they have not yet the charm of history, and smack of present controversies. Nevertheless, there is much in them which will be read with interest and profit, especially the account of the impeachment fever and the inception of the liberal Republican movement, as well as the very able discussion of our policy in regard to public lands, a subject to which the author gave years of study.

Mr. Julian is himself, as we see him in his book, an interesting type of the men developed by the anti-slavery struggle. He was not an original abolitionist, but he was an extreme Free Soiler and a very radical Republican. He belonged to the class which had a good deal of fanaticism, and who, without that quality, would probably have failed in the grand work in which they were the pioneers. But a man with a strong dash of fanaticism, who has been through such a contest and come out victorious, is often unfitted for the piping times of peace, when the stuff martyrs are made of is not in demand, and when public questions are economic and administrative, and not moral and emotional. He has come to believe that the normal condition of mankind is to be in a state of violent agitation over some fundamental question of right and wrong; of tyranny on the one hand and oppression on the other. Now and then, in the progress of mankind, a great moral issue must be met; but it usually involves a terrible tearing and rending of society and of the body politic. The normal condition of a healthy society is not the fierce conflict engendered by a great moral issue any more than a thunderstorm is the normal condition of any tolerable climate. This simple fact is one which the man who has spent his life in the heat of a tremendous struggle between right and wrong cannot generally realize. He has come to feel that fierce agitation against a burning wrong must constantly be kept up. The original

cause to which he has given his life having triumphed, he immediately looks about for another. It is for this reason, for instance, that almost all the men interested in the woman-suffrage business and all who are most prominent in that movement are old men, who were brought up in the abolition school. Slavery being destroyed, they immediately cast about for some other dire oppression; and not finding anything very serious, and craving excitement, they took up the suffrage. They overlooked the important fact that the slavery agitation was fearfully real, while the suffrage agitation is entirely artificial. It is real enough to them, however, and so they go on pouring forth bitter invective and burning appeals which are perfectly comic in their incongruity and misapplication. The great mass of men and women regard the whole thing either with total indifference or as a gigantic bore, and nine tenths of those who nominally sympathize with it do so to make a little political capital or to earn a trifling notoriety. Under these circumstances, to see not merely those who make a living out of it, but sincere men and women, raving to a heedless world about the serfdom and oppression of woman is an amusing example of the necessity of supplying agitation in order to satisfy people of a certain cast of mind, as theatres and picnics are supplied for others. Then, again, a man who has been through the awful reality of such a conflict as came from slavery, and is too sensible to be pacified by playing at agitation with the suffragists, is very apt to regard every real public question as of the same intense moral character as that to which he has devoted himself. We can see it all in Mr. Julian. He is of course a woman suffragist; and, moreover, he talks about tariffs and railway policies as if they were questions of the same order as the "middle passage" or the slave-pens. This quality of mind and character

comes out very strongly in his treatment of Lincoln. He finds fault with Lincoln's conservatism, and even now fails to see that the delay in issuing the emancipation proclamation was a mark of the highest wisdom. Premature action would have been fatal; but Lincoln, with his wonderful instinctive knowledge of the American people, issued the proclamation when the whole nation was ready to respond and cry," Well done!" Men of Mr. Julian's type have done, and will do when they are really needed, the best and noblest work; but in the long intervals of peace, when nations are happy in having no history,

they seem singularly out of place in their methods of dealing with commonplace questions. Mr. Julian's book is not out of place, however, and is the production of a man who may look back upon a public career of which, in point of character and devotion to a principle, anybody might be very proud. No one can do a more foolish thing than to urge some one else to invest money, but in this instance we have no hesitation in advising all who care for American history or pungent personal memoirs to invest their money in buying and their time in reading Mr. Julian's Political Recollections.

THE Soudan has lately acquired notoriety and interest as a battle-ground of the False Prophet; but if any one should consult the volume in which Mr. James has narrated his adventures, with the expectation of obtaining much information regarding this little-known region, he would waste his time; not because the author has written either uninterestingly or untruthfully, but for the reason that the range of his subject is narrower than his attractive title indicates. To the party of which he was apparently the head, the Soudan was a hunting-field; the object of the journey was sport, and such knowledge as might be gained concerning the inhabitants and geography of the land was an entirely secondary consideration. Indeed, although the expedition was into a district previously unexplored, the hunters did not traverse the Soudan proper, but merely its eastern borders. In particular, they penetrated into the hill-country, about

1 The Wild Tribes of the Soudan. An Account of Travel and Sport, chiefly in the Basé Country; being personal experiences and adventures dur

the banks of the stream variously designated in different parts of its course as the Gash, Sonah, and Mareb; and, after striking across the desert to the Settite, followed up that river as far as their guides and servants could be persuaded to venture. The wild tribes they encountered were the Basé, who, although they murdered an Englishman and his wife and child some years since, were pacific toward this large and well-armed caravan, which brought them substantial benefit in the shape of freely distributed cotton cloth, knives, beads, etc., conciliated them by unlimited supplies of game, and abstained from any injurious or suspicious treatment. The province held by these people is the frontier between the Egyptian and Abyssinian powers, and on the east of the waste of jungle, river, and desert known as the true Sou

dan.

Mr. James writes, in the main, for hunters. He tempts them by an enthu

ing three winters spent in the Soudan. By F. L. JAMES, M. A., F. R. G. S. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1883.

siastic love of the chase, a minute record of the game, and an exact description of the field from a sportsman's point of view; while he gives all necessary directions and warnings for any who may follow on his trail, as many might be led to do, since he has opened up for the rifle a new haunt of large animals, buffalo, elephants, lions, rhinoceri, giraffes, hippopotami, as well as panthers, ostriches, seven or eight varieties of antelope, and multitudes of small game, such as quail and partridges, besides discovering excellent fishing-grounds. To the general reader, however, since the hunting was not particularly adventurous (no elephants, rhinoceri, or giraffes were shot), and since the author has not cared to exaggerate its salient incidents by the usual romantic coloring, the principal interest of his journal-like chapters lies in the description of the natural features and the aspect of human life as he saw and noted them; for he seems to be an exceptionally cautious and keen observer, when his attention is once diverted from tracking buffalo and ambushing lions.

From the time the party left Souakim and crossed the desert to Cassala until, on their return, they arrived at the port of Massawa, Nature wore usually a repulsive appearance. The country was hilly, intersected by dry channels, the beds of the rapid floods of the rainy season; the heat by day was extreme, and at night the cold was frequently so great as to make blankets a necessity, the thermometer ranging in the Basé country from 37° F. at dawn to 164° F. on the same day; the soil was but little cultivated; the natural growth was chiefly high jungle grass, or leafless, sharpthorned trees not more than from fourteen to sixteen feet high. Occasionally there were heavy dews, sometimes a thick fog; but as there was generally no water except in the wells hollowed out in the sandy beds of streams by the natives, the desert was for the most part

barren and without verdure. Along the Settite, however, which was a running river, instead of being an intermittent torrent like the Gash, there were green fields; but even there, although the inhabitants were of a higher type than the Basé, agriculture was but little pursued. The flocks of wild birds cause great injury, so that boys are perched on platforms all day long to scare them off with slings or by their cries; likewise the hippopotami are guarded against and frightened back to the water by the ringing of numerous bells strung on a long rope. The principal wealth of the country is in flocks and herds, which in the richest portions number many thousand head.

The Basé, the poorest and most uncivilized of the various tribes met by the hunters, live in scattered villages on the tops of hills that rise at a short distance from the bed of the Gash. They are scantily clothed, if at all, and have no arms but spear and shield; they dig with their hands; they have, apparently, no art except that of weaving a basketlike bottle for carrying water; they feed voraciously, when they are so fortunate as to get meat, and like vultures spare no portion of the carcass, and devour it raw. The prey alternately of the fiercer and better armed tribes to the north and south, they are cowardly, and live in terror of their enemies. Religion they have none, but they observe the widespread barbarian rite of leaving food at the grave of their relatives. Their government is similarly backward; for, although they recognize a tribal unity, village fights against village, and man against man. Mr. James, who throughout the journey showed great kindness of heart and active benevolence, as did his companions also, won the confidence of these poor people, and went among them without fear any of disturbance; at least until after the rather ridiculous rencontre of some of the party with a crowd of Abyssinians,

who, by capturing their rifles and fatally wounding a servant, proved the Englishmen to be vulnerable to treachery, if not to attack. Only once was there any prospect of a hostile meeting with the Basé, and fortunately it did not occur. They would probably have plundered the caravan, if they had dared. Of the other tribes there is nothing distinctive to report. The ethnological result of the trip was, as is seen, slight.

The volume purports to be an account of three expeditions, in 1878, 1881, 1882, respectively; but the last alone is described in detail, the former two being mentioned merely illustratively. In one of these earlier journeys the author was so fortunate as to make the ascent of Tchad-Amba, a mountain in the neighborhood of Sanheit, at the summit of which is an Abyssinian monastery, which no European had been allowed to visit. The party was guided by a renegade monk, who concealed his real character. The consequence was that when they neared the top, stones were rolled down the perilous descent by the fathers above, who took them for Turks; but they kept on, and at last, making their friendliness known, they were allowed to climb unimpeded. At the summit was huge fig-tree, some conical huts, where eight aged monks lived, and the church, a round building, thatched with straw, divided into three sections, the inner one of which the high priest alone was allowed to enter. The monks wore yellow gowns and caps, went barefoot, and supported life on figs and unleavened bread. Several of them had not descended the mountain for forty years, yet they did not relish the sight of these intruding visitors, the first who had ever been up to their retreat. They possessed some manuscripts, which they held in great veneration, and would not sell. The whole number of the company

1 Kadesh-Barnea. Its Importance and Probable Site, with the Story of a Hunt for It; including studies of the route of the Exodus and the

living there was twelve or fourteen, some of whom were absent on a mission to the King of Abyssinia. To read of this carries one back to the days of Hypatia. The maps which accompany the text are prepared from careful daily observations, and are an addition of value to our geographical knowledge; but the illustrations, of which there are an unusual number, all full-page, engraved after photographs taken on the spot, are al most without exception very poor work. The author promises to make a new excursion to the northern region of Abys sinia. Should he write an account of it, his book would be much improved by avoiding the repetition, which is a great blemish to his first effort in liter

ature.

1

In all volumes of travel in the East one finds great complaint of the falsehoods of the Arab guides. In that which has just been reviewed the chief difficulties sprang from this cause. Indeed, there is a proverb which might well be inscribed once for all on the brow of the Arab, as it is found frequently on his tongue: "Lying is the salt of a man." Their attachment to this article of the desert creed seems to be the main reason why the information given by Dr. Trumbull in his learned volume has been so long concealed, to the darkening of biblical geography, and the sharpening of the odium theologicum between rival explorers in Palestine and the Negeb. Kadesh-Barnea, as everybody knows, is the holy camp in the wilderness where Moses struck the rock for the living waters to flow forth, and whence he sent the spies into Canaan and the messengers to Edom. It was here that the people rebelled, and, on going forward to fight for the Promised Land before the time, were turned back to wander forty years, during which period this oasis or mountain fastness was their

southern boundary of the Holy Land. By H. CLAY TRUMBULL, D. D. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1884.

headquarters, the home of the tabernacle when it was not on its sacred progress through the various encampments. Here, at the conclusion of that long probation, the people gathered to make their descent on Canaan; and, on being refused a passage through the region of the Edomites, from this spot they started on the long detour by which they finally arrived at the Jordan. Geographically, it marks the western limit of the kingdom of Edom, and the southernmost point of the Holy Land; it helps, furthermore, to locate the wilderness of Paran, Zin, and the Negeb, the sites of Mount Hor and Mount Halak, of Tamar, and the route of Kedor-la'omer, which Dr. Trumbull designates as the "first really great military campaign of history." In short, its situation is the principal geographical problem of the Pentateuch, and is so involved in conjecture, and has such bearings on biblical themes of the scholarly sort, as to afford matter for the liveliest controversy.

The discussion has not been unfruitful. It appears that for Kadesh-Barnea there are eighteen distinct suggested sites, each with its adherents, living or dead. In this confusion it is gratifying to learn that, "whatever uncertainty there is concerning the geographical position of Kadesh, there need be no doubt as to its typical or illustrative signification:" it means, we are told, the Land of Training, as it lay between Egypt, the Land of Bondage, and Canaan, the Land of Rest. There is no need to follow Dr. Trumbull through the learned examination of the Bible text, the Egyptian records, the Apocrypha, the Rabbinical writings, and the Christian namelists for indication of the exact locality of the sanctuary-stronghold; or to review the entire history of the exploration and cartography of the Holy Land, as he does. The question has long laid between Dr. Robinson's identification of its site with 'Ayn el-Waybeh at the upper end of the 'Arabah, the depres

sion running from the Gulf of 'Aquabah to the Dead Sea, and Rev. John Rowland's identification of its site with 'Ayn Qadees, some distance to the southwest, on the north of the Desert et-Teeh, but on its level, a thousand feet above the 'Arabah. These two authorities divided the theologians; but as time went on, one great objec tion to Rowland's view arose in the fact that no later traveler could find the spot described by him. In answer to all inquiries, for forty years the Arab sheiks and guides denied that any such place as 'Ayn Qadees existed, except once, when another place, 'Ayn Qasaymeh, was shown to President Bartlett as the one sought for.

This was the state of the case when, in 1881, Dr. Trumbull was so fortunate as to be allowed to take the unusual Hebron route northward through the desert, and by some finessing and good luck duped the Arabs into guiding him to the jealously guarded desert spring of the old Israelitish sojourning in the land. Happily, one of the two sheiks who had hitherto done the requisite ly ing was absent, and the other was ill, and consequently Dr. Trumbull was dispatched under the care of the latter's two young sons, who were solemnly charged to oblige him, on account of some hoped-for favor at Jerusalem which the sheik had much at heart. An experienced dragoman, who wished to be put in a book, and a skilled guide also accompanied him. When he thought he was near the place, he first broached the subject of visiting 'Ayn Qadees, and received the customary denial that there was any spring of that name. By further questioning regarding known points, he was convinced that he was being lied to, and, becoming indignant, said that he knew more of the country than they did, and described how to go to the place shown to Bartlett as 'Ayn Qadees. This Christian book-knowledge startled the Arabs, and, being sensitive to their