wish: but the caution enjoined on him might not be neglected. In order to reconnoitre, however, where he was restrained from making full discovery, he proceeded from the north part of Sachalin to the southward, between it and Tartary, 20 leagues. He there found that the land of Sachalin approached within two leagues of the land of Tartary, at two capes which he named, after two of his lieutenants, Cape Romberg and Cape Golowatscheff.

This then,' he says, 'seemed to be the channel leading to the mouth of the Amur, and to this I now bent my course: we were at the most five miles from its centre, and our soundings had diminished to six fathoms; and not thinking it safe to venture farther with the ship, I sent Lieutenant Romberg with orders first to row towards the point of Sachalin, until he came into three fathoms water, and then directly to the cape of Tartary, sounding across the whole width of the channel. At six in the evening he returned upon my firing signal guns, as we had entirely lost sight of him for two hours. He informed me that the rapidity of the current from the southward had rendered the advance very laborious, and he therefore could not have proceeded till within three fathoms, and have had still time left to sound in the channel. He had gone, however, in a direct line towards the point of Sachalin, until he got into four fathoms water, where he calculated upon being about midway between the ship and the land, and two miles and a half from both. He then rowed over towards the coast of Tartary, finding the soundings at first the same, but gradually decreasing to three fathoms and a half. At this moment the sigual was made, and he returned: he brought with him a pailful of water, which he had dipped exactly in the middle of the channel, at the farthest point to which he had proceeded. It was perfectly sweet, and only one grain heavier than what we had shipped at the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, and precisely of the same specific gravity as the fresh water from Nangasaky; the water which was drawn up alongside the ship being of the same weight, and perfectly fit to drink. During our stay at the mouth of this channel, the current ran with great rapidity from the south and S. S. E., and I had every reason to believe we were very near the mouth of the Amur, which was probably at no great distance from the promontory on the coast of Tartary.'

We venture to give our opinion, judging from the strength of the stream between the Capes Romberg and Golowatscheff, and from the freshness of the water in a depth sufficient for a ship to anchor, that it is extremely probable, indeed next to certainty, that these two capes form the mouth of a great river, in fact, of the Amur. We think, also, that it may be admitted as substantiated that the Sachalin is not a separate land from the continent. This is the most important part of the Nadeshda's navigation, with respect to geography. From the coast of Sachalin, Captain Krusenstern returned to Kamtschatka, where he arrived at the end of August, 1805.

Many particulars of the voyage we must now omit to notice, for want of room. We just mention the escape of seven Japanese sailors from Kamtschatka, who had been shipwrecked on the coast, (related in chap. 7th of the iid vol.) to remark it as an instance of the courage and ability of the people of Japan. Captain K. has devoted a chapter to a description of the present state of Kamtschatka, to which we have before paid sufficient attention. On the 9th of October 1805, he set sail from the Bay of Awatchka, in order to return to Europe by the way of China. He chose a track that appeared most proper for the verification of some islands which are laid down in the early charts, but he had not the satisfaction of finding any land till he came to the South and Sulphur Islands, which were seen in the last voyage of Captain Cook.

We must refrain from entering into detail respecting the transactions of the navigators with the Chinese, and the author's account of the political disorders of China, of the slow progress of the attempts to propagate Christianity in that empire, of the mode of trading in the interior, &c. &c.: but we must. not omit to report that they effected their commercial purposes by disposing of their furs and skins, and taking on board cargoes of tea, &c. These objects, however, were not accomplished without some difficulty, and the aid of the English merchants at Macao; and, on reaching Petersburgh, Capt. K. received a letter informing him that, only 24 hours after he left Whampoa, a very positive order arrived from Pekin to detain the ships.

At Macao, the Nadeshda had been re-joined by her former consort the Neva, with a rich cargo of furs, from the Aleutic islands; and they sailed together in company for Europe: in the passage, they were again separated, but both arrived at home in safety. The Nadeshda anchored at Cronstadt, August the 19th, 1806, having been absent 3 years and 12 days, in all which time she lost but one of her crew, the ambassador's cook, who was in a decline when he embarked. The Neva had been equally fortunate.

Having given so ample an account of this first Russian circumnavigation, which is creditable to that nation as being planned for useful purposes, and honourable to its conductor as having been executed with every attention to science that was compatible with his instructions, we shall now add a few remarks directed more especially to the publication. The original in the Russian language is handsomely printed, without any approach to the unreasonable magnificence of which some late voyagers have given the public much reason to complain, and the charts are engraved with a very satisfactory clearness :

but

but of the style we judge only by the translation before us, which, in the general course of the narrative, where science is not concerned, we find to be easy and natural. We cannot now be the first to notice the inaccuracies in Mr. Hoppner's translation of the geographical and nautical details of the voyage: a letter having been inserted in "The Naval Chronicle" by Captain' Krusenstern himself, in which he complains of the defects of the English version in these particulars. He observes: " the first thing that will strike a seaman on perusing it is, that it has been translated by one totally ignorant of nautical science; for there is hardly a single scientific or technical term that has not been disfigured in the translation to such a degree, that frequently the meaning cannot even be guessed at." This charge is supported by the evidence of a long string of quotations from the translation. We should ourselves, in the course of the preceding strictures, have remarked on many instances of nautical mistakes: but we deferred our notice of them to the conclusion, in preference to interrupting a narrative or a discussion in which we felt interest; and we now refer to Capt. K.'s letter, above mentioned, for specific examples of error.

It is certainly requisite to the translation of a scientific work, if designed for publication, that the translator should possess some skill in the science treated. The translator of mathematical demonstrations should have attained some proficiency in mathematics; and a medical work translated without some professional knowlege would be dangerous. The same may be said of the translation of nautical remarks and pilotage. If unconscious error speak in the tone of confident knowlege, as in the following passage, this convinced us that there must be a strong current to the north, which was confirmed by our observations the next day; for by our reckoning we ought to have been thirty-five miles more northward,' how may it not perplex or mislead? No care or revision can prevent a translator from falling into such mistakes, if he be uninformed in the nature of his subject.

Another fault in the present volume is the neglect to render the margin useful. In the Russian original, every page gives -information of the date; and the want of it has made the translation provokingly troublesome. The chart, also, is too defective to escape censure. It is professed to be a reduced copy of the original: (be it noticed that the charts in the atlas to the Russian edition are drawn with great correctness :) but the first view of this reduced copy will immediately inform any person, who is even the least instructed in geography, that the distances between the parallels of latitude are out of all order or proportion.

In conclusion, we cannot but agree in opinion with Captain Krusenstern; who advises that, when a person who is unac , quainted with maritime concerns undertakes to translate or edit a voyage, he should submit his performance to the inspection of some professional man: which, he observes, in England can by no means be a matter of difficulty.

At a future opportunity, we shall give an account of the observations made in this voyage by Dr. Langsdorff, one of the naturalists who accompanied the expedition, which have been separately published.

ART. VI. Gustavus Vasa, and other Poems. By W. S. Walker. 8vo. Ios. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813.

T gives us real satisfaction to perceive, from the unusually magnificent list of subscribers to this work, that its young author may apparently entertain hopes founded on a basis far more solid than his poetry. His preface is sensible and well written. He informs us that he has attained only his seventeenth year, but he claims no indulgence for his tender age; he seems to concede that a bad poem admits of no excuse; and he is desirous to try himself on the touch-stone of public opinion, and thus to decide whether he shall become professionally a poet, or say, "hic versus et cætera ludicra pono."

He is sensible, that if he delayed till time had matured his judg ment, and reflection perfected his ideas, the " scribendi cacoëthes," perhaps an unfortunate inclination, would take a firm and unalterable possession of his mind. He is therefore determined to try the public opinion; that he may be enabled either to pursue his poetical studies under their encouragement, or to desist in time from an useless employment. This volume is not intended to challenge approbation, but to be the precursor of something which may challenge it in future: it is not an attempt to gain the prize, but a specimen of his powers, which may entitle him to the honour of standing candidate for that prize. The reader will here find the genuine effusions of a youthful fancy, free, yet not uncontrolled; a collection of pieces, exempt from negligence and inaccuracy, though not from the usual and inevitable faults of early compositions. To offer less than this would be arrogant, and to require more than this would be unreasonable."

From a young man thus seriously disposed to become acquainted with his own powers, and to practise on himself no delusion, we should deem it unpardonable to withhold the information that he seeks, and is, we hope, prepared to receive. With sentiments, therefore, not less friendly to him than those which influenced the host of honourable persons whose assistance enabled him to become publicly an author, we would advise him to desist from poetical attempts, ere the inclination become REV. JULY, 1814. strength

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7

Had

strengthened into habit, and maturity of years shall remove the only trifling apology which can be offered for failure. such a work as this appeared a century ago from a very youthful pen, it might have been hailed as the harbinger of better things. The difficulties presented by metre, manner, harmony, and cadence, before Pope rendered them easy and familiar, if encountered with tolerable success, would have attracted the consideration and almost the wonder of those who were unacquainted with the mystery: but in these days of universal authorship, the possessors of the arcana are so numerous that wonder is reduced to indifference. So rapidly, indeeed, does the list of metrical writers increase, that, in the next book of synonyms, we expect to see that of poet used indifferently for tian ; and, as in the time of Horace it was usual to say, “There goes a poet," in this our time it will be said, to mark some extraordinary person, "There goes a man who has not written

verses."

Gustavus Vasa, we are told by Mr. Walker, was first planned (the reader will smile) at eleven years of age. He then informs us of the numerous faults and extravagances which his understanding, improved by the culture of two years in advance of that age, enabled him to detect; of his destroying the manuscript, of recommencing it, and of reducing it to its present form. We venture to predict that his judgment at thirteen years of age did not more duly appreciate the effusions of his eleventh year, than his wisdom of twenty-two will condemn the rashness of seventeen. Indeed this young man is a versifier, but not a poet. Let him not imagine that we censure his faults: for both his fauits and his beauties are too few. The whole is evenly, smoothly, and unalterably vapid. It is all correctly wrong. The rule and the compass, the line and the plummet, with every other instrument for measurement and proportion, are discernible in every part. It is all reason, all plan, all arrangement; and its greatest praise must be, in general, that negative eulogy, the absence of fault. It manifests no wildness, no enthusiasm, none of the "dulcia vitia" of youth which excite hopes from the compositions that they sully. For instance, let us take the matter of the argument to book the first:

⚫ State of Sweden at the commencement of the Poem-A Council -Trollio-Bernheim-Ernestus-Christiern proposes the reduc tion of Dalecarlia - Ernestus opposes him, is committed to prisonChristiern takes his measures to oppose a rebellion just arisen in Denmark.'

At this council, the characters of the worthies Trollio, Bernheim, and Ernestus, are given at length, in verses faultless and uninteresting as the following:

• First