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fore soap, water, and a towel, must have been in requisition soon afterwards.

No Spanish town of even provincial importance being complete without possessing a theatre and plaza de toros, of course Granada has both these appendages to amuse its idle population. However, at the season when these sketches were written, as neither of the above-named places of amusement was open, they need not be further mentioned. The Cockpit Circus was likewise closed, although it constitutes, next to bull-baiting, a favourite resort for Granadino majos, both in high and low degree. But had it been otherwise, certainly that barbarous pastime, of looking at two courageous animals lacerating each other to death, would never have been witnessed by the writer on any consideration. Such horrid sport exhibits nothing national like bull-fighting; and as the latter can be only seen in the Peninsula, curious foreigners in search of originality may therefore be excused should they for once in their lives visit a plaza de toros. On the other hand, however, let them always eschewalectoromachy."

Notwithstanding the numerous interesting objects worthy of examination at Granada, besides the many historical associations therewith connected, after all novelty has ceased, even this curious city then begins to seem dull, and leads the stranger to think of his departure. Some may make excursions in the neighbourhood with much advantage, while those who like the fatigue of ascending mountains can climb to the summit of the Sierra Nevada. The present traveller being quite satisfied with viewing that stupendous snowy height from the public promenade, then felt no inclination for such an undertaking, any more than what he experienced when admiring either Mont Blanc or Monte Rosa at a distance, during a holiday tour made some years ago in Switzerland. All high mountains form very fine adjuncts to any landscape; and although the Sierra Nevada is far under either of the former in altitude, that fact did not induce him to attempt such feats, however beautiful it appeared in the cloudless horizon. Being so near, a piercing wind sometimes blows down towards Granada, whereby the summer heat becomes moderated. This occurred on one of the evenings passed by the writer on the Carrera de Xenil, when the air actually felt chilly, even while a burning sun shone in the western hemisphere. During winter the entire Sierra is often covered with snow. Then the weather becomes exceedingly ungenial, and hence injurious to health; while in spring, from the snow melting rapidly, serious inundations take place, which cause much injury. Whereas, the reverse follows during summer, as indicated by the late dry condition of the Xenil and Darro rivers, little rain having fallen for several months. From these and other local influences, Granada cannot be deemed a health-restoring country for invalids, although the spring climate is reported as often pleasant. Further, the winters are frequently cold, while summer proves very hot, unless when Sierra Nevada blasts reduce the atmospheric temperature.

EASTERN AFRICA.

French Intrigues-Pigmies and Snow-Mountains.*

THE manifest design of France to found in Africa an empire to rival, if not eclipse, British India, of which empire Algeria, connected by Timbuktu and the Niger with Senegal, is to be the western portion, destined with the progress of time to absorb the whole patrimony of the Moors; Egypt, of whose abasement the occupation of the isthmus by a party of armed ouvriers may be looked upon as the ominous forerunner, to be the north-eastern; Zula or Adule, and the islands of Annesley Bay-the ancient Sinus Aduliticus—and the finest haven in the Red Sea, to be, with the dominions of the recreant Ubie of Tigray and Theodore of Abyssinia, the eastern; Madagascar, the south-eastern; and the Nile, connected by the Chadda or Binue, and the Bahr al Gazal with the Niger and with the Shari and Lake Tshad, completing, as it does, the circle of anticipated conquest, and constituting Sudan or Nigritia as the centre of African empire, impart, with the progress of recent discovery, more especially in the neighbourhood of the "Lake District," justly so designated, a new and unforeseen interest to African exploration and to African topics.

"The mere fact," as Ravenstein remarks in his introduction to the work before us, "of the isthmus being part of the Turkish Empire or of Egypt, would not deter France from occupying it; for scruples of conscience are not allowed by that nation to interfere with political ideas.' Zula has been chosen as the second station on the route to Madagascar, and while the occupation of Suez may at will furnish a pretext for seizing upon Egypt, that of Zula may open Abyssinia to French conquest. Fortunately there is a power which can put a veto upon those plans of aggrandisement in north-eastern Africa, and that power is Great Britain. Gibraltar, Malta, Perim and Aden form a magnificent line of military and naval stations on the route to India, and perfectly command it. Only after having converted the last three into French strongholds, and thus striking a decisive blow at the naval supremacy of Great Britain, could France ever hope to carry out her designs."

Massawah, Massowa, and Muccawah, as it is variously spelt, possibly from Ma-Saba ("os" or "portus" Saba), constituted in former time, like Adule, a port of the Sabeans of Meroe, then a port of Abyssinia, till it was occupied by the Turks in the seventeenth century with the neighbouring littoral, and has remained subject to them ever since. The nayyibs, substitute or lieutenant-governors, were appointed by the Pasha of Jedda; they kept the littoral in subjection, restricted commerce to

* Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labours, during an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa, &c. &c. By the Rev. Dr. J. Lewis Krapf. With an Appendix and a Concise Account of Geographical Researches by G. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S. Trübner and Co.

Travels in Eastern Africa; with the Narrative of a Residence in Mozambique. By Lyons M'Leod, Esq., F.R.G.S., &c. &c., late H.B.M. Consul at Mozambique. Two Vols. Hurst and Blackett.

Massawah, subjugated Ait merely because it dared to become commercial, and eventually rivalled in their power on the mainland that of the pashas of Massawah. The claim of Turkey, Ravenstein justly remarks, to such portions of the west coast of the Red Sea as extend between Massawah and Ait, however slight her authority, appears to us to be clearly established, by the mere fact of her nominating the nayyibs, and this for a period of nearly three hundred years. Abyssinia still prefers a claim to these territories, but has never been able to expel the Turks; and we have only lately had occasion to give an account of a campaign undertaken in 1848 by Ubie, or Oubie, as the French call him, the rebel ruler of Tigray, who sent an army of twenty thousand men against Arkiko and Adule, and was compelled to retire, after having burned a few villages and made a raid upon some cattle. Yet it is this regent in rebellion against his sovereign Theodore, whose people have recently slain the British consul of Massawah-Mr. Plowden-on his way from Gondar -Theodore's capital-to the coast, who has handed over Adule, Annesley Bay, Valentia, and other islands to the French; countries over which he has never had even the most temporary control, which, if he had, would belong to his sovereign to give away, and not to him as ruler of Tigray, and which will inevitably be claimed by Turkey as the possession of three centuries.

The endeavours of France to gain a footing upon the Red Sea may be traced back for a number of years. M. Combes, who in 1835 visited Adowa, purchased from Ubie the port of Ait for 300l., obviously for the purpose of attracting to it the commerce of Abyssinia, then, as now, carried on through Massawah, and which place, as well as Zula or Adule, being the sole maritime outlet to the kingdom, and formerly part of its territory, might undoubtedly be allowed to her, were she in a position to establish her claims. A French vessel sent to Ait by a Bordeaux house was not, however, able to open commercial intercourse; they neither found purchasers for their ill-assorted wares, nor the expected caravans with ivory and gold-dust.

For a long time afterwards French interests in Abyssinia were entrusted to the Romish missionaries, and to a consul, whom M. Vayssières (Souvenirs d'un Voyage en Abyssinie, vol. i. p. 57) curiously enough designates by the initials M. D., and to whom the nayyib ceded a small plot of ground at Mokollo (Mokullu of Ravenstein), about three miles northeast of the island on which Massawah is built. The missionaries erected a chapel there in 1848, and they also extended their operations to a Christian tribe of the Shohos, dwelling above Adule.

When a prospect of a stable government was at hand, owing to the firmness of the existing sovereign of Abyssinia, France, according to Ravenstein, seeing in this most probably the downfal of her own schemes, sowed dissension by rendering her support to Ubie, and subsequently to Yeh, the opponents of Kassai or Theodore, in Tigray. At the close of 1857 the French consul, accompanied by a priest, travelled to Adowa, for the purpose of inducing Yeh to Occupy the coast. The result of this journey was probably the so-called cession of Zula. This cession has, according to the daily papers, been since ratified to another mission, with the important addition of the islands of " Issee and Ouda,” and all Annesley Bay; but whether this cession has been granted by Kassai, who

was anointed Tadrus (Theodore) Negus, or Emperor of the Abyssinian Empire, in 1855, or by the rebel governor of Tigray, we are not precisely informed.

At the time of Krapf's first visit to Abyssinia, he proceeded by way of Massawah to Adowa, after the usual interruptions by the predatory Shohos, who intercept the road between the two. There were then two other Protestant missionaries at Ubie's capital, Isenberg and Blumhardt; but the arrival of two Frenchmen-the well-known brothers D'Abbadie -accompanied by two Roman Catholic priests, entailed, Krapf tells us, their expulsion. Many of the Bibles which the worthy missionary had brought with him were destroyed by the Abyssinian priests, undoubtedly at the instigation of the Roman Catholics.

Krapf quitted Adowa in March, 1838, and in the spring of 1833 started with Isenberg for Tajurra, with the view of penetrating to the Christian kingdom of Shoa, whose friendly ruler, Sahela Selassie, had formerly sent a messenger to Isenberg, inviting him to visit his dominions. The Sultan of Tajurra affected to rule over all the Adal or Danakil tribes; but his sovereignty, Krapf says, was at the best of a mere nominal kind. After four weeks' detention at this place, the missionaries started across the Adal desert, suffering much from heat and want of water, crossed the river Hawash, were detained at Dinomeli, the frontier river of Shoa, and ultimately reached the mountain-perched Ankober, the capital, on the 3rd of June, and were kindly received by the king.*

While in Shoa, Krapf studied the Galla language, and he accompanied the king on several military expeditions against the tribes in the south. Whilst there, a M. Rochet arrived from France, and brought with him a powder-mill and other valuable presents, which made his visit very acceptable to the king. Krapf relates afterwards of this ambassador, in reference to the Kutai Gallas:

In the country of the last-named tribe, M. Rochet and I, who accompanied the expedition, made inquiries of the king respecting the source of the river Hawash, asking whether he would not extend the expedition to that point. The king answered that, so far as he knew, there was between the Galla tribes Sodo, Becho, Woreb, and Mecha, a boggy country, in which the river takes its rise; but that his men would not, on that occasion, press so far forward. And, indeed, on the very same day the king gave orders for a return to Angolala by another route, so that M. Rochet and I were deprived of the satisfaction of making an important discovery. In spite of this, in the book of travels which he afterwards published, M. Rochet asserted that he had seen the sources of the Hawash, and that the king had sent an escort to accompany him thither. Both assertions are completely false. Alas! such unconscientious statements are too common on the part of travellers, who huddle up a book, and obtain honours

* Mr. M'Leod, in his Travels in Eastern Africa, so valuable in a commercial as well as in a geographical point of view, remarks of Zeyla or Zeila, which is on the African coast, nearly opposite to Aden, that, if properly encouraged by the British government, it would be a very good out-port, as the descent to that place from the interior is easier than to Massoa (Massawah), and it is the best outlet of ancient Ethiopia. It is situated opposite Aden, where steam communication would place its productions at once in European markets. If this is correct, Zeyla would constitute an excellent rival to the French port of Zula. We should have imagined Tajurra to be preferable. The importance of Zula as a naval station would, however, be best counteracted by an increased influence at Massawah, or the purchase of the island of Dahalak.

and emoluments at the expense of geographical truth. M. Rochet once said to me, in the course of that expedition, M. Krapf, we must assert that we have seen the sources of the Hawash." When I replied that that would not be true, and that we had not seen them, he rejoined, with a smile, "Oh, we must be philosophers!"

The Gallas, Krapf says, possess regions so fruitful, so rich in water and pasturage, and suitable both for tillage and for cattle, that Europeans can scarcely imagine their beauty. The climate, too, is as mild and healthy as that of Italy or Greece. "Pity," he exclaims, "that those beautiful countries are not turned to better account!" Whilst Krapf was at the court of Sahela Selassie, the king, passing over in his mind that the power of England was nearer to him than that of France, as represented by M. Rochet, conceived the notion of sending letters and presents to the East India Company, in order to bring about friendly relations with them. These overtures, with customary official tardiness, as if a year was nothing in history or in a man's life, were reciprocated by the mission of Major Harris, after the lapse of some twelve months or more, and who, we are told, soon discovered that there were not in Shoa any important articles of commerce, and that there could not be a profitable trade between it and Aden. The envoy, Krapf adds,

Openly avowed to me his conviction of all this, and that he should now look to his own interests, as little was to be gained for his government. And, in truth, the envoy acted in this spirit, endeavouring to gain the best possible acquaintance with the country and its inhabitants, in order afterwards to be able to write a voluminous book on both. I myself was entreated by him to communicate every notice which my experience and knowledge could furnish, and willingly gratified this desire, and Major Harris interwove these communications into the text of his well-known work of three volumes, "The Highlands of Ethiopia."

There is a latent spirit of detraction in this which is unworthy of a reverend missionary, and comes with still less grace from one who has been denounced by Cooley as a moonstruck, sad driveller, and both he and his brother Rebmann as unworthy of credit, as far as the East African snow-mountains are concerned. Krapf, it is to be observed, notwithstanding the absence of important articles of commerce in Shoa, and the difficulties attending transit through the sandy Adal country, is much in favour of the connexion of that country with a Christian country, the more particularly as such a connexion would be calculated to exercise a wholesome influence, which, from thence, would be extended to the north to the shores of the Red Sea, and to the unknown countries to the south. "Had Sahela Selassie," he says, "rightly understood and employed the opportunity which was afforded him of establishing a connexion with England, he might have become sovereign not only of Abyssinia, but of the whole of inner Africa." The fact is, that England lost just as great an opportunity by the incompetency of an envoy on this occasion as did the King of Shoa, an incompetency on our part of which the French have not been slow to take advantage. A fragment of comfort remains in the fact, that the connexion had the effect of making the neighbouring regions better known to geographers, and this knowledge will bear fruit in the future, when Shoa shall have a wiser ruler than Sahela Selassie, and England a more enlightened and enterprising envoy than Major Harris. July-VOL. CXIX. NO. CCCCLXXV.

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