608 
depravity and crime. The Natives cb- 
‘ftihdtely refit the introduétion of Euro- 
“pean arts and mannets ; 3 18 it to ‘be won- 
dered at? What/are the characters and 
condu& of thofe from whom they are to 
. earn them ! . 
* Colonel Collins, in his former volume, 
carried the hiftory of the colony down to 
September 1796; at this period he has 
now refumed it, and brought it down to 
~“Augult 1801. He continues his narrative 
‘in the (ame plain unornamented but honeft 
way with which he commenced it. The 
“natives in the neighbourhood of Port 
Jeckfon, are in the loweft ftate of civili- 
zition § their religious notions are extra- 
v-gant and abfurd to the Jaft degree, and 
their political inffitutions are thofe of the 
Jowett favages. “Their numbers are very 
imal: the population indeed is remark. 
ably thin im every part of New Holland. 
Mr. Coilins atiributes the faét to the fe- 
rocity of their manners; he fays, that 
from {ome trifling caufe bt deh they are 
continually in a flate of warfare; “they 
treat their women in a moft brutal man- 
ner, and thefe latter, to avoid the trouble 
of carrying their babes about them, are 
in the frequent habit of procuring abor- 
tion. Me¢ce-bia is the. name of the ope- 
ration of preffing the body in fuch a way 
as to Geftroy the infant in the womb, an 
Operation the violence of which not un- 
frequently occafons the death alfo of the 
unnatural mother. Ifa mother dies with 
an infant at the brealt, the livmg babe is 
buritd with its parent; another fhecking 
cdufe’of the thinnefs of population amcng 
them.” But after all it is probable that 
thefe are very fecondary caules of {canty 
population; population is invariably pro. 
portiohed to the means of fubfiftence. If 
New Holland were fertile, and the fo:} 
cultivated, New Holland would be ‘popu- 
lous. ‘Phe fil produces coal in vatt a- 
bundance, fait, lime, ie fine iron ore, 
timber fit for aT purpoles, excellent flax, 
and a tree the bark of which is admirably 
adapted for cordage; the climate, notwith- 
fianding the inteniity of the heat in the 
fummer months, the thermometer fland- 
ing at above 100 ceorees jn the fhade, ts 
healthy. But there are no large rivers 
which are navigable throughout the inte- 
J Or. 
Mr. Collins fpeaks of the Governor as 
a very well difpofed man; but unfortu- 
nately for the colony he has not an atom 
of knowledge in the fcience of political 
economy, Is it credible that in confe- 
guence of tome ieprefentations having 
Retrofpect of Domeftic Literature—Hiftary. 
been made to him from the fettlers, pur- 
“porting that the wages demanded from the 
free labouring ‘people were ‘exorbitant, 
that he fhould have lent his affiftance to 
deprefs them? ‘There is now an eftablifhed 
price for labour of every poffible defcrip- 
tion; the incitement to population is thus 
deftroyed—the poor man does not fee in a 
family of children a fource of riches 
he looks not forward te the ‘means of fub- 
fifting in eafe and plenty, becaufe the value 
of his labour is violently prevented from 
attaining its natural level. The Colonifts 
are by habit averfe to labour; bui fa- 
bourers are wanted becauie land 1s plen- 
tiful. How is the number of labourers 
to be increafed ? Obvioufly by the offer © 
of high wages. sie aes 
In this volume, as appears from the 
title-page, a ditcovery of much gcogra- 
phical Saitsbreathick is announced, namely, 
the exiftence” of a ftrait feparating Van 
Dieman’s land from the Contivent ot New. 
Holland; this difcovery was made by Mr. 
Bafs, a furgeon, after whom the ftraits 
have been named, and who fafpeéted their 
exiffence in confequence of the prodigious 
{well which he oblerved to fet in trom the 
weitward, at the mouth of the opening, - 
which he had reached on a voyage of dil- 
covery profecuted in a’ common whale. 
boat. Various advantages are likely to 
accrue to the fettiement from this difco- 
very; and it is conjectured that a ftill 
iarger than Bafs-ftrait difmembers New 
Holland. “For. the purpole of verifying 
or contuting this conjecture Captain Flin- 
ders has lately failed in the Inveftigator, 
accompanied by feveral profeffional men 
of great abilities. ! 
‘¢ The Bardic Mufeum; or, Primitive 
Britifo Literature, and other adiirabie 
Rarities: forming the Second Volume of. 
the Mujical, Poetical, and Hijtorical, Relics 
of the Welfh Bards and Druids: dracva 
from authentic Documents of remote Anti- 
‘quity, (wth great Pains now refeued from 
Obiwion) and never bezore publifhed: con- 
taining, the Baraic Triads ; Hiftorie Odes ; 
E wlogies 5 Songs 5 Elegies Memorials of 
the Tombs of Warriors ; of King Arthur. 
and bis Knights 3. Regalias ; the Wonders 
of Wales, Ee. abink Engl Tranflations 
and Hiftcric Iluftrations.- Likevsfe the 
ancient Tunes of ihe Bards; to which are 
added New Bafes, with Variations jor 
the Harp, or Harpficherd, Violin, or Flute. 
By EpwaRp Jones, Bard to the Prince.” 
_ It is not only with pleafure ‘but advan- 
tage that in maturer years we occafionally 
recur to the productions of « our early ge- 
plus ; i. 
