mie, on the borders of a large lake, or rather chain of lakes, on the plain of Gondamie, approaching nearly to Soccatoo.

"The borders of these lakes are the resort of numbers of elephants and other wild beasts. The appearance at this season, and at the spot where I saw it, was very beautiful; all the acacia trees were in blossom, some with white flowers, others with yellow, forming a contrast with the small dusky leaves, like gold and silver tassels on a cloak of dark green velvet. I observed some fine large fish leaping in the lake. Some of the troops were bathing; others watering their horses, bullocks, camels and asses: the lake as smooth as glass, and flowing around the roots of the trees. The sun, on its approach to the horizon, throws the shadows of the flowery acacias along its surface, like sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires on its banks, the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs or drums, the braying of their brass and tin trumpets, the rude huts of grass or branches of trees rising as if by magic, every where the calls on the name of Mohammed, Abdo, Mustafa, &c., with the neighing of horses, and the braying of asses, gave animation to the beautiful scenery of the lake, and its sloping green and woody banks."

From the Gadado, Clapperton learned that sultan Bello was encamped before Coonia, the capital city of Goobur, which had rebelled against him, and which he was resolved to subdue. Clapperton, therefore, accompanied the Kano troops to join the sultan at this place. Bello received our traveller kindly, and said he would attend to the king's letter at Soccatoo, as he was determined to make the attack on Coonia the next day. After this attack (the account of which is interesting, but which we have not room to insert) Clapperton visited Soccatoo, found the same house which he had formerly inhabited, and remained there six months, collecting the most valuable information in regard to that and the neighbouring countries, which we hope, when his journal is received, to present to our readers.

Soon after Clapperton's arrival at Soccatoo, he was informed that the Sheik of Bornou had written to Bello, to put him to death, and the subsequent conduct of Bello was far from being such as he had reason to expect. He was treated like a spy, and all his presents for the sultan of Bornou were seized, under pretence that he was conveying warlike stores to that country. This conduct so affected Clapperton's spirits, that his servant never saw him smile afterwards. "His journal about the 12th of March, terminates abruptly in the midst of a conversation, as to the best route to be taken homewards." On the same day he

was attacked with dysentery, and declined rapidly. "I read to him daily," says Lander, "some portions of the New Testament, and the ninety-fifth Psalm, to which he was never weary of listening; and on Sundays I added the church service, to which he invariably paid the profoundest attention." The following account of the death of this great traveller, cannot be read without emotion.

"At length, calling honest Lander to his bed-side, Clapperton said— 'Richard, I shall shortly be no more; I feel myself dying.' Almost choaked with grief, I replied, 'God forbid, my dear master: you will live many years yet.' 'Don't be so much affected, my dear boy, I entreat you,' said he, ‘ʻit is the will of the Almighty; it cannot be helped. Take care of my Journal and papers after my death; and when you arrive in London, go immediately to my agents, send for my uncle, who will accompany you to the Colonial Office, and let him see you deposit them safely into the hands of the Secretary. After I am buried apply to Bello, and borrow money to purchase camels and provisions for your journey over the desert, and go in the train of the Arab merchants to Fezzan. On your arrival there, should your money be exhausted, send a messenger to Mr. Warrington, our Consul at Tripoli, and wait till he returns with a remittance. On reaching Tripoli, that gentleman will advance what money you may require, and send you to England the first opportunity. Do not lumber yourself with my books; leave them behind, as well as the barometer, boxes, and sticks, and indeed every heavy article you can conveniently part with; give them to Malam Mudey, who will take care of them.-The wages I agreed to give you, my agents will pay, as well as the sum government allowed me for a servant; you will of course receive it, as Columbus has never served me. Remark what towns or villages you pass through; pay attention to whatever the chiefs may say to you, and put it on paper. The little money I have, and all my clothes, I leave you: sell the latter and put what you may receive for them into your pocket; and if, on your journey, you should be obliged to expend it, government will repay you on your return.' I said, as well as my agitation would permit me, ‘if it be the will of God to take you, you may rely on my faithfully performing, as far as I am able, all that you have desired; but I trust the Almighty will spare you, and you will yet live to see your country.' I thought I should at one time, Richard,' continued he; 'but all is now over; I shall not be long for this world; but God's will be done.' He then took my hand betwixt his, and looking me full in the face, while a tear stood glistening in his eye, said, in a low but deeply affecting tone, 'my dear Richard, if you had not been with me, I should have died long ago; I can only thank you, with my latest breath, for your kindness and attachment to me; and if I could have lived to return with you, you should have been placed beyond the reach of want, but God will reward

you.' This conversation occupied nearly two hours, in the course of which my master fainted several times, and was distressed beyond measure. The same evening he fell into a slumber, from which he awoke in much perturbation, and said he had heard distinctly the tolling of an English funeral bell. I entreated him to be composed, and observed that sick people frequently fancy they hear and see things that cannot possibly have any existence. He made no reply.'

"A few days after this he breathed his last.-Lander immediately sent to ask permission of the sultan to bury the corpse, and that he would point out the place where his remains might be deposited. Bello immediately ordered four slaves to dig a grave at the village of Jungavie, about five miles to the south-east of Soccatoo, whither the body was conveyed. When all was ready, I opened a prayer-book,' says this faithful servant, and, amid showers of tears, read the funeral service over the remains of my valued master. This being done, the union jack was taken off, the body slowly lowered into the earth, and I wept bitterly as I gazed for the last time upon all that remained of my generous and intrepid master.' He then agreed to give some of the natives two thousand cowries to build a house four feet high over the spot, which they promised to do.

"I then returned, disconsolate and oppressed, to my solitary habitation; and leaning my head on my hand, could not help being deeply affected with my lonesome and dangerous situation-a hundred and fifteen days' journey from the sea-cost, surrounded by a selfish and cruel race of strangers, my only friend and protector mouldering in his grave, and myself suffering dreadfully from fever. I felt, indeed, as if I stood alone in the world, and earnestly wished I had been laid by the side of my dear master: all the trying evils I had endured never affected me half so much as the bitter reflections of that distressing period. After a sleepless night, I went alone to the grave, and found that nothing had been done; nor did there seem the least inclination, on the part of the inhabitants of the village, to perform their agreement. Knowing it would be useless to remonstrate with them, I hired two slaves at Soccatoo the next day, who went immediately to work, and the house over the grave was finished on the 15th.”

After encountering very formidable obstacles, the faithful Lander arrived at Whidah, was conveyed thence in an English brig to Cape Coast, whence he embarked in the Esk Sloop of War, and reached England in April 1828.

The following are the opinions of the Reviewers in regard to the long disputed question of course and termination of the Niger.

"We are now in possession of authentic materials to reform those gratuitous maps of northern Africa which are a reproach to the geography of the nineteenth century. For these materials we are mainly indebted to Den

ham and Clapperton, but chiefly to the latter, who has measured every degree of latitude from the Mediterranean to the bight of Benin, and of lon-' gitude from the lake Tsad to Soccatoo; and although he has left the termination of the Timbuctoo river, or the Quorra, still in a state of doubt, he has completely demolished every possibility of this being the Niger of Ptolemy, or of Pliny, or that great river of Herodotus, which is supposed to have stopped the progress of the Nasimones. There is not a trace, in history or in fact, of any of the Greek or Roman colonists of Africa having crossed the Great Desert, or of the latter having penetrated beyond Fezzan. It is most probable, therefore, if any such river existed, that it was one of the streams issuing from the mountains of Atlas; perhaps the Tafilet, which runs easterly, and loses itself in the sands. The Niger of Edrissi and other Arabs of the middle ages, and of Park, is unquestionably the Quorra, though there is reason to believe that the Arabs, who make no use of water communications, considered this Timbuctoo river to be the same as the Yeou, flowing in one continuous course to the eastward,—an erroneous notion, which will explain, however, some part of the strange confusion made in African geography.

The doubt as to the termination of the Quorra is, whether after its southern course as far as Funda, it penetrates the granite mountains, and is identical with the Formosa of Benin; or whether it turns off from thence to the eastward, and under the name of Shary, falls into the lake Tsad.—The evidence on both points is extremely vague, but we shall briefly state it.

"And first as to Benin.* The caboceer of Chaki told Clapperton that the Quorra passed Jaboo, and entered the sea at Benin, but that it flowed over rocks. At Ensookoosoo, he was told that canoes came up the river from Chekeire or Warri, to Nyffe, and that they were ten days on the passage. At Katunga, though so near to the river; he could learn nothing certain about it, and the king refused to let him go to it. At one time,' he says, it runs into the sea between Jaboo and Benin, and at another, that it passes Benin.' The Sultan of Boussa knew nothing of it, but he had heard people say that it went to Beni, which is the name they give to Bornou.' The headman of the king of Nyffe told him, that 'the river was full of rocks and islands, nearly the whole way to the sea, which it entered at the town of Funda.' At Tabra, he was told that the Quorra ran into the sea, behind Benin, at Funda.' This is the sum of what Clapperton has collected, with regard to the Quorra entering the sea at Benin, or atFunda.

Next, as to its identity with the Shary. Denham when on the Shary,

There is no authority worthy the least regard, for placing Benin where it appears in the chart of Clapperton's book, which is at least three times farther up the country than our present information warrants. Its latitude is 6 degrees 10 minutes north.

learned that a branch of this river passed through the plain of Adamowa; and Clapperton understood at Soccatoo, from a Shea Arab, whose tribe resided on the banks of the Shary, that it passed the town of Adamowa; that it was there joined by a branch from the hills of Bobyra, and that further to the east, a large river called Asu, or Ashu, fell into it from the southern mountains. At Dunrora, Richard Lander says, 'About half a day's journey to the east, stood a lofty hill, at the foot of which lay the large city of Jacoba. Mahomet affirmed, that there is a river called Shar or Shary, about half a mile from that place, which derives its source from the lake Tsad; and that canoes can go from the lake to the Niger, at any season of the year. The Shary empties itself into the Niger at Funda.' The shiek of Ghadamis told the late Major Laing, from personal observation, that the Quorra was turned out of its southerly course, to the left, or eastward, by a chain of mountains; and the secretary or schoolmaster of Bello drew his chart in the same direction. Hornemann's testimony, obtained from a Maraboot, is very important; it states that the river seen by Park flows southward from Houssa; that it waters Nyffé and Cabbi, where it is called Julbi; that it runs eastward into the district of Bornou, where it takes the name of Zad; that in some parts of Houssa it is called Gaora, (Quorra,) or the great water. "The breadth of the Zad,' he says, 'was given me for one mile (others said two;) but in the rainy season, the breadth is said to be a day's journey. The Budamas always keep themselves in the middle of this stream; they are a very savage, heathenish nation.

"These several notices strongly imply that the Quorra and the Shary are the same river, and that it is deflected from its southerly course somewhere about Funda, which place, owing most probably, to the equivocal word bahr, has erroneously been assumed to be on the sea-coast. It is remarkable enough, that even Salamé, who understands both English and Arabic so well, cannot divest himself of translating that Arabic word into 'sea:' the Bahr el Abiad, for instance, he translates the 'White Sea,' the Bahr el Azrck, the Blue Sea,' and he writes the sea of Cowara or. Quorra. Horneman was probably led into an error of a contrary kind, and talks of the river Zad, which should be the lake Zad; the size he gives to it, and the Budumas upon it, evidently point out the lake, and the Biddoomas of Denham who inhabit its islands. We are inclined, therefore, to consider the Quorra to empty itself into the Tsad; and we are supported in this opinion by one, who has done more for the elucidation of African geography, ancient as well as modern, from the slender materials he possessed, than any other human being we need hardly mention Major Rennell-clarum et venerabile nomen. "The difference of levels does not appear to present any difficulty. Barometrical observations carried into the heart of a country are not much to be relied on for ascertaining the elevation of that country above the sea. But supposing, in the present case, the instruments to have been correct, (which rarely happens with travelling barometers,) the level of the Quorra