This is a form of murder practised by corsairs on those unhappy shores. A plank is laid across the deck, partly projecting beyond it over the water, when the doomed individual is compelled to walk to the outer extremity,-it sinks beneath his weight, and he perishes. It may be proper to mention, that government have redeemed the British reputation on this coast, by sending orders to transmit to King Boy the stipulated ransom.

The travellers could not find an eligible opportunity of leaving Fernando Po till the 20th January 1831, when they sailed on board the Caernarvon, Captain Garth, for Rio Janeiro. The crew suffered much by sickness; but on the 16th March they reached that port. Admiral Baker, who then commanded on the station, gave them the most hospitable reception, and afforded them a passage home in the William Harris transport, which sailed on the 20th; and on the 9th June they arrived at Portsmouth.

This journey by individuals who make no pretensions to science has not afforded materials for illustrating any of its branches; but, previous to the loss of the instruments, the range of the thermometer is recorded. At Badagry, on the coast, where the heat was most oppressive, it was between 86° and 94°, oftener stationary near the latter than the former point. At Jenna it fell suddenly one day from 94° to 78°, and remained stationary for some hours. At Assinara, at noon, on the 23d April, it attained the height of 99°. Near Katunga it fell upon one occasion to 71° in the shade, the air being then cooler than they had felt it since landing. At Kiama the extremes were 75° and 94°, the mean

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On their

84°. At Youri the range was the same. voyage from Youri to Boussa, on the 2d August, it varied from 75° to 92°. At Boussa it varied from 76° to 93°, but most commonly between 80° and 90°. At Patashie generally between 74° and 89°, once 93°. Lever, 77° to 93°. Bajiebo, 70° to 95°. On the passage down the river below that place, on 5th October, 78° to 94°. Belee, 79° to 94°.

Such has been the issue of this important voyage, by which the grand problem that perplexed Europe during so many ages, and on which, for a period of nearly forty years, so many efforts and sacrifices had been expended in vain, was completely resolved. British enterprise completed, as it had begun, this great discovery. Park, in his first journey, reached the banks of the Niger, and saw it rolling its waters towards the interior of the continent. In the second, he embarked at Bammakoo, and by sailing downward to Boussa proved its continuous progress for upwards of 1000 miles. The present voyage has exhibited it following a farther course, which with its windings must amount to about 800 miles, and finally emptying itself into the Atlantic. This celebrated stream is now divested of that mysterious character which surrounded it with a species of supernatural interest. Rising in a chain of high mountains, flowing through extensive plains, receiving large tributaries, and terminating in the ocean, it exhibits exactly the ordinary phenomena of a great river. But by this discovery we see opened to our view a train of most important consequences. The Niger affords a channel of communication with the most fertile, most industrious, and most improved regions of Interior Africa. Its navigation is every

where easy and safe, unless at intervals between Boussa and Youri, and between Patashie and Lever; and even there it becomes practicable during the malca, or flood produced by the periodical rains. British vessels may therefore, by this stream and its tributaries, ascend to Rabba, Boussa, Youri, Sackatoo, Timbuctoo, Sego, and probably to other cities as great, but yet unknown. They may navigate the yet unexplored Tchadda, a river which, at its junction, is nearly as large as the Niger itself, and no doubt waters extensive and fertile regions. It was even stated to the Landers by different individuals, that by this medium vessels might reach the Lake Tchad, and thereby communicate with the kingdom of Bornou. But this statement appears erroneous; for though the Tchadda be evidently the same with the Shary, which runs by Adamowa and Dunrora, yet, flowing into the Niger, it must be a quite different stream from the Shary, which flows into the Tchad; and in a country so mountainous there is little likelihood of any connecting branches. The decided superiority of the interior of Africa to the coast renders this event highly important. Steam, so peculiarly adapted to river-navigation, affords an instrument by which the various obstacles may be overcome, and vessels may be enabled to penetrate into the very heart of the African continent. We understand, accordingly, that an expedition, which Lander will accompany, is preparing at Liverpool; and though we should hesitate to predict the immediate opening of an advanta geous traffic, every thing may be ultimately anticipated from the industry, perseverance, and extensive capital of British merchants.

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CHAPTER XV.

Western Africa.

General View of this Coast-Dahomey-Norris and M'LeodFoota Jallo-Watt and Winterbottom-Ashantee-Embassies of Bowdich and Dupuis-War-Defeat and Submission of the Ashantees Adams' Account of Benin, Waree, and BonnyEphraim Town-Delta of the Niger.

THE whole coast of Western Africa within the tropics, forming a wide sweep around the Gulf of Guinea, has long been occupied by a chain of European forts, erected with a view to the commerce in gold, iron, and palm-oil, but, above all, in slaves; and since this last object has been finally abandoned by Great Britain, these stations have become to her of very secondary importance. The territory is in the possession of a number of petty states, many of which compose aristocratic republics, turbulent, restless, licentious, and rendered more depraved by their frequent intercourse with Europeans. The interior country, extending parallel to the great central chain of mountains, of which the principal branch is here called Kong, presents nothing of that desert and arid character stamped on so great a proportion of the African continent. The soil, copiously watered, is liable rather to an excessive luxuriance; but, where well managed, it is highly

fruitful. There are found, too, in this tract, several very powerful kingdoms, better organized and more improved than any near the coast. They have not, however, the slightest tincture of European civilisation; and their manners, in several important respects, are stained with habits and practices that belong to the very lowest stage of savage life.

Of these greater states the first to which Europeans penetrated was Dahomey, which had distinguished itself early in the last century by the conquest it then achieved of the flourishing kingdom of Whidah, on the Slave Coast. The Dahomans committed the most horrible ravages ever witnessed,―reducing the country, the most fertile and beautiful then known in Western Africa, to almost utter desolation. As their king continued to exercise authority over this province, Mr Norris, in 1772, undertook a journey thither to observe the character and position of this extraordinary potentate, and to make arrangements for the benefit of the English trade. He passed through a fine country, abounding in the usual tropical productions, and rising by a gentle ascent about 150 miles inland to Abomey, the capital. He arrived at an appalling season, that of the annual Customs, when the great men were assembled from every quarter of the kingdom; and he was truly astonished to see those fierce and warlike chieftains, whose very name spreads terror throughout Africa, prostrating themselves before the monarch, on the ground, and piling dust on their heads, in token of the most abject submission. This homage is yielded, not from fear, but from a blind veneration, which makes them regard their king in the light of a superior being. In his name they rush