the Abbé COURNAND is the author or editor, is rendered peculiarly valuable by the Preliminary Difcourfe prefixed to it. This difcourfe exhibits a view of the ftate of Europe, civil and military, and of the state of the arts and sciences, of navigation, and commerce, when the Prince of Portugal fet out in a career that aftonished the world, by a series of bold enterprizes and important difcoveries. At this period, Europe prefented, every where, a favage afpect of violence and barbarifm, almoft as abfurd as the present scene of things, which fhocks common fenfe, and afflicts humanity. France and England were fhedding torrents of blood; Germany and Italy were tormented by the factions of the Guelphs and Gibelines; and Spain was occupied in recovering her ancient domain, that had been ufurped by the Moors. The arts and fciences languished in oblivion, and no profeffion was regarded but that of arms. The accounts given, by the Author of this Difcourfe, of the commerce and marine of England, France, and the Italian States, fuch as Genoa, Pifa, and Venice, are curious and juft, His details relative to the rife and progress of navigation, and the maritime enterprizes, of the ancients, Thew that he is by no means unacquainted with the valuable materials that a writer on this fubject will find in the ift Book of Dr. ROBERTSON's celebrated Hiftory of America.

We are not, however, of the Abbé's opinion, when he remarks, that, in ancient times, it was only in the little republics, and small states, that we fee a trading marine formed, and great = enterprizes undertaken. For the famous navigations of Hanno and Hamilcar, during the profperous age of the Carthaginian republic, teftify againft him, and may be justly reckoned the greateft efforts of navigation in the ancient world, if the information we have concerning them from the Greek and Roman authors may be depended upon. Great alfo were, in this kind, the projects of Alexander, whofe expedition into the Eaft contributed much to the improvement of navigation and geographi cal knowledge among the Greeks. When we fee this aftonifhing man founding a great city on the Nile, to command the trade both of the Eaft and the Weft, penetrating fo far into India, as to form a juft idea of the commercial importance of that, country, forming the plan of a regular communication between the river Indus and the Perfian Gulph, and propofing to carry the commodities of the Eaft up the Euphrates and the Tigris into the interior parts of his Afiatic dominions, and by the Red Sea and the Nile to the reft of the world, we fhall be perfuaded that our Author went too far when he advanced the opinion above mentioned.

His notions are more juft, but lefs original, when, after mentioning the total ruin of navigation, which fucceeded the fall of the Roman empire, and the incurfions of the barbarous !

nations

nations into the southern parts of Europe, he attributes its reftoration to the Crufades. Thefe abfurd expeditions, which carry, at first fight, fuch a difguftful afpect of fanaticifm and fuperftitious folly, were attended with advantages which those who promoted them never thought of. The firft crusaders,' fays our Author, who travelled or marched by land, having fuffered much from the badness of the roads, the scarcity of provifions, and the rude treatment they drew upon themselves by their infolence, their fucceffors took a different method. They turned their views to the fea, as the element that offered them a more expeditious and unmolefted paffage to the Holy Land, than the different ftates, and the inhofpitable regions, through which they had before directed their courfe. Accord ingly, they had recourfe to the Genoefe, the Pifans, and Venetians, for tranfports, provifions, and military ftores. Thefe republicans built, at the expence of the fanatical crufaders, a great number of fhips which remained in their own hands, augmented their marine far beyond what their own means would have been able to effectuare, and were led to form vast defigns for extending and establishing their commerce.'—That the crufades contributed to improve the marine, and extend the trade, of the Italian States, is true; and Dr. Robertson has given us the most interefting details on this object, in his two Jaft capital hiftories; but it is not exactly true, that the crufaders were the firft caufe of the revival of navigation: the commercial fpirit of Italy was become active and enterprifing before thefe knights-errant began their career. Various caufes, which are ingenioufly combined, and happily related, by the hiftorian above mentioned, concurred before that time, in reftoring to the cities of Italy that liberty and independence, which awakened industry, and promoted navigation and commerce: the crufades only favoured the progrefs of what was already happily begun.

Don Henry began his career when the Italian republics were the fole poffeffors of commerce. They were fupplied with the precious commodities of the Eaft, at Conftantinople, Tripoli, Aleppo, and other ports on the coaft of Syria, and also traded with the Soldans of Egypt, who had renewed the commerce with India in its ancient channel by the Red Sea. But a bolder fpirit of navigation, and nobler plans of difcovery, were to be difplayed by the Prince of Portugal.

This Prince, whofe early application to the culture of the arts and fciences, and more especially to the ftudy of geography, happily feconded his defire of enriching his country with commercial opulence, turned his views to the ocean, and conceived

Hill. of Charles V. vol. i. p. 33.

the

1

the hopes of finding new and wealthy regions by failing along the coast of Africa. By this plan he avoided the obftacles that might have obftructed any commercial attempts in the Mediterranean, arifing from the jealousy of the Italian States, or the enmity of the Moors, who inhabited the coafts of Spain and Africa. In perufing this hiftory, its readers will fee what great abilities and elevation of mind this Prince difplayed, even in the preparatory steps he took for the exécution of this vaft project; fuch as his retreat from court, his refidence at Sagres, where he applied himself, with indefatigable industry, to all the kinds of study that had a relation to his great object, and the pains he took to draw information from all perfons and all quarters: but they will particularly admire the genius, wisdom, and perfeverance with which he pursued his purpose; and, above all, the generous motives of benevolence and zeal for the public good, that led him to conceive, and impelled him to execute, this arduous defign. The moral qualities and private virtues of Don Henry were a bright ornament to his birth, abilities, and genius; and he is certainly one of the most respectable characters, in high and princely ftations, that we meet with in hiftory. The fuccefs of his undertaking the Reader will fee circumftantially related in this hiftory, to which we refer him. It is to the Preliminary Difcourfe that we confine ourselves at present.

According to our Author, the principle that directed the first attempts of the Portuguese towards colonization, was the eftablifhment of a confiderable marine, on extenfive commerce, without rendering, nevertheless, the new fettlements that should be difcovered and poffeffed, dependent on the mother-country for their fubfiftance. In fuch a kingdom as Portugal, whofe extent is small, and whofe fertility is not very great, it would have been difficult to fupply with provifions the demands of all the emigrations that peopled the Canary Islands and the Azores. It was, on the contrary, the active industry of the new colonifts, that was to fupply the mother-country with fources of commerce and abundance, without being fubjected too fervilely to its jurif diction and direction. The colonies, profpering under a mild and moderate government, bore always a filial affection to their primitive land; and all their tranfactions with their ancient brethren were carried on and directed by principles of equity, in which both fides found their account. The great fault, continues our Author, committed by the Portuguese, was, their undertaking the conquest of the countries they difcovered, without a previous confideration of the force required to maintain their acquifitions, even fhould it prove poffible (which it was not) for their fmall colonies to fubdue the vast regions of India. This fault was perhaps lefs imputable to the Prince and the nation

t

than

Than to the fpirit of the times, which was wild, and romantic, when it thook off the lethargy of ignorance and floth.

From the comparison which our Author draws between Dan Henry and Chriftopher Columbus, it may be justly inferred, that Nature appears with more energy in the former than in the lat ter; but we cannot conclude, that the would have appeared with more energy in Don Henry than in Columbus, had the latter been in the fame circumftances with the former. Columbus had certainly great advantages from the preceding enterprizes, and daring labours of men, inferior to him in talents, but every way his equals in courage and refolution. He profited by the hazardous attempts of Bartholomew Diaz and Vafco de Gama, and received, no doubt, inftruction at Lisbon from the pilets and mariners who had been formed in the school of the illuftrious Infant. But Henry was fuftained by his genius alone. The pilots of his time were ignorant, and followed blindly a certain rude and beaten path, from which they never departed. Though the compafs was difcovered, they ftill continued to direct their navigation along the coafts.

This difcourfe concludes by an idolatrous effufion of adula. tion to the King of France, whom (fays our Author) history will place in the fmall number of those beneficent monarchs that are deftined to comfort the earth under its calamities. we had not refolved to keep politics aloof from an article of this kind, we would ftigmatize, as it deferves, the impious iniquity of this fulfome phrafe. For the reft, the Difcourfe is well compofed, and contains fome new ideas, and feveral difcuffions, which we have perufed with pleasure. We doubt yery much if the Tranflation comes from the fame hand, as the ftyle feems much inferior to that of the Difcourfe. The facts contained in the Hiftory are interefting, and there is a very elegant analyfis of them given in the Preliminary Difcourfe, which, befides the principal obfervations of the Portuguese Hiftorian, contains many additional remarks which efcaped him, or which he did not think proper to infert in his work.

AR T. IV.

Præcepta Dietetica, &c. i. e. Dietetical Precepts, or Inftructions relative to Diet and Regimen. By. M. GEORGE GOTT. RICHTER, M. D. Counsellor and Firft Physician to the King of England (as Elector of Hanover), and Primary Profeffor of Medicine in the University of Gottingen. 8vo. 384 Pages. Heidelberg and Leipfic. 1781.

TH

HIS pofthumous Work of a very eminent phyfician is di vided into eight chapters, and is followed by an Apperdix, which contains fix more. The first treats of the air; the

Second,

fecond, of nourishment, vegetable, animal, fluid and solid, and extends even to the fmoaking of tobacco; the third, of excretions and fecretions, phyfiologically confidered; the fourth, of motion and reft; the fifth, of fleep and waking; the firth, contains a history of the paffions; the feventh exhibits a series of rules, which it is of the higheft confequence to obferve in the purfuit and indulgence of amorous pleafures-a curious article! and the right is relative to feveral external objects, fuch as clothing, baths, perfumes, frictions, phlebotomy, fcarification, and so on. The fix chapters of the Appendix treat of the different kinds of diet that are adapted to diverfity of age and fex, and which are to be obferved by valetudinarians, princes-(bread and water, fay we for fome of thefe),-men of letters, and perfons who have been indifpofed in the first periods of recovery. We observe a great degree of folidity, perfpicuity, and precifion, in this useful Work.

ART. V...

Obfervazioni, &c. i. e. Obfervations on the Difeafes to which Europeans are subject in Warm Climates, as alfo in the - Courfe of a long Navigation, made during a Voyage to the Eaft Indies, from the Year 1776 to 1781. By M. NICHOLAS FONTANA of Cremona, M. D. 8vo. 163 Pages. Leghorn. 1781.

HIS is a Work of merit; and though the obfervations

THIS here made be relative to Italian conftitutions, and mari

time ailments, they may be turned to profit by judicious practi tioners in all the branches of the medical art, The Obfervations are preceded by a judicious Preface and a meteorological Journal of the Voyage, together with a lift of the diforders which attacked the crew at certain times, and feemed to have a palpable correfpondence with the influence of the planets. This latter circumftance would look fufpicious, if the obfervations of the celebrated Toaldo did not look the fame way, and we were not led to think, by the marvellous difcoveries (or fome things fo called), that daily furprife us, and the multitude of new theories of Nature that are coming upon us from all quarters, that the science of phyfics is at the eve of fome great revolution, or revolutions, as well as the political fyftem of the world.

The fubject of our Author's Obfervations, divided into eight chapters, are Fevers, the Dyfentery, the Cholera Morbus, the Hepatitis, and other diforders of the liver, the Rheumatism, the Scurvy, Venereal Disorders, and the ailments that require chirurgical treatment. It appears in general from this publication, that the disorders, peculiarly and exclufively incident to

fea