Mr. Houtson, having decently interred his companion, rejoined Clapperton. They now proceeded across a mountainous and beautifully romantic country, which continued so for many days; and beyond this range, the surface became gradually more uniform, but still undulated with hill and dale, and in an excellent state of cultivation. Towns and villages were constantly occurring, the former generally surrounded with mud walls and ditches, and many of them containing from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants; the people everywhere civil and obliging, and the head-men receiving them with the utmost kindness and hospitality. It does not appear that any Mahomedans were residing in this part of the

country.

On the 27th of February, 1826, Clapperton writes from Katunga of his intention to proceed from thence through Youri to Soccatoo, and to request Bello to forward him on to Timbuctoo; after that, he would endeavour to visit Adamowa, and proceed from thence to Bornou, and circumambulate the shores of the great lake Tsad. The latitude of Katunga, he states to be 9° 9′ N. and longitude 6° 12′ E. The thermometer never rose higher, and that but seldom, than to 95°, and was frequently down to 75°, generally about 80° to 84°. The barometer on the mountains never lower than 28.4.

Mr. Houtson, who returned from Katunga alone and without molestation, states, that on the 7th of March Clapperton set out from that place for the Borgho country, the nearest way to Youri; that before he (Houtson) left Katunga, he had heard of his arrival at, and departure from, Yarro, a province of that kingdom; that the king had met him at some distance from Yarro at the head of five hundred horse, treated him with great kindness and distinction, furnished him with abundance of provisions, and everything necessary for his journey; he states, further, that from thence he was about to proceed to Wawa, four days distant only from Youri. Mr. Houtson adds, that Clapperton was in high health and spirits when he left Katunga.

Mr. Dickson, having met with a Portuguese gentleman of the name of De Souza, at Whydah, who had been some time resident at Abomey, with the King of Dahomy, was prevailed upon to accompany him to that place; from thence he proposed to proceed direct for Soccatoo, as being apparently the shortest route. The king received them with the greatest kindness, and promised to give Mr. Dickson every assistance and protection on his journey as far as his power extended, which was to a place called Shar, about twenty-two days' journey to the northward. Dickson left Abomey on the 31st of December, with the expectation of reaching Shar before the end of January. On the 26th of April, Mr.

James,

James, a merchant, residing on the coast, writes from Whydah, that Mr. Dickson had reached in safety the town of Shar, and that he was on his way to Youri, which is only five days' journey from Soccatoo; and he adds, that he had received authentic information of the safe arrival of Clapperton at the capital of his old friend in the Fellata country. Here ended all information respecting the travellers, and two whole years had elapsed without the least intimation respecting Clapperton, when some time in February last, his servant, with the black man Pascoe, made their appearance at Badagry, having been nine months on their journey from Soccatoo. The servant, who is an intelligent young man, brings the account of the death of Clapperton at that place on the 13th of April, 1827, after a month's illness, brought on by a severe attack of dysentery. It appears, that Bello broke faith with Clapperton in every way; he even seized the present which he had for the Sheik of Bornou, and opened the king's letter addressed to that chief. This conduct, so contrary to what Clapperton had expected, preyed on his mind, and his servant thinks hastened his death. Bello, however, it seems, had some reason for this change in his behaviour to the traveller. It may be recollected that Denham made a present of some Congreve rockets to the Sheik of Bornou, who, being at war with Bello, employed them successfully in burning a town of the Fellatas, and terrifying the inhabitants. He was also told, by Bello, that he had received letters from most respectable persons, apprising him that the English travellers were only come as spies into his country, and advising him to be on his guard. From what quarter these letters proceeded, will not, we think, after what we have stated, admit of a doubt.

We understand that the whole of Clapperton's Journals have been saved and brought back by his servant, and that they contain a minute and interesting account of his journey from Badagry to Soccatoo, by the route across the Kong Mountains, through Katunga, Wawa, Berghoo, Boosa, where Park was wrecked and drowned, Nyfé or Noofé, Youri, and Kano, in the course of which the geographical position of several hundred cities, towns, and villages has been ascertained, by observations of their latitude and longitude, thus completing the geography of the central part of northern Africa, from Tripoli to the bight of Benin. This narrative, we are glad to see, is in the course of publication, as we have every reason to believe it will be found highly interesting. Dickson had not been heard of at Soccatoo, nor has any account of him reached the coast: it is to be feared, therefore, that he, too, has fallen a victim to the pestilential climate of Africa, though some of his countrymen, who know him, persuade themselves he will yet turn up.

Not

Notwithstanding these disastrous results, it is quite inconceivable with what increased zeal new candidates for African discovery come forward the moment that the death of any fresh victim to this pestilential country is announced. To the list of those who have already fallen, may be added young Park, the son of the late enterprising Mungo Park, and a midshipman of his Majesty's ship Sybille. He went out in this ship with a full determination to proceed on foot, and alone, from the coast to the spot where his father perished, in the hope of hearing some authentic and more detailed account of the catastrophe than had yet been received. With leave of the Commodore, he set out from Accra, and proceeded as far as Yansong, the chief town of Acquimbo, distant from the coast about one hundred and forty miles. Here the natives were celebrating the Yam feast, a sort of religious ceremony, to witness which Park got up into a Fetish tree, which is regarded by the natives with fear and dread. Here he remained a great part of the day, exposed to the sun, and was observed to drink a great quantity of palm wine. In dropping down from one of the lower branches, he fell on the ground, and said, that he felt a severe shock in his head. He was that evening seized with a fever, and died in three days, on the 31st October, 1827. As soon as the king, Akitto, heard of his death, he ordered all his baggage to be brought to his house, and instantly despatched a messenger to Accra, first making him swear by the head of his father,' that he would not sleep till he had delivered the message; it was to inform the resident of the event, and that all the property of the deceased would be forthwith sent down to Accra. This was accordingly done, and it did not appear on examination, that a single article was missing; even an old hat, without a crown, was not omitted. Park was a promising young man, full of zeal and energy, with an excellent constitution, in which, like most of our countrymen, he put too much confidence. There was an idle report of his being poisoned, for which there appears not the slightest foundation.

We trust there will now be an end to the sacrifice of valuable lives, in prosecuting discoveries on this wretched continent, of which we know enough to be satisfied that it contains little at all worthy of being known;-a continent that has been the grave of Europeans, the seat of slavery, and the theatre of such crimes and misery as human nature shudders to think of where eternal war rages among the numberless petty chiefs for no other motive than to seize the innocent families of the original natives, and sell them into perpetual slavery. The products for commercial purposes are few, and mostly confined to the sea-coasts; twothirds of the interior being a naked and inhospitable desert, over

which are scattered bands of ruthless robbers. Park's discovery of a great river running in a contrary direction to what had been supposed in modern times, and which was therefore concluded to be the Niger of the ancients, gave a celebrity to this re-discovered stream to which it now appears to have little claim, either for its size, or its direction, or the length of its course; its size about Noofé being not more than two-thirds the width of the Thames at Westminster Bridge; its direction easterly, discontinued at or near Timbuctoo; and if it actually does reach the sea somewhere in the bight of Benin, which is still very doubtful, the whole length of its course does not exceed two thousand miles. This last point cannot, however, long remain unsettled; the easy and frequent communication that will now be held with the rivers in that bight from the new establishment on Fernando Po, will induce some enterprising young man, or some commercial agent, to penetrate beyond Gatto, on the river Benin, which at present seems to be the ultima Thule of that stream. One hundred miles beyond this place will afford data on which to decide this ques

tion.

Clapperton has had the singular merit of penetrating, in the course of the two expeditions, directly through the heart of northern Africa, from Tripoli to the bight of Benin, and from the shores of the Tsad to Soccatoo. Nearly all to the eastward of this lake is still a terra incognita; but a Frenchman of the name of Linant, employed by the African Association, has been up the Bahr-el-Abiad to a very considerable distance, and would have proceeded further had not the shallow state of the river in the dry season obliged him to return from a part of it where its surface was spread out to a vast expanse, his barge, with which he had passed the cataracts of the Nile, drew too much water. We suspect, however, that, like Mr. Oxley, in his attempt to trace the Macquarrie in New South Wales, Linant had got out of the main channel and was unable to recover it. He is disposed to think, from its easterly direction, that it proceeds from the Lake Tsad; and he is about to renew the examination of the intermediate country by means of camels. He describes the shores of the Bahr-el-Abiad as rich and well cultivated, abounding with herds of cattle, and we do not hear that he met with any opposition from the natives. If he should succeed in reaching the Tsad, and thus ascertain a water communication with the Nile, we shall then not only have fixed numerous geographical positions from the east and west, as well as from the north and south extremities of North Africa, but be acquainted with every thing that is worth knowing of that land of slavery, disease, and death.

VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXV.

I

ART.

ART. V.-Geschichte, Lehren, und Meinungen der Juden, von Peter Beer. Leipsig. 8vo. 1825.

LOOK upon that people (the Jews) with astonishment and reverence; they are living proofs of facts most ancient and most interesting to mankind. Wherever we have a Jew on the surface of the earth, there we have a man whose testimony and whose conduct connect the present time with the beginning of all time.' So says Bishop Watson, expressing what must ever have been the sentiment of a rational Christian. But there are many circumstances which concur to render the condition of the ancient people of God a subject of more than ordinary interest at the present time.

Their actual numbers may perhaps not exceed six millionsnumbers, however, probably greater than those over which Solomon reigned; and of these six millions there may be resident in the contiguous countries of Moravia, ancient Poland, the Crimea, Moldavia and Wallachia, above three millions. Except within the countries which formed Poland before its partitions, their population contained in any one European kingdom cannot, therefore, be great. Yet so essentially are they one people, we might almost say one family; and so disposable is their wealth, as mainly vested in money transactions, that they must be considered as an aggregate, and not in their individual portions.* Would that one bond of this people of most tenacious memory were not an indignant and resentful feeling of the cruelties and persecutions heaped on them in old times by various nations of the earth, and not least by our European ancestors; and fixed on their minds by the contempt and slight of an age which abhors the name of barbarity! Is it too much to say, that we have rather left them amongst ourselves as vermin, which we know not how to get rid of, than regarded and treated them as the children of a common Father? We have not even afforded them any portion of that compassion which usage and opinion would require that we should at least appear to feel for fallen greatness. The man of the world must admit in his phraseology, on the case being intelligibly laid before him, that we have shown bad taste in this matter.' But if they are kept together in some measure by the sense of their wrongs, it is hope wrought up by faith to the highest degree of certainty, that forms the most powerful bond of their identity, and constitutes them a nation apart, which can be bound to no Gentile government by permanent ties of citizenship.

Such are their union, activity, and multiplied relations with each other, that Frederick the Great states, that the Jews were always beforehand with him in obtaining intelligence.