ALEXANDER STMPEION'S LIFE AND TRAVELS OP rifo- MAS SIMPSON, "

THE ARCTIC. DISCOVERER?'

THIS is about as ill-conditioned a volume as- we remember to have met. Imputation, not criticism, and very often imputation upon character; is- pretty much its staple from beginning to end. Alexander Simpsorr at tacks the Government for not continuing to him the pension granted to his brother Themas Simpson, the Arctic traveller. In like manner, he censures the Hudson's Bay Company for reffising to give him a chief tradership and a chid' ffictorship, or rather their money value, in come- quence of an alleged promise made to Thomas Simpson by the Company's- agent in America ; the claim in both cases appearing to be based on a will of Thomas, in which he certainly bequeathed what he as cer- tainly had not got, except in " expectancy," and which if they had been vested in him were not transmissible by will. The relative Sir George Simpson, the- Company's chief agent in America, and the avowed patron of Alexander, is painted as ludicrous and odious, and a scandalous reflection east on his birth, which equally redounds upon the entire Simp- son fancily, Most of the officers of the. Hudson's Bay "Company, and the eminent scientific explorers of the .Aretie regions, are depreciated by the biographer, or by extracts from the confidential and we should trust hasty letters of his hero • accompanied by displays of the most egre- gious vanity and self-sufficiency on the part of both brothers. The animating spirit.is equally bad : the tone, that of coarse and vulgar pro- vincial Scotchmen, whose knowledge of life has been too- confined to fur-- nigh them with any touchstone by whieh to -test themselves or- others: Alexander positively-gives the Wellington Dispatches as an exampleitt point to quote a variety-of his brother's letters and documents, descriptiVe of-the course gone over by the Expedition, but told with More fulne.as and spirit in the Narrative. Comparing his brother with the Great Captaiir, he says, that a the most vivid and comprehensive narrative that ever was or wilt be written, the most, inflated eulogium ever pronounced, could not arouse one tithe of the same admiration of the supereminent merits of the great captain of the age as a perusal of his Dispatches,"—though, to make the paralleljust, it ,should be shown that Wellington had written a narra- tive-of his campaigns. Again, he thus heralds the printing of some in- structions to a man in charge of a station, followed by a list of articles- " There was,. indeed, a singular combination in my brother's character—a com- bination to be found in very few characters, (The Duke a conspicuous example among the few,) of the most daring courage, the most enthusiastic ardour, with . a sedulous attention to minute details; and a most careful preparation of those means and appliances ' which a cautious judgment pointed out as likely to lead to success.'

As far as the mere doing of all this is in question, it is done well enough. Both the brothers are what Dr. Johnson called good haters. Earnestness is imparted to the composition by a bitter spirit, a vivid and unscrupulous mind, the feeling of grievances, however founded, against the Company and their superior officers,—for Alexander was fourteen years in the Hudson's Bay service as well -as Thomas, and has got wrongs of ' his own to complain of; and both, the compiler of this volume and the writer of the letters and documents of -which it is largely composed were speaking of things and persons- with which they were familiar, with an observation often. sharpened by personal feqlings. Hence there is- plenty of a vulgar Sort of vigour ; the composition is rapid enough, and wen.M be readable were not the conceit and animus distasteful. At the same time, much, of the volume is a repetition • for great part of the travels had been told. already is the posthumous Narrative of the Discoveries- on the North Coast of America, by Thomas Simpson, published ire 184a. Here and there descriptive detail may be met with; but the novelty of the private letters is the account they furnish of the writer! - state of mind—his endless complaints, his dissatisfaction with ahnoet• everything and everybody, his overweening estimate of himself; and sometimes his open-bragging. His life at heme-rnay be briefly dismissed. His father aimed at the Scotch Kirk; but having, as we infer, neither money nor interest, sub- sided into the parochial schoOlmaster of Dingwall in Ross-shire. Thomas. Simpson, the offspring of a Second marriage, was born in July 1808; and was designed, like his father, for the. Kirk. In 1824 he was sent to King's College, Aberdeen ; gained a bursary in 1824-5 ; and in 1827-8 carried off the Huttoni'an prize, the highest reward of literary merit given_ by the University, his degree of Master of Arts being granted at the same time. The design of entering the Church he had abandoned some time before, wishing to study medicine ; but the means of his family were in.* sitfficient, and he was without much prospect of employment, still less of advancentent.

The present Sir 'Creorge Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson. Bay Ter- rilories, was, according to the book, an illegitimate nephew of our authofe„ mother, by whose kindness the foundation of Sir George's fortunes were laid. Visiting Dingivall in 1825, he was so much struck with Thomas.. Simpsonthat he offered to make hint his private secretary. This propoe sal was then _declined ; but in 1828 it was renewed and accepted,: and. Thomas Simpson.remained in the service of the Company till his cele- brated 'expedition and death: In the interim, Sir George had procured a situation under the Company for an elder half-brother, who died "of the disappointments, privations, annoyances, and anxieties which he en-: countered-in his office " ; and Alexander, the writer of this volume, was "lured by highly-coloured descriptions " into the Company's service ; whence he has been lucky enough to escape alive. Of his own adven- tures but little appears in the book before us : the story of Thomas, or rather the display of his mind,. may be read at large, intermingled with,. histra.vela, (which are better told in his own narrative,) AA a. full swoon* of-his death, so far as it can be ascertained by the depositions of the per- ,

sons with whom he was travelling. Alexander is clear that he was mur- dered, having slain two of his opponents either in self-defence. or preven- tion. This conclusion-is perhaps true : at least, the story of madness and Weide, as attempted to be supported by the depositions, is impro- bable and contradictory.

As a discoverer in the strict sense, Thomas Simpson has slender pre- tensions. Indeed, he scarcely went out to make discoveries, but -to complete the survey of two separate spaces of coast that hail been left unfinished by previous discoverers. This, by favour of the seasons and by the courage and perseverance of the party, was successfully accom- ptished ; and both he and his brother begin to crow over those predeces- sors, who really did make discoveries. Horne threw himself into the unknown Arctic desert, without means or knowledge of the country, in dabious reliance on Indian co5peration, and discovered the Coppermine river, and first gazed upon the Arctic Ocean from the Northern extremity of the American continent. Mackenzie, with better means; and, as it turned out, less risk, discovered the river which bears his name, and by it descended to the Arctic Ocean. Back discovered the. Great Fish river ; and he and Franklin surveyed the whole of the. Northern coast of Ame- rica except from the 149th to the 156th degree of longitude, (within a abort distance of Cook's Icy Cape,) and from the 96th to the 108th be- texas Cape Franklin and the Point Ogle of Back. Profiting by the ex-- perienee and hardships of his predecessors, with a somewhat better} base or starting-point, and the more hearty assistance which the Hudson Bay people would naturally give to an expedition of their own, Simpson ful- filled his instructions in three successive years, and surveyed the then unexplored coast; but the only proper discovery that he made was the narrow strait which separates Boothia Felix-from the continent of Ame- rica, and the land which he sighted and named Victoria Lind. As an Arctic traveller Thomas Simpion may challenge high 'praise, for indefatigable resolution, a determination to leave nothing Undone, yet sufficient prudence to avoid foolhardy rashness, and a wonderful power of enduring or defying hardships,—common, however, to the Company's service. Upon- this point Alexander. is not. likely to dissent from our estimate, since he quotes, from our notice of the Narrative,* a. cone

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dettsed description of the continual hardships that the expedition must hire undergone; though a slight verbal alteration renders that which, was general to 'the Hudson's Bay service particular to Thomas Sithpson. It may be added, that be had a better education. han many. travellers, =Lan earnestness of mind which produced a rapid vigour of-style, when the restraint of writing for the public kept his exuberance and self-opinion in check.

To those who have read the traveller's own narrative, or are familiar with Hyperborean travelling, the general accounts given of the expedi- tion in private letters or formal documents will have. little substantial novelty. We will take our quotations from matters of a particular kind, if not pure biography.

DELIMITS OF A HUDSON'S BAY STATION.

" The despatches are just closed, (3/st of July,) andI have at length a moinsat to myself;, Which has not been the case for upwards of a month past, dunng- which I have had little time for sleep, and none fer exercise. Indeed; exercise is almost a thing out of the question here in the summer season, even were there time for it; as the country round the Factory, though elevated above the river, is one entire swamp, covered with low stunted pine, and perfectly impenetrable at tins season, even were it free of the clouds of .mosquitoes by which it is infested< lisfaet„the land seems from its quality to .have been. thrown:up by the sea„ and it is tuner thawed_ to any great depth even by the hottest summer. The myriads of inesq_uitoes which it gives birth to are quite indescribable. The soil is never thawed by the sun's rays to the depth of more than ten or twelve inches; below, is a, solid hed of frozen earth, while the upper covering, affected by the sun's rays, is.of the consistence of clammy mud, through which the foot sinks at every step: even in the centre of the Factory, it is necessary to keep on the wooden platforms to-avoid sinking over the ank/es.

"We have had some very hot-weather during this month; the thermometer for several' days ranging- in the shade between 90° and 1409, and on one occasion I observed it as high as 99° ; but the weather is extremely changeable, and a night orrtwo after the thermometer was as low as 29°. Transitions from 90° to 40° I obeerved, in several instances in the course of anhour, merely by a change of wind; and the sudden torrents of rain-which frequently come from the Bay would astonish you : in short, it is altogether a horrible climate; arid the_gloomy stern- ness of the winter, which rules two-thirds of the year is not likely to improve the scene."

In.thiseeasantplace he passed the remainder of the-year, "in order," so he expresses it, "to-get an insight into the accounts, which, like everything else about the establishment, are in the highest order." He continues— And we are cer- tainly very Comfortable: excellent accommodation' nd the best of fare, viz. venison, (our staple diele,) fish,. hams, geese,. buffalo-Ongues, soups, vegetables grown in hurdles laid out on the frozen earth and then covered with sail, pastry„ preserve;

forbye excellent wines and famous porter."

• w zu-Titssratranno.

Our-route lay partly on lake and river-way, and partly through the woods to Norway House, and from thence on Lake Winipeglothe month of the Bed River. We travelled as fast as the dogs could• follow; which, for the greater part of the way-, was about thirty miles per day; the•last two hundred miles Laccomplished. in five days; and my, longest day on snow-shoes was fifty miles. • The whole di's,- Wien is about seven -hundred miles; which occupied twenty-two days' marching, besides six days we were obliged to stop to' est our dogs at Oxford House, Nor- way House, andReren's River. For myself I never filtfatigne; thongh left tea:, of my men completely knocked up on the War besides taking freala-Indians at Army House.

." Winter-travelling is a most healthy and strengthening exercise, and.gives: omen most voracious appetite: 'good digestion waits on appetite, and health on both,'; and, in your chamber dug into- the. snow a fence of: -brushwood:on three sides, a huge fire made of whole trees on the folirtle-.-your beds a--litter of pine- branches. spread. on the frozen soil—your bedding-a blanket and (sometimes) a skin—the starry heavens your canopy—more sound and refreshing sleep isenjoyed. than waits upon many a one sunk in cushions of down and. curtained-with silk."'

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Cr The day's march, moreover' is one scene of excitement; each man putting his best. foot foremost, afraid that his follower will tread' on his heels—the greatest insult ' a good Ieg ' can receive. Then we have continual amusement from the dogs; their bells-ring a merry lively peal as• they jog along; they often show the perversity of their nature by going out of the right path, gettingentangledanrong Spectator,Va XVI., page 759.

the trees or bushes, or walk each other; and to right them gives occasional Mier friths monotony of the steady tramp.

" I thought little of the cold; and during the march never wore anything• warmer than weloth eapott"

TNOWAS SINPSON TOMB.

During childhood and boyhood, he was distinguished bya quiet docile temm habits at strict order and method, and byasteadyconstant attention to his stades, rather than by any remarkable quickness in mastering them. The better part of these characteristics remained with him during his too short career; but his in. tellect was rapidly strengthened and sharpened by emulation and contact with' other minds; while his, spirit cast of the timidity which weighed it down, as Ms' body cast off its yondAl infirmities.

Ev -ft from childhood there was a strong feeling of enthusiasm, almost. amounts' ing twromance, governing him. His mind was not more bent in youth ear late acquisition of university honours, than it was in childhood on the proper manage.' wit of the little square- of flower-garden, which his father considerately ap- portioned as his own, "whereof he might make a kirk or a• mill." He was not more earnest, in his early manhood, in his search after the North-west passage, than he was in boyhood in his endeavours to win the smiles of his dancing-school partner.. Byron's passion, while yet in "shorts," for his Aberdeen playmate, has been thought to be in some degree a creation of his imagination. f can still recollect the pains, the tribulations, and the anxieties caused to my brother, by his love for a little missie not yet in her teens. An aspiration after-the noble and the generous alsoareee early in his mind, stri it grew• with his growth and strengthened with his strength. A favourite and often-repeated quotation from Horace was " Odi profannm vulgus et areeo." In repeating this to me who then, as now, "knew small Latin and no Greek," he always explained that the poet's meaning and his own implied onl a contempt for the low pursuits, sordid desires, and grovelling habits of the vulgar herd, not hatred of his fellow-men of any class or degree.