SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER 
TO THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Vor. it. No..75.| 
JULY: 20, r8or, 
[Price.1s. 6d. 
— 
HALF-YEARLY RETROSPECT -OF DOMESTIC LITERATURE. 
HISTORY. 
{ 7 E are happy in being able to com- 
W. mence our Retrofpett with the no- 
tice of feveral hiftorical works of confider- 
able merit and importance: among. them 
is a Tranflation from the original Spanifh, 
by Maurice KearTina, efq. of ‘* the 
True Hiltory of the Conqueit of Mexico, 
by Captain Bernal Diaz del Catftillo, 
one of the Conquerors.”” Among the 
numerous writers fubmitted to the review 
of Dr. Robertfon, the work of this vete- 
ran warrior pafled not without notice: it 
is ftated by the hiitorians to contain a 
prolix, minute, confufed narrative of all 
Cortez’s operations in fuch arude, vulgar 
ftyle as might be expeéted from an ilite- 
rate foldier ;> but as he relates tranfac- 
tions of. which he was a witnefs, and in 
which he performed a confiderable part, 
his account bears all the marks of authen- 
ticity, and is accompanied with fuch a 
pleafing watveté, with fuch interefting de- 
tails, with fuch amufing vanity, and yet 
fo pardonable in an old foldier, who had 
been (as he boafts) in a hundred and nine- 
teen battles, as render his book one of 
the moft fingular that is to be found in any 
language.”” Bernal Diaz, in his Iniro- 
du&tion to this curious and valuable 
work, tells us, that during the time he 
was writing the fame, he happened to fee 
a work compofed by Francifco Lopez de 
Gomara, the elegance of which made him 
blufh for the vulgarity of his own, and 
throw down his pen in defpair: but when 
he had read it, he found that the whole 
was a milreprefentation, and that in his 
extraordinary exaggeration of the number 
of the natives, and of thofe who were 
killed in the different battles, his account’ 
was utterly unworthy of belief. Now, 
fays honeft Diaz, as the art and beauty of 
hiftorical compofition is to write the truth, 
I fhall therefcre proceed with my relation, 
with fuch embellifhment and ornament as 
I fhall hereafter judge expedient. Indeed, 
if internal evidence has any weight, ther 
will be little doubt as to the diaualited 
credibility of this work: the aythor, 
with all the fimplicity and godline/s imas 
» .Montury Mae, No75 : 
- 
. 
\ 
einable, relates fuch horrible atrocities on 
the part of Cortez-and the Spaniards— 
himfelf implicated in every tranfaion— 
as {carcely any man, who felt the enormi- 
ty of them, would have committed, and 
certainly no man in his fenfes, whofe ob- 
ject was to conceal or glofs them over, 
would haverelated. It mufi be obferved, 
that Mr, Keating, without derivating in 
any degree trom the fidelity of a tranflator, 
has entirely removed that prolixity, con- 
fufion, and vulgarity, of which Dr. Ro- 
bertfon complains, and has prefented the 
“¢ Hifforia Verdadera de la Conquefte dela 
Neuve Efpagna’ to the Englith public 
with all the chafte embellifhments of 
fiyle. 
Caries Grant, Vifcount de Vaux, 
has compofed, principally from the papers 
and memoirs of Baron Grant, his father, 
who refided twenty years in the ifland, 
‘¢ the Hiftory of Mauritius, or the Iile of 
France, and the neighbouring | Iflands, 
from their firft Difcovery to the prefent’ 
Time.”’? This volume contains a great 
deal of curious and interefting informa- 
tion concerning the Ifland of Rodriguez, 
or Diego Ruis, and the fle of Bourbon, 
as well as concerning Mauritius: the edi- 
tor feems to havehad a large mafs of ma- 
terials before him, which however he has 
not digefted into fo convenient and lucid 
a form as he ought to have done. The 
aftronomical, zeographical, and maritime 
obfervations are however extremely valu- 
able, and the maps, which are-well exe, 
cuted, will doubtle!s be found ufeful. 
We have been much amufed by Mifs 
HeLen Maria WI1LLIAMs’s “ Sketches 
of the State of Manners. and‘ Opinions in 
the French Republic towards the Clofe of 
the eighteenth Century.”? ' Having before 
taken an opportunity to obferve, that this 
Jady’s ftyle of, compofition bas few charms 
for us,it isunneceflary torepeat the remarks © 
her writings are too rapturous for the fo- 
briety of our talte ; nor ‘indeed can we 
think that foreign, words, crowded meta- 
phors, and poetic extafies, are by any 
means fuitable to the gravity and decorum 
of hiftoric are Whatever be the tafte 
4. ‘ 
