208 Foreign Literature and Science. 



is preserved ; and it is this circumstance which renders this spe- 

 cies of rocks so dangerous in navigation. In the first place, they 

 are seldom seen above the water ; and in the next, their sides 

 are so abrupt that a ship's bows may strike against the rock be- 

 fore any change of soundings, indicates the approach of danger." 



But, the most remarkable topic, which this volume presents, 

 relates rather to moral than to physical causes. The inhab- 

 itants of the Loo-Choo islands, who occupy a principal 

 place in the book, seem like a different race of beings from 

 the rest of mankind. Destitute of arms and strangers to war — 

 without money, and ignorant of its use — not tempted by gold 

 and silver, which they regard with indifference ; highly acute 

 and intelligent, but amiable and gentle, even to the extreme 

 of kindness — bestowing on strangers, provisions, both ani- 

 mal and vegetable, and all the bounties of their fruitful isl- 

 ands, without recompense, although pressed upon them in 

 every form ; — refusing even presents, except at last, a few 

 articles, by way of remembrance ; comfortable and happy 

 in the midst of a country cultivated with skill and care-and un- 

 der a government apparently regal, but mild and patriarchal, 

 and in a state of society, exhibiting the most perfect good 

 order — affectionate to their children, who, in their turn, are 

 dutiful to their parents — hospitable and convivial, but jealous 

 to the extreme, of having their territory occupied and ex- 

 amined by strangers, and absolutely excluding them from even 

 the sight of their females, and thus evincing their wise and 

 exalted estimation of their own domestic purity and peace ! 

 No wonder that the description of such a people excited the 

 incredulity of the acute Napoleon !* We could scarcely 

 admit their existence, upon authority less respectable than 

 that of Capt. Hall. 



The Loo-Chooans have, it would seem, an order of priests 

 although treated with little respect, and a few traces of re- 

 ligious ceremonies. 



We had thought, that the character of the Pelew Island- 

 ers, as exhibited many years since, by the historian of Capt. 

 Wilson's disastrous voyage, sufficiently surprising ; but the 

 Loo-Chooans appear quite without a parallel, either among 

 civilized or barbarous, among christian or pagan nations, 

 and it must remain for future travellers to explain this strange 

 anomaly in the human character. — Ed. 



* During an interview which Captain Hall, on his return from the east, had 

 with the ex-emperor at St. Helena, in August 1817. 



