\ 
¥798.] 
good fortune to fear nothing. This pain- 
ful and dangerous voyage has not dif- 
couraged him; he does not reproach me 
for having in a manmer forced him to 
fet out. He wrote tome, May 24th, ‘It 
any misfortune fhould befal me, you will 
remember my devotednefs to you and to 
altronomy.”” 
The marine watch of citizen Louis 
BertuHoun has proved very ufetul, and 
uncommonly accurate. This fkilful artift 
is (till employed on it: citizen BREGUET 
alfo propofes to make fome; and we 
learn that M. EARNSHAW is making a 
great number of them at London, which 
are remarkably exact, and which he fells 
for 1200 francs. 
Citizen PERNY, who had been fent into 
Belgium by General CALON, has tranf{- 
mitted to citizen PRONY, director of the 
Cadaftre, the triangles which, he has 
formed to connect Antwerp and Bergen- 
op-Zoom with Dunkirk: he expects to 
prolong them as far as to the Texel, and 
to verity the degree meafured formerly by 
Snellius, on which there remains fome 
doubt, in fpite of the verifications which 
have been already attempted at two dit- 
ferent times. 
The Spaniards have publifhed the de- 
tails of a voyage round the world, under- 
taken by the order and at the expence of 
government, through the zeal of Don 
ANTONIUS DE VALDES, Miniffer of 
Marine, to enrich geography and natural 
hiltory, and enlarge the {phere of our 
knowledge. 
Thefe details form an interefting work, 
from the faé&s which it contains relative to 
the manners, ufages, and police of the 
inhabitants of the Babaco Ifles, a kind 
of Archipelago pretty confiderable, which 
had not yet been viftted by the Eu- 
ropeans, 
The navigators who undertook this 
interelting voyage, fet out from Cadiz, 
July 30th, 1789, in two floops, the Dz/- 
covery and the Subtle; the firlt command- 
ed by Don ALEXANDER MALESPiNa«, 
and the fecond by Don JosePy Basta- 
MEN?TA; and they returned towards the 
end of 1793. 
Their difcoveries and their labours 
in the long track which they crofled, 
the iflands they vifited, and the har- 
bours which they difcovered in the courie 
they made over the continents of the new 
world, will enrich botany, tie arts, 
geography, and ferve to throw freth jight 
on the emigration of different tribes, and 
en the hiftory of the globe. 
. We have alio feen Mr. HoRNEMAN 
. 
Hiflory of Aftronomy far 1797. aby 
pafs, who is fent by an Englifh aflocia- 
tion into the interier of Africa. Inthat 
continent are a thoufand leagues of coun- 
try as much unknown to us as the defarts 
of the moon; an object well worthy the 
emulation of the different governments to 
explore. It is, however, a company ot 
private individuals, amateurs, oue of the 
principals ot which is Sir JOSEPH BaNKSy 
that has fet on foot this ufeful eftablifh- 
ment. They very properly demanded a 
paffiport of the executive directory,’ as 
knowing that the learned men who were 
in it did not forget the {ciences in the 
midit of the great political interefts in 
which they were abforbed, and in {pite 
of the juf refentments at the horrors 
with which France may reproach the 
Englifh government. News have been al- 
ready received from the miffionary that 
went to Tombut, in the interior of Africa. 
Sir JoseErH Bawks has fent us the 
Philofophical Tran{actions for 1796, the 
Nautical Almanack for 1802; the Tour 
of M. Mauri in England has pro- 
cured us, by writing, a new promife trom 
Mr. RAMspEN, of the mesidian glafs, 
which we have been expecting from him 
thefe ten years. Citizen LALLEMANDE, 
fecretary of the marine, favours our cor- 
refpondence with cordiality ¢nd zeal. 
Geography has [ately been augmented 
with a great work, the fubjeét ot which 
is China. Sir Georce STAUNTON has 
publifhed, in two volumes, quarto, the 
relation of the Englith embafly of Lord 
MACARTNEY in 1793, with charts of 
the voyage both by {ca and land, acrois 
China, which throws much. light on the 
interior of that vaft empire. \/The atlas 
which accompanies this relation contains 
many views, plans, coftumes, ceremonies, 
and fome birds, very well engraved, and 
particularly a detail of the canals which 
crofs China, and of which I had only 
heard {peak very imperfectly in my trea- 
tife on canals in 1778. 
Tn this work I obierved, with pleafure, 
that citizen HANNA, a miffionary, whom. 
Thad trained up in aftronomyy, has ob- 
tained permiffion to go and refide af 
Pekin. j 
The Prince of Peace has formed in 
Spain an ecftablifhment of aitronemers 
with refpeStable appointments, but fub- 
jeéts are wanting: the obfervatery'is not 
finifhed, and that which citizen MEGNIB 
had conttructed at la Verrerie is dettroyed 
fo that aftronomy has not had hitherto, 
in Spain, the activity which we had rea~- 
{ca to expect; but M. CHatx, whom.we 
have feen this year pais through Paris to 
take 

