ical dissertations." It is contrary to the theory of historic composition, and destroys the illusion of the action. The reader desires to be borne along by the current of events and to see only the actors on the scene. The manager should never appear, unless it be as prompter in a note, or as prologue in a preface. But when our author presumes farther, as in one instance, at least, he does, to say we," (Vol. I. p. 11,) he is guilty both of historical impropriety, and an unpardonable breach of good manners, since he not only introduces himself unnecessarily upon the stage, but even usurps that dignity which the sense of mankind has long since appropriated exclusively to crowned heads, editors of newspapers, and reviewers. Such are the weightiest of the trifling peccadilloes in a large work, which we can point out for the author's correcting, if he shall be pleased to adopt our judgment, in some future edition. And perhaps, after such an exhibition of copious merit on the one side, and petty faults on the other, faithfully laid open according to our ability, the reader may be ready to join us in saying, on such works we are content to rest the literary reputation of the country. We ought not, however, to dismiss this book without also recording a passing tribute of gratitude to those learned labors of Mr. Charles Folsom, printer of Harvard University, which are so apt to be unappreciated by any but scholars, and which have added so much to the value of the work, by the general accuracy of its typographical execution; - by no means easy of attainment, amidst a cloud of references, well systematized here, and copious citations in the notes, from half a dozen foreign languages; for this, as all publishers of learned works, at least, cannot fail to understand, implies a degree of nice scholarship in the printer, which we shall look for in vain, probably, among the craft, elsewhere in America. Nor should the publishers be passed by without high commendation for having brought out this work in a style of extraordinary beauty, which we doubt not will be found to bear advantageous comparison with the London edition. 1. ART. XI. - CRITICAL NOTICES. The History and Present Condition of St. Domingo. THIS work, though by a resident of New England, has, on account of its place of publication and the business connexions of the publishers, gained a much wider circulation in the Middle and Southern States, than in our own neighbourhood. Its intrinsic merit, and the profound interest attached to many of its details, have secured for it a favorable reception and a diligent perusal, wherever it has become known. We hope, by the present brief notice, to introduce it to the acquaintance of those of our readers, in whose way it may not have fallen, while we shall but echo the approving verdict of those who are not strangers to it. Dr. Brown conceived the plan of this work during a professional residence in St. Domingo in the years 1833 and 1834; and accordingly gathered all the materials for it, which local tradition and conversation with surviving eye and ear witnesses could furnish. The public archives of the nation contain few documents worthy of the name; but the most eventful scenes in the island's history are of so recent date, as yet to leave many living chroniclers, as well as numerous vouchers in existing circumstances, institutions, and prejudices. For these reasons we should distrust the historian, who had not collected testimony on the spot; and the graphic vividness, with which our author has portrayed the merits and alternating fortunes of the numerous parties in the long and bloody struggle for supremacy, shows that he has not interrogated his witnesses in vain. For earlier portions of his history, he professes to have followed with but little deviation the best authorities previously extant, carefully collating them on every point of doubt or difficulty. In his sketch of the later times and most momentous epochs of Hayti, he found himself compelled, for the most part, to mark out his own path. The work is written with singular clearness and precision. Places, dates, and minute incidents, are marked with punctilious exactness, yet not so as to give the narrative a jejune or unedifying aspect. On the other hand, the style is bold, fresh, and racy, as of a man, who conceives vividly whatever he writes, and who regards language as but the transparent vehicle of thought. There is no affectation of fine rhetoric, no dressing up of pictures either to delight or to shock the imagination; but scenes and characters are painted to the life, and then left to interpret themselves, to forge their own rhetoric and to impress their own moral. Our author writes not as a partisan. He has no political or ethical theory to build up, - no ulterior end to subserve. He separates the facts of his narrative, alike from the local conflicts, in which they originated, and from more recent and less sanguinary controversies, in which they might be eagerly adduced. He confines himself to the proper province of an impartial historian, claiming only the privilege of praising or censuring, where natural justice must needs give a spontaneous verdict. St. Domingo, discovered by Columbus during his first voyage, and the seat of the first settlement made by civilized man in the new world, has certainly a strong claim upon the curiosity of every American. Its fortunes acquire a painful interest, when we reflect that it has been from the very first the football of contending nations, yearly drenched both with native and with foreign blood, wrestled for, whole scores of years together, at an expense of treasure, which, were its soil all silver and its sands all gold, its possession could hardly replace. Its ill-starred inhabitants have always been, in life and fortune, victims to conflicts not their own. Either the torch of European war has set fire to their plantations and warehouses; or, when the fire and sword of civil discord have been let loose among themselves, the apples of strife have in every instance been cast into their midst by trans-atlantic powers. The torrents of guilt and misery that have deluged this unhappy island have all flowed from European mismanagement and profligacy; and the student of political economy may here find luculent commentaries on the colonial system in general, and on every form of unsuccessful and malignant colonial legislation and government. We have here too, for a little while, upon the canvass, a brilliant picture of colonial magnificence and luxury; for, during the most prosperous period of the French régime, the elegances of Parisian life and the splendor of Versailles might have found their most genuine reflection from the western shore of St. Domingo. We have also in this island the novel phenomenon of an independent government established and administered by a race of men, who have there first, at least for many centuries, found space and opportunity to test, on an ample scale, their own political capaci ties and tendencies. Add to these considerations the size of the island (nearly as large as all New England exclusive of Maine,) the beauty of its scenery, its vast agricultural capabilities, its commercial advantages, its vicinity to our own shores, and the extensive mercantile connexions already established in its principal ports by our own citizens; and we surely have the strongest inducements to make ourselves acquainted with its past fortunes and its present condition. The work before us has been stereotyped; and, as the first impression is in the process of rapid sale, the plates will doubtless be again put in requisition in the course of a few months. We would suggest to the author the expediency of prefixing to the next edition a full and accurate map of St. Domingo and the neighbouring islands. The lack of such a map is the only deficiency which we have detected. It is a deficiency, which few of Dr. Brown's readers may be able to supply for themselves, and which he only makes more constantly felt by the accuracy of his topographical indications and sketches. We close our notice by commending the work to the favoring suffrages of the public, and by extracting from it a curious and graphic picture of the manners and mode of life of the outlaws, who constituted the germ of the French colony of St. Domingo. "Just off the northwestern coast of St. Domingo there lies a little wooded island called Tortugas. It is low and fertile, and stretches itself across the entrance of a fine harbour on the neighbouring coast of the main island, called by the French name of Port de Paix; hid by bold headlands and overhung by bald or wood-crowned mountain peaks. That the celebrated freebooters of this century (the seventeenth) selected this convenient spot as their refuge from danger, and retreat from toil, but proves the deep forethought of this enterprising race of adventurers. The sea-rovers had now increased in numbers far beyond the supply of booty to be taken, and their profession was overdone to an extent that rendered success in its pursuit too much a problem of chance to satisfy for a long time the activity of their impatient natures; and many of them abandoned their old employments for new modes of life. "Become attached to the mild regions of the tropics, and incapacitated, by a long life of wild adventure, for the restraints of civilized society, some went to the bay of Campeachy and became cutters of logwood, while most of them remained at their old retreat, Tortugas, and employed themselves in hunting wild cattle on the coast of St. Domingo. This coast was a wilderness, and the business of hunting the wild cattle, that roamed in herds through its solitudes, became profitable from the sale of the hides and tallow to the ships visiting the West Indies for purposes of traffic. The flesh was converted into sustenance by smoking it on hurdles, or, as they were termed, boucans, a word used by the Carib Indians to express that apparatus for curing their meat. From this term, and the business they followed, these hunters were called "Buccaneers." They called themselves "Brethren of the Coast;". an appropriate term when their mode of living is considered. As they were without wives and children, it was a custom with them to live together, in couples, that the various duties of a family establishment might be performed with more completeness and order. While one was engaged in hunting, the other commonly remained at home, engaged in curing the beef of yesterday's hunt, or in cooking their meals against the return of his fellow lodger. All property was held in common between the two, and it descended, in case of death, to the surviving partner. Theft was unknown, though locks were never used for security. What one did not find at home he proceeded immediately and without ceremony to take from the cabin of his nearest neighbour, without other word than to apprize the owner of it if he was at home, or, in case he was absent, to inform him on his return. Disputes were unfrequent, and when they did occur were easily accommodated. If the cause was grave, or the parties not to be reconciled, instead of a lawyer and jury, they employed the musket to bring about a decision of the question. The ground was chosen, and the whole fraternity were made spectators of the mortal arbitrament. The word was given to fire, and if the ball took either party in the back or side, it was adjudged to be unfair dealing, and the head of the murderer was cleft in two on the spot. The laws of their native country went for nothing among the brotherhood. They pretended that they had been emancipated from all allegiance to them by the baptisin of the sea, which they had each undergone in passing the tropics. Even their family name they abandoned, and noms de guerre, chosen to suit each one's whim or fancy, were the appellations by which they were known, and which in after times descended to their posterity. "Their usual dress was a hunting shirt dipped in the blood of the animals they had slain in the chase; coarse drawers, yet more foul; for a girdle, a strip of raw hide, in which were stuck a small sword and several knives; a cap with a small portion of brim in front for convenience in removing it; and shoes without stockings. "Thus dressed and equipped, this hybrid race, the product of civilization and the wilderness, limited all their ambition to having a gun that would carry an ounce ball, and a pack of twenty-five or thirty hounds. They had no other occupation than hunting in the woods of St. Domingo, which since its abandonment by the Spaniards had become filled with immense herds of wild cattle. They proceeded immediately to skin their game when they had killed it, and then hurried forwards to bring down others, till they were possessed of the requisite number for the day. When fatigued and hungry, they proceeded to cook a portion of the meat they had stripped from the wild carcase, and, with the pepper and orange juice they found plentifully around them, made a meal to satisfy all the wants of their appetite. They had no bread, and drank nothing but water. The description of one day's mode of living is that of every day, till they were in possession of the number of hides they had contracted to deliver to the vessels of different nations which visited their settlement. They then proceeded with the trophies of their success to the harbour or inlet where the ship was waiting her homeward cargo, and received in exchange such commodities as their wants and situa |