the Queen Mother sent to him to say, that if he did not bring them rain in three days, he should be considered as an enemy, and treated accordingly. Vander Kemp had often talked to them of prayer, and of God inclining his ear to them; so they had no doubt that his interest with the Supreme Being was quite sufficient to procure rain, if he chose to exert it. It so happened, that rain fell within the time that the queen had appointed; and the missionary was safe for once; but was only set upon with the more earnestness the next time rain was wanted; as they were now convinced, from experience, that the thing was entirely in his power. As he was not always equally for tunate, he was at last obliged to fly; and if GEIKA the king, being, as it should seem, more enlightened and more tolerant than his subjects, had not favoured the escape of the missionary, he would have fallen a sacrifice to the high opinion entertained of his influence with the Deity.

It is indeed curious to observe, how a nation of bold, active, and independent savages, with so few wants to supply, and such abundant means of supplying them, is bound down and enslaved by ignorance and credulity. It is in vain that the admirers of the savage state tell us, that man is there completely defended from the anxiety and alarm which perpetually surround him in civilized life. The truth is, that he is not free from anxiety and alarm; his fears are only wrong directed, from the objects which are real to those which are imaginary; from things in which foresight might be useful, to things in which it is useless or impossible. The same savage, who in the morning does not reflect that he is ever again to want the protection of the garment which sheltered him from the cold of the night, consults the magician about the issue of a disease or a battle; and trembles at his answer. The same Caffre, who with his hasagai attacks the living elephant, and often triumphs over his wisdom and strength, becomes afraid in his turn, and uses many charms and incantations to avert the evils that may arise from the anger of the dead animal.

It is not, indeed, in ignorance and simplicity that man finds an antidote to the fears of superstition:

Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est

Non radii solis, neque lucida tela diei

Discutiant, sed naturæ species ratioque.

The language of the Caffres is soft, harmonious, and full toned; their pronunciation slow and articulate, without the clattering sound of the Hottentots. They have many different dialects; but the most distant tribes are said to understand one

another. Lichtenstein has subjoined a very extensive vocabulary of words from the language of the Koossas, the tribe nearest to the colony. The people of this tribe have in their pronunciation a small degree of the clatter, which is unknown among the other Caffre tribes, and is probably borrowed from the Hottentots. Their numerals go no farther than ten; and of these, the eight seems wanting; and Vander Kemp, who was long among the Koossas, could never learn the name of that number. They appear to have no words for eleven, twelve, or perhaps for any number greater than ten. With this limited knowledge of arithmetic, they tell or count over things that they are accustomed to with great readiness. They know perfectly well of how many head a herd of cattle consists, and quickly discover if one is wanting. Even when a herd of four or five hundred oxen is driven home, the owner knows almost at a glance whether they are all right or not.

The Caffres have no alphabetical characters, nor any use of writing. They can draw a rude outline, and engrave coarsely on metals, which they also work and prepare from the ore, as the Hottentots are said to have done before the arrival of the Europeans.

In many things the manners of the Caffres are more refined than is usual among a barbarous people.

The Koossas have a great respect for their parents and relations advanced in years. A father, when unable from age to attend any longer to his affairs, gives up his whole property to his sons, and is sure of being treated with the utmost care and kindness by them for the remainder of his life. All persons advanced in years have great respect shown them; their advice is always listened to; and if they become sick or helpless, every one is eager to afford them assistance.

The women are excluded from the public deliberations; but, in household affairs, have great influence; and indeed manage them almost entirely. Even in the manner of disposing of the common property, the wife has the principal direction,' &c.

Yet though the influence of the women is so considerable, they are forced to do all the hardest of the work, as is usual in this state of society: they make not only all the clothes, but all the house utensils,-eyen build the houses, and cultivate the land. The men, in time of peace, employ themselves solely in the chase, or in tending the cattle. The country inhabited by the Koossas is very fruitful; the climate excellent; and the heat moderate;-all circumstances extremely favourable to the pastoral and semi-nomade life led by the inhabitants. Their numbers, however, are very small, compared with the extent of country which they occupy.

The greater fertility of soil in the territory of the Caffres, than in that of the Dutch colony, seems to depend on a difference which is very remarkable in the climate of two countries under the same parallel, and quite contiguous to one another. In the country of the Cape, the rains fall in the winter, (as we saw when describing the Karroo), or when the sun is farthest from the zenith. The rain then descends in torrents; but at the time when the sun is nearest the zenith, there are neither clouds nor rain, and the earth is entirely burnt up. In the Caffre country this order is reversed. In winter, the days are serene and cool; there is no rain, and only a little fog in the night. In summer, when the air becomes sultry, thunder clouds are formed, and bring with them abundant rains, by which the air is cooled and refreshed. This, which is the natural order of things, in every hot climate, and which must be suspended in the territory about the Cape by local causes, of which we are yet ignorant, is far more favourable to vegetation than the reverse. The contrast thus marked, is one of the most important facts about the climate of Southern Africa, which has yet come to our knowledge.

The government in the Caffre tribes is entirely monarchical; the king is absolute sovereign. He makes laws, and executes them entirely according to his own will. »

Resistance, however, is so easy, that the king can be absolute only in appearance. If he pursue any measure which displeases universally, he is warned by one of the oldest and most esteemed chiefs of the discontent of his subjects. If this warning be not attended to, every Kraal, from the first to the last, retires to the borders; and the threat of general emigration seldom fails of producing a change of measures on the part of the king. Vander Kemp saw this method actually resorted to twice.

The manner in which the Caffres make war against one another, has a generosity in it very unlike what we find either among savages or civilized nations. When war has been declared, which is always done formally by an ambassador carrying in his hands the tail either of a lion or a panther, the chiefs, with their vassals, are summoned to attend the king. After the army has marched, carrying with it a great number of .oxen, which serve for their magazines of supply, and has ap-. proached the territory of the enemy, ambassadors are sent to give notice of the intended attack; and if the enemy declare that

is not prepared, or that his people are not assembled, the invading army waits with patience till he is ready. A wide open place, without bushes or racks, is chosen for the field of ble

that there may be no possibility of an ambush, which is reckoned highly dishonourable. Here they contend with great valour and obstinacy. When one side is vanquished, the same generosity is as conspicuous after the battle as it was before it. A part of the plunder is sent back to the vanquished; for it is a maxim among them, we must not let even our enemies die with hunger. What different lessons will these savages be taught, when Europe shall instruct them in the law of nations, and the right of conquest!

This generous mode of warfare, however, takes place only when one tribe of Caffres attacks another. When they make war on the Dutch or the Hottentots, the chivalrous spirit is entirely laid aside, and they proceed to cut the throats of their enemies, according to the most approved practice of savage and civilized nations.

The riches of the Caffre consists entirely in his cattle; the individual has no property in land; the land belongs to the community, that is, to the kraal or village, and to it only while occupied. The impostor, as ROUSSEAU terms him, has not yet risen up among the Caffres, who, after enclosing a field, has said, This field is mine; and, by these magic words, laid the foundation of the arts, and the calamities of civilized life. From this delusion, if it is one, and its consequences, the Caffre is yet free; but his independence is not on that account more A person who has a no ambiguous title to the name of an impostor, the sorcerer, has already begun his operations, and laid the foundation, as he has so often done, of all the delusions of false religion, and all the artifices of its ministers.

secure.

ART. III. The Trials of the Slave-Traders, Samuel Samo, Joseph Peters, and William Tufft, tried in April and June 1812, before the Hon. Robert Thorpe, LL.D., Chief-Justice of Sierra Leone, &c. &c. With Two Letters on the Slave Trade, from a Gentleman resident at Sierra Leone, to an Advocate for the Abolition in London. Svo. London, Sherwood, 1813.

WE E rejoice in having lived to see the title-page of this publication-recording the trials of persons for felony, committed by engaging in what, a few years ago, was considered as one of the staple branches of British commerce ;—but which men of sound judgment, and right feelings, never viewed in any other light than that of an abominable crime. While the law sanctioned it, indeed, a deference to the constituted authorities

of the country, rather than any tenderness towards the thing itself, might prescribe somewhat of forbearance in regard to the slave-dealers. But, thanks to the steady friends of humanity, that day is now past; and Parliament having declared the slave trade to be a crime, we are to witness the grateful spectacle of those persons who still engage in it, being treated like other

felons.

These trials were had under the new statute, * which makes all dealing in slaves by British subjects, wheresoever residing, and by all persons whatsoever in the British dominions, colonies, settlements and possessions, a felony,-punishable by transportation, or imprisonment and hard labour, at the discretion of the Court which tries the offence. They are the first proceedings under the act, as far as is known in this country; and therefore, they deserve the more particular attention, both to enable us to discover any defects in the law which might have escaped us before it began to be put in force, and to bring into notice whatever may appear worthy of remark in the conduct of the judicatures entrusted with its execution. The last topic we feel to be one of peculiar delicacy; because they who are impressed with a due sense of the infinite importance of a good administration of justice, will ever be disposed to respect the persons in whose hands it is entrusted, and to touch with scrupulous caution upon any defects in their conduct. Nevertheless, their conduct is a fit subject of discussion; and their errors may not only be exposed without impropriety, but the task, if performed faithfully and decorously, and from a love of truth, and not of slander, is in the highest degree useful and meritorious. It is a scrutiny, too, from which no good Judge will ever shrink, any more than he will be offended with the steps taken to obtain a judicial revision of his proceedings.

It must be premised, in justice to the parties engaged in the trials on which we are about to comment, that the Report before us does not bear the marks of being very accurate; and it does not pretend to be a full one. In all probability, it was compiled from notes taken by no very practised hand; and indeed we may easily conceive, that a penury of law should exist in Sierra Leone, after the specimens which have frequently reached this country, even from the far more important settlements in the West Indies. Much of what we are compelled to notice, may therefore be the error of the reporter, rather than the Court or the Counsel. Nevertheless we are afraid, that some irregular and erroneous proceedings have taken place, which no supposeable mistatement in the narrative of the trials can altogether * Mr Brougham's act, 51. Geo. III. c. 23.