nently successful in their great work; but when they touched upon tenderer points, and urged the necessity of a limitation to one wife, they encountered a stubborn resistance. It seems too, that these pious fathers themselves, ready as they were to credit, or at least to invent, the most palpable absurdities, were somewhat at a loss to account for the eagerness with which the natives presented themselves for baptism; at length, however, they discovered that their converts were attracted by the salt which, according to the Romish ritual, is placed upon the mouth of the person baptied. In these parts, salt is, from its scarcity, considered as a great Inxury.

The most extraordinary personage to whom these fathers introduce us, is Zingha, a female of very singular energy, who, by intrigue and enterprise, became successively the ruler of Matamba, and the chief of the Giagas, a ferocious race that 'seem to have organized into a species of religious system, every atrocity of which human nature can be conceived capable'. Zingha was a leader worthy of this detestable crew; she was an egregious witch, and of unbounded sensuality and cruelty; still, on the whole, with some desperate lapses, she made, in the estimation of the missionaries, a very tolerable Christian. The fathers employed various instruments of conversion; but among them all, the whip was found the most effectual. In one instance a queen was scourged into the profession of Christianity, and in another, a blacksmith, who claimed and received the honours of divinity, was cudgelled into orthodox mortality. It will be readily believed, that a faith and worship thus propagated and enforced, was not likely to commend itself to the understanding, nor to take a very tenacious hold upon the conscience. The plan of conversion included neither the illumination of the intellect, nor the transformation of the heart; it was, in fact, little more than a modification of idolatry. There was no provision made for education, nor for the melioration of the civil and social condition of the Africans. Except in the single article of polygamy, all was subservient to the extension of sacerdotal supremacy, and the establishment of a system of superstitions scarcely less absurd and injurious than those which they superseded.

At a subsequent period, a Portuguese vessel employed in the slave trade, communicated with a large body of the Giagas employed on a predatory expedition. The Europeans first purchased the stock of slaves on hand, and afterwards ferried the banditti over a river which intervened between them and a tribe which they afterwards nearly exterminated. After repeated voyages, the Portuguese found that the Giagas were departed, and determined to follow them up the country. They soon overtook them, and were compelled, probably nothing loth' to assist them with their fire arms.

Their task completed, they obtained leave to depart, leaving as a hostage for their return, Andrew Battel, an English prisoner, respecting whose personal safety they felt, of course, very little anxiety. At the stipulated time, his life had nearly paid the forfeit of Portuguese treachery; he obtained, however, permission to return, but found himself unable to make his way to the coast; he turned back, therefore, to the camp of the Giagas, who, supposing this step to be voluntary, received him with the utmost cordiality.

He was well-treated during four months which they spent "6 con"tinually triumphing, drinking, dancing, and eating men's flesh." At length, their roamings having brought them to the neighbourhood of a Portuguese settlement, and the wizards having announced it as the Devil's pleasure that Battel should depart, he found no difficulty in effecting his safe removal.'

But the discoveries and settlements of the Portuguese, were not confined to the western coast. In 1498, de Gama braved the terrors of the Stormy Cape, and passed round the extreme southerly point of Africa; and after running along the greater portion of its eastern shores, stood across for India. Subsequent armaments were fitted out, not only for discovery, but for conquest; and after severe but successful conflicts, the Portuguese made themselves masters of various ports on this coast. An expedition of considerable strength was sent into the interior, to search for the mines of gold and silver, which, like the extremities of the rainbow, eluded their grasp at the moment they were exulting in their imaginary success. Though they always defeated the native troops in open conflict, yet they were cut off by desultory warfare, and the attempt completely failed.

The French were little concerned in African trade, until the reign of Louis XIV. Among other objects of ambition, commerce and maritime dominion held a distinguished rank; splendid establishments were formed in the East and West Indies, and Africa was looked to for a supply of slaves, and as the native country of gold. Accordingly, a Royal Company was formed, with all the privileges of exclusive trade in nine years, however it failed. A second incorporation compounded with its creditors in eight years; a third, shared the same fate; a fourth, by great exertions, kept itself afloat for fifteen years; a fifth, reverted to the old average of eight years; the last, was the grand comprehensive monopoly of the Mississippi Company, and after the explosion of that destructive scheme, the trade was thrown open. The most able and enterprising of the. directors employed on the coast by the African Company, was the Sieur Brue, who made several voyages up the Senegal, and ingratiated himself most completely with the various chiefs.

His adventures were by no means uninteresting, but they are not sufficiently important to justify us in affording space for an extended analysis. On one occasion he had the opportunity of becoming the son-in-law of an African prince, and it was with some difficulty that he succeeded in avoiding the proffered alliance. Some curious circumstances occurred during his residence on the coast. At one place, the females had taken it into their heads, that the bilge-water of the ship was a sovereign remedy for the tooth-ache, and eagerly exchanged large quantities of milk for a small portion of that stinking fluid. Among the different native commodities which the French were solicitous to obtain, monkeys held a high value; the natives, who consider these animals as nuisances, on account of their plundering habits, very naturally inferring that where one kind of vermin was acceptable, another must be equally so, brought various samples of rats to the market, and tendered them for sale. The great object of the French anxiety, was to establish a communication with Bambouk, the country whence, it was understood, all the gold brought down to the coast, was procured. After several unsuccessful efforts, M. Compagnon obtained access to this African El Dorado, and from his and later materials, an interesting account is given by Mr. Murray, of the manner in which the precious metal is procured. In the year 1749-50, the banks of the Senegal were visited by Adanson, the great naturalist, who published the result of his observations in 1757. All the travellers who had sailed up the Senegal, described its scenery in the most glowing terms, till Saugnier's fretful and gloomy temper cast its dark colouring over every object within its range. Burning sands, scanty cultivation, intolerable heat, the air and ground swarming with venomous life, animal food uneatable, water not drinkable, men and beasts equally ferocious;-such are the main objects in his tale of wretchedness. He had previously been shipwrecked on the coast of the Sahara, and ransomed from captivity. He afterwards undertook a voyage up the Senegal to Gallam; but on his return, his vessel was wrecked, and his cargo plundered.

The enterprises of the English in this direction, had been earlier and better conducted than those of the French. So early as 1588, a patent had been granted by Elizabeth, to certain rich merchants of Exeter, authorizing them to trade to the Senegal and Gambia. The chief object of solicitude was gold, which was supposed to be abundant in the interior regions accessible by those rivers. The first adventurer, Thompson, was a man of energy and resolution, but as it appears, deficient in prudence. He defied every difficulty and every disaster, and pushed up the river to Tenda, a point considerably in advance of former attempts. Here, however, he was killed, but by

whose hands is not ascertained. His successor, Capt. Richard Jobson, was a man of equal determination, combined with greater discretion; he ascended the river to the point reached by Thompson, and succeeded in establishing a trade with the natives, of whose manners and characters he gives many interesting particulars. The next narrative is of a very apocryphal description. A person, who is called Vermuyden, is stated to have acquired great wealth by trading to the Gambia, and a very particular account is given of the spot where he found gold in such quantity, as to surprise him with joy and admiration! But the whole account is delivered in so loose a form, and every thing which might tend either to verify or disprove it, is so carefully evaded, that we wholly disbelieve it. The remainder of this section is occupied with the voyages and adventures of Stibbs and Moore; together with an account of Job, an African prince, who, having been sent by his father to trade on the Gambia, had been surprised by the Mandingas, and sold to a captain on the coast, and by him taken to America. There his case became known, and excited general sympathy. He was ransomed, sent to England, and presented to the royal family.

He learned to speak and write English, and was even able to assist Sir Hans Sloane in the translation of Arabic manuscripts. His memory is said to have been very extraordinary. He wrote out three copies of the Koran, merely from recollection, and without using the first, in making out the two others. He had a peculiar turn for mechanics. Though a zealous Mahometan, he talked in a temperate and rational manner, on the subject of religion. He considered his captivity as fortunate, from its enabling him to acquire various branches of knowledge, of which he must otherwise have remained ignorant.'

He sailed from England in July, 1734, and reached Africa in August. A messenger sent up the country to announce his return, was absent four months, and at length brought back the intelligence of his father's death, very shortly after bearing the intelligence of the restoration of his son. Job, however, persisted in his intention of returning to his native land, and departed without further delay: the result is not known. The information respecting his country and its manners given by Job, is not very copiously cited. The principal fact, to which at that time little credit was attached, that the Senegal and Gambia do not unite, has since been ascertained to be perfectly correct. While Moore was superintendant of the factory at Joar, he received a visit from the king of Barsally, who, whenever he was not drunk, was generally occupied in prayer. The general routine of his life, was a mere alternation of eating, drinking brandy, and sleeping. Whenever he had ex

hausted his stock of this necessary of life, he put his troops in motion, surprised and fired some neighbouring town, and seized the wretched natives as they fled from the conflagration. The slaves thus obtained, were exchanged for spirituous liquors. Moore relates various particulars respecting the superstitions of the natives. Africa, indeed, has always been the land of spells and wizardry. The necromancer of eastern romance, is generally a Maugrabee, and the narratives of travellers are full of illustrations of the enchantments and feticherie of the African sorcerers. The trial by ordeal, in some, at least, of its forms, is practised among them; and it is related that an English captain was so delighted with this sublime invention, that having missed a gun, he obliged his crew to submit to the purgation of boiling water into a bucket of this, they accordingly plunged their hands, and to the full confirmation of the captain's suspicions, scalded themselves mi'serably.' Unluckily, while he was congratulating himself on the success of this expedient, he discovered the gun in his own possession, and his crew, very reasonably, thought themselves entitled to mutiny.

We have now given a general view of the progress, up to a certain point of discovery, along the coast of western and eastern Africa; the remaining portion of Mr. Murray's work we must advert to more summarily. Of all the nations in this part of Africa, the Daumanese or Dahomans, seem the most remarkable. Like the Lacedemonians, they display a singu'lar mixture of ferocity and politeness, of generosity and cruelty.' Their deportment towards strangers, is courteous and hospitable; they are active and strong, and their general appearance is muscular and manly. Their government is a pure despotism. I think of my king,' said a Dahoman to Mr. Norris, and then I dare engage five of the enemy myself. My head belongs to the king, not to myself: if he please to send for it, I am ready to resign it; or if it be shot through in battle, I am satisfied, if it be in his service.' The entrance to the royal apartment, is paved with human skulls, the side walls lined with jaw bones, with the appropriate decoration of a few bloody heads suspended at intervals, and on the thatched roofs of his palace, short stakes project at regular distances, crowned with skulls. With reference to these, when the king determines on war, be simply tells his officers that his house wants thatch. On the Gold Coast, the Ashantees seem to be at present the ruling power; their capital has been recently visited by several English traders, who are, as we suppose, resident there still, and a description of the royal palace, apparently rather highly coloured, has appeared in the newspapers.