886. Robert Southey to John Rickman, 20 January 1804 ⁠* 

Friday. Jan^y 20. 1804.

It is curious enough that I should form a juster opinion of the Polynesians than Capt Burney who has been among them [1]  – but so it is – the Friendly Islanders are no friends of mine & if he will look at the Missionary Transactions [2]  they will lose his good word, for he will see that at Tongataboo [3]  they are not only cannibals but have an ugly trick of cutting up people alive to eat them. I well remember his mention of the sacred language & of the words which he took down from Omai’s mouth. [4]  he should by all means show them to Wilkins [5]  – whom I take to be a man of more true worth than Sir W Jones. [6]  it is also the case in the Friendly Islands as Sir Harry Englefield [7]  told me on Vancouvers [8]  authority, for Vancouver designed a second work upon the manners &c of their people. [9]  – I have met Haslam. [10]  he is too material a moralist & metaphysician like all surgeons for that practise does harden the heart & deaden the feelings. but he has a strong head. he told me that most Bedlamites were Methodists, & made mad by Methodism, a fact on which I have laid some stress in an article for the next Annual – the best by far that I have ever written – upon the History of Methodism. [11] 

Last week I was two days at Sir Wilfred Lawsons, [12]  & there laying hold of Astleys Collection of Voyages [13]  detected Alcaforado & found all my suspicions confirmed. [14]  Green (the compiler) [15]  suspected the authenticity, but was not enough versed in Portugueze literature to ascertain it – but luckily the original is in your keeping, & I will beg you to send it in the parcel. It is one of the small quartos, in parchment & in bad condition, lettered in the venerable way of the country at length – its title Epanaphoras Tragicas by Dom Francisco Manoel. [16]  It will turn out to be neither more nor less than a novel. [17]  I must have blundered in describing Camoens, well remembering that I brought it from Bedfords keeping to your house, when last in town. five volumes the common duodecimo size. light spotted binding, lettered but not gilt on the back. [18]  If you can find this I will still trouble you to send it with Mickles translation [19]  by coach, for as Lord Strangford (who has got an appointment which I should have liked) [20]  has been like Mickle, passing off his own verses for Camoens’s, [21]  it will give me a fair opportunity of lengthening my account with Longman on the Creditor side by giving each his due. If you cannot find this edition, there is one in three small volumes, [22]  in marble paper covers, (Dutch marble) but in that case it will be useless to send Mickle, as the critical Portugueze preface is not contained there, which will abridge all labour of hunting for interpolations thro a long poem – I have some remorse of conscience at troubling you.

Arthur Aikin writes me that 1200 of the Annual Review have sold, of 2000 which were printed, & that the demand continues unabated. he is in high spirits at its success, & wishes me to come near London – looking upon me I suppose as one of his staff officers – as in fact William Taylor & I constitute his main strength. it is clear enough that if, like him, I regarded pen-&-ink-manship solely as a trade I might soon give in an income of double the <present> amount, but I am looking forward to something better & will not be tempted from the pursuit in which I have so long so steadily persevered. You are right about xxxxx subscriptions [23]  – & I was right also – the bare shadow of an attempt will convince Danvers & the few others who advised & prest the mode, that it must be according to my constant opinion, ineffectual. I shall therefore content myself with sharing Longmans profit letting him incur all risque.

This vile reviewing still bird limes me. I do it slower than any thing else yawning over tiresome work, & parcel comes down after parcel, so that I have already twice whoopd – before I was out of the wood. yesterday Malthus received – I trust in Gods mercy – a mortal wound from my hand. [24]  today I am at the Asiatic Researches. [25]  Godwins Life of Chaucer is on the road to me. [26]  – by the by the Philosopher came in for a hard rap over xx the knuckles with M^r Malthus. These things keep me from better employment, but they whet the desire for it, & I shall return to my Portugueze society with doubled zest. [27] 

In the dark ages medicine was in the hand of the Jews. why was this? am I right in supposing it was because they travelled & brought with them the wisdom & experience – as well as folly – of the East? Xtians could not travel safely. but Hebrew like Arabic was a passport, for synagogue & mosque were everywhere. A decree of the Lateran Council [28]  that the sacrament should be first presented to the sick seems levelled against Jew physicians. another which forbade all unchristian remedies I interpret not against fornication, but against such remedies as human blood &c., a list of which will elucidate not the history of medical science, but the growth of superstition & the inevitable effects of ignorance.

Of what could the Malabar [29]  cannon be made – of 13 taken by the Portugueze four were of metal – were the rest leather – stone – or wood?

Have you read the Institutes of Menu translated by Sir W Jones? [30]  I should be very glad to see your corollaries from that book. Hindostan – indeed the whole of civilized Asia puzzles me, & provokes me that we should have so few documents to reason from. As far as their history can be unravelled from fable, nothing is discoverable but the war of sects, not of religions, & how so ridiculous a religion should have been so blended with astronomy, how allegory should put on so cursedly ugly a mask is a puzzle.

Coleridge is on his way to London, if indeed he be not there. Of Edward no news since my introductory letter. he is I suppose with his precious Aunt – & as I cannot check the chariot wheels of destiny, all I can do is to keep out of their way. Poor Tom is on his way to the West-Indies [31]  – damn the West-Indies. I have set him to make queries about the interior of Africa from the negroes – & to bring me home live land-crabs that I may have a breed of beauties here – & a live alligator for Carlisle remember me to him – to Lamb & Mary Lamb. I am well – but have an ominous dimness of sight at times which makes me think of Tobin. [32]  that would indeed be a sore visitation! but I will feed while the summer lasts – that my paws may be fat enough to last licking thro the dark winter – if it must come.

Vale!

RS.