a scene of complete horror. The numbers killed were so great, that the surviving, either from want of leisure, or through dismay, had not thrown the bodies of the killed overboard; so that the decks were covered with the blood and mangled limbs of the dead, as well as the wounded and dying, now forlorn and helpless in their sufferings.

The fate of the Caesar has been truly pitiable. The night of the action, soon after dark, she took fire, by an English marine carrying a candle below in search of liquor, and a cask of spirits catching fire, the flames spread so fast, that they could not be extinguished. After burning for some time, till the fire reached the powder-magazine, the ship blew up; the second horrid spectacle of this kind to which I have been witness, having also seen the explosion of the St. Domingo, a Spanish ship of the line, in the action off Cape St. Vincent, two years before. The French captain, who had been severely wounded, the English officer who boarded her, together with the greater part of the men on board, both British and French, perished. Some saved themselves before the explosion; others, who survived it, and clung to parts of the wreck, were most of them either overwhelmed in the waves, or miserably scorched with the flames: and those who attempted to save them, relate, that they saw a spectacle too horrid to describe-the men who clung to the wreck torn off by the voracious sharks, which always swarm in these seas after an engagement, and were not yet glutted with the carnage of the preceding day.

One would wish to pass over these horrors in silence-not wantonly to wound the feelings of the tender-hearted part of mankind; but I wish I had the eloquence of Tully, to set them in such a true and forcible light as to melt the rulers of the earth, and to make statesmen

consider well what they are doing when they involve their fellow-creatures in war.

We have endeavoured to form some conjectures of the loss of the enemy in men; and from the data we now have, we suppose there cannot be less than 14,000 taken, killed, and otherwise hors de combat.-Vol. II. pp. 236, 242, 245.

Bombardment of Havre-de-Grace.

TO JOHN CLEVELAND, ESQ.

Achilles, off Havre-de-Grace, July 6, 1759. Our bomb-vessels have continued to bombard for fifty-two hours, without intermission, with such success, that the town was several times in flames, and their magazines of stores for the flat-bottomed boats, burned with very great fury for upwards of six hours, notwithstanding the continual efforts of several hundred men to extinguish the fire. Many of the boats were upset and damaged by the explosion of the shells. During the attack, the enemy's troops ap peared very numerous, were continually erecting new batteries, and throwing up entrenchments. Their consternation was so great, that all the inhabitants forsook the town, and not one single person appeared to be working on the flat-bottomed boats, the troops alone being employed in extinguishing the flames. Vol. I. pp. 55, 56.

Capt. Philip Beaver's attempted Settle

ment on the Island of Bulama.

[To the Editor of the Herald of Peace.] SIR,-Christianity is the basis of all that is correct in morals, of all that is true in religion: if we were, therefore, to seek for the cause that the Christian virtues languish in nations called Christian, it would be found that their moral systems do not flow pure from the fount of Divine revelation; but that they sanction maxims and conduct repugnant to the

Gospel. Man turmoils in vain after happiness, because he does not seek it where only it is to be found. In the very self-denial the Gospel enjoins, it consults no less the temporal, than the eternal interests of man; for though the morality it inculcates is heaven-born, it is adapted to the wants and infirmities of human nature in this state of being. But averse to any moral restraint, short-sighted man would fain be wiser than his Creator; he would measure out obedience to the Divine commands by certain principles of human expediency, and set bounds to the requisitions of Omnipotence, by presumptuously deciding from his seat of judgment on their utility; but as one error begets another, so in these, his arrogant assumptions, he mistakes human nature, and the means by which it is to be wrought upon. Thus, while the pacific principles of the Gospel are theoretically approved, they are practically denied even by some ministers of the Gospel, who seem to think that man can be more wrought upon, and deterred from violence, by military force than by moral suasion; which betrays an ignorance of those infiuences which act the most powerfully on human nature. I propose, therefore, to place in a practical point of view the superiority of moral power over brute force, by an account of

The attempted Settlement on Bulama by Captain Philip Beaver.

Captain Beaver had been introduced to Mr. Dalrymple, whom the directors of the Sierra Leone Company had at that time chosen to be governor of the settlement which they were about to establish. After a few days, Mr. Dalrymple and the directors disagreed, and this engagement fell to the ground. But Captain Beaver had now conceived a strong inclination to form a colony in Africa; and upon Mr. Dalrymple's observing that when he was with his regiment at Goree, he had heard much of Bulama, an

uninhabited island at the mouth of Rio Grande, as a proper place for making an establishment, Mr. Beaver said, "Let us colonize it ourselves!" "With all my heart," was the reply; and thus originated the expedition to Bulama. "So prompt, so hasty, and so unpremeditated a resolution did not," he says, argue wisdom;" but his mind was so completely fixed upon the African scheme, that he would have undertaken it if he could only have procured half a dozen persons to accompany him.

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The following extract from Mr. Beaver's note-book throws some light on the character of the man. "I determined to give up my whole time and attention for one year to the success of the undertaking; and however I may be laughed at, or discredited in this money-making world, no prospect of amassing lucre has any influence in my giving up the comforts I enjoy in my own country, to join myself with an unknown party to cut down forests, and plant sugar canes in Africa. Wealth to be sure has its advantages; and, if it should accrue, may render me more independent in moral actions, but I never can hoard. Why did Bacon forget his own adage, that money, like manure, is of no use unless it be spread?"

No object could be worthier than what the projectors of this unfortunate expedition had in view. “To try whether or not the poor degraded Africans are capable of holding that rank in society of nations which, it is natural to suppose, all people are capable of attaining, if they have but an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, was the end," says Mr. Beaver, "of our institution. To purchase land in their country, to cultivate it by free natives hired for that purpose, and thereby to induce in them habits of labour and of industry, it was thought, might eventually lead to the introduction of letters, religion, and civilization, into the very heart

of Africa. If we fail, the negroes will be just where they were; but if we succeed, it promises happiness to myriads of living, and millions of unborn people." The views of the projectors of this colony were directed to cultivation; it being imagined that the produce of the West Indies might be readily raised at Bulama by free natives, and thus, forming a 'contrast to the vicious habits of the slavedealing Europeans, contribute towards the civilization of those regions. Though commerce was considered only in a subordinate point of view, when compared with their grand object, it was conceived that a new and extensive channel would be opened to trade. "I have nothing to do," says Mr. Beaver, "with the question whether a state of civilization be most conducive to happiness. The man who prefers being a brute to a rational creature, may put down the book."

A committee was formed, and subscriptions were opened, and the proposals took so well, that the projectors did what could not have been accomplished in another country: in little more than three months after Bulama had been named by Dalrymple to Beaver, they were ready to sail with three vessels, and nearly 300 persons. Among the colonists there were some who deserved a better fortune than that which compelled them to embark in the expedition, and a better fate than awaited them: but these were few in number. Though it was likely, or rather certain, that more would take this course in consequence of their misconduct than of their misfortunes, the proportion of scoundrels was greater than might have been expected; and there were among them men of so villanous a description, that the gallows has seldom been more largely defrauded than when they set sail for the coast of Africa. On the 14th of April, 1792, they finally left England, with 150 men, 57 women, and 65 children,

who sailed in two ships and a Gravesend boat. One of the ships, the Hankey, was under Mr. Beaver's command; and both the others, the Calypso and the Beggar's Benison, were commanded by lieutenants of the navy. Desirable as it was that the ships should keep company, they lost sight of each other on the third day. Rough weather came on, and in Mr. Beaver's ship most of the landsmen and all the women were sea-sick; the latter, some of whom had infants at the breast, were more than twenty-four hours without nourishment of any kind, and would, says he, "have been so much longer, if I had not undertaken to cook for them; for some who would have relieved them, if able, were labouring under the same disease; and the surgeon, whose more immediate duty it was to attend to them, was wholly destitute of feeling: he left those who had folly enough to feel, the charge of taking care of his patients. This certainly was not a very dignified employment; it was, at least, a useful one, and had I not undertaken it, these poor women might have suffered much more hunger ere any other would have relieved them. I had already been employed since our sailing in functions equally low, and therefore was, in some degree, prepared for it; but at times I was compensated for the meanness of these employments, by the exercise of authority pertaining to more dignified parts; for I verily believe that there is not an office or gradation of rank which I had not exercised in this

ship. The fact is, that to govern and maintain order and regularity amongst a licentious rabble, without any legal power, was an exceedingly difficult task, and only to be accomplished by example. I soon perceived that I must either give up the point, which threatened ruin to the undertaking, or accomplish it by the constant exercise of unremitting exertions. The latter was most congenial to my

mind, and therefore there was no employment, however humble in the general opinion of the world, which I hesitated to undertake; but, having once done this, I ordered whom I pleased afterwards to perform the same duty and the consequence was, that, from the sailing of the expedition to the final abandoning of the island, I was never more cheerfully, willingly, or implicitly obeyed, when armed with the authority of martial power, than I was by the numbers who embarked in this undertaking."

"This passage," a writer in the Quarterly Review justly remarks, "is truly characteristic of Philip Beaver, a man who, in the sincerity of his heart and understanding, knew that as there could be no station, however elevated, above his capacity, so was there no duty, however humble, beneath his regard. It is moreover valuable, because it exemplifies in what manner even the worst subjects may be controlled and guided. Severity is not necessary to produce obedience to one in whom they can see no caprice, discover no weakness, suspect no unworthy motive, fear no tyranny, apprehend no injustice. The good horse rejoices in an accomplished rider; and in like manner men, as if by an instinctive sense of fitness, feel in their obedience something like the freedom as well as strength of voluntary exertion, when it is called for by one in whom they perfectly confide. Worse subjects no man ever had to deal with than those with whom Beaver was embarked. Among some of the directors of the enterprise, he saw a constant attention to their own interest, and an entire neglect of that of the public; among others, a total indifference to both; a general apathy in all, concerning all such measures as could contribute to success. Yet over these people, bad as they were, Beaver at once asserted and maintained an ascendency in which they

acquiesced, from a full conviction that it was for their own good.”

At the Canaries the Beggar's Benison joined company with the Hankey, and these two vessels proceeding to their destination, anchored in sight of the three islands of Bissao, Areas and Bulama, on the 5th of June, 1792. The Calypso had been before them, and alarmed the Portuguese at Bissao, by avoiding any communication with them. When Mr. Beaver therefore landed at the factory he was taken for a pirate, the long-boat was seized, and he and his crew lodged for the night in an empty room. Upon an explanation the affair terminated amicably, as it could not fail to do, where nothing but what was right and honourable was intended on either part; and it led to an acquaintance with the principal merchant of Bissao, Sylva Cordoza [Cardoso] by name, to whom Mr. Beaver was afterwards indebted for much real kindness, and all the services which it was in his power to perform. Next day he returned on board. On the 5th he had left a quiet, clean, healthy and orderly ship; when he returned on the 7th the ship was noisy, dirty, disorderly, the people dissatisfied and out of heart. Calypso had, in the interval, joined her consorts, with tidings of misfortune. That unlucky vessel had got sight of Bulama on the 24th of May, sent all the boats armed on shore, and took possession of the island, as if it had been their own, without making any agreement for it with the natives, or thinking it necessary to take any precaution against them. The Bijugas, who claimed the island, watched their opportunity; they had observed that in the morning the men straggled into the woods by twos and threes, and returned in like manner in the evening; that those who remained at the Block-house (a shed inclosed with inch planks, which the intruders had erected), were generally asleep from one to three (during the greatest heat.

The

of the day), and that no watch whatever was kept. Accordingly, on Sunday, the 3rd of June, they approached the Block-house, where the people were sleeping, and fired into it: as the colonists ran out they were killed or wounded one by one; the negroes then rushed into the house, found sixty stand of arms there, loaded and primed, which they instantly seized, turned against the miserable adventurers, and killed them with their own weapons. So totally had the persons in the Calypso neglected all measures which could conduce to their own safety, that not a gun was out of the hold when the poor wretches on shore ran into the water for protection; and had the negroes pursued, they might have put all the fugitives to death before any assistance could have been given them. Early the next morning the Calypso got under sail, and without attempting to revisit the Block-house, or to look for the bodies of the slain, went to Bissao, in hopes of meeting her consorts. Nor was this the only ill news which Mr. Beaver learnt upon his return to the Hankey. There There was a fever on board the Calypso: with this, as well as dirt, and disorder, and discontent, that sloop had been permitted to infest her consort; and in both ships there was a settled gloom in the countenances of all, of which Mr. Beaver says it is difficult to convey an idea, but which it was melancholy to behold.

While the other members of the council complained of the colonists for insubordination, and the colonists complained of them for neglect and incapacity, Mr. Beaver alone acted with promptitude and decision : decision: through his Portuguese friend, Cordoza, he took immediate measures for ransoming four women and three children who had been captured; and, through an American slave captain, purchased Bulama in due form from the two Bijuga kings, Bellchore and Jalorem, for goods amounting in value VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES.

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to something less than 801. Having sought for the remains of the dead, and buried the few scattered bones which the hyenas had left, in a deep grave close by a large tree, on which they cut deeply the figure of a cross to mark the spot, he went himself to conclude the ransom of a woman and her child, who had been separated from the other prisoners. He landed alone and unarmed, to show the natives that he had no fear, and trusted in the laws of hospitality, which are generally observed among savages. Nothing could be said concerning what passed at Bulama, “that would not," he says, recall the idea of our weakness, humiliation, and disgrace." But Mr. Beaver took always the straight course, which, in matters of policy, is always the right one. He told King Jalorem that "the best friends had sometimes the misfortune to misunderstand each other's intentions, and so to quarrel; this had been their case: what was done could not be undone, and therefore he should say nothing on that subject, but hoped that they should hereafter live like good neighbours; so he came with presents for him and his brother king, offered friendship, and proposed to purchase their hunting-island of Bulama." Jalorem replied, what was done was done: that he was sorry for what had happened, but that then they neither knew who we were, nor our intentions; we were strangers, and we took their land: however, he knew now that we were good people, hoped we should always be good friends, and was glad, very glad, to see me. The business was concluded to Mr. Beaver's satisfaction; and the woman and child were restored to him, though they were in such a state that it was only to die in peace among their countrymen. A white skin is so disgusting to those negroes who have not been accustomed to see Europeans, that he could hardly find a black man to assist in carrying these poor creatures to the

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