Gray's-Inn, of the fine Cochin China rice, which in that country grows on the hills and uplands, have been propagated in Jamaica, by Henry Ellis, Efq; of that ifland, and on General Melvill's eftate in Dominica. The fame hath been done by Dr. Garden, of Charles Town, South Carolina; who informed his correfpondent in London, that the Cochin China rice not only flourished in his own garden, but in those of many gentlemen befides, to whom he distributed fome of the feeds which were fent him; and that, by getting into fresh feeds, it promifed to be a valuable grain in the hilly parts of that province. The tallow-tree alfo, the feeds of which Mr. Blake tranf mitted to England, hath profpered in Carolina, in Jamaica, and in feveral other of the American colonies. In fhort, both these articles bid fair to be of much utility to the Colonifts; and may, in time, become confiderable objects of commerce. All the plants mentioned in the note, with a variety of others from feeds fent by Mr.

* Become confiderable objects of commerce.] In the South Carolina and American General Gazette, No. 743, from Monday, Dec. 21, to Monday, Dec. 28, 1772, mention is made of both thefe articles in the following words. After taking notice of a treatife on the culture of different kinds of rice, entitled, Travels of a Philofopher, by Monf. le Poivre: "We have the pleasure to inform the Public, that, by the indefatigable indufry of a very curious gentleman at Canton, a fufficient quantity for experiment of the upland rice from Cochin China, mentioned above, fo long withed for, has been fent by the Thames Indiaman, to his friend in Gray's-Inn, who will take proper care that it is diftributed to such perfons in our fouthern Colonies as will make a fair trial of this most useful grain. We are further indebted to this curious gentleman for a parcel of the feeds of the croton febiferum of Linnæus, or the tallow-tree of China, preferved in a most excellent manner. This tree feems to afford a fubstance between wax and tallow, and which bids fair to be of as great use to our fouthern American Colonies, as it is in China." Dr. Garden, in a letter to his correfpondent, written in the year 1773, acquaints him of his having received from Mr. Blake, fen. feeds of two forts of China indigo, the one of a deep, and the other of a sky blue; the lacquer-tree; the oil-tree, ufed to mix up the lacquer for cabinets; the alcea, defcribed in Kempfer's Hiftory of Japan, which in China is an article of vegetable food; and many feeds befides, from Pekin, and the more northerly provinces of China; particularly feveral from Corea, a country between China and Tartary, above three hundred leagues from Canton. The Doctor farther obferves, that himself and others were fenfible, how highly beneficial fuch an intercourfe between the East Indies and America, as had for its object the propagation of the trees and plants which are useful either in medicine or commerce, would be to the colonies. His words are thefe: "When gentlemen of fuch benevolent difpofitions, and public fpirit, as Mr. Blake and his father, engage in fuch attempts, much advantage must foon flow from a plan of this kind; at least ought to flow from it, if as well feconded on this fide the Atlantic "." Annual Register, for 1775, Vol. xviii. Part ii. p. 32.

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Blake

Blake to England, and diftributed with a liberal and impartial hand, are, likewife, in a flourishing ftate, in his Majefty's garden at Kew; in Chelsea, at the garden of the Apothecaries Company: as alfo at Dr. Fothergill's, near Stratford; Dr. Pitcairn's, near Ilington; Mr. Malcombe's, at Kennington Common; Mr. Ballington's, at Hoxton, and particularly at Mile-end, in the garden of that well-known prac tical botanist, Mr. Gordon. Moreover, Mr. Gordon took the care of the various plants which Mr. Blake tranfmitted, in pots, from China, to his father, and to his friend Mr. John Ellis of Gray's-Inn, to whofe botanic knowledge and correfpondence he was, in fome degree, indebted for his own ardour in the fame purfuit. Among these plants are the lichees, a very fine fruit of China, of feveral forts; as alfo the gardenia, of a beautiful yellow dye. Not to mention every vegetable production fent over by Mr. Blake, two plants of the teatree, given by him to his father, and Mr. Ellis, were propagated and múltiplied by Mr. Gordon, and flood the open air all the Winter of the latter end of 1773, and the beginning of 1774. The laft circumftance was owing to the advice of our ingenious young gentleman; who wrote, from Canton, that this valuable fhrub was under fnow in fome of the northern provinces of China, for many weeks together in the Winter feafon; on which account he recommended it to be no longer treated in England as entirely a hot-house plant. It would extend this article too much to particularize the various feeds which Mr. Blake, from time to time, took care to get conveyed to England, during his refidence in China; or to enumerate the plants tranfmitted by him that have flourished in feveral botanic gardens near London, as alfo, in fome of the most foutherly counties in the western parts of the kingdom. There is among them a variety of new fpecies, the feeds of which were put up, by Mr. Blake's own hand, in fo peculiar a manner, as to bring with them their vegetative qualities, not only to England, but likewife, for the fecond feafon of fowing, to America. His contrivances for this purpose were fingularly ingenious. He alfo fent home, at various times, above one hundred drawings of choice plants, curiously delineated from nature, with all their parts of fructification, diffected by himself and coloured. Thefe drawings, which are in the poffeffion of his father, have been declared by Dr. Solander to be exquifite performances; and that eminent botanift has claffed and arranged fome of the plants they reprefent, according to the Linnæan fyftem, from their parts of fructification: fo accurately were these parts defcribed in the drawings. Had Mr. Blake's life been continued, he had intended, in the fame manner, to have gone through all the botanic productions of China. For this purpose, and to facilitate his undertaking, he had engaged to his affiftance one of the most ingenious draughtfmen of China, who, under the direction of his able employer, followed nature as closely as pencil and paint could attain. This perfon, who was retained at no fmall expence, was in Mr. Blake's apartments in the factory every day, from nine in the morning till fix in the evening, for the three or four years previous to that gentleman's lamented death. During the leifure time afforded by the fhipping's being difpatched for Europe, Mr. Blake himself fat at the fame table with this and another affiftant, laying out the feveral vegetable fpecimens that had

been

been gathered; diffecting the parts of fructification, with which the Chinese are not acquainted; and drawing the outlines for his affift-, ants to colour and finish. Indeed, they are all fo elegantly and fcientifically disposed, as to appear to every one who has viewed them, like the natural plants themfelves.

It was not to botanic fubjects alone, that Mr. Blake's genius was confined. He had begun to collect fofils and ores, or rather to procure them; for the narrow limits within which the Europeans are, at Canton, confined, could not afford much scope for perfonal collection *. Indeed, when they retire to the island of Macao, during the abfence of the fhipping, they have a range of larger extent. Though this country recefs is very defirable, especially in the greatest heat of the weather, Mr. Blake, nevertheless, denied himself the fatisfaction of it for one whole year, in order to view the progrefs of fome particular plants through the various feafons. In confequence of his attention to mineralogy, he fent to Mr. Ellis, a fpecimen of lead ore, from a mine which the Chinese had lately difcovered in the interior parts of China. He tranfmitted likewife, at another time, a fpecimen of the ore paaktong, or white copper, from the mines in the province of Yunnan, together with zink, or fpelter, and other materials; as alfo the processes by which this beautiful metal is made in China into various utenfils, both for use and ornament. From these materials and proceffes, his friend Mr. Samuel More, to whom they were conveyed, has produced a metal equally white and pure, but more ductile, than that which the Chinese themfelves make; his fpecimen having been flatted, in a mill, to the thinness of common paper. There is, moreover, reafon to hope, from the appearances of the Chinese copper ore, that a fimilar one may be found in the mines of our own country; and that this ore, taken in its proper ftate, may, by fuch proceffes as are ufed in China, whiten with zink, and the other materials which are obtainable in England. Blake fent likewife to Mr. More, fpecimens of the earths, clays, fands, ftones, and the rest of the materials employed in making the true Nankin porcelaine; all of which were put by Mr. More into the hands of Mr. Wedgewood, the most celebrated potter in England t. Nay, fo zealous was Mr. Blake that his native country

Mr.

might

*Much Scope for perfonal collection.] One can fcarcely help reflecting, on this occafion, how mortifying it must have been, to a perfon of Mr. Blake's active genius, to be precluded, by the policy of China, from exploring, at large, an empire, which prefents fo many objects of curiofity and obfervation.'

+ The most celebrated potter in England.] This ingenious artist hath produced, from these materials, fome pieces of excellent porcelaine; and has declared that the earths, &c. were fo complete, and yet fo fimple a fet of fpecimens, as beyond doubt to be the true porcelaine materials. He defired nothing more than a larger quantity, to diftribute it among the different counties of England, that a fearch Secretary to the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturee, and Com merce,

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might

in

might reap the benefit of the ingenuity and invention of the Chinefe, that he was endeavouring to collect models of the machines ufed every art practifed, and every manufacture carried on by that induftrious people. The fpecimens of wrought gold, filver, enamel, and ivory; the colours, paintings in glafs, infects, and moths, feveral of them non deScript, which he forwarded to his father, are too numerous to be enlarged upon in this place. In fact, he facrificed his life to the induftry and ardour of his purfuits. By denying himself the needful recreations, and by fitting too clofely to his drawing and ftudies, he brought on a gravelly complaint; and this was followed by the ftone, and a ftone fever, which carried him off, at Canton, on the 16th of November, 1773, when he had but just entered the twenty-ninth year of his age. His death was fincerely and deeply lamented, not only by the gentlemen of our Factory, and the other Europeans in Canton, but by the Chinese themfelves; who, as we are well informed, held him in the higheft efteem. He was buried with much ceremony at Uampo, and the Europeans of all nations united in accompanying his funeral, with every mark they could fhew of their concern for fo unhappy an event. The principal Chinese merchants alfo, and others of that nation, teftified the fame concern, by attending the corpfe from the Factory to the water-fide.

So fenfible were Mr. Blake's friends in England of his ingenuity and merit, that they wished to have him enrolled among the members of the Royal Society: accordingly, they had prepared a proper certificate for the purpose, at the very time when his father had but juft received the diftreffing news of his fon's decease. This they were ignorant of, when the certificate was prefented; and they were filled with grief and furprife, when they were informed by the Prefident, that the object of their kind offices was no more. It was, however, no fmall confolation to them, that Sir John Pringle feized this occafion of lamenting in the most pathetic terms, the death of Mr. Blake, as a public misfortune. The Prefident infifted on the many marks of attention which this young gentleman had already fhewn to the fciences in general, and to natural history in particular; and he declared, that, in the opinion of the beft naturalifts, there had never been, in that part of the world, where Mr. Blake had spent the last years of his life, a perfon of more real knowledge. Sir John concluded with obferving, that he did not doubt but that every member of the Society would fympathize with him in regretting fo great and extenfive a lofs.

Mr. Blake's plan was fo noble, his head and his heart were fo deeply engaged in it, and the pains and expence he went through to carry it into execution were fo extraordinary, that his decease may be confidered as an irreparable calamity; unlefs fome other gentleman, who may hereafter refide in China, that great Empire of the Arts,

might be made for the like materials. He wished, too, to be farther favoured, by Mr. Blake, with a defcription of the nature of the land on which these materials were found in China, or what mines and minerals accompanied them; with plans and fections of the kilns ufed by the Chinese. All thefe Mr. Blake would undoubtedly have procured, had he not been prevented by his death.'

هادی

should

fhould have fufficient abilities and courage to tread in his steps, and to continue what he had thus fuccessfully begun. But, perhaps, it may be a long time before a perfon be fent into that part of the world, who shall have had an education equally complete, who fhall poffefs the fame qualifications, and be animated with as warm a zeal for the advancement of knowledge, and the benefit of his country.'

We shall now introduce to the acquaintance of our Readers, a man who poffeffed an uncommon genius for mechanical inventions, and employed it in the ufeful work of planning and executing navigable canals:

James Brindley, a man of a most uncommon genius for mechanical inventions, and who particularly excelled in planning and conducting inland navigations, was born at Tunfted, in the parish of Wormhill, and county of Derby, in the year 1716. His parents were poffeffed of a little freehold, the fmall income of which his father diffipated by a fondness for fhooting and other field-diverfions, and by keeping company with people above his rank. The confe quence of this was, that his fon was fo totally neglected, that he did not receive the ordinary rudiments of education. The neceffities of the family were fo preffing, that young Brindley was obliged, as early as poffible, to contribute towards its fupport; and, till he was nearly feventeen years of age, he was employed in those kinds of light labour which are ufually affigned, in country places, to the children of the poor. At this period of his life, he bound himself apprentice to one Bennet, a mill-wright, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire, and foon became expert in the business; befides which, he quickly discovered a ftrong attachment to the mechanic arts in general, and a genius for extending them much farther than they had hitherto been carried. In the early part of his apprenticeship, he was frequently left by himself, for whole weeks together, to execute works concerning which his mafter had given him no previous inftructions. Thefe works, therefore, he finished in his own way; and Mr. Bennet was often aftonished at the improvements his apprentice, from time to time, introduced into the mill-wright bufiness, and earnestly queftioned him from whence he had gained his knowledge. He had not been long at the trade, before the millers, wherever he had been employed, always chofe him again, in preference to the mafter, or any other workman; and, before the expiration of his fervitude, at which time Mr. Bennet, who was advanced in years, grew unable to work, Mr. Brindley, by his ingenuity and application, kept up the bufinefs with credit, and fupported the old man and his family in a comfortable manner.

It may not be amifs to mention a fingular inftance of our young mechanic's active and earnest attention to the improvement of millwork. His mafter, having been employed to build an engine papermill, which was the firft of the kind that had been attempted in those parts, went to fee one of them at work, as a model to copy after.

d The materials of this article have been obligingly obtained for us from Mr. Henfhall, Mr. Brindley's brother-in-law, by Meff. Wedgewood and Bentley. To Mr. Bentley we are farther indebted in feveral refpects; and particularly for the short, but masterly sketch of Mr. Brindley's character, at the conclufion. But,

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