446 MonUilij Review of Lileraiure. . [|OcT. 



Polynesian Researches, by William Ellis, Vol. 4. 



The fourth volume of Mr. Ellis's collections relative to the isles of the Pacific, 

 is wholly occupied with the Sandwich group, and contains all that is known or 

 knowable of them, as to their history and the habits of the natives, since the 

 discovery by Captain Cook : for of their history before that discovery little can 

 be gathered at all definite. There are no records, and every thing is obscure 

 and vague in their recollections : their very traditions scarcely extend beyond 

 their grandfathers. Mr. Ellis traces accounts of the arrival of foreigners three 

 times before Captain Cook, none of them, obviously, very remote. The most so, 

 is that of the priest Paao, whom Mr. Ellis conjectures to have been a Roman 

 Catholic priest, driven out to sea from the Japan or American coast, or the sole 

 survivor of a wreck, and the gods he brought with him, an image and a crucifix. 

 The latest arrival consisted of seven persons in a painted boat, with an awning 

 at the stern, but no mast or sails. Tlie people were white, and dressed in white 

 or yellow, and one of them had a long knife by his side, and a feather in his hat. 

 They married native women, became chieftains, and for a time held the govern- 

 ment of the Hawaii (Owhyhee). Their descendants are still distinguishable — 

 they have lighter complexions, and brown curly hair, and themselves claim to be 

 so descended. Avery complete account, we repeat, of the islands, as to their 

 extent, population, habits, history, and much of the territorial peculiarities, may 

 be collected from the volume, though it is in itself inartificially put together. 

 A great deal of it is descriptive of a tour round the main island, and thus much 

 of the information relative to the condition and circumstances of the natives is 

 given incidentally, and it is not very easy to find what you want. But all is 

 there, if the reader can command patience to hunt for it. Mr. Ellis was him- 

 self engaged some years as a missionary — he knows perfectly what he describes, 

 and honesty of purpose breathes in every line. 



Cuvieh's Animal Kingdom, translated dy Edward Griffith, F.L.S. 



AND Others. 



Mr. Griffith and his coadjutors are rendering an important service to science 

 by this translation of Baron Cuvier's popular and admirable work. Widely as it 

 was consulted before, its usefulness will be considerably extended by this publi- 

 cation ; embracing, as it does, large additional descriptions of all the species 

 hitherto named, and of many that have never before come under the notice of 

 the zoologist. In fact, Mr. Griffith's notes and additions would of themselves 

 form a work of no mean pretensions as to extent, and are admirably calculated 

 to illustrate and improve the general arrangement of Cuvier. The engravings 

 are not only excellent in themselves, and important as giving delineations (many 

 of them at least) of new and unfigured species, but they are also numerous — the 

 Mammalia alone monopolizing upwards of two hundred. Thirty of the fifty 

 parts announced as the extent of the work have already appeared, and of these 

 thirty one convenient character is, that each class is distinct in itself, ;and 

 forms a separate work, independent of its connection with the series of the 

 Animal Kingdom. 



Tales of the late Revolutions, with a few others, by F. W. N. Batley, 

 Author of Four Years in the West Indies, &c. 



Mr. Bayley seizes upon recent political revolutions and events, to illustrate 

 their disastrous effects upon domestic felicities by details, which shew their in- 

 terference with the security of private life. All his tales turn upon the interrup- 

 tion given by them to the loves of the young, and the enjoyments of the old ; 

 but while he thus laments, he professes himself a lover of liberty, and ready to 

 exult in her triumphs. It is a sort ot insidious advocacy, however, betraying while 

 it eulogizes ; and leading us to dwell more upon immediate bad effects than upon 

 ultimate good, upon particular evils more than general benefits. After destroy- 

 ing the hopes of one set of lovers in Poland, driving another poor girl mad in 

 Brussels for the loss of her admirer, and plunging a third into pining melan- 



