SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

FoTAGra A14D THAVELEI, The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Ent., in his Voyage into the South Sea, in the Year 1593. Reprinted from the Edition of 1622. Edited by C. It. Drink- water Bethune, Captain R.N Prinkd for the Hakluyt Society. Switzerland in 184T: and its Condition, Political, Social, Moral, and Physical, before the War. By Theodore litigge. Edited by Mrs. Percy Sinnett. In two volumes. RELIGIOUS FICTION, Bentley. Refit in the Church. By the Author of "From Oxford to Rome.". .Longman and Co. Vara. Aare, AA Aecount of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in China ; derived front Per- sonal Observation during an Official Residence in that Country from 1804 to 1826; and illustrated by the best authorities Chinese as well as European : with Remarks on the Experiments now making for the Introduction of the Culture of the Tea- tree in other parts of the World. By Samuel Ball, Esq., late Inspector of Teas to the Honourable United East. India Company in China Longman and Co.

TER HAKLUYT SOCIETY'S EDITION- OF HAWKINS'S SOUTH SEA VOYAGE.

Tas Ilaklayt Society appears to have been established with a similar object to that of the Parker, Shakspere, and other societies, which print manuscript& or reprint books for their subscribers, the success of which would be very doubtful as a matter of trade. The name of the old nau- tical chronicler sufficiently indicates that the attention of the Hakluyt Society will be devoted to voyages and travels; and the first fruits of the undertaking exhibit both skill and judgment. The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Slit., in his Voyage into the South &a is. the Year 1593, is as popular and interesting a book as could have been chosen. The Select Letters of' Columbus (which forms a second publication) is not, perhaps, so generally attractive; but it is appropriate to the character of the Society, as containing the account of the dis- covery of the New World from the pen of Columbus himself and two of his followers. The volume is also an addition to English literature ; for only the first letter of Columbus had been previously translated, and that loosely. On the present occasion we shall confine ourselves to Hawkins's Voyage.

Sir Richard Hawkins was an " able seaman" in one of the proudest ages of the English navy. He was not, indeed, a man of such original action: aa his father, Sir John, the too celebrated founder of the English slave-trade, one of the first to assail the Spaniards in the New World, the Rear-Admiral of the fleet which defeated the Armada, and finally Elizabeth's Treasurer of the Navy : but Richard had nearly as much nautical experience as his father, and a wider geographical know- ledge; he was also more or a scholar, and could even write Latin, suffi- ciently- to communicate with a Spanish governor ; and though his saga- city and observation were not so great as his father's, he has preserved his thoughts by means of his pen.

The unlucky voyage, of which the account by Sir Richard is now be- fore na,swas undertaken in 1593, about five years after the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Its object was much. the same as that of Drake, and other adventurers of the age—to plunder the Spanish possessions and treasure-ships in the South Seas. Sir Richard, however, had more legitimate grounds of proceeding than some of his predecessors ; for there had been open war, and he carried the Queen's commission,— being, in act, no more than a modern privateer, and privateering in that age was looked upon as a most honourable mode of warfare. His adventure was unlucky. He lost many men by scurvy in the heats and calms of the Tropics ; his consort, either daunted by the pas- sage of the Straits of Magellan, or wishing to plunder on her own account, deserted him in a storm off the mouth of La Plata ; to which desertion the Admiral truly attributed his subsequent failure. After they had escaped the dangers and borne the hardships of the Straits of Magellan, and refreshed themselves in the Pacific, the crew forced' their commander into premature action. "I proposed, for many reasons," says Sir Richard, "not to discover myself upon this coast till we were past Lyma; but my company urged me so farre, that except I should seem in all things to overbeare them, in not condescend- ing to that which in the opinion of all bat my seffe seemed profitable and best, I could not but yeelde unto, though it carried a false colour, as the ends proved, for it was our perdition.' Standing into Valparaiso they took possession of a few small prizes ; but the result was, as Hawkins says, perdition. Despatches both by land and sea were sent off to notify his arrival to all the Governments even as far as Mexico. An armament of six vessels and nearly two thousand men was fitted out by the Viceroy of Fern. It fell in with Hawkins, and gave chase ; but at nightfall the English escaped by seamanship. "The Spanish armado returned presently to Callao, which is the port of Lyma, or of the Citty of the Kings. It was first named Lyme, and retayneth also that name of the river, which passeth by the citty called Lyma. The Spanish ar- mada being entred the port, the people began to gee ashore, where they were so mocked and scorned by the women, as scarce any one by day would shew his face: they reviled them with the name of cowards and golnias, and craved licence of the vice-roy to bee admitted in their roomes, and to undertake the surrendry of the English sbippe. I have beene certified for truth, that some of them af- fronted their souldiers with daggers and pistols by their aides.

'This wrought such effects in the hearts of the disgraced, as they vowed eyther to recover their reputation lost, or to follow us into England; and so with ex- pedition, the vice-roy commaunded two shippes and a pinnace to be pat in order, and in them placed the chiefe souldiens and marriners of the rest, and furnished them with victuals and munition."

This new expedition did not encounter Hawkins immediately, but they did meet ; and the Daintie, with seventy-five hands, maintained an ac- tion against the Spaniards with 1,300 "little more or less" for three days and nights. Hawkins himself had six wounds on the first day,—" one of them in the necke, very perillous; another through the arme, perish- ing the bone, and cutting the sinews close by the arme-pit; the rest not so dangerous." In the upshot, the vessel became a wreck, and nearly all her crew were killed or wounded. She was surrendered upon terms, that were courteously kept by the Spanish officers; and so ended the hopes of the adventurers, and the book of their leader- H content- plated another volume, giving an account of his captivity in America and Spain, with his observations on the Spanish possessions; but he did not live to accomplish it. In fact, he died before the publication of this volume.

As a narrative of adventure and hardship, this book may rank in the first line, if not among the first; and both would have appeared greater had the fortitude of the sufferers been less, and their habit of mind less framed to endurance ; for the ravages of the scurvy, the storms, cold, and dampers of the Straits of Magellan,* with the battle against the Spaniards, seemed to them rather ordinary than extraordinary to the undertaking. The main character of the book is not so much a nar- rative as what the author entitled it, "Observations," to which the voyage gave rise. Sir Richard Hawkins put his entire mind into his work; including his reading, his experience, and his reflections, so far as they bore upon the topics of his voyage. In a formal sense this is injurious to the narrative, because it is suspended while Sir Richard "observes"; but, except during the action with the Spaniards, the re. flections rarely interrupt. They are made at pauses,—as in the story of his vessel and her christening he falls into observations upon names and the catastrophes that have- befallen ships with ill-chosen ones ; or the remarks appropriately follow the subject of the narrative,—as his obser. vations on the causes and treatment of the scurvy, which, allowing for the then received notions on natural philosophy, have never been exceeded in sagacity and prudence. In this way he infuses into his book a large amount of various knowledge relating to nautical management and discipline ; anecdotes of the actions and officers. of his day ; many facts on natural history, which he had observed in different parts of the world ; mingled with shrewd observations, and some erroneous or credulous views, which, however, are ca- rious for themselves. Not the least informing part, perhaps, is the indirect exhibition of the adventurers of the day, and the received ideas of warfare, or, as it would now be deemed, buccaneering; the die. tinction ever drawn even by Sir Richard himself between "pillage" and. "robbery" ; and the arguments by which he convinced the Spaniards both in Spain and Peru that the English were not corsairs or pirates, which before his " surrenciry " and speeches they held them to be. All the points we have indicated could be illustrated by interesting extracts ; but we must confine ourselves to a few brief bits, that rather indicate the Elizabethan mariner's style than anything else. The following passage from his account of the scurvy is curious, and, as the editor intimates, probably suggested a hint for the Ancient Mariner.

"The vapours and ayre of the sea also is nothing profitable, especially in thee e hot countries, where are many cahnes. And were it not for the moving of the.' sea by the force of windes, tydes, and currants, it would corrupt all the world. " lhe experience I saw in 811110 1590, lying with a fiesta of -her Majesties ships about the ilands of the Azores, almost six moneths; the greatest part of the time we were becalmed: with which all the sea became so replenished with several sorts of gellyes, and formes of serpents, adders, and snakes, as seemed wonder- full: some green°, some blacke, some yellow, some white, some of divers contours; and many of them had life, aud some there were a yard and a halfe and, two yards long; which had I not seene' I could hardly have beleevecl. And hereof are witnesses all the companies of the ships which were then present; so that hardly a man could draw a bnckett of water cleere of some corruption.t In which voyage, towards the end thereof, many of every ship (saving of the Nomperiel, which was under my charge, and had onely one man bloke ia all the voyage) fell sicke of this disease, and began to die apace, but that the speedie passage into our country was remedie to the crazed, and a preservative for those that were not touched."

t"*The very deep dIcIrot 1

That ever this shculd be 1

Yea slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea." Ancient Mariner.—COleridge.

A WHALE STORY.

Another manner of fishing and catching the whale I cannot omit, used by the Indians in Florida; worthy to be considered, in as much as the barbarous people have found out so great a secret, by the industry and diligence of one man, to kilt so great and huge a monster: it is in this manner. The Indian discovering a whale, proctutth two round billets of wood, sharpnetk both at one end, and so binding them together with a cord, casteth himselfe with them into the sea, and swimmeth towards the whale: if he come to him, the whale eseapeth not; for he placeth himselfe upon his necke, and although the whale- goeth to the bottoms, he must of force rise presently to breath, (for which nature bath given him two great holes in the toppe of his head, by which, every time that. he breatheth, he spouteth out a great quantitie of water); the Indian forsaketh not, his holde, but riseth with him, and thrusteth in a logg into one of his spowtenr, and with the other knocketh it in so fast that by no meanes the whale can get it out. That fastned, at another opportunitie he thrusteth in the second logg to the other spowter, and with all the force he can keepeth it in. The whale not being able to breath, swimmeth. presently ashore, and the In- diana cock-horse upon him; which his fellowes discovering, approach to helps. him, and to make an end of him: it serveth them for their foode many dayes after.

CHARACTER OF THE PATAGONLiNS.

Hears we found what the Indians forewarned us of; for they have great in- sight in the change of weather, and besides have secret dealings with the Prince of Darknesse, who many times declareth unto them things to come. By this. meanes and others witchcrafts, which he teacheth them, he possesseth them, and causeth them to doe what pleaseth him.

The volume is well printed, in octavo ; and is ably edited by Captain' Drinkwater Bethune; but a life of Sir Richard would have formed a use- ful addition.

• In a foot-note upon the narrative of the passage of these Straits, the accom- plished editor says--" Sir Richard does not exaggerate 'the bitter:liaise of the thug: Druiug the survey of these Straits in the Adventure and Beagle, Captain Stokes, an active, intelligent, and energetic officer, destroyed himself in consequence of his excitable mind becoming worn out by the severe hardships of the cruise, the dreadful weather experienced, and the dangerous situations in which the Beagle was constantly exposed."