The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Dr. LARDNER'S CABINET CYCLOP2EDIA. Vol. 11.
HISTORY OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. Vol. 1.
Thiok a work of no ordinary merit, one in-
deed that augurs well for the great undertaking
of which it is a part. If the " Cabinet Cyclo-
' pcedia" shall present in its several other depart-
ments the same happy union of profound know-
ledge, with skill in composition, its projectors
will have reason to congratulate themselves on
having supplied a desideratum of the first mag-
nitude in literature. Who that has looked into
the so called " Popular Compendiums," which
have of late years issued from the Press—but
must have lamented the absence of the essential
conditions of a popular compendium—scientific
accuracy and intelligibility—in other words, of
the Power of conveying solid information in
plain energetic language, and in a short space ?
Obvious as was the remedy for the defect, it is
now, for the first time, at least in this country,
steadily acted upon by the conductors of the
• " Cabinet Cyclopcedia," who have ensured them-
selves success, by engaging none but pro-
found and practised writers on their undertaking.
In the present volume, for example, is exhibited
a power of condensation of facts, without de-
priving them of their interesting features, and a
vigorous elasticity of style, which extensive re-
search, long continued reflection and skill in com-
position—the result of time and labour—alone
could impart. It might not be very difficult,
perhaps, to find one person equally familiar with
the history of maritime discovery—and another
equally well versed in the collateral attention
necessary to its elucidation—and a third possess-
ing the same concise and energetic style of ex-
pression—but we very much doubt the exist-
- enee of any writer in whom the union of these
endowments is so striking as in the author
of the present adthirable epitome of the " His-
tory of Maritime Discovery." As this volume
is one which the interesting nature of its sub-
ject, apart from any merit of execution, would
recommend to general notice—it will be hardly
necessary for us to bear out our opinion of its
merits by more than the following brief extract
concerning the origin of the Gipsies :
" It is impossible, however, to view in conjunction the
names of Sindi and Sigyrim without recalling to mind that
extraordinary people, who, under the two general denomi-
nations of Sluts and Zigani, (the former used in Lithua-
nia,.the other in Poland, and with slight variations in all
•the neighbouring countries,) constitute so numerous a
body in the eastern states of Europe. The Gipsies, in
.sliort, whose derivation from Western India is now no
longer disputed, and whose language, corrupted as it is,
'and alloyed with foreign admixture, would still be not
wholly unintelligible in some provinces of Hindostan. The
Persians also name them Sisech Hindoo, or Black Indians.
It is impossible, indeed, to connect this people, historically,
with' the ancient Indian colony of the Ma3otis. Their
own traditions (which are indeed of little value), and the
late date of their appearance in Europe, are both repugnant
to such an affiliation. but while mystery still enwraps
then problem of their origin, it is allowable to canvass
y means of its solution. It may, however, be affirmed
with confidence, that the Indian merchants who were
shipwrecked in the Baltic, and presented by the King of
the Suevi to Q. Met. Celer, the proconsul of Gaul, were
not carried round front India to the north of Europe by
he ocean, as the ancients imagined, but were voyagers
from the Maeotian colony.-
" Whether the Sinds or Indians of the Bosphorus ever
advanced southwards along the Euxine is a question int-
. Possible to determine. There were Slots and a Sintic
region in Macedonia, and Sintian men, speaking a stranga
uguage, who inhabited Lemnos in the time of Homer.
(Lint, except their addictioa to the labours of the smithy
foe Lemnos was sacred to Vulcan), there is not any
Positive indication remaining by which they can be
connected with the Sints of Lithuania. But in examin-
Ing round the shores of the Euxine those most durable
and veracious hours monuments of ancient history, the
asrem-
or of language preserved in local names, the Phasis,
arr
it is at Present called, the Push, must necessarily
est the attention. This river, famous for its connection
It_.irth Grecian fable and traditionary golden sands, flowed
tOc t!. 4.h the country of the Colchi. The word Phasis
ot%ti'ljilog a river, and the name Cokhi, are both properly
otuer rgio, and stand at no great distance from each
dexcrie,tolemy's map of India. When a.Greek poet
this .t e eolchian Phasis as mixing its waters with
other ft,iv: •it evident at once that the Hypanis or some
by the in that quarter may have been also called Phasis
Sinds of the Alieotis, so that we here again detect
.0, grand source of geographical errors, the employment
drgeateral terms. The Colchians were supposed by the
to be a colony of Egyptians. They practised
tit *
stars, 4'1(.1-Possessed arts, which, unavoidably, led a people
acquainted with the interior of Asia to arrive at that
17pLlusion. Their dark complexion, also, which is noticed
„e_. ;ruler, seemed to lend confimation to the popular be-
But thoegh the fiction of a colony planted by
74 trig on the shores of the Euxine was readily counte-
titn eed by the Egyptian priests; it is contradited by tradi-
of equivalent authority. The religion of the Col-
ar belidet, does not seem to have been Egyptian.
toperiority above the Greeks in civilisation in the
pu tttime of the Argonauts and the poetic age is evinced by the
,etation they enjoyed as magicians. In the manufac-
,onf fine linen they far surpassed the Egyptians; and
. ow that from- them the Greeks derived their names
nen cloths in commerce, Sardonians and Sinds:.
km 1110 a colony of Hindoos . (of profligate manners,
tiap perhaps, ignoble caste), was settled on the Cimme-
testa,B‘osphorus in the age of Herodotus, appears Inc n-
it it un'Y established ; when, or how, they were dispersed,
stendt,4 to easy to conjecture. That the Gipsies are de-
in% ,`! !tom them is a conclusion resting wholly on naked
the
t:ihties. But whence have these wandering outcasts
Pokik4,edition that they have come from Egypt ? Is it not
stallow that the ancient Colchians, who, there is good
sae en': to believe, were themselves from the west of India, '
specti_ed at length to the general opinion of antiquity le- ;
fn,,4',g.their Egyptian origin, and Ivben driven, perhaps,
ah,omither ancient possessions by the Iberian tribes, spread
ttrot, w, "long thei"r swarthy brethren of the North the same
to belief ?