1831.3 Africa?} Discoveries. 159 



- ducted in the most atrocious manner, poisoned arrows being used ; and such as 

 j'cscaped those deadly weapons, and were made prisoners, were sold for slaves in 

 rthe capital ; even such of his own subjects as failed to pay their tribute being 

 treated in the same manner." 



The poisoned arrows, we allow, are not Petersburgish ; but cannon 

 „' and mortars are tolerable equivalents. One grand exception, too, occurs, , 

 (■which might distinguish Timbuctoo from the late Polish dominions of 

 cihis Majesty : — 



" Leo seems to have been astonished at finding no Jews at Timbuctoo ; but his 

 majesty was so fierce an enemy to the Hebrew race, that he not only banished 

 them his dominions, but made it a crime punishable with confiscation of property 

 to have any commerce with them. Timbuctoo, at this period, contained a great 



'1, number of judges, doctors, priests, and learned men, all of whom were liberally 

 .provided for by the prince ; and an immense number of manuscripts were an- 

 'nually imported from Barbary, the trade in books being, in fact, the most lucra- 

 tive branch of commerce. Their gold money, the only kind coined in the coun- 



*' try, was without image or superscription ; but those small shells, still current 

 on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, and in the islands of the Indian Ocean, 

 under the name of coivries, were used in small transactions, four hundred of them 

 being equivalent to a piece of gold. Of these gold pieces, six and two-thirds 

 weigh an ounce." 



The inhabitants were, however — like all inhabitants under the most 

 : gracious of monarchs — happy as the day was long ; they being only liable 

 to be beheaded, pounded in a mortar, or thrown to the dogs and elephants 

 of his majesty, at a moment's warning. The source of their gaiety seems 

 described to be their slave-dealing, and their houses being periodically 

 burned to the ground : — 



" The inhabitants, a mild and gentle race, spent a large portion of their time 

 in singing, dancing, and festivities — which they were enabled to do by the great 

 number of slaves of both sexes which they maintained. The city was extremely 

 liable to conflagrations, almost one half of the houses having been burnt down 

 between the first and second visit of our traveller — a space of not more thaa 

 eleven or twelve years. Neither gardens nor fruit-trees adorn the environs." 



In those points, they emulate the subjects of the Ottoman Porte, and, 

 on the same grounds, we rely upon it, are just as happy. 



But a book, certainly not less curious than Lander's, and about a 

 much more interesting region than any thing belonging to the hideous 

 negroes of West Africa, has just made its debut ; — Pearce's Account of 

 Abyssinia. Bruce awoke the world on the subject forty years ago, but 

 it must be acknowledged that Bruce had a manner of telling truth that 

 made it appear prodigiously like a lie ; and that with all allowances for 

 what he saw, his conversations at the Court of Gondar, such as it is, his 

 unfailing diplomacy, his desperate valour, and his matchless success upon 

 all occasions, human and divine, still rest very considerably under the 

 imputation of romance. In fact, neither we, nor we suppose anybody 

 else, could find it in our hearts to believe a syllable of it. But Pearce is 

 a trust-worthy fellow, and not a privy councillor; he is not profound in 

 the graces of queens and princesses, nor even worshipped as the oracle 

 of western wisdom, during the whole course of his residing at the 

 Abyssinian hills. Some parts of his book have the dullness that belongs 

 to all things under the sun, but many of his details are excessively 

 curious. We give an instance of the diversity of opinion that may 

 exist between individuals of, the highest rank in sundry places — 

 Abyssinian, as well as English. Mr. Coffin, who communicates the 



