34 
whieh would havé been so much more pro- 
fitably employed in learning to read their 
own or some Europea language. 
schools the boys read, or rather shout, 
théir lessons as loud as possible: the samé 
is observed by Dr. Russell, speaking of the 
Mahommedan schools at Aleppo: “ as 
- they read aloud all together, the noise they 
make in getting their lessons may be heard 
at some distance.” This noise is rendered 
still more grating to the ear by their harsh 
and guttaral pronunciation. Such, how- 
ever, is their quickness of perception, thaf, 
amidst this confused clamour, if a word be 
wrong pronounced; or falsely accented, it is 
immediately hoticed by the master, or cor- 
rected by one of the beheitirs: among whom 
a strong spirit of emulation prevails. The 
bovs begin their studies at least an hour 
before day-light in the imorhing, and pro- 
tract them: till late at night, taking-seme re- 
spite during the middle of the day. In the 
dry season, before sun-tise and after Sun-set, 
fey generally sit in the open air round a 
arge fire, which affords them light, and for 
its support each scholar brings a bundle of 
fageots. ‘Their lessons are written with ink 
which washes out, by means of a reed ctit 
in for of 2 pen, upon thin smooth pieces 
of wood of a close grain like beech; the 
letters are first written, then the combina- 
ions of letters, and lastly passages of the 
Koran. When they can read and write with 
facility, the master receives as his reward, for 
each scholar, a slave, or the value of one; 
but if he fails in this point, he receives no 
recompence for his trouble. As writing 
constitutes one of their chief amusements, 
they are anxious to excel iy it, and many of 
them write with great expedition and a tole- 
table degree of-elegance. They procure 
paper from Europeans, but use a reed insteqd 
of a pen. They procure a very excellent 
ink by boiling the leaves of a tree called bul- 
Janta in water: this is generally done in an 
iron pot, containing some scoria of iron from 
a smith’s forge. After it has boiled fora 
‘considerable time, the liquor is set aside to 
cool, and is then strained for use : it is of a 
dark purple colour, and is extremely dura- 
bie. ‘They generally make use of a large 
snail-shell to keep it in, to which a litde 
eotton is added to absorb the ink. A’ simi- 
‘Tar receptacle is also used for their oint- 
ments: 
4 —TFunde capacibus 
Uneuenta de conchis. 
«They set a high value upon some of 
their manuscripts : an old man, who had a 
small duodecimo beok of a quarto form, 
containing extracts from the {Koran very 
neatly written, and ornamented with views 
of the Caaba, &e. at Mecca, refused to sell 
it for cizht slaves, as it had been at Mecca, 
or, ase expressed it, “ had walked to 
Niecea.” Ttih : 
«The Mandingos and Foolas are pas- 
sionate adimirers of Arabic literature, in 
In these * 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
which they are tolerably proficient ; amd it 
is to be ascribed pars ie the shackles. im= 
posed by their religion, and partly to the 
debasing: effeets of the slave trade and the 
obstructions it presents to improvement, ra- 
ther than to a want of genius, that they have 
made so little progress in other sciences. 
‘¢ Niebuhr observes, that he has often 
shewn to the Arabs books printed in their 
own language which they could searce read. 
T have, however, more thar once seen the 
Africans read Arabic books; one in_parti- 
cular read several chapters of the New Testa- 
ment in-Arabic, bind! of which he appeared 
to have a just comprehension. Several 
others explained passages in Arabic books, 
particularly-Richardson’s Arabic Dictionary, 
giving the sound of the words vety nearly as 
they are there written, and ip general exs 
jaining the meaning of them very exactly,” 
The appendix to the work beforé us 
consists of five parts: the first is a mea- 
gre destription, in eight pages; of the 
colony of Sierra Leone, in which we do 
not find a sitigle word of the state of 
morals and manners, of the government, 
and the influence among the natives of 
an establishment so perfectly unique in 
its objects, and so truly honorable to its 
patrons. We expected to have learnt 
the state of the missions, which no doubt 
must by this time have extended them- 
selves over the whole neighbourhood ; 
with what degree of *success they have 
arrested the progress of Mahometanism, 
er rivalled that religion, by bestowing 
on the barbarous and pagan tribes-the 
invaluable blessings of British legisla- 
tion and christian morals. We 5 eine 
from the reports already published how 
the settlement was established, that its 
black population consisted principally 
ef the Nova Scotia free negroes, that 
it was nearly ruined by the French in 
1794, and from its situation ina tropical 
climate, near the mouth of a river, and 
at the foot of a ridge of mountains, we 
could easily conceive the general cha- 
racter of its scenery. But all these cir- 
cumstances are detailed by Dr. Winter- 
bottom, and the really interesting infor- 
mation concerning the degree of success 
which has attended this new experiment 
of colonization and proselytism, is whol- 
ly withheld. 
The second part of the appendix is 
the meteorological history of the colony 
tor the year 1793, already mentioned. 
The third, and -by far, the. longest.part, 
is arepublication from the Philosophical 
Transactions, of Mr. Smeathman’s ace 
count. of the Termites, inserted here 
merely ‘fer the sake of eking out. the 
