vert the evils which now threaten our trade and fettlements in the East, I fhall confider the labour and application of three months not to have been bestowed in vain. p. 31. If this filly boaft were juftified by the fact, our contempt for the author of it would only be increased. A huge quarto writ ten in three fhort months, does not anfwer our ideas of the refpect due to the public, and to a grave and exten£ve subject. The confequence is, that Mr Barrow has made a very indiffer. ent book. The whole of the cafe is indeed to be found within its four corners. But the argument is as ill arranged and as ill brought forward as can eafily be imagined. The materials are badly difpofed, and the whole reafoning produces a feeble ef fect. The force of the facts is dilated by repetition; and the style is fo inaccurate and inelegant, that we heartily with the manufacturer had divided his labours with other artifts, and fet abler hands upon thofe crude materials which he could furnish, but had no time, if any talents, to work up. We fee in his blank pages the promife of another large book; and we do earnestly exhort him to give up the foolish idea of writing at the rate of four quartos per annum. The preliminary chapter opens with fome fenfelefs declamation against the French emigrants, for their partiality towards France, and their antipathy to her enemies. Although it is by no means our intention to vindicate the whole of that unhappy race for their conduct, during the unexampled difficulties in which they were involved, yet we must be permitted to demand that their numbers on the one hand and their trials on the other be fairly taken into the account. It would have been miraculous indeed, had fo many thoufands of all ages, taken from the claffes of fociety least accustomed to the viciffitudes of fortune, and plunged into every variety of wretchednefs, maintained throughout a uniform propriety and unimpeachable wifdom of demeanour. But if faults, or even crimes, have been committed among them, fure we are, that Mr Barrow has not specified any matter of accufation which deferves our regard, when he only charges them with an invincible attachment to their unhappy country. As a fpecimen of all kinds of enormity, he extracts a most affecting paffage from the Duc de Rochefoucault's travels. It is a picture of natural and amiable feeling, which cannot be contemplated without the livelieft emotion. That ill-fated nobleman there exprefies the greatest affection and gratitude towards Eng land, and the abhorrence which he feels for the revolutionary enormities of his countrymen; but, with a juft and generous warmth, he paints the contending emotions by which he is unavoidably agitated-remembers that France, though the abused and de fpitefully fpitefully used him, is ftill his country-owns himself still interefted in her fortunes-defcribes how painful it is to receive loud, congratulations from her enemies upon her miferies and humiliations and fhows that he has a heart not entirely alienated from the place of his birth, and the land of his fathers, although, it is no longer his happy lot to be numbered among her children.We are aftonished that Mr Barrow, whofe own patriotifm is fo ardent, fhould have no fympathy for the feelings of this illuftrious exile. For our parts, we are far indeed from wishing to fee fuch cofmopolitifm prevail, as that which should teach all men to alienate their hearts from their country as foon as the wickedness of a few of her inhabitants had delivered her up to civil diffenfions; and, for us, that patriotifm has no charms which can change its object without a pang, and take root in each hoftile ground, affimilating itfelf fucceffively to every vaziety of expofure... Our author, in the courfe of his introductory remarks, expreffes his furprife at the fingular difference between the character of the Dutch in their own country and in the colonies. He defcribes them as the moft indolent and prodigal of all nations in the latter fituation; whereas, at home, they are noted for frugality and industry. This ftatement is important it is quite new to us-and it, is totally falfe. The colonial industry and wealth of the Hollanders, is as confpicuous as their toils and opulence at home. It is in vain that Mr Barrow tells us, they devolve their labour upon flaves; that at the Cape, the purchase of a flave is the firft ufe a man makes of a little money which he may acquire; and that, at Batavia, 100,000 Chinese do all the business of the colony. This only proves that the conftitution of Europeans in thofe climates is ill adapted to hard work; and that the Cape planters and Batavian fettlers, like the planters of Surinam and Demerary, ufe flaves as we do beafts of burthen. No man can deny the prodigies which Dutch induftry have performed on the coaft of Guiana; yet you may traverse all Guiana without feeing a white man at work, except in his comptoir or warehoufes. Many of the facts ftated by our author prove that the analogy of the Dutch character in the east and in the weft is com plete. Their domeftic flaves are treated with too much indulgence; while their field flaves, and, above all, their Hottentot labourers, are the victims of a cruelty and avarice equal to that for which the Dutch name has uniformly been infamous in the new world. (Vid. p. 108. 135.) Before proceeding to the main object of this volume, we shall notice the chief information communicated by Mr Barrow in his narrative of the military expedition to the Kaffer frontier: this relates to the interior of Africa. Our Our readers will probably recollect, that M. Le Vaillant, after being stopped in his progrefs northward by want of water and feveral untoward accidents, found that had he begun his journey about this part of the country (what he calls the country of the Houfonanas) he might have proceeded with eafe, from the high ftate of its cultivation compared with the barbarity of the Hottentots. Mr Barrow prefents us with fome interefting particu lars refpecting the Boofhooanas, of whom Le Vaillant evidently fpeaks, and whofe country he must only have known by report. This people is a tribe of the Kaffers; the men are of a tall athletic form; of fimple, paftoral manners; living almost entirely on milk and vegetables, and following the occupation of shepherds. Two commiflioners, fent from the Cape by government in 1801, for the purpofe of procuring draught oxen, reached their capital, Leetakoa. It is, according to their report, fituated in a finely cultivated and enclofed country, and is very large and populous. The commiffioners estimated its fize at between two and three thoufand houfes, and its population at from ten to fifteen thousand. It lies nearly in latitude 26° 30' fouth, and longitude 27° eaft from Greenwich. The chief received them with hofpitality, and introduced them to his wives and families. The following is the defcription given of their houses: His houfe, like all the reft in the town, was built in a circular form, being about fixteen feet in diameter. The bottom part, to the height of four feet from the ground, was stone laid in clay, and wooden fpars erected at certain diftances. On the eaft fide of the circle, about the fourth part of the house was open, the other three fourths entirely closed. A round pointed roof covered the whole in the form of a tent, well thatched with long reeds, or with the ftraws of the holcus. From the centre to the back part of the houfe, a circular apartment is made off, with a narrow entrance into it, where the head of the family takes his nightly reft; the other members of the family fleep in the fore part, or between the large and fmall circles of the houfe. All the houfes were enclosed by pallifades; and the space between thefe and the dwelling ferves for a granary and ftore for their grain and pulfe. Thefe granaries were conftructed in the form of oil jars, of baked clay, the capacity of each being at the leaft two hundred gallons; and they were fupported on tripods, compofed of the fame material, which raised them about nine inches above the ground. They were covered with a round ftraw roof erected on poles, and fufficiently high to admit an opening into the jars, the upper edges of which were from five to fix feet from the ground.' p. 115. The ftate of fociety may be gathered pretty accurately from what our author relates concerning the women, who, as is ufual in favage communities, performed all the drudgery of the family. They not only performed the task of breaking up the ground with a kind of hoe made of iron, and afterwards planted it, but they conArnoted ftructed their habitations, and collected the materials that were neceffary for the fame. They reaped the grain, cleared it from the husk, and laid it up in the granaries, which, with other earthen pots and wooden veffels, were the work of their hands. The men prepare the fkins and hides which ferve for fhoes, and make them up into cloaks for themselves, their wives, and children; they attend alfo the cattle, milk the cows, and hunt the antelopes and other game, with a weapon called the Hallagai, which is ufed alfo in battle.' p. 116. 117. Our author has a peculiar theory, which we think by no means void of probability as to the origin of the Kaffers. He thinks that they are the defcendants of a tribe of Beduin Arabs; and fupports his opinion by a reference to their paftoral habits, their hofpitable manners, their tent-fhaped houfes, their practice of circumcifing, and, above all, their phyfiognomy. He is perfuaded that the Kaffers extend farther to the northward than is generally believed, and fuppofes that a line drawn from the 24th parallel of fouth latitude on the east coaft to the 20th on the weft, would feparate the Kaffers from the Negroes. The Portuguefe, whofe fettlement of De la Goa borders on their country, have never ventured to introduce the flave trade among them. To the north of the Boofhooanas, the commiffioners were informed, that a much more powerful tribe lived in a cultivated tract of country, under the fouthern tropic; they are called the Baroloos. Their manners are kind and fimple; they are acquainted with the art of fmelting copper and iron, for which they have furnaces erected; they are extremely rich in cattle; their lands and houses are much better than thofe of the Boofhooanas; and their chief town was reprefented as fo extenfive, that it was faid to be a day's journey in length, and extremely populous. Information was received from a Portuguese flave-merchant, that the Portuguese have a direct communication across the continent, from Loango to Mozambique, for the purposes of trade, the ftaple of which is flaves; and that negro-merchants are established in different parts of this long route. This confirms a ftatement given, we know not on what authority, by Mr B. Edwards, in the fecond volume of his History of the West Indies. Upon all this interesting information, we have two remarks to offer. In the first place, why have the two commiffioners, who faw so much more of the interior of Africa than any preceding travellers, not published any account of their difcoveries? We call upon those gentlemen, Meffrs Sommerville and Trutter, to gratify the very just curiofity of the public on this point. We would alfo fuggeft to the African affociation the expediency of attempting to penetrate ftill farther towards the north by the fame route. route. It is evidently much more fafe and acceffible than the track by the weft coaft; for the traveller has no Moors to encounter, and can fuffer little or no inconvenience from the effects of the flave-trade. Secondly, We must entreat the attention of our readers to the fingular coincidence of all the information now obtained, with that procured from the African travellers to the north of the line, regarding the fuperior civilization of the inte rior of this unhappy continent. It is the peculiar fate of Africa, to have its progrefs in improvement repreffed by the crimes of diftant nations on all its coafts. The Mahometans on the east and north; the Portuguese on the fouth-eaft; the Dutch on the fouth; the English, French, Dutch and Portuguese on the westhave all, in their several departments, kept the coafts of that vaft region in barbarism and darkness. As we penetrate towards the interior, from either of these quarters, we find that darkness gradually difpelled, and a faint ray of civilization beginning to dawn. Entering from the weft, we find the negroes, as we advance, become more numerous, more wealthy, more cultivated and more refined, as foon as we pass the peculiar region of the flave-trade. Entering from the fouth, we have no fooner paffed the boundaries of the Dutch boors (who hold all the natives of that quarter in a state of pitylefs fubjection), than we find large and populous cities, a country cultivated like a garden, and a fine race of peo ple, poffeffed of the more difficult arts of life. To the north of this happer diftrict, there runs a line of country defolated by the flave-trade; and as we approach it, the Kaffers, though ftill free, begin to degenerate. (Vide Barrow, p. 118.). When this line, through the narrower part of the continent, is croffed, we again come among more improved tribes, provided we keep in the inland parts, and do not approach the haunts of civilized and Chrif tian ftrangers.-The moral of all this we leave to our readers. We are now to confider the principal fubject of this volumethe importance of the Cape as a colonial eftablishment to Great Britain. Its value is difcuffed by our author in four points of view-as a military ftation-as a naval ftation-as a commercial ftation and port of outfit for the fisheries-and as a territorial acquifition. We fhall briefly view it in these four lights. I. The central fituation of the Cape, as well as its phyfical circumstances, peculiarly adapt it both for a depôt of formed troops, and a ftation where they may be formed. Its diftance from South America is the voyage of a month; from Guiana and the Weft Indies, fix weeks; from the Red Sea, fix weeks; from England and from India two months. The climate is fo favour able, that invalids from India recover there with furprising rapi dity. |