is understood to have navigated the river | better versed in its commercial value. The in his schooner built at Sandsanding. Mr. expedition, on the whole, may be regarded Jamieson therefore urged the prospect of as proving the possibility of remunerative passing the rapids by a steamer of greater power, and navigating the Niger to its source. A number of subscribers consequently came forward to assist in defraying the expenses of the expedition, which we are now, in conclusion, about to describe.

commercial intercourse, under a tolerably good bill of health, with Central Africa by the Niger-a river free and open, as high as Rabbah, 500 miles from the coast, with no duties leviable, and no obstructions interposed in passing from one territory to another, whilst chiefs and people are friendly, and desirous of intercourse.

On the first of June last, Mr. Jamieson submitted to the subscribers Dr. King's Narrative of the ascent of the Niger in It was in consequence of the dissensions 1845, and of the expedition up the Gaboon that delayed the Ethiope for six months river in 1846. It is a private document; inactive, that Captain Becroft, nominating but to the courtesy of a friend in Parlia- a commission to act for him in his absence ment, who has signalized himself in the as governor of Fernando Po, assumed the promotion of African discovery and the command of the steamer, in which there amelioration of the condition of the Negro were only three Europeans, besides himself race, we are indebted for the privilege of and Dr. King. The expedition left Feravailing ourselves fully of its contents. nando Po on the 21st July, 1845. Having By a conjunction of disasters, such as, Mr. steamed up the Delta for a hundred miles, Jamieson declares, never perhaps overtook they hauled alongside of the bank, for the a commercial enterprise, this latest mission purpose of wooding, and were voluntarily to Africa may be said to have been nipped aided in that operation by the people bein the bud. The little Ethiope, disabled longing to the headmen of two small towns by a storm encountered in the Channel, below, on their seeing that the steamer's was first of all precluded, till too late, men did not injure their plantains and bafrom making a hasty preliminary ascent of nanas. From the headmen, they heard of the river in 1844; and, secondly, although the death of King Obie, of Eboe, and the just then the season for exploring the Con-joint succession of his two sons, Tchoogo, the Ethiope was prevented from accom- Comoe and Adjéh. They compensated the plishing even that by a misunderstanding headmen for their help in wooding, and for amongst the crew, in consequence of which their yams and fowls, by a small present. she was laid up for six months idle at Fer- The following afternoon brought them to nando Po. An ascent of the Niger was Eboe. A canoe, with separate messengers effected by the Ethiope in 1845. But the from the royal brothers, came off in the fresh stores and supplies shipped for an as- evening, cautiously and timorously, alcent of the Congo, per the Bayfield of though in one of the messengers they reLiverpool, were lost, in consequence of the cognised an old friend, Ali Harréh, their destruction of that vessel at sea by light-interpreter in 1840. It seemed that, in ning, on her passage to Africa. And again consequence of the murder of Mr. Carr, of the ascent of the Congo was prevented. To the government model farm, in attempting employ the lost time, the Gaboon river was to ascend to its site at the confluence of explored, in the course of which the last Chaddah, in an open canoe, the natives and crowning calamity of the enterprise, were apprehensive that the steamer had as Mr. Jamieson terms it, was perceived, come on that " on that "man-war-palaver." The namely, the giving way of the Ethiope's Eboes having had no share in this melanboilers. Considerable expense necessarily choly business, were easily reassured. The attended this undertaking; as much, Mr. voyagers were then informed that Obie had Jamieson computes, was expended as ought been twelve months dead. Disliked by all to have covered all the three ascents for his grasping tyranny, whilst envied for originally contemplated-two of the Niger his multifarious riches by his very sons, he and one of the Congo. Produce of a re- had been poisoned by one of his females, spectable amount was obtained, however, with the connivance of his whole family. in the ascent of the Niger, although in a He had been buried according to the supermeasure unlooked for by the natives. A stition of the country, along with a portion very considerable additional quantity of of his wealth, in the house he had inhabited. ivory might even, it seems, have been pur- Everything else had been seized by Tehoochased, had Dr. King, the supercargo, been Comoe and Adjéh, sons by different mo

At Iddah, the statement of the death of Ali, the king of Eggarah, three years previously, was confirmed. This had also been a case of domestic poisoning. The usurper and murderer, Ma'm-Asidjéh, a cousin From a blind Arab (morally and physiof the late king, was absent two days' cally a most equivocal authority), a Houssah journey N. E. from Iddah, making war trader, and from other persons at Eggah, against Ali's son. Iddah and the Eggarah | the history of the Fellatah war was ascer

of the trunks of trees, but built of roughly prepared planks, and some of them capable of containing 250 or 300 men. Massabah, Osman's younger and rebellious brother, dwelt at Laddeh. He could not comprehend the wish of our voyagers to visit Rabbah, a place which, he justly observed, had been utterly destroyed. They alleged in reply, the orders of their merchants. Massabah behaved in every respect with great moderation and intelligence. He sent them first his Sulliken Yakeh (king of war) with a considerable suite, bringing presents, comprising a cow, some goats, sheep, turkeys, ducks, pigeons, guinea-fowl, corn, rice, butter, milk, honey, goorah nuts, &c., and bearing a message to the effect, that if they really intended going to Rabbah, in its prostrate condition, pilots would be provided them. They were, in that case, invited to visit Laddeh on their return. The Sulliken Yakeh, a Nyffeh by birth, was a courteous, dignified, pleasing, and agreeable person. The machinery in the steamer's engine-room interested him, however, less than the construction of the ninepound carronade pivot gun on deck. The latter suited his comprehension, to which the engine was a chaos.

tained. Thirty years since Mallam Den- | daily market, and about a thousand inhabitdoe, brother of Sultan Belloe of Sockatoo, ants. The Si Wah canoes are the largest located himself with a body of Fellatahs in seen on the Niger, not being hollowed out Yarribah, paying however annual tribute to the king for liberty to graze large herds of cattle. A war arose from an attempt of the Yarribah king to prevent their removing their flocks into the Nyfféh country to escape his oppressive exactions. The Yarribah king was worsted, as he deserved to be; and Mallam Dendoe and his people thenceforth peaceably pastured part of the Nyfféh country, bordering on Yarribah, until the death of the king of Nyfféh raised up competitors for the succession in the person of his sons Ma'm-Adjéh and Issah. Mallam Dendoe and his Fellatahs could not remain idle spectators of the conflict. They assisted Ma'm-Adjéh, who, by their aid, drove his brother into the extreme east of the kingdom. Becoming oppressive, however, to the Fellatahs, in his turn Ma'mAdjéh was expelled by the African Rob Roy, Mallam Dendoe, from his capital of Rabbah, routed subsequently in battle, and finally compelled to sue for peace on condition of acknowledging Mallam Dendoe sovereign of Nyfféh. Mallam Dendoe then brought Issah, the other brother, to the same terms, and took up his own abode in Rabbah, where he died in 1833. Osman, his son and successor, failed to retain the ascendency of his father over the Nyfféhs. The pilots assigned by Massabah knew A son of Ma'm-Adjéh had become popular the river perfectly, and carried the Ethiope amongst them. A younger brother of Os- safely to Rabbah, or rather to its ruins. man's had even united with this young They never once got into shoal water. The Nyfféh chief; and most important of all, voyagers saw amidst the ruins of Rabbah the allies had obtained the aid of the Bor- heaps of charred bones in every direction gous, a people who, like the Fellatahs, em--in some houses skeletons nearly complete ployed cavalry in warfare. Both parties an unpleasant and melancholy spectacle. were therefore about equally matched. Much fighting and bloodshed had ensued. Osman falling back upon Rabbah, issued forth from it whilst in a state of siege, leaving it, like a second Moscow, wrapped in flames. The combined forces followed him into the interior, where he awaited reinforcements from the Fellatah capital of Sockatoo. Meanwhile the Borgous, it was whispered, were getting tired of the "pala

The Ethiope commenced her return on 22d of September. She stopped at Si Wah with a view to the visit to Laddeh. This is a walled town. Entering by the gate, a wide and open street leads to a large irregular square, of which one side is entirely occupied by the residence of Massabah. The other sides contain the residences of the Sullikens Yakeh and Dorkeh (masters of war and of the horse). Markets are held in the open space. At one corner stands a mosque. After an hour's conversation with Massabah, who was found seated on a mat in a large room, he begged permission to leave his visitors to go to prayers, as it was near noon. The visitors were, however, conducted to the residence of the Sulliken Yakeh, where mats and skins were laid for them in a cool

chamber, with a supply of honey, milk, and goorah nuts for their refreshment. But the Sulliken likewise went to prayers, whilst his visitors saucily enough despising "such Juxuries," preferred walking out to see the town. For this purpose a guide was immediately provided. Near the slave mart were seen several Arabs indolently reclining, and listlessly smoking, upon mats spread beneath the shade of a tree. They stated that they had come from Tripoli, having left it four months prior; and they were about to return, by joining a caravan at Kanoe. This round they represented themselves as going yearly, and effecting in ten months.

Massabah was reclining, after his return from the mosque, in an open verandah. He put some shrewd questions respecting our country, its government, and tranquillity-blamed his brother Osman for the unsettled state of his own-made inquiry for guns and powder-and showed some firearms of which he was possessed of French manufacture, procured for him by Arab traders from Lurreh, a city represented to be considerably larger than Rabbah in its palmy days, and understood to be the capital of Yarribah. Massabah finally begged there might be sent him a large tent umbrella in lieu of one received from Lander and Oldfield, of which his brother Osman had deprived him. He took his leave of the voyagers only after accompanying them part of the way on horseback.

Thus ended an exploring expedition, ranking sixth in the series subsequent to that of the brothers Lander in 1830-the first being that of Laird and Oldfield in 1832; the second that of the Ethiope in 1840; the third that of H. M. steamers, Albert, Wilberforce, and Soudan (the vessels of the disastrous Government Niger expedition) in 1841; the fourth that of the Ethiope in the same year, to relieve the Albert in distress; the fifth that of the Wilberforce in 1842, to remove the remains of the Government Model Farm; and that just recapitulated being, finally, the sixth.

It remains only to mention the result of the ascent of the river Gaboon, which, situated only a short distance from Fernando Po, had long enjoyed commercial intercourse with England; although up to the period of this exploration, only known for a few miles from its entrance. It is worthy of remark, that the French have very recently established a settlement at the entrance to this river. French policy appears to point to the project of making Africa its own. Their ambition may, it is true, be concentrated on the acquisition of Egypt and Syria; but in connexion with the mode in which they and Abdel Kader together have blocked up the access to Africa from the Mediterranean shore, the jealousy with which their unjust and petty lodgment at the gates of the Gaboon is maintained, seems to be significant. The appearance of the English steamer in the Gaboon waters threw the French command

The population of Laddeh is estimated at 20,000. The houses, like all those of Central Africa, are round, built of brick, of one story, with conical thatched roofs, ander into consternation. He instantly conopenings in the walls, serving the double purpose of doors and windows, and even chimneys, of which the buildings are desti

tute.

sulted with the Baron Darricau, commanding a French war schooner stationed on the spot. With no willing inclination, a formal acquiescence was given to the proposed ascent of the Gaboon, of which Baron Dar

The Joh-men, in the way of the Ethiope down the Niger, were inclined to be hostile.ricau spoke very lightly, yet with some The whole of Captain Becroft's consummate candor, as likely to prove of no importance, care and skill as a navigator were, more- having himself in his cutter penetrated the over, needed to guide the little steamer out greater of two branches into which it soon diof the river. The waters had come down vides itself. Civilly enough the Baron gave in such a manner that spots on the face of some particulars and soundings. He stated the Delta, which, at the period of the ascent, that a lettered board would be found at the had seemed to be lakes with islands and highest point to which he had reached; and large dry sand banks, were now become un- this proved to be the case. The Baron broken sheets of water. The increased Darricau, however, ere long changed his current of four miles an hour, and the tactics. Some visits paid to the chiefs near steamer's speed of six more, rendered an the entrance of the Gaboon excited the unusual degree of nerve and judgment ne- French suspicion; and an assurance that cessary in steering her on her swift and he had no intention to purchase terriuncertain course. The Ethiope, however, tory on the river was exacted from Captain was brought to the coast without accident. Becroft. The French erected their fort,

D'Amaull, three or four years ago, at the Baron Darricau, felt himself obliged "to mouth of the Gaboon, on the pretext of protest against any treaty with the Gaboon making it a mere depot for the stores of chiefs without the approbation of the their cruisers, and for the protection of French government;" adding, "that every their trade on the river. Over the heads treaty having for its object an establishment of the defenceless people they have now, of what nature soever is null by virtue of prehowever, assumed the sovereignty of the viously existing treaties made with France." country, forbidding any other flag to be The Ethiope made no treaties with the chiefs; shown than the flag of France. All ves- but simply ascended the Gaboon, considersels entering the Gaboon are compelled to ably above the point reached by the Baron report themselves at Fort D'Amaull; and Darricau, whose board, in charge of a nato deposit their registers and papers with tive, was exhibited for a consideration. The the commandant till their departure from French will here re-enact the mysteries of the river. With this regulation the Ethi- Tahiti, unless firmly and promptly met in ope had to comply. But so deeply rooted competition by the long established commust have been the alarm of the French merce of Britain on the Gaboon from Ferrespecting the motives of the English mis- nando Po. They have no right to close up sion, that the day after the Ethiope's re- the commerce of this African river. turn to Fort D'Amaull, Monsieur, the

From the Edinburgh Review.

THE PAPAL STATES-PIUS IX.

1 Degli ultimi Casi di Romagna: di Massimo d'Azeglio. Lugano: 1846.

2. The present Movement in Italy. By the Marquis MASSIMO D'AZEGLIO. London:

1847.

THERE is once more a chance for Italy; and that the "right divine to govern wrong" it comes from an unexpected quarter-from would be ever voluntarily resigned by the Rome itself. On crossing from the Roman possessor of it? Certainly not the Italian territory into Tuscany, every tourist, struck people: nor the historians of the successors by the contrast, has long exclaimed-" See of St. Peter-from Hildebrand to Gregory the abominable misgovernment of the Pa- the Sixteenth. Truly Pius IX. has taken trimony of the Church." Political philoso-kings, and Christendom, and Austria, by phers have long quoted its condition as surprise. proof positive and irresistible, of the effects It is no slight evil to an English diocese, of putting temporal power into spiritual when its Bishop is more bent on aggrandizhands; and as being the crowning example ing a family than on looking after his clergy of Clarendon's celebrated maxim-that the and his poor-on saving money than on savclergy took worse measures of affairs than ing souls. What a terrible thought, thereany other class that could read and write. | fore, that nepotism (both word and thing) Italian patriots have long mourned over the should have come out of the treasures of the unfortunate geographical position of the Vatican, to corrupt the world by fatal exPapal States, stretching from sea to sea, amples of a perpetual breach of trust-in and thus offering an insurmountable barrier what ought to have been the purest of all to any prospect of a sound Italian nation-earthly places! and that the worst governality. The doctrine of the Holy Alliance (and latterly of the Monarch of the Barricades), that political reforms must come from above, and that whenever it was otherwise, foreign sovereigns should interfere, for the protection of their order-appeared to shut the gates of hope on Italy. For, under these circumstances (as in our protected states in India), who could have anticipated

ed state in Europe should have been that, which was under the immediate authority of the Holy See! Yet there is another thought almost as painful. Contrary to all reasonable expectation, and beyond our most sanguine hopes, Providence has at length raised up a reforming Pope; for the removal of such fearful contradictions, and for the deliverance of these unhappy pro