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popotami and crocodiles-two animals that exist only in fresh water. Burckhardt, indeed, had positive information that the lake of Bornou was fresh.* We wish that our travellers had stated the fact, as, should they not succeed in thoroughly examining the eastern shores of this lake, the freshness or saltness of its water would be an important argument in deciding the question of its having an eastern outlet. If with the constant pouring in of the Shary and the Yaou, one a very large and the other a very considerable stream even at the end of the dry season, besides many smaller ones which are understood to fall in from the northward, there should be no outlet for its waters, and they escape by evaporation alone, the shores would be covered in the dry season with an incrustation of salt like that obtained in the pits of Bilma, and the remaining water would be excessively salt: it could not possibly be otherwise, after the immense quantity of saline matter periodically carried into it in a state of solution for thousands of years. Besides, if there was no outlet, the low and level country which for hundreds of miles extends all round it, must annually be overflowed, which it was not understood to be, nor indeed was there the slightest indica→ tion of it. The probability therefore is, that it is fresh and has an outlet; and if any reliance can be placed on Arab authority, the Gambarroo, which flows by Baghermi and Fittri to the eastward, is that outlet. Some report,' Doctor Oudney says, that the Shary gives off a large branch which falls to the southward of Baghermi two days, and runs to Fittri, and thence to the Nile;' and Major Denham learned from an Arab Sheik of Waday, that a branch of the Shary, called the Bahr el Dago, goes into the Nile; that it receives additional supplies from Lake Fittri, twelve days journey from those mouths of the Shary which flow into the Tsaad; and that it then takes a course to the south-eastward, till, as before, it reaches the Nile. He was further informed, by the Sheik, of

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All reports agree,' says this intelligent traveller, that there is a great freshwater lake in the interior of Bornou, on the west side of which the city of Birnie is said to be built.' It is on the ground of its being fresh that we come to the conclusion that the waters of the lake are discharged to the eastward. Burckhardt was invariably informed that the same low flat country prevailed in the Bahr el Gazal and Dar Saley. In the rainy season,' says he, large inundations are formed in many places, and large and rapid rivers then flow through the country. After the waters have subsided, deep lakes remain in various places filled with water the whole year round, and sufficiently spacious to afford a retreat to the hippopotami and crocodiles, which abound in the country. He also mentions an animal in these lakes called Om Kergay, said to be as large as a rhinoceros, with a very small head and mouth, and perfectly harmless. + Captain Lyon's information on this point accords with the Shary throwing off an eastern stream. Having stated that the Niger takes different names, and that it passes Yaouri (qu. Yuou?) seven days to the east of Nyffé, he says it falls into a lake called the Tsaud. Beyond this lake,' he adds, a large river runs through Baghermee, and is called the Gambarroo and Kamadakoo, the word Nil being also used for the same stream. All agree that these waters join the great Nile of Egypt.' Hornemann's information was precisely the same.

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some Mourzouk merchants having spread a report that it was their (the travellers') intention to come up that river (El Dago) from Misr (Egypt) with ships as large as elephants, loaded with guns and gunpowder. There must be something, we think, in this universal belief that the waters, which we have now traced into the Tsaad, find their way to the Nile of Egypt. There is nothing whatever against their reaching the Bahr el Abiad, except the low level of the Tsaad, which is evidently the sink of North Africa; yet the comparative difference of levels between it and the former river is not at all known; nor do we find, in the letters of the travellers, any estimate of its level above that of the sea.

But where, asks Dr. Oudney, naturally enough, where is the celebrated Niger? The Yaou is the only probable river coming from Soudan, and it is almost too small. Yet the wonder is, that in the dry season it was not smaller. Most rivers that have no feeders, and more especially African rivers, that lose so much by absorption and evaporation, diminish as they proceed in their course; and if the Niger (for so will we not scruple to call it) had not been confined within very narrow banks, but had spread out a more considerable surface, the probability is, that the whole of its waters at this season, and at this distance from its source, would have been evaporated. Major Denham, who went directly south, beyond the 10th degree of latitude, crossed no river between Kouka and the termination of his journey, and there is none between that city and the Yaou; so that if this stream be not the Joliba, which has been pretty well ascertained to run into the lake Nyffe, about 300 miles to the westward of the Tsaad, and nearly on the same parallel, there certainly is no other in Bornou that can be considered as the Niger. If, indeed, the account of all travellers, and the Arab writers, can be depended on, and particularly the result of Horneman's inquiries, no doubt whatever can remain that the Yaou is the Niger, which Major Rennel has traced satisfactorily into the swamps of Wangara, or (for they must be the same) the Lake of Bornou; what becomes of it afterwards, and whether it terminates in the lake, is a point which we trust our travellers will be able to determine.

We know not on what data the population of two millions is assigned to Bornou; but from the multitude of villages along the western shores of the lake, and the several large towns not very distant from it, there can be no doubt that this part of Africa is well stocked with inhabitants. The town of Kouka, which may be called the Sheik's head-quarters or military depôt, has only about 8,000 inhabitants. It is situated at the distance of fifteen miles from the western borders of the Tsaad, in lat. 12° 51′ N. and

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long. 19° 47′ E. being nearly twenty miles to the westward of the meridian of Mourzouk; and the travelling distance is about 1,000 miles from the same place, which occupied the expedition ninetytwo days. Bernie, the residence of the Sultan, is eighteen miles S.S.E. of Kouka, and is said to contain 30,000 inhabitants; and Engornou, sixteen miles S.E. by S. of Kouka, not less than 50,000. At this place there is a weekly market held, on Wednesdays, to which all the surrounding countries, the people of Kanem and of Soudan resort; so that the numbers who occasionally attend are said to amount to eighty and sometimes a hundred thousand souls! Major Denham made a visit to this place, and was much pleased with it. The currency appeared to consist of amber, coral, and glass beads; but dollars were well known and most in demand. A large diamond-cut drop of a glass chandelier, however, was an object of contest among the ladies of the court-the Pitt diamond of central Africa.

How such a population is supported it is not easy to imagine. The whole kingdom, on the western side at least, is one dead flat of sand and clay, without a single stone of any description. In the season of heat and drought, every vestige of verdure takes its departure, except from the various kinds of accacia trees and the tamarind: yet herds of elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, and antelopes of various kinds, are everywhere seen, and especially along the borders of the lake. Major Denham says he counted forty-seven large elephants in one group. Where and on what they feed at this season does hot appear. Tame bullocks are met with in droves of a thousand or fifteen hundred, and flesh meat is very cheap a fine ox might be bought for three dollars, and fowls at the rate of forty for a dollar: of vegetables, our travellers saw little but onions and a few yams; and no fruit except the tamarind. In the Sheik's garden is a single lime-tree.

The quadrupeds above mentioned, and many smaller species, supplied our travellers with abundance of game, which were procured chiefly by Clapperton, who is an excellent shot. The lake too abounds with a great variety of water fowl, some of which are said to be of extraordinary beauty; and the ducks and geese were so tame, that he killed eight or ten át one shot. Suipes rise in thousands, like so many clouds.

The temperature in March and April was uniformly high, seldom lower than 100°, and sometimes 104°, at two or three o'clock; yet the constant refreshing breeze prevented it from feeling oppressive. The barometer was steady at 29 inches. So little did the heat appear to affect Clapperton, that he used to go out for several days together, along the margin of the Tsaad, to kill game, and

VOL. XXIX. NO. LVIII.

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suffered

suffered nothing from the exertion: the people were uniformly civil and obliging.

A numerous tribe of Arabs had settled in the Sheik's dominions. They came from the banks of the Shary, and are described as different from those of the north; their complexions are of a light copper colour, with handsome aquiline noses, and large expressive eyes. They are savage in their manners, and of undaunted courage. Major Denham says they resemble very much some of the best looking of our gipsy race, particularly the women; and their Arabic is nearly pure Egyptian.

This is almost the whole that we have been able to cull from the epistolary correspondence of the African travellers, which, though scanty, has raised our curiosity to know the details of their Journals; these however (we have been given to understand) come down no lower than the date of their departure from Mourzouk.

ART. X.-1. A Defence of the Clergy of the Church of England: stating their Services, their Rights, and their Revenues. By the Rev. Francis Thackeray, A. M. London. 1822. 2. An Appeal to the Gentlemen of England, on Behalf of the Church of England. By Augustus Campbell, A. M. Liverpool. 1823.

WE

E know of no subject which has been more wilfully and perseveringly misrepresented by the enemies, and, we regret to add, more unaccountably misunderstood by the friends, of the church of England, than the provision which, in the form of tithes, has been reserved for its ministers. Conceding to the members of the church of England the right of excluding from the establishment teachers who dissent from its doctrines, there are many who ask, Have they the further right of compelling all the members of the community to pay towards the maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by a part only, though it be the majority, to preach a particular system of doctrines?'' Is it just and reasonable, (they continue,) that those who dissent from the doctrines and disapprove of the constitution of the established church, and who support their own religious teachers, should be compelled, in addition, to pay towards the maintenance of the established clergy, and bear their full proportion of the expense attending the discharge of the ecclesiastical functions ordained by the state?'

These are questions constantly urged by those who dissent from the established church; and they are questions which have excited doubts in the minds of some writers on this subject, who,

from

from their station, must be presumed to have been sincerely attached to its doctrines. We are told even by a learned prelate, 'that it is a question which might admit of serious discussion, whether the majority of the members of any civil community have a right to compel all the members of it to pay towards the maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by the majority to preach a particular system of doctrines.' I was once of opinion,' he adds, "that the majority had this right in all cases, and am still of opinion, that they have it in many. But I am staggered when I consider, that a case may happen in which the established religion may be the religion of the minority of the people, at the same time possessing the majority of the property, out of which the ministers of the establishment are to be paid.'

There is, however, a little preliminary inquiry into which we should like to enter, before we approach the question, which the learned prelate assures us might admit of serious discussion. Before we can think it necessary to discuss the rights of the majority of any civil community to compel all the members of it to pay towards the maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by the majority, to preach a particular system of doctrines, we must be convinced that the majority of the English community exercise this right-we must be persuaded, that the minority of the people who dissent from the church are compelled to pay towards the support of the national establishment. If, however, we can show that they make, in truth, no such payment—if we can prove that, in point of fact, the minority of the people bear no portion of the expense of our ecclesiastical establishment, we shall be relieved from the necessity of examining the rights of the majority to compel all the members of the civil community to pay towards the maintenance of a set of teachers appointed by them to preach a particular system of doctrines.

We must be allowed to observe in this place, that when it is said the majority of the civil community compels the minority to pay' a set of teachers appointed by the majority, the expression to pay must signify something different from the sense in which it is used, when a tenant is said to pay rent to his landlord, or when a debtor is described as 'paying' a creditor his debt. When the expression is used simply in this latter sense, the assertion that all the members of the community, who possess real property, are compelled to pay towards the support of the ecclesiastical institutions established by the majority, is a mere truism, which admits of no more dispute than a declaration that all the occupiers of land in England are compelled to pay towards the support of the owners. But if it be used in another sense, in that of transferring to ecclesiastics property which belongs either

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