12) | VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
genuine taste for the oddities of our ex- 
cellent old writers. » 
O Nature to Old England still 
Continue these mistakes, 
Give us for our Kings such Queens 
And for our Dux such Drakes. 
The volume concludes with an ac- 
count of the charts belonging to it, and 
‘observations on the geography of the 
36th century. An appendix is added, 
containing remarks on the projection of 
eharts, and the degree of curvature pro- 
per to be given to the parallels of ‘Jati- 
tude. 
We consider this work as a very valu- 
able addition to our maritime history. 
To execute it well required extensive 
knowledge, diligent research, and great 
professional skill, and these rare requi- 
sites the author evidently possesses, 
There is nothing superfluous in the vo- 
lume; whatever is not generally interest- 
ing, is either necessary to historical pre- 
cision, or to practical science. The re- 
maining parts of the work we may rea- 
sonably expect to rise in value and in 
interest, when Captain Burney comes to 
relate what he himself has seen. 
Art. II. The Progress of Maritime Discovery, from the Earliest Period to the Close of 
the Eighteenth Century : forming an extensive System of Hydrography. By JamesSTaNier 
Crarke, F. R. S. Domestic Chaplain to the Prince. Vol. I. 4to. 980 pages, 13 
plates and 5 maps. 
FROM the preface to this bulky vo- 
Jume we copy Mr. Clarke’s account of 
his work: 
«* The introduction. to this volume will 
be found to contain a progressive memoir of 
maritime discoveries. by the Cuthites, and 
Phenicians, the Greeks, Carthaginians, and 
Romans. The work itself, after some il- 
Fustrations of commercial history, in which, 
ainong other subjects, the doubtful progress 
ef the Norman mariners is glanced at, 
roceeds to review the early periods of 
ortuguese history prior to the fifteenth 
century ; an account is then given of their 
most distinguished writers on Portuguese 
Asia and America; and the history of their 
discoveries follows, from the reign of John 
the first in 1385, to the arrival of da Gama 
in 1498 on the coast of Malabar; which 
completes the first great division of my 
labours. In the appendix are many curious 
and scarce tracis respecting navigation, 
which are intended to elucidate the preceding 
pages.” 
Mr. Clarke’s introduction fills 230 
quarto pagess he entitles it an historical 
memoir of ancient maritime discoveries. 
This is altogether a work of superero- 
gation; the antient discoveries are fit 
subjects for curious eaguiry, for anti- 
quarian research: but the dissertation 
here is misplaced. Whatever they may 
have been, they were forgotten; they 
have no more connection with modern 
discoveries than the history of the Roman 
republic with the history of the popes. 
This memoir commences with a long 
discourse, for which a text may be found 
in old Thomas Fuller: “ Was not God 
the first shipwright? and all vessels in 
the water descended from the loins, or 
rather ribs, of Noah’s Ark? or else who 
durst be so bold with a few crooked 
boards nailed together, a stick standing 
upright, and arag tied to it, to adventure 
into the ocean?” The discourse thus 
opens: 
«‘ Tmagination has delighted to trace the 
origin of navigation fron: the instinct of 
boyant Nautili, or the appearance of a float- 
ing oak, which amidst the sudden ravages of 
inundation supported the animal that had 
reposed beneath its shade. ‘The celebrated 
fragment of Sanchoniatho the Phenician, 
which Eusebius has preserved, declares that 
Ousous one of his country, was the first 
that formed a canoe froma tree half consumed 
by fire: but the more enlightened historian 
will desist from the accustomed repetition of 
Pagan fables, and refer his readers to more 
sublime and authentic records. He will 
recal to their attention that stupendous act 
of divine merey and immutable justice, by 
which the human race was punished and pre- 
served; by which the earth was purified 
throughout its most distant extent: he will 
affirm, and appeal to heaven for the truth of 
his opinion, that the great archetype of na- 
vigation was the ark of Noah, constructed 
by divine direction. 
«The pagan sage ignorant of that sacred 
histary, was urged by an unpardonable im- 
pulse of vanity, to augment the obscurity 
which time and apostacy had cast over the 
earliest ages: he therefore assigned with no 
sparing hand to his own nation, whatever 
tended to give an idea of high antiquity to 
its annals; and employed the Seattnaiad events 
of postdiluvian history, as fair spoil, to en- 
rich the splendid tissue of his own narration. 
Even the insigne of the triads of God, which 
eastern superstition had distinguished as the 
trident of the Indian Seeva, was given by a 
strange infatuation to the Pagan Neptune ; 
whose throne is described as placed in that 
abyss} which had been employed to destroy 
the impiety of preceding ages. 
«< The plausible tale of Grecian mytho- 
logy being once fabricated, was continued’ 
