The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, Sept. 1.

Yesterday's great excitement was Capt. Grant's
appearance in the Geographical Section to give some
account of his adventures on the Nile Expedition.
This section meet in the Assembly-room, a hand-
some room of large proportions, but long before the
hour it was filled to its utmost capacity, and every
avenue was choked by crowds who were unable to
make their way into the room. Some adventurous
ladies had climbed up to some vantage ground out-
side, from which they could command a view of the
platform through the windows. The gallant cap-
tain was most enthusiastically cheered, and, after a
few general geographical details indicating the
route taken, which by this time are familiar to all
who take an interest in this subject, he proceeded
to relate some amusing stories of the dealings of the
party with the various Royal personages whom
they encountered on their route. "Between the
coast and the lake district/ said the captain :

"We had to traverse many little States governed by petty
sultans, who were most exacting in their demands for taxes
—detaining us for days palavering—never letting us get
away from them without a row, disagreement, or threat of
attack. As an instance, when I stayed with the old
Sultan of Ukuni, in the Land of the Moon, providing, of
course, my own food, showing him and his five wives many
kindnesses and civilities, I became so indispensable to bis
amusement that for three months he would render me no
assistance to get away, and on the day of my leaving he
drove my porters away with his stick, and took forcible
possession of one of my rifles, thinking to exact more pre-
sents from me, and defeat my plans of getting on. The
.fileTowfo2odoayiasdaefntemrwenar,dse,n
jwoyhiinleg mthaerephrientgtnathitihlye
presents had to be paid, and the rifle I had to wrest out of
hheisadgroasf ap
country all around, a mob sprang out of the bushes, their
skin coverings flying like wings on their. backs, making
their spears quiver, threatening us with their bows and
antics over
grasses and
Ismiled
vherowthlienhgiganh
bushes,
u she
thinking
theirt
hey gracefulwere
merely sho wing their delight. However, bursting in the
centre of my followers they broke the line from centre to
flanks,.seized and ransacked every load, while I was left
with but two or three followers. All the property was stolen
in an instant and had disappeared on their backs through
the cover. The only redress obtained from their Sultan was
the condescending permission to leave his Highness's do-
minions and rejoin my companion Speke. This was not ac-
complished till another unwarrantable exaction was made
by a drunken fellow, who frightened away some of my load
carriers by beating his war drums whenever I refused to
satisfy his greed for presents. Until a rifle and a case of
ammunition, with other presents were given to him, he
would not allow us to move from his village, while he
brought my men into subjection by prohibiting his people
from selling us the ordinary necessaries of life. The Gover-
nor of Uzinza had next to bo passed. Although he had
invited us to come quickly, by sending his Royal copper-rod
bearer, we did not feel confident that he also would not
fleece us, because the Arab traders had reputed him as a
man whose avariciousness knew no bounds. We were ill
provided with cloths and beads, but a bold front was made
to pass the extortioner's country, and we considered our-
selves fortunate in paying only half our stock-in-trade
without receiving any article in exchange. Crowds of his
retainers wildly welcomed us, the first white men, laughing
and ridiculing us as we walked along the path, generally
afraid to come near, and sometimes dogging us for miles.
Even in camp, under canvass, we were not safe from being
stared at. Pitching water over them was found to be most
efficacious, making them run away laughing. During the
night we had to fire at thieves. They became so bold and
daring, throwing stones into camp, stealing the clothes of
single individuals while outside, that two or three were
killed, which gave the inhabitants a wonderful idea of
our power and watchfulness; also that we must be ma-
gicians to have killed notorious thieves, hitherto con-
sidered invulnerable. Nothing was ever said for having
killed them. Some instances may be given of the supersti-
tions of this country. 'I he people, having seen me visit a
waterfall alone, reported it to the Prince, and the story went
about that we had come to flood the country. Milk could
not be supplied to us, as we ate fowls, neither could it be
supplied to those who ate the bean of the country. The
ruler feared our evil eye, and would not show us anything,
neither would he accept arevolver pistol, as he thought it had
been bewitched! Our camp was kept two or three miles away
from the miserable creature's abode. After tea days we had
the good fortune, one midnight, to be ordered forthwith out
of his dominions, when we proceeded towards the countries
ruled by the three great despotic kings near the Victoria
Nyanza. The first, Rumanika, proved a remarkable contrast
to the rude barbarians we had seen previously. He received
us with a Yambo' (How do you do ?) and a hearty shake
of the hand immediately on our arrival. While seated in a
tiny room among his sons and brothers, he politely invited
us to sit down on the matting facing him. Smiles, inquiries,
and welcomes at being so fortunate as to see white men con-
tinually burst from him. ' Every day do I see Arab, but
never white men. He would say laughingly, ' Show me
that gun, the powder-flask, your hat,' &c. Then would he
look and wonder at our shoes. Did we think the lake big?'
How did we like the hills in his country ?" How did we

know there were people here ?" Did the chief in Uzinza
treat us well ?' He said this jokingly, knowing that we

must have been enormously fleeced by him. In fact, we
formed the most charming impression of his gentleness,
amiability, and intelligence. His brothers and sons showed
great attachment to him and sympathy towards me, sitting
with me for hours while lying sick; bringing me flowers,
birds' nests, animals, or anything curious that might inte-
rest me. His people, also, living in the palace vicinity, had
imbibed the gentleness of their king, whose greatest de-
light was in examining pictures of his peasantry, our sol-
diery, or English mon and women as they dressed at
home. Strangely enough, notwithstanding these superior
qualities, like most Africans, any toy would amuse his un-
educated mind. I made a jumping-jack for his child, but
this he at once appropriated to himself, and sent me a car-
penter to cut down a tree, so that a life-size one might be
made him. His queens and female relatives fed upon milk,
and the consequence was that they became fattened to enor-
mous eivs, and when seen in motion their excessive obesity
obliged them to be supported on either side by a friend, the
flesh of their arms hanging down in a flabby mass like the
widest of fashionable sleeves. During the five months I
was laid up at his palace we were on the most friendly
and intimate terms. If his gun was to be cleaned, or his
clock to be mended, or his coat to bewashed, or if he wanted
a particular colour of fowl or goat for rain-making purposes,
or a picture to be drawn, he always applied to me. Ordinary
criminals he was never harsh with—his brother dealt with
them. Thefts were punished by imprisonment (the stocks)
for two or three months; for beating with a stick a fine of
10 goats was sufficient; for wounding with a spear all pro-
perty was confiscated, half going to the King and half to
the injured party; if there was no property he was sent to
the stocks. The murderer was variously treated, according
to the evidence; some had their eyes gouged, while the
generality were thrown over a precipice, and the body
dashed to pieces, the property going to the family of the
murdered person. Their dead—that is, those of this Wal-
ruma race—are deposited in the cow fold, sown up in the
skin of a cow, or, as in the case of a young prince while I was
there, put among the rocks on an island in the lake. Burial
grounds are never seen in the country ; the bodies of the
peasantry are thrown into Little Windermere. The next
Equator king was named M'tessa, a fine young fellow, pas-
sionately fond of all field sports. Very exaggerated reports
had come of him—i.e,, that he would take no presents,
that Speke had to shoot 100 cows daily for the Kiug s plea-
sure, that my arrival there would be celebrated by the
massacre of a great number of people, that he abhorred
slavery, that no sick person could enter his territory, &c. I
was consequently very anxious to reach Uganda to test these
wonderful reports, and soon found that he took the most
enormous presents we had yet made—daily shot a few cows,
the meat of which the men got—no human sacrifices made
in honour of my arrival ; slaves he had in immense num-
bers, and ho sent a carrying party to bring me, an invalid,
up 200 miles, so that the report proved to some extent a
fabrication. The first time Speke took me there to call upon
him he presided at an immense levee (the most theatrical
affair), looking a perfect fop and dandy—albeit with an
overweening and contemptuous air. His clothes and head
ornaments were put on with the greatest care and neatness ;
not a hair was out of place, and evidently his lady's-maids
had spared no pains in his toilet. Two or three female
and
soothsayers, called Witchnesee, sat by his side to hand him
his wine cup, or brush off a speck should it fall on the King;
they appeared
exercise
some
d divine d
every
Court, functions
event. about
Theythe
were to
supposed
dressed fantastically, and, like every individual present,
exquisitely clean and tidy, with natural wreaths of flowers,
stuffed lizards, shells, heads, or seeds, dresses of salmon-
tinted buck cloth reaching to their ancles, aprons, perhaps
two or three of the shining black, white, or red skins of a
kid. For hours they would sit in this state patiently upon
tho King, until ho choose to terminate his levee by retiring.
Many curious barbarous customs prevail at Uganda.
One is that if a page does not convey properly the King's
i
orders, or misconvoys them, the poor boy has his intellect
sharpened by leaving one or both his cars cut off. Maimed
n, not seemingly disgraced, were
and on his seeing my hand
therefore not at all uncommon,
ad been a page, for he asked
it at once struck him that I bur
or death. The lives of
me. He punishes by fire, tort.uthreo,
boys and handless me
most trivial offences—a
men and women are taken for.
common saying being that he never. looks bright or no bu-
ommenced with a few
einess can be done till the day has c
qed without our hear-
being led to execution.
N"
a day
Pasvictim. A miserable
young girl or handsome woman froning of or actually seeing some
Port
the palace gates might
be seen walking down the road, perfectly alone and unheeded
a
by passers by, wailing in the most bitter, agonizing tones,
perhaps bleeding from a spear wound, and mournfully
i fol-
lowing a siugle palace guard,walking 50 yards n front . of her,
to the place of execution. Others would have a whipcord
while
others the wrist, and follow the man alorg like a dog,
others pull most reluctantly against the cord by which they
are being led to death, screaming most cruelly. Princesses
by birth had several privileges ; they could not be executed

like others, and the King's sister, the handsomest girl in
the palace, had the privilege of also being his wife. He re-
turned
mobafter
outsidethe first h
e fenceinterview.
of
ourl heard
the hut,
when ed
sound
in n
boundedy ocallf a
the
rushing
the dayy
mg king, bareheaded, clearing the
fences, dressed in an open chintz jacket, no shirt, and loose
t en m
white trousers trimmed with red, and looking, not the swell
of yesterday, but the picture of a negro blackguard. He
was followed by 20 lads and boys, his brothers, carrying
guns, sticks, deed vultures, and other birds which he had
shot. One or two were heavily ironed, feet and hands ;
another had a wide-a. wake of leather on ; all were as jolly
as only Africans can be. Giving him a chair outside the hut,
ho rapidly turned over the leaves of a sketch-book, stared
widely about, asked whether his likeness had yet been done,
whether we had seen the birds he had shot, ordered me to
show my head uncovered to his brothers, who squatted round
him, tearing at sugar-cane in the most ravenous manner.
You are the guest of the King,and must never pay the people
for anything, and every house must be deserted instanter on
your arrival. In fact, it was a villanous system of oppres-
sion, but no redress could be had, as these were the orders
of his Majesty—to eat and take whatever you liked, but not
pocket or carry away. Payment in cloths, guns, and other
presents for one haring thus plundered his peasantry was
made to him alone. The villages in the vicinity of the
palace, being occupied by the favourites of the Court, were
alone exempt from this taxation,"

Sir R. MURCHISON, in thanking Captain Grant
for his entertaining paper, said that though his
distinguished friend had spoken of one GI those
kings whose quick eye observed that
mheedheasci ty thatlosta
portion of one of his hands, with the
so peculiarly characterised him, he did not tell the
meeting that he had lost it while serving with his
regiment in quelling the Indian mutiny. When the
gallant Havelock was advancing to Cawnpore his
rearguard was harassed, and suffered great losses
through the proximity of a gun served by the rebels.
This gun did immense mischief and occasioned con-
siderable lo s of life both among officers and men.
Capt. (then Lieutenant) Grant was accordingly sent
to silence it. Fortunately he was a remarkably good
shot, and succeeded in killing one of the artillerymen
at the first discharge of his rifle. His men supplied
him with a fresh rifle, and that brought down a
second man, and in a few minutes four out of the
five artillerymen were put hors de combat, the piece
was silenced, and the rearguard was saved from
any further annoyance from that quarter. No doubt
had General Havelock lived he would have taken
tare that Captain Grant's services on that and other
occasions should be brought under the notice of the
proper authorities, and that he would receive what
he so well deserved—the Victoria Cross.

Sir W. ARMSTRONG, in a few complimentary re-
marks, which were warmly supported by the audi-
ence, welcomed Captain Grant to Newcastle, and
Commodore Maury expressed a hope that the Go-
vernment would give him the Victoria Cross, which
he so well deserved.
____

Several
sothere was by
papers were also read on the Nile
dis
maps of Africa, and a short memoir Johnemoir Hf
roogmg ,
B o n a :ohne
Von
d
Henghlin was read on his exploration of certain of
the effluents of the Nile.
Mr. MARKHAM also read a letter from M. Miani,
a Venetian explorer of .whom our travellers found
some traces at Gondokoro. This gentleman had cut
his name on a tamarind tree which he said waa on
the eastern side of the river, while that mentioned
by Speke and Grant was on the western side. He also
pointed out several other matters in which he asserted
the geography of the explorers was at fault.
Captain GRANT said that the mistake of M. Miani
with reference to the side of the river on which
Captain Speke and himself discovered the tamarind
tree arose from his having seen an erroneous map.
M. Miani's explorations were ridiculed at Khartum,
where he was represented as a very old man, with a
large white beard, travelling along on the back of
a donkey in search of the Nile. He was prepared
to stake his reputation that not a single lati-
tude laid down by Captain Speke and himself,
from Zanzibar to Gondokoro, would be found half
a mile out of its proper position by any geographer.
verifiedpObservationsu t t
heiat
ts
statements
taken
trisdit,na
o therefore,tforeign
he to
te
stt country
wou would
d bee
eual
sdy be
Mr. GREENFIELD said that the Assistant Astro-
nomer Royal had tested all the observations as to
latitude and longitude made by Captains Speke and
Grant, and had forwarded the results to the Royal
Geographical Society.
The rest of the day in this section was consumed
by the reading of a paper by j\lutu Coomara Swamy,
a Cingalese barrister, on the Ethnology of Ceylon,
referring especially to its Cingalese and Tamil inha-
bitants.

In the Economic Section there seems to be a
growing tendency to slip away from pure science
into the domain of polities, and not unfrequently,
dropping into the room in the middle of a discus-
sion, a stranger might fancy that he had got by
mistake into the House of Commons in Committee
of Supply, or on the provisions of some Bill.
Colonel S 5 kes read here a long paper " On the Bud-
gets of the French and English Armies for 1863.4,"
in which he drew a comparison between the two,
very unfavourable to the economy of the British ser-
vice. The French effective and non-effective service,
of 400,000 men, cost £43 95.4 d. per head, while the
his belief that greater
i
British service, effective and non-effective, number-
ing 147,118 men, cost £94 ls. lid. per head. The
gallant colonel expressed
economy would be secured, f the Government, in-
stead of manufacturing all their own materiel,
would make more use of the services of contractors.
In the discussion which followed, Captain Galton
said that much of the difference pointed out in the
paper might be explained away.
Dr. HANCOCK read a paper on the "English and
Irish Poor-law," in which he advocated the exten-
sion to Ireland of the English system of out-door
relief. Mr. Purdy, on the other hand, wished, if
there was any assimilation, that the English system
should assimilate with the Irish, and other gentle-
men who spoke on the subject deprecated any en-
largement of out-door relief.

CHARLES DIBDIN'S SEA-SONGS.

(From the Athenceum.)

Dibdin embraces his subject heartily, and grips, so far as
his reach goes, with the real smack of a sailor's salute. He
is true to certain qualities of the English nature, which•
lie, with their mineral strength, at tho heart of all who aro
worthy of wearing the English name,—that superior sense
of being English which alone has often served to grapple us
together, rich and poor, as with hooks of steel, and served
us nobly when peer and peasant have gaily galloped the
death-gaps horse to horse, or swept up to the deadly breach
shoulder to shoulder, and on many a hard-fought field lain
down side by side in a peerless brotherhood after turning
the tide of battle,—that singleness of purpose which puts
the whole heart into the act,—that union of gentleness and
strength which produces our favourite heroes, the darlings
of the national heart, who solve Samson's riddle for us, and
show the honey of sweetness hidden in the lion of their
strength, as in Nelson's noble and tender type—he who
struck such a blow as left our country without a rival on
all the seas, then, like a noble boy going to bed, said, "Kiss
me, Hardy," and fell asleep, or, as Dibdin sings,—

1 heard his last words, that so grieved each bystander,
Words sounding so mournful and sweet ;
'Twas his " Love and farewell"—Damme 1 there's a com-
mander
—To each brother tar in the fleet.

Dibdin caught a glimpse of the right kind here. His
sailor has a tender heart underneath the coarse, rough
strength of his character; a spring of fresh water welling
and sweetening the great salt ocean of his brute force. In
his foretop moralising mood he considers, after all, that
piping your eye and a wet pocket-handerchief are about
the Lest things to bring you into port at last; although
his mode of soothing his sweetheart at parting is anything
but comfortingly sequential :
I said to our Poll, for d'yo see, she would cry,
When last wo weighed anchor for s*a,
What argufies sniv'lling and roping your eye?
Why what a d—d fool you must be
Can't you see the world's wide and there's room for us all,
Ruth for seamen and lubbers ashore ?
And it to Old Davy I gn, my dear Poll,
Why, you never will hear of me more.
Ho does not wear the soft heart on his sleeve, and is
glad of any excuse for keeping the mother down from his
throat:--

Just hear the Chaplain's story, glowing
With all that's good and wise ;
He swabs his bows while tears are flowing—
The scuppers are his eyes.
He talks in terms to melt a lubber;
And then he'll preach and pray
So moving, one could almost blubber,
But, that's all in his way I
Still, choke it down as ho may, the tenderness is there.
There is still always a soft corner, and a woman in it, in
Jack's heart ; or else little child ,fingers are playing on it as
an instrument. He has the true English feeling for home
and its joys, albeit he may have strange ways of showing
his domesticity, realising- his own commentary on Jove :
What a devil that god was for following the gals t.
—When at sea he likes to think of his Nancy, with all her
loving works and Irousebold ways ; and thought; and

images, and feelings, come crowding all sail on his soul,
till, as he says, " I'm nothing but Nancy." Living a life
that is passed in a fluctuating world of change, he tries to
be true to Nancy. Amid the trials and temptations of
foreign ports how hard he strives to be constant, and he
fails, why it is only because Nancy or Poll will assume so
many shapes:
Some with faces like charcoal, and others like chalk,
All ready one's heart to o'er-haul;
" Don't you go to love me, my good girl,'' says I " walk ;
I've sworn to be constant to Poll."

From far away his heart will be running home like a
very Gulf-stream, brightening and enriching some little
green spot where he hopes to set foot and empty a lot of
shiners into Poll's lap, dart into her arms like the ball from
an Armstrong, get married and launch a young navy to
repay the sea and country for his own desertion!

It is in a lower range, however, that Dibdin shows his
greatest force of portraying the British tar. His most suc-
cessful painting is done by very broad handling, a thick
brush and a coarse touch. His delight is the jolly Jack
Tar, who will stick like pitch to friend or sweetheart, and,
come weal, come woe, come friend or foe, it's all one to
Jack, Ho goes at everything broadside on, with heart
sailing too fast even for his generous h
making his head swim to keep his heart from sinking,
pushing the grog about from year's end to year's end, too
fond of sounding the bowl, making the can go round, and
relying on grog aboard and girls ashore as the sailor's
sheet-anchor. This now is a neat and lively picture of
Dibdin's

We sing a little, we laugh a little,
And work a little, and swear a little,
And fiddle a little, and foot it a little,
And swig the fbwing can.

The worst of it is that Dibdin's sailor cannot be thus mo-
derate. Why, in the one article of loyalty alone, he is rich
enough to ruin himself. He will drink so many healths to
Majesty that he quite forgets his own. Dihdin is true enough
to the sailor-nature in its love of fair-play, a stand-up fight,
a clear deck, and no favour; its desire to make mincemeat
of an enemy, and its gentleness in binding him up again
with a sort of motherly c•ere and tenderness ; its equal
readiness to save as well as to damn ; its fair, open front,
and broad, honest back never turned on danger. True,
likewise, to the national habit of brag, which shows our de-
sceut from the great worshippers of the god Braga, every
lad in the land that has played one to three at " English
and French" will understand this image of Nelson fighting
the foe with only one arm :
Thus with one of his precious limbs shot away,
Bold Nelson know'd well how to nick 'em ;
So as for the French, 'tis as much as to say,
We can tie up one hand, and then lick 'em.

Dibden has also givsn us the philosophy of the sailor's
frank fearlessness and his rough-and-ready welcome to
whatsoever lot may befall. This is how he can look at life
and death :

Why now, if they go for to talk about living,
My eyes—why a little will serve :
Let each a small part of his pittance be giving,
And who in the nation can starve?
Content's all the thing—rough or calm be the weather
The wind on the beam or the bow.
So if honestly he can splice both ends together,
Why then, darnme if Jack cares how !
And then for a bring -up, d'ye see, about dying,
On which such a racket they keep,
What argufies if in a churchyard you're lying,
Or find out your grave in the deep ?
Of one thing we're certain, whatever our calling,
Death will bring us all up—and what then ?
So his conscience's tackle will bear overhauling,
Why then, damme if Jack cares when.
These things Dibdin has done, done well, once and for
ever.