30 Life and Services of Captain Philip Beaver. [July, 



vanity, that we are unconscious of, misleads us, has always distinguished 

 the navy of this from that of every other country, and by developing 

 the principles and characters of British sailors, excite at once the respect 

 and emulation of their countrymen. 



The " Life and Services of the late Captain Philip Beaver" is a valuable 

 addition to this branch of literature. It is compiled from his own 

 papers, by Captain W. H. Smyth, who appears to have been well 

 acquainted with him when living, and who has discharged the task of 

 making him known to his country and to posterity, as he deserved to 

 be, with such simplicity and good taste, as entitle him to great applause. 

 The events which it relates are not in themselves very singular, or very 

 important ; but as they are those whicli belong to the service, and as 

 they tend to shew, in a point of view at once accurate and favourable, 

 the character of an officer who may be taken as a good specimen of the 

 race to which he belonged, they possess a peculiar interest. Captain 

 Beaver was the third son of a respectable, but not wealthy, clergyman, 

 whose sudden death left a widow and a family of eight children almost 

 without provision. Philip, then eleven years old, went to sea in 1777j 

 with Captain, afterwards Admiral Rowley, who commanded the 

 Monarch. A cruise among the west India Islands during the American 

 war initiated him into all the mysteries of his profession; and he under- 

 took the duties assigned to him with so much alacrity, and made so 

 rapid a progress, that his skill and general merit were universally 

 recognized ; the commanding officers were desirous of securing his assis- 

 tance; and, in May IT^i-l, in his nineteenth year, and when he had been 

 in the service less than six years and a half, he obtained his Lieutenant's 

 commission, for which he had the satisfaction of knowing he was in- 

 debted to his own exertions. 



The active mind of the young sailor began to crave for employment, 

 which, owing to the termination of the war, his OM-n profession no longer 

 offered him, and he engaged with ]Mr. Dalrymple in a scheme for colo- 

 nizing the Island of Bulama, near the then new settlement of Sierra 

 Leone, which the cunning and cupiditj- of some African traders had 

 deluded the government of this country to establish. The result every 

 body knows. Sierra Leone has cost Great Britain immense sums of 

 money; has never yielded one farthing in return ; and, as Sir George Mur- 

 ray said, very recently, in the House of Commons, the lives of every 

 one of its successive goveniors have been sacrificed to the fatal insa- 

 lubrity of the climate, with the exception of Sir C. IMacarthy, Avho was 

 put to death with horrid tortures by the natives. Captain Beaver's 

 notion of its capabilities was expressed shortly and strongly, " When," 

 says he, "they make a hogshead of sugar there, I will engage to do the 

 same at Chariiig-cross." It has, however, been an amusing plaything 

 for the African Society ; and although it may have taken some good 

 round sums out of this country's resources, the pockets of JMr. Zachary 

 Macaulay have been the better for it. 



The island of Bulama did seem, in truth, to present some of the ad- 

 vantages which were falsely attributed to Sierra Leone. It is situated 

 at the East end of the Bijuga Archipelago, and was estimated to be 

 about seven leagues in length, by from two to five in breadth. The new 

 settlement, which was called Hespereleusis, lies in latitude 11°. 34'. 

 north, and in longitude 15°. 30'. west. It rises gradually from the shore 

 towards the centre, where the height is nearly a hundred feet ; and it is 





