. 
54 
tain the ship, open the dam at low water, 
and float it in with the tide; the dike is 
then closed; the next labour is to fill 
the bason to the brim by baling in water. 
The dam is then raised, and filled and 
raised alternately, till the vessel floats at 
the height required; they then fill the ba- 
son with earth, by which means the wa- 
ter rises above the dam andruns off, and 
the vessel is left bedded in soft mould: 
this they drain by holes at the bottom, 
and leave it for.six weeks or two months, 
tillthey judge the earth to have acquired 
a sufficient solidity. They then dig 
round the vessel, placing supports and 
stocks as they go on, till they havecleared 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
all the earth away, and left the ship so 
propped that they can repair her bot 
tom. 
The useful information contained in 
this work might have well been com- 
prised into an article for a magazine, 
where it would have appeared more 
respectably than in the large type of two 
thin. volumes. The primts are very 
worthless ;, dresses indifferently deline- 
ated, and views of European buildings 
in Hindostan, not of the buildings of 
the country, for they would have re, 
quired more skiJl than was necéssary to. 
describe the straight lines of common, 
masonry. 
Arr. IX. The History of New South Wales; including Botany Bay, Port Fackiony 
Paramatta, Sydney, and all its Dependenctes 3 from the original Discovery of the Island 
avith the Customs and Manners of the Natives, and an Account of the English Colony, 
fiom its Fuundation to the present Time. By Geonct Barnincton, Superintendans 
of the Convicts. 8vo. pp. about 500., 
An Account of a Voyage to New South Wales. By Gvorce Barzincron, Superintens 
dant of the Convicts. To which is prefixed a Detail of his Life, Trials, Speeches, Gee 
8vo. pp. 470. » 
THE publisher of these books has, 
with great propriety, attributed.them in 
the title-page toa pickpocket ; since the 
former is for the most part a piracy of 
Captain Collins’s History of New South 
Wales, and the latter of Mr. Barrow’s 
Account of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and Sir G. Staunton’s History of the 
British Embassy to China. . 
Arr. X. Travels of Four Years and a Half, in the United States of America, during 
1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802. Dedicated by Permission to Thomas Jefferson, Esqa 
President of the United States. By Joun Davis. 8vo. pp. 454. ; 
MR. BAVIS has misnamed his book, 
it is rather the memoirs of his own life 
in America, than the history of his tra- 
vels there. Such a title indeed would 
have attracted little attention, for who 
isJohn Davis? The vanity of self-biogra- 
phy never fails to excite the sarcasm and 
contempt of those, who: themselves in- 
dulge a far less pardonable vanity ; who, 
being by nature infericr, counteract the 
paintul consciousness of inferiority, by 
Jooking in every man, and in every-au- 
thor for his faults, nor is this author’s 
account of himself such as will concili- 
ate the favour of the world; he «went to 
America to be “the architect of his 
own fortunes,’* He was an acventurer, 
an itinerant schoolmaster; add to the 
crime of poverty that he is a man of 
genius, and that he knows his own 
worth, and it willbe evident that Mr, 
Davis is guilty of every thing that can 
provoke envy, hatred, malice, and un- 
charitableness. 
On his arrival at New York, Mr. Da- 
‘vis found his letters of recommendation 
useless. He became acquainted with a 
friendly bookseller, and obtained a pre- 
sent supply, and some reputation, by 
translating Bonaparte’s campaign in 
Italy. Inthe infant state of American 
literature, such was the celebrity of this 
translation, that Mr. Burr, the present 
vice-president of the United States, 
soughtout the writer in his obscure lodg- 
ings, and invited him to his house. 
From New York the traveller soon 
removed to Philadelphia; the character 
of the hotels in that city is well intros 
duced. 
+« Mr. Pecquet received me with a bows 
ine mien, and called Jeannette for the 
passepartout to shew me his apartments. 
He exercised all his eloquence to make me 
lodge in his hotel. He observed that his 
chause was not like an American house ; that 
he did not in summer put tselve beds in 
one room; but that every lodger had a room 
to himself, and Mousieur, added he very 
solemnly, ‘* Ici il ne sera pas necessaire de 
sortir de yotre lit, Comme chez les Ameri- 
‘cains, pour aller & la fenétre, car Jeannette 
