On again reaching the Silver Palace, the coffin was not taken in, but was raised upon the wooden platform over the pavilion, over which the splendid pall or canopy of gold was drawn, which concealed it entirely from view. In this pavilion, under the platform, (which was raised about seven feet,) upon mats placed upon the ground, the royal females seated or threw themselves, in seeming agonies of woe, which continued through the day; and at sunset, when the entombment was taking place, their lamentations were distressing in the extreme. All the day, great multitudes had been employed in preparing the tomb, which was in the court, and not far from the pavilion. This tomb, at which tens of thousands had been incessantly working ever since the announcement of the king's death, either in fetching earth, or granite stones, or timber, or else in cutting or fitting the stones, timber, &c. -consisted of a huge mound of a square figure, built up of clods and earth, surrounded or faced with masses of granite, brought, and cut, and built up by the people. The height of this mound was upwards of twenty feet; about sixty feet square at the base, gradually decreasing as it rose, until at the top it was about twenty feet square. The actual tomb, or place to receive the coffin and the treasures destined to accompany the corpse, was a square well or recess, in the upper part of this mound or pyramid, about ten feet cube, built of granite, and afterwards being lined, floored, and ceiled with their most valuable timbers. At the foot of this mound had been standing most of the day, the large and massy silver coffin, destined to receive the royal corpse. This coffin was about eight feet long, three feet and a half deep, and the same in width: it was formed of silver plates, strongly rivetted together with nails of the same metal, all made from Spanish dollars: twelve thousand dollars were employed in its construction. About six in the evening, this coffin was, by the multitude, heaved up one of the steep sides of the mound to the top, and placed in the tomb or chamber. Immense quantities of treasures of various kinds were deposited in or about the coffin, belonging to his late Majesty, consisting especially of such things as during his life he most prized. Ten thousand hard dollars were laid in the silver coffin, for him to lie upon; and either inside, or chiefly outside of the coffin were placed or cast all his rich habiliments, especially military: there were eighty suits of very costly British uniforms, hats, and feathers; a golden helmet, gorgets, epaulettes, sashes, gold spurs, very valuable swords, daggers, spears, (two of gold,) beautiful pistols, muskets, fowling-pieces, watches, rings, brooches, and trinkets; his whole superb side-board of silver plate, and large and splendid solid gold cup, with many others presented to him by the King of England; great quantities of costly silks, satins, fine cloths, very valuable silk lambas of Madagascar, &c. &c. We were fatigued and pained by the sight of such quantities of precious things consigned to a tomb. As ten of his fine favourite bulls had been slaughtered yesterday, so six of his finest horses were speared to day, and lay in the court-yard near the tomb; and to-morrow six more are to be killed. When to all these extravagant expenses are added the 20,000 oxen, worth here five Spanish dollars each, (which have been given to the people, and used by them for food with just alarm. No one was allowed to leave the city; and to Mr. Bennet's urgent applications to be allowed to return, the answer was: «« Thus saith Ranavalona Manjaka; you did well to ask me when you might leave this country;-I am mistress of the day when you may leave Tananarivo, and when the day is come, I will inform you of it." The Rannee was as good as her word. As soon as she could spare a sufficient number of troops to guard our countryman to the coast, in whose safety she considered her honour as implicated, Mr. Bennet received the information that he might depart. This was on the morning after the funeral of Radama; a ceremony exceeding in barbaric magnificence any thing in the annals of modern history, and which carries the imagination back to the days of Alyattes and Porsenna. Mr. B. was fortunate, we think, in being detained long enough to witness it, and still more fortunate in getting away so soon. We must make room for the description of this pompousado in earthing ' up a carcase'. The favourite palace of Radama, in which he died, and where the body then lay, is a square building, of two floors, with two handsome verandahs running round it. It is called the Silver Palace, on account of its being ornamented, from the ground to the roof, by a profusion of large, flat-headed silver nails, and plates of the same metal. The roof of this palace, (as indeed of all the principal houses,) a very high pitched roof, is so high that from the top of the wall to the ridge, is as great a distance as from the foundation to the top of the wall supporting the roof. We found it covered from the roof to the ground with hangings of rich satins, velvets, silks, their native costly silk lambas, &c.; and all the vast roof was covered with the finest English scarlet broad cloth. In front of this palace had been erected a most splendid pavilion, surrounded by highly decorated pillars, which were wrapped round with various coloured silks, satins, &c. The pavilion was ten feet square, raised on pillars, also richly ornamented. A platform of wood was thrown over upon the pillars; and above this platform hung, supported by one transverse pole, an immense canopy, or pall, of the richest gold brocade, with stripes of blue satin and scarlet cloth; the whole bordered with a broad gold lace, and finished with a deep gold fringe. All the arrangements were in good taste, and formed together a most brilliant spectacle.' From this palace, the corpse, previously to its entombment, was conveyed to the more sacred White Palace,' there to be stripped of its old garments, and clothed with new, and also to be placed in a huge coffin of the most valuable wood. Thence it was carried back in solemn procession. All the paths were covered with blue or white native cloth. 'On again reaching the Silver Palace, the coffin was not taken in, but was raised upon the wooden platform over the pavilion, over which the splendid pall or canopy of gold was drawn, which concealed it entirely from view. In this pavilion, under the platform, (which was raised about seven feet,) upon mats placed upon the ground, the royal females seated or threw themselves, in seeming agonies of woe, which continued through the day; and at sunset, when the entombment was taking place, their lamentations were distressing in the extreme. All the day, great multitudes had been employed in preparing the tomb, which was in the court, and not far from the pavilion. This tomb, at which tens of thousands had been incessantly working ever since the announcement of the king's death, either in fetching earth, or granite stones, or timber, or else in cutting or fitting the stones, timber, &c. -consisted of a huge mound of a square figure, built up of clods and earth, surrounded or faced with masses of granite, brought, and cut, and built up by the people. The height of this mound was upwards of twenty feet; about sixty feet square at the base, gradually decreasing as it rose, until at the top it was about twenty feet square. The actual tomb, or place to receive the coffin and the treasures destined to accompany the corpse, was a square well or recess, in the upper part of this mound or pyramid, about ten feet cube, built of granite, and afterwards being lined, floored, and ceiled with their most valuable timbers. At the foot of this mound had been standing most of the day, the large and massy silver coffin, destined to receive the royal corpse. This coffin was about eight feet long, three feet and a half deep, and the same in width: it was formed of silver plates, strongly rivetted together with nails of the same metal, all made from Spanish dollars : twelve thousand dollars were employed in its construction. About six in the evening, this coffin was, by the multitude, heaved up one of the steep sides of the mound to the top, and placed in the tomb or chamber. Immense quantities of treasures of various kinds were deposited in or about the coffin, belonging to his late Majesty, consisting especially of such things as during his life he most prized. Ten thousand hard dollars were laid in the silver coffin, for him to lie upon; and either inside, or chiefly outside of the coffin were placed or cast all his rich habiliments, especially military: there were eighty suits of very costly British uniforms, hats, and feathers; a golden helmet, gorgets, epaulettes, sashes, gold spurs, very valuable swords, daggers, spears, (two of gold,) beautiful pistols, muskets, fowling-pieces, watches, rings, brooches, and trinkets; his whole superb side-board of silver plate, and large and splendid solid gold cup, with many others presented to him by the King of England; great quantities of costly silks, satins, fine cloths, very valuable silk lambas of Madagascar, &c. &c. We were fatigued and pained by the sight of such quantities of precious things consigned to a tomb. As ten of his fine favourite bulls had been slaughtered yesterday, so six of his finest horses were speared to day, and lay in the court-yard near the tomb; and to-morrow six more are to be killed. When to all these extravagant expenses are added the 20,000 oxen, worth here five Spanish dollars each, (which have been given to the people, and used by them for food during the preparation for, and at the funeral,) the Missionaries conjecture that the expense of the funeral cannot be less than sixty thousand pounds sterling. All agree, that though these people are singularly extravagant in the expenses they incur at their funerals, yet, there never was a royal funeral so expensive as this, for no sovereign in this country ever possessed one-fifth of his riches. The silver coffin having been placed in the tomb, the corpse in the wooden one was conveyed by weeping numbers from the top of the platform over the pavilion, to the top of the pyramid, and placed beside the chamber. Here, the wooden coffin was broken up, and the corpse exposed to those near. At this time, the royal female mourners, who had been all day uttering their moans in the pavilion, now crawled up the side of the pyramid, to take a last view of the remains. They were most of them obliged to be forced away; their lamentations were now very loud, and truly distressing to hear. The expressions used by them in lamentation, were some of them translated for us: the following was chiefly the substance: :-" Why did you go away and leave me here? Oh! come again, and fetch me to you!" The body was transferred from the coffin of wood to that of silver. Those who were engaged in the service seemed to suffer from the putrid effluvia, though many were constantly employed in sprinkling eau de Cologne. When the transfer had taken place, the wooden coffin was thrown piecemeal into the tomb. During the whole of this day, while the chamber in the tomb was being prepared, the king's two bands of music, with drums and fifes, &c. were in the court, and played almost unceasingly, relieving each other by turns. The tunes were such as Radama most delighted inmany of the peculiar and favourite airs of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with waltzes, marches, &c. During intervals, cannon and musketry were fired outside of the courts of the palace, and answered by musketry from the numerous soldiers inside of the courts. On the whole, while this funeral of Radama was the most extravagant, it was the most splendid and orderly thing that could be conceived, amongst such an uncivilized people.' Vol. II. pp. 555-560. It has been a dispute among the learned, whether the remarkable tumulus at Mycene was intended for a sepulchre or a treasury; and the same doubt has been raised as to the design of the pyramids. The above account may serve to shew that, if not originally intended to answer the purpose of treasuries, royal sepulchres have often been the actual depositories of immense treasure; so that the Arabs and other plunderers have not been guilty of violating the sanctuaries of the mighty dead, for nothing. But, as those who hide can find, it be that the treasure thus ostentatiously deposited, has not ys been meant to remain untouched in case of exigency. erated ground is, in some countries, a safer place than a s, and dead men are the trustiest bankers. may Bennet returned from Madagascar to the Mauritius, ha embarked for the Cape. After spending four months in South Africa, visiting most of the Missionary stations in that region, he once more embarked on the 26th of March, 1829, for England, and reached this country on the 5th of June, after an absence of eight years and one month. That one of the two deputies should have returned, is, perhaps, more than could have been very sanguinely calculated upon. Little remains for us to add with respect to these volumes, except to congratulate the Society under whose auspices they appear, upon their having fallen into the hands of so competent an Editor. Mr. Montgomery has taken all possible pains to conceal his own labour from observation; but every now and then, his pen betrays itself by finishing touches too characteristic to be mistaken. In fact, his materials were so extensive, minute, and miscellaneous, consisting chiefly of rough memoranda, that he was compelled to recompose the whole: by this means he has transformed a traveller's log-book into a delightful and fascinating narrative, and produced two of the most entertaining volumes, apart from their higher interest as a Missionary journal, that have ever come under our critical notice. The work should have been brought out, in the first instance, in quarto, to range with the first editions of similar publications; and an 8vo edition might then have been afforded on cheaper terms. We regret that the sale of these volumes will necessarily be restricted in some degree by their price, which is enhanced by the embellishments. These, however, add materially to the interest of the work they consist of portraits of Mr. Tyerman and Mr. Bennet; eleven views of Polynesian scenery from original drawings; and one of a scene on the Ganges, for which we could wish that a less familiar subject had been substituted. The volumes are dedicated, by permission, to the King, on the part of the Directors of the Society. Art. III. 1. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Esq. Printed from the Edition in Twelve Volumes. With an Introductory Memoir of the Author. By William Youngman. Super-royal 8vo. pp. xxx. 1304, double col. Price 17. 4s. London, 1830. 2. The Works of William Robertson, D.D. F.R.S. &c. To which is prefixed, an Account of his Life and Writings, by Dugald Stewart, F.R.S. Edinburgh. With a portrait after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Super-royal 8vo. pp. lviii. 1184, 30, double col. Price 1. 4s. London, 1831. THESE two prodigious volumes claim notice as typographi cal performances, which reflect no small credit upon the stereotype press of Messrs. Childs of Bungay. We cannot apply to them the phrase multum in parvo, but we have here cer VOL. VI.-N.S. A A |