natural effects followed, the person's head was immediately struck off. Snail-shells, applied to the temples, if they stuck, inferred guilt. When a dispute arose between man and man, the plan was to place shells on the head of each, and make them stoop, when he from off whose head the shell first dropped had a verdict found against him. While we wonder at the deplorable ignorance on which these practices were founded, we must not forget that the "judgments of God," as they were termed, employed by our ancestors during the middle ages, were founded on the same unenlightened views, and were in some cases strictly identical.

Other powers of still higher name held sway over the deluded minds of the people of Congo. Some ladies of rank went about beating a drum, with dishevelled hair, and pretending to work magical cures; there was also a race of mighty conjurers, called Scingilli, who had the power of giving and withdrawing rain at pleasure; and they had a king called Ganja Chitorne, or God of the Earth, to whom its first fruits were regularly offered. This person never died; but when tired of his sway on earth, he nominated a successor, and killed himself,-a step, doubtless, prompted by the zeal of his followers, when they saw any danger of his reputation for immortality being compromised. This class argued strongly in favour of their vocation, as not only useful, but absolutely essential, since without it the earth would be deprived of those influences by which alone it was enabled to minister to the wants of man. The people accordingly viewed with the deepest aların any idea of giving offence to beings whose wrath might be displayed in devoting the land to utter sterility.

We do not possess any record of the period or the manner in which the Portuguese and their missionaries were expelled from Congo; but Captain Tuckey's late expedition did not find on the banks of the Zaire any trace or even recollection of either.

CHAPTER V.

Early English Discoveries.

Decline of Portuguese Maritime Power-Company formed in England to explore the Gambia-Richard Thompson-His Death-Jobson's Voyage up the Gambia-Manners of the Native Africans-Vermuyden-Stibbs.

THE Portuguese, while they bore away the palm of maritime enterprise.from all other nations, considered Africa especially as a region which they had won for themselves, and had covered with trophies of discovery and victory; but, after being subjected to the cruel and degrading yoke of Philip II. of Spain, they lost all their spirit and energy. Under the same influence they became involved in hostility with the Dutch, who had risen to the first rank as a naval people, and whose armaments successively stripped them of their most important possessions in this continent as well as in the East Indies. In 1637, Elmina itself, their capital, fell into the hands of those bold and successful rivals; and at present the boasted lords and rulers of Guinea have not an acre left of their dominions along the whole western coast. They retain only the Madeiras, the Cape Verd, and other islands, which certainly are not destitute of beauty, nor even of some degree of political and commercial value.

The Hollanders did not long remain undisputed masters of the seas. The glorious and splendid results which had arisen from the discovery of the East and West Indies, caused the ocean to be generally viewed as the great theatre where wealth and glory were to be gained. The French and English nations, whose turn it was to

take the lead in European affairs, pressed eagerly forward in this career, endeavouring at once to surpass their predecessors and each other. Many African settlements were formed with the view of securing a supply of slaves for their West India possessions; but a more distant, more innocent, and more brilliant object also attracted their attention. Flattering reports had reached Europe of the magnitude of the gold trade carried on at Timbuctoo and along the Niger; and letters were even received from Morocco, representing its treasures as surpassing those of Mexico and Peru. On that side, indeed, the immense Desert and its barbarous inhabitants rendered the central regions almost inaccessible ;-but there was another channel which appeared to open the fairest and most tempting prospects. According to all the geographical systems of that age, the great river Joliba, flowing through the interior of the continent, and by whose alluvion its plains were covered with gold, was understood to empty itself into the Atlantic, either by the Senegal or Gambia, or, as was more commonly supposed, by both these channels imagined to be branches proceeding from the great stream. By ascending either accordingly, it seemed possible to reach Timbuctoo and the country of gold; and this became a favourite object with several European nations.

In 1618, a company was formed in England for the purpose of exploring the Gambia. They sent out that same year Richard Thompson, a person of spirit and enterprise, in charge of the Catherine of 120 tons, with a cargo worth nearly two thousand pounds sterling. In the month of December he entered the river; and proceeding as high as Kassan, a fortified town, where he left most of his crew, he pushed on in boats. The Portuguese, who were still numerous in that district, and retained all their lofty claims, were seized with bitter jealousy at this expedition made by a foreign and rival power. Led on by Hector Nunez, they furiously attacked the party left at Kassan, and succeeded in making a general massacre of our countrymen. Thompson, on

learning these dreadful tidings, although unable to make any effort to avenge the slaughter of his people, still maintained his station on the river, and sent home the most encouraging accounts of the general prospects of the undertaking. The company listened to his statement, and despatched another vessel, which unfortunately arrived at an improper season, and lost most of the crew by sickness. Even yet they were not dismayed; but, retaining their ardour unabated, fitted out a third and larger expedition, consisting of the Sion of 200 tons, and the St John of 50, and gave the command to Richard Jobson, to whom we are indebted for the first satisfactory account of the great river-districts of Western Africa.

This officer entered the Gambia in November 1620; but what was his dismay on receiving the tidings that Thompson had perished by the hands of his own men! Mutiny was then a frequent occurrence in those dangerous and distant services; but how it arose in this case, or who was to blame, was never duly investigated. The crew are said to have been unanimous in representing the conduct of their leader as oppressive and intolerable; but, in regard to a man of undoubted spirit and enterprise, and who fell the first of so many victims in the cause of African discovery, we should not receive too readily the report of those who had so deep an interest in painting his character in the darkest colours.

Jobson, notwithstanding the shock caused by this intelligence, did not suffer himself to be discouraged, but, pushing briskly up the river, soon arrived at Kassan. The Portuguese inhabitants in general had fled before his arrival, whilst the few who remained, professed in respect to Hector Nunez and the massacre committed by him, an ignorance, and even a horror, for which he gave them very little credit. He had reason, on the contrary, to believe that they were forming a scheme of attack, and even urging the natives to rise against the English; and such was the dread of their machinations that scarcely any one could be prevailed on to

act as his pilot. Notwithstanding these suspicions and alarms, he still pursued his course; but after passing the falls of Barraconda he found himself involved in great difficulties: The ascent was to be made against a rapid current; the frequency of hidden rocks made it dangerous to sail in the night; and they often struck upon sand-banks and shallows, when it was necessary for the crew to strip and go into the water, in order to push the boat over these obstacles. They were once obliged to carry it a mile and a half, till they found a deeper channel.

The discoverers now beheld an entirely new world, and a novel aspect of nature. On every side were immense forests of unknown trees, while both the land and the water were inhabited by multitudes of savage animals, whose roarings every night resounded through the air. Sometimes twenty crocodiles were seen together in the stream, and, their voices, calling as it were to each other, resembled the "sound of a deep well," and might be heard at the distance of a league. Sea-horses also were observed tossing and snorting in every pool; while elephants appeared in such numbers on the shore, that, at one place, there were sixteen in a single troop. These last animals were an object of great terror to the natives, of whom only a few durst attack them with their long poisoned lances and assagays; but whenever the English made a movement against them, they fled like forestdeer, and by their swiftness eluded all pursuit. Three balls were lodged in one individual, which made off, but was afterwards found dead by the negroes. Lions, ounces, and leopards, were also seen at a little distance; but amid the alarms inspired by these formidable creatures, the sailors were amused by observing the various evolutions of the monkey tribe. The baboons marched along, occasionally in herds of several thousands with some of the tallest in front, under the guidance of a leader, the lesser following behind, while a band of larger size brought up the rear. "Thus do they march on, and are very bold." At night, as they took their stand upon