Voyages up the Mediterranean and in the Indian Seas, by
JOHN A. HEICAUn. WILLIAM ROliINSON, the son of Dr. ROBIN- SON, was originally designed for the law ; but his physicians having ordered change of climate for his health, Captain SMYTH volun- teered to take him as a Midshipman in his corvette, which was then sailing for the Mediterranean to survey the coasts of Africa from Baibary to Egypt. This service being over, young ROBIN- SON continued on the Mediterranean station some years longer, and then sailed to the East Indies under Captain Rous ; where, having passed his examination for Lieutenant, he caught a fever and died. As a sailor, he was zealous in his profession ; he ap- pears to have been beloved by his messtnates, and approved by his officers; lie was distinguished amongst midshipmen for his skill in drawing, and the neatness of his log-book; he had a boyish faculty of observation, and facility in writing, which displayed itself in long and frequent letters to frieuds at home. Less estimable qualities than these would have embalmed the memory of a youth in the minds of his family and intimates, who, haplessly, only judging of the future by their hopes, are incapacitated from comparing promise and performance; and to them every memorial however trivial has a value. The person who looks at this virtual autobiography, compiled from poor WILLIAM'S log and letters, with the indifference of a stranger and the coldness of a critic, sees little in the incidents of his life, or the matter or manner of has lucubrations, to require their publication in a volume.
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