mocrats without the support of the Protectionist States, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and hence they were bought by the concession of protecting duties, in which New England now feels as slight an interest as the North-West. Secondly, speculations in land and building sites, provisions, and shares, had attained a dangerous height before 1860, and entailed the great crisis of 1857. This was the effect of the slaveholder's policy, who looked askance at Northern trade and colonisation, at the white immigration and free labour, and at the same time of a large amount of a capital, which, through the universal desire of the people to grow rich suddenly, strove to gain enormous profits by gigantic speculations. At that time capital was too valuable even for the best paying trades; and in order to bring it afloat once more, protection duties were regarded as the most effective means. Thirdly, a free trade, such as the slaveholders desired, impoverished the land, caused a powerful aristocratic caste to spring up, rendered the labourers proletarians, and demoralised the whole nation. Hence those moderate protecting duties were necessary as portions of a political system which sought to obtain for free labour the mastery over slavery.

We will close our excerpts from Mr. Douai's work with a glance at the agriculture of the Yankees. This is regulated more than elsewhere by mercantile considerations. In Germany, agriculture has its internal moral law, the countryman strives for excellence in his labour, and finds a large portion of his reward in its inner value. In America people desire rapidly to subdue a rough and obstinate nature, and the excellence of the work is only taken into consideration as it rewards in the immediate present. The settler on rough land must at once find an ample return for his exertions, or else he is ruined, owing to the smallness of his capital. He is obliged to destroy his stock of growing wood, and exhausts his land by cultivating it without rotation of crops or manuring. He can only think of rational husbandry, stall-feeding, draining, improving the breed of cattle, and the use of machinery, when he has completely exhausted his land, for by that time his capital is generally sufficient for the purpose. To this is added the advantage of growing maize. Maize is a thing without which the rapid settlement of America would have been simply impossible. It grows on any not thoroughly exhausted soil wherever the summer heat reaches 14 deg. R. It can be left to itself after sowing in spring, and be left in the haulm till November. The leaves are splendid food for cattle; the corn supplies food for men and domestic animals, and the haulms, which are left standing, afford the cattle which run about at liberty a certain amount of food during the winter. Furthermore, maize does not exhaust the soil so quickly, but loosens it, and protects it from excessive heat and heavy showers. Lastly, it will grow on the same soil for a generation, and prepares it for nearly every other sort of crop. So long, therefore, as constant immigration ensures the farmer a paying market for his Indian corn, he would be a fool to grow other crops, which do not pay so well; and even when the market is no longer at the door of his block-house, the maize, when converted into fat stock, will be valuable.

Thus, then, in America, nature has formed an alliance with the natural indolence of man in order to keep the agriculturist at the lowest stage of his profession. In the South he has remained there; in the Central

States German industry has raised itself partially above it. Among the Yankees, these obstacles to improvement were broken at an early period by the rough climate, poorer soil, the habit of reflection brought from England, and the trading spirit of the population. The Yankee farmer became simultaneously a tradesman. As a rule, he devotes himself preeminently to one branch of agriculture. In the vicinity of populous towns, he confines his attention to producing milk. Farther away from towns, he produces as much butter and cheese as he can, fattens cattle, or else attends to wool, to growing vegetables, plantations, horse-breeding, or haymaking. Large corn-fields are nowhere visible; but, on the other hand, fine herds of cattle, for New England, owing to its abundance of water, is specially adapted for breeding, and improved breeds do not degenerate there so easily as so easily as in the West and South. Every field almost is sown with grass once every three, four, or five years, and left a meadow for one or two years, and in the same way perfectly exhausted land is converted into pasturage by the help of guano, and is sown with clover so soon as the cattle have restored its fertility. Other fields are made serviceable by draining and subsoil ploughing, and, generally among the Yankee farmers, much active progress is visible. They possess excellently edited agricultural papers, read works on their profession, have schools, agricultural exhibitions, societies which distribute all sorts of useful knowledge, good seeds, saplings, &c.

Altogether, however, the Yankee is not very attached to farming, and only too gladly seizes any opportunity to turn to another vocation, especially to trade, in which a fortune can be more rapidly gained. Ten thousand persons in this way annually remove to the towns, while other ten thousand emigrate to the Far West, to Kansas, Oregon, and Nebraska, where they hope to grow rapidly rich through the rising value of the ground. Thus there are thousands of farms in New England which may be purchased far below their real value, while the rough land in the West generally fetches more than its present real value. Hundreds of thousands of German agriculturists could purchase farms in proper working order in Yankee-land very reasonably. The journey thither is cheaper, the wages of those who wish to work their way from farm-servants are higher, and intercourse with the neighbours is pleasanter than among the rough Backwoodsmen of the West. To this must be added that the proximity of the large cities offers many comforts, that the climate is excellent, and that there is everywhere an opportunity to give children a fair education.

If we may believe the other Americans, the Yankees, and specially the Bostonians, the best educated people in the New World, form a mutual admiration society, and it is true that they are not wont to hide their candle under a bushel. Still, they have a greater right to do so than the rest; and, to quote only one instance, when the New Yorkers and Southerners say of Yankees that they carry on a thriving trade in wooden nutmegs and wooden hams, it is only envy that makes them speak thus. On the contrary, they are far more honest, their banks and insurance offices incomparably more substantial, and bankruptcies are far rarer among them than all the other members of Uncle Sam's family.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

AFRICA LAID OPEN.*

THE discovery of the sources of the Nile is one of those events which will redound to the credit of the age we live in, and will ever be an honour to the men by whom it was effected, as well as to the nation to which they belonged. But in a humane point of view, the discovery of a belt of fertile country-elevated and temperate in climate, well watered and fertile, probably well populated, adapted for any and all the purposes of civilisation, and occupying no small proportion of that great zone of Equatorial Africa which remains to the present day a blank on our maps-is far more replete with significant interest and bright with promises to the future. Such a possible opening to enterprise and civilisation arouses in us an ardent desire for a more full and thorough comprehension and appreciation of the true position of Central Africa to Europe, and of the real relation of the negro to the European-not only of the "negro's place in nature" simply as so viewed, but of his position with regard to civilised nations, and upon which question, after all, must really hinge the future of Africa. We shall be best able to enter into this latter part of the question after a brief summary of what has recently been done by Speke and Grant, and upon an infinitesimally smaller scale-and yet in its way a very suggestive one-by Mr. Winwood Reade.

The earlier portions of Captains Speke and Grant's remarkable journey lay through Uzaramo, Usagara, Ugogo, and across the wilderness to Kazé, in Unyamuezi, or the Moon country-regions all previously described in Captain Burton's work, giving the results of his and Captain Speke's previous explorations of Eastern Africa as far as Lake Tanganyika, and the latter's branch expedition to Victoria Nyanza. The necessities of such a country demanded a large number of attendants, and the expedition actually started in the following strength: 1 corporal and 9 privates, Hottentots; 1 Jemadar and 25 privates, Belūchs; 1 Arab Kafila Bashi and 75 Wanguana, or freed slaves; 1 Kirangozi, or overlooker, and 100

* Journal of the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile. By John Hanning Speke, Captain H.M. Indian Army, Fellow and Gold-Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Corr. Member and Gold-Medallist of the French Geographical Society, &c. With Map and Portraits, and numerous Illustrations chiefly from Drawings by Captain Grant. Blackwood and Sons.

Savage Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour in Equatorial, South-Western, and North-Western Africa. By W. Winwood Reade, Fellow of the Geographical and Anthropological Societies of London, and Corresponding Member of the Geographical Society of Paris. Smith, Elder, and Co.

On the Negro's Place in Nature. By James Hunt, Ph. D., F.S.A., &c. Trübner and Co.

Feb.-VOL. CXXX. NO. DXVIII.

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negro porters; 12 mules untrained, 3 donkeys, and 22 goats. Such a motley crew was soon reduced by desertion and sickness, and the Beluch guard was only to go through Uzaramo; but still more than enough elements of discord were left behind, with descriptions of the country traversed, tribute and troubles with the native chiefs, and some shootingexcursions to fill up no small portion of the narrative now before us.

The more novel portions and the real difficulties of travel commenced in Uzinza, an extensive region lying between the Arab town of Kazé and the Victoria Nyanza, and which is ruled over by two Wahuma chieftains of Abyssinian descent. The extraordinary difficulties of travelling in Eastern Africa were well exemplified by the first start from Kazé. It seems to have been utterly impossible to organise a system by which anything approximating to unity of action and straightforward progress could be brought about. The great chiefs were at war with one another, the petty chiefs were intent on nothing but hongo, or tributeextortion and plunder-and the natives themselves were not to be depended upon for a moment. Thus in March, 1861, when a start was effected, it was only with a portion of the expedition; while Captain Grant had to proceed in a different direction to a town called Rungua, where he anticipated finding porters whom he could send back to help on the rest of the expedition. The very third day of the journey, the men Captain Speke had with him all mutinied for increase of ration allowances. At Uzenda, a next site, the villagers turned out to resist the expedition, upon which some of the porters threw down their loads and bolted. The start was effected on the 17th of March; on the 24th they arrived at a fertile spot called Mininga. Here the expedition was actually delayed till the month of May for want of porters, while the Hottentots, suffering from fever and jaundice, could go no farther, and at last the expedition had to retrace its steps to Kazé. Such are the exceeding difficulties of penetrating into the interior of Africa, and which never ceased to perplex, worry, and thwart the English travellers till they arrived at Gondokoro.

But

A truce and a treaty having been at length effected, the expedition started again on May 13. Grant, who had remained at Mininga, prostrated by fever, was found better on Speke's return, but a robbery had been effected, and one man, not being quick enough to get into his hut, had been devoured by the lions. A leader was at length obtained at this place-Pig by name, and, as it turned out, pig by nature. the difficulty of procuring porters even for a few days' march continued the same, and at length, unless they were to wait till the supplies were ended, it was determined to advance again in detachments, Grant to go on this time to the village of a chief called Ukulima. Here an Arab caravan was found in the same predicament as themselves; it could not move for want of porters. The natives preferred getting intoxicated to carrying loads, and this is how they managed it:

In the mean while the villagers were very merry, brewing and drinking their pombé (beer) by turns, one house after the other providing the treat. On these occasions the chief who always drank freely, and more than any other-heading the public gatherings of men and women, saw the large earthen pots placed all in a row, and the company taking long draughts from bowls made of plaited straw, laughing as they drank, until, half-screwed, they would begin bawling and shouting. To increase the merriment, one or two jackanapes, with zebras'

manes tied over their heads, would advance with long tubes like monster bassoons, blowing with all their might, contorting their faces and bodies, and going through the most obscene and ridiculous motions to captivate their simple admirers. This, however, was only the feast; the ball then began, for the pots were no sooner emptied than five drums at once, of different sizes and tones, suspended in a line from a long horizontal bar, were beaten with fury, and all the men, women, and children, singing and clapping their hands in time, danced for hours together.

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At a place called Phunzé, a little farther on, a young chief offered to sell Speke a most charming young woman, quite the belle of the country;" so, if he could not get porters, he had at least the opportunity, even at this early period, of adding to his encumbrances. At Ungurue's, again, the men and women are all described as crowding to see him, the fair sex all playfully offering themselves for wives, and wishing to know which he admired most. They were so importunate, indeed, that after a time, he says, he was not sorry to hear an attack was made on their cattle because a man of the village would not pay his dowry-money to his fatherin-law, and this set everybody flying out of the scene of action.

Uzinza was now entered upon, and with it the extortions of the chiefs increased, while, the difficulties in obtaining porters having in no way diminished, it was impossible to send for Grant (or rather, to speak more correctly, for the encumbrances that he was left in charge of) in the rear. It was in vain that the Pig was offered ten necklaces a day if he would only march on and avoid the chiefs; the Pig was obstinate, and he took the party straight into the clutches of one extortionate chief after another. One of these chiefs was so extortionate, indeed, that Speke began seriously to consider if he would not have him shot, as a reward for his oppressive treachery and a warning to others; but the Pig said it was just what the Arabs were subject to in Ubena, and they found it best to pay down at once, and do all they were ordered; and Baraka, another leader, also said, "We will shoot him if you give the order, only remember Grant is behind, and if you commence a row you will have to fight the whole way, for every chief in the country will oppose you." But far more serious difficulties presented themselves in the circumstances of a hostile people, coming from no one knew precisely where-the Watuta-being in the field. So when Speke struck his tent for a march, he found that the whole of his porters, the Pig's children, were not to be found. They had gone off and hidden themselves, saying they were not such fools as to go any farther, as the Watuta were out, and would cut them up on the road. There was no alternative but to get back again; so, leaving part of the kit in a hut at Mihambo, a village to the south, Speke returned to Kazé, where he found Grant had so far recovered as to have been enabled to join in a dance with "Princess" Ukulima-the subject of a good sketch from his pencil.

The only alternative that remained under these difficulties was to open communication with Suwarora, a chief of Uzinza; and so Speke started once more, leaving Grant behind, and he found, as might almost have been anticipated, that his kit left at Mihambo had been broken into. To add to his miseries, he himself was taken ill on the 23rd of July, in the hut of an extortionate chief, Lumeresi by name, and he was confined there by a most afflicting illness until the 6th of October. Grant had, at the