1805.) 
fuch evils, the inhabitants of the latter 
country annually form, during the rainy 
feafon, new outlets for thefe rivers. A 
fhallow channel is fufhicient for this pur- 
pofe, fince the force of the water foon en- 
larges it in all its dimenfions. ‘The 
adoption of fimilar meafures would prove 
extremely ufeful to the eaftern coaft of 
Madagatcar, and render thecountry much 
more falubrious. 
Embarking in an Indian boat on the 
canal formed by the united ftreams of the 
rivers Tartas and Onibé, I afeended the 
former of thefe rivers for about a league ; 
after which, having landed, I frayed an 
extenfive plain planted with rice, and in- 
terfected every where with final] dykes of 
earth to confine the water, and facilitate 
the irrigation of the rice-grounds. In 
thefe fields a number of- men were at 
work, fome of whom were bufily occupi- 
ed in tran{planting rice. 
This excurfion enabled me to detect two 
errors committed: by the authors who have 
written refpecting Madagafcar, among 
whom I comprehend the Abbé Raynal.— 
One of thefe errors is, that women are the 
only labourers in this ifland; and the 
other, that the rice-fields undergo no kind 
of preparation whatever, except that of 
pulling up the rufhes growing in the 
marthes ; after which the feed is {cattered 
carelefsly on the ground, and cattle driven 
over them, in order that, by their tread- 
ing, the grain may be forced into the foil. 
Allthe reft, fays Raynal, is abfolutely left 
tochance. We oblerve, on the contrary, 
that here the culture of rice is conducted 
with fome method ; that the ground is {o 
difpofed as to confine the water, and to 
diftribute it through the whole plantation ; 
and that the grain is fown in nurferies, and 
afterwards tranfplanted, Thefe various 
procefles require much more attention 
than the rude method which is {aid to be 
prattifed by the illuftrious author of The 
Philofophical and Political Hiftory of the 
Two Indies. 
Another of his errors refpe&ting this 
ifland is, that of a pretended race of 
dwarfs termed Quimoffes. Such a people 
no where exilts in Madagafcar as a dil- 
tinct, and feparate race ; although here, 
as elfewhere, individuals may be met 
with who are accidentally dwarfifh and 
ill-formed. After the firicteft inveftiga- 
tion, I hefitate not to affirm, that the 
fame obfervation is juftly applicable to the 
Albinos, whom feveral travellers have 
confidered as a diftiné& tribe of white Ne- 
groes, inhabiting the interior part of Afri- 
“a. Onthe contrary, thefe men can only 
Obfervations on the Notes to Heynz’s Virgit. 
be confidered as a kind of lufus nature, 
produced by partial accidents, not only 
in this but in other countries inhabited by 
Blacks. In faét, the Albinos are born of 
black parents, and their white colour 
mult be produced by the fame caufes 
which oceafion the children of other indi- 
viduals to be marked at their birth by 
black and white fpots. 
(To be continued.) 
eee a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS . oz the 
HEYNE’S VIRGLL. 
Sleciaceu OU page 108, Na, 126.) 
The Georgics. 
Terhpore non alio catulorum oblita lezna 
Sevior erravit Campis. Ill. 246, 
DO not comprehend Hevne’ s explana~ 
tion of erravit, by eff, effe ee 
Surely the circumftance/ of the lionels’ 
wandering or roaming over the plain, fae 
getful of her young, is important to the 
picture ! 
NOTES #6 
Armaque, Amvclaeumque canem ,Creffamque 
pharetrain. IIT. 345. 
Though it may in general be a proper 
expedient for elevating poetical language 
above profe, when a genus is meant, to 
exprefs it by the name of fome of its prin- 
cipal /pecies ; yetin doing this, care fhould 
be taken that this individual has ne incon- 
gruity with the fcene defcribed. In the 
prefent inflance, wherethe poet has given 
a ftriking picture of the mode of Iife fol- 
lowed by the African Nomades, a people 
perfectly in a ftate of nature, after faying, 
that the Lybian fhepherd, in his wander- 
ings, carried with him his whole property, 
he enumerates, among other articles, his 
Spartan dog and Cretan quiver. Naw if 
by this the poet only means (as the oe 
agree) a dog and quiver in general, it is 
obvioufly incongruous to name thole a 
of eachiwhich the fhepherd could not pof- 
fefs, unleis by meansef a commercial in- 
tercour{e totally foreign to the way of life 
defcribed.. The ideas excited by the 
names of thefe countries deftroy the unity 
anc fmplicity of the {cene, and introduce 
pion into a paflage whofe great excel- 
lence is truth and nature. I wonder, 
therefore, that Heyne fheuld fay, with 
refpect to it, ‘* Licet poetis ejufmodi orna- 
menta captare.’ If all the poets who 
ever wrote had agreed in fuch a licence, it 
would not the lefs be contradifory to true 
tafte. But would a Thom/on have adinit- 
ted it 2+ 
Hic 
