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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1873 
AFRICAN TRAVEL 
The Lands of Cazembe. Lacerda’s Journey to Cazembé 
in 1798. Translated and annotated by Captain R. F. 
Burton, F.R.G.S.; also, Journey of the Pombeiros, 
P. J. Baptista and Amaro José across Africa from 
Angola to Tette on the Zambize. Translated by B. A. 
Beadle ; and a Résumé of the Journey of MM. Monteiro 
and Gamitto. By Dr, C. T. Beke. (Published by the 
Royal Geographical Society ; John Murray, 1873.) 
The African Sketch Book. By Winwood Reade, with 
maps and illustrations, in'two volumes. (Smith, Elder 
and Co., 1873.) 
 heecahe are extremely different kinds of books, though 
both are valuable. The first is almost unreadable 
- except by geographical students; the second is tho- 
roughly popular and amusing. The pending explorations 
of Livingstone have given a special interest to the various 
journeys of Portuguese explorers, and the Royal Geogra- 
phical Society have done well in making the records of 
these journeys accessible to English readers. The earliest 
and most important is that of Dr. De Lacerda, who went 
on a Government mission to the capital of Cazembé, situ- 
ated at the southern extremity of Lake Moero, about 500 
miles north-west of Lake Nyassa. He died on the way, 
but the journey was concluded under the second in com- 
mand, The Journal is given at length, and is very dull 
reading, except for the‘insight it gives into the character 
of the numerous Portuguese and half-castes who accom- 
panied the expedition, and who were in a continual state 
of squabble from the first day to the last. Dr. De Lacerda 
was evidently an amiable and intelligent man, and his 
notes are comparatively pleasant reading, and give some 
little notion of the country and the people. The Journal 
of his successor, an ecclesiastic (Fr. Pinto), is, however, 
so exclusively occupied with a record of the disputes 
among the members of the expedition, that it was hardly 
worth printing. Capt. Burton’s translation is very free, 
and no doubt very accurate, but he is so idiomatic as 
almost to require translating himself ; and such terms as 
“loot,” “ dash,” “notions,” and “magotty heads,” which 
are repeatedly used, are hardly characteristic of the serious 
and matter-of-fact diary of the Portuguese explorers. His 
notes are very copious, often considerably exceeding the 
text, and some of them are instructive ; but we find in 
them too many onslaughts on Mr. Cooley, and endless 
minute criticisms on African orthography. The free state- 
ment of Capt. Burton’s peculiar views on civilisation, re- 
ligion, polygamy, and other matters, is also rather out of 
place. Weare told for instance that, to Capt. Burton, 
“ Alexander is the first person of the triad which humanity 
has as yet produced ; the other two being Julius Czesar 
and Napoleon Bonaparte,” and that “ Blakeley guns and 
railways” are the indices of true progress. 
If, however, this part of the book is dull, the second 
part—the Route Journal of the Pombeiros—is dreary in 
the extreme. We have page after page of such entries as 
these :—“ Friday, 12th—At seven in the morning we got 
up and left the top of the hill. We passed seven narrow 
streams which run into the Luapula. We came to another 
No, 204—VOL, VIII, 
desert near a narrow river where we found a circle made. 
We met nobody and walked with the sun in our front.” 
In the third part we are spared the detailed journals and 
are given a résumé by Dr. Beke, in which we have all 
that is of interest compressed into a few pages. These 
journals show that African travel was beset with the same 
difficulties and troubles seventy years ago as it is now, 
and that the custom of jexacting presents and causing 
delays at every village is an ancient African institution. 
The work is illustrated by an excellent map, in which all 
the geographical information to be extracted from these 
journeys is laid down, and the routes of all the travellers, 
as well as those of Livingstone, distinctly marked. It 
will therefore be of great value in tracing the future pro- 
gress of that illustrious traveller. 
Mr. Winwood Reade’s well-named “African Sketch 
Book” is a work of an altogether novel kind. Ina series 
of picturesque and sparkling chapters he gives us sketches 
of the various pictures of African life and scenery, epi- 
sodes of travel, the slave trade, the history of African 
exploration, and other subjects; and interspersed with 
these are little tales illustrative of the various phases of 
native life or of European life in Africa. Mr. Reade has 
twice visited Africa. The first time, in 1862-63, he 
went over Du Chaillu’s ground, and enabled us to sepa- 
rate the true from the imaginative in that traveller’s book ; 
and he also visited Angola and Senegambia. The second 
time, in 1868—7o0, he spent two'years in Africa, on the 
Gold Coast and Liberia, and made an adventurous jour- 
ney from Sierra Leone to the Niger, at a point never 
before reached by a European traveller. The narrative 
of this journey occupies about half the second volume, 
and is very interesting ; although it is perhaps a little 
marred by the sketchy style in which it is written (in the 
form of letters to a young lady), and by the prominence 
given to the author’s fears, hopes, and ambitions, all of 
which will, however, prove attractive to many readers, 
When within about fifty miles of the Niger, at Falaba, 
the traveller was stopped by'at native king, Sewa, who 
kept him in his court, as Speke was kept, for several months, 
and then allowed him to return to Sierra Leone, sending 
with him an embassy and his own nephew, as an escort. 
Mr. Reade then endeavoured to get the Governor of 
Sierra Leone to send him on an expedition to the Niger, 
in which case Sewa would not have dared to stop him ; 
but finding that there would be great delays before this 
could be arranged, he took the bold resolution, although 
seriously ill, to return at once with the king’s nephew 
He did so, and telling the king, who was greatly surprised 
to see him, that he was‘now a traveller going to the Niger, 
but would stay with him three days, he was allowed to 
go on, and not only succeeded in reaching the Niger at a 
point about forty miles from its source, but went down its 
course to the north-east to the Bouré gold works, never 
before visited by any European, This | journey undoubt- 
edly stamps Mr. Reade as a thorough African explorer. 
The six years’ interval between his two journeys was 
devoted to a study of the literature of African travel, some 
of the results of which are embodied in a large and very 
useful map, showing at a glance the portion of the country 
visited by each traveller, as well as the various authorities 
which may be consulted on each district ; and the com- 
parative importance of these is indicated by the type in 
