object, and returned on board-they cut | convicts, and others. When the crop is the cable, and providentially aided by a plentiful, the government fixes a maximum, light favourable breeze, escaped from the | and that at so low a rate, that the little farport; and having touched at Otaheite on mer cannot afford to seed his ground the their passage, landed safely in Port Jack-ensuing year; at present, wheat is 157 per son yesterday.-The Seringapatam, as the bushel, and last year only 77; now, it is depot of all the stores, was a valuable ob- impossible to grow it here, on account of ject for them to become possessed of, and the high price of labour, for less than 107; they were thus enabled, by Divine Provi- last year, the pigs were fed with wheat, deuce, to effect their escape from that because the government refused it, and dreadful state of captivity to which now it has been obliged to send to India their misfortunes had temporarily con- for a supply. If nothing interferes, next signed them. year will be an over grown supply, as the high price last year enabled the people to cultivate their lands.

The island chosen by Capt. Porter of the Essex, as his depot, was Nooeroh; of whose inhabitants he had killed fifty in a skirmish. He built a house on shore and compelled his prisoners to erect a stone wall round it. Several whaling ships were captured by this frigate. The severities exercised by Capt. Porter over his people were very great: running the gauntlet, was frequent. The sailors therefore condemued, and almost hated, their officers, generally. The lash was also, frequently employed on their prisoners.

"July 16th 1814.-Money is very scarce here at present, and will continue to be so probably for some time. A scarcity of grain was dreaded several months ago; and the Governor in consequence wrote to India for wheat, of the intended shipment of which the Campbell Mc Quarrie has brought advices. This has proved a very unfortunate circumstance for the settlers; as orders have in consequence been already issued, to receive no more grain from them into the public stores; so that the only money in circulation, is that is sued for the pay, &c. of the troops, which since the departure of the 75d Regiment, has been but a very trifling sum indeed.

We have experienced lately the most alarming want of rain: immense numbers of cattle and sheep have died in consequence. From fifty to a hundred head a day for a considerable time, were found lying dead. Rain in small showers, has since succeeded.

I must explain to you what must appear very mysterious; at one time you hear of our abundant crops of grain, and immediately after, that the country is in an alarming state of starvation; this arises from the narrow policy of our government, which is the principal parchaser of grain, for the purpose of feeding the troops,and victualling

Comp. Li Pan. vol. IX. p. 665. vol. XV. p. $36. 673.

The settlement of Van Diemen's land comprising Port Dalrymple, and the Derwent, is in a most unhappy state; a very considerable number of convicts, have abconded from government, and their employers, and I am sorry to say, that some persons of respectable families, having involved themselves in great pecuniary difficulties, have taken the unhappy step of uniting themselves to those desperadoes; they frequently drive off whole herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, in one instance 300: nor does there appear any prospect of their being reduced to order at present. The government has issued a proclamation, of fering free pardon to all who surrender themselves within a given time, murderers alone excepted. In our part of the settlement we are so circumstanced by nature, that such an event could not take place; the forests afford no provision, nor places of possible refuge for more than a few days. Van Diemen's land on the contrary abounds in Kangaroo, Emu, &c. outskirts of one of our districts called Appin, has been rather annoyed by the inhabitants of the Blue Mountains, but generally speaking, the natives are inoffensive. OTAHEITE.

The

Letter in English from King Pomarree.

The following is the verbatim copy of a letter received by Captain Walker, of the Governor Macquarie, from King Pomarre, while he lay at Otaheite. We have had several previous occasions to exhibit to the public view specimens of the editorial talent of this friendly Prince; but, nevertheless, under circumstances which could not possibly fail to induce the belief that he was merely the copyist of language written for him by his attentive friends of the Missionary Establishment. It now, however, happens otherwise; for it is certain that when he wrote the letter subjoined, and giving rise to these remarks, the Missionaries were at the Island of Eimao, considerably distant from Otaheite.

No white whatever was near him when he wrote it, and Captain Walker, from a combination of circumstances that set the fact beyond dispute or doubt, sanctions the positive affirmation that the entire letter is produced by the head and hand of Pomarre and of himself alone. It is as follows:

“Sir,

By your request, I have enquired for some people to go in the Macquarie with you; but as it is impossible for me to know the true sentiments of their minds, and as those I might recommend to you, although any bosom friends, they might still prove treacherous to you, therefore, I think it best for you to take the men you brought from Emao; but as for Vano, I think you have done well in not taking him, as I know him to be of a bad character; but I leave it to you for to discharge him; concerning those men who went to Port Jackson in the vessel; I know nothing of them; but this observation I wish to make, they are just as liable in case of a revolt, as the greatest enemy you have on board: this I speak sincerely, wishing you a successful o, age,

I remain,

Your very humble servant,
POMARREE."

COLUMBIA RIVER: N. W. coast of

AMERICA.

Destruction of the American Ship Tonquin. The following is an account of the singular and melancholy fate of the American ship Tonquin, the crew of which were destroyed by the savages, while on a trading voyage on the coast north of the river Columbia, on Vancouver's island.

The circumstance has been related in different ways by the natives in the environs of the establishment, but that which carries with it the greatest appearance of truth is as follows:

Every one when armed, moved from the quarter-deck to a different part of the vessel, so that by the time they were ready, that at least three savages were opposite in such a manner were they distributed, every man of the ship, and at a signal notwithstanding the brave resistance of given, they rushed on their prey, and, every individual of the whites, they were

all butchered in a few minutes.

scend, lost two of their number, besides The men above, in attempting to deone mortally wounded, who, notwithstanding his weakened condition, made good his retreat with the four others to the cabin, where finding a quantity of loaded arms, they fired on their savage assailers through the sky-lights and companion way, which had the effect of clearing the ship in a short time, and long before night these five intrepid sons of America were again in full posession of her.

Whether from want of abilities or strength, supposing themselves unable to take the vessel back to Columbia; on the following morning, the four who were unhurt left her in the long boat, in hopes of regaining the river, wishing to take along with them the wounded person, who refused their offer, saying, that he must die before long, and might as well die in the vessel as elsewhere.

Soon after sunrise she was surrounded by an immense number of Indians with

unloading her, but who, from the warm reception they met with the day before, did not seem forward in boarding.

That vessel, after landing the cargo in-canoes, come for the express purpose of tended for Astoria, departed on a trading voyage to the coast of Columbia river, with a company, including Officers, of twenty-three men, and proceeded about 400 miles along the sea-board, when they stopped on Vancouver's island, at a place called Woody-point, inhabited by a powerful nation, called Wake-a-ninshes. These people came on board to barter their furs for merchandize, and conducted themselves in the most friendly manner during the first day; but in the same evening information was brought on board by an Indian whom the Officers had as interpreter, that the tribe where they then lay were

The wounded man shewed himself over the railing, made signal that he was alone, and wanted their assistance; on which some embarked, who, finding what he said was true, spoke to their people, who were not any longer slow in getting on board, so that in a few seconds the deck was considerably thronged, and they proceeded to undo the hatches without ceremony. No sooner were they completely engaged in this, than the only survivor of the crew descended into the cabin, and set

fire to the magazine, containing nearly uine thousand pounds of gunpowder, which in an instant blew the vessel and every one on board to atoms.

The nation acknowledge their having lost nearly one hundred warriors, besides, a vast number of wounded by the explosion, who were in canoes round the ship. The four men who set off in the long boat were, two or three days after, driven ashore in a, gale, and massacred by the natives.

EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON
THE COLOURS OF THE ANCIENTS,
BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.
[Resumed from page 628.]

IV. Of the Blue Colours of the Antients.

Different shades of blue are used in the different apartments of the baths of Titus, and several very fine blues exist in the mixture of colours to which I have referred in the last two sections.

The minute quantity of lime found in this substance was not sufficient to account for its fusibility: it was therefore reasonable to expect the presence of a fixed alkali in it; and on fusing some of it with three times its weight of boracic acid, and treating the mass with nitric acid and carbonate of ammonia, and afterwards distilling sulphuric acid from it, I procured from it sulphate of soda; which proves that it was a frit made by means of soda, and coloured with oxide of copper.

The undiluted colour in its form of frit is used for ornamenting some of the mouldings detached from the ceilings of the chambers in the baths of Titus: and the walls of one chamber between the compartments of red marble, bear proofs of having been covered with this frit, and retain a considerable quantity of it.

There is every reason to believe that this is the colour described by Theophrastus as discovered by an Egyptian king; and of which the manufactory is said to have been anciently established at Alexandria.

was made in his time at Puzzuoli, where from Egypt by Vestorius; he gives the the method of fabricating it was brought method of preparing it by heating strongly together sand, flos nitrit, and filings of

These blues are pale or darker, accordVitruvius speaks of it, under the name of ing as they contain larger or smaller quanin painting chambers, and states, that it cæruleum, as the colour used commonly tities of carbonate of lime; but when this carbonate of lime is dissolved by acids, they present the same body colour, a very fine blue powder, similar to the best smalt, or to ultramarine, rough to the touch, and which does not lose its colour by being heated to redness; but which becomes agglutinated and semifused at a white heat. This blue I found was little acted on by acids. Nitro-muriatic acid by being long boiled upon it gained, however, a slight tint of yellow, and afforded proofs of the presence of oxide of copper.

copper.

calls species of sand (arena) from the mines Pliny mentions other blues, which he of Egypt, Scythia, and Cyprus. These natural blues, there is reason to believe, were different preparations of lapis lazuli, and of the blue carbonates and arseniates of copper.

to be combustible, and which was evidently a species of indigo.

A quantity of the colour was fused for half an hour with twice its weight of hy-Indian blue, which the first author states Both Pliny and Vitruvius speak of the drate of potassa; the mass, which was blueish green, was treated by muriatic acid in the manner usually employed for the analysis of siliceous stones, when it afforded a quantity of silica equal to more than 3-5ths of its weight. The colouring

matter readily dissolved in solution of ammonia, to which it gave a bright blue tint, and it proved to be oxyde of copper. The residuum afforded a considerable quantity of alumine, and a small quantity of lime.

Amongst some rubbish that had been collected in one of the chambers of the baths of Titus, I found several large lumps of a deep blue frit, which when powdered and mixed with chalk produced colours exactly the same as those used in the baths, and which when submitted to chemical tests were found to be the same in composition.

I have examined several blues in the fragments of fresco painting from the ruins near the monument of Caius Cestius. In a

deep blue approaching in tint to indigo, I found a little carbonate of copper, but the basis of this colour was the frit before de

scribed.

The blues in the Nozze Aldobrandine, from their resisting the action of acids, and from the effects of fire, I am inclined to consaler as composed of the Alexandrian or Puzzuoli blue.

In an excavation made at Pompeii, in

* De Lapidibus, sect. xcviii.
† Lib. vii. cap. 11.

This identifies the mitrum of the an cients with carbonate of soda.

May, 1814, at which I was present, a small pot containing a pale blue colour was dug up, which the exalted personage, by whose command the excavation was made, was so good as to put into my hands. It proved to be a mixture of carbonate of lime with the Alexandrian frit §.

Vitruvius states, that the ancients had a mode of imitating the Indian blue or indigo, by mixing the powder of the glass called by the Greeks hyalos, with Selinusian "creta" or annularian "creta," which was white clay or chalk mixed with stained glass; the same practice is likewise referred to by Pliny.

There is much reason for supposing that this stained glass, or hyalos, was tinged with oxide of cobalt; and that these colours were similar to our smalt. I have not found any powdered colour of this kind in the baths of Titus, or in any other Roman ruins; but a blue glass tinged with cobalt is very common in those ruins, which when powdered forms a pale smalt.

V. Of the ancient Greens.

The ceiling of the chambers called the Baths of Livia is highly ornamented with gilding and paintings; the larger paintings have been removed, but the ground-work and the borders remain. A fragment detached from the borders, which appears of the same colour as the ground-work, was of a deep sea green. The colouring matter examined, proved to be soluble in acids with effervescence; and when precipitated from acids, it re-dissolved in solution of ammonia, giving it the bright blue tint produced by oxide of copper There are several different shades of green employed in the baths of Titus, and on the fragments found near the monument of Caius Cestius: in the vase of mixed colours I found three different varieties: one, which approached to olive, was the common green earth of Verona; another, which was pale grass green, had the character of carbonate of copper mixed with chalk; and a third, which was sea green, was a green combination of copper mixed with the blue copper frit,

I have examined many pastes and glasses that contain oxide of copper; they are all All the greens that I examined on the blueish green, or of an opake watery blue, walls of the baths of Titus were combiThe transparent blue glass vessels which nations of copper. From the extreme brilare found with the vases in the tombs in liancy of a green which I found in the Magua Gracia are tinged with cobalt; and vineyard to which I have so often referred, on analyzing different ancient transparent I suspected that it might contain arsenious blue glasses which Mr. Millingen was so acid, and be analogous to Scheele's green; good as to give me, I found cobalt in all of but on submitting it to experiments, it afthem *. forded no indications of this substance, and Theophrastus, in speaking of the manu-proved to be a pure carbonate of copper. facture of glass, states as a report that "chalkus" was used to give it a fine colour, and it is extremely probable that the Greeks took cobalt for a species of chalkos. I have examined some Egyptian pastes which are all tinged blue and green with copper; but though I have made experiments on nine different specimens of ancient Greek and Roman transparent blue glass, I have not found copper in any, but cobalt in all of

them †.

§ This probably is the same colour as that examined by Mr. Chaptal. He did not search in it for alkali, or there is every reason to suppose he would have found soda.

* The mere fusion of these glasses with alkali and digestion of the product with muriatic acid was sufficient to produce a sympathetic ink from them; even the silica separated by the acid, gained a faint blue green tint by heat, and the solution in muriatic acid became permanently green, by the action of sulphuric acid, a phenomenon Dr. Marcet has observed as belonging to the muriate of cobalt.

† A gentleman at Milan informed me Jast summer, that he had found oxide of

The greens of copper were well known to the Greeks; the most e-teemed is described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides under the name of chrysocolla, and is stated by both to be found in metallic veins.

Vitruvius mentions chrysocolla as a native substance found in copper mines, and Pliny speaks of an artificial chrysocolla made from the clay found in the neighbourhood of metallic veins, which clay was most probably impregnated with copper. He describes it as rendered green by the herb luteum. There is every reason to believe, that the native chrysocolla was carbonate of copper and that the artificial was clay impregnated with sulphate of copper rendered green by a yellow dye.

Some commentators have supposed that chrysocolla is the same substance as borax, because Pliny has mentioned that a pre

cobalt in the blue glass found in the ruins of Adrian's villa, and at this time I had no idea that cobalt was known to the ancients. Mr. Hatchett and Mr. Klaproth had both found oxide of copper in some ancient blue glasses, which I conceive must have been opaque.