The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-02 00:00:00

738 E.) Was this stream a continuation of the Chadda, and therefore part of the Niger? Was it navigable from the sea to the point reached by Dr. Barth, and could it be ascended even to Lake Tahad ? These were important points. The voyage of the Pletad has established beyond doubt the identity of the Chadda and Binue, and has shown that the river might be ascen led much higher, as the Pleiad was at last compelled to return only from scarcity of fuel. Dr. Baikie, in the introductory remarks to his narrative, alludes to the famous Niger Ex pedition, which was ushered into the world with such joyous pomp, and which ended with a most funereal catastrophe : The misfortunes met with by these pioneers did not afford much encouragement for further trials, and no at- tempt of any magnitude was made until 1841, when the Government fitted out three steamers, specially built for the purpose. This expedition was intended to carry out, besides extended research, various philanthropic but ill matured schemes. Its ill success, with its fearful amount of sickness and loss of life, still fresh in our memories, tended greatly to confirm the conviction of the deadly nature of the climate. The Kwora was also ascended by the late Mr. Beecroft, in one of the steamers of the West African Company, in 1836, and again by the same gentle. man in the tEthiope, a steam vessel belonging to Mr. Jamieson of Liverpool, in 1810 and in 1845, on one of which occasions he entered and explored the, branch run ning by \Vizi. We recollect, ourselves, as if it were but yesterday, the excited and exaggerated phi lanthropy of the great meeting at Exeter-hall. We recal, also, how impulsively Sir Robert Peel entered into the project, and we remember his complacent smiles and zealous co-operation on that occasion. Chance threw us into close proximity with that eminent person on that day, and we could not help being struck with the oddity of his tardy enthusiasm for the negro, after the guarded part which he had taken about the blacks in the days when Wilberforce and Henry Brougham were haranguing on the African question. The command of the Pleiad was to have been intrusted to Mr. Beecroft, but as he died before the vessel reached Africa, Dr. Baikie, as the senior officer, took the com mand. He complains that he was ill seconded, and makes grave charges against the sailing master, Mr. Taylor, who, he asserts, threw all possible obstacles in the way of the Pleiad's progress. But for this unfortunate circumstance the expedition might have proved more successful than it did. On the Bth July the Pleiad left Fernando Po, and on the 4th August arrived at the con fluence of the Chadda and Kowara. (We wish some rule could be adopted for the spelling of these proper names, as now every writer adopts his own system of orthography.) On their passage up the Niger they were well re ceived, and saw great capabilities of trade. Mr. Hutchinson visited the site of the " model farm" established by the 1841 expedition:— We landed at two different places between the site of the model•farm and the river, but found the brushwood so impenetrable, and no pathway visible, that we were obliged to retrace our steps to the boat. No traces of cul tivation or human habitation are perceptible on the ground where the model-farm once stood. A little higher up the river the party landed, and obtained a splendid view of the surround ing country : We soon spied ont a narrow pathway, at the end of which a canoe was lying, and, following this, we scrambled up the road to the little village, from which, when turning round, a view burst upon us that it is in vain for me to attempt describing as I felt its beauty. Far away behind Igbegbe stretches an immense extent of inhabited country, bounded below by the uppermost of the Kong mountains, and above by a range that extends up the Tshadda to nearly opposite Dagbo—the meeting of the waters is be neath our feet—many little islands dotted about—Mounts Patteh and Stirling behind us—those of Franklin, Soracte, and St. Michael's down the river—the Adelaide range be tween the Kwarra and Tshadda—and the magnificent stream rolling down in such tranquil solemn grandeur, that I could gaze upon the whole scene for hours. The atmosphere was delightfully cool, and though the little village contained only about a dozen houses, them was a small brewery in one of them, a pit of about three feet in circumference for dyeing cloths, and many rolls of indigo about the size of cricket-balls, in a calabash outside the door of one house. The confluence is admirably adapted for a trading station. lgbegbe is the principal African town, and with encouragement would soon rise to commercial importance. We quote Dr. Baikic : Trade was now going briskly on. Some fine tusks were offered, but at very high prices; fowls, eggs, goats, and THE PRESS. yams were in abundance, and fair tobacco was purchased at the rate of eleven pounds weight for 1,000 cowries. The town is situated close to the river, on gently sloping ground, at the base of a ratify of hills, and is from twenty to fifty or sixty feet above the highest level of the water. The market was now nearly over, and we only found in it some yams and other vegetables, with a little tobacco, cotton, and a pink coloured silky-looking material, upon which they set considerable value. Behind are large fields of maize, among which I found many unshapely erupted granitic•looking blocks, some curiously piled on each other. The number of Baobab•trees here is very great, their thick oak-like trunks and spreading foliage being very striking. Mr. Hutchinson devotes some pages to an account of the Filatahs, the predominant race in this part of Africa, and notices some curi ous facts going far to establish a relationship between them and the original inhabitants of Britain:— A paper was read at the soiree of the Historic Society, at the close of last year's meeting of the British Associa tion, in Liverpool, by Mr. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., upon the Fanssett antiquities—a collection made by the Rev. Bryan Fanssett, of Heppington, near Canterbury, and which had been gathered from the graves of our fore fathers, who existed in this country in a pre•Christian period. Mr. Wright observes :—" In the case of a man we almost always find above the right shoulder the iron head of a spear; and in general we may trace, by the colour of the earth, the decayed wood of the shaft, until near the foot of the skeleton lies the iron spiked ferule which ter- minated it at the other end. We sometimes meet with one or more smaller heads of javelins or arrows. Closer to the side of the skeleton lies usually a long iron broad- sword, not much unlike the claymore of the Scottish High- landers, of which it is probably the type "—the very weapons of warfare that are at this day used by all the Filatah nations with whom we came in contact on our voyage—the spear with ita iron•spiked ferule, the javelins and arrows of different patterns in their blades, and the double eged Houssa sword, manufactured by themselves, amongst tribes who never until our recent visit looked on the face of a European, and could not have received instructions in armoury fabrication from any so-called civilised nation. Mr. Wright goes on :—" Another article peculiarly cha ractetistic of the Saxon interments is the knife, the length of which is genet sly about five or six inches, although at times it extends from ten to eleven inches, and from its shape it must have been a very formidable weapon, inde pendent of its utility for other purposes." The Filatahs have two-edged knives of various lengths, used as weapons of self-defence as well as for cutting in struments. Some are carried openly in the hand ; some protected by a sheath which passes under the left arm, and is fastened to the hand by a cincture of strong leather that envelopes the wrist. The string of beads that is often found round the neck of a man in the Anglo-Saxon graves ; the articles of pottery dug up from them ; and even the cowrie shells (articles which are found only on the shores of the Pacific), have all their prototypes in our day amongst the Filatahs! At Dagbo, "a miserable little village " on the north shore of the Chadda, the expedition reached the limits of previous discovery. Henceforth the Pleiad ploughed waters which hadj never borne a European bark before, and the explorers went among people who had never yet beheld a white face. For a time the experience of the voyagers was extremely favorable. Apokko is noticed by Mr. Hutchin son as "the neatest little African village I had "ever put my foot into." The people were friendly, and the king courteous : He expressed his delight at seeing white men for the first time—was glad of our coming for trade, and, address. ing one of his women in the place, a fine goat was brought into us as a dash in a few minutes, with five scrivelloes, which were subsequently bought on board the ship. When our conference was over, he most courteously walked down to the beach with us—an instance of civility I have never witnessed before in an African chief, and which, with the delight of the inhabitants in seeing us, the absence of all rudeness and familiarity, impressed me very agreeably with the people of Apokko. Some fifty miles higher up, the land on the north shore was mountainous, and to a chain of heights the name of Ellesmere Range was given. Near a little town (Anyashi) some splendid vegetation was witnessed In a ravine between the town and Mount Herbert is the most luxuriant vegetation. All the trees were covered with mantillas of creeping plants, that wove a complete veil over their tops, and then hanging in grace ful festoons, ornamented here and there with blue and yellow blossoms, gave the whole an appearance of gor geous arborescence. At the towns of Gandiko and Gankera pleas ing signs of civilisation were discerned : There is an immense tract of land here devoted to agricultural purposes. Between Gandiko and Gsnkera, a neighbouring town, over which Amee's brother Gorakee presides, not a single inch of ground is uncultivated for a walk of nearly a mile in length. The latter town is larger than Gandiko, and is a paragon of neatness in all its streets—its ovoid and quadrangular places—in the centre of which many trees are nurtured, and spaces paled in for mats to be laid upon. French beans are growing as SAT URDAY, luxuriantly against the palisading outside the houses, as, though they were under the fostering hand of the head gardener at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Three of the finest Arab horses I have ever seen were in stables at Gankem ; and iu one of the stables was a large shield to protect horse and rider from the arrows of an enemy. At this point of their voyage, the explorers learnt with great satisfaction that the stream was here called the Binue, thus identifying it. with the river crossed by Dr. Barth. At Zhibu, a distance of about two hundred miles above Oldfield and Allen's furthest point, the people were much inclined to trade. 'Ali. Hutchinson says:— In the course of the day I bought nearly seven hundred pounds weight of ivory, and the article chiefly demanded for it was white cloth, which is used to make turbans by the mallams. Such incidents are important, as showing the capabilities for trade which exist in the coun tries bordering the river. The town of Ha marrua was situated some distance inland, but the voyagers paid it a visit : Our road lay through a country, the richest in loamy soil I have ever travelled over, where fields of rice and Indian corn varied the aspect with herbs and shrubs of the richest bloom and foliage—set off by the flying about of birds of the most gorgeous plumage—through plains where the grass grew so high and so luxuriantly, that at times it met over our heads when on horseback. This circumstance of the high Guinea grass makes a noticeable feature in the narratives of the first Portuguese discoverers of the country. The visitors slept at Hamarrua, where they were courteously received. The ladies were the most pleasing specimens of the negro race they had yet seen : His Majesty sent us up a luxurious breakfast of several African dishes, and a large calabash of fresh milk, the greatest treat of all. During our confinement to the house, in consequence of the rain, we had many visiters, some wanting to sell straw-plaited doyleys, beautifully dyed, spears, swords, brass and copper rings. The heavy wet was a great obstacle in the way of my seeing the town as I desired; a.id, as our time was limited, we had to send many messages to the Sultan, requesting that he would give us audience, as we purposed returning to the ship this night. It was considerably after noon when we proceeded to the palace. Passing through the streets we saw many of the softer sex in small groups, here aim there, gazing at us, not with looks of impertinent curiosity, but with a simple expression of wonderment, which gale to their faces an indescribable charm. If any one wi I allow beauty to exist amongst African women, I shall maintain against all comers, that it does exist amongst the ladies at Hamarrua. Half Arab and half negro, their countenances of a brozen hue have a classical outline of such charming features as we are in the habit of associa ting with Greek models. And with this there was some thing of a beaming expression of kindliness that pleased me very much—a suavity of trusting gentleness, com bined with a slight tint of joyfulness, that brought to my mind the beautiful thought of L. E. L., of "half smiles, born of nu cause but the very buoyancy of inward glad- ness." Dressed in their blue country cloths, and their hair ornamented in a very pleasing style, without any attempt at belleishness, they gave me a very superior idea above what I had hitherto considered African ladies to be. Dr. Baikie says of the natives : In appearance they are far removed from the negro, and the profile is frequently nearly European, and their skins never black, are at times very pale•coloured. They have not a muscular look, nor are they of fall flesh. Their stature is rather above the average ; and their long, spare made limbs seem well adapted for activity and endurance of fatigue. Their foreheads are high, and at times expan sivei ; the features long, and the chin pointed ; the nose s straight, or at times almost aquiline; the usually blue expres sive eye, has a wandering, restless cast; while the fipv, which are inclined to be thick, exhibit the only marked Ethiopic affinity. They occupy a high place in the scale of intelligence and quickness, and in commercial concerns they are keen and active. Their manners appeared to us, after meeting with so many rude tribes, cultivated and pleasing, and their persons were kept tolerably clean. Most of the men wear Lobes, almost all have turbans, straw hats, or some kind of headdress, and many sport loose trousers. At Hamarrua more ivory was bought. But, unfortunately, the expedition, through failur e of fuel, was unable to proceed muck farther The Pleiad was brought to anchor, and Dr. Baikie left the steamer to ascend the river as high as he could in the gig of the vessel. The Doctor found the people moro rude as he pro ceeded, and, beyond making an advance of some thirty miles, accomplished no object. During his absence the Pleiad began to descend the river, under an apprehension that the water was sinking. It does not appear that this was the case ; and the Doctor com ments with what appears just severity on the decision adopted in his absence, and the peril to which it exposed him. In the return voyage there is not less ad venture than in the ascent of the river, but it