Co. or of Johanna Southcott is to be accounted for, by referr ing it to the boundless gullability of the human mind, and the moral force of that species of courage which commonly goes by the name of impudence. With regard to Mr. Flower's widely excursive remarks, we have only to express a wish that some of them at least had been confined to the Monthly Repository, which would have been a much more appropriate vehicle for them. He has an undoubted right to hold what opinions he pleases, and to express them as he pleases; but good taste and sound discretion would, we think, have dictated on this occasion some self-restraint in the venting of them, unless he expects his readers to be confined to that communion of Christians' whose unquestionable superiority of intellect leads them to dissent from that contradiction in terms, Three Divine Persons in One. God;'➡terms which, by so characterizing, they only shew that either they cannot, or will not understand in the import they are employed to convey.

Art. VI. A Voyage to Africa: including a Narrative of an Embassy to One of the interior Kingdoms in the Year 1820; with Remarks on the Course and Termination of the Niger and other principal Rivers in that Country. By William Hutton, late Acting Consul for Ashantee, &c. Svo. pp. 490. Maps and Plates. Price 188. London. 1821.

THIS volume contains the narrative of a second mission to

Ashantee, sent out in 1820 under the immediate orders of the British Government. That which was conducted by Mr. Bowdich in 1817, was under the direction of the African Committee, which, happily, as it should seem, for the interests of Africa, has ceased to exist. Credit is given to Mr. Bowdich by the present Writer, for the general correctness of the information he has given the public on the subject of African affairs; but it is contended, that he was not the first to unmask the pernicious system of a trading government,' which has perverted the uses of our settlements on the Gold Coast. Mr. Hutton claims the merit of having addressed a statement to Lord Ba. thurst in 1818, in which the abandonment of several useless stations, the reduction of the establishment at others, the making governors of forts swear to their accounts, and the abolition of the African Committee, were strenuously urged as inost desirable measures; and they were all soon after carried into effect. In the present volume, he earnestly recommends the occupation of the islands Anna Bona, St. Thomas's, Prince's, and Fernando Po, which lie within a few days' sail of each other in the Gulf of Guinea, as important, not only in a commercial point of view, but also as it would be the means of effectually checking

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the Slave-trade, which is still carried on to a great extent in those latitudes by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. Fernando Po, in particular, is important as commanding the entrance of all the rivers that flow into the Gulf of Guinea, and which are supposed to have a communication with the Niger. The great advantages of this settlement have been also pointed out by Mr. M'Queen, and they are fully stated in the Papers printed on this subject, last year, by order of the House of Commons: In 1819, Mr. Robertson, under the sanction of his Majesty's Government, arrived on the Gold Coast for the purpose of taking possession of the island; but untoward circumstances occasioned, for the time, the abandonment of the plan. By means of the rivers which this station would command, Mr. Hutton is of opinion, that our commerce might in all probability be carried into the very heart of Africa, and more trade be carried on in one month, than on the Gold Coast, where there are no rivers of any magnitude, in a year.

It is indeed,' he says, surprising, with all the anxious curiosity which has so long been manifested respecting the Niger, that these rivers have never attracted the attention of the African Company, though they are situated only a few days' sail from our settlements on the Gold Coast. How far this has been owing to the contracted means of the African Committee, or to a want of energy and zeal for the public service among the chief directors of their affairs in Africa, I will not now stop to enquire; but certain it is, not one of those rivers has ever been explored by the Company's servants, although it is well known, from their short distance from our settlements in that quarter, small expeditions for this purpose might easily have been fitted out at Cape Coast, where there are not wanting men of enterprising spirit, who would willingly have hazarded their lives in such an undertaking, had they been encouraged to do so. It is therefore to be hoped, as His Majesty's government have taken the forts from the African Company, that the governor who may be appointed at Cape Coast, will be vested with full powers to send exploratory missions up the Volta, Lagos, Formosa, Calabar, and Del Rey; for even though such undertakings fail in ascertaining the termination of the Niger, they will not fail in acquiring Imuch valuable and interesting information of the countries on the banks of those rivers. The Rio Del Rey is eight miles broad at its mouth, and is very likely to prove an arm of the Niger, although Mr. M'Queen draws a different conclusion, from the cataracts and rapids which he -states this river to be full of; and hence will arise the greatest difficulties in exploring it. The death of Mr. Nichols, who was employed by the African Association to explore it, is to be lamented, as we have no accounts of its source, although Mr. M'Queen supposes it to be on the south side of the mount Thala of Ptolemy; but Mr. Nichols's reports པལམ to the African Association give no account of this, and his information is altogether very unsatisfactory. From frequent conversations upon this subject with Mr. Robertson, (author of notes on Africa,) that gentle

man appeared to be better acquainted with the Del Rey and the other rivers which flow into the bights of Benin and Biafra, than any person I' have ever conversed with, or any author I have read, excepting only Bosman, whose work certainly contains the best account of the Rio Formoso; it was written by a Dutch captain (Nyandale) in 1702, who had been twice trading in this river, and is to the following effect: "That sixty Dutch miles (or two hundred and ten English) above its mouth, ships, may be navigated with safety, sailing by hundreds of branches, some of which are so wide that they well deserve the name of rivers; its length and source, be adds, he was not able to discover, no negro being able to give him an exact account of it."

Granting, however, that the Formoso may not enable us to get to the Niger, still a trial, with steam boats, ought to be made to ascertain how far it will take us into the interior; and then, mooring a vessel well manned and provisioned, at the highest navigable point of the river, small parties could be sent out daily to make incursions, and after becoming in some measure acquainted with the natives, and obtaining information as to the best means of pursuing the journey, a strong detachment, with men of science, might easily be fitted out from the vessel, which should remain moored as already mentioned; so that the party which may be detached, will have an opportunity of communicating to the commander, from week to week, the success of the undertaking, and hence we should be able to get in England the earliest accounts of their progress. Upon this subject, I agree with Mr. M'Queen, that the bights of Benin and Biafra are the most desirable points to set out from to ascertain the course and termination of the Niger. pp. 394-398.

The Niger might, however, Mr. Hutton thinks, be easily reached by an overland journey through Ashantee. The distance from Cape Coast, he is persuaded, would not exceed seven hundred miles, two hundred of which have been repeatedly travelled; and with the king of Ashantee's protection, the remaining five hundred might be with ease accomplished in ten weeks. The country through which the expedition would pass, is stated to be abundantly supplied with fresh water, and the people are hospitable and obliging. That the Niger and the Nile unite, according to the opinions of Mr. Dupuis, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Bowdich, and the uniform assertions of the Moors, Mr. Hutton does not attempt to dispute; but he inclines to believe, that they 'will nevertheless be found distinct rivers, connected by the Gir, and that the Niger throws off a great body of its water in some branch not yet discovered, to the eastward of the Leasa, and flowing into the bights of Benin and Biafrą.

Mr. Hutton, who was then in the African Company's service," joined the expedition of the unfortunate Major Peddie, and accompanied him, in the capacity of secretary, as far as Senegal ; when a disagreement took place respecting the terms of the engagement, which issued in their separation, the Major consenting

to pay Mr. Hutton's expenses back to Cape Coast. The ocoasion of the failure of this expedition, is thus stated:

• The number of horses purchased by Major Peddie amounted nearly to fifty, and the asses to a hundred, besides several camels; the officers. and men exceeded a hundred; and the property purchased for the use of the expedition, the presents, and all expenses, could not have cost less than £50,000.; so that the little good (if any) which has resulted from this expedition, must plainly shew the bad policy of fitting out such large and expensive missions to explore Africa; for what Chief would let such a formidable expedition pass through his territory? The king of Ashantee, and all the African chiefs that I have ever been acquainted with, would object to it from the fear alone of such a strong party joining their enemies. It was, therefore, not at all to be wondered at that the king of the Foulahs would not allow the expedition to pass. through his territory. Besides, Major Peddie did a very impolitic thing at Senegal, in trying in public how the horses would carry the two fieldpieces, which were intended for the boats after getting to the Niger, as the Moors who were at Senegal, must have noticed it, and, it was most probable, would send word of the fact to the king of Sego and other chiefs in the interior. But as the fate and particulars of this expedition were long ago known, I shall only add, that Major Peddie lost his life at Kakundy, in the Rio Nunez; and Captain Campbell, who succeeded him in the command, advanced into the Foulah country, where his haughty conduct obstructed his further progress, and constrained him, amidst a thousand difficulties, to retrace his steps to Kakundy, where the fever prevented the execution of a plot formed by his soldiers to assassinate him. Lieutenant Stokoe, of the Inconstant frigate, then succeeded to the command; and there was a gentleman of the name of Dochard, a surgeon, who was the next officer to Stokoe, and who, I believe, is now in England; but what became of Lieutenant Stokoe I have never heard. Upon the subject of this expedition, experience has convinced me, that such formidable missions will never succeed in exploring Africa, as the natives are too jealous and too much alarmed at such a force. My humble opinion is, that we must either have no appearance of force at all; or else such a force as will surmount every obstacle.' pp. 13–15.

We observe that our Author, in his notices respecting the Coast country, refers repeatedly to Mr. Mollien as an authority; in particular as to the remarkable proximity of the sources of the Senegal, the Faleme, the Gambia, and the Rio Grande near Labbe and Teembo. He bears testimony also to the correctness of Mr. Robertson's description of the Coast in his Notes on Africa, and agrees with him as to the great importance of the harbour of Succondee, and of a settlement either at Cape Lahou or Cape Palmas. The latter is recommended by that gentlenian as one of the most desirable situations for a European colony on the west coast of Africa, and a valuable link of connexion between Sierra Leone and the British possessions on the Gold Coast. But our Author inclines in favour of Cape Lahou, which

is 140 miles further to the Eastward, on account of the river,' which large craft may enter with safety during the rains,' and which, the natives say, is a branch of a great river in the interior; and also, as it would afford an opportunity of opening a communication with the Buntakoos, a large and powerful nation to the N. W. of Ashautee; by whose means we might be able to prevent the king of Ashantee from disturbing our settlements on the Gold Coast.

We shall not go into the details connected with the mission, or the disgusting and discreditable disputes between the governor and council, and the Conductor of the Embassy, by which its successful progress was thwarted in every stage, and its ultimate objects in great measure defeated. Our Author's short stay at Coomassie did not enable him to collect much additional information relative to the manners and customs of the Ashantees, of which Mr. Bowdich has given so full a description. The following anecdote from Mr. Hutchinson's diary, is introduced to illustrate the amiable character of the present king, who is represented as courteous and dignified, and more eloquent than any of his counsellors, except Adoosey, the prime minister.

Ilis Majesty, some years ago, took one of Apokoo's daughters to wife: she is now one of the finest women in Coomassie, and must have been a great beauty. It was discovered by the chief eunuch, that she had intrigued with one of the attendants. It was told the king that one of his wives had proved false. "Let her die instantly," said he in a rage. The slave whispered him, "It is Apokoo's child." He rose in silence, and went to the harem, and the culprit being sent for, the king turned his head away while he folded his cloth around him, and lifting the curtain to let her pass, he exclaimed: "Go, you are free! your father was my father; he is my friend, aud for his sake I forget you: when you find any man good enough for you, let me know, and I will give him gold."'~ p. 316.

The Fantees and the Ashantees, though distinct and hostile tribes, appear to be, in fact, branches of the same nation. Their manners and superstitions are similar, and their meagre language is the same, the Fantee being merely a dialect of the Ashantee. The population of the latter country is estimated by Mr. Bowdich at a million; but Mr. Hutton thinks that he greatly overrates it. Fantee, which extends along the coast from West to East nearly ninety miles, being about seventy miles square, is estimated to contain 40,000 inhabitants. They have here some idea of a Supreme Being, whom they call Yaung Coompon, and when they hear thunder, will sometimes remark that Yaung Coompon is riding in his carriage. But in the specimens given of the language, although both demon' and devil' appear, (aboinsam and oboinsam, probably the