The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

rican Missionary, on Western Africa. The
conclusion to be drawn from these separate
books is identical in one respect,—that the
interior of Africa possesses unbounded com-
mercial capabilities, and that it is by no means
a hopeless task to attempt their development.
Progress is beyond doubt being made. What
seemed a chimerical idea half a century ago,
has assumed practical shape since the great
increase of trade of Western Africa. It is the
mission of Great Britain to bear a leading
part in the good work ; and, looking back to
what has been accomplished during the last
few years, we see every reason for encourage-
ment. It is, w•e conceive, for our Government
to establish a few more stations on advanta-
geous parts of the coast, and to cultivate rela-
tions of friendship with the chiefs of the in-
terior ; and for our commercialists to avail
themselves of every channel of trade that pre-
sents itself, being well assured of this, that
from very small beginnings great enterprises
will grow up. Commerce is of the nature of a
spring that requires only to be tapped to
continually enlarge itself and swell into a fer-
tilising flood.
To the expeditions from north, west, and
south,fre have now to add the exploration of
Lieutenant Burton from the east. His book
is in some respects more attractive than any
of those we have yet noticed. He entered on
entirely new ground. His claims to be consi-
dered one of our most intrepid and successful
travellers were previously high, and his last
enterprise fully confirms them. The city of
Harar is situated about 200 miles from the
port of Zayla, whence he took his departure.
It has hitherto been closed to European en-
terprise, and the dangers attendant upon any
attempt to reach it were considered so great
that a well concerted enterprise, under the
immediate sanction of the East India Com-
pany, was abandoned through the objection
of the Political Resident at Aden ; and the
author saw that his only chance of removing
the prejudice entertained to the scheme on
which he had set his heart, was to undertake
a journey in the first instance alone. Accord-
ingly, he sailed from Aden on the 29th of
October, ltts4. and two days afterwards entered
the port of Zayla (or, as we find it spelt on
some maps, Zeiloh.) It is situated on the
African coast, nearly opposite Aden, and at
about an equal distance from the Bab-el-
Mandeb Strait.
Lieutenant Burton had assumed the dis-
guise of an Arab merchant, and his servants
and outfit were chosen to favour the charac-
ter. Of his principal attendants two were
chosen from the Arab police force of Aden.
The third was a more important personage.
A note informs us that the name, " End of
Time," refers to the prophesied corruption of
the Moslem priesthood in the last epoch of
the world :

The third is one Abdy Abokr, also of the Habr Gerhajia,
a personage whom, from his smattering of learning and
his prodigious rascality, we call the Mulls " End of Time."
He is a man about forty. very old-looking for his age,
with small, deep-set cunning eyes, placed close together,
a hook nose, a thin heard, a bulging brow, scattered teeth,
and a short scant figure, remarkable only for length of
back. His gait is stealthy, like a cat's, and he has a vil-
lanolis grin. This worthy never prays, and can neither
read nor write ; but he knows a chapter or two of the Koran,
recites audibly a long Ratib or task, morning and evening,
whence, together with his store of hashed Hadis tradition ),
he derives the title of Widad or hedge-priest. His tongue,
primed with the satirical sayings of Abn Zayd el Helali,
and Humayd ibn Mansur, is the terror of men upon whom
repartee imposes. His father was a wealthy shipowner in
his day ; but, cursed with Abdy and another son, the old
man has lost all his property, his children have deserted
him, and he now depends entirely upon the charity of the
Zayla chief. The " End of Time " has squandered consi-
derable sums in travelling far and wide from liarar to
Catch, he has managed everywhere to perpetrate some
peculiar villany. He is a pleasant companion, and piques
himself upon that power of quotation which in the East
makes a polite man. If we be disposed to hurry, he in-
sinuates that " l'atience is of Heaven, haste of Hell."
When roughly addressed, he remarks :

There are cures for the hurts of lead and steel ,
But the wounds (1 the tongue—they never heal!

If a grain of rice adhere to our beards, he says, smilingly,
" the gazelle is in the garden," to which we reply," we will
hunt her with the five."• Despit,?, these merits, I hesitated
to engage him, till assured by the governor of Zayla that
he was to be looked upon as a son, and, moreover, that he
would hear with him one of those State secrets to an in-
flitent ial chief which in this country are never eommittrql

• That is to say, "we will remove it with the rive ringers."
These are euphuisms to avoid speaking broadly and openly of
that venerable feature, the beard.

SATURDAY,

to paper. I found him an admirable buffoon, skilful in
filling pipes and smoking them ; au mete, an individual of
" many words and little work," infinite intrigue, cowardice,
cupidity, and endowed with a truly evil tongue.
The departure from Aden was marked on the
part of the author's attendants by a glad re-
turn to the barbarism from which they had.
been partially rescued :

Suddenly every trace of civilisation fell from my compa-
nions as if it had been a garment. At Aden, shaven and be •
turbaned, Arab fashion, now they threw off all dress save the
loin cloth, and appeared in their dark morocco. Moham-
med filled his mouth with a mixture of coarse Surat.
tobacco and ashes,—the latter article intended, like the
Anglo-Indian soldier's chili in his arrack, to " make it bite.—
tinted uncovered his head, a member which in Africa is
certainly made to go bare, and buttered himself with an
unguent redolent of sheep's tail ; and Ismail, the rain or
captain of our " foyst," the Sahalah, applied himself to
puffing his nicotiana out of a goat's shank-bone. Our
crew, consisting of seventy-one men and boys, prepared,
as evening fell, a mess of Jowari grain and grease, the
recipe of which I spare you, and it was despatched in a
style that would have done credit to Kaffirs as regards
gobbling, bolting, smearing lips, licking fingers, and using
ankles as napkins. Then with a light easterly breeze and
the ominous cliffs of Little Aden still in sight, we spread
our mats on deck and prepared to sleep under the moon.

. . ..
My companions, however, felt, without perhaps compre-
hending, the joviality arising from a return to Nature.
Every man was forthwith nicknamed, and pitiless was the
raillery upon the venerable subjects of long and short, fat
and thin. One sang a war-song, another a love-song, a
third some song of the sea, whilst the fourth, an Erse
youth, with the villanons expression of face common to
his tribe, gave us a rain measure, such as men chariot
during wet weather. All these effusions were naive and
amusing: none, however, could bear English translation
without an amount of omission which would change their
nature. Each effort of minstrelsy was accompanied by
roars of laughter, arid led to much manual pleasantry. All
swore that they had never spent, intellectually speaking, a
more charming soirée, and pitied me for being unable to
enter thoroughly into the spirit of the dialogue. Truly it
is not only the polished European, as was said of a certain
travelling notability, that lapses with facility into pristine
barbarism.

At Zayla he stopped twenty five days to pre-
pare for his journey. We are pleased with his
account of the port, and of the life of the
people. The latter do not lack capacity.
They have two favorite games, Shantarah and
Shahh, both evincing much ingenuity. The
former might be introduced among us :

The Shantarah board is thus made, with twenty-five
poiuts, technically called houses. The players have twelve