1826.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



525 



The present party we were ^;lad to per- 

 ceive travelled without disguise ; and though 

 they met oi;casioiiiilly with insult and con- 

 tempt, yet witii treatment fur better, than 

 it they had represented themselves sure of 

 detection, as jNloors and Moslem. Their 

 superiority and intelligence, in spite of the 

 higotry engrafted by the Moors on tlie 

 ehild-likc nature of the negroes, secured 

 them generally rcs|>ect. 



We wore amu.sed with a case of exorcism. 



A very hale strong negro woman, the mother of 

 Mr. Clapperton's servant, had taken the fever from 

 her son, who had been more than a raomh laid on 

 his back, and reduced her almost to death's door. 

 She was a ICoorie from one of the islands to the east 

 of the Tchad, and had sent for several fighis, who 

 after writing mysterious words, decide<l on her case 

 as hopeless. At last an old Hailgi, more than seven- 

 ty years of age, was requested to come to her ; he 

 was a miserable old wretch, carrying nothing but 

 an ink-bottle, made of a small gourd, and a few reed 

 pens : but he set about hi* business with great 

 form, and with the air of a master; and, in the 

 evening, Zerega, my negro's wife, came to me, quite 

 in raptures at the following wonderful story : he said 

 the woman was certainly enchanted, probably by the 

 Jiafficra, meaning the English, but, " by the head of 

 tlie prophet," he should drive the devil out of her, 

 and which he called /ihctan (the devil). He wrote a 

 new ffirlJei- (wooden bowl) all over sentences from 

 the Koran ; he washe<l it and she drank the water ! 

 he said " BismuHah" forty times, and some other 

 words, when she screamed out, and he directly pro- 

 duced two little red and white birds, which he said 

 had come from her ! " What did you do m that poor 

 woman ? she is not young," said the fighi ; "why per- 

 plex her ? why did you not come out of her boforc ?" 

 " We dill not wish to hurt her much," said the birds ; 

 " but she has been kaffiring, old as she is, and must 

 bo punished : there are others in her yet who will not 

 come out so easily ; but now since you are come she 

 will not die, but she had better take care for the fu- 

 ture : we jumped into her when she went to the mar- 

 ket ; and she knows what she did there." The poor 

 woman thed an abundance of tears, and acknow- 

 ledged that she had been a little thoughtless on the 

 preceding market-day. The figlii was rewarded with 

 her best Soudan shift, and they were all made happy 

 at the news of her recovery. 



Six Months m the Wcst-Indiex in 182o. 

 — This volume is said to be the compo- 

 sition of a Mr. Coleridge, a relation of the 

 Bishop of Bai'badoes, who accompanied 

 the prelate in the visitation of his diocese. 

 This circumstance is highly favourable to 

 the confidenee with which the public may 

 receive the contents of the book. 



We have heard many and various opi- 

 nions of the work, but our ])ublic duty has 

 ever led us to listen to them with caution ; 

 and our sense of independence tells us to 

 judge for ourselves. 



The volume gives more information on 

 tlie society, manners, habits, and common 

 proceedings of the Europeans who in- 

 habit the islands visited by the author, than 

 any book we ever read, liowever high its 

 character. It amused us to repeated 

 laughter by the acuteness of many re- 

 marks, by the sly sarcasm infused into it, 



by tha wa^ffery continually peeping out, 

 by the dryness and quaintness of the hu- 

 mour, and also by the studied afTcctation 

 and literary dandyism of the style. The 

 tone of thought in the main is very vigorous 

 and independent, but tinctured throughout 

 with the nonchalance and pu|>pyiKni of the 

 able youths who shine at a college dinner, 

 who are acceptable every wlicre, because 

 they keep the ball of conversation flying, 

 and who are acute without ex|)ericncc, and 

 who want that degree of circumspection 

 which the littleness of mind, possessed by 

 a full third of society, renders necessary to 

 prevent the wiser and better sort from 

 being made to believe, tliat the possessor 

 of these qualities is either an addlcd-pated 

 noodle or a double sharp, and so to be 

 frozen into silence, or rather brought Aovra 

 to a level with the bleating flock around. 



We much doubt if the worthy prelate 

 will be pleased with this book. Younff 

 men little know, that churchmen of the 

 present day are quite as alive to the least 

 doubt of their infallibility as any pope that 

 ever claimc<l that mortal attribute. Tliere 

 is not a word wliicli can weigh with the 

 sensible portion of the readers but in fa- 

 vour of the deserved estimation of the pre- 

 late, whose dignity, piety, and judgment 

 prove the wisdom shewn in selecting him 

 for the arduous office ; but there are stories 

 of troops of black girls singing with en- 

 thusiasm — " De Bissop is coine, de Bissop 

 is come to marry us all ;" of baptisms and 

 marriages wholesnle, retail, and for expor- 

 tation ; all of wliicli ceremonies, though 

 necessarily performed in this way, sound 

 verj^ unclerical, and excite some doubts of 

 the theological information of the sable 

 converts. The writer never displays his 

 Bond-street propensities, either in style or 

 in quizzing, when he describes the scenery 

 of the tropics : he looks on the luxuriant 

 or striking views n-ith true feelings, and 

 makes us think that his organs for the love 

 of the beauties of nature, animate or inani- 

 mate, must be very largely developed. 

 Perhaps the precise Spurzheim, or the 

 polite Derille, would satisfy him, if he is 

 curious, on this point. Who would not 

 wish to sit beneath an awning on board the 

 Eden, and steal along, under easy sail, the 

 lovely gulf of Paria ? 



We weighed anchor with the morning In-eeze, 

 and stood down gently before its refreshing breath 

 to the modem capital of the colony. I shall not 

 be weak enough to attempt a detailed description 

 of the enchanting scenery which presented itself 

 to us ; nothing but painting could hope even faintly 

 to convey an image of it to the inhabitants of the 

 Temperate Zone. Its parts may be just mentioned, 

 and the imaginations of my readers may combine 

 and colour them as they please, sure that, let them 

 conceive as deeply and as richly as they may, they 

 will never attain to adequate notion of the im- 

 speakable loveliness of the original. The gulf of 

 the purest ultramarine, just wreathed into a smile 

 and no more ; on the right hand the mountains of 



