duct the affairs of the focieties, after his decease; and another, to call for the deeds of the feveral preachinghoufes, out of the hands of the truftees, and to lodge them in an iron fafe, under the New Chapel, City Road; of which fafe, the doc. tor kept the key! In both these, he was out-voted by a very large majority. "Such are the principles, on which we ground the affertion, that Mr. Wefley was fond of power, and that his temper was defpotic. When any man attempts the fubverfion of cuftoms and regulations, as much diftinguished by their excellence as their antiquity, it is a natural conclufion, that he is fond of abfolute rule, and would fubftitute others inftead of them, lefs excellent and unexceptionable; and in this cafe, whoever that man may be, he ought to be oppofed in the attempt. In fuch a conteft, he may, if he pleases brand oppofition with the name of rebellion but we fay, it is virtue. : "On the authority of the above facts, (and if more were neceffary, we can eafily produce them) as well as upon the fanction of fome perfonal knowledge of the man, we must in fift, that Mr. Wefley was, during the last ten or fifteen years of his fupremacy, the most abfolute of monarchs. His will was the law. If he ever receded from a refolution, or refcinded a favourite measure, it was not choice, but neceffity. If he retreated, it was only for the mo ment. He never thought his authority fecure,, but when exerted to the utmoft: and therefore, if ever furprifed into a conceffion, he took the firft opportunity of meafuring his fteps back again; and, by fre quently returning to the attack, he was fure, fooner or later, to carry hi point. In a word, the love of power was the chief mifery of his life; the fource of infinite difgufts; and the most frequent cause of the defections of his friends. Had not his virtues been fullied by this and fome other defects, he had avoided many errors and inconfiftencies, into which he has fallen; and we fhould have given him, without deduction or referve, the praife, to which his piety, his labours, his learning, and his general ability in the management of his people, had so justly entitled him." MAN MANNERS OF NATIONS. REMARKS on the ISLAND of HINZUAN, or JOHANNA, and the CUSTOMS and MANNERS of it's INHABITANTS By Sir WILLIAM JONES. "H' [From the Second Volume of the ASIATIC RESEARCHES.] INZUAN, (a name, which has been gradually corrupted into Anzuam, Anjuan, Juanny, and Jobana has been governed about two centuries by a colony of Arabs, and exhibits a curious inftance of the flow approaches toward civilization, which are made by a fmall community, with many natural advantages, but with few means of improving them. An account of this African inland, in which we hear the language and fee the manners of Arabia, may neither be uninterefting in itself, nor foreign to the objects of inquiry propofed at the inftitution of our Society. "On Monday the 28th of July, 1783, after a voyage, in the Croco. dile, of ten weeks and two days, from the rugged islands of Cape Verd, our eyes were delighted with a profpect fo beautiful that neither a painter nor a poet could perfectly reprefent it, and fo cheering to us, that it can juftly be conceived by fuch only, as have been in our preceding fituation. It was the fun rifing in full fplendour on the ifle of Mayata (as the feamen called it) which we had joyfully diftinguifhed the preceding afternoon by the height of its peak, and which now appeared at no great distance from the windows of our cabin; while Hinzúàn, for which we had fo long panted, was plainly difcernible a-head, where its high lands prefented themselves with remarkable boldnefs. The weather was fair; the water finooth; and a gentle breeze drove us eafily before dinner-time round a rock, on which the Brilliant ftruck just a year before, into a commodious road, where we dropped our anchor early in the evening: we had feen Mohila, another fifter ifland, in the courfe of the day. "The frigate was prefently furrounded with canoes, and the deck foon crowded with natives of all ranks, from the high born chief, who washed linen, to the half-naked flave, who only paddled. Most of them had letters of recommendation from Englishmen, which none of them were able to read, though they spoke English intelligibly; and fome appeared vain of titles, which our countrymen had given them in play, according to their fuppofed ftations; we had lords, dukes, and princes on board, foliciting our custom, and importuning us for pre fents fents. In fact, they were too fenfible to be proud of empty founds, but justly imagined, that thofe ridiculous titles would ferve as marks of diftinction, and by attracting notice, procure for them fomething fubftantial. The only men of real confequence in the island, whom we faw before we landed, were the governor Abdullah, fecond coufin to the king, and his brother Alwi, with their feveral fons; all of whom will again be particularly mentioned: they understood Arabic, feemed zealots in the Mohammedan faith, and admired my copies of the Alkoran; fome verfes of which they read, whilft Alwi perufed the opening of another Arabian manufcript, and explained it in English more accurately than could have been expect ed. "The next morning fhowed us the island in all its beauty; and the fcene was fo diverfified, that a diftin&t view of it could hardly have been exhibited by the beft pencil: you muft, therefore, be fatisfied with a mere defcription, written on the very fpot, and compared attentively with the natural landfcape. We were at anchor in a fine bay, and be fore us was a vaft amphitheatre, of which you may form a general notion, by picturing in your minds a multitude of hills infinitely varied in fize and figure, and then fuppofing them to be thrown together, with a kind of artlefs fymmetry, in all imaginable pofitions. The back ground was a feries of mountains, one of which is pointed, near half a mile perpendicularly high from the level of the fea, and little more than three from the fhore: all of them were richly clothed with wood, chiefly fruit-trees, of an exquifite verdure. I had feen many a moun tain of a ftupendous height in Wales and Swifferland, but never faw one before, round the hofom of which the clouds were almost continually rolling, while its green fummit role flourishing above them, and received from them an additional brightness. Next to this diftant range of hills was another tier, part of which appeared charmingly verdant, and part rather barren; but the contrast of colours changed even this naked. nefs into a beauty: nearer ftill were innumerable mountains, or rather cliffs, which brought down their verdure and fertility quite to the beach; fo that every shade of green, the sweeteft of colours, was difplayed at one view by land and by water. But nothing conduced more to the variety of this enchanting profpect, than the many rows of palm-trees, efpecially the tall and graceful areca's, on the fhores, in the valleys, and on the ridges of the hills, where one might almoft fuppofe them to have been planted regularly by defign. A more beautiful ap. pearance can fcarce be conceived, than fuch a number of elegant palms in fuch a fituation, with luxuriant tops, like verdant plumes, placed at juft intervals, and fhowing between them part of the remoter landfcape, while they left the reft to be fupplied by the beholder's imagination. The town of Matfamůdó lay on our left, remarkable at a distance for the tower of the principal mofque, which was built by Halimah, a queen of the inland, from whom the prefent king is defcended: a little on our right was a fmall town, called Bantani. Neither the territory of Nice, which its olives, date-trees, and cypreffes, nor the ifles of Hieres, with their delightful orange-groves, appeared fo charming, to me, as the view from the road of Hinzùán; which, nevertheless, is far furpaffed, as the captain of the Crocodile affured us, by many of the islands in the 1outhern ocean, If life were not too fhort for the complete difcharge of all our refpective duties, publick and private, and for the acquifition even of neceflary knowledge in any degree of perfection, with how much pleafure and improvement right a great part of it be fpent in admiring the beauties of this wonderful orb, and contemplating the nature of man in all its varieties! "We haftened to tread on firm land, to which we had been fo long difufed, and went on fhore, after breakfast, to fee the town, and return the governor's vifit. As we walked, attended by a crowd of natives, I furprized them by reading aloud an Arabic infcription over the gate of a mofque, and ftill more, when I entered it, by explaining four fentences, which were written very diftinctly on the wall, fignifying," that the world was given us "for our own edification, not for the "purpose of raifing fumptuous "buildings; life, for the difcharge "of moral and religious duties, not for pleasurable indulgences; "wealth, to be liberally bestowed, "not avaritiously hoarded; and "learning, to produce good actions, not empty difputes. We could not but refpect the temple even of a falfe prophet, in which we found fuch excellent morality: we faw nothing better among the Romish trumpery in the church at Madera. When we came to Abdullah's houfe, we were conducted through a small court-yard into an open room, on each fide of which was a large and convenient fofa, and above it a high bed-place in a dark recefs, over which a chintz counterpane hung down from the ceiling: this is the general form of the beft rooms in the ifland; and most of the toleraplehoufes have a fimilar apartment on the oppofite fide of the court. that there may be at all hours a place in the fhade for dinner or for repofe. We were entertained with ripe dates from Yemen, and the milk of cocoa-nuts; but the heat of the room, which feemed acceffible to all, who chose to enter it, and the fcent of mufk or civet, with which it was perfumed, foon made us defirous of breathing a purer air; nor could I be detained long by the Arabick manufcripts, which the governor produced, but which appeared of little ufe, and confequently of no value, except to fuch as love mere curiofities: one of them, indeed, relating to the penal law of the Mohammedans, I would gladly have purchased at a juft price; but he knew not what to afk; and I knew that better books on that fubject might be procured in Bengal. He then offered me a black boy for one of my Alkorans, and preffed me to barter an Indian dress, which he had feen on board the ship, for a cow, and calf: the golden flippers attracted him moft, fince his wife, he faid, would like to wear them; and, for that reason, I made him a prefent of them; but had deftined the book and the robe for his fuperior. No high opinion could be formed of Sayyad Abdullah, who feemed very eager for gain, and very fervile where he expected it. "Our next vifit was to Shaikh Sàlim, the king's eldest fon; and, if we had feen him first, the state of civilization in Hinzùán would have appeared at its lowest ebb: the worst English hackney, in the worft ftable, is better lodged, and looks more princely than this heir apparent; but, though his mien and apparel were extremely favage, yet allowance fhould have been made for his illness; which, as we afterwards afterwards learned, was an abfcefs in the fpleen, a diforder not uncommon in that country, and frequently cured, agreeably to the Arabian practice, by the actual cautery. He was inceffantly chewing pieces of the areca-nut with fhell-lime; a cuf tom borrowed, I fuppofe, from the Indians, who greatly improve the compofition with fpices and betelleaves, to which they formerly added camphor; all the natives of rank chewed it, but not, I think, to fo great an excefs. Prince Salim from time to time gazed at himself with complacency in a piece of broken looking-glafs, which was glued on a fmall board; a fpecimen of wretchednefs, which we obferved in no other houfe; but many circumftancés convinced us, that the apparently low condition of his royal highness, who was not on bad terms with his father, and feemed not to want authority, proceeded wholly from his avarice. His brother Hamdullah, who generally refides in the town of Domóni, has a very different character, being efteemed a man of worth, good fenfe, and learning he had come, the day before, to Matfamùdo, on hearing that an English frigate was in the road; and I, having gone out for a few minutes to read an Arabick infcription, found him, on my return, devouring a manufcript, which I had left with fome of the company. He is a Kádì, or Mohammedan judge; and, as he feemed to have more knowledge than his countrymen, I was extremely concerned, that I had fo little converfation with him. The king, Shaikh Ahmed, has a younger fon, named Abdullah, whofe ufual refidence is in the town of Waní, which he feldom leaves, as the ftate of his health is very infirm. Since the fucceffion to the ti$le and authority of Sultan is not un alterably fixed in one line, but requires confirmation by the chiefs of the island, it is not improbable, that they may hereafter be conferred on prince Hamdullah. "A little beyond the hole, in which Sálim received us, was his haram, or the apartment of his women, which he permitted us all to fee, not through politenefs to ftrangers, as we believed at first, but, as I learned afterwards from his own lips, in expectation of a prefent: we faw only two or three miferable creatures with their heads covered, while the favourite, as we fuppofed, stood behind a coarfe curtain, and showed her ankles under it loaded with filver rings; which, if the was capa ble of reflection, she must have confidered as glittering fetters rather than ornaments; but a rational being would have preferred the condition of a wild beast, exposed to perils and hunger in a foreft, to the fplendid mifery of being wife or mistress to Sálim. "Before we returned, Alwi was defirous of fhowing me his books; but the day was too far advanced, and I promifed to vifit him fome other morning. The governor, however, prevailed on us to fee his place in the country, where he invited us to dine the next day: the walk was extremely pleasant from the town to the fide of a rivulet, which formed in one part a fmali pool very convenient for bathing, and thence, through groves and alleys, to the foot of a hill; but the dining-room was little better than an open barn, and was recommended only by the coolness of its shade. Abdullah would accompany us on our return to the fhip, together with two Mufti's, who spoke Arabick indifferently, and feemed eager to fee all my manufcripts; but they were very moderately learned, and gazed |