the baronefs of Reidefel, and the wives of two British officers, major Harnage and lieutenant Reynell; but in the event their prefence ferved but little for comfort. Ma. jor Harnage was foon brought to the furgeons, very badly wounded; and a little while after came intelligence that lieutenant Reynell was fhot dead. Imagination will want no helps to figure the ftate of the whole groupe. From the date of that action to the 7th of October, lady Harriet, with her ufual ferenity, ftood prepared for new trials! And it was her lot that their severity increased with their numbers. She was again exposed to the hearing of the whole action, and at last received the shock of her individual misfortune, mixed with the intelligence of the general calamity; the troops were defeated, and major Ackland, defperately wounded, was a prisoner. The day of the 8th was paffed by lady Harriet and her companions in common anxiety; not a tent, nor a fhed, being standing, except what belonged to the hofpital, their refuge was among the wounded and the dying. I foon received a meffage from lady Harriet, fubmitting to my decifion a propofal (and expreffing an earneft folicitude to execute it, if not interfering with my defigns) of paffing to the camp of the enemy, and requesting general Gates's per miffion to attend her husband. Though I was ready to believe (for I had experienced) that patience and fortitude, in a fupreme degree, were to be found, as well as every virtue, under the moft` tender forms, I was aftonished at this propofal. After fo long an agitation of the fpirits, exhaufted not only for want of reft, but abfolutely want of food, drenched in rains for twelve hours together, that a woman fhould be capable of fuch an undertaking as delivering herself to the enemy, probably in the night, and uncertain of what hands fhe might fall into, appeared an effort above human nature. The affiftance I was enabled to give was fmall indeed; I had not even a cup of wine to offer her; but I was told the had found, from fome kind and fortunate hand, a little rum and dirty water. All I could furnish to her was an open boat and a few lines, written upon dirty and wet paper, to general Gates, recommending her to his protection. Mr. Brudenell, the chaplain to the artillery (the fame gentleman who had officiated fo fignally at general Frafer's funeral * ) readily undertook to accompany her, and with The circumftances attending the funeral of this brave officer were very remarkable:-Early in the morning general Frafer breathed his laft-and with the kindest expreffions of his affection his last request was brought to me, that he might be carried without parade by the foldiers of his corps to the great redoubt, and buried there. About fun-fet the body of general Frafer was brought up the hill, attended only by the officers who had lived in his family. To arrive at the redoubt, it paffed within view of the greateft part of both armies. General Philips, general Reidefel, and myself, who were ftanding together, were ftruck with the humility of the proceffion: they, who were ignorant that privacy had been requested, VOL. XXIII. 1 might with one female fervant, and the major's valet-de-chambre (who had a ball, which he had received in the late action, then in his fhoulder) fhe rowed down the river to meet the enemy. But her diftreffes were not yet to end. The night was advanced before the boat reached the enemy's out-pofts, and the centinel would not let it pafs, nor even come on fhore. In vain Mr. Brudenell offered the flag of truce, and reprefented the ftate of the extraordinary paffenger. The guard, apprehenfive of treachery, and punctilious to their orders, threatened to fire into the boat if they ftirred before day-light. Her anxiety and fufferings were thus protracted through seven or eight dark and cold hours; and her reflections upon that first reception could not give her very encouraging ideas of the treatment fhe was afterwards to expect. But it is due to justice at the close of this adventure to fay, that he was received and accommodated by general Gates with all the humanity and refpect that her rank, her merits, and her fortunes deferved. Let fuch as are affected by thefe circumstances of alarm, hardship, and danger, recollect, that the fub might conftrue it into neglect. We could neither endure that reflection, nor indeed reftrain our natural propensity to pay our last attention to his remains. The incefiant cannonade during the folemnity; the steady attitude and ungltered voice with which the chaplain officiated, though frequently covered with duft, which the thot threw up on all fides of him; the mute but expreffive mixture of fenfibility and indignation upon every countenance: thefe objects will remain to the laft of life upon the minds of every man who was prefent. The growing dufkinefs added to the fcenery, and the whole marked a character of that juncture, that would make one of the fineft fubjects for the pencil of a mafter that the field ever exhibited. To the canvafs, and to the faithful page of a more important hiftorian, gallant friend, I confign thy memory! There may thy talents, thy manly virtues, their progrefs and their period, find due diftinction; and long may they furvive long after the frail record of my pen shall be forgotten. friends, friends, the following short extract of a journal which I kept regularly during a refidence of fixteen months in that diftant country. To you, Sir, it is already known, that I was fent out by the directors of the Botanic Gardens at Amfterdam, and fome other eminent men of that place; first to the Cape of Good Hope, and from thence to Japan: in order to inveftigate the natural history of those countries, and to fend from thence feeds and living plants of unknown kinds, for the ufe of their collections in Holland. At the first of thefe places I refided three years; and during that time had the good fortune to obferve and defcribe many new species both of animals and vegetables. In the year 1775 I failed from thence for Batavia, and after a fhort lay there, embarked on board a Dutch hip, called Staveniffe, bound for Japan, in company with the Blyenburg On the 21ft of June, we failed and paffed Pulo Sapatoo, the coaft of China, and the island Formofa. On the 13th of August we made the land of Japan, and the day after were off the harbour of Nagafacci, the only one in that empire where foreign fhips are allowed to an chor. During this paffage we met with fevere gales of wind, in one of which the Blyenburg, having received much damage in her mafts, parted company, and (as we afterwards learned) was obliged to go back to Canton, to refit. We failed into the harbour of Nagafacci with our colours flying, and faluted the Papenburg, the emperor's and emprefs's guard, and the town itself. During this time there came on board of us two over banjofes, feveral interpreters, and inferior officers, and fome people belonging to the Dutch factory. These over banjoses may be compared to the mandarins of China: a place is prepared for them upon the fhip's deck, and fome of them (for they are fre quently changed) must be present when any thing is taken out of, or received into, her. They infpect every thing, mufter the people, give paffports to fuch as go on fhore, and every day report to the gover nor of Nagafucci the proceedings on board. The attention and care with which thefe gentlemen execute the orders iffued by the Imperial Court in 1775 is well worthy of relation. The moft minute articles which are carried out of a fhip undergo a jealous infpection, both when they are put into the boats, and when they are landed from them; and the fame caution is used in enbarking goods from the fhore. Bedding is ripped open, and the very feathers examined; chefts are not only emptied of their contents, but the boards of which they are made are fearched, left contraband goods fhould be concealed in their fubftance. Pots of fweetmeats and of butter are ftirred round with an iron fkewer. Our cheefes had a more narrow infpection; a large hole was cut into the middle of each, and a knife thruft into the fides of it in every direction : : even the eggs were not exempted from fufpicion; many of them were broken, left they should conceal contraband goods within them. Ourselves, Ourfelves, from the higheft to the loweft, underwent the fame fufpicious fcrutiny whenever we went from or returned on board the fhip. Our backs were firft ftroked down by the hand of the inspector; our fides, bellies, and thighs, were then in like manner examined; so that it was next to impoffible that any thing could be concealed. Formerly they were lefs exact In this vifitation; the chief of the factory and captain of the veffel were even exempted from it. This privilege they ufed in its utmoft extent: each dreffed himself in a great coat, in which were two Jarge pockets, or rather facks, for the reception of contraband goods, and they generally paffed backwards and forwards three times a day. Abuses of this nature irritated the Japan government fo much, that they refolved to make new regulations. For fome time they found, that the more dexterity they used in detecting the tricks of the Europeans, the more dextroufly they contrived to evade them at laft, however, by repeated trials, they have fo compleatly abridged their liberties, that it is now almost, if not abfolutely, impoffible to smuggle any thing. The complexions of the Japanese are in general yellowish, although fome few, generally women, are almost white. Their narrow eyes and high eye-brows are like thofe of the Chinese and Tartars. Their nofes, though not flat, are fhorter and thicker than ours. Their hair is univerfally black; and fuch a fameness of fashion reigns through this whole empire, that the head drefs is the fame from the emperor to the peafant. The mode of the men's head> dress is fingular; the middle part of their heads, from the forehead very far back, is close shaven; the hair remaining round the temples and nape of the neck is turned up and tied upon the top of the head into a kind of brush, about as long as a finger; this brush is again lapped round with white thread, and bent a little backwards. The women preserve all their hair, and, drawing it together on the top of the head, roll it round a loop, and fattening it down with pins, to which ornaments are affixed, draw out the fides till they appear like little wings; behind this a comb is ftuck in. Physicians and priests are the only exception to the general fafhion; they fhave their heads intirely, and are by that means diftinguished from the rest of the people. The fashion of their cloaths has alfo remained the fame from the highest antiquity. They confift of one or more loofe gowns, tied about the middle with a fash; the women wear them much longer than the men, and dragging on the ground. In fummer they are very thin; but in winter quilted with filk or cotton wadding. People of rank have them made of filk; the lower class of cotton ftuffs. Women generally wear a greater number of them than men, and have them more ornamented, often with gold or filver flowers woven into the stuff. Thefe gowns are generally left open at the breath; their fleeves are very wide, but partly fewed up up in front, fo as to make a kind of pocket, into which they can eafily put their hands, and in this they generally carry papers, or fuch like light things. Men of confequence are diftinguished from those of inferior rank by a short jacket of thin black ftuff, which is worn over their gowns, and trowfers open on the fides, but fewed together near the bottom, which take in their skirts. Some ufe drawers, but all have their legs naked. They wear fandals of straw, fastened to their feet by a bow paffing over the inftep, and a ftring which paffes between the great toe and that next to it, fixing to the bow. In winter they have focks of linen, and in rainy or dirty weather, wooden fhoes, They never cover their heads but on a journey, when they use a conical cap made of straw; at other times they defend themselves from the fun or the rain by fans or umbrellas. In their fafh they faften the fabre, fan, and tobacco-pipe; the fabre always on the left fide, and (contrary to our European custom) with the fharp edge uppermoft. Those who are in public employments wear two, the one confiderably longer than the other. Their houfes are built with upright pofts, croffed and wattled with bamboo, plaiftered both without and within, and white washed. They generally have two ftories; but the uppermost is low, and feldom inhabited. The roofs are covered with pantiles, large and heavy, but neatly made. The floors are elevated two feet from the ground, and covered with planks. On thefe are laid mats which are double, and filled with ftraw three or four inches thick. The whole houfe confifts of one large room; but may be divided at pleasure into feveral fmaller, by partitions made with frames of wood, filled up with painted paper, that fix into grooves made for that purpose in the floor and cieling. The windows are alfo frames of wood, divided into fquares, filled up with very thin white paper, tranfparent enough to answer tolerably well the purpose of glass. They have no furniture in their rooms; neither tables, chairs, ftools, benches, cupboards, or even beds. Their custom is to fit down on their heels upon the mats, which are always foft and clean. Their victuals are ferved up to them on a low board, raised but a few inches from the floor, and one difh only at a time. Mirrors they have, but never fix them up in their houses as ornamental furniture; they are made of a compound metal, and ufed only at their toilets. Notwithstanding the feverity of their winters, which oblige them to warm their houses from November to March, they have neither fire-places nor ftoves; inftead of thefe they use large copper pots ftanding upon legs; thefe are lined on the infide with loam, on which afhes are laid to fome depth, and charcoal lighted upon them, which feems to be prepared in fome manner which renders the fumes of it not at all dangerous. The Portuguese, in all probability, firft introduced the ufe of tobacco into Japan: however, be that as it may, they ufe it now with great frugality, though both F 3 fexes, |