bours in Europe, and which are much frequented by vessels adapted to their navigation.

Within the port, water deepens to five and six fathoms, which depth continues for nearly ten miles, when the rapids of the river render it impracticable for craft drawing more than six or eight feet; which depth continues for six or eight miles further, when the falls commence ; it may, however, when the river is ordi narily full, be navigable for boats a little distance further.

My report to your Excellency of the proceedings of the expedition of discovery, on its return in October 1818, will have put your Excellency in possession of the nature and description of country watered by the river Hastings, from its source until it falls into the sea at Port Macquarie. To that report I respectfully beg to refer your Excellency, as my opportunities of examining the country at that period.

Flint was before noticed, laying in large masses on the beach. The coal, as appears to me, may be worked without difficulty, as I think that a stratum of it pervades the whole of the south sides of the harbour, which stratum is again seen southerly as far as Camden Haven.

I herewith respectfully submit to your Excellency a plan of the entrance into the port, with a sketch of part of Hastings river, and for which I am principally indebted to the assistance rendered me on all occasions by Lieut. King, who, I am happy in reporting to your Excellency, fully coincides with me, as to the advantages that may be expected to result from the knowledge that the port has a navigable and safe entrance, thereby affording a communication with the fine country on both banks of Hastings river.

I have the honour to remain, with great respect, your Excellency's most obedient and humble servant,

JOHN OXLEY, Surveyor-General,

CHARACTERS OF THE

CHINESE PEOPLE IN THE DIFFERENT PROVINCES. These characters are taken from the Court Calendar, and the translation is literal.

1. Peking, or, Shun-teen-foo. The people are strong and brave; silent, famous for politeness and justice; plain, unceremonious, and moral, regenerated by their vicinity to the Emperor.

Paou-ting-foo. Literati not endowed with remarkable talents, au agricultural people.

Yung-ping-foo. The literati value their reputation; a frugal people, attentive to agriculture.

Teen-tsin-foo. A mixed people from every part of the country; gay and extravagant, some frugal.

2. Keang-soo-Keang-nin-foo. An expensive people, a great number of literati.

Soo-chow. The scholars are very polite, and the people taught to love each other. Their manners are pure, and instruction has a powerful effect.

Sung-keang-foo. The literati are studious, the people eminent for benevolence.

3. Gan-hwuy. A light unsteady people; economical, and of good appearance. 4. Keang-se. The literati are partial to classical learning, the people attentive to husbandry.

5. Che-keang.-Hang-chow-foo. Gems and rarities are here collected. Foreign and home trade are united. The people are genteel and elegant. The literati are very methodical.

6. Fo-këen-Fo-chow-foo. Inwardly sincere, and of a gay exterior; very attentive to business, and value economy,

7. Hoo-pe.-Woo-chang-foo. A mixture from every part of the empire. Every family observes its own customs.

MEMORABILIA OF HEANG-CHUNG.

A Statesman and General under the Ming Dynasty, A.D. 1460.

Chung's first entrance into public life was from the literary rank of Tsin-sze. He was attending on the Emperor Yingtsung, when that monarch and his northern court fell into the hands of the Tartars, by whom Chung was doomed to the menial office of attending on horses. This duty, however, afforded him the means of making his escape; he stole two horses, and galloped off southward till both the horses were tired out, after which be travelled bare-footed seven days and seven nights, before he arrived at the territory in possession of the Chinese.

Chung next gave a display of his discrimination in a case in which he was the means of saving a number of peoples' lives. He was appointed to fill an official

situation in the province of Canton, where a rumour of pirates and banditti existed. It was reported to the military officers that several hundreds of banditti were carrying off whole families from a village; and the army was about to act against them, when Chung interposed, and said, it was perfectly incredible that banditti would burden themselves with whole families, the report must be some false alarm, which the event proved to be the case, and no lives were lost.

He

In the course of seven years he obtained considerable promotion. His post, however, was an unpleasant one, being infested by bordering banditti, who made descents for the sake of plunder. stated to the Emperor that the object of these people was not murder, but plunder; that to destroy them entirely would wound the feelings of benevolence; and, on the other hand, to forgive them precipitately would excite feelings of disregard and a want of respect; all that he asked of the emperor was permission to act without reporting for awhile, which was acceded to. He then returned from court, and spread a report that he was going to raise a powerful army that would exterminate the banditti; which stratagem had the desired effect, viz. that of bringing the borders to submission, from an apprehension of impending danger.

Chung displayed his talents in ameliorating the condition of the people un-der his immediate government. The water for many miles around was brackish and unfit for use, which evil he remedied, by cutting aqueducts, which conducted better water from other districts. In consequence of this act of benevolence, the people sacrificed to him during his life time as a god.

When the Chinese troops struggled ineffectually against the bordering Tartar tribes, he wrote to the emperor, stating that the timidity of the Chinese soldiers arose from want of adequate authority in the generals. The inen fear the enemy,' said he, "more than their own officers. Let it be decreed that all who retreat shall be put to death, and then their only chance of life will be in fighting the enemy." This proposal of his was acceded to. Chung was aftewards appointed to act himself as a general, in which character he displayed great intrepidity and courage. He was engaged, in greater or less important battles, upwards of three hundred times, and was the means of suppressing very serious rebellions. He however discovered great severity, and but little regard for the lives of men, so that he was impeached to the emperor, and charged with having slaughtered unnecessarily several hundred thousands of lives.

He replied," in former times Ma

yuen, when fighting the battles of his country in Cochin-China, where he died in the service, was accused of collecting pearls for himself, when the fact was that he only collected pearl-barley to carry home to China. Tang-gae, who had long served and deserved well of his country, was at last, under a false accusation, enclosed in a cage, and died by the hand of the executioner: the one never received emolument, and the other lost his life. It is my happiness to live under an emperor who can discriminate and prevent my becoming a succession to those victims of jealousy, malice, &c."-The emperor stood his friend on this occasion, and protected him. Again, however, a conspiracy of eunuchs and the principal minister affected his complete degradation, and he was reduced to the plebeian rank. The general murmurs of the court and of the country caused his restoration, and the fall of his principal enemy. He declined entering again into active service, but retired and spent twenty-six years in private life, when he died at the age of 82. He was a frank, intrepid, liberalminded, and independent man, well skilled in military affairs, and diligent in the business of government.

A KING.CHEU OF KWAN YIN POO-SAH.

A divine cheer of the very merciful, very compassionate Poo-sah of Nan-mo, who observes and hears the age, to produce divine excitation.

Nan-mo-fo; Nau-mo law; Nan-mo priest; Tan-che-to Ngan kia-lai-fa-to kia-lai-fa-to, hia-a-fa-to lai-kia-fa-to lai kia-fa-to, So-ho, Heaven-net-goddess, earth-net-goddess, who separates main from difficulties, and separates difficulties from the body, may all calamities and distress be converted into dust.

Form for cleansing the mouth. Sieu-li Sieu-li Mo-ho-sieu-li Sieu-sieu-li Sapo-ho.

Form for cleansing the body. Sieu to li Sieu to li Sieu mo li So po họ.

Periods for fasting:-The 8th of the

* Ma-yuen, on setting out on one of his expeditions was attended by a splendid assembly of all the officers of the court. When he bade them farewell, he suggested the following piece of good advice to them: "All men in honour are yet liable to be abased; as for you, gentlemen, if you wish to avoid degradation, keep a firm restraint upon yourselves in your high situations; endeavour to remember my plain address to you." The event turned out as he feared, with one of the leading ministers," who being puffed up with his honors brought misery upon himself." When taking leave of his friends on his last expedition, he said, "I have long feared that it would not be mine to die in the service of my country. His army perished by the heat in Cochin-China, and he himself died in a mountain cave.

+ Ma-yuen and Tang-gae both lived during the second century. (Vide Sing-poo.)

A rule of imprecation of the observer of sounds, the universal deliverer.

among these people, every one of which is governed by its own particular chief, which dignity is hereditary. Examples of usurpers are, however, not rare. Their internal wars, not only of one tribe against another, but of rebellious captains against their princes, disturb their quiet continually, and prevent their making much progress in civilization. The population would otherwise, from the excellence of the climate, from the bodily strength of the people, and from the cus tom of polygamy, increase incalculably: indeed, this propensity to an increasing population is very often a cause of their wars; it creates a want of increase of territory, and that leads to encroachments upon their neighbours, which the latter must resist.

These may be called the characteristic features of the nation at large; while in the scale of manners the race is found to be less than half-civilized. The Caffres must be acknowledged a very distinct people from their next neighbours the Hottentots, inhabiting the inhospitable south-west corner of the great Peninsula of Africa. The latter are much lower in stature, poor in understanding and in speech, without government or laws, without any distinction of property: such a race are as distinct from the Caffres, as a Mussulman from a Briton. This difference would be wholly inexplicable, upon the supposition that these nations had, from the remotest times, lived in the neighbourhood of each other; and it is more than probable that both came origi. nally from a very great distance. Perhaps Mr. Barrow, the person who first suggested this idea, goes too far when he supposes the Caffres to have wandered either directly from Arabia, or to be descendants of the Bedouin tribes. They appear to me of much more ancient descent. A people do not, in a few centuries, go so far back in civilization. We should still find traces of alphabetical signs; more decided remains of their former language and customs would be discernible.

It is true that the practice of circumcision, some slight knowledge of astronomy, their superstition, and the faint traces to be found in their words and names of being derived from Arabic roots, may seem nearly to remove all doubt; but these monuments only prove that the Caffres are descended from a regularly formed people, as they are now themselves, and as the ancestors of the Hottentots may have been. It is very probable that some great emigration first peopled the whole of the eastern coast of Africa; for it is not probable that the Caffres alone came hither from Arabia and Egypt. Many generations might have passed before this emigration took place;

and nothing is adverse to the supposition that the people of the northern coasts of Africa, who were of Asiatic origin, may have been the immediate ancestors of the Caffres.* This idea receives considerable weight, from their physiognomy having so much less relation with that of the Negroes than with the Hottentots.

Would it be altogether contrary to sense, to seek for the ancestors of the Caffres among the Ethiopian natious, whose caravans travelled northwards even to Meroë and Arabia Felix? Might they not also spread themselves to the remotest parts of Southern Africa?† The enquirers into antiquity must decide how far such a supposition is admissible. I recollect, however, among the great ruins of Butua, mentioned by Barros, that the people described there answered very much to what the Caffres are now, as well as to the Agasymbæ of Ptolemæus. The similarity of some few Caffre words with the Arabic affords another presumption that they have a common origin; or perhaps it were to express myself more properly to say, that it is probable in the former intercourse of commerce these words were adopted by both nations.

The tribe of which I mean more particularly to speak, call themselves Koossas, or Kaussas, but to their country they give the name of Ammakosina. These people are exceedingly offended at being called Caffres ; and they have more reason to object to it, since in their language f is a sound that occurs but seldom, and r never, As to the outward form of the Koossas, the same may be said of them as has been said of the nation in general: the men are handsome, strong made, and their limbs exquisitely proportioned. They are in general from five feet six to five feet nine inches high; some are even considerably taller, as for instance, their king Geika; but few indeed are less. Alberti once saw a man not more than five feet high, but he was an universal object of ridicule among them. The skull of the Caffre is highly arched and well formed: his eye is lively, his nose not flat, but sufficiently prominent, and his teeth of the most brilliant whiteness. They hold themselves ex

Heeren, in his ideas relative to the political state and commerce of the most celebrated nations of antiquity, considers it as highly probable, that in extremely remote times there were considerable emigrations from Arabia, across the Red Sea, to the opposite coast of Africa. Circumcision prevailed among the Troglodytes, one of the most northern of the Ethiopian nations.

† 1 must again cite Heeren, who reconciles the pastoral lives of these people with their journies in caravans, in a very satisfactory manner.

+ How much the name of Caffre is held in contempt over the whole colony may be understood, from the circumstance that the executioner's servant in the Cape Town, who is taken from among the blacks, condemned to work at the fortifications, is called the Caffre.

ceedingly upright; their step is quick and dignified; their whole exterior denotes strength and spirit.

The women are not less handsome, but much smaller, seldom exceeding five feet in height. A very sleek soft skin, beautiful teeth, pleasing features, expressive of great cheerfuluess and content, and a slender form, make them even in the eyes of an European exceedingly attractive.The dark colour of the skin, and the short black hair drawn together in little locks, somewhat detract from this agreeable impression, before the eye is accustomed to them.

Both men and women have the custom of colouring their bodies red with a sort of earth, or with iron rust. They mix this with water, and then rub themselves well till it is dried on, after which they smear it over with fat. This is not renewed every day, only once in three or four days. Very few of the Koossas are to be found tattooed, but among the more distant Caffre tribes this custom is not at all unfrequent.

The small-pox has, at various times, raged exceedingly in the country; and, from the effects, it is plain that it has done so in no very remote times: numbers of men, not more than thirty years of age, are now to be seen exceedingly marked with it. It was particularly prevalent in the years 1753 and 1754. Some believe that the infection was brought by some beads which they had purchased of a distant tribe; others are of opinion that it was taken from the crew of a vessel stranded upon their coast. I could not find, upon the most accurate inquiries, the least traces of any prevailing chronic discases among them; and the answers they made, when I questioned them upon the subject of infectious ones, lead me to suppose that they are not liable to any except the small-pox. Another disease is here wholly unknown. A man who had resided for some time in the colony, in the district of Graaff Reynett, returning with it, was banished as soon as the dangerous nature of his complaint was discovered, nor was he suffered to reenter the country till he was entirely cured.

A very extraordinary circumstance which I had to remark among these people is, that I never knew one of them sneeze, yawn, cough, or hawk. I do not rest this entirely upon my own observation; the very same thing was remarked by our whole party. They never have colds or catarrhs, and it may be presumed, according to appearances, that they are equally free from the spleen and ennui.

Among the Koossas there is no appearance of any religious worship what ever. They believe in the existence of a

great Being who created the world, but in their own language, as Vander Kemp ́ assured me, they have no name by which he is called; they have, therefore, adopted one from the Gonaaquas, who call him Thiko. The Caffres, however, pronounce the word Theuke, which word Vander Kemp says signifies exciter of smart; I have heard some Caffres pronounce the word Thauqua.

It is only the chiefs and their wives who are buried. They are left to die in their huts; the corpse is then wrapped in the mantle, and the grave is made in the fold for the cattle. After the earth is thrown in, some of the oxen are driven into the fold, and remain there till the earth is entirely trodden down, so as not to be distinguishable from the rest. The oxen are then driven out, but they must not be killed. The widows of the deceased burn all the household utensils which they and their husband had used together; and, after remaining three days in solitude, purify themselves according to the usual manner. They then kill au ox, and each makes herself a new mantle of the skin; the place is after this forsaken by all its inhabitants, and never built upon any more, not even by another horde. Sometimes in the spots where chiefs have been buried bones are seen, but it is regarded as a very ill omen when their bones are disturbed, from any cause whatever. A chief, whose wife dies, has the same ceremonies to observe as another man, excepting that with him the time of mourning is only three days. The place in which the wife of a chief is buried is forsaken in the same manner as in the case of the chief himself.

The Koossas are brave and resolute, like all the other tribes of the Caffres, and often involved in wars with their neighbours; yet they cannot be called quarrelsome in their dispositions; they seem much more disposed to lead a quiet and pastoral life. When engaged in war, no man capable of bearing arms shrinks from the fight; and to fly in battle is considered as a disgrace never to be expiated. The neighbours with whom they are the most frequently at war are the Bosjesmans, on account of the depredations which the latter are perpetually committing on their cattle. As the Bosjesmans, however, never meet an enemy in the open field, but endeavour to shoot their poisoned arrows from some secure place of concealment, so the Caffres cannot come to fair and equal fighting with them; the warfare on both sides rather consists of petty couflicts between hordes. The enmity of the Koossas, and all the other Caffre tribes, against the Bosjesmans, knows no bounds. The latter are considered by the former in the light of beasts of prey, who ought to be extirpated from