ing in continual rollers, through which the little skiff's dash fearlessly to land. He observes busy groups meeting them at the landing, and engaged in hauling up their canoes, their naked dingy figures flitting and glancing about, like motes in a sunbeam.

He allows his eye to follow the trend of the coast, and to mark its various bays and headlands. He sees the mighty ocean, over which he has sailed many a weary day, hemmed in by a rim of white glittering sand, which gives it the appearance of a stupendous mirror inlaid with silver, the dark foliage of the trees forming an appropriate background. More near, he can distinguish, in rapid succession, the mud walls and dingy roofs of straggling native villages, for the most part nestling amid groves of the graceful cocoa-nut tree; while scattered farther inland he observes an occasional silk-cotton tree stretching its giant bulk to the sky, like some huge sentinel to guard the land. As the vessel advances, the panorama is ever changing, but always marked with the same verdant tropical features, which have a wild Robinson Crusoe sort of charm for most Europeans, on their first arrival.

Anon he descries a white speck in the distance, which, by aid of the telescope, he discovers to be Cape Coast Castle with the British ensign flying over its battlements. His voyage draws to a close, amidst a tumult of mingled feelings not very easy to describe. There is a lightness and elasticity in the clear transparent atmosphere, a laughing joyousness in the gentle ripple of the sea, an idea of wild romance about the untried land lying in beauty before him, and withal, the happy consciousness of having overcome the perils of the deep, which exhilarate the spirits, and excite a variety of agreeable sensations.

Such is the opening scene which Mr. Cruickshank sketches, as an introduction to his "Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast:" he subsequently proceeds to give a history of the settlement under the English, Dutch, and the Danes, pointing out, at the same time, the demoralizing effects of the slave-trade, and the utter absence of all attempts, on the part of the English, to benefit in any way the aborigines of a country they thought proper to appro

priate to themselves.

It is more than 190 years since the first English settlement for the purposes of trade was established at Cape-Coast Castle; and for a long period afterwards the Governors who were sent out thither seem to have been selected solely on account of their excessive stolidity and brutality. To promote the slave-trade, and to gratify their own cupidity, petty dissensions and wars were continually fomented among the neighbouring tribes; and there is but good reason to suppose that they succeeded but too frequently in carrying out their diabolical designs. Mr. Cruickshank has given, at some length, the details of the proceedings anterior to the hostilities between the British and the Ashantees, which ended in the total discomfiture of the former. It is the first time that these annals have been historically recorded their perusal imparts a wholesome lesson. The cruelty, injustice, and systematic oppression practised by the English settlers on the natives around them have been bitterly avenged, and even at the present day the tenure upon which possession of this frag

ment of African territory is held is most insecure, as recent accounts unfortunately too convincingly prove.

In their relations with barbarians the English have rarely been actuated by any but the most selfish motives, and the original inhabitants of few countries have ever had reason to congratulate themselves on their subjection to British rule. That the system we have hitherto pursued is a faulty one, abundant evidence exists. The Mahometans, in one instance at least, have proved, to our shame, what may be effected by adopting a different policy.

About 120 years ago a small colony of Mussulmans established themselves in a district a little to the northward of Sierra Leone, known by the name of the Mandingo country. Numerous seminaries of learning have been established by them there, where the laws and doctrines of Mahomet, and the language of Arabia are taught. The practices of the Moslems have been gradually enforced, and, notwithstanding many intestine convulsions, a great comparative idea of civilization, unity, and security has been introduced. The popu lation has increased largely, and the law founded on the Korân, which prohibits the selling of any Mahometan as a slave, is universally recognised. Those who have received their education in these schools have attained to wealth and power in the neighbouring states, and have extended thither alike their religion and their laws. Native chiefs, in numerous instances, have adopted Mahommedan names and titles on account of the respect with which they uniformly observed them to be the religion of Islam is diffusing itself over the treated. Gradually and peaceably, therefore, surrounding districts, and is silently effecting a complete victory over native superstition and

barbarism.

Would that we could have said as much of the introduction and extension of our own faith! This, unhappily, we are unable to affirm; nor can we pretend to decide whether the misfortune is attributable to an unhappy selection of teachers-from their inability to impress upon the negro mind the nature and tenets of Christianity-or from the jealousies and bickerings of teachers of rival sects. The morality of the Gospel has made, as yet, but insignificant progress among the masses, and has been hitherto treated with indifference, if not contempt, by the native rulers.

Mr. Cruickshank, speaking with an experience of eighteen years of the Missionaries who came under his notice, says :

MISTAKEN NOTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY.

ministrations. Lugubrious pictures of man's wretchedA gloomy and morose austerity seems to pervade their ness are continually set before their imaginations. The sinfulness of youthful levity, and of the gay frivolities

which have so many attractions for the young, meets with the sternest reprobation.

The Christian's pilgrimage appears to them a continued series of dark conflicts, of harsh mortifications, of fiery trials, and of dismal horrors. The world is represented as a vale of tears, where wretched man wanders about a vile outcast, until he sinks with weeping and sorrow into the grave. These pictures have no doubt a brighter side; but such is the predominant character of their barangues. Their rules of discipline enforce frequent services, a strict and inquisitorial scrutiny, not only into the life, but into the thoughts of the heart, a staid solemnity of deportment, an open exposure of error, and a contumelious dismissal from their community of every frail member.

However true such representations of man's character may be, and however efficient such a system of discipline for separating the chaff from the wheat, they certainly do not seem best calculated for enticing the young and the giddy within the fold. They would be more in place among a nation of Christians, who were relapsing into lukewarmness; or where men, satiated with the vain cares and pleasures of the world, longed for a higher degree of spiritual life than could be enjoyed amidst intercourse with the worldly. They would serve admirably the purpose, where they were sought in true singleness of heart, for gleaning the pure from the impure; and for a haven to the humble penitent, buffeted by the storms of the world, and seeking, amid the sympathy of kindred spirits, an outlet for the feelings and emotions of his heart. But to the young African, impatient of restraint, and eager to taste the cup of enjoyment which the effervescent spirit of youth seems to present to him, such dismal pictures and such austere rules serve no other purpose than to hurry him as far as possible from a Missionary; and only when overtaken with disease, or surfeited with excess, will he remember the instruction of his boyhood, and seek for relief in religion.

It is almost impossible, perhaps, to understand the extent to which superstitions of the most absurd and debasing character have taken possession of the African races. A striking instance is afforded in the case of a native, who, after having been educated in England, graduating at Oxford, and officiating creditably for near half a century as chaplain at CapeCoast Castle, where he led a most exemplary life, unfortunately lapsed into paganism upon his death bed, invoking his "Fetish," and earnestly entreating his attendants to indulge him with a human sacrifice; the only occasion, we sincerely trust, on which any gentleman in holy orders, ever proffered a similar request.

Mr. Cruickshank gives a striking picture of the reverence shewn by the Ashantees to their Fetish and Fetish men, and presents us with the best account we have yet received of their horrible rites.

Loud, deep, but unavailing, have been the complaints advanced for many years past against the suitor-cide delays, ruinous charges, and cruel injustice too frequently witnessed in our own country in the administration of the law: : matters, however, appear little better, in this respect, at Coomassie than at Westminster; and the simple native of Ashantee, has, it would seem, equal facility to ruin any neighbour against whom he may conceive a grudge, as

the haughtiest denizen of our own favoured land. Take an instance of

AFRICAN LITIGATION.

There lived in Abrah country, about fourteen miles distant from our settlement of Anamaboe, a man named Quansah, who resided with his cousin Oboo. The latter was the head of the family, and, according to the practice which obtains here, had entire controul over every member of it, Quansah included, and could, upon an occasion of great emergency which affected the family generally, sell or pawn any of his relatives.

This family, which consisted of several other members beside those mentioned, lived together in ease and contentment under the jurisdiction of Ottoo, to whom they owed the allegiance of vassals. The most perfect understanding existed between Oboo and Quansah. They lived together as brothers, worked in the same plantation, and devoted their combined energies to increase the family property.

In the process of time, Quansah informed Oboo that he intended to get married, and mentioned the name of the girl whom he wished to be his wife. Oboo endeavoured to dissuade him from marrying this girl, as he wished to see Quansah united to some of his relations, the natives of the Gold Coast generally being particularly addicted to intermarrying with distant relatives. Quansah, however, could not be persuaded to give up the girl upon whom he had set his affections, and Oboo felt himself reluctantly compelled to give his sanction.

Quansah had not been married longer than a year, when there began to be continual discord between him and his wife, to whom he was nevertheless much attached. He was disappointed at the prospect he had of being childless, which he attributed to the anger of the Fetish, caused by some infidelity on the part of his wife, whom he was continually tormenting with his jealous fears.

He began to suspect Oboo to be more intimate with her than he ought, and the complaints of his harshness, which the woman found it necessary to make to Oboo, only confirmed him in these suspicions. He proceeded from grumbling to more direct accusations, and at length went so far as to summon Oboo to appear before Ottoo and his head men upon the charge of adultery. As he was altogether blinded by his passion, and his object in making this accusation was not so much to obtain satisfaction as to gratify his malice, he was not content with and not very expensive arbitration of his chief, but he the simple process of submitting the case to the quiet desired that a full council of the head men should be called, in order that he might unmask before them all the villany of his relative.

his interpreter in the settlement of palavers, and it is

On ordinary occasions the chief is assisted simply by

always a part of prudence to secure the advocacy of these interpreters, who generally exercise great influence over their masters. But Quansah had removed his case from this court into that of the assembled Pynins, or head men,

among whom the chief has only a deliberative voice like

the others.

These men are altogether seen in a new light upon such occasions. In their individual capacity they are quiet and submissive, even to cringing; united, they are noisy, imperious, and obstinate. The responsibility which

they would shrink from individually, they are bold enough to challenge collectively. Hence acts of tyrannical oppression and extortion are coolly perpetrated, which any single member of the assembly, unsupported by the presence of his coadjutors, would unhesitatingly disavow. The decision of the Pynins conveys to the mind of the Fantee a species of abstract necessity, an irresponsible kind of fatality, which admits neither of resistance nor redress.

charge, a large space was cleanly swept in the marketplace for the accommodation of the assembly; for this a charge of ten shillings was made and paid. When the

When the day arrived for the hearing of Quansah's

Pynins had taken their seats, surrounded by their followers, who squatted upon the ground, a consultation took place as to the amount which they ought to charge for the occupation of their valuable time; and after duly considering the plaintiff's means, with the view of extracting from him as much as they could, they valued their intended services at £6. 15s., which he was in like manner called upon to pay. Another charge of £2.5s.

was made in the name of tribute to the chief, and as an acknowledgment of gratitude for his presence upon the occasion. £1.10s. was then ordered to be paid to purchase rum for the judges, £1 for the gratification of the followers, ten shillings to the man who took the trouble to weigh out these different sums, and five shillings to the court criers. Thus Quansah had to pay £12. 158. to bring his case before this august court, the members of which, during the trial, carried on a pleasant carouse of rum and palm wine.

The preliminaries having been thus arranged to their satisfaction, the defendant, Oboo, was then brought before them, and, notwithstanding his protestations of innocence, he was compelled to pay £12. 15s. as Quansah had done. An investigation then took place amid the wanton jokes and obscene ribaldry of the crowd, who prolonged the entertainment while the drink lasted.

Quansah had nothing to ground his charge upon but his own suspicions, drawn from several inconclusive circumstances not deserving of consideration. His wife was examined, and declared her innocence, and the charge altogether remained unsupported by a single iota of evidence.

As Quansah, however, insisted that both Oboo and his wife should take the oath of purgation, the Pynins were not allowed to declare their innocence until this ceremony was concluded. But even this oath did not satisfy Quansah: he represented that the Fetish by which they had sworn was not sufficiently powerful to reveal their guilt, and that he would not be satisfied until they had made a journey to the Braffoo Fetish, at Mankassim, and taken the oath of purgation before the priests there. This being considered the principal Fetish of the country, an appeal of this kind is not made without considerable expense; but the Pynins declared themselves satisfied of Oboo's innocence, without the confirmation of the Braffoo Fetish, whom they made it optional for him and the woman to consult or not, as they thought fit.

This finding made Quansah liable for the payment of Oboo's expenses; but there was little compensation to be found in this, for to raise the funds to enable him to begin

this prosecution, Quansah had pawned his services to one of the head men who assisted at this mockery of justice; and unless by any extraordinary good fortune he was enabled to repay the loan, he would very probably pass the remainder of his life in servitude.

But the evil consequences of this iniquitous transaction did not stop short here. Oboo and his family were simple tillers of the ground, whose entire riches consist for the most part in their periodical crops of corn, yams, plantain, and cassada, which barely suffice to support the family, and to supply them with funds to purchase a few articles of clothing and a little rum for the performance of their annual customs: upon any sudden demand for money, they have no other resource than that of selling or pawning themselves and their relations. On the occasion which we have been describing, Oboo was obliged to pledge two of his nephews to obtain the £12. 15s, which was shared among the head men and their myrmidons. Thus we have seen, in this brief history, with what a fatal facility the corrupt nature of the native tribunals becomes instrumental in gratifying the passions of vindictive men. The instance here cited is far from being a solitary one, either in its criminality or in the injuriousness of its consequences; and it has been selected as of late occurrence, and as having come under the official notice of the writer, who had the pleasure of being able to restore to freedom the nephews of Oboo, by means of a process of disgorging to which he compelled Otto and his head men to submit.

Mr. Galton's narrative gives a vivid description of a region hitherto entirely unknown to civilized man. It extends about 4° on either side of the 20th parallel of south latitude, and reaches inland eastward as far as Lake Ngami. In all the maps of Africa hitherto published it is an arid waste, unmarked by the name of any tribe or dwelling-place, or even by a single oasis. Our author now furnishes a carefully constructed chart of this district, from which it appears, that although along the line of the Atlantic coast it is bounded by a sterile belt of land from 150 to 200 miles wide, yet stretching far away into the interior is a fertile tract of country, peopled by an intelligent and orderly race, who enjoy a salubrious climate, are addicted to trade, and eschew all dealings in their fellow-men. These people are styled the Ovampo, and certainly appear, in every respect, to be far superior to any of the other aboriginal tribes of Southern Africa.

Southward, and nearer the coast, is the habitat of the Damaras, a race with very different characteristics indeed from the Ovampo, with whom they are continually at war.

Mr. Galton chartered a vessel from the Cape to Walfisch Bay, at the mouth of the river Swakop; and being provided with a sufficiency of articles for barter, and a requisite number of attendants, cattle, &c., he proceeded to Tounobis (lat. 22° S., long. 21° E.) a distance of 517 geographical miles; and he subsequently made another expedition to Nangoro's Werft, (situate in about lat. 18° S., long. 16° 13′ E.) a further journey of 512 miles.

The incidents of travel were such as might be expected to befal the first European who has resolution and daring enough to explore a country where white men have never previously

been seen.

At night his mode of camping was as follows:

THE ENCAMPMENT.

As the waggon still moved on, we kept a look-out along the river bed, till some indications were seen of water, such as holes or small wells dug by Damaras, who had been camping about. If the yield of water appeared sufficient, and if there was any show of grass near, the waggons were outspanned. The place chosen was by a tree or at the side of some bush, where the requisites of a smooth ground to sleep upon, shelter from the wind, abundant thorn-bushes to make a sheep's kraal of, and neighbouring firewood, were best combined. The Damaras were then sent with axes to cut thorn-bushes for the kraal; the white men went with spades to dig a couple of wells out, and make them broad and deep, and the cattle watchers were off with the oxen and sheep to grass-two men to each flock or herd. They often fed a couple of miles away from us. Any idle hand fetched enough firewood to start two cooking fires, on one of which the iron pots for the dinners of myself, Andersson, Hans, and John Morta, were placed; on the other, those of the waggon-men. The Damaras had an iron pot between them, but they never had food given them till late, or else they stopped working, in order to eat it at once. Usually we had to slaughter something. The waggon-driver and

the men's cook generally killed the sheep: if an ox was wanted I shot him. Thus a great many different things were going on at the same time: the men were digging wells, slaughtering and cutting up, cooking at two fires; the Damaras were watching cattle, cutting thorn-bushes, and carrying firewood. When the wells were deepened sufficiently, a hollow trough was scooped out in the sand, and a piece of canvas laid on it; the oxen were then sent for; and while Damaras stood in the well with a wooden "bamboose," a sort of bucket, ladling out water into the canvas, the oxen were driven up by threes to drink. But unless the ground is very porous the canvas sheet is hardly necessary. In this way one gives drink at the rate of about an ox a minute at each well, and sheep drink very fast indeed it seldom required an hour to water my herd after the wells were once cleared out.

The thorn-branches for the kraal are laid round a circle, each alongside the other, in the direction of the radii: the cut ends are inwards, and the broad bushy heads, not the sides of the branch, make the outer circumference. Sheep and goats pack into so small a space, that their kraal has never to be more than twenty feet diameter; but they must have one, or else every kind of accident would occur, for they are by no means so domestic as oxen, and very stupid. If it were not for a kraal, the hyenas, who serenade us every night, would be sure to do constant mischief, and scatter the flock over the country. Oxen, unless thirsty, or hungry, or cold, or in a restless, homesick state of mind, never leave the waggons, but lie in a group round the fire, chewing the cud, with their large eyes glaring in the light, and apparently thinking. We made no kraal for them. To continue: as the evening closes in the sheep are driven into their kraal, the door is bushed up, the Damaras get their meat, and make their own sleeping-places, and we get our dinner Then I make a few observations with my sextant, which occupies an hour or so, and everybody else has some mending or some other employment. Timboo gets out my rug and sleepingthings; the firewood is brought close to the fire; and we lie down in two large groups, Andersson, Hans, John Morta, and myself, round one fire, and the waggon-men and Damaras round the other, and all gradually drop off to sleep, the Damaras invariably being the last awake. It is a great mistake to suppose that " early to bed and early to rise is the rule among savages. All those that I have seen, whether in the north or south, eat and talk till a very late hour. I grant that they get up early, but then they sleep half the day.

Mr. Galton's attendants were about forty in number, and chiefly Damaras, but they prove

THE DAMARAS.

Bad guides, considering that they are savages, and ought to have the instincts of locality strongly developed. On subsequent occasions, in retracing our routes over wide extents of country, it was a common amusement to try each other's recollection of the road by asking what would be the next object or next turn of the path we should come to. But it is difficult to compare a European's idea of a country with that of these savages, as they look at it in such different ways, and have their attention attracted to such entirely different objects. A Damara never generalises; he has no name for a river, but a different name for nearly every reach of it: thus the Swakop is a Namaqua name; there is no Damara word for it. A Damara, who knew the road perfectly from A to B, and again from B to C, would have no idea of a straight cut from A to C: he has no map of the country in his mind, but an infinity of local details. He recollects every stump or stone, and the more puerile the object the more strongly does he seem to recollect it. Thus, if you say, "I intend to sleep by the side of the great hill where the river-bed runs close under its foot," he would never recognise the place by the description; but if you said, "under the tree, a little way on the other side of the place where the black and white ox lowed when the red ox was in front of him, and Koniati dropped his assegai,"

Damara women have not much to complain of: they are valuable helpmates, and divorce themselves as often as they like. The consequence is, that the marital rule depends not upon violence nor upon interest, but upon affection. A wife costs a Damara nothing, for she 66 crows her own pignuts, and she is of positive use, because she builds and plasters his hut, cooks his victuals, and carries his things when he moves from place to place. A Damara seldom beats his wife much: if he does, she decamps. This deference of husband to wife was a great difficulty in the way of discipline; for I often wanted to punish the ladies of my party, and yet I could not make their husbands whip them for me, and of course I was far too gallant to have it done by any other hands. They bored me to death with their everlasting talking; but I must own that there were many good points in their character. They were extremly patient, though not feminine, according to our ideas: they had no strong affections either for spouse or children; in fact, the spouse was changed almost weekly, and I seldom knew, without inquiry, who the pro tempore husband of each lady was at any particular time. One great use of women in my party was to find out any plan or secret that the natives I was encamped amongst were desirous of hiding. Experience tells us of two facts: first, that women delight in communicating everybody else's secrets to each other; secondly, that husbands and wives mutually tell one another all they know. Hence the married women of my party, whenever I staid near a werft, had very soon made out all the secrets of the inhabitants, which they retailed directly to their husbands, and they to me. It was a system of espionage which proved most effectual.

*

The chiefs of tribes have some kind of sacerdotal authority-more so than a military one. They bless the oxen; and their daughters sprinkle the fattest ones with a brush dipped in water every morning as they walk out of the kraal. They have no expectation of a future state; yet they pray over the graves of their parents for oxen and sheep,-fat ones, and of the right colour. There is hardly a particle of romance, or affection, or poetry, in their character or creed; but they are a greedy, heartless, silly set of savages.

The ceremony of blessing their cattle, and of sprinkling them with water, is curious, and gives rise to strange speculations as to its origin amongst these barbarians.

We are favoured with a portrait of Nangoro, the king of Ovampo, who is represented as enormously fat, and wearing no other apparel than a pair of ear-rings and a slight neck-chain.

A COURT BALL.

Every night Nangoro gives a ball, to which the élite of Ovampo-land have a free entrée. He kindly sent me an invitation by Tippoo, one of his three courtiers under whose protection we had been especially placed. As soon as night sets in, the guests throng together from all sides; and as the country is full of palms, one member of each party generally picks up a dried broken-off branch, and lights it as a torch. It gives a brilliant flame, and the effect of the many lights on every side is particularly pretty. I went, about eight o'clock, down the sanded walk, between quickset hedgerows, that leads to Nangoro's palisading. When we had entered it, we turned to the right, into the dancing-court, which was already filled with people, who talked and flirted just as though they were in an English ball-room.