The Sun. — 1836-06-24 (London, England)

NATHANIEL ISAACS. In 2 Vols. Edward Churton, London, 1836.  The author of these very interesting volumes has here thrown together, in the form of a diary, the experience of seven years spent in constant communication with the savage tribes of South-eastern Africa. In 1822, Mr. Isaacs, then only fourteen years of age, left England for the house of his maternal Uncle, a respectable merchant at St. Helena. He arrived in safety ; remained with his Uncle in the capacity of clerk and assistant for two years : when, finding, like Crusoe, that his love of rambling was not to be overcome, he joined Lieutenant King on a voyage to Natal, on the south-eastern coast of Africa, in quest of a Lieutenant Farewell, who had years before started for that port, and was supposed to have fallen into the hands of the savages. The voyage was made in safety till the vessel entered the Bay of Natal, where she was wrecked. All on board, were, however, saved, and the shipwrecked crew had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Farewell's people, who had the good fortune to obtain the protection of the Zoola King, who, though otherwise a ruthless savage, treated them with every mark of friendship. Mr. Isaacs landed in Natal in 1825, and during his residence, penetrated some hundreds of miles into the interior, carrying on a bartering trade with the natives for ivory. He describes the country as very beautiful and well-watered ; the air as mild and genial ; the soil as rich, loamy, and productive ; and the climate as healthy and agreeable to Europeans. The natives, particularly the Zoolas, are a fine race of people, and capable of social and moral improvement. The Europeans shipwrecked at Natal formed a settlement in which they were assisted by the natives, who were docile, obedient, and much attached to the " Malangoes," or white men ; and we have every reason to conclude that the place would have soon become the nucleus of a flourishing and extensive colony, but for the avarice and strife of the officers. While Mr. Isaacs remained there Lieutenant King died, and Lieutenant Farewell was murdered while making an excursion in the Interior. The former was a gallant, generous, nobleminded man, whose conduct procured for him the respect of his own people, and the veneration of the natives, who looked up to him as a being superior to all others.  A great deal of very useful information may be ga  thered from these volumes with respect to the manners, customs, usages, laws, government, and religious ceremonies of the south-eastern African tribes. The author, with great modesty, admits his incompetence to detail more than what appeared on the surface ; being, as he states himself, but indifferently educated, and having  neither leisure nor means for further self-improvement after arriving at years of discretion. It is greatly to be regretted that he knew nothing of botany and geology— the latter especially, inasmuch as the natives pointed out to him mountains whence they formerly dug a white ore, which he believed to be silver, but which  they were then forbidden to dig by the King, lest the spirits would kill them. Mr. Isaacs complains much of the indifference of the British Colonial Authorities at the Cape, and assures his readers that nothing but enterprise is wanted to render Natal one of the finest British settlements in the world.