430 
which the name is printed. The chapter entitled “The 
African Pioneers,” is a very interesting one, giving a 
spirited sketch of the life and labours of each of the im- 
portant African travellers from Ledyard to Livingstone ; 
and we think Mr. Reade could do no better or more popular 
work than to give us in a compact and readable form, 
and as much as possible in each author’s own words, the 
concentrated essence of those vast piles of volumes on 
Africa, which he appears to have waded through. 
There is a very great improvement in this work over 
Mr. Reade’s earlier writings, and he himself recognises 
that his opinions are now changed for fairer and truer 
ones. He now speaks of the Negro race with respect, 
and often uses the term “native gentleman.” He be- 
lieves that “if boys were removed at an early age from 
uncivilised society and brought up with the sons of gentle- 
men at home, they would acquire something better than 
book-learning—namely the sentiment of honour. My 
long and varied experience of the African Race has 
brought me to believe that they can be made white men 
in all that is more than skin-deep.” He speaks well of 
the native Missionaries, and says of one of them at Sierra 
Leone, of whom he saw a good deal, that he “ does not 
differ, so far as I can see, from an English gentleman and 
clergyman in manners, speech, or disposition.” Such 
men have far more influence with the natives than 
English clergymen can have. “An ordained Negro is a 
walking sermon, a theological advertisement. The 
savages regard an Oxford Master of Arts as a being 
fearfully and wonderfully made, belonging to a different 
species from himself. His argument invariably is, ‘ White 
man’s God, he good for white man; black man’s God, 
he good for black man.’ But when he beholds a man as 
black as himself with a shiny hat, a white cravat, glossy 
garments, and shoes a yard long, wearing a gold watch 
in his fob, blowing his nose in a cloth, and ‘ making 
leaves speak ;” and ‘when he is informed that these are 
the results of being baptised, he also aspires to become 
a white man, and allows himself to be converted.” 
Good service is done by pointing out that what is 
usually called the typical Negro with jet-black skin, 
thick lips, and flat nose, is by no means typical, but is 
an extreme and exceptional type; that coffee colour of 
various shapes is the characteristic colour of Negroes, that 
their features are often finely formed, and of quite a 
European cast. Blackness of skin is said to be most pre- 
valent where heat and moisture are combined, but it is re- 
cognised that this is not necessarily, or-even probably, 
the cause of the blackness. 
Mr. Reade’s book is full of brilliant or witty sayings. 
Of the gorilla he says that “there is little doubt that some 
day or other this renowned ape will make its appearance 
at the Zoological Gardens, to brighten the holiday of 
the artisan, and to alleviate the sabbath of the fashion- 
able world.” Relating how a man once refused to guide 
him to a plantation about three miles off, for fear he 
should kill some game onthe way and compel him to 
carry it, he remarks, “‘ And yet it is often asserted that the 
Negroes are incapable of foresight.” The natives of the 
interior firmly believe that Europeans buy slaves to eat, 
and an old cannibal Fan was anxious to know why they 
took the trouble to send so far for people to eat. Were 
the black men nicer than the whitemen? Mr, Reade’s 
i-t-, “rae. pee Tee a nF gag We a 
- ¢ is PAL | oS 
NATURE 
obliged to import their supplies! Of Livingstone it is 
remarked that “only twice in his life since he was a° 
youth has he visited England, returning after a while to 
his true home in the wilderness; with his health shattered 
by the toils of literary composition.” 
We find also many passages of good or of doubtful 
philosophy. Mr. Reade seems impressed with the 
strange idea that if we could by any means double the 
number of our tall chimneys in the cotton districts, we 
should necessarily advance our civilisation and benefit 
the human race. For example, among arguments for 
opening up the Niger we are told :—“ The country which 
lies beyond the confluence of the Quorra and the Binué 
is one of the largest cotton-growing areas of the world, 
At present the people dress themselves. But when the 
Niger trade is once established, our cheap cotton goods 
will soon destroy the native industry, ‘and the people will 
export their raw cotton instead of weaving it themselves.” 
And as one of the main results of the blood and treasure 
expended on African soil, we are;told that ‘new markets 
have been opened for British manufactures.” But does 
it not occur to Mr. Reade, that to destroy native industries 
instead of improving them may not advance a people; 
and that to increase the already large proportion of our 
population who pass their lives in a monotonous routine — 
amid the smoke of furnaces and the din of machinery, 
and helpless as infants if their own source of living fails 
them (as it has failed them and may again), may not 
really advance us on the road to civilisation? 
As an example of the manner in which our author 
often compresses into a few lines the results of much 
labour, take the following passage summarising the results 
of Nile exploration and the relative share of the two 
great branches in forming} the River Nile and the Land 
of Egypt :—“ Thus the Nile is created by the rainfall of 
the Equator, and Egypt by the rainfall of the Tropics. If 
the White Nile did not exist, the Black Nile would be 
nothing—it would perish in the sand. But if the Black 
Nile did not exist, the White Nile would be merely a 
barren river in a sandy plain, with some Arab encamp- 
ments on its banks.” 
The arrangement of this book seems to be its weakest 
point. Weare taken up and down the coast, and back 
again over old ground, till we hardly know where we are ; 
and the confusion is increased by the insertion of the il- 
lustrative tales in the body of the work. It would have 
been far better if these tales had been kept together, and 
the rest of the work arranged in systematic geographical 
order, The work is provided with numerous good wood- 
cuts; and the maps, which illustrate in a novel and 
ingenious manner the slave trade, the religions of Africa, 
African discovery, and African literature, are very valu- 
able. The tales themselves are clever, and some admir- 
ably illustrative of African life; but most of them are 
melancholy in their catastrophes, and indicate that the 
author takes a somewhat gloomy view of human life and 
human nature. Of these, “Ananga” is the best. It is 
the story of a daughter of the King of Cazembé, who 
marries a Portuguese officer and runs away with him; 
and, arriving in the Cape Colony, is so overwhelmed by . 
| Sept. 25, 1873 
answer was dictated by motives of policy, as he was ina 
cannibal country. He assured his questioner that white 
men’s flesh was a deadly poison, and so they were 
4 
