Chronological Difficulties.

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course of travel at first as well as at last. To do so may be irksome to a dashing traveller; but it is tenfold more irksome to a perplexed reader, and, indeed, in this case impossible, without the author's after-aid; while even with this aid some things in the narrative appear to be chronologically incompatible. Nevertheless, we prefer attributing this incompatibility to haste and impatience of details of time, rather than to truthlessness and wilful inaccuracy. Probably this traveller did not expect to meet with critics who would with great care compare dates with dates, and journey with journey Now, however, he must be unpleasantly aware that there are men who will sit down and patiently examine every part of an author's book, with no very friendly eye, if only it attracts general attention and claims high consideration, and therefore is worth the pains of critical sifting and journalistic controversy.

Without therefore pretending to disentangle the author's perplexing chronology, we commence our review of his volume by stating the objects he proposed to himself in his enterprise.

'My purpose was to spend some years in the exploration of a region of territory lying between latitude 2° north and 2° south; and stretching back from the coast to the mountain range called the Sierra del Crystal, and beyond so far as I should be able to penetrate. The coast-line of this region is dotted here and there with Negro villages, and at a few points "factories" have been established for the prosecution of general trade. The power and knowledge of the white man extend but a very few miles from the coast, and the interior was still a terra incognita. Of its tribes, several of whom were reported to be cannibals, nothing was known, although terrible stories were told of their dark superstitions and untameable ferocity. Of its productions only arough guess could be made from the scarce supplies of ivory, ebony bar-wood, and caoutchouc, which were transmitted to the coast by the people inhabiting the river-banks. Of the natural history-which was the subject that interested me mostsufficient was known to assure me that here was a field worthy of every effort of an explorer and naturalist.

"This unexplored region was the home of that remarkable ape, the fierce untameable gorilla, which approaches nearest in physical conformation and in certain habits to man; and whose unconquerable ferocity has made it the terror of the bravest hunters, an animal, too, of which hitherto naturalists and the civilized world knew so little, that the name even was not found in most natural histories. Here, too, in these dense woods were to be found, if the natives told aright, the nest-building nshiego-mbouré, an ape next in the scale to the gorilla; several varieties of other apes; hippopotami and crocodiles, in the rivers; and birds and beasts of many and various

kinds, many entirely unknown to us, in the forests and among the hills.

To ascend the various rivers, hunt in the woods, and acquaint myself alike with the haunts and habits of the gorilla, and with the superstitions, customs, and modes of life of the black tribes who had not hitherto been visited by white men: these were among the chief objects of my present visit to the African coast. Another purpose I had in view was to ascertain if in the interior, among the mountain ranges in which the rivers took their rise, there was not to be found a region of country fertile and populous, and at the same time healthy, where the missionaries who now suffer and die upon the low coast, could work in safety and to advantage, and where might be established profitable trading-stations, which would benefit alike whites and natives.'

Naturally enough the natives only regarded our traveller as a would-be trader. Their perplexity and amazement knew no bounds when they saw launched from the vessel which brought the adventurer, no trading articles, but simply an outfit of things necessary for a hunter's life and pursuits in the African wilds. When, however, they found that he was really going to set out for the interior, believing that he would secretly attempt to deprive them of their trade with the natives, they surrounded him, and each recounted his tale of the dangers and horrors attending a voyage up the country. They all agreed in affirming that the stranger would be eaten up by cannibals, or drowned in the rivers, or devoured by tigers and crocodiles, or upset in his boat by the hippopotami, or waylaid and torn to pieces by the gorilla. Notwithstanding these evil auguries and multiplied mischances, the traveller persisted in commencing to execute his plan, declaring that he had no design upon the trade of the natives, whereupon all but a few steadfast friends left him to his fate.

Remaining for a time in the Gaboon country to acclimate himself perfectly, he ascertained many particulars of interest respecting one great branch of the Negro race, named the Mpongwe, who mostly inhabit the right side of the Gaboon river for about thirty miles upwards. Amongst these people missions have been established; aud Baraka is the head station of the American Board of Foreign Missions on the Gaboon river. The Mpongwe villages, though not the most extensive, were the neatest and best arranged which our author had seen in Africa. These Negroes have a remarkable aptitude for trade, and are amongst the best-looking people of the country. Christianity appears to have exercised a beneficial effect upon them, as it has done upon so many nations, even in relation to

physical well-being, whatever may be said as to its spiritual effects. Their excessive keenness, and their unhesitating falsehood and trickery in making the most of their goods, bespeak the cunning of the Negro races, and display amusing traits of character.

When a captain of a trading vessel touches at or near their villages, his ship is boarded by a crowd of jabbering fellows, all telling the same story, apparently without concert. As soon as the eager captain begins to inquire about goods, the Negroes have a string of answers ready for him, the spirit of which our author thus repeats, as issuing from different black traders:'Never was there such a dearth of ivory ;—or whatever the captain may want.

Never were the interior tribes so obstinate in demanding a high price.

'Never was the whole coast so bare!

Never were difficulties so great!

"There have been fights, captain!

'And fever, captain!

'And floods, captain!

'And no trade at all, captain! 'Not a tooth!"

some

These affirmations being redoubled, they produce their good books,'-certificates of character, in which captain or other white trader who is known on the coast vouches for their honesty. Of course, when the bearer had cheated, he did not apply for a character. He was honest in order to get a character; that obtained, he can afford to cheat. When he finds the need of a new set of papers, he conducts himself with scrupulous honesty towards two or three captains. These, of course, certify him; and then he goes into the most reckless speculations, upheld by the 'good books,' which he shows to any new-coming captain. Not the keenest New York merchant could surpass these trading Negroes. They endeavour to buy up all the marketable goods which the tribes of the interior possess; they then loudly affirm there is no supply of such goods; that the whole are exhausted; and, finally, having stimulated an eager demand for what they already had in abundance, they fix their own prices, and the poor deluded captain is cheated by every cunning Negro with whom he trades. All that is said of the Negro race, in relation to their commercial cleverness, would go far to confirm the distinctive definition of man, that he is a trading animal.

But the Gaboon country was useful to our author only as a tarrying and, finally, as a starting-place. Let us accompany him

into the interior, only, however, drawing upon his notes in places and in circumstances of more than common interest, and abridging his narrative as much as possible, in order to suit our limits. Soon we find this white man conversing with the chief or king of the Mbousha tribe about his exploration of the interior, asking his permission, and requesting an escort. Dagoko is the oldest and most influential chief of his tribe, having a very influential voice in the councils, and possessing a veto which renders him supreme. To gain him over, therefore, was most important; and, in order to do so, M. Du Chaillu first disclaimed all commercial views, proclaiming himself simply a hunter, and then presented to the king twenty yards of cotton, looking-glasses for his many wives, and a few gun-flints. His sable majesty graciously received these offerings; and secretly hoped to detain so liberal a visitor in his own country, which, as he observed, was sufficiently full of wild beasts. As to proceeding to the Fan country, he pronounced this to be well-nigh impossible. The white man, he said, would be murdered and eaten by the cannibals, or laid prostrate with sickness. But the said white man was resolved to proceed, eaten or uneaten, sick or well.

We meet throughout with similar accounts of impediments and resolves, some little variety occurring, according to the character of the people. Instead of despoiling or murdering the strange white man, the blacks fostered him. Wherever cannibalism was in vogue, it seemed, according to a shrewd calculation of chances, to be set down as a decidedly bad speculation. To kill such a man was to kill the goose that laid golden eggs; to eat him, was to act the part of Cleopatra, who dissolved and drank off her choicest pearls. It was evidently far better to feed and fatten him for future profit than for a present meal. Being but a small man, of course, he would have been snapped up in a minute by two or three hungry diners out, and then nothing more would have been made by him or of him. Such, we infer, although not from any details of our traveller, were the calculations and motives for abstinence which swayed the cannibals and saved the author to pen these entertaining pages. Had he been the latest of some dozen or two of preceding white men in these parts, he might have been cooked and served up at table as a 'dainty dish to set before a king;' but since he was the first, he was feasted at the tables of others; and even had to decline invitations to dinner, and offers of a more delicate kind, made in the full flush of polygamic liberality.

It may be as well, also, to mention in this place the additional

hold which such a traveller has upon such natives, and by what kind of charms he threw an ægis round himself, and passed unharmed through the dismally-foretold dangers of the savage tribes with which he came into contact. He found it best at once to trust the people; for they seemed to accept this confidence as a compliment, and were proud to have a white man among them. Then, too, for a time the white man was the lion of the season; much as his own gorilla is humorously said to have been the lion of the past London season on account of the notoriety it has attained through the present volume. He was, therefore, spoken of at one place as Mbene's white man,' as he had previously been Dagoko's white man,' and was afterwards similarly distinguished as the white man of successive chiefs. No one of the chief's subjects would dare to molest the white man, and no one of his neighbours had the chance of doing so. It was a fortunate circumstance that the pride of personal property hedged him round on his passage from tribe to tribe. He was as safe among the concourse of black savages in an African wild as he would have been in the concourse of civilized and fashionable folks in a London drawing-room. The same feeling was prevalent abroad which would have prevailed at home -it was an honour to entertain him.

The traveller's first encounter with a native of the Fan tribe is remarkable. As he approached their country, he was exhausted and needed food, to procure which one of the natives who accompanied him set forward to a Fan village, which was a few miles distant. M. Du Chaillu then observes :—

'Unable to wait his return, I started off with my men to meet him, hoping, perhaps, to shoot something by the way. My hunger accelerated my movements, and pretty soon I found myself half a mile a-head of my companions, and in sight of a chattering monkey, who dodged me whenever I took aim at him, and whom I vainly tried to get down off his perch on the high tree where he lived.

After watching this animal for some time, I happened to look down before me, and beheld a sight which drove the monkey out of my mind in an instant. Judge of my astonishment when before me I saw a Fan warrior, with his two wives behind him. I was at first alarmed, but immediately saw that all three were quaking with deadly terror. The man's shield shook and rattled, to such a degree was he frightened; his mouth stood open-the lips were fairly white; one of his three spears had fallen to the ground, and the other two he held in a manner betokening abject fear.

"The women had been carrying baskets on their heads, but these had been thrown to the ground; and they stood in perfect silence and terror, looking at me. They all thought, it appeared afterwards, that