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Art. VII. A Journal of Voyages and Travels. By the late Thomas Rees, Sergeant of Marines. Published for the Benefit of the Author's Orphan Daughter. 12mo. pp. 176. Price 5s. London. 1822.

ALTHOUGH Sergeant Rees appears to have been a man of good plain sense, a brave soldier, and an honest Welchman, and his adventures are of a kind to excite a lively interest in a fire-side recital, it is very possible that we might have overlooked this posthumous account of his Travels, had not the intimation in the title-page attracted our attention to it, as intended to promote a benevolent purpose. We think that our young friends will derive a good deal of entertainment and some instruction from the perusal; and it may be a good exercise, to try to frame a map of the honest Serjeant's oriental peregrinations. After various adventures at sea, which are narrated with sea-man-like simplicity and pithiness, it was the fate of our Author, to be appended to a military officer in an expedition into Persia; the miseries attendant on which, though he appears to have borne them with exemplary patience and submission, are very feelingly detailed. Our readers will recollect, in the "Metrical Epistles from Florence," the vivacious description given by the Lady's waiting-maid Jane, of the horrors of the Simplon, in which she exposes, with homely simplicity, the sorrows of tourists, more especially the hardships which fall on the servants. Sergeant Rees had to encounter dangers and hardships of a somewhat more formidable character; and his journal will convey a better idea than the splendid quartos of gentlemen adventurers, what travelling in the East for pleasure really is, what sacrifices it involves on the part of the master, but still more on that of his man, and what a mercy it is to live among Christians, and sit by one's own fire-side. The following is a specimen of the adventures which befel the Author on a voyage up the Tigris.

We now proceeded to the Tigris, and going on shore the next morning, as usual, we saw a large body of people at a distance, but coming towards us. So we hastened back to the boat, and disguised ourselves in the Turkish dress; for those wild Arabs have a great aversion to the sight of a hat. But they very well knew that we were Europeans. Now in this river there is no tide; but the water is always running downwards, and that and the wind were both against us the remainder of our passage. We were obliged always to have six men on shore, four hours at a time, both night and day. They were so frightened at the Arabs, who tried to stop the boat, that they jumped into the water, and came into her for safety. These savages would gladly put a European to death, so much do they hate those of the Christian religion. They said, that if we would give them (as was their custom to have) some pepper and a bag of dates, they would

let us pass unmolested. The captain declared they should have nothing. Then they swore that they would take our flesh as meat for their dogs, and our blood to wash their hands with. This terrified the interpreter, and the boat's crew still more, when he repeated it to them; so that they gave privately, out of their own share of provisions, a bag of dates. We hauled out again into the middle of the river, when they called out for powder and flints; but the captain was still determined that they should not get the better of him. Then they began to pelt large stones at us, and pointed their spears, as if resolved on our deaths. To escape from them, we went over to the other side of the river, and found ourselves worse off than ever; for we were now nearly close to a town, inhabited by a people quite as bad as themselves. They knew this, and began to sing out all at once; when, the people in the town hearing them, came running in crowds, giving those on shore scarcely time to reach the boat, which we hauled again into the middle of the river, but could not pull up, the current running down so strong. The river was at this part too wide for the stones to reach us; but still they kept throwing them, and spitting, and showing their hatred in every way they could do, but made no attempt to fire. Had they done so, the captain declared it should have been returned to them, as we had more ammunition than they could possibly have. I do not think they had any at all, or they would have fired long before. In this uncomfortable situation we continued till the sun was nearly setting; when they all ran away, that they might go to prayers before it was down, being in such a pretty state of mind for devotion.

This was a truly savage country, and a sad way for a true Welchman to spend St. David's day in, this being the 1st of March, 1815. In all parts of the world, and under all dangers and troubles, I never forget this, the day of the saint of my own country; even if I had only a glass of grog extraordinary, being something to mark it from other days. I was thinking of this, in no very pleasant humour, when one of the fellows again came running down to the boat, which was close on shore, and began abusing and spitting at me in particular. So, fixing my bayonet on my musket, I jumped on shore, and made a charge towards him. But the Turks, fearing that I should kill him, which would draw down the vengeance of the rest upon us, began to sing out at such a rate, that the captain, who was in the cabin, ran out to see what was the matter, and, calling me back, was going to give me a sharp reprimand for leaving the boat without his leave. His anger, however, was soon removed; for I told him that no true Welchman could ever refuse a challenge made him on St. David's day; and to this the captain seemed readily to agree.

Now night came on, and the wild beasts in the woods, on each side of the river, began to bellow and to roar so incessantly, that we could get no sleep. We found it very dismal indeed; and glad enough we were when day-light appeared.' pp. 80-3.

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A little further on, we meet with a fuller description of the horrors of the night, together with a Biblical illustration not to be found in Harmer.

Now the night came on so very dark, that we were obliged to make the boat fast under the wood, by the river side. I really want words to express what I endured at that time, lying under the wood in the boat, and the weather so intensely cold. But of that I scarcely seemed any longer to be sensible, so unceasing and so terrible were the roarings and bellowings of the lionesses and their whelps, with the noise of other unknown animals; but above all, the cries of the jackalls, (the most distressing of all sounds to the human ear,) sometimes like the cries of a child, or rather like a person in the greatest agony. All these dreadful and unceasing sounds, joined to the roaring of the storm through the woods, produced such an effect on my mind as no language can describe. I expected every instant that some wild beast would spring upon me, so near did I hear them to me. That night in particular, I never shall forget, for I thought I should have lost my senses through terror.

On the following day we went on shore, and met no person; but found the bones and feathers of some large bird, which appeared to have been devoured the night before. We walked several miles, and returned to the boat to breakfast. After that, the gentlemen were wondering what we could get for dinner, as we had expected in our walk to have met with some one, of whom we could have bought a kid. Whilst they were talking about it, a fish, of five or six pounds, leaped out of the water into the boat. This put me in mind of a part of the Apocrypha, where it is related, in the sixth chapter of the book of Tobit, that he had sent his son Tobias, with an angel, on a journey, and they came to the river Tigris and lodged; and when Tobias went down to the river to wash himself, there was a fish leaped out at him, and he thought it would have devoured him. But the angel told him to bring it up, and gave him a strict charge to keep the heart, the liver, and the gall; but the rest was dressed for their use. Now it is not impossible but, as this is the same river, it might be at this very spot that the fish leaped out at Tobias. Some people would, perhaps, ridicule such a thought; but in such a place, and with my Bible for my companion, it came very naturally to me.' pp. 89–91.

Our Author's acquaintance with his Bible is unaffectedly displayed in various parts of the volume: it was his Traveller's Guide, and he read it by the light of the skies under which it was written. The interest he discovers in the scenes hallowed by Scripture references, does credit to his understanding and his heart. For instance.

"This place (Busheer) is subject to great shoals of locusts. Whereever they alight, they will not quit till they have destroyed every part of vegetation: they will even cling to clothes and furniture, and devour them also. I remembered that they were mentioned as one of the plagues of Egypt, when, in the 10th chapter of Exodus, it is said, "The Lord commanded Moses to stretch out his hand, so that the east wind brought the locusts, and they covered the face of the whole earth, and the land was darkened with them; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees; and there remained not any green

on the trees, nor grass nor herb on the land." But some of them are eaten in return; for the women and children gather them together, and when dried they are used as food: they are, in that state, not unlike shrimps. It is a cheap food, but only used by the poorest of the people. On hearing this, it no longer appeared to me strange that St. John, when in the wilderness, was fed on locusts and wild honey.

"We sailed from Busheer, and came to the island of Kareck, where the pilot lives, whose business it is to take ships over the bar and up the river Euphrates. He refused to come on board, unless we first sent him two bags of rice, which he said was always the custom. He had it; and then, with one of his sons, came to us. We steered for the river, and after we had got over the bar the next morning, we sailed sixty miles up it; and then we came to anchor, on account of the tide running downwards. I had often read in the Bible, of the river Euphrates; and it is mentioned so far back as in the 2d chapter of Genesis, and also in the 46th chapter of the prophet Jeremiah. It was one of the four rivers which watered the garden of Eden, and it was named by the Almighty himself: although so many centuries ago, yet the name has never been changed. How little did I think I should ever behold it! Now if a plain man like myself, may give an opinion, it is this: our nature is stubborn, and we are not inclined to believe that such and such things do really exist, unless they have been seen by ourselves, or by others who have lived in the world at the same time with ourselves. So that we consider the places and the things of which we read in the Bible, like as we would the stories and fables which we read when we were children; for it was only of late years that travellers ever ventured into such distant countries, But here was I, sailing up the river Euphrates, which, as I said before, watered the garden of Eden. Here was I, looking round on places which had been in times of old, even before the Scriptures themselves were written; and I wished, at that moment, that every one could see what I saw, that they might believe and know, and confess the power of the Almighty. I cannot describe the feelings which were then in my heart.' pp. 70-3.

The worthy Sergeant had the good fortune to visit Bagdad, where, on hearing music in a large house, he says he could almost have fancied it to be Sinbad's the sailor, while an old cobler at his work reminded him of Morgiana and the forty thieves. He visited Shiraz and Persepolis, and was only prevented by illness from reaching the ruins of Babylon. His descriptions and comments are often striking from their ingenuous simplicity. The reader will be amused with his orthography of proper names. A Persian gentleman is mentioned, holding some high station in the court of the prince, of the name of Mr. Javerdeacon, from which we can only make out that one of his names was Jaffier. The tomb of Zobeide, the favourite queen of Haroun el Raschid, is, by a very pardonable blunder, transformed into the tomb of Zebedee. The tomb of Mahomet is said to be not far from it; but who this Mahomet was, we

have not been able to decipher. We are still more at a loss to tell what is meant by the temple of Sion' on the banks of the Tigris, respecting which a hoax appears to have been most unworthily played off on the Sergeant by his Captain, and his Biblical learning certainly failed him here. The plain of Mashaw' is obviously a mistake for the tomb (Mesched) of the Mother of Solomon, which the Author describes as situated in it. Dalakee and Kauzeroon are given with sufficient correctness; Disergen is evidently Zergoon; but Zingzooan, Dekzar, and some others, we have been unable to identify.

Poor Rees left India, Dec. 29, 1816, and arrived in England in the following June. On his return, he was appointed drill-sergeant; but it was not long before he began to exhibit symptoms of a decline. He obtained permission to try the effect of his native air at Caermarthen, where his pay was continued to him for a year; and here he amused himself with copying out his journal. At length, his recovery being hopeless, he was discharged; and after disposing of his shells and other little things collected in his travels, was compelled to have recourse to parochial relief. A pension of 101. a year was, however, obtained for him, on the application of a benevolent physician. He lingered for more than two years, enduring his sufferings and privations without a murmur, and died in April, 1820, before he had completed his thirtieth year.

Art. VIII. Farewell Discourse to the Congregation and Parish of St. John's, Glasgow. By the Rev. Edward Irving, A.M. Sometime Assistant to the Rev. Dr. Chalmers. 8vo. pp. 42. Glasgow. 1822. THIS is a very singular production, and we might seem to be

almost prohibited from noticing it, by the Author's declaration, that it was a confidential communication' of his feelings to a people in whose confidence he was established, having been written to be spoken into their ear alone, and being printed at their desire. This circumstance would assuredly have deterred us from noticing it altogether, as it will now induce us to waive any minute criticism, did not the discourse display, with all its defects as a pulpit address, a warmth of feeling, a boldness and originality of mind, which have not a little inte.. rested us on behalf of the hitherto unknown Writer. It is altogether such a sally of thought and independent feeling, as could hardly have been looked for from any member of the Scottish Establishment, unless it were from an assistant of Dr. Chalmers.

The Preacher's motto is taken from 2 Cor. xiii. 11. "Finally, brethren, farewell." We shall not attempt any analysis

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