he was enlarging the boundaries of the univerfe. Admiral Pacheo, who aftonished the eastern world with the greatnefs of his actions, and at his return to Lisbon received honours adequate to a triumph, was foon after caft into prifon, loaded with chains; and though he was found innocent of the alleged mifdemeanors, he was left to fubfift the remainder of his days upon charity. The fate of Magellen, Vernei, and Vieira are well known, and also that of Camoens, the Virgil of Portugal who ended, his days in an almshouse; and whilst he was giving the laft hand to his immortal numbers, lived on the pittance begged for him by his black fervant in the streets of Lisbon. We with, for the honour of Portugal, that Machado de Caftro may close its catalogue of neglected talents. CHARACTER OF THE WELCH. Extracted from Skrine's Tours through Wales. EFINEMENT has not yet attained to fo high a pitch in R Wales; that the focial virtues fhould be extinguifhed, or even much obfcured by apathy; among thefe virtues may justly be reck oned that fingular attachment of its inhabitants to each other, which prevails most eminently in private families, and univerfally in the whole community. Thus is the general band of union ftrengthened by reciprocal good offices between all orders of people, the rich affifting the poor with a kind of parential folicitude for their welfare, and the peafant's exhibiting that veneration towards their great land-owners, which they have been accustomed to fhew from age to age to their ancestors. So harmless a relique of the feudal dominions is productive here of much benefit to fociety, for inftances of oppreffion and tyranny are very rare in modern times, nor perhaps are thofe in power more difpofed to misuse it, than those under them to fubmit to an undue exercife of it. Yet is even this happy trait of character in danger of being loft as refinement increafes, if the gentlemen of Wales, following the example of those of England, defert their proper ftations, and loofe once that high estimation which the impofing prefence of an active and upright landlord has tranfmitted to pofterity.-A more ufeful or dignified being indeed can hardly exift than a native man of landed property in Wales, living with credit in the manfion house of his ancestors, and exereifing his talents for the general good as an upright magiftrate, a friendly neighbour, and a liberal benefactor. High fpirit, energetic animation, and courage, may be accounted ftrong points of the Welch character; and thefe, when properly exhibited, cannot fail to create refpect and admiration. That zeal which attaches the numerous branches of families to each other, and the tenants to their landlords, often call these propenfities of the mind into action, nor are there wanting examples, in which they have been displayed with a force and fentiment almost bordering upon romance. A ftriking inftance of natural, as well as national intrepidity, was fhewn in the fpring of 1797, when crowds thronged together on the first rumour of the French invafion; peasants unused to military difcipline, ranged themselves under the ftandard of lord Cawdor, and even the women of Pembrokeshire contributed to difmay the enemy. SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITION FOR MAKING DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH-EAST SEA. By Profeffor Blumenbach. S very little is yet publicly known of the great fix years expedi tion, undertaken by the Ruffians for making difcoveries in the Northern Archipelago or Eaftern Ocean, the following fhort account of it, taken from the most authentic fources, and particularly from the correfpondence of Dr. C. H. Merck, who was employed in the expedition as naturalift and phyfician, with the Royal Academy of Sciences at Gottingen may afford fatisfaction to those fond of geographical researches. This expedition was propofed by Catherine II. fo early as the month of November 1784. A plan was alfo drawn up for it; and the command conferred upon Captain Billings an Englishman, then in the naval fervice of Ruffia, who had accompanied Mr. Bayly the aftronomer in Cook's laft voyage round the world in 1776-80. Three capfains of the fecond rank were appointed under him, viz. Hall, Sarifchef and Bering, not the fon, as Leffeps fays, but the grandfon of the celebrated Capt. Vitus Bering, who, on the 14 of December 1741, was interred on an island in the fea of Kamtschatka, named after himself, and where he had been fhipwrecked. The principal objects of this great and very expenfive expedition were, to fupply all the deficiencies in regard to the important dif coveries with which the geography of Afiatic Ruffia had been enriched, fince the time of Peter the Great, by exploring that fo little known north-eaft corner of Afia, the land of Tfchukt; to pursue farther if poffible the north-eaft paffage, attempted by Cook; and, laftly, to fearch out more convenient pofts for the Ruffian fur-trade on the north-west coast of America. Captain Billings fet out with his inftruftions from Petersburgh in the end of the year 1785, and in July 1786 arrived at Ochotz. Having paffed the winter at Werchne Oftrog, in the beginning of the fummer 1787 he left the mouth of the Kolyma or Kovyma with two veffels, the larger of which, called the Pallas, was com manded by himself; and the other, the Jefafchna, named after an arm of the river Kovyma, in which it was built, was ommanded by Captain Sarifchef. This was only a preparatory expedition, the object of which, however, was nothing lefs than to double Cape Tíchelazka, (Cook's Cape north) and to proceed by this unheard-of route from the Frozen Ocean through Bering's Straits to Anadyr. I call the route unheard-of, as the romantic voyage of the Starschina Coffac Semon Defchnew, in the year 1648, not withstanding the account of it which the Ruffian historiographer Muller is faid to have discovered in 1736, among the archives at Jakutzk, is still doubted by many feeptics, who confider a connection of the northern parts of both continents as poffible. Thefe adventurous navigators, however, could not proceed farther than to a certain point between Baranikamen and the mouth of the river Tfchaun; because the impenetrable fields of ice which they found there, rendered it impoffible for them to continue their voyage to the north-east, and obliged them to return from SeredunKerymiky Oftrog to Jakutzk, in order to pafs the winter. In the mean time, Captains Hall and Bering were employed in preparations for the grand expedition. The former fuperintended at Ochotzk the building of the two veffels destined for that purpose, and the latter had the care of transporting from Jakutzk the materials and stores neceffary for fitting them out. In the fummer of 1789, the two fhips were ready at Ochotzk for putting to fea; when, unfortunately, the fecond of them, the Dobrowa Namerine, (the Good Intent) which was to be commanded by Capt. Hall, got on fhore juft at the mouth of the Ochochta; and as her keel was broken, it was neceffary to fet her on fire. On account of this misfortune, Capt. Billings, with his own veffel the Slawa Roffie (Ruffian Glory) was not able to leave Ochotzk till towards the middle of September; at which time he proceeded to Awatfcha Bay, where he anchored in the month of October, having made in this paffage a discovery of very great importance to nautical geography, as about 300 werfts from Ochotzk towards the Kurile islands, he feil in with a rock, an hundred fathoms high and a werft in circumference, furrounded by leffer rocks which were named Jonas Ifland, and on which many of the ships already loft have, in all probability, been wrecked. Prodigious flocks of fea-fowl come every morning from these rocks to the coaft of Ochotzk, and return thither again in the evening to pass the night. After wintering at Kamtíchatka thefe navigators explored, in the fummer of the year 1790, the whole chain of the Aleutian islands, which feem to be of volcanic origin, and afterwards the large eastern iflands explored by Cook; Onalaschka and Kadjak the bay of Cape St. Elias, &c. and returned to winter at Kamtfchatka. In the fummer of 1791 they proceeded on their grand expedition, to fearch for a northern paffage through the Frozen Ocean; and having landed on Gore's and Clarke's Ifland, purfued their route from thence to the continent of America. As the fields of ice, which extend from the Eastern Cape of America, rendered it impoflible for them to penetrate any farther, Capt. Billings, in conjunction with Dr. Merck, accompanied by one of the pilots, the draftfman, two interpreters, and four feamen, undertook an expedition of difcovery through the country of Tíchukt from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the river Kolyma, which they had left four years before. This wonderful journey, which they performed in fledges drawn by rein-deer and attended by fome of the intrepid natives, continued from the middle of Auguft till the end of February 1792, when they arrived at the river Angarka, which falls into the great river of Anuy, after having travelled through, and examined in regard to geography, natural history and statistics, an extensive tract of country very little known, the Bay of St. Lawrence and the islands between Bering's Straits and the mouth of the Anadyr, inhabited by about four thoufand Tfchuktefe, who are ichthyophagi or feeders on fish, and the whole almost level land, destitute of wood, of the rein-deer Tfchuktese from the above mentioned ftraits as far as the Kolyma. In the beginning of May thefe enterprifing travellers returned on horfeback to Jakutzk. Their veffel, which they had left in the Bay of St. Lawrence, had in the mean time proceeded to Onalaschka, under the command of Capt. Sarifchef, and had wintered there, together with a small cutter called the Tfchorne Orel (the Black Eagle) which had been built foon after their firft arrival at Kamtfchatka, to fupply the lofs of the vessel stranded at Ochotzk, and on board which were Captains Hall and Bering Next fpring both veffels returned to Kamtfchatka. The Slawa Roffie was left there in the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul; but Captains Hall and Sarifchef, in the course of the fummer, paid a visit in the Black Eagle to the chain of the volcanic Kurile iflands. They then proceeded to Ochotzk, from which they were followed, in the fummer of 1793, by the rest of the crew of the Slawa Roffie in a tranfport commanded by Capt. Billings; and in the winter of 1794 the whole of the perfons employed in the expedition returned to Petersburgh. A full account of this remarkable and interefting expedition is now preparing for publication, under the inspection of the Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh. In the mean time, the Academical Mufeum at this place,* through the liberality of its worthy benefactor Baron von Afch, counfellor of state, has received a prefent highly interesting to natural history and geography, confifting of works of art and natural curiofities from thefe remote regions of the northern part of Afia, as well as of the north-west coast of America and the chain of iflands lying between the two continents. The fpecimens of art of thefe polar inhabitants, and above all the needle-work of the women, (who, however, for the most part are troglodytes, and in their fubterranean dwellings (jurten) must confequently ftrain their eyes by working at lamps filled with train oil) exceed in elegance every thing I ever faw of fuch kind of manufac * Gottingen. ture, not only among favages, but even among the civilized Europeans. As a proof of this affertion, I fhall here remark, that they stood examination by a magnifying glafs, under which the finest cmbroidery of Europe loft much by being compared with them. The affertion that, except food and drink, there is no object which engages more the attention of mankind than that of ornament, and that a turn for coquettry is one of the most general as well as most beneficent principles in human nature-an affertion ftrengthened by this ftriking obfervation, that though there are numerous tribes on the earth who go perfectly naked, even without fo much as the covering of a fig-leaf, there are none, as far as we yet know from the information of travellers, who, notwithstanding their nudity, do not ornament themselves in fome manner or other, I have found fully confirmed by various articles, the fruits of this voyage of discovery, which form part of the present transmitted to our museum by Baron von Afch. The variety and fingularity of the appendages of the toilette of these polar inhabitants, condemned as it were to the coldest climate in the world, and who have to ftruggle inceffantly with frost and hunger, exceed all defcription. By way of example, I fhall mention only one article, a first-rate ornament of the ladies of the Alieutian Iflands, confifting of a pair of long tusks of a wild boar, cut down to a smaller fize, which are stuck into two holes, one on each fide of the under lip, from which they project, and give the wearer an appearance fimilar to that of the wallrus, which is confidered as a beauty almost irresistible. LETTERS FROM SOME OF THE MEN OF SCIENCE ENGAGED IN THE FRENCH EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. THE LETTER I. Cairo, Thermidor 25th, An. v1. HE Commiffion of the Sciences remained a month at Rofetta until Egypt was entirely fubdued. I am bufily employed at present in the department to which I belong. I have had the good fortune to be encouraged and protected by General Menou, who commanded in the province of Rofetta. He gave me an escort, to enable me to penetrate the Delta, and to hunt for animals. found a number of very interefting birds. To obferve them alive, defcribe them zoologically and anatomically; to prepare ftuffed fkins and skeletons, have been my occupation in the most agreeable country of Egypt. I have made many new observations, which I intend to write down for the Inftitute of Cairo. I have The botanifts are very unfortunate in regard to their Science. Egypt has fcarcely furnished them with twenty different fpecies; and; befides, they have loft all the paper which they brought with |