on which they set a large square sail. With this simple rigging these rafts will sail six or eight miles an hour.

Having on this second voyage again anchored at Callao, the captain took the opportunity of disembarking, and examining more attentively than he had yet done the interior. In the early part of this article we have alluded to the conclusions to which the captain had come on the subject of the Patagonian race during his first voyage: we noticed also his persuasion that there was nothing extraordinary to be seen in the size of the existing Patagonians; in fact he treated the accounts of a gigantic race of men existing in this province as a fable. But more extended consideration and a larger share of practical knowledge have induced him to believe, that though the present generation of Patagonians is not remarkable for extraordinary height, yet that it is probable that there might once have been a gigantic species of them, of which the existing people are a degenerate race. One thing, however, our captain is satisfied about, that there is just as strong testimony in favour of a former gigantic race in Patagonia as there is in favour of the former existence in our own country of a race of animals now known by the appellation of mammoth. We have the bones, and even entire skeletons of this huge creature in our museums; and I have seen in the interior of Patagonia the bones and entire skeletons of men who, when living, must have measured more than seven feet in height. The tombs or sepulchres in which I found them were covered with large heaps of stones, probably to prevent their being molested by wild beasts. The position of these was uniformly the same, with the head to the

east.

After an adventurous and toilsome voyage of more than twenty-one months, the captain returned to New York with a cargo of six thousand fur-seal skins. It is to be feared from some hints which he throws out, that his reception by the owners of the ship was not quite so cordial as he expected. However, as he chooses to abstain from any detailed explanation, it is better to pass at once to the account of the third of his voyages. It appears that a certain firm of ship-owners had a ship expressly built for the purpose of enabling Captain Morrell to proceed to the coast of Africa in a trade speculation. The vessel was called the Antarctic, in compliment to him, he having been the first shipmaster who had ever steered his vessel beyond that circle. She set sail for her destination in June 1828, and proceeded direct to the Cape of Good Hope, of which we have an excellent account, historical as well as geographical. Having left the Cape, the captain proceeded to the neighbouring islands in a northern direction, and finally anchored on the east side of Penguin Island. At about ten, A. M., the sand-winds, he says, came off; and to his great satisfaction he had an opportunity of witnessing, for the first time in his life, one of those moving pillars of sand which have been so frequently spoken of by the celebrated Mr. Adamson. It rose about five miles inland from the head of the bay, and moved

in the direction of the wind towards the south-west, increasing in magnitude as it advanced, until it left the shore, when it began gradually to diminish as it crossed the bay. This moving column of sand passed within a cable's length of the Antarctic, at which time it would measure fifteen or eighteen feet in circumference, of a conic form, and about two hundred feet in nearly a perpendicular height from the water, leaning a little to the south-west. Its heat, in passing the vessel, was sensibly felt, while it emitted a strong odour, not Ulke that of sulphur, which was soon dissipated, however, by the strong gusts of wind which came off from the shore, raising the thermometer to 113 degrees. The column finally fell into the water, nearly half-way between Penguin Island and Seal Island, the latter being about two hundred fathoms to the north of the former. The effects of these sand-winds are sometimes very disastrous and fatally. destructive when occurring on the borders of the sandy deserts. In one of the captain's inland excursions in this country he had the misfortune to encounter a tornado of this description, which impressed him with a full conviction of their wonderful effects. The wind raised the sand so as to completely fill the atmosphere, obscuring the sun at noon-day, and concealing every thing from view at the distance of two hundred fathoms; while an oppressive, suffocating weight accompanied the masses of sand, through which we had to make our way with extreme difficulty and labour. The dogs, in the mean time, with their tongues hanging from their mouths, refused to face the clouds of sand, and a parching thirst, to which water afforded only a temporary relief, oppressed every individual of the party: the fine light dust was inhaled at every breath. This storm lasted about six hours; but it was more than thrice that time before the atmosphere became tolerably clear of floating sand. The immense piles of sand which line this sea-coast probably owe their existence to the easterly, or what is called the sand-wind, blowing so much stronger than the prevailing southerly winds; the former carrying the sand before it, and depositing it on the borders of the coast, burying beneath it cliffs, rocks, and every thing but the highest hills.

The Hottentots in these islands are, in the opinion of Captain Morrell, much less indolent and stupid than the tribes inhabiting the colony of the Cape. With respect to their external appearance, he does not appear to have been strongly prepossessed by it, for he informs us that their faces are very ugly, with high prominent cheekbones, and a narrow pointed chin; long and narrow eyes, which do not form an acute angle at the nose, like ours, but are rounded off like those of the Chinese. The natural complexion of their skin is ayellowish brown, very similar to that of a faded leaf. They have very regular teeth, of the purest white, and hair of a peculiar and singular description. When suffered to grow, it spontaneously twists into small curls, which hang down their necks. Their bodies are slender and well proportioned, with small hands and feet. They

appear weak and imbecile when young, and prematurely grow old, very few of them reaching the age of seventy.

In speaking of the females, the Captain assures us they are good humoured and conciliating; and the best proof of the correctness of this assertion is their readiness to gratify the curiosity of any stranger who wishes to examine a physical peculiarity in their formation.

A considerable number of his pages is devoted by the author to the object of shewing the capability of the eastern side of the African Peninsula, particularly the unappropriated tract flying between the English and Portuguese Colonies, to become a fertile source of profit to any commercial country which might take it under its protection. Continuing his voyage along the coast of the kingdom of Old Benguela. The country round the capital, which is called St. Philip, and is a place of great trade, abounds with oranges, pineapples, melons, plantains, bananas, palms, dates, cocoanuts, guavas, figs, grapes, and a variety of other fruits. The vine flourishes finely, forming natural arbours and alleys to shelter you from the fervid rays of an African sun. Cassia and tamarinds also flourish; and, from the humidity of the soil, there are two fruit seasons in the year. In entering the port of St. Philip de Benguela, the town and inland country present a beautiful appearance. The houses of the town have all whitewashed walls and red roofs, which give them a very gay and picturesque appearance from the offing, and also from the anchorage. The shores around the bay are low and sandy, with the exception of the westernmost point, which is composed of white sandy cliffs. But when we look eastwardly to the inland country, the scenery is charming. Ranges of verdant hills, on which blooming spring for ever smiles, gradually rise above each other, while wood-crowned mountains rear their majestic heads in the distance, and give a sublime finish to the beautiful picture.

But the agreeable associations which such a luxurious natural spectacle afforded to the Captain, were sadly put to flight, by the presence of no less than four slave dealers, from Brazil, waiting in the bay of Benguela, to complete their cargo of human beings. One of the vessels stood close to the American, and the Captain, from the first moment of anchoring, could have no rest, on account of the shrieks and groans which he heard from the wretched captives in the slave ship. Thinking that illness was the cause of their suffering, he caused one of his boats to be manned, and proceeded to the slave ship, which he boarded without the slightest ceremony. He was received by the officers on deck with surprise, but not without courtesy, until he announced the object of his visit, and then they heard him with marks of derision. He found no impediment, however, in getting down to the scene of suffering. "Gracious heaven!" he exclaimed, "what a horrible spectacle was presented to my view!"

If the reader has ever been on board of a Hudson River marketsloop, loaded with calves and sheep for the city slaughter houses, he may

form some faint idea of this Brazilian slave brig. A range of pens, or bins, occupied each side of the main-deck, from the cat-head to the mainchains, in which were confined such a number of the slaves as were permitted to come upon deck at one time. In a line with the main hatchway, on each side, was erected a bulkhead, or partition, separating the men from the women; while a narrow passage remained open to the gangway, abaft the sternmost pen, or between that and the quarter-deck.

'The slaves, perfectly naked, were stowed in rows, fore and aft, in a sitting or crouching posture; and most of the men had their faces between their knees, either indulging in a moody silence, or mournfully chanting, in a low voice, some plaintive song of their native villages. The feelings of the females were of course more clamorously expressed, in spite of all their tyrants' exertions to keep them quiet. In passing along the deck between these two ranges of despairing human beings, I encountered such mute imploring glances, such appealing looks of misery, such piteous supplicating expressions of countenance, such torrents of tears, that looked like pearls on ebony, as completely and totally unmanned me. My own tears fell like rain, and the poor negroes gazed on the strange phenomenon of a white man's sympathy with wonder, doubt, and admiration. Even the females had not been allowed a rag to cover their nakedness, After having taken a cursory view of the whole heart-sickening scene, my attention was attracted to the after range of pens on the starboard side, which contained about one half the females then on deck. Here, as on the opposite side of the deck, the two sexes were separated by a partition, or bulkhead, eight feet in height; near which were two women evidently writhing in the agonies of death. Partly from the officers, and partly from their fellow-sufferers, I gathered the shameful facts that these two dying wretches had been reduced to their present situation by repeated applications of the lash, as a punishment for their piteous cries and heartrending wailings. This worse than savage brutality had elicited those shrieks and groans which first arrested my attention on board the Antarctic. They were wives and mothers; their infants had been torn from their breasts and thrown upon the ground, either to perish with hunger among the grass, or to become the prey of beasts, or the victims of venomous reptiles-or, possibly, to be preserved and nourished by strangers. In the phrensied paroxysms of maternal anguish, they had called for their infants-for their husbands-for their parents-for their brothers, sisters, and friends; and for this natural involuntary ebullition of feeling, their bodies had been cruelly lacerated with stripes, until nature sank exhausted, no more to revive. Their breasts were distended with undrawn nutrimen for the lack of which their helpless babes perhaps were perishingit was oozing in streams from their nipples, mingled with their own blood.'-pp. 325, 326.

The indignation of the honest American knew no bounds, and he nearly exhausted himself in pouring forth invectives on the perpetrators of the shocking sufferings which he saw. Whilst thus employed, the two objects of his especial attention, just alluded to, were released from their sufferings by the hand of death. We give the subsequent scene in his own words :

'One of the male captives, a well-made, good-looking man, of about

twenty-five years of age, had contrived, all manacled as he was, to scale the bulk head, from the top of which, being unable to use his arms, he fell into the females' apartment, where his head struck a ring-bolt with such force as to fracture his skull. It was the husband of the youngest of the two women who had just breathed their last. For a few moments he lay senseless from the effects of the blow; but soon came to himself sufficiently to understand what was said to him. In the next moment he recognised the dead body of his wife, which he franticly strove to clasp in his manacled arms; and, with a yell of despair, endeavoured to awaken her with his caresses from the sleep of death, while the wound in his head was pouring forth a torrent of blood on the inanimate object of his piteous lamentations.

'The captain of the brig now spoke, and ordered one of the officers to tear the poor fellow from the corpse of his wife, and to stow him on the other side of the deck. He raised his mute-imploring eye to me, in which I read a speedy termination of his miseries, an ardent desire to expire on the bosom of his wife. The officer advanced to seize him; but this was too much for me to witness. I sprang before the dying man, drew my dirk, and ordered the officer to desist on the peril of instant death.

""Hold!" I exclaimed, "you shall not molest him. Back! back on your life! No man shall touch him, unless he cut his way through my body. You have butchered the wife of his bosom; he is now dying from the effects of your savage barbarity; and they shall not be separated, until his spirit is reunited to hers, in that blessed world where fiends of hell like you can never come. Back! or your blood shall mingle with the negro's!"

The officer recoiled a few paces, while the others stood gazing at me and each other in mute amazement. I stood fixed in my purpose, however; and not one of the conscience-struck guilt-appalled, cowardly wretches, nor the whole combined, could muster up sufficient courage to oppose my single arm. The dying captive's struggle was short. In a few minutes more he breathed his last, on the cold inanimate lips of her he loved more than he feared death.'—pp. 326, 327.

The Captain took up his dirk, and repeating in the same energetic terms as before, the expression of his horror and indignation at the conduct of the officers, then withdrew. He follows up the history of the revolting scene, with some strong remarks respecting the obligation which lies on the whole of the civilized states of the world coming to some decided and combined system, for the complete and certain suppression of this horrible traffic. Little or no check at all, he seems to think, is felt by the dealers in the locking up the mouths of the Senegal, Gambia, Zaire, Coanza, and Cameroon rivers; or, in fact, of any river of Africa, since there are abundant avenues of communication, by means of the whole extent of coast, which is accessible at almost all seasons of the year.

There is scarcely any other portion of this report, of the third voyage, made by Captain Morrell, which merits attention; so that passing over the account of his return home, and of his reception by