een in constant intercourse, or grafted on some more ancient raditional faith. Circumcision is practised among them uniersally; and the rite is celebrated with great, solemnity. This ircumstance, together with the appellation by which one class f the natives are distinguished, of Zafe Hibrahim, or descendnts of Abraham, is the foundation, of the opinion, which asribes the origin of the Madagasses to the Jewish nation. But Ir. Copland remarks, that there is no other point of milarity between either their religious or their civil habits, and those of the Jews; they have neither customs, traditions, tes, nor ceremonies sufficiently analogous to justify the ypothesis; and there are some points of marked contraety. They make no use of any animals as beasts of burthen, nd have no kind of vehicle on wheels.

The use of letters, too, was unknown till within the last three undred and fifty years, when it was introduced into some of the pro inces by the Arabs who conquered the Island. And, to conclude this egative evidence, the language which is spoken universally throughout e Island, (with only a provincial difference,) bears no analogy to the Hebrew, but is "a mixture of Arabic and Greek, being agreeable to the atter in the manner of speaking, in the order and conjunction of nouns nd verbs active, and in being extremely copious."....The learning of e Island is principally confined to the Ombiasses (or magicians), and e Arabic character is the only one in use with them. These were inoduced by the Zafe Ramini; (or Rahimini; that is, children of Imina, e mother of Mahommed, from whom they boast of having descended ;) they are twenty-four in number, written from the right to the left, but e pronunciation of some of them differs from that of the Arabic.

Besides the two distinct races above mentioned, the Zafe amini, and the Zafe Hibrahim, both of which are whites, nd the former of which, at least, is an intrusive race, there are the indigenous blacks, who are supposed to be the aborigines, hese are divided into four classes, the first of whom, the Voadri, are said to trace their origin to the ancient sovereigns of e Island. Their wealth in slaves and cattle is considerable, id they retain the possession of several villages. Although perseded in the sovereignty by the race of Ramini, the natives ll hold them in veneration. The lowest class, the Ondeves, slaves by extraction, and are kept in entire subjection,-the Ariahs of the social system.

There can be no doubt that these several races are of distinct gin. Some of the olive-coloured natives, who are of small bare, with lank, smooth hair, bear a strong resemblance to the

Their colour is stated to be similar to that of the Egyptians and the yssinians: some, however, are copper-coloured, but the greater num• ́ are of an olive colour..

Malay Indians. These probably are the class referred to as having sprung from the sailors who came over with the Zafe Rahimini, or from the ancient pirates, and as subsisting chiefly by fishing. Others are described as tall and well -proportioned, with crisped locks, large and beautiful eyes, an easy carriage, and an open, unreserved countenance, their colour nearly black,' and as differing but little from the natives on the Malabar Coast. The Anacandrians, a branch of the Zafe Ramini, are distinguished by long hair, hanging down in curls, and by a reddish complexion. The woolly hair of the blacks marks their affinity to the Caffres, or Mozambiques. In the language, M. de Pages thought he perceived some inflexions of voice which occur in that of the Philippine Isles. It has also received a mixture of Portuguese. The probability is, that the Island, if it was not originally, as some have supposed, a part of the Continent, was peopled from the opposite coast, and that the Whites,' are all of Asiatic extraction. Their traditions, their notion of a day of rest, the abhorrence of swine's flesh, and other peculiarities of the Zafe Hibrahim, their necromancy and astromancy, as well as their written language, may all, perhaps, be referred to the Arabs and the Moors, and chiefly to the comparatively modern colony of the Zafe Ramini; one class of whom, it is remarkable, is called Ontampassemaca, or people from the sandy deserts of Mecca.'

Mr. Copland's "history" is a very respectable compilation, and contains more information on the subject than could be obtained from any one previous work. He has spared no pains in collecting materials, and the works from which he has drawn most of his information, are but little known to general readers. His chief authorities are, Flacourt's History of Madagascar, M. de V's Voyage to Madagascar; Voyages of the Dutch East India Company; Drury's Narrative; Rochon's Voyage; Benyowsky's Memoirs; Wadstrom's Essay on Colonization; and the Missionary Accounts. M. de Pagés, whose

Travels round the World" contain a very full description of the Madagasses, is not referred to; and we suppose that Mr. Copland had not seen the work. Mr. C. states the Island to be 900 miles long from North to South, and 300 broad in its widest part. De Pagés gives its length as about 900, and its breadth 100. Pinkerton, who chiefly follows Rochon, states its length to be about 840 G. miles by about 220 of medial breadth, and describes it as abounding with grand and beautiful scenery. Mr. Copland's professed object is, to excite a more general interest on behalf of the people who have, in so remarkable a manner, placed themselves under the protection, or rather, ⚫ tuition of Great Britain.' This interest, their history cannot fail to inspire, and the volume will be found by no means deficient in entertainment.

Art, VII. An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Pa raguay. From the Latin of Martin Dobrizhoffer, In 3 Volumes. 8vo. pp. 1300. Price 11. 16s. London, 1822.

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PHIS publication has, we believe, arisen out of Mr. Southey's voluminous and valuable, though somewhat heavy history of the Brazils. It contains the text and commentary of of an eighteen years' residence, in the capacity of a Jesuit missionary, among the savage inhabitants of South America; and while it bears some rather fatiguing marks of the lengthy and undiscriminating garrulity of an old man, pleasantly occupied in renewing the recollections of his past labours, it is, on the whole, an interesting book, containing much novel and amusing information respecting the habits and impulses of savage life, and throwing considerable light on the character and distribution of the interior tribes of Paraguay.

The Writer was, as far as personal knowledge and experience might be concerned, well furnished for the business of description, since he had been long and intimately conversant with the individuals and the localities which are the subjects of his narrative. He was born at Gratz in Styria, on the 7th of September, 1717. At the age of nineteen, he was admitted into the order of the Jesuits; that injured society,' whose extinction, in the opinion of Mr. Southey, (if the superintendence of this publication be rightly ascribed to him,) was so unjust and impolitic.' We shall take the liberty of questioning if it were either. Impolitic it was not, either on the part of the monarchs whose authority was endangered by the Jesuitic institute, or on that of the Pope, who yielded only to a more urgent and imperious policy than that which dissuaded from the disbanding of his Janizaries. Unjust it can appear only to those who are either unacquainted with the morality of the Jesuits, or determined resolutely to close their eyes to the spirit and tendency of the system by which the movements of the order were controlled and directed.,

In (1749, Martin Dobrizhoffer was sent on a mission to South America. He was first, stationed in the Guarany Reductions, and afterwards among the Abipones; a wild race by whom the advantages of civilization were as yet but imperfectly recognised. When the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies, he returned to Europe, and resided at Vienna until his death in July, 1791. He is said to have been much in the favour of Maria Theresa, who used frequently to send for him, that she might hear from his own lips the details of his adventurous life. Thus qualified, he published, in 1784, the Latin original of these volumes, with a

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Having examined every place in the vicinity, (he proceeds, after having finished his tale of heroism and conduct,) I became more tranquil, and wrote an account to the Governor at Assumpcion of the state of our affairs. With my letter, I sent, wrapped up in my bloody shirt sleeve, the arrow which had wounded me; a trophy of the religious obedience which had fixed me to this perilous colony. The arrow, and the sleeve stained with my blood, attracted all eyes in the metropolis, and were honourably preserved as monuments. The Spaniards judged of the wound, and of my danger, partly from the accounts of the Abiponian messengers, partly from the size of the barbed carrow, and buas report usually swells in its progress, my acquaintance mourned me as dead, and offered the sacrifice of the host for my atonement. Others, knowing me to be still alive, honoured me with the title of Confessor of the Lord; as my administering baptism to the Cacique of the Tobas was the occasion of my receiving the wound."

od 6We are not quite so well satisfied of Martin's scrupulous abnveracity, in his attempt to vindicate his associates from the

accredited imputation of a deeply laid scheme to make