to enacted, like most of the enactments directed to the same end, appear likely to present a feeble barrier against the excesses of magisterial authority. I do not find that any law has been passed, to authorize the release of slaves from merciless owners, by a ju

dicial sale.

GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF AFRICA.

(Continued from page 21.)

EGYPT.

Egypt is the connecting link between Africa and the civilized world. This country consists entirely of a vale, watered by the Nile, by which it is in part formed; and confined on the right and left by a barren expanse of deserts. The physical picture of this country will, therefore, be introduced with an account of the Nile, whose bounties render Egypt independent of all foreign supplies and of the rains of heaven.

The Nile, the largest river of the old world, still conceals its true source from the research of science. At least, scarcely any thing more of them is known to us now, than was known in the time of Eratosthenes. That learned librarian of Alexandria distinguished three principal branches of the Nile. The most easterly was the Tacazze of the moderns, which flowed down the north side of the table lands of Abyssinia. The second known branch, or the Blue River, first makes a circuit on the table land of Abyssinia, and then flows down through the plains of Sennaar, or the Fungi. The sources of the Blue River were found and described by the Jesuits, Paez and Tellez, two centures before the pretended discoveries of Bruce. These two rivers are tributary to the White River, the Bahr-el-Abiad, which is the true Nile, and the sources of which must lie in the countries to the south of Darfur. The mountains from which it issues are called Dyre and Tegla, and probably form part of the mountains of the moon. As it seems proved that travellers have passed by water from Tombuctoo to Cairo, the Niger must fall into the Nile, and be really the Nile itself; or there must be intermediate

rivers, forming between the Nile and the Niger a communication resembling that which was found by Humboldt, between the Orinoco and the Amazon. The latter hypothesis is the only one which can reconcile the accounts of persons who have travelled by the way of Tombuctoo, with the positive testimony of Mr. Brown, according to which the Misselad and Bar Koolla run from south to north. This fact, which is generally admitted, does not allow us to suppose any other communication between the Nile and the Niger, than one which may be formed by canals winding along the table land where the sources of the Misselad and Bar Koolla are at a short distauce from each other, and from those of the Nile. Perhaps some of our readers will content themselves with supposing that the sources of all these rivers, or some of their branches, are sufficiently near to communicate by means of temporary lakes during the rainy

season.

The true Nile, whatever may be its origin, receives two large rivers from Abyssinia, and then forms an extensive circuit in the country of Dongola, by turning to the southwest. At three different places a barrier of mountains threatens to interrupt its course, and at each place the barrier is surmounted. The second cataract in Turkish Nubia is the most violent, and most unnavigable. The third is at Syene or Assooan and introduces the Nile into Upper Egypt. The height of this cataract varies according to the season, and is generally about four or five feet. From Syene to Cairo the river flows along a valley about eight miles broad, between two mountain ridges, one of which extends to the Red Sea; and the other terminates in the ancient Lybia. The mountains which limit the basin of the Nile in Upper Egypt, are intersected by defiles which on one side lead to the Red Sea, and on the other to the Oases. These narrow passes might be habitable, since the winter rains maintain for a time a degree of vegetation, and form springs which the Arabs use for themselves and their flocks. The stripe of desert land which generally extends along each side of the valley, parallel to the course of the Nile, (and which must

not be confounded with the barren ocean of sand which lies on each side of Egypt,) now contains two very distinct kinds of land. The one immediately at the bottom of the mountain consists of sand and round pebbles; the other composed of light drifting sands covers a space formerly arable. This space is gradually widening, by the encroachments of the moving sands. If a section of the valley is made by a plane perpendicular to its direction, the surface will be observed to decline from the margins of the river to the bottom of the hills, a circumstance also remarked on the banks of the Mississippi, the Po, part of the Borysthenes, and some other rivers.

Near Cairo, the chains which limit the valley of the Nile diverge on both sides. The one runs northwest towards the Mediterranean, the other east to Suez. In front of these chains a vast plain extends, composed of sands covered with the mud of the Nile. At the place called Batu-el-Bahara, the river divides into two branches; one of which flowing to Rosetta and the other to Damietta, contain between them the present Delta. This triangular piece of insulated land was in former times, larger than it is now, one, at least, of the channels by which it was formerly bounded being now choked up with sand or converted into marshy pools. But the correspondence of the level of the surface with that of the present Delta, and its depression as compared with that of the adjoining desert, together with its greater verdure and fertility, still mark the limits of the ancient Delta, although irregular encroachments are made by shifting banks of drifting sand, which are at present on the increase.

The depth and rapidity of the Nile differ in different places, and at different seasons of the year. In its ordinary state this river carries no vessels exceeding sixty tons burden, from its mouth to the cataracts. The bogaz, or channel, of Damietta is seven or eight feet deep, when the waters are low. That of Rosetta does not exceed four or five. When the waters are high, each of them has forty-one feet more, and caravels of twenty-four guns can sail up to Cairo. The navigation is facilitat

ed in a singular degree during the floods; for while the stream carries the vessels from the cataracts to the bogaz with great rapidity, the strong northerly winds allow them to ascend the river, by means of set sails, with equal rapidity. These winds are constant for nine months* in the year, and when the river is low, and the stream less rapid, vessels cannot often make their way downward, even with their sails furled, the wind upward being more powerful than the stream, even under these circumstances. The regular practice at such times is to row down with the stream during the night, when the wind has subsided, and to halt during the day: while the vessels that are upward bound, sail by day and halt by night.

The celebrated plains of Egypt would not be the abode of perpetual fertility, were it not for the swellings of the river, which both impart to them the requisite moisture and cover them with fertilizing mud. We now certainly know, what the ancients obscurely concluded, and what was asserted by Agatharcides, Diodorus, and others, that the heavy annual rains between the tropics are the cause of these floods, common to all the rivers of the torrid zone, and which, in low situations, such as Egypt, occasion inundations.

At

The rise of the Nile commences with the summer solstice. The river attains its greatest height at the autumnal equinox, continues stationary for some days, then diminishest a less rapid rate than it rose. At the winter solstice it is very low, but some water still remains in the large canals. this period the lands are put under culture. The soil is covered with a fresh layer of slime, of greater or less thickness. The fertility and general prosperity of Egypt depend much on a certain medium in the height to which the Nile rises in its inundations; too little rise or too much is almost equally hurtful. In September, 1818, M. Belzoni witnessed a deplorable scene, from the Nile having risen three feet and a half above the highest mark left

* Bruce, quoted page 24 of this journal, says the etesian wind blows from the north from April to October.

by the former inundations. It was productive of one of the greatest calamities that had occurred within the memory of any one living. Rising with uncommon rapidity, it carried off several villages and some hundreds of its inhabitants. In Upper Egypt, the villages are not raised above the level even of the ordinary inundations, but depend for their safety upon artificial fences. When a village is in danger, the boats are busily employed in removing the corn and the people, the former being first attended to, as most important to the Pasha; and if the water breaks in before the inhabitants have been placed in security, their only resource is to climb the palm trees and there wait till a boat comes to their rescue. Those who have it in their power repair with their property to higher ground, others escape mounted on buffaloes or cows, or keep themselves afloat on logs of wood.

To an atmosphere singularly constituted, and to the regular inundations of the Nile, Egypt is indebted for the advantage which it enjoys of uniting almost all the cultivated vegetable species of the old continent. The culture of Egypt may be divided into two great classes. The one class belongs to the lands watered by the natural overflowings of the Nile, and the other to those which the inundation does not reach, and which are supplied by artificial irrigations. Excepting along the sea shore, nothing is more rare in Egypt than rains, and this scarcity is the mose marked in proportion as we go southward. At Cairo there are, at an average, four or five showers in the year; in Upper Egypt one or two at

most.

From the nature of the surface and the universal aridity of the surrounding deserts, Egypt is much hotter than most other countries under the same parallel of latitude. The heated and rarefied state of that portion of air which is in immediate contact with the sand during the day, is productive of a refraction of the rays of light, giving origin to the surprising appearance called the mirage, presenting on the dry surface an exact representation of a lake of water, sometimes ruffled into waves, at other times still and smooth, and appearing to reflect, like

a mirror, the houses and other objects situated beyond it,* This phenomenon is the more striking, as water is generally much in request with the thirsty traveller, in a country where it is so scanty, and when the illusion vanishes, upon his arriving at the spot, he feels a cruel disappointment, especially if not much used to the pheno

menon.

ON SLAVERY.

(Continued from page 60.)

In this, and in the new states in general, the decrease of the white race is not so obvious as in the old. Nay, it may be conceded that the whites, at the first settling, multiply equally with the blacks; or (for I am willing to allow the most remote possibilities) that they increase faster by the assistance of slaves, than they would without them. But this their growth is temporary, and declines as the country fills

*This curious phenomenon arises from the atmosphere, in the immediate vicinity of the earth, becoming momentarily more rarefied than that at a greater elevation, by which means the rays of light which pass over the earth in a direction nearly horizontal, are refracted into a curve convex to the earth's surface, and falling upon the eye in an ascending direction, give to distant elevated objects an apparently depressed situation. An inverted image is frequently thus formed, either with or without the visible presence of the direct object. Humboldt observes, "These phenomena are equally observable in the barren steppes of Caracas, and on the borders of the Orinoco, in those places where barren plains surround the river."-" At the Mesa de Pavones, in the middle of the steppe of Caracas, M. Bonpland and I saw cows" (apparently) "suspended in the air. Distance one thousand toises. Simple suspension, no double image. I have been assured, that horses had been seen, near Calabozo, suspended and inverted, without any direct image." The theory has heen given by Monge and Biot. Recher. sur Ref. extr. Humboldt's Narrative, Vol. 3.

up. In this state marriages are less frequent than formerly. In Virginia, the numerous instances of celibacy strike the most cursory observer. On the plantation next to mine, lived four sons and two daughters. The young men died by the bottle: ten years ago, one sickly child, probably since dead, continued the name. One daughter had two children: the other is past matrimony.-Another instance presents itself: Three sons, two daughters; only one of the latter married, late in life. A third instance:-Two sons, five daughters; two of the latter marriedthe rest dead, or advanced in years. A fourth:-Six sons and daughters; all unmarried; the youngest over forty years old.--The reader who has resided long in an old slave state, is desired to task his memory on this subject; nor will I fear to appeal to his recollections for the confirmation of my theory. Indeed, in every country the poor must increase, and fill up the places of the declining rich. peers in England are continually receiving recruits from the commons; otherwise their remains would be too contemptible for notice. And yet

The

these remains are assisted by adoption. The Percies still boast their descent although the male line has been long since extinct, and those now called after the family are beholden to act of parliment for their name. Every year witnesses in the upper house the accession of new families, and the extinction of the ancient. The labour of keeping up the nobility, is incessant as fruitless. The House of Lords has been called an hospital of incurables; the metaphor holds good in more than one sense. The human race, when pampered, declines; but, like some plants, the more trampled, the more vigourous its growth. "One reason,' says the Edinburg Review, of August 1820, "for the disproportionate increase of Catholics, compared to that of Protestants, in Ireland, is that the Catholic is ready to marry upon means which the Protestant considers insufficient for marriage. A few potatoes, and a shed of turf, are all that Luther has left to the Romanist; and when the latter gets them, he begins instantly upon the great Irish manufacture of children. But the Protestant belongs

دو

to the sect that eats the fine flour, and leaves the bran to others: he must have comforts, and he does not marry till he gets them. He would be ashamed if he was seen living as a Catholic lives. This is a principal reason why the Protestants who remain attached to their church, do not increase as fast as the Catholics."

Hume (essay 11th) observes :— "Where the property of servants is lodged in the master, their marriage forms his riches, and brings a succession that supplies the place of those disabled by age and infirmity. He encourages, therefore, their propagation, as that of his cattle; rears the young with the same care; and educates them to some art or calling which may render them useful or valuable to him. The opulent are, by this policy, interested in the being, at least, though not in the well being of the poor; and enrich themselves by increasing the number and industry of those who are subjected to them."

The essayist afterwards notices the exception to this rule; i. e. when slaves can be bought cheaper than reared-a contingency, which, happily for the negroes, though unhappily for their masters, exists not among us.

See on this subject the Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales:-" But a small number of marriages take place among proprietors, and those persons whose employment or profession is equal to a property; while the same number constantly follow among the working classes, and among those who possess nothing. I believe that hardly one marriage in twenty at the utmost, happens in the class that possesses something in France. But why do I say France? 'Tis so in the rest of Europe. The upper class dread the luxury of a wife, and the expense of children; while the inferior class, who live but from one day to another, are always assured of bequeathing, at the worst, to their posterity, the resources of public charity, which they consider as inexhaustible."-Article 'Mendicite,' page 346.

Shall I add to these, a quotation from an old fashioned author, pointing out the probable consequences of raising such a population?" The proprietors and their children become fee

ble both in body and mind, slothful, and unable to resist either pain or pleasure. Thus degraded, these governors view their subjects with dread; while those subjects-sturdy, active, sunburnt, and poor-view with contempt their superiors nourished in the shade, unwieldly, shortbreathed, and helpless; and, naturally inferring that their own cowardice alone is the safety of the rich, encourage each other in private with the consideration, that their masters are, compared with themselves, as nothing.”—Plato de Repub. tib. 8.

The foregoing extracts may serve for a reply to the theory of an ingenious and highly respected friend; who is of opinion, that, when the country becomes fully peopled, the weakest race must give way to the more powerful, and in due time be rooted out. The ground not producing enough for those who are multiplying upon it, the whites will appropriate to themselves their full share; and the negroes obtaining less, must decrease.-Nothing like this, however, has taken place in Ireland. The Protestant, defended by arms, by arts, and by the laws, is daily diminishing before his helpless opponent. The white, like the Protestant, will obtain his share of food; but, like the Protestant, he will not be satisfied with food alone: he must have superfluities; and when he cannot obtain these, he will refuse to marry; and the race will perish, not because he lacks the means of tearing substance from the slave, but because he disdains to re-produce his kind in a situation where they may expect to find food, and food alone.

The same causes existing in these .states, must produce the same effects as elsewhere: and these new countries now settled by whites, must replace them by negroes.-Then the same assistance once afforded, must not be again looked for, by Lower Virginia from Albemarle and Augusta, nor by New Orleans from Tennessee and Kentucky. Thirty or forty years, and not more, may be required to produce ocular demonstration of my assertion. By that time, these countries will be as deeply blackened, as those which formerly invoked their aid; and consequently will be as helpless.

For

proportionally to the number of negroes, is the weakness of a country. -Hence, the West Indian trembles at the approach of every hostile fleet. Let us not estimate the proportion of negroes to whites, by counting the inhabitants of the free, along with the white residents of the slave states. The true mode of judging, is by comparing the number of slaves, with those whites immediately among them.So long as these last are strong enough to prevent a general massacre, they are safe, and no longer. When that takes place, 'twill be too late to offer assistance. Estimate then your danger by the number of slaves opposed to their masters. Hitherto, calculation has not demonstrated the power of this growing evil; because the new countries have afforded ample means of subsistence and increase to the whites-and along with them, or by purchase, a vast number of slaves have been removed. -But the new lands, however extensive, have their bound; and when that is reached, statistical tables may af ford information on the subject;not before. But that information will come too late. The mischief, if not prevented immediately, will be irremediable. As yet, we can only have partial observation to trust to; and that is completely in my favour. (See Appendix.)

Even in our state, the engrossing of land and the replacing the white freeholder by negroes, has begun. Nor can it be otherwise. The man who owns negroes, sees them increase; and he must find them land to culti vate. His neighbours are straitened by enclosures; they cannot live on their little farms; they offer them for sale; and he is obliged to buy them out, that he may furnish employment to his growing stock of negroes. To cultivate by hiring freemen, in a slave state, is out of the question. Let me not then be considered as blaming the slaveholder for his conduct: it is forced upon him by the wretched system under which it is his misfortune to live. Even supposing the poor white retains his little property during life; yet at his decease it must go; it is too small to support all his children; 'tis sold, and the proceeds divided amongst them, and, as their class entitles them