48 Joiir7ial of Travel and Natural History 



the Province of Tigre, the rebel leader, Agow Negusie, and his 

 brother had their right hands and left feet cut off, and were 

 exposed in the market-place of Adowa, with strict injunctions from 

 Theodorus that not even a cup of water should be given them. 

 Breaking on the wheel, or being torn asunder by horses, are 

 merciful deaths compared with such diabolical atrocities. 



After obtaining his congt from the gentle Prince of Ethiopia, Mr 

 Dufton started for Massowah, via Adowa, the capital town of the 

 Province of Tigre, and second city in the empire. Though in a 

 valley, it is yet 4000 feet above the sea, and excites interest on 

 account of its being the centre of a chronic state of rebellion, and 

 the many eventful scenes enacted there. In Adowa, M. Schimper, 

 the German botanist, whom Mr Dufton describes as the best 

 informed of all Europeans who have visited the country, has 

 resided for a period of twenty-six years ; and we echo the regret 

 expressed in the work before us that he has not yet published 

 anything on the subject, although he is stated to have constructed 

 a map of the mountains of Adowa, with all their heights estimated, 

 not from thermometric observations of boiling point, but according 

 to the known habitat of various plants. 



The celebrated Taranta Pass is described as being almost per- 

 pendicular for 8000 feet, and the descent, hemmed in as the 

 traveller was on all sides by mountains, as "going down into the 

 very bowels of the earth." Here, at a place called Tubbo, a native 

 Albino was encountered, "with white hair and pink flesh, looking 

 just like a boiled European," possibly a coiTect description, but 

 one, which we suspect, few of our readers will be able to verify. 



The foregoing extracts, convey only a small idea of the interesting 

 matter the book contains. The Appendix, of no less than 94 

 pages, consists of a resume of the main incidents of the Abyssinian 

 question, but sufficiently voluminous to put the reader in posses- 

 sion of all that is necessary to understand the cause of our present 

 complications with Theodorus. But, whatever may have been the 

 cause, or whatever may be the result of our forcible interference, 

 one thing is certain, that by it we possess an unrivalled opportuni- 

 ty of adding to our scientific knowledge of equatorial Africa ; and 

 we are glad to perceive, that the Government, in making several 

 late appointments, not only share in this feeling, but have taken 

 prompt action in carrying out the desirable object. Geography 

 will be represented by Mr Clements Markham, senior secretary of 

 the Royal Geographical Society; Zoology by Lieutenant R. C. 



