Among a simple and ignorant people we may expect to find some customs that may seem as ridiculous in polished nations as European manners in Africa. Thus, at Bornou, it is a great recommendation at court to have a protuberant belly. It is considered the type of abundance, and honored accordingly. All merit however has counterfeits, and the aspiring courtier whom a course of fattening diet cannot enlarge, deprived of the reality, indulges in the resemblance. He stuffs himself with cushions, so that the belly is out of all proportion with the members, and in riding it hangs over the pummel of the saddle. It is the fashion also at Bornou to wear seven or eight loose garments, and a turban of vast dimensions. At the English court, long trains, and hooped petticoats, distort the human figure, little less than these fashions at Bornou.

Among the Arabs, it is the female whose estimation is much increased by bulk. To be fat among them, is to be beautiful, and mothers cram their female children, as geese are fattened in England. The process, though painful, and often enforced by blows, is generally successful; and a perfect beauty with the Moors, is, according to Park, 'a load for a camel.'

The Moors which have so much sway in Africa, may be described as cruel, bigotted, malicious, and treacherous; studying mischief, according to Park, as a science,' and eminently successful in their studies. They live by plunder and extortion. They have little cheerfulness and few amusements. The chief amusement of the negroes is dancing, which they often keep up like their enslaved countrymen in America, during the whole night. It is a pleasing sight to see a whole village, thus engaged by moonlight, under the trees. The instruments most in use are the guitar with 3 strings, a harp with 18, and a smaller one with 7. There are two kinds of drums, one of which is large, and used to spread an alarm. Some of the dances are peculiar. In Bornou, the female dancers suddenly turn their backs to each other, and thus meet with much violence, endeavoring to destroy each other's equilibrium. The successful one is much cheered. Just before the expected concussion, one dancer will sometimes step nimbly aside, and leave her opponent to seat herself with considerable force upon the ground. Sometimes also the smaller party, that would suffer in the shock, suddenly drops down, leaving the larger to tumble over her. The negroes engage much in wrestling, at which they are very expert, and would probably carry off the honors of any ring in Europe. They approach each other on all fours. Boxing is common; the blows are given with the right hand, and warded off with the palm of the left. It is a favorite trick with the boxer to get his antagonist's head under and to bruise it in that situation.

his arm,

26. ÉDUCATION, &c. The education in Central Africa, includes but the reading of the Koran in Arabic, and this degree of knowledge is rare. The religion is the Mohammedan, which is rapidly spreading, and Fetishism, which includes a belief in charms, conjurations, and divination. The governments are many of them of a patriarchal kind, but undergo many changes; and deposed Sultans are said by Denham to be as common as bankrupts in Europe. The dooty is the magistrate of towns, and the place of assembling is the bentang, a stage, or sometimes a tree. The palavers are judicial meetings. In some places there are trials by ordeal.

CHAPTER XCII.-WESTERN AFRICA.

1. BOUNDARIES, EXTENT, AND DIVISIONS. This territory is bounded north by the desert of Zahara and Nigritia, east by Nigritia and unknown territo

ries, and southwest and west by the Atlantic. Its limits are undefined, but it may be described in general terms, as extending from about 16 N. lat., southward nearly to the tropic of Capricorn. The most general divisions under which the country is known, are those of Senegambia, Guinea, Congo, Angola and Benguela. These include many subdivisions, and independent districts.

2. SENEGAMBIA. This territory is the most northern of the districts of Western Africa. It is bounded north by the Desert, east by Nigritia, south by Upper Guinea, and west by the Atlantic. It is for the most part flat and sandy. Magnificent forests of tall trees are scattered over the face of the country. The palm, the cocoa, the tamarind, banana, fig, date, and the butter tree are all indigenous. Oranges, lemons, and limes also abound. Reptiles are numerous. The climate is exceedingly hot. The east winds, which reach this country after sweeping over the burning surface of Central Africa, are almost insupportable. During the whole year the heat of the sun at noon is intense. The thermometer is sometimes at 131° at Senegal. From June to October, heavy rains fall. This region is watered by the Senegal river, which rises in the mountains of Kong, and flows northwesterly into the Atlantic, after a course of about 1000 miles; and by the Gambia and Rio Grande, which have the same origin and direction, but are inferior streams. On the coast is Cape Verde, the most westerly point of Africa. This region is divided into a great number of small states. In the West are the kingdom of Cayor, the country of the Yoloffs, the country of the Feloupes, of the Biafaras, the Bal antes and Papels. In the North are the kingdoms of Footatoro, Galam, Ban book, Ludamar, and Kaarta. In the East are the kingdoms of Foalads, Brouko, and Gadou. In the South is the country of the Mandingoes, and the Foulahs. In the centre are the states of Bondou and Woolli.

There are several European settlements on this coast. The French have an establishment on the Isle of St Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal, with several forts upon the river, which they maintain for carrying on the gum trade. The Island of Goree lying close to the southern shore of Cape Verde, is also settled by the French. The chief British settlement is at Sierra Leone, in the southern part. It was founded in 1791. The chief town is called Freetown, and is chiefly inhabited by liberated negroes, taken from slave ships. Pop. in 1822, 5,643.

Bathurst, on a small island at the mouth of the Gambia, is another British settlement of some importance. The Portuguese have also some sinall estab lishments.

3. GUINEA. This country is bounded north by Senegambia and Nigritia, east by unknown countries, south and west by Cimbebas and the Atlantic. It forms a crescent around the Gulf of Guinea, and is intersected by the equa tor. It is separated from Nigritia and Senegambia by the mountains of Kong. The great river Niger or Quorra, enters this country from Nigritia, and flows into the Atlantic by several mouths, which intersect a tract of country 240 miles in width along the coast. The principal of these mouths are known by the names of the rivers, Nun, Benin, Formosa, Old and New Calabar. The other rivers are the Zaire, or Congo, which flows into the Atlantic by so wide a mouth, and with so deep and rapid a current, that it was at one time imagi ed to be the outlet of the Niger. Its origin is not known. The Coanza, which also rises in unknown regions, flows northwesterly into the Atlantic. This country is commonly regarded under two general divisions, Upper and Lower Guinea. These have a great number of subdivisions. Upper Gumes consists of the Grain Coast, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slove Coast, or Whidah, Benin, Calabar, Biafra, Gaba, and Calbangos, which are all upon the coast, and Kooranko, Kong, Dagomba, Killinga, Sarem, Bunts koo, Ashantee, Dahomey, and Eyeos in the interior. Lower Guinea comprises Congo, Angola, Benguela, Ergoyo, Cacongo, Loango, Mayemba, Sette and

Anziko.

Liberia is a colony founded by the American Colonization Society in 1817, at the mouth of the river Mesurado. The colony is designed as a residence for liberated slaves and other blacks from the United States. The chief town is Monrovia. It occupies a healthy situation near the river, and is already become a flourishing place. The houses are neatly built, and the place has the appearance of a thriving American town. Pop. 700. The Grain or Pepper Coast is considerably frequented for Guinea pepper, its only production. The Ivory Coast has no good harbors, but is visited in boats for its trade in ivory. Upon the Gold Coast are some Dutch settlements, of which El Mina is the capital; it has a population of 15,000. The chief British settlement in this quarter is Cape Coast Castle, which contains 8,000 inhabitants. The Slave Coast is a beautiful country, covered with a luxuriant and perpetual vegetation; it is governed by a viceroy under the king of Dahomey. The slave trade upon this coast is now nearly broken up. Benin lies at the outlet of the Niger, and has an unhealthy climate.

The most important of the interior districts is the kingdom of Ashantee. It is about 800 miles in length, and 350 in breadth. The soil is fertile, and the country completely covered with vegetation. Sugar-cane, rice, the butter tree, pawpaws, ananas and bananas are cultivated. The population is above 1,000,000, without reckoning the tributary nations, which are 22 in number. The inhabitants weave and dye cotton with considerable dexterity, and hold a trade with the coast in gold-dust and vegetable butter. The immense forests of the country afford abundance of palm oil.

The metropolis, called Coumassi, is large and regularly built; it is insulated by a marsh, which contains many springs, that supply the town with water; and it is also encompassed by a fine forest. The figure is oblong, and the circumference between three and four miles; the principal streets are very long and wide. The walls of the houses are formed of stakes and wattle-work, filled up and coated with clay. They have gable ends, and thick poles support a frame of bamboo, over which interwoven palm-leaves are placed for thatch. In general they have only one floor, and, where they have two, the lower part is divided by a wall, to support the rafters for the upper room, which are usually covered with a frame-work thickly stuccoed with ochre. The doors consist of an entire piece of wood, cut with great labor out of the stems or buttresses of the cotton-tree; and the windows are open wood-work, carved in fanciful figures and intricate patterns, and painted red. The palace (says Mr Bowdich) is an immense building of a variety of oblong courts and regular squares, the former with arcades along one side, some of round arches symmetrically turned, having a skeleton of bamboo; the entablatures exuberantly adorned with bold fan and trellis work of Egyptian character. They have a suite of rooms over them, with small windows of wooden lattice, of intricate but regular carved work; and some have frames cased with thin gold. The squares have a large apartment on each side, open in front, with two supporting pillars;' and this kind of proscenium is a mark of distinction; for none but military officers, beside the king, are permitted to build in this mode. Chairs and stools embossed with gold, and beds of silk, are among the articles of royal furniture. The population of the capital is about 15,000.

The Ashantees appear to be the most powerful, commercial and warlike of all the tribes of Western Africa, yet until the beginning of the present century they were not known even by name to the Europeans. Since that period they have been visited by travellers from the coast. They have recently car. ried on hostilities against the British with remarkable success, and in 1823, they defeated, and totally destroyed a British army under Sir Charles McCarthy, the governor of the colony at Cape Coast Castle.

The kingdom of Dahomey lies to the east of Ashantee, and is bounded south by the Gulf of Guinea. The soil is fertile, producing maize, millet, grains, potatoes, plantains, oranges, citrons and other tropical fruits, with

indigo, cotton, sugar, tobacco and spices. The wind called harmattan, blows in this country for three months in the year: rains and hurricanes are periodical. The inhabitants have some skill in manufactures. They make good cloth, and dye it of various colors. Their smith work is quite respectable: they use a bellows formed of two goat skins, with a musket barrel for a pipe; a stone is used for an anvil, and a round iron bar a foot in length for a ham mer. With these tools they manufacture spears, cutlasses, and other weapons, carpenters' tools, bracelets, rings, &c. Cowries are used for money, and the king maintains a considerable standing army.

Loango was formerly a dependency upon that of Congo. The people are industrious, and not only occupy themselves in various arts, but engage also in commercial pursuits. The climate is remarkably warm, and a long dry season regularly follows a long continuance of rain. The cocoa and banana thrive beside the more common fruit trees; and the cotton plant and sugar cane are cultivated with success.

Congo is bounded on the north by Loango, on the south by Angola, and on the east by the territory of the Giagas. The climate is extremely hot in summer; but the winters are as mild as the finest springs of Italy. The wild animals are elephants, lions, leopards, panthers, wolves, zebras, buffaloes, &c. The country is likewise infested with a variety of serpents, some of which are of a monstrous length and thickness; with rattle-snakes, vipers, scorpions, and venomous insects of various kinds, both flying and reptile. Among the insects the most wonderful are the termites or white ants, which construct works in the most ingenious manner and apparently in a scientific form, and compose an orderly and well regulated community. Their earthern structures are sometimes raised to the height of seven or eight feet, and appear like the huts of the natives. These little creatures not only destroy the fruits of the earth, but in the night surround beasts, and sometimes men, in prodigious swarms, and devour them in a few hours, leaving only the bones. This country was discovered, in 1487, by the Portuguese, who formed settlements on the coast, and endeavored, but not with effective success, to convert the natives to Christianity.

To the southward of Congo is the kingdom of Angola, which used to supply the French and other dealers in slaves with multitudes of those wretched and degraded beings, and still furnishes the Spaniards and Portuguese with a considerable number, as those nations continue the abominable traffic, in defiance of the general voice of Europe. In Loanda, which is the chief town, the Portuguese have a settlement, which is the great mart of slaves.

the

Farther to the south is the territory of Benguela, with which the Portuguese are also connected. The climate of this country is particularly insalubrious, and the people are rude and barbarous. Mines of copper exist among mountains; but they are not rendered, even by the European colonies, subservient to general use. The other territories are insignificant.

4. INHABITANTS. There is considerable diversity in features and color, in the different nations or tribes. The peculiar negro features are not found in all. The Mandingoes have regular and open countenances, and among the Ashantees, may be found faces of Grecian shape and precision. The negroes are gene rally well shaped; and among the females may often be seen the most graceful forms. In all things but in color, they have what are allowed in Europe to be the requisites for beauty. The dress is various, and different tribes and people of the same tribe indulge in a diversity. In some places, nakedness is hardly covered, and in others the dress is cumbrous. In Timannee, it is considered respectable to wear large trowsers, of several spans of cloth; and great breeches there are synonymous with great men. A ruler in that country on seeing Laing take off his gloves, exclaimed in astonishment, Alla akbar, he has pulled off the skin from his hands!' 5. LANGUAGE. The languages are various, but the Arabic is gaining ground as the Mohammedan religion spreads.

6. MANNER OF BUILDING. The manner of building is slight, as the dwellings are intended to be a defence from heat, and not from cold. In Ashantee the houses are built with some skill and regularity, and the rooms are rudely painted in regular and pleasing figures.

7. FOOD AND DRINK. The general food is light, consisting chiefly of rice, honey, yams, groundnuts, and fruits. Palm wine and pitto, the country ale, are the chief intoxicating liquors, though on the coast may be had the European spirits. On the coast there is much beastly intoxication.

8. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. The slave trade has been fruitful in evil to this part of Africa, and all over the continent it has perpetuated mischief, no less than in America. It has broken up the foundations of society, and much depraved the character of the negroes. In the interior where the European traveller has never penetrated, may yet be found tribes living in the simplicity of innocence, but depravity may be measured by the approach to the coast. On the coast, however, the African character remains, and the people are timid and cheerful. They are placable, and will in a moment after a quarrel be perfectly reconciled. Some of them are warlike, and all of them under many circumstances of war, kidnapping, &c, are cruel.

In Dahomey the people are characterised as having a strange mixture of ferocity and politeness, and in Ashantee, they live with many of the comforts of civilization in a state of shocking barbarism. They have trade, wealth, and a regular government, but the human sacrifices perpetrated in the capital are almost beyond belief. The king, and grandees have vessels of silver and gold, and the English mission remarked a great natural politeness among the courtiers. Suicide is not uncommon in cases of disgrace. The people are extremely neat in their persons, dress, and houses, and they bathe daily. Cowardice is punished as a crime, with death, and in wars, the general places himself in the rear, to kill those who may retreat. In some of the negro nations, there is an institution called the simo, or the purrah. The chief and the initiated reside in woods, and by the power of superstition, as well as of force, render the neighboring people tributary. Some classes are generally privileged, and may travel safely when the countries are at war; these are orators or lawyers, minstrels, blacksmiths and shoemakers. The palavers are judicial and deliberative assemblies, and to bring a palaver,' is in other words to bring an action. On these occasions the orators are very adroit. In some parts constructive damages are allowed, to a great extent. Thus when eggs were stolen, after the lapse of years, the loss was computed on the supposition, that they would have hatched and multiplied in the greatest ratio. There is a general deference to old age, and there are no destitute old people

to be seen.

The common amusements are dancing, story telling, and singing. The dancing is often continued by the whole village, during the night. The only education ever received, is that degree of knowledge obtained by a few, to read the Koran and write a few sentences in Arabic. The Mohammedan religion has some followers in almost every tribe, and a reader in the Koran enjoys considerable reputation. Generally there is some notion of a Supreme Being.

There are many fetiches, or indefinable objects, principles of worship, or consecrated things. The fetiche seems to resemble the obi of the West Indies and the taboo of the South Sea islands. Charms, amulets, and saphies, or written charms are in great use as defence from danger, &c. It is a general custom in eating and drinking to throw a little food or drink on the ground as an offering to the dead. At various places, but especially in Ashantee and Dahomey, there are human sacrifices, and Coomassie is the very court of Moloch. At the 'yam custom' in September, when the yam is ripe, the conexecuted, but all chiefs who enter the city, have the right of sacrificing four slaves, one at each of the four corners of the city. At the death

victs are