brass collars, bracelets, anklets, &c.; these are invariably refused in the first instance, and as the king is the only merchant for teeth, so long as he pleases, or has any to dispose of, there can be no competition; and as he sells but one at a time, the delays to which such a traffic is exposed may be easily imagined. They have sometimes stood at the gate of the Portuguese factory for fourteen days before the natives would consent to part with them on the terms offered.

Madagascar was the next destination to which the inquiries of those composing the expedition were directed. Before, however, the party arrived there, they visited innumerable places, the observations upon, and the adventures in which, supply abundant matter for some of the most curious records with which we are acquainted; but which it is utterly impossible, singular, curious, and deeply important as they are, that we can even indicate in the most general manner. A very extended account is given of Radama, the very celebrated man who ruled with such advantages to the cause of civilization in Madagascar. But the death of this chief diminishes the interest which we might have otherwise felt in the descriptions that apply to him. The number of islands and portions of the African coast which were visited, and the inhabitants and productions of which are amply described, baffle all our powers in attempting even to give a catalogue of these localities. The greater portion of the places visited, including especially the islands, belong to other powers, and therefore do not demand from us that curiosity which we may be disposed so attach to localities where many of our countrymen are forced, by untoward circumstances, to seek a precarious existence. Fernando Po, the latest island visited by the expedition, is rendered, on this account, peculiarly interesting to the British public.

It appears, that the Portuguese, who discovered this island, and after them the Spaniards, made efforts to keep it in their possession, and render it subservient to their commercial interests respectively. But all such attempts were made in vain; for the natives would not endure the sort of policy by which they were to be made the instruments of a thirst for gain in which they were not themselves to participate. From 1778 to 1827, the natives remained in undisturbed possession of the island, and at the latter period it was visited by Captain Owen, for the purpose of making it a British settlement, in conformity with the plans of government. Practised as the party on board the vessel was in their acquaintance with savage tribes, and prepared, as they must have been, for every fantastic shape, and every strange aspect which the human inhabitant of the wild forest or mountains in the eastern islands might assume, yet in the whole extent of their voyage, they did not in any case meet with a race so peculiar as that of Fernando Po. The men, according to the account of Captain Owen, are in general of common stature, well formed, and many of herculean strength. Their complexions are almost universally jet black. Their faces possess

a marked variety of feature rather uncommon amongst negroes, some being almost handsome, while others are in the same proportion downright ugly; but whatever natural defects they may possess they are contented with them, and do not try to add to deformity by notching or tattooing their faces, a practice so universal amongst their continental neighbours. The general expression of their countenances is full of intelligence and penetration, which is in fact their character. Our first impression upon seeing them was, that they were the most barbarous and uncivilized race we had yet had any intercourse with; but a farther insight into their manners and customs convinced us that we were mistaken, and that they were naturally a shrewd and ingenious people.

Their costume is both grotesque and original, the principal article being a straw hat, constructed in the rudest of all modeslooking as if formed by placing a quantity of loose straw upon the head, and then pinning it down as closely as possible by means of a number of wooden skewers passed through the hair, with the points projecting some distance at each end. This straw roof is ornamented with various gloomy relics of the dead, consisting of monkeys' skulls, dogs' jaws, small bones of animals placed so as to form a cross, and above all the horns of a goat or deer, with a part of the frontal bone attached, by which they are made to stand upright, as if they had root in the head of the wearer. Some of the great men have, in addition to these emblems of mortality, a plume of feathers hanging in sombre grandeur over their dark visages, which gives them a most funereal appearance. Beneath this hat hangs the hair, which amongst these islanders grows most luxuriantly, probably on account of the vast quantities of unsavoury grease and red earth with which it is begrimed. To prevent its unusual length being an inconvenience, it is trained in ringlets, and allowed to hang on each side of the neck and down the back.

Sierra Leone was the termination of the labours of this mission, and after remaining there for a short time, the party weighed for England. And thus was it, that in the term of five years, a voyage of thirty thousand miles was completed. To judge of the benefits which those labours produced, we must have the opportunity of seeing the charts and plans made during the voyage; for in the course of it, the party were called upon, in numerous instances, to correct the errors of former navigators, and to fix the latitudes of places which had been before very doubtful, or perhaps were quite unknown. The members of the expedition had a very difficult task at the outset to accomplish, which was to make the Cape of Good Hope the first meridian from which they were to date all their longitudes. But even with respect to this spot, the most frequented cape of any in the world, great discrepancies as to its situation existed, and though the authorities are strong against the results of their observations, still, on a full examination of the measures taken on all sides for determining the truth, there is reason to be

lieve that those results, as they have been published by the Admiralty, are worthy of the greatest confidence. Amongst other accessions to practical science flowing from this voyage, are the conclusions which are drawn from experiments made during its progress, on the comparative advantages of chain cables and those made of hemp.

It appears that chain cables are to be preferred for anchoring in every situation where the bottom is either foul or rocky, and in all places where anchorage is usually sought. But, under any circumstances where the ship is exposed to the ocean-swell and heavy winds from seaward, hempen cables are decidedly preferable, for then a vessel's only security is to veer two or four cables on an end, and these, by their length, lightness, (being nearly of the same specific gravity as water,) and elasticity, enable her to rise over the sea with buoyancy; whereas, if riding by a chain, it is of no benefit to veer a long range of cable, as the chain will lie upon the ground, and not being elastic, but of great weight, it will operate against the rise of the vessel with the swelling wave, and she will be subject to the most sudden and violent shocks from the strokes of the sea, which either breaks over her, or causes her to plunge through the waves, instead of riding over them. No ship liable to be so exposed should, therefore, be without two hempen cables, or, what is far better, coir, which is so much lighter than hemp that it floats upon the water. It is also strongly recommended to all vessels to use some few links of chain near the anchor.

The knowledge acquired during this voyage of a perennial current setting into the Atlantic Ocean from the American seas, is by no means the least interesting portion of its beneficial consequences; for not only are the nature of this current, and the season when it takes place pointed out, but the method of avoiding its untoward influence by vessels is also described. Some important observations are likewise made on the treatment of the fever to which Europeans in these parts are liable; and it is strictly laid down as an axiom in this work, that bleeding and calomel (though the one is good as a preventive, and the other as a restorative) should be strictly avoided during the time when the fever has actual possession of the frame.

With respect to the important question how far the introduction of civilized society into the scenes of savage life influenced the latter, the members of the expedition are not in a situation to give an answer which can be considered as at all decisive. It is true that the savages in this part of the world have had before them the example of Portuguese settlers for no less a period than three whole centuries, and there is every reason for concluding, that these settlers were as civilized a people as could be chosen from the European nations. But then, when we consider how little the intercourse of the Portuguese with the natives was calculated to make them respect or confide in the strangers, we shall be enabled

at once to determine the probability that the unthinking conduct of the Portuguese completely neutralized the influence of their example towards ameliorating the rude natures of the Kaffers. But if we are to believe the authority before us, not only did the Portuguese fail to change the natural habits of these tribes, but they even destroyed whatever of civilization had existed amongst them; and it has been observed by the travellers, that wherever the jurisdiction of the Portuguese extended, there, and there alone, did they find it necessary to take precautions against the dishonesty and petty cunning of the inhabitants. Upon this great subject, however, we are willing to listen to the inferences which long experience, united with wisdom, have given rise to; nor is it without a melancholy feeling that we submit our minds to the sad probabilities contained in the following passage, with which this work closes :"But after all it is doubtful whether civilization can be imported, whether it is not a spontaneous growth which must first be planted by the hand of an all-just and wise Creator. The mind of the savage must be prepared by a modification of the fiery passions of his nature, before he changes his state; he cannot at once see the advantages of a civilized over his own wild life, and must therefore by a gentle and well-directed hand be subdued to reason; for to try at once to introduce civilization into the mind of the savage, is like breaking the shell of the chrysalis in order to extract the It is one of the operations of nature which time dormant moth. alone can accomplish, and which any hasty or premature attempt serves only to destroy.'

We should feel that we were violating our own sense of justice, were we to dismiss these volumes without apprising the reader of the impossibility which we laboured under of giving even an approximation to the nature of their contents. It happens that these contents are composed of a multitude of miscellaneous facts, all of great importance and interest, but at the same time incapable of being described by any general comprehensive classification. To those, therefore, who have any interest in pursuing the history of man in one of its most wonderful modifications; to those who seek to know the phenomena of nature, as these are developed on a scale hitherto unparalleled; to those of every description whose sympathies are to be excited by adventures, and novelties, and incidents, such as no imagination could conceive,-to such we recommend the perusal of these important volumes, as being amongst the most valuable contributions by which our scientific literature for many years past has been enriched.

ART. XII.-Astronomy and General Physics, considered with reference to Natural Theology. By the Rev. WM. WHEWELL, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. London Pickering. 1833.

FOR excellence of arrangement and completeness of execution, Mr. Whewell's contribution to the Bridgewater Treatises appears to us to take the lead over all those which we have yet been able to peruse. He begins by establishing an immediate connection between the facts of astronomy and meteorology, on the one hand, and the laws of the organic world on the other; and it is the object of the first of the three books into which the treatise is divided, to explain the nature of this connection. The laws which operate in the inorganic world-in other words, the laws belonging to astronomy and meteorology, vary very much from each other, but Mr. Whewell makes it his business to show that this variety in the one set of laws has an admirable correspondence with a similar variety in the other. To exemplify this statement we need only observe, that while some laws of the inorganic world, such as the force of gravity, are eternal and never vary, others are only periodical : thus light shines only for the period of a day. Now this is a law which pre-exists in the inorganic world, and regarding it as acting in some influential office on the organic world, we find that the alternation of light and darkness, as it at present takes place, is absolutely essential to the very existence of the animal creation. If we take another of the laws of the inorganic world, say that of gravity, we shall see how different it is from the law of light which we have just considered, inasmuch as it is unchangeable, as its action is never suspended, but is ceaselessly in operation. Tracing this law again in its influence upon the organic world, we shall see how absolutely necessary it is, as a permanent law, to the very existence of the latter. Such is the intimate relation, the perfect dove-tailing, as it were, of one apparently distinct system into another, and the contemplation of which is so highly calculated to impress on our mind a conviction that such beautiful and harmonious contrivances could proceed only from supreme wisdom and supreme power. The illustrations of the mutual adaptation of these two systems of laws, are selected in the happiest manner by Mr. Whewell; and we cannot light upon a more interesting specimen than that which he furnishes in his remarks on the "length of the year." It should in the first place be remembered, that the space of time imported by the word "year," is altogether a result of the arrangements made in the inorganic world; it is peculiarly the result of the laws which belong to astronomy and meteorology, because this interval is "determined," says Mr. Whewell," by the time which the earth employs in performing its revolution round the sun and we can very easily conceive the solar system so adVOL. II. (1833) No. IV.

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