one of the numerous relics of their former pagan existence, it being still a general custom with the Sokoro to eat a large species of beetle called "der

nana."

Of other species of worms I shall have occasion to speak further on; but with the white and black ants I myself waged repeatedly a relentless but unsuccessful war during my residence in the country. Already, the second day of my stay in Bakada, I observed that the white ant (termes fatalis) was threatening my couch, which I had spread upon a very coarse mat, or "siggedi" as the Kanuri, "laba" as the Bagirmi people call it, made of the thickest reed, with total destruction. I therefore, for want of a better protection, contrived an expedient which I thought would guarantee my berth against the further attacks of those cruel intruders, placing my couch upon three very large poles; but I soon had cause to discover that those ferocious insects were not to be deterred by such means, for two days afterwards, I found that they had not only built their entrenchments along the poles, and reached the top, but had eaten through both the coarse mats, finished a large piece of my Stambuli carpet, and destroyed several other articles. And during my further stay here I had the greatest trouble in preventing these insects from destroying all my things; for their voracity and destructive powers seem to increase towards the beginning of the rainy season, which was fast setting in.

The natives not only suffer from the depredations of insects, but they are also the cause of disease. Not only is the so-called "guinea-worm very common, but a kind of insect that penetrates the toe-similar, apparently, to what is met with in South America-commits such ravages, that amongst ten people, Barth says, you will find at least one who has only four toes.

Returning to Mele, our traveller's intentions of leaving this inhospitable country were frustrated by force, and he and his servants were put in irons until relieved by the arrival of a friend-one Haj Bu-Bakr Sadik -who undertook to conduct the doctor into the presence of the Sultan of Bagirmi at his capital of Mas-ena. Of this city, Barth says:

The town of Mas-ena extends over a considerable area, the circumference of which measures about seven miles; but only about half of this area is inhabited, the principal quarter being formed in the midst of the town on the north and west sides of the palace of the sultan, while a few detached quarters and isolated yards lie straggling about as outposts. The most characteristic feature of the place consists in a deep trough-like depression or bottom, stretching out to a great length, and intersecting the town from east to west, in the same manner as the town of Kano is intersected by the Jakara; for this hollow of the capital of Bagirmi, after the rainy season, is filled with water, and on this account is called "beda" by the natives, and "el bahr" by the Arabs, while during part of the dry season it is clothed with the richest verdure. It is remarkable that not only in this respect the town of Mas-ena resembles that of Kano, but, like the great market-place of Hausa, its surface is also broken by many other hollows, which contain the wells, and during the rainy season are changed into deep ponds, which, by accumulating all the refuse of the town, cause a great deal of insalubrity; but in general the soil, consisting of sand, dries very quickly after a fall of rain.

Dilapidated as was the appearance of the whole town, it had a rather varied aspect, as all the open grounds were enlivened with fresh pasture; but there is no appearance of industry, and the whole has the character of a mere artificial residence of the people immediately connected with the court. The marketplace is rather small, and not provided with a single stall, the people being obliged to protect themselves as well as they can, by forming a new temporary shed every market-day. The most interesting aspect is afforded by the beda, or bahry which is bordered on the south-west side by a few picturesque groups of

dum-palms and other trees of fine foliage, while at the western end, near the market place, there is a large extent of kitchen-gardens, as well as near the south-eastern extremity. In consequence of the peculiar nature of the beda, the direct communication between the northern and southern quarters, which during the dry season is kept up by a good path, seems to be occasionally interrupted during the rains..

The construction of the houses in general is good, and the thatchwork of the roofs formed with great care, and even with neatness; but the clay is of rather a bad description for building, and the clay houses afford so little security during the rainy season, that most people prefer residing during that part of the year in the huts of reeds and straw; and I myself had sufficient opportunity of becoming acquainted with the frail character of these structures. There are, however, some pretty-looking houses on the road to Abu-Gher.

The walls of the town, in most places, are in a state of great decay, so that the gates in reality have lost all importance; nevertheless there are still nine gates, or rather openings, in use. Most of them lie on the south side, while there is not a single gate towards the north, this quarter of the town being so deserted that it is even overgrown with dense underwood. All around the place, as well on the south side, where a large pond is formed in the rainy season, as on the other sides, there are villages inhabited by Shuwa or Shiwa (native Arabs), principally of the tribe of the Beni Hassan, who supply the town with milk and butter.

Barth spent some time in this metropolis of Bagirmi, studying, roving about, paying, in the absence of the sultan, official visits to the lieutenantgovernor and friendly visits to others, and at the same time practising the healing art among the natives. This not only obtained him friends and enabled him to gain a better insight into the habits of the people, but was also attended with some amusing incidents.

The princesses also, or the daughters of the absent king, who in this country too bear the title of "mairam" or "meram," called upon me occasionally, under the pretext of wanting some medicines. Amongst others, there came one day a buxom young maiden, of very graceful but rather coquettish demeanour, accompanied by an elder sister, of graver manners and fuller proportions, and complained to me that she was suffering from a sore in her eyes, begging me to see what it was; but when, upon approaching her very gravely, and inspecting her eyes rather attentively without being able to discover the least defect, I told her that all was right, and that her eyes were sound and beautiful, she burst out into a roar of laughter, and repeated, in a coquettish and flippant manner, "beautiful eyes! beautiful eyes!"

Luckily, a parcel of despatches and letters, forwarded by caravan from Fezzan to Kuka, and thence to Mas-ena, arrived whilst our traveller was at this latter city, to his infinite comfort and very great relief. They brought encouragement and supplies, but, unluckily, no money. That is generally the last thing that travellers are supposed to be in want of. Barth had given up by this time all idea of being enabled to penetrate from the country in which he then was to the sources of the Nile.

The number of private letters from England, as well as from Germany, was very considerable; and all of them contained the acknowledgment of what I had done, the greatest recompense which a traveller in these regions can ever aspire to. No doubt the responsibility also thus thrown upon me was very great, and the conclusion at which I had arrived from former experience, that. I should not be able to fulfil the many exaggerated expectations which were entertained of my future proceedings, was oppressive; for, in almost all the letters from private individuals, there was expressed the persuasion that I and my companion should be able, without any great exertion, and in a short space of time, to cross

the whole of the unknown region of equatorial Africa, and reach the southeastern coast an undertaking the idea of which certainly I myself had origi nated, but which, I had become convinced in the course of my travels, was utterly impossible, except at the sacrifice of a great number of years, for which I found the state of my health entirely insufficient, besides a body of trustworthy and sincerely attached men, and a considerable supply of means.

He is one more proof how gradual discovery in the interior of Africa is destined to be. His predecessors paved the way for him, and he extended the boundaries of previous discoverers. Many others will probably have to follow in his footsteps ere Central Africa shall have been traversed from the west to the east, or from the east to the west. In this perplexity, he says, he was delighted to find that her Majesty's government, and Lord Palmerston in particular, held out a more practicable project by inviting him to endeavour to reach Timbuktu. To this plan, therefore, he turned his full attention, and with that object, after sundry interviews with the Sultan of Bagirmi, who had returned in great pomp to his capital, he retraced his steps, without any very particular incidents, to Kuka.

Barth was much grieved, on his return, at finding that his fellowtraveller, Overweg, who had in the mean time made a very interesting trip into the south-western mountainous districts of Bornu, was much shaken in health. As he was also anxious for a little change of air, the two travellers agreed, instead of remaining at Kuka, to keep roving about during the unhealthy season as much as possible.

It was on this account (Barth relates) that we arranged a visit to Dawerghu on Sunday the 20th; but, unfortunately, some business which we had to transact prevented our setting out at an early hour in the morning, and, my friend's head being that day rather affected, I proposed to him putting off our excursion till another day; but he thought that the fresh air might do him good. We there fore started in the heat of the day, although the sun was not very bright, while my companion did not neglect to protect his head as well as possible from the rays of the sun.

Having refreshed ourselves in the cool shade of a fine hajilij, Mr. Overweg thought himself strong enough to go about shooting, and was so imprudent as to enter deep water in pursuit of some waterfowl, and to remain in his wet clothes all the day without saying a word; and I only became aware of this fact late in the evening, after we had returned to the town, when he dried his wet clothes at the fire.

Although he had been moving about the whole day, he was not able to enjoy our simple supper; but he did not complain. However, the next morning he felt so weak that he was unable to rise from his couch; and instead of taking a sudorific, which I most earnestly advised him to do, he was so obstinate as not to take any medicine at all, so that his illness increased with an alarming rapidity, and rather an alarming symptom appeared on the following day, when his speech became quite inarticulate and almost unintelligible. He then became aware himself of the dangerous state he was in. He informed me that in the town he should never recover, that it was absolutely necessary for him to get a change of air, and that he entertained the hope that, if I could take him to Ma duwari, he might speedily regain his health in the house of our friend the kashella Fugo Ali.

It was a difficult task to take my sick companion to the desired place, which is distant from Kukawa more than eight miles; and though he began his journey on Thursday morning, he could not reach the desired place until the morning of Friday. Having made a present to our friend Fugo Ali, that he might be induced to take sufficient care of him, and having left the necessary

orders, I returned to the town in order to finish my despatches; but the same evening one of the servants whom I had left with Mr. Overweg, came and informed me that he was much worse, and that they were unable to understand a single word he said. I mounted immediately, and found my friend in a most distressing condition, lying outside in the court-yard, as he had obstinately refused to sleep in the hut. He was bedewed with a cold perspiration, and had thrown off all his coverings. He did not recognise me, and would not allow me or any one else to cover him. Being seized with a terrible fit of delirium, and muttering unintelligible words, in which all the events of his life seemed to be confused, he jumped up repeatedly in a raging fit of madness, and rushed against the trees and into the fire, while four men were scarcely able to hold him.

At length, towards morning, he became more quiet, and remained tranquilly on his couch; and, not becoming aware that his strength was broken, and hoping that he might have passed the crisis, I thought I might return to the town. After asking him if he had any particular desire, he said that he had something to tell me; but it was impossible for me to understand him, and I can only fancy, from what happened, that, being aware that death was at hand, he wanted to recommend his family to me.

At an early hour on Sunday morning, Mr. Overweg's chief servant came to me with the sad news that the state of my friend was very alarming, and that since I had left him he had not spoken a word, but was lying motionless. I mounted immediately on horseback; but before I reached the place, I was met by a brother of Fugo Ali, who, with tears in his eyes, told me that our friend was gone. With the dawn of day, while a few drops of rain were falling, after a short struggle, his soul had departed.

In the afternoon I laid him in his grave, which was dug in the shade of a fine hajilij, and well protected from the beasts of prey. Thus died my sole friend and companion, in the thirtieth year of his age, and in the prime of his youth. It was not reserved for him to finish his travels, and to return home in safety; but he met a most honourable death, as a martyr to science; and it is a remarkable fact that he found himself a grave on the very borders of that lake by the navigation of which he has rendered his name celebrated for ever. It was certainly a presentiment of his approaching death which actuated him in his ardent desire to be removed to this place, where he died hard by the boat in which he had made his voyage. Many of the inhabitants of the place, who had known him well during his repeated visits to the village, bitterly lamented his death; and no doubt the "tabib,” as he was called, will be long remembered by them.

Such was the end of the second-Mr. Richardson, Dr. Overweg-out of the three original members of this interesting expedition into Central Africa. Dr. Barth has much reason to congratulate himself in having returned safe and sound to receive the hearty congratulations of his countrymen and of all Europe, and well-earned rewards, we hope, from those for whom he toiled. It is to be regretted that the account of Overweg's boat explorations of Lake Tsad is not attached to the first three volumes, in order to have completed the subject, as we shall have to return to it when the course of our traveller's explorations may lead us to more westerly provinces.

HARFORD'S MICHAEL ANGELO.*

No educated person is unacquainted with the life of Michel Angelo† The sculptor, painter, poet, architect.

His patrician descent; his early manifestations of talent; his patronage by the Medici; his connexion with the building of St. Peter's; his rivalries, his quarrels, and his wrongs, are familiar facts. Of his public life as a citizen of Florence, of his character as a poet, and of his fervid and high-toned piety, our recollections are more dim. To these, and to much more that is connected with his life and times, Mr. Harford has recalled Four attention in the volumes before us; and, since the publication of Mr. Roscoe's first and ablest work, we do not remember any English contribution to Italian biography which, without having attained the Roscoe standard, is so likely to be read, or may be read more pleasantly. The best-known life of Michel Angelo that we previously possessed was by Mr. Duppa, a writer of the same generation and circle as the elder Disraeli. He was a barrister-not in much practice-devoting himself to letters rather than to law; and some of our older friends remember meeting him at the dinners given by Sharon Turner, in Red Lion-square, where very humble viands-often little more than a boiled leg of mutton -were made attractive by the talents or celebrity of the guests. He was also a friend and early correspondent of Southey. There is vitality in his work, for Mr. Bohn has thought it worth while to include it in his valuable republications. For the life of the great artist himself, both Mr. Duppa and his successor are chiefly indebted to the contemporary biographies of Condivi and Vasari. Vasari-his Giorgio amico caromore especially enjoyed the privilege of Michel Angelo's intimate friendship, and while he was yet living included a memoir of him in his "Vite de' piu eccellenti Architetti, Pittori, e Scultori Italiani." But while Mr. Duppa confines himself to the life and works of Michel Angelo, merely touching upon the public affairs of Florence as far as they are directly connected with his subject, Mr. Harford finds fresh quarry at every turn. In mentioning the young artist's patronage by Lorenzo the Magnificent, we have a sketch of his patron's character, tastes, and pursuits; and another chapter devoted to sketches of the learned and celebrated men by whom he was surrounded, from Politian down to our countryman Thomas Linacre, a man so eminently distinguished, says Roscoe, by the elegance of his manners and his singular modesty, that he was selected by Lorenzo de' Medici as the associate of his children in their studies. After an account of the modern Platonists, we have again a chapter on

The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti, with Translations of many of his Poems and Letters. Also Memoirs of Savonarola, Raphael, and Vittoria Colonna. By John S. Harford, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. &c. Two vols. 8vo. Longman and Co. 1857.

† Occasionally written Agnolo: but this is merely the phonetic expression of a peculiarity in Tuscan pronunciation. The Bolognese, in like manner, have Angiolo, and the Venetians Anziolo. See Preface to Life of Michel Angelo Buonarroti by R. Duppa.