upon made dishes, &c.; in the course of which he says, "The sirloin of beef I divide into three parts; I first have it nicely boned!" This is rather a suspicious way of having it at all. Mrs. Phillips's Irish stew has all the fascination of her country-women. In treating of shin of beef, the Doctor gives us a proverb which we never remember to have beard before:

Of all the fowls of the air commend me to a shin of beef, for there's marrow for the master, meat for the mistress, gristles for the servants, and bones for the dogs.

On pounded cheese, the Doctor writes "The piquance of this butterycaseous relish," &c. Is not this a little over-done? The passage, however, on the frying of eggs, makes up for all.

Be sure the frying-pan is quite clean; when the fat is hot, break two or three eggs into it; do not turn them, but, while they are frying, keep pouring some of the fat over them with a spoon-when the yolk just begins to look white, which it will in about a couple of minutes, they are done enough ;-the white must not lose its transparency, but the yolk be seen blushing

through it:-if they are done nicely, they will look as white and delicate as if they slice, drain the fat from them, trim them neatly, and send them up with the bacon round them.

had been poached, take them up with a tin

The beauty of a poached egg, is for the which should only be just sufficiently haryolk to be seen blushing through the white, dened, to form a transparent veil for the egg.

So much for the Cook's Oracle. The style is a piquant sauce to the solid food of the instructions; we never recollect reading sentences that relished so savourily. The Doctor appears back of a dripping-pan, with the point to have written his work upon the of his spit, so very cook-like does he dish his remarks. up If we were to be cast away upon a desert island, and should take care to secure the Cook's could only carry one book ashore, we Oracle; for, let victuals be ever so scarce, there are pages in that erudite book that are, as Congreve's Jeremy says, a feast for an emperor." Who could starve with such a larder of reading?

66

Voyages and Travels.

KINGDOM OF PALEMBANG AND BANCA.*

THE
HE kingdom of Palembang holds
the first rank among the native
states of Sumatra, and occupies the
portion of that island to the southward
of the equator, which is included be-
tween the latitudes of 2° and 4° 30′.
It is bounded on the N. and E. by the
straits of Banca, on the S. by the Lam-
poong country, on the W. and S. W.
by mountains which separate it from
our settlement of Bencoolen, and on
the N. W. by the territories of the Sul-
taun of Jambee. The principal river
is the Moosee, on which the town of
Palembang stands. Up to Palembang
this river exhibits no signs of popula-
tion, though navigable for vessels of the
largest burthen; it swarms with alliga-
tors, which are very daring and vora-
cious. The following particulars are
given by the author:-"The pantja
langs, or river passage-boats, which are

of various dimensions according to the rank of the owners, and which, being cut from the solid trunk of a tree, are almost on a level with the surface of the water, expose the men who paddle them very much to the attacks of these monsters of the river. Some of the pantjallangs belonging to the Sultaun and his family are no less than fortytwo feet in length and ten or twelve in the greatest breadth, requiring twentyfour men to paddle them, who are ranged on each side. The trees from which these boats are formed are cut in the forests near the mountains, whence they are brought to Palembang with considerable labour."

*

"I have seen, on two occasions, alligators raise their heads out of the water near the side of the boat, in the attempt to take one of the paddlers out of this large description of pantjallang. The

An Exposition of the Relations of the British Government with the Sultaun and State of Palembang, &c. &c. By Major M. H. Court, London, 1821.

boatmen, having plenty of room to move away, escaped their grasp; which was checked also by the height of the side of the boat from the water, though in this large pantjallang the deck at the centre, upon which the paddlers sit cross-legged, did not exceed nine or ten inches above the surface of the w er. -From the smaller description of pantjallangs no less than seventeen paddlers were carried away by alligators during the time I was at Palembang. Two gentlemen, coming up the river to visit me in one of the smaller boats, had provided themselves with a basket of provisions for their journey. On their way an alligator raised himself from the water; the paddlers shrieked and fortunately escaped, but the basket of provisions became the prey to his voracity."

Palembang stands on both banks of the Moosee, which is there about 1,200 feet in breadth. The Sultaun's palace is a magnificent brick building; the other houses are chiefly of timber, and some of them built on rafts which rise and fall with the tide.

"Not more than three or four houses have any communication one with another, excepting by boats. This does not proceed from a necessity arising out of the nature of the country, so much as from the habit and inclination of the people to have ready access to the conveniences of the river. The principal inhabitants, who have their houses generally built upon the banks of the river, have piers constructed to the distance of low-water-mark, in order that they may at all times command uninterrupted communication with their boats.

"From one extreme to the other, the town may be estimated to extend at least three miles along each bank, and to contain a population of nearly twenty-five thousand souls, including about one thousand Arabs and Chinese."

"There is a description of wild people in the interior of the Palembang dominions who refuse all intercourse, and who are called Orang-Cubu. They are considered a very harmless and inoffensive people, and with them a trade is contrived to be carried on in the following manner. Cloth, tobacco, and

other articles, of which they have need, are placed at certain spots near which they are known to live, and the owner of the goods, as a signal to them, beats a gong when he retires from the place. These people then come and take away the goods, leaving a very full equivalent in honey, wax, and other articles they collect in their wild retreats."

This island(Banca) is situated between latitudes 1° 30′ and 3° 8' south of the equator; its greatest length 135 miles, and its greatest breadth 68 miles. It runs parallel to the Sumatra coast, and the channel between them forms the straits of Banca. Many of its hills have conical summits, but there is no trace of volcanic eruption. It is curious, however, that "on the morning of the 11th of April, 1815, a constant succession of sounds was heard at Minto," the chief town, "like reports of distant cannon. Thinking it possible they might be signals of distress from a ship in the straits, the government vessels then in the roads were directed to proceed down the straits in the direction whence the reports appeared to come. Captain O'Brien, in his majes ty's frigate Doris, got under weigh at the same time.

"It is remarkable that the reports were not heard by any person on board the frigate or vessels in the road, nor at any time whilst they were at sea. A Swedish ship arrived from the southward the next day, from which no tidings could be obtained in explanation, as no person on board had heard or seen any thing extraordinary on their passage up the straits.

Expresses were received from the inspectors of every district, conveying their apprehensions of attack from pirates, each observing that heavy firing of cannon had been heard, which they supposed to be near. It struck me that one of the hills in Banca must have exploded; but the sounds were afterwards proved to have proceeded from the explosion of a hill on the island of Sumbawa, to the eastward of Java, a distance not less than seven hundred miles, and still farther from Palembang, over which country also the sounds were distinctly heard."

ORIGINAL ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON, BOYSE THE POET, &c.* (Literary Gazette.)

WHETHER we look at the vene- should in some instances be thought too

rable age of the Gentleman's Magazine; at its character and consistency; at its intrinsic value as a repertory of history, science, antiquities, biography, and literature; at its claims as the mirror of almost a century; or at perhaps its still higher claims, on account of the important influence it has had in the production of that periodical press, which now gives a tone to the age and operates so essentially in the destinies of mankind-in whichsoever of these points of view we look at this work, it certainly presents much for reflection to the public in general, and to the Editors of any similar undertaking in particular. To us, indeed, it is a subject of peculiar gratification. We have always held a very favourable opinion of this publication, and have constantly admired the steady pace with which it pursued its useful and entertaining objects, like a fine veteran, who has fought the battles of other years, and adheres to his formal regimentals, accoutrements, and discipline, uninfected with the popinjay innovations in dress, arms, and manoeuvring, which modern fashions introduce. We regard it too, as the respectable father of a long and numerous line of Letters, of great consequence to the world, and when we open its pages, taste the same sort of feeling, as if we were shaking hands with a respected old relative, from whose stores of experience and friendly chat we were sure to reap a pleasant hour's amusement.

The author of this book, in his 76th year, thus states his purpose, independent of its prefatory character. "Not to enter too deeply into the arcana of a Miscellaneous Publication, the very nature of which depends on a sort of masonic secrecy, it may not be improper to introduce a few anecdotes, and to unfold some particulars, over which concealment is no longer needful. If I

minute, let it be attributed to the proper cause, the natural garrulity of age.

"This long-established Periodical Miscellany was commenced in January, 1731, by Edward Cave, who, by the admirable Memoir of Dr. Johnson, has been consigned to deserved celebrity."

The first Number of the Gentleman's Magazine was published in January, 1731, at St. John's Gate, and one of the reasons assigned for starting it was, to form a collection or Magazine of the essays, intelligence, &c. which appeared in the "200 half sheets per month," which the London press was then calculated to throw off, besides "written accounts," and as many more half sheets printed "elsewhere in the three kingdoms." Of the plan devised by Mr. Cave, Dr. Kippis, says, "the invention of this new system of publication may be considered something of an epocha in the literary history of this country. The periodical publications before that time were almost wholly confined to political transactions, and to foreign and do mestic occurrences. But the magazines have opened a way for every kind of inquiry and information. The intelligence and discussion contained in them are very extensive and various; and they have been the means of diffusing a general habit of reading through the nation, which, in a certain degree, hath enlarged the public understanding. Many young authors, who have afterwards risen to considerable eminence in the literary world, have here made their first attempts in composition. Here, too, are preserved a multitude of curious and useful hints, observations, and facts, which otherwise might have never appeared; or, if they had appeared in a more evanescent form, would have incurred the danger of being lost. If it were not an invidious task, the history of them would be no incurious or unentertaining subject. The magazines that

The Rise and Progress of the Gentleman's Magazine, with Anecdotes of its Projec tor, and his early Associates. By John Nichols, F.S.A. &c. London, 1821.