A cheer of wild delight rose from the crew, who, after || stood to their arms. Perry had the swivel under his shaking hands with democratic roughness with the Mexican, charge. The rest had muskets, pistols, and cutlassos. At the level of the fort were three boats, full of soldiers, lying across the stream.

The Mexicans seemed irresolute. The larger boat edged off a little to leeward, but too late; for Harris gave the 'Look alive!" exclaimed the young sailor, when he word, and both swivel and small-arms were fired in a mursaw that the task was complete.

At this instant a scattered volley from the shelter of the relationship of Maria to the crew, and none ever murmured trees sent him tumbling headlong to the deck.

The body was covered by a sailcloth, and the men then || found two."

LINES ON A COUNTRY RESIDENCE.

EXPEDITION TO DISCOVER THE SOURCES OF THE WHITE NILE, IN THE YEARS 1840, 1841.*

years,

THERE is a pleasure in all kinds of explorations, || this task to the geographers, who may amuse themwhich they enjoy most who possess the greatest amount selves and others, if they can, with describing the toilof imagination. For more than two thousand some process by which the science of the earth has mankind have perplexed themselves respecting the crept up the Nilotic valley. They will find an abun mysterious fountains of the Nile; and, indeed, even so dance of materials for new maps in Werne, who, in far back as the time of Homer, the subject would seem his vague and rambling way, really sets down many to have begun to exercise a sort of fascination over things which may easily be made to assume a scientific the adventurous, who solved to themselves the pro- form and character. Our preferences run in a more blem of its origin by saying that it descended from popular direction. Having beheld the wonders of the heaven. The idea they meant to convey by this phrase Lower Nile, the pyramids and obelisks, the temples is true. The real sources of the Nile are in the clouds, and catacombs, the pillars, sculptures, and paintings which, embracing the peaks and pinnacles of the lunar which decorate that most attractive of all valleys, we mountains, sheathe them in prolific moisture, and thus experience a powerful curiosity to behold the mother give rise to the great river of Egypt. races from whom the old quarry-men, builders, and Strange to say, however, the method which nature embalmers of Egypt derived their origin. Volney had adopts in carrying on this process has never yet been a theory that civilization itself descended the Nile from observed by civilised men. Bruce visited the head the interior of Africa. On this subject we dissent of the blue Nile, and walked round and round its from him, though we believe that the races which, in cradle in the Abyssinian Alps; but the white stream, their descent, became civilised, did actually issue from the larger and more important reservoir of the Nilotic || the region to which his system points. How they imawaters, remains to this hour in great part unexplored. || gined and executed those social improvements, which That this should have continued to be so in an age we denominate civilization, it is not now our business like the present, so distinguished for geographical en- to inquire. It is enough for us to collect all the facts terprise, and for abundant means of conducting it, must which present themselves, calculated to throw a light be matter of extreme surprise, especially when we con- on the ethnological parentage of the Egyptians; though sider the character of the tribes and nations inhabit- we can no more explain how they came to originate ing its banks, no way formidable either for numbers their peculiar philosophy, manners, and religion, than or ferocity. we can tell how individual mental qualities are generated, fostered, or transmitted. Hitherto, the means

But there is no accounting for the courses adopted by travellers, or for the charms attending their endea-of taking a comprehensive view of the question are vours. Numbers of men have fixed upon the Bar-el- not in our power. None of the nations now found in abiad, as the means by which they were to attain cele- the Nilotic valley has, with the exception of the Arabs, brity; and some have even gone so far as to ascend its been much studied. We see them, observe their phy banks to a certain distance, and coquette with the sical configuration, obvious habits, and costume, and mysteries which lark upon its reedy and swampy fancy we comprehend their character. But the fact shores. Yet, though some progress has been made, is far otherwise. We pause upon the very threshold darkness still hangs over the point of contact between || of their national idiosyncracies, partly from wanting a heaven and earth, so that one knows neither how nor familiar knowledge of their language, but chiefly from where Zeus pours his riches into the lap of the great our boundless indolence, which induces us to prefer mother. This was what Mr. Werne hoped to dis- such conclusions as can be easily arrived at, to those cover, under the auspices of Mohamed Ali, whose the mastering of which requires diligent study and vanity and avarice combined prompted him to send application. an expedition up the white stream; but either he had not the proper persons to send, or selected the wrong ones. There was not a single competent person of the party. Selim Capitan was timid and unenterprising; Suliman Kashef thought more of his floating harem than of the sources of the White River; and the Frenchmen who had been despatched to make scientific observa. tions were far more eager to enrich themselves and economise their exertions, than to immortalise their names, by becoming the rivals of Bruce. Even the German Werne, who, of all those employed in the expedition, would appear to have had most of the spirit of a traveller in him, was yet but ill qualified to profit by the extraordinary advantages which fortune had thrown in his way.

We appreciate, as highly as most men, all important additions that may be made to our knowledge of the world we live in; but nothing can be much drier than a methodical analysis of them. We leave, accordingly,

In most knots of men brought together by chance, you find individuals tolerably well adapted to each other, while the majority, perhaps, may be indifferent or even unsociable. It was otherwise with the gentlemen raked together to conduct Mohamed Ali's expedition. The chief principle which prevailed among them was that of repulsion. Between Turks and Europeans there is never much sociality, the former being filled with the pride of ignorance, the latter with the pride of science; and there being, besides, so many points of dissimilarity in their characters, they may be regarded, usually speaking, as the antipodes of each other. No surprise can consequently be felt at the absence of everything like cordial friendship between the Frank adventurers and the Osmanli officers; but it must appear, at first sight at least, rather odd that the French, Germans, and Italians, accidentally conveyed into a distant part of the world together, should have permitted their petty personal jealousies, and stil

* By Ferdinand Werne, from the German, by Charles William O'Reilly. In 2 vols. London: Bentley, 1849.

||

more petty nationalities, to destroy all harmony and I and Murray's History of African Discoveries, ought to kindly feeling among them, So, however, it was. Not be perused or consulted by those who would extract having read the journals of the Frenchmen, we cannot useful information from the expedition up the White decide to what extent their minds were possessed by Nile. small jealousy; but Werne profusely supplies the materials for his own condemnation, since the suspicions he experienced could never, by any possibility, have found their way into a generous breast.

a

As we have already remarked, however, our object is not only that information which is called useful. What we chiefly look at is the amusing part of the affair, and if this happen at the same time to be useStill, we are far from wishing, by these remarks, to ful, so much the better. We shall, according to the old excite a prejudice against our German traveller whose proverb, "kill two birds with one stone," very much work is, in many parts, amusing, besides being re- to our honour, of course. The reader who accompanies plete with useful information. Mohamed Ali's French us must not suffer himself to be misled by the preface agents have generally belonged to an extremely equi- written by Professor Ritter, which states, in so many vocal class of men, and, in all likelihood, Arnaud, Sa- words, that Werne discovered the sources of the White batie, and Thibaut, were no better, morally speaking, Nile. This was a grievous mistake. At the furthest than those wandering Jarist Surianares, whom we our-point reached by the expedition, the Nile was still a selves more than once encountered in Egypt. But large stream, flowing, indeed, among rocks, through a Werne himself ranges evidently in the same category, half-choked and dangerous channel, but, nevertheless, with the exception of one fine trait-the love of his presenting the appearance of a river which had flowed brother, There is little in the published collection of through many degrees of latitude, and received the his sentiments to impress us with a high idea of his || contributions of many a tributary. But this is anticiethical or intellectual idiosyncracy. With useful or pating; let us return to Khartum, and inform ourselves enlarged knowledge he is not overburdened-not even respecting the organization of the expedition, as well with that knowledge of antiquity which is so cheap in as the motives which led to it. The little fleet conGerman universities. His chief recommendation is his sisted of four dahabies from Kahura, vessels with two animal spirits, and the patience with which he studied masts, and cabins, about one hundred feet long, and from the points of the compass throughout the whole con- twelve to fifteen feet broad, each with two cannon. tinuance of the expedition. During almost every hour Three dahabies from Khartum, one of which had two of the day we are able to determine whether he sails cannon, then two kaiass (ships of burthen with one south-east or south-south-west, or made a return bend mast), and a sandal (skiff), for communication. The northward. This minuteness is useful, as it enables us crews were composed of two hundred and fifty soldiers, to comprehend the course of the river; but had it en- Negroes, Egyptians, and Syrians; and one hundred and tered into the plan of the officers employed by the twenty sailors and mariners from Alexandria, Nubia, Pasha to have landed more frequently, distributed more and the land of Sudan. beads, and thus purchased liberty to make more excursions, our acquaintance with that part of Africa would have been considerably more familiar than it is.

It must not be supposed, whatever Mahomed Ali's friends in Europe may pretend to the contrary, that he was actuated on this occasion by any desire to further Some of our readers will probably have waded through the cause of science. The impulse came from a very flat strange old African traveller, Leo Africanus, who different quarter. He had beheld small quantities of penetrated from the southern shore of the Mediterra-virgin gold brought down to Egypt in quills and horns nean to Timbuctoo, and then made his way to Egypt through those little-known countries lying to the northwest and north of the White Nile. During this protracted and perilous journey, he observed the manners and customs of several tribes and nations, of which no other writer has, perhaps, given any account. But the plan of his work is imperfect, and his style of description so incomplete, that we can merely be said to obtain indistinct glimpses of the people whom he undertakes to introduce to us. Yet it happens that he speaks of many customs and peculiarities, traces of which are still found on the banks of the white stream. In making this statement, we have no desire to throw There, consequently, society may be supposed to be any unnecessary discredit on the old Pasha's policy, stationary; so that, if we could obtain a correct pic- which, after all, was quite as enlightened as that of ture of it five hundred years ago, it would still be as most European Governments, when they send out exLeo's opportunities for observation peditions of discovery. There is always a mixture of were infinitely more numerous and favourable than the thirst of gain with the thirst of glory; and, considerthose of Werne, because he travelled as a Mosleming that the very object of their existence is to promote among Moslems, and at a time, too, when the Moham- the prosperity of mankind, in which they are too often medan creed was regarded with far more reverence than far from being successful, we need not convert their at present. In point of language, too, the advantages passion for wealth into a very serious charge against were all on his side, because, travelling with men enthem. Mohamed Ali's misfortune was, to be comgaged in commerce, he was sure to enjoy the aid of pelled to employ, in nearly all his undertakings, agents the best interpreters which the age could supply. This and instruments the most questionable. His own subold work, therefore, with M'Queen's volume on the jects were too ignorant to be able to carry out his geography of Africa, Heeran's Historical Researches, views, and his European coadjutors were, for the most

of the gazelle, just as it had been collected from the beds of the streams; and he persuaded himself that by taking possession of the countries where this precious metal was found, he should at once enrich his treasury, and extend indefinitely the borders of his empire. He thought also, and in this instance wisely, that by opening up commercial intercourse with the interior, he should awaken the industry of the blacks, and thus enrich his own proper subjects, through whose hands a large portion of the produce of Africa might be made to pass, on its way to the markets of the civilized world.

accurate as ever.

VOL. XVI-NO. CLXXXVII.

2 N

part, too dishonest and too selfish, to think of anything| but their own immediate profit. This fact in some sort constitutes the Pasha's apology, and certainly affords an ample explanation of the want of success which has attended nearly all his enterprises, whether for conquest or for the advancement of commerce and industry.

Every one who has resided in the East will admit that the greatest drawback on his happiness was the consciousness of the extraordinary uncertainty of life. Though devoted to the gratifications of their senses, and therefore, it may be inferred, desirous of prolong ing their existence, the Orientals, generally, seem, nevertheless, to be indifferent about their own lives and the lives of others. The poniard and the yatagan are always in operation, and poison circulates with fearful activity. Every street and every palace has there its Marchioness of Brinvilliers. Professors of the art flock together from all parts of the world, so that power, property, and handsome women pass from master to master with something like the rapidity of theatrical representations. Werne celebrates a Sicilian poisoner who, under the name of Suliman Effendi, obtained celebrity in the Upper Nile, and, indeed, throughout the whole of the Turkish dominions. He is said to have dis patched thirty-three soldiers in order to throw discredit on a French apothecary; and his skill in the art recommended him ultimately to Ahmed Pasha, who stood in constant need of a physician of bold practice. No chief whom it was desired to remove from the scene could long withstand the medicines of Suliman Effendi. Youth, strength, and courage melted at his touch, and as he laughingly consigned to the grave one victim after another, he grew daily fatter and more jovial, and better reconciled to his profession. At Ahmed Pasha's bidding he would unhesitatingly have blotted out a whole army from the face of creation. Such men are dear to the Turks, whose delight it is to live in the midst of plots, poisonings, and assassinations.

"However, these gloomy impressions could not last long, the scene around was too picturesque, too peculiar, too exciting. On the left the flat extended land of Sennaar was gently clothed again with copsewood and trees, and on its flooded borders rose strong and vigorous mimosas out of the water, high above the low bushes of trebeck and kitter. In the same manner the left shore was wooded, from which we were at a tolerable distance, owing to the north east-wind. Behind its girdle of copsewood and trees, reaching just as far as the waves of the majestic stream, in their annual overflow, give their fertilizing moisture to the soil, the bare, stony desert extends upwards, as it shows itself at Omdurman, in profound and silent tranquillity. So much the more animated and cheerful was it on the river.

"The decks of the vessels, with their crowd of manifold figures, faces, and coloured skins, from the Arabian reis who plies the oar, to the ram, which he thinks of eating as the Paschal Lamb -the towering lateen sails, with the yard-arms on which the long streamers, adorned with the crescent and star, wave before the swollen sails--the large crimson flags at the stern of the vessel, as they fluttered lightly and merrily over the ever-extending waters-the singing, mutual hails, and finding again the ships-the

ships cruising to and from the limit fixed for to-day-everything was, at least for the moment, a picture of cheerful spiritual life, with the bold consciousness, strengthened by the thought of many a danger happily overcome. I looked beyond the inevitable cecurrences of a threatening future, to a triumphant re-union with my brother."

00

From this point upwards, nearly all the tribes, whether Arabs or Negroes, will be new to most readers, and indeed, like the smal! sections of population in India, these tribes have little beyond their names to distinguish them from their neighbours. On both sides of the stream, several eminences present themselves to the eye, and are known by the names of Sheikhs, or Saints, who have been interred on their slopes or summits. One trait in the Arab character connected with these holy men deserves to be commemorated, we mean a profound reverence for the dead which everywhere throughout the world distinguishes these races, who have been marked out by Providence for greatness in arts or arms. It is very often the memory of the dead that forms the best part of a nation's In the midst of such associates, Werne set out with inheritance. The base forget those they love—if, inthe expedition from Khartum in the month of Novem- deed, they can be said to love at all-as soon as the ber, 1840. His own position in the country he never earth closes over their remains; but there is no feelproperly explains, nor through what influence he ob- ing more powerful than the affection with which the tained permission to sail on board the fleet. He had noble and generous regard the dead, with whom they a brother however, a physician, in the service of Ma- always seek to hold communion, by perpetually rehomed Ali, and it was possible, out of compliment to newing the recollection of them, and hallowing particu him, that Werne was so far favoured. His own ac- lar spots by the imposition of their names. Everywhere count of the departure of the expedition is as follows:- in the valley of the Nile you see, in picturesque and Joy and pleasure reigned on board the vessels, and the fresh beautiful nooks, the tombs of saints which by degrees air failed not also to have its beneficent effect upon me, for con- extend their appellation to the nearest mountain or tinual motion and variety are the principal condition in the South, gorges. It is the same on the banks of the White on which depend the good humour and feelings of internal life. Thus the present expedition promised me pleasure and strength, River, where the graves of holy men impart a sanctity and to enable me to make my ideas and thoughts speak lovingly to certain places, which at some future day may renfrom my breast, without losing myself in a dreamy state of reder them the nuclei of towns or cities. In this way, clining inactivity, and to permit me to see, observe, and com- as in so many others, religion becomes the parent of civipare a strange world with its insipid surrounding scenery, with-lization, converting the virtues of the dead into a blessing out delaying writing my journal till the next morning.

"But the prospect of attaining our aim, viz., of seeking and finding the sources even beyond the equator, appeared to me at the beginning, from the constitution and composition of our expedition, to be doubtful. The vessels were to follow one another

in two lines, one led by Suliman Kashef, the other by Selim Capitan, but already, when sailing into the white stream, this order was no longer thought of. Every one sailed as well as he could, and there was no trace to be discovered of nautical skill, unity of movement, or of an energetic direction of the whole. How will it be when the spirits now so fresh shall relax, through the fatigues of the journey-when dangers, which must infallibly occur, shall arrive, and which only are to be met by a bold will, directed to a determined point?

to the living.

Nothing is more remarkable, in a general survey of the races inhabiting the earth's surface, than the perpetual recurrence of similar habits and practices among tribes and clans separated from each other by the whole diameter of the globe. The Dyaks of Katamantan, the Balkas of Sumatra, the North American Indians, and the most secluded Africans of the interior, strikingly resemble each other in several points of manners, and arts of peace and war. The explanation is, no doubt, to be found in the circumstances in which they all

purpose

and themselves placed, and in the instincts com- secured their young, playing before our feet, behind the high mon to the whole human species. The readers of branches, and darted round the corner, until another malignant Fennimore Cooper's novels will imagine themselves to ball reached them from behind, whereupon they let their young be in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains while read-old ones, by running, climbing, and springing under her belly. fall from their arms; but the little creatures clung firmly to the ing the following brief sketch of the Shilluks, the They live together in families of several hundreds, and their teradvance guard of Pagan Africa, where it is first ritory is very limited even in the forest, as I myself subsequently brought in contact with the Moslem world:-"I heard ascertained. Although they fear the water very much, and do that the Shilluks who dwell in these parts on the not swim voluntarily, yet they always fled for security to the high branches hanging over the stream, and often fell in, whereupon river islands, and on both shores, but further up on they, in spite of imminent danger, carefully wiped their faces, and the left only, display uncommon skill in their maraud- tried to get the water out of their ears, before they climbed up ing expeditions. The Arabs say they crawl upon all-into the trees. Such a republic of apes is really a droll sight--fours as swiftly as a snake, and rarely use force to accomplish their robberies, but effect their with incredible cunning, a circumstance which agrees but ill with our preconceived idea of the qualifications of a robber." In the east, however (we will not speak generally of the southern lands), and, indeed, among the ancient Greeks, craft was considered equally worthy of a man as open combat, if it led to the point aimed at. The From this primitive type of Cabet's Icaria, Werne Shilluks are said also to be compelled to use artifice digresses a little into the account of a particular monin this anterior part of their territory-which has ex- key on board the fleet, together with certain superstitended, according to the expression of the Barabras, uptions of the Mahommedans connected with these singu to the mouth of the White River—because their num-lar animals. In itself, the Koran is an unartistic work, ber has become very small by the advance of the Arab tribes, with their horsemen clad in armour, and they could effect nothing by open violence.

Whoever has read the journals of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, will remember his piteous account of the chase of the Maias Papaus, or wild man of the woods. We dare not include that creature within the circle of humanity, though it were, perhaps, well if we could, since we might then prevent the perpetration of an immense deal of cruelty. It is, in fact, a sort of dumb man, and probably resembles exactly what a son of Adam would be without the use of speech. In Borneo, they build houses in the trees, and where the forest is thick, pass from house to house on visits, displaying frequently much more civility and refinement than the Dyaks who live at the foot of the trees. They never, for example, take each other's heads and smoke them for ornaments for their ceilings; but, on the contrary, live together in a sort of social fraternity, exceedingly edifying to their neighbours, the Sakamaus and Sacebers. The female Papaus, in their extreme fondness for their little ones, set a good example for women in many parts of the world; for even when wounded, and dying, they will seldom quit their hold, but spring faintly from tree to tree, with their babies at their breast, till their life and love are extinguished together. Very similar are the manners of the republican apes described by Werne in a passage, which a few additional details would have rendered far more interesting. We copy it, however, as it stands:

"The vessels not being able to reach the dry land, owing to the shrubs and trees, I had myself carried through the water to the shore, in order to take a survey of the country, and to make a shooting excursion. I could not, however, make up my mind to use my gun, the only animals in the neighbourhood I could shoot being white-grey long tailed apes, called abeleuk, similar to the creopithecus sabeus, but more silver grey, and far larger. I had shot such a one on a former occasion; and the mortally wounded auimal had, by his similarity to a human being, and his piteous || gestures, excited my compassion so much that I determined never to kill another. Mr. Arnaud, on the contrary, took a peculiar pleasure in watching the wounded monkeys which fell by his shot, because in the agonies of death the roof of their mouths became white like that of a dying man. It was affecting to see how the mother apes precipitated themselves down from the trees, and

wooing, caressing, and combing each other, plundering, fighting, and tugging one another by the ears; and during all these imwhere, however, they satisfy themselves with a hurried draught, portant concerns, hastening every moment down to the river, in order that they may not be devoured by the crocodiles constantly keeping watch there. The monkeys on board our vessels, not being fastened, turned restless at the sight of the jolly free life, and at the clamour of their brethren in the trees,"

which few can read with patience who have not already filled their minds with the ideas and associations of the Oriental. But when you have travelled amongst the Moslems, studied the Thousand and One Nights, and followed the course of eastern history, you learn to at. tach an extraordinary value to the Koran, and find it suggestive of wonderful thoughts and imaginations. Let the reader conceive, if he can, the feelings with which a believer in the Arabic Prophet travels among apes and monkeys

:

"The First Lieutenant, Hussein Aga, of Kurdistan, lay alongside us, and had endless pleasure in his little monkey. He shouted over to me, "Shief! el nauti taifbo" (look, the clever sailor), meaning his little favourite, who jumped about the mast and the yard as though he were mad, ran down the ropes, looked into the water from the side of the ship, and then strayed from his master, till all of a sudden he clung to the back of a sailor who was carrying through the water a package of dirty linen to the wash; and before the latter could lay hold of him, made a bold spring ashore, to greet his relations, for he also bears been frequently carried from Sennaar to Watura, where he is called the name of obeleuk, although of a much smaller species. He has nishnash and lapuchim. The long Kurd, just as he was, jumped overboard with his gun, to shoot the deserter, in favour of whom I quickly called out, "Amahu!" The little chuckling sailor must, however, from being a Turkish slave, and on account of his dimi

nutive figure, have met with an unwelcome reception, for no sooner had Hussein Aga stepped under the trees, than the monkey again jumped on his head. He came to visit me afterwards, and brought his nauti taib with him, who ought to thank himself that I interceded for him. Hussein told me then what I had often heard, really is said in the Koran that God and the Prophet David transthat monkeys were formerly men, who were cursed by God. It

formed into monkeys the Jews who did not keep holy the Sabbath day. On this account, a good Moslem will seldom injure or kill a monkey. Our Turks, however, were an exception to that rule, when they could, by infringing it, gain a few base piastres. So likewise was Emir Beyin Jezulle on another occasion.

"The latter was sitting at table with an Italian, and just putting into his mouth a piece of roast meat, held between the fingers and thumb, when a monkey of the cynocephalus (Arabic, khan) family snatched it hastily from him. The Bey very quietly ordered the hand of Abu Doum (so called from his reddish-yellow colour, similar to the fruit of the Doum palm) to be cut off, as that of a robber; which was done on the spot. The poor monkey came immediately afterwards to his cruel master, and showed him, with the doleful accent peculiar to him, the bleeding stump of his fore paw, whereupon the Bey ordered him to be killed. The execution, however, was prevented by the Italian, who begged him as