"The Lord Christ bleeding bowed his head and And by that dying did he wash earth white Death could not hold him, and ere many days tears." And as that river widens to the sea The barge I speak of will dilate and tower, And put forth bank on bank of burnished oars, And on the waters like a sunset burn, And roll a lordlier music far and wide, And ever on the dais a king shall sit, And ever round the king shall nobles stand." So Edwin grows and flourishes, and becomes a mighty idol-breaker, until, in a good old age, he is laid in the church which he has built: "The fanes he burned At Goodmanham, at Yeverin, and York, bloom; Grandchildren of the men he knew in youth; With lord and priest around, till through the air Like a golden barge with burnished oars, tiful seat of the Pakenham family at Longford Lodger will be graced by the presence of the Prince and that of her Majesty's chief representative in Ireland. -Northern Whig. THE PRINCE OF WALES IN IRELAND.-His Royal | Highness the Prince of Wales will honor Belfast and the north of Ireland with a visit during an early period of the month of August. We have reason to believe that the Prince, during his stay in the north, will, with Lord Carlisle, be the guest of Lord Lurgan, MISS FREDRIKA BREMER, whom we announced at whose beautiful residence extensive preparations lately as the editor of a novel written by one of her are being made for the reception of the distinguished friends, is now in Greece writing a book on the visitors. We understand that his Royal Highness Modern Greeks. It will be translated, when comwill also visit the shore of Lough Neagh, and that plete, by Mary Howitt, who seems to have the mothe ancient halls of Massereene Castle and the beau-nopoly of Miss Bremer's works. From the Westminster Review. EQUATORIAL AFRICA, AND ITS INHABITANTS.* Or the numerous and vast territories | Sea of the Gazelles-landed himself and of Africa which, still untrodden by the men, and proceeded due south in quest of white man, invite his exploration, none ivory. During the last of several expedisurpass, either in extent or interest, that tions, he reached the most southern point broad central region stretching through of his explorations-a village called Munthirty degrees of longitude, from the At- do, inhabited by a cannibal tribe named lantic to the Indian Ocean, and several Neam Nam. Mr. Petherick had no indegrees of latitude on either side of the struments by which he could determine equator. Starting from Zanzibar, on the the latitude of Mundo, but he believes it east coast, in latitude 6o south, Captain to be quite close to the equator. There Speke and Major Burton have been re- can be no doubt that Captain Speke and warded by the discovery of the great lake Mr. Petherick, starting from opposite or inland sea, Tanganyika which is believ points, have each approached very nearly ed to be at least two handred and fifty the same spot; indeed, Captain Speke is miles long, and from thirty to thirty-five disposed to believe that Lake Nyanza and miles broad. This lake is nearly six hun- the Bahr-el-Gazal are connected with each dred miles in a direct line from the coast. other. To settle this interesting question, Proceeding from it in a north-easterly to explore Lake Nyanza from south to direction, Captain Speke, after a sixteen north, and then to proceed northward as days' journey, had the happiness of being far as Gondokoro, situate on one of the the first white man whose eyes rested on branches of the White Nile, and said to a second great fresh-water sea-Lake Ny be in lat. 4° 30' N., and long. 31° 50′ E., anza, or, as the loyal Captain has named where Mr. Petherick is to meet him in it, the Victoria Nyanza. Its area is not November next, is the adventurous and yet known: one of the sable sultanas dwell- exceedingly interesting task which Caping near its southern shore declared that tain Speke has now undertaken. Mr. Peshe had never heard of there being any therick proposes to form a dépôt of grain end to it, and did not dream of the possi- at Gondokoro, under the charge of his bility that any one could go round it. In own men, in order to insure to the Captain fact, its northern extremity is supposed by means of subsistence and security from the natives to reach to the end of the violence whenever he may reach that world. Meanwhile Mr. Petherick, who, place; to assist him in passing through as a merchant, has passed fifteen years in the hostile tribes between Lake Nyanza the territories of the Upper Nile, advanc- and the Nile; and also to extend his own ed in a south-western direction along the explorations. The Royal Geographical Nile, and reaching a vast lake-like expan- Society is deserving the utmost praise for sion of the river-the Bahr-el-Gazal, or the spirited manner in which, depending on private subscriptions, it has determined to send out Mr. Petherick at a cost of two thousand pounds. Certainly, as they justly observe, "he is beyond any other Englishman peculiarly fitted for carrying out the expedition he proposes ;" and we sin cerely hope that in 1863 or 1864 we may learn of its more than expected success. *Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chase of the Gorilla, Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other Animals. By PAUL B. DU CHAILLU. With Map and Illustrations. London: John Murray. 1861. Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa, with Explorations from Khartoum on the White Nile to the Regions of the Equator, being Sketches from Sixteen Years Travel. By JOHN PETHERICK, F.R.G.S., her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Soudan. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons. 1861. Petherick's last journey, the country beToward the southernmost part of Mr. came undulatory, and even mountainous : he speaks of being among granitic moun tains and of going through mountain-pass- "Some of the slaves of the Apingi (an inland tribe) are brought from a distance to the eastward, which they counted as twenty days' journey; and they invariably protested that the mountains in sight from their present home continue in an uninterrupted chain far beyond their own country-in fact, as far as they knew." Notwithstanding the facts which preclude us from feeling that implicit trust in M. du Chaillu's narrative which otherwise we should place in it, we can not help believing it to be substantially true. It is pervaded by an air of verisimilitude, reality, and good faith, which generate confidence. Moreover, it presents such abundant evidence of the general good sense and enlightened intelligence of the writer, that we feel assured he would be too wise, if he were not too honest, to attempt to deceive the English and American public by a monstrous fabrication, the falsehood of which must speedily be demonstrated and cover him with infamy. Indeed we do not believe the numerous narratives in the volume could have been invented if they were, all we can say is, they rival in ability and interest the great fiction of De Foe. To us their general truthfulness is a far more credible hypothesis. To this, therefore-in_common with Sir Roderick Murchison, Professor Owen, and Professor Huxley-we hold; and proceeding upon it, we shall, without further adverse criticism, make our readers acquainted with the more important results of M. du Chaillu's explorations in the western part of equatorial Africa. M. du Chaillu thinks it probable, he says, that "in the northern slope of this great range originate many of the feeders of the Niger, Lake Tchad, and the Nile;" His very interesting narrative of his and that its impenetrable forests and its travels and adventures abounds in origisavage inhabitants together put a stop to nal information respecting the rivers, anithe southward course of the Mohamme- mals, (including the man-like gorilla,) and dan conquest; which, as he observes, never human inhabitants of the regions which advanced south of the equator. In a he visited. Interested in, and evidently geographical point of view, the discovery attaching great value to, the labors of of the western part of this mountain Christian missionaries in Africa, he is range, and the reasonable hypothesis of wholly free from religious superstition, its relation to the Nile and other African and impresses us as peculiarly qualified rivers, as well as of its agency in arresting to investigate wisely and impartially the the southward course of Mohammedanism, ideas and usages of a savage people, and are in our opinion, if M. du Chaillu's state especially to acquire and communicate a ments may be relied on, the most import- correct knowledge of the rude notions ant and interesting results of his explora- and beliefs of the natives respecting the tions. Certainly, this vast and mysteri-"spirit-world," and the supposed invisious terra incognita, equatorial Africa, now gives promise of appearing wholly unvailed at no distant date; and we wait with eager curiosity to learn whether the knowledge about to be acquired by Captain Speke and Mr. Petherick in their new expeditions will corroborate M. du Chaillu's assertions and conjectures. We confess that the evidence adduced in justification of the doubts which have been expressed concerning the accuracy of M. du Chaillu's narrative are painfully perplexing. ble agencies which preside over and control their lives. An American gentleman of French descent, he was, he says, associated in business with his father during four years, on the African coast, and thus had the immense advantage of obtaining an acquaintance with the languages and customs of the natives around him, and of inuring his constitution to brave the dangers of the climate before he began his explorations, the object of which was not only to acquaint himself with the region lying between latitude two degrees north and latitude two degrees south, and extending eastward as far as he could penetrate, in the interests of geography and natural history; but also to ascertain if in the interior there might not be found a region fertile and populous, and at the same time healthy, where missionaries, who, on the low coasts, too often fall victims to their pious zeal, could labor with safety and advantage, and where trading stations beneficial alike to whites and natives might be established. 66 66 digious numbers. Though in this season the Ogobai had sunk fifteen feet lower than it was in May, it was still deep, and navigable by vessels of good size; and the shallower N'poulounay was yet quite practicable for a steamer of light draught." The river N'gouyai, a chief tributary of the Ogobai, runs westward, and is fed by the mountain range already mentioned as traversing the continent in the line of the equator. The scenery along its course M. du Chaillu describes as growing "grander and bolder" as he The three large streams which pour advanced. Every mile of downward themselves into the Atlantic, on the Afri- progress," he says, "seemed to bring us can coast, between the equator and lati to a more magnificent country." Before tude two degrees south, and which are re-its junction with the Okanda, its course is spectively designated on the maps as the rivers Nazareth, Mexias, and Fernand Vas, have been hitherto supposed to be distinct rivers; but the explorations of M. du Chaillu prove them to be only sepa rate mouths in the vast delta of one great river-the Ogobai; the three chief tributaries of which are the N'gouyai, the Okanda, and that part of what has hither to been called the Fernand Vas which for the last forty miles of its course runs in a north-westerly direction, parallel with and very near to the coast. This branch, which at twenty miles from its mouth is three miles wide, and which in its upper part is called the Ovenga, he appears to have traced to its source in the Ashauko. lo Mountains-part of the range nearest to the sea. Ascending one of the chief outlets of the Ogobai--the N'poulounay; and then, after passing some distance up the Ogobai itself, exploring one of its small tributaries-the Anengue-Mr. du Chaillu entered a splendid lake, "at least ten miles wide, and dotted with various beautiful wooded islands." On one side it is bounded by hills which come close down to the shore. Many of these hills are crowned with native villages. The whole country around is filled with the India-rubber vine. In the month of May the lake was every where deep enough for steamers of moderate draught; in August "it was still a beautiful sheet of water, and good enough for navigation;" but all over it the dry season had brought out, as also in the "noble stream" of the Ogobai, an eruption of black mud islands, empties itself. Most of these tributaon which reposed hosts of crocodiles. ries of the Muni have their source in the "Wherever the eye was turned, these coast range of mountains-the Sierra del disgusting beasts, with their dull leer, Crystal-and are of no great length, the and huge, savage jaws, appeared in pro-longest being not more than about eighty broken by splendid falls, called by the natives Samba Nagoshi, and named by M. du Chaillu, in honor of the French Empress, the Eugenie Falls. But though he thus baptized them he never saw them. Having descended the river to a point about five miles above them, where he halted, and where their "mighty roar " sounded in his ears all night, he was prevented from reaching them by the resolute refusal of his men to accompany him : they alleged that a hostile tribe living in the forest on the way would kill them. "That the fall of Samba Nagoshi is a majestic sight," says M. du Chaillu, "all the descriptions of the Negroes go to prove. It is the great marvel of which all the tribes have heard, even those who live at a distance, and of which all speak with awe and wonder." The upper part of this river is called by the natives the Apingi; it runs in a northerly direction, and at the highest point of it reached by M. du Chaillu, he found it "three hundred yards wide, and from three to four fathoms deep in the channel." The Okanda, said to be the largest by far of the tributaries of the Ogobai, and which runs in a south-westerly direction, M. du Chaillu did not explore. The river next in importance to the Ogobai, which was examined by M. du Chaillu, is the Muni, already known, and whose chief tributaries are the N'tongo, the N'dina, the Noya, and the N'tambounay, which is the principal stream, and into which a smaller river-the Moondah Among the animals encountered by M. du Chaillu, the most remarkable, always excepting the gorilla and his near relations, is the Bashikouay ant. miles long. The Muni enters the sea in | In the same region grows also another 1° 2' north lat., and is, like most of the exceedingly valuable palm. The fibrous rivers of the coast, bounded by mangrove parts of its leaves are woven by the naswamps; but near the mouth the high- tives into a beautiful texture known as lands are visible in the background, and grass cloth, which is generally preferred make up a picturesque scene. Ascending by the natives to our common cottons. the N'tambounay, the river continues Even the Apingi, who manufacture it, wide, being for the first twenty miles at evinced unwillingness to exchange it for least two hundred yards across all the the cloths which M. du Chaillu offered. way. The course of the stream is dotted and interrupted by many small islands, whose shores are bordered with graceful palms, and its banks form a most charming landscape. "The Moondah, which enters the sea about half a degree north of the equator, is," says M. du Chaillu, a most disagreeable and unhealthy river, one vast swamp, which seems little likely ever to be useful to man. I was forced," he adds, "to take quinine twice a day while going up; and the few natives who live near its banks are a poor set, sickly, and with little energy." 66 The country traversed by M. du Chaillu presents great variety of aspect extensive swamps, rich prairies, woods almost impenetrable, hills of considerable hight, and the mountain ranges of the Sierra del Crystal, reaching five thousand feet above the sea, as well as the great range running eastward, and called by the natives the Nkoomoonabouli; these several features, intersected by the numcrous rivers before mentioned, constitute a landscape combining tropical exuberance and Alpine beauty. The mineral riches of the country remain wholly unexplored: iron is seen, however, to be every where plentiful. Among the more important vegetable products we may mention the ebony tree, the India-rubber vine, and the oil-yielding palin. The ebony tree is found in abundance, and its wood is an article of regular native traffic. In almost every di rection M. du Chaillu encountered the India-rubber vine, the juice from which might become an unfailing source of wealth, were it carefully collected for exportation. Not less abundant is the oilyielding palm. Referring to the country of the Apingi tribe, M. du Chaillu says: "I never saw such vast quantities of palms, all hanging full of ripe nuts. Thousands of tons of oil might easily be made here, and transported on rafts by water to the seaboard, if only the trade could once be opened. The Apingi eat the nuts, and seem to thrive upon them." "It is the dread of all living animals, from the leopard to the smallest insect. I do not think that they build a nest or home of any kind. At any rate they carry nothing away, but eat all their prey on the spot. It is their habit to march through the forests in a long regular line-a line about two inches broad and often several miles in length. All along this line are larger ants, who act as officers, stand outside the ranks, and keep this singular army in order. If they come to a place where there are no trees to shelter them from the sun, whose heat they can not bear, they immediately build underground tunnels, through which the whole army passes in columns to the forest beyond. These tunnels are four or five feet underground, and are used only in the heat of the day or during a storm. "When they grow hungry the long file spreads itself through the forest in a front line, and attacks and devours all it overtakes with a fury which is quite irresistible. The elephant and gorilla fly before this attack. The black men run for their lives. Every animal that lives in their line of march is chased. They seem to understand and act upon the tactics of Napoleon, and concentrate with great speed, their heaviest forces on the point of attack. In an incredibly short space of time, the mouse, or dog, or leopard, or deer, is overwhelmed, killed, eaten, and the bare skeleton only remains. "They seem to travel night and day. Many a time have I been awakened out of a sleep, and obliged to rush from the hut and into the water to save my life, and after all suffered intolerable agony from the bites of the advance-guard, who house they clear it of all living things. Cockhad got into my clothes. When they enter a roaches are devoured in an instant. Rats and mice spring around the room in vain. An overwhelming force of ants kills a strong rat in less than a minute, in spite of the most frantic struggles, and in less than another minute its bones are stripped. Every living thing in the house is devoured. They will not touch vegetable matter. Thus they are in reality very useful (as well as dangerous) to the negroes, who have their huts cleared of all the abound. ing vermin, such as immense cockroaches and centipedes, at least several times a year. |