The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-08 00:00:00

is very superior in her efforts, aiid together thu
history of " The Little Beauty " bids fair to be a
favourite among the fictions of the present season.

Travels in Eastern Africa. B 7 Lyons M'Leod,
Esq., F.R.G.S., late her Britannic Majesty's
Consul at Mozambique. Two vols. Hurst and
Blackett.
The author of these volumes lately filled the
dignified but unenviable post of British Consul at
Mozambique. He is a staunch adherent to the
abolitionist doctrines, and willing to uphold his
principles rigidly, by the most self-denying and
inconvenient practice. He was therefore admirably
qualified for his position, had he been supported by
the proper authority ; but to allow him to remain
there without a,y other assistance was to expose
a British subject to a succession of insults and an-
noyances, and to bring the British flag into con-
tempt. The Portuguese slave-holders main-
tained a system of persecution, refusing to let the
Consul have one of their houses, servants, or medical
attendance ; sending troops of their slaves to make
a disturbance under his windows at night, and in-
sulting and thwarting him by every means in their
power. If Mr. Macleod's narrative be not greatly
exaggerated or extremely biassed, the prime movers
in this affair should certainly be called to account
for their treatment of a British Consul. It is a farce
for Great Britain to send an envoy to such a lo-
cality, if the Government which he represents does
not insist on proper respect being paid to his posi-
tion. The governor of Mozambique was dismissed
from his post for slave-dealing, and the new corner,
Colonel Almeidas, at first showed every courtesy
and attention to the representations of Mr. Mac-
leod ; but finding that he was quite unsupported,
especially after his desertion by an English ship in
the harbour, he paid little heed to his complaints
of personal ill-usage or to his information respect-
ing the nefarious traffic in slaves. The account
given of the Charles et Georges affair will be read
with interest. Mr. Macleod does not write
with the skill of a practised author. Ho sometimes
attaches undue importance to trifles, and is occa-
sionally diffuse and extravagant in his style. But
his object does not seem to have been to write an
attractive book, so much as to set plainly before his
countrymen the immense extent to which this
shameful traffic is carried on under the very eyes of
their representatives, both openly by the Portu-
guese slave-owners and secretly under the disguise
of the French free-labour emigration scheme. To
this latter plan the author is strongly opposed,
seeing in it only a modified form of slavery, and
asserting that the same cruelties are practised in
entrapping and securing the so-called free emi-
grants and in bringing them to the French vessels,
as are carried on by the regular slave ships. An
American in Mozambique told Mr. Macleod. that if
Great Britain permitted France to continue this
system, vessels would soon be found there from the
Southern States of America authorised to purchase
slaves and call them American free labourers. The
determined hostility to the English Consul shown
by the Portuguese residents at Mozambique, prove
the largo gains they make by their secret slave
dealing, while the cruelty with which their unfor-
tunate slaves are treated is strongly denounced
by the author. Of the climate itself he speaks
highly, giving quotations from some good autho-
rities on the point, and asserting that the extreme
unhealthiness of the Portuguese settlement in
Dulagoa Bay is entirely owing
.to the situation
chosen for the town. " There is a slimy mud-
bank between 'Waterloo and Southwark bridges
on the Thames, the occupant of a hut built
on that mud-bank, would, in the height
of our summer, be nearly as liable to marsh or putrid
fever as the inhabitants of Loureneo Marques."
His work is dedicated to the merchants of Great
Britain, and a great portion of it is especially
directed to them, for the author treats largely of
the resources of Eastern Africa, and its capabilities
in a commercial point of view. The slave trade he
regards as a great drawback in every respect,
but his opinion of the fertility and vigour of
the soil, if properly cultivated, is most encouraging.
' We commend his volumes to the attention of all
who are interested in the extension of our commerce,
and in the effectual extirpation of the slave trade
in all its branches.