already been 
attained, as the commandant and go- 
vernor-general for the king at Cayenne, 
has signified in a letter to Baron Portal.” 
Between the Mana and the Maroni, 
and 
