laid siege to the fort, and pressed it closely for some months; but being repeatedly checked, and suffering under sickness and want of provisions, they retreated. In 1826, they again advanced to the coast; when, after a very hard contest, they were completely defeated near Accra on the 7th August. The governor then refused to grant peace unless on the condition that the king would surrender two of the royal family as hostages, and lodge 4000 ounces of gold to be employed against himself in the event of his renewing hostilities. After a long negotiation, the disputes were closed by his sending 600 ounces, with a son and nephew to be educated at the Castle.

Captain Adams, in the course of a trading voyage along the African shore, visited Benin, the capital of which is situated on a river coming from the north-east. The city is large, apparently containing about 15,000 inhabitants, and surrounded by a country extremely fertile, but not highly cultivated. The king is fetish, that is, he is worshipped by his subjects as a god, and must not on any account be supposed either to eat or sleep. Heresy against this creed is punished by instantly striking off the head of the unbeliever. With all his divine and royal attributes, however, his majesty does not disdain the occupation of a merchant, and drives a hard bargain while exchanging slaves and ivory for tobacco, which is a favourite luxury. He is accessible to strangers, provided they spread before him, as a present, a handsome piece of red silk damask. Human sacrifices are not practised to the same extent as in some other parts of Africa; yet considerable numbers are offered on the graves of great men, and four annually at the mouth of the river, to attract vessels; but such is the pestilential character of the climate, that this bloody charm brings now comparatively few slave-merchants to Benin.

Captain Adams ascended also to Waree, an insular territory, enclosed by two branches of another stream flowing through this alluvial district. It is beautiful as well as fertile, is about five miles in circuit, and appears as if it had dropped down from the clouds; for all the

surrounding shores consist of an impenetrable forest, rising out of a swamp. Even in the dry season the water stands on the ground a foot in depth, producing exhalations which prove excessively destructive to the European constitution, as well as to all the more delicate plants and animals that happen to be removed from the drier soils of the interior.

The Brass River, which we have described from the account of Lander, has never been much frequented by Europeans. Bonny is the chief market for slaves, which, according to Adams, were sold there to the annual amount of 20,000, the greater part of whom are brought down from the Eboe country. The town is mean, being built of stakes driven into the ground, wattled and plastered, and is surrounded by a marshy country overgrown with timber. The people have canoes capable of containing 120 individuals; they set out in parties with the sound of drums and gongs, and return in a few days with from 1500 to 2000 slaves. Salt of good quality is also manufactured, and sent into the interior.

The Calabar River, though less important than that of Bonny, also affords access to a considerable trade. Lander visited Ephraim Town, the chief seat of its commerce ; and in his way up the stream he was struck by the appearance of something hanging from the branch of a tree, which proved to be a human body, suspended by the middle, with the feet and hands just touching the water —a barbarous sacrifice by the pagan natives to propitiate the spirit of the river. The town, composed of houses resembling those of Eboe, appeared to contain about 6000 inhabitants. Duke Ephraim, the chief, exhibited with pride his best room, which formed indeed an extraordinary spectacle. It was "literally crammed full of all kinds of European furniture, covered with cobwebs and dust about half an inch deep. Elegant tables and chairs, sofas of a magnificent description, splendid looking-glasses, and prints of the principal public characters of England, as well as views of sea and land engagements set in handsome gilt frames, beautifully cut glass

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,