The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-12 00:00:00

NEW ORLEANS, May 31.—Cotton nominal.

LIVERPOOL, JUNE 12.
The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Com-
pany's steamer Kangaroo, which sailed to-day for
New York, took out £225,982 sterling in specie.

LITERA7VRE.

The Africans at Home : being a Popular Descrip-
tion of Africa and the Africans. Condensed
from the Accounts of African 'Travellers from
the time of Mungo Park to the present day. By
the Rev. M. Macbriar, M.A,, author of "The
Mandingo" and " Foola Grammars." Longmans.
This little work furnishes us with a vast deal of
information of various kinds, and the arrangement
is very well executed. The object is succinctly
stated in the preface :—" This book is a pictorial
description of Africa. We ask the reader to ac-
company us through the interior of that continent,
whilst we point out to him whatever is peculiar to
the different countries and their inhabitants. By
thus travelling over several thousands of miles in
the short time required for perusing this volume
we get a.view of various Negroes, Moors, Arabs,
and mixed races in their own places of
abode." Those who peruse these pages will
find that this plan has been successfully car-
ried out, and no one can fail to increase his
previous knowledge by dwelling en the details
brought before him, condensed in form and impor-
tant in character. There is a map prefixed to the
book, and we meet with numerous illustrations
that serveto embellish the work, while they convey
to the mind a better notion of the places and
persons who appear on the scene. Foremost in
interest among the accounts of the animals will be
considered the description of the " Gorilla." The
following passage is sure to prove interesting :
"This singular animal of the monkey family
approaches nearer to the human species in
its form and habits than the chimpanzee
ourang•outang, or any other creature with which
we are acquainted, but it strikingly differs in the
formation of the brain. A full-grown Gorilla is, at
least, six feet high, very muscular and strong, far
surpassing the strength of a man, so that it can
break a tree of three or four inches diameter with
the greatest ease. Its bones are large and thick,
its arms long, its chest ample, its legs strong. Its
innate savageness is visible in its ferocious looks,
especially in its large and deep eye-balls, and it
cannot be tamed. The Gorillas destroy all animals
in the vicinity of their habitat, refusing to have
intercourse with any other creature. Woe to the
luckless hunter who misses his aim, or fails to dis-
able a Gorilla which he is pursuing, for it would
instantly pounce upon him, wrench his musket
from his hands, and beat out his brains with his
own weapon. Yet this creature is so devoid of
everything like common sense,' that, although it
enjoys warming itself by a fire left by the negroes,
it never thinks of adding fuel to keep it burning."
The peculiarities of the tribes are mentioned at the
conclusion of the book, and in some cases there
are most curious instances cited, revealing how
deeply barbarism is rooted in those localities.
It is difficult in noticing a book with so many
sources of interest and objects of attraction to single
out particular points and enumerate individual
instances, but the reader will probably find his
attention arrested by the passages which record
the career of Mungo Park, and tell of his perilous
adventures which, to the regret of his country, ter-
minated so fatally. The plate called the " Scene
on the Niger " is one of the most striking, and the
representation of the various tribes and the heads
of the Africans are most singular, and afford us a
notion of the peculiarities which distinguish the
human race in that strange country. At the con-
clusion of this most interesting and excellent
volume, the author refers to the time which was men-
tioned by Macaulay when he said the " literature
of England would be read by the unborn millions
who would cover with cities and gardens the Caff-
rarian and Australasian deserts." Dwelling on
this promise of the better days to come, the author
exclaims " What will be the future of Africa when
its rivers and lakes shall be covered with steamboats
and its rich plains intersected by railways,—when
the labours of the engineer and the agriculturist
shall have rid it of pestilential miasma,—when its
fruitful soil shall support a teeming population, and
abundantly furnish those commodities which I
Europe desires to import."

Land and Sea Tales. By an old Sailor. Routledge.
The principal tale in this collection relates to the
time of the restoration. The hero is a highway-
man, and the heroine is the daughter of a royalist
major, who has resigned the sword and betaken
himself to the ploughshare. Having contrived to
establish a footing in the farm under a false name,
the highwayman effects the ruin of the too confid-
ing girl. He is discovered by the authorities, but
escapes with his mistress; he is ultimately shot,
and his mistress hanged. Such is the outline of
the tale, which, although the interest is,well kept
up throughout, is very unnatural. There are several
other short tales, all more or less interesting; but
we consider the concluding one, entitled " The Pain-
ter of Dorb," by far the best in the book ; it relates
to the time when the Spaniards held possession of
the lower countries, and practised all the barbarities
which the Roman Catholic priests were capable of
in the dark ages on those who adhered to the dog-
mas of the reformation. This tale is founded on
fact, which of course enhances its interest.

Celebrated Criminals. By Lascelles Wraxall.
Kent and Co.

The author, or rather the compiler, of these pages
has spared no pains to form a collection of memo-
rable trials. His object has not been to depict
extraordinary crime, but rather to search for
throughout the criminal history of_Europe the most
remarkable trials wherein old laws belonging to
past times of ignorance have been revived out of
revenge, or where the injustice of many continental
tribunals is to this day a blot on the boasted civi-
lization of Europe.

Recollections of a Horse-dealer. By Frederick
Taylor. Ward and Lock.
The object of the author is to expose the tricks
of the " horse-couping" gentry, who make a rich
harvest out of the folly of young (and sometimes
elderly) gentlemen who think because they can ride
they are judges of horseflesh. Many curious examples
are given and good advice as to how frau is are
best detected. Of course, most of the anecdotes
related are fictitious, but the author has evidently
a thorough knowledge of his subject, and the end
desired is the same as though they were true stories.
His advice is certainly sound when he says that a
good horse will always command a good price; and
that those who desire a sound horse should go to a
respectable dealer and pay a fair price.