the chief officers. After fpeaking to our conductors, he gave us to underftand, by figns, that we had been taken for part of a nation, with whom they were then at war; but that we were at liberty, and fhould have every affistance for the repair of our veffel. We were now treated with civility, and allowed to go over

the town.

The huts or houfes were built in ftraight lines, leaving a broad path between them; where the natives were walking flowly up and down, without any feeming occupation; fome were dragged about in a low kind of vehicle, and others carried by two men, in a small box. Though the climate was by no means hot, the women were barely covered by a loofe thin drefs; their cheeks and necks were daubed over with white and red paint; and their cars perforated with fmall holes, fo as to admit various baubles which they hung there. Yet though thus expofed to the weather, their limbs feemed delicately turned, their features were beautiful, and their eyes befpoke a gentlenefs of foul, which might have done honour to a civilized nation.The men were tall and handfome;but the vari-coloured pieces of leather and cloth, with which they were en-. veloped, by no means ferved to fet off their figures.

Some had their heads covered with a kind of white duft, while others had a dress of fcarlet, their heads decorated with feathers, and a long weapon in their girdle; thefe ftrutted with much confidence and felf complacency, and I found they were the warriors of the country.

From the length of time the repairs of our veffel required, I was enabled to make obfervations on the cuftoms of this extraordinary nation, and even to acquire fome knowledge of their language; but this task was difficult, from the various names they deemed to have for the fame object,

and their various mode of pronunciation. Like most other favage tribes, I foon found this people were strongly addicted to gaming, and I have feen them continue whole nights in the purfuit of it. Their plays were various, but the favourite one feemed to he cafting fmall white bones, dotted with black, from a box of leather, when as far as I could understand, he that threw up the largeft number of dots, was victorious. Other diverfions there were too, which ftrongly marked their uncultivated ftate. For the entertainment of their fellow creatures, two of the fpecies were pitted against each other; and frequently thefe poor favages fought, with naked fifts, till one or other dropped lifeless without any previous enmity of their own. Birds, carefully trained for the purpofe, were frequently, in the fame manner, made to murder each other, whilft the natives crowded round with every demonftration of barbarous rapture. Independent of thefe cuftoms, they were fincere and hofpitable; and mirth and good cheer prefided at their banquets. But too often, when heated with the juice of a certain fruit (a beverage of which they feemed paffionately fond) they broke out into violent exceffes, and the favage nature again betrayed itfelf.

Of their laws I could learn but little, yet I faw their king, a venerable old man, walk alone, unguarded, amongst his fubjects, protected by the refpect and affection of all.

I was admitted to their temple of worship, but was unable to difcover the nature of their religion. Their chief devotion feemed to be addreffed to an object fufpended on high, of a bright appearance, marked with myftic figures, in black, to which, on its founding a fhrill fignal, all eyes feemed at once directed."

Bigamy was here practifed almoft univerfally, and feemed to me to be

tolerated

cification of a patent which he has obtained for the application of mechanical preffure to the refining of fugar.

lerated by the laws. One wife I and was taken for the number of her poffeffions, the other to gratify the caprice, or prove the fpirit of the bufband; but he was obliged to keep To be fubjected to this preffure, the leparate houses for them, and all in- fugar, ftill foft and full of impurities, tercourfe was cut off between the two is put into any veffel or covering which ladies. The manner of courting was is porous and will yield to comprefrather extraordinary. Inftead of fron. addreffing himself to the damfel, the fstore bridegroom endeavoured to gain the good will of all her relations, even the moft diftant ones, and their intereft ufually prevailed upon her to accept the man, who had taken fuch prudent methods to gain her, affections. Preliminaries fettled, a Thort ceremony was performed, and the young couple fet off together, and mavelled as far as poffible before night-fall; nor did they return, till the bafhfulness of the bride was fo far overcome, as to enable her to face ber acquaintance, when they flocked round her, and the diftributed amongst then a fort of cake, with which they went away perfectly satisfied.

The veffel or covering may be of any capacity; and you may, at pleafure, fubject a fmaller or a greater quantity of fugar to the procefs at once.

On the 15th of September, our repairs being completed, we put to fea, with a fine breeze from the N. E. and left this extraordinary island, which, from the manie of the month in which we had difcovered it, we called Augufta, and, after a voyage of nine weeks, arrived fafe in the harbour of L

And now, Mr. Editor, let me requeft one corner in your publication for this my tale, and if future navigators find any thing in it miftated, in the name of heaven let them contradict it.

EPHEBUS.

New Patents, lately. Enrolled. Extratted for the Information of the People of Ireland.

Mr. Wakefield's for an Improvement in the Refining of Sugar.

The fugar, in the proper veffel or cover, is then to be fubjected to a weight which acts by rollers, a fcrew or a wedge, with the help of a team engine,' the action of a mill, or any other means of applying great force.

The fugar being, though foft, in great part cryftallized; only the impurities, and that part of the fugar which is enveloped in the impurities, remain in a moift and fomewhat gelatinous folution: hence the cryftals of the fugar will endure the preffure ; while the impurities, with fome uncrystallized faccharine matter, will país out by the holes or pores of the cover or veffel in which the mafs is inclofed.

The fugar thus once preffal may be again boiled, and farther refined by the accustomed chemical methods. The preffure may after that be repeated. And the chemical and mechanical-proceffes may be thus alternately employed till the fugar be refined to the defired purity.

The impure fugar or melaffes extruded by the preflure, may be either. feparately ufed in diftillation, or may be added to the more impure folutions of faccharine matter which are vet in an earlier flage of chemical refine

It seems to us an improvement of human labour. Its principle is the no small value in the refining of very fame on which the other improvfugar; and fo much much the more ed machinery of the cotton-work is valuable for its extreme fimplici- conftructed."

Mr. Anthony Bowden, of Mellor, in Derbyshire, recorded on the firft of July 1801, the fpecification in a letter patent which he has obtained to fecure to him for the ufual time the ex

clufive benefit of a machine that he

has contrived to abbreviate the labour of beating cotton.,

In its ufe two thirds of the number of labourers, and those the weakest inftead of the ftrongeft,-children inftead of women in the full ftrength-will execute the fame quantity of work, which the whole could do in the former methods of beating, and cleaning cotton.

Memoirs of the late Mrs. Anne

It is

Crawford.

This machine has at the middle of T is one of the attributes of genius, its frame a flake or bed of cordage, on and no doubt one of its powerful which the cotton which is to be beat- incentives, to be diftinguished when en and cleaned, must be depofited. living, and remembered when dead: That flake or bed is during the opera--it is likewife a debt incumbent on tion kept in continual moveinent, by the furvivors thus to repay (as far as the turning of certain rollers upon they can) the pleasure or improvewhich it immediately refts. ment they have received from departed excellence.

The fubject of this memoir is well entitled to this notice; who must be acknowledged, by all who remember her in the meridian of her powers, to be one of the first actreffes of her time: and at a period, too, when the trod upon the heels of a Cibber and a Pritchard, and the theatre was fuperintended by the commanding genius and talents of a Garrick.

Over the cotton difpofed upon the flake, rife arms from a crofs frame at the bottom. Thefe arms work in moveable iron flides. Rails fixed to the arms give the requifite motions. and are themselves moved by cranks, At the tops of the arms are fixed wooden rollers. Thefe rollers communicate their motion to axles in iron frames. The axles have each a focket fixed to it. In thofe fockets are by means of hoops and fcrews This lady was born at Bath about placed beating flicks, by the action of the year 1734, and was the daughwhich the cotton on the flake is beat-ter of a very respectable apothecary en and cleaned. Leathern traps, in that city, whole income enabled fprings, and flides regulate the move him to live in affluence, and to give ments of the rods. his daughter all the accomplishments neceffary for a woman of tathion.She had a mind capable of fuch improvements; which added to a figure pleatingly feminine, and great fuavity of manners, rendered her, as The grew up an object of general attachment.

An axle with ten cranks. derives its own motion from the impuile given to the pulley at one end of it, and by its revolutions produces all the other movements of the machine.

The merit of this invention, confifts precisely in its giving a new diftribution of mechanical power, fitted to perform an operation in me preparing of cotton for manufacture, which has been hitherto done by abbreviated

When the about feventeen years of age, fhe was particularly noticed by a young gentleman of very extenfive fortune, and the brother of a no

ble

lord who was then at Bath. From ly feeing her in the rooms, and inverting with her en paffant, he Tas fo ftruck with her charms, department, and good fenfe, that he begged permiffion to wait upon her at her boufe. After a few vifits, he announced himfelf to her father as her lover; and as he was too good a match to be refufed, and otherwife had gained the affections of his daugh ter, there feemed to be no impediment to their happiness.

But whilft things were in this train of maturation, an unexpected letter arrived, advifing the lover of the death of an uncle of his in London, which required his immediate attendance. He unwillingly was obliged to obey the fummons, after having i plodged his affections to her in the moft folemn manner for his ammediate return-but how fleeting are Lovers promifes! The air of London acceffion of fortune, and abfence foon diffipated his vows; whilft the amiable object of them, after waiting two months in daily expectation of hearing from him, had nothing but fighs and painful recollectias to comfort her. She, however, did not entirely abandon the hopes he had of feeing him again, and being once more reftored to his former affection-when the one morning received the fatal news of his being married to another lady, whom he had previously paid his addreffes to, and who, from an accidental meetrecalled him to his first vows, and rivetted him in her chains for

ever.

very early preference to the theatre; and as there was a tolerable company at Bath at that time, the frequented it almost every night, and foon found in this favourite refource, aided by her own good fenfe, a full recovery of her former health and her fpirits.

Difaated love generally produces fome feeds of refentment-and at that time the heart is often moft liable to another attachment. This appeared to be our herdine's fituation. Amongst the performers, there was a perfon of the name of Dancer, whom the thought favourably of as an actor-and as he had fome genteel connections in the town, the had an opportunity of feeing him in private as well as public. He foon difcovered her partiality for him, and improved upon it; and as the lady was fuppofed to have a good fortune, and at her own diipofal (her father being at this time dead), he loft no opportunity of urging his fuit, till he prevailed upon her to marry him. This being foon made public, Bath could be no longer the fcene of their refi dence-and they accordingly fet off to enjoy the honey moon at Plymouth.

It was in this town that Mrs. Dancer made her first appearance upon any stage, in the character of Monimia, in the Orphan, where, from her youth, beauty, diffidence, and misfortunes, more than from real talents, fhe was favourably enough received, fo as to be entered upon the lift of that company with her husband, at a refpectable falary.

The chagrin fhe was thrown into Her relations, on her marriage, on this account vifibly impaired her were inconfolable, but did not take health; and the appeared to every bo- either the prudent or just way of alledy to be haftening to a confumption, viating it. Inftead of making the best till a friendly phyfician, an acquaint- of a bad bargain, they permitted a ance of her father's, prefcribed her the falfe pride to operate in fecking every molt efficacious remedy for low fpi- opportunity to prevent her from what a conftant fucceffion of company, they called difgracing them in the and the bustle of public amusements. eyes of the world. For this purpose, Of the latter kind, our heroine had a they firft prevailed in diflodging them January, 1802.

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