decanters and glasses, glass chandeliers, and a quantity of other things too numerous to mention, were all mixed together in the utmost confusion." These are the accumulated presents received from time to time from merchants of the different European countries. This coast, extending upwards of 200 miles from Benin to Calabar, has acquired a new interest since the discovery by Lander of its forming the Delta of the Niger. All the numerous estuaries which open into the Bights of Benin and Biafra are evidently branches of that great river. The whole range of the coast presents a gloomy and uniform aspect; being every where completely alluvial, partially inundated, and covered with impenetrable forests of mangrove. The main streams are connected by creeks and smaller channels, so that there is an inland communication by water between Calabar and Benin indeed the whole maritime territory may be considered as a cluster of islands. The character of the natives, corrupted by the long prevalence of the slavetrade, is fierce, reckless, and dissolute. Mr Boyle gives a gloomy picture of this region as "uninviting when first descried, repulsive when approached, dangerous when examined, and horrible and loathsome when its qualities and its inhabitants are known." He therefore thinks that it will never be to any great extent resorted to for trade by Europeans. The case, however, is different when it is viewed as a channel of communication with the finest regions of the interior; for in these days the use of steam will carry the navigator quickly through the lower channels of the river, where the danger from pestilential vapours and the rude character of the people is the greatest, and convey him to the more civilized and improved countries on its upper banks.

CHAPTER XVII.

Southern and Eastern Africa.

The Cape-Settlement of the Dutch-Kolben-Hope, Sparrman, Le Vaillant-Barrow; Caffres; Bosjesmans-Trutter and Sommerville-Dr Cowan and his Party-Their Assassination-Lichtenstein-Campbell's (the Missionary) First and Second Journeys-Burchell-Thompson-Invasion of the Mantatees Zoolas-Alarm in the Colony-Great Irruption of the Caffres-Peace-Settlement of Natal-Great Emigration of Dutch Farmers-Their Conflicts with the Natives-Expedition of Dr Smith-Sir James Alexander-Eastern Africa -Conquests of the Portuguese-Their present State-English Expedition up the Zambesi-Zanzibar, Mombaza, &c.

THE Southern extremity of Africa has long attracted the particular attention of modern navigators. To pass its remotest boundary formed the main object of ambition with the Portuguese in their celebrated voyages of discovery along its shores. After a century spent in vain endeavours to accomplish this undertaking, Diaz obtained a view of the great promontory; but the stormy sky in which it was enveloped, and the fearful swell produced by the conflict of contending oceans, appalled even that stout navigator. He named it the Cape of Tempests, and immediately returned home with his shattered barks, The king, with a bolder spirit, substituted forthwith the appellation of the Cape of Good Hope, which it has ever since retained; yet some years elapsed before the daring sails of Gama rounded this formidable barrier, and bore across the ocean to the golden shores of India.

The Portuguese, engrossed by the discovery and conquest of the kingdoms of the East, and busied in lading their vessels with the produce of those opulent regions,

scarcely deigned to cast an eye on the rude border of Southern Africa, its terraces of granite, its naked Karroo plains, or the miserable kraals of the Hottentot. Their fleets, indeed, stopt occasionally for water and refreshments; but no attempts were made to occupy, and still less to colonize, this barren and unpromising country.

The Dutch, a prudent and calculating people, having pushed their way into the Indian Seas, where they first rivalled and then supplanted the Portuguese, soon discovered the important advantage that might be derived from the Cape as a naval station. In 1650, they founded Cape Town, a step which led to farther improvement; for it thereby became necessary to draw supplies of grain and provisions from the surrounding territory. When, moreover, it was found that on some neighbouring hills the vine could be reared in high perfection, a new value was stamped upon the settlement. The natives, not then destitute of bravery, but ill-armed, undisciplined, and disunited, were easily driven back, or reduced to an almost complete bondage; and hence the country, for several hundred miles in every direction, so far as it afforded any herbage, was soon covered with grazingfarms under Dutch masters.

Peter Kolben, who resided some years at the Cape, published a narrative, which, though in a few points liable to censure, gives by far the fullest account of the Hottentots, before they were completely weighed down by European oppression. This unfortunate race has long been proverbial throughout Europe, for presenting man in his lowest state, and under the closest alliance with the inferior orders of creation. It must, indeed, be admitted, that they take particular pains to render their external appearance the most hideous that the human body can possibly present. Grease is poured over their persons in copious streams, which, being exposed to the perpetual action of smoke, forms on their skin a black shining cake, through which its natural colour, a yellowishbrown, is scarcely ever perceptible. The use of unctuous substances in Africa forms the chief distinction of rank,

the rich besmearing themselves with butter, while the poorer classes are obliged to tear the fat from the bowels of slaughtered animals. They assign as a reason for this singular practice an effect which has been readily admitted by judicious travellers, namely, that such a coating has a most salutary influence in defending them from the rays of the sun, and in averting many cutaneous disorders. Nature seems to have aided the task of disfiguring them, by covering the head with irregular tufts of hard coarse hair, and causing singular prominences, composed of fat, to jut out in parts where they are least ornamental. Nor do their habits of life present any thing to redeem this outward deformity. Their kraals consist of a confused crowd of little conical hovels, composed of twigs and earth, in which large families sit and sleep, without having room to stand upright. The fire in the middle fills these dwellings with thick smoke, while the floors are deeply covered with every species of filth. At festivals, when an ox or a sheep is killed, they rip it open, tear out the entrails, which they throw on the coals, and feast on them before the animal is completely dead. Yet they are a friendly, merry, hospitable race, living together in the greatest affection and harmony. The sluggish stupidity with which they are so generally taxed, seems to have been in a great measure produced by their degrading subjection to the Dutch boors. In their free state they had a republican form of polity, and konquers or captains of the kraal, who led them to war, which they carried on with fury. This commander usually sounded a pipe or flageolet, during which his men fought without intermission; but as soon as the music ceased they began to retreat. They direct their darts and throwing-sticks with a sure aim, surround and attack wild animals with skill and vigour, evading their springs with a dexterity which no European can equal. They tan, dress, and shape skins; make mats of flags and bulrushes; twist strings for their bows out of the sinews of animals; and even mould iron into cutting instruments with considerable expertness. Be

fore they were subdued, they displayed the same passion for the dance and song which is general throughout Africa. A heavy reproach indeed lies upon them, as being destitute of all ideas of religion; and the atheist has even boasted of their insensibility in this respect, as an exception to that universal belief of mankind, which is urged against his unnatural tenet. Supposing this assertion correct, such ignorance, which must have sprung from the profoundest apathy, could not form any high authority on a subject so abstruse. But the fact itself, as in every similar case, has vanished before the light of more accurate observation. The Hottentot, it is true, had neither temples, images, nor a regular priesthood; but he believed in a supreme good Being, whom he viewed with distant adoration, and also in a little deformed and malignant power, whom he sought to pacify by gifts and sacrifices. He had the usual superstitions of unenlightened men, hailing the new and full moon not only with offerings, but with shouts, cries, and dances, prolonged throughout the night. He attached a sacred character to certain woods, hills, and rivers, which he supposed haunted by departed friends, or by the spirits of ancient heroes. Lastly, to come to the very lowest, he had a little shining beetle which he had exalted into a deity.

About the close of last century, Southern Africa excited a particular interest among the lovers of natural history, owing to the brilliancy of its floral productions, and to those remarkable forms of the animal kingdom which, though generally diffused over that continent, could be most conveniently studied in the vicinity of the Cape. In 1778, Captain Henry Hope, who, under the authority of the Dutch government, had penetrated into the interior of the colony with a caravan of eightynine persons, published at Amsterdam a work containing plates of the giraffe or camelopard, the zebra, the hippopotamus, the gnu, and other animals then almost unknown in Europe. Soon afterwards, the whole region was carefully surveyed by two eminent naturalists, first