suspended over an abyss, on the point of a rock, or sunk in the fetid waters of a gulph, he would procure for it the honours of a tomb. The turtle-dove complains alone, in the silence of the woods; but I, in my affliction, have a brother who shares it with me. The tenderest friend I have only seeks to condole with me in my troubles; but my brother feels them, as I do, they become his own. The transports of wrath and anger may disturb our family tranquillity, but no sooner am I assailed, than my brother shields me with his protection. How pleased he is to rescue me, how overjoyed when he finds me con tented and happy! We impart a portion of our felicity to our friends and relatives, the presence of a brother augments it. No festivals are so grateful to me as those wherein I find him, seated by my side; my soul verges to him, as a flower discloses its blossoms to the air. Fraternal friendship has in it all the tenderness of conjugal affection. An amiable and virtuous spouse enriches you with all the gifts of hymen; your wishes are gratified in children worthy of you. Would you perpetuate your happiness? Let it be cemented by brotherly love. It rules, in families, like the instruments of music, the kin and the ché, in concerts, which support and set off the full chorus of voices. O fraternal amity! blessed are the families wherein thou presidest. All the virtues gather round thy attractions; and, at thy presence, all the vices disappear.

On the whole, we have reason to infer, that it could be no vulgar nation which, prior to the times of Homer or Solomon, could depict and find plea. sure in such noble sentiments, expressed in such a fine style of versification, in songs equally sweet and

sublime.

The fourth work, the Li-Ki, consists of forty-nine chapters, only seventeen of which are authentic, chiefly treating of the Chinese ritual, and of the different obligations enjoined in their morality. An infinite value is attached to this book, from particular details on religion, government, the laws, manners, and customs, of the ancient Chinese, from the commencement of the monarchy to the fifth century preceding the Christian æra. We find several very curious lectures in it, on fulfilling the duties of filial piety.

A well educated son will not take up his lodgings in the middle apartment, will not sit down in the middle of the carpet, will not pass through the middle of the gate. A son endowed with filial piety can observe what his parents would have him do, without their speaking to him, and can

see them without being in their immediate presence. A son possesses nothing that can properly be called his own while his parents are living; even his life is not his own, to expose or risque it for a friend. The murderer of your father ought not to dwell under the same sky (in the same country) with you, nor must you lay down your arms while the murderer of your brother lives, or the murderer of your friend. A son who is walking in the same road with his father, will tarry a step behind him; a cadet, or younger brother, will have the same attention for the elder. At the first crowing of the cock, the children enter the chamber of their parents, bring them water to wash their hands, spread before them their apparel, trim the cushions and ottomans, clear away the matting, and sprinkle the chamber. When the parents would retire to rest, the children come to wait upon them. The eldest son presents the matting, and asks on which side of the estrade they would repose for the night; the cadet rolls away the mattresses. A son who is maintained by them lodges separately from his parents, and comes, every morning, to enquire what they would choose for breakfast. At sun-rising, he goes to the duties of his employment; but, towards evening, returns to salute his parents. When the latter are at table, the children are in close attendance, waiting on them to the end of their repast. On the decease of the father, the eldest son is ever at the head of the other children, waiting on his mother.

The following dictates, or indirect injunctions, are by far too rigid, as they reduce to rules what ought to be spontaneous acts, thereby mingling with the dispositions of the soul, which will ever depend on the will. They seem more likely to engender affectation or hypocrisy, than to surmount indifference, which, however, would be the least of the three evils,

When a father or mother are sick, the children cast an air of negligence over their apparel, assume a sort of embarrassment and distraction in their words and deportment, never touch an instrument of music, cat without a ready appetite, smile only with the extremities of the lips, and have not energy enough to throw themselves into a passion.

A son whose father has just expired, is like to one thunderstruck, or like one so deeply absorbed in thought, that he can When the corpse is laid within the coffin, neither go forwards nor backwards. his eyes wander, not settling on any object, like to one who is restless in seeking what he is in despair of finding. At the funeral, his aspect and appearance seem to be wholly changed; he resembles one in a fainting fit, or one, all whose hopes

are

pied a considerable number of hands. Since the abolition of that trade, they have sought other lines of service; and, in the year 1809, the number of those who had hired themselves as labourers at Sierra Leone alone, a place distant about 350 miles from their own country, was estimated at 800.

The district inhabited by the Kroomen extends, according to the maps, about twenty miles along the coast, from north-west to south-east. Its extent inland is supposed not to exceed the same distance. The Kroo country lies between 4° 54′ and 5°7' N. latitude. Fettra-Kroo, the principal town, is in long. 7° 48′ W.

In the Kroo country there are but five towns, viz. Little-kroo, which is the northernmost; then Settra-kroo, which is the chief town; then Kroobah, Kroo-settra; and, lastly, Will'stown. A few small villages, inhabited by strangers or slaves, are said to be scattered over the intermediate space, and at a greater distance from the shore, probably for the purpose of carrying on their cultivation. The population of this small district is supposed to be greater than in most other countries on the coast.

The general aspect of the country is champaign, and it is very woody. Its chief vegetable productions are rice, cassada, yams, plantanes, and Malaguetta pepper. The rice which it produces is valued by Europeans on account of its superior whiteness to what is in general to be met with on the coast.

In respect to the external appearance of the Kroomen, they are seldom very tall; but they are well made, muscular, vigorous, and active. They wear no clothes, except a small piece of East-India cloth wrapped round their

loins ; but they are fond of obtaining hats and old woollen jackets, which they are allowed to wear in their own country in the rainy season. A few wear European clothing while at Sierra Leone. They are extremely sensible of the cold during the rainy season, but never appear to suffer from the heat. The form of the African head differs in general from that of the European; but I think this difference is less in the Kroomen than in any other natives whom I have seen. In their temper, they are generally gay and cheerful; and this leads them to be very noisy and talkative. They sometimes show a talent for mimicry. They

seldom learn to speak English well, and of course they must understand it but imperfectly; the few who do understand it, become, I think, more readily expert at whatever business they are employed in than most other natives. They are very fond of adopt ing English names; but their choice is sometimes very whimsical, such as Pipe of Tobacco, Bottle of Beer, Papaw Tree, &c. They are quick in feeling insults, or even harsh and angry expressions; and they immediately become sulky and untractable. But they will bear any censure, even a sharp blow or two when their negligence deserves it, if it can be so contrived as to seem given more in jest than in carnest. In their general course of conduct, they are rather deliberate than impetuous; but they are far more courageous than the genera lity of the natives about Sierra Leone.

When hired by the month, their wages depending on the time they are at work, not upon the work performed, they are apt to be very indolent, unless carefully superintended. But they are fond of task-work, or working by the piece; and exert themselves exceedingly, when the reward is proportioned to the labour. When I first arrived in Africa in 1797, it was deemed a gross absurdity to imagine that a Krooman would do any kind of work unconnected with boats and shipping, as in that way alone they had hitherto been employed; and it was supposed their prejudices against innovation could never be overcome. Necessity forced us to try the experiment; and we now find that Kroomen will employ themselves in agricultural labour, or in any other way by which they can get money. They seem to thick, at the same time, some kinds of work much more creditable than others. The washerwomen at Sierra Leone have lately employed their hired Kroomen in carrying home baskets of wet clothes from the brook. I have heard them grumble very much under their burdens, because man was made to do woman's work;" nevertheless, as they gain money by it, they are disposed to put up with the indignity.

66

In their expenditure they are most rigid economists: a little tobacco is the only luxury which they allow themselves. In every other respect they are contented with the barest necessaries. They are allowed nothing more for their subsistence than two pounds

of

1824.]

46

In eighteen months or two years, a sufficient stock having been collected, the Krooman returus home with his wealth. A certain portion is given to the head men of the town; all his relations and friends partake of his bounty, if there be but a leaf of tobacco for each; his mother, if living, has a handsome present. All this is done in order to get him a good name:" what remains is delivered to his father "to buy him a wife." One so liberal does not long want a partner: the father obtains a wife for him; and after a few months of ease and indul. gence, he sets off afresh for Sierra Leone, or some of the factories on the coast, to get more money. By this time he is proud of being acquainted with "white man's fashion;" and takes with him some raw inexperienced youngster, whom he initiates into his own profession, taking no small portion of the wages of the élève for his trouble. In due time his coffers are replenished; he returns home; confirms his former character for liberality; and gives the residue of his wealth to his father to "get him another wife." In this way he proceeds perhaps for ten or twelve years, or more, increasing the number of his wives, and establishing a great character among his countrymen; but scarcely a particle of his earnings is at any time applied to his own use. I have heard of one Krooman who had eighteen wives: twelve and fourteen I am told are not uncommon: the Kroomen who returned home in the Crocodile frigate, when that vessel went down the African coast with the commissioners of African Inquiry, had mostly three or four.

One of the Kroomen on-board having been asked what he would do with so much money as he was possessed of, replied, that he hoped he had

493

enough to buy him two wives, to add to the two he already had acquired. When he had got the additional two, he would return to Sierra Leone and get more money. His father, who was still living, he said, “had got eighteen wives." The wives, of course, are servants who labour for him in the field as well as in the house.

The number of Kroo canoes which push off to trading vessels, many miles from land, with trifling articles for sale, is another proof that they do not spare their labour if they have the slightest hope of profit. Two or three pounds of tobacco is, perhaps, the utmost they can get in exchange for their goods; and for this trifle they will sometimes row out to sea ten, twelve, or fifteen, miles. We had not less than twenty canoes at a time about the Crocodile, one afternoon, offering their fish for sale; and they kept up with us, by means of their paddles, more than an hour, while the Crocodile was going from five to six knots by the log. leaf or two of tobacco was all they got for a fish; and few of them had any considerable number for sale. In coming up with the vessel it was estimated that they could not go at a less rate than seven knots an hour: yet in many instances the canoe was paddled by only two men.

A

One of the greatest drawbacks from the usefulness of the Kroomen, as hired labourers, at Sierra Leone, arises from their readiness rather to suffer in their own persons than to bear testimony against each other. Detection is rendered so difficult, and a thief of consequence can command so many accomplices (for they scarcely dare refuse their aid, and never dare to inform), that the temptation to steal is increased ten-fold. The public punishment which our laws impose is far less 'feared than the sure and secret vengeance of the magician.

All this is supported by superstition; and under the cloak of superstition they bear cruelty and injustice. Who shall break through these shackles ? Premiums have been proposed to Kroomen, if they would settle in Sierra Leone; but take away from the Krooman his desire of respect and distinction in his own country, and you take away his very motive for that industry and self-denial which procure' for him, at present, a preference over other natives.

The indifference of Kroomen to
European

The

European arts and European comforts, made me once think them a very dull race of men, to say the least. I was struck when I first came to Africa with the different manner in which a Krooman and a Mandingo man (a Mohammedan) viewed an English clock. It was a new thing to both of them. The Krooman eyed it attentively for about a minute, but with an unmoved countenance, and then walked away to look at something else, without saying a word. Mandingo man could not sufficiently 'admire the equal and constant motion of the pendulum; his attention was repeatedly drawn to it: he made all possible inquiries as to the cause of its motion; he renewed the subject next morning, and could hardly be persuaded that the pendulum had continued to "walk," as he called it, all night. In general, I think, the case is nearly the same. They have little or no curiosity about things which are of no use in their own country; they are careless about our comforts and luxuries; none of them have been rendered necessary by habit, and they would often be inconsistent with the principal objects of their pursuit.

Α Krooman will never sell a Krooman, nor allow him to be sold by others if he can prevent it. Partly from their general usefulness on the coast, partly from the probability that the sale of a Krooman would be severely revenged, they go about every where, in slave ships and to slave factories, and are active agents in the slave-trade, without any more apprehension of being sold themselves than if they were British mariners. home, their numbers make them formidable to their neighbours; and they seem seldom to be engaged in war, but when great divisions exist among themselves: few, therefore, are ever sold.

At

Moon,. Sun, ... Giröh. Night, Man, Woman, Fire, Water, Sea, Cassada,. Rice,

......

Nyer, (one syllable).

...... Ni.

Yǎmooz.

Súgürüh.

Quoh'.

Nearly all the vowels are pronounced very short; the consonants indistinct; with occasionally a strong nasal sound, particularly in the numbers two and three :-an apostrophe after a word marks that short breaking. off of a sound, (without dwelling on the first letter, or conuecting it smoothly with the first letters of the next word,) which is common in many languages on the coast.

For the Monthly Magazine. REFLECTIONS on VOLCANOS, by M. GAYLUSSAC; read lately before the ROYAL ACADEMY of SCIENCES at PARIS. [So eminent a philosopher as M. GayLussac having treated at large on the difficult subject of the theory of volcanoes, we consider it our duty to submit his observations on a subject so eminently interesting.]

TW

TWO hypotheses (says M. GayLussac) may be formed as to phænomena. the cause which produces volcanic According to one of these, the earth remains in a state of incandescence at a certain depth below the surface (a supposition strongly have been recently made on the profavoured by the observations which gressive increase of temperature in mines); and this heat is the chief cording to the second hypothesis, the agent in volcanic phænomena. Acprincipal cause of these phænomena is a very strong and as yet unneutralized affinity existing between certain sub

into action by fortuitous contact, producing a degree of heat sufficient to fuse the lavas and to raise them to the surface of the earth by means of the pressure of elastic fluids.

According to either of these hypotheses, it is absolutely necessary that the volcanic furnaces should be fed by substances originally foreign to them, and which have been some how or other introduced into them.

In fact, at those remote cpochs which