1821.] 
New Russian Voyage of Discovery. 
229 
ton durliur the late war, Is more than influence of princely patronage upon 
once t“ mlilto in the piem, with se- literature; but they should remember, 
vere, but we must admit“Vith merited that Mecenas only cherished the talen/ 
reprehension. Indeed, throughout the he could not hare created, and that the 
work the writer betrays an asperity of era of Augustus was the infancy of 
feeling towards England which we can- Roman despotism. The genius, which 
not altogether approve. Perhaps, too, in in its maturity prostituted itself to 
strict impartiality, his eulogiums on the decorate the nascent triumphs of impe- 
present prosperity of his own country, rial power, was cradled in the lap of 
P - P 1 ,i as somewhat extra- republicanism, and finally expired 
must be censured as - 
vagant, and his predictions of her future 
greatness be regarded as rather too 
sanguine. But the patriotic sentiments 
which have given birth to these errors, 
though pushed, perhaps, to an excess, 
are at least honourable in themselves. 
The writer evidently loves his country, 
not only as his birth-place, but for the 
liberty she enjoys, and the Indepen¬ 
dence to be found in her: and we 
should find it difficult to condemn the 
exuberance of feelings, which have 
prompted such strains as the follow¬ 
ing : 
“ O, Independence ! man’s bright mental 
sun 
beneath despotic influence, by a gra¬ 
dual but sure decay. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
NEW RUSSIAN VOYAGE of DISCOVER Y. 
I ^ARLY last year, the foreign jour- 
J nals announced an expedition fit¬ 
ting out by the Russian government to 
explore the coasts of Siberia and Asia, 
and to get further information of three 
newly discovered islands in the Glacial 
Ocean.* These islands lie opposite the 
mouth of the river Jana, and have re¬ 
ceived the collective name of New Si- 
from Dr. Erdmann, 
beria. A letter 
professor in the University of Dorpt, 
sun > , . communicates some details relative to 
With blood and tears by our brave country ^ enter p r i se> 
won > , , , ft has long been known to the neigh- 
Parent of allI high mettled man bouring inlJbitants, and the hunters 
sions in that quarter, that there existed 
an unknown country which had been 
noticed in several maps, but its extent 
remained unknown, till an inhabitant 
of Irkutsk named Hedenstrom, under¬ 
took a voyage to it in 1809 and 1810. 
He found three inhabited islands, 
wherein were mountains and rivers 
which abounded with curious objects, 
and from the report he made of it. Geo¬ 
meter Pschienizin, of Irkutsk, under¬ 
took a similar voyage in 1811. On his 
return, he prepared a chart, which how¬ 
ever has not yet been published, and 
in which these islands have been desig¬ 
nated. the easternmost, as New Siberia, 
the central one. Island Fadeecoskisch, 
and the westerly one, Island Kessel. 
Recently, two expeditions have been 
fitted out for a more minute examina¬ 
tion of these islands. They proceed 
scorns, ? 
The mounting wind that spurns the tyrant s 
sway, 
The eagle eye that mocks the God of day, 
Turns on the lordly upstart scorn for scorn, 
And drops its lid to none of woman born 1” 
We shall, though not without regret, 
closeout extracts, with the poet’s beau¬ 
tiful address to his country : 
« Yes ! lone and spotless virgin of the 
west! 
No tyrant pillows on thy swelling breast, 
Thou bow’st before no despot's guilty 
throne. 
But bend’st the knee to God, and him 
alone !” 
In taking our leave of this poem, we 
cannot refrain from expressing our wish 
that the author may pursue the.career 
he lias so successfully begun. His 
versification is occasionally harsh, and 
sometimes, though rarely, feeble: but 
there is a vigour, and what in wines, 
we should call a raciness, in his verse, 
we should call a racmess, in his verse, # Accounts from Captain Billinghausen, 
that marks him for the accomplishment commande r in the Russian Voyage of Dis- 
of greater things. We repeat our heart- cover y j n the Antartic seas, (as received at 
felt satisfaction at the progress of poetry p e tersburgh from Botany Bay his letter 
in America. She is the land of freedom dated May 1 g20.) report that he had disco- 
1 1. 1 .1 ^ t-li lon/1 A f C A11 CC 1 11 _ _ ootrOl’/ul Wltll SHOW ft (1 
and she should be the land of song. 
Liberty ever has been, and ever will 
be, the fostering nurse of the muses. 
We are aware, that there are those who 
will cant about Mecenas, and the Au¬ 
gustan age, as proofs of the beneficial 
vei ad three islands covered with snow and 
ice on one of which was a volcano, lat. 
56 o south. He announces that there is no 
southern continent, or should there be one, 
it must be inaccessible from being covered 
with perpetual snows, ice, &c. 
