various than is found to be the case in negro countries; they are all jet black, with thick woolly heads. The custom of tattooing or notching is practised amongst them. The chiefs of one of the districts called Mapoota wear their heads shaved, except a large tuft on the crown, on which is placed a small pad, or roller, into which the wool, after being combed out straight and tight, is tucked with much neatness. The Zoolas or Vatwas, on the contrary, shave the crown, and leave a ring of wool round the head, but similarly dressed, by being trussed over a pad and kept in its place by wooden skewers. The common people of both sexes, but particularly the women, shave their wool so as to leave the shape of a tobacco-pipe, or some other ludicrous figure, according to their fancy or taste; and some of these tribes have a custom of filing their teeth to points, which is much practised on many parts of the

west coast.

In this excursion the party belonging to the Leven explored the rivers, and found them to be of great navigable extent. A very lively account of the passage up the English, Mattoll, and Temby rivers, by a party who slept at night on the banks, is given in these volumes; the boats encountered some perils from the hippopotami, but the climate which they met with in their ascent was beautiful. The scene at midnight, according to Mr. Forbes, was solemn and almost sublime. The sky was clear and brilliantly starlight; not a sound was heard but the crackling of our immense fires, the snorting of the hippopotami, and the occasional splash, as they rushed in and out of the water whilst pursuing their rough pastime; the screaming of some birds, (a species of Ibis,) mingled with the deep-toned cry of " All's well," from the sentinels pacing round the tents, gave birth to feelings it would be difficult to define, for there is something awful in the stillness of nature that thrills within us, but cannot speak; we were but a few sleeping on a far distant soil, where Europeans had perhaps never been before.

A party of the natives came down to the tents one day on the banks of the Temby, and brought baskets in their hands containing fowls, which they offered to barter for tobacco and trinkets. As the crew were conversing with these people, they saw a tribe called Hollontontes in the distance in their war costume, and prepared with shields and spears for an immediate action. But the commercial people, who had the fowls for barter, dissuaded the Hollontontes from hostile measures, and prevailed on them to trust to the friendly disposition of the white strangers. The description of the young chief, Chinchingany, forms a very fantastic portrait :

Round his head, just above the eyes, was a band of fur, som what resembling in size and colour a fox's tail, neatly trimmed and smoothed: underneath this his black woolly hair was hidden; but above it grew to its usual length, until at the top, where a circular space was shaved in the manner of the monks and Zoolos; round this circle was a thick ring of twisted hide, fixed in its position by the curling over of the surrounding

hair, which was altogether sufficiently thick to resist a considerable blow. On one side of his head was a single feather of some large bird, as an emblem of his rank, and just above his eye-brows a string of small white beads, and another across the nose. Close under his chin he wore a quantity of long coarse hair, like the venerable beard of a patriarch, hanging down on his breast; his ears had large slits in their lower lobes, and were made to fall three or four inches, but without any ornaments; these holes in the ears are often used to carry articles of value. Each arm was encircled by a quantity of hair like that tied on his chin, the ends reaching below his elbows. Round his body were tied two strings, with twisted stripes of hide, with the hair on them, much resembling monkey's tails; the upper row was fastened close under his arms, and hung down about twelve inches, the end of each tail being cut with much precision and regularity; the lower row resembled the upper, and commenced exactly where the latter terminated, until they reached the knees. It bore altogether a great resemblance to the Scotch kilt. On his ankles and wrists he had brass rings or bangles. His shield was of bullock's hide, about five feet long, and three and a half broad; down the middle was fixed a long stick, tufted with hair, by means of holes cut for the purpose, and projecting above and below beyond the shield about five inches. To this stick were attached his assagayes and spears; the only difference in these weapons is, that the former is narrow in the blade, and small for throwing; the latter broad and long, with a stronger staff for the thrust.-vol. i. pp. 93–95.

But this dress, it should be observed, was the war costume, and was used only when the chief was on his warlike expeditions. This chief, with some of his men, were hospitably received in the tent; but when he found that one of the party, Mr. Hood, was drawing a sketch of him, he rose indignantly and hastened away with his followers. That night a party of the same tribe, in the most treacherous manner, attacked the camp, but they were completely worsted, and many were killed, whilst the English scarcely suffered from even a wound. The kingdom of Temby, where these events occurred, is represented as being ruled by an absolute king, and under him twelve chiefs, each absolute with respect to the people in his district, but servilely subject to the king. The chiefs take what they please from their people, but by usage this is said to be one half of their gain, in any considerable bargain by purchase or sale. The king is always surrounded by some of his oldest chiefs, and no important affairs are undertaken without their advice. Each chief has his "Secretary," who may be said to be his prime minister. How this name has come into use among these savages cannot be exactly known, or how far it extends; but it is common to all the neighbouring tribes.

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One of the secretaries was a sort of cultivated savage called English Bill," and by his craft, cunning, and deep finesse, together with an extraordinary talent for mimicry, was of great use to the travellers, either in the services which he rendered them with the natives, or by the amusement he afforded them, and he is described as being the person from whom they derived the best

of their information concerning the country and the people. They found that the king, Kapell, was dead; but it was not until they had been for some time taught to believe that he was only sick, that they found out the truth; for it was a law of the country that the death of the king was not to be mentioned until one year had elapsed from the date of that event. The party had been fourteen days without receiving any direct communication from the chiefs of Temby, when English Bill presented himself with a present of four cabbages and five fowls as an offering from Prince Slangelly, the nephew of the late king. Lieutenant Boteler was immediately sent back with the messenger, and was received with great cordiality by the prince, who was particularly astonished by his watch, and excessively pleased with a present of two bottles of rum. Slangelly had ten wives, all of whom the lieutenant saw in their separate residences. The prince, observes the lieutenant, or as English Bill called him, king, was a young man of short stature, with an intelligent good-humoured countenance. The only articles of clothing he wore, were a neat blue jacket, and a red night-cap, decorated with a great profusion of beads and trinkets. From the extent of his domain, and the grain in his fields, he was accounted rich, of which Bill, by the way, took care to inform him, by saying, in his broken English," King Slangelly richy, very richy man, too much richy, he hath plenty Ohnyong (onions)."

Lieutenant Boteler, after leaving the prince, returned on board his vessel, and proceeded to carry into effect the orders received from Captain Owen to explore the branch of the river, which after the late Lord Melville they called Dundas River. In this expedition Mr. Boteler met frequently with the natives, whom he represents as a most wretched, squalid tribe, who feed on the hippopotamus, which they catch with great facility. The fare on which they subsist when the rivers furnish no food, consists of a species of small shell-fish, that abound on the banks of these rivers, a little millet, and a fruit resembling calebash, which they term maccaca. They pound the millet in a deep wooden mortar, and with the inside of the tasteless maccaca, make it into small cakes, which they put on sticks and roast before the fire. This fruit, when eaten in its natural state, occasions a violent dysentery; but it did not appear to act with any such effect on the natives.

The Delagoans, such being the name of this people, believe that no more delicious luxury can be found in the world than the smoking the "hubble-bubble," and certainly such a luxury is worthy of this strange people. A long hollow reed or cane, with the lower end immersed in a horn of water, and the upper capped by a piece of earthenware, shaped like a thimble, is held in the hand; they cover its top with the exception of a small aperture, through which, by a peculiar action of the mouth, they draw the smoke from the pipe above through the water below; they fill the mouth, and after

having kept it some time there, eject it with violence from the ears and nostrils.

They become sometimes extremely giddy, and appear half stifled occasionally, and the process produces so violent a fit of coughing, or rather of hooping, that Mr. Boteler was once attracted into a house by the violent noise caused by the convulsive throes of an old man, whom he found nearly deprived of life from the effects of the tobacco he was smoking. When Lieutenant Boteler returned to the Leven, he found regular commercial regulations established between her crew and the natives, who brought to the vessel the following articles :-elephants' tusks, teeth of the hippopotamus, rhinoceros' horns, tiger skins, ambergris, spears, assagayes, mats, shields, agricultural and culinary utensils of their own manufacture, goats, fowls, onions, yams, maize, millet, cabbages, maccacas, (afterwards prohibited,) pine-apples, tomatas, and a variety of other things. It was found that they were prepared for appreciating the intoxicating properties of rum, by having been already accustomed to a liquor of native manufacture called epealha, and which is prepared in the following manner:-a large quantity of maize, with a proportion of water, is put into a wooden mortar, and there pounded for half an hour, and afterwards placed in the shade to ferment; at the end of two days it is boiled, and, when cold, a small addition of a grain called andnealo (a sort of millet), well pounded, is added; and the whole, after standing a few hours, strained through a mat bag, from which the epealha oozes perfectly pure, and of a milk-white colour. In one day it is drinkable, the next sour, and less than two bottles will occasion inebriation.

The only other liquor manufactured by the natives is that which is made of the fermented juice of a fruit resembling the guava, and growing on a lofty white-looking tree. This liquor is colourless, has a sweet and pleasant taste, and is not so strong as the former. During the period of their stay in the bay, the Portuguese commandant perpetrated an act of great atrocity. A Mattoll chief, accompanied by some natives, waited on the Portuguese for protection against the ravages made upon them by the Hollontontes. On arriving at the station, and before seeing the commandant, they went into the Portuguese bazaar to barter for a few articles. Whilst they were thus engaged, a Portuguese went to the commandant, and represented, without the slightest foundation in truth, that these were a party who had robbed his garden. The poor blacks were in a few minutes surrounded by a guard of soldiers with fixed bayonets, and marched off to the fort, where they received a flogging under circumstances of the most horrible severity. The knout employed on the occasion was formed of several thongs of hard dried bull's hide, covered with knots, and attached to a stick about three feet long, as a handle; from this punishment the sufferer either fainted immediately, or, from the agony he endured, was reduced to a lethargic state; if the latter, he was aroused by a violent blow

from a stake, or heavy bar, that he might be more susceptible of pain, or evince it by his cries. The branch of a thorny bush was the last instrument of torture, which was applied with great force to the lacerated back of the half-expiring negro. The commandant himself stood by to encourage the tormentors, and the poor victims were finally cast into a loathsome cell, where several died. The rest were cast out, half dead, and dragged to the bushes near the fort, where they quickly died under the influence of a burning sun.

It was found by the party that most of those who went much on the land were subject to fever, and at one time more than twenty were attacked. During the time of their stay, likewise, the late king's son, contrary to the ancient practice of waiting a year, was acknowledged king, and Lieutenant Boteler was sent on a friendly mission to him. Mayetta (such was the new king's name) was not to be found when the lieutenant arrived at his residence, which was merely a hut twenty-three feet in diameter, and twenty-five feet high, with its interior a complete labyrinth of cobwebs. He had been waiting for some time, when Mayetta made a procession into the small village, followed by upwards of 100 men, who were armed with shields and spears. The lieutenant was warmly received, but took his leave without experiencing any particular incident. The king was nearly six feet high, about twenty-two years of age, and of a manly and commanding appearance; his dress consisted of a long robe of fine scarlet cloth, edged with gold lace more than half an inch in breadth. Those around him appeared to pay great respect in the tone of their voice, but no salaam, or other kind of salute, was practised.

A party was next formed for exploring the River Manice, and Captain Cutfield was appointed to conduct it. In his ascent up the river, he met with numerous bodies of the very troublesome tribe of Hollontontes, whom in vain he sought to conciliate. The captain told them (but through very indifferent interpreters) that as they were the first to wage war, so must they send hostages for their future peaceable conduct. This they refused to do, and the conference ended by a declaration of hostility.

The Leven afterwards proceeded along the coast, in pursuance of the objects of the expedition, and the party, having visited many of the islands belonging either to the French or the Portuguese, give accounts of them abounding in interest and curious particulars. In the meantime Lieutenant Owen took the opportunity of exploring the River Mapoota, one of the streams which water the country that is continuous with the Cape of Good Hope. The habits of a certain king, named Makasany, varied the amusements of the party, and with his people some merchants carried on a barter in elephants' teeth, which was conducted in a somewhat unusual manner. The teeth, it seems, are brought to the place of exchange after they have been examined, and sometimes weighed; the merchant puts down a certain quantity of blue calico or dungaree, beads,