ing followers of Ali were massacred on the spot. The head of Ali was sent to Constantinople, and on the 24th of February, was nailed to the Seraglio gates. Such is the history of this remarkable man. In his mode of life, he was austere and simple. He rose early, and took his coffee and pipe. He then received the reports of his agents on public affairs, and the petitions of those who sought his interference, pronounced in all important cases, and directed in the affairs of his army or navy, till noon. His dinner was spare, and he made but little use of wine. After dinner, he was accustomed to sleep an hour or two, and then with his pipe, to resume, till seven or eight o'clock in the evening, the same attention to affairs, in which he had passed the morning. He made frequent journeys throughout his states, and took his meals and passed his nights in the houses of the inhabitants. No one ever knew in the morning, in what place he was that day to give audience, or occupy himself in the cares of government. Many summer residences and villas near Yanina were alternately occupied by him for a day, and sometimes several in the course of the day. This was not from fear, but activity, or restlessness of mind. That it was not from fear of his life, was evident from his manner of traversing the streets and roads unattended but with a couple of servants. In point of religion, Ali was far from being a devotee. He went but once a year to the mosque, which was at the period of the Ramazan, in full procession; his sword borne by his Selictar Aga, his banner by the Bairactar Aga; with four armed officers by the sides of his horse, and twenty Chiauses, with staffs and silver apples on them, in front, while two domestics scattered perfumes over him. His harem, like that of every Turkish nobleman and prince, was filled with women, but after the death of Emineh, he was much influenced by a young wife Basilica, of christian parentage, but educated from infancy in the seraglio. He was formally married to her in 1816, and permitted her to have the christian service celebrated in the interior of the palace. She was equally conspicuous for beauty and goodness, and often successfully interposed her good offices in favor of those, who had incurred the displeasure of Ali. In conversation Ali was remarkably gracious and intelligent; and his treatment of strangers was in the extreme of hospitality. His person was not in perfect proportion, his limbs being somewhat too short for his body; a defect, however, which did not make its appearance when he was mounted. In the decline of age, he became corpulent and inactive, but, as the foregoing history has shown, lost not his energy and fertility of resource, but with his life. His final resistance to the Ottoman Porte, as much as any single event, occasioned the first movements of the Grecian Revolution. His long protracted defence was highly favorable to the cause of independence in that country, and his fall was providentially delayed, till the armies of freedom and christianity had made such progress, as to bid, we trust and pray, an eternal defiance to the proud, the cruel, the barbarian despotism, which has so long afflicted the fairest corner of the earth. By ART. VII.—History of a Voyage to the China Sea. THIS may safely be pronounced the most complete and authentic account which has been published, at least in our language, of the kingdom of Cochin China. That country, sometimes called Onam, was first discovered by Ptolemy, by whom it is barely noticed under the name of Sinæ, and is placed by D'Anville at the eastern extremity of the ancient habitable world. It is a narrow strip of land, resembling a crescent in its form, and projecting into the China Sea, immediately south of China Proper. According to our author, it extends in its present limits from latitude 8 deg. 40 m. to 17 deg. north, and from Cape Avarella in longitude 109 deg. 24 m. east, one hundred and fifty miles westward. Its average breadth, however, is about one hundred miles. It is bounded on the northeast by the Gulf of Tun Quin, on the southwest by the Gulf of Siam, and on the west by the Birman Empire. Little or nothing was known of this country till the middle of the last century, when it was visited by M. Le Poivre in a diplomatic character, who described it in a work which we have not been able to procure, but which has been liberally quoted by subsequent geographers. This is said to be a lively and interesting narrative, but whether it be entitled to the praise of strict accuracy, may be judged from the following remarks on the character of the Cochin Chinese, extracted from it by the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. M. Le Poivre,' say they, 'represents the Cochin Chinese as gentle, frugal, hospitable, and industrious. There is not a beggar in the country, and robbery and murder are absolutely unknown. A stranger may wander through the kingdom from one end to the other, the capital excepted, without meeting the slightest insult. He will be received everywhere with the most eager curiosity, but at the same time, with the greatest benevolence. A Cochin Chinese traveller, who has not money to defray his expenses at an inn, enters the first house of the town or village he arrives at, and waiting the hour of dinner, takes part with the family, and goes away when he thinks proper, without speaking a word, or any person putting to him a single question.' It argues, we trust, no great want of charity to receive a description like this, with a little distrust, as bearing a much greater resemblance to the highly colored pictures of the purity and innocence of barbarous nations, so prevalent at this time, than to the sober sketches of an impartial historian. Indeed, the civilized communities of the world, if we may judge from some of their writers, seem disposed to compensate for their encroachments on the territory and comforts of their savage brethren, by extravagant eulogies on their virtues, thus illustrating a remark made in a sermon of Dr South, that when men ask for bread, we give them a compliment, a thing not quite so hard as a stone, but altogether as dry.' In 1793, Cochin China was visited by Lord Macartney and his suite, but the English squadron merely touched at Turon, one of its northern ports, and Mr Jackson, the sailing master of the Lion, on penetrating a little way into this hospitable country, was seized by the officers of government, and very roughly handled both by them and by the populace. The account given of this visit by Sir George Stanton therefore, however impartial, is extremely scanty. For the purpose of opening a trade with this unknown region, the brig Franklin was fitted out at Salem, in the year 1818, and placed under the command of Lieutenant White, then absent on a furlough from the naval service of the United States. He sailed January 2, 1819, and returned August 31, 1820. The motives which led to the publication of this work, are stated in the following brief and candid advertisement. "This volume was not originally intended for publication, but written as a Memoir to be deposited in the archives of the "East India Marine Society of Salem." Some of the author's friends, however, who had read the manuscript, (among whom was the Hon. John Pickering, who kindly assisted him with advice,) conceived it of sufficient general interest to be published, and it is accordingly submitted, "with all its imperfections upon its head." The very respectable and flattering list of subscribers obtained in his native place, when proposals were first issued, gave birth to hopes of more general patronage; but these hopes have been but very partially realized, and the proceeds of the subscription list will scarcely defray the expenses of publication. As a proof that no fault on his part has delayed the appearance of the work, the principal part of the manuscript was read by some of his friends two and a half years ago. To his patrons, he deems it his duty to offer the above reason for its not appearing before; and it is only with a view of redeeming his pledge, and to meet expenses already incurred, that it is now published. It would not otherwise have been committed to the press. In regard to style, grammatical accuracy, and mode of arrangement, he requests his readers to bear in mind, that this is not a book written by a professed scholar, but the production of an unlettered seaman. In the course of the work, he has endeavored to account for the discrepancy between his own humble though faithful narrative and descriptions, and the vague and disjointed accounts of some former writers, by which the Cochin Chinese character is so differently represented. He does not, however, pretend to make any invidious comparisons, but to show, that from our general non-intercourse with that remote and secluded country, few correct accounts of it have been published, and those at a period considerably remote from the present era; since which its national character has been debased by the increasing despotism of the government. Deceived by the flattering accounts of this reputed el dorado, (however correct they may once have been,) several adventurers have been induced to risk voyages there; one of which was from Salem, as early as the year 1803 ;* but they were all totally unsuccessful; and it is presumed, that no American ever prosecuted any important commercial speculation in the country, previous to the joint adventure of the brig Franklin and ship Marmion. At least it is very certain, that they were the first American ships that ever ascended the Donnai river, and displayed the stars and stripes before the city of Saigon.' In his passage to Cochin China, Lieutenant White touched at St Salvador, the Island of Banca, and several other ports. His descriptions of these places are lively and entertaining. Want of room, however, obliges us to pass over most of them without farther notice, and we shall merely say a few words of Tristan d'Acunha, a spot rendered interesting to Americans, by a curious enterprise of one of our fellow citizens. This is a little island in the South Atlantic Ocean, lying nearly in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. It is about fifteen miles in circumference, and with two others of inferior size, called Nightingale and Inaccessible, composes a small group, first discovered by the Portuguese in 1700. The whole cluster is described as bearing indisputable marks of the action. of fire, and is consequently supposed to be of volcanic origin. These three islands are rugged and mountainous. Tristan d'Acunha, excepting a peak in its centre, is covered with verdure; the two others are quite barren. In the year 1811, Jonathan Lambert of Salem took possession of the whole group, and claimed the ownership and sovereignty of the soil by right of occupancy. These pretensions were set forth in a proclamation published shortly afterwards, which, both in sense and in style, was, to say the least, quite equal to some which have lately issued from far mightier thrones. He invited navigators of all nations to touch at his islands for refreshments, and for the purpose of fulfilling his engagements, carried out a colony of three or four adventurers, and cultivated the soil with great assiduity. How long Jonathan Lambert might have held his territory, without exciting the jealousy of the great monarchs of Europe, is a problem which it was not left for time to solve. The issue of his enterprise is thus described by Mr White. 'Lambert and his associates had resided here nearly two years, and already had their industry been crowned with great success; The Ship Fame, Captain Jeremiah Briggs. |