Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/333

Rh spectator, he has given an interesting account in his "Fragments of Voyages and Travels."

The rest of Basil Hall's naval career is so well known from his numerous works, that nothing more is necessary than merely to advert to its leading points. In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in 1817 to that of post-captain. Pending the period of advance from a lieutenancy, he was acting commander of the Theban on the East India station, in 1813, when he accompanied its admiral, Sir Samuel Hood, in a journey over the greater part of the island of Java. On his return home he was appointed to the command of the Lyra, a small gun brig that, in 1816, formed part of the armament in the embassy of Lord Amherst to China. On the landing of the suite, and while his lordship was prosecuting his inland journey to Pekin, Captain Hall used the opportunity by exploring those wonders of the adjacent seas, which as yet were little, if at all, known to the "barbarians" of the "outer circle." During this cruise his visit to the Great Loo-Choo island will continue to be memorable, from the Eden-like scenery and primitive innocent race which it presented to the eyes of its astonished visitors. Even Napoleon himself was justified in doubting whether such a community existed, when he was informed by Captain Hall that they not only used no money, but possessed also no lethal weapon, not even a poniard or an arrow. The ex-emperor indeed was in the right, for subsequent accounts have shown that the Loo-Chooans must have cunningly imposed both upon Hall and Captain Maxwell, by whom the Alceste was commanded in the expedition, and that these gentle islanders used not only weapons and money, but were among the most merciless pirates in the Yellow Sea. On his return to England in 1817, Captain Hall published " A Voyage of Discovery to the Western Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island in the Japan Sea," a work so novel and interesting in its materials, as well as so attractive in style, that it rapidly secured a wide popularity. In this first edition there was an appendix containing charts and various hydrographical and scientific notices, which were omitted in the second, published in 1820. In 1827 the work appeared in a still more popular form, being the first volume of "Constable's Miscellany," while it was enriched with the highly interesting account of his interview with Napoleon at St. Helena, when the Lyra was on its return from the Chinese Sea.

In 1820 Captain Hall, in the ship Conway, under his command, proceeded to Valparaiso, being charged to that effect by the British government. It was a period of intense interest to the Spanish colonies of South America, engaged as they were in that eventful warfare with the mother country, by which their independence was secured, and in such a contest Britain could not look on as an unconcerned spectator. After having touched at Teneniffe, Rio-de-Janeiro, and the River Plate, and remained at anchor in the principal seaport of the Chilian coast, according to orders, he was next sent, in 1821, from Valparaiso towards Lima, being commanded to call by the way at the intermediate ports on the coast of Chili and Peru. The object of this cruise was to inquire into the British interests at these places; to assist and protect any of his Britannic Majesty's trading subjects; and, in a general way, to ascertain the commercial resources of the district. Having discharged these pacific but important duties to the full satisfaction of government, he returned to England early in 1823, and published the result of his observations under the title of "Extracts from a Journal written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the years 1820, 1821, and 1822." This work, which afterwards constituted the second and third