powerful. The king's palace is described by the Arabian writers as a solid structure, adorned with paintings and sculpture, and having the rare luxury, at that time, of windows of glass. A mass of native gold, neither cast nor wrought by any instrument,' says Edrisi, but shaped by Divine Providence only, of the weight of thirty pounds, was fitted as a seat for the royal throne;' and tamed elephants and camelopardales are mentioned as among the accompaniments which swelled the pomp of the sovereign's equipage. It would seem, that China is not the only country in the world where justice is demanded by beat of drum. Every morning,' says Edrisi, the captains of the King of Ghana come to his house, and one that bears a drum never ceases beating of it till the king comes down to the palace gate, mounts his horse, and all who are oppressed or grieved present themselves before him.'

6

Ghana, however, does not appear to have long maintained its superiority. At the period of Leo Africanus' travels in central Africa, some very important changes had already taken place. Ghana was become subject to the kingdom of Tombuctoo, founded, we believe, in the year of the Hegira 610 (A. D. 1215.) No very exalted notions can be formed of the splendour or magnificence of its celebrated capital, so long and so vainly sought, from the description of Leo; which, on the whole, agrees with those of more doubtful authority collected by modern travellers;-hovels built in the shape of bells, with walls of stakes or hurdles plastered with clay, and covered with roofs of reeds. Yet an extensive accumulation of huts like these scattered over a sandy plain, along the banks of a muddy river, and dignified with the name of city, is still an object of such anxious research, that neither difficulties, nor danger, nor personal privations, nor sufferings, have been able to deter a succession of daring adventurers from following up those attempts, in which their predecessors have not only failed, but generally perished. Impelled by a thirst of fame, or by an ardent desire to gratify curiosity-in short, by a resolution to do something that has not yet been done-perils and difficulties serve only to inflame ardour into enthusiasm. Tombuctoo, however, is, at least, a real object. But a zeal not less ardent and unwearied, and enterprizes not less daring, distinguished the early career of the Portugueze. An imaginary personage of the name of Prester John, whose origin, abode and history appear to have been equally unknown to them, was the great moving power that gave activity and energy to their expeditions. The glory of the Portugueze name, the discovery of new worlds, even the opening of the sources of golden wealth, were all considered as subordinate to the higher aim of discovering the abode of a person, who was known in Europe under the uncouth appellation of Prester John.'

It may neither be uninteresting nor unamusing to bring together a summary account of the proceedings of English travellers, or those sent under the auspices of England, and particularly of the more daring adventurers for the hitherto prohibited city of Tombuctoo; and of the attempts of the Portugueze to discover the abode of Prester John; as to those two nations and two objects the world is mainly indebted for the knowledge it possesses of the vast continent of Africa.

The first Englishman who visited the interior of Africa, or, at least, the first of whom we have any account, was neither impelled by a thirst of gain, nor a spirit of curiosity; he was an accidental and involuntary adventurer. About the year 1590 one ANDREW BATTEL, being on board a Portugueze vessel that touched on the coast of Benguela, was left by the crew, as a sort of hostage, among the Jagas or Giagas, a ferocious tribe of the interior, who had come down to the coast, and laid waste the less warlike territory of Benguela. He describes these people as a wandering banditti, without possessions, industry, or arts; living on plunder, and desolating every country through which they pass; who murder their own children by burying them alive as soon as they are born, and recruit their numbers by carrying off the boys and girls of other tribes of thirteen or fourteen years of age, and training them up to their own way of life, which is to make war by enchantments, and take the devil's counsel in all their exploits. With this savage horde Battel lived for many months; the time being chiefly spent in continually triumphing, drinking, dancing, and eating men's flesh.' Battel was a near neighbour of Purchas, and was considered by him as a man worthy of credit: there can be little doubt that he believed what he narrated, and his account of the man-eaters received a sanction from succeeding travellers. Lopez describes these Giagas as inhabiting the mountains behind Congo, and more especially those near the lake out of which the Zaire flows; he mentions their laying waste the whole of the kingdom of Congo: and Merolla the monk, who at every step encounters a witch or a wizard, asserts that he saw the shambles, near the capital, where human flesh had been sold by them while they occupied that place; they offered it (he adds) very cheap to the Portugueze, whose object, however, was to procure their captives alive rather than to have their bellies filled with such barbarous food.' That the story of this human flesh-market should not be lost, Pigafetta's narrative of the wonderful adventures of Lopez, in the collection of De Bry, has been illustrated with an elegant plate in the best style of Wolffangus Richter, exhibiting a butcher in his shambles, finer than any in Leadenhall-market, in the act of cutting up a young lady, and surrounded by legs, arms, hands, and various other

joints,

joints, regularly suspended on hooks, and all beautifully white. But the stories of Lopez, of Merolla, and another good father of the name of Jerome, are such palpable fabrications, more especially those of the latter, who, with his rosary and the aid of the Virgin Mary, defeated whole armies; that whatever credit they might once have obtained, they are now unworthy of the least attention. Father Jerome asserts that, on the banks of the Zaire, the King of Concobella, who styled himself Lord of the Waters' and Ruler of the Elements,' fed his favourites with the flesh of condemned criminals; and that his majesty sent to him (Jerome) the carcass of one of the fattest and best conditioned, out of a gang of traitors, with a hope that it would be found tender and well flavoured. But even these are innocent, when compared with the audacious falsehoods of an ignorant and fanatical Capuchin of the name of Cavazzi, who seems to have raked together all that his predecessors had said before him, and to have added to them the suggestions of his own distempered imagination. The Jagas,' he says, are exceedingly fond of the flesh of young women, especially of their bed-fellows of the preceding night;' and he adds, that one of the most favourite dishes of the princes of this nation is a fœtus cut from the womb.' The ladies, too, it would seem by his account, are no less delicate in their taste than the gentlemen; for a certain princess is mentioned, who, to shew her great fondness for her gallants, feasted on then in succession:-but more of these Capuchins hereafter. We now know that not only the outrageous stories of this monkish dolt, but all the other accounts of cannibalism in this part of Africa, are entirely false; and that the people are invariably more mild and harmless, in proportion as they recede from the sea coast. The practice, mentioned by Degrandpré, on the coast of Congo, of cutting the bodies of certain animals in pieces, and exposing them to be devoured by birds of prey, may have given rise to the fables of early travellers; but among savages every borde represents to strangers the next to it as cannibals.

Had Mr. Murray consulted Hackluit's invaluable collection, (and we are somewhat surprized that he should not have made himself familiar with it,) he would have found accounts of many voyages along the coast of Guinea and to Benin, by Englishmen, previous to the patent of Elizabeth in 1588; as Windham's, for instance, in 1553, Lok's in 1554, Towerson's in 1555, and various others. The patent granted by Elizabeth was to certain merchants of Exeter, to carry on a trade to the rivers Senegal and Gambia; and accordingly, in 1591, we find that a voyage was undertaken by Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel to the Gambia, where they found the Portugueze in great numbers, who were exceedingly jealous of the new visitors,

and formed a conspiracy to seize their vessel and massacre the crew; but it was discovered and thwarted. Very little is recorded of the early voyages of our countrymen along the coast of Africa; but it would seem that the English merchants, who first established a trade on the Senegal and Gambia, soon felt an unbounded desire to explore the interior of western Africa in search of that which, in every age, has strongly tempted human cupidity-gold; and in 1618 a company was formed for the express purpose of penetrating to the country of gold, and advancing to Tombuctoo. GEORGE THOMPSON, a Barbary merchant, was the person selected for the enterprize. He sailed up the Gambia in a vessel of 120 tons, having a cargo on board of the value of £1857. At Kassan he left his vessel and proceeded up the river, but in his absence the Portugueze rose upon the crew, massacred the whole of them and seized the ship. Thompson, however, was not intimidated by this disaster, but formed his establishment in the upper part of the river, and wrote to the company for fresh succours; they sent out two expeditions; the first of which proved fatal to nearly the whole of the crew, from the inauspicious season at which it arrived: the latter, under the command of Captain Jobson, was more successful; but on its arrival at the mouth of the Gambia, the first intelligence which reached its commander was the death of Thompson. A deep mystery,' says Mr. Murray, hangs over the fate of this first martyr in the cause of African discovery.' It seems he had pushed up the river as far as Tenda, where, it is said, he was killed in a conflict with some of his own party.

JOBSON was not discouraged by this catastrophe of his predecessor. His first exploit was to seize a boat containing the effects of one Hector Nunez, who was considered as the ringleader in the seizure of Thompson's ship. On reaching Kassan he found that all the Portugueze inhabitants had fled from the place. Proceeding upwards, he arrived at Jerakonda (the Jonkakonda of Park) where he met two of Thompson's men. He next reached Oranto where Thompson had established his factory; here he was visited by the king, Summa Tumba, a blind man, who made haste (Jobson says) to drown his wits in the aqua vitæ we brought him:'--but the great article of demand was salt. Sailing upwards, the country became more mountainous and barren; and the wild animals multiplied: there was a world of sea-horses, whose paths, as they came on shore to feed, were beaten with tracks as large as London highway.' He passed the falls of Barraconda, after which the navigation of the river became difficult and dangerous from rocks and shallows. From the top of a high mountain nothing could be perceived except deserts replenished with terrible wild beasts, whose roaring we

heard

heard every night.' Jobson saw in one group sixteen great elephants, and frequently twenty crocodiles one by another.' At length the party reached the hill of Tenda (the Koba Tenda of Park.) Here they were visited by Buckar Sano, the great merchant, accompanied by his wife and daughter and a troop of forty attendants. Buckar drank so much brandy that he lay the whole night dead drunk in the boat. Salt was here also the chief article of demand, and slaves that of supply; but gold was the object of Jobson's inquiry; and the black merchant inflamed his cupidity by assuring him that he himself had been in a city, the roofs of which were covered with gold!-unfortunately this African Eldorado was situated at the distance of four moons to the southward. Vast multitudes flocked to Tenda, some out of curiosity to see the white men, and others for the sake of trade-but salt was still the cry, and, as ill luck would have it, Jobson's stock was exhausted: however a few bottles of brandy procured from the king the entire cession of Tenda and all the territory around it. Jobson did not reside long in his new dominions; the mention even of two places in the neighbourhood, Tombakonda (the Tambacunda of Park) and Jaye, the first of which he concluded to be Tombuctoo, and the other Gago, described by Leo as abounding with gold, had not the power of retaining, or drawing him a step farther. Perhaps,' Mr. Murray observes, he conceived that, having reached the vicinity of Tombuctoo and the country of gold, and having discovered traces of the Arabs, or Barbary Moors, who, he was informed, visited this district, he had accomplished the main purposes of his mission, and that little could be gained by ascending farther.' Being favoured by the stream on his return, he reached Barraconda in six days, whereas it had cost him twelve to ascend. On his arrival at Kassan, he found that the climate had done its usual work-the master and great part of the crew of the vessel had died; and there remained not above four in a condition for any labour. He lost no time in sailing down the river; and returned safe to England.

The next Englishman who proceeded up the Gambia is called, by Captain Stibbs, VERMUYDEN, whose narrative is contained in a Memoir inserted at the end of Moore's volume of Travels. The vague and confused manner in which it is drawn up, the paucity of names mentioned, the quantity of gold said to have been met with, have created a suspicion of its being spurious; Stibbs, however, expressses no doubt of its authenticity. The Memoir opens with describing the situation of the principal mine of gold: You come first, the writer says, to a broad collection of waters not much inferior to Winandermeer in Lancashire. At the first fall, in the channel coming from E.S. E. ten pounds of sand produced forty-seven grains of gold. On passing the upper fall the sand, when washed, yielded

gold