A remarkable proof,' fay the Directors, exifts in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, of the very great advantages of a permanent, though very imperfect fyftem of government, and of the abolition of thofe African laws which make flavery the punishment of almost every offence. Not more than feventy years ago, a fmall number of Mahomedans established themfelves in a country about forty miles to the northward of Sierra Leone, called from them the Mandingo Country. As is the practice of the profeffors of that religion, they formed schools in which the Arabic language and the doctrines of Mahomet were taught; and the customs of Mahomedans, particularly that of not felling any of their own religion for flaves, were adopted; laws founded on the Koran were introduced; thofe practices which chiefly contribute to depopulate were eradicated; and, in fpite of many inteftine convulfions, a great comparative idea of civilization, unity, and fecurity, was introduced; population, in confequence, was rapidly increased; and the whole power of that part of the country in which they are fettled has gradually fallen into their hands. Thofe who have been taught in their schools, are fucceeding to wealth and power in the neighbouring countries, and carry with them a confiderable portion of their religion and laws; other chiefs are adopting the names affumed by these Mahomedans, on account of the respect with which it is attended; and the religion of Iflam feems to diffufe itfelf peaceably over the whole district in which the colony is situatedcarrying with it thofe advantages which feem ever to have attended its victory over African fuperftition. ' Agriculture, though in a rude infant ftate, is practised all along this coaft of Africa. All the lands must be strictly appropriated in a country, and the greater part cultivated, before any can be cultivated well. Where land is of little value, it is cheaper and better to till it flightly than perfectly; or rather, perfection, under fuch circumftances, confifts in idlenefs and neglect. The great impediment to be removed from the fresh land which the Africans mean to cultivate, are those troublefome weeds called trees; which are firft cut down, and then, with the grafs, fet fire to at a particular feafon of the year. This operation is performed when the Pleiades, the only stars they obferve, are in a certain position with respect to the fetting fun. At that feafon, the fires are feen rolling in every direction over the parched and inflammable herbage; and the blazing provinces are difcerned at an immenfe diftance in the night by fhips approaching the coaft. At this period of Arfon, it is not fafe to travel without a tinder-box; for, if a traveller is furprised by the purfuit of the flame, his only safety confifts in propagating the fame evil before, by which he is menaced behind; and, in trudging on amid the fiery hyphen, multiplying deftruction in order to avoid it. The Foolahs, who feem to have made the greateft advances in agriculture, are, however, ftill ignorant ignorant of the use of the plough, though Dr Winterbottom is quite perfuaded they might eafily be taught to ufe cattle for that purpose. There came,' fays the Doctor, during my refidence at the colony, a chief, of confiderable importance, from the river Gambia, attracted by curiofity, and a defire of information. The man, whofe appearance inftantly announced a mind of no common caft, was fo much ftruck with what he faw there, that, before he went away, he engaged in his fervice two of the moft ingenious mechanics in the colony, one of whom, a carpenter, among other things, was to make a plough, and the other was to teach his people the art of training oxen for the draught, and fixing them to the yoke. For a further account of this perfon, fee the Report of the Diretors of the Sierra Leone Company. London, 1795.' It is curious to remark, that where any inftance of civilization and refinement is difcovered in the manners of a barbarous people, it exists in a much higher degree than the fame virtue in nations generally refined. There are many fingle points of barbarous courtefy much more rigidly adhered to than the rules of European politenefs would require. We have often remarked this in the voyages of Captain Cooke, among the islands of the Indian Archipelago; and there is a very remarkable instance of it among the natives of this coaft. The houses (fays Dr Winterbottom) have feldom any other opening than the door, of which there are ufually two oppofite to each other. Thefe ferve the purpose of keeping up a current of air; they also admit the light; and afford an exit to the fmoke of the fire, which is made in the middle of the floor. The entrance of a house is seldom clofed by any thing but a mat, which is occafionally let down, and is a fufficient barrier against all intruders. The most intimate friend will not prefume to lift the mat and enter, unless his falutation is returned. Nay, when the door is thus flightly clofed, a woman, by pronouncing the word Mooradee, (I am bufy), can prevent her husband from entering, even though he is affured the is ent. rtaining her gallant. His only remedy is to wait for their coming out. The explanation of thefe infulated pieces of fuperlative refinement among favages, frequently is, that they are not mere ceremonies, but religious obfervances; for the faith of barbarous people commonly regulates all the frivolous minutiae of life, as well as its important duties; indeed, generally confiders the first as of greater confequence than the laft. And it must be a general fact, at all times, that grofs ignorance more tenaciously adheres to a custom once adopted, because it refpects that cuftom as an ultimate rule, and does not difcern cafes of ex ception ception by appealing to any higher rule upon which the first is founded. The Africans are very litigious; and difplay, in their law-fuits or palavers, a moft forenfic exuberance of images, and loquacity of fpeech. Their criminal caufes are frequently terminated by felling one of the parties into flavery; and the Chriftians are always ready to purchase either the plaintiff or defendant, or both; together with all the witneffes, and any other human creature who is of a dufky colour, and worships the great idol Boo-Boo-Boo, with eleven heads. No great divifion of labour can of course be expected in fuch a ftate of fociety. Every man is a city in himself, and is his own tailor, hairdreffer, fhoemaker, and every thing elfe. Among the Foolahs, however, fome progrefs has been made in the divifion of employments. The tanner and the blackfmith are diftinct trades; and the ingenuity which they evince in overcoming obftacles, by means fo inadequate to thofe which Europeans poffefs, may convince us what a ftock of good qualities human nature has in ftore for cafes of emergency. They put to fea canoes of ten tons burthen, hollowed from a fingle tree; and although they are ignorant of the ufe of the potter's wheel, make earthen pots fit for every domeftic ufe. Dr Winterbottom thinks they may have learnt their pottery from Europeans; but if this is true, it is rather fingular they were not inftructed by the fame masters in the ufe of the potter's moft convenient and most prominent instrument. The common drefs of the men confifts in a fhirt, trowfers, woollen cap or hat, which they buy of Europeans. Thofe who can afford it, are fond of decorating themfelves in all the fecond-hand fplendour they can purchase at the fame market; and Monmouth-Street embarks its decayed finery for the coaft of Africa, where Soofoo rakes and loungers are joyfully vefted in the habiliments of their Bond-Street predeceffors. The drefs of the Pagan African is never thought complete, unlefs a variety of gree-grees, or amulets, be fuperadded; thefe are to guard against every poffible accident; but, as Dr Winterbottom obferves, are fuch very cumbersome protectors, that in all real dangers they are commonly thrown away. The Mahomedan religion is inimical to dancing, finging, and all the lighter fpecies of amusement. Riding on horfeback is the only exercife of thofe Africans who have adopted this dull faith. Sedentary amusements, such as reading and writing, which flatter the li terary pride with which they are puffed up, are most congenial to their habits. The collation of manufcripts, which they perform with industry and accuracy, takes up much of their time. -The Pagan African, on the contrary, is commonly a merry, dancing dancing animal, given to every fpecies of antic and apifh amusement; and as he is unacquainted with the future and promifed delights of the Arabian prophet, he enjoys the bad mufic, and imperfect beauty of this world, with a moft eager and undifturbed relish. There is fomething fo natural, and fo closely derived from human governments, in the notion of the immediate interference of Providence, that mankind are only weaned from it by centuries of contradiction and difcuffion. In all cafes, where crime is alleged, the accufed is obliged to prove his innocence, by fubmitting to an ordeal. If he is burnt by red-hot iron, or fcalded by boiling oil, he is immediately hurried to the gallows, with a zeal proportioned to the force and perfpicuity of the evidence. In the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, a curious fpecies of pharmaceutical tyranny is reforted to for the purpose of ordeal. The bark of a particular tree, of purgative and emetic qualities, is infufed into a large quantity of water, of which the prifoner is to drink about fix calibafhes quite full. If this judicial and inquifitive drink take a fuperior direction, and return by the aperture through which it is admitted, all is well; but if the leaft honourable and elegant of its powers predominate over the other, and it evince a difpofition to defcend, all opportunity of changing its line of egrefs is prevented, by the immediate elevation of the accufed perfon to the gibbet. The defire of penetrating into futurity, and the belief that fome perfons are capable of doing it, is as difficult to eradicate from the human mind, as is the belief in an immediate Providence; and confequently, the Africans not only have their ordeal, but their conjurers and magicians, who are appealed to in all the difficulties and uncertainties of life, and who always, of courfe, preferve their authority, though they are perpetually fhowing, by the clearest evidence of facts, upon what fort of foundation it refts. But the moft fingular circumftance in the hiftory of barbarians, is, that tendency to form interior focieties, comprehending a vast number of members, and rivalling the government in their influence upon public opinion. Such is the Areoy Society at Otaheite, and fuch the Society of the Purra in Africa. Every perfon, on entering into this Society, lays afide his former name, and takes a new one. They have a fuperior, whofe commands are received with the most profound veneration. When the Purra comes into a town, which is always at night, it is accompanied with the moft horrid fcreams, howlings, and every kind of awful noife. The inhabitants who are not members, are obliged to fecure themfelves within doors. Should any one be discovered without, or peeping to fee what was going for wards, wards, he would infallibly be put to death. Mere feclufion of females is not confidered by the Society as a fufficient guarantee against their curiofity; but all the time the Purra remains in town, the women are obliged to clap their hands, to fhew they are not attempting any private indulgence of espionage. Like the Secret Tribunal which formerly existed in Germany, it punishes the guilty and difobedient, in fo fecret a manner, that the perpetrators are never known, and, from the dread of the Tribunal, not often inquired for.--The natives about Sierra Leone fpeak of the Purra men with horror, and firmly believe that they have all ftrict and inceffant intercourfe with the devil. This account of Africa is terminated by a fingle chapter on Sierra Leone; a fubject on which we cannot help regretting that Dr Winterbottom has not been a little more diffufe: It would derive a peculiar intereft from the present state of St Domingo, as the perils with which Weft India property is now threatened, muft naturally augment curiofity refpecting the poffibility of a pacific change of that fyftem; and we should have read with pleasure and inftruction, the obfervations of fo intelligent and entertaining a writer as Dr Winterbottom, who is extensively acquainted with the fubjects on which he writes, and has a talent of felecting important matter, and adorning it. Dr Winterbottom fays he has been in Africa fome years, and we do not doubt the fact; he might, however, have written this book without giving himself that trouble; and the only difference between him and a mere compiler is, that he fanctions his quotations by authority, and embellishes them by his ingenuity. The medical volume we have not yet feen, but this firft volume may be safely purchased. ART. X. The Second Part of the Hiflory of the Anglo-Saxons from the Death of Egbert to the Norman Conqueft. In Two Volumes. By Sh. Turner, F. A. S. Cadell & Davies. MR R GIBBON has juftly observed, that the Anglo-Saxon period of the English history is familiar to the most illiterate, and obfcure to the most learned reader.' Gildas, whom the hiftorian of the Roman Empire ftyles, with ambiguous compliment, the British Jeremiah,' is fo pleafed to find, or fo determined to invent, topics for declamatory lamentation or praife, that it is difficult to distinguish the bafis of truth from the fantastic fuperftructure of exaggeration and falfehood with which he has overloaded it. We cannot, at this distance of time, decide what parts of the history of Nennius were written by himfelf, and what were added or altered |