Persons skilled in the gathering and preparation of the leaves have been introduced from China; and there seems little reason to doubt that Assam is capable of producing tea to any extent, if sufficient capital and enterprise were exerted in the undertaking.

CHIEF CITIES.

bright stream which sweeps by them, guiltless of their impiety and unconscious of their homage-afford a scene such as no European and few Asiatic cities can at all parallel in interest and singularity.'

At

The population of Calcutta is composed of about 14,000 Christians, 48,000 Mohammedans, and 120,000 Hindoos; but this is the amount only within the city proper. If the environs or suburbs be included, the population will amount to perhaps 500,000; and so densely peopled is the surrounding district, that within the circuit of twenty miles there is a population of nearly two and a-half millions. In 1841 the exports of Calcutta amounted to £5,867,767, and the imports to £8,369,329.

In recent times considerable improvements have been made in and about Calcutta, jungles being cleared away, streets drained, and stagnant water removed. Calcutta, the British capital of India, is situated about Though the situation of Calcutta has not been well 100 miles from the sea, on the east bank of the Hoogly, chosen, it is excellently adapted for commerce. a branch of the Ganges, in latitude 22° 23′ north, longi- high water the river is here a full mile in breadth. tude 88° 28′ east. The length of the town is about 6 The advantages possessed for inland navigation are miles along the bank of the river. When seen from considerable; foreign imports may be transported with the south, on which side it is built round two sides of great facility, on the Ganges and its tributaries, to the a great open plain, with the Ganges on the west, it pre-north-western quarters of Hindoostan, while the valuable sents the view of a very noble city, with tall and stately productions of the interior are received by the same houses ornamented with Grecian pillars and spacious channels. There is at all times a vast quantity of merverandas. The esplanade between the town and Fort-chandise deposited at Calcutta, and the trade carried William leaves a grand opening, along the border of on is now very extensive. Besides a government bank, which is placed the new and splendid government-house, there were lately two private banks, which circulate erected by the Marquis Wellesley. Fort-William, to a considerable amount. There are several daily, which was commenced by Lord Clive, is the largest and twice-a-week, and weekly newspapers; and recently a strongest fortress in India, but is considered too exten- quarterly review. The religious, and charitable, and sive to be easily defended: its garrison usually consists educational institutions are numerous, and of great of two European regiments, with artillery, besides a service. Society in Calcutta is gay and splendid; and supply of native troops. The public buildings of Cal- the British inhabitants among their own class are cutta, besides the government house, are a town-hall, described as hospitable, though jealous of etiquette, a court of justice, two churches of the established reli- and of an overbearing disposition. There are no gion, and one for the Scotch Presbyterian worship, hotels, or inns, or lodging-houses of any description which is a very handsome edifice. There are also seve- -a want which appears perfectly amazing-and all ral chapels for other religious bodies, mosques, and strangers, male or female, must be provided with intropagodas-the latter generally decayed and ruinous, the ductions to the houses of residents. The expenses religion of the people being chiefly conspicuous in their of living are very considerable; and as there are worship of the Ganges. Behind the elegant front lines now no more opportunities of acquiring wealth by the of houses is ranged the native town, deep, black, and spoliation of native principalities, fortunes are much dingy, with various crooked streets, huts of earth baked seldomer realised than formerly. There being also now in the sun, or of twisted bamboos, interspersed here fewer deaths, there are fewer chances of promotion. and there with ruinous brick bazaars, pools of dirty water, cocoa-trees, and little gardens, with some fine large dirty houses, the residences of wealthy natives. 'Fill up this outline,' says Bishop Heber, in his valuable Correspondence, with a crowd of people in the street, beyond anything to be seen even in London, some dressed in tawdry silks and brocades, more in white cotton garments, and most of all black and naked, except a scanty covering round the waist, besides figures of religious mendicants with no clothing but their long hair and beards in elf-locks, their faces painted white or yellow, their beads in one ghastly lean hand, and the other stretched out like a bird's claw to receive donations; marriage processions, with the bride in a covered chair, and the bridegroom on horseback, so swathed round with garlands as hardly to be seen; tradesmen sitting on the ground in the midst of their different commodities, and old men, lookers on, perched naked as monkeys on the flat roofs of the houses; carts drawn by oxen, and driven by wild-looking men with thick sticks, so unmercifully used as to undeceive perfectly all our notions of Brahminical humanity; attendants with silver maces pressing through the crowd before the carriage of some great man or other; no women seen except of the lowest class, and even these with heavy silver ornaments on their dusky arms and ankles; while coaches, covered up close with red cloth, are seen conveying the inmates of the neighbouring seraglios to take what is called "the air;" a constant creaking of cart wheels, which are never greased in India; a constant clamour of voices, and an almost constant thumping and jingling of drums, cymbals, &c. in honour of their deities; and add to all this a villanous smell of garlic, rancid cocoa-nut oil, sour butter, and stagnant ditches, and you will understand the sounds, sights, and smells of what is called the "Black Town" of Calcutta. The singularity of this spectacle is best and least offensively enjoyed on a noble quay which Lord Hastings built along the shore of the river, where the vessels of all forms and sizes, Arab, Indian, Malay, American, English-the crowds of Brahmins and other Hindoos washing and saying their prayers-the lighted tapers, which, towards sunset, they throw in, and the broad

Madras, the seat of government of Southern India, is situated in the Carnatic, on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, in latitude 13° 5' north, longitude 80° 21′ east. The shore is here low, and dangerous to approach by vessels. On the beach stands Fort St George, a place of considerable strength, and which may be easily defended by a small garrison. A noble range of public edifices, including a customhouse and courthouse, also adorn what is called the north beach. Madras differs in appearance from Calcutta. It has properly no European town, the settlers residing in their houses in the midst of gardens, and transacting business in the district appropriated to the residence of the natives. The principal church in Madras, St George's, is a beautiful edifice. There are many excellent charities here; and the school for male and female orphans, into which the philanthropic Dr Bell introduced the Lancastrian system of education, is superior to anything of the kind in Calcutta. The society of Madras is more limited than that of Calcutta, but the style of living is similar. The roads in the vicinity are excellent, and afford most agreeable drives to the European residents. According to Heber, 'the native Christians are numerous and increasing, but are unfortunately a good deal divided about castes.' The Armenians are here numerous, and some of them wealthy. A Scotch Presbyterian church has been some time erected. The population of Madras and its suburbs has been stated at upwards of 400,000. In 1841 the exports of Madras amounted to £1,780,000, and the imports to £3,000,000.

Bombay, the seat of government for the western parts of India, is a small rocky island, lying on the west coast of Hindoostan, in latitude 18° 56' north longitude

|

to the water's edge, unless at the river embouchures, and | dently primary. Gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron there it is composed of swampy impenetrable jungle. seem to be plentiful, if we can regard the ornaments of 2d, North of the Kong and Donga mountains, on-the natives as evidence; indeed we have recent testiwards to the frontiers of Morocco and Algiers, extend mony, from an accredited explorer of the Russian gothe great deserts of Sahara and Libya-constituting vernment, that in the interior of Guinea auriferous one vast plain, but little interrupted by undulations. sands are abundant, and apparently richer in produce This region presents three distinct series of aspects than the deposits of Siberia. Natron has been long namely, tracts of loose drifting sand, unrelieved by a known to the inhabitants of the deserts, and salt, appasingle shrub; districts covered less or more with gravel rently collected from salt-lakes, forms an important and shingle, and bearing dry prickly shrubs, and a article of commerce in the interior. scanty herbage; and oases of light pulverulent soil, watered by springs, and studded with clumps of palms, dates, pomegranates, and other tropical trees. Instead of a torrid region,' says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, where boundless steppes of burning sand are abandoned to the roving horsemen of the Desert, and to beasts of prey, and where the last vestiges of Moorish civilisation expire long before the traveller arrives at Negroland and the savage communities of the interior, the Sahara is now ascertained to consist of a vast archipelago of oases; each of them peopled by a tribe of the Moorish race or its offsets, more civilised, and more capable of receiving the lessons of civilisation, than the houseless Arabs of the Tell [the mountainous tract lying between the Great Desert and the sea]-cultivating the date-tree with application and ingenuity, inhabiting walled towns, living under a regular government, for the most part of a popular origin-carrying to some perfection certain branches of native manufactures, and keeping up an extensive system of commercial intercourse with the northern and central parts of the African continent, and from Mogador to Mecca, by the enterprise and activity of their caravans.'

The islands connected with Africa are, with one exception, small, and generally far removed from the mainland. In the Indian Ocean are-Madagascar, separated from the continent by the channel of Mozambique, having an area of 230,000 square miles, or more than that of France, rich in mineral and vegetable produce, and with a population of 4,500,000; the important islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, each having an area between 800 and 900 square miles, with populations respectively 92,000 and 106,000, and fertile in every species of tropical produce; the minor groups of Comoro, Amerante, and Seychelles, north of Madagascar; and Socotra off Cape Guardafui, with an area of 1000 square miles, and a population of about 4400. In the Atlantic are the volcanic group of Tristan da Cunha, occupied by a few British squatters; Ichaboe and other islets, along the south-west coast, recently ransacked for guano; the rocky islet of St Helena, 28 miles in circumference, and from 600 to 1200 feet high; the equally solitary volcanic rock of Ascension, recently garrisoned as a station for the slave cruisers; the densely-wooded isles of Annobon, St Thomas, and Fernando Po, in the Gulf of Guinea-the last rising in Clarence Peak to an altitude of 10,600 feet; the Cape Verdes, a rugged group of volcanic origin, rising in the still smouldering crater of Fogo to 7840 feet; the Canaries, consisting of seven principal islands, with an area of 136,000 square miles, and a population of 240,000, also of igneous origin, and rising in Teneriffe to an altitude of 12,182 feet; Madeira, 46 miles by 7, with a population of 113,000, composed of volcanic traps, which attain an

3d, The mountainous district of the Tell, lying between the Desert and the Mediterranean- -a region wholly composed of the Atlas chain, and its subordinate ridges. Where the hills fall towards the Atlantic in Morocco, the country becomes somewhat flat; but, eastward, it is hilly, and diversified only by narrow valleys and ravines. On the Mediterranean side of the elevation, the climate, produce, and aspect are some-elevation of 4400 feet, and celebrated for its delightful what similar to those of Southern Europe; but the other side is hot and arid, and insensibly passes into the Sahara. Mount Atlas attains an elevation of 11,400 feet, but some peaks in the chain rise much higher, and, according to recent accounts, seem to be permanently covered with snow-a fact which would seem to indicate an altitude above 15,000 feet.

4th, The region skirting the Red Sea, which comprises the hilly and not unfertile countries of the Galles and Abyssinians; Nubia, which, with the exception of the valley of the Nile, here comparatively narrow, is also hilly, and somewhat dry and arid; and Egypt, which consists of the alluvial valley and delta of the Nile, fenced on the west by low hills and desert, and on the east partly by the hills which skirt the Red Sea, and partly by the sandy desert which forms the Isthmus of Suez, and stretches onward into Arabia.

GEOLOGY-HYDROGRAPHY.

climate and wines; and lastly, the Azores, a numerous cluster, likewise of igneous birth, and rising in the Peak of Pico to 7000 feet, rich in tropical fruits and wines, with a population of 250,000.

Respecting the hydrographical features of the continent, little is known beyond the Nile and Niger; the existence of lakes Tchad and Dibbie in Soudan, Dembea in Abyssinia, and the salt-lakes of Tunis. All that can be said of the rivers Zaire, Congo, Zambeze, Gaboon, &c. or of the lake Maravi, and so forth, is little better than conjecture. The Nile is valuable principally as the fertiliser of Egypt, as described in a subsequent section of the present sheet. By means of a recently-cut canal, it is open to flat-bottomed boats from the sea at Alexandria to Cairo, and from this to the cataracts by the rude shallops of the country. The Niger discharges itself, by upwards of twenty mouths, through a low accumulating delta, which greatly impairs its utility as a means of communication with the interior; neverRespecting the lithology of Africa we know little, and theless, during the late unfortunate expedition, the that little only from observations made cursorily and at Albert steamer ascended with little difficulty to Egga distant intervals. We know that the deltas of the a distance of 350 miles from the sea. Nile and Niger are formations recent and still in progress; and that the deserts of Sahara, Libya, and Egypt consist of sands, gravel, silicified woods, and other The climate, as might be expected from the position petrifactions, which indicate a sea-bottom, upheaved of the continent, is wholly that of the torrid zone, with at no very distant date. Granite, syenite, and por- the exception of a belt on the north and the extreme phyry abound in Abyssinia and Upper Egypt, and in southern projection. It may even be said that the Lower Egypt the nummulite limestone is the prevailing influence of this tropical climate is felt over a great formation. Rocks of volcanic origin are abundant on part of those countries which their northern situation the Red Sea, which seems still to be the seat of igneous should exempt from it; for it is really only that strip forces. The Atlas range are chiefly granitic and pri- of Barbary which the Atlas protects from the hot winds mary; and sandstones of transition date were observed of the Desert, and that part of Hottentot-land protected on the banks of the Niger during the model-farm ex- by the Nieuveldt, and other mountains near the Cape, pedition of 1841. In Cape Colony sandstones prevail, that enjoy the advantages of countries situate within which seem to be transition or older secondary; and the temperate zones. With the exception, therefore, of some specimens now before us, from Caffraria, are evi- | these small and narrow tracts, of those regions in the

CLIMATE-BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.

interior to which their elevation imparts the coolness of higher latitudes, and the borders of the great lakes and rivers, every part of Africa is burnt up by continual heat, and the continent generally may be regarded as the warmest region of the globe. Nothing moderates the heat and the dryness but the annual rains, the sea winds, and the elevation of the soil; while in the well-watered regions, the moisture, combined with the heat, though productive of the most luxuriant vegetation, are extremely deleterious to man.'

The vegetation of Africa, without raising any question as to what may have been introduced from other continents, is decidedly less varied, and more unique, than that of Europe or Asia. Along the Mediterranean seaboard it greatly resembles that of Southern Europe; and wheat, barley, maize, rice, the grape, orange, fig, olive, and date, thrive to perfection. In Upper Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, the characteristic plants are gum-yielding acacias, the cassia or senna-shrub, coffee, ginger, turmeric, cardamoms, the lotus or jujub, and the nelumbium or water-lily. Cape Colony is distinguished for its heaths, proteas, pelargoniums, mesenbryanthemums, stapelias, crassulas, euphorbias, aloes, cactuses, thorn-apple, mimosa, and other prickly shrubs; and yields also luxuriantly such plants as have been introduced by the colonists-namely, vines, currant-grape, oranges, peaches, apricots, pears, apples, and other garden fruits known in the warmer parts of Europe, with tobacco, pine-apples, and tea, attempted by the Dutch. In the other known parts of the continent, the vegetation is strictly tropical, and often peculiar. Here flourish palms and dates, the banyan, gigantic adansonia, the dragon-tree, banana, papaw, tamarind, anona, sugarcane, cotton-tree, cassava, tallow-tree, maize, manioc, yam, ground-nut, melon, pine-apple, and other forms native to warm regions; while in the islands are cultivated chiefly the vine, orange, melon, coffee, and sugar-cane. The Fauna, as might be expected from the insulated nature of the continent, is in many instances peculiar; several of its forms being found in no other region. Among the more characteristic may be mentioned numerous apes and monkeys; the lion, panther, leopard, and other felina; the hyena, jackal, racoon, &c.; numerous species of antelopes and gazelles in the south; the buffalo, camel, dromedary, and giraffe; the horse, zebra, quagga; the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and masked-boar; seals, dolphins, and other cetacea. Of birds- eagles, griffons, vultures, and numerous birds of prey; the ostrich, bustard, and guinea-fowl; the parrot family in great abundance; the flamingo, pelican, secretary-bird, and crane; the cuckoo, swallow, nightingale, and quail, which are only summer visitants in Europe. Of reptiles-crocodiles, alligators, monitors, &c.; serpents in great variety, many of which are poisonous; lizards and chameleons; and various species of turtle. Fish are abundant in all the rivers and seas, and present forms unknown to Europe; crustacea and shellfish are equally abundant. Africa possesses no useful insects, but has instead the locust, scorpion, termite, and scarabæus of ancient Egypt.

POPULATION-INDUSTRY.

that of semi-civilisation, while all the other native tribes are little in advance of the lowest barbarism. The arts are exercised only on the northern coasts, where the Moors manufacture silk, cotton, leather, and linen. An active commerce is carried on by them with the maritime nations of Europe; and by means of caravans, a traffic, fully as important, with the interior, to which they convey their own products and those of Europe. The wants of the savage races are exceedingly simple, and most of the articles used by them are prepared by themselves. Commerce, however, with Europeans has taught them new wants, and increased their list of necessaries; among which may now be reckoned firearms, powder, brandy, tobacco, different kinds of cloth, glass-beads, coral, &c.; for which they barter slaves, ivory, gold, gums, palm-oil, dates, and other raw produce.

COUNTRIES-GOVERNMENTS.

The foreign powers having possessions in Africa are Britain, occupying Cape Colony, which was taken from the Dutch in 1806; the Mauritius, with the minor islet-groups of Amerante and Seychelles, taken from the French in 1810; the islets of St Helena and Ascension; Fernando Po, all but abandoned; and the settlements of Sierra Leone and Cape Coast: France, possessing the island of Bourbon, the settlement of Senegambia, and, since 1830, the somewhat dubious and expensive colony of Algeria:* Portugal, occupying some settlements on the Mozambique coast, the coast of Lower Guinea, and the west coast, the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira, and the Azores: Spain, to whom belongs the Canaries, and the forts or districts of Ceuta and Melilah, near the Straits of Gibraltar: the Imaum of Muscat, who claims Socotra, and some portions of Zanzibar: and Turkey, who holds merely a nominal superiority over Tripoli, Tunis, and Egypt.

Respecting the native states and governments, we know little or nothing; and what little is known is of no civilised interest. In fact, with the exception of Egypt, which lays claim to high historical interest (see HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS), as well as to some recent progressive movement under Mehemet Ali, and our own colony at Cape Good Hope, there is no region within the limits of the continent to which we need direct particular attention. To these two countries, however the former as now forming the overland key to our Indian territories, and the latter as an emigration field of some importance-we may appropriately devote a few pages of description.

EGYPT.

In point of local situation Egypt possesses various advantages. It lies in the north-east corner of Africa, in a salubrious part of that vast continent, presenting its northern base to the Mediterranean Sea, and bounded on the east by the Red Sea, which separates it from Asia. Through the whole land from north to south, a length of 900 miles, flows the Nile, a fine large stream rising in the inland kingdom of Abyssinia, and, from certain periodic floods, of great use in irrigating and The inhabitants, vaguely estimated at 100,000,000, fertilising the country. A large portion of Egypt conbelong wholly to the Ethiopic and Caucasian varieties sists of an alluvial plain, similar to our fertile meadow of our species: the former including all the dark-grounds, formed by the deposits of the river, and bounded coloured native tribes, by whatever name they are called, from the Sahara and Abyssinia on the north to the southernmost extremity; the latter, the Egyptians or Copts, the Abyssinians, Arabs, Berbers, Moors, and other families arising from admixture of these. The religion of the negroes is Feticism, or the worship of natural objects, animate or inanimate; the Arabs, Moors, &c. are Mohammedans; the Copts and Abyssinians observe a corrupted form of Christianity; and the European settlers are Roman Catholic or Protestant, according to the mother-country from which they come.

Civilisation is only to be met with in the settlements of the Europeans; the condition of the Moors, Arabs, and Egyptians, is scarcely entitled to rank higher than

by ranges of mountains on either side. The greatest breadth of the land is 150 miles, but generally it is much less, the mountain-ranges on either side often being not more than five to ten miles from the river. Anciently this territory was divided into three principal parts-Upper Egypt, which was in the inner or

*The conquest of Algiers,' says Russel, in his account of the Barbary States, 'has relieved the Mediterranean from the dread of piracy, though it will be long before any other advantage can be derived from this achievement by France. The climate is indeed good, and the soil rich; but the inhabitants of the adjacent country are regardless of treaties, strangers to the enjoy. ment of social life, addicted to plunder, and accustomed to consider war as their hereditary profession.'