even though their manners and characters were more calculated than they are represented to be, to excite interest or call forth sympathy on the part of the reader.  The enthusiastic eulogist of Optimism will readily reconcile their condition to the principles which claim his admiration, by the obvious discovery, that their natures are in alliance with their circumstances, and by the easy belief, that hitherto no hope or idea of greater comfort had enhanced the magnitude of their present misery.  The wretch, he would say, whose taste can regale itself on putridity and corruption, need never be held up as an exception to the philosophical system, which finds nothing but beauty and happiness diffused throughout the universe; though his appearance, it must be owned, in the very act of indulgence especially, might somewhat stagger the student who was still engaged in enquiring into the grounds of the theory.  To be content, it is often preached, is to be happy; the reason is, however, what perhaps they who so strongly urge the proposition, are not quite aware of in their voluntary complacency, that, in order to be happy, one must be contented.  The dialectical skill of an Aquinas would fail to prove the theme, that happiness exists where there are desires ungratified, and appetites unprovided for; and most certainly, these poor Pecherais would never be adduced by him as evidence, till he had humanely, though sophistically, secured their testimony by bribing their stomachs.  If one may judge from the experience of Bougainville, this kind of subornation would be somewhat difficult of accomplishment.  To return.—­The night after falling in with these people, was passed on the banks of a pretty considerable river, on which the party made a fire, and erected a sort of tents with the sails of their boats, the weather being cold, though fine.  Next morning they discovered the bay and port of Beaubassin, so called by them from the beauty of the anchoring-place, and which is represented to be a commodious and safe situation.  Bougainville continued his survey to the westward, of which he has given a minute, and to navigators, it is probable, a very useful description, not, however, requisite for this work.  Having spent a little time in this excursion, and encountered a good deal of disagreeable weather, he returned to the frigate, and on the last day of December weighed and set sail, in order to pass the remainder of the straits.  On the evening of this day he doubled Cape Holland, and came to an anchor in the road of Port Gallant, which was very fortunate, as the succeeding night became tempestuous, the wind blowing hard at S.W.  In this place, however, they were forced by the state of the weather, which, it is said, was inconceivably worse than the severest winter at Paris, to remain for three weeks together, a space abundantly long to give them an intimate acquaintance with the parts in their neighbourhood.  Amongst the objects which attracted their notice here, they